Staff Picks - Best Books of 2012: Megan

 

May We Be Forgiven by AM Homes

I was highly amused by A.M. Homes book May We Be Forgiven. In the tradition of Jonathan Franzen (however with characters you can actually like) we find ourselves ensconced in the domestic dramas of American people going about their privileged yet dysfunctional lives. That's not to say that the characters in this book don't have good cause to be acting up, afterall one of them has just killed an entire family in a road crash, and the rest seem to be struggling with the guilt that has engulfed them all. What's funny so far, I hear you say? Well, that's a good point. This book walks that narrow line. Whilst it is a moving exposition of tragedy, the sublimely farcical elements that are injected throughout make this a completely compelling read. Very dark, very funny, very readable. My favourite book of the year. 

HhhH by Laurent Binet

I've put this book on my list mainly because it was just so memorable. An unusual book that blended the writer's journey with a historical fiction narrative, HhhH is the story of Heydrich, one of the most feared officers in the Nazi regime and second in charge to Himmler. Laurent Binet, the author of HhhH inserts himself into the book by clueing the reader into his writer's angst. How can a novelist be true to the reader and also be true to history? Does a simple description of a favoured vehicle reveal a lack of research, does a thought attributed to a real person mislead? At times, Binet's insertions detract from the story of Heydrich, however the book as a whole is utterly fascinating, thought-provoking and refreshingly original. 

 

Phaidon Archive of Graphic Design 

Okay, so I'm showing my true colours now. I love design, but I also love having a little knowledge about a lot of things. It's a character flaw, but how can I help it when publishers like Phaidon keep on feeding it. The Archive features 500 influential graphic designs on each "page" with one large image on one side and descriptions from experts and further illustration on the other. Just looking at it makes you smarter. Okay, so they are not really pages. The Archive is one large file box with 500 cards which you can organise and re-organise to your heart's content by whatever filing method you might choose (okay showing another weird peronality trait). You can even choose to frame them or use them as educational cards during dinner parties when your friends show a complete lack of knowledge about the font you used on their place cards. I've already had a lot of fun with my Archive. But in all seriousness, this is the book for design enthusiasts. Great content and above all a kick-ass presentation box that will guarantee a happy dance from the coolest of your friends.

- Megan

Staff Picks - Best Books of 2012: Antonia

Swimming Home by Deborah Levy

I'd loved Alison's Moore's The Lighthouse - which was also shortlisted for The Booker this year - and Swimming Home is similarly a short, tight and powerful novel. But while The Lighthouse has a meandering ambiguous quality to its story, Swimming Home is considerably more resonant and dramatic. There are so many phrases, sentences and paragraphs in the book that sing. The novel explores the devastating effect that depression can have on apparently stable, well-turned-out people. Set in a summer villa, the story is tautly structured, taking place over a single week in which a group of beautiful, flawed tourists in the French Riviera come loose at the seams.

 

May We Be Forgiven by AM Homes

I'd not read any of AM Homes's novels until this one, and I enjoyed May We Be Forgiven so much that I'll definitely be looking at her backlist. Critically acclaimed as belonging to the tradition of  Jonathan Franzen and Suri Hustvedt (The Guardian said it had ‘the narrative intensity of Franzen’s The Corrections and the emotional punch of Hustvedt’s What I Loved’), this is an exploration of family life beginning at a Thanksgiving celebration, a novel about connections, broken, made and remade, existing physically, emotionally and, increasingly, electronically. One of the strongest openings in fiction that I've read for ages - just start reading and you won't be able to stop. The sort of book that makes you excited about books all over again.

The Hanging Garden by Patrick White

2012 was all about Patrick White: May marked the centenary of his birth, Happy Valley was finally republished as a Text Classic after being out of print for decades, the excellent Patrick White exhibition visited the State Library, and we were treated to publication of his previously unpublished novel The Hanging Garden. Whether you've long been a fan of Patrick White or haven't read him yet, I do urge you to read The Hanging Garden. Two children are brought to a wild garden on the shores of Sydney Harbour to shelter from the Second World War. The boy's mother has died in the Blitz. The girl is the daughter of a Sydney woman and a Communist executed in a Greek prison. In wartime Australia, these two children form an extraordinary bond as they negotiate the dangers of life as strangers abandoned on the far side of the world.