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BooksJune 23, 2017

The Unity Books best-selling chart for the week ending June 23

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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.

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