Wonderlake's 2014 challenge

Here we go !

I like the look of the MysteryCAT

http://www.librarything.com/wiki/index.php/2014_MysteryCAT

Ok a reasonable target for myself would be 28 books = 2 categories x 14 books?

Every new year I resolve to read the books on my shelves, rather than bringing new ones into the house, but the library is so tempting- it's free!!

So perhaps,
1) 1001 books x 14 and
2) MysteryCAT books x 14 ... ?

14x 1001 books...


1) Wuthering Heights - aka the book that would not go away!!
2) The Swarm, Frank Schatzing OMG might give myself a bit of a workout reading this, it's a whopper!
3) The First Circle,
4) At Swim, Two Boys
5) The Leopard
6) Get Shorty
7) Schooling #readwomen2014
8) Fugitive Pieces #readwomen2014
9) The Golden Notebook #readwomen2014
10) The Tin Drum
11) The Great Gatsby
12) The Secret Agent
13) Farewell, My Lovely
14) A Confederacy of Dunces, John Kennedy Toole
15) The Blind Assassin, Margaret Atwood #readwomen2014

January's GEOCat- Canada and the US...

"Around the world in 80 Sleuths"

... a list I keep on coming back to !
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/crime-fiction-aro...

1) Alaska The Yiddish Policemen's Union *** BOMBS
2) Honolulu The House Without a Key
3) Seattle Fury, by G. M. Ford *** BOMBS
4) San Francisco Cinnamon Kiss
5) Los Angeles LA Noir
6) Las Vegas Catnap
7) Chicago Fire Sale
8) Northern Ontario Forty Words for Sorrow
9) Montreal Deja Dead
10) West Point, New York The Pale Blue Eye
11) Massachusetts Night Passage
12) New York Black Orchids
13) Brooklyn Motherless Brooklyn
14) Washington DC The Big Blowdown
15) New Orleans Heaven's Prisoners
16) Miami Mr Clarinet ***BOMBS
17) Havana Havana Blue

phew !!!

Looks like a fun and rewarding roster of books. Have a wonderful reading year!

Enjoy your 2014 Challenge. You have listed some very interesting titles. Of your mysteries, the only one I have read is Forty Words For Sorrow and it was very good.

Nice setup! Good luck with reading the books off your own shelves -- I totally agree about the temptations of the library! Seconding DQ's comments on Forty Words for Sorrow, and I also liked Déjà Dead. And thanks for the list of 80 sleuths! Lots of interesting titles on it.

Quite a few books that I have been glancing at - looking forward to seeing what you think.

Got you starred again this year !

BOMBS x14


1. Hanging Hill, by Mo Hayder
2. Fury, by GM Ford *80 sleuths
3. We need to talk about Kevin, Lionel Shriver
4. A Confederacy of Dunces, John Kennedy Toole
5. The Blind Assassin, Margaret Atwood APRIL
6. Garnethill, Denise Mina *80 sleuths
7. From the Dead, Mark Billingham

Not Dead Enough, Peter James
Knots and Crosses, Ian Rankin *80 sleuths
Then we came to the End, Joshua Ferris
Hotel World, Ali Smith

July - Fingersmith, Sarah Waters - I had a tidy up and comb thru my bookshelves to realise that I have TWO copies of this book! I have started to read this in the past, enjoyed it and have no idea why I stopped !

Ok well last year
http://www.librarything.com/topic/142942

I mentioned that I would like to read the 13 books of the "A Series of unfortunate Events" ... and didn't read ANY.

Amazon ran a Kindle promotion on 21 December where the books were 0.99p each, and as such I couldn't resist. I also now have no excuse for not reading them!

They are a fun series but I would suggest you spread them out or they can be a little much. The movie with Jim Carey covers the first three books and should be included in the enjoyment.

A SERIES OF UNFORTUNATE EVENTS:

1. The Bad Beginning
2. The Reptile Room
3. The Wide Window

4. The Miserable Mill
5. The Austere Academy
6. The Ersatz Elevator
7. The Vile Village
8. The Hostile Hospital
9. The Carniverous Carnival
10. The Slippery Slope
11. The Grim Grotto
12. The Penultimate Peril
13. The End

I am pleased to note - APRIL = Margaret Atwood month. Perhaps I could finally read The Blind Assassin?

and AUGUST- The Goldfinch, by Donna Tartt which I recently downloaded on my Kindle as it was a 'Deal of the Day'.

^12. mamzel

I drafted a reply to your comment yesterday, but it looks like the Internet ate it!

I have read some of the ASOUE series before, I think I got up to about #7 before admitting defeat. The repetition from book-to-book of things such as the definitions of words began to grate too much. As there are 13 I hope to space them out at one-ish per month. I also watched the ASOUE film at the cinema when it was out!

