1. The Secret Place - Tana French
2. The Outcast Dead - Elly Griffths
3. False Impression - Jeffrey Archer
4. The Sweetest Hallelujah - Elaine Hussey
]8/10 - a story set in 1950s Mississippi when there was segregation and how a black woman and white woman became friends despite all the odds. I would like a sequel to follow Billie's story as she grew older.
5. The Octopus Nest - Sophie Hannah
A short story (not sure if this is cheating, but never mind!) about a family who find there is a stalker - I would have loved this to have been a novel as I love Sophie Hannah's books and it would have been a good premise for a longer story.
I've got about 25 in my pile to read and quite a few on my reader too.
Promised myself I would absolutely not buy any more books until most had been read....broke that promise within a couple of days. Oops.
My New Year's resolution is not to buy books until I go to Barter Books in Alnwick whilst on holiday every June. Best secondhand bookshop in the country !
Last year I kept the resolution, this year it's gone to pot already.
22) Last Train from Liguria - Christine Dwyer Hickey
Took some time to get going, and to join up all the pieces but I enjoyed this tale of pre-WW2 Italy. However the story jumped back and forward to the 1990s and I did not feel that was well done and I wish more time had been spent setting out what happened after the main character returned to the UK - and also what happened to other characters. It was left a bit incomplete for me
23) The Library of Unrequited Love - Sophie Divry
Fairly short book at about 100 pages but very hard to read as just a constant narrative. Translated from French. Interesting at first but I soon got bored with the style and content
My New Year's resolution is not to buy books until I go to Barter Books in Alnwick whilst on holiday every June. Best secondhand bookshop in the country !
Last year I kept the resolution, this year it's gone to pot already.
Keep meaning to go there, its not like Alnwick is a million miles from me so I should really make the effort.
I loved this and hope the follow up comes out soon. One reviewer said it feels likes you're hanging out with him rather than reading about him, and that's very true.
Seemed to be lots of pages with nothing happening or just repeating a routine that had been described before. slight anti climax of an ending too.
Series overall 6/10.
Not enough action to really warrant three books. Should have been two at most. Plus slightly unsatisfactory ending after reading approx 1200 pages
4. Deeper Than the Dead - Tami Hoag 7.5/10
Seiral killer strikes in small town America in 1985. a FBI agent with 'issues' decides to help out. Add to this problems involving the towns kids and you get a good story. Nothing particularly original, and too many comments about how much better criminology will be in the future when everything is on computers etc.
1. No Safe House - Linwood Barclay. Revisits the family from No Time for Goodbye. The daughter is a witness to a crime and gets caught up with a criminal who hides things for people. Easy read.
2. Good as Dead - Mark Billingham. Part of the Tom Thorne series. A policewoman is taken hostage in a corner shop. I was on page 40 when I realised I had read this 2 years ago. Read it again !
3. Dead and Buried - Stephen Booth. Police series set in Derbyshire. Two hikers go missing on the moors and a few years later during a spate of fires a body is found in a derelict pub. Ben Cooper tries to find out if the two cases are connected. One of the better ones in this series.
4. The Dying Hours - Mark Billingham. I love this series. Thorne is back in uniform and hears of a cluster of suicides in the elderly. His superiors will not listen to his theory that these are in fact murders, so he sets out to investigate alone.
5. Looking for Alaska - John Green. Miles Hunter, a young loner gets sent to boarding school where he meets the lovely, clever and complicated Alaska Young. Tragedy strikes and Miles has to cope with losing her. Pleasant enough teenage tale of lost love. Good descriptive writing.
1. Burial Rites - Hannah Kent
Based on a true story of a murder in Iceland in the 1800s. 8.5/10
2. Land of Dreams - Kate Kerrigan
Third in a trilogy of an Irish girl that moves to New York (starts off at 17, this book she is 40 odd). Really enjoyed the first two - felt this one wasn't up to the other two. 5.5/10
Working my way through these in order - am enjoying them so far. A good, fast paced book with a good few twists and turns. I can't help liking the Jack Reacher character (I can't imagine Tom Cruise as him though).
Tales and anecdotes from Tufnells career as a professional cricketer through to his TV and radio career including I'm a Celebrity, Question of Sport and Test Match Special.
An entertaining and quick read. Although it weighs in at 400ish pages its an easy read and I finished it in a day.
Haven't had time to read much so I'm a bit slow so far, but I should be back in the swing of all things reading now.
