Kia ora readers! As we welcome in a new month, we’re officially a quarter of the way through 2025. Where has the time gone?! Before we know it we’ll be gearing up for another holiday season and wrapping up our bookish gifts.
Our March Bestsellers saw readers loving fantastic local non-fiction, translated fiction & popular fandom titles! 📚✨ We break down all 9 books below...
#1: Our most popular book in March was the newly-released Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins. Sunrise is the latest prequel in the smash-hit Hunger Games book series, following character Haymitch Abernathy’s journey in the battle-royale slaughter set 24 years prior to the original sequel.
We completely sold out on release day thanks to your incredible support - thank you so much to our pre-order-ers and release-day buyers. Of note - Sunrise impressively took the #1 spot despite only launching on the 18th of the month!
#2: The Future of Democracy, Law & Government by Matthew Palmer and Mark Hickford appeared in our February 2025 bestsellers at #9, jumping up a few rungs to take second place in March!
This biography, as its subtitle "Contributions To A Conference In Honour Of Sir Geoffrey Palmer” suggests, outlines Rt Hon Sir Geoffrey Palmer KC’s rich and multifarious career in law and politics in New Zealand. Popular among our law customers, this is a must-have for any firm’s bookshelf.
#3: Coming in third on the March podium is Te Rangatahi Elementary 1 by Hoani Waititi Marae. This is the first book in a 3-part elementary series (with Advanced coursebooks also available) popular amongst teachers, professionals and general readers looking to begin their Reo journeys.
#4: Another local book on the bestseller list: Mahi A Atua by Mark and Diana Kopua was also released in March this year! Grounded in a Māori world view, this book outlines a wellbeing framework based around storytelling and traditional indigenous knowledge.
This framework can be applied to both tangata whenua and Pākehā alike looking for an alternative to westernised and colonialist methods of self-development.
#5: A reprint of the 1995 edition, Te Whatu Tāniko by Hirini Moko Mead contains easy-to-follow patterns and line-drawing instructions for the Māori art of traditional Taniko weaving.
Sir Hirini Moko Mead (Ngati Awa, Ngati Tuwharetoa, Tuhourangi) is a pre-eminent Maori writer, commentator and scholar. In the course of a distinguished academic career he has authored numerous books on Māori art (including Te Toi Whakairo: The Art of Maori Carving, with Oratia Books) and developed the first Department of Māori Studies in the country at Victoria University. He was knighted in 2009 for services to Māori and education.
#6: For fans of the cult-following cartoon Gravity Falls: The Book of Bill by show creator Alex Hirsch was March’s sixth most popular book. This chaotically beautiful hardback tome offers an insight into the series antagonist and "Big Bad Evil Guy" Bill Cipher, covering the television series plot from his perspective.
#7: 2024’s Booker Prize winner Orbital by Samantha Harvey tops the charts again this month at ubiq Bookshop. This small yet mighty novel follows a team of astronauts as they circle Earth sixteen times, witnessing natural disasters and feats of nature from the safety of the planet’s orbit.
#8: Translated from its native Japanese by Polly Barton, the English version of Butter by Asako Yuzuki chronicles an investigative journalist as she studies a convicted serial killer who would lure male victims via her gourmet cooking classes.
Against a backdrop of misogyny, the book (inspired by a true story "The Konkatsu Killer") sees journalist and chef-turned-murderer unite as an unlikely pairing through their shared interest of food.
#9: Rounding out our March Bestseller list is The Vegetarian by Han Kang, another translated work (from Korean to English by Deborah Smith) and another Booker Prize winner.
This beautiful, unsettling novel is set in three acts and follows a South Korean woman Yeong-hye who decides to rebel against tradition and adopt a vegetarian diet. From this decision, bizarre occurrences follow her in various parts of her life.