AS is traditional I have started the year with a book I have in no way indicated that I wanted to read in any of my comments:

BOOK No. 1
Hanging Hill, by Mo Hayder

and what a poor start to the year it is proving to be. On the plus side it is no longer a BOMBS as I shall be leaving it in work when I finish it. Strongly agree with all the one-star Amazon reviews expressing their disappointment from long-term Hayder fans.

The 7th book in the Caffery series is published this year, "Wolf"; so maybe higher hopes for this. Published 24/04 - an ideal birthday present for myself

Sorry to hear that your first book was a dud. Hope the next one is better!

->16 wonderlake:
The good part of that is that most everything that comes after will be better. :)

14x Kindle:


1. The Bad Beginning
2. The Reptile Room
3. The Wide Window

The Goldfinch (August)
Good as Dead, by Mark Billingham
Flint, by Paul Eddy
The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, by David Mitchell

RUNNING TOTAL: (year of the Horse y'all... um it's supposed to be like "running horses")


1. Hanging Hill, Mo Hayder BOMBS #1
2. Fury, GM Ford BOMBS #2

3. The Bad Beginning, Lemony Snicket *Kindle #1

4. We need to Talk about Kevin, Lionel Shriver BOMBS #3
5. Belshazzar's Daughter, Barbara Nadel BOMBS #4

6. The Reptile Room, Lemony Snicket *Kindle #2

7. The Flame Alphabet, Ben Marcus (library #1
8. Tokyo, Mo Hayder (library #2

9. A Confederacy of Dunces, John Kennedy Toole BOMBS #5

10. The Bat, Jo Nesbo (library #3
11. The Wide Window (Kindle #3

12. The Blind Assassin BOMBS #6

13. Cockroaches, Jo Nesbo (library #4
14. Rubbernecker. Belinda Bauer (library #5
15. The Cry, Helen FitzGerald (library #6
16. Ratlines, Stuart Neville (library #7
17. Wolf, Mo Hayder (library #8
Now you see me, SJ Bolton
18. Garnethill, Denise Mina BOMBS #7

19. Pig Island, Mo Hayder (library #9

20. From the Dead, Mark Billingham BOMBS #8

21. A Dark Redemption, Stav Sherez (library #10
The Goldfinch, Donna Tartt
22. Orfeo, Richard Powers (library #11)
23. Until You're Mine (library #12
The Lives of Others
24. Broken Monsters, (library #13
"J" by Howard Jacobson
In the Woods, Tana French

25. Breath, Eyes, Memory (library #14
26. The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake (library #15
27. Forbidden Colours (library 16
28. The Master of Go (library 17
29. The First Rule of Survival (library 18
30. Eleven Days (library 19

BOOK No. 2

Fury, by G.M. Ford

This was on my shelves due to it's inclusion in the 80 Sleuths around the world book list- Seattle. Reading this brings my total read off this list up to... 9! Haha

I have ordered another off the list from Amazon : Garnethill, by Denise Mina (for Glasgow). Last year I read all of her Alex Morrow books, so am keen to read this other series. #readwomen2014

"Fury" was ok, but for me I didn't like the way the story was kindof all over with 100 pages to go, and the newspaper-reporter protagonist couldn't keep on digging away at the story. It was the first in the Frank Corso series, so maybe they get better?

Further reading:
- Black River
- A Blind Eye
- Red Tide
- No Man's Land
- Blown Away

** oh yeah, this was also a GEOcat- January = Canada & the US
The book's description of Seattle was mainly of... fog. It didn't make me want to go to visit the city, but perhaps if I had been there already it would have provided a nice reminiscence (uh, of fog?). I guess sunny skies wouldn't have quite matched the gritty tone. A change from the Seattle of 'Frasier'?
**and a MysteryCAT- detective

***the library does not have "Black River"

Just started no. 3 We need to talk about Kevin, Lionel Shriver
#readwomen2014

Ah I watched that movie, difficult subject.

Be interested in you thoughts, I saw the film and all I could think about was I expect this is much better as a book!

Oh, I loved the Garnethill trilogy, enjoy.

Garnethill is one of the books I plan on reading this uear as well. So far, my Mina reading has been restricted to her graphic novel A Sickness in the Family.

That Kindle at the top of your thread looks about like mine. Mine is the last generation of the Kindle keyboard though.

23 & 24

My interest to read We need to talk about Kevin was piqued as on Channel 4 sometime in December they held a "Psychopath night" (!) I didn't watch it, but I channel-surfed across it while they perhaps had on a top-10 psychopaths and the section was featuring Kevin Khatchadourian.

