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Kat's Reading 2008


Lilywhite

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Currently Reading

 

 

 

Read and Rated

 

44. Stephenie Mayer ~ Twilight (4/5)

43. Carole Matthews ~ It's a Kind of Magic (2/5)

42. Silent Boy ~ Torey Hayden (4/5)

41. If I Am Missing or Dead ~ Janine Latus (3/5)

40. Banquet for the Damned (2/5)

39. Keeping The Dead ~ Tess Gerritsen (3/5)

38. Second Glance - Jodi Picoult (4/5)

37. The End of Mr Y - Scarlett Thomas (3/5)

36. Helpless ~ Barbara Gowdy (2/5)

35. Eldest ~ Christopher Paolini (5/5)

34. The Memory Keepers Daughter ~ Kim Edwards (unfinished 1/5)

33. The Outcast ~ Sadie Jones (4/5)

32. No Time For Goodbye ~ Linwood Barclay (4/5)

31. Quiver ~ Peter Leonard (2.5/5)

30. Nothing to Fear ~ Karen Rose (2/5)

29. Natasha Mostert ~ Season of the Witch (4/5)

28. Faith ~ Lesley Pearse (2/5)

27. Blood Ties ~ Sam Hayes (3/5)

26. Count to Ten ~ Karen Rose (3.5/5)

25. I'm Watching You ~ Karen Rose (4/5)

24. Dead Lovely ~ Karen Fitzgerald (4.5/5)

23. The Story of a Marriage ~ Andrew Sean Greer (0/5)

22. Karen Rose ~ Die For Me (3.5/5)

21. No Humans Involved ~ Kelley Armstrong (5/5)

20. Kelley Armstrong ~ Broken (3/5)

19. Celia Haddon ~ One Hundred Ways for a Cat to Train Its Human (5/5)

18. Kelley Armstrong ~ Haunted (4.5)

17. Jodi Picoult ~ Nineteen Minutes (4/5)

16. Being Emily - Ann Donovan (2.5/5)

15. AA Theory Test Questions

14. Highway Code

13. AA How to Pass your Theory Test

12. Belle De Jour ~ The Further Adventures of a London Call Girl (3/5)

11. Belle De Jour ~ The Intimate Adventures of a London Call Girl (4/5)

10. Boy A ~ Jonathan Trigell (Book Ring) (4/5)

9. Forget Me Not ~ Mandasue Heller (3/5)

8. Lesley Pearse ~ Hope (2/5)

7. Tess Gerritsen ~ The Mephisto Club (4/5)

6. Tess Gerritsen ~ Bloodstream (3/5)

5. Kathleen O'Malley ~ Childhood Interrupted (3/5)

4. Tess Gerritsen ~ Life Support (4/5)

3. Elizabeth Chadwick ~ Shields of Pride (3/5)

2. You Can Run But You Can't Hide: The Life and Times of Dog the Bounty Hunter ~ Duane Chapman (5/5)

1. Christie Dickason ~ The Firemaster's Mistress (3/5)

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'Mount To Be Read'

(82)

 

