The best-selling books at the two best bookstores known to God.
WELLINGTON UNITY
1 The Whole Intimate Mess: Motherhood, Politics & Women’s Writing by Holly Walker (Bridget Williams Texts, $15)
“There is nothing normal about crawling up the hallway, screaming and hitting yourself in the head, in front of your baby…”: Revealing and intense memoir by the former Green Party MP (read an excerpt here).
2 Ministry Of Utmost Happiness by Arundhati Roy (Hamish Hamilton, $38)
The long-awaited return of the superstar author of The God of Small Things.
3 No Is Not Enough: Resisting Trump’s Shock Politics and Winning the World We Need by Naomi Klein (Allen Lane, $35)
“Trump is a mirror, held up not only to the United States but to the world,” writes Klein; she advises ways to smash that motherfucking mirror.
4 The Man Who Ate Lincoln Road by Steve Braunias (Luncheon Sausage Books, $25)
The author wishes to thank the hordes who bought a lot of copies of his book about food, shops, death and West Auckland life on his nationwide tour this week.
5 Can You Tolerate This? by Ashleigh Young (Victoria University Press, $30)
By the recently feted and awarded writer who not so long ago thought she had reached the apogee of her writing career when she was named a runner-up in the 2016 The Surrey Hotel Steve Braunias Memorial Writers Residency in Association with The Spinoff Award.
6 Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls by Elena Favilli & Francesca Cavallo (Particular Books, $40)
Every home with a girl in it should have a copy: it’s amazing.
7 The Wish Child by Catherine Chidgey (Victoria University Press $30)
“It doesn’t wear its research lightly. The text feels over-stuffed with history and symbolism…Its elevated tone echoes with its own importance”: Jane Westaway, The Spinoff Review of Books.
8 Fair Borders by David Hall (Bridget Williams Texts, $15)
Ten academics discuss New Zealand’s immigration policies.
9 Heloise by Mandy Hager (Penguin, $38)
One of New Zealand’s best YA novelists switches to historical fiction – it’s about Eloise and Abelard – and word of mouth has spread fast that it’s really good.
10 Totara: A Natural & Cultural History by Philip Simpson (Auckland University Press, $75)
Everything you ever wanted to know about totara in one supremely handsome book.
AUCKLAND UNITY
1 No Is Not Enough: Resisting Trump’s Shock Politics and Winning the World We Need by Naomi Klein (Allen Lane, $35)
2 Serious Sweet by AL Kennedy (Vintage, $26)
By an English novelist named in Granta as one of the best new writers under 40.
3 Iceland by Dominic Hoey (Steele Roberts, $35)
The author, writing at the Spinoff Review of Books: “It’s a story about drugs and sex and the drudgery of unemployment, a story about what happens when one day you wake up and you find yourself living in a memory, a story about the past and an empty future, a love story about the place I grew up in.”
4 Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead (Little Brown, $25)
Richard Ford, who by the way is from the American South, once responded to a bad review by going up to the reviewer and spitting in his face; the reviewer was Whitehead, who by the way is black.
5 Thank You For Being Late: An Optimist’s Guide to Thriving in the Age of Accelerations by Thomas L Friedman (Penguin, $40)
Self-help.
6 Art Sex Music by Cosey Fanni Tutti (Faber, $40)
We really ought to find a good reviewer – preferably female – for this popular and acclaimed music bio. Any volunteers?
7 Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis by JD Vance (William Collins, $35)
Naomi Klein’s new book provides an antidote to Trump; Vance’s book provides an intimate analysis of the times and American conditions that led to Trump.
8 Idaho by Emily Ruskovich (Chatto & Windus, $37)
“The central event is this: Wade, his wife Jenny and their two young daughters drove out one autumn day to collect wood. Everything was fine, and then it wasn’t: one of the children died that day”: from a rave review by Kim Hill, in the Spinoff Review of Books.
9 The New Zealand Project by Max Harris (Bridget Williams Books, $40)
Max!
10 Can You Tolerate This? by Asheigh Young (Victoria University Press, $30)
The Spinoff Review of Books is brought to you by Unity Books.