Charm's Choices for 2009

[Charm]

Thought I'd start a new reading record for 2009. I hope I'm still posting here by January 2010! Again I'll probably write my thoughts on the books but please bear with me .. I don't write reviews very well. If anyone reads this and thinks they might know of a book which is to my taste, please stick your nose in and comment!

 

 

 

Currently Reading: Blood and Gold ~by~ Anne Rice

Edited December 23, 2009 by Charm
Changing current read.

[Charm]

~<Books I have on my TBR pile>~

 

Karin Slaughter - Triptych

Erica Spindler - See Jane Die

Tess Gerritsen - Life Support

James Bradley - The Resurrectionist

Linda Fairstein - Final Jeopardy

Linda Fairstein - Killer Heat -

Harlen Coben - The Innocent

Harlen Coben - Deal Breaker

Harlen Coben - Fade Away

Sebastian Fitzek - Therapy

Dan Brown - Angels and Demons

Jeffrey Deaver - The Sleeping Doll

Jeffrey Deaver - The Vanished Man

Jeffrey Deaver - The Twelfth Card

Jeffrey Deaver - Garden of Beasts

Jeffrey Deaver - Manhattan is my Beat

Jeffrey Deaver - Death of a Blue Movie Star

Jeffrey Deaver- Twisted

Jeffrey Deaver - More Twisted

Mo Hayder - Ritual

Patricia Cornwell - Scarpetta

Patricia Cornwell - Portrait of a Serial Killer

Mary Shelley - Frankenstein

Dean Koontz - Brother Odd

Anne Rice - Memnoch the Devil (to re-read)

Terry Pratchett - The Colour of Magic -Discworld

Terry Pratchett - Johnny and the Dead

Susanna Gregory - A Plague On Both Your Houses

Susanna Gregory - An Unholy Alliance

Jojo Moyes - Silver Bay

Virginia Andrews - Fallen Hearts

Virginia Andrews - Pearl in the Mist

Jilly Cooper - Wicked

Elizabeth Noble - Things I Want My Daughters To Know

Jodi Picoult - Second Glance

Cecelia Ahern - A Place Called Here

Jane Green - Life Swap

Stephen Fry - Moab is my Washpot

Paul O'Grady - At My Mother's Knee

 

(39 in total)

Edited December 23, 2009 by Charm
Moving one to currently reading.

[Charm]

~<Books on my Wishlist>~

 

Raven Hart - Vampire's Seduction series (3)

J R Ward - The Black Dagger Brotherhood Series (6)

John Connolly - The Book of Lost Things

Bill Hussey - Through A Glass, Darkly

Bill Hussey - The Absence

Laurell K Hamilton - Guilty Pleasures

Michelle Bardsley - I'm The Vampire, That's Why!

Colleen Gleason - The Rest Falls Away

Colleen Gleason - Rises The Night

Derek Gunn - Vampire Apocalypse Book Two: Descent into chaos.

Brom - The Devil's Rose

Kathleen Kent - The Heretic's Daughter

Erica Spindler - Last Known Victim

Jeffrey Deaver -The Cold Moon

Jeffrey Deaver - Roadside Crosses

Richard Montanari - Kiss of Evil

Richard Montanari - Deviant Way

Richard Montanari -The Violet Hour

J A Kerley - Blood Brother

J A Kerley - The Hundredth Man

Chelsea Cain - Heartsick

Karin Slaughter -Fractured

Tess Gerritsen - Stolen

Karen Rose - I'm Watching You

Karen Rose - Die For Me

Bronwen Winter Phoenix - Nightswallow

Bronwey Winter Phoenix - Grassmarket Blood

Sturat MacBride - Flesh House

Ian Rankin - Resurrection Men

Geoffrey Chaucer - The Canterbury Tales

Cecilia Ahern -Thanks for the Memories

Gone For Good - Harlan Cobens

Slash - The Autobiography

Carole Matthews - The Chocolate Lovers' Club

John Grogan - Marley and Me

Stephen King - The Stand

Stephen King - The Shining

 

(39 in total)

Edited December 28, 2009 by Charm
Adding!