1. Needful Things - Stephen King
This was a very long book but I was never once bored. There are so many characters involved in this and at times it was difficult remembering who was who but each played their part in this great story.
2. The Family Corleone - Ed Falco
As a huge Godfather fan I really looked forward to getting this book. It's a prequel set about 15 years after the flashback scenes in the Godfather Pt II where young Vito is played by Robert De Niro. It tells the story about how Vito's son, Sonny, gets involved in the family business.
24) Catherine McKenzie - Forgotten
Lawyer visits Africa after her mothers death, is stranded in a remote location after an earthquake and is presumed dead by her friends back home in the US. The story focuses on her getting her life back together. Bit chick lit but an ok read.
25) Agatha Christie - Five Little Pigs
Was tempted to read after being reminded of AC in Revenga's list but after I started this I remembered I had read it about a year ago. Classic Poirot. Easy read .
26) Cynthia Ozick - Foreign Bodies
One of those books that promises a lot on the cover but didn't deliver to me. The main character is a teacher in 1950s NY, but drops everything at her brother's bidding to go to Paris to try and find her nephew who has dropped out. Why she did this when she has had minimum contact with her family for about 20 years is a mystery to me. I just felt the book was "overwritten" - too much flowery language. I was pleased I made it to the end and didn't give up.
1. The Secret Place - Tana French
2. The Outcast Dead - Elly Griffths
3. False Impression - Jeffrey Archer
4. The Sweetest Hallelujah - Elaine Hussey
5. The Octopus Nest - Sophie Hannah
8/10 - A short story (not sure if this is cheating, but never mind!) about a family who find there is a stalker - I would have loved this to have been a novel as I love Sophie Hannah's books and it would have been a good premise for a longer story.
(Added this on again as I forgot to give it a mark out of 10!)
6. As the Crow Flies - Damien Boyd
6/10 - a pretty standard detective novel set in Somerset, when a champion climber is seen falling from a rock face. The author is obviously very knowledgeable about climbing but I found it a bit dull.
1. The Book Thief
2. The Strange Library - Haruki Murakami
3. Last Train to Memphis - Peter Guralnick
4. The Turn of the Screw - Henry James 5. The Thirteenth Tale - Diane Setterfield
Just finished my fifth book. This was a pretty easy read. The Thirteenth Tale is a contemporary Gothic novel about the secrets of the strange March family. It started off quite well and I did enjoy it overall but, as with The Book Thief, I found some of the story a bit implausible and the descriptiveness a bit too try-hard.
1. The Horse, the Wheel, and Language: How Bronze-Age Riders from the Eurasian Steppes Shaped the Modern World by David W. Anthony – The author combines archaeological and linguistic research to determine how the Proto-Indo-European language spread, splintered, and changed. He combined many sources as well as new research, and it was a rather difficult task.
1. The Secret Place - Tana French
2. The Outcast Dead - Elly Griffths
3. False Impression - Jeffrey Archer
4. The Sweetest Hallelujah - Elaine Hussey
5. The Octopus Nest - Sophie Hannah
6. As the Crow Flies - Damien Boyd
7. The Sea Detective - Mark Douglas Home
9/10 - I loved this book, so glad I started the series in the right order for a change! The main character, Cal, is very likeable and I found all 3 threads interesting, particularly the one about Cal's grandfather. I have already started the next in the series!
27) C J Sansom - Dominion
I am a big fan of C J Sansom and this is the best book I have read this year. Best described as "alternative history" this is set in Britain in the 1950s but we did not win the second world war but instead "negotiated " peace with Germany. The book then follows a spy thriller type story. 9 out of 10 for me
3. Lionheart by Sharon Penman.
I've been reading this off and on since November and am so pleased to have got to the end at last.
It's an account of Richard l' s involvement in the Third Crusade, starting just before the death of King William of Sicily and finishing with Richard's departure from Outremer. I thought that the book was far too long and would have benefited from starting later in the timeline, cutting out some unnecessary characters and ditching the romance. A chapter or two from Saladin' s perspective would have been good.
The second half of the book was more interesting than the first and I'll probably read the next one at some stage.
28) The Cinderella Murders - Diane Sawyer
Far fetched story of woman who tries to trace her missing sister whom she fears has been kidnapped. I didn't feel this was well written
29). Olga Watkins / James Gillespie- A Greater Love
Not sure what to say about this one. It is a true story of a girl from Croatia who tries to find her fiancé in world war 2 and travels across Hungary and Austria and Germany looking for him. It didn't ring true as she barely knew him and it all turned out unexpectedly. Worth a read
Seiral killer strikes in small town America in 1985. a FBI agent with 'issues' decides to help out. Add to this problems involving the towns kids and you get a good story. Nothing particularly original, and too many comments about how much better criminology will be in the future when everything is on computers etc.
