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Bobblybear's Book List - 2019


bobblybear

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Welcome to my 2019 book list!! 

 

Hopefully it will be kept more up to date than my 2018 list (which I started halfway through the year, and only ran to 2 pages :lol:).

 

My format is going to stay the same as previous years. For some reason, I've always categorised books by the year they were purchased....which means I am really cringing when I see how many books I purchased 5+ years ago but have yet to read. :o 

 

My aim is to reduce my TBR pile, but unfortunately it just seems to be growing year on year. Oh well, there are worse problems to have so I'm not too bothered by it. :lol:

 

I haven't listed my treebooks (I didn't list them in 2018 either), mostly because I had a massive cull in early 2018 and I just don't have the energy to go through my bookcase and list them all. I will hopefully read some of them this year, but I expect most of my reading with be done on my Kindle. 

 

Anyway, enough rambling from me. I hope everyone has a great reading year in 2019 and I look forward to reading everyone's posts in the coming year. :readingtwo:

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Books Read This Year

 

January - June

The Silence of the Lambs - Thomas Harris

The Salt Path - Raynor Winn

The Reality Dysfunction - Peter F Hamilton

With The End in Mind - Kathryn Mannix

His Bloody Project - Graeme Burnet

Them - John Ronson

Noughts and Crosses - Malorie Blackman

The Little Stranger - Sarah Waters

A Captain's Duty - Richard Phillips

Hard Boiled Wonderland and The End of the World - Haruki Murakami

All That Remains - Sue Black

Let Me Lie - Claire MacKintosh

The Heart's Invisible Furies - John Boyne

The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle - Stuart Turton (abandoned)

Blood Meridian - Cormac McCarthy

Feral - George Monbiot

American Assassin - Vincent Flynn (abandoned)

Alone of the Wall - Alex Honnold

Why We Sleep - Matt Walker

Crippen - John Boyne

Hired - James Bloodworth

 

July - December

The Thing of Darkness - Harry Thompson

The Trouble With Goats and Sheep - Joanna Cannon

The Yorkshire Vet - Peter Wright

Pandemic - A G Riddle

Flight Risk - Stephanie Green

The Light Between Oceans - M L Stedman

The Time of My Life - Patrick Swayze

Lone Wolf - Jodi Picoult

My Lovely Wife - Mark Lukach

A Year in the Life of the Yorkshire Shepherdess - Amanda Owen

Almost Love - Louise O'Neill

The Phantom Tollbooth - Norton Juster

The Confession - John Grisham

Snap - Belinda Bauer

Elevation - Stephen King

Milkman - Anna Burns (abandoned)

 

 

 

Audiobooks Listened to This Year

 

January - June

Killers of the Flower Moon - David Grann

Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine - Gail Honeyman

Roots - Alex Haley

Jaws - Peter Benchley

The War of the Worlds - HG Wells

Pale Blue Dot - Carl Sagan

I Can't Make This Up - Kevin Hart

Crime and Punishment - Fydor Doestoyevsky

The Humans - Matt Haig

The Dark Tower - Stephen King

The Dark Tower II - Stephen King

The Dark Tower III - Stephen King

Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery

The Three Body Problem - Cixin Liu

The Left Hand of Darkness - Ursula LeGuin

 

 

July - December

Moby Dick - Herman Melville

Station Eleven - Emily St John Mandel

The Fog - James Herbert

23 Things They Don't Tell You About Capitalism - Ha-Joon Chang

The Dark Tower IV - Stephen King

Alias Grace - Margaret Atwood

 

 

 

 

 

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Books Purchased This Year

 

Barbarians at the Gate - Bryan Burrough, John Helyar

The Lottery and other stories - Shirley Jackson

The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle - Stuart Turton (abandoned)

Hard-Boiled Wonderland And The End of the World - Haruki Murakami

A Wild Sheep Chase - Haruki Murakami

With The End In Mind - Kathryn Mannix

A Captain's Duty - Richard Phillips

The Talisman - Stephen King and Peter Straub

Feral: Searching for Enchantment on the Frontiers of Rewilding - George Monbiot

All That Remains: A Life In Death - Sue Black

Brave New World - Aldous Huxley

The Collector - John Fowles

The Heart's Invisible Furies - John Boyne

Blood Meridian - Cormac McCarthy

The Yorkshire Vet - Peter Wright

A Prayer for Owen Meany - John Irving

The Book of Dust - Phillip Pullman

84K - Claire North

The Shepherd's Life - James Rebanks

Unnatural Causes - Richard Shepherd

Crippen - John Boyne

Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain - David Eagleman

The Trouble With Goats and Sheep - Joanna Cannon

Almost Love - Louise O'Neill

Alone On The Wall - Alex Honnold and David Roberts

Big Debt Crises - Ray Dalio

A Ladder to the Sky - John Boyne

Humans: A Brief History of How We hmmmed It All Up - Tom Philips

The Last Wolf - Jim Crumley

Happy: Finding Joy in Every Day and Letting Go of Perfect - Fearne Cotton

Bean Counters: The Triumph of Accountants and How They Broke Capitalism - Richard Brooks

Monsters - Emerald Fennell

Chasing The Scream: The Truth About Addiction - Johann Hari

The Rise and Fall Of The Dinosaurs - Steve Brusatte

The Secret World: A History of Intelligence - Christopher Andrew

Losing My Virginity - Richard Branson

Origin Story: A Big History of Everything - David Christian

Chasing The Scream: The Search for the Truth About Addiction - Johann Hari

Morgan's Run - Colleen McCullough

Flight Risk - Stephanie Green

A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry

When The Dogs Don't Bark - Angela Gallop

The Human Planet - Simon Lewis

Under The Knife - Arnold van de Laar

Think Dog - John Fisher

No Country For Old Men - Cormac McCarthy

Choked - Beth Gardiner

Skin - Liam Brown

The Dark Side of the Mind - Kerry Daynes

 

