Gift Guide 2009

The Rehearsal by Eleanor Catton $27.00 VUP
Set in a high school beset with a student-teacher sex-scandal and a nearby drama school who stage a production based on the rumours, this is a surprising and original novel which plays with the idea of life as performance. Allegorical and symbolic unnamed figures, stage-like dialogue and dramatic structure, and a group of characters who all act as if everyone else in the world is just a supporting character for their own personal agendas add to the consciously artificial nature of the story. This impressive debut won the Best First Fiction Book Award at the Montana New Zealand Book Awards this year. - Karen McLeod Buy now
 
As the Earth Turns Silver by Alison Wong $37.00 Penguin
Alison Wong has crafted an interesting and poetically written exploration of local history which is also a moving human story. An unsanctioned affair between a Chinese grocer and a struggling widow set in Wellington at the beginning of last century seems doomed from the start. Simple and exquisite, the evocative cover perfectly suits the melancholic mood of this book. I read this in July and am still thinking about the tragedy of Katherine and Yung. - Karen McLeod Buy now

Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger $38.99 Jonathan Cape
If you loved the Time Traveller's Wife you may have been worried that Niffenegger's second novel couldn't be as good. Well, you can relax. The subject matter is different, but she deals in a similar, striking way with the emotions of her characters - love, loyalty, fear, ambition and envy - as they experience a series of traumatic reversals. When Elspeth dies and leaves her apartment to the twin daughters of her estranged twin, nobody can predict the morass of unhealed wounds and future complications which will ensue. I recommend you turn off your phone and buy some tissues before you start reading. - Karen McLeod Buy now
 
Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood $49.99 HB Bloomsbury
Set in the same world as Oryx & Crake and involving a few of the same characters, this novel expands on that book's horrific vision of a possible future. But while you're reading the book, although you remain aware of the warning messages Atwood is sending, they don't overwhelm the story: the "author's voice" disappears and you become fully involved with the dilemmas of Toby and Ren, who struggle to survive, both in the harsh society before the "Waterless Flood" and in the chaos that follows. - Karen McLeod Buy now

A Week in December by Sebastian Faulks $39.99 Hutchinson
As the circle line trains rumble below, a mix of modern day characters - from a shameless hedge fund manager to a wannabe terrorist - play out their London lives, which become increasingly interwoven. Insightful, informative and at times, a bit tongue-in-cheek. - Lauren Pratt Buy now
 
Novel About My Wife by Emily Perkins $27.99 Bloomsbury
Montana Medal Winner 2009: A beautiful yet disturbing read, this book stays with you long after you have finished it. - Lauren Pratt Buy now

The 10pm Question by Kate de Goldi $29.99 Longacre Press
There is a little bit of Frankie Parsons in all of us. A book to be read by young and old, The 10pm Question is engrossing, lively and touching. This novel was the Readers' Choice at the Montana NZ Book Awards, and winner of the Young Adult Fiction Category and Book of the Year in the New Zealand Post Book Awards earlier this year. - Lauren Pratt Buy now

Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri $27.99 Bloomsbury
This a beautiful and eloquent collection of short stories by a Pulitzer Prize-winning author. Each story explores a different aspect of the immigrant experience, expanding on themes Lahiri has previously explored in her works The Namesake and Interpreter of Maladies. From America to Italy, India to Thailand, the reader rides with characters young and old as they navigate lands that are not their own. The final piece, the three-part Hema & Kaushik, charts the increasingly complex and intertwined interaction of two immigrant families, concluding with an unexpected and affecting climax. - Lauren Pratt Buy now

More great short story collections, as recommended by Juliet Blyth:
The Thing Around Your Neck by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie $36.99 HarperCollins Buy now

Too Much Happiness by Alice Munro $54.99 HB Chatto & Windus Buy now

This year I discovered Richard Yates through Revolutionary Road ($26.99 Vintage) and went on to read a few of his others, most notably
Easter Parade.

The Slap by Christos Tsiolkas ($37.99 Allen & Unwin) was definitely a book of the year, (Buy now) as were Good to a Fault by Marina Endicott ($35.00 Allen & Unwin) Buy now,
The Big Girls by Susanna Moore ($31.00 Vintage) Buy now
and This is How by M J Hyland ($37.00 Text)Buy now. All are thoroughly dark and depressing
but so compulsively readable.  - Juliet Blyth

 

 

Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel $36.99 Fourth Estate Wolf Hall is, remarkably, a story largely untold in the recent flood of Tudor tales.  If you find Philippa Gregory a little light, and Alison Weir too linear, then Hilary Mantel's Man Booker Prize-winner may be what you have been waiting for.  Mantel casts new and slightly sympathetic light on Thomas Cromwell, a man feared and reviled in equal measure.  She manages to speculate with resonance, while retaining historical accuracy where others sacrifice it.  I finished this large book knowing that Cromwell still had five years to live, and eagerly looking forward to Mantel's take on that tumultuous time. - Chris Murray Buy now

 

The top of my list for light reading are the Millenium Trilogy thrillers by Stieg Larsson:
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, available in a regular edition, special edition and soon to be released with a film related cover $28.99 each, Quercus Buy now. 

Book Two is The Girl Who Played With Fire $28.99 Quercus Buy now, and just released is the third and final book, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest $37.99 Quercus Buy now

 - Bruce Kean

Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut $12.95 Penguin Books
Vonnegut at his very best, this little gem explores society, religion, politics and war under the setting of a satirical science fiction novel.  Subversive and utterly relevant to contemporary times Cat's Cradle is an absolute steal at $12.95 in the Popular Penguin series. - Tammy Stretton Buy now

Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison $26.00 Penguin
A startling insight into the nightmarish racism faced by a young black man in 1950s Southern United States. It is not hard to see how this harrowing novel released in 1953 is still regarded as a modern classic. - Tammy Stretton Buy now

Beats by Harvey Pekar $44.99 Souvenir Press
In graphic novel format, this visual feast follows the history of the beat movement and the lives of three prominent figures within it, William S. Burrows, Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg.  An informative introduction to the movement which uses detailed illustrations to relate the harrowing and often sordid world of the Beats . - Tammy Stretton Buy now

The Guernsey Literary & Potato-Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer $27.99 Allen & Unwin
A charmingly crafted story that will draw in even the most reluctant romantic. These letters bring to life the experience of Guernsey Islanders during German Occupation. This is my kind of war history. - Elinor Thomas Buy now

Bodies by Susie Orbach $35.00 Profile Books
Susie Orbach's latest book Bodies views the contemporary pre-occupation with the perfect body as an expensive, destructive and time wasting enterprise. By bringing bodies back into the psychotherapist's office Orbach follows in the well worn steps of the Buddhist tradition of mindfulness and embodied living. Orbach reminds us with overwhelming evidence that we are not living in a post-feminist era, that the issues she fought to highlight in Fifi (Fat is a Feminist Issue), eating disorders such as Anorexia and Bulimia have grown and not decreased in the last thirty years and now effect men as well as women. Susie Orbach's voice is a powerful reminder to the public to maintain a critical eye on our consumer driven society in order that the purchase of new faces, breasts and other body parts via cosmetic surgical reconstruction does not become the norm. Bodies  is a street-wise-woman's call to arms to reclaim our right to think for and accept ourselves in order to enjoy an embodied life. - Anne Holleron Buy now