I had good intentions to blog about these books immediately after I read them but it didn’t happen. They’ll never be my blog “brides” now. As “bridesmaids” they deserve honourable mentions. So get yourself a glass of bubbly to sip as I toast.

Collected Stories: James Salter

Why have I not read James Salter before this? How remiss! There’s magic here that I’ll dip into again and again. As A. S. Patrić says, “there are undeniable masterpieces of the short form to be found in what is a deeply rewarding book.”

James Salter
Pan Macmillan, $39.99

The Flamethrowers

This novel polarised critics. Its most striking image is of Reno, the central character, racing across the Bonneville Salt Flats on a motorbike in a challenge to the land-speed record. As an artist, she is also there to photograph the lines her bike leaves in the desert.

In The Guardian, Hermione Hoby wrote, “This is a book supercharged with ideas — futurism, fascism, Autonomia, industrialisation, American land art, pornography — but Kushner’s greatest feat is to pull off an overarching radiant coherence without anything ever feeling pat.”

Yes, it has big ideas. There are also lots of characters (mostly detestable). Rich, working class, artists, and insurrectionists — all of them left me cold (including Reno). In a year where many other books so artfully combined large ideas and complex characters, I just didn’t get Kushner’s characters or feel moved by them. A disappointment.

Rachel Kushner
Random House, $32.95

The Swan Book

Futuristic, surreal, satirical, fable-like, scathing … there’s so much going on in this unique book I’m still scratching my head as to why its blazing amalgam of ideas and imagery turns mistral whenever I try to write about it.

Here’s what author Alexis Wright says of her work: “The Swan Book is about a world turned upside down, where the unbelievable has become real, where local Aboriginal governments exist side by side with high-ranking Aboriginal politicians operating on the national stage, of sand mountains and drowning cities, and the mass-movement of refugees, created by the extremes of environmental change.”

Set in the years leading up to 2088, readers follow an Aboriginal girl called Oblivia, who marries Warren Finch, the first Aboriginal president of Australia. Her take on their wedding will give you a small glimpse into the book’s style and may even tempt you to take a look.

“But the room danced with French champagne, chatter and music, and as guests were introduced to the girl, she found the sense of their humanity enticing. Warren’s guests had learnt about poverty from not being poor themselves, in places where you did not hear the screams and yelling of help. Their words could stay on a flat horizontal plane from one end of the spectrum to the other in speaking about the emotions of the world.

“Well-fed speech was flexible, versatile, and heavily pregnant with a choice of words that could be tilted with enough inflection to win hearts regardless, so when she listened to Red, she had to remember they were actually oppressors, capable of slipping down to the bottom of a fetid well to destroy whoever got in the way of their success. She shook their hands just like they might have been swans.”

Alexis Wright
Giramondo, $29.95

Las Vegas for Vegans

I’m still dipping in and out of this one as the stories are worth savouring. They’re quirky and have some exciting twists. “Beckett and Son” and “The Mirage Inn” are two that stayed with me in all their strangeness. Every story is accessible but none predictable. Want to try before you buy? Read a story from the collection here Measured Turbulence at the Meanjin blog.

A. S. Patrić
Transit Lounge, $29.95

The Bookshop Strikes Back

At 99 cents* this chapbook was a great investment! Prize-winning author, Ann Patchett, saw her city’s only bookshop close and decided to open her own. This story is about putting your money where your passion lies and using every tool at your disposal to fight for independent bookshops in which browsers can touch the books, booksellers can share their knowledge and authors can go to read their works to live audiences. Reading The Bookshop Strikes Back is the next best thing to going to Parnassus Books in Nashville, finding Patchett behind the counter, buying a book, shaking her hand and saying, “Great work. Thank you. Well done.”

Ann Patchett
Bloomsbury, $9.90 [*Note the version from Bloomsbury is $9.90]

The House at Anzac Parade

Victor Kline is not lying when he says, “my own crazy, dangerous life would make your average fictional story look tame.” This is no mild-mannered memoir. Victor was sexually, physically and emotionally abused by his mother. He was a defence barrister in the Northern Territory when its courts were highly susceptible. He was exposed to Tamil rebel fire while trying to bring his adopted daughters out of Sri Lanka. He kept his students in Papua New Guinea amused by performing Chantilly Lace. Every facet of Victor’s variegated life held my interest not just because of his amazing adventures but also due to his candour. His early trauma did not dampen his self-awareness or desire to help others. In fact it sharpened them. Victor hopes that his story will help others in their struggles with abuse, illness, fertility and adoption issues and in finding a sense of meaning. I’m sure it will.

Victor Kline
Frances Allen Pty Ltd distributed by Amazon, $8.99

The End of Your Life Book Club

Will Schwalbe accompanies his mother, Mary Anne, to chemotherapy sessions, where they bond over books — often reading the same books simultaneously and sharing responses. Will learns a lot about his mother and, as she is a person committed to bettering the world (and to reading) right up until her final days, this is strangely moving. The End of Your Life Book Club is a simple enough tale but one that underlines the power of books to plumb deep emotion, connect people and give meaning. The reading list at the back of the book outlines the reading the pair did together and separately and it’s worth a look.

Will Schwalbe
Two Roads, $23.99