Whitcoulls Recommends: Joan's top non-fiction books of 2025

Mother Mary Comes to Me by Arundhati Roy. This is by the author of the Booker Prize winning The God of Small Things - about her life growing up in India, the forces that shaped her, and particularly her very difficult relationship with her mother, Mary, who is always referred to in the book as Mrs Roy. Mrs Roy was a formidable force of nature and in trying to make sense of the dynamic between them, and to find her own way in the world, Arundhati has written a deeply moving, entertaining and profound memoir.

How to Say Babylon by Safiya Sinclair. The author grew up in Jamaica where her father was a radical Rastafarian and was paranoid about keeping his daughters away from the secular world which they referred to as Babylon. Safiya’s childhood was often brutal, peripatetic and poor but she had the soul of a poet and the dream to eventually become one. It’s an extraordinary and deeply moving memoir – how one young woman eventually found the courage to stand up to her father and became the woman she never thought she could be. Anyone who read Educated and loved it will love this.

The Breath of the Gods by Simon Winchester: A remarkable exploration of our atmosphere, and the role played in our lives by wind – which can be both benign and malevolent.  It’s a fascinating story told through history, literature, science, poetry and engineering – and includes a piece on our own Wahine disaster. Simon Winchester has an ability to make the everyday and apparently mundane, extraordinary.

The Hollows Boys by Peta Carey. The story of the three Hollows brothers Gary, Mark and Kim, who were pivotal in the helicopter deer recovery era in Fjordland in the 1970s which was a dangerous and unregulated time. Gary Hollows died (as did many others) and the pain of that is still felt keenly today, more than 40 years on. The work they did against the backdrop of such a beautiful part of the country is jaw dropping, with high deer tallies helping keep that population down (and thereby protecting the environment), lots of money sloshing around and amazing stories of real derring do by a group of extraordinarily brave and reckless men who lived by their own rules.

Mana by Tame Iti. The deeply personal account of the life of one of our greatest rebels and radicals who grew up being forbidden to speak te reo and became one of its biggest advocates (amongst many other causes). He’s lived much of his life in the public eye, going from bad boy status to that of a national treasure and the journey is well documented in this beautiful and thoughtful book. It’s a lovely production and includes lots of photographs, including some of his own artwork. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudkin
from News Talks.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
EDB Joe McKenzie joins me.

Speaker 3 (00:14):
Now, good morning, good morning.

Speaker 2 (00:15):
Right, as we do at this time of the year,
every year, you give us a list of some excellent
Christmas gift ideas, but also you know books that we
might want to catch up and read over the summer ourselves,
but a good holiday reading and things. And today we're
going to take a look at best nonfiction. And this
is your list. I like this, my very subjectiveness, very

(00:36):
subjective list. Take me through it, John.

Speaker 3 (00:38):
These are just some great books I came across this year.
The first one is by Arundharti Roy, who won the
book a prize I'm going to say twenty years ago
with The God of Small Things, So we know that
she's a good writer. And this is her memoir and
it's marvelous. It's called Mother Mary Comes to Me by
Aaron Dati Roy, and it's her story of growing up
in India first and Kerala, where she had a really

(00:59):
tempestuous and difficult relationship with her mother, who she refers
to throughout the book always as Missus Roy and who
was genuine force of nature. But you can see that
she'd had been absolutely terrifying to be around. Arundhati left
home when she was eighteen and moved to Delhi specifically
to get away from her mother, but she never did
manage to escape the enormous influence that missus Roy had

(01:20):
on her life. And I just loved this book. It's wonderful.

Speaker 2 (01:23):
I've noticed it's been on a lot of Best ofsa.

Speaker 3 (01:29):
The next one is also a memoir. It's called How
to Say Babylon by Sapphia Sinclair. She grew up in
Jamaica as the child of a deeply conservative Rastafarian man
who was determined to keep his two daughters away from
what he called Babylon, which was for him, the secular world.
And she had a pretty miserable time of it. He

(01:49):
was overbearing and actually quite cruel, and they had no money.
But she had the soul of a poet, and she
hoped that one day she would be. And this is
a book about a young girl who finds her voice
in defiance of a really difficult father, but eventually manages
to stand up to him and become the woman that
she I've actually thought she could be a lot of
listeners will have read a book called Educated, which they

(02:11):
may have loved as much as I did. And if
you loved that, then you will like this.

Speaker 2 (02:14):
Okay, excellent. Tell me about The Breath of the Gods
by Simon Winchester.

Speaker 3 (02:18):
Well, this is a book about the wind, which doesn't
sound very prepossessing, I know, but when you consider how
generally speaking it's a constant in our lives. You know
you can have a nice breeze on a summer's day,
or you know that it's generating renewable energy. But it
can also be a bit malevolent, with cyclones and tornadoes
and things that go wrong. And Simon Winchester is a

(02:39):
genius at explaining things. He's rarely good at this in
all his books, and he uses a mix of science
and poetry and literature and anecdotes from right around the world,
and it's all absolutely fascinating. And I'll just say he's
really familiar with New Zealand. He knows Wellington's wind really
really well. And there's a section in this book about
the way he made disaster in nineteen sixty eight, with

(03:01):
a truly extraordinary description of what happened on the ship
that day.

Speaker 2 (03:05):
You have spoken about this book so often this year,
I thought the least I could do the other day
was pick it up, so that are sitting on my
are reading pile. But a book that I have just
picked up and started reading is The Hollow Boys.

Speaker 3 (03:16):
Yes, by Peter Carey. The Hollows Boys follows Yes, the
story of three brothers, the Hollows brothers Gary, Mark and Kim,
who were pivotal in the helicopter deer recovery era in Fiordland.
Different I'm going to say it was dangerous and unregulated
and there was no such thing as health and safety
in many respects. This is a tough book about tough men.

(03:38):
But Gary, one of the brothers, died about forty years
ago in one of these operations, and it feels reading
the book as raw today as it did back then.
But the work they did was extraordinary, with lots of
money sloshing around, lots of deer dyeing, daring do by
a group of brave and reckless men who lived by
their own rules. It's one of the most sought after

(03:58):
books this Christmas.

Speaker 2 (03:59):
I can say, Okay, there we go, and we're going
to finish with Tama Etty Yes.

Speaker 3 (04:03):
Who for much of his life was considered something of
a pride but a national treasure. And this is a
beautiful book with him telling his story in his own
voice about the years of activism, about discovering his talent
for art. He says, actually that art saved him. It's
been beautifully produced and put together. And for me, who's
watched this man over many many years and seeing the

(04:24):
work that he's been involved in with and the criticism
that he's been under off and from the establishment, it
was quite revelationary and I really loved it.

Speaker 2 (04:32):
An amazing collection of books. Thank you so much, Joan
or talk next week.

Speaker 3 (04:36):
See you then.

Speaker 1 (04:38):
For more from the Sunday session with Francesca Rudkin, listen
live to News Talks it'd be from nine am Sunday,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.