I've not read too much of the book ("Less than"100 pages), but the opposites-attract relationship between Eva & Franklin and their subsequent arguments are already beginning to bore me...

*Note: I need to get on with reading Death Note, Volume 3: Hard Run, as it is due back at the library on 05/02

**Hmm, it seems as if the reservation by another member has been cancelled. Maybe I should still try to get it finished by the 5th anyways

Another day, another story like this:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-26014836

"Moscow shooting: School gunman held after killing two"

I still don't feel like I'm getting into the WHY of We need to talk about Kevin, apart from the fact that is seems perhaps destined for him to do something like a highschool shooting

on the downward slope of We Need to Talk about Kevin now, prob. about 100 pages left. Looking at the Wikipedia page for it it says that "why" is one of the themes of the book, I guess as human beings we always grasp for meaning in even the most senseless of acts.

Hope to have it finished by Monday 10th - when I'm back in work again as it is delicious to have a new read to crack open on my commute SMILES

My new read will be Belshazzar's Daughter- 80 sleuths around the world, MysteryCAT (series), GEOcat (Middle East &North Africa) DING DING DING

oops found this, a suggestion to read Iain M Banks/ The Culture in 2014

http://www.librarything.com/topic/162776

I read both The player of games and Use of weapons last year

"it is delicious to have a new read to crack open on my commute" although I drive everyday.. whenever I take a train journey starting a new book to accompany it is fab :-)

I keep meaning to join in with the Culture read.. must make time!

^33 hi and thanks for the comment - your own "Fight Club" thread is a-maze!

well, at the start of this year I got a bicycle (who gets a bicycle in January?!) ... kindof with the ultimate goal of cycling to work and back, ulp. I ride part-way now (not up to the full distance yet), but I know I will sorely miss the reading time when I finally manage the 14mile round trip.

I'll just have the perfect excuse for 'early nights' snuggled up with a book from then on!

Thanks :)

Good luck on the cycling! I don't think I would ever bike to work but I am impressed by people who do it. Plus reading a book in a comfy chair when dogged tired is just ace :)

Book No. 3 The Bad Beginning

Book No. 4 We need to talk about Kevin

I finished this in good time to start Belshazzar's Daughter this Monday morning. After my initial ...dislike? overall I'm glad I finished it, even if it is just to be able to tick another BOMBS

I think my main problem was quite a fundamental one, in that I found Eva and Franklin's relationship unbelievable. I can understand that she found him physically attractive, but does this really overcome such wildly different personalities? It he/she/they loved each other so much then why oh why was neither unable to bend from their respective positions re Kevin: Eva- "he's guilty", Franklin "he's innocent"

*I got this book as part of a Waterstone's "3-for-2" offer,,, I wonder what my other two choices were ?

** IS this a 1001 book ? It hasn't been tagged as such on here, nor does it say that it has been included on the list on the Works page... but Goodreads seems to indicate that it is ...

Argh I got The Flame Alphabet out of the library, but I cannot keep it past 27/02 !

Uh oh! I hope you're still able to enjoy it; reading to a deadline can be so stressful!

Book no. 5 Belshazzar's Daughter

Got 76 pages of this left now (18%), so hope to once again have this finished by Monday ...24th(ulp!) when I can then concentrate on The Flame Alphabet. I have read part of this as a sample on my Kindle- every little helps!

*I didn't manage to finish this over the weekend; but (disappointingly?) only had 18 pages left of it to tackle on my Monday-morning commute. For me the problem with reading before I go to bed is ... falling asleep!

The Mystery CAT for March is - "YA and Children's Mysteries". I guess an ASOUE book would fit for this -- #3 - The Wide Window (Need to get my reading skates on and tackle #2 The Reptile Room beforehand!)

Book no. 6 The Reptile Room
Yup I stayed up late on the 28th to finish reading this before the end of February. Already the tone has started to grate a little, i.e. the numerous references to Dr Lucafont's "Stiff looking hands" - I know these are children's books, but I wonder just how old my daughter would be before she would be shouting "it's the hook-handed man!"

My kids loved the Series of Unfortunate Events, those repetitive elements work well when reading a story aloud. I liked how the author introduced new words and defined them without it sounding like a lesson. I don't think I'd ever choose to read them on my own, but as a bedtime book, the entire series was great. Snicket clearly paid attention to how it would read aloud. I thought the series was very much in the style of an old black and white movie with the heroine tied to the train tracks while the villain twirled his mustache.

I read the first four or so before the style got too repetitive, but the whole thing is still waiting on Mt. TBR and I want to read it before passing it on to someone else.

It is very much a mustache-twirling series! :)

I did that as well and picked the series back up with the last two.

