Best Reads 2016Like this list

16 items

• The Course of Love

  a Novel

  De Botton, Alain, 1969-

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  There are two threads in this book - the love story of Rabih and Kirsten, and the author's (italicized) comments on their story. You will either grow to love this (I did) or it will make you want to pluck the eyes out of your skull. Alain de Botton…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Our Souls at Night

  Haruf, Kent, 1943-2014

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  This small book proves that story-telling doesn't have to be complicated to be good. Haruf died shortly after completing this novel. If you want to read more from him, you can't go past his earlier novel Plainsong.

• The Expatriates

  Lee, Janice Y. K.

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  Every possible combination of fertility/non-fertility/unwanted fertility and - the heartbreaking actual loss of a child is explored through the lives of three Expats living in Hong Kong. I felt the tensions, I became immersed in that great city.…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Make Your Mark

  the New Urban Artists

  Manco, Tristan

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  Cutting edge art from young artists, many of whom are self taught and have clawed their way up from street art. Absolutely incredible drawings, paintings and structures from all over the world. Well worth reading as well as pigging out on the visual…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Sketchbooks

  Perry, Grayson, 1960-

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  Roberta's comment: "Sketchbooks" by transvestite artist Grayson Perry feels like the real deal. In this fascinating collection of his drawings we get to walk through Perry's light and dark sides in terrific explosions of colour and wit.

• The Portable Veblen

  McKenzie, Elizabeth, 1958-

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  This is an eccentric story of two highly intelligent, quirky characters, their love story, their dysfunctional families and squirrels. I don't even like squirrels all that much yet I loved this book.

• Britt-Marie Was Here

  a Novel

  Backman, Fredrik, 1981-

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  Author of A Man called Ove, Fredrick Backman excels again in a novel of kind-hearted misfits. This time the main character is a woman and the setting is a small town in a state of decline. Britt-Marie, whose marriage to Kent has gone all sorts of…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Odd Woman and the City

  a Memoir

  Gornick, Vivian, 1935-

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  Gornick is a Personal Narrative specialist. She walks the streets of New York - often with her gay friend Leonard and makes fascinating observations in interesting conversations: "Our subject is the unlived life." She is well into her 70's, loves…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Hot Milk

  Levy, Deborah, 1959-

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  Mothers and daughters - haven't we exhausted the potential of this theme? Not Yet. This Booker Prize 2016 Short-List novel is that and much much more. Bottom line - you need to live your own life, no matter how perplexing it may be.

• The Girl on the Train

  Hawkins, Paula, 1972-

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  I came to this partay a wee bit later than most fans. It cropped up as the Book Club read at one of the groups to which I belong. Maybe you have read the book, maybe you have seen the film - but let me just say that the book is better. Even though I…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Quiet Spectacular

  Fearnley, Laurence, 1963-

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  Set in Otago, this book is almost, but not quite, devoid of male characters. It is divided into three parts and each part tells the story from that character's perspective - a librarian (Loretta), a student (Chance) and an older woman grieving for…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Dad Art

  Wilkins, Damien, 1963-

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  I went to a WORD event (Tickled Fiction) where this author was on the panel to discuss humorous writing in NZ fiction. He read an extract from this book and it was hilarious. I'm not even a man and it could still have been me. Not for young people…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• This Must Be the Place

  O'Farrell, Maggie, 1972-

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  You need to be an accomplished author to jump from character to character and back and forth in time and still write a wonderful book. But in Maggie O'Farrell's hands, all this is possible. I loved this book for the dialogue and the characters. Even…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Glorious Heresies

  McInerney, Lisa, 1981-

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  New to my Book Group - that is correct, we don't just read "ladies literature"! Sex, Drugs, Murder, Bad Language and the underbelly of life in Cork, written in a style that careens around and is very funny indeed. Winner 2016: The Baileys Women’s…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Early Warning

  Smiley, Jane, 1949-

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  Pulitzer prize-winning author Jane Smiley's ambitious trilogy (based on a single family spanning decades of life and love) is a hymn of praise to family. This book is the second in the trilogy - they can be read separately, but probably best to…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Carriage House

  a Novel

  Hall, Louisa, 1982-

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  Fathers and Daughters this time. This book also has very few male characters, but the one that there is, is extremely impactful (if there be such a word) - a true patriarch. Until he has a stroke - at which things become a whole lot more…Read moreRead more of this annotation