Worth reading though.
5. The Wind Up Bird Chronicles by Haruki Murakami 7/10
A man's wife walks out on him suddenly, leading him on a journey through a dream world meeting many strange people in his attempt to find her. A little strange, with people seemingly leaving the story suddenly and for no reason. Plus many questions unanswered. Still an intriguing interesting tale.
Comments
2. The Outcast Dead - Elly Griffths
3. False Impression - Jeffrey Archer
4. The Sweetest Hallelujah - Elaine Hussey
]8/10 - a story set in 1950s Mississippi when there was segregation and how a black woman and white woman became friends despite all the odds. I would like a sequel to follow Billie's story as she grew older.
5. The Octopus Nest - Sophie Hannah
A short story (not sure if this is cheating, but never mind!) about a family who find there is a stalker - I would have loved this to have been a novel as I love Sophie Hannah's books and it would have been a good premise for a longer story.
My New Year's resolution is not to buy books until I go to Barter Books in Alnwick whilst on holiday every June. Best secondhand bookshop in the country !
Last year I kept the resolution, this year it's gone to pot already.
Took some time to get going, and to join up all the pieces but I enjoyed this tale of pre-WW2 Italy. However the story jumped back and forward to the 1990s and I did not feel that was well done and I wish more time had been spent setting out what happened after the main character returned to the UK - and also what happened to other characters. It was left a bit incomplete for me
Fairly short book at about 100 pages but very hard to read as just a constant narrative. Translated from French. Interesting at first but I soon got bored with the style and content
Keep meaning to go there, its not like Alnwick is a million miles from me so I should really make the effort.
I would probably spend a fortune there though.
I loved this and hope the follow up comes out soon. One reviewer said it feels likes you're hanging out with him rather than reading about him, and that's very true.
4. Deeper Than the Dead - Tami Hoag 7.5/10
Seiral killer strikes in small town America in 1985. a FBI agent with 'issues' decides to help out. Add to this problems involving the towns kids and you get a good story. Nothing particularly original, and too many comments about how much better criminology will be in the future when everything is on computers etc.
Worth reading though.
1. No Safe House - Linwood Barclay. Revisits the family from No Time for Goodbye. The daughter is a witness to a crime and gets caught up with a criminal who hides things for people. Easy read.
2. Good as Dead - Mark Billingham. Part of the Tom Thorne series. A policewoman is taken hostage in a corner shop. I was on page 40 when I realised I had read this 2 years ago. Read it again !
3. Dead and Buried - Stephen Booth. Police series set in Derbyshire. Two hikers go missing on the moors and a few years later during a spate of fires a body is found in a derelict pub. Ben Cooper tries to find out if the two cases are connected. One of the better ones in this series.
4. The Dying Hours - Mark Billingham. I love this series. Thorne is back in uniform and hears of a cluster of suicides in the elderly. His superiors will not listen to his theory that these are in fact murders, so he sets out to investigate alone.
5. Looking for Alaska - John Green. Miles Hunter, a young loner gets sent to boarding school where he meets the lovely, clever and complicated Alaska Young. Tragedy strikes and Miles has to cope with losing her. Pleasant enough teenage tale of lost love. Good descriptive writing.
First book in a series following the exploits of a young Roman tribune.
This book covers the Iceni uprising under Boudica.
Have been meaning to get into some Roman 'Sword and Sandals' stuff for a while but Scarrow and Iggledun didn't quite hit the spot.
This grabbed me from the start and although I found that it got a bit sticky in the middle it soon picked up. Overall I thought it was great.
I have already bought the next 2 in the series which shows how much I enjoyed it.
Based on a true story of a murder in Iceland in the 1800s. 8.5/10
2. Land of Dreams - Kate Kerrigan
Third in a trilogy of an Irish girl that moves to New York (starts off at 17, this book she is 40 odd). Really enjoyed the first two - felt this one wasn't up to the other two. 5.5/10
Working my way through these in order - am enjoying them so far. A good, fast paced book with a good few twists and turns. I can't help liking the Jack Reacher character (I can't imagine Tom Cruise as him though).