Thanks for the comments re ASOUE guys. I think one of the problems I have is that as an adult I can whizz thru the books very quickly (well, kinda-) whereas if I was reading a chapter a night instead the repetition would perhaps not be too bad...?

There are elements which I enjoy very much i.e. Violet being a strong female role-model who loves inventing, cogs and gears; the sibling's love of reading books, and for the sake of acquiring knowledge

Well, I'm posting on here to brag about today... probably being my highlight of the year !!!

Manchester's Central library had been closed, undergoing redevelopment for... years. Literally, like 3 or 4 years. It's due to re-open soon, on March 22nd, but today I get to go to have a sneak-preview of it all!!!

They advertised on Facebook asking for volunteers to "test" it, and I (plus my daughter) got chosen!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manchester_Central_Library

Oh wow thats so cool, it's such a lovey building. Report back on how it went :)

Invited to a preview? How cool is that! Let's hope it's not another case of a spectacular building, shame about running a library in it?

Nice! Enjoy the preview!

That's excellent - hope the sneak preview was fun!

Book no.7

The Flame Alphabet, Ben Marcus

I don't know what's going on with the library, but come the 27th I was able to renew this book again, which I guess I can't complain about, but I'm sure it's happened with a few other titles too.

anyway, I get the feeling from the reviews of this that it is a bit of a "Marmite" book- or perhaps author- but for me this was right up my alley. I love the cover art too.

I know that Marmite is a spread for toast etc, but what is a Marmite book? Something to do with nostalgia for the England of yesteryear?

I'm guessing that a marmite book would be one hated by many, passionately loved by a few.

>54 RidgewayGirl: Oh, yeah, that sounds plausible. I tried the stuff once. Just once.

Book no.8 Tokyo, Mo Hayder

I wonder if I had read this 10 (yes, I'm getting old:: sob) years ago I would have fallen in love with Grey?

There were flaws in the story - if she had been studying "Oriental Studies" then how come she didn't know what the child-sized statues by the temple were for, especially when she was able to recognize a Buddhist prayer thingy(?)-- explained by the Unit she did on Tibet. (sorry for being vague, just splurging my thoughts with the book not to hand)
in fact she is a very frustrating character - we know so little about her. Was it realistic for her to be employed in a Hostess bar "just like that" - she didn't seem to be very socially skilled in order to be able to entertain the men there, unless the job is just lighting cigarettes and pouring drinks

** they had this in the supermarket at the weekend for £1.99, but when I picked it up I tore the back cover(!) ... so I didn't buy it- no other copies visible. Also the font inside was nasty and enormous.

According to my library account I cannot renew A Caribbean Mystery, and also The Bat beyond 10th April.

I borrowed A Carribean Mystery for this month's GEOcat which I guess I am not to fussed about missing out on :: also highly unlikely to get it read before the end of the month (5 days!), but I would like to try and get a move on with The Bat, once I finish A Confederacy of Dunces

Argh, April's MysteryCAT is Nordic mysteries, which The Bat would play into very nicely...

But it's also "Atwood April" and I completely want to read The Blind Assassin (whopper, might well take me the entire month)

>57 wonderlake: If it helps, A Caribbean Mystery is a really quick read. So if you still have a few days before the library due date, you could probably finish it by the end of the month.

The Kindle daily deal is on G. M. Ford's //other// series of books...

>58 wonderlake: -marmite is marketed as "you'll either love it or hate it"
I have it in toast pretty much every day so fit in the love it camp.
There was a meme recently with "person x (girlfriend, politician, celebrity) said they were ambivalent about marmite and now I can't trust anything they say"

Book no.9 A Confederacy of Dunces, John Kennedy Toole

well, I wrote a post about this probably last week... but the internet ate it.

What I was going to say that this was my first Five- star read of the year!

The book was actually my OH's - I think he had it due to a course/module he was studying: American Literature/ The American South ? (inscribed by him 2007)-- unbelievably he never finished it! Then it cropped up on a "100 books you must read before you die" list which was recently posted on Facebook by a friend and I fancied reading it because (a) BOMBS, and (b) tick another from this new list off

It was so funny- laugh out loud, and the situations Ignatius would get himself into; I also really liked the character of Jones. On the other hand I don't think I'd like Ignatius as a friend (did he actually have any anyways? ) , as I found him to be a very scheming reptilian creature, always looking for the outcome most beneficial to himself

I liked this book so much it inspired a tea of hot dogs with a "nice potatis salad" - I refrained from any luncheon meat however.

I've been wanting to reread A Confederacy, but I've been wondering if it'll still be funny. Sounds like there's a chance!

Book no.10 The Bat, Jo Nesbo

Once again I wrote a post that disappeared. Perhaps it's not the Internet but Librarything I am having problems with ?

