Oct
31
2009

October books

5132KMJ90SL._SL500_AA240_Fatal Voyage by Kathy Reichs is another fast-paces forensic anthropology based crime fiction story. She is summoned to help when a plane with a full passenger list drops out of the sky. During the investigation she finds one foot that doesn’t fit any of the possible passengers on the plane and this gruesome discovery leads to an even more gruesome story of a strange cannibalistic cult in a little town. A great read, but I love these sorts of stories!

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41kcu8YQrvL._SL500_AA240_Highland Fling by Katie Fforde was a perfect book to listen to whilst I was driving around last weekend. It was a rather vacuous book but I kind of enjoyed the fact that I didn’t have to think too hard about it, and the fact that I was pretty sure I knew what the ending was going to be. Not one of her best books to be honest, but I enjoyed it all the same!

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51QZBR5ASTL._SL500_AA240_Garden of Beasts by Jeffrey Deaver is a bit different to his usual novels. It is about a contract killer called Paul Schumann who is hired to go to Germany in about 1939 to kill a high profile member of the Nazi government. The story follows his attempts to kill him and looks at some of the issues around Nazi Germany at the time. I really love Jeffrey Deaver’s books which feature the quadriplegic detective Lincoln Rhyme, but this one left me cold and I found it quite hard going.

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41A6z8Zd8tL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA240_SH20_OU02_Mortal Causes by Ian Rankin is a cracking fast-paced read. A dead body is found in a ssubterranean cellar in Edinburgh. The body has been tortured and the style of torture would suggest that an Irish terrorist group was involved. The story is a fast-paced thriller taking in Edinburgh and Belfast, and the criminal underworld that exists i both. I really enjoy these books about Detective John Rebus. He is a lovely character, well rounded and developed and very believable.

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41N37Y0DKWL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA240_SH20_OU02_I have made three attempts to read The Jane Austen Book Club by Karen Joy Fowler and this time I only got about 60 pages in before putting it down and deciding I am not going to bother to try again.

The premise of the book is that everyone of us has a Jane Austen character in us, and that we all identify with different characters in the story. The book itself follows a group of individuals who meet to discuss Jane Austen novels, and the story flicks back to their past and how they might relate.

I found this book annoying and the characters equally so. This is one of the Richard and Judy’s Book Club choices, but I didn’t get on with it so it will be going to the charity shop and I won’t bother attempting to read it again! Life is too short, and I have too many unread books on my bookshelf!

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41SfP3ClS5L._SL500_AA240_Vet in Harness by James Herriot is the fourth book in his series. This book is set just before he is called up for active service. He is now married to Helen and they are living in a bedsit above the veterinary surgery. The book is gentle and funny and focuses on the Yorkshire folk and animals he meets. I always love reading these books because they are such a delightful read. Each story blends one into the other, and are more about Yorkshire as they are about James Herriot.

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51H45NCC9CL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA240_SH20_OU02_I thought that Big Stone Gap by Adriana Trigiani was going to be a really dull read. Instead what I got was a rather sweet tale of a 30-something spinster who lived in a small town in America. She finds out that she is not the daughter of the man she thought was her father, and eventually she discovers a large and loving Italian family. The characters of the story were both sweet and believable, but the ending wrapped things up a little to quickly and conveniently for my liking. Very sweet story though.

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51VB9MSB78L._SL500_AA240_The Bone Collector by Jeffrey Deaver is the first in the Lincoln Rhyme series. He is a criminalist who is now a quadraplegic who is considering taking his own life because he feels so useless. In the search for a serial killer, who is taking his inspiration from historical killings, Lincoln Rhyme gets roped into doing some investigative work of his own, from the comfort of his luxury bed. A fab book and it is a cracking fast-paced read. I love this series of books as I think they are a really exciting read.

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51EGSWT28ML._SL500_AA240_A double bill of Jeffrey Deaver with Pryaing for Sleep. Initially I was disappointed because I thought it was another Lincoln Rhyme novel, but this is an entirely different style.

Michael Hrubek, a convicted killer escapes from a secure psychiatric hospital and goes on a hunt for the woman who gave evidence at his trial. He is a paranoid schizophrenic who has been undergoing some weird type of therapy, but he is clearly far from cured. This book follows the chase through a rampaging storm, and ends with a dramatic and unexpected twist. An excellent read.

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41-ln9n3MVL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA240_SH20_OU02_Italian Fever by Valerie Martin is part ghost story, part romantic novel and part travel biography of Italy. When Lucy Stark’s reclusive author boss dies in a small town she is forced to go out there to sort out his affairs. Whilst out there she falls in love with her married interpreter and guide and believes she has seen a ghost. This book was rather lack-lustre and didn’t do much for me I am afraid. Rather tedious and I only just managed to finish it.

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51aLMdFaW1L._SL500_AA240_The Book Thief by Markus Zusak is a truly curious and moving book. I was extremely confused for about the first 100 pages until I realised (by reading the back cover of the book!) that the narrator of the story is Death.

The book is about a nine-year-old girl called Liesel who is living in Nazi Germany with her foster parents. The story shows the war from the perspective of ordinary Germans, some who are in The Party and some who weren’t. Most of all though, this book is about a little girl’s love of books, her new papa, a little boy called Rudy and a Jew who was living in their basement.

I loved this book. It is truly beautiful.

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51XW93KEMCL._SL500_AA240_Isobel’s Wedding by Sheila O’ Flanagan is about an Irish girl called Isobel (funnily enough) who ends up with a cancelled wedding two weeks before the big day. In order to get over her shock she decides to move to Italy to start a new job and to lick her wounds. This book was an easy enough read but that main character was unbelievably wet and not an especially nice person. So, a fairly vacuous read, with not much storyline and rather wet characters. Not a keeper!!!

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Written by Anna Williams in: Uncategorized |

5 Comments »

  • I’ve been meaning to ask for ages, how do you get the pictures of the books onto the post?

    Comment | October 31, 2009
  • I go to Amazon. Save a copy of the book cover to my computer and then go to ‘Add Media’ on the Add New Post thing, find the pic and upload. Simples.

    Comment | October 31, 2009
  • Liz

    I’ve been visiting your blog for a while but this is my first comment. Just had to say I’m impressed with the amount of books you get through each month. I used to be a voracious reader but for some reason (age, probably!) it now takes me an age to finish just one. But I still keep buying them after reading reviews like yours! (Oh yes, and I worked in social work for many years).

    Comment | November 1, 2009
  • I seem to have got through even more than usual Liz because I have had to fly home to Guernsey. I have to admit though, I read all the time, whether that be in the bath or smoking a cigarette whilst I am at work!!!

    Thanks for commenting on my blog 🙂

    Comment | November 1, 2009
  • Great to read your book suggestions. I’ve just finished re-reading Pride and Prejudice and love the book so much I can’t bear to start another one just yet!

    Surprisingly given that comment, I know what you mean about the Jane Austen Book Club – I couldn’t get into it, either. Unexpectedly though, I really enjoyed the film. You might want to try that – the satisfaction of knowing the story in a fraction of the time!

    Comment | November 5, 2009

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