 

 

Audiobooks Purchased This Year

 

The Language Of Kindness: A Nurse's Story - Christie Watson

The Dark Tower I - Stephen King

Emma - Jane Austen

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer - Mark Twain

Vanity Fair - William Thackeray

The Monster Collection - Mary Shelley, Bram Stoker, Robert Louis Stevenson etc

Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen

Dogs of War - Adrian Tchaikovsky

Notes on a Nervous Planet - Matt Haig

Normal People - Sally Rooney

Dolores Claiborne - Stephen King

The Dark Tower II - Stephen King

The Dark Tower III - Stephen King

The Prince - Niccolo Machiavelli

The Dark Tower IV - Stephen King

My Sister, The Serial Killer - Oyinkan Braithwaite

The Fog - James Herbert

Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy

When We Were Orphans - Kazuo Ishiguro

Surely You're Joking, Mr Feynman - Richard Feynman

Metro 2033 - Dmitry Glukhovsky

Mindstar Rising - Peter F Hamilton

A Tale for the Time Being - Ruth Ozeki

The Dark Tower V - Stephen King

The Dark Tower VI - Stephen King

Codename Villanelle - Luke Jennings

Shelter In Place - Nora Roberts

IT - Stephen King

The Stand - Stephen King

Lisey's Story - Stephen King

Needful Things - Stephen King

 

 

 

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Books Purchased in 2018

 

Happy: Why More or Less Everything is Absolutely Fine - Derren Brown

The Checklist Manifesto: How To Get Things Right - Atul Gawande

The English and Their History - Robert Tombs

The Gene: An Intimate History - Siddhartha Mukherjee

Why We Sleep: The New Science of Sleep and Dreams - Matthew Walker

No Is Not Enough: Defeating the New Shock Politics - Naomi Klein

The Quiet American - Graham Greene

The Plague - Albert Camus

The Gallows Pole - Benjamin Myers

Fierce Kingdom - Gin Phillips

Unwind - Neal Shusterman

The Name of the Rose - Umberto Eco

Ikigai: The Japanese secret to a long and happy life - Héctor García, Francesc Miralles

The Third Policeman (Harper Perennial Modern Classics) - Flann O'Brien

Solitude: In Pursuit of a Singular Life in a Crowded World - Michael Harris

The Greatest Story Ever Told...So Far - Lawrence Krauss

Cannery Row - John Steinbeck

Tortilla Flats - John Steinbeck

The God Delusion - Richard Dawkins

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep - Philip K Dick

The Five Giants - Nicholas Timmins

Woman on the Edge of Time - Marge Piercy

The Science of Everyday Life - Marty Jopson

The Light Between Oceans - M L Stedman

The History of Love - Nicole Krauss

A Brief History Of Time: From Big Bang To Black Holes - Stephen Hawking

The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion - Jonathan Haidt

Noughts and Crosses - Malorie Blackman

Endurance: A Year in Space, A Lifetime of Discovery - Scott Kelly

Edge of Eternity - Ken Follett

From Bacteria to Bach and Back: The Evolution of Minds - Daniel C. Dennett

The Narrow Road to the Deep North - Richard Flanagan

Thirteen Reasons Why - Jay Asher

As I Lay Dying - William Faulkner

Pimp: The Story of my Life - Iceberg Slim

This Is How It Always Is - Laurie Frankel

The Fact of A Body - Alexandra Marzano-Lesnevich

Valley of the Dolls - Jacqueline Susann

David Bowie: A Life - Dylan Jones

A Clockwork Orange - Anthony Burgess

Mortality - Christopher Hitchens

An Appetite for Wonder - Richard Dawkins

Other Minds - Peter Godfrey-Smith

The Yellow Birds - Kevin Powers

The Running Hare: The Secret Life of Farmland - John Lewis-Stempel

Out of Africa - Karen Blixen

Hearts in Atlantis - Stephen King

Lisey's Story - Stephen King

Storm in a Teacup: The Physics of Everyday Life - Helen Czerski

The Chimp Paradox - Steve Peters

And Then You're Dead: A Scientific Exploration of the World's Most Interesting Ways to Die - Paul Doherty

