Nate is back up for Loose Reads, and today we're getting deep into questions of morality and mortality, with George Saunders' Vigil.
Listen to Nate chat with Rosetta and Milly below.
Bestsellers for January 2026 /
Click on the covers to shop!
TOP 5 BOOKS
Bestsellers Gallery 2022
KID'S BOOKS
Kids' Bestsellers 2022
95bFM's Loose Reads: Service by John Tottenham /
Sean is a 48 year old poet, writer and reluctant bookseller, “A flaneur in utopia, with nowhere to flan”, in John Tottenham’s Service.
This is a book that dives into the perils and repetition of customer service, the writing process and the dreary reality of gentrification.
Think of this as Black Books set in LA.
Listen to Jenna, Rosetta and Milly below!
95bFM's Loose Reads: The Ockham longlist & Wonderland by Tracy Farr /
We're making up for Auckland Anniversary day with a special Thursday Loose Reads!
Nate chats about the newly announced Ockham Book Awards Longlist, and one of his top picks from the list: Tracy Farr's Wonderland.
Listen below:
RNZ's Nine to Noon: Best of 2025 /
Today on RNZ’s Nine to Noon, Jenna chatted with Kathryn about three of her 2025 highlights: Helen Garner’s How to End a Story: Collected Diaries 1978 - 1998, Tony Tulathimutte’s Rejection and The True True Story of Raja the Gullible (And his Mother) by Rabih Alameddine.
Listen below!
95bFM's Loose Reads: Rejection by Tony Tulathimutte /
Jenna visited the 95bFM studio this morning to talk about Rejection, a book that Jia Tolentino says is “a thrill for the sickos among us.”
A dive into the darkest crevices of the internet and internet culture, this book is self aware, outrageous and outrageously funny.
Listen to Jenna’s chat with Milly and Rosetta below. We also mention Bread of Angels by Patti Smith.
Looking Ahead into 2026 /
by Nate Carroll
There’s no rest for a bookseller! As one year of amazing reading ends it’s time to look ahead to the next and already 2026 looks to be an exciting one for books. There’s some heavy hitters already announced for the start of the year- starting with Vigil in early February , George Saunders’ first novel since his sensational Man Booker winning Lincoln in the Bardo. I’m particularly excited about Glyph from my all time favourite author Ali Smith, the second in her dystopian duology. Expect a story equal parts playful and profound. An author who seems to need no rest at all is Elizabeth Strout, whose next book The Things We Never Say publishes in May. March is a treat for those who like their fiction to get under their skin and unsettle; we have Lauren Groff’s latest collection Brawler and Asako Yuzuki’s (of Butter fame) second novel Hooked. Two great novelists, Sebastian Barry and Colson Whitehead, enter third novels into loosely expanding universes, with The Newer World and Cool Machine, while Booker winner Yann Martel returns at the end of March with the ambitious Son of Nobody. Booker shortlisted author, John Lanchester’s Look What You Made Me Do is out in March. Deborah Levy’s My Year in Paris with Gertrude Stein: A Fiction, looks especially intriguing. Levy is one of our great novelists and her writing on art is equally as good- this new novel, which looks to combine the two, promises to be Levy at her lofty best. Perhaps the two biggest literary releases of the year will come a little later, with Maggie O'Farrell's Land and Ann Patchett's Whistler both publishing in June.
On the New Zealand front, two of our very best writers are publishing new books early in the year. After her landmark memoir The Mirror Book, Charlotte Grimshaw returns to fiction with The Black Monk in March. Elizabeth Knox publishes her first memoir in April with Night, Ma, reflections on a three year period marked by a series of calamities to the people closest to her. Knox is such a creative and sensitive writer - an invitation into her head is not to be missed. Similarly, I’m intrigued by Kate Camp's Leather & Chains: My 1986 Diary, wherein one of our best poets responds to her fourteen year old self's diary. We’re also very excited for debut novels by two longtime members of our wider Time Out community, with Elisabeth Easther’s Seed and Karen Holdom’s The End and the Beginning.
