Trolls, giants, nissen and elves are all commonly found within the colourful pages of Luke Pearson’s popular series. Living in a Scandinavian world in which the monsters and spirits of folklore actually exist, Hilda is a reckless young adventurer whose escapades – with her pet deer/fox Twig – often lead to mysteries she will undertake to help the new friends she meets along the way. A perfect entry point to graphic novels for younger readers, but a joy to read at any age.

The grey-scale palette, diary entries from the 80s and the overgrown fences of a spooky abandoned orphanage eerily set the stage for Pam Smy’s debut graphic novel. The book is split between two stories: one portrayed via the aforementioned diary entries of a girl within the orphanage, and the other through silent illustrations of a modern day girl moving in next door to the now abandoned building. The way Smy slowly builds the tension between the two stories as they begin to connect ensures you read this book in a single sitting.

Part action adventure, part rom-com, part Toronto tour guide, Bryan Lee O’Malley’s Scott Pilgrim series is the perfect example for what graphic novels have to offer. Intertwining the internal problems of young adult life with the external problems of over-the-top anime style fights, O’Malley completely understands what it feels like to grow up and the comedic and warming nature of the characters compliment that perfectly. If you’ve never heard of Scott Pilgrim before, then today is the day to change that.

In an attempt to prove a point that “one bad day” is enough to drive anyone to insanity, Alan Moore’s The Killing Joke showcases the Joker in one of his most iconic and diabolical stories to date. Originally written as a standalone story separate to the official Batman timeline, this book gained such a cult following that its events were quickly adopted as canon to the Batman lore and served as one of the inspirations for the 2019 film Joker. Strong nerves are required whilst reading.

A slightly gentler, more compassionate look at life within a maternity ward than Adam Kay’s This is Going to Hurt. However Leah Hazard, who still works as a mid-wife within the NHS, does not pull her punches. Her book is a paean of tribute to the mothers and midwives who strive so hard to deliver healthy babies in an environment which suffers from being undervalued and underfunded, which makes it essential reading.

A wonderfully original novel set in an alternate reality. Kate lives one existence in New York with the love of her life Ben, and another dream reality as Emelia in plague riddled London, 400 years earlier. As the distinction between the two becomes less defined Kate has difficulty maintaining her sense of self.

Based on the shocking drowning of forty fishermen from a tiny fishing village in Norway in 1617, and exploring the aftermath on the lives of the women and children left to fend for themselves, the book grips from the opening page. Grieving and fearful, some of the women immerse themselves in religion, while others develop the skills necessary to feed themselves and their children.

Recently long-listed for the Booker prize, Lanny is a sublime piece of writing. An unnamed village in rural England is home to the usual village characters, but also to Lanny and his mother and father, Mad Pete, a reclusive artist and Dead Papa Toothwort, a timeless shapeshifter who sees, and has seen, everything.

Jess Kidd’s third novel is set in Victorian London and features Bridie Devine, a female detective searching for a kidnapped child Christabel Berwick. With the added complication that Christabel is not supposed to exist.

16 yr old Robert sets out to explore the countryside around his home in the North of England before assuming the role assigned to him by nature of birth and locality. The war has left its’ stain but also infected him with a desire to rebel and explore. Instinctively following an overgrown track to a solitary cottage, he encounters Dulcie, an extraordinary and knowledgeable older woman.

A work of non-fiction which reads like fiction and where the reading of the authors’ note and prologue are essential. This arrived with much fanfare and deservedly so. Lisa Taddeo followed the lives of, among others, Maggie, Lina and Sloane for several years before compiling their stories into this description of the desperate ways in which women’s lives can be controlled by the desire for approval and the judgement of others, and I’m not just talking men. A clarion call to those among us who willingly judge without understanding.

See below for our choice of Books of the Year 2019.

See below for our choice of Books of the Year 2018.

Set in 1940, when neither swearing nor violence were casual and written in a pastiche of wartime language, Dear Mrs Bird is a breath of fresh air, particularly for readers who have not yet become inured to profanity!  Henriette Bird is a particularly stringent agony aunt whose newest recruit, our heroince Emmy Lake, cannot resist the temptation to inject a little compassion into her boss’s brusque replies.

Moss’ description of the sheer terror which, for the fortunate amongst us, only occasionally breaks through the monotonous surface of daily parenting, is breathtaking. I came to this book late – but I now aim to read Sarah Moss’ backlist. Her writing is honest, and tender, and just gorgeous.

Madeline Miller’s first novel, The Song of Achilles, took the literary world by storm when it was published in 2011, and we were lucky enough to host her first event in Scotland. Her second book, Circe, returns to the ancient world, this time with a heroine for modern times. A child born to the house of Helios, she is spurned as neither beautiful nor talented. Love drives Circe to a malicious act of revenge resulting in her banishment to the island of Aiaia. A woman alone, she must defend herself from many who cross her shores, finding love and power as she nurtures skills forbidden to Gods, witchcraft.

A searing memoir of the author’s seventeen brushes with death, from a childhood illness she wasn’t expected to survive, to a terrifying encounter with a stranger on a remote hillside.