If I recall I managed to get this read in time for April 10th – but once again I would have been able to renew this at the library if I had needed to.

Not much to say about it I supposed, I think I mentioned on the April MysterCAT page about how women seem to find Harry irresistible, which I don’t really "Get" I don’t think we're given much detail about him- physically and I can't say that I find his personality exactly charming either.

There was an OMG exchange between Harry & Andrew where A. is recalling his younger days - taking girl's virginity basically, and he makes a comment that it was better for him to do it as a "skilled lover" than some fumbling teen. And another scene where Harry was musing on bodily fluids after having sex for the first time in what presumably was a while … yeah

This book inspired a veggie Thai green curry for tea (^o^)

On a more pleasant note it was quite amusing to see all the English placenames cropping up – the action is sent in Sydney Australia.

Undeterred, I have borrowed Cockroaches from the library

Book no 11. The Wide Window

>62 wonderlake: I have A Confederacy of Dunces on the possible reads list for this year, nice to know that it was funny :)

Book 12. The Blind Assassin

Wow, what to say. I have had this whopper of a book on my shelves for ages (600 pages+) and was looking forward to finally tackling it for #AtwoodApril this year. It even has a character called Iris (my daughter's name). Oh, and it has won the Booker.

Overall, it has to be my _least_ favourite Atwood book I've read ( Surfacing/ The Handmaid's Tale/ Cat's Eye/ The Robber Bride/ Alias Grace/ Oryx and Crake/ The Year of the Flood = 7). I feel cheated out of reading Maddaddam instead!

Also, it took me a l-o-n-g time to read; Atwood April dragged onto Margaret May - (Mahy?). Not only because it was long in terms of number of pages, but because for me I do most of my reading on my commute to work- - I had no interest in taking this book up to bed with me i.e. nothing really happened. The sister's live their lives and it all gets described and written down. Except we hardly know anything about Laura apart from how much of an enigma she is. Frankly, the Iris in this tale in not much of a namesake

Oh, there's also a book-within-a-book. I had no problem with this element, and quite liked the fantastical pulp sci-fi.

You did what I could not. I gave up halfway through the book. I am also a big Atwood fan but that was not enough to get me through it.

Being quite new to Margaret Atwood, this will be one that I will avoid. Thanks for the insight.

Atwood April dragged onto Margaret May

LOL! I still haven't jumped onto the Atwood reading bandwagon - and don't feel any urge to rush out and do so - but I am finding it very fascinating to read the various reactions to her works.

Book 13. Cockroaches, Jo Nesbo

After floundering around for a while following completion of The Blind Assassin I have selected this as my next read, to tie-in with the "Police Procedural" MysteryCAT for June.

(I tried to read The Glass Key for the "Golden Age" May category but couldn't get into it )

Finished this last night, but towards the end I was struggling a little bit with all the Norwegian men's surnames getting jumbled up in my head :P

Book 14. Rubbernecker, Belinda Bauer

hooray the Theakston's Crime longlist for 2014 has been announced. As such my forthcoming reading might be quite heavy on this list's picks.

so far I have read:

- The Shining Girls and
- The Red Road

Rubbernecker takes my total up to 3!

I found this a fairly quick, unchallenging read. My favourite (?) character was the nurse Tracey, a grown-up school bully who would have flirted with the teachers "Have you got a girlfriend sir?". I can just imagine her, and have the biggest question mark as to what happened to her - does she get her comeuppance ?

Shortlist announcement is on July 1st

Book 15. The Cry, Helen FitzGerald

This is my 4th read off the Theakstons Longlist. It makes me so happy to whizz thru these books so quickly! I got a lot of them out of the library, and it is so satisfying to check out 11 books (for example) but to be able to have a nice fast turnaround on them... yes, so I can take more out !

As to the book, well. It is another psychological unreliable (unhinged) woman/ mother book. She says her child (newborn) has been abducted out of the car by the roadside, BUT HAS HE? Is her partner loving, or a narcissistic psychopath? etc etc

Overall I was able to skip thru the pages quite happily, but for me the ending was a little too "happy" considering the tone of the book throughout.

Book 16. Ratlines, Stuart Neville

This will be my 5th off the Theakston's longlist! I hope to finish it tonight.

I found it hard to get a handle on the main character- Albert Ryan. At first I imagined him as a bit like Reece from Person of Interest - a man with ghosts in his eyes. But then his blushing interactions with (redheaded) Celia made me think more of Finch !

Next a fencing scene, against the "baddie" of the book which could have been lifted from a James Bond movie- or hey, even book!

I can't say I'll rush out to read the author's previous works.

Book 17. Wolf, Mo Hayder

Ermahgerd Mo really does know how to write books that make for uncomfortable reading. Books that make me think "why on earth am I reading this?" because the tension is ever-so almost too much.