A memoir which I’m lucky enough to have already read is Ghost Stories by Booker longlisted writer Siri Hustvedt, centered on the death of her husband, Paul Auster. Her writing on love, absence and grief is remarkable and so too are the small sections of Auster’s final writing- letters to their 1 year old grandson, written after he knew his cancer was terminal. Not an easy read but one with tremendous power. One of the most anticipated books of the year is Gisele Pelicot’s A Hymn To Life: Shame has to Change Sides, the first biography from one of our most courageous modern figures. The other major early year release is Patrick Radden Keefe, author of Say Nothing and Empire of Pain, new book London Falling. He’s the modern master of non-fiction writing and this new book sounds typical to type- an investigation into the death of a young man which spawns a host of new questions for each single answer.
Two debut novels we’re keeping a close eye on at Time Out are The Bodybuilders by Albertine Clarke and Whidbey by T Kira Madden. I’ve read an early review copy of Whidbey and immediately picked it as a book which could make some noise. In it, a woman meets a stranger and tells him about the man who abused her as a child, and the stranger offers to kill the man and then disappear. From there a constantly shifting narrative unspools, that reads like a cross between A Little Life and a Patricia Highsmith novel. The Bodybuilders is a speculative fiction novel that frays at the border between the body and the mind. All I needed to see was the early review ‘If Phillip K Dick had written the Bell Jar’ to be instantly curious.
I’d be remiss not to mention some excellent global fiction being published in English this year. The On the Calculation of Volume series which has so gripped the literary scene (and our local Time Out one) continues, with its 4th and 5th entries set to come in 2026. The great Mexican novelist Alvaro Enrigue publishes Now I Surrender in the second half of the year and Time Out favourite Elisa Dusapin has a new book The Old Fire out in March. One of my favourite writers around, Vigdis Hjorth, also has a new translation of her book Repetition, wherein a seemingly innocuous memory inspires a dark realisation.
All these and many more great books to come in 2026 - including Jennette McCurdy (late January), Colm Toibin (April) and Min Jin Lee (September).
95bFM's Loose Reads: Helm by Sarah Hall /
Nate visited the bFM studio for our first review of 2026.
A monumental novel, twenty years in the making, Helm traces humanities connection with a Cumbrian wind of that same name, Ranging from the modern day to Celtic England, it shows how humans have always been shaped by nature, and the irreversible loss we risk by upsetting a long held balance.
Hall has always been a magnificent prose writer and she finds perhaps her greatest achievement here in the personified voice of Helm (the wind). Playful, aloof, alien and constantly changing.
Listen to the full review below with Milly:
Bestsellers for December 2025 /
Click on the covers to shop!
TOP 5 BOOKS
Bestsellers Gallery 2022
KID'S BOOKS
Kids' Bestsellers 2022
95bFM's Loose Reads: Suri's best reads of 2025! /
On her last Loose Reads ever, Suri talks all things Time Out and all things books! Listen in for a brief history of her stint at Loose Reads, her favourite books of 2025, predictions for book trends in 2026 and a little love letter to the bookshop that started it all.
Listen below to Suri with Rosetta and Milly.
95bFM's Loose Reads: Jenna answers your book gifting questions! /
Jenna visited the 95bFM studio for the last time in 2025. She plotted together some book recommendations for Christmas with Rosetta and Milly. Listen below!
FOR FANS OF TIM WINTON’S JUICE
Flesh by David Szalay
THE UP-TO-DATE LIT READER
The Silver Book by Olivia Laing
Helm by Sarah Hall
The True True Story of Raja the Gullible (and his Mother) by Rabih Alameddine
ROMANCE READER
Heart the Lover by Lily King
A TRAVEL BOOK
Michael Palin in Venezuela
FOR FANS OF KALIANE BRADLEY’S THE MINISTRY OF TIME
Moderation by Elaine Castillo
MEMOIR/BIOGRAPHY
Mana by Tāme Iti
Bread of Angels by Patti Smith
Night People by Mark Ronson
Chris Knox - Not Given Lightly by Craig Robertson
RNZ's Culture 101: Best Books of 2025 with Time Out Bookstore's Jenna Todd /
Jenna popped into RNZ’s Culture 101 today to chat with Perlina Lau to chat long books of 2025 as well as some category favourites.
