The best of... books and podcasts
We’ve seen off 2020. Here’s how to start 2021 in the right mood, with some of our favourite books and podcasts to indulge in these holidays.
Author and lawyer Brannavan Gnanalingam
Books: I’m the worst person to get summer reading recommendations from. Instead of reading something light or escapist, I spend my summers reading books I wouldn’t ordinarily have the mental space to read during the year, or the long novels that I’d otherwise read at a snail’s pace. This year I’m planning to read Georges Bataille’s The Accursed Share and On Nietzsche, which makes me sound utterly pretentious. I have however started reading The Bone People, because I’d never read it, and it’s wonderful. Podcasts: I have a confession. I don’t listen to podcasts. I’m used to music filling up the empty corners of my day, and I’ve always thought podcasts get in the way of that. So I’ll recommend a couple of good summery albums – Disasteradio’s Sweatshop is such a fun, party album (but also highly crafted). I feel like it’s been a bit underrated locally. I’ve also been listening to a lot of the legendary Haruomi Hosono’s music. If you haven’t heard Yellow Magic Orchestra, they’re a good starting point.
Novelist and playwright Carl Nixon
Books: Underworld by Don DeLillo: This is a real door-stopper, epic in every sense of the word. I read this 20 years ago while on holiday in Spain. I don’t remember much about the sights of Spain, but I do remember the joy of sinking into DeLillo’s language and characters day after day.
Long Time, No See by Dermot Healy. An Irish writer, who I only discovered during lockdown. This is a lyrical coming-of-age story set in a tiny Irish village. Nothing much happens, but it happens in a beautiful and compelling way. The characters make you laugh out loud.
March Violets by Philip Kerr. A dark-as-tar thriller set in 1936 Berlin. The hero is Bernie Gunter, an ex-cop, now private investigator, who has a good line in wisecracks. Cliche´d? Sure, but it’s also brilliantly innovative, richly detailed historical fiction with labyrinthine plotting. Imagine Lee Child and his character Jack Reacher, but on literary steroids. a true crime podcast by a Kiwi woman trying with her wife and a mate to track down who shat on the actual floor at her actual wedding (on a boat so a true locked room mystery with limited suspects).
Andre´ Nga¯po¯, author and teacher
Podcast: Taringa is my go-to bilingual podcast, perfect for long trips in the car, or when tackling a mountain of dishes. Being on a language reclamation journey I’m excited to tune in each week to the expertly crafted blend of te reo and tikanga Ma¯ori learning, presented in a humorous and relaxed way. Episodes are posted every week, covering either kupu (words), iwi (tribes), stories or tikanga (customs and protocols). Ka rawe!
Podcaster, author and awardwinning journalist, Adam Dudding
Best book: A
Mistake, by Carl Shuker (VUP) is a serious-minded, meticulouslycrafted novel from early 2019, about a Wellington surgeon who cocks up an operation for reasons I shall not spoil. But when I picked it up sometime in the middle of lockdown last year I couldn’t put it down. Just an excellent book.
Podcasts: RNZ’s The Service offers a bit of surprising NZ cold-war history, and Pineapple Street’s Catch and Kill is a gob-smacking insight into Hollywood lechery and the journalism that kicked off the #metoo movement.
Penguin Random House editor Harriet Allan Best books:
For me, holidays involve travel. Some novels take you overseas (such as Rajorshi Chakraborti’s startling Shakti, set in India, or Philippa Swan’s The Night of All Souls, which will transport you to the US, Italy and France), while others evoke a local vacation. Catherine Robertson’s hilarious Gabriel’s Bay series offers the perfect holiday destination that could be anywhere in New Zealand.
For a chilling read, Carl Nixon’s The Tally Stick – published April – starts with a family visiting the West Coast. Things go wrong in the very first paragraph, but you’ll be reluctant to stop reading until the final page. Eileen Merriman’s The Silence of Snow won’t put those in the medical profession in a restive mood, but for the rest of us it’s an escape into other people’s shoes. Another novel that gives such insight is Amy McDaid’s Fake Baby. Even if the Auckland setting is familiar, being filtered through Amy’s three troubled characters will make you see the place and its inhabitants with fresh eyes.
Journalist Eugene Bingham
Book: Aue¯. Yes, it’s been out for a while, but I can’t stop thinking about Becky Manawatu’s novel (and characters) long after I put it down. Another is The Book of Echoes, Rosanna Amaka’s brilliantly entwined story of modern-day racism and oldenday slavery.
Podcast: Wind of Change. Classic 90s power ballad and Cold War intrigue all in one – heaven! Also, Murder in House Two: the gob-smacking investigation of a civilian massacre in Iraq and the failure of military justice.
Stuff business editor and Mummy Needs a Break author Susan Edmunds
Books: For holiday reading, The Imaginary Lives of James Poneke by Tina Makereti. For something lighter, I’d try Suzy K Quinn’s Bad Mother’s Diary (and others in the series) – very relatable for frazzled parents but also a happy ending.
Stuff life and style editor, Emma Chamberlain
Books: The New Wilderness by US author Diane Cook is one of two books I’m hoping to polish off on the beach this summer. This is Cook’s debut novel and it was long-listed for The Booker Prize. The second is the first novel in 11 years from Craig Silvey, Honeybee, which is the comingof-age story of Sam, a transgender teenager.
Verb Wellington director Claire Mabey
Podcast:
Backlisted and
The Allusionist podcasts are hard to beat. Backlisted celebrates books that have stood the test of time. Hosts Andy Miller and John Mitchinson bring in a guest writer each episode and the conversations are always fascinating and lively. If you’re interested in language and words then Helen Zaltzman and The Allusionist will captivate you.