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