Christopher Paolini ~ Brisingr

Trudi Canavan ~ The Priestess of the White

Trudi Canavan ~ Last of The Wilds

Trudi Canavan ~ Voice of The Gods

Stephen King ~ Christine

Stephen King ~ Everything's Eventual

Stephen King ~ Needful Things

Stephen King ~ Pet Semetary

Stephen King ~ Nightmares & Dreamscapes

Stephen King ~ Insomnia,

Stephen King ~ IT

Stephen King ~ Cell

Stephen King ~ Misery

Stephen King ~ The Stand

Stephen King ~ The Bachman Books

Stephen King ~ Lisey's Story

Terry Pratchett ~ The Light Fantastic

Tess Gerritsen ~ Body Double

Tess Gerritsen ~ In Their Footsteps

Tess Gerritsen ~ The Bone Garden

Tess Gerritsen ~ Stolen

Mick Foley ~ Mankind Have a Nice Day

Philippa Gregory ~ Wideacre

Philippa Gregory ~ Virgin Earth

Philippa Gregory ~ Fallen Skies

Philip Pullman ~ Northern Lights

Philip Pullman ~ The Amber Spyglass

Jean Plaidy ~ The Lady in the Tower

Bram Stoker ~ Dracula

G.P. Taylor ~ Shadowmancer

G.P. Taylor ~ Wormwood

Sarah Waters ~ Fingersmith

Joanne Harris ~ Coastliners

Elizabeth Chadwick ~ The Loveknot

Elizabeth Chadwick ~ Shadows and Strongholds

Elizabeth Chadwick ~ The Greatest Knight

Elizabeth Chadwick ~ The Champion

Elizabeth Chadwick ~ The Marsh King's Daughter

Elizabeth Chadwick ~ The Conquest

Elizabeth Chadwick ~ Daughters of The Grail

Barb Hendee, J.C. Hendee ~ Dhampir

Barb Hendee, J.C. Hendee ~ Thief of Lives

Barb Hendee, J.C. Hendee ~ Sister of The Dead

Barb Hendee, J.C. Hendee ~ Traitor to The Blood

Kelley Armstrong ~ Exit Strategy

Liz Maverick ~ Crimson City

Torey Hayden ~ Beautiful Child

Torey Hayden ~ Silent Boy

John Boyne ~ The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas

Markus Zusak ~ The Book Thief

Sam Enthoven ~ The Black Tattoo

Jonathan Nasaw ~ The Girls He Adored

Jonathan Nasaw ~ Fear Itself

Jonathan Nasaw ~ 27 Bones

Kit Craig ~ Strait

Kim Harrison ~ Dead Witch Walking

Kim Harrison ~ The good, The Bad and The Undead

Kim Harrison ~ A Fistful of Charms

Karen Moline ~ Belladonna

John Connolly ~ The Book of Lost Things

Jeanne Kalogridis ~ Burning Times

Mitch Albom ~ For One More Day

Sarah Waters ~ Affinity

Mary Janice Davidson ~ Undead and Unpopular

Raven Hart ~ The Vampire's Seduction

Raven Hart ~ The Vampire's Kiss

Eva Stachniak ~ Dancing With Kings

Slash: The Autobiography ~ Slash with Anthony Bozza

Suzanne Dunn ~ The Sixth Wife

Vicky Halls ~ Cat Counsellor

Dorothy Koomson ~ Marshmellows for Breakfast

Stephen Foster ~ Walking Ollie

Christie Dickason ~ The Principessa

Nora Lofts ~ The King's Pleasure

Natsuo Karino ~ Out

Mandasue Heller ~ The Pact

Martina Cole ~ Faces

The Boleyn Inheritance ~ Philippa Gregory

The Charmer ~ Mandasue Heller

Michael Faber ~ Under The Skin

James Bradley ~ The Resurrectionist

Poppy Z Brite ~ Exquisite Corpse

Libba Bray ~ A Great and Terrible Beauty

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Waiting to Arrive

 

 

 

My Wish List

 

 

Elizabeth Chadwick ~ The Winter Mantle, The Scarlet Lion, Shields of Pride, A Place Beyond Courage, The Falcons of Montabard, Bride Fire

Philippa Gregory ~ The Favoured Child, Meridion

Jodi Picoult

Michelle Rowan ~ Bitten and Smitten

Gregory Maguire ~ Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister, Lost

Carrie Vaughn ~ Kitty and the Midnight Hour, Kitty Goes to Washington

Karen Chance ~ Touch The Dark, Claimed by Shadow

Kim Harrison ~ Every Witch Way But Dead

Mandasue Heller ~ The Club, Tainted Lives

Robert Neill ~ Mist Over Pendle

Kate Mulholland ~ A Cry Of Innocence

Mary-Janice Davidson - Undead and Uneasy

Philip Carlo ~ The Ice Man: Confessions of a Mafia Contract Killer

Jennifer McMahon ~ Promise not to tell

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  • 2 weeks later...

I'm still reading The Firemaster's Mistress ~ Christie Dickason which I started before Christmas. Usually I like to start a new book with the New Year but I wasn't that far into it anyway.

 

In the troubled year of 1605, Papist plots are rife in the gaudy streets of Shakespeare's London as the fifth of November approaches ! Francis Quoynt, Firemaster, is recently returned from Flanders and dreaming of making fireworks rather than war. Instead, Quoynt is recruited by Robert Cecil, First Minister, to spy on Guido Fawkes and his fellow conspirators. Meanwhile, Sir Francis Bacon is scheming for high position and spying on Quoynt. Kate Peach, a glove maker, was Quoynt's lover before war took him away. Now living in Southwark, she is brought into grave danger. She is a secret Catholic. A fugitive Jesuit is concealed in her rooms. While Francis hopes to prevent the death of King James I and everyone in his parliament, Kate will have to save herself !

 

The first book of the New Year dropped through the letterbox today too Daughters of The Grail ~ Elizabeth Chadwick from Greenmetropolis.

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I finished The Firemaster's Mistress today and I'm still not overly sure if I liked it or not. I know it's strange but I wasn't completely taken with the story and found it quite boring in parts, however, I did find the need to finish it just to see how it all ended. The main characters were likeable but I found it a bit too factual at times. I'm terrible for switching off when things get too informative in the old fact department.