House Rules - Jodi Picoult

Sing You Home - Jodi Picoult

Leaving Time - Jodi Picoult

My Lovely Wife: A Memoir of Madness and Hope - Mark Lukach

Seven Brief Lessons on Physics - Carlo Rovelli

Consider Phlebas: A Culture Novel - Iain M. Banks

The Walker's Guide to Outdoor Clues and Signs - Tristan Gooley

Cryptonomicon - Neal Stephenson

The Bonfire of the Vanities - Tom Wolfe

The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald

At the Edge of the Orchard - Tracy Chevalier

Pale Rider: The Spanish Flu of 1918 and How it Changed the World - Laura Spinney

His Bloody Project - Graeme Burnet

The Right Stuff - Tom Wolfe

I Capture The Castle - Dodie Smith

Behave - Robert Sapolsky

Life 3.0 - Max Tegmark

The Constant Gardener - John LeCarre

All The Little Lights - Jamie McGuire

Let Me Lie - Claire MacKintosh

Humans - Christopher Seddon

Finding My Virginity - Richard Branson

What Comes Next and How To Like It - Abigail Thomas

The Salt Path - Raynor Winn

Crazy Rich Asians - Kevin Kwan

The Old Man and the Sea - Ernest Hemingway

2001: A Space Oddessy - Arthur C Clarke

Fragrant Harbour - John Lanchester

My James - Ralph Bulger

Pandemic - AG Riddle

The Thorn Birds - Collen McCullough

Adventures of a Young Naturalist - David Attenborough

The City of Mirrors - Justin Cronin

Holding - Graham Norton

Janesville - Amy Goldstein

The Happiness Advantage - Shawn Achor

Touching the Void - Joe Simpson

Hired: Six Months Undercover in Low Wage Britain - James Bloodworth

Admissions - Henry Marsh

The Great Zoo of China - Matthew Reilly

A Year in the Life of the Yorkshire Shepherdess - Amanda Owen

The Phantom Tollbooth - Norton Juster

The 100-Year Life - Lynda Gratton, Andrew Scott

Wicked Beyond Belief - Michael Bilton

The Silence of the Lambs - Thomas Harris

Freedom - Jonathan Franzen

Science(ish) - Rick Edwards, Michael Brooks

The Stranger in the Woods - Michael Finkel

The Time of my Life - Patrick Swayze, Lisa Niemi

Elmet - Fiona Mozley

 

 

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Books Purchased in 2017

 

The Loney - Andrew Michael Hurley

Let The Light Shine - Nick Alexander

The Age of Wonder - Richard Holmes

Wild Swans - Jung Chang

The Power of Habit - Charles Duhigg

Horses, Heifers and Hairy Pigs - Julian Norton

The Litigators - John Grisham

Sniper One - Dan Mills

Say Goodbye for Now - Catherine Ryan Hyde

Myopia - Jeff Gardiner

A Shepherd's Watch - David Kennard

Methods of Persuasion - Nick Kolenda

Spin - Robert Charles Wilson

Cut - Hibo Wardere

We Were The Mulvaneys - Joyce Carol Oates

The Better Angels of Our Nature - Steven Pinker

Superforecasting: The Art of Science and Prediction - Philip Tetlock, Dan Gardener

The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair - Joel Dicker

Here I Am - Jonathan Safran Foer

The Establishment: And How They Get Away With It - Owen Jones

Breakfast Is A Dangerous Meal - Terence Kealey

A History of the World - Andrew Marr

House of Cards - Michael Dobbs 

Who Rules The World: Reframings - Noam Chomsky

The Aquariums of Pyongyang - Kang Chol-Hwan, Pierre Rigoulot

In The Darkness, That's Where I'll Know You: The Complete Black Room Story - Luke Smitherd

Sane New World: Taming the Mind - Ruby Wax

All Creatures Great and Small: The Classic Memoirs of a Yorkshire Country Vet (James Herriot 1) - James Herriot

How to Run A Government: So that Citizens Benefit and Taxpayers Don't Go Crazy - Michael Barber

East of Eden - John Steinbeck

On the Road - Jack Kerouac

The Bone Clocks - David Mitchell

The Pillars of the Earth - Ken Follett

American Psycho - Bret Easton Ellis

Stephen King Goes to the Movies: Featuring Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption - Stephen King

The Passage - Justin Cronin

The Second Coming - John Niven

Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of NIKE - Phil Knight

Allie and Bea: A Novel - Catherine Ryan Hyde

The Poisonwood Bible - Barbara Kingsolver

Flowers For Algernon - Daniel Keyes

The Twelve: The Passage Trilogy Book 2 - Justin Cronin

A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived: The Stories in Our Genes - Adam Rutherford

All Things Bright and Beautiful: The Classic Memoirs of a Yorkshire Country Vet - James Herriot

Spaceman: An Astronaut's Unlikely Journey to Unlock the Secrets of the Universe - Mike Massimino

Mad, Bad, and Dangerous to Know - Ranulph Fiennes

The Fear of 13: Countdown to Execution: My Fight for Survival on Death Row - Nick Yarris

How to Own the World: A Plain English Guide to Thinking Globally and Investing Wisely - Andrew Craig

The Body Keeps the Score: Mind, Brain and Body in the Transformation of Trauma - Bessel van der Kolk

The Power of Time Perception: Control the Speed of Time to Slow Down Aging, Live a Long Life, and Make Every Second Count - Jean Paul Zogby

The Neutronium Alchemist (Nights Dawn Book 2) - Peter F. Hamilton

The Naked God (Nights Dawn Book 3) - Peter F. Hamilton

The Evolutionary Void (The Void Trilogy Book 3) - Peter F. Hamilton

The Temporal Void (The Void Trilogy Book 2) - Peter F. Hamilton

Naïve Super - Erlend Loe

Big Brother - Lionel Shriver

Black Water Lilies - Michel Bussi, Shaun Whiteside

Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov

Start With Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone To Take Action - Simon Sinek

Our Iceberg is Melting: Changing and Succeeding Under Any Conditions - John Kotter, Holger Rathgeber

The Finance Book: Understand the numbers even if you're not a finance professional - Stuart Warner, Si Hussain

Northern Lights: His Dark Materials 1 - Philip Pullman

The Subtle Knife: His Dark Materials 2 - Philip Pullman

The Amber Spyglass: His Dark Materials 3 - Philip Pullman

Who Moved My Cheese: An Amazing Way to Deal with Change in Your Work and in Your Life - Spencer Johnson

Einstein: His Life and Universe - Walter Isaacson

Under A Pole Star - Stef Penney

The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat - Oliver Sacks

Invisible Man - Ralph Ellison

Foxes Unearthed - Lucy Jones

The Case Against Sugar - Gary Taubes

Misbehaving: The Making of Behavioural Economics - Richard H Thaler

TED Talks: The official TED guide to public speaking - Chris Anderson

Jurassic Park - Michael Crichton

The Man in the High Castle - Philip K Dick

Seveneves - Neal Stephenson

The God of Small Things - Arundhati Roy

The Sundial - Shirley Jackson

Contact - Carl Sagan

The Last Anniversary - Liane Moriarity

The Year of the Runaways - Sunjeev Sahota

American Assassin - Vince Flynn

A Mindfulness Guide for the Frazzled - Ruby Wax

The Threat Level Remains Severe - Rowena Macdonald

All Out War: The Full Story of How Brexit Sank Britain's Political Class - Tim Shipman

