Great new reads to please even the pickiest of bookworms.
UNTOUCHABLE GIRLS
Jools Topp and Lynda Topp | Allen & Unwin, $50 (hardback)
The incredible story of how a couple of country kids from Huntly became much-loved Kiwi icons and TV stars, with their own unique brand of original country music and comedy that has captivated audiences in New Zealand and overseas for more than 40 years. Jools and Lynda Topp, aka The Topp Twins, tell this story in their own words, describing their adventurous lives through laugh-out-loud anecdotes and heartwarming tales.
THE SECRET (JACK REACHER, BOOK 28)
Lee Child & Andrew Child | Penguin, $37
1992. Two strangers bring a hospital patient a list of names. Minutes later he’s dispatched through the 12th floor window. The death generates some unexpected attention from the Secretary of Defence, who brings in an inter-agency task force to investigate. Jack Reacher, recently demoted from Major to Captain, is assigned as the Army’s representative. As he races to find the killer, he must navigate around the ulterior motives of his new ‘partners’, all while moving into the sightline of some of the most dangerous people he has ever encountered.
THE TWAT FILES
Dawn French | Penguin, $42
“When I was younger I wanted to be an interesting, sophisticated, semi-heroic, multi-layered person. BUT. That kind of perfect is impossible. Being an actual twat is much the real me. Sorry to boast, but I am a champion twat,” says British comedy queen Dawn French of her latest release. A hugely relatable, funny, honest and inspirational “memoir of sorts” in which Dawn celebrates what it means to be gloriously, messily human.
THE VANISHING POINT
Andrea Hotere | Ultimo Press, $35
Dunedin-raised and daughter of poet Cilla McQueen and artist Ralph Hotere, Andrea Hotere’s time-travelling debut, centred around the secrets of Diego Velázquez’s masterpiece ‘Las Meninas’, shifts between Madrid in 1656 and London in 1991. “This is an astonishing and beautiful novel that brings the art world into sharp relief, as well as a gutsy mysterious story of one woman’s journey into the past. Simply a masterpiece in its own right.” – Fiona Kidman