The Unity Books bestseller chart for the week ending October 16

The top 10 sales lists recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.

AUCKLAND

1 Nothing But the Truth by Stuart Grieve KC (Allen & Unwin, $45) 

"New Zealand's courtrooms have seen few figures as formidable – or as enduring – as Stuart Grieve KC," says the publisher's blurb. "Over five decades of criminal law and trial advocacy, Stuart has had a front-row seat for the cases that have gripped the nation: the notorious Peter Plumley-Walker murder trials, the Springbok Tour clowns case, the Gisborne Cervical Cancer Inquiry and the Erebus Royal Commission among them. He has prosecuted perpetrators of sexual assault and domestic violence, and acted as a special advocate for Ahmed Zaoui and Kim Dotcom.

But the stories Stuart tells in Nothing But the Truth are bigger than any single verdict. Spanning decades of social and cultural change, this is as much a history of New Zealand as it is an analysis of the law: examining how our legal system has evolved alongside shifting public attitudes and identifying where it still has some way to go."

2 Dirty Work: The Taxpayers’ Union and New Zealand’s Hard Right by Nicky Hager (Potton & Burton, $35)

Queenstown Writers Festival has just announced a new event with Hager on 7 November. Roll up for your tickets, here.

3 The Starving Bride by Catherine Chidgey (Te Herenga Waka Press, $38) 

"[The Starving Bride] really happened, and it was huge in Blackpool in the 1930s. The starving bride appeared in a glass casket along the Golden Mile. She was quite scandalous. But she was making a lot of money, and the sideshow folk absolutely wanted to keep the show going. The story was that she was just an everyday girl plucked from the streets and she wanted to raise money to set her and her groom up for their married life. And the monetary reward was substantial; it was enough to buy a small house at the time." Read more about the inspirations behind Chidgey's latest best-selling novel right here on The Spinoff.

4 Partita by Barbara Kingsolver (Faber & Faber, $38) 

"Brilliant, affecting work from one of contemporary literature’s masters." Read the rest of this review over on Kirkus.

5 The Disappearers by Marlon James (Hamish Hamilton, $38)

A masterpiece and a hot contender for this year's Booker Prize.

6 End Times Fascism: And the Fight for the Living World by Astra Taylor & Naomi Klein (Allen Lane, $40)

How to break the "doom loop" before we're loopy with doom.

7 Cape to Bluff Volume 2 by Simon Devitt (Self-Published, $99)

Aspirational homes photographed.

8 May We Feed the King by Rebecca Perry (Granta, $35) 

This year's Booker Prize wildcard. Read all about it on the Booker website, here.

9 Fruit Fly by Josh Silver (Oneworld, $37)

Auckland is reading up ahead of Josh's Wellington event next week.

10 Farewell to Eden by Sebastian Faulks (Penguin Random House, $38)

Another flawless epic from Faulks. Here's the blurb: "Philip Deval, a soldier recently returned from the beaches of Normandy, arrives in Palestine on a peace-keeping mission in the final days of the British Mandate. The Sea of Galilee glitters in the distance as war-weary troops marvel at the novelty of oranges and sun – a paradise that belies a fierce new conflict about to erupt.

Some years later, Philip begins work teaching at a school in the English countryside and meets the enigmatic music mistress, Frances Darwood. Over long evenings spent listening to records in her music room, they grow close. But Philip is a changed man, and must confront the secrets and scars of all he has lived through - which threaten, even now, to upend his future."

WELLINGTON

1 Dirty Work: The Taxpayers’ Union and New Zealand’s Hard Right by Nicky Hager (Potton & Burton, $35)

2 The Starving Bride by Catherine Chidgey (Te Herenga Waka Press, $38) 

3 Partita by Barbara Kingsolver (Faber & Faber, $38) 

4 In the Room: An Insider's Account of the Jacinda Ardern Government by Andrew Campbell ($38, Allen & Unwin)

The Spinoff's Toby Manhire had a fascinating conversation with Campbell which you can read about here and listen to / watch here:

5 Cost of Living: Union Politics & Economic Crisis in New Zealand 1975-87 by Ross Webb ($50, Otago University Press)

"The Cost of Living is an authoritative account of the rise and fall of New Zealand’s largest union body, the Federation of Labour (FOL), during perhaps the most turbulent era in our modern history."

6 End Times Fascism: And the Fight for the Living World by Astra Taylor & Naomi Klein (Allen Lane, $40)

7 The Valley: Crime & Punishment in a New Zealand City by Asher Emanuel (Bridget Williams Books, $40)

Asher Emanuel's deeply human-centred look at experiences of the justice system is still selling in Wellington.

8 Exit Party by Emily St. John Mandel (Picador, $38) 

"This is a peaceful dystopia, its glittering streetscapes and self-styled progressivism more reminiscent of Huxley’s Brave New World than Orwell’s concrete-and-jackboots Nineteen Eighty-Four," writes Nina Allan in The Guardian. "It is an eerie place, nonetheless. “I studied History before I came to Service,” Ibari says when asked why she decided to serve the lawmakers. “It made me terrified of discord.” While Ibari – reticent, calculating, a loyal arm of Service – might seem to be the polar opposite of the fiercely driven, anarchic Ari, the two women ultimately prove themselves capable of similar acts of recklessness and similar loyalty."

9 Sovereignty by Claire Charters ($20, Bridget Williams Books)

One of the latest in BWB's illuminating Texts series. Here's the blurb: "The idea that New Zealand’s constitution protects the rights of everyone is a fairytale, says legal scholar Claire Charters (Ngāti Whakaue, Tainui, Tūwharetoa, Ngāpuhi).

The Crown’s claim to sovereignty, Charters argues, met none of the legal tests that applied in 1840 under tikanga Māori, British law or international law. An illegal claim has produced an illegitimate state, and a constitution in which Parliament, the executive and the courts can each override Māori rights. Sovereignty makes the case for constitutional transformation, and sets out what it could look like."

10 That Woman: A Memoir by Silvia Cartwright ($50, Allen & Unwin)

Read an excerpt from this candid, funny and fascinating memoir here on The Spinoff.