Great book buys for Xmas

CAROL BEU
THE THREE BOOKS FROM THIS YEAR I'VE ENJOYED MOST: The 10pm Question by Kate de Goldi (Longacre) the most wonderful New Zealand novel I have read for a long time, featuring a delightfully anxious 12-year-old boy with his zany family and friends.

The Lieutenant by Kate Grenville (Canongate) a superbly moving companion piece for her brilliant The Secret River, in which a sensitive, honourable man respects the aboriginal people, learns their language, and ultimately stands up for them.

Urban Village: the Story of Ponsonby, Freemans Bay & St Mary's Bay (Random House) by Jenny Carlyon and Diana Morrow a gorgeous labour of love, carefully researched and full of fabulous images, past and present, of this fascinating area.

THE BOOK FROM ANY YEAR I MOST ENJOYED READING THIS YEAR: The Journal of Dora Damage by Belinda Starling (Bloomsbury) when feisty Dora Damage, running her husband's book bindery in Victorian London, inadvertantly ends up binding Victorian pornography, she gets a rapid education and is politicised by her awareness of the exploitation of women.

WHAT I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS: Because I'm a bookseller, I won't be receiving books as gifts this Christmas. So I'll mention two that I will be giving away to friends: The Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer an enchanting little epistolary novel, beautifully packaged, witty and charming, that will warm the hearts of all ages; and The Outcast by Sadie Jones a beautifully written story captures the restraint and hypocrisy of 1950s England and your heart aches for the troubled youth at its centre.

LOCAL PUBLISHER OF THE YEAR: has to be Random House, for their marvellous range of beautiful books, and particularly for their fabulous flexi-bind covers.

Carole Beu owns The Women's Bookshop in Ponsonby and is a Trustee of the Auckland Readers & Writers Festival.

IAIN SHARP
THE THREE BOOKS FROM THIS YEAR I'VE ENJOYED MOST: Facing the Music: Charles Baeyertz and the Triad Joanna Woods (Otago University Press) brilliantly revives a forgotten period of New Zealand's literary past.

Back & Beyond: New Zealand Painting for the Young and Curious (Auckland University Press) Gregory O'Brien serves up a splendidly quirky second helping of New Zealand art, supposedly for children but eagerly devoured by adults as well.

Night O' Shite: How to Have a Good Night in with Bad Movies (Random House) Amy Cooper and Debra Taylor roast 40 of the biggest turkeys of recent times.

THE BOOK FROM ANY YEAR I MOST ENJOYED READING THIS YEAR: Published by AH & AWReed in 1954, The Dillon Letters, containing the fiercely opinionated, sometimes splenetic, correspondence of the Honourable Constantine Dillon (1813-53) is an under-rated New Zealand gem.

WORST BOOK OR PUBLISHING GIMMICK OF 2008: My pick is Money, and the Law of Attraction: Learning to attract wealth, health, and happiness by American New Age gurus Esther and Jerry Hicks, who claim to channel the timeless wisdom of "Non-physical entity" Abraham. In library catalogues "Abraham (Spirit)" appears as the main author.

WHAT I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS: I'd be delighted if someone gave me Richard Wolfe's marvellous new compilation, New Zealand Portraits (Penguin Viking).

LOCAL PUBLISHER OF THE YEAR: I salute the heroic effort of John Denny of Puriri Press, who has lived on the breadline for decades while producing poetry books of remarkable elegance.

Iain Sharp is an author and chief reviewer for the Sunday Star-Times.

GRAHAM BEATTIE
THE THREE BOOKS FROM THIS YEAR I'VE ENJOYED MOST: Ngaio Marsh: Her Life in Crime by Joanne Drayton (Harper Collins) a fascinating look at the life of one of our most successful writers in which Drayton rekindles renewed interest in her superb crime novels.

Into the Wider World: A back country miscellany by Brian Turner (Random House) beautifully illustrated, fine anthology by New Zealand literature's own southern man. Fish of the Week: selected columns by Steve Braunias (Awa Press) gave me such pleasure re-reading his Sunday Star-Times columns. He is NZ's funniest writer.