Lone Rider: The First British Woman to Motorcycle Around the World - Elspeth Beard

The Sky Below: A True Story of Summits, Space, and Speed - Scott Parazynski, Susy Flory

Elon Musk: How the Billionaire CEO of SpaceX and Tesla is Shaping our Future -  Ashlee Vance

The Universe in Your Hand: A Journey Through Space, Time and Beyond - Christophe Galfard

The Element in the Room: Science-y Stuff Staring You in the Face (Festival of the Spoken Nerd) - Helen Arney, Steve Mould

Bushcraft 101: A Field Guide to the Art of Wilderness Survival - Dave Canterbury

Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth and Happiness - Richard H Thaler, Cass R Sunstein

The Outsider - Albert Camus

10% Human: How Your Body's Microbes Hold the Key to Health and Happiness - Alanna Collen

The Lord God Made Them All: The Classic Memoirs of a Yorkshire Country Vet (James Herriot 4) - James Herriot

Genius: The Life and Science of Richard Feynman - James Gleick

On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century - Timothy Snyder

A Closed and Common Orbit: Wayfarers 2 - Becky Chambers

The Mother Tongue - Bill Bryson

Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion - Robert B. Cialdini PhD

Our Man in Havana - Graham Greene

Charlotte's Web - EB  White

Olive Kitteridge - Elizabeth Strout

Outliers: The Story of Success - Malcolm Gladwell

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Books Purchased in 2016

 

 

The Other Son - Nick Alexander

Wilbur Smith Trilogy: Hungry as the Sea, Elephant Song and Wild Justice - Wilbur Smith
Her Mother's Shadow - Diane Chamberlain
Home - Matt Dunn
A Short History of England - Simon Jenkins
Sister - Rosamund Lupton
The Three-Body Problem - Cixin Liu, Ken Liu
The Corrections - Jonathan Franzen
Night Film - Marisha Pessl
The Watchmaker of Filigree Street - Natasha Pulley
Facing Up: A Remarkable Journey to the summit of Mount Everest - Bear Grylls
Complications: A Surgeon's Notes on an Imperfect Science - Atul Gawande
How To Be Alone - Jonathan Franzen
This Thing of Darkness - Harry Thompson
The Rotten Heart of Europe: Dirty War for Europe's Money - Bernard Connolly
Harry Potter: The Complete Collection - JK Rowling
The Revenant - Michael Punke
What You See Is What You Get - Alan Sugar
A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
New York - Edward Rutherfurd
Outlander - Diane Gabaldon
The Road - Cormac McCarthy
The Hitchiker's Guide To The Galaxy : The Trilogy of Five - Douglas Adams
Anathem - Neal Stephenson
Parkland - Vincent Bugliosi
My Year of Meats - Ruth Ozeki
Kamikaze Kangaroos! - Tony James Slater
The Godforsaken Daughter - Christine McKenna
Us - David Nicholls
The Snowden Files: The Inside Story of the World's Most Wanted Man - Luke Harding
The Last Runaway - Tracy Chevalier
The Little Book of Big History: The Story of Life, The Universe and Everything - Ian Crofton, Jeremy Black

The Old Ways: A Journey on Foot - Robert McFarlane

Introducing Psychology - Nigel Benson

The Girl You Left Behind - JoJo Moyes

The Painted Bridge - Wendy Wallace

When God Was A Rabbit - Sarah Winman

Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Secrethood - Rebecca Wells

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Books Purchased in 2015

 

Forgotten Victory: The First World War: Myths and Realities - Gary Sheffield

Extreme Sleeps: Adventures of a Wild Camper - Phoebe Smith

Secret Lives - Diane Chamberlain

Slaughterhouse-Five - Kurt Vonnegut

I Used To Know That: Stuff You Forgot From School - Caroline Taggart

We - Yevgeny Zamyatin

The Universe versus Alex Woods - Gavin Extence

The Chronicles of St Mary's Boxset Vol 1 - Jodi Taylor

Canoeing the Congo: The First Source-to-Sea Descent of the Congo River - Phil Harwood

The Lies We Told - Diane Chamberlain

Papillon - Henri Charriere

Warship - Joshua Dalzelle

The Proof of Love - Catherine Hall

The Atlantis Plague - AG Riddle

Stone Mattress: Nine Tales - Margaret Atwood

Lost At Sea: The Jon Ronson Mysteries - Jon Ronson

The Missionary Position: Mother Theresa in Theory and Practice - Christopher Hitchens

The Shadow Wife - Diane Chamberlain

The Journal of a Disappointed Man - Wilhelm Nero Pilate Barbellion

The Bay at Midnight - Diane Chamberlain

Shogun - James Clavell

The Confession - John Grisham

The Things We Have In Common - Tasha Kavanagh

Enigma - Robert Harris

Keeper of the Light - Diane Chamberlain

The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet - David Mitchell

Black Swan Green - David Mitchell

Number9dream - David Mitchell

The Courage Tree - Diane Chamberlain

The Invention of Wings - Sue Monk Kidd

The Martian Chronicles - Ray Bradbury

The Long Walk to Freedom - Nelson Mandela

The Good Father - Noah Hawley

Alone In Berlin - Hans Fallada

The Little Stranger - Sarah Waters

Wayfaring Stranger - James Lee Burke

Death of a River Guide - Richard Flanagan

The Windup Girl - Paolo Bacigalupi

Watership Down - Richard Adams

I Think You'll Find It's a Bit More Complicated Than That - Ben Goldacre

Do No Harm: Stories of Life, Death and Brain Surgery - Henry Marsh

The Wild Places - Robert McFarlane

The Grand Design - Stephen Hawking, Leonard Mlodinow

 

