ANZ LitLovers LitBlog

These are annual Top Tens from discerning ANZLL readers.

2011     2010     2009    2008     2007    2006    2005    2004

2010

ANZLL members post their  Top Tens during the summer holidays, so this is a work in progress.  (Last updated 18.1.11)
NB Titles are not in any particular order, and the concept of ‘ten’ is flexible.  We all know how hard it is to choose…

PS Links are to the Book Depository for free international delivery or, if the BD doesn’t stock the item, to local Australian booksellers.  These sites usually feature a brief description of the book.  I usually link to the cheapest edition on the Book Depository site; you may find that a different edition suits you better. Where an online source couldn’t be found, ANZ LitLovers recommends Brotherhood Books for searchable second-hand and out-of-print books, profits to good causes.

BTW Reviews to many of these titles – especially the Australian ones – are on this blog: use the drop down categories list in the RH menu to search by initial letter of the author’s first name or the title.

NB Australian and New Zealand titles are in bold. (For our definition of ‘Australian’ and ‘New Zealand’ see the About page).

Lisa

To the Islands – Randolph Stow
Glissando – David Musgrave
Hand Me Down World – Lloyd Jones
At Swim – Two Birds – Flann O’Brien
The Double – Jose Saramago
Disquiet – Julia Leigh
Auto-da-Fe – Elias Canetti
Come Inside – Glenys Osborne
The Possessed, Adventures with Russian Writers and the People Who Read Them – Elif Batuman
The Infinities – John Banville
Les Misérables – Victor Hugo
The Children’s Book – A.S. Byatt.
The Book of Emmett – Deborah Foster
Lovesong – Alex Miller
The Bay of Noon – Shirley Hazzard
Ransom by David Malouf
Wolf Hall – Hilary Mantel
Brief Encounters, Literary Journeys round Australia – Susannah Fullerton

Narelle

The Lizard Cage – Karen Connelly
Nothing to Envy – Barbara Demick
Sarah’s Key – Tatiana de Rosnay
Zeitoun – Dave Eggers
Alone in Berlin – Hans Fallada
Still Alice – Lisa Genova
Asylum – Patrick McGrath
Every Man in this Village is a Liar – Megan Stack
The Help – Kathryn Stockett
Cutting for Stone – Abraham Verghese

Helen from Oz

Lord of the Rings – J.R.R. Tolkien
Water for Elephants – Sara Gruen
Zeitoun – Dave Eggers
The Elegance of the Hedgehog – Muriel Barbery
A Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet – David Mitchell
The Story of Edgar Sawtelle – David Wroblewski
The Egg and I – Betty MacDonald
Private Battles – Simon Garfield
Harry Potter, all seven books – J.K. Rowling

Susan

Sarah’s Key – Tatiana de Rosnay
Water for Elephants – Sara Gruen
The Help – Kathryn Stockett
Italian Shoes – Henning Mankell
Wolf Hall – Hilary Mantel
Return of Captain John Emmett – Elizabeth Speller
A Good Man in Africa – William Boyd
The Young Cosima – Henry Handel Richardson
One Sunday – Joy Dettman
Conn Iggulden series starting with Wolf on the Plain

Jenny

Skin Lane – Neil Bartlett
The Millstone – Margaret Drabble
A Moveable Feast – Ernest Hemingway
88 Lines About 44 Women – Steven Lang
Laura Blundy – Julie Myerson
The Private Lives of Pippa Lee – Rebecca Miller
The Road Home– Rose Tremain
The Italian Girl – Iris Murdoch
Requiem For A Wren– Neville Shute
The Children of Dynmouth – William Trevor
Fahrenheit 451 – Ray Bradbury
Trespass – Rose Tremain
84 Charing Cross Road – Helene Hanff

Tania

The Chaos Walking trilogy (The Knife of Never Letting Go, The Ask and the Answer, and Monsters of Men) – Patrick Ness.
Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte.
The Broken Shore & Truth – Peter Temple.
The Private Lives of Pippa Lee – Rebecca Miller
Boyhood – J.M. Coetzee.
Gorki Park – Martin Cruz Smith.
The Good Earth – Pearl S. Buck.
Howard’s End – E.M. Forster.
The City and the City – China Mieville.
Sea of Poppies – Amitav Ghosh.
Breath – Tim Winton.
Sleepless – Charlie Huston.
When Will There Be Good News? – Kate Atkinson.
The Children’s Book – A.S. Byatt.
All Quiet on the Western Front – Erich Maria Remarque.
Ransom by David Malouf

Helen from NZ

Birdsong – Sebastian Faulks
Suite Francaise – Irene Nemirovsky
Home – Marilynne Robinson
Cutting for Stone – Abraham Verghese
The 10pm Question – Kate de Goldie
The Help – Kathryn Stockett
A Wife’s Tale – Lori Lansens
Trespass – Rose Tremain
Good to a Fault– Marina Endicott
The Swimmer – Roma Tearne
The Second-Last Woman in England – Maggie Joel
Small Wars – Sadie Jones
The Hand That First Held Mine – Maggie O’Farrell
The Lieutenant – Kate Grenville
Man Alone – John Mulgan
Sky Burial – Xinran
Limestone – Fiona Farrell
The Children’s Book – A.S. Byatt.
The Lacuna – Barbara Kingsolver
Magpie Hall – Rachael King

