Bestseller books

ListsMay 20, 2016

Introducing the weekly Unity Books best-seller list

Bestseller books

A new weekly feature at the Spinoff Review of Books: the best-selling books at the Auckland and Wellington stores of Unity Books.

THE BEST–SELLER CHART FOR THE WEEK JUST ENDED: May 20

UNITY BOOKS AUCKLAND

1. A Little Life ($35) by Hanya Yanagihara

The best book of 2015; love and a great many characters in a big, harrowing novel.

2. The Lonely City ($40) by Olivia Laing

The best book of 2016? Laing asks in her semi-memoir about isolation in modern urban life, “What does it feel like to be lonely?” Her answer: “It feels like being hungry.”

3. Coming Rain ($37) by Stephen Daisley

Surprise winner of the Ockham NZ Novel of the Year Award.

4. Chronicles: On Our Troubled Times ($37) by Thomas Piketty

Essays on financial reform.

5. When Breath Becomes Air ($37) by Paul Kalanithi

Memoir by a doctor as he lay dying.

6. The Course of Love ($37) by Alain de Botton

De Botton! What an egghead, and what an unreadable novel.

7. The Little Red Chairs ($33) by Edna O’Brien

The first novel in a decade by the Irish master.

8. The Romanovs: 1613-1918 ($50) by Simon Sebag Montefiore

The history of three centuries of cruelty and slaughter.

9. The Green Road ($26) Anne Enright.

Virtuoso writing by the 2007 Booker winner.

10. The Invisible Mile (Victoria University Press, $30) by David Coventry

Wellington writer’s novel about a bike race in 1928.

 

UNITY BOOKS WELLINGTON

1. In the Supplementary Garden (Cold Hub Press, $40) by Diana Bridge

NZ poetry at number one on the bestseller list!!!!

2. The Type ($27) by Sarah Kay

Spoken-word poetry at number two on the bestseller list!!!!

3. My Brilliant Friend ($30) by Elena Ferrante

The first in the great Neapolitian chronicles.

4. Chronicles: On Our Troubled Times ($37) by Thomas Piketty

5. Walking to Pencarrow (Cold Hub Press, $40) by Michael Jackson

NZ poetry at number five on the bestseller list!!!!

6. Silencing Science (Bridget Williams Books, $15) by Shaun Hendy

Slim book of essays on the social and moral responsibilities of scientists.

7. Coming Rain ($37) by Stephen Daisley

8. The Green Road ($26) by Anne Enright

9. A Little Life ($35) by Hanya Yanagihara

10. Being Chinese: A New Zealander’s Story (Bridget Williams Books, $40) by Helene Wong

Worthy little memoir.

Keep going!