Colin Shone, the manager of Waterstones Oxford makes his pick for our first Book of The Year.

Managing a bookshop in Oxford is a wonderful privilege, as is the task of attempting to choose a book which I would consider worthy of winning our first Oxford Mail/Waterstones Oxford Book of The Year Award.

Indeed, I have been thinking about it – on and off – for the last two months but have at last managed to whittle it down to these five, very deserving contenders.

All Andrew Ffrench and I need to do now is choose our winner, so watch this space...

* Stieg Larsson – The Girl Who Kicked a Hornet’s Nest The Millenium Trilogy has been the publishing phenomenon of this year and the first volume, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, the biggest selling of all our Books of the Month.

Misfit computer hacker Salander is an extraordinary literary creation and these thrillers grab you from the first moment and don’t let go.

I mean, this is how it starts – two seriously injured people arrive at the emergency ward of the Sahlgrensa Hospital in Gothenburg. One is the wanted murderer Lisbeth Salander who has taken a bullet to the head and needs immediate surgery, the other is an older man who Lisbeth has attacked with an axe.

If you haven’t already, turn the first page...

* Dan Brown – The Lost Symbol Dan Brown was always going to be the number one bestseller for the year and for Christmas 2009.

However, fans have been reassured that he has delivered a manuscript every bit as intriguing and gripping as The Da Vinci Code.

There’s nothing wrong with page turners, whether you read them on the beach, on the plane, in a bus or wearing a smoking jacket in your study at home.

After all, it’s the mark of a great storyteller.

As the story opens, Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon is summoned unexpectedly to deliver an evening lecture in the US Capitol Building. Within minutes of his arrival, however, the night takes a bizarre turn. A disturbing object – artfully encoded with five symbols – is discovered in the Capitol Building. Langdon recognizes the object as an ancient invitation. And the rest as they say is unputdownable.

Great stuff!

* Tarek Malouf – The Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook This beautiful cookbook has been the surprise cookery sensation of the year.

Presumably when all the news seems to revolve around the credit crunch, what we really want is comfort food.

Spectacularly produced and relatively easy to follow (and I say that as a man), this is an instant foodie classic.

* Stephanie Meyer – Breaking Dawn 2009 has been the Year of the Vampire – two bestselling films and four books have dominated the charts.

The Twilight series has spawned many imitations, but Stephanie Meyer remains the best and Breaking Dawn is the latest gripping instalment.

And in nutshell this is why – to be irrevocably in love with a vampire is both a fantasy and nightmare for Bella Swan.

Pulled in one direction by her passion for Edward Cullen, and in another by her connection to werewolf Jacob Black, she endures a tumultuous year of temptation, loss and strife to reach the ultimate turning point.

Her imminent choice to either join the dark but seductive world of immortals or pursue a fully human life becomes the thread from which the fate of two tribes hangs...

* Chris Cleave – The Other Hand Every year throws up a ‘word of mouth’ book that sells and sells on that basis of the power of recommendation alone.

The Other Hand has already established itself as a Reading Group favourite to rival The Kite Runner or Captain Corelli’s Mandolin.

Tragic, poignant and humorous in equal measure, The Other Hand has become an instant classic.

And this is what we, Waterstones, say about it on our webside – ‘We don’t want to tell you what happens in this book. It is a truly special story and we don’t want to spoil it. Nevertheless, you need to know enough to buy it so we will just say this: This is the story of two women. Their lives collide one fateful day, and one of them has to make a terrible choice. Two years later, they meet again – the story starts there...Once you have read it, you’ll want to tell your friends about it. When you do, please don’t tell them what happens either. The magic is in how it unfolds.’ How can you resist?