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  Greta & Valdin by Rebecca K Reilly (Te Herenga Waka University Press, $35)

Hmm, could it be that a book can be at once commercial and an Acorn prize winner? Maybe! G & V is one of four novels still in the running for our top fiction prize, and it’s absolutely the most commercial of the bunch, if commercial means “sells super well” and “fun to read”.

2  Oh William! by Elizabeth Strout (Viking, $35)

A little Friday treat for you: Elizabeth Strout in conversation with Elena Ferrante. 

3  The Gates of Europe: A History of Ukraine by Serhii Plokhy (Penguin, $30)

Professor Serhii Plokhy is director of the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute. You can dip a toe into his thoughts about the war in Ukraine in the New Yorker before launching into the depths of his book, which details the history of Ukraine from the arrival of the Vikings in the 10th century to the annexation of Crimea. 

4  To Paradise by Hanya Yanagihara (Picador, $38)

A taste:

Outside, the world stormed and burned – the Germans moving ever-deeper into Africa, the French still hacking their way through Indochina, and closer, the latest frights in the Colonies: shootings and hangings and beatings, immolations, events too terrible to contemplate and yet so near as well – but none of these things, especially the ones closest to them, were allowed to pierce the cloud of Grandfather’s dinners, where everything was soft and the hard was made pliable; even the sole had been steamed so expertly that you needed only to scoop it with the spoon held out for you, the bones yielding to the silver’s gentlest nudge. But still, it was difficult, ever more so, not to allow the outside to intrude, and over dessert, a ginger-wine syllabub whipped as light as milk froth, David wondered whether the others were thinking, as he was, of that precious gingerroot that had been found and dug in the Colonies and brought to them here in the Free States and bought by Cook at great expense: Who had been forced to dig and harvest the roots? From whose hands had it been taken?

5  Vā: Stories by Women of the Moana edited by Sisilia Eteuati & Lani Young (Tatou Publishing, $40)

An exquisite new book of 38 stories by Māori and Pasifika women. Read Sisilia Eteuati’s essay about the defiant origins of Tatou Publishing, and this, their first book:

“A tsunami is often caused by an earth shift and the revitalising of this group was the earth shift for Vā – it’s as if with all these wāhine together, the energy and the stories just could not be contained.” 

6  Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones by James Clear (Random House Business, $40)

Atomic Habits has sold over seven million copies, which just goes to show – your bad habits are in good company.

7  Shifting Grounds: Deep Histories of Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland by Lucy Mackintosh (Bridget Williams Books, $60)

Lucy Mackintosh’s history of Tāmaki Makaurau has been shortlisted for the (deep breath) Booksellers Aotearoa New Zealand Award for Illustrated Non-Fiction, and we wouldn’t be mad if her lively, beautiful book struck gold.

8  The Promise by Damon Galgut (Chatto & Windus, $37)

The most recent Booker winner, described in iNews as “a joyful masterclass in modernism, written using a narrator who swoops around the action, in and out of different characters’ heads, often within the same paragraph. The result is a dizzying ­adventure that underlines one of the most appealing things about fiction: it is the closest we can ever get to inhabiting other perspectives (including, at one point here, that of a couple of ­hungry jackals).”

9  The Midnight Library by Matt Haig (Canongate, $33)

A 2021 bestseller biggie, still dominating its corner of the sandbox. 

10  Stolen Focus: Why You Can’t Pay Attention by Johann Hari (Bloomsbury, $35)

We can’t focus because we’ve got Covid-brain, and every time we enter a new room… we have no idea what brought us there. Did we want to brush our teeth? Fry an egg? Put on pants? Eat a fistful of vitamin C? Total mystery.

WELLINGTON

1  Super Model Minority by Chris Tse (Auckland University Press, $25)

The newest collection of poems from Aotearoa’s greatest living poet (who is also coincidentally The Spinoff’s poetry editor). Naomii Seah dished out a glowing review:

“As a fellow double minority, for me Tse’s self-conscious portrait of existence in New Zealand is relatable, and for that reason, deeply uncomfortable. As diaspora, and as diversity tick-boxes, we’ve all sacrificed and commodified aspects of ourselves in an attempt at fitting the mould. I, too, ‘was off somewhere in the distance using all my guiles to convince a racist country to love me’. This collection signals the beginning of a healing process. 

“Embedded in these deeply confrontational narratives is also a sense of catharsis. Tse gives the reader permission to be angry, and holds space for hard questions and strong emotions, never apologising for or minimising them.”

2  Greta & Valdin by Rebecca K Reilly (Te Herenga Waka University Press, $35)

3  Imagining Decolonisation by Rebecca Kiddle, Bianca Elkington, Moana Jackson, Ocean Ripeka Mercier, Mike Ross, Jennie Smeaton and Amanda Thomas (Bridget Williams Books, $15)

We can make glib remarks about Imagining Decolonisation being the top dog and lord of Wellington until the cows come home, but here’s something a little more substantial from Anahera Gildea’s recent review: “An ethic of restoration isn’t a refurbishment, or colonial upgrade, or makeover. There is no correct wallpaper that will hide the blemishes, no carpet that will even out the sloping floor, and no volume of sheds that can mitigate invasion. To restore something is to heal it.”

4  The Promise by Damon Galgut (Chatto & Windus, $37)

5  Stolen Focus: Why You Can’t Pay Attention by Johann Hari (Bloomsbury, $35)

6  Atlas of the Heart: Mapping Meaningful Connection and the Language of Human Experience by Brene Brown (Vermilion, $45)

Lost in a sea of emotions, with no map or compass for navigating your feelings? Brene Brown has a helpful new atlas for that. Full-colour comics included.

7  Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds and Shape Our Futures by Merlin Sheldrake (Vintage, $24)

Page 196:

“Fungi are veteran survivors of ecological disruption. Their ability to cling on – and often flourish – through periods of catastrophic change is one of their defining characteristics. They are inventive, flexible and collaborative. With much of life on Earth threatened by human activity, are there ways we can partner with fungi to help us adapt?

“These may sound like the delirious musings of someone buried up to their neck in decomposing wood chips, but a growing number of radical mycologists think exactly this.”

8  Give Unto Others by Donna Leon (Hutchison, $35)

Donna Leon’s 31st novel in the Guido Brunetti series. That’s three-one.  

9  The Fish by Lloyd Jones (Penguin, $36)

Peculiar new novel by one of New Zealand’s biggest literary celebs – the author of Booker-shortlisted Mister Pip. We’ll publish a review, by Vincent O’Sullivan, on Sunday.

10  The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller (Bloomsbury, $25)

A 2011 novel that has grown so successful recently that people are publishing playlists to accompany it, with specific songs for sobbing, wallowing in self-pity, getting pepped up, and making you believe in love again. Go forth and enjoy the full experience.