This is the penultimate list in our collection of favourite books of this year. We asked staff, library users and friends for their fiction recommendations.
We’ve made it really easy for you to get your hands on these titles. Head to our library catalogue Best of Year slideshow to click and collect your copy from your local library.
Adult Fiction
We’ll kick off with a book that doesn’t need much introduction: Dead Men’s Trousers, Irvine Welsh‘s furious, funny follow-up to Trainspotting.
Librarian Vikki chose two books she read in library reading groups this year. Edward Docx’s Let My Go Hand, was a Hurricane Book Club favourite and Maja Lunde‘s History of Bees, topped her list from the titles read at Falkirk Library’s Monday evening group.
Librarian Lynne has swooned over Marcus Zusak’s Bridge of Clay, his first novel since worldwide hit The Book Thief, twelve years ago. It stars five parentless young men and their menagerie of animals and is so beautifully written she had to keep the reaching for the hankies.
A big box of three-ply is also required for the next two favourites: While I was Sleeping by Dani Atkins finds Maddie waking up from a coma after 6 years, only to find that everyone in her life has moved on. Jojo Moyes has landed the follow up to Me Before You and After You with Still Me.
Also packing a powerful emotional bunch is The Queen of Bloody Everything by Joanna Nadin and Warlight, Michael ‘English Patient’ Ondaatje‘s post WWII tale, which was recommended by Culture and Sport Team Leader, Lesley .
The brilliant James Oswald, who joined us for Book Week Scotland this year, has picked Anna Mazzola‘s excellent The Story Keeper, a gothic tale that weaves folklore, myths and legends.
Mythology, fantasy and supernatural
Myths and legends crop up again in two more borrower recommendations: In the widely-acclaimed Circe, Madeline Miller gets the witch/goddess of the title to retell The Odyssey in a spellbinding book that brings the classic bang up-do-date. Neil Gaiman beautifully retells Norse Mythology. The man wrote American Godsso he knows what he’s doing.
Adrian Tchaikovsky continues to push boundaries in the third installment of his excellent Echoes of the Fall series. The Hyena and the Hawk continues the story of a warring land where clans can shapeshift into animal form.
Finally, in fantasy, Librarian Tanya is thrilled that Charlaine Harris has a new series. An Easy Death, the first book in the Gunnie Rose line, has been described as True Blood meets The Dark Tower.
Historical Fiction
The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris was recommended to us via Facebook. It’s the beautiful story of Lale, a man forced to tattoo identification numbers onto his fellow prisoners. When he falls in love with a new arrival he is determined to ensure they both survive.
On a more visceral note, three historical thrillers have stood out for library borrowers this year: The Rebel Killer by Paul Fraser Collard, set in the civil war and described as Sharpe meets The Talented Mr Ripley; Conn Iggulden‘s new story from the ancient world, The Falcon of Sparta; and Hammer of Rome, the 9th in Douglas Jackson‘s hugely popular Gaius Valerius Verrens series.
We’ll end our round-up with our Crime picks for 2018, so watch this space. If you’ve any recommendations, we’d love to hear them!