THE BOOK FROM ANY YEAR I MOST ENJOYED READING THIS YEAR: The man who writes social history in a most accessible way Cod, Salt and others Mark Kurlansky, also wrote a novel in 2005, Boogaloo on 2nd Avenue, an enormously entertaining and often funny story of a Jewish family living on New York's lower East Side in the 80s. I wish he'd write another.

WHAT I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS: Any well-written crime fiction novel that I haven't already read.

LOCAL PUBLISHER OF THE YEAR: Random House, who this year were out on their own in terms of both quality and quantity covering all genres, in particular their hugely impressive list of sumptuous hardcover books with the highest production and design values.

Graham Beattie's book blog can be found at www.beattiesbookblog.blogspot.com.

CHERYL SUCHER
THE THREE BOOKS FROM THIS YEAR I'VE ENJOYED MOST: Netherland by Joseph O'Neill (Fourth Estate) an elegant, moving novel about how playing cricket in the New York City boroughs after 9/11 brought immigrants together and precipated the healing of one's man's marriage and one city's great anguish.

Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri (Knopf) the serene beauty of this collection of novellas about the paradox of maintaining traditional family-ties in a fast-paced technological world.

The Bible: a biography by Karen Armstrong (Atlantic Monthly Press) a brilliant religious historian abbreviates the narrative history of the most influential narrative in world history.

THE BOOK FROM ANY YEAR I MOST ENJOYED READING THIS YEAR: Dreams From My Father by Barack Obama in his own extraodinary prose, my new president-elect explains how his longing for his absent Kenyan father shaped his vision and turned his life into a true modern heroic quest.

WORST BOOK OR PUBLISHING GIMMICK OF 2008: The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson misspent millions on a dud thriller.

WHAT I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS: A Day In The Life Of El Bulli by Ferran Adria the world's greatest chef reveals his secrets.

LOCAL PUBLISHER OF THE YEAR: Longacre because this South Island publisher consistently brings to light literature and non-fiction which illuminate the unique beauty and concerns of Aotearoa.

Cheryl Sucher is a New York based reviewer.

MATTHEW WRIGHT
THE THREE BOOKS FROM THIS YEAR I'VE ENJOYED MOST: Churchill's Cigar by Stephen McGinty (MacMillan) biography of Winston Churchill's famous vice. Witty, concise and innovative.

The Face of War by Sandy Callister (Auckland University Press) insightful, interpretative and moving; one of two photo histories of World War I published this year, and by far the best.

The Celluloid Circus by Wayne Brittenden (Godwit) you can almost taste the snifters in this wonderfully nostalgia-filled romp through New Zealand's cinema experience.

THE BOOK FROM ANY YEAR I MOST ENJOYED READING THIS YEAR: Two Sides of the Moon by David Scott and Alexei Leonov (Pocket, 2005) an insider's view of the moon race, and what nice blokes both authors clearly are.

WORST BOOK OR PUBLISHING GIMMICK OF 2008: 1434 by Gavin Menzies (HarperCollins) the only mystery about this Da Vinci Code-lite for the credulous is why it was ever published.

WHAT I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS: Grumpy Old Rock Star and Other Wondrous Stories by Rick Wakeman (Preface) it's been a tough year; time to relax with a few entertaining anecdotes from the seventies prog-rocker, comedian and raconteur.

LOCAL PUBLISHER OF THE YEAR: As I write for several of them, I'm probably biased and couldn't possibly comment.

Matthew Wright is an author, historian and reviewer.

RACHEL WALLIS
THE THREE BOOKS FROM THIS YEAR I'VE ENJOYED MOST: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer (Dial Press) sounds like it would be complete waffle, but it's a wonderful, novel about the German occupation of Guernsey during World War II.

The Outlander by Gil Adamson (Ecco) the story of a woman on the run in 1903 who has to survive in the Canadian outback. Acid Song by Bernard Beckett (Longacre) all too rarely are New Zealand readers invited to a party of such erudite and sophisticated ideas and this makes the hangover worth it.

