The Unity Books bestseller chart for the week ending June 20
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 A Different Kind of Power by Jacinda Ardern (Penguin Random House, $60)
Spot New Zealand's former prime minster on this week's New York Times bestseller list.
2 The Book of Guilt by Catherine Chidgey (Te Herenga Waka University Press, $38)
The un-put-downable alternate history that explores some of life's biggest questions, including what does it mean to have a soul? Can a human ever not have one?
3 Eurotrash by Christian Kracht (Serpents Tail, $30)
Auckland really loves this hectic mother-son roadtrip novel.
4 James by Percival Everett (Picador, $38)
Everett's biggest book yet is his stunning, funny and profound retelling of Huckleberry Finn.
5 Welcome to the Hyunam-Dong Bookshop by Hwang Bo-Reum (Bloomsbury, $25)
Cosy and charming and perfect for a long Matariki weekend.
6 The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden (Penguin, $26)
This year's winner of the Women's Prize for Fiction. One of the most exquisite novels you'll read this year: it is moving, sexy and surprising.
7 Butter by Asako Yuzuki (4th Estate, $35)
The smash hit novel based on a true crime story of a serial killer who lured her victims in with stunning food.
8 A Dim Prognosis by Ivor Popovich (Allen & Unwin, $38)
An utterly gripping, energetic memoir from Dr Popovich. Revealing! See The Spinoff this weekend to read an excerpt from this brilliant book.
9 Emperor of Gladness by Ocean Vuong (Penguin Random House, $38)
Vuong's second novel.
10 King of Ashes by S. A. Cosby (Hachette, $38)
A fiery crime novel. Here's the blurb:
'Roman Carruthers left the smoke and fire of his family's crematory business behind in his hometown of Jefferson Run, Virginia. He is enjoying a life of shallow excess as a financial adviser in Atlanta until he gets a call from his sister, Neveah, telling him their father is in a coma after a hit-and-run accident.
When Roman goes home, he learns the accident may not be what it seems. His brother, Dante, is deeply in debt to dangerous, ruthless criminals. And Roman is willing to do anything to protect his family. Anything.
A financial whiz with a head for numbers and a talent for making his clients rich, Roman must use all his skills to try to save his family while dealing with a shadow that has haunted them all for twenty years: the disappearance of their mother when Roman and his siblings were teenagers. It's a mystery that Neveah, who has sacrificed so much of her life to hold her family together, is determined to solve once and for all.
As fate and chance and heartache ignite their lives, the Carruthers family must pull together to survive or see their lives turn to ash. Because, as their father counselled them from birth, nothing lasts forever. Everything burns.'
WELLINGTON
1 A Different Kind of Power by Jacinda Ardern (Penguin Random House, $60)
2 Towards Modernism: Walter Cook Collection at Te Papa by Justine Olsen (Te Papa Press, $75)
This handsome new publication celebrates the Walter Cook Collection of Decorative Arts (held at Te Papa) and the ceramic, glass and metal objects therein.
3 The Book of Guilt by Catherine Chidgey (Te Herenga Waka University Press, $38)
4 It's A Bit More Complicated Than That by Hannah Marshall (Allen and Unwin NZ, $25)
A brilliant new YA novel from a huge new talent. Here's the blurb:
'Zelle and Callum used to be best friends, but they haven't spoken in three years: not since the tragedy that wrenched them apart, and Zelle moved away. But now Zelle is back, and their lives are about to get a whole lot more complicated. Zelle is in denial about her alcohol use that threatens to spiral out of control, and she's deeply annoyed at having to leave the city. Callum's future is thrown into jeopardy after both a disastrous uni interview and his budding romance turning sour. But they can't keep running from the past forever, and circumstances force them to examine their grief and guilt and find a way through.'
5 A Beautiful Family by Jennifer Trevelyan (Allen and Unwin NZ, $37)
'Trevelyan's narrator is 10 years old. She's unnamed until the very end of the book (I won't reveal it here: best to find out for yourself). It's this naive perspective that makes A Beautiful Family both easy to read and impossible to put down. The narrator's innocence is pitted against several disturbing factors, all orbiting her summer in various shapes and shades, and it's that persistent dance of disturbances that creates the sustained and unrelenting tension in the novel.' Read more of Claire Mabey's review on The Spinoff, right here.
6 The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden (Penguin, $26)
7 Delirious by Damien Wilkins (Te Herenga Waka University Press, $38)
'I don't want to say that Delirious is the pinnacle of what Damien can do because that would be like putting a curse on his future work. But I am going to say it's almost impossible for me to imagine how he could do better. I think this is a great book – Great with capital G.'
Even before Delirious won this year's Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction, Elizabeth Knox was rapturous about Wilkins' beautiful novel.
8 Heart Lamp by Banu Mushtaq (Scribe, $37)
Shortlisted for the 2025 International Booker Prize. 'In the twelve stories of Heart Lamp, Banu Mushtaq exquisitely captures the everyday lives of women and girls in Muslim communities in southern India. Published originally in the Kannada language between 1990 and 2023, praised for their dry and gentle humour, these portraits of family and community tensions testify to Mushtaq's years as a journalist and lawyer, in which she tirelessly championed women's rights and protested all forms of caste and religious oppression.
Written in a style at once witty, vivid, colloquial, moving and excoriating, it's in her characters – the sparky children, the audacious grandmothers, the buffoonish maulvis and thug brothers, the oft-hapless husbands, and the mothers above all, surviving their feelings at great cost – that Mushtaq emerges as an astonishing writer and observer of human nature, building disconcerting emotional heights out of a rich spoken style. Her opus has garnered both censure from conservative quarters as well as India's most prestigious literary awards; this is a collection sure to be read for years to come.'
9 James by Percival Everett (Picador, $38)
10 The Māori Millionaire by Te Kahukura Boynton (Penguin, $35)
'Te Kahukura Boynton is Māori Millionaire, and her debut book is here to help. Learn how to make money by clearing debt, saving for an emergency, finding work and increasing your salary, and even starting your own business and investing in shares and yourself. With tips on building better habits with your money and your life, Māori Millionaire is the positive mindset change you might be missing.' So goes the blurb.
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The Unity Books bestseller chart for the week ending June 27
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 A Different Kind of Power by Jacinda Ardern (Penguin Random House, $60) The Spinoff's own Madeleine Chapman reviewed Ardern's memoir – here's a snippet: 'Whether or not Ardern wrote this book herself (there is an 'editor' profusely thanked in the acknowledgements) is by the by. It is the story that she wanted to tell, or at least the parts of it she wanted to tell. Ardern ends her book by referring to herself as a 'speechwriter'. And her speeches are what have defined her career, whether impromptu or nervously rehearsed. But they're also deliberately limiting in what they offer. As a memoirist, Ardern has taken the same approach – offering just enough while still holding her cards close to her chest. 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As all readers of American literature know, thus begins the dangerous and transcendent journey by raft down the Mississippi River toward the elusive and unreliable promise of the Free States and with the electrifying humour and lacerating observations that have made Everett a literary icon, this brilliant and tender novel radically illuminates Jim's agency, intelligence, and compassion as never before. James is destined to be a major publishing event and a cornerstone of twenty-first century American literature.' 5 Butter by Asako Yuzuki (4th Estate, $35) The hugely successful true crime novel that has stayed in the bestseller charts for over a year now. 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