We’ve read some great books this year. Some are new titles , others are classics, but we don’t believe there’s an expiration date on when you can recommend a read ! Part two coming soon.
Request on the libary catalogue
You’ll find all of these titles at your local library. Reserve now on the library catalogue for pick up when we open on January 5th!
Borrow right now on our Libby app!
Our Libby app has many of the titles below available to read or listen to on your device right away. Look for *Libby next to the title. You can also head to the Libby website right now to see the list of available Falkirk Libraries’ Reads of the Year.
To get started with Libby, just download the app from your device store and enter your library card number and PIN. More information can be found on our library catalogue .
Jasmin (Falkirk Library)
Jasmin: “My favourites that I’ve read this year were Happiness Is Wasted On Me by Kirkland Ciccone (I was gutted I wasn’t free to come and see his author event!) Not at all the usual type of book I would go for as I’m normally mainly a Sci-Fi/Fantasy reader, but, my goodness, I loved this book and have recommended it to everyone since I read it.
“My other favourites from this year have been The Deathless (2018), The Ruthless (2019) and The Boundless (2020) – though I haven’t quite finished The Boundless yet. I haven’t been able to put them down, and couldn’t have been happier to find a really good series of fantasy novels this year!”
Jennifer (East Hub Librarian)
Jennifer says Dom Jolly’s book about Lebanon stood out amongst the books she read this year: “I saw him talk about his books while I was on holiday. Afterwards I found we had this one on the shelf. It was a great way to find out about a country I knew very little about as well as being entertaining.”
- Running Tracks by Rob Deering
- Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
- The Paris Library by Janet Skeslien Charles
- Happiness is Wasted on Me by Kirkland Ciccone
- The Downhill Hiking Club by Dom Joly
Lynne (Development Librarian)
Lynne read some brilliant new Scottish fiction and some new and old classics, mostly on our Libby app. Also, as 2021 apparently wasn’t already sufficiently filled with dread, she listened to several horror novels.
- And Away… by Bob Mortimer *Libby
- Luckenbooth by Jenni Fagan *Libby
- Happiness is Wasted on Me by Kirkland Ciccone *Libby
- Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro *Libby
- A Kind of Spark by Elle McNicoll
- The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead *Libby
- The Porpoise by Mark Haddon *Libby
- The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell *Libby
- Dune by Frank Herbert *Libby
- The Nameless Ones by John Connolly
- A Cosmology of Monsters by Shaun Hamill *Libby
- The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones *Libby
- The Terror by Dan Simmons *Libby
Gavin (Development Librarian)
Gavin’s list features a couple of Scottish stunners.
- Young Team by Graeme Armstrong *Libby
- Happiness is Wasted on Me by Kirkland Ciccone *Libby
- Yardie by Victor Headley
- Generation Kill by Evan Wright
- Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky
- Ascender by Jeff Lemire
Tanya Milligan (Lead Librarian – Projects)
Tanya is a voracious reader who particularly loves fantasy. She was full of praise for ‘A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking’ by T Kingfisher.
“Utterly fantastic, good for kids and adults, magic and democracy breaking down, with discrimination against those with magical talents, and a murder mystery, and a great hero who uses her baking magic to do amazing things! Possibly my book of the year”
- A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking
- Paper & Blood by Kevin Hearne (Urban fantasy series set in Glasgow!)
- Ink & Sigil by Kevin Hearne (2nd in above series)
- What Abigail did that summer by Ben Aaronovitch (latest in the brilliant Rivers of London series)
- Etiquette and Espionage by Gail Carriger (I re-read the whole steampunk Finishing School series, this is the first one)
- Minor Mage by T. Kingfisher (child’s book, great with lots of magic)
- The Cat Who Saved Books by Sosuke Natsukawa (a rather sweet fable about a boy dealing with his grandfather’s death and learning to have friends and be brave) *Libby
Arwen (age 16) and Finn (age 12)
Tanya’s kids are big readers, just like their mum.
16-year-old Arwen says The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness is probably best book she’s ever read.
- The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness
Finn, who’s 12, recommends Where the River Runs Gold by Sita Brahmachari. He says it’s the “Best dystopian fiction I’ve ever read. The World has been ravaged by storms where bees have died out and plants are rare and children are sent to pollinate plants by hand.”
- Minor Mage by T. Kingfisher
- A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking by T Kingfisher
- Northern Lights series by Philip Pullman (best storyline, maybe) N.B. The prequels to this series are available on *Libby, read by Michael Sheen
- Where the River Runs Gold by Sita Brahmachari