But then I remind myself that it's a Jack Caffery book, so things can't go too badly wrong. Well, perhaps, but Jack is NOT an action hero, just a man, and a troubled one at that

The old tactic of chapters a couple of pages long help you to skip thru the book- "just one more chapter " - and also provide a breather from the more harrowing sections.

Reminding me very much of previous works Hanging Hill= isolated countryside house, and Poppet - the bloody dog!

EDIT- typo

I haven't read a Mo Hayder for a couple of years, she really put me off with Pig Island, but I did use to enjoy the Jack Caffery series so I will think about getting back to that one.

I have Birdman on Mt. TBR - looking forward to finding out what Jack Caffery is all about.

^ DeltaQueen
Pig Island is the only Mo Hayder book I have left to read, in fact I even have it out from the library at the moment, but I think I'll have a little break from her before cracking the spine on it. Plus if you say it's not one of her best...
*Actually looking back on one of my old threads someone else "mamzel" badmouths Birdman LOL

^ Eva
as Wolf progressed it became less about the family/home invasion plotline and more about Jack; oh Jack. Is he is the titular "Wolf"? The ending for me was heartbreaking. He really is one of my favourites.

I hope you like Pig Island more than I did.

>78 wonderlake: I wouldn't necessarily call that "bad mouthing" though I'm sure I used stronger language in my own thread. I really did find the book distasteful.

^mamzel hullo there, did you feel your ears burning? LOL
apologies if I have taken your name in vain, eitherway Pig Island has two "thumbs down" against it now, it would be a shame for the 'last' book I read by Ms Hayder was a dud. I disliked Hanging Hill earlier on this year so do agree that her quality can very somewhat

Book 18. Now you see me, by Sharon Bolton

"SJ", or Sharon as she is now called has Like This, For Ever on the Theakstons 2014 longlist. I've never read owt by her before I am starting at the beginning of the Lacey Flint series

1. Now you see me
2. Dead Scared
3. Like this, for ever

however, I am NOT enjoying it. "Lacey"(!) has a real chip on her shoulder, but we have no back-story as to why - oh, and she is also stunningly beautiful, so much so that at work she wears clothes a size too big, hair tied back and glasses that SHE DOESN'T EVEN NEED in order to not attract attention to herself. Sheesh. Part of me wants to give up, but another part can't help in hoping that it will ge 'better'.

OT: on my Kindle I have Flint, by Paul Eddy which I have started to read a couple of times, (Grace Flint) another feisty kick-ass heroine type/ stereotype? Apparently this Flint can give Lisbeth Salander a run for her money.

+++ 2/07/2014
Well the decision has been made- I have given up on this !
The first book I have called it quits on this year !

As I have said I was not enjoying it, and then the Theakston's Shortlist was announced- Sharon Bolton was not on it -- but Denise Mina was. I have a serious "girlcrush" on Denise (although I hate myself a little for even using that phrase) - she's in the running to make it a hattrick of wins! I am going to be casting my vote in her direction for sure. **Voting opens on 3rd July

Book 18. Garnethill, by Denise Mina

Stayed up late last night to finish reading this, maybe I spoiled it for myself? A lot happens at the end, and I feel I would benefit from flicking back to clear up a few points for myself.

This brings my number of books from the "80 sleuths around the world" list up to ...10!

I am hoping to get around to reading Garnethill as part of my Tartan Noir reading so I have made a note that a lot happens in the end. Good job on reading from the "80 sleuths around the world" list!

hullo lkernagh thanks for the comment. My "review" of Garnethill above is frightfully brief, let me add that Denise has a wonderful gift for language, the characters are so alive and the words she gives them to speak makes them seem so real/believable. Yes, 'bad' language included.

I did struggle a little in places to keep up with all the characters, and towards the end I think it sets up the next book in the series which is a bit of a pet hate of mine. I like my books to be finished and done, even if they are part of a trilogy!

Book 19. Pig Island, by Mo Hayder

Just added this book to my library on here and there are now 666 members with this book - eek!

20/07 Had a weekend away visiting my sister and managed to finish reading this on the train home, yey!

Bit of a funny one from Mo, I guessed the "twist " ending quite a while ago.

as for book #20... well the Theakston's winner has been announced as Belinda Bauer, for Rubbernecker, which I've already read, back in June.

Book 20. From the Dead, by Mark Billingham

Decided to go for a BOMBS for Book no. 20, also I sent off Buried by Mark Billingham for someone else to read via Bookmooch yesterday!

Then - Good as Dead (Kindle)
- The Dying Hours
- The Bones Beneath

I kindof fancied The Summer Without Men, but the copy I have (hardback) has such a beautiful - pale - cover that I fear taking it out and about with me to read incase I ruin it with scuffs and stains...

