The week’s best-sellers at the two best bookstores in the Western world. UNITY WELLINGTON 1 Rants in the Dark: From One Tired Mama to Another by Emily Writes (Penguin, $35) Oho! 2 Can You Tolerate This? by Ashleigh Young (Victoria University Press, $30) Awesome essays by the world’s most famous New Zealand writer right now. 3 … Read more
The week’s best-sellers at the two best stores in the Western world. AUCKLAND STORE 1 Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis (HarperCollins, $35) by JD Vance We will almost certainly run a review by former bFM deity Joshua Hetherington next week. 2 Lincoln in the Bardo (Bloomsbury, $33) by George Saunders The year’s … Read more
This week’s best-sellers at the two best bookstores in the Western world. WELLINGTON UNITY 1 Norse Mythology (Bloomsbury, $30) by Neil Gaiman Kvasir, the god of knowledge and diplomacy, was killed by two dwarves. 2 Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family & Culture in Crisis (HarperCollins, $35) by J D Vance Any minute … Read more
The weekly best-seller chart at the Unity Books stores in Auckland and Wellington. AUCKLAND STORE 1 This Building Likes Me: The Work of John Wardle Architects (Thames & Hudson, $150) by John Wardle Architects & Justine Clark Architects! Ugh. 2 Swing Time (Hamish Hamilton, $37) by Zadie Smith “It covers racism, sexism, inequality, class divides, … Read more
The weekly Unity Books best-seller chart at their stores in Wellington and Auckland. WELLINGTON STORE 1 Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family & Culture in Crisis (HarperCollins, $35) by JD Vance Number two over at Amazon, behind Orwell’s 1984; Vance’s book about America’s so-called “rust belt” has set the US on fire, and is seen … Read more
Middle-brow fiction, Hera Lindsay Bird, literary fiction, and studies of loneliness, death, and Flying Nun feature among the biggest-selling books of the year at the best bookstore in Auckland. 1 All the Light We Cannot See (Fourth Estate, $25) by Anthony Doerr So there you have it: the most popular book of the year is a novel … Read more
Hera Lindsay Bird, middle-brow fiction, literary fiction, satire, and Harry bleeding Potter feature among the biggest-selling books of the year at the best bookstore in Wellington. 1 Hera Lindsay Bird (Victoria University Press, $25) by Hera Lindsay Bird “Way out in front,” says Unity supremo Tilly Lloyd. A book of poetry, way out in front; a … Read more
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 … Read more
What’s everyone reading – and buying – at Xmas? Fucking Apostrophes and other gift ideas, going by the latest Unity Books best-seller chart at their stores in Auckland and Wellington. WELLINGTON STORE 1 Fucking Apostrophes (Icon Books, $19) by Simon Griffin Your cool Simon! 2 Wish Child (Victoria University Press, $30) by Catherine Chidgey “This is … Read more
Xmas is around the corner! By all means choose something from the latest Unity Books best-seller chart at their stores in Auckland and Wellington. AUCKLAND STORE 1 Swing Time (Hamish Hamilton, $37) by Zadie Smith “A keen, controlled novel about dance and blackness steps onto a stage of cultural land mines…Moving, funny, and grave, this novel … Read more
The weekly Unity Books best-seller chart at their stores in Wellington and Auckland. WELLINGTON STORE 1 Wellington In Your Pocket (Fitzbeck Creative, $25) by Nigel Beckford & Michael Fitzsimons, illustrated by Karolina Slovakova Handy and handsome guide to cool places to go in Wellington. 2 Havana Coffee Works (Phantom House, $50) by Geoff Marsland & … Read more
The weekly best-seller chart at Unity stores in Auckland and Wellington, for the week just ended: November 18 AUCKLAND STORE 1 The Shops (Luncheon Sausage Books, $40) by Steve Braunias and Peter Black It’s not really about shops at all, it’s actually an evocation of the profound melancholy and unexpected beauty of ordinary New Zealand … Read more
The weekly best-seller chart at Unity stores in Auckland and Wellington, for the week just ended: November 11 WELLINGTON STORE 1 Sellout: A Novel (Oneworld, $28) by Paul Beattie A review copy of the Man Booker award-winning dark satire on American life was despatched to Charlotte Graham on Monday, and she emailed on Wednesday morning to … Read more
The weekly best-seller chart at Unity stores in Wellington and Auckland, for the week just ended: October 14 WELLINGTON STORE 1 Broken Decade: Prosperity, Depression & Recovery in NZ 1928-39 (Otago University Press, $50) by Malcolm McKinnon Meticulous new study. 2 Hera Lindsay Bird (Victoria University Press, $25) by Hera Lindsay Bird “Take me out … Read more
The best-seller chart at Unity Books for the week just ended: October 7 Steve Braunias is on a well-deserved break this week and as a result, the best-seller lists are presented without comment. WELLINGTON STORE 1 Constitution for Aotearoa NZ (Victoria University Press, $25) by Geoffrey Palmer and Andrew Butler 2 Like Nobody’s Watching (Escalator … Read more
The best-seller chart at Unity Books for the week just ended: September 23 WELLINGTON STORE 1 Through the Eyes of a Miner: The Photography of Joseph Divis (Friends of Waiuta, $40) by Simon Nathan Fantastic black and white photographs of the West Coast coalmining town that died. A feature will appear at the Spinoff Review … Read more
The best-seller chart at Unity Books for the week just ended: September 16 WELLINGTON STORE 1 Hera Lindsay Bird (Victoria University Press, $25) by Hera Lindsay Bird Verse. 2 Nutshell (Jonathan Cape, $38) by Ian McEwan “Nutshell assumes its readers will be literate, thoughtful and cultured. You have to like that.” David Hill, New Zealand … Read more
The best-seller chart at Unity Books for the week just ended: September 9 AUCKLAND STORE 1 Three Cities: Seeking Hope in the Anthropocene (Bridget Williams Books, $15) by Rod Oram “With economies stagnating, politics polarising, societies shattering and ecosystems suffering, I felt an urgent need to go walkabout last September….” Ace business journo Rod Oram … Read more
The best-seller chart at Unity Books for the week just ended: September 2 WELLINGTON STORE 1 The Sympathizer (Corsair, $28) by Viet Thanh Nguyen This powerful novel, which won the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for fiction, has been in the top 10 for months, and now climbs to number one in both of Unity’s stores. Word … Read more
The best-seller chart at Unity Books for the week just ended: August 26 AUCKLAND STORE 1 White Sands: Experiences from the Outside World (Text, $37) Geoff Dyer Reliably unreliable narratives. 2 Things That Matter: Stories of Life & Death from an Intensive Care Specialist (Allen & Unwin, $37) by Dr David Galler Op lit. 3 The Girls (Chatto & … Read more
A weekly feature at the Spinoff Review of Books: The best-selling books at the Wellington and Auckland stores of Unity Books. THE BEST–SELLER CHART FOR THE WEEK JUST ENDED: July 22 AUCKLAND STORE 1 Hera Lindsay Bird (Victoria University Press, $25) by Hera Lindsay Bird Number one in Auckland, number one in Wellington! “I love attention,” … Read more
A weekly feature at the Spinoff Review of Books: The best-selling books at the Wellington and Auckland stores of Unity Books. THE BEST–SELLER CHART FOR THE WEEK JUST ENDED: July 15 UNITY WELLINGTON 1. Hera Lindsay Bird (Victoria University Press, $25) by Hera Lindsay Bird Her, here. 2. Salt River Songs (Potton & Burton, $25) by … Read more