Our staff share the books that they didn’t quite finish this year… but that you might.

‘I don’t always cope well with violence in books, TV or film, and had to set aside Ian McGuire’s much-raved, page-turner of a novel, The North Water, after a particularly gory moment. I’m convinced that this book is just as brilliant as everyone says – it was voted one of our top ten fiction books of 2016 by my colleagues – but unfortunately it’s also just as bloodthirsty as I was warned!’ – Bronte Coates, digital content coordinator

‘I’m slowly reading Burning Country: Syrians in Revolution and War by Robin Yassin-Kassab and Leila Al-Shami. I’m not sure if I’ll have this book finished by the end of the year, and for good reason: as far as I can tell it’s one of the most detailed, sympathetic and well-researched accounts of the ongoing Syrian war.’

‘The authors make clear the geopolitical precursors to the Syrian uprising and constantly remind us that before Syria descended into the complex sectarian conflict we know today, there were a series of unified and non-violent protests by ordinary Syrians against the oppressive Assad regime. Moreover, these ordinary Syrians are still in the midst of the conflict, attempting to organise grass-roots democracy in what remains of their smouldering cities, while regime forces and jihadists rage all around them.’ – Michael Skinner, bookseller at St Kilda

‘These are a few essay collections I’ve been working my way through this year, but am nowhere near finishing. They include Siri Hustvedt’s A Woman Looking at Men Looking at Women, Mark Greif’s Against Everything and Teju Cole’s Known and Strange Things. All three are timely reads by brilliant minds and even though I’m enjoying them, my burnt-out December brain is struggling… I think I may be in need of some some fictional page-turners for now, but I look forward to picking up these collections again in the new year.’ – Stella Charls, marketing and events coordinator

‘I picked up a copy of Lily and the Octopus on a recommendation from a friend who told me it was his Book of the Year. It’s the story of Ted, and his dog, Lily, with whom he has shares everything for the past 12 years. (This is 84 in dog years, uh oh.) Almost immediately, it’s revealed that Lily has an unwelcome visitor: an 'octopus’ that clings tightly to the right side of her head. The octopus is a tumor, of course, and I made it about a third of the way through the book before I decided that my heart couldn’t take it. There’s an endorsement from Patrick Ness on the front cover saying that he wept buckets, so you can’t say I wasn’t warned.‘ – Lian Hingee, digital marketing manager

'I have read the last four or five books by Lionel Shriver, but I couldn’t finish this year’s The Mandibles. I got halfway through, put it down, and never picked it up again. The economics were a little too dense for me, the characters weren’t holding my interest, and nothing seemed to be coming together in right way. It just wasn’t working for me.’

‘That said, I think there are many people out there that would greatly enjoy The Mandibles – it’s a challenging, ambitious work perfect for readers who like to dig into a lot of ideas in their fiction. ’ – Nina Kenwood, marketing manager