FREE BEST OF 2017 THE BEST BOOKS, MUSIC, FILM & TV OF THE YEAR 2 READINGS MONTHLY BEST OF 2017 Fiction Non-fiction Here are the 10 best fiction books of 2017, as voted by the Readings team. We invited our Below are the 10 best non-fiction books of 2017, as voted by the Readings team. We invited staff to wax lyrical on why these books are among their personal favourites. our staff to wax lyrical on why these books are among their personal favourites. PACHINKO GOODBYE, THE TRAUMA KILLERS OF THE Min Jin Lee VITAMIN CLEANER FLOWER MOON Head of Zeus. PB. $22.99 Rachel Khong Sarah Krasnostein David Grann Family and history come Scribner. PB. $29.99 Text. PB. Was $32.99 S&S. PB. $32.99 together in this captivating A sharply observed, wry $29.99 This incredible literary saga that spans nearly 100 account of a woman who Sarah Krasnostein does a true-crime tells the entwined years. Pachinko follows the comes home to care for her marvellous job of illuminating stories of the serial murders multi-generational story of father with Alzheimer's disease, Sandra Pankhurst the person, of the members of one oil-rich a Korean family and their personal struggles as Goodbye, Vitamin pulls off the difficult trick of and the world of a trauma cleaner (possibly one of Osage Indian family in the 1920s, the birth of immigrants in Japan. Lee captures the subtlety being a funny book about sad things. Told in short the most interesting jobs around). As fascinating as the FBI’s homicide unit (under a young J. Edgar of human emotion with a masterful eye and and well-crafted scenes that build together to make her work is, it’s the vignettes of Pankhurst’s early Hoover), and shocking, large-scale truths about raises important questions of identity and something incredibly heartfelt by the end. life and upbringing in Melbourne, interspersed the treatment of Native Americans. Enthralling, belonging. A compelling read. – Chris Somerville, Readings Online throughout, that make it so compelling. addictive and revelatory. – Isabel Baranowski, Readings Hawthorn – Julia Jackson, Readings Carlton – Jo Case, Readings Doncaster JEAN HARLEY CONVERSATIONS WAS HERE ADULT FANTASY A WRITING LIFE Bernadette Brennan WITH FRIENDS Heather Taylor Briohny Doyle Text. PB. $32.99 Sally Rooney Johnson Scribe. PB. $29.99 Faber. PB. $27.99 UQP. PB. $29.95 A deeply personal answer to I loved this book; I couldn’t This debut from a young Charmingly written, this how we should live within a put it down. I’m an Irish writer is one of the is the story of Jean Harley, fundamentally unsympathetic unabashed fan of Helen most buzzed-about books who we never actually meet. economic system. Blending Garner’s work and have been of the year – deservedly so. Instead, we meet the people in her life who are memoir and cultural criticism, ever since the publication of The heartbeat of this incredible novel lies in its impacted when she’s knocked off her bike by a this is an inquiry into why millennials are not her first book, Monkey Grip. This portrait more witty, startling dialogue, played out between two van on her way to work. Full of heart and soul, ‘adulting’, and a sharp analysis of traditional than does its subject justice, helping to put her college students (ex-girlfriends, now best friends) this book is one of the year’s best. adult milestones. Doyle has modern Australia works in context. Bernadette Brennan has done and an older married couple. Rooney’s prose is – Gabrielle Williams, Readings Malvern nailed in this vividly observed book. us all a great favour. – Mark Rubbo, Readings dazzling, her emotional intelligence acute. – Kushla Egan, Readings Carlton MANHATTAN – Stella Charls, Readings events TRACKER BEACH HUNGER Alexis Wright A LONG WAY Jennifer Egan Roxane Gay Giramondo. PB. FROM HOME Corsair. PB. Was $32.99 Corsair. PB. $32.99 Was $39.95 Peter Carey $27.99 An honest, superbly written $34.99 Hamish Hamilton. HB. Taking us from Brooklyn memoir. Roxane Gay How do you tell the Was $39.99 in the Great Depression to describes the trauma that unconventional story $29.99 World War II, Manhattan was inflicted on her as a of someone whose bold Irene and Titch Bobs Beach is a masterful novel of America’s growth teenager, and how that ideas challenged the status quo? Enter this love cars – and with their toward global superpower. As Anna Kerrigan impacts on her relationship with food and her ‘collective biography’ of Tracker Tilmouth, strange neighbour, Willie Bachhuber, they strives to escape the boredom of work at the body. Gay writes about being large in a society Stolen Generations sufferer turned land-rights embark on the drive of their lives around Brooklyn Naval Yard, the world begins to change that values thinness, and how this makes her champion. Alexis