Library Service Blog

Sometimes you need to take a break - unwind with a book!

The Library has a range of fiction that you can tap into and spend time in other writers worlds with a fabulous range of fiction and comics! Whether you favour dystopian literature, a spot of science fiction and space opera, historical and fantasy fiction or the mean streets of crime thrillers…we have it covered!

Here at Hallam Library, your librarians, have handcrafted a range of curated reading lists to help explore a range of political and social issues, or find genre fiction to help you unwind and take a break from academic studies – recreational reading with a little bit of dystopian fiction anyone?

Take a look at our curated reading lists and discover more!

Here are a few recommendations to get you started with a spot of recreational reading!

• N.K. Jemisin. The Fifth Season : The Broken Earth. Book 1

This is the way the world ends - for the last time. It starts with the great red rift across the heart of the world's sole continent, spewing ash that blots out the sun. It starts with death, with a murdered son and a missing daughter. It starts with betrayal, and long dormant wounds rising up to fester. This is the Stillness, a land long familiar with catastrophe, where the power of the earth is wielded as a weapon. And where there is no mercy.

Find it here

• M Haig. The Humans

Professor Andrew Martin of Cambridge University solves the world's greatest mathematical riddle. Then he disappears. When he is found walking naked along the motorway, Professor Martin seems different. Besides the lack of clothes, he now finds normal life pointless. His loving wife and teenage son seem repulsive to him. In fact, he hates everyone on the planet. Everyone, that is, except Newton. And he's a dog. Can a bit of Debussy and Emily Dickinson keep him from murder?

Find it here

• D. Gabaldon. Outlander. Book 1.

Claire Randall is leading a double life. She has a husband in one century - and a lover in another. In 1945, Claire Randall is back from the war and reunited with her husband on a second honeymoon in Scotland. Innocently she walks through a stone circle in the Highlands, and finds herself in a violent skirmish taking place in 1743. Suddenly she is a Sassenach, an outlander, in a country torn by war and by clan feuds. A wartime nurse, Claire can deal with the bloody wounds that face her. But it is harder to deal with the knowledge that she is in Jacobite Scotland and the carnage of Culloden is looming.

Find it here

• N. Gaiman. Preludes & nocturnes. Book 1 in the Sandman series.

'The Sandman' is a series of award-winning graphic novels. It blends modern myth and dark fantasy, in which historical drama, contemporary fiction and legend are interwoven.

Find it here

You can also get involved and suggest a recommendation for the library collections by using the recommend a resource to the library for learning, teaching or research form at: https://shu-ac-uk.libwizard.com/f/suggestpurchase