The Unity Books bestseller chart for the week ending June 27

The Spinoff

27-06-2025

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. It's an impressive move from someone who will now continue to be able to live a very private life while being extremely famous and a successful memoirist.'
2 The Safe Keep by Yael van der Wouden (Penguin, $26)
A stunning debut novel set in the Netherlands of the 1960s. Beautifully written, surprising, and hopeful even while it offers insights into traumatic episodes in history.
3 Papatūānuku: A Collection of Writings by Indigenous Wāhine by multiple contributors (Awa Wāhine, $30)
The latest, beautiful publication from indie indigenous publisher Awa Wāhine. Here's the blurb: 'A collection of writings by Indigenous wāhine is a powerful anthology of writing by Māori and Pacific women, offering a fresh, raw, and deeply personal tribute to Papatūānuku, the Earth Mother. Through these stories, poems, and reflections, the contributors explore the sacred connections between land, identity, and Atua Wāhine (Māori goddesses), bringing ancient wisdom into the present moment.'
4 James by Percival Everett (Picador, $38)
One of the great novels of the decade is this Pulitzer Prize-winning retelling of Huckleberry Finn. Here's the blurb:
'When Jim overhears that he is about to be sold to a man in New Orleans, separated from his wife and daughter forever, he runs away until he can formulate a plan. Meanwhile, Huck has faked his own death to escape his violent father. 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 beyond.Brimming 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. Way back in 2024 Josh Weeks reviewed Butter in The Guardian: 'Based on the real-life case of the 'Konkatsu Killer', in which a con woman and talented home cook called Kanae Kijima was convicted of poisoning three of her male lovers, Butter uses its sordid source material to interrogate the impossible beauty standards to which Japanese women are held.'
6 Eurotrash by Christian Kracht (Serpents Tail, $30)
A black comedy about a mother and a son and a roadtrip. 'Eurotrash is a knowing book,' writes Marcel Theroux, 'with excursions into German history and allusions to Shakespeare, myth and pop culture. Part of its charm is the voice of its narrator, a self-aware snob-insider who is anatomising the avarice and insecurity of the privileged class he was born into.'
7 There Are Rivers in the Sky by Elif Shafak (Penguin, $26)
A moving novel about the ways water connects people, place and time.
8 Nesting by Roisin O'Donnell (Simon & Schuster, $40)
Another 'unforgettable voice in Irish fiction'. Here's the blurb:
'On a bright spring afternoon in Dublin, Ciara Fay makes a split-second decision that will change her life. Grabbing an armful of clothes from the washing line, Ciara straps her two young daughters into her car and drives away. Head spinning, all she knows for certain is that home is no longer safe.
It was meant to be an escape. But with dwindling savings, no job, and her family across the sea, Ciara finds herself adrift, facing a broken housing system and the voice of her own demons. As summer passes and winter closes in, she must navigate raising her children in a hotel room, searching for a new home and dealing with her husband Ryan's relentless campaign to get her to come back.
Because leaving is one thing, but staying away is another.'
9 The Book of Guilt by Catherine Chidgey (Te Herenga Waka University Press, $38)
A magnificent new novel from one of New Zealand's great fiction writers. Here's a snip from The Spinoff's books editor Claire Mabey's review: 'Fading seaside towns are microcosms for faded histories and dreams – and the UK's coastline is littered with them. The layered architecture of eras gone by affects a kind of haunting; the bright surfaces and ice cream shops pasted on top peddle dreams of beachside holidays often, in reality, rudely spiked by hyper-aggressive, Hitchcockian seagulls. Pastel-coated shopfronts and dusty vintage stores soften the detection of darker underbellies and thinly disguise the failures of capitalism to inject the buoyancy required to keep the nostalgia at bay.'
10 The River Is Waiting by Wally Lamb (Simon & Schuster, $40)
An epic new novel from the superstar that is Wally Lamb.
WELLINGTON
1 A Different Kind of Power by Jacinda Ardern (Penguin Random House, $60)
2 A Beautiful Family by Jennifer Trevelyan (Allen and Unwin NZ, $37)
Narrated by a 10-year-old girl, this immersive summer holiday novel is awash with a sinister undertow. Read a review of A Beautiful Family on The Spinoff, right here.
3 If I Must Die by Refaat Alareer & Yousef Aljamal (OR Books, $59)
Renowned poet and literature professor Refaat Alareer was killed by an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City alongside his brother, sister, and nephews in December 2023. He was just forty years old. This book is a collection of his essays and poetry about literature, politics, and family.
4 The Book of Guilt by Catherine Chidgey (Te Herenga Waka University Press, $38)
5 The Safe Keep by Yael van der Wouden (Penguin, $26)
6 Bombard the Headquarters! by Linda Jarvin (Black Inc., $32)
For anyone interested in China then and China now: 'In 1966, with the words 'Bombard the Headquarters!' Mao Zedong unleashed the full, violent force of a movement that he called the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution. By the time he died ten years later, millions had perished, China's cultural heritage was in ruins, its economic state was perilous, its institutions of government were damaged and its society was bitterly divided.
The shadow of these terrible years lies heavily over the twenty-first-century nation. The history of this period is so toxic that China's rulers have gone to great lengths to bury it – while a few brave men and women risk their freedom to uncover the truth. For as both they and the Party know, to grasp the history of the Cultural Revolution is to understand much about China today.'
The award-winning novel about ageing, loss, and living. The Spinoff's Gabi Lardies and Claire Mabey loved it.
A succinct guide to the conflict – essential reading.
9 James by Percival Everett (Picador, $38)