Sep
30
2010

September books

All Creatures Great and Small by James Herriot is such a lovely and gentle read. This book is the first three books he wrote all combined into one volume. It follows him through getting his job in Darrowby right though to meeting and marrying his wife Helen. Along the way there are so many lovely characters, so many stories which made me giggle – slightly embarrassing when you are sitting on the bus.

————————————————————————

The Coffin Dancer by Jeffrey Deaver is a cracking read. Paraplegic ex-detective Lincoln Rhyme comes up against his old adversary whom he calls the coffin dancer. Percey Clay, pilot of struggling chart service loses nearly everything when her husband dies in a plane crash caused by a bomb explosion. He died because he was a witness in a case and he was being eliminated. Fast-paced and exciting. One of Deaver’s better books.

————————————————————————

Fractured by Karin Slaughter is a crime novel featuring Special Agent Will Trent. A moth arrived home to find her daughter lying dead in a pool of blood in her house, and over her is crouching a young man, who the mother proceeds to strangle. She believes her life is in threat and acts in self-defence. What unravels is a kidnapping and a story of a man targeting attractive. Blonde young women. The detective has a big secret though, he has severe dyslexia which makes it difficult to do his job,, but it also makes him intuitive and helps him to think more creatively. A good book with a pacey story and nice characters. Worth a read.

————————————————————————

to be a nice frothy chick-lit book. It was not. It is about domestic violence and control, and more than that it is about paedophilia. Poppy and Serena are 15 years old when they separately get involved with their history teacher Marcus. He uses and abuses them, and yet they still adore them because psychologically he is very clever and manipulative. However, one day he is stabbed and both the grls are put on trial for murder. Poppy is convicted and Serena is cleared. Fast-forward 20 years when Poppy is released form prison she goes to find Serena to get her to admit the murdering Marcus. Serena’s husband has no idea of her history and the revelation is devastating. A brilliantly written book and definitely worth reading.

————————————————————————

At Risk by Patricia Cornwall is really terrible book, and I never thought I would say that about a Patricia Cornwall book. I still have very little idea what the story was actually about other than there were some forensics in it. the story never really got off the ground and the characters were shallow and not very believable. When I read it I felt that this was a book that was rushed out to make a bit more money, kind of a filler book and not a very good one. It would seem that I am not the only person to think that – it has terrible Amazon reviews!

————————————————————————

8th Confession by James Patterson is a much better example of a crime novel than the last book! A killer is on the loose targeting fit, healthy and extremely wealthy individuals. It would seem that they die in their sleep without and indication of what has killed them. A team of women; a detective, a medical examiner a journalist and an attorney are all involved in the problem-solving around this case. An enjoyable book and I especially liked it because all the characters were women.

————————————————————————

I expected The Fabulously Fashionable Life of Isabel Bookbinder by Holly McQueen to be as good as the Shopaholic series that it has been compared to. What I got was a very poor substitute. I am amazed that anyone could creat a character who is soooo stupid. I expect people to be a little bit ditzy, but to be so naiive is unbelievable. I did quite enjoy the ending but it was a bit of a silly book all in all.

————————————————————————

Vanishing Acts by Jodi Picoult was a really good read. Delia is a 32-year old mother of a 4-year-old daughter. She lives near her doting and supportive father and believes that her mother died in a car accident. Then she finds out that her father had kidnapped a child, and that child was her. Her father is remanded and put on trial and Delia has to deal with meeting her mother. As the memories come back to her they are not all she expected them to be. This was a good read and I enjoyed the story. I had great sympathy with each of the characters, partly because each chapter is narrated by a different person so you get so many different perspectives on the story. A good novel.

————————————————————————

The Quickie by James Patterson and MIchael Ledwidge is a pretty good read. Lauren Stillwell sees her husband with a pretty blonde woman and jumps to the conculsion that they are having an affair. She feels betrayed then starts her own affair with her work colleague. All is going well until she sees her husband beating her boyfriend to death. What makes this more complicated is that she is put in charge of the investigation to find out who killed him. She spends all her energy trying to prevent anyone knowing that she knows the truth and as a result their lives begin to unravel in multiple ways.

