Readers’ 10 best books of 2014

These are the books our readers picked as the best of 2014 – from searing polemic to stunning fiction and a story of very intimate science

The best thrillers of 2014

A murder mystery in a girls’ boarding school, the welcome return of Hercule Poirot and Philip Marlowe, and Lauren Beukes’s truly disturbing crime chiller. By Alison Flood

The best sports books of 2014

Roy Keane and Kevin Pietersen provided titillation, while two wonderfully esoteric titles took the cycling book into uncharted territory. And then there was the Oscar Pistorius case, writes Tim Lewis

The best science books of 2014

Elizabeth Kolbert laid bare the devastating effect we’re having on our fellow species, while the superb Wildlife Photographer of the Year book showed us just what we risk losing, writes Robin McKie

The best fiction of 2014

The big names – Amis, McEwan – were unfairly overlooked, while a debut about a doll’s house deservedly became a bestseller, writes Viv Groskop

The best biographies of 2014

Boris Johnson’s paean to Churchill provided amusement while a life of Czech dissident Václav Havel proved revelatory, writes Robert McCrum

The best photography books of 2014

Sean O’Hagan picks the year’s best photography books, fromeerie volcanic landscapes at night to famous photographs reshaped in Play-Doh

The best art books of 2014

Contemporary art stars proved thoughtful in print while Whistler and Rembrandt drew perceptive analysis, writes Peter Conrad

The best history books of 2014

Two fine books on traitors united the cold war and Elizabethan England, while an anti-fascist diary proved unforgettable, writes Ian Thomson

The best graphic novels of 2014

From the Tour de France and Moomin to a life-affirming cancer memoir, it’s been a great year for tales told in pen and ink, writes Rachel Cooke