Listen below!
95bFM's Loose Reads: The Silver Book by Olivia Laing /
Nate reviewed Olivia Laing's The Silver Book, a new Time Out staff favourite. A beguiling story set in the world of 1970’s Italian cinema, it examines the thin line between art and reality - as well as the destructive power that hides in our societal systems. The perfect book for that arty friend that you never know how to buy for!
Listen to the full review below with Milly & Rosetta.
Bestsellers for November 2025 /
Click on the covers to shop!
TOP 5 BOOKS
Bestsellers Gallery 2022
KID'S BOOKS
Kids' Bestsellers 2022
95bFM's Loose Reads: Will There Ever Be Another You by Patricia Lockwood /
Will There Ever Be Another You is the latest by author of Priestdaddy, No-One is Talking About This and most importantly, Twitter's Poet Laureate of the 2010's, Patricia Lockwood.
Will There Ever Be Another You is autofiction- a free-wheeling portrayal of the physical and psychological effects of long-COVID and the resulting ego death.
Experiencing amnesia and body dysphoria in the wake of her first COVID contraction, Lockwood details the slow journey to recovering her identity.
What happens to a writer when they lose their relationship to language and themselves? What more can we plunder from the mind when the self exists as a mere spectre?
Lockwood retains her wicked wit and playful warmth in her latest novel, but layers the jokes with a sincere excavation of the self.
Moving at a hazier pace than her previous work, Will There Ever Be Another You still packs emotional punches and humour that's become a Patricia Lockwood signature.
Listen to Suri’s review below with Rosetta and Milly.
95bFM's Loose Reads: Hoods Landing by Laura Vincent /
Jenna visited the 95bFM studio this morning to talk about Laura Vincent’s (Ngāti Māhanga, Ngāpuhi) debut novel, Hoods Landing.
Four generations gather for Christmas, small-town gossip and tragedy, tarot cards and secrets are revealed in this funny and sharp ensemble tale.
If you’re going to buy any book this Christmas - this is the one! A local author, from indie publisher Āporo Press.
95bFM's Loose Reads: Shadow Ticket by Thomas Pynchon /
His first novel in over a decade, Pynchon's Shadow Ticket is a swirling, heady noir diving into 1930's Milwaukee- Al Capone's been imprisoned, the Great Depression arrives with a bang, jazz rules the underground, the Western world sits on the cusp of war and a cheese heiress mysteriously disappears with (or perhaps without) her jazz musician lover. Hick McTaggart, a private investigator running from problems of his own, is tasked with finding the heiress and returning her to the Airmont. Tracking her to Hungary, McTaggart finds himself in a web of international espionage- in the crossfires of Russian and British double-agents, Nazis who bowl and a coven of psychics.
Like all Pynchon novels, Shadow Ticket is at once a thrilling caper, absurd in the unreplicable style of one of America's greatest living political novelists; and on the other, a sharp meta-narrative about the clutches of US political power and the barons and titans of industry who fuel it.
Listen to Suri’s chat with Milly & Rosetta below!
95bFM's Loose Reads: Moderation by Elaine Castillo /
Jenna joined Milly & Rosetta in the studio to talk about Elaine Castillo’s Moderation.
You may have caught Elaine at the Auckland Writer’s Festival in 2019. Her new novel follows Girlie, a Filipnx American social media moderator in a Vegas-based, VR tech empire, Austen-esque romance genre bending novel. This is whip smart, entertaining and timely - for fans of Kaliane Bradley’s The Ministry of Time.
Bestsellers for October 2025 /
Click on the covers to shop!
TOP 5 BOOKS
Bestsellers Gallery 2022
KID'S BOOKS
Kids' Bestsellers 2022
95bFM's Loose Reads: The City Changes Its Face by Eimear McBride /
Nate went into BFM to talk about Eimear McBride’s new novel, The City Changes Its Face. Weird, wonderful and full of emotional heft- a perfect portrait of a faltering romantic relationship.
Listen to the full review below with Milly & Rosetta.
