Happy’s Best New Books (19th May – 25th May)
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!
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!
Chloe Hooper – Bedtime Stories
Chloe Hooper – Bedtime Stories
A memoir/manual of the personal kind. When Chloe Hooper’s partner is diagnosed with a rare and aggressive illness, she sets out to find her own way to prepare their two young sons for loss. Turning to the bookshelf, she looks for the perfect story, hoping to find the right kind of practical literature perfect for her children. With the aid of innocent orphans and evil adults, magic, monsters, and anthropomorphic animals— Chloe finds a way to teach her children about grief and strength in real life. Beautifully illustrated by the New York Times award-winning Anna Walker, Bedtime Story is a profound and deeply moving exploration of storytelling.
Uncle Wes Marne – Through Old Eyes
Renowned elder and storyteller Uncle Wes may well be Australians oldest living poet, having only just recently received a letter from the Queen to mark his 100th birthday. A long-time champion of Aboriginal culture, and cultural advancement, Uncle Wes is not one to retire and has released a new poetry collection Through Old Eyes. At times wistful and melancholic but always poignant, Marnes poetry is a beautifully written tribute to the resilience of his culture and his people.
Mykaela Saunders – This all come back now
A first ever anthology of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander speculative fiction, written, curated, and designed by blackfellas, for blackfellas, and about blackfellas. Brilliant stories by Evelyn Araluen, Karen Wyld, Archie Weller, and many more, share stories of the future, and the past, in a dazzling imaginative, and at times unsettling manner. This all come back now is a love letter to kin and country, to memory and future thinking.
Casey McQuiston – I kissed Shara Wheeler
A romantic YA comedy about running after what you thought you wanted, only to find what you need. One month before graduation, Prom queen Shara Wheeler kisses Chloe Green and then disappears. Chloe sets out to find out what happened to her, and along the way discovers she’s not the only one that’s been kissed by Shara. Hailed as fierce, frank, and funny, I kissed Shara Wheeler is a messy and fun ride about finding love in unexpected places.
Jon Mooallum – Serious Face
One of the most anticipated books of the year, Serious Face brings together a collection of broad-ranging beautiful, and profound essays that investigate the beauty of our imperfections. Mooallem looks into the collapse of a multimillion-dollar bird-breeding scam run by a farmer known as the Pigeon King, narrates a harrowing escape from the deadly wildfires in California, and visits with a very unconventional Frenchman who is building a town at what he believes is the center of the world. Serious Face is intentfully written with the belief that it’s our vulnerability, not our victories, that connect us all.
Maggie Shipstead – You have a friend in 10A
Booker prize nominee Maggie Shipstead brings her first collection of short stories to the page. You have a friend in 10A captivates with a decade-long love triangle to life in the vast open ranges of Montana. One night between a hurdler and gymnast in the Olympic Village. Mistakes and intrigue in Paris, and a young woman’s search for her long-lost love on the snowy slopes of a ski resort. Shipstead explores love, sex, and life in a candid, cleverly observed, and tender way.
Mieko Kawakami – All the Lovers in the Night
Mieko Kawakami’s latest novel is sweet, and subtle, and leaves a lasting impact long after you’ve read the last page. Set in contemporary Tokyo, the story centers around Fuyuko, who lives alone and seems to like it that way. But deep down, she knows it’s not sustainable, and that in order to change things, she is going to have to step out of her comfort zones. Bravely, Fuyuko steps out, and it is on one of her outings that she has a chance encounter with a physics teacher, Mr. Mitstka, who befriends Fuyuko and gives her the opportunity to change her life.
Jay Bergen – Lennon, the Mobster & the Lawyer
A little-known court case between John Lennon and Morris Levy, the Mob-connected owner of Roulette Records. Jay Bergen, who was Lennon’s lawyer at the time, has collated over 5,000+ pages in all of the court records and has spent the last four years, transcribing, and recounting the trial as it happened. Filled with all the high drama in the courtroom, Lennon, the Mobster, and the Lawyer also captures Lennon’s life on the cusp of the birth of his second son.
Minnie Driver – Managing Expectations
Minnie Driver: A-list actor, mum, singer, and songwriter, explores in this tell-all/memoir shares tales of an extraordinary life. Honest and funny, Driver shares how the things that didn’t work out, so often worked out for the best, and how reaching for the dream is easily more interesting, expansive, sad, and funny than the dream itself coming true. Minnie states it best, ‘Now, though, I realize how apt that ambition was. It set up a template in my life of wanting something impossible to become true. How in trying to make something impossible happen, and failing repeatedly, other things happened. Things that became my life. A life I love, because it was made with so many holes that I enjoy filling in’.
Isobel Beech – Sunbathing
Melburnian writer Isoabel Beech’s debut novel, Sunbathing is a sweet, funny, and moving exploration of life, death, and the restorative power of friendship under the warm summer sun of Abruzzo. Invited to stay with friends Giulia and Fab in an old villa in the mountains of Abruzzo, three weeks shy of their wedding, traversing through loss, and wondering how to go on, or if she can. With great feeling, Beech explores the workings of the inner self in the wake of devastation and regret and reveals the many ways that the every day can offer healing and hope.
Wu Cheng’En – Monkey King
Monkey King is one of China’s all-time greatest fantasy novels. In this newly translated edition, we follow the classic tale of Sun Wukong, aka Monkey King, the shape-shifting trickster on his quest for eternal life. A master of subterfuge, Monkey can transform himself into who or whatever he wants. Accompanied by Pigsy, and Sandy, Monkey King undergoes eighty-one trials, battling along the way with Red Boy, Princess Jade-Face, and the Monstress Dowager. Neil Gaiman has said ‘Monkey King is in the DNA of 1.5 billion people” and he’s not wrong.
Ashley Goldberg – Abomination
An engrossing and warm-hearted debut novel about friendship, family, love, faith, and identity. Abomination follows the story of atheist Ezra and ultra-orthodox rabbi Yonatan’s friendship. Set in Melbourne, on the cusp of a new millennium their worlds are rocked by a scandal that throws them towards two very different paths. Twenty years later, they find one another again and find themselves facing the events of the past. ‘I couldnt stop turning the pages even though I needed to do other things. No idea whether or not Ashley lived in a tight-knit Jewish community his character occupies but it sure as hell vividly matches up to what I’ve seen and lived through’ John Safran