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Lucy's books '09/'10


Lucybird

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My reviews can also be read and commented on over at my Book Blog. I don't mind whether you comment here or there but it may be easier to find older reviews (from a point) on my blog.

 

Books read in 2010 54 and 1 unfinished

Books in italics are book challenge books

 

Jasper Fforde- The Fourth Bear

Phillip Zimbardo- The Lucifer Effect (started 2009)

The Third Angel- Alice Hoffman

Charlaine Harris- Club Dead

Charlaine Harris- Dead to the World

Charlaine Harris- Dead as a Doornail

Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell

Definitely Dead- Charlaine Harris

All Together Dead- Charlaine Harris

Scarlet Thomas- Pop Co.

Rosie Thomas- Sunrise

Wuthering Heights- Emily Bronte

Water for Elephants- Sara Gruen

From Dead to Worse- Charlaine Harris

Dead and Gone- Charlaine Harris

Picture Perfect- Jodi Picoult

Eclipse- Stephanie Meyer

The QI book of the Dead

The Rotter's Club- Johnathan Coe

Malinche- Laura Esquivel

Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides

Dan Kieran- I Fought the Law

Beauty- Raphael Selbourne

A Girl Made of Dust- Nathalie Abi-Ezzi

The Complete Polysyllabic Spree- Nick Hornby

Head Trip- Jeff Warren

Wicked- Gregory Maguire

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

A Matter of Death and Life- Andrey Kurkov

Elle Newman- The book of Unholy Mischief

Susan Sallis- The Path to the Lake

Jane Austen- Northanger Abbey

James Frey- A Million Little Pieces

Stephen Fry- Moab is my Washpot

Alice in Wonderland- Louis Carroll

Midnight's Children- Salman Rushdie

The Perks of Being a Wallflower- Stephen Chbosky

The Elegance of the Hedgehog- Murial Barbery

The Full Cupboard of Life- Alexander McCall Smith

A Lifetime Burning- Linda Gillard

Dead in the Family- Charlaine Harris

The Swan Thieves- Elizabeth Kostova

The 19th Wife- David Ebershoff

High Fidelity- Nick Hornby

Vanity Fair- William Makepeace Thakeray (abandoned around 300 pages in)

The Confessions of Max Tivoli- Andrew Sean Greer

Therapy- Sebastian Fitzek

Room- Emma Donoghue

Double Vision- Pat Barker

Kafka on the Shore- Haruki Murakami

War on the Margins- Libby Cone

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows- J.K. Rowling

The QI Book of General Ignorance

House Rules- Jodi Picoult

The News Where You Are- Catherine O'Flynn

Books read in 2009 45 and 1 unfinished

 

JK Rowling- Harry Potter and the prisoner of Azkaban

John Boyne- Boy in the Striped Pyjamas

Johnathon Coe- The Rain Before it Falls

Jodi Piccoult- 19 Minutes

Jodi Piccoult- Change of Heart

Tracy Chevalier- Girl with a Pearl Earring

Anthony Trollope- Rachel Ray

Tracy Quan- Diary of a Married Call Girl

Nathaniel Hawthorne- The Scarlet Letter

Rosie Thomas- The Potter's House

Stephan Fry- The Liar

Jasper Fforde- Lost in a Good book

Vikas Swarup- Q&A

Louis de Bernieres- A Partisan's Daughter

Alice Kuipers- Life on the Refrigerator Door

Steig Larsoon- The Girl with a Dragon Tattoo

Victor Hugo- The Hunchback of Notredame (only about the first 100 pages)

Danny Scheinmann- Random Acts of Heroic Love

Jodi Picoult- Handle with Care

Karen Joy Fowler- The Jane Austen book club

Augusten Burroughs- Running with Scissors

The Well of Lost Plots- Jasper Fforde

Emotional Geology- Linda Gillard

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society- Mary Anne Shaffer and Annie Barrows

