GOOD BOOKS
Round-up
THE KAMOGAWA FOOD DETECTIVES
Hisashi Kashiwai, MacMillan, $25
A bestseller in
Japan, this delightful book is a celebration of good company and the power of a delicious meal. A father and daughter duo, “the food detectives” set about to recreate dishes from their customers’ pasts that may well hold the key to forgotten memories and ongoing happiness.
JACINDA ARDERN
Michelle Du , Allen & Unwin NZ, $38
An engrossing and powerful exploration of one of the most intriguing political stories of our time, this edition of the best-selling biography has been substantially revised and provides an in-depth analysis of Jacinda Arden’s extraordinary leadership and tenure. An incredibly popular prime minister and the events that led to her resignation.
FRESH
Stephanie Alexander, MacMillan, $50
More than 120 recipes, most of them vegetable based with herbs as the star ingredient. These have been cooked by and enjoyed by primary-aged children through Australia’s Kitchen Garden Programme, upending the notion that kids don’t like veggies. These delicious recipes are quick to prepare and make use of accessible and inexpensive ingredients.
LOLA IN THE MIRROR
Trent Dalton, HarperCollins, $37
A beautiful, sad and sometimes humorous read, this captivating novel highlights the traumatic e ects of violence against women and 12,000 houseless people in Brisbane. A girl and her mother have been running for 16 years, from police and the monster they left behind. The girl has no name because names are dangerous when you are on the run.
BIRD CHILD & OTHER STORIES
Patricia Grace, Penguin Random House, $37
A collection of new and previously published stories by one of Aotearoa’s most esteemed fiction writers Patricia Grace, including autobiographical stories from her childhood. These stories are about Maori from a Maori perspective and are moving and beautifully told. The cover is illustrated by her granddaughter Miriama Grace-Smith.
ENJOY: FOOD WORTH SHARING WITH THE PEOPLE YOU LOVE
Kelly Gibney, Beatnik Publishing, $60
This wholefood cookbook is full of inspiring ideas for vibrant, easy dinners, fresh and colourful salads, comforting soups and delightful desserts. It celebrates the joy of bringing people together, and the triumph of finding a recipe that everyone around the table, big or small, can enthuse about and look forward to.
AFTER THE FOREST
Kell Woods, HarperCollins, $37
Utterly spellbinding, this fantasy novel tells the story of grown up Hans and Greta. A brilliant meld of fairytale and historical fantasy, it is taking the world by storm and has been aptly described as “the fairytale retelling of the year”. Set in 1650 in The Black Forest, Würtenberg, the storytelling is as captivating as the witch’s gingerbread!
MODERN CHINESE
Sam Low, Allen & Unwin NZ, $50
MasterChef winner Sam Low demystifies modern Chinese cooking with a collection of accessible, easy recipes that can be cooked with ingredients from your run-of-the-mill supermarket. Low is passionate about modern Chinese gastronomy, focused on honouring traditional cuisine through an immigrant diasporic lens.
NATIVE SHELLS OF AOTEAROA
Bruce Marshall & Kerry Walton, Te Papa Press, $27
Designed to be taken out in the field, the book makes identifying favourite and rare shell specimens easy for even the novice nature lover. From chitons and mussels to snails and limpets, the authors expertly distinguish the unique characteristics of more than 160 common shell species found scattered across beaches in Aotearoa.