A collection of reads recommended by authors coming to our Local Authors Fair this February as a part of our Festival of Libraries. This book list contains fiction for all ages and non fiction.
To find out more about the Festival of Libraries visit the Festival of Libraries page. To see all the wonderful authors and publishers who will be at the fair visit our authors page.
The Secret History by Donna Tartt
Contemporary fiction
Under the influence of a charismatic classics professor, a group of clever, eccentric misfits at a New England college discover a way of thought and life a world away from their banal contemporaries. But their search for the transcendent leads them down a dangerous path, beyond human constructs of morality.
Watership Down by Richard Adams
Children’s classic for ages 8+
Set in the once idyllic rural landscape of the south of England, ‘Watership Down’ follows a band of very special creatures on their flight from the intrusion of man and the destruction of their home, as they head towards a mysterious promised land.
Like a Charm by Ellie McNicoll
Children’s fiction for ages 10+
Edinburgh is a city filled with magical creatures. No one can see them … except Ramya Knox.
As she is pulled into her family’s world of secrets and spells, Ramya sets out to discover the truth about the Hidden Folk with only three words of warning from her grandfather: beware the sirens.
Plunged into an adventure that will change everything, Ramya is about to learn that there is more to her powers than she ever imagined.
The Dressmakers Gift by Fiona Valpy
Women’s literary fiction
Paris, 1940. With the city occupied by the Nazis, three young seamstresses go about their normal lives as best they can. But all three are hiding secrets. War-scarred Mireille is fighting with the Resistance; Claire has been seduced by a German officer; and Vivienne’s involvement is something she can’t reveal to either of them.
Two generations later, Claire’s English granddaughter Harriet arrives in Paris, rootless and adrift, desperate to find a connection with her past. Living and working in the same building on the Rue Cardinale, she learns the truth about her grandmother―and herself―and unravels a family history that is darker and more painful than she ever imagined.
In wartime, the three seamstresses face impossible choices when their secret activities put them in grave danger. Brought together by loyalty, threatened by betrayal, can they survive history’s darkest era without being torn apart?
King Rat by James Clavell
Historical fiction
Set in Changi, the most notorious prisoner of war camp in Asia, King Rat is an heroic story of survival told by a master story-teller who lived through those years as a young soldier. Only one man in fifteen had the strength, the luck, and the cleverness to survive Changi. King was that man.
Lustrum by Robert Harris
Historical thriller
It was Rome, 63 BC. In a city on the brink of acquiring a vast empire, seven men are struggling for power – Cicero is consul; Caesar, his ruthless young rival; Pompey, the republic’s greatest general; Crassus, its richest man; Cato, a political fanatic; Catilina, a psychopath; and, Clodius, an ambitious playboy.
63 BC, the year when Cicero is consul. Most of his time in office is devoted to thwarting a violent conspiracy to overthrow the state. Underlying this is the great rivalry between Cicero and Caesar. As Caesar’s power grows Cicero must face the inevitable compromises that come from holding power.
Lockwood & Co: The Screaming Staircase by Jonathan Stroud
Young adult paranormal fiction
When the dead come back to haunt the living, Lockwood & Co. step in . . .
For more than fifty years, the country has been affected by a horrifying epidemic of ghosts. A number of Psychic Investigations Agencies have sprung up to destroy the dangerous apparitions.
Lucy Carlyle, a talented young agent, arrives in London hoping for a notable career. Instead she finds herself joining the smallest most ramshackle agency in the city, run by the charismatic Anthony Lockwood. When one of their cases goes horribly wrong, Lockwood & Co. have one last chance of redemption. Unfortunately this involves spending the night in one of the most haunted houses in England, and trying to escape alive.
Set in a city stalked by spectres, The Screaming Staircase is the first in a chilling new series full of suspense, humour and truly terrifying ghosts. Your nights will never be the same again . . .
A Tomb with a View by Peter Ross
Non fiction
Enter a grave new world of fascination and delight as award-winning journalist Peter Ross uncovers the stories and glories of graveyards. Who are London’s outcast dead and why is David Bowie their guardian angel? How did a thousand skulls come to be stacked beneath a church in Kent? Why is the music hall star who sang ‘I Do Like To Be Beside The Seaside’ buried on a hillside in Glasgow far from the sound of the silvery sea? All of these sorrowful mysteries – and many more – are answered in ‘A Tomb with a View’, a book for anyone who has ever wandered through a field of crooked headstones and wondered about the lives and deaths of those who lie beneath.
Silver by Olivia Levez
Young adult science fiction
THEIR LOVE WILL SET THE STARS ALIGHT . . .
Silver has been trained since birth for her mission: collect data on the humans to test if Earth is viable for her home ship, Charybdis, to colonise. The only rules are that she must feed back the data she collects to the ship, and at all times follow the Mantra: To touch is agony. To feel is pain.
So when Silver inhabits the body of a young woman and infiltrates the house she is staying in, she must learn to pass as a human without revealing her true identity. But she isn’t prepared for how the humans will get under her skin. And she definitely isn’t prepared for Finch, the boy she starts to fall for. Especially when he touches her – and it doesn’t hurt.
It is not how Charybdis said it would be.
Have they been lying all along?
Conflicted by the war between her growing feelings for Finch and her allegiance to her ship, Silver must decide who to stand by and who to betray.
Splinters by Rachel Delahaye
Young adult fiction
Jean Sylvester is a typical, overthinking adolescent whose painful experience with parallel realities teaches her that while life involves her, it’s not always all about her.
She thinks life isn’t fair and wishes hers was different. When she witnesses a traumatic accident, she can’t help but blame herself for the events leading up to it. In order to be free of the nightmare she has a choice: she can spiral into despair or reconcile herself with the fact that terrible things happen, and some can’t be changed.
Splinters is a story about so many things. It starts by looking at the change in our priorities as we move into our teenage years – our desperation for independence and happiness; our vulnerability to change; our misery when
things don’t turn out as we hoped. There are two things that let you down in life: high expectations and other people.
Three Hours by Rosamund Lupton
Suspense Fiction
In rural Somerset in the middle of a blizzard, the unthinkable happens: a school is under siege. Children and teachers barricade themselves into classrooms, the library, the theatre. The headmaster lies wounded in the library, unable to help his trapped students and staff. Outside, a police psychiatrist must identify the gunmen, while parents gather desperate for news. In three intense hours, all must find the courage to stand up to evil and save the people they love.
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
Romantic Suspense Fiction
Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again …
Working as a lady’s companion, the orphaned heroine of Rebecca learns her place. Life begins to look very bleak until, on a trip to the South of France, she meets Maxim de Winter, a handsome widower whose sudden proposal of marriage takes her by surprise. Whisked from glamorous Monte Carlo to his brooding estate, Manderley, on the Cornish Coast, the new Mrs de Winter finds Max a changed man. And the memory of his dead wife Rebecca is forever kept alive by the forbidding Mrs Danvers …
Not since Jane Eyre has a heroine faced such difficulty with the Other Woman. An international bestseller that has never gone out of print, Rebecca is the haunting story of a young girl consumed by love and the struggle to find her identity.