Time Out's Best Books of 2021

As seen in Metro Magazine

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Jenna

Times Like These by Michelle Langstone
Uprising by Nic Low
A Swim in the Pond in the Rain by George Saunders

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Cait

Lolita in the Afterlife by Jenny Minton Quigley
Three Summers by Margarita Liberaki
Night Bus by Zuo Ma

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Roman

Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters
Second Place by Rachel Cusk
A Country for Dying by Annie Ernaux

Wendy

The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles
The Echo Chamber by John Boyne
Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr

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Manon

A Swim in the Pond in the Rain by George Saunders
In Memory of Memory by Maria Stepanova
The Right to Sex by Amia Srini

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Sophie

Beautiful World, Where Are You? by Sally Rooney
No One is Talking about This by Patricia Lockwood
Slave Play by Jeremy O Harris

Suri

No One is Talking about This by Patricia Lockwood
The Hard Crowd by Rachel Kushner
Please, Call Me Jesus by Sam Te Kani

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Amanda

Rangikura by Tayi Tibble
The Hard Crowd by Rachel Kushner
Happy Hour by Marlowe Granados

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Saraid

A Passage North by Anuk Arudpragasam
Luster by Raven Leilani
Winter in Sokcho by Elsa Shua Dusapin

Katie

Women of Troy by Pat Barker
Roxy by Neal Shusterman
The House in the Cerulean Sea
T. J. Klune

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Elijah

Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr
No One is Talking about This by Patricia Lockwood
Fragments of an Infinite Memory by Mael Renouard

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Lauren

Matrix by Lauren Groff
The Last Graduate by Naomi Novak
These Hollow Vows by Lexi Ryan

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Bestsellers for December 2021

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TOP 5 BOOKS

KID'S BOOKS

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Time Out's Bestsellers in 2021

Our top 10 bestselling books of the year.

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Bestsellers for November 2021

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TOP 5 BOOKS

KID'S BOOKS

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95bFM's Loose Reads: Matrix by Lauren Groff

Jenna is Rachel and Zoe’s first guest in the studio since August! Today, she reviews Lauren Groff’s Matrix. An imagining of the life medieval poet, Marie de France, who is sent away from the royal court to live as a nun. Never has a story set in the twelfth century felt so contemporary!

RNZ's Nine to Noon: Orwell's Roses by Rebecca Solnit

Jenna reviews Orwell’s Roses, the brand new book by prolific non-fiction writer, Rebecca Solnit. Starting amongst George Orwell’s (still living) roses, Solnit weaves together connections of war and beauty. Highly recommended!

Listen to Jenna’s review with Kathryn below.

RNZ's Nine to Noon: Orwell's Roses by Rebecca Solnit

Radio New Zealand

95bFM's Loose Reads: Bewilderment by Richard Powers

Richard Power's latest novel, Bewilderment, is a tender exploration of loss, climate anxiety and the binding love between father son. In the wake of his wife's death, scientist Theo tries to rescue his sensitive son from the noise and cruelty of the modern world. A rich mixture of philosophy, science and spirituality, Bewilderment is a powerful ode to the natural world.

This is another lockdown review! You can listen to Suri chat with Rachel below.

95bFM's Loose Reads: A Carnival of Snackery: Diaries 2003 - 2020 by David Sedaris

The prolific David Sedaris is back with his second volume of diaries, A Carnival of Snackery (2003-2020.)

With the usual ingredients of travels stories, languages, bad jokes, the Sea Section, taxidermy, rubbish, Hugh & the infamous Sedaris family, this is a must read for Sedaris fans. It’s the type of book that can sit over the coffee table over Christmas and have multiple readers at once.

Listen to Jenna’s lockdown review with Rachel and Zoe below:

95bFM's Loose Reads: Please, Call Me Jesus by Samuel Te Kani

Samuel Te Kani's debut erotic short fiction collection, Please, Call Me Jesus is an electric, moreish journey through suburbia and its dark pleasures.

From gaming housewives, to teenage werewolves and suburban fathers with secrets, Sam Te Kani's psychologically piercing and playful vignettes of suburban desire make for addictive reading.

Samuel Te Kani is a contributor to Metro NZ, The Spinoff, Pantograph Punch and formerly Vice NZ.

This is another lockdown review! You can listen to Suri chat with Rachel below.

95bFM's Loose Reads: The Woman in the Purple Skirt by Nastuko Imamura

This little book follows The Woman in the Yellow Cardigan and she follows, like a friendly(ish) ghost, The Woman in the Purple Skirt.