Tales and anecdotes from Tufnells career as a professional cricketer through to his TV and radio career including I'm a Celebrity, Question of Sport and Test Match Special.
An entertaining and quick read. Although it weighs in at 400ish pages its an easy read and I finished it in a day.
1. Needful Things - Stephen King
This was a very long book but I was never once bored. There are so many characters involved in this and at times it was difficult remembering who was who but each played their part in this great story.
2. The Family Corleone - Ed Falco
As a huge Godfather fan I really looked forward to getting this book. It's a prequel set about 15 years after the flashback scenes in the Godfather Pt II where young Vito is played by Robert De Niro. It tells the story about how Vito's son, Sonny, gets involved in the family business.
Lawyer visits Africa after her mothers death, is stranded in a remote location after an earthquake and is presumed dead by her friends back home in the US. The story focuses on her getting her life back together. Bit chick lit but an ok read.
25) Agatha Christie - Five Little Pigs
Was tempted to read after being reminded of AC in Revenga's list but after I started this I remembered I had read it about a year ago. Classic Poirot. Easy read .
26) Cynthia Ozick - Foreign Bodies
One of those books that promises a lot on the cover but didn't deliver to me. The main character is a teacher in 1950s NY, but drops everything at her brother's bidding to go to Paris to try and find her nephew who has dropped out. Why she did this when she has had minimum contact with her family for about 20 years is a mystery to me. I just felt the book was "overwritten" - too much flowery language. I was pleased I made it to the end and didn't give up.
2. The Outcast Dead - Elly Griffths
3. False Impression - Jeffrey Archer
4. The Sweetest Hallelujah - Elaine Hussey
5. The Octopus Nest - Sophie Hannah
8/10 - A short story (not sure if this is cheating, but never mind!) about a family who find there is a stalker - I would have loved this to have been a novel as I love Sophie Hannah's books and it would have been a good premise for a longer story.
(Added this on again as I forgot to give it a mark out of 10!)
6. As the Crow Flies - Damien Boyd
6/10 - a pretty standard detective novel set in Somerset, when a champion climber is seen falling from a rock face. The author is obviously very knowledgeable about climbing but I found it a bit dull.
2. The Strange Library - Haruki Murakami
3. Last Train to Memphis - Peter Guralnick
4. The Turn of the Screw - Henry James
5. The Thirteenth Tale - Diane Setterfield
Just finished my fifth book. This was a pretty easy read. The Thirteenth Tale is a contemporary Gothic novel about the secrets of the strange March family. It started off quite well and I did enjoy it overall but, as with The Book Thief, I found some of the story a bit implausible and the descriptiveness a bit too try-hard.
2. The Outcast Dead - Elly Griffths
3. False Impression - Jeffrey Archer
4. The Sweetest Hallelujah - Elaine Hussey
5. The Octopus Nest - Sophie Hannah
6. As the Crow Flies - Damien Boyd
7. The Sea Detective - Mark Douglas Home
9/10 - I loved this book, so glad I started the series in the right order for a change! The main character, Cal, is very likeable and I found all 3 threads interesting, particularly the one about Cal's grandfather. I have already started the next in the series!
I am a big fan of C J Sansom and this is the best book I have read this year. Best described as "alternative history" this is set in Britain in the 1950s but we did not win the second world war but instead "negotiated " peace with Germany. The book then follows a spy thriller type story. 9 out of 10 for me
I've been reading this off and on since November and am so pleased to have got to the end at last.
It's an account of Richard l' s involvement in the Third Crusade, starting just before the death of King William of Sicily and finishing with Richard's departure from Outremer. I thought that the book was far too long and would have benefited from starting later in the timeline, cutting out some unnecessary characters and ditching the romance. A chapter or two from Saladin' s perspective would have been good.
The second half of the book was more interesting than the first and I'll probably read the next one at some stage.
Far fetched story of woman who tries to trace her missing sister whom she fears has been kidnapped. I didn't feel this was well written
Not sure what to say about this one. It is a true story of a girl from Croatia who tries to find her fiancé in world war 2 and travels across Hungary and Austria and Germany looking for him. It didn't ring true as she barely knew him and it all turned out unexpectedly. Worth a read
5. The Wind Up Bird Chronicles by Haruki Murakami 7/10
A man's wife walks out on him suddenly, leading him on a journey through a dream world meeting many strange people in his attempt to find her. A little strange, with people seemingly leaving the story suddenly and for no reason. Plus many questions unanswered. Still an intriguing interesting tale.