THE BOOK FROM ANY YEAR I MOST ENJOYED READING THIS YEAR: Dead Sea Fruit by Charlotte Randall (Secker & Warburg, 1995) dark, damaged families portrayed with exquisite skill, right up my alley.

WORST BOOK OR PUBLISHING GIMMICK OF 2008: Perhaps, like Oscar Wilde, I think conversation should be fun, but The Art of Conversation by Catherine Blyth was a boring, uninformative, pointless waste of paper.

WHAT I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS: Haruki Murakami's What I talk about when I talk about running.

Rachel Wallis is an Auckland writer and reviewer.

DEAN PARKER
THE THREE BOOKS FROM THIS YEAR I'VE ENJOYED MOST: Tall Tales (Some True); memoirs of an unlikely writer by Greg McGee (Penguin) the genuine article, funny and (as we say these days) "robust"; the bits I know of are appallingly true.

Ladies A Plate: Traditional home baking by Alexa Johnston (Penguin) fabulously illustrated baker's bible of butterfly cakes, health biscuits, coconut whispers, Belgian cakes, marble cake and a wonderful bacon and egg pie, augmented with sausage meat, the recipes sourced from pages in Kiwi cookbooks "stained and yellowed from being left open on the kitchen bench".

The Stray Dog Cabaret by Paul Schmidt (New York Review Books) terrific translations of early 20th-century Russian poetry Akhmatova, Mayakovsky, Tsvetaeva, Blok, etc "The night you left me a look in the mirror / a look I've had too much of / And the gypsy singer kept jangling her bracelets / and singing of love, and of love, and of love."

THE BOOK FROM ANY YEAR I MOST ENJOYED READING THIS YEAR: Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh (1945) I read it after seeing the movie and re-visiting the TV series on DVD and, sure, it's all reactionary Catholic high tory pro-Franco ruling class God's divine grace, but its lingering cadences are as hypnotic as Gregorian chant.

WORST BOOK OR PUBLISHING GIMMICK OF 2008: Don't know about the worst book, but this surely is the worst sentence: "The violent expressionistic projection, indeed concretisations of the `Ich' of the protagonist in the stage set or design, through a Christ-like `stationen' drama, does not entirely apply, in its messianic and psychological overtones, to the more collective, societal or mythical, concerns expressed by the magic realism of Native literatures." From Performing Aotearoa: New Zealand Theatre and Drama in an Age of Transition.

WHAT I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS: Gethsemane, published script of the recent David Hare play, which argues, in the words of one reviewer, "that a Labour government, above all, should be driven by something higher than a desire to get into bed with big business."

BEST LOCAL PUBLISHER: Kilmog Press, Dunedin, for the time and care that has clearly gone into The Lost Journal of Edward Jerningham Wakefield, a fine and lovely piece of craft.

Dean Parker is an Auckland writer.

CLAIR McINTOSH
THE THREE BOOKS FROM THIS YEAR I'VE ENJOYED MOST: Home by Marilynne Robinson (Farrar, Straus and Giroux) Robinson's miracle is turning domesticity into wisdom while you're thinking about God and family and not becoming furious a trick right up there with turning water into wine when there's no grape in sight.

\When You are Engulfed in Flames by David Sedaris (Little, Brown) yeah, maybe the lard of success has accumulated and he's grown up and started to think outside his hilarious nuclear family, but Sedaris' camp hyperbole and social espionage make the death and dying theme of his latest collection of personal essays flash with irony.

Taking Pictures by Anne Enright (Jonathan Cape) 10 pages spent in one of Enright's stories offers more than hacking into the email account of your nemesis, and is almost better than using a friend's Facebook account to spy on a love interest.

THE BOOK FROM ANY YEAR I MOST ENJOYED READING THIS YEAR: Opportunity by Charlotte Grimshaw the only book I have finished and immediately started reading again; chit-chat from the publishing cul-de-sac suggests that Grimshaw's next book is even better.

WHAT I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS: Somewhere Towards the End by Diana Athill; Everyday Drinking: The distilled Kingsley Amis (intro by Christopher Hitchens); Dead Sea Fruit by Charlotte Randall (I'm her No1 fan and I don't have this out-of-print award winner; feel free to send me a copy, anyone); Aberhart with essays by Gregory O'Brien and Justin Paton.