Proust and the Squid- Maryanne Wolf

Dorothy Koomson- The Chocolate Run

Kim Edwards- The Memory Keeper's Daughter

Linda Gillard- Star Gazing

Norwegian Wood- Haruki Murakami

Jasper Fforde- The Big Over Easy

Elizabeth Noble- Things I want my Daughter to know

Elizabeth Huntley Whinthrop- December

Daniel Levitin- This is Your Brain on Music

Mitch Alborn- For One More Day

Steve Toltz- A fraction of the whole

Jodi Picoult- Songs of the Humpback Whale

Haruki Murakami- The Wind up Bird Chronicles

Catherine Flynn- What was Lost

Alice Hoffman- Blue Diary

Charlaine Harris- Dead Until Dark

Charlaine Harris- Living Dead in Dallas

Gail Anderson-Dargatz- The Cure for Death by Lightening

Sebastian Fawkes- The Fatal Englishman

Gisile Scalon- The Goddess Guide

Sebastian Barry- The Secret Scripture

Stephenie Meyer- New Moon

To be read pile 21

(books in italics are Book Challenge books)

 

Bram Stoker- Dracula

Monica Ali- In the Kitchen

Atonement by Ian McEwan

Charlotte's Web by E. B. White

Emma by Jane Austen

Lord of the Rings- JRR Tolkien

The Brother's Grimm Fairytales

Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood

Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier

Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen

The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

The Wizard of Oz by Frank L. Baum

Magyk- Angie Sage

Beauty- Robin McKinley

The House at Riverton- Kate Morton

A Week in December- Sebastian Fawkes

Pooh and the Psychologists

Persuasion- Jane Austen

The Help- Kathryn Stockett

Living Dolls (The Return of Sexism)- Natasha Walter

 

 

Currently reading

One Day- David Nicholls

 

 

 

 

 

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Rory Gilmore Booklist Challenge (2010)

 

Have decided to take part in this challenge. I'm not actually expecting to read all the books in my want to read list but am going to see how many I can read without actually giving up on reading other books! Will be adding to my TBR pile as I get hold of books.

 

What I want to read:

 

Atonement by Ian McEwan

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

Beloved by Toni Morrison

Catch-22 by Joseph Heller

Charlotte's Web by E. B. White

Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky

Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson

Emma by Jane Austen

Fahrenheit 9/11 by Michael Moore

The Fellowship of the Ring: Book 1 of The Lord of the Ring by J. R. R. Tolkien

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

George W. Bushism: The Slate Book of the Accidental Wit and Wisdom of our 43rd President by Jacob Weisberg

The Gnostic Gospels by Elaine Pagels

The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy

The Gospel According to Judy Bloom

The Graduate by Charles Webb

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Hamlet by William Shakespeare

Henry IV, part I by William Shakespeare

Henry IV, part II by William Shakespeare

Henry V by William Shakespeare

High Fidelity by Nick Hornby

The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo (Have started this one as a reading circle book on here but couldn't get past the first 100 pages, still I may go back to it)

Macbeth by William Shakespeare

Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen

Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

Rapunzel by Grimm Brothers

Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier

The Return of the King: The Lord of the Rings Book 3 by J. R. R. Tolkien

Rosemary's Baby by Ira Levin

The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd

Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen

The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

Slaughter-house Five by Kurt Vonnegut

Snow White and Rose Red by Grimm Brothers

The Sonnets by William Shakespeare

Sophie's Choice by William Styron

Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom

The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides

Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire

The Wizard of Oz by Frank L. Baum

War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon

 

And have read:

 

Pre-challenge

 

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne

Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey

Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult

The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold

Life of Pi by Yann Martel

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bront�

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J. K. Rowling

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J. K. Rowling

Girl, Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen

The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom

The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon

The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger

Brick Lane by Monica Ali

Babe by Dick King-Smith

Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank

Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt

1984 by George Orwell

 

 

During challenge

 

Gone with the Wind- Margaret Mitchell

Wuthering Heights- Emily Bront�

Middlesex- Jeffrey Eugenides

The Complete Polysyllabic Spree- Nick Hornby

Wicked- Gregory Maguire

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen

Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

The Perks of Being a Wallflower- Stephen Chbosky

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Jodi Piccoult- 19 Minutes

Jodi Piccoult- Change of Heart

James Frey- A Million Little Pieces

Jodi Piccoult- Mercy

 