 

I'm now going to make a start on one of the books O's got me for Christmas You Can Run But You Can't Hide: The Life and Times of Dog the Bounty Hunter ~ Duane Chapman

 

After a troubled upbringing, Duane 'Dog' Chapman had an early life of crime, and was arrested on numerous occasions. Eventually he served time in prison for a murder conviction, which he denies. But that time he spent in prison transformed his life, and he emerged vowing to become a force for good. With his own experience of the criminal way of life, he decided to become a bounty hunter. He set up the Da Kine Bail Bonds in Hawaii and is now 'the grestest bounty hunter in the world'. With more than 6000 captures in the last two decades, this intense, charismatic ex-con tells the stories behind some of his most exciting cases, and the reasons why he brings such passion and commitment to his chosen profession. With some of the older of his twelve children now working alongside him, as well as his wife Beth, this is a real family business where only the toughest and sharpest survive. For all Dog's fans around the world, this is the story they have been waiting for - a fascinating insight into a true hero for our times.

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I finished The Firemaster's Mistress today and I'm still not overly sure if I liked it or not. I know it's strange but I wasn't completely taken with the story and found it quite boring in parts, however, I did find the need to finish it just to see how it all ended. The main characters were likeable but I found it a bit too factual at times. I'm terrible for switching off when things get too informative in the old fact department.

I read it in 2006 and it has stayed with me (does that make sense) DoG is great! Have you read Labyrinth or Virgin Blue?

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I finished reading You Can Run But You Can't Hide: The Life and Times of Dog The Bounty Hunter ~ Duane Chapman today on my day off. A really great read, even if you haven't seen the TV show it still makes a fantastic book. I get the feeling though, that there's still a lot more to tell in his life.

 

I'm going to read Elizabeth Chadwick ~ Shields of Pride next.

 

The year is 1173. King Henry's efforts to crush his rebellious sons ignite ****** border skirmishes throughout the land. Yet it is a time of triumph for mercenary Josceline de Gael, 'person of dubious parentage' son of the king's most trusted ally. Victorious on the battlefield, de Gael suffers sweet defeat when his heart is conquered by the lovely Linnet de Montsorrel. But their love will find its greatest challenge as the torments of jealousy, suspicion, pride - and an enemy from beyond the grave - threaten all they hold dear.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Now I've started Tess Gerritsen ~ Life Support

 

Control was the word Dr Toby Harper lived by. She strove to keep her life in order, her ER in order. But no one could have been prepared for the man she admits one quiet night to the Springer Hospital. Delirious and in critical condition from a possible viral infection of the brain, he barely responds to treatment. And then he disappears without trace. The subsequent search leads Toby to a second patient with the same infection. And it reveals an unsettling twist - the infection can only be spread through direct tissue exchange. Soon Toby's on a trail that winds from a pregnant sixteen-year-old prostitute to an unexpected tragedy in her own home. Only then does she discover the unthinkable: a terrifying and deadly epidemic is about to be unleashed...

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  • 3 weeks later...

I finished Life Supprt last week. I forgot to add it in here. :lol: I really enjoyed it though and I'd quite forgotten just how good Tess is at story telling! So much so, I ordered some more from RISI and they arrives this week too :roll:

 

I also started and finished this week Childhood Interrupted ~ Kathleen O'Malley

 

In 1950, Kathleen O'Malley and her two sisters were legally abducted from their mother and placed in an industrial school ran by the Sisters of Mercy order of nuns, who also ran the notorious Magdalene Homes. The rape of eight-year-old Kathleen by a neighbour had triggered their removal - the Irish authorities ruling that her mother must have been negligent. They were only allowed a strictly supervised visit once a year, until they were permitted to leave the harsh and cruel regime of the institution at the age of sixteen. But Kate survived her traumatic childhood and escaped her past by leaving for England and then Australia when the British government offered a scheme to encourage settlement there. Fleeing her past again, Kate worked as a governess in Paris and then returned to England where she trained as a beautician at Elizabeth Arden. She married and had a son. A turning point in Kate's life came when she applied to become a magistrate and realised that she had to confront her hidden personal history and make it public. This is her inspiring story.

 

Although quite harrowing in part, Kathleen O'Malley kept the negative and awful parts to a minimum in this book and it's more a story about growing up and learning to deal with what life handed her. A good story and a real eye opener about the reasons and abuse of the children in orphanages.

 

Not sure what to read next.... maybe another Tess Gerritsen or maybe a Lesley Pearse. I'll get back to you.

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I decided to go with Tess Bloodstream

 

In April came the rains. In August came the heat. In November came the horror. It's paying a return visit. Lapped by the gentle waters of Locust Lake, the small resort town of Tranquility, Maine, seems like the perfect spot for Dr Claire Elliot to shelter her adolescent son, Noah, from the temptations of the big city and the lingering memory of his father's death. And she's hopeful that she can earn the trust of the town as she builds a new practice. But all her plans unravel with the onset of winter when a rash of teenage violence, far more deadly than anything she'd encountered in the city, erupts in the local school. As she tries to find a medical explanation for this murderous epidemic, Claire stumbles upon an insidious evil which has blighted the town's past and threatens its future. Fearful that Noah, too, is at risk, she must race to prove her theory before everything she loves is destroyed.