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Books Purchased in 2014

 

One Summer: America 1927 - Bill Bryson

The Female Eunuch - Germaine Greer

Twelve Years a Slave - Solomon Northup

I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings - Maya Angelou

The Good Father - Diane Chamberlain

The Silver Linings Playbook - Matthew Quick

Summer's Child - Diane Chamberlain

The Default Line: The Inside Story of People, Banks and Entire Nations on Edge - Faisal Islam

Wilderness Survival Guide: The Practical Skills you need for the great outdoors - Joe O'Leary

The Thorn Birds - Colleen McCullough

False Impression - Jeffrey Archer

Exodus (Extinction Point, Book 2) - Paul Antony Jones

Lucky Planet: Why Earth is Exceptional - And What that Means for Life in the Universe - David Waltham

Stealing Phoenix - Joss Stirling

Rejoice! Rejoice! Britain in the 1980s - Alwyn Turner

Lifers - Jane Harvey-Berrick

Mary Poppins: The Complete Collection - P.L. Travers

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks - Rebecca Skloot

The Reapers Are the Angels - Alden Bell

The Dinner - Herman Koch

Gideon's Spies: The Inside Story of Israeli's Secret Service - Gordon Thomas

The Dreaming Void - Peter F Hamilton

The Complete Wizard of Oz Collection - L Frank Baum

Not A Drop to Drink - Mindy McGinnis

Love, Poverty and War: Journeys and Essays - Christopher Hitchens

Pattern Recognition - William Gibson

Every Living Thing - James Herriot

The Secret Keeper - Kate Morton

Catastrophe: Europe Goes to War 1914 - Max Hastings

The 33 Strategies of War - Robert Greene

Requiem for a Dream - Hubert Selby Jnr

Introducing Quantum Theory: A Graphic Guide - JP McEvoy, Oscar Zarate

Robopocalypse - Daniel H Wilson

A Prisoner of Birth - Jeffrey Archer

Judas Unchained - Peter F Hamilton

The Men Who Stare At Goats - Jon Ronson

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Books Purchased in 2013

 

The Happiness Trap: Stop Struggling, Start Living - Russ Harris
The Reality Dysfunction - Peter F. Hamilton

Incoming! Or Why We Should Stop Worrying and learn to Love the Meteorite - Ted Nield
Sworn Secret - Amanda Jennings
1493: How the Ecological Collision of Europe and the Americas Gave Rise to the Modern World - Charles C. Mann

White Fang - Jack London
Deceived Wisdom: Why What You Thought Was Right Is Wrong - David Bradley
Uncle Tom's Cabin - Harriet Beecher Stowe

Great Apes - Will Self

Boneshaker - Cherie Priest

The Phoenix Conspiracy - Richard Sanders

The Virgin Suicides - Jeffrey Eugenides

Good Strategy/Bad Strategy: The Difference and Why it Matters - Richard Rumelt

You Are Not So Smart: Why Your Memory is Mostly Fiction, Why You Have Too Many Friends On Facebook, and 46 Other Ways You're Deluding Yourself - David McRaney

The Distant Hours - Kate Morton

On Books and the Housing of Them - W E Gladstone

Born Liars: Why We Can't Live Without Deceit - Ian Leslie

The Korean War - Max Hastings

The Beach - Alex Garland

Kiss River - Diane Chamberlain

Snow Crash - Neal Stephenson

Au Revoir, Europe: What If Britain Left The EU? - David Charter

Bang! The Complete History of the Universe - Patrick Moore, Brian May, Chris Lintott

The Undercover Economist - Tim Harford

And Still I Rise - Doreen Lawrence

The Great Tax Robbery: How Britain Became a Tax Haven for Fat Cats and Big Business - Richard Brooks

QI The Book of the Dead - John Mitchinson, John Lloyd

How Do We Fix This Mess? - Robert Peston

The Complete Soldier Son Trilogy - Robin Hobb

The Glass Guardian - Linda Gillard

Great Expectations - Charles Dickens

Stuffed and Starved: From Farm to Fork - Raj Patel

All Hell Let Loose: The World at War: 1939 - 1945 - Max Hastings

Half of a Yellow Sun - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Them: Adventures with Extremists - Jon Ronson

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Books Purchased in 2012

 

Supersense - Bruce Hood
What's Wrong With Eating People - Peter Cave
The Little Friend - Donna Tartt
Written In Stone - Brian Switek
QI: The Book of General Ignorance - The Noticeably Stouter Edition - John Lloyd and John Mitchinson

Quantum - Manjit Kumar
The Moonstone - Wilkie Collins
Fire and Ice (Liam Campbell #1) - Dana Stabenow
Compromised - Derek Keyte
QI: The Second Book of General Ignorance - John Lloyd and John Mitchinson
Mirage Men - Mark Pilkington

The Book of Human Skin - Michelle Lovric
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change - Stephen Covey
The Complete Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
The Elephant Whisperer - Graham Spence and Anthony Lawrence
The Girl On The Wall - Jean Baggott
How to Raise the Perfect Dog: Through puppyhood and beyond - Cesar Millan
The Key To Rebecca - Ken Follett
Are We Nearly There Yet?: A Family's 8000 Miles Around Britain in a Vauxhall Astra - Ben Hatch

