Just my Type, Simon Garfield, Profile Books
I have a few not-so-secret interests, like typography and book design, so I couldn’t not put this on the list, even though it has been out for a fair while now. Here’s a little more information:
Just My Type is a book of stories about fonts. It examines how Helvetica and Comic Sans took over the world. It explains why we are still influenced by type choices made more than 500 years ago, and why the T in the Beatles logo is longer than the other letters … And beyond all this, the book reveals what may be the very best and worst fonts in the world – and what your choice of font says about you. {source}
The Happiest Refugee, Ahn Do, Allen and Unwin
The Happiest Refugee is the book which took everyone by surprise. One of those word-of-mouth success stories, it’s gone on to win many an award – including the 2011 Indie Book of the Year – and has courted some controversy in recent weeks when the subject of ghostwriting was raised in the press. I think it would be a great read for those wanting to learn a little more about the plight of refugees and the children’s version, The Littlest Refugee, is now available – profits of which will go to a Vietnamese shelter that looks after disadvantaged children.
Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? Jeanette Winterson, Random House
Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit was one of those books I occasionally pick up on the strength (or notoriety, or both) of the title without knowing what was going to be in store only to be blown away by the story it tells. Oranges was the semi-autobiographical tale of a young adopted girl brought up in a strict Pentecostal family who falls in love with a woman. Why be Happy picks up the story at the point where this sixteen year old girl leaves home.
From Random House:
It is the story of how the painful past Jeanette Winterson thought she had written over and repainted returned to haunt her later life, and sent her on a journey into madness and out again, in search of her real mother. It is also a book about other people’s stories, showing how fiction and poetry can form a string of guiding lights, a life-raft which supports us when we are sinking.
Worse Things Happen At Sea, William McInnes and Sarah Watts, Hachette Australia
My excitement about the release of Worse Things Happen At Sea was radically impacted by the death earlier this month of Sarah Watts, well-respected Australian director and writer (among other talents), of cancer. It’s very sad, but I also think it shows why books such of this nature, that celebrate family life and loving partnerships, are so special.
A brief blurb from the ABC:
Worse things happen at sea, by husband and wife team William McInnes and Sarah Watt, is about the wonderful, messy, haphazard things in life: bringing home babies from hospital, being a friend, a parent, son or daughter. It’s about living for twenty years in the family home, raising children there, renovations that never end. It is also about understanding that sometimes you have to say goodbye; that is part of life too.
Women of Letters, Marieke Hardy and Michela McGuire, Penguin
I’ve long loved letter writing and I’ve heard great things about the Women of Letters salon afternoons, where talented women from various walks of life come together to read aloud letters they’ve written. This book is the first collected publication of these. The subtitle is ‘Reviving the lost art of correspondence’ and I applaud that ambition. Profits from this book go to Edgar’s Mission animal rescue shelter.
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Top 5 Fiction titles here. Children’s books to follow.
