The Bookshelf's best books of 2019
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What is the main theme of The Bookshelf's best books of 2019?
Hi, welcome to The Bookshelf. I'm Kate Evans. And I'm Cassie McCullough. And all year we've been building up to this collective bookshelf of ours with new fiction, reviewers, recommendations and disagreements. Because we're all mad book people, we love to share the books that we love.
Oh, absolutely. I mean, his writing is so crisp, is so matter of fact. It
I loved this book, and it's not the sort of thing I normally read. On a number of occasions, I felt utterly breathless reading this.
And yet, it is so profoundly troubling. It's truly stunning.
This was the book I wanted to read when I was in school, okay? Look, this will become one of my most highly recommended young adult novels.
And I think it's one of the best American novels I've ever read, and a really very special book.
It made me gasp. I shed a tear at one point. It made me think... We also asked you for some of your own book recommendations. Thank you. And you offered up some that we've discussed on the show and new ones for us.
Yes, Melissa Lukashenko's Too Much Lip got a lot of mentions, as well as Cheryl Strayed's Off Track and Rosalind McFarlane's All the Lives We've Lived, which Kate is very close to home for me because she was my teacher at school.
Well, here's another one that was a long way from anything I knew about, and that's a Finnish classic, Unknown Soldiers by Veino Lina. So thank you to Neville, Marion, Hayley, Spud and the rest. We will add your suggestions to our webpage too.
And we will have quite a list by the end because we have a trio of committed readers here with us today. So shall we meet them?
Let's. David Gaunt, independent bookseller from Sydney's Glebe Books. Hi, David. Stephen Remay, literary editor of The Australian, is also with us. Hello, Stephen.
Hi, great to be here.
And interviewer and moderator, Michaela Kolofsky. Hi, Kate and Cassie.
Well, I hope you have your pens and pencils sharpened. I don't want any wishy-washy reviews today, folks. We're going all out. And let's begin with some standouts from any country and any style. Why don't we start with you, Stephen? What's one of the big ones for you this year?
Well, if we're going to start with the standouts, I do want to start with one that listeners may well not have heard of. So I want to mention Paul Kane's book-length poem, A Passing Bell. Paul Kane is an American poet, but he has a very strong connection to Australia. He, in fact, spends half of his time here in rural Victoria. The blurbs on this book come from the likes of Helen Garner, and Raymond Gator, so that underscores his connection. He wrote this poem for his wife Tina after she died unexpectedly, after 35 years of marriage. It is probably the best book I read this year. It is certainly the saddest. It is certainly one of the most beautiful. you will cry on almost every page. If I could, I wouldn't mind just reading a tiny bit from the first stanza, or ghazal as they are called, it's a Persian form of poetry.
This is how he starts the book. At night I lie awake and call to you, but you don't reply except in silence. The night bird is not silent but sings a simple single note. His mate does not sing back. I do not understand this silence, as if God has departed and taken you with him. I have no words to form a prayer that would reach you or him. Two wine glasses sit on the countertop.
What standout books were recommended by the guests?
One is full and then only half full. Without emptiness, the glass could not exist. If you should speak, Tina, the glass would shatter.
Oh, goodness, Stephen. David, I saw that you were nodding there. Have you come across this work?
I've only come across it as a bookseller. I still haven't read it. I'm nodding in profound appreciation of what Stephen was reading.
It's amazing. Yeah, incredible. We're off to quite a start there. What about you, David?
Now for something completely different. Well, this is something that I only found this year, although it was published in 2018. The first sentence, the day somebody put a gun to my breast and called me a cat, and threatened to shoot me was the same day the Milkman died.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is the main theme of The Bookshelf's best books of 2019?
0:00–3:48
2
What standout books were recommended by the guests?
3:48–7:41
3
How do the panelists evaluate the impact of Australian authors?
7:41–12:28
4
What unique perspectives do the guests bring to book recommendations?
12:28–17:20
5
What are some notable young adult novels discussed in the episode?
17:20–21:15
6
How do the guests feel about experimental writing styles?
21:15–25:37
7
What nonfiction works stood out in 2019 according to the panel?
25:37–30:58
8
What are the anticipated books coming in 2020?
30:58–53:43
Speakers
6 identifiedMore from The Bookshelf
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Emily St. John Mandel and John Boyne alongside a Booker-longlisted debut
New Fiction: Donal Ryan, Emma Cline, Max Easton and Sebastian Barry
New Fiction from Melissa Harrison and Malcolm Knox + Mandy Sayer's Top 3
Top 100 Australian Books from Byron Writers Festival
Anjet Daanje's extraordinary The Stork and the Dromedary + Liane Moriarty returns with Big Little Truths