Decisions, decisions.
Separating the cream of this year's reading from 'the top of the milk' is a tough job, and inevitably there are at least a handful more books I could add to the list, there's so little to choose between them, but I have chosen and I give you the 'Cornflower Blues', my books of the year:
Best biographies:
Penelope Fitzgerald: A Life by Hermione Lee
C. S. Lewis: A Life - Eccentric Genius, Reluctant Prophet, The Story of the Man who Created Narnia by Alister McGrath
Best 'old' novels:
The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim
The Razor's Edge by W. Somerset Maugham
The Heir by Vita Sackville-West
The Shooting Party by Isabel Colegate
Girl With a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier
Best first novels:
The Night Rainbow by Claire King
Amity & Sorrow by Peggy Riley
Meeting the English by Kate Clanchy
The Bone Season by Samantha Shannon
Mr Penumbra's 24-hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan
Best non-fiction:
The Elements of Eloquence: How to Turn the Perfect English Phrase by Mark Forsyth
Magical Tales: Myth, Legend and Enchantment in Children's Books edited by Carolyne Larrington & Diane Purkiss
Best new novels:
Motherland by William Nicholson
Life After Life by Kate Atkinson
The Promise by Ann Weisgarber
Last Friends by Jane Gardam
The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton
Bellman & Black by Diane Setterfield
Still to come, the best of the best.