Abcinthia Posted December 13, 2011 Share Posted December 13, 2011 (edited) 2010 books (from Goodreads),2011 books I am setting myself the challenge to read 80 books in 2012. Books read: 1. The Sirens of Titan - Kurt Vonnegut 2. Wedlock: How Georgian Britain's Worst Husband Met His Match - Wendy Moore 3. The Talisman - Stephen King and Peter Straub 4. The Time Machine - H. G. Wells 5. First Love And Other Novellas - Samuel Beckett 6. The Night Strangers - Chris Bohjalian 7. The Invisible Man - H. G. Wells 8. Kill Me Once - Jon Osborne 9. A Closed Book - Gilbert Adair 10. Popcorn - Ben Elton 11. The Identity Man - Andrew Klavan 12. The Hidden Child - Camilla Läckberg 13. If Walls Could Talk: An Intimate History Of The Home - Lucy Worsley 14. Jude The Obscure - Thomas Hardy 15. The Boys From Brazil - Ira Levin 16. Exposed - Liza Marklund 17. 9th Judgement - James Patterson with Maxine Paetro 18. Courtiers: The Secret History Of The Georgian Court - Lucy Worsley 19. The Gunslinger - Stephen King 20. High Windows - Philip Larkin 21. State Of Fear - Michael Crichton 22. A Vist From The Goon Squad - Jennifer Egan 23. Cleopatra: Histories, Dreams and Distortions - Lucy Hughes-Hallett 24. The Weaker Vessel: Woman's Lot In The Seventeenth-Century England - Antonia Fraser 25. The Darkest Room - Johan Theorin 26. The Memory Keeper's Daughter - Kim Edwards 27. Rules Of Civility - Amor Towles 28. The Paris Wife - Paula McLain 29. The Sisters Brothers - Patrick DeWitt 30. The Princes In The Tower - Alison Weir 31. The Executioner - Chris Carter 32. Hungry Hill - Daphne Du Maurier 33. Call The Midwife - Jennifer Worth 34. The Somnambulist - Essie Fox 35. When God Was A Rabbit - Sarah Winman 36. Started Early, Took My Dog - Kate Atkinson 37. The Confessions of Katherine Howard - Suzannah Dunn 38. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd - Agatha Christie 39. The Family Fang - Kevin Wilson 40. Eve - Anna Carey 41. Destination Unknown - Agatha Christie 42. Perdita: The Life Of Mary Robinson - Paula Byrne 43. The Winter Ghosts - Kate Mosse 44. The Drawing Of Three - Stephen King 45. I Know This Much Is True - Wally Lamb 46. The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald 47. Girl With A Pearl Earring - Tracy Chevalier 48. Never Knowing - Chevy Stevens (abandoned) 49. Lucky Break - Esther Freud 50. The Waste Lands - Stephen King 51. The Hound Of Death - Agatha Christie 52. Doomed Love - Virgil 53. The Man Who Was Thursday - G.K. Chesterton 54. The Devotion Of Suspect X - Keigo Higashino 55. Into The Darkest Corner - Elizabeth Haynes 56. Shiver - Maggie Stiefvater 57. Wizard And Glass - Stephen King 58. Forbidden Fruit - From The Letters Of Abelard And Heloise 59. Half Of The Human Race - Anthony Quinn 60. Pure - Andrew Miller 61. The Eaten Heart: Unlikely Tales Of Love - Giovanni Boccaccio 62. Of Mistresses, Tigresses And Other Conquests - Giacomo Casanova 63. The Road - Cormac McCarthy 64. The Mysterious Affair At Styles - Agatha Christie 65. Your Heart Belongs To Me - Dean Koontz 66. Cures For Love - Stendhal 67. The Seducer's Diary - Søren Kierkegaard 68. First Love - Ivan Turgenev 69. Wolves Of The Calla - Stephen King 70. Courtesans - Katie Hickman 71. The Marriage Plot - Jeffery Eugenides 72. The Report - Jessica Francis Kane 73. One Day - David Nicholls 74. Hell Gate - Linda Fairstein 75. The Slap - Christos Tsiolkas 76. A Mere Interlude - Thomas Hardy 77. Prey - Michael Crichton 78. How To Lose Friends & Alienate People - Toby Young 79. You Deserve Nothing - Alexander Maksik 80. Song of Susannah - Stephen King 81. The ABC Murders - Agatha Christie 82. The Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins 83. Catching Fire - Suzanne Collins 84. Mockingjay - Suzanne Collins 85. The Kreutzer Sonata - Leo Tolstoy 86. Night Waking - Sarah Moss 87. Long Lankin - Lindsey Barraclough 88. Blood Harvest - S. J. Bolton 89. The Playdate - Louise Millar 90. The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood 91. A Russian Affair - Anton Chekhov 92. Eleanor Of Aquitaine - Marion Meade 93. The Dark Tower - Stephen King 94. Deviant Love - Sigmund Frued 95. A Visitor's Companion To Tudor England - Suzannah Lipscomb 96. No Time For Goodbye - Linwood Barclay 97. Magnetism - F. Scott Fitzgerald 98. A Perfectly Good Man - Patrick Gale 99. The Silence Of The Lambs - Thomas Harris 100. The Queen's Confession - Victoria Holt 101. The Time Traveller's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger 102. The Stepford Wives - Ira Levin 103. Something Childish But Very Natural - Katherine Mansfield 104. Mary Anne - Daphne Du Maurier 105. The Submission - Amy Waldman 106. Shakespeare's Landlord - Charlaine Harris 107. Shakespeare's Champion - Charlaine Harris 108. The Blind Assassin - Margaret Atwood 109. Shakespeare's Christmas - Charlaine Harris 110. Red Dragon - Thomas Harris 111. The Birds & Other Stories - Daphne Du Maurier 112. Egypt: How A Lost Civilization Was Rediscovered.