————————————————————————

Things Your Mother Never Told You by Olivia Lichtenstein is a great read. Ros is a middle-aged woman whose life is starting to come apart at the seams. Her marriage of 20 years is collapsing and her 18-year old sons set off on a round-the-world jaunt leaving her in a empty house with just the dog for her company. Her mother died a few months before, a mother who she always felt was rather cold and distant, but when she starts going through her things she finds some rather unexpected information. Her mother was born and brought up in South Africa and was involved with the political movement the ANC. This is a great story because it addresses the issues of family relationships, but also has a fab parallel story set in the past. I really enjoyed it and would like to read her other novels.

————————————————————————

Swimsuit by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro is a reasonably good read. A swimsuit model is found dead in a hotel in Hawaii… the scene was dressed and what follows is the tale of a serial killer and his perverted followers who pay for his snuff films. Not a bad book but it was pretty graphic, especially some of the murder scenes. Once again Patterson has about a million chapters in each book. Think it took me about 4 hours to read!

————————————————————————

The Overlook by Michael Connelly is a fairly poor read which is a shame as I think he is quite a good author. Detective Harry Bosch is trying to discover who murdered a chemist and stole a pile of radioactive substances. The books is short, and it would seem that it has been souped up from a newspaper series. It kind of shows. The plot is a bit thin and is quite repetitive. Wasn’t a great read and I finished it in super-fast time… ie. started in bed one night and fnished on the bus the next morning!

————————————————————————

Angels Fall by Nora Roberts is a pretty good read, rather unexpectedly I think! Reece Gillmore is constantly on the move, trying to escape from the memories of a horrifying gun attack which killed several of her friends and left her on life-support. Fortunately her car breaks down in a tiny little town and she ends up getting a job and staying. All is well until she witnesses a murder whilst she is out walking. Things starting getting weird for her, and people start thinking she is going bonkers from post-traumatic-stress. A good read and it took me quite a while to work out who the killer was!

————————————————————————

The Husband by Dean Koontz is one of his less weird books. Landscape gardener Mitchell rafferty is minding his own business when he receives a phone call from an individual saying they have kidnapped his wife and they want a ransom of 2 million dollars. To prove they are in control they shoot a passerby who is walking near him. This is an exciting and fast-paced book, and it was quite interesting to see the main character grow a backbone as the book went on. An easy read!

————————————————————————

Going it Alone by Clare Dowling is about Millie and Andrew, a newly married couple. The only problem is she is 29 with a loudly ticking biological clock. She is faffing about it with ovulation tests etc etc and Andrew suddenly decides he doesn’t want a baby. Millie finds herself with a big decision to make so she resolved to have a baby on her own. I really like this book – possibly because Millie is almost certainly what I would be like at 39 if I still didn’t have any children! A good read with a predictable ending.

————————————————————————

Written by Anna Williams in: Uncategorized | Tags: ,

3 Comments »

  • Dith

    Read the Herriott books when I was growing up – really loved them. Perhaps they are due a re-visit.

    Comment | September 30, 2010
  • Every month I marvel at the amount of books you get through!

    I am still only a 3rd of the way through last month’s book group book, and that is a light easy read! I suppose I have an excuse, but even so if I manage one a month I’m impressed with myself!

    I think I’d like the James Herriott book. I’m hopeless with thrillers so I’ll give them all a miss!

    Comment | September 30, 2010
  • I have to admit that even for me the quantity of books I have read is impressive! All those bus journeys are great for my reading list – when I can stay awake that is! I think most of these were library books this month too 🙂

    Comment | September 30, 2010

RSS feed for comments on this post.

Leave a comment

Design: TheBuckmaker.com WordPress Themes