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 Lioness by Emily Perkins (Bloomsbury, $25)
Perkins’ award-winning novel is a book for our times: an at-times uncomfortable, questioning, and funny shake up of capitalism, wellness culture and the people we mould ourselves into.
2 Whaea Blue by Talia Marshall (Te Herenga Waka University Press, $40)
One of the most anticipated books of the year. Read an excerpt and mini-review of Marshall’s odyssey at The Spinoff here.
3 James by Percival Everett (Mantle, $38)
This book will skyrocket now it’s had the kiss from Obama: check out the rest of Obama’s reading recs here.
4 Brotherless Night by V. V. Ganeshananthan (Penguin, $30)
The winner of the Women’s Prize for Fiction 2024. Here’s the blurb: “Sixteen-year-old Sashi wants to become a doctor. But over the next decade, as a vicious civil war subsumes Sri Lanka, her dream takes her on a different path as she watches those around her, including her four beloved brothers and their best friend, get swept up in violent political ideologies and their consequences. She must ask herself- is it possible for anyone to move through life without doing harm?”
5 Parade by Rachel Cusk (Faber & Faber, $37)
Very much enjoyed Darryl from Good Reads review: “What is thiiiiiis?! This was unlike anything I’ve ever read. I’m still trying to wrap my head around it, and I like it that way. I went from not loving this author (I was kinda underwhelmed with OUTLINE) to being totally enamored (with the beguiling SECOND PLACE). I’m going to proclaim that PARADE is the best thing I’ve read of hers. This book made me work work work.”
6 Tripped: Nazi Germany, the CIA and the Psychedelic Age by Norman Ohler (Grove Press $37)
Great title. Here’s the blurb: “A brilliant and original investigation into the medical origins of LSD and how the Nazis and the CIA turned it into a weapon, by the author of Blitzed.”
7 Prophet Song by Paul Lynch (Oneworld Publications, $25)
The Booker Prize winner is back. Here’s what the Booker judges said about it: “Prophet Song follows one woman’s attempts to save her family in a dystopic Ireland sliding further and further into authoritarian rule. It is a shocking, at times tender novel that is not soon forgotten. Propulsive and unsparing, it flinches away from nothing. This is an utterly brave performance by an author at the peak of his powers, and it is terribly moving.”
8 Becoming Tangata Tiriti: Working with Māori, Honouring the Treaty by Avril Bell (Auckland Uni Press, $30)
A timely publication. Here’s the blurb: “Becoming Tangata Tiriti brings together twelve non-Māori voices – dedicated professionals, activists and everyday individuals – who have engaged with te ao Māori and have attempted to bring te Tiriti to life in their work. In stories of missteps, hard-earned victories and journeys through the complexities of cross-cultural relationships, Becoming Tangata Tiriti is a book of lessons learned.
Sociologist Avril Bell analyses the complicated journey of today’s partners of te Tiriti o Waitangi, and asks: Who are we as tangata tiriti? How do we identify in relation to Māori? What are our responsibilities to te Tiriti? What do we do when we inevitably stumble along the way?
With words by champions in their fields, including Meng Foon, Andrew Judd and others, this concise paperback acts as a guide for those just beginning their journey towards a Tiriti-based society – and is a sound refresher for others well along the path.”
9 A Man Holds a Fish by Glenn Busch (Te Papa Press, $75)
An absolutely beautiful book by renowned photographer Glenn Busch. Have a look inside the book over on Te Papa’s website here.
10 All Fours by Miranda July (Canongate, $37)
Menopause, heaps of sex and transformation.
WELLINGTON
1 Whaea Blue by Talia Marshall (Te Herenga Waka University Press, $40)
2 New Cold Wars: China’s Rise, Russia’s Invasion, and America’s Struggle to Defend the West by David E. Sanger (Scribe Publications, $50)
A snippet from the review in the NY Times: “In recent years, the human toll of disease and war has been heartbreaking. But geopolitical upheaval and the return of great-power competition have also brought a fascinating revival of first-order questions: How does deterrence work? Does economic interdependence make countries less likely to fight? Does rising prosperity force authoritarian regimes to reform?
David E. Sanger’s New Cold Wars, written with his longtime researcher Mary K. Brooks, tells the story of how those abstract debates have led to real-world consequences. Sanger, a veteran reporter for The New York Times who is at home in the arcane world of strategic studies, has crafted a cogent, revealing account of how a generation of American officials have grappled with dangerous developments in the post-Cold War era — the rise of an enduringly authoritarian China, the return of state-on-state conflict in Europe — that have produced a geopolitical mash-up of old and new.”
3 How To Break Up Well by Sarah Catherall (Bateman Books, $40)
Journalist Sarah Catherall has funnelled personal experience and expert advice into this guide to divorce. Read an excerpt from the chapter on why women get screwed over on The Spinoff here.
4 Becoming Tangata Tiriti: Working with Māori, Honouring the Treaty by Avril Bell (Auckland Uni Press, $30)
5 All That We Own Know by Shilo Kino (Moa Press, $38)
“The ensemble cast is a delight and helps to bring levity, texture, and a challenge to Māreikura’s strongly held, fast-formed, and often highly binary views. There’s Glennis of course. And in rumaki, we meet fellow tauira Jordan, whom Māreikura quickly connects with, and Chloe, who is Pākehā, whom she does not. Chloe’s presence causes much consternation to Māreikura which brings tension to the class. It’s in rumaki too we also meet Troy – another tauira whom she quickly dismisses, deeming too whakahīhī. There’s also the mature and accomplished Kat, Māreikura’s new girlfriend, and Eru, sweet Eru, Māreikura’s long-time best (and, for a long time, only) friend who is bound for Hawai’i on a Mormon mission to spread the gospel. Even before he’s left Aotearoa, his absence is keenly felt by Māreikura, as both abandonment by Eru and an affront by God.” Read more of Natasha Lampard’s review on The Spinoff.
6 The Bookshop Detectives: Dead Girl Gone by Gareth & Louise Ward (Penguin, $38)
The delightful pair who run Wardini Books in Napier and Havelock North have turned their experiences into best-selling crime fiction of the bookish kind and it’s steaming off the shelves. If you’re in Christchurch in August make sure you go and seem them at WORD Christchurch on 28 August, details here.
7 The Mercy Of Gods: Book One of the Captive’s War by James S A Corey (Orbit, $38)
The start of a new epic sci-fi series.
8 Butter by Asako Yuzuki (4th Estate, $35)
The murdery foodie one.
9 Night of Power: The Betrayal of the Middle East by Robert Fisk (Fourth Estate, $50)
The posthumous publication from the great Robert Fisk.
10 The Book of Elsewhere by China Melville & Keanu Reeves (Del Rey, $38)
Here’s the blurb:
“She said, We needed a tool. So I asked the gods.
There have always been whispers. Legends. The warrior who cannot be killed. Who’s seen a thousand civilizations rise and fall. He has had many names: Unute, Child of Lightning, Death himself. These days, he’s known simply as “B.”
And he wants to be able to die.
In the present day, a U.S. black-ops group has promised him they can help with that. And all he needs to do is help them in return. But when an all-too-mortal soldier comes back to life, the impossible event ultimately points toward a force even more mysterious than B himself. One at least as strong. And one with a plan all its own.”