Think I can manage F.T.D. before I need to get on with The Goldfinch for the August read!

--- Finished this last night, once again I wondered why I read stuff by this author. Several times in the book he makes a reference to something that happened previously/character met and I am left scratching my head and flipping back pages. Has been listed on Bookmooch.

21. A Dark Redemption, by Stav Sherez

I think this was Theakston's long/shortlisted previously: SHORT listed, and I read it as the second book in the series (yey!) Eleven Days also made it onto the shortlist this year.

I very much enjoyed the book. Initially it reminded me of Mo Hayder- heck the protagonist is called Jack (Carrigan vs Caffery), and the African angle made me think of Ritual, but witchcraft is quickly discounted in this book.

There are some silly bits I thought, Grace is a slightly far-fetched Nancy Drew character; and obviously at the end when Miller figures out exactly where Carrigan is in order to save his life made me think of "Murder, She Wrote"; but I enjoyed both of the detectives with their mysterious pasts which were not laid bare to us in their entirety, and an delighted that there is a book #2 already out for me to read!

Furthermore I tweeted a couple of times about reading the book and he replied to me !

Lastly, #COFFEE

22. The Goldfinch, by Donna Tartt

'saved' this for August as I thought there was a group read of it? ...
Slightly worried this might be a bit like The Blind Assassin -- overly long?

Fun to be reading something on my Kindle Keyboard once again however!

08/08/2014
I have made the decision to quit reading this book. I scraped 100 pages but,,, uh. Theo states that he's "what they called a high verbal" YOU.DON'T.SAY.
I had enough forcing myself thru The Blind Assassin earlier this year to waste more time on books I'm not enjoying. Perhaps I should just read The Secret History again. Can't really remember how I felt about The Little Friend, but I actually have a signed copy of this !

>88 wonderlake: Might be a good idea to ask about The Goldfinch on the Group Reads thread. When I looked at it, I saw that people had agreed on an August group read, but I don't think anyone ever posted a thread.

hey christina_reads
yeah I mentioned it on the "What are we reading in August" thread also... but I'm not sure if I'll pursue it as.. I'm thinking of giving up on The Goldfinch- shock horror!

22. Orfeo, by Richard Powers

Picked this up as it is on the Booker longlist. The blurb made it seem quite "thrilling"- a man on the run for suspected bio-terrorism, but being a Booker pick it wasn't quite that simple.

The segments are interspersed present day and past. Els is musically talented, blow away by 'Jupiter'. He decides music over chemistry in college.

23. Until You're Mine, by Samantha Hayes

My 6th book off the Theakston's Longlist, this didn't get shortlisted however. It also featured a sticker on the front stating that it was a "Good Housekeeping" Reader's Recommendation !!!

Overall, blah. A Book about women - pregnant women, and women who
want to get pregnant.

All of the 'Suspense' seemed to derive from character A snooping around in character B's room, and vice versa.

24. The Lives of Others, Neel Mukherjee

Got this out of the library as it is on the Booker longlist - and now shortlist. Due to this I was only able to borrow it for a fortnight! I only managed about half ~ about 260 pages. What I read I enjoyed, a sprawling family saga. Initially I felt rather bombarded with all the characters; it begins with the household waking up, moving from one person to the other, working out the interconnections between them all. Not only do they refer to themselves by name, but there are also interrelational terms for eldest brother etc. which could be a little confusing ...

24. Broken Monsters, by Lauren Beukes

I have a week to read this! ~Due back at the library on 16th Sept.

Well I managed it, despite being pretty chunky tome-wise, the font was on the large side.

um, not as good as Zoo City. Lacking a definite kick-ass heroine. There were several female characters, but this time they were all flawed. I disliked the multiple POVs. I also have to disagree that this was a "Horror" genre novel, frankly the Prologue of The Lives of Others was more 'horrific' to me : see also the beginning of "J".

> Orfeo:: people's attention spans diminishing

25. J, by Howard Jacobson

another book I need to read in a week, due back 23rd Sept

... and I didn't manage it. My hopes were up, I think it was about 300-pages, but... I guess it just didn't grab me. OR maybe I need one of those speed-reading apps: Spritz

http://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2014/sep/22/speed-reading-app-spritz-...

25. In The Woods, Tana French

This has been on my radar for a while, and then it was on the Flavorwire "50 Excellent Novels by Female Writers Under 50 That Everyone Should Read " list

http://flavorwire.com/471139/50-excellent-novels-by-female-writers-under-50-that...

again, I've only got this out for a week (due back 30/09); maybe with it being "crime" I might be more inclined to race through it ?

ugh, reading a review of French's latest work: Like French's other books, The Secret Place isn't a speed read.