Kate

The Stone Angel – Margaret Laurence
Freedom – Jonathan Franzen
The Missing – Tim Gautreaux
Zeitoun – Dave Eggers
The Idea of Perfection – Kate Grenville
American Wife – Curtis Sittenfeld
The Lacuna – Barbara Kingsolver
The Earth Hums in B Flat – Mari Strachan
Solar – Ian McEwan
The World Beneath – Cate Kennedy

Rebecca

The Children’s Book – A.S. Byatt.
Beyond Black  – Hilary Mantel
The Hungry Tide – Amitav Ghosh
Ghostwritten – David Mitchell
Vile Bodies – Evelyn Waugh
Brooklyn by by Colm Toibin
Black Dogs – Ian McEwan
The Boat – Nam Le
Letting Go – Philip Roth
Butterfly – Sonya Hartnett

Margaret

A Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet – David Mitchell
The Children’s Book – A.S. Byatt.
88 Lines about 44 Women – Steven Lang
The Story of Edgar Sawtelle – David Wroblewski
The Thing Around Your Neck – Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Lovesong – Alex Miller
Good to a Fault– Marina Endicott
Brooklyn by by Colm Toibin
Ransom by David Malouf
The White Tiger – Aravind Adiga

Chris

The Children’s Book – A.S. Byatt.
The Millstone – Margaret Drabble
Olive Kitteridge – Elizabeth Strout
Lovesong – Alex Miller
Brooklyn by by Colm Toibin
Good to a Fault– Marina Endicott
The Heretics Daughter – Kathleen Kent
The Inner Circle   – T.C Boyle
The World Beneath – Cate Kennedy
The Piano Tuner – Daniel Mason
The 19th Wife – David Ebershoff
The Diary of an Ordinary Woman – Margaret Forster
Over – Margaret Forster
The Good Parents – Joan London
We Don’t Live Here Anymore – Matt Nable
Monkey Grip – Helen Garner
Madame Bovary – Gustave Flaubert

Sharon

Two Women – Alberto Moravia
Wolf Hall – Hilary Mantel
Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy
War and Peace – Leo Tolstoy
The Elegance of the Hedgehog – Muriel Barbery
The Shadow of the Wind – Carlos Ruiz Zafón
The Children’s Book – A.S. Byatt.
Lovesong – Alex Miller
The Worst Thing She Ever Did – Alice Kuipers
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo – Stieg Larsson

Lurline

Parrot and Olivier in America – Peter Carey
Brooklyn by by Colm Toibin
The Children’s Book – A.S. Byatt.
Wolf Hall – Hilary Mantel
The Lacuna – Barbara Kingsolver
Consolation – Anna Gavalda
Olive Kitteridge – Elizabeth Strout
Zeitoun – Dave Eggers
The Tall Man – Chloe Hooper
Reading by Moonlight – Brenda Walker

Heather

Radiance – Shaena Lambert
Tuscan Rose – Belinda Alexandra
Ransom by David Malouf
The Crossing – Cormac McCarthy
The Street of a Thousand Blossoms – Gail Tsukiyama
88 Lines about 44 Women – Steven Lang
The Sparrow – Mary Doria Russell
The Leopard’s Wife – Paul Pickering
Boy – Roald Dahl
The Tall Man – Chloe Hooper

Sally

Wolf Hall – Hilary Mantel
Life in Seven Mistakes – Susan Johnson
The Missing – Tim Gautreaux
Novel About My Wife – Emily Perkins
Truth – Peter Temple
Deaf Sentence – David Lodge
One Good Turn – Kate Atkinson
Lovesong – Alex Miller
The World Beneath – Cate Kennedy
Good to a Fault– Marina Endicott

Carol

Wolf Hall – Hilary Mantel
Gilead – Marilynne Robinson
Good to a Fault– Marina Endicott
American Wife – Curtis Sittenfeld
Zeitoun – Dave Eggers
The Secret Scripture – Sebastian Barry
Indelible Ink – Fiona McGregor
The Radiant Way – Margaret Drabble
Kubla Khan – John Man [Biography]
A Family Madness – Thomas Keneally
Ransom by David Malouf
Truth – Peter Temple
88 Lines about 44 Women – Steven Lang
The Lovely Bones – Alice Sebold

Cathy

The Girl Who Played with Fire – Steig Larsson
When Will There be Good News? – Kate Atkinson
The Magician’s Elephant – Kate Di Camillo
The Lacuna – Barbara Kingsolver
The Idea of Perfection – Kate Grenville
The Great Gatsby – F Scott Fitzgerald
Started Early Took My Dog – Kate Atkinson
Farewell to Arms – Ernest Hemingway
True Pleasures – Lucinda Holdsworth
Run – Ann Patchett

Lesleigh

Wolf Hall – Hilary Mantel
Howard’s End – E.M. Forster
Trespass – Rose Tremain
Good to a Fault– Marina Endicott
Brooklyn by Colm Toibin
Solar – Ian McEwan
Behind the Scenes at the Museum – Kate Atkinson
Truth – Peter Temple
The World Beneath – Cate Kennedy
Novel About My Wife – Emily Perkins
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter – Carson McCullers