 

So far so good. It feels a bit different to Tess' other books. A lot more medical orientated. It took some getting used to.

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I wasn't too keen on the ending of this book (a bit too icky for me) but I still finished it :lol: I think it ventured a bit to close to sci-fi for my liking, although I'm not sure that was her intention when she wrote it.

 

I've started another The Mephisto Club ~ Tess Gerritsen

Christmas Eve in Boston is no holy night for medical examiner Dr Maura Isles. In a rundown house a woman has been dismembered in an act of carnage that leaves veteran cops in shock. The last person called from the dead girl's phone is Dr Joyce O'Donnell, a celebrity psychiatrist who's made her name defending serial murderers.

But there are other clues that make the police wonder if this slaying was part of a Satanic ritual. Drawn on the wall, in blood, are ancient symbols, and a mirror-image word in Latin that, translated, says: 'I have sinned.' Then a second woman is found butchered on Beacon Hill, just outside the grand residence of Anthony Sansone, a reclusive historian. He is the leader of the Mephisto Club, an old and secret society dedicated to the study of evil, and to confronting it in its purest form. On the door to Sansone's house have been scrawled yet more ancient symbols. Are they clues? Or threats? When the same symbols appear on Maura Isles' door, Maura and Jane must call on the Mephisto Club for assistance. Because this is a form of evil Boston PD has never encountered before. And the only way they can defeat it is by turning to the people who understand the devil himself.

 

This one has been much better to read. I do prefer her newer books at the moment.

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I enjoyed Mephisto Club. Another unputdownable book from Tess. Great story and really interesting country hopping adding to the plot.

 

I made a start on Hope ~ Lesley Pearse whilst I was in the bath today. (a bit difficult as it's a massive hardback)

 

Somerset, 1836, and baby Hope is cast out from a world of privilege as living proof of her mother's adultery. Smuggled away from the Harveys and Briargate House to a nearby village, Hope grows up in the arms of the warm and loving Renton family, unaware of her true identity. But fate has harsh plans for Hope and a chain of events sees her forced to lead a vagabond's existence until she finds the courage to fight back and prove herself a fearless and able nurse, a vocation that takes her to the horrific battlefields of the Crimea. But the secrets of the past are not yet done with Hope Renton and she must return to England to face the legacy of her birth. With the storytelling magic that has won Lesley Pearse millions of fans, "Hope" is the portrait of a remarkable woman who will never let the world - or injustice - bring her down.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I finished Hope and the muscles in my arms have increased loads from holding up this almighty tome :lol: I wasn't as impressed with this book as I have been with other Lesley Pearse stories, it just wasn't as interesting. Still a good read, but I would recommend her other books over this one.

 

Three new books arrived for me this week from RISI

The Further Adventures of a London Call Girl

The Sixth Wife

Forget Me Not

 

Not a bad haul really. I'm off to have a long soak in the bath later so I'll choose my next book to take in there with me :friends0:

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Now reading Forget Me Not ~ Mandasue Heller

 

Manchester's Westy Lane is the hunting ground for a killer who leaves a tiny blue flower in the torn body of each victim after he kills her. Lisa Noone, twelve years old and wise beyond her years, lives too near the lane and her mother is a member of the oldest profession in the book. Their lives are far from perfect, but they will always have each other. Or will they? One night Benny arrives in Lisa's life. Tall dark, the most gorgeous man she's ever seen, Benny is not all he seems. While Lisa savours true love, Benny wants more from her than she will ever know.

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I made a start on a 'book chain' book and finished it in the same week. Boy A ~ Jonathan Trigell

 

'A is for Apple. A bad apple.'Jack has spent most of his life in juvenile institutions, to be released with a new name, new job, new life. At 24, he is utterly innocent of the world, yet guilty of a monstrous childhood crime.To his new friends, he is a good guy with occasional flashes of unexpected violence. To his new girlfriend, he is strangely inexperienced and unreachable. To his case worker, he's a victim of the system and of media-driven hysteria. And to himself, Jack is on permanent trial: can he really start from scratch, forget the past, become someone else? Is a new name enough? Can Jack ever truly connect with his new friends while hiding a monstrous secret?This searing and heartfelt novel is a devastating indictment of society's inability to reconcile childhood innocence with reality.

 

I found this book quite compelling and a very good read. It didn't force you to question your own thoughts on the subject matter but did just enough that you did think over some ideals. I wasn't so keen on the ending but it didn't spoil the book for me.

 

If you would like to give this book a go, see the book chain thread and add your name. Personally, I think it's worth the read and not too challenging at just over 200 pages.

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