- Joyce Tyldesley 113. The Woman In Black - Susan Hill 114. The Bourne Identity - Robert Ludlum 115. The Virgin And The Gipsy - D. H. Lawrence 116. Pet Sematary - Stephen King 117. Turn Of Mind - Alice LaPlante 118. 1Q84 Books 1 & 2 - Haruki Murakami 119. Blood & Roses - Helen Castor 120. 1Q84 Book 3 - Haruki Murakami 121. Oryx And Crake - Margaret Atwood 122. Before I Go To Sleep - S. J. Watson 123. The Drowning - Camilla Läckberg 124. The Year Of The Flood - Margaret Atwood 125. Rosemary's Baby - Ira Levin 126. Thinner - Stephen King 127. Too Close To Home - Linwood Barclay 128. Night Circus - Erin Morgenstern 129. After Dark - Haruki Murakami 130. Night Shift - Stephen King 131. Shakespeare's Trollop - Charlaine Harris 132. The Good Soldier - Ford Madox Ford 133. The Song of Achilles - Madeline Miller 134. The Picture of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde 135. Faceless Killers - Henning Mankell 136. The House On The Strand - Daphne Du Maurier 137. Hogfather - Terry Pratchett Edited December 16, 2012 by Abcinthia Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Abcinthia Posted December 13, 2011 Author Share Posted December 13, 2011 (edited) Books bought in 2012: 1. If Walls Could Talk: An Intimate History Of The Home - Lucy Worsley 2. The Memory Keeper's Daughter - Kim Edwards 3. Mansfield Park - Jane Austen 4. I Know This Much Is True - Wally Lamb 5. The Gunslinger - Stephen King 6. The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald 7. Call The Midwife - Jennifer Worth 8. Anglo-Saxon England - Frank M. Stenton 9. The Duchess - Amanda Foreman 10. Mary Anne - Daphne Du Maurier 11. The Picture of Dorian gray - Oscar Wilde 12. Lady Chatterkey's Lover - D. H. Lawrence 13. Innocent Traitor - Alison Weir 14. Full Dark, No Stars - Stephen King 15. Desperation - Stephen King 16. Prey - Michael Crichton 17. Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy 18. A Kiss Before Dying - Ira Levin 19. The Stepford Wives - Ira Levin 20. Rosemary's Baby - Ira Levin 21. Shakespeare's Champion - Charlaine Harris 22. Shakespeare's Landlord - Charlaine Harris 23. Shakespeare's Counselor - Charlaine Harris 24. Shakespeare's Trophy - Charlaine Harris 25. Shakespeare's Christmas - Charlaine Harris 26. Bodily Secrets - William Trevor 27. The Women Who Got Away - John Updike 28. Eros Unbound - Anais Nin 29. Magnetism - F.Scott Fitzgerald 30. The Seducer's Diary - Soren Kierkegaard 31. Cures for Love - Stendhal 32. Forbidden Fruit - From the Letters of Abelard & Heloise 33. A Mere Interlude - Thomas Hardy 34. Mary - Vladmir Nabokov 35. Deviant Love - Sigmund Freud 36. Doomed Love - Virgil 37. First Love - Ivan Turgenev 38. The Virgin and the Gypsy - D.H. Lawrence 39. The Kreutzer Sonata - Leo Tolstoy 40. Of Mistresses, Tigresses & Other Conquests - Giacomo 41. Bonjour Tristesse - Francoise Sagan 42. The Eaten Heart - Unlikely Tales of Love - Giovanni Boccaccio 43. Giovanni's Room - James Baldwin 44. A Russian Affair - Anton Chekhov 45. Something Childish but Very Natural - Katherine Mansfield 46. The Last Day Of A Condemned Man - Victor Hugo 47. Peter Schlemihl - Adelbert Von Chamisso 48. The Haunted House - Charles Dickens 49. Notes From The Undergound - Fyodor Dostoevsky 50. The Good Soldier - Ford Maddox Ford 51. The Devil's Elixirs - E.T.A Hoffmann 52. A Strange Manuscript Found In A Copper Cylinder - James De Mille 53. The Sorrows Of Young Werther - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 54.The Monk And The Hangman's Daughter - Ambrose Bierce 55. The Black Spider - Jeremias Gotthelf Books won in 2012: 1. The Paris Wife - Paula McLain 2. Lucky Break - Esther Freud Edited March 9, 2012 by Abcinthia Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Abcinthia Posted January 2, 2012 Author Share Posted January 2, 2012 I finished my first book The Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut. I really enjoyed it despite not being sure it was my cup of tea. 5/5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Abcinthia Posted January 3, 2012 Author Share Posted January 3, 2012 (edited) Wedlock: How Georgian Britain's Worst Husband Met His Match - Wendy Moore This was an amazing book. Well resarched and well written; it had me gripped from start to finish. It was fascinating to discover what it meant to be a women during the Georgian period of history and that despite what Mary Eleanor Bowes went through, how long it was before things truely began to change for women and what they could expect from marriage, education, custody of children etc. 5/5 Edited January 3, 2012 by Abcinthia Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
