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Kat's Reading 2006


Lilywhite

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Well, I really enjoyed Off The Record, he hit the balance between personal life and football quite well and I didn't get bored of either.

 

Next I have decided to read Jean Plaidy ~ Katherine, The Virgin Widow

 

The young Spanish widow, Katharine of Aragon, has become the pawn between two powerful monarchies. After less than a year as the wife of the frail Prince Arthur, the question of whether the marriage was ever consummated will decide both her fate and England's. But whilst England and Spain dispute her dowry, in the wings awaits her unexpected escape from poverty: Henry, Arthur's younger, more handsome brother - the future King of England. He alone has the power to restore her position, but at what sacrifice?

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I really enjoyed reading this one. I was never any good at history and these books actually make historical figures more 3D for me. I like her ability to spin a tale too. Great story and she really makes you understand the characters, good and bad.

 

Nex I am reading Posie Graeme-Evans ~ The Exiled

 

Anne De Bohun has a dark secret. A secret that threatens her life, and the future of the kingdom of England itself.

Raised as a peasant girl, Anne has a gift for healing that saw her thrust into the dangerous heart of court affairs, and under the spell of the greatest love of her life, King edward himself.

Yet theirs os a forbidden passion, for Anne is the illegitimate daughter of Henry VI, the king usurped by the man she loves. Now exiled in Brugge, Anne struggles to find peace in a dangerous world of treachery and suspicion, where enemies masquerade as allies, and someone very powerful wants her dead.

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I finally managed to finish The Exiled this afternoon. I thoroughly enjoyed it and I'm waiting expectantly for the final installment to arrive at the library. If you like Gregory's historical fiction, you'll love Posie Graeme-Evans trilogy.

 

Next I have decided to read Shade ~ Neil Jordan. A book I saw on RISI and swapped on a whim really. It looks very interesting.

 

Ireland, 1950. Nina Hardy wakes in the big house where she grew up. Now aged fifty, she has returned to the fading beauty of her old home, and its unkempt gardens, its views of the wild Irish Sea, and its long-buried memories. With her childhood friend George, she is seeking peace from a turbulent world. But by the end of the day, a brutal crime will have been committed which will alter their lives forever.

As Nina tries to make sense of everything that has happened, a remarkable story unfolds - of a seemingly idyllic childhood, of extraordinary friendships, and of a war that changed not only history, but also everyone involved.

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Back from the library and the boot fair :cry:

 

One swap arrived this morning Laurell K Hamilton ~ The Laughing Corpse. A bit annoyed because her website led me to beleive this was the first book when in fact it is the second. :cry:

From the library I got Mo Hayder ~ Pig Island, Patrick Suskind ~ Perfume, Paulo Coelho ~ Veronika decides to die and Posie Graeme-Evans ~ The Beloved.

From the PDSA I got Jodi Picoult ~ Vanishing Acts

 

A good day all round..... now I'm off to read :)

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I'm now going to read Posie Graeme-Evans ~ The Beloved

 

The thrilling climax to the trilogy that began with The Innocent and The Exiled brings Posie Graeme-Evans's bittersweet story of two lovers divided by the throne of England to its dramatic conclusion.

As England tears itself apart in the War of the Roses, Anne de Bohun lives far from the intrigues of cities and courts. Once King Edward IV's mistress, Anne has found safety with their son in Brugge. But now Edward himself is a hunted fugitive, and Anne's real father, King Henry VI, rules again from Westminster. Summoned by an enigmatic message from her lover, Anne is drawn once more to the passion, the excitement, and the deadly danger that Edward brings into her life. But now, the girl who was once a penniless servant has a child to protect and an inheritance to defend. Can she let her love for Edward threaten everything she has? Or will she need his help to protect her from the powerful enemy who means to destroy her?

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I finished Beloved tonight, an excellent story right the way through and I'm quite happy with the way she finished it too.

