Welcome to this week’s blog, and our roundup of your comments and photos from last week. We’d love to hear what you’re planning to read over the holidays. We’ll be back after Christmas (and comments will stay open until then.) Hope you have an excellent time - and also enjoy some peaceful reading.

Before we get too merry, however, amsams is here to remind us of the state of things - and recommend Luke Harding’s vital book Collusion:

A more than interesting read, almost like a thriller at times. About Trump his connections with Putin and amongst other issues the latter’s possible interference in the American election. Thoroughly enjoyed the read.

Ultramarine by Malcolm Lowry has been occupying proust:

It is - thematically and textually - somewhere between Conrad and Joyce. It is often dismissed as juvenilia, but is a fascinating read, certainly prefiguring his magnum opus, Under The Volcano.

Another interesting aspect - references to Wirral and Liverpool throughout as the narrator travels the seven seas, and remembers his home area. Is Lowry sufficiently appreciated in Wirral? Alongside Wilfred Owen (of Birkenhead), he must be one of this area’s most famous literary sons? Time for a Lowry revival?

And Tom Mooney has enjoyed Galveston by Nic Pizzolatto:

What a belting reading experience that was. Pizzolatto, better known as the creator of hit TV show True Detective, has delivered a super piece of modern noir, recalling Lehane, Johnson, Thompson, Willeford et al.

Following middle-aged gang member Roy Cady, whose bad day starts when he finds out he has cancer. It gets worse when he gets wind his boss has put out a hit on him. After a violent episode, Cady takes flight with a young girl caught up in his mess and the pair escape to low-rent motels, seedy bars and the dark backstreets of Galveston.

Pizzolatto keeps the action moving but also writes with surprising emotion about the pair’s relationship. A real piece of indulgent entertainment. I loved it.

And here’s a fine image from conedison, who has been reading Wallace Stegner’s The Sweetness of The Twisted Apples:

A couple drives down an old, almost deserted country road and discovers a mother and daughter still living there across from an apple orchard. Stegner entwines the surprise sweetness of both - expecting bitterness and instead finding small apples that taste like wine and a girl that does not feel even remotely cheated by life. Stegner’s writing is as pure and bracing as a pool of ice-water on a glacier. You dip your hands in the pool to scoop out a drink. Your hands are achingly cold, but the water you swallow is the sweetest you have ever tasted.

Simon Schama’s The Face Of Britain, “a gift from last Christmas” has kept vermontlogger going all year:

It’s really a collection of monographs, very loosely grouped around themes of power, fame, mirrors and so on. There’s way too much to take in at one go, and so I have been reading it at intervals through the year. The features and contexts of each portrait, both familiar and unfamiliar, are described with an enthusiasm that makes you lean in for a closer look. And there is story after story. For example: the love-match of Sir Kenelm Digby, a cultured adventurer, and the beautiful Venetia Stanley, still beautiful in death; the career of the amazing silhouettist Augustin Edouart, former officer of the Grande Armée, snip, snip, snip and there you are... I think it would still make a great gift this Christmas.

Finally, pearcesleftfoot putting a vote in for book of the year, suggesting The Clocks In This House All Tell Different Times by Xan Brooks.

I’m only part way through but it’s already looking like a cert for my not at all coveted award of Favourite Novel of 2017. The writing is so emotive and weaves a wonderfully sinister tale - I’m intrigued as to how it’ll end and to be truthful I really don’t want it to.

Please do let us know what your books of the year have been in the comments - we’re going to keep comments open on this blog until New Year Day.

Happy Christmas! Thank you all for your contributions this year. The wit, wisdom and warmth of contributors to Tips, Links And Suggestions has certainly helped me maintain my faith in humanity - as well as providing endless food for thought and countless excellent recommendations. Here’s to more of the same in 2018.

Interesting links about books and reading

• Just in case you missed the story everyone’s been talking about, here’s Cat Person.
  
• This month marks Arthur C Clarke’s 100th birthday. Here’s the last public video he made, aged 90.
• The art director of the New York Times Book review picks his favourite covers of 2017 (they do them differently in America).
• Someone’s claiming “Scottish hygge” is going to be the next trend. What would Begbie say?

If you would like to share a photo of the book you are reading, or film your own book review, please do. Click the blue button on this page to share your video or image. I’ll include some of your posts in next week’s blog.

If you’re on Instagram and a book lover, chances are you’re already sharing beautiful pictures of books you are reading: “shelfies”, or all kinds of still lives with books as protagonists. Now you can share your reads with us on the mobile photography platform – simply tag your pictures there with #GuardianBooks, and we’ll include a selection here. Happy reading!