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BooksDecember 16, 2016

The Unity Books best-seller chart for Xmas

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The most popular books this Xmas at the Unity Books stores in Wellington and Auckland.

WELLINGTON STORE

1 Fucking Apostrophes (Icon Books, $19) by Simon Griffin

Number one in both the Wellington and Auckland store’s!

2 At The Beach (New Holland, $35) by Margaret Brooker

Summer recipes.

3 The Sympathizer (Piatkus, $28) by Viet Thanh Nguyen

It made it onto this week’s best 20 novels of the year list at the Spinoff Review of Books so it must be good, plus it won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction.

4 The Sellout (Oneworld, $28) by Paul Beatty

It made it onto this week’s best 20 novels of the year list at the Spinoff Review of Books so it must be good, plus it won the Man Booker prize.

5 Swing Time (Hamish Hamilton, $37) by Zadie Smith

Our reviewer hated it but others say it’s a return to form from the UK writer.

6 Wish Child (Victoria University Press, $30) by Catherine Chidgey

Our reviewer hated it but others say it’s a return to publishing from the NZ writer.

7 Silk Roads (Bloomsbury, $28) by Peter Frankopan

It must be Xmas! This popular history was in Unity’s best-seller chart for months until about September; and now here it is, back again, because people once again have been buying it in droves.

8 Hera Lindsay Bird (Victoria University Press, $25) by Hera Lindsay Bird

It must be Xmas! This popular book of verse was in Unity’s best-seller chart for months until about September; and now here it is, back again, because people once again have been buying it in droves.

9 Pigeon Tunnel: Stories From My Life (Viking, $38) by John Le Carre

Popular memoir by the spy writer.

10 Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family & Culture in Crisis (HarperCollins, $35) by JD Vance

Say what? Not exactly standard, feel-good Xmas fare; it’s down in the gutter, it’s a portrait of the US underclass, it’s really good. “The memoir gripping America … Vividly articulates the despair and disillusionment of blue-collar America”: The Sunday Times.

AUCKLAND STORE

1 Fucking Apostrophes (Icon, $19) by Simon Griffin

2 Hot Milk (Hamish Hamilton, $37) by Deborah Levy

Shortlisted for the Man Booker prize; the creepy one about a mother and daughter who holiday in Spain.

3 The Sellout (Oneworld, $28) by Paul Beatty

4 Swing Time (Hamish Hamilton, $37) by Zadie Smith

5 The Wish Child (Victoria University Press, $30) by Catherine Chidgey

6 Blitzed: Drugs in Nazi Germany (Allen Lane, $55) by Norman Ohler 

The old alt-right, stoned off their evil ass.

7 The Sympathizer (Corsair, $28) by Viet Thanh Nguyen

8 Hand-Coloured New Zealand: The Photographs of Whites Aviation (Potton & Burton, $80) by Peter Alsop

A visual feast of hand-coloured photos taken from the air; the pictures are almost as beautiful as the ones by Peter Black in The Shops.

9 Five on Brexit Island (Quercus Publishing, $20) by Bruno Vincent

One of the publishing sensations of the year, and a testament to the power of satire. Sure to please; get.

10 The Great War for New Zealand: Waikato 1800-2000 (Bridget Williams Books, $80) by Vincent O’Malley

Named by the NZ Herald as the best book of 2016. Serious, worthy, long, good.

Keep going!