Tim’s Best Books of 2018

BOOKS OF 2018

Themes of the year

1.First World War

Where they Kill Captains – Douglas Butler

The General – CS Forrester

The Dust that Falls from Dreams – Louis de Bernieres

So Much Life Left Over – Louis de Bernieres

2.Medical

This is Going to Hurt – Adam Kay

3.Spy Biography

The Spy and the Traitor – Ben Macintyre

4.Nature

Wilding – Isabella Tree

Unexpected Genius of Pigs – Matt Whyman

5.Politics

Yes She Can – Ruth Davidson

Ladybird Book of Brexit

Brexit Cartoons

6.Exotic Travel

In Search of North Africa – Barnaby Rogerson

Travels in a Dervish Cloak – Isambard Wilkinson

7.Surprises

Educated – Tara Westover

Terms and Conditions – Ysenda Maxtone Graham

Fire and the Fury – Michael Wolff

Fear Trump in the White House – Bob Woodward

A Higher Loyalty – James Comey

Red Notice – Bill Browder

8.New Novels by Big Beasts

Love is Blind – William Boyd

Middle England – Jonathan Coe

Warlight – Michael Ondaatje

9.Films

The Children Act – Ian McEwan

The Wife – Meg Wolitzer

Guernsey Literary Potato Peel Pie society -Annie Barrows & Mary Ann Shaffer

10.Local Authors

Blood on the Page – Thomas Harding

Not out of the Woods – Roger Morgan -Grenville

Capitalism in America  – Allan Greenspan & Adrian Woolridge

Bluestreak – Mike Klidjian

Henry Harwood – Peter Hore

World War Two Explained – Michael O’Kelly

11.In Praise of Difficult Books

Milkman – Anna Burns

Lincoln in the Bardo – George Saunders

Missing Fay – Adam Thorpe

12.Other Good Booker Shortlist

Washington Black – Esi Edugyan

The Mars Room – Rachel Kushner

13.Other Prize Winners

Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine  – Gail Honeyman

Inside the Wave – Helen Dunmore

Reservoir 13 – Jon McGregor

Explorer – Katherine Rundell

In the Days of Rain – Rebecca Stott

Home fire – Kamila Shamsie

14.Two Young Writers

What I Know About Love – Dolly Alderton

Conversations With Friends – Sally Rooney

15.Some Cracking Thrillers

A Legacy of Spies – John Le Carre

Munich – Robert Harris

Ultimatum – Frank Gardner

Memo From Turner – Tim Willocks

16.In a category of its Own

La Belle Sauvage – Philip Pullman

17.Beautiful Gift Books

Hampshire in Photographs

The Garden At West Dean – Sarah Wain & Jim Buckaland

18.The Top Ten Bestelling novels of 2018

The Underground Railroad – Colson Whitehead

The Sparsholt Affair – Alan Holinghurst

The Tattooist of Auschwitz – Heather Morris

This Must be the Place – Maggie O’Farrell

The Muse – Jessie Burton

All the Light We Cannot See – Anthony Doerr

The Lie of the Land – Amanda Craig

A Gentleman in Moscow – Amor Towles

Little Fires Everywhere – Celeste Ng

Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine – Gail Honeyman

Books of the Film

We currently have plenty of ‘books of the film’ on display at the front of the shop. Interestingly all bar one are nonfiction. The Invisible Woman by Claire Tomalin is the story of Nelly Ternan and Charles Dickens. Directed by Ralph Fiennes it has already picked up some good reviews. Other films include The Railway Man, by Eric Lomax, The Sting Man (filmed as American Hustle) by Robert W Greene, The Book Thief (not such strong reviews) by Marcus Zusak, and The monuments Men by Robert Edsel. The highly successful novel by Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche ,Half Of A Yellow sun is coming out later this month. A fantastic book but I suspect quite hard to film…

I can confirm that How to be a Good Wife was as good as I thought it would be and this week I read The Collected Works of AJ Fikry which was charmingly improbable and sentimental but I thoroughly enjoyed it. It is the story of a widowed bookseller who finds love again.

Out in Paperback this week is the second crime thriller from Harry Bingham called Love Story, With Murders. Even better than the excellent Talking To the Dead and again featuring the young DC Fiona Griffiths this is not to be missed.

Sadly we missed out to the Chorleywood Bookshop in our quest to be the Bookseller of the Year – we will try again in 2015!