Farmer Buckley's Exploding Trousers : And other odd events on the way to scientific discovery - Stephanie Pain
Are You Smart Enough to Work at Google? - William Poundstone
The Making of Modern Britain - Andrew Marr
As The Crow Flies - Jeffrey Archer
The Happiness Equation: The Surprising Economics of Our Most Valuable Asset - Nick Powdthavee
Around the World in 80 Days Junior Edition - Jules Verne

An Atlas of Impossible Longing - Anuradha Roy
Daddy-Long-Legs - Jean Webster

Inflight Science: A Guide to the World from your Airplane Window - Brian Clegg

The World's Greatest Idea - John Farndon
The Etymologicon: A Circular Scroll through the Hidden Connections of the English Language - Mark Forsyth
One Million Tiny Plays About Britain - Craig Taylor

The Eleventh Commandment - Jeffrey Archer

Only Time Will Tell - Jeffrey Archer

Ash - James Herbert
Sarah Thornhill - Kate Grenville
VIII - H M Castor

Winter of the World - Ken Follet

Yesterday's Gone: Season Two - Sean Platt and David Wright
Times Echo - Pamela Hartshorne
Trojan Horse - Mark Russinovich
How Not To Worry: The Remarkable Truth of How a Small Change Can Help You Stress Less and Enjoy Life More - Paul McGee

The Dead Women of Juarez - Sam Hawken

Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett

The Horologicon: A Day's Jaunt Through The Lost Words of the English Language - Mark Forsyth
The History of the World In Bite-Sized Chunks - Emma Marriott

The Millenium Trilogy - Stieg Larsson

A History of 20th Century Britain - Andrew Marr
The Mess We're In: Why Politicians Can't Fix Financial Crises - Guy Fraser-Sampson
Yesterday's Country Customs: A History of English Folk Traditions - Hentry Buckton

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Books Purchased Pre - 2012

 

The Fire Gospel (Myths) - Michel Faber

Kidnapped - Robert Louis Stevenson
CK - 12 Biology 1 - Honors
CK - 12 Earth Science Honors for Middle School
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow - Washington Irving
Grimm's Fairy Stories - Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm
Gulliver's Travels - Jonathan Swift
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Wojtek the Bear: Polish War Hero - Aileen Orr
Killing the Messenger - Christopher Wallace
A Carpet Ride to Khiva: Seven Years on the Silk Road - Christopher Aslan Alexander
Guiness World Records: 2012
The Epigenetics Revolution: How Modern Biology is Rewriting our Understanding of Genetics, Disease and Inheritance - Nessa Carey
Introducing Neurolinguistic Programming - Neil Shah
Do Polar Bears Get Lonely? - New Scientist
Sapper Martin - Richard van Emden
Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
The Last Man - Mary Wollstonecraft Shelly
50 Facts That Should Change The World - Jessica Williams
The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds - Charles Mackay

The Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
The Reluctant Traveler - Bill Lumley
Diary of a Nobody - George Grossmith

 

 

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I've finished my first audiobook of the year - Killers of the Flower Moon.  I can't remember why I bought it - if it just caught my eye, or it had very favourable reviews - as I didn't know anything about it before I started listening.

 

In the 1920s, the Osage Indians (who were among the richest group of people in the world) were being murdered one by one. These people had been relocated to Oklahoma, on what later turned out to be some of the most fruitful oil fields in the country. They were given the full land rights over this oil (but unbelievably were all required by law to have guardians to manage their wealth) much to the resentment of a lot of the 'white' population around them. After some very half-hearted local investigation into these murders the case was eventually turned over to the newly formed Bureau of Investigation (soon to be called the FBI).

 

The book is told in three main sections. The first part is from the perspective of Mollie Burkhart, who was one of the Osage Indians and who's family members were among the first to be murdered. The second section is told from the perspective of Tom White, the federal agent who was assigned to the case. The final section is the author's view on the case, after carrying out his research nearly a century after the crimes were committed.

 

It was an absolutely fascinating case, with so many twists and turns that you'd think it was fiction! And when the culprits were identified....well it was pretty shocking! The audiobook was only about 9 hours long, but it covered so much information. Because it was told from different perspectives and different timelines, you got to hear how these crimes affected everyone involved and in some cases were still affecting them several generations later.

 

 

Highly recommended. 

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  • 3 weeks later...

The Almanac is such a pretty book isn't it? I was looking at it in Waterstones recently and was very tempted, there are just so many great books out this year!

Hard Boiled Wonderland at the End of the World looks really interesting too. It sounds pretty crazy and I usually like that :lol:

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Yeah, I loved the look of The Almanac. I could have bought it on Kindle (as it was the Daily Deal a couple of days ago) but it's the kind of book that is definitely worth getting a physical copy of.

 

Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World does sound a bit strange but then again, all of Murakami's books are pretty 'out there'. :lol:

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  • 4 months later...

Ugh - 5 months since I have updated this! :unsure:

 

I've now updated my 2019 purchases list as well as my reads, but have yet to put a little bit of commentary against books I've finished. Hopefully I will get to that in a couple of days.

 

On the plus side, I'm still reading a lot of books....I just have lost my 'review-mojo'. :readingtwo:

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That's going to be a lot of reviews! :lol: Maybe you could just list them with a quick 'liked it' or 'didn't like it' instead, it's quite a task otherwise!

 

Glad you're enjoying reading this year though :) have your books for the last five months mainly been good?

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  • 2 months later...

Here we go: :lol:

 

The Silence of the Lambs - Thomas Harris

I've read this a couple of times, and I think of it as 'old-school', in that there are no real twists and turns and you're not left trying to figure out what is going on. It's a good straight-forward thriller and was enjoyable to read it again.