BEST LOCAL PUBLISHER: Awa Press for proving that Wellington birds are Aotearoa's smartest by producing the only perfect New Zealand book this year (hard cover edition of genius Justin Paton's How to Look at a Painting).

Clare McIntosh is an Auckland editor and reviewer.

NOEL O'HARE
THE THREE BOOKS FROM THIS YEAR I'VE ENJOYED MOST: Deaf Sentence by David Lodge (Harvill Secker) he writes of his own affliction in this funny and bleak meditation on retirement. Born Yesterday: The news as novel by Gordon Burn (Faber) a fascinating collage of news and buried connections from Madeleine McCann's disappearance to Tony Blair's resignation by Britain's sharpest media commentator.

How to Talk About Books You Haven't Read by Pierre Bayard (Bloomsbury) O Unread Proust, where is thy sting? A liberating read, especially for reviewers and iPod users.

THE BOOK FROM ANY YEAR I MOST ENJOYED READING THIS YEAR: Hubbub: Filth, Noise, and Stench in England, 1600-1770 by Emily Cockayne books don't come dirtier than this. The chapter titles say it all: Ugly, Itchy, Mouldy, Noisy, Grotty, Busy, Dirty, Gloomy.

WORST BOOK OR PUBLISHING GIMMICK OF 2008: The "How to Reduce Your Carbon Footprint" band wagon. Whole forests have been laid waste telling us ad nauseam not to leave our big TVs on standby and lag our pipes.

WHAT I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS: Ghost Train to the Eastern Star: On the Tracks of The Great Railway Bazaar by Paul Theroux grumpy and opinionated, Theroux would be my perfect antidote to vacuous Christmas cheer.

LOCAL PUBLISHER OF THE YEAR: Godwit for the handsome, lavishly illustrated In Search of Paradise by Graeme Lay (another for my wish list).

Noel O'Hare is a Wellington writer and reviewer.

BEN NAPASRTEK
THE THREE BOOKS FROM THIS YEAR I'VE ENJOYED MOST: Reappraisals: Reflections on the Forgotten 20th Century by Tony Judt (Penguin) collected essays from the historian of ideas, whose broad-ranging interests, talent for controversy and vigorous style make him one of today's great public intellectuals.

Don't Get Too Comfortable by David Rakoff (Random House) hilarious, savage and at times unexpectedly moving, Rakoff's comic essays are models of the form. Uncommon Arrangements: Seven Portraits of Married Life in London Literary Circles 1910-1939 by Katie Roiphe (Dial Press) Roiphe combines her divergent backgrounds as an anti-feminist crusader and literary scholar in this absorbing study of unconventional marriages.

THE BOOK FROM ANY YEAR I MOST ENJOYED READING THIS YEAR: Murder In Amsterdam: The Death of Theo Van Gogh and the Limits of Tolerance by Ian Buruma meticulously sober account of the demise of multiculturalism in the author's native Holland.

WORST BOOK OR PUBLISHING GIMMICK OF 2008: Intimacies by Adam Phillips and Leo Bersani Freudian thought at its most silly, as the authors argue for the importance of sex in "shattering the ego".

WHAT I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS: How Beautiful it is and How Easily it Can be Broken: Essays by Daniel Mendelsohn his lightness of touch and sardonic humour make him as convincing an essayist writing on popular culture as on ancient Greek tragedy.

Ben Naparstek is a doctoral candidate with the Humanities Centre at Johns Hopkins University, Washington DC.

PENELOPE BIEDER
THE THREE BOOKS FROM THIS YEAR I'VE ENJOYED MOST: Ghost Train to the Eastern Star by Paul Theroux (Penguin) far more than armchair travelling, his literary references and meetings with locals from famous writers to the poorest man in Myanmar in many of the countries he visits, make this a thoroughly satisfying and illuminating read.

When Will There Be Good News? by Kate Atkinson (Doubleday) incredible plot doesn't matter when the writing is this good. Breath by Tim Winton (Hamish Hamilton) sometimes a tad macho, but I love bodysurfing so I was right there with the lads.