[Nici]

~<Books on my Wishlist>~

 

Raven Hart - Vampire's Seduction series

Slash - The Autobiography

Stephen King - The Stand

 

These are amongst my most favourite books ever! Especially The Stand.

[Charm]

~<Books I've Read in 2009.>~

 

January

Jeff Lindsay - Darkly Dreaming Dexter 9.5/10

Kathy Reichs - Devil Bones 6/10

Cecelia Ahern - The Gift 5/10

Jeffrey Deaver - The Broken Window 9/10

February

Charlaine Harris - Grave Sight 9/10

Oscar Wilde - The Picture of Dorian Gray 4/10

Charlaine Harris - Grave Surprise 9.5/10

Charlaine Harris - An Ice Cold Grave 10/10

March

J K Rowling - The Tales of Beedle the Bard 5/10

Jeff Lindsay - Dearly Devoted Dexter 10/10

Jeffrey Deaver - The Blue Nowhere 10/10

Kelley Armstrong - Bitten 7/10

Jeanne Kalogridis - Children of the Vampire (The Diaries of the Family Dracul) 10/10

April

Elizabeth Kostova - The Historian 7/10

Jeffrey Deaver - The Bone Collector 10/10

May

Bram Stoker - Dracula 10/10

Jeffrey Deaver - The Coffin Dancer 10/10

Jeff Lindsay - Dexter in the Dark 10/10

Charlaine Harris - Dead Until Dark 10/10

June

Jeff Lindsay - Dexter by Design 10/10

Kelley Armstrong - Stolen 10/10

Kelley Armstrong - Dime Store Magic 10/10

Derek Gunn - Vampire Apocalypse: A World Torn Asunder 8/10

Erica Spindler - Cause For Alarm 10/10

Jeffrey Deaver - The Empty Chair 9/10

Charlaine Harris - Living Dead In Dallas 9/10

Erica Spindler - In Silence 9/10

Lewis Carroll - Alice's Adventures in Wonderland 7/10

Kelley Armstrong - Industrial Magic 10/10

Kelley Armstrong - Haunted 9/10

July

Kelley Armstrong - Broken 8/10

Stephenie Meyer - Twilight 8/10

Stephenie Meyer - New Moon 8/10

Stephenie Meyer - Eclipse 9/10

Stephenie Meyer - Breaking Dawn 8/10

Charlaine Harris - Club Dead 9/10

Charlaine Harris - Dead to the World 9/10

Charlaine Harris - Dead As A Doornail 8/10

Charlaine Harris - Definately Dead 8/10

Charlaine Harris - All Together Dead 9/10

Charlaine Harris - From Dead To Worse 7/10

Charlaine Harris - Dead And Gone 8/10

Tess Gerritsen - Harvest 7/10

August

Karin Slaughter - Skin Privilege 6/10

Stuart MacBride - Cold Granite 8/10

Stuart MacBride - Dying Light 9/10

Jeffrey Deaver - The Stone Monkey 8/10

September

Kelley Armstrong - Personal Demon 9/10

Kelley Armstrong - Living With The Dead 7/10

John Ajvide Lindqvist - Let The Right One In 10/10

Audrey Niffenegger - The Time Traveler's Wife 9/10

Neil Gaiman - The Graveyard Book 9/10

October

Stuart MacBride - Broken Skin 7/10

Cecelia Ahern - The Book Of Tomorrow 7/10

November

Dean Koontz - Odd Thomas 7/10

Katherine Howe - The Lost Book Of Salem 8/10

Kelley Armstrong - Frostbitten 9/10

Kelley Armstrong - Men Of The Otherworld 8/10

December

PC and Kirsten Cast - Marked 6/10

Dacre Stoker & Ian Holt - Dracula The Un-Dead 10/10

Anne Rice - Blood and Gold //

 

(60 in total so far)

Edited December 23, 2009 by Charm
Adding :)

[Charm]

These are amongst my most favourite books ever! Especially The Stand.

 

Oh I'm really looking forward to getting the vamp books too ... havent read one in ages!

Edited September 15, 2009 by Charm

[Ceinwenn]

Thought I'd start a new reading record for 2009. I hope I'm still posting here by January 2010! Again I'll probably write my thoughts on the books but please bear with me .. I don't write reviews very well. If anyone reads this and thinks they might know of a book which is to my taste, please stick your nose in and comment!

