The Unity Books bestseller chart for the week ending July 4
AUCKLAND
1 Butter by Asako Yuzuki (4th Estate, $35)
Butter has bumped Ardern's memoir from the top spot. The sales graph for this book must look like the Himalayan mountain range: what an extraordinary ride this brilliant novel has been on.
2 The Safe Keep by Yael van der Wouden (Penguin, $26)
A stunning debut novel by a writer of rare talent. That sounds like a giant cliché but in this case it's absolutely true. You will not regret reading this lovely, powerful, perfectly formed novel set in the Netherlands of the 1960s. This debut novel also features on The Spinoff's list of books that write sex exceptionally well.
3 A Different Kind of Power by Jacinda Ardern (Penguin Random House, $60)
Rachel Morris wrote a superb feature on Ardern for The New Yorker, in which she contextualised the memoir for American readers, and said of the book: 'The tale of what it was like for Ardern to go from being adored to being reviled so quickly would have made for an unmissable book. That's not the story she wanted to tell. A Different Kind of Power is her manifesto for a kinder, less cynical form of political leadership, with her own life story as evidence that such a thing is possible.'
Highly recommend clicking on the link above and reading the rest of what Morris has to say.
4 The Book of Guilt by Catherine Chidgey (Te Herenga Waka University Press, $38)
'Chidgey's latest novel is uncannily similar to Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go (which she has not read),' writes The Spinoff's Claire Mabey. 'It takes similar aim at British identity by puncturing its society with the normalisation of skewed medical ethics. What both novels have in common are questions of nature versus nurture and the eternal thought exercise of what does it mean to possess a soul? The two writers share an interest in the dehumanising potential of such questions. Both Ishiguro (one of the greatest novelists of all time) and Chidgey (fast becoming one of the greats herself) investigate how whole societies, entire countries, can enter a path of gross moral corruption one person, one concession, at a time.'
5 Broken Country by Claire Leslie Hall (John Murray, $38)
Reese Witherspoon loves this novel. The actress/book club host says: 'Trust me—you are going to LOSE YOUR CHICKEN over it.
Broken Country by Clare Leslie Hall is an unforgettable story of love, loss, and the choices that shape our lives… but it's also a masterfully crafted mystery that will keep you guessing until the very last page. Seriously, that ending?! I did not see it coming.'
6 Eurotrash by Christian Kracht (Serpents Tail, $30)
This novel was longlisted for the International Booker Prize and we can see why: there's a lot more under the surface of this novel about a mother and son road-tripping across Europe. It's a reckoning with the past, with the self, and with family.
7 James by Percival Everett (Picador, $38)
'James offers page-turning excitement but also off-kilter philosophical picaresque,' writes Anthony Cummins in The Guardian 'Jim enters into dream dialogue with Enlightenment thinkers Voltaire and John Locke to coolly skewer their narrow view of human rights – before finally shifting gear into gun-toting revenge narrative when Jim's view of white people as his 'enemy' (not 'oppressor', which 'supposes a victim') sharpens with every atrocity witnessed en route. It's American history as real-life dystopia, voiced by its casualties, but as you might guess from The Trees – a novel about lynching that won a prize for comic fiction – solemn it is not: 'White people try to tell us that everything will be just fine when we go to heaven. My question is, Will they be there? If so, I might make other arrangements.''
8 Girl on Girl by Sophie Gilbert (John Murray, $40)
The subtitle of this book is: 'How pop culture turned a generation of women against themselves.' (Which sounds like a possible tagline for the The Substance – anyone else seen that little movie with Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley?)
And here's the blurb: 'Sophie Gilbert identifies an inflection point in the late 1990s and early 2000s, when the energy of third-wave and 'riot grrrl' feminism collapsed into a regressive period of hyper-objectification, sexualization, and infantilization. Mining the darker side of nostalgia, Gilbert trains her keen analytic eye on the most revealing cultural objects of the era, across music, film, television, fashion, tabloid journalism, and more. What she recounts is harrowing, from the leering gaze of the paparazzi to the gleeful cruelty of early reality TV and a burgeoning internet culture vicious toward women in the spotlight and damaging for those who weren't. Gilbert tracks many of the period's dominant themes back to the rise of internet porn, which gained widespread influence as it began to pervade our collective consciousness.'
9 Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman (Vintage, $26)
This novel was originally published in 1995 in French. It's now being rediscovered as the dystopia of the premise catches up with the dystopia of the present.
10 T he Let Them Theory by Mel Robins (Hay House, $32)
She's baaaaaack!
WELLINGTON
1 A Different Kind of Power by Jacinda Ardern (Penguin Random House, $60)
2 Ghost Kiwi by Ruth Paul (Scholastic NZ, $20)
Ruth Paul has a double-whammy this week as she launches two books! Ghost Kiwi is a middle grade novel about Ruby, who runs away with her dog to the one place she feels safe … her treehouse in the forest. 'Joined by her friend, Te Ariki (aka 'Spider'), the pair soon make a surprising discovery – there's a kiwi living in a burrow nearby, caring for a newborn chick. A white kiwi chick.
Accompanied by a strange talking doll, and aided by the ancient wairua of the bush, Ruby and Spider step up to become true forest guardians, risking their lives to stop unscrupulous wildlife smugglers from stealing this rare native treasure.'
3 Anahera: The Mighty Kiwi Māmā by Ruth Paul (Puffin, $21)
Paul also launched this lovely picture book – the true story of Anahera, a rescue kiwi who now roams the hills of Wellington.
4 The Book of Guilt by Catherine Chidgey (Te Herenga Waka University Press, $38)
5 Caledonian Road by Andrew O'Hagan (Faber & Faber, $35)
The new format release of this novel by O'Hagan is giving the best-selling novel another best-selling life.
6 Mātauranga Māori by Hirini Moko Mead (Huia, $45)
A major publication by Hirini Moko Mead who explores and explains what mātauranga Māori is. 'He looks at how the knowledge system operates, the branches of knowledge, and the way knowledge is recorded and given expression in te reo Māori and through daily activities and formal ceremonies. Mātuaranga Māori is a companion publication to Hirini Moko Mead's best-selling book Tikanga Māori.'
8 Butter by Asako Yuzuki (4th Estate, $35)
9 Delirious by Damien Wilkins (Te Herenga Waka University Press, $38)
The glorious award-winner from Wilkins.
10 Orbital by Samantha Harvey (Vintage, $26)
Last year's galactic Booker Prize winner returns to this list like a comet in the night.
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