The top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.

AUCKLAND

1 Better the Blood by Michael Bennett (Simon & Schuster, $27)

Second week in a row!

2 A Different Kind of Power by Jacinda Ardern (Penguin, $60)

The former prime minister’s memoir.

3 The River is Waiting by Wally Lamb (Simon & Schuster, $40)

Good Readers are mostly digging it, giving this latest Lamb a 4.44 rating on 20,333 votes so far. However sounds like you must brace yourself for the beginning: “One of the most shocking and heartbreaking first chapters I’ve ever read,” says one reviewer.

4 Polkinghorne: Inside the Trial of the Century by Steve Braunias (Allen & Unwin, $38) 

One of the most sensationalised court cases in recent memory.

5 1985 by Dominic Hoey (Penguin, $38)

Brilliant, propulsive, warm, generous novel about growing up in Grey Lynn in the 80s.

6 Strange Pictures by Uketsu (Pushkin Press, $37)

A murder mystery involving pictures as clues.

7 The Emperor of Gladness by Ocean Vuong (Jonathan Cape, $38)

Vuong’s much-praised, Oprah-approved second novel.

8 The Safe Keep by Yael van der Wouden (Penguin, $26) 

Rightful winner of this year’s Women’s Prize for fiction.

9 Mahi A Atua by Mark & Diana Kopua (Huia Publishers, $55) 

Huia have been busy! Here’s the blurb for this latest publication: “Mahi a Atua is a Māori wellbeing framework based around storytelling. Grounded in a Mori Māori view, this approach is designed to foster transformation and systemic change and indigenise practices, institutions and personal and professional spaces. The knowledge, messages and principles within purākau spark conversations aimed at promoting wellbeing, consciousness raising and healing.”

10 Fulvia by Kaarina Parker (Echo Publishing, $37)

Caeden at Unity Books Auckland says that “this novel brings something bold, new, and refreshing to ancient world retellings. Parker has done her research to make sure her writing is as authentic as possible, while telling a story that’s scarily appropriate for the current political moment. An excellent novel of ambition, power, and infamy.”

WELLINGTON

1 The Stars Are A Million Glittering Worlds by Gina Butson (Allen & Unwin, $38)

“In January 2023, I wrote a story and named it for a mountain in Guatemala. But the deep-sea root of the story was something my mother told me a year or so before she died. . .” Butson wrote about the various inspirations for her debut novel right here on The Spinoff.

2 Stone & Sky #10 The Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch (Orion Books, $38)

The latest in the bestselling detective series.

3 A Different Kind of Power by Jacinda Ardern (Penguin, $60)

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 Claire Mabey in her rave review. “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 Mātauranga Māori by Hirini Moko Mead (Huia Publishers, $45)

Everything you need to know about mātauranga from an authority on the subject.

6 Polkinghorne: Inside the Trial of the Century by Steve Braunias (Allen & Unwin, $38) 

7 Careless People by Sarah Wynn-Williams (Macmillan, $40)

She’s baaackkkkk. Shark attack victim and Zuck victim Wynn-Williams’ memoir contains some unsurprising but still fascinating/horrifying perspectives on working for Meta and the people who run it. Read a review of the book on The Spinoff, here.

8 I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman (Vintage, $33)

A community of women and a post-apocalyptic world.

9 Is a River Alive? By Robert Macfarlane (Penguin, $65)

Acclaimed nature writer Robert Macfarlane explores the nature of rivers and how people relate to them.

10 Pūkeko Who-Keko? by Toby Morris (Puffin, $21)

Full of delightful gags, linguistic play and wonderful illustrations, this is a bird book you can get behind.