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/sep/06/the-secret-place-tana-french-review

EDIT: 01/10/2014
Well, another book I didn't manage. It was going Ok I guess, got about halfway thru. Bits I disliked were the often used "looking back now if only we had realised" schtick, which was possibly one of the reasons I gave up on reading Now You See Me earlier this year.

Found the characters of Cassie and Ryan strange, juvenile in many ways- Cassie doing cartwheels on the beach, Ryan locking the door on "his" room in a shared flat. Found their relationship odd too, Ryan often staying over at Cassie's, lounging on the sofa together with feet in laps - this is not professional

>96 wonderlake: Good luck with In the Woods! I found it a compelling read, so I think it's doable in a week.

I raced through In the Woods. Give it a go!

25. Boy, Snow, Bird, Helen Oyeyemi

Another one off the Flavorwire list- 50 female authors

08/10/2014 ... a further unread book. Due to it being due back at the library for another reader

25. Breath, eyes, memory, by Edwidge Danticat: FW #1

Another one off the Flavorwire list- 50 female authors

V. recent article about Haiti / 'Baby Doc'
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/timstanley/100288797/baby-doc-duvalier-the-man...

* The first part is reminding me very much of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, which is very high on my list of "Books I mean to read again"

It is so nice to finally finish reading a book at last! I have got my reading mojo back! And, I read it pretty quickly too!

So although the book deals with a lot of "stuff" the author has a kindof 'and then this happened, and then that happened' flat tone - events are written down, but not really described IYSWIM. Perhaps this is the difference between this and 'Oscar Wao' ?

26. The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake, by Aimee Bender: FW #2

First off, let me just state - respectfully- that I cannot stand that spelling of "Amy"

+ another off the Flavourwire list

another "quick" read for me, actually I started reading it the day I picked it up from the library - read about 50 pages while daughter played around.

I dunno about these kind of books, ones about families, family life, relationships and emotions. Am I too like the mother, Lane, dissatisfied? Aren't we all?

27. Forbidden Colours, by Yukio Mishima

Picked this as it was on a list of Japanese authors beyond Murakami.
http://bookriot.com/2014/09/30/beyond-murakami-7-japanese-authors-read/

I am a bit put off as there is a typo in the spelling of the protagonist's surname on the blurb ??
---
Finished this last night, but was a bit disappointed with myself had wanted to get it finished over the weekend. Everytime I would try to read this in bed my eyelids would almost instantly start to droop, ugh

Parts were harder to read than others, I can see how it could be used on a Literature course with lots of themes such as age Vs beauty, different kinds of love: motherly, paternal, man and wife etc.

The blurb on the back made me anticipate, well I don't know what: "Yuichi runs dangerously out of control". I never thought he was out of control, or maybe even IN control, he just did what other people told/wanted him to, because he was young and had nothing better to do - boredom of youth

Doesn't anyone edit the cover? Biiiiig mistake.

28. The Master of Go, by Yasunari Kawabata

... I wonder if I can make it to 30 books by the end of the year ? This book seems quite slim, with large, wide-spaced text

An interesting book, and probably not one I would have picked up if it wasn't for the authors inclusion on the above Bookriot list of Japanese authors.

On the back it is described as "Sport/literature", as I say something which would make me avoid - I tried, but couldn't get on with The Damned Utd for example. But obviously it was about much more than that.

The match is between The Master Vs. Otaké, they represent a change in the whole of Japanese society. In some ways it was difficult to understand the game - diagrams are provided- but as I say it is about much more than that; furthermore it is not intended to be a "Go for Dummies" textbook.

I found the footnotes at the end unilluminating, and eventually stopped flipping to them.

29. The First Rule of Survival, Paul Mendelson

Picked this up from the library, following its inclusion on some longlist/shortlist (CWA?). It feels good to be reading Crime again. However de Vries is coming across as a bit of a knob.

3/12 Book is going well, I LOVED the use of goats cheese as forensic evidence.

Recently de Vries has completed detective cliche #8 - dry swallowing tablets/ painkillers

This was in the Weekend supplement: 6/12/2014
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/dec/06/south-africa-one-year-after-nelson-...

30. Eleven Days, Stav Sherez

hehe a character in this chalkily chews on some Valiums too. Hope the next one is out on 2015

31. Please Look After Mother

During reading this I travelled to my sister's for Xmas, with our mum & dad. Sadly, I could just imagine my dad getting left behind at a station as we negotiated our way across London from Euston to St Pancras, then onto Ebbsfleet. (We started out up north in Manchester.) Dad is the 'frailer' of the two. Or is the irony in the book that it's mother who has always been as strong as an ox?