The only published and available best-selling indie 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 Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus (Doubleday, $26)
The new, smaller format of Bonnie Garmus’ bestselling debut novel is … also a bestseller. Here are three factoids in the spirit of congratulations:
- An Apple TV series adaption is coming, starring Brie Larson.
- To make the scientific knowledge accurate for the time period, Garmus learnt from a 1950s chemistry textbook.
- Just before going to print, Bonnie Garmus switched the title from Introduction to Chemistry, realising it would likely die a misplaced death in the nonfiction shelves.
2 Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton (Te Herenga Waka University Press, $38)
The new eco-thriller by the author of The Luminaries. Step this way to read the frothy rave review by Spinoff books editor Clare Mabey.
3 Did I Ever Tell You This? by Sam Neill (Text, $55)
There are many revelations in actor Sam Neill’s new memoir, not least that his parents actually named him Nigel. He renamed himself Sam at 11 years old, which he says was “probably the best decision I made in my life.” Apologies to any readers named Nigel.
4 The Creative Act: A Way of Being by Rick Rubin (Penguin Press, $50)
Advice for creatives from the legendary music producer.
5 Old God’s Time by Sebastian Barry (Viking, $37)
The eleventh novel by Costa-winner Sebastian Barry, narrated by an Irish widower and retired policeman. The Guardian tantalises: “Barry skilfully leads the reader gently and slowly into Tom’s imaginative world, a place of great humour as well as great sadness, crowded with old memories and new impressions; and the miracle is that the organising intelligence in this fictional interiority never seems for a moment to be that of Sebastian Barry, but of his creation Tom Kettle himself. Even on second reading it is hard to unravel the ‘true’ story of what Tom has experienced, and this is entirely cognate with the corroding effects of trauma on memory. … The ending is a tour de force of transcendent power and complexity. I don’t expect to read anything as moving for many years.”
6 Cleopatra and Frankenstein by Coco Mellors (Bloomsbury, $31)
A debut novel about the marriage between Cleo and Frank, for fans of Sally Rooney.
7 Atomic Habits by James Clear (Random House Business, $40)
Our New Year resolutions are well and truly in the ground. Before winter sets in and cements us in our sweatpants, perhaps Atomic Habits can swoop in and save the day.
8 Greta & Valdin by Rebecca K Reilly (Te Herenga Waka University Press, $35)
The witty novel that will make you look fondly on Auckland again. Our own Anna Rawhiti-Connell wrote, “The descriptions of Auckland perfectly exemplify the dichotomy of a city that is both beloved by its residents and cursed on a daily basis, by them and the rest of the country. ‘I look up at the Sky Tower as if it’s the Madonna. Please save me, beautiful stucco icon of the City of Sails’.”
9 The Shards by Bret Easton Ellis (Knopf, $37)
The new novel, also featuring a serial killer, from the author of American Psycho.
10 Really Good, Actually by Monica Heisey (William Morrow, $33)
“Maggie is needy and occasionally pitiful, regularly ordering burgers at 4am that she pretends are for her non-existent dog. She nonetheless endearingly regards her own attempts at self-care with ironic detachment, not least when she reflects – after her husband leaves – that she ‘tried almost aggressively to let the soft animal of my body love what it loved, which mostly at that point was potatoes.’” Thanks, Evening Standard.
WELLINGTON
1 Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton (Te Herenga Waka University Press, $38)
2 Did I Ever Tell You This? by Sam Neill (Text, $55)
3 Past Lives by Leah Dodd (Te Herenga Waka University Press, $25)
The debut poetry collection by Pōneke local Leah Dodd, whose work fellow poet Jordan Hamel says “makes me vomit with joy”. Leah Dodd recently wrote an essay for The Spinoff about selecting the artwork for the (very striking) cover of her debut.
4 Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus (Doubleday, $26)
5 Really Good, Actually by Monica Heisey (William Morrow, $33)
6 The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Shehan Karunatilaka (Sort of Books, $37)
The crowned King of the 2022 Booker Prize. The Sydney Morning Herald quipped, “Original, sensational, imaginative, political, mysterious, romantic: it is obvious why this novel won the prize. … It has the bleak power of Solzhenitsyn’s The Gulag Archipelago. And unlike that great book it is relentlessly, shockingly funny.”
7 The Axeman’s Carnival by Catherine Chidgey (Te Herenga Waka University Press, $35)
Our pickiest pick for the Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction. Catherine Chidgey is a national treasure.
8 Old God’s Time by Sebastian Barry (Viking, $37)
9 So Shall You Reap by Donna Leon (Hutchinson, $37)
The thirty-second novel in the Commissario Brunetti mystery series. Thirty-second.
10 Rat King Landlord (Renters United! Edition) by Murdoch Stephens (Lawrence & Gibson, $2)
Free online and $2 from your local bookstore, this new, big, bold, beautifully illustrated edition of local novel Rat King Landlord is a limited edition, so grab a copy while you can.
Éimhín from Renters United told us, “We hope that landlords or property managers who read this edition (and enjoy the pictures!), also reflect on what it means to profit from human necessity. … landlords and property managers should support reforms that make housing more just, stop hoarding housing, and treat renters with dignity. At root, we need them to understand that someone else’s home is not just an address and number in their portfolio. Everything is a choice: increasing rent, neglecting maintenance, discriminating against certain demographics, none of this is predestined and every day they have the ability to either improve or devastate someone’s life. We hope reading this book encourages them to think long and hard about what choices they’re making.”