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 The Passenger by Cormac McCarthy (Knopf, $50)
For 16 years, no McCarthy novel has graced the New Release shelves. Now, at 89 years old, Cormac McCarthy has released a fresh dose of fiction. And it’s not just one novel! The Passenger is the first in a two-part saga, with Stella Maris being released in early December – so get your reading game on.
The Guardian is entranced, describing The Passenger as “like a submerged ship itself; a gorgeous ruin in the shape of a hardboiled noir thriller. McCarthy’s generational saga covers everything from the atomic bomb to the Kennedy assassination to the principles of quantum mechanics. It’s by turns muscular and maudlin, immersive and indulgent. Every novel, said Iris Murdoch, is the wreck of a perfect idea. This one is enormous. It’s got locked doors and blind turns. It contains skeletons and buried gold.”
2 Liberation Day: Stories by George Saunders (Random House, $33)
Another mammoth of literature has a new release! It must be getting close to Christmas.
George Saunders is King of the American short story, and the Daily Telegraph gives the nod of approval: “Liberation Day is great art … winningly readable … Saunders never denies us the solid satisfactions of plot, jokes, character, pacing and lovely phrasemaking.” Quintuple threat.
3 Lessons by Ian McEwan (Jonathon Cape, $37)
The newest McEwan, rocking the reading world as per.
4 Lucy by the Sea by Elizabeth Strout (Viking, $37)
Lucy Barton, a seaside cottage, Covid lockdowns, and ex-husband William. Read it and weep.
5 People Person by Joanna Cho (Te Herenga Waka University Press, $30)
A debut poetry collection which you can sample right over this way.
6 Wawata – Moon Dreaming: Daily Wisdom Guided by Hina, the Māori Moon by Hinemoa Elder (Penguin, $30)
The anticipated follow up to the bestselling Aroha. Jessica Hinerangi Thompson-Carr wrote a smashing (in the positive sense) review: “I personally cannot wait to carry this pukapuka with me through each phase of the moon, re-reading and referencing, dreaming my own dreams. Wawata is an intimate and generous text, stitched lovingly with self-reflection, sacred knowledge, and the rich life experiences of an incredible wahine. It will act as an anchor for many Māori who are on their reconnection journey, and is a taonga to be held close throughout the year, throughout the life.”
7 It Starts With Us by Colleen Hoover (Simon & Schuster, $35)
The sequel to It Ends With Us. Visit the Goodreads page for much eye-opening revile, along the lines of…
“haven’t read but i hate seeing colleen hoover fans happy. update: it was genuinely terrible.” – Aurora
“alternatively titled: a bland man does the bare minimum and people eat it up like he’s an austen character.” – Elle
8 Greta & Valdin by Rebecca K Reilly (Te Herenga Waka University Press, $35)
A fun, smart, award-winning novel that makes Aucklanders feel better about Auckland.
9 The End of the World is Just the Beginning: Mapping the Collapse of Globalization by Peter Zeihan (HarperCollins, $38)
New non-fiction by geopolitical strategist Peter Zeihan, with a rather frightening prediction for the end of globalisation (think chaos and disaster). Give it a read if you’re feeling brave and steely, and take heart from the Kirkus Review’s words that “many grains of salt” should be taken.
10 Rooms: Portraits of Remarkable New Zealand Interiors by Jane Ussher and John Walsh (Massey University Press, $85)
Gorgeous and unique interiors from arguably the country’s best photographer. Charlotte Fielding reviewed this aesthetic delight for us – here’s a snippet: “Rooms is a balm to my homebody soul. The pictures in this book invite you in, offer you a seat and a cuppa, and gift you time alone to take a good look around. … They make you feel like you’ve just stepped into a room in someone’s beloved home, not into a showpiece. There is no grandstanding in these images, and that feels very New Zealand. These are environments where their owners have carefully curated spaces and objects, leaving this question in the air: what do our rooms say about us when we are not there?”
WELLINGTON
1 A History of New Zealand in 100 Objects by Jock Phillips (Penguin, $55)
It’s exactly what the title says – New Zealand’s history, told through 100 objects.
But which objects? Here are a few: the sewing kete of an 18th-century Maōri woman; the Endeavour cannons that fired on waka in 1769; the bagpipes of Irish publican Paddy Galvin; the Biko shields that tried to protect protestors during the 1981 Springbok tour; and the oldest working TV in New Zealand, home-made by Winston Reynolds.
2 The Passenger by Cormac McCarthy (Knopf, $50)
3 Imagining Decolonisation by Rebecca Kiddle, Bianca Elkington, Moana Jackson, Ocean Ripeka Mercier, Mike Ross, Jennie Smeaton and Amanda Thomas (Bridget Williams Books, $15)
Imagining how many copies have been sold at Unity Wellington? We are, and our guess is in the millions.
4 Shrines of Gaiety by Kate Atkinson (Doubleday, $37)
The newest Kate Atkinson, described by the New York Times as a “fizzy picaresque” set in post-Great War London. FYI, according to our friend Wikipedia, a picaresque is a novel depicting “the adventures of a roguish, but appealing hero, usually of low social class, who lives by his wits in a corrupt society.” Thanks, pal.
5 Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata (Granta, $25)
A bestseller whose time has come – again – after the recent English translation of the author’s bizarre and wonderful short story collection Life Ceremonies.
6 Wawata – Moon Dreaming: Daily Wisdom Guided by Hina, the Māori Moon by Hinemoa Elder (Penguin, $30)
7 Short Films by Tate Fountain (We Are Babies, $25)
A local debut poetry collection. Fellow poet Leah Dodd says, “Respectfully, you’d be a fool not to read this book.”
8 He Reo Tuku Iho: Tangata Whenua and Te Reo Māori by Awanui Te Huia (Te Herenga Waka University Press, $30)
New non-fiction about the experiences of tangata whenua and reclaiming te reo, based on the national research project Manawa Ū ki te Reo Māori. Author Awanui Te Huia wrote an essay for us about her book, so you can dip your toes in.
9 Lessons by Ian McEwan (Jonathon Cape, $37)
10 Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus (Doubleday, $37)
People ask Google, “What is the book Lessons in Chemistry about?”
Google says, “A fun, feminist charmer, Bonnie Garmus’s novel Lessons in Chemistry follows singular single mother Elizabeth Zott, a brilliant chemist in a man’s world—1960s America—as she becomes an unlikely cooking-show host and the role model her daughter deserves.”
What a mouthful! That Google, so loquacious.
