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.