 

I've read all of these books. I thouroughly enjoyed Change of Heart and Found that,although not as enjoyable as her other books,19 Minutes was also quite good. I also enjoye A million Little Pieces,butn in parts it was quite dramatized. Didn't enjoy Mercy,found it quite poor.. How did you find Mercy?:)

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I've read all of these books. I thouroughly enjoyed Change of Heart and Found that,although not as enjoyable as her other books,19 Minutes was also quite good. I also enjoye A million Little Pieces,butn in parts it was quite dramatized. Didn't enjoy Mercy,found it quite poor.. How did you find Mercy?:)

 

I wasn't very impressed with Mercy in comparison to other Jodi Picoult books. It didn't pull me in like most of her others. In fact I think a few of her more recent ones have been a bit disappointing. Second Glance I didn't really enjoy, and Tenth Circle was good but not up to usual standards, and the main reason I'd recommend it is for the comic strip. I was a little concerned about Change of Heart but I actually really enjoyed that one.

 

I've had A Million Little Pieces on my wish list for ages and I just managed to get hold of it off bookmooch. I've heard mixed reviews but I think it sounds good

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I finally, finally, finally finished (and yes it does deserve 3 finallys!)

 

Rachel Ray by Anthony Trollope

 

Synopsis (taken from Amazon)

This is Trollope's most detailed and concise study of middle-class life in a small provincial community - in this case Baslehurst, in the luscious Devon countryside. It is also a charming love-story, centring on sweet-natured Rachel Ray and her suitor Luke Rowan, whose battle to wrest control over Baslehurst's brewery involves a host of typically Trollopian local characters.

Review

 

Well what can I say? I did not enjoy this book, in fact I'm surprised that I didn't give up before the end although I was tempted many times. There were the occasional sections which I, didn't enjoy exactly but found somewhat engaging and that is part of what kept me going I think. By the end I did want to know how the characters would end up, which I suppose shows that I found the characters more engaging than I had realised while reading, or maybe it just shows that I was looking forward to resolution and the end :lol:.

Plot wise I didn't find it particularly engaging. What I had expected to be the main plotline- that of Rachel and Luke's romance although a central plot was not really seen so much as discussed. This was somewhat disappointing as possibly my favourite book moment was when we actually saw them together as a couple. The second main theme of the brewery I just found generally boring. I found the owner of the brewery stubbon to the point that I just wished he'd shut up and stop moaning.

The whole story I found rather dragged out, everything was written with more words and explaination than neccersary. Some discription is good but I found the ammount of discription gave a waffley element to the narative, paired with the usual language used in 'classic' novels it made reading a real effort, which I wouldn't mind if it wasn't for the fact that it really added nothing to my enjoyment.

Oh and the blurb said it was a comedy, maybe there was one point in the whole book which made me laugh! I have a feeling it was an observational comedy though and society is quite a lot different to how it was at the time when Trollope was writing.

I am not generally a classic reader. Which I suppose is part of what made me so determined to finish this one. This though is the first I have really not enjoyed of what I have read. I wouldn't recommend it, and deffinatly not if you are not someone who usually reads classics.

 

2/5

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Hi Lucy!

 

I hope you enjoy Vikas Swarup- Q&A when you get around to it.. I loved reading that book. Gave it a 8.5/10.. I hope you like it as much as I did. :cry2:

 

Also, definitely not going to read "Mercy" by Picoult.. You're like the 12th one to say this wasn't fabulous, so I'm going to avoid that one even though I like her. I just about hated "The Tenth Circle" ... :lol: Don't want to relive that experience! :D

 

Glad you finally finished "RR".. It was clearly a struggle! :)

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Diary of a Married Call Girl by Tracy Quan

 

Synopsis (from Amazon)

 

