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 Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan (Faber & Faber, $23)
One of the most exquisite, short novels to come out in recent times. Set at Christmas time in Ireland in 1985, this slim thing takes on huge political and religious trauma with a beautifully balanced central character. An excellent option for your December reading pile.
2 The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Shehan Karunatilaka (Sort of Books, $37)
The Booker Prize winner by a former Whanganui Collegiate student rumoured to be moving back to Aotearoa next year (we can hear the lit festival directors rubbing their hands together from here). A review of Seven Moons is coming here soon…
3 Straight Up by Tui Ruby (Allen & Unwin, $37)
Is this the best-selling memoir by an Aotearoa female athlete of all time? Investigation pending.
4 Passenger by Cormac McCarthy (MacMillan, $50)
The first of two linked novels by the 89-year-old McCarthy. This from a review on Slate: “If he has really come to believe that our existence is utterly brutal and meaningless, why bother to write about it at all?” Enter at your own risk.
5 Build: An Unorthodox Guide to Making Things Worth Making by Tony Fadell (Bantam RHNZ, $40)
Tony Fadell led the team that created the iPod and iPhone for Apple. In this book he offers stories from his career in the form of advice. We’re imagining that this one could be of interest to the business types in your life.
6 Lessons by Ian McEwan (Jonathan Cape, $37)
Staying solid in the top 10s for a while now, the latest novel from a founding stalwart of the genre of novels by British males. We rather enjoy this pithy summary from a review in The Guardian: “McEwan’s 17th novel is old-fashioned, digressive and indulgently long; the hero is a gold-plated ditherer, and the story opens with a teenage wank (few books are improved by an achingly sentimental wank). But Lessons is also deeply generous. It’s compassionate and gentle, and so bereft of cynicism it feels almost radical. Can earnestness be a form of literary rebellion?” Curiosity piqued?
7 Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver (Faber & Faber UK, $37)
It’s a brave writer who takes on Dickens but Barbara Kingsolver does it well. Demon Copperhead is a transposition of David Copperfield, complete with dire circumstances, weak adults, powerless children, and safer alternatives.
8 Towards a Grammar of Race in Aotearoa New Zealand by Various Authors (Bridget Williams Books, $40)
A brilliant new book from one of the best non-fiction publishers in the country: packed with essays from a breadth of experiences and knowledge bases. Preview the book with Tze Ming Mok’s insightful essay on her research into language around whiteness and blackness for Asian peoples.
9 Rooms: Portraits of Remarkable New Zealand Interiors by Jane Walsh Ussher (Massey University Press, $85)
A sumptuous, stylish book full of great taste. Let your eyes bask in the glory of a room well made. If you’re still not convinced, read Charlotte Fielding’s rave review right here on The Spinoff.
10 Lucy by the Sea by Elizabeth Strout (Viking Penguin, $37)
Oh Strout. One of the greatest writers of our generation! Lucy by the Sea is the quintessential covid novel, plumbing the depths of marriage, of individuals in a sea of unpredictable behaviour both personal and global.
WELLINGTON
1 A History of New Zealand in 100 Objects by Jock Phillips (Penguin, $55)
A fulsome and fascinating book and one that you can pick up and put down again as you will. This from the publisher is a compelling plug: “The sewing kete of an unknown 18th-century Māori woman; the Endeavour cannons that fired on waka in 1769; the bagpipes of an Irish publican Paddy Galvin; the school uniform of Harold Pond, a Napier Tech pupil in the Hawke’s Bay quake; the Biko shields that tried to protect protestors during the Springbok tour in 1981; Winston Reynolds’ remarkable home-made Hokitika television set, the oldest working TV in the country; the soccer ball that was a tribute to Tariq Omar, a victim of the Christchurch Mosque shootings, and so many more – these are items of quiet significance and great personal meaning, taonga carrying stories that together represent a dramatic, full-of-life history for everyday New Zealanders.”
2 Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Shehan Karunatilaka (Sort of Books, $49)
3 Wawata – Moon Dreaming: Daily Wisdom Guided by Hina, the Māori Moon by Hinemoa Elder (Penguin, $30)
Who didn’t get a terrible photo of the blood moon/lunar eclipse this week? Judging by social media our collective interest in the moon is on the up and this beautiful book by Dr Hinemoa Elder is a timely guide to the maramataka so you can check in on yourself while you’re checking in on the night sky. Need more? Read Jessica Hinerangi Thompson-Carr’s experience of reading Wawata, right here on The Spinoff.
4 RNZ Cookbook: A treasury of 180 recipes from New Zealand’s best-known chefs & food writers edited by David Cohen & Kathy Paterson (Massey University Press, $65)
Did you know there are over 3000 recipes on rnz.co.nz? This lush, heavy, beautifully illustrated collection of recipes whittles that lot right down into a well-structured, show-by-show selection of sumptuous dishes. Bravo, this is a classic!
5 I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy (Simon & Schuster, $45)
A memoir by a former child actor.
6 Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver (Faber, $37)
7 The Passenger by Cormac McCarthy (Picador, $50)
8 No Plan B by Lee Child & Andrew Child (Bantam, $37)
Friggen yes. It’s not Summer without Jack Reacher. Here’s the blurb, not that you need it. We know you want it along with some uninterrupted beach time too.
“Gerrardsville, Colorado. One tragic event. Two witnesses. Two conflicting accounts. One witness sees a woman throw herself in front of a bus – clearly suicide. The other witness is Jack Reacher. And he sees what really happened – a man in grey hoodie and jeans, swift and silent as a shadow, pushed the victim to her death, before grabbing her bag and sauntering away.
Reacher follows the killer, not knowing that this was no random act of violence. It is part of something much bigger…a sinister, secret conspiracy, with powerful people on the take, enmeshed in an elaborate plot that leaves no room for error. If any step is compromised, the threat will have to be quickly and permanently removed.
But when the threat is Reacher, there is No Plan B….”
9 Shrines of Gaiety by Kate Atkinson (Doubleday, $37)
A lively between-the-wars novel set in 1926 about London’s nightlife. Full of flappers, gangsters and crackling ambition.
10 Book of Days by Patti Smith (Bloomsbury, $43)
Spend a year in the life of Patti Smith. Book of Days shares over 365 photos taken by Patti Smith, mapping out windows into her fascinating life. Look it’s hard to beat Just Kids but this is a perfect almost-there-end-of-the-year visual trip.