Irish Bestsellers 6th June 2020

The book chart scene still isn’t back to normal this week, as although many of the Top 20 are 2020 publications, there are still lots of older, favourite books making the grade as people seek familiarity, comfort and enlightenment. As well as, of course, the best ways to eat during quarantine without gaining too much weight (The Daly Dish, Trisha’s Transformation and both Pinch of Nom cookbooks, I’m looking at you). There’s a substantial difference in the two Fiction charts, too. While the Mass Market Top 10 shows clear signs of comfort reading—Conversations with Friends by Sally Rooney, Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng, and nothing from this year—the Original Fiction chart is much more up to date, with all 10 entries being 2020 releases.

This week’s featured book is also a 2020 release, and a good one to see right now, in the current climate. Don’t Touch My Hair by Emma Dabiri is in the Paperback Non-Fiction chart at no. 10 and hopefully we’ll see it around for a good long while. Here’s the blurb:

‘Groundbreaking . . . a scintillating, intellectual investigation into black women and the very serious business of our hair, as it pertains to race, gender, social codes, tradition, culture, cosmology, maths, politics, philosophy and history’ Bernardine Evaristo

From women’s solidarity and friendship to forgotten African scholars and the dubious provenance of Kim Kardashian’s braids, the scope of black hairstyling ranges from pop culture to cosmology, from prehistoric times to the (afro)futuristic. Uncovering sophisticated indigenous mathematical systems in black hairstyles, alongside styles that served as secret intelligence networks leading enslaved Africans to freedom, Don’t Touch My Hair proves that far from being only hair, black hairstyling culture can be understood as an allegory for black oppression and, ultimately, liberation.

SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2019 IRISH BOOK AWARDS

And now the charts, with the Top 20 followed by the Top 10 in each category.