The witty, sexy sequel to Tracy Quan's bestselling "Diary of a Manhattan Call Girl". Like everyone, Nancy finds that as life goes on, she has to adapt. She's learning to hone her respectable image as the wife of investment banker Matt, cooking fashionable meals and taking his shirts to the cleaners, while turning a few tricks on the side. Volume is down, but the sex is kinkier. And she finds herself pulled into the discreet subculture of the married call girl. Some women's husband's know what they do, some don't, and some 'know, but don't know.' Nancy's is in the dark, although her best friend Allison's increasing presence in the media spotlight threatens to expose Nancy's secret. Meanwhile, Matt wants a baby, but Nancy isn't so sure. Motherhood could end her career for good - and what will it do to her body? Will Nancy have to give up her career to save her marriage? What if she becomes the frumpy wife her clients often come to her to escape? Fans of Quan's first Nancy Chan novel, readers of Candace Bushnell's "4 Blondes", and anyone who enjoys a walk on the wild side will love this revealing romp.

 

Review

I read the first two books in this series when I was a teenager and quite enjoyed them. I don't remember the other two having quite so much sex in them, although of course they had some, it would be difficult to write a book about a 'call girl' without any sex in it! I remember there not being as much sex as you would expect in the first 2, but I can't say that of this one.

It's a pretty simple book really, and a simple story- nothing unexpected. Enjoyable enough but nothing special really. It was nice to read something easy and it was at least more exciting (for want of a better word) han Rachel Ray. As far as chick lit. type books are concerned it's not the n=best I'e read but by no means the worst either.

 

3/5

 

Will probably read The Scarlet Letter next for the reading circle

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The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne

 

Synopsis

 

I was going to copy the synopsis from Amazon but it had a spoiler, so I will try to write my own.

The Scarlet Letter is the story of Hester. A woman who is being punished for her adultary by being forced to wear a scarlet letter A on her clothes, so that all will know her crime. Along with her daughter Pearl we see how this effects Hester's life and the lives of those around her.

 

Review

 

Plot wise this story has great potential, there is intrigue, love (romantic and otherwise), and elements of both psychology and morality. However I thought that the story dragged, the basics of the plot were interesting enough to keep me reading, but there seemed to be much which was unnecessary and which made the story drag. To hear more about how the letter effected Hester's life would have made the story better I feel, or maybe to hear more about how she felt about the letter. I also found the style of writing difficult to read- maybe I'm just not cut out for classics, and occasionally lost track of what was happening because of the way it was written- and only realised later when what I thought was happening no longer made sense.

If you have the energy, or the concentration it's probably worth the read, if just for the fact that the ending sums up everything so well and makes you think it was worthwhile. If you want something easy though, don't bother.

 

2.5/5

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The Potter's House by Rosie Thomas

 

Synopsis (from Amazon)

Olivia Giorgiadis has left her English roots behind. She lives on a tiny Greek island, married to a local man, mother to two small sons. Year on year, island life has followed a peaceful unchanging rhythm. Until now. An earthquake ravages the coast, its force devastating the island. In the aftermath comes a stranger: an Englishwoman, destitute but for the clothes she wears. Olivia welcomes the stranger into her home, the potter's house. But as Kitty melts into the family and the village community, so Olivia begins to sense that her mysterious visitor threatens all she holds dear...

 

Review

First off this book was not quite what I expected. I guess I was kind of expecting the deeper kind of chick lit but actually it wasn't chick lit at all. It was a little unusual and there are still some bits that I need to think a bit more about to be sure about for example I have a feeling some aspect of the story is not real although I am not sure what aspect! As a character I found one of the character's, Kitty, to be very interesting, and I think it is the psychologist that is intrigued by her. The story has a little of what makes her tick (as it were) but it is up to the reader to decide what ultimately makes her act as she does, and I am still unsure of what exactly it is. The only thing I would have changed is that I wanted more closure on Kitty's story, but is wasn't actually needed I just would have liked it. This is a book which got me thinking which is always a good sign, and some descriptions made me feel almost as if I was in Greece, another good sign.

 

4/5

 

Am now reading The Liar by Stephan Fry

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Today I am reading about the foundation stage in prep for my interview tomorrow, what fun! Hopefully when I'm done I'm going book shopping! I want to get Alexander McCall Smith's Teatime for the Traditionally Built for my Mum as a Mother's day present. It's the new one from the Number 1 Ladie's Detective Agency series. I'll probably end up getting something for myself too, can't decide whether to go for something on 3 for 2 (I can't resist a bargain!) or the next Jasper Fforde...or maybe something psychology related...too many books!

