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BooksDecember 2, 2022

The Unity Books bestseller chart for the week ending December 2

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The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.

AUCKLAND

1  Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan (Faber & Faber, $23)

A gem of a novella, taking Auckland by storm and already dripping in accolades: winner of the Orwell Prize for Political Fiction, shortlisted for the Rathbones Folio Prize, and shortlisted for the Booker Prize. We also give it a gold star for “the Christmas novel you actually want to read”.

2  Straight Up by Ruby Tui (Allen & Unwin, $37)

If you’re going to read one sports memoir this year, this is undeniably it.

3  The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Shehan Karunatilaka (Sort of Books, $37)

The winner of this year’s Booker Prize, narrated by a ghost during the Sri Lankan Civil War of the 1980s. The Washington Post summarises the novel’s tantalising details:

“It’s all true: The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida is a murder mystery and a zany comedy about military atrocities.

“And it’s narrated by a dead man.

“In the second person.”

4  The Passenger by Cormac McCarthy (Knopf, $50)

Cormac McCarthy is almost 90 years old. Last month he released The Passenger, and this month he’ll release companion novel Stella Maris. Not bad for an octogenarian, but what do his fans think?

Tom of planet Goodreads sums up the general vibe: “All I’ll say is that The Passenger is a deeply felt, sad book about a man haunted by his sister’s suicide and the appalling legacy of his father, trying to make sense of his life. It is softer than McCarthy’s earlier work and more humane and reflective. There is humour, too, though much of it is of the dark variety.

“Anyway, who cares what I think. It’s a goddam new Cormac McCarthy for Christ’s sake.”

5  Lucy by the Sea by Elizabeth Strout (Viking, $37)

Lucy Barton, stuck in lockdown with ex-hubby William and delighting us all.

6  Femina: A New History of the Middle Ages, Through the Women Written Out of It by Janina Ramirez (WH Allen, $40)

Historian Janina Ramirez delves into little-known female figures of the Middle Ages. Historian and author Dan Jones says: “This is bravura narrative history underpinned by passionate advocacy for the women whom mediaeval history has too often ignored or overlooked.”

7  The Opposite of a Person by Lieke Marsman (Daunt Books, $23)

The 2017 debut novel from the current Dutch Poet Laureate, recently translated into English. The Guardian writes: “It feels in a sense like the most modern book you could read: not only is the ostensible subject timely (climate change), but it also falls into a number of current literary trends.

“For example, we are used in nonfiction to the genre-defying book – it is practically de rigueur now for nonfiction to blend essay, memoir and reportage – but Marsman brings this style to her novel, which combines fiction, essays and poetry. It also falls into what we might call “space literature”, a narrative formed of short paragraphs surrounded by white space, as practised by authors such as Jenny Offill and Sarah Manguso, who use it to build gradual effects.”

8  Needles & Plastic: Flying Nun Records, 1981 – 1988 by Matthew Goody (Auckland University Press, $70)

Canadian author Matthew Goody has written a by-all-accounts brilliant book about Flying Nun Records’ early Christchurch days. Nibble on this here excerpt.

9  Cinema Speculation by Quentin Tarantino (W&N, $40)

“A unique cocktail of personal memoir, cultural criticism and Hollywood history by the one and only Quentin Tarantino,” says the chirpy publisher’s blurb. “Organized around key American films from the 1970s, all of which he first saw as a young moviegoer at the time, this book is as intellectually rigorous and insightful as it is rollicking and entertaining.

“At once film criticism, film theory, a feat of reporting, and wonderful personal history, it is all written in the singular voice recognizable immediately as QT’s and with the rare perspective about cinema possible only from one of the greatest practitioners of the artform ever.”

10  Landfall 244 edited by Lynley Edmeades (Otago University Press, $30)

The latest edition of Aotearoa’s longest-running arts and literary journal, bursting with new poetry, fiction, essays, reviews and art from dozens of local writers.

Get a taste from this excerpt of Tina Makereti’s wonderful personal essay about breast cancer, which won the Landfall Essay Competition and is included in Landfall 244. “Long before I ever contemplated the possibility of losing my own breast/s, I found that Tig Notaro joke hilarious, the one she made after her double mastectomy, about how her breasts got sick of her making jokes about their size, and decided to kill her. How else do we come to terms with murderous breasts, but to laugh?”

WELLINGTON

1  Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver (Faber & Faber UK, $37)

Kingsolver is King of Wellington this week, with her new novel retelling the story of Dickens’ David Copperfield.

2  Straight Up by Ruby Tui (Allen & Unwin, $37)

3  Imagining Decolonisation by Rebecca Kiddle, Bianca Elkington, Moana Jackson, Ocean Ripeka Mercier, Mike Ross, Jennie Smeaton and Amanda Thomas (Bridget Williams Books, $15)

Imagine imagine imagine. Top three once again.

4  Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus (Doubleday, $37)

A bestselling novel set in the early 1960s, about a woman chemist who becomes the reluctant star of an American cooking show. Visiting planet Goodreads yet again, Yun had this to say: “When you come across that perfect read, at what point do you realize? For me, it was from the very first page of Lessons in Chemistry. Honestly, who does Bonnie Garmus think she is, coming in here and writing a book that completely speaks to me? And on top of that, it’s her debut. Well, just knock me over with a feather too while you’re at it, why don’t you!” Utterly charmed.

5  Lessons by Ian McEwan (Jonathon Cape, $37)

A heap of learning going on in Wellington this week! We actually just turned the last page on Lessons, and would rate it a solid 3.7 stars. Very good, but not McEwan’s best; engrossing, but at times plodding. Bonus points duly given for making us depressed for a day and a half afterwards.

6  Kawai: For Such a Time As This by Monty Soutar (Bateman, $40)

Written by Māori scholar and Waitangi Tribunal member Monty Soutar, Kawai is the first of a historical fiction trilogy covering Māori history through the lives of nine generations of a single family.

7  Mountains, Volcanoes, Coasts & Caves: Origins of Aotearoa New Zealand’s Natural Wonders by Bruce W. Hayward, Alastair Jamieson & Lloyd Homer (Auckland University Press, $70)

An excellent new coffee table cook. From the publisher’s blurb: “From Whakaari / White Island and Huka Falls to the Moeraki Boulders and Milford Sound, Aotearoa New Zealand overflows with extraordinary landforms and other natural features. This is not a random quirk of nature, but a result of the unique and complex geological history of this part of planet Earth.

“In this beautiful book, geologist Bruce W. Hayward guides readers through 100 natural wonders of Aotearoa – introducing the geology and history with words, explanatory diagrams and remarkable aerial photography by Alastair Jamieson and Lloyd Homer. Through these 100 special places – and many more that almost made the cut – we begin to understand the shape of Aotearoa and the 500-million-year history of our small, mostly submerged continent of Zealandia.”

8  Greta & Valdin by Rebecca K Reilly (Te Herenga Waka University Press, $35)

Our favourite fictional Māori–Russian–Catalonian siblings.

9  The Axeman’s Carnival by Catherine Chidgey (Te Herenga Waka University Press, $35)

New fiction by one of our most creative authors. Game in point: The Axeman’s Carnival is narrated by a magpie. Here’s what fellow magpie Pecky had to say.

10  A History of New Zealand in 100 Objects by Jock Phillips (Penguin, $55)

The third book about New Zealand history in Wellington’s bestseller list this week! We won’t call Unity Welly readers nerds. But we will think it.

Keep going!