 

The Salt Path - Raynor Winn

Didn't enjoy this as much as I hoped. It has received so much praise but I do think the author and her husband were pretty irresponsible to go out and do what they did, with his health being the way it was. Having said that, his health did seem to improve and I know they didn't have a huge number of options given that they were broke and homeless. I wish they'd eaten more sensibly as well. Loading up on chips and fudge is not the best thing to do when you are attempting to cover hundreds of miles on foot. :lol:

 

The Reality Dysfunction - Peter F Hamilton

Very long, and I struggled with it. Too many characters and I think there were more characters than there was plot and it felt like the book could have been halved in size (but then it wouldn't be a Peter F Hamilton book). I have the next two on my Kindle, but I think I will also download the audiobooks so I can swap between the two. 

 

With The End in Mind - Kathryn Mannix

Palliative care nurse who has assisted hundreds (maybe thousands) of people at their final stages of their lives. I'm fascinated by the subject matter so I thoroughly enjoyed it. Her compassion shines through and I can see how she was such a help to friends and family of the dying person.

 

His Bloody Project - Graeme Burnet

Short but enjoyable. Based on research the author was doing about his ancestors and he came across this story from 1869. Told from various points of view, and so of course hard to know which version was the truth. 

 

Them - John Ronson

Journalists search for the New World Order....the secret group that run the world. Was humorous (intentionally so) and interesting. A quick read, didn't overstay it's welcome and didn't take itself too seriously.

 

Noughts and Crosses - Malorie Blackman

Couldn't really get on with it, but not a massive fan of YA. Noughts and Crosses are the names given to the two groups of people - dark-skinned and light-skinned, who are separated by privilege and power and position in society. Kind of a commentary on today's (recent history) society and if it were flipped on it's head.

 

The Little Stranger - Sarah Waters

Pretty good read. Told through the eyes of a doctor who befriends the members of a household, and slowly gets drawn into a mystery that seems to be affecting each of the household members. Is the house haunted, or not? 

 

A Captain's Duty - Richard Phillips

The author's ship was hijacked by Somalian pirates in 2009, and this is his account of the experiences. Captain Phillips, starring Tom Hanks, is based on this and is a brilliant movie. The book was excellent too.

 

Hard Boiled Wonderland and The End of the World - Haruki Murakami

Ahh, Murakami.....what can I say? You have to be open minded and willing to be taken on his journey, wherever he takes you. Hugely enjoyable read....typically bizarre. Can't even think how to summarise it...it's like two alternating stories, which are linked, but in parallel worlds. Not to be missed if you are a fan.

 

All That Remains - Sue Black

Another morbid read; author is a forensic anthropologist and has spent many years investigating causes of death, what happens to bodies after death. She takes us into crime scenes, into her lab in a very no-nonsense manner. Fascinating stuff.

 

Let Me Lie - Claire MacKintosh

I really liked this book, and it's inspired by a fairly recent news story (I won't say which one, as it will give it away). Her books are always exciting to read because you know there will be a few unexpected twists and turns. I wouldn't say it's my favourite of hers, but I enjoyed it a lot.

 

The Heart's Invisible Furies - John Boyne

How much did I love this book? A huge amount! It's my first book by this author, and I wasn't sure what to expect, but I am so glad I picked this one to start with. I love the title! The main character, Cyril Avery is born an illegitimate baby, and this is basically a story of the whole of his life, and trying to find his place in the world even though he doesn't fully feel in step with it all. My favourite book of the year, and possibly one of my favourite books of all time.

 

The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle - Stuart Turton (abandoned)

Gave up on this. Didn't know what on earth was going on, got annoyed with it and abandoned. :lol:

 

Blood Meridian - Cormac McCarthy

Based on the making of the American frontier in the 1800s around the American/Mexican border. Violent and graphically so. I ended up skimming it as it didn't grab me like it has done for others.  Not a huge fan of his writing style either.

 

Feral - George Monbiot

A book on how we have transformed the natural landscape through farming, agriculture and modern life. The author calls for a return to a more natural 'feral' surroundings. Interesting, well worth a read.

 

American Assassin - Vincent Flynn (abandoned)

Gave up on it....the kind of story that I would love in movie format, but the book was kind of 'meh'.

 

Alone on the Wall - Alex Honnold

This is one of the best knows free-solo climbers....the movie Free Solo was about his climbing El Capitan several years ago. Even though I don't have any personal interest in climbing, I find him fascinating and this was an interesting read.

 

Why We Sleep - Matt Walker

On the importance of sleep and how our brains and bodies function on the right amount, compared to the deprived amount. Has made me very conscious of trying to get 8+ hours of sleep a night, and not feel guilty about it! Interesting read. 

 

Crippen - John Boyne

I know this is Frankie's favourite book! Enjoyable but not as enjoyable as The Heart's Invisible Furies so I am glad that I didn't start with this one. It's a bit of a murder mystery but also a study of human psychology.

 

Hired - James Bloodworth

Low-wage jobs in Britain. Examples of what it is like work in an Amazon warehouse, or gig-working. Very, very fascinating, and makes me think twice about complaining about my job!

 

To be continued.....

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Next lot, my July to current reads:

 

The Thing of Darkness - Harry Thompson

Loved this one! It's a very detailed (fictionalised where necessary) account of Charles Darwin's infamous Beagle voyage, and his relationship with Captain Robert Fitzroy. Actually, it covers more than just that voyage....it covers Fitzroy's prior voyages and then their fractious relationship post-Beagle. Fitzroy and Darwin get equal 'book-time', in fact Fitzroy may actually get more than Darwin, so it's not a book about Charles Darwin.  It's main focus is not on Darwin's theories, but rather on the relationship between the two and the conflict that their different backgrounds brought out in the pair.

