The best-selling books at the two best book stores since Neanderthals became extinct and homo sapiens continued to assert themselves as the dominant species of modern humans.
AUCKLAND UNITY
1 Lazy Girl’s Guide to Living a Beautiful Life by Matilda Rice (Allen & Unwin, $40)
Matilda!
2 Solar Bones by Mike McCormack (Canongate, $23)
Highly-praised Irish novel told by Marcus, who moans about “every cunt wanting something”, and “the usual shite swilling through my head, as if there weren’t enough there already”.
3 Le Belle Sauvage: The Book of Dust by Philip Pullman (David Fickling Books, $35)
The first book in a new trilogy by the master of modern fantasy.
4 Necessary Angel by CK Stead (Allen & Unwin, $37)
“Stead’s prose is good, beguilingly good. And he writes not about people who make messes but about civilised beings – smooth operators in angst-free settings. They enjoy satisfactory incomes and social standing. They are au fait with foreign ways, dine on excellent food in named restaurants, go to the opera, dress well, and are witty and very well-read. And they come to civilised arrangements, slipping into bed and out again sans ugly scenes”: Jane Westaway, The Spinoff Review of Books.
5 Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders (Bloomsbury, $33)
Fantastical US novel, winner of the 2017 Man Booker prize.
6 Driving to Treblinka: A Long Search for a Lost Father by Diana Wichtel (Awa Press, $45)
The longlist for the 2018 Ockham national book awards is announced later this month; you could bank your house that Wichtel’s family memoir will make the cut.
7 Tears of Rangi: Experiments Across Worlds by Anne Salmond (Auckland University Press, $65)
We look forward to the forthcoming review by Buddy Mikaere.
8 Manhattan Beach by Jennifer Egan (Little Brown, $38)
New novel by the widely acclaimed author of A Visit from the Goon Squad.
9 Drawn Out: A Seriously Funny Memoir by Tom Scott (Allen & Unwin, $45)
Anecdotage from the great cartoonist.
10 Autumn by Ali Smith (Penguin, $26)
Mordant UK novel, shortlisted for the 2017 Man Booker prize.
WELLINGTON UNITY
1 Leaders Like You: NZ Leaders Share Stories of Courage by Nick Sceats & Andrea Thompson (Catapult Publishing, $40)
Inspirational PR ra-ra.
2 Drawn Out: A Seriously Funny Memoir by Tom Scott (Allen & Unwin, $45)
3 La Belle Sauvage: The Book of Dust by Philip Pullman (David Fickling Books, $35)
4 Goodbye Māori-Land: The Songs & Sounds of NZ’s Great War by Chris Bourke (Auckland University Press, $60)
Superb new musical and cultural history by the winner of the 2011 national book of the year award for his earlier superb musical and cultural history, Blue Smoke.
5 Driving to Treblinka: A Long Search for a Lost Father by Diana Wichtel (Awa Press, $45)
6 Mrs Osmond by John Banville (Penguin, $37)
Written as a sequel to Portrait of a Lady by Henry James. But what’s the fucking point of that?
7 Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders (Bloomsbury, $33)
8 Autumn by Ali Smith (Penguin Books, $26)
9 Tart Tin by Matt Cross (Potton Burton, $40)
Sweet recipes by a chap who has a popular stall at the weekly Otago Farmers Market.
10 Inferior: How Science Got Women Wrong by Angela Saini (Fourth Estate, $33)
“The Enlightenment brought revolutions in science, philosophy and art. But the era also created a narrative about women—that they are intellectually inferior to men. Indeed, science itself is an establishment rooted in exclusion, writes science journalist Saini, citing a long history of unrecognised achievement by women scientists: Lise Meitner, Rosalind Franklin and Emmy Noether, to name a few”: Scientific American.
The Spinoff Review of Books is brought to you by Unity Books.