Senior couple reading on adjacent garden chairs

BooksFebruary 1, 2019

Unity Books bestseller chart for the week ending February 1

Senior couple reading on adjacent garden chairs

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

 

WELLINGTON UNITY

1 Normal People by Sally Rooney (Faber, $33)

Let’s all go round to Leah McFall’s house and force her to read the book of the summer.

2 The Fast 800 by Michael Mosley (Simon & Schuster, $35)

The Fast 800 updates Mosley’s earlier 5:2 plan, in that food intake on fast days, or during the rapid weight-loss phase, is increased from 600 to 800 calories…It’s an altogether more relaxed, considered, co-operative, mindful, repeatable, and hopefully enjoyable approach”: George Henderson, The Spinoff Review of Books.

3 Conversations With Friends by Sally Rooney (Faber, $23)

The novel that came before Normal People.

4 Unsheltered by Barbara Kingsolver (Faber, $37)

“Kingsolver’s meticulously observed, elegantly structured novel unites social commentary with gripping storytelling. Its two intertwined narratives are set in Vineland, a real New Jersey town built as a utopian community in the 1860s”: Publisher’s Weekly.

5 Less by Andrew Sean Greer (Little, Brown, $25)

“Greer had been writing Less as a tragedy and it was not really working when he actually decided to start making fun of the protagonist and while swimming one day he made up his mind to write this book as a comedy. He wanted to celebrate joy”: India TV News.

6 Milkman by Anna Burns (Faber, $33)

Winner of the 2018 Man Booker prize for fiction.

7 Becoming by Michelle Obama (Viking, $55)

The inspirational memoir by the former first lady has enjoyed the longest streak at the top of the Amazon sales charts for any book since Fifty Shades of Grey in 2012.
8 Simple by Yotam Ottolenghi (Ebury Press, $60)

Cookbook.

9 Call Me Evie by J P Pomare (Gollancz, $34)

Taut Kiwi thriller; a woman is held captive in Maketu, in the Bay of Plenty.

10 My Sister the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite (Atlantic, $33)

Savage Nigerian satire; a woman develops the habit of killing her lovers.

 

AUCKLAND UNITY

1 The Subtle Art of Not Giving A Fuck by Mark Manson (MacMillan, $35)

The gospel of Manson: “Let’s be honest, shit is fucked and we have to live with it.”

2 Normal People by Sally Rooney (Faber & Faber, $33)

3 Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari (Vintage, $30)

“Throughout his account, Harari is able to be as refreshingly clear in his discussions of biology, of evolutionary anthropology and of economics as he is of historical trends. His necessarily speculative glimpse of how religion began is effective and convincing. Stick with him, and you learn a lot…His most urgent question becomes this: if we do wield this godlike power over ourselves and the planet, what do we want to do with it? What do we want to become?”: Daily Telegraph.

4 Conversations with Friends by Sally Rooney (Faber & Faber, $23)

5 Becoming by Michelle Obama (Penguin Random House, $55)

6 Simple by Yotam Ottolenghi (Ebury Press, $65)

7 The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker (Hamish Hamilton, $37)

“A novel that allows those who were dismissed as girls — the women trapped in a celebrated historical war — to speak, to be heard, to bear witness. In doing so, Barker has once again written something surprising and eloquent that speaks to our times while describing those long gone”: Washington Post.

8 Short Poems of New Zealand edited by Jenny Bornholdt (Victoria University Press, $35)

Short poems of New Zealand.

9 Milkman by Anna Burns (Faber & Faber, $33)

10 The Fast 800 by Dr. Michael Mosley (Simon & Schuster, $35)


The Spinoff Review of Books is proudly brought to you by Unity Books.

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