Thriller of the year? THRILLER OF THE YEAR?The Trespasser by Tana French (Hodder & Stoughton)THE sixth in French's acclaimed Murder Squad series and, as usual, the narrator here, Dublin detective Antoinette Conway, is a minor character from the previous novel. A seemingly straightforward killing throws up much paranoia, lies and betrayal. And that's just from Conway's colleagues. A thoroughly meaty page-turner.THE ISSUEEvery year, just in time for the festive season, they come around, the big rock reads. Top of the 2016's pile, and featured in these pages, is Bruce Springsteen's autobiography, Born to Run (Simon & Schuster).The book will all but overshadow Peter Ames Carlin's Homeward Bound: The Life of Paul Simon (Constable), which is the first serious, deeply researched attempt to profile the songwriter. Art Garfunkel wasn't interviewed for the project - but then neither was Simon. The publishers do promise loads of revelations, though.Guitarist Robbie Robertson's Testimony (Crown Archetype) tells the story of The Band, from the day he joined rockabilly artist Ronnie Hawkins' backing group in 1961 to 1976 and The Last Waltz.He sheds new light on his working relationship with Bob Dylan and we can expect a rejoinder or two to the late Levon Helm's Band memoir, This Wheel's On Fire, which wasn't all that flattering about Robertson.The long-running Beach Boys soap opera gets another airing with Good Vibrations: My Life as a Beach Boy by Mike Love (Faber) and I Am Brian Wilson: The Genius Behind the Beach Boys by Brian Wilson (Coronet). Love's account details the excess, while his cousin's barely scratches at the surface of the emotional and physical abuse behind those killer harmonies.CRASH COURSEThere's been a dramatic spike in the rates of non-infectious diseases, like allergies, asthma and bowel complaints in developed countries. Scientists predict, for example, that by 2025 asthma will be the most common chronic childhood disease in the UK. Let Them Eat Dirt: Saving Your Child from an Oversanitized World (Windmill Books) by B Brett Finlay and Marie-Claire Arrieta says our "hyper-clean lifestyles" are to blame. An obsession with hygiene is killing off the macrobiota so vital to our immunity system as well as the health of blood vessels and the development of the brain.The book's principal advice: get your kids off processed white flour and sugar - then get them out the house."Let them play in the dirt," Finlay told the London Sunday Times. "Don't wash their toys unless they're visibly grubby, don't panic about washing hands, unless they're about to eat, relax about sanitising your home. Oh, and get a dog. Dogs reduce your children's risks of getting asthma by 13%. It doesn't work with cats because they're too aloof with kids. Dogs, on the other hand, will slobber all over them."THE BOTTOM LINE"But profanity isn't all fun and games." - In Praise of Profanity by Michael Adams (Oxford University Press)..