The top 10 sales lists recorded every week at Unity Books\u2019 stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.<\/p>\n
AUCKLAND<\/p>\n
1 The Valley: Crime and Punishment in a New Zealand City<\/a> by Asher Emanuel (Bridget Williams Books, $40)<\/p>\n The most important book of 2026?\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n 2 One Last Question, Prime Minister<\/a> by Barry Soper (HarperCollins, $40)<\/p>\n \u201cThe part-memoir, part-political history retraces the five decades Soper spent working in parliament\u2019s press gallery, chaptered by the 12 prime ministers who ruled the roost throughout his working career. From Robert Muldoon to Christopher Luxon, no one is spared from Soper\u2019s honest thoughts or the insider gossip he\u2019s collected on them \u2013 though one particular Labour leader cops far more flak than most.\u201d Read the rest of The Spinoff\u2019s Lyric Waiwiri-Smith\u2019s review of Soper\u2019s memoir, here<\/a>.<\/p>\n 3 All Her Lives: Nine Stories<\/a>\u00a0by Ingrid Horrocks (Te Herenga Waka University Press, $35)<\/p>\n Exquisite, deft, award-winning short stories.<\/p>\n 4 Things We Never Say<\/a>\u00a0by Elizabeth Strout (Viking Penguin, $38)<\/p>\n Another poignant yet somehow sharp banger from Strout.<\/p>\n 5 No Pit Stops<\/a>\u00a0by Grant Baker (Mary Egan Publishing, $38)<\/p>\n The life story of business guy Grant Baker.<\/p>\n 6 John of John<\/a>\u00a0by Douglas Stewart (Picador, $38)<\/p>\n From the writer of the heartbreaking but sublime novel, Shuggie Bain. Here\u2019s a snippet from Yagnishsing Dawoor\u2019s review in The Guardian<\/a>: \u201cSet within a tight-knit Free Presbyterian community of farmers, weavers and fishers in what appears to be the 1990s, John of John tells the story of Cal\u2019s uneasy homecoming. It\u2019s a reprise of the parable of the prodigal son and an ardent exploration of the half-lives of queer men condemned to love, pine and suffer in silence. Intimate yet epic in scale, it contains equal parts pastoral drama, tale of familial fracture, love story and inquiry into various forms of loneliness: the loneliness that can reside between fathers and sons, between lovers, between man and God, and between a small place and the big world.\u201d<\/p>\n 7 Yesteryear<\/a>\u00a0by Caro Claire Burke (Fourth Estate, $37)<\/p>\n Time travelling trad wife.<\/p>\n 8 Taiwan Travelogue<\/a>\u00a0by Yang Shuang-Zi (Scribe Pubs Pty, $38)<\/p>\n Winner of the International Booker Prize 2026!<\/p>\n 9 Project Hail Mary<\/a> by Andy Weir (Penguin, $28)<\/p>\n The people can\u2019t get enough of this alien optimism.<\/p>\n 10 Empire of AI<\/a> by Karen Hao (Penguin, $35)<\/p>\n When Karen Hao appeared at Auckland Writers Festival recently she mentioned that an AI resistance website was coming \u2026 and now it\u2019s here<\/a>!<\/p>\n WELLINGTON<\/p>\n 1 The Valley: Crime and Punishment in a New Zealand City<\/a> by Asher Emanuel (Bridget Williams Books, $40)<\/p>\n 2 One Last Question, Prime Minister<\/a> by Barry Soper (HarperCollins, $40)<\/p>\n 3 All Her Lives: Nine Stories<\/a>\u00a0by Ingrid Horrocks (Te Herenga Waka University Press, $35)<\/p>\n 4 Zines NZ: Punk to Present<\/a> by Bryce Galloway (Massey University Press, $60)<\/p>\n An impressive history of Aotearoa zines which map histories of fringe resistance and art and ideas.<\/p>\n 5 Things We Never Say<\/a>\u00a0by Elizabeth Strout (Viking Penguin, $38)<\/p>\n 6 No Pit Stops<\/a>\u00a0by Grant Baker (Mary Egan Publishing, $38)<\/p>\n 7 Platform Decay<\/a> by Martha Wells (Tor Books, $38)<\/p>\n The latest muderbot diary.<\/p>\n 8 The Correspondent<\/a> by Virginia Evans (Michael Joseph, $38)<\/p>\n The epistolatory novel of the moment.<\/p>\n 9 John of John<\/a>\u00a0by Douglas Stewart (Picador, $38)<\/p>\n