The week’s best-sellers at the two best stores in the Western world.
AUCKLAND STORE
1 Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis (HarperCollins, $35) by JD Vance
We will almost certainly run a review by former bFM deity Joshua Hetherington next week.
2 Lincoln in the Bardo (Bloomsbury, $33) by George Saunders
The year’s most exciting new novel.
3 The Refugees (Corsair, $35) by Viet Thanh Nguyen
Short fiction by last year’s most exciting new novelist.
4 Lion: A Long Way Home (Penguin, $28) by Saroo Brierley
“There’s been a mistake. Lion, you guys won.”
5 Innocents and Others (Macmillan, $25) by Dana Spiotta
“Meadow Mori and Carrie Wexler grow up together in Los Angeles, Meadow rich and Carrie middle-class, which in Hollywood registers as poor. They go east together to study film and begin to drift apart. Carrie becomes a prominent director of mainstream women’s comedies while Meadow sweats out documentaries, festival-circuit darlings devoted to exorcising the traumas of people who’ve abused their power”: Plot synopsis, New York Times.
6 Born to Run (Simon & Schuster, $50) by Bruce Springsteen
Sales possibly connected to the fact he played a show in Auckland last weekend.
7 The Great War for New Zealand: Waikato 1800-2000 (Bridget Williams Books, $80) by Vincent O’Malley
Longlisted for the 2017 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards; will it make the shortlist, announced live at the Spinoff on Tuesday at 6:00am?
8 Istanbul: A Tale of Three Cities (Orion Publishing Co, $38) by Bettany Hughes
Turkey.
9 Mauri Ora (Potton & Burton, $40) by Peter Alsop & Te Raumawhitu Kupenga
Wisdom.
10 Elon Musk: How the Billionaire CEO of Spacex and Tesla is Shaping Our Future (Ebury Publishing, $28) by Ashlee Vance
Money.
WELLINGTON STORE
1 Rants in the Dark: From One Tired Mama to Another (Penguin, $35) by Emily Writes
Wow!
2 The Sellout (Oneworld, $28) by Paul Beatty
Funny.
3 Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family & Culture in Crisis (HarperCollins, $35) by J D Vance
4 The Sympathizer (Piatkus, $28) by Viet Thanh Nguyen
By the author of The Refugees.
5 Hidden Life of Trees (Black Ink, $37) by Peter Wohlleben
Trees.
6 Istanbul: A Tale of Three Cities (Weidenfeld & Nicholson, $38) by Bettany Hughes
7 Promised Land (Promised Land Entertainment Ltd, $25) by Adam Reynolds & Chaz Harris
Content filler, Stuff: “This storybook seeks to normalise multiculturalism and homosexuality for young readers. Wellington writers Chaz Harris and Adam Reynolds released their much-hyped adventure and medieval love story, Promised Land, after raising more than $40,000 to fund the project. The heroes, a bi-racial gay couple from different necks of the wood, team up to fight the Queen’s evil new husband. The story’s Queen is also ‘a sword wielding bad-ass,’ co-author Chaz Harris says. There are no damsels in distress in his book.”
8 Mauri Ora: Wisdom from the Maori World (Potton & Burton, $40) by Peter Alsop & Te Raumawhitu Kupenga
9 Ghosts of Gondwana: A History of Life in New Zealand (Potton & Burton, $60) by George Gibbs
Where did our flora and fauna come from?
10 The Vegetarian (Portobello, $23) by Han Kang
Food.