 

 

 

Currently Reading: Darkly Dreaming Dexter ~by~ Jeff Lindsay

 

 

Synopsis courtesy of Waterstones:

Dexter Morgan isn't exactly the kind of man you'd bring home to your mum. At heart, he's the perfect gentleman: he has a shy girlfriend, and seems to lead a quiet, normal life bordering on the mundane. Despite the fact that he can't stand the sight of blood, he works as a blood-spatter analyst for the Miami police. But Dexter also has a secret hobby: he is an accomplished serial killer. So far, he's killed 36 people and has never been caught because he knows exactly how to hide the evidence. And while that may lead some people to assume he's not such a nice guy, he tempers his insatiable hunger for brutality by only killing the bad guys. However, Dexter's well-organised life is suddenly disrupted when a second, much more visible serial killer appears in Miami. Intrigued that the other killer favours a style similar to his own, Dexter soon realises that the mysterious new arrival is not simply invading his turf but offering him a direct invitation to 'come out and play'...

 

I'm sure there's a tv show (series)based on this book! Just checked - there is, it's called Dexter (funny enough). It's shown on Showcase - have never watched it, but the ads for it look good. Have you seen it?

[Ceinwenn]

Have you read Blue Nowhere or The Broken Window, which are both by Jeffery Deaver? I would highly recommend both of them! Blue Nowhere is what got me started on Jeffery Deaver. Great book!

[Charm]

I'm sure there's a tv show (series)based on this book! Just checked - there is, it's called Dexter (funny enough). It's shown on Showcase - have never watched it, but the ads for it look good. Have you seen it?

 

I have watched the first episode but once I'd learnt the series was based on books I decided I wanted to read the books first. I'd far rather read the book on which something is based before seeing it, I like to make up my own mind how I see the characters , I do have to say though, the actor who plays Dexter is somewhat how I would imagine him

 

Have you read Blue Nowhere or The Broken Window, which are both by Jeffery Deaver? I would highly recommend both of them! Blue Nowhere is what got me started on Jeffery Deaver. Great book!

 

Thanks for the recommendations! You're not the first on here to recommend this author to me and he definately sounds like someone who's books I should be checking out .... oh how I love to see my lists grow!

[Loopyloo100]

Have you read Blue Nowhere or The Broken Window, which are both by Jeffery Deaver? I would highly recommend both of them! Blue Nowhere is what got me started on Jeffery Deaver. Great book!

 

Yes I've read The Blue Nowhere and I believe that was the one that got me started on Deaver too. I think I overdosed on them though and haven't read the more recent one.

 

Good luck with the reading Charm!

[Weave]

Happy reading

 

[Charm]

Yes I've read The Blue Nowhere and I believe that was the one that got me started on Deaver too. I think I overdosed on them though and haven't read the more recent one.

 

Good luck with the reading Charm!

 

I did the same thing with Karin Slaughter, I read a nearly a whole series of hers and as you can see there are still a couple waiting TBR I will get to them of course ... just fancied a change!

 

 

Happy reading

 

I started the Jeff Lindsay book the other day and at the min I am well over half way through ... hope this means I'm finding my mojo again!

[Heather]

I have started reading Deaver too just read Sleeping Doll and bought The Empty Chair

[Charm]

I have started reading Deaver too just read Sleeping Doll and bought The Empty Chair

 

Oh .. What did you think of Sleeping Doll?

[BrainFreeze]

Karin Slaughter - Triptych

There's also Fractured which is now part of a new series starting with Triptych. Triptych is basically a story told from 3 different perspectives and one of the people in Triptych goes on to be the protagonist in Fractured and other books she's planning to write in the series.

 

Tess Gerritsen - Harvest

Highly recommend - one of my favourite stand alone novels of hers.

 

Dan Brown - Angels and Demons

I actually preferred this to The Da Vinci Code.

 

Patricia Cornwell - Portrait of a Serial Killer

She writes 'true-life' pretty similar to her fiction and this book has been widely panned and criticised with claims she didn't do enough research. I personally really liked it - I'm a huge fan of hers and for me it was probably a combination of her writing and the subject matter as I'm a sucker for true crime, workings of the mind etc.