This is a portrait of single women in Japan, women who work in service and the hierarchy within those industries. It’s also a portrait of loneliness.

This is perfect Christmas present for fans of Sayaka Murata and also Korean authors such as Han Kang and Bae Suah. It’s completely bonkers but funny, creepy but innocent, compelling and mysterious.

Listen to Jenna’s lockdown review with Rachel and Zoe below:

Bestsellers for October 2021

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TOP 5 BOOKS

KID'S BOOKS

View previous Bestsellers

RNZ's Nine to Noon: Three Summers by Margarita Liberaki

Today, Jenna reviews the Greek classic, Three Summers by Margareita Liberaki. An escapist coming of age that is filled with the joys of nature and the pains of adolescence.

Listen to Jenna’s review with Kathryn below, with a little extra mention of The Promise by Damon Galgut, the 2021 winner of the Booker Prize.

RNZ's Nine to Noon: Three Summers by Margarita Liberaki

Radio New Zealand

95bFM's Loose Reads: A Good Winter by Gigi Fenster

Keep the spooky season alive with Gigi Fenster's chilling new novel, A Good Winter! The 2021 Michael Gifkins Prize winner is an absorbing psychological thriller told through the neurotic and increasingly frenetic observations of Olga, a lonely woman who befriends her neighbour Lara. As Olga's life becomes more entwined with Lara's and her feelings become more obsessive, her paranoia begins to take over until the shocking end.

A compulsive and addictive read, A Good Winter is a dark and fascinating insight into the mind of a woman alienated from family, love and desire.

This is another lockdown review! You can listen to Suri chat with Rachel below.

95bFM's Loose Reads: She's a Killer by Kirsten McDougall

Alice is ‘the person nobody cares about in the movie if they die’. She’s in her late thirties and lives with her mother (whom she only communicates with by morse code), she has an extraordinary IQ and low empathy for others.

Aotearoa is in a state of political and social change. A chance encounter with one of Aotearoa’s new weathugees,Pablo, leaves Alice living with his 15 year old daughter, Erika - who also happens to be a genius.

Set in a bleak future that we can almost touch with our fingertips, She’s a Killer has a perfectly formed plot, funny & considered dialogue and a thrilling twist. Not a single character is wasted.

Listen to Jenna’s lockdown review with Rachel and Zoe below:

95bFM's Loose Reads: My Morning Star by Karl Ove Knausgaard

After a brief hiatus, Karl Ove Knausgaard returns to fiction with The Morning Star, a rich 666-page exploration of human existence told through the lives of nine interconnected characters. In The Morning Star, the spectre of the unreal and imagined hovers over the prosaic rituals of daily life, as Knausgaard's characters try to find meaning in the modern world. A stunning novel for turbulent times.

This is another lockdown review! You can listen to Suri chat with Rachel below.

Bestsellers for September 2021

Click on the covers to shop!

TOP 5 BOOKS

KID'S BOOKS

View previous Bestsellers

95bFM's Loose Reads: Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr

An epic tale that spans the past, present and future from the author of All the Light We Cannot See. Jenna reviews this highly anticipated read from the shop floor, which was delivered by the courier during the review.

Author Talk: Megan Dunn with Yvonne Todd

Things I Learned at Art School is Megan Dunn’s brand new collection of bite-sized, infectious essays that tell of an eighties childhood, a nineties art school education and a stint as a brothel barmaid on Karangahape Road.

Spend an hour with Megan Dunn & photographer Yvonne Todd as they chat about book covers, art school life, wedding shoes and Desiderata.

Introduced by Claire Murdoch from Penguin Random House NZ and recorded on Zoom.

95bFM's Loose Reads: Nostalgia has Ruined My Life by Zarah Butcher-McGunnigle

Auckland writer Zarah Butcher-McGunnigle’s devastating little novella ‘Nostalgia Has Ruined My Life’ explores the emptiness of dating and work in the modern world. Told through darkly funny and painful little vignettes, ‘Nostalgia Has Ruined My Life’ is a deliciously twisted and intoxicating work. For fans of Ottessa Moshfegh and Sakaya Murata!

Listen to Suri’s lockdown review with Rachel below.

95bFM's Loose Reads: I Laugh Me Broken by Bridget Van der Zijpp

A gentle and funny love story, great for a lockdown read.

Listen to Jenna’s review with Rachel and Zoe below.