We love these books!

At Southwark libraries we are passionate about books and wanted to share some of our favourites with you. When you visit Southwark libraries you'll find a "We love these books!" collection which features a wonderfully diverse range of superb reads recommended by library staff.

The collection was launched by children's laureate Michael Rosen at Dulwich Library and he spoke passionately about the joys of reading. Two of the titles he highlighted as great reads from fantastic authors were "Things Fall Apart" by Chinua Achebe and "Un Lun Dun" by China Mieville.

The collection is continually updated and to date nearly 200 superb titles have been recommended by library staff. The collections can be found at:

• Blue Anchor library
• Camberwell library
• Dulwich library
• East Street library
• Grove Vale library
• John Harvard library
• Newington library
• Nunhead library
• Peckham library
• Rotherhithe library

You can also pick up "We love these books!" booklets at any of these libraries, which feature a full list and reviews of the current collection. Here are just a few highlights:

Hotel World

by Ali Smith

Ali Smith's novel follows five women, all of whom are connected through their relation to to one particular hotel.

There is Penny a journalist staying at the hotel to review it who embarks on a late night adventure with Else a homeless woman who was taken pity on and given a room by the receptionist who is now confined to bed suffering from an unspecified illness but who at one time looked after the grieving sister of a chamber maid who died after climbing in the dumb waiter but whose ghost still has something to say...

Jumping across stories and time-frames this novel deals with themes of connection and personal relationships in our fast-paced commercialised culture, communication and time and how past present and future are (or are not) connected.

Reviewed by Emma at Dulwich library.

Check availability of Hotel World at your local library.

Labyrinths: Selected Stories and Other Writings

by Jorge Borges

Does your brain need a bit of a work out? Then Borges is the man for you.  This is a book of ideas. Big ideas about the nature of existence and reality condensed into readable short stories of magic, murder and metaphysics which will have your brain doing somersaults and leave you feeling thoroughly refreshed. The Lottery in Babylon and the Library of Babel are particularly brain spasm inducing. Incredible and life affirming.

Reviewed by Mark at Peckham library.

Check availability of Labyrinths at your local library.

City Of Thieves

by David Benioff

City of Thieves is probably one of the most remarkable books I have read in recent years. Harrowing and funny at the same time it is a book I recommended many times to Library users and gave away as a present to my friends - always getting great feedback from them.

Set in Russia in 1941 during the war, Stalingrad (St. Petersburg) is a city under siege. Cold, hunger and poverty are part of the every day life of its citizens. Two prisoners, Lev and Kolya, are given a week to complete a mission if they want to live.....To find a dozen eggs, a luxury none of them have seen or eaten in a long, long time. This is a wonderful book with a very cinematic feel about it. Will I enjoy the film.....?

Reviewed by Luis at Nunhead library

Check availability of City of Thieves at your local library. 

Ordinary Thunderstorms

by William Boyd

Ordinary Thunderstorms is simultaneously an effective and riveting thriller, and a novel that illustrates the unseen interconnectedness of modern life. London is a central character in the book, or rather the many London's that coexist, from extreme wealth and arrogance to poverty and ignorance. A bright young man is unwittingly thrown into a conspiracy involving murder and the cover up of a wonder drug that will cure Asthma, but is in reality responsible for the deaths of children who have had the drug tested on them.

The man is forced underground, into rough sleeping and into the twilight worlds of prostitutes, sink estates and violence. His middle-class, well bred identity is forced to confront a world without the cosy certainties his education and class take for granted. The novel shows how corruption works at all levels in society, and how people are silently and unknowingly drawn into contact with each other for no apparent reason or end. It's an intelligent and highly readable book, both entertaining and thought provoking.

Reviewed by Steve at Community Library Service.

Check availability of Ordinary Thunderstorms at your local library.