 

Forgot to say, if you haven't already, I'd give Linda Fairstein a whirl. Female lead detective, not schmaltzy, straight to the point, writes from the hip but not too graphically.

[Charm]

She writes 'true-life' pretty similar to her fiction and this book has been widely panned and criticised with claims she didn't do enough research. I personally really liked it - I'm a huge fan of hers and for me it was probably a combination of her writing and the subject matter as I'm a sucker for true crime, workings of the mind etc..

 

This sounds good to me. I like Patricia Cornwell and the story of Jack the Ripper fascinates me.

 

Forgot to say, if you haven't already, I'd give Linda Fairstein a whirl. Female lead detective, not schmaltzy, straight to the point, writes from the hip but not too graphically.

 

I've never heard of her. What are the titles of some of her books?

[BrainFreeze]

In order they are;

 

Final Jeopardy

Likely To Die

Cold Hit

The Deadhouse

The Bone Vault

The Kills

Entombed

Death Dance

Bad Blood

Killer Heat

 

The main character is a Manhattan prosecutor called Alexandra Cooper. Linda Fairstein herself was an assistant district attorney and head of the sex crimes unit so she really knows her stuff.

[Ceinwenn]

Linda Fairstein's books are fab! I've read them all & eagerly await the release of the next one each time! Can't remember if anyone's suggested this already, but Jonathan Kellerman's Alex Delaware series is great, too.

[Charm]

In order they are;

 

Final Jeopardy

 

The main character is a Manhattan prosecutor called Alexandra Cooper. Linda Fairstein herself was an assistant district attorney and head of the sex crimes unit so she really knows her stuff.

 

Thanx BF! These look really good. I checked them out and I think I'll add her first in the series to my wishlist to see if I like them! Well you just have to don't you!

[Ceinwenn]

Funny enough, I think her first one is still my favourite one!

[Charm]

Even better ... a double recommend!

[BrainFreeze]

Jonathan Kellerman's Alex Delaware series is great, too.

 

Ooo yes another good one! His wife is great as well - Faye Kellerman.

 

I'll shut up now...

[Charm]

Jonathan Kellerman's Alex Delaware series is great, too.

 

I have read on of his books, can't quite remember the name of it .... Bad something .... anyway I do remember thinking it was good at the time. Which one of his books would be best the to start with do you think?

[Charm]

I just finished 'Darkly Dreaming Dexter' ~by~ Jeff Lindsay this evening and I have to say thank you to Frankie for recommending it to me . I think it's helped me get my mojo back!

 

Synopsis from Waterstones:

Dexter Morgan isn't exactly the kind of man you'd bring home to your mum. At heart, he's the perfect gentleman: he has a shy girlfriend, and seems to lead a quiet, normal life bordering on the mundane. Despite the fact that he can't stand the sight of blood, he works as a blood-spatter analyst for the Miami police. But Dexter also has a secret hobby: he is an accomplished serial killer. So far, he's killed 36 people and has never been caught because he knows exactly how to hide the evidence. And while that may lead some people to assume he's not such a nice guy, he tempers his insatiable hunger for brutality by only killing the bad guys. However, Dexter's well-organised life is suddenly disrupted when a second, much more visible serial killer appears in Miami. Intrigued that the other killer favours a style similar to his own, Dexter soon realises that the mysterious new arrival is not simply invading his turf but offering him a direct invitation to 'come out and play'...

 

This isn't like any serial killer book I have ever read before. It doesn't jump between different characters with each chapter, its told solely from the perspective of just the one. The fact that the one is a serial killer and is also slightly mad (IMO) makes for a very interesting and often funny read! It's also a very easy read, written in a no nonsense style, probably because its from the main character's point of view.

 

I loved it. I found it to be quite a light hearted read, considering its genre, and would say its more of a black comedy than a serious thriller (although that might be due more to my sense of humour than fact ). I would definately buy more of the series.

 

9.5/10

Edited February 14, 2009 by Charm

[Ceinwenn]

Charm - sounds like a good book! Another suggestion, if you haven't read any of his already is books by John Nance. I've read 3 of his books - Pandora's clock, Medussa's child & The last hostage & I thought they were all really good reads.