February is the month to support NZ authors and NZ stories with this year’s Aotearoa New Zealand Readathon! I’m so happy that this is the time to celebrate NZ authors as it is a reading goal I have for 2024 to read more NZ stories and this month gives me the opportunity to do so with so many NZ readers doing the same. A quick shoutout to @nzreadathon on Instagram for hosting this and for getting #feburaryinnz off the ground.

Pictured are the first lot of NZ books I have lined up, though I forgot to include Andrea Hotere’s The Vanishing Point as I gave it to Mum to read first (I did read it during the day while she was at work last Friday so that I could get it ticked off before it goes back to the library). It is quite simply an art historian’s dream read, with references to the Diego Velázquez paintings made of La Infanta Margarita Teresa, most notably Las Meninas. If you’re a keen historian with a yearning to know more about Spanish King Philip IV, also referred to as the Planet King. Such great storytelling and detail within these pages, I highly recommend this to all, but especially to the historians out there.

We have, in descending order, Ghosts by Siobhan Harvey, a poetry collection published in 2021 by one of New Zealand’s most brilliant poets and writers (I’m a little biased – I had the privilege being lead through my masters by Siobhan and I can wholeheartedly say her guidance and continued support means everything to me). The poems within this collection include themes of ‘migration, outcasts, the search for home, and the ghosts we live with, including the ones who occupy our memories, ancestries and stories.’ It’s an absolute must-read and it will stick with you for months.

Next, we have Jaqueline Bublitz’s Before You Knew My Name which was also published in 2021. I have yet to read this even though it’s been on my shelf for years now. It’s a good thing this reading movement gives me the incentive to get it read because I would love to appreciate this book’s content as much as I appreciate the cover. If you’ve seen it, you know what I’m talking about, and if you haven’t yet, well, you’ll have to wait for my review of Before You Knew My Name to see it (or google it, I have the cover where the text is white which makes the contrast between the florals and the cityscape so crisp and beautiful).

Missing Persons by Steve Braunias intrigued me right from the premise – it’s a non-fiction book about twelve disappearances in New Zealand and I don’t know what it is but it had me hooked and wanting all the information. I’m a bit of a true crime fan so this is likely the next read I’ll pick up for it’s quick, non-fiction style and it’s fascinating subject matter. Steve Braunias is a well-known New Zealand author, columnist and journalist and another of his books will be read during this month, but that’s for a later discussion post.

Speaking of NZ Crime Fiction, another book that caught my eye was Better The Blood by Michael Bennett. This tale, told from the perspective of Hana Westerman, a Maori policewoman, weaves together New Zealand’s past and present in a tension-filled thriller crime mystery. With strong Maori representation and insight into the world of colonisation, it’s a novel not to be missed. The follow-up, Return to Blood, is set to be released on April 25th.

Last, but certainly not least, we have Aue by Becky Manawatu, another NZ Crime Fiction novel. Aue, published in 2019, won the Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction, the MITQQ Best First Book of Fiction, the Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Crime Novel and it won two Ockham New Zealand Book Awards in 2020. Evidently, this is a good book and it is not one to skip out on. It’s content is hard-hitting by the sounds of it but it is also harrowingly beautiful and worth the read. And note to self or anyone that isn’t in the know, take a look at the books that get announced on the longlist for the Ockhams because that’s where you’ll always find a good book (or five).

This is only a few of the titles I will be reading during the February in NZ Aotearoa New Zealand Readathon and I will update you all in a fortnight to show you more NZ books on my list. Hopefully you will have picked up a Kiwi release by then and you can tell me in the comment what you thought of it. Happy reading everyone!