THE BOOK FROM ANY YEAR I MOST ENJOYED READING THIS YEAR: Two-volume biography of Coleridge by Richard Holmes: "My enjoyments are so deep, of the fire, of the Candle, of the thought I am thinking, of the old Folio I am reading and the silence of the silent House is so most & very delightful."

WORST BOOK OR PUBLISHING GIMMICK OF 2008: Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert subtitled: One Woman's Search for Everything. Need I say more?

WHAT I WANT FOR CHIRSTMAS: A Rita Angus painting along with the biography, thank you.

LOCAL PUBLISHER OF THE YEAR: Longacre, for their passion and their fascinating list of titles.

Penelope Bieder is an Auckland reviewer.

ANNE ELSE
THE THREE BOOKS FROM THIS YEAR I'VE ENJOYED MOST: People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks (Fourth Estate) the mostly glowing reviews of this utterly compelling book, which centres on the imagined 500-year history of a (really existing) illuminated Jewish haggadah, fail strangely often to mention its unfashionable twin themes: the savage persecution of the Jews down the centuries, and the strength of the women who, in every era, manage to evade their restrictive fates.

Rita Angus: An Artist's Life by Jill Trevelyan (Te Papa Press) far more than a meticulous, convincing account of a now renowned artist, this is also a moving and at times chilling story of the price Rita Angus paid for her dedication and achievement. At the End of Darwin Road: A Memoir by Fiona Kidman (Vintage) for the first time in New Zealand literature, Kidman has produced a serious, unflinchingly honest autobiography focused on the formation and development of a woman writer.

THE BOOK FROM ANY YEAR I MOST ENJOYED READING THIS YEAR: Old Filth, by Jane Gardam (Chatto and Windus, 2004) a restrained but heartbreaking fictional portrait of an "orphan of empire" who rises to legal eminence, but takes a lifetime to find out who he is and what his existence has meant.

WORST BOOK OR PUBLISHING GIMMICK OF 2008: A toss-up (in both senses) between Michael Bassett's Working with David and Ian Wishart's Absolute Power.

WHAT I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS: Barbara Anderson's Getting There: An Autobiography a woman who didn't start writing until her 60s gives me the hope and inspiration I need now to head off in a new direction.

LOCAL PUBLISHER OF THE YEAR: Random House seems to keep on consistently turning out an astonishing range of excellent books appealing to a wide spectrum of readers and it deservedly won no less than three Thorpe-Bowker Industry Awards, including the one for New Zealand Publishing (with Gecko Press).

Anne Else is a Wellington reviewer.

NICHOLAS REID
THE THREE BOOKS FROM THIS YEAR I'VE ENJOYED MOST: The Best Man Who Ever Served the Crown? by Ray Fargher (Victoria University Press) detailed and painstaking account of the classic gamekeeper-turned-poacher, Donald McLean, who did the dodgiest land deals New Zealand ever knew.

Diggers, Hatters and Whores by Stevan Eldred-Grigg (Random House) capacious, lavishly illustrated and lively. The best account we yet have of our 19th-century gold rushes. Oscar's Books by Thomas Wright (Chatto & Windus) sheer delight for bibliophiles; an account of everything Oscar Wilde would ever have read and how he used it.

THE BOOK FROM ANY YEAR I MOST ENJOYED READING THIS YEAR: Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner by James Hogg who says you always have to read new stuff? This weird Scottish classic (from 1824) is a brilliant satire on misplaced religious fervour.

WORST BOOK OR PUBLISHING GIMMICK OF 2008: Spoilt for choice, really, but one would have to be Alan Duff's Dreamboat Dad. If I want to read about poor Southern blacks there's a wealth of good American books to choose from. I don't need a New Zealand pastiche.

WHAT I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS: Either all the Maigret books I don't yet have or the latest full scholarly edition of James Clarence Mangan's poems.

LOCAL PUBLISHER OF THE YEAR: The one who will publish my stuff.

Nicholas Reid is an Auckland historian and reviewer.

