The week’s best-selling books at the Unity stores in Willis St, Wellington, and High St, Auckland.
WELLINGTON UNITY
1 New Ships by Kate Duignan (Victoria University Press, $30)
New Zealand novel, praised to the skies this week on National Radio; the Spinoff Review of Books looks forward to the forthcoming review by Claire Mabey.
2 Warlight by Michael Ondaatje (Jonathan Cape, $35)
The first novel in seven years by the author of The English Patient.
3 Song for Rosaleen by Pip Desmond (Massey University Press, $30)
“I read about a hairdresser who had three customers pass away under the hairdryer; she took it as a compliment that they’d felt relaxed enough to do so.” Beautiful memoir of coping with a mother’s dementia.
4 Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman (HarperCollins, $25)
Its sold nearly 450,000 copies in 30 countries, Reese Witherspoon has bought the film rights, and it won the book of the year this week at the British Book Awards.
5 Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat: Mastering the Elements of Good Cooking by Samin Nosrat (Canongate, $55)
Or, as reviewer Linda Burgess often refers to it, Plump Salt Eater.
6 Temptation of Forgiveness by Donna Leon (William Heinemann, $35)
Detective novel.
7 The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck by Mark Manson (Macmillan, $35)
The Spinoff Review of Books wishes to make a public appeal: is there anyone out there who’d like to write a thoughtful, critical, readable essay on this massively popular trash?
8 Educated: A Memoir by Tara Westover (Hutchinson, $38)
A review by Kim Hill will appear next week at the Spinoff Review of Books.
9 All This by Chance by Vincent O’Sullivan (Victoria University Press, $35)
“This will be a classic of New Zealand literature”: The Listener.
10 Exactly: How Precision Engineers Created the Modern World by Simon Winchester (HarperCollins, $37)
From the Rolls Royce to Seiko, and precisely engineered points inbetween.
AUCKLAND UNITY
1 Warlight by Michael Ondaatje (Jonathan Cape, $35)
2 The Cost of Living by Deborah Levy (Hamish Hamilton, $35)
“At the age of 50, the acclaimed writer was divorced and living in a new flat. In elliptical, allusive prose, she re-engages with the ideas of Simone de Beauvoir”: The Guardian.
3 The New Animals by Pip Adam (Victoria University Press, $30)
Judged winner of the best novel of the year at this week’s Ockham New Zealand national book awards.
4 Exactly: How Precision Engineers Created the Modern World by Simon Winchester (William Collins, $37)
5 The Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Society by Mary Ann Shaffer & Anne Barrows (Allen & Unwin, $25)
The book of the movie.
6 Pamper Me to Hell and Back by Hera Lindsay Bird (Smith|Doorstop Books, $17)
A full, detailed report on the poet’s sold-out reading this week at the London Review Bookshop will appear next week at the Spinoff Review of Books.
7 The Feather Thief by Kirk Wallace Johnson (Hutchinson, $38)
The strange and bewitching story of the theft of priceless bird skins from the British Museum of Natural History.
8 A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles (Windmill Books, $26)
Thriller; trash.
9 A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies, and Leadership by James Comey (Macmillan, $38)
FBI confidential; trash.
10 12 Rules for Life by Jordan Peterson (Allen Lane, $40)
Instructions for living; trash.
The Spinoff Review of Books is proudly brought to you by Unity Books.