The best-selling books this Christmas at the Unity stores in High St, Auckland and Willis St, Wellington.
AUCKLAND UNITY
1 Becoming by Michelle Obama (Penguin Random House, $55)
The smash-hit memoir of Xmas.
2 Simple by Yotam Ottolenghi (Ebury Press, $65)
Cookbook, nominated among the best 20 non-fiction books of 2018 at The Spinoff.
3 Patterson: Houses of Aotearoa by Andrew Patterson (Thames & Hudson, $95)
Pictures of 14 homes created by the winner of the 2017 New Zealand Institute of Architects Gold Medal.
4 Vladimir Putin: Life Coach by Robert Sears (Canongate, $28)
Satire.
5 Flame by Leonard Cohen (Canongate, $45)
Your faith was strong but you needed proof
You saw her bathing on the roof
Her beauty and the moonlight overthrew you
She tied you to a kitchen chair
She broke your throne, and she cut your hair
And from your lips she drew the Hallelujah
6 The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker (Hamish Hamilton, $37)
“This brilliant retelling of Homer’s epic poem focuses on the cost of war to women through the story of Briseis, Achilles’ concubine”: Guardian.
7 Less by Andrew Sean Greer (Little, Brown and Company, $35)
Nominated among the best 20 novels of 2018 at The Spinoff.
8 Heroes by Stephen Fry (Michael Joseph, $37)
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9 Milkman by Anna Burns (Faber & Faber, $33)
Nominated among the best 20 novels of 2018 at The Spinoff.
10 The Friday Poem edited by Steve Braunias (Luncheon Sausage Books, $25)
Now in its fourth reprint, this anthology of 100 poems taken from The Spinoff Review of Books by such as Hera Lindsay Bird, Brian Turner, Chris Tse, Simone Kaho, Fiona Kidman, Sam Hunt, Tusiata Avia and others has become the poetry gift book to get this Xmas.
WELLINGTON UNITY
1 Cuba Street Project: Place, Food, People by Beth Brash & Alice Lloyd (Random, $55)
Cuba Street.
2 Becoming by Michelle Obama (Viking, $55)
3 Normal People by Sally Rooney (Faber, $33)
Nominated among the best 20 novels of 2018 at The Spinoff.
4 Milkman by Anna Burns (Faber, $33)
5 Brief Answers to the Big Questions by Stephen Hawking (John Murray, $35)
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6 Simple by Yotam Ottolenghi (Ebury Press, $60)
7 The Spy and the Traitor: The greatest espionage story of the Cold War by Ben MacIntyre (Viking Penguin, $40)
For dads and grand-dads and elderly husbands this Xmas.
8 Transcription by Kate Atkinson (Doubleday, $38)
Nominated among the best 20 novels of 2018 at The Spinoff.
9 Shit Towns of NZ by Anonymous (Allen & Unwin, $25)
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10 Scenic Playground: The Story Behind New Zealand’s Mountain Tourism edited by Peter Alsop. Lee Davidson and Dave Bamford (Te Papa Press, $80)
A magnificent illustrated history.
The Spinoff Review of Books is brought to you by Unity Books.