julie Posted January 7, 2012 Share Posted January 7, 2012 Wedlock: How Georgian Britain's Worst Husband Met His Match - Wendy Moore This was an amazing book. Well resarched and well written; it had me gripped from start to finish. It was fascinating to discover what it meant to be a women during the Georgian period of history and that despite what Mary Eleanor Bowes went through, how long it was before things truely began to change for women and what they could expect from marriage, education, custody of children etc. 5/5 Abcinthia This one sounds very interesting ! I'll have to look it up and see if I can locate it . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Abcinthia Posted January 7, 2012 Author Share Posted January 7, 2012 Abcinthia This one sounds very interesting ! I'll have to look it up and see if I can locate it . It was really good. If you manage to read it, let me know how you find it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vodkafan Posted January 7, 2012 Share Posted January 7, 2012 Might look at that one myself thanks Abcinthia. A really good true book in the same vein I read was Courtesans by Katie Hickman. It was about those women who decided they didn't want to get married and lived life to the full on their own terms outside of polite society. Might be interesting for you to read and compare. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
julie Posted January 7, 2012 Share Posted January 7, 2012 It was really good. If you manage to read it, let me know how you find it. Hi Abcinthia Checked our local libraries and interlibrary loans and the closest they had was this : Wedlock The True Story of the Disastrous Marriage and Remarkable Divorce of Mary Eleanor Bowes, Countess of Strathmore Don't quite think that one is the same thing . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Abcinthia Posted January 8, 2012 Author Share Posted January 8, 2012 Might look at that one myself thanks Abcinthia. A really good true book in the same vein I read was Courtesans by Katie Hickman. It was about those women who decided they didn't want to get married and lived life to the full on their own terms outside of polite society. Might be interesting for you to read and compare. Ooo sounds interesting. I've added it to my wishlist. I'm currently reading The Weaker Vessel by Antonia Fraser which deals about all kinds of lives and what women could expect in the 17th Century. It's really interesting. Hi Abcinthia Checked our local libraries and interlibrary loans and the closest they had was this : Wedlock The True Story of the Disastrous Marriage and Remarkable Divorce of Mary Eleanor Bowes, Countess of Strathmore Don't quite think that one is the same thing . It sounds like the same book. The one I read was about the marriage and divorce of Mary Eleanor Bowes and they are both written by the same author. Maybe the tag line has been changed inbetween publications or for different countries? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
julie Posted January 8, 2012 Share Posted January 8, 2012 It sounds like the same book. The one I read was about the marriage and divorce of Mary Eleanor Bowes and they are both written by the same author. Maybe the tag line has been changed inbetween publications or for different countries? Hi Abcinthia Sounds great ! They must have changed the title over here for some reason . I just put it on reserve at our library .They don't have it ,but they can get it interlibrary loan . Will let you know when it arrives. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Abcinthia Posted January 11, 2012 Author Share Posted January 11, 2012 The Night Strangers - Chris Bohjalian Gosh this book was rubbish. I really cannot think of anything I enjoyed about it. It was horror/thriller by numbers and it really failed to deliver. The plot was boring. The characters felt really wooden and I disliked them all. 1/5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ruth Posted January 11, 2012 Share Posted January 11, 2012 Wedlock: How Georgian Britain's Worst Husband Met His Match - Wendy Moore This was an amazing book. Well resarched and well written; it had me gripped from start to finish. It was fascinating to discover what it meant to be a women during the Georgian period of history and that despite what Mary Eleanor Bowes went through, how long it was before things truely began to change for women and what they could expect from marriage, education, custody of children etc. 5/5 I've had this on my tbr for AGES. Glad that you enjoyed it so much - it's encouraged me to bump it up the pile a bit Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Easy Reader Posted January 13, 2012 Share Posted January 13, 2012 Wedlock: How Georgian Britain's Worst Husband Met His Match - Wendy Moore that sounds like my kind of book I shall add it to the wish list straight away. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Abcinthia Posted January 15, 2012 Author Share Posted January 15, 2012 Kill Me Once - Jon Osborne It wasn't a bad crime book but towards the middle/end it was quite predictable. I liked the idea of a serial killer who instead of just copying previous serial killers, corrects the mistakes which lead to their capture. 3/5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
frankie Posted January 15, 2012 Share Posted January 15, 2012 Wow, 8 read books already, you are one quick reader Happy reading in 2012! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Abcinthia Posted January 16, 2012 Author Share Posted January 16, 2012 Thanks Frankie! Popcorn - Ben Elton This book was alright. That's all I can really say about it. Everything (from plot to characters to writing) was average. 3/5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Abcinthia Posted January 19, 2012 Author Share Posted January 19, 2012 The Identity Man - Andrew Klavan Synopsis: A nationwide manhunt is underway for John Shannon, a petty criminal framed for murder. But he’s convinced he won’t get caught. He’s hiding in the ruins of a city destroyed by a terrible flood, and, thanks to a mysterious foreigner calling himself the Identity Man, he has a new face, new papers, and a new life. But the city is crawling with corruption. Crooked politicians, gangsters and dirty cops are everywhere, and for some reason Shannon doesn’t understand, all of them want him dead. John Shannon has run out of second chances, and now he’s running out of time. Moving through the darkness in the burnt-out shambles of a dirty town, he must ferret out the secret of his new life, before he is left with no life at all. This book took me ages to get into. It wasn't the plot (which was pretty adequate verging on interesting towards the end) and the writing is fine - it was easy to see how other people can like it and how it got all the nice reviews on the front cover. The characters, whilst nothing original (petty thief who is really a good guy, corrupt cops/politicians, FBI agents on an illegal mission, shady foreigner, teenage gangstas; a good, virtuous woman in a bad neighbourhood) were all OK: I can't really complain about them but I will not be singing their praises either. This book was just not my cup of tea. I was over halfway through before I started to get quite interested in what was going on. There was just something about the novel that felt odd, stilted and unable to gel together. 2/5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Abcinthia Posted January 21, 2012 Author Share Posted January 21, 2012 (edited) The Hidden Child - Camilla Läckberg (synopsis): Worldwide bestseller Camilla Lackberg weaves together another brilliant contemporary psychological thriller with the chilling struggle of a young woman facing the darkest chapter of Europe's past! Crime writer Erica Falck is shocked to discover a Nazi medal among her late mother's possessions. Haunted by a childhood of neglect, she resolves to dig deep into her family's past and finally uncover the reasons why. Her enquiries lead her to the home of a retired history teacher. He was among her mother's circle of friends during the Second World War but her questions are met with bizarre and evasive answers. Two days later he meets a violent death. Detective Patrik Hedstrom, Erica's husband, is on paternity leave but soon becomes embroiled in the murder investigation. Who would kill so ruthlessly to bury secrets so old? Reluctantly Erica must read her mother's wartime diaries. But within the pages is a painful revelation about Erica's past. Could what little knowledge she has be enough to endanger her husband and newborn baby? The dark past is coming to light, and no one will escape the truth of how they came to be! Hidden Child was a beautifully written and well thought out book. I was both disapointed and happy to discover it is part of a series. Whilst some other books in a series presume prior knowledge and effectively give away everything that happened in the previous books, Hidden Child does not so I cannot wait to have the pleasure of reading the previous books. The plot was interesting and I really enjoyed how domestic scenes were placed next to Police procedure and macabre murder. Some other books I've read have tried to do that but it always seems stilted or forced. Here it worked wonderfully. Same with the switching inbetween different times (modern day and 1944/5), it worked so incredibly well. The characters were life-like and I could relate to them or at least imagine those qualities in a real person. 