I’m an absolute fiend for reserving more books than I can keep up with, whilst also trying to read from my own shelves. I guess I want to make sure I don’t end up stuck on a waiting list of thirty people so I reserve it while there’s only like, three but they always inevitably come in before I’m expecting it and I end up with everything at once. What a great testament to the resources libraries offer though, right? Let’s see if I can work my way through these in the next couple of months.

Girl, Woman, Other by Bernadine Evaristo

I reserved this as soon as Evaristo’s win was announced. I wasn’t really drawn to it before BUT the joint winner thing infuriated me (The Testaments didn’t deserve it) so I wanted to make a point to read the winning title from the first black female Booker winner. I’ve heard she’s very much a deserving winner so I’m excited to experience this one myself.

Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens

From what I’ve heard, this is about a young girl, Kya, who lives by herself in the marshes of North Carolina. The locals are aware of the supposed Marsh Girl, so when there is a murder in the town some years later, Kya is suspected to be involved due to the mystery and myth surrounding her. I love the concept of children growing up without parents or adult figures and I’ve heard that there are some really touching relationships that develop. I’ve just looked on Goodreads, and this currently has 420,000 ratings with an average rating of 4.5. Wow.

Tunnel of Bones by Victoria Schwab

This is the second installment in the Cassidy Blake series, the first of which I read earlier in the year. I enjoyed it, but wanted a little bit more – especially about the ghost character, Jacob. I’ve seen reviews that sound promising in that respect, so I’m actually quite impatient for this one to come in. Each book takes place in a different city: the first being Edinburgh, this one being Paris, which I think is a fun kind of continuity for the series.

T’was the Nightshift Before Christmas by Adam Kay

A follow-up to This is Going to Hurt, focussing on the Christmas shifts throughout Kay’s time as a junior doctor. Following the success of the former, this obviously has a lot of reservations on it so I need to get it read before the end of the month (handily Non-Fiction November), which should be easy enough as this installment comes in at under 150 pages.

Silent Scream by Angela Marsons

By far and large, this is the book I have been recommended most by library patrons since I started working at my local libraries at the start of the year. I’d never heard of Angela Marsons before, but now I can tell you so much about her without even having read this first book of hers. She’s local to my area, she writes crime novels set in the local area, and she used to be a security guard at the huge shopping centre I also used to work at. I really like anything where I can identify or relate to the location as somewhere I’ve been, so that’s my main reason for taking this one out but I still haven’t gotten to it yet. If I have to return it before I’ve read it, at least I know I’ll be able to get it out again at some point because there are so. many. copies.

Telling Tales by Ann Cleeves

I was recommended Ann Cleeves by stargazer (who wrote this great post about crime fiction) for a crime book with good characters. I think I saw the TV episode of this years ago, but I don’t remember anything about it so I’m looking forward to reading it. There is only one copy of this book in sixteen borough libraries, and it already had a few reservations on which is why I reserved this one. I’m not expecting it for a while, maybe even January, but you just never know.