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Reading Challenge 2016 (216 in 2016)


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Old 22-05-2016, 12:08
d0lphin
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19. When I was Invisible - Dorothy Koomson
9/10 - the story is about 2 young girls, both called Veronica/Veronika Harper, who are in the same class at school and both dream about being a ballerina. It was likened to The Ice Cream Girls and I really enjoyed it, although I did prefer the Ice Cream Girls.
20. The Long Weekend - Veronica Henry
8/10 - it's described as chick-lit and I suppose it was really but it was very readable with a satisfying ending. All of the characters and their back stories kept me engrossed.
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Old 23-05-2016, 06:43
Katie-Jane
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17) Body Double by Tess Gerritsen
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Old 24-05-2016, 15:30
OxfordGirl
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92) Bold Counsel - Tim Vicary
93) Love You Dead - Peter James
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Old 25-05-2016, 09:44
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18. The Chosen Dead by M R Hall.

I found this hard going but it was quite thought provoking.
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Old 25-05-2016, 18:54
cathy27
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76) The Soul Collectors by Chris Mooney
77) The Yorkshire Pudding Club by Milly Johnson
78) A Year of being Single by Fiona Collins
79) Play Dead by Angela Marsons
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Old 29-05-2016, 00:09
moonlily
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19. The Real Me is Thin by Arabella Weir.
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Old 29-05-2016, 17:10
OxfordGirl
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94) Mark Billingham - Die of Shame
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Old 29-05-2016, 22:32
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27. Not Dead Yet (Roy Grace 8) by Peter James.
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Old 30-05-2016, 07:14
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7. In Order to Live: A North Korean Girl's Journey to Freedom by Yeonmi Park – The story of a girl who escaped North Korea with her mother. They were victims of human trafficking in China, and eventually got out of China through Mongolia and landed in South Korea, but even then they weren't free; they still had trouble adjusting to the world and had to find themselves. Very interesting and harrowing life story. I would be very interested to read her older sister's story (her elder sister was separated from them before they headed to China, and they didn't reunite for many years).
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Old 30-05-2016, 08:13
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80) Wild Hearts by Sharon Sala
81) Cold Hearts by Sharon Sala
82) Dark Hearts by Sharon Sala
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Old 31-05-2016, 15:10
d0lphin
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20. The Long Weekend - Veronica Henry
8/10 - it's described as chick-lit and I suppose it was really but it was very readable with a satisfying ending. All of the characters and their back stories kept me engrossed.
21. Malice of the Waves - Mark Douglas-Home
7/10 - the 3rd in the Sea Detective Series and in my opinion the weakest. It was shorter than the others and I found Stanley's story a bit dull. The ending was good and surprising though.
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Old 01-06-2016, 04:39
syramu
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8. Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel – A flu sweeps across the world and kills off most of the population. The survivors live without electricity, government, or anything else they took for granted, and even 20 years after the flu, life is dangerous. A group called the Traveling Symphony moves from settlement to settlement within Michigan and performs Shakespearean plays and concerts for whomever they encounter. In one small town, which had been pleasant two years before, they run into a scary cult. They attempt to leave peacefully, but the cult may have other ideas. Also, the book goes back in time a lot to show how things ended up connecting in the future or how people's lives changed. It was very interesting. I found myself wanting to read the comicbooks one of the characters read about a place called Station Eleven.
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Old 01-06-2016, 13:12
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63/ Quirkology by Richard Wiseman

Interesting attempt to bring together lots of studies of human behaviour.
It doesn't quite work as the author doesn't seem to make any real point but some of the studies and their results are curious.

64/ The Dying Light by Henry Porter

Political thriller set in the near future where a government is going to great lengths to monitor all aspects of people's private life.

Intriguing premise and alarmingly believable - the Prime Minister is clearly based on Blair. It only really falls down in the characterisation - the bad guys are stereotypically bad and the heroes are all equally cliched.
A shame as this could have been a great thriller if that had been sorted.

65/ The Lost World and other Thrilling Tales by Arthur Conan Doyle

The Lost World is the first story featuring Professor Challenger and is a fun Boys Own style adventure story.
This edition also includes "The Poison Belt", "The Terror of Blue John Gap" and "The Horror in the Heights".
The Poison Belt is another Challenger story which I actually found more entertaining than The Lost World.
The other two are short stories featuring monsters underground and in the air.
An entertaining read.

66/ Dead Man's Hand by various

Collection of crime short stories linked by the theme of poker.

I'm not a player so found the stories that focused on the details what card each player received to be a little dull in parts. The stories that used poker as a jumping off point were generally better for me.

As with most of these sort of collections there were 2 or 3 very strong stories, a couple of truly awful ones and the rest fell into the good to average bracket.

67/ The Blessing by Nancy Mitford

Funny and inconsequential story set in the 1950s of a woman who marries a french man, goes to live in France and struggles with the cultural differences.

Equal parts funny and frustrating as the attitudes of the time (and the author) are so totally different to modern sensibilities.
Worth reading for the antics of Sigi, the 10 year old son of the heroine. A truly monstrous child!

