Some of our favourite reads from last year...

      The Book of Life by Deborah Harkness

Last of the trilogy and one of my most eagerly awaited books of my life, when I said to people I was reading a book about vampires, witches and daemons nobody believed me as I love my crime books so much. This trilogy is a must for anyone who loves a great love story, it touched my greatly, the books are not for the faint hearted, each offering is the size of a garden shed but so well worth the read.

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Before I go to Sleep by S. J. Watson

I enjoyed this read so much and the thing I liked best was that it made me think about that situation every time I put it down, there were brilliant characters, a fantastic plot and best of all, a terrific twist. A great read, I haven’t watched the film, truthfully I don’t think I would but I recommend the book for sure.

Click to reserve Before I go to Sleep by S J Watson or Before I go to Sleep audiobook

Blood Magick by Nora Roberts

Again a last part of a trilogy I really enjoyed and eagerly awaited the last part of this year. This series is like all Nora’s books, it has beautiful women, jaw-droppingly handsome men and they’re all lovely. This works for me and I looked forward to the book as these stories wrap around me like a cashmere blanket on a cold winters day. Wonderful.

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Plus a DVD...

Batman: The Dark Knight Rises (DVD)

Not much I can say against the caped crusader, I loved the Christian Bale Batman films, I thought Bane was one of the best baddies ever although it was a hard decision between him and Heath Ledgers Joker. Not a current film but I finally got round to watching it and I’m really happy I did.

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The Husband's Secret by Liane Moriarty

This is an excellent read, I thought this was going to be a little chick-lit read but I soon got to the point of staying up all night to finish it. Set in Australia, it follows the lives of different families but when a secret is accidentally revealed it causes a ricochet of emotions and events to unravel all around personal lives that look perfect on the outside and how they all link together because of one secret. What a great read and I would definitely read more of her books.

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The husband's secret by Liane Moriarty or The husband's secret - audiobook

Bellman & Black by Diane Setterfield

This book is described as a ghost story so I settled in for a scary read. I was a little disappointed only in the fact that I didn’t find it scary, but that did not detract from the fact that this was a totally brilliant book. It wasn’t something I would pick up and chose for myself, it is actually my book groups monthly read. For a start it’s historical (set I think in the 1800s) and this is definitely not an era I would pick, I quite like my books set in the recent past and classified as “crime” but this books follows the story of William Bellman who starts out playing with his friends and killing a rook. This sets of a chain of events in his future that he can’t undo, or can he? The writing in this book is lovely and descriptive and even when it is “dark” it is easy to understand what I think the author wants you to understand is happening.

We know who Mr. Bellman is but who is the mysterious Mr. Black? You will have to read the book to find out!

Click here to reserve your copy Bellman & Black by Diane Setterfield

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

I read The Book Thief by Markus Zusak a few years back now (and as such the details are slightly hazy) but as this is the first book club blog-type thing I have ever written and it is my favourite book I thought it was still the most appropriate place to begin. Review upon review upon review has been written on it (nearly 900 on Amazon alone when I last looked never mind all the 'professional' ones) so I'm going to keep this one short and personal.

I have to admit that there have been times in my life when I haven't read as much as I should but occasionally you take a punt on a book (I'd actually bought this for my wife) and once you start it is impossible to put it down. This book grabbed me emotionally in a way that I find difficult to describe. Suffice to say that if I had had a daughter I wanted to call her Liesel and that I found it difficult to read the last 40 pages as I was crying so much I could barely see them - I am very affected by acts of courage and loss!

Anyway - what do you think of The Book Thief and while you are thinking about that what other Modern Fiction books do you suggest we might want to discuss?

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The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson

An absolutely astonishing book. I loved everything about The Gargoyle - from the appearance of the pages (black to signify that the book has been burned along with the author) to the plot; the use of different timelines; the characters; the short tales told by Marianne Engel within the book. The way everything ties together in life.

I have to admit/warn you that the first few chapters contain some of the most disturbing images that I have had bought to mind by a book and it seemed initially that this was going to be a pretty tough read. Fascinating yes but pretty unpleasant. Due to the vividness of the descriptions you could all but physically feel the pain that the author is going through during the accident and then, even worse, during the treatment. I presume also that the treatments described are all real which gives it all an added edge.

At it's heart though this is actually a story of love and redemption for a modern day self-hating pornographer (we've all been there!!). A man who I have only just realised while writing this is never named (it's amazing how I missed that - guess I was just too engrossed from the outset and then it was never important).

 I would definitely recommend the book but possibly only to a selected audience purely due to the need for a strong stomach at points although if you can get past those there's a lot of heart in there.

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Last Man In The Tower by Aravind Adiga

I liked the look of this from the cover. Last Man in the Tower by Aravind Adiga was gentle in its charm but had such an underlying current of deceit, criminality, danger and friendship all in the mix. Set in Mumbai in one of two co-operative buildings whose residents are offered money by a property developer to move out and the winding path it leads them on. Each tower has to agree to all residents moving out to gain the best deal from the developer.

Learning about the different characters who lived in the tower was something I did have to flip back and forwards to often referring to the residents listing in the beginning as I found it a little difficult to keep up at first but then it soon settled into the flow of the story.

This was a really enjoyable book and I loved reading about the individual lives that revolved around the tower and how the money was going to change their lives. The resistance of Masterji as well as his blind friend and her husband and the belief that friendship will overcome all odds. The different caste systems and the poverty and the inherent culture of bribery and corrupt officials, the characters mixing with the wealth of Mumbai to the slums.

This book was a very good read and very enjoyable.

Without giving too much away, the end did shock me.

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