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 Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton (Te Herenga Waka University Press, $38)
You already know that we double-loved Birnam Wood, so here’s a snippet of someone else (The Guardian) loving it: “Birnam Wood is a dark and brilliant novel about the violence and tawdriness of late capitalism. Its ending, though, propels it from a merely very good book into a truly great one.”
2 The Shards by Bret Easton Ellis (Knopf, $37)
The new novel from the author of American Psycho, also about (although not narrated by) a serial killer.
3 Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan (Grove Press, $25)
A quote, to show how gorgeous this Irish novella is: “The next year, when he’d won first prize for spelling and was given a wooden pencil-case whose sliding top doubled as a ruler, Mrs Wilson had rubbed the top of his head and praised him, as though he was one of her own. ‘You’re a credit to yourself,’ she’d told him. And for a whole day or more, Furlong had gone around feeling a foot taller, believing, in his heart, that he mattered as much as any other child.”
4 The Creative Act: A Way of Being by Rick Rubin (Penguin Press, $50)
If you’re after some creative encouragement and food for thought, major music producer Rick Rubin is here to help.
5 People Person by Joanna Cho (Te Herenga Waka University Press, $30)
A wonderful debut poetry collection, which you can sample at leisure here.
6 Greta & Valdin by Rebecca K Reilly (Te Herenga Waka University Press, $35)
Wit, family, laughs, love, Auckland – what’s not to enjoy? Clearly the answer is “nothing”, because Greta & Valdin has been making its mark on the bestsellers for an age now.
7 Cleopatra and Frankenstein by Coco Mellors (Bloomsbury, $31)
A Rooney-esque novel with an incredible 27,000 ratings on Goodreads and a TV series already in the works. One reviewer says, “it gets better towards the end because it’s ending.” Another says, “an exorbitant excessively overabundant kaleidoscope of parodies.” Others enjoyed it, but they didn’t make us chuckle.
8 Bunny by Mona Awad (Head of Zeus, $25)
A dark, amusing, slightly gothic campus novel about a group of girls taking a creative writing masters, reminiscent of Winona Ryder film the Heathers. Bunnies are involved.
9 Golden Days by Caroline Barron (Affirm Press, $38)
The debut novel from Auckland-based author Caroline Barron, whose memoir Ripiro Beach won the New Zealand Heritage Literary Award for Best Non-fiction in 2020. The publisher’s blurb describes Golden Days as “the story of an intense late-teens friendship between bookish Becky and star-dusted Zoe Golden, and what happened when one terrifying night changed their lives and destroyed their friendship forever.”
10 Weasels in the Attic by Hiroko Oyamada (Allen & Unwin, $28)
Freshly translated work from award-winning Japanese novelist Hiroko Oyamada. We’re suckers for a little bit of strangeness mixed with resonance, so the publisher’s blurb completely tickles our fancy:
“Fish-breeding and weasel infestations punctuate this disarming, strange and strangely resonant story of one man’s journey toward impending fatherhood, from an award-winning Japanese novelist.
“Two friends meet across three dinners. In the back room of a pet shop, they snack on dried shrimps and discuss fish-breeding. In a remote new home in the mountains, they look for a solution to a weasel infestation. During a dinner party in a blizzard, a mounting claustrophobia makes way for uneasy dreams. Their conversations often take them in surprising directions, but when one of the men becomes a father, more and more is left unsaid.
“With emotional acuity and a wry humour, Weasels in the Attic is an uncanny and striking reflection on fertility, masculinity, and marriage in contemporary Japan.”
WELLINGTON
1 Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton (Te Herenga Waka University Press, $38)
2 Iris and Me by Philippa Werry (The Cuba Press, $25)
An imaginative retelling of the life of Iris Wilkinson, pen name Robin Hyde – poet, novelist, and one of the earliest women war correspondents in China during the late 1930s. The story is told entirely in verse, from the perspective of Iris’s unnamed mystery companion.
3 The Uppish Hen and Other Poems by Robin Hyde (The Cuba Press, $25)
A newly published collection of childrens’ poetry by Robin Hyde – that’s right, Iris Wilkinson. It’s like a mystery plot right here in the bestsellers list! Iris/Robin wrote the poems for her son when he was four years old, and they’re finally reaching a wider audience.
4 The Creative Act: A Way of Being by Rick Rubin (Penguin Press, $50)
5 Really Good, Actually by Monica Heisey (William Morrow, $33)
The very funny debut novel by screenwriter Monica Heisey, who has written for Schitt’s Creek, Baroness von Sketch Show, Workin’ Moms, Cavendish, and Gary and his Demons. Marie Claire says, “I honestly think this author is a genius and hilarious and I wish we could be friends in real life.”
6 Reasons Not to Worry: How to be Stoic in Chaotic Times by Brigid Delaney (Allen & Unwin, $30)
Less worrying – it’s what we all desperately need at the moment, isn’t it? Ben Lee says, “Brigid has the most incredible gift of taking seemingly complex and esoteric concepts and explaining them to the reader in a way that is generous and clear, but above all, relatable. Reading this book is like having a long walk with your cool big sister while she just happens to be giving you the skinny on Greco-Roman philosophy.”
7 Cleopatra and Frankenstein by Coco Mellors (Bloomsbury, $31)
8 Colditz: Prisoners of the Castle by Ben Macintyre (Viking, $40)
Colditz was the Second World War’s most infamous Nazi prison. Ben Macintyre has dug up the dirty details for all to enjoy / be horrified by.
9 Māori Made Easy: For Everyday Learners of the Māori Language by Scotty Morrison (Raupo, $38)
The most accessible guide for learning te reo, broken up into 30 minute daily lessons.
10 Imagining Decolonisation by Rebecca Kiddle, Bianca Elkington, Moana Jackson, Ocean Ripeka Mercier, Mike Ross, Jennie Smeaton and Amanda Thomas (Bridget Williams Books, $15)
Imagining all week long, every week.
