Our favourite books this year touched us for different reasons. They made us laugh, cry, or think, and they took us to places far from home, or deep within ourselves.
Winter is upon us, and the darker months are made for reading. We have selected five writers (and one artist) for you this year… all of them non-mainstream creators who poured their passion, heart and soul into their work. These are not the books you will find piled high in airport lounges, and they have yet to enter any bestseller lists, but come from small publishing houses that support artistic journeys. But discovering such gems is precisely the point. Consider them gifts for yourself, or that bookworm in your circle who craves something real.
Without further ado, and in no particular order:
FOR ADVENTURERS:
Solenn Honorine, La Route de Wakale
French author Solenn Honorine has worked in the humanitarian sector for many years. Her first novel, La Route de Wakale, is loosely based on her own experiences, and is the stuff that good documentaries are made of. Her heroine neither glamorizes field work, nor disses it, as has become fashionable these past few years but simply takes the mystery out of it, in an honest and humourous way.
FOR HOBBY DETECTIVES:
Yves-Marie Lequin, Du Sang à Moulinet
Nice has a reputation for excellent crime novelists but you wouldn’t necessarily expect a Dominican friar among them. Yet, Father Yves-Marie Lequin has recently arrived in their midst with his first whodunnit Du Sang à Moulinet. Set in and around Nice, it uncovers mysteries, corruption, and vanities, putting it straight in the illustrious ranks of a Dan Brown novel.
FOR CAT (AND ART) LOVERS:
Richard Saunders, The Topiary Cat, Two Bushy Tales
After a successful first volume, the beloved British surrealist artist and his equally beloved Topiary Cat are back to revisit the trials and tribulations of a young boy growing up in England in the 1950s and his feline friend Tolly. Skillfully crafted and illustrated with good old-fashioned photo editing tools rather than AI, The Topiary Cat blurs the boundaries between reality and fantasy, between nostalgia and magic … just like surreal art does. Perfect for children, and children at heart.
The Topiary Cat – Two Bushy Tales, available through York Bookshop – Language: English
FOR TRAVELERS:
Bhutan, Portrait of a Kingdom
Under the patronage of Queen Jetsun Pema Wangchuck, ten internationally renowned photographers traveled through Bhutan over the course of a year, each capturing a different season for this elegantly clothbound 300 page coffee table book. The collection also features exclusive photographs by King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck. Texts by French Buddhist monk Matthieu Ricard and Pico Iyer contribute to an intimate portrait of this mythical and reclusive kingdom in the heart of the Himalayas.
FOR SPIRITUAL MINDS:
Chrystelle Dugimont – « Elles » en « Une »
At the end of a long journey to her authentic, shamanic self, Chrystelle Dugimont has written “Elles” en “Une” a small gem about women’s connection to Mother Earth and to each other. Through fifteen poetic tableaux combining text and visuals, it tells the story of women across all ages and countries – different yet fundamentally the same – bound by an invisible sisterhood. The book addresses life, death, unity with nature, and reconnection with one’s soul. Move through it page by page or open it randomly, letting a single page guide your emotions.
FOR THOSE MISSING SOMEONE SPECIAL:
Alexandre Miuccio, painter
In the age of cheap AI-generated art, true artistic skills are increasingly rare. Using different techniques, Alexandre Miuccio specializes in photorealistic portraits that capture the true essence of a person or animal, their typical expression, their unmistakable way of looking at you. And in their own way, they tell stories, just like books do.
Portrait of Joy, dry pastels, 30×40 cm, by Alexandre Miuccio – Language: Love
These are just some of the voices and stories that caught our attention this year, and the ones we want to share with you as the year winds down. We hope they bring you as much pleasure as they brought us, and that your winter reading takes you somewhere unexpected.
PS: Kindly support your local bookstore if possible. For those in or near Nice, Masséna Around The World and Read the Room are two great places which will happily help you source what you are looking for. They also hold regular author and book-themed events, so no excuses for not dropping in!
Lead image by Vitaly Gariev on Unsplash; all other images as credited
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