68/ Live Bait by PJ Tracy

Sequel to Want To Play. This is better than the previous title in the series mainly due to the central plot being much stronger and also to the Monkeewrench crew of computer whizzes being reduced to little more than cameo appearances.
That said the few times that the Monkeewrench team do appear are unintentionally hilarious due to the authors total lack of understanding of how computers function and once again being characterised as magic boxes that can produce any answer as the plot requires.

The main criminal investigation is much better - it is quite original and the various characters are believable.
A good book let down by the authors insistence on including something they clearly don't understand.
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Old 02-06-2016, 11:25
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95) Our Song - Dani Atkins
96) My Brilliant Friend - Elena Ferrante
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Old 02-06-2016, 20:21
d0lphin
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21. Malice of the Waves - Mark Douglas-Home
7/10 - the 3rd in the Sea Detective Series and in my opinion the weakest. It was shorter than the others and I found Stanley's story a bit dull. The ending was good and surprising though.
22. Acts of Faith - Adam Faith
9/10 - having read a biography about him earlier this year by 2 people who didn't seem to like him very much, I thought I'd try reading his own version. I really enjoyed it but it was very poignant that it finished 9 years before he died and at a time in his life that wasn't particularly happy.
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Old 03-06-2016, 18:52
jam73
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31) March Violets, by Philip Kerr .. first in the Bernie Gunther series
32) The Pale Criminal, by Philip Kerr .. 2nd in the series
33) A German Requiem, by Philip Kerr .. 3rd
34) Icarus, by Deon Meyer
35) In Place of Death, by Craig Robertson
36) Black Widow, by Chris Brookmyre
37) Galveston, by Nic Pizzolatto .... creator/writer of the HBO series True Detective
38) Portrait of a Spy, by Daniel Silva
39) End Games in Bordeaux, by Allan Massie .. last in the quadrilogy
40) My Grandmother sends her Regards and Apologises, by Fredrik Backman
41) Far from True, Linwood Barclay
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Old 05-06-2016, 06:28
syramu
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9. Vixen 03 (Dirk Pitt #4) by Clive Cussler – I'd never read any Dirk Pitt books before, and I'm unlikely to ever do so again, but I found that a lot of Pitt fans didn't like this book. It's an action thriller, very much a product of the seventies. Some plane called Vixen 03 went down and it carried a bunch of bombs. Decades later, Dirk Pitt discovers some parts of the plane and investigates, and once the actual plane wreck is examined, they find that some of the bombs are missing. The weapons might be used by some African military group, and Pitt has to stop them. My parents couldn't keep track of what was going on, and I did my best but also lost track. I refused to stop listening to it, however, because we'd invested so much time into it.
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Old 05-06-2016, 09:31
moonlily
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8. Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel – A flu sweeps across the world and kills off most of the population. The survivors live without electricity, government, or anything else they took for granted, and even 20 years after the flu, life is dangerous. A group called the Traveling Symphony moves from settlement to settlement within Michigan and performs Shakespearean plays and concerts for whomever they encounter. In one small town, which had been pleasant two years before, they run into a scary cult. They attempt to leave peacefully, but the cult may have other ideas. Also, the book goes back in time a lot to show how things ended up connecting in the future or how people's lives changed. It was very interesting. I found myself wanting to read the comicbooks one of the characters read about a place called Station Eleven.
I wanted to read this last year after reading reviews on Waterstones, but then forgot about it, thanks- this has reminded me
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Old 05-06-2016, 10:03
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97) The Assistants - Camille Perri
98) The Last Days of Rabbit Hayes - Anna McPartlin
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Old 05-06-2016, 21:09
d0lphin
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22. Acts of Faith - Adam Faith
9/10 - having read a biography about him earlier this year by 2 people who didn't seem to like him very much, I thought I'd try reading his own version. I really enjoyed it but it was very poignant that it finished 9 years before he died and at a time in his life that wasn't particularly happy.
23. When you were older - Catherine Ryan Hyde
9/10 - I have yet to read a bad book by this author. This one starts just after 9/11 when Russell is one of only 2 survivors from the company he worked at in the Twin Towers. His mother had died and he has to get to the other side of the country to care for his older brother who has special needs. This is a very readable book and I could hardly put it down.
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Old 06-06-2016, 15:40
Katie-Jane
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18) Rapture in Death by Nora Roberts and JD Robb
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Old 06-06-2016, 17:31
Faggy
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69/ Tempest by Christopher Bulis

9th in the Bernice Summerfield series. Pretty much business as usual. I found this one slightly less engaging than previous entries but still an easy way to pass the time.

70/ T is for Television by Mark Aldridge & Andy Murray (not that one!)

A biography covering the TV work of Russell T Davies.
Quite interesting attempt to view the various works of Davies and see any recurring themes and also how he came to establish his authorial voice.
I found the style engaging and whizzed through it but it was slightly let down by a few small factual errors.
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Old 07-06-2016, 07:05
Kitty5
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11) Before I Met You - Lisa Jewell 7/10
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Old 07-06-2016, 14:58
cathy27
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83) The Liar by Nora Roberts
84) Life Swap by Carol Wyer
85) Fear the Dark by Chris Mooney
86) Always with Love by Giovanna Fletcher
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Old 08-06-2016, 10:54
moonlily
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20. Tuesday's Gone by Nicci French.

I started this before but lost interest. It was quite good this time round though.
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