Authors and Editors in Conversation Mitzi Angel: I particularly enjoyed your portrait of Dublin in This Is the Way. It’s an inside-out portrait of a city, seen through the eyes of someone who does not feel at home there. How have your own experiences of that city influenced Anthony’s Dublin? Gavin Corbett: Funnily enough, only last Thursday afternoon I had an experience that strongly reminded me of the sense of Dublin I used to have growing up. It was one of those typically Dublin days, weather-wise – drizzly, misty, the light diffuse. I went down this canyon-like street I’d never been on before, this street with seemingly nothing in it, just high brick walls on either side. And I found myself behind a notorious former Magdalene laundry. Have you heard about these Magdalene laundries? They’ve been in the news recently. Mitzi Angel: Yes, those Church-run laundries the Irish prime minister apologised about?

by Philip Hensher and Stephen Weil Philip Hensher’s charming and informative new book, The Missing Ink: The Lost Art of Handwriting, was released in the United States last month by Faber and Faber. Taking inspiration from the New Statesman, we asked some of the folks involved in its publication here at Faber and Faber/FSG to write out a favorite short excerpt from the book. Here are the results, with insightful commentary from Mr. Hensher himself: What a beautiful hand! This is a really nice, personal continuation of the classic American cursive hand as taught in schools. The loops are absolutely efficient, contributing to the speed of the writing. The letter forms are completely classic but with plenty of Jennifer’s own style in them—I love the f, the upper case J, the gorgeous single movement of the d, the beautifully formed o. Interestingly, almost the only break within a word is in “hand writing”—I get the impression that Jennifer has thought about handwriting, paused slightly at this word, and enjoys writing by hand.

[caption id="attachment_1497" align="aligncenter" width="522"] Jesse Bering's Bookshelf[/caption] With more and more books published every year, it's increasingly difficult to separate the wheat from the chaff. Does this increase the usefulness of all the annual "Best of" lists? Perhaps. It's irresistible when a critic distills a year of reading into a simple hierarchy, especially if her tastes match your own. It's just so efficient. I tend to eschew those books awarded the most (or loudest) hosannas in favor of the previously unknown novels that slipped past me at publication. (This year it's Ben Lerner's excellent Leaving the Atocha Station.) Sites like Salon, The Millions, and The Guardian go straight to the authors for their recommendations. I decided to do the same, canvassing our writers and editors. With a couple caveats: First, the editors couldn't choose their own titles; Second, one's choices didn't need to be published in 2011, just read in 2011. Old classics and novels from 2010 and 2009 are all welcome. Some submitted a straightforward list, while others penned brief summaries. (The Spanish-Argentinian novelist Andrés Neuman even separated his list by language.) I hope you'll find your next favorite book among them. Favorite Reads from 2011:

Mitzi Angel is the publisher of Faber and Faber. The House in Paris by Elizabeth Bowen The Stories of John Cheever by John Cheever Leaving the Atocha Station by Ben Lerner Patriotic Gore by Edmund Wilson All Authors' and Editors' Favorite Reads of 2011 The...