Wright weaves shared time, Australia in the famous Redex Endurance and reveal its possibilities. It is a story of striving both highly visible, and conversely, invisible. A Aboriginal triumph and colonial transgression. trial. Along the way, they encounter wonderful and self-doubt, thrillingly alive and beautifully must-read feminist memoir. Crucial reading! characters and Willie discovers his past. The written. As close to perfect as a book gets. – Annie Condon, Readings Hawthorn – Chris Dite, Readings Carlton two-time Booker winner will surely be up for a – Robbie Egan, Readings Carlton third with this creation. INSOMNIAC SAGA LAND THE TOWN – Mark Rubbo, Readings CITY Richard Fidler & Shaun Prescott Bill Hayes Kári Gíslason Brow Books. PB. $29.99 THE POWER Bloomsbury. HB. $29.99 ABC Books. HB. Naomi Alderman A bit like many things, nothing Insomniac City – a memoir Was $39.99 Penguin. PB. $19.99 quite like anything else, Shaun about a life in New York $34.99 Prescott’s The Town might written by the partner of The year’s Bailey’s prize- Two men, friends with be Wake in Fright written Oliver Sacks – is perhaps the winner is a mad, glorious, a shared interest, set by Dostoyevsky (as a try-out most touching, tender book I’ve had the pleasure thrilling ride through an off on an adventure, to explore Iceland and its for Notes from Underground). But it’s funnier. to read. It’s the kind of story to hold and return alternative future where sagas. The Icelandic Sagas form one of the great It’s a plot full of holes and a story without end. to, a memoir of what it is to love, to lose, to live women become the dominant bodies of literature and Saga Land succeeds in Something’s always happening but there's nothing in a city and to connect. sex after waging a brutal and bloody war on conveying both its greatness and its humanity, going on – life’s a bit like that, and The Town is men. Full of brilliant insights on gender politics, – Amy Vuleta, Readings St Kilda while taking you on a rollicking good adventure full of life – running on empty. power, religion and violence, The Power has all around a strange and distant land. – Mark Luffman, Readings Hawthorn WHY I’M NO the hallmarks of a modern classic. – Marie Matteson, Readings Carlton – Lian Hingee, Readings Online LONGER GRAVITY WELL TALKING TO UTOPIA FOR ANYTHING IS Melanie Joosten WHITE PEOPLE REALISTS POSSIBLE Scribe. PB. $29.99 ABOUT RACE Rutger Bregman Elizabeth Strout An exquisite exploration of Reni Eddo-Lodge Bloomsbury. PB. $21.99 Viking. HB. $29.99 grief and loss, family and Bloomsbury. PB. $27.99 By most measures we’ve The thing that consistently friendship. These entwined A passionate, timely exposition achieved a lot in the world – gets me about Elizabeth tales follow two women, of structural racism, power and privilege, this is fewer people live in poverty, Strout is her surprising once best friends – and essential reading for anyone interested in equity people live longer, infant sense of scale. Gradually, circles back to confront the taboo that broke and justice. It traverses the personal and political mortality rates are dropping, literacy rates are all her small details, her moments of good and their friendship, and the traumas that have to illuminate race politics in contemporary Britain, climbing and there’s been no major war since bad communication, build up to a greater life broken them now. Honest and interrogative, throwing down the gauntlet for greater compassion 1939. Yet we know all is not right; in this exciting picture, all with that cold, strange, Fargo-esque infused with feeling, this is a beautiful book by and sharpened understanding. Powerful writing book, Rutger Bregman offers some solutions for atmosphere. I like it all. an accomplished Australian author. from a young writer to watch. making our societies even better. – Oliver Driscoll, Readings Doncaster – Jo Case, Readings Doncaster – Leanne Hall, Readings Carlton – Mark Rubbo, Readings READINGS MONTHLY BEST OF 2017 3 Art & Design Food & Garden Here are the 10 best art & design books of 2017, as voted by the Readings team. Readings Here are the 10 best cookbooks and gardening books of 2017, as voted by the Readings Doncaster's Ellen Cregan, an art & design enthusiast, introduces these beautiful books. team. Our Readings Monthly food & gardening columnist, Chris Gordon, gives you a taste. LAUREN AUSTRALIANA OSTRO MR & MRS GREENFIELD: TO ZEITGEIST Julia Busuttil WILKINSON’S GENERATION Melissa Loughnan Nishimura HOW IT IS AT WEALTH T&H. PB. $49.99 Plum. PB. Was $44.99 HOME Lauren Greenfield Anyone interested in $39.99 Matt Wilkinson & Phaidon. HB. $110 contemporary Australian Melbourne-based Italian Sharlee Gibb In this fascinating, art should have this book.