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Topped up my TBR pile today by buying Lost in a Good Book by Jasper Fforde and December by Elizabeth Huntley Whinthrop. May read Lost in a Good Book next, unless I borrow The Shack off my sister

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The Liar by Stephen Fry

 

Synopsis from Amazon

 

Stephen Fry's breathtakingly outrageous debut novel, by turns eccentric, shocking, brilliantly comic and achingly romantic. Adrian Healey is magnificently unprepared for the long littleness of life; unprepared too for the afternoon in Salzburg when he will witness the savage murder of a Hungarian violinist; unprepared to learn about the Mendax device; unprepared for more murders and wholly unprepared for the truth.

 

Review

 

Firstly I'll say this book was not really what I expected. The way it was written was really the only thing I had expected, it was the tone you recognise from Fry, and very cleverly written. I put the book on my list based on the synopsis on Amazon, which, while not untrue doesn't really tell you what most of the book is about. Most of the book is about Adrian's story of his life. From an all boy's boarding school to an undergraduate at Cambridge. It's interesting to read about these places and Fry writes with humour, I actually laughed out loud a few times.

Ultimatly though it is a story about lies. About the lies Adrian tells about his life, about the whole situation he gets into being a lie, and the lies he tells along the way. How much is true, none of it? You find out towards the end that some bits have been a lie, but is that itself a lie? Something has to be a lie for something else to be true surely? Or maybe it is all a lie

. It was a great book and it still has me thinking (I think I have said before that that is a good sign). Just a quick warning that there are ome sex scences and mentions of sexual activity (both gay and straight) which I think may put some people off, although the descriptions aren't graphic they do discuss a...seedier side of sex.

 

4/5

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Finished Lost in a Good Book today.

 

Lost in a Good Book By Jasper Fforde

 

Synopsis (from Amazon)

 

 

Thursday Next, literary detective and newlywed is back to embark on an adventure that begins, quite literally on her own doorstep. It seems that Landen, her husband of four weeks, actually drowned in an accident when he was two years old. Someone, somewhere, sometime, is responsible. The sinister Goliath Corporation wants its operative Jack Schitt out of the poem in which Thursday trapped him, and it will do almost anything to achieve this - but bribing the ChronoGuard? Is that possible?

 

Having barely caught her breath after The Eyre Affair, Thursday must battle corrupt politicians, try to save the world from extinction, and help the Neanderthals to species self-determination. Mastadon migrations, journeys into Just William, a chance meeting with the Flopsy Bunnies, and violent life-and-death struggles in the summer sales are all part of a greater plan.

 

But whose? and why?

 

Review

 

This book seemed much more like part of a series that The Eyre Affair did, partly because knowing what had happened in the previous book was fairly important (of course that couldn' happen with The Eyre Affair because it was the first one!), and partly because at the end the story didn't quite seem finished

while it was a conclusion in a sense and deffinately a good stopping point, the fact that Landon was still lost means that part of the plot was left incomplete, meaning you cannot get away with not reading the next book.

I must admit this put me off the book a little as I felt I was (in a sense) being forced to read the next in the series, I would have read it anyway because I have enjoyed the series so far but I would have liked to feel I had some choice in it.

I found this story a little more confusing than the last too, with allthe jumping in times, between worlds and distortions in probability, but it was just as exciting. I also found that I understood less of the references to literature in this one- although I'm sure people who have read the books refered to would understand them, and well having read them would have added something to the plot it wasn't necccersary. I do think because of this I prefered The Eyre Affair though, but not by a significant ammount. I want the next one now!

 

4/5

 

Right, bedtime me thinks

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Yay, I'm glad you liked "Lost in a Good Book" - I personally preferred it to "The Eye Affair" (which was nonetheless brilliant), but then we're all different. Favourite moment: the onions. Especially grouped. That page and a half made the whole book worth reading for me; not that there weren't a myriad other things to keep me interested but you catch my drift.

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