Did I Ever Tell You This? A Memoir
by Sam Neill (Text)
The rollicking, charming, thoroughly non-linear memoir of a national treasure. The actor, self-deprecating to the Kiwi extreme, writes in thoroughly agreeable prose about growing up, acting in many dozens of major roles, his beloved winery and health problems and dishes up plenty of first-class celebrity gossip.
Every Man for Himself and God Against All: A Memoir
by Werner Herzog (Bodley Head)
A fascinating self-portrait of the film-maker in all his idiosyncratic glory, mixing in childhood memories, outlandish events, observations on film and his thought processes, and many other things.
Good Girls: A Story and Study of Anorexia
by Hadley Freeman (Fourth Estate)
Although there is no shortage of stories about anorexia, Freeman’s clear and frank storytelling, research and gentle humour, as well as her intriguing theories about its causes and parallels, make it essential reading on the subject.
Ian Fleming: The Complete Man
by Nicholas Shakespeare (Harvill Secker)
Fresh and engrossing portrait of a man far more than just the creator of James Bond, whose bio reads like a thriller: troubled boyhood, hasty exits from Eton and Sandhurst, journalism, British naval intelligence, successful novel writer, playboy, and death by heart attack thanks to dedicated smoking.
An Intimate History of Evolution: The Story of the Huxley Family
by Alison Bashford (Allen Lane)
A fascinating, ambitious history by the Australian historian of science of the Huxley dynasty, a family that immeasurably contributed to our understanding of evolution by natural selection.
Laughing at the Dark
by Barbara Else (Penguin)
The NZ novelist and playwright’s finely crafted memoir is a nuanced exploration of gender roles, societal expectations and the juggle to be whole and honest.
Lifescapes: A Biographer’s Search for the Soul
by Ann Wroe (Jonathan Cape)
Lyrical essay-memoir from the obituarist for the Economist, who thinks of her job as “catching souls … or, to put it another way, real life”. Here, she writes about getting to the essence of poets, physicists, singers, artists, Pilate, and Fidel Castro’s mistress.
Hitler, Stalin, Mum & Dad: A Family Memoir
by Daniel Finkelstein (William Collins)
The remarkable story of how, against fearful odds and despite the cruelties of two of the 20th century’s most murderous dictatorships, two European Jewish families not only survived but prospered, and finally came together one Sunday night in 1956 in central London.
There’s a Cure for This: A Memoir
by Emma Espiner (Penguin)
There are uncomfortable truths but also humour, hope and inspiration in this vivid, insightful essay-memoir by Espiner, child of a Māori father and Pākehā mother who became a surgical registrar, award-winning writer and broadcaster.
The Stirrings: A Memoir in Northern Time
by Catherine Taylor (Hachette)
In her lyrical, moving memoir, Taylor, who was born in Waikato, writes about growing up in Sheffield during the miners’ strike, anti-nuclear protests and the terror of the Yorkshire Ripper, and, at home, her parents’ ugly divorce and the joys of the post-punk music scene.
Thunderclap: A Memoir of Art and Life & Sudden Death
by Laura Cumming (Chatto & Windus)
Part moving homage to her father, the artist James Cumming, part brilliant meditation on 17th-century Dutch paintings, particularly the work of Carel Fabritius, short-lived creator of The Goldfinch.
Toy Fights: A Boyhood
by Don Paterson (Faber)
Scotland’s phlegmatic laureate of gloom has written a memoir that is wise, tender, eloquent, dark and funny. He comments on everything from music to origami and Enid Blyton. Because he writes only about his early years, there is no poetry – though there are quotable lines on every page.
The Visionaries: Arendt, Beauvoir, Rand, Weil and the Salvation of Philosophy
by Wolfram Eilenberger (Allen Lane)
Illuminating account of four female philosophers in the 1930s, all of whom led complicated existences and stood, for the large part, outside politics and power. Eilenberger manages to effectively portray their lives and endless intellectual pursuits.
Wandering Through Life
by Donna Leon (Hutchinson Heinemann)
In which the reserved creator of the Venetian investigator Guido Brunetti writes a bouncy, optimistic, if concise survey of her long, busy life, from her early years in New Jersey and teaching to her fictional hero and resisting old age in Switzerland.
Wifedom: Mrs Orwell’s Invisible Life
by Anna Funder (Hamish Hamilton)
The author of Stasiland gathers scant details about George Orwell’s first wife, Eileen O’Shaughnessy, and, blending some fictional reconstructions and personal memoir, builds a vivid and inventive portrait of a woman who has largely been written out of the historical record.
Winnie & Nelson: Portrait of a Marriage
by Jonny Steinberg (HarperCollins)
Unflinching, intimate, thoroughly readable portrait of the messy truth of one of the world’s most public marriages, extramarital affairs included, in a monumental era. Aided by recently released transcripts, Steinberg shows Nelson’s flaws and Winnie’s crimes and misdemeanours while demonstrating deep empathy to both.
Yoga
by Emmanuel Carrère (Vintage)
What began as “an upbeat, subtle little book on yoga” becomes something radically different when the acclaimed French author is confronted with jihadist terrorism and the refugee crisis and is plunged into melancholic depression. A probing piece of autofiction, with reality and imagination marvellously fused.
Be in to win 10 books
For a chance to be the lucky winner of 10 books, email your name and address to listenergiveaways@aremedia.co.nz with ‘Best Books’ in the subject line by midday on December 1. We’ll be running The Year in Books throughout the next week so look out for hot picks for lovers of fiction and non-fiction stories alike.
The 100 Best Books was compiled with the invaluable assistance of Chris Baskett, Helena Brow, Catherine Chidgey, Sue Copsey, Kiran Dass, Nik Dirga, Greg Dixon, Elisabeth Easther, Brigid Feehan, Charlotte Grimshaw, Kirsty Gunn, Linda Herrick, David Hill, Stephanie Johnson, Anne Kennedy, Elizabeth Kerr, Rachael King, Graeme Lay, Eileen Merriman, Chris Moore, Kelly Ana Morey, Emma Neale, Jenny Nicholls, Jeremy Rees, Sue Reidy, Catherine Robertson, Anna Rogers, Josie Shapiro, Tina Shaw, Craig Sisterson, Elizabeth Smither, Gill South, Rebecca Styles, Fiona Sussman, Andrew Paul Wood and others.
