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reading books mad men
reading books mad men

BooksApril 19, 2019

Unity Books bestseller chart for the week ending April 19

reading books mad men
reading books mad men

The only published and available best-selling 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  Home Fire: A Novel by Kamila Shamsie (Bloomsbury, $22)

Do not knock this off at 2am; you’ll be bolt awake the rest of the night obsessing about the ending.

2  Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari (Vintage, $30)

A Ridley Scott movie is in the works. Touch wood there’s a sequel.

3  Conversations with Friends by Sally Rooney (Faber & Faber, $23)

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4  The Recipe by Josh Emett (Upstart Press, $50)

“These are the recipes that you must cook at least once in your life” – Josh Emett, with zero concern for your mental load.

5  Necessary Secrets by Greg McGee (Upstart Press, $38)

Dennis is 70 and Dennis is dying. He gathers his adult children.

“It’s really good; set in Auckland” – NewstalkZB

6  Auckland Architecture: A Walking Guide by John Walsh & Patrick Reynolds (Massey   University Press, $20)

Suggested companion reading: Bloody Marys of Auckland: A Get-Through-This Guide.

7  Educated: A Memoir by Tara Westover (Windmill Books, $28)

Typical, wonderful sentence: “I began to experience the most powerful advantage of money: the ability to think of things besides money.”

8  Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat: Mastering the Elements of Good Cooking by Samin Nosrat (Canongate, $55)

The woman is a joy.

9  Normal People by Sally Rooney (Faber & Faber, $33)

Sally Rooney Sally Rooney Sally Rooney Sally Rooney

10 This is Going to Hurt by Adam Kay (Picador, $23)

Non-fiction account of the comedian’s medical training circa 10 years ago.

 

WELLINGTON

1  A Mistake by Carl Shuker (Victoria University Press, $30)

This, too, is going to hurt.

2  Spring by Ali Smith (Hamish Hamilton, $34)

“[Smith] has always been a profoundly moral writer, but in this series of novels she is doing something more than merely anatomising the iniquities of her age. She’s lighting us a path out of the nightmarish now” – the Guardian, in raptures.

3  Machines Like Me by Ian McEwan (Jonathan Cape, $37)

“…a retrofuturist family drama that doubles as a cautionary fable about artificial intelligence, consent, and justice” – The New Yorker

4  Milkman by Anna Burns (Faber & Faber, $33)

“It’s nice to feel I’m solvent. That’s a huge gift” – the author, the day after winning the Booker.

5  Conversations with Friends by Sally Rooney (Faber & Faber, $23)

6  Less by Andrew Sean Greer (Little, Brown, $25)

Prediction: The Overstory, by Richard Powers, is about to settle into a nice comfy perma-spot on these lists. (It’s just won the Pulitzer that Less won last year.)

7  Educated: A Memoir by Tara Westover (Windmill Books, $28)

8  Uninhabitable Earth by David Wallace-Wells (Allen Lane, $35)

As with Home Fire, best not finish this one late at night.

9  Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Noah Yuval Harari (Vintage, $30)

10 The Spy and the Traitor by Ben MacIntyre (Viking, $40)

True story of one man’s extended KGB/M16 switcheroo.

Keep going!