The week’s best-selling books at the Unity stores in Willis St, Wellington, and High St, Auckland.
WELLINGTON UNITY
1 Stardust and Substance: The New Zealand general election of 2017 edited by Stephen Levine (Victoria University Press, $40)
2 Transcription by Kate Atkinson (Doubleday, $38)
“A spy’s assumed identities come back to haunt her in this wise and pacy novel of ideas – a worthy successor to A God in Ruins“: Guardian.
3 Swim by Avi Duckor-Jones (Seizure, $20)
Novella about an open-water distance swimmer who returns to New Zealand after receiving a letter from his estranged mother. Asked by the online literary journal Seizure how his postgraduate study influenced his writing process, Duckor-Jones said, “My master’s program is a huge part of this story. My thesis manuscript, which consisted of a massive 150,000 words, was the original beast that the novella is today. My mentor and thesis adviser, William Brandt, my classmates, and course convener Emily Perkins, were all pivotal parts of its early incarnations, where I began to recognise my patterns and traps and where my writers voice started to grow.”
4 Simple by Yotam Ottolenghi (Ebury, $60)
Cookbook.
5 Less by Andrew Sean Greer (Little, Brown, $25)
The novel that will never stop selling.
6 Fear: Trump in the White House by Bob Woodward (Simon & Schuster, $50)
Junk.
7 Normal People by Sally Rooney (Faber, $33)
There are two great new literary novels that you simply must read as soon as you possibly can – this one, crazily not shortlisted but at least longlisted for the 2018 Man Booker Prize (judges: “A very intimate character study of two young people trying to figure out how to love each other”), and Ghost Wall, by Sarah Moss, which everyone is going CRAZY about right now and could well be the best novel of the year.
8 Bed-Making Competition by Anna Jackson (Seizure, $20)
Novella. Jackson told Seizure, “Set over 20 years, it tells stories from the lives of Hillary and Bridgid, two sisters who are sometimes close, sometimes distant. Hillary might be the better cook but Bridgid makes a surprisingly good gin cocktail.”
9 The Silence Of The Girls by Pat Barker (Hamish Hamilton, $37)
Junk.
10 21 Lessons for the 21st Century by Yuval Noah Harari (Jonathan Cape, $38)
Danyl Mclauchlan’s epic review will appear at the Spinoff Review of Books next week.
AUCKLAND UNITY
1 Fear: Trump in the White House by Bob Woodward (Simon & Schuster, $50)
2 A Matter of Fact: Talking Truth in a Post-Truth World by Jess Berentson-Shaw (Bridget Williams Books, $15)
Publisher’s blurbology: “A Matter of Fact explores the science of communicating and presents innovative ways to talk effectively (and empathetically) about contentious information. It is both an informative guide to constructive communication and a passionate reminder of the importance of finding what matters to all of us.”
3 The Four Disciplines of Execution by Sean Covey (Simon & Schuster, $27)
Building roadmaps to achieve your business-critical goals, etc.
4 False Divides by Lopesi Lana (Bridget Williams Books, $15)
Publisher’s blurbology: “Lana Lopesi argues that globalising technologies and the adaptability of Moana peoples are now turning the ocean back into the unifying continent that it once was.”
5 The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck by Mark Manson (MacMillan, $35)
The book that ate Auckland.
6 Women, Equality, Power: Selected speeches from a life of leadership by Helen Clark (Allen & Unwin, $45)
Selected speeches from a life of leadership.
7 Simple by Yotam Ottolenghi (Ebury Press, $60)
8 The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker (Hamish Hamilton, $37)
9 21 Lessons for the 21st Century by Yuval Noah Harari (Jonathan Cape, $38)
10 Normal People by Sally Rooney (Faber, $33)
The Spinoff Review of Books is brought to you by Unity Books.