PAULA MORRIS
THE THREE BOOKS FROM THIS YEAR I'VE ENJOYED MOST: Home by Marilynne Robinson (Farrar, Straus and Giroux) a sort of companion piece to the Pulitzer-winning Gilead but even more engrossing and moving, in a way. Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri (Knopf) once again shows her subtle, sophisticated touch and expertise in this form. The latest edition of the mock-atlas Our Dumb World by the satirists at The Onion.

THE BOOK FROM ANY YEAR I MOST ENJOYED READING THIS YEAR: I read (and re-read) The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid (2007), which is provocative, timely and superbly written.

WORST BOOK OR PUBLISHING GIMMICK OF 2008: I'm not a huge fan of the Six Pack, I have to say, because I think it promotes itself rather than New Zealand literature, and I think a sampler of actual new books would be more effective.

WHAT I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS: I've already got Nigella's Christmas, because, like the author herself, I'm greedy and impatient.

Paula Morris is the current Buddle Findlay Sargeson fellow; her latest book is Forbidden Cities (Penguin).

Best children's books

BEST FIRST BOOK: Creatures Aotearoa by Dylan Owen (Gecko Press)

TARGET AGES: six months-plus

A glossy and quirky picture book with easy-on-the-ear rhymes inspired by contemporary New Zealand art. Likely to appeal to children of all ages, the robust pages, manageable size and distinct images made this one of the best books for the very wee I've seen in a long time.

BEST READ-ALOUD BOOK: Bubble Trouble Frances by Margaret Mahy and Polly Dunbar (Lincoln Books)

TARGET AGES: three-plus

I loved the tongue-twisting challenge of this rollicking, frolicking read-aloud-romp from the mistress of alliterative verse. A baby is scooped up by his big sister's bubble and a neighbourhood chase ensues. Cheery illustrations by Polly Dunbar serve the adventure perfectly.

BEST FAIRY TALE: Goldilocks and the Three Bears by Lauren Child, Polly Borland and Emily Jenkins (Puffin)

TARGET AGES: three-plus

Lauren Child brought her idiosyncratic storytelling genius to a familiar story of porridge, bears and a wayward runaway. This is also a visually stunning book, complete with hand-built doll-sized sets and a delicately created cast, all beautifully photographed to create one of the most sumptuous books of the year.

BEST YOUNG READER: Snake & Lizard by Joy Cowley & Gavin Bishop (Gecko Press)

TARGET AGES: five-plus

The very wonderful Joy Cowley created a beautiful and tender friendship in the award-winning Snake & Lizard, a thoughtful and funny account of an unusual alliance. Accompanied by Gavin Bishop's delicate illustrations, this is a book to be loved by children and adults alike.

BEST JUNIOR FICTION: My Friend Percy and Buffalo Bill by Ulf Stark (Gecko Press)

TARGET AGES: seven-plus

Ulf Stark's books are charming, zany and occasionally profound and the third in this series sees Percy and his incorrigible friend Ulf head off to a Swedish island. This is a heart-warming account of growing up.

BEST YOUNG ADULT BOOK: The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness (Walker Books)

TARGET AGES: 12-plus

Described by the author as "a western with some sci-fi settings", this is a rites of passage novel like no other. Patrick Ness's compelling opening sentence had me totally hooked and although his first foray into writing for teenagers was occasionally bleak and unrelenting, this was offset by some funny and humane moments.

BEST BOOK FROM ANOTHER YEAR: The Cricket in Times Square by George Selden

TARGET AGES: six-plus

Originally published in the 1960s, this is a delightful tale of a singing country cricket turned charismatic city entertainer. It contains a powerful message of what the best things in life are really all about.

WORST PUBLISHING GIMMICK: Madonna, Ginger Spice, Sarah "The Duchess of York" Ferguson, Julianne Moore et al assuming their celebrity status comes with literary talent.

WHAT I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS: A mint condition, first edition, signed copy of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. Purely for its literary merit, honest.

LOCAL PUBLISHER OF THE YEAR: Has to be Gecko Press, who truly lived up to their claim of publishing "curiously good children's books from around the world."

Catriona Ferguson is the Sunday Star-Times' reviewer of children's books.

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