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 Butter by Asako Yuzuki (Fourth Estate, $35)
Fictionalised true crime for foodies.
2 Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins (Scholastic, $30)
Unity Wellington bookseller Eden Denyer says “Believe the hype on this one, it really is that good. Even though you ultimately know how it will end (not well), you can’t help rooting for these brilliant characters to topple the odds.” Read more of Eden’s review on The Spinoff, here.
3 When The Going Was Good by Graydon Carter (Moa Press, $38)
A former editor of Vanity Fair reminisces about the time when print was most certainly not dead.
4 See How They Fall by Rachel Paris (Moa Press, $38)
Compulsive homegrown crime about a stupidly wealthy Sydney family and their violent tendencies. Read an interview with the author on The Spinoff, here.
5 Careless People: A Story of Where I Used to Work by Sarah Wynn-Williams (Pan UK, $40)
In which Sarah Wynn-Williams goes from shark attack survivor to Meta whistleblower.
6 White Nights by Fyodor Dostoevsky (Penguin Random House, $13)
BookTok has propelled Dostoevsky’s 1848 novella to bestsellers heights the world over!
7 Auē by Becky Manawatu (Makaro Press, $35)
The book that cemented Becky Manawatu as one of the great novelists of our time. Poet Ben Brown reviewed Auē for The Spinoff way back in 2020.
8 Kia Mau: Resisting Colonial Fictions by Tina Ngata (Kia Mau Campaign, $15)
Welcome back to this brilliant book about of essays in which Ngata is highly critical of the decision by the NZ government to commit funding and resource to the TUIA250 Commemorations of James Cook’s voyages to New Zealand and the Pacific.
9 The Let Them Theory by Mel Robbins (Hay House, $32)
Just like, let them?
10 Dream Count by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (Fourth Estate, $38)
Four interweaving stories about the lives of women. (PSA: Adichie’s virtual event at Auckland Writers Festival has sold out!)
WELLINGTON
1 Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins (Scholastic, $30)
2 Careless People: A Story of Where I Used to Work by Sarah Wynn-Williams (Pan UK, $40)
3 There are Rivers in the Sky by Elif Shafak (Penguin, $37)
Novelist and activist Elif Shafak’s latest, moving novel about how the waters unite us across place and time.
4 Dream Count by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (Fourth Estate, $38)
5 The Vegetarian by Han Kang (Portobello Books, $28)
Since Kang won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2024 her novels have been selling in huge numbers. The Vegetarian is her most well known and for good reason: it is painful and painfully beautiful.
6 Long Island by Colm Tóibín (Picador, $38)
The sequel to Brooklyn.
7 Star Gazers by Duncan Sarkies (Te Herenga Waka University Press, $38)
The propulsive novel about the collapse of democracy among a society of alpaca breeders: you’ll find greed, you’ll find media hi-jinks, you’ll find goodies and baddies and you’ll find furry, innocent animals and what they can teach us about living a good life.
8 The Let Them Theory by Mel Robbins (Hay House, $32)
9 Abundance by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson (Profile Books, $49)
Pricey but sounds like a dose of what we all might need around about now. Here’s a snip from the publisher’s blurb:
“In this once-in-a-generation intervention, they unpick the barriers to progress and show how we can, and must, shift the political agenda to one that not only protects and preserves, but also builds. From healthcare to housing, infrastructure to innovation, they lay out a path to a future defined not by fear, but by abundance.”
10 Surplus Women by Michelle Duff (Te Herenga Waka University Press, $35)
A magnificent collection of short stories from an exceptional writer: each one is smart, funny and surprising. Read about how Michelle discovered the surplus women at the heart of her book in a wonderful essay published right here on The Spinoff.