 

Next I shall read Perfume ~ Patrick Suskind

 

Survivor. Genius. Perfumer. Killer. This is Jean-Baptiste Grenouille.

He is abandoned in the filthy streets as a child, but grows up to discover he has an extraordinary gift: a sense of smell more powerful than any other human's.

Soon, he is creating the most sublime fragrances in Paris. Yet there is one odour he cannot capture. It is exquisite, magical: the scent of a young virgin. And to get it he must kill. And kill. And kill ...

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I can't say I enjoyed this book at all, I got very bored about a quarter of the way through and just as you think it will pick up, it doesn't. Page long sentences and the need to itemise everything also didn't endear it to me.

 

Next I will read Paulo Coelho ~ Veronika Decides to Die

 

Veronika seems to have everything she could wish for. She is young and pretty, has plenty of attractive boyfriends, goes dancing, has a steady job, a loving family. Yet Veronika is not happy; something is lacking in her life. On the morning of November 11th 1997, she decides to die. She takes an overdose of sleeping pills, only to wake up some time later in Villette, the local hospital. There she is told that although she is alive now her heart is damaged and she only has a few days to live.

The story follows Veronika through these intense days as, to her surprise, she finds herself drawn into the enclosed world of Villette. She begins to notice more, to become interested in the other patients. She starts to see her past relationships much more clearly and understand why she felt her life had no meaning. In this heightened state, Veronika discovers things she was never really allowed herself to feel before: hatred, fear, curiosity, love - even sexual awakening. Against all odds, she finds she is falling in love and wanting, if at all possible, to live again.

Veronika's experiences lead her gradually to realise that every second of existence is a choice that we all make between living and dying.

This is a moving and uplifting song to life, onr that reminds us that every moment in our lives is special and precious.

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I finished reading Veronika wants to die this afternoon. Surprisingly good read and not as meloncholy or depressing as it sounds. It's actually quite uplifting and thought inducing.

 

Next I will read Jane Gardam ~ The Queen of the Tambourine, the reading circle book. Kindly donated to me by Sarahrob (big hugs and thanks :friends: )

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I have to say that The queen of the Tambourine, although slightly amusing, did get a bit tedious towards the end. I did find myself questioning my own sanity whilst reading it, which is never a good sign :)

 

Now I am reading Celia Rees ~ Witch Child

 

Pages from a journal are loosely sewn into a quilt. A quilt that lies undisturbed for more that three hundred years until it is carefully taken apart for cleaning and out of it's folds falls a powerful and moving story. The story of Mary - granddaughter of a witch.

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Back from my Tuesday jaunt to the car boot and the library. I only managed to get one book from the library as they had a poor selection today (and they have been moving shelves around :) ) I got Hood ~ Stephen R. Lawhead. Although O's did get a couple that I might pinch to read too :)

 

I got a bargain in Help The Aged too with 3 for 99p I got Insomnia ~ Stephen King, The Straw Men ~ Michael Marshall (for O's) and Frankenstein ~ Mary Shelley.

 

All in all another good day :typing: Back to Eragon now though.

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I'm a big liar liar pants on fire, I've decided to pick up Mo Hayder ~ Pig Island instead.

 

Jounalist Joe Oakes makes a living exposing supernatural hoaxes. A born sceptic, he believes everything has a rational explanation. But when he visits a secretive religious community on a remote Scottish island, everything he thought he knew is overturned.

Questions mount: Why has the community been accused of Satanism? What has happened to their leader, Pastor Malachi Dove? And, perhaps most important, why will no one discuss the strange apparition seen wandering the lonely beaches of Pig Island?

Their confrontation, and it's violent and bloody aftermath, is so catastrophic that it forces Oaksey to question the nature of evil, and whether he might not be responsible for the terrible crime about to unfold.

In her compulsive and haunting new novel, Mo Hayder dares her readers to face their fears head on and to look at what lurks beneath the surface of everyday normailty. Pig Island is about the unspeakable things people can do to each other. Brace yourself for a terrifying read.

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