The weekly best-seller chart at Unity stores in Auckland and Wellington, for the week just ended: October 21
AUCKLAND STORE
1 Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow (Harvill Secker, $40) by Yuval Noah Harari
“The epic, widely celebrated Sapiens gets the sequel it demanded – a breathless, compulsive inquiry into humanity’s apocalyptic, tech-driven future”: The Guardian.
2 The Great War for New Zealand: Waikato 1800-2000 (Bridget Williams Books) by Vincent O’Malley
“Tainui has never forgotten things like the atrocities that were committed against their women and children at Rangiaowhia, for example… Those memories have been carried on down through the generations. They’ve even been reflected in the names people are given. For example, a common name for many women in Tainui was Mamae, or pain, across many generations to carry the remembrance of those events”: The author, interviewed by Aaron Smale for Radio New Zealand.
3 The Big Smoke: New Zealand Cities, 1840-1920 (Bridget WIlliams Books, $60) by Ben Schrader
New Zealand cities, 1840-1920.
4 Known and Strange Things (Faber & Faber, $33) by Teju Cole
Essays.
5 Hot Milk (Hamish Hamilton, $37) by Deborah Levy
Shortlisted for next week’s Man Booker Prize! Female rage and sexuality, set in a Spanish fishing village.
6 Eileen (Vintage, $26) by Ottessa Moshfegh
Shortlisted for next week’s Man Booker Prize! Psychological thriller by a young US writer about a woman who works in a boys’ prison.
7 His Bloody Project (Text, $34) by Graeme Macrae Burnet
Shortlisted for next week’s Man Booker Prize! Weird, gory novel about a Scotsman accused of triple-murder.
8 The Sellout (Oneworld, $28) by Paul Beatty
Shortlisted for next week’s Man Booker Prize! Satirical novel about a man who reinstates slavery in the US.
9 Commonwealth (Bloomsbury, $33) by Anne Patchett
Not shortlisted for next week’s Man Booker Prize. Two families are torn apart by a tragedy.
10 Do Not Say We Have Nothing (Granta, $33) by Madeleine Thien
Shortlisted for next week’s Man Booker Prize! Canadian novel set in Mao’s China.
WELLINGTON STORE
1 Murdoch: The Political Cartoons of Sharon Murdoch (Potton Burton, $40) by Sharon Murdoch
Over 150 full-page cartoons by the best – the most astute, the most artful – political cartoonist in New Zealand.
2 The Big Smoke: NZ Cities 1840–1920 (Bridget Williams Books, $60) by Ben Schrader
3 Constitution for Aotearoa NZ (Victoria University Press, $25) by Geoffrey Palmer & Andrew Butler
From the mind of the former MP who was responsible for the Imperial Laws Application Act .
4 Maui & Other Legends: 8 Classic Tales of Aotearoa (PenguinRandom, $40) by Peter Gossage
5 Hera Lindsay Bird (Victoria University Press, $25) by Hera Lindsay Bird
“Throw me in a haunted wheelbarrow and set me on fire”.
6 Day with Dogs (Gecko, $30) by Dorothee de Monfreid
For children.
7 Pigeon Tunnel: Stories from My Life (Viking, $38) by John Le Carre
“A series of vignettes written with good humour”: Ken Strongman, Sunday Star-Times.
8 Great War for NZ: Waikato 1800-2000 (Bridget Williams Books, $80) by Vincent O’Malley
9 Protecting Paradise: 1080 & The Fight to Save NZ’s Native Wildlife (Potton Burton, $35) by Dave Hansford
The fight to save New Zealand’s native wildlife.
10 Mansfield & Me: A Graphic Memoir (Victoria University Press, $35) by Sarah Laing
And so the best-selling book and the tenth-best-selling book at Wellington’s Unity store are both told in drawings. Discuss.