The Unity Books bestseller chart for the week ending September 23

The only best-selling independent books chart published and available in New Zealand is the Top 10 list recorded each week at Unity Books stores in High St, Auckland and Willis St, Wellington.

AUCKLAND

1 Course by Ian McEwan (Jonathon Cape, $37)

New novel from the master of literary masters, Ian McEwan. A tantalizing summary straight from the publisher’s press:

“While the world still counts the cost of World War II and the Iron Curtain has fallen, the life of young Roland Baines is turned upside down. Stranded in boarding school, his vulnerability attracts his piano teacher, Miriam Cornell, leaving scars and a memory of love that will never fade.

“Twenty-five years later, as radiation from the Chernobyl disaster spreads across Europe, Roland’s wife mysteriously disappears and he is forced to face the reality of his rootless existence and seek answers. in his family history.

“From the fall of the Berlin Wall to the Covid pandemic and climate change, Roland sometimes follows in the footsteps of history but more often fights against it. Haunted by missed opportunities, he seeks solace in every possible way: literature, travel, friendship, drugs, politics, sex and love.

2 Before your memory fades by Toshikazu Kawaguchi (Picador, $25)

The new Japanese time travel coffee novel from the series Before the Coffee Gets Cold. inexplicablyeveryone reads it.

3 The English text of the Treaty of Waitangi by Ned Fletcher (Bridget Williams Books, $70)

Legal historian Ned Fletcher discussed his new book – arguably the most important read of the year – with the New Zealand Herald“It is a very strong opinion in our history that the two texts of the treaty do not reconcile, that there was a mistranslation, that in all likelihood it was a deliberate mistranslation, and that the treaty is a fraud.

“My main point of difference from the mainstream of New Zealand scholarship is that I think the two texts reconcile, that sovereignty was not this monolithic beast that meant absolute, indivisible and complete power, but that sovereignty as used in the treaty was consistent with plurality in government and law and that means sovereignty or kāwanatanga is reconciled with rangatiratanga.

“And on the British side, they were perfectly happy with the idea of ​​Maori continuing to run their own affairs.”

4 Kurangaituku by Whiti Hereaka (Huia Editors, $35)

The winner of this year’s Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction, and the new winner of the Allen & Unwin Award for Best Commercial Book for Adults at the PANZ Book Design Awards. And according to essa may ranapiri, the literary vessel for hot gay sex.

5 First person singular: stories by Haruki Murakami (Vintage, $24)

Short stories from the master of magic realism, published after Murakami’s death poetically poured out by Michelle Langstone.

6 Things we lost in the water by Eric Nguyen (Vintage, $37)

The best-selling and moving first novel about a Vietnamese immigrant family who settles in New Orleans, leaving behind a family member.

seven The Stoic Daily: 366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance and the Art of Living by Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman (Profile Books, $28)

Readers say smugly, “Forget the coffee. It’s my new daily pick-me-up.

8 Yes, Minister: An Insider’s Account of John’s Key Years by Chris Finlayson (Allen & Unwin, $37)

Essential reading for the politician in your life. A taste, via Toby Manhire, here.

9 The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller (Bloomsbury, $25)

A 2011 novel that leaves readers in tears and which has experienced renewed fervor since the phenomenon that BookTok.

ten ceremony of life by Sayaka Murata (Granta, $33)

Treat time! A short story book by Sayaka Murata – author of the best-selling Convenience Store Woman – has just been translated into English. The editor describes the stories as “eerie, out of this world and like nothing you’ve read before”. One short story is about a girl’s obsession with her curtains, and another is about people eating their dead to honor them…so we’d say, yeah, that sounds good.

WELLINGTON

1 The bullet that missed by Richard Osman (Viking, $37)

The third book in the Thursday Murder Club series is out, and Wellington is thrilled to have received another dose of these mystery-solving retirees.

2 imagining decolonization by Rebecca Kiddle, Bianca Elkington, Moana Jackson, Ocean Ripeka Mercier, Mike Ross, Jennie Smeaton and Amanda Thomas (Bridget Williams Books, $15)

As brilliant and popular as if he were born yesterday.

3 Nona the ninth by Tamsyn Muir (Tor, $38)

The third book in the Locked Tomb fantasy series has been released. Publisher’s Weekly called it “typically brilliant”.

4 Course by Ian McEwan (Jonathon Cape, $37)

5 The portrait of marriage by Maggie O’Farrell (Knopf, $38)

Maggie O’Farrell followed her historical fiction hit Hamnet with a story about the life and suspicious untimely death of Lucrezia, the third daughter of Cosimo I de’ Medici, ruler of Florence. It was met with mixed reviews from the Guardian (“melodrama reworked to appeal to progressive 21st century audiences”) and the New York Times (“ridiculous”).

6 Undoctored: The story of a doctor who ran out of patients by Adam Kay (Trapeze, $38)

New non-fiction from the author of the ultra-bestseller This is Going to Hurt, where Adam Kay told all about his experience as a young doctor in the NHS. Is Undoctored as good as its predecessor? These people say yes:

“Brilliant – even better than it will hurt.” –Jacqueline Wilson

“Just as funny as the first, just as powerful, surprising and unwavering.” –David Whitehouse

seven The English text of the Treaty of Waitangi by Ned Fletcher (Bridget Williams Books, $70)

8 We do not know each other by Fintan O’Toole (Head of Zeus, $37)

A new story of modern Ireland, from O’Toole’s birth in 1958 – the year the Irish government opened the country to foreign investment. The New York Times writes: “Indeed, it is not a memoir, nor an absolute history, nor quite a personal reflection or a twilight credo. It is, in fact, all of these helical things together: his life, his country, his thoughts, his apprehensions, his anger, his pride, his doubt, it all belongs to us, ultimately.

9 I’m glad my mother died by Jennette McCurdy (Simon & Schuster, $56)

iCarly and Sam & Cat actress Jennette McCurdy has released a confessional memoir that has received universal praise. Despite his sobering background as a child actor — eating disorders, addiction, and a very dysfunctional relationship with his mother — it’s still a book that is described as “extremely funny” by Time, “laugh-out -loud-funny” by Shondaland and “mordantly funny” by The New York Times.

ten Before the coffee gets cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi (Picador, $20)

The original time travel coffee novel, boosted by the release of Before Your Memory Fades.