5/5 Edited January 22, 2012 by Abcinthia Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Abcinthia Posted January 22, 2012 Author Share Posted January 22, 2012 If Walls Could Talk: An Intimate History Of The Home - Lucy Worsley (Blurb): Why did the flushing toilet take two centuries to catch on? Why did Samuel Pepys never give his mistresses an orgasm? Why did medieval people sleep sitting up? When were the two 'dirty centuries'? Why did gas lighting cause Victorian ladies to faint? Why, for centuries, did people fear fruit? All these questions will be answered in this juicy, smelly and truly intimate history of home life. Lucy Worsley takes us through the bedroom, bathroom, living room and kitchen, covering the architectural history of each room, but concentrating on what people actually did in bed, in the bath, at the table, and at the stove. From sauce-stirring to breast-feeding, teeth-cleaning to masturbation, getting dressed to getting married, this book will make you see your home with new eyes. An excellent history of the household as seen through the four main rooms - bedroom, bathroom, living room and kitchen. Everything you could want to know about domestic life is covered in the book. I loved the television series and Worsley writes in a wonderfully chatty style and inserts lots of jokes which gives it a really informal feel - not like your run of the mill history books. 5/5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
frankie Posted January 22, 2012 Share Posted January 22, 2012 (edited) If Walls Could Talk: An Intimate History Of The Home - Lucy Worsley Wow, that sounds like a highly intriguing book to read, thanks for the review Abcinthia! The book's going on my wishlist. Edited January 22, 2012 by frankie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Abcinthia Posted January 22, 2012 Author Share Posted January 22, 2012 You're welcome! It was a really good read and full of interesting facts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kylie Posted January 23, 2012 Share Posted January 23, 2012 Great review, Abcinthia. It sounds like a great read. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Abcinthia Posted January 26, 2012 Author Share Posted January 26, 2012 I've started a book on courtiers during the reign of George I and II of England which is also by Lucy Worsley and it's proving to be just as interesting as If Walls Could Talk. It's a completely different writing style (Courtiers is very formal whereas If Walls Could Talk was informal). I just finished Exposed by Liza Marklund. I don't really have much to say about it. It was an alright read - interesting in places but overall it's not really left much of an impression on me. 2/5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ruth Posted January 26, 2012 Share Posted January 26, 2012 If Walls Could Talk: An Intimate History Of The Home - Lucy Worsley (Blurb): Why did the flushing toilet take two centuries to catch on? Why did Samuel Pepys never give his mistresses an orgasm? Why did medieval people sleep sitting up? When were the two 'dirty centuries'? Why did gas lighting cause Victorian ladies to faint? Why, for centuries, did people fear fruit? All these questions will be answered in this juicy, smelly and truly intimate history of home life. Lucy Worsley takes us through the bedroom, bathroom, living room and kitchen, covering the architectural history of each room, but concentrating on what people actually did in bed, in the bath, at the table, and at the stove. From sauce-stirring to breast-feeding, teeth-cleaning to masturbation, getting dressed to getting married, this book will make you see your home with new eyes. An excellent history of the household as seen through the four main rooms - bedroom, bathroom, living room and kitchen. Everything you could want to know about domestic life is covered in the book. I loved the television series and Worsley writes in a wonderfully chatty style and inserts lots of jokes which gives it a really informal feel - not like your run of the mill history books. 5/5 This books sounds AMAZING! I've added it to my wishlist! Great review, thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobblybear Posted January 26, 2012 Share Posted January 26, 2012 If Walls Could Talk: An Intimate History Of The Home - Lucy Worsley Added to my wishlist as well. This sounds fascinating!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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