Your holidays booked! KIWI WRITERS' SUMMER PICKS

If you're still looking for inspiration for your holiday reading list, we asked some of New Zealand's top authors what books they'll be packing

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Deborah Challinor, 66

Black Velvet & Vengeance (HarperCollins, on sale March 2026)

This summer, I'm at the beach for Christmas and Boxing Day, but mostly at home, visiting my new grandchild and working on my next writing project. My reading list is quite full, but then it never isn't. I'll be reading Helen Garner's How to End a Story: Collected Diaries, 1978-1998. Helen has long been a favourite writer of mine. Among other topics, she writes the most insightful, considered, true crime I've ever read. Also, The Mushroom Tapes: Conversations on a Triple Murder Trial, by Helen Garner, Chloe Hooper and Sarah Krasnostein. When the trial was saturating the media, I swore I'd had enough of Erin Patterson, but then this came out.

Jared Savage, 43

Underworld (HarperCollins, $39,99)

We're heading away just before Christmas to visit my wife's family on the Sunshine Coast. It will be great to see the kids making memories together, although I suspect the Kiwi cousins will be cooked by the heat. For my holiday reading, I'll take The Unlikely Doctor by Dr Timoti Te Moke, a story of hope amid the darkness; The Blood Says Otherwise by Ruben Miller, dark but fascinating and funny; and Lessons on Living by Nigel Latta - looking for inspiration for 2026.

Gina Butson, 47

The Stars Are a Million Glittering Worlds

(Allen & Unwin, $37.99)