Bantam is Jackie Kay’s first collection since she became Makar. It is an intimate collection celebrating family, from the grand-father who sustained a shrapnel wound in World War 1, through her parents whose fierce political beliefs have not been diminished by ill health or age, to the birth of her beloved son.

For fans of A Little Life, this is not for the fainthearted, but it is certainly one of my books of the year. Beautiful and brutal in almost equal measure, this is a terrifying examination of a father/daughter relationship. Fourteen year old Turtle Alveston knows how to fire, strip and clean every gun in the house, but is she brave enough to make a friend, and is she willing to do what it takes to escape?

Opening with the brutal murder of two children in her care Lullaby continues as an examination of how a life lived on the margins of society contrives to turn Louise, seemingly the prefect nanny, into the stuff of nightmares. Not a comfortable read but an excellent portrait of the gradual disintegration of a mind.

With liberal use of teen language(!) and a rucksack full of essentials (belVitas, Dundee cake) the eponymous hero of Sal removes her younger sister from the danger lurking in their family home and heads for the woods. Her voice is distinct, her story tragic and you will root for her from the first page. An exceptional debut novel from Mick Kitson.

Victor Forde is instantly engaging. Alone in a new area of town he finds himself drinking each night at his local bar. Approached by a man who seems to know him, his past starts to unfold in stories told between them. With masterful writing Roddy Doyle elicits easy sympathy for Victor, his irritants become ours and his sorrows too, which leads us to an uncomfortable and stunning denouement.

–A searing, ‘hold your breath’ brilliant memoir of how Tara Westover, despite never attending school, decided, aged 16, to educate herself, ending up with a PHD from Cambridge. This, against the background of her extreme ‘End of Days’ Mormon upbringing in Idaho.

See below for our choice of Books of the Year, there is something for everyone here, from family and friends to Godchildren and Grandparents.

This is a book to read in one sitting, in fact, I challenge you to look away. One man’s meditation on his life in medicine, set against his terminal diagnosis with inoperable cancer part way through the writing. Powerful, poignant stuff, not least his wife’s afterword.

A slim volume that packs a punch, examining the life of Shostakovich, in the elegant form of a Julian Barnes novel. Life, art, the nature of courage are set against the background of Soviet Russia. There are moments of great wit, and electric jolts of fear as he navigates the perilous and often arbitrary nature of surviving the system.

“I didn’t realize my mother was a person until I was thirteen years old and she pulled me out of bed, put me in the back of the car, and we left home and my dad with no explanation.”

Nine year old Leon adores his new baby brother, Jake. He loves looking after him and everything should be wonderful. But Leon’s mum is not coping well and as more and more responsibility falls on Leon’s young shoulders, things get out of hand.

A huge in-house favourite and deserved winner of the overall Costa Book of the Year, Days Without End is a novel of love and war set in the American West. A novel that will make you wince with pain and gasp in awe in almost equal measure.

An edgy and disturbing book. Cline steps indie the skin of her teenage protagonist with an ease that makes for uncomfortable yet compulsive reading.

The new book in Ottolenghi’s oeuvre is a thing of beauty in itself, complete with glorious gold edges. Don’t be put off by its restaurant heritage, all the recipes have been rigorously tested, with head chef Scully teaching himself to become a home cook in the process.

Step out of your reading comfort zone and pick up The Last Tour of Archie Forbes. It is a gem of a novel that will have you amused, horrified and scared – for all the right reasons. It may even make you a more sympathetic human being. I carried it with me, hoping for a spare moment to read but not wanting it to end too soon. This is Victoria’s Hendry’s second novel, I may just have to buy the first.

Set in mostly New York, this is ostensibly the story of friendship between four men from their days immediately post-college, through to their 50’s. But is so much more than that. The author, through her characters, redefines what family and friendship can be. Utterly compelling from page 1, I was absorbed to the exclusion of everything else while on holiday, and this is not a light book to carry to the beach… It packs serious emotional punch, full of pain and beauty, but astonishingly also flashes of brilliant humour.

I read Go Set a Watchman on publication last year and, despite the controversy, thoroughly enjoyed hearing Scout’s voice again. On seeing that my daughter had finished reading To Kill a Mockingbird on holiday, I was delighted to scoop it up in her wake and immerse myself in the deep South once more.

There are some books which, when you’re finished reading them, seem to pop into your mind for weeks (or years) afterwards. Set in three periods, just before, just after and twenty years on from a deadly flue that wiped out 99% of the world’s population. It is a remarkable book about memory, love, loss, faith and hope with that rarest of things – a satisfying ending. Our bookshelves are not short of post apocalyptic fiction, but this is something so much more – think Margaret Atwood, not Suzanne Collins.

Hardinge’s previous novel, The Lie Tree (winner of the Costa Book Prize) was read by adults and teens alike. The same should apply to this excellent, atmospheric and utterly gripping story. Living a perilous existence at the beginning of the English Civil War, Makepeace is a strong young woman forced to live with dark secrets from an early age. A perfect wintery read.