2012 roundup: The Bulletin's top 5 books

From recipes to royal shenanigans, our writers round up some of the year’s publishing highlights that you might want to add to your Christmas list.

Fiction

Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel

Riveting, Booker-winning sequel to the riveting, Booker-winning Wolf Hall. Mantel picks up her account of the court of Henry VIII where she left off, with the king’s marriage to second wife Anne Boleyn on the rocks and master secretary Thomas Cromwell cementing his place as the king’s right-hand man. The plot rattles along towards Anne’s inevitable demise, and although the reader knows exactly how this particular story ends, Mantel’s telling of it makes for a fresh and absorbing journey full of jealousies, rivalries and backstabbing. Roll on part three, The Mirror and the Light.

Harper Collins (432 pages)

The Fates Will Find Their Way by Hannah Pittard

Released this year in paperback, Pittard’s debut novel is a wistful reflection of childhood, centred on the unsolved disappearance of 16-year-old Nora and told from the collective perspective of the neighbourhood boys who lusted after her and remain obsessed by her memory well into adulthood. Frequently compared to The Virgin Suicides for its dreamy, otherworldly evocation of an American adolescence, it skips confidently back and forth in time, from recollection to speculation. Not one for readers who like their plots tied up in neat packages, but an assured and thoughtful debut that lingers long after the final page.

Harper Collins (256 pages)

Children

Louis Goes to Brussels by Gillian Muir (Illustrations by Delphine Frantzen)

The local Scottish teacher and author returns with a second tale about her pet dog Louis in this illustrated story for children. In the first, Louis Finds a New Home, Muir recounts how her family adopted Louis from a local dog shelter (and sales helped her sponsor a new one). Now the sequel sees the brown cocker spaniel setting off on an adventure in Brussels; this is one shaggy dog series that we all hope has legs!

Wee Dug Books (32 pages)

Non-fiction

Polpo: A Venetian Cookbook (of Sorts) by Russell Norman

Nigella hasn’t had a complete monopoly on Italian cuisine this year, as this first cookbook from the successful London restaurant proves. In Soho, Russell Norman serves up tapas inspired by backstreet food from Venice and beyond, hence the qualification ‘of Sorts’. The simplicity of his dishes is enhanced by the beautiful design, photos and binding and it was chosen as Waterstone’s Book of the Year. Tip: the goat’s cheese, roasted grape and walnut bruschette would be perfect for Christmas.

Bloomsbury (320 pages)

Comic

Mrs Weber’s Omnibus by Posy Simmonds

Posy Simmonds finally became a household name in Belgium – the home of the comic strip and the graphic novel – this year, thanks to her career retrospective, Posy Simmonds: Essentiellement British!, at Brussels’ Comic Strip Centre. Mrs Weber’s Omnibus collects for the first time all her weekly comic strips published in the Guardian from 1977 until the late 80s. At the heart of every strip are the Webers: a liberal, middle-class, dare we say Guardian-reading family with their frustrations and preoccupations. Splendidly observed; still deliciously relevant.

Jonathan Cape (488 pages)