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 Blue Blood by Andrea Vance (Harper Collins, $37)
The story of the National Party’s internal warfare continues to light up the number one spot. Supplement your reading with a treasure trove of extra goodies from Toby Manhire, including his interview with the author and special edition of the Gone by Lunchtime podcast. Plus: an excerpt, excellently headlined with the word “fuckery”.
2 The Invisible Child: Poverty, Survival and Hope in an American City by Andrea Elliott (Hutchinson, $40)
It is on the fourth floor of that shelter, at a window facing north, that Dasani now sits looking out. Nearly a quarter of her childhood has unfolded at the Auburn Family Residence, where Dasani’s family – a total of 10 people – live in one room. Beyond the shelter’s walls, in the fall of 2012, Dasani belongs to an invisible tribe of more than 22,000 homeless children – the highest number ever recorded, in the most unequal metropolis in America. Almost half of New York’s 8.3 million residents are living near or below the poverty line.
3 How to Loiter in a Turf War by Coco Solid (Penguin, $28)
A short snippet from Jessica Hansell’s, aka Coco Solid’s, interview with RNZ:
Gentrification is a personal subject for Hansell, who describes the transformation of the suburbs, where her whānau lived for years, as like having her “world rewritten in front of her”.
“I was living on Karangahape Road when my grandmother, who passed away recently, had to go into care and leave Grey Lynn and that for me was a big separation anxiety between my cultural connections and history with the area. And then just seeing these cranes going up and the power dynamics just turning into I’d say a comedy of errors, but it wasn’t very funny.”
Another snippet, just from us: give this novel a nudge. Full review incoming.
4 Eddy, Eddy by Kate De Goldi (Allen & Unwin, $30)
The new novel from Kate De Goldi, author of The 10pm Question, aka a local literary legend.
5 Atomic Habits by James Clear (Random House Business, $40)
Good habits this winter include dragging oneself out of a cosy bed in the morning, and remembering to close the curtains and turn on the heater in the evening. Anything beyond that is superhuman.
6 The Secret World of Weather: How to Read Signs in Every Cloud, Breeze, Hill, Street, Plant, Animal, and Dewdrop by Tristan Gooley (Sceptre, $30)
The Telegraph describes it as “a sensitive study that combines theoretical physics with beautiful nature writing.” The perfect gift for the main atmospheric physicist in your life.
7 The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu (Head of Zeus, $20)
The first novel in Cixin Liu’s bestselling sci-fi trilogy, published way back in 2008. Its titillating reappearance may be linked to recent chatter about the upcoming Netflix adaptation.
8 Poor People With Money by Dominic Hoey (Penguin, $37)
The new novel by Auckland poet / playwright / novelist Dominic Hoey. Musician Tom Scott gives a pretty lol rec: “Dominic couldn’t spell academia if he tried. He’s dyslexic. But he’s a savant story teller. His superpower is making ugly look sexy. He writes for the marginalised. In our country of right-wing sheep farmers and working-class ram raids, we need him to be reporting live from the crime scene. He’s all we got.”
9 The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity by David Graeber & David Wengrow (Penguin $30)
Two Davids have undergone a thorough prodding of the traditional narratives about human history and the origins of civilisation. The book was shortlisted for the Orwell Prize for political writing, and has garnered praise such as “Graeber and Wengrow do to human history what [Galileo and Darwin] did to astronomy and biology respectively”. Big shoes, those.
10 Joan by Katherine J. Chen (Random House, $30)
A terrific new novel that humanises the legend which is Joan of Arc. The New York Times writes that it’s “difficult to imagine a character more incomprehensible to the modern ear than the 15th-century French mystic, martyr and war hero. In Joan, her affecting and adventurous new novel, Katherine J. Chen takes a lively stab, imagining the illiterate teenager as an abused child who uses her anger (and a remarkable tolerance for pain) to become an avenging warrior. Wowing crowds with feats of strength, breaking bones with her bare hands, this is Joan of Arc, Action Hero.”
If you loved Circe, and loads of you do, you’ll love this.
