Happy’s Best New Books (13th September – 19th September)
Updated weekly by the fine folk at Happy Mag, these are the best new books that this week has to offer from Australia and around the world!
Colson Whitehead – Harlem Shuffle
Dual Pulitzer Prize-winner and master of historically based fiction Colson Whitehead has returned with Harlem Shuffle. This time, Whitehead invites readers into this famed pocket of New York City in the 1960s, introducing us to Ray Carney. One on hand, he’s a respectable pillar of the community and family man. On the other, he dabbles in the disreputable ‘industries’ of the neighbourhood to keep his head above water. As always with Colson Whitehead, a faraway world is rendered with vivid detail and beauty.
9.6
BUY HERE
COLSON WHITEHEAD
HARLEM SHUFFLE
Gabrielle Chan – Why You Should Give a F*ck About Farming
Farming is an industry connected to everything that we consume. And in Australia — a country especially prone to extremes in weather variations — we should be doubly aware of the fragility of the environment and proactively planning for the future. Instead, as Gabrielle Chan points out, we’ve become increasingly detached from the realities of farming and its centrality to our existence. This book will shake you out of your complacency.
9.3
BUY HERE
GABRIELLE CHAN
WHY YOU SHOULD GIVE A F*CK ABOUT FARMING
Fran Lebowitz – The Fran Lebowitz Reader
No one has cut a trail through the cultural life of New York like Fran Lebowitz. For the past 50 years, she’s observed various phenomena of existence through the lens of the metropolis, but her expert commentary on what makes us tick isn’t contained by city blocks. The Fran Lebowitz Reader is the definitive collection of her essays, dished up with irreverence, insight, and probably the most hilarious writing that’s ever been committed to the page.
9.4
BUY HERE
FRAN LEBOWITZ
THE FRAN LEBOWITZ READER
Lucy Neave – Believe In Me
Spanning generations and continents — while exploring the connections and disconnections between them — Believe In Me is a powerful tale. Lucy Neave gracefully depicts the story of Sarah, her displacement, and eventual journey into motherhood. Her daughter explores the past in an effort to complete the picture of her own identity, in this intimate and at times heartbreaking novel.
9.2
BUY HERE
LUCY NEAVE
BELIEVE IN ME
Choi Eunyoung – Shoko’s Smile
Shoko’s Smile is already a bona fide literary sensation in Choi Eunyoung’s home country of South Korea. Comprising of seven stories that ostensibly detail human relationships — centred around young Korean women — this collection grapples with a lot more. What makes the book remarkable is that the themes are effortlessly carried with an extremely economical sparseness and intricacy that’s juxtaposed against deadpan interactions.
9.1
BUY HERE
CHOI EUNYOUNG
SHOKO’S SMILE
Alison MacLeod – Tenderness
In this ambitious epic, Alison MacLeod threads together seemingly disparate, yet influential figures of the early 20th century: Lady Chatterley’s Lover author D.H. Lawrence, First Lady of the United States, Jackie Kennedy, and FBI director, J. Edgar Hoover. Spanning a massive period of time, it takes into account the launch of Lawrence’s famously controversial novel, its censorship, and the struggle to set it free. More than that, it’s a meditation on the impact of literature on our imaginations.
9.2
BUY HERE