 

The Trouble With Goats and Sheep - Joanna Cannon

Ultimately forgettable....I know this, because I have forgotten what it's about. :lol: I do recall reading it when I had a lot of other things on my mind, which is never a good idea. A woman has vanished, and two children from the neighbourhood set out to solve the mystery of what has happened. It is coming back to me now....there are a few twists and turns, but it's not what would be classed as a thriller or anything like that. It's very similar in 'feel' to her other book: Three Things About Elsie.

 

The Yorkshire Vet - Peter Wright

I love animals, so I thoroughly enjoyed reading about this vet's experiences in his current Yorkshire practice. He was trained under 'James Herriot' so has many interesting stories about that time. It's also a TV series, which is about to start Season 9 (I think). Luckily all prior seasons are still on '5 on Demand' so I have been catching up on those.

 

Pandemic - A G Riddle

I like a good 'end-of-the-world' story, and this started off promisingly, but then deteriorated into utter ridiculousness. There were so many twists and turns and unbelievable coincidences, that by the end I was just skimming it to finish it. I have a feeling I have the next 2 books on my Kindle, but I can't see when I will ever get around to reading them.

 

Flight Risk - Stephanie Green

The author was the resident doctor at Heathrow Airport for over 7 years, and writes about her experiences. I had no idea that there were doctors permanently at the airport and that was their full time job. I just assumed that doctors were called when required (via 999 etc), but on thinking about it, it makes sense that they would require someone there 24/7. Her job was to screen for potentially contagious illnesses (TB, SARS, swine flu etc), deal with people who were' acting strange' (usually turned out to be importing drugs in their body), and the occasional death on the plane. Interesting read.

 

The Light Between Oceans - M L Stedman

Heard about this one for long time, but was unsure about it. As it turns out, I enjoyed it a lot.  Tom is a lighthouse keeper on a remote island off the coast of Australia. He lives in isolation with his wife Izzy. One day, a small boat washes up which contains a crying baby and a deceased man. Tom and Izzy have to decide what they should do with this baby - keep it or try to find out the story behind her washing up on the island. Very good read...I want to watch the movie too.

 

The Time of My Life - Patrick Swayze

Quick read. Patrick Swayze's autobiography, written while he was still battling pancreatic cancer. I enjoyed it more than I thought I would, as he has had a much more interesting life than I was aware of. It was particularly interesting to read about his experiences breaking in to Hollywood.

 

Lone Wolf - Jodi Picoult

Luke has always felt a bond with wolves, and has all but abandoned his family and civilisation in order to live a life with wolves. However, he is involved in a car accident and lies in a coma. His estranged family all join at his bedside and a debate ensues about whether life support should be switched off. Not bad....I wouldn't say it was my favourite Picoult, but it was easily readable.

 

My Lovely Wife - Mark Lukach

Non-fiction account by the author of his wife's mental illness, her breakdowns and how they have managed to keep their family going despite all this. It was very harrowing, and scary to see how she did 'lose her mind' and what she was like when this was happening. Props to the author for managing to stay as the bedrock in their family, as I think a lot of people would not have been able to.

 

A Year in the Life of the Yorkshire Shepherdess - Amanda Owen

This is her second book, and as the title suggests, she is a shepherdess in Yorkshire. It's pretty much the same as the first book, but this time the sections are broken down into the months of the years and she describes how farming changes as the year progresses. She has another book which has been recently released and I look forward to reading that as well. Loved it.

 

Almost Love - Louise O'Neill

A story of desperate and obsessive love (or the need to be needed) for someone who really couldn't care less. I thought it was very well written, very believable and quite cringeworthy to see the main character spiralling downwards in this pit of desperation, in which she has completely lost all sense of self. Probably my favourite book of O'Neill's after Only Ever Yours

 

The Phantom Tollbooth - Norton Juster

A quick read....I wanted to read this, as I heard so much about it. Milo is a child, who is not very excited about anything. Then he discovers a package in his bedroom, which contains a tollbooth to take him off to other fantastical places (full of strange characters, and many puns). It was an illustrated version so I read it on my tablet, rather than my Kindle. It was ok, but not really my scene. I would have enjoyed it as a child, but not so much as an adult.

 

The Confession - John Grisham

I haven't read Grisham in a while. It was nice to revisit him. A week or so before the execution of Donte Drumm, a man who is terminally ill from a brain tumour comes forward to his local preacher to confess to the crime. The preacher then must make the decision as to whether he is telling the truth, and then race across several states to prevent this execution. This was mostly good, but it did overstay it's welcome by about 50 pages at the end. Grisham just seemed to go off on a tangent and he didn't want to end the book, so he kept spouting off about all sorts. Aside from that, I enjoyed it.

 

Snap - Belinda Bauer

A fast paced thriller about a woman who went missing from the hard shoulder of the M5, and the impact this has had on her young children several years on. Her murderer was never found, and her eldest son has somewhat come off the rails, but then he stumbles across something which he believes could solve her murder. This was pretty good....better than Rubbernecker. However, for a thriller it didn't have a lot of depth and is most likely to be a book that you read once and then just forget about.

 

Elevation - Stephen King

Very short story, about a man who keeps losing weight even though his body still remains the same size. It wasn't bad....it was very short; I think I read it in an hour or so. A strange book.

 

Milkman - Anna Burns (abandoned)

Winner of the Man Booker Prize in 2018. Set in Ireland during the times of The Troubles. The story is told through the eyes of 18 year old Middle Sister (none of the characters have proper names), and her trying to deal with Milkman's fascination with her. Obviously there's more to it than that, but I wouldn't know as I gave up pretty early on. I couldn't get on with the style of the narrative. It was long uninterrupted blocks of text that sometimes went on for over a page without a break (margin-to-margin text). I found this very difficult to read (was reading paperback rather than Kindle) and absorb, and found myself frustrated with the style rather than being able to enjoy the story. Obviously it impressed someone, but not me!

 

 

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