WELLINGTON
1 Imagining Decolonisation by Rebecca Kiddle, Bianca Elkington, Moana Jackson, Ocean Ripeka Mercier, Mike Ross, Jennie Smeaton and Amanda Thomas (Bridget Williams Books, $15)
Auckland’s all about the Nats, meanwhile Wellington seems to have formed a healthy habit of buying Imagining Decolonisation.
2 The Last Letter of Godfrey Cheathem by Luke Elworthy (Nationwide Book Distributors, $35)
A brand-spanking new New Zealand novel, written as a series of letters from Godfrey Cheathem to his younger sister while serving a sentence at Paparua prison for an unknown crime. A dissection of family dynamics, the art world, and publishing which Karen McMillan describes as “a variant of a misery memoir”.
3 Blue Blood by Andrea Vance (Harper Collins, $37)
4 You Probably Think This Song Is About You by Kate Camp (Te Herenga Waka University Press, $35)
Let us bring you right into the middle of Kate Camp’s new memoir, with a spiky taster.
“Just a note: never say to someone who is struggling to get pregnant, Have you thought about adoption? Yes they fucking have. It’s really not that easy. Not surprisingly, most babies given up for adoption have young parents, and they want their baby to go to a young couple who live on a farm and have horses and a trampoline, not a couple of sad old people living in the city. I knew people who’d done international adoption: a guy I worked with had twin girls from China, a friend’s sister had adopted a Romanian orphan who was violent and disturbed. I knew I wouldn’t adopt. And I knew why. It was because I didn’t want it badly enough. I didn’t want to run down every option, to travel overseas, get a surrogate, find a foster child. I didn’t want to keep doing this. I just wanted to stop.”
For another bite, read the whole excerpt, and for the whole meal … well, you know what to do.
5 Eddy, Eddy by Kate De Goldi (Allen & Unwin, $30)
6 The Collections by Patricia Donovan (Mary Egan, $30)
A new dystopian novel set in 2041 New Zealand, which was launched at fair Unity Wellington this week.
Shivers, induced by NZ Booklovers: “It’s a future that is recognisable with life as we know it now, but the population has exploded world-wide and the planet is in crisis. So the government has legalised what they call ‘Collections’ where everyone turning 70 years of age is euthanised for the good of society at the ‘Collections Depots’ … The Collections is a very intimate read, as we are drawn into Claris’ increasingly claustrophobic world, as she edges closer to the dreaded age of 70, and she makes the decision to somehow avoid being collected.”
7 Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus (Doubleday, $37)
A neat summary of this debut novel, from the Guardian: “As the novel opens in 1961, Elizabeth is a 30-year-old single mother and the reluctant, ‘permanently depressed’ star of a cooking show for housewives called Supper at Six. By training she is a research chemist, though her academic career has foundered despite her obvious talent, and as the narrative jumps back 10 years we understand why. Female scientists are viewed with suspicion by their male colleagues; from her earliest undergraduate days, Elizabeth has been subject to attacks on her reputation and her person, from the major – sexual assault and theft of her work – to the casual everyday misogyny meted out by people, including other women, who see her independence and single-mindedness as a threat. Even when she finds her soulmate, Nobel-nominated chemist Calvin Evans, their happiness is a further spur to jealous rivals and doomed not to last.”
8 The Book of Form and Emptiness by Ruth Ozeki (Canongate, $32)
This year’s winner of the Women’s Prize for Fiction, and the newest, juiciest (translation: lengthiest) novel by the author of My Year of Meats and A Tale for the Time Being. Catherine from Goodreads calls the novel “a treasure trove of characters, ideas, beliefs, challenges, and other worlds to explore, just what you would expect and hope for from a good book”, while Lisa notes, “There is a lot of weirdness going on.” An enticing combo.
9 Greta & Valdin by Rebecca K Reilly (Te Herenga Waka University Press, $35)
One of our 2022 faves, still sitting pretty on the bestsellers. A couple of extra morsels from the author can be read here and here.
10 Wellington Architecture: A Walking Guide by John Walsh & Patrick Reynolds (Massey University Press, $25)
Trit-trot, trit-trot.