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 A Careful Revolution by David Hall (Bridget Williams Books, $15)
Climate change, proper mitigation of.
2 Conversations with Friends by Sally Rooney (Faber & Faber, $23)
Sally Rooney Sally Rooney Sally Rooney
3 Normal People by Sally Rooney (Faber & Faber, $23)
Seriously you guys
4 Ghost Wall by Sarah Moss (Granta, $23)
A shocking, slim little thing, in which a group of archaeology students camp on the Northumberland moors.
5 Big Sky by Kate Atkinson (Doubleday, $38)
“She had already removed her bridal veil and tossed it onto the back seat, along with her bouquet, and now she began to struggle with the thicket of grips in her hair. The delicate silk of her wedding dress was already crushed, like moth wings.”
6 This Is Going to Hurt: Secret Diaries of a Junior Doctor by Adam Kay (Picador, $23)
Definitely buy this and Carl Shuker’s A Mistake to read before any seemingly straightforward minor surgery.
7 Te Tiriti o Waitangi/ The Treaty of Waitangi by Toby Morris with Ross Calman, Mark Derby, and Piripi Walker (Lift Education, $20)
8 Milkman by Anna Burns (Faber & Faber, $33)
Winner of the 2019 Man Booker Prize.
9 Celestial Bodies by Jokha Alharthi (Sandstone, $27)
Winner of the 2019 Man Booker International Prize.
10 An American Marriage by Tayari Jones (Vintage, $37)
At one point they’re in the car and out of nowhere dread drops all over the scene, quick and easy like throwing a sheet over a bed, and it’s all you can do not to slam the book shut.
WELLINGTON
1 Te Tiriti o Waitangi/ The Treaty of Waitangi by Toby Morris with Ross Calman, Mark Derby, and Piripi Walker (Lift Education, $20)
2 How to Escape From Prison by Paul Wood (Harper Collins, $38)
“Stretch had a computer and was friendly with some of the Nomads, which made him a perfect target for payback. He was sitting on the toilet when one of the young Black Power prospects was sent in to attack him and take his computer. Stretch didn’t know that it’s best, if you need to use the toilet during the day, to take one leg out of your trousers, so he was a bit hobbled at first.”
3 Lay Studies by Steven Toussaint (Victoria University Press, $25)
“Something electrifying is taking place in New Zealand poetry.”
4 Big Sky by Kate Atkinson (Doubleday, $38)
5 Dead People I Have Known by Shayne Carter (Victoria University Press, $40)
Rachael King should write a memoir, too.
6 The New Zealand Wars: Ngā Pakanga o Aotearoa by Vincent O’Malley (Bridget Williams Books, $40)
On the hunt for Te Kooti’s followers: “Of about 140 men captured, as many as 128 were summarily executed without trial, with the acquiescence of the senior Crown military and civilian representatives present. According to a number of eye-witness reports, prisoners were stripped naked, lined up on a cliff and shot dead, their bodies falling over the edge.”
7 Winter of Fire 25th Anniversary Edition by Sherryl Jordan (Scholastic, $19
You know how excited most of you are about the cricket? That’s how we feel about this book.
8 An American Marriage by Tayari Jones (One World, $26)
9 This is Going to Hurt: Secret Diaries of a Junior Doctor by Adam Kay (Picador, $23)
10 The Great Successor: The Secret Rise and Rule of Kim Jong Un by Anna Fifield (John Murray, $38)
Stand by for a Spinoff interview. (No, not with Kim Jong Un).