Outside of casinos and pure chance, a well-informed bet is not as much of a gamble as it might be.

In our ever-changing and often divisive modern world, it’s important to stay informed, and build empathy with the perspectives of others.

That idea was the key one behind this list. A couple of books for gamblers, a couple featuring gamblers and gambling, one slightly controversial New Zealand bestseller and one left-field choice. All published in 2021. Happy reading!

Punters: How Paddy Power Bet Billions and Changed Gambling Forever (Aaron Rogan)

If you’ve ever been to the UK or Ireland or watched UK sports, you’ll no doubt have seen the Paddy Power brand. Brits love this sports betting chain (or bookies as they call them) and their adverts are everywhere.

However, even in New Zealand – you’ve probably seen adverts from Paddy’s parent company, Flutter.

Flutter is now the single biggest gambling business in the world. Bigger than brands you might know better, like MGM or Caesar’s.

How did they get there? How did a bunch of Irish misfits create a multibillion-dollar business? Aaron Rogan does a good job of revealing all, without shying away from some of the societal issues that gambling can cause.

Fancy a cheeky punt after reading that one? Well, you might not be able to play at Paddy Power in NZ right now, but there’s a $5 deposit online casino we could recommend for you.

Source:https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/7e/Paddy_Power%2C_North_End_Road%2C_Fulham%2C_London_01.jpg/1280px-Paddy_Power%2C_North_End_Road%2C_Fulham%2C_London_01.jpg]

Auē (Becky Manawatu)

OK, so this one wasn’t actually published in 2021. But Auē was that year’s bestseller in New Zealand. As it also was in 2020.

Auē, the tale of two orphan Māori children and their struggles with poverty and gang violence, also won loads of awards and praise from some of New Zealand’s most eminent writers. Not bad for a debut novel!

Although some Māori contested its depictions, Auē received overwhelmingly positive feedback.

Its moving tale has captivated audiences across the world and sold hundreds of thousands of copies, helping to spread awareness of not just the problems but also the beauty in all New Zealand’s cultures.

You Can’t Lose Them All: Tales of a Degenerate Gambler and His Ridiculous Friends (Sal Iacono)

Sal Iacono, better known as Cousin Sal, has had a long career in American sports broadcasting. He’s worked for Fox, WWE and has been one of the USA’s biggest tipsters for many years.

He’s known as Cousin Sal, not because he’s a mobster as you might think, but because he’s cousins with famous talk show host Jimmy Kimmel.

This book details some of the crazy bets Sal has made in his career, as well as the famous (and infamous) faces he has made bets with. All in Sal’s unique and comic tone of voice!

The Four Winds (Kristin Hannah)

This powerful American Depression-era melodrama was one of the best-selling books of 2021. It details two generations of a young Texas family, deciding whether to abandon their dust bowl farm and head West into California – or stay and work for their home soil.

It brings to life characters with real evocative spirit – if you’re interested in old-timey Americana, you’ll love this one.

Source:https://the-bibliofile.com/socialimages/fourwindssocial.jpg

First Person Singular (Haruki Murakami)

A bit of a left-field choice, and definitely not a bestseller. However, the pretentious poetry reader’s novelist of choice is undeniably one of the finest writers in the world.

The award-winning Japanese storyteller was back in 2021 with a collection of short stories. Each one is told in the titular first-person singular – aka the perspective of the character who is also the narrator.

However, in typical Murakami fashion, that concept isn’t quite as simple as it seems. Other narrators, potentially Murakami himself, float in through the prose and offer their thoughts with little or no explanation.

Music. Baseball. Ghosts. Tranquillity by the sea. Talking monkeys writing jazz albums.

All of the above. Murakami drifts between topics but in a purposeful fashion, like a floating lantern on a stream.

We told you it was a left-field choice for our last book, are you in for the ride?