Mello's 2010 Reads

[Mello]

Thanks to Love History for inspiring me to post! (I also have a very short reading list).


The Other Boleyn Girl – Phillippa Gregory. I think I started it in 2009, but finished in 2010! You know, I put off reading this for so long, swayed as I was by others’ opinions, and I really shouldn’t have. I enjoyed it. I don’t know enough about Tudor times to know if anything was anachronistic, although one small gripe was the use of the word “hot”. That just brought me crashing back to 21st century and Paris Hilton! 3 ½ /5


Girl with a Pearl Earring – Tracy Chevalier . I saw this movie when it came out and thought Scarlett Johanson was fantastic but the movie was only average. However I loved the book. What was slow-moving in the movie was very emotionally charged in the book. Chevalier’s writing was completely involving. 4/5


The Road – Cormac McCarthy. What to make of this book? It’s not a long book and I read it in no time (quite a rarity for me) and I was engrossed, but did I like it? I still don’t know. I feel totally ambivalent about it. Love it/hate it. Can’t give it a rating that I believe in.


Angelique Marquise of Angels – Sergeanne Golon. I am an unabashed fan of the Catherine and Marianne books by Juliette Benzoni, which I first read in my early teens and couldn’t get enough of, but I never read Angelique. I have rectified that by reading my first Angelique, a very old and yellow copy I found at a bookstore. It is such fun, I have a teeny crush on Joffrey, and I am going to hunt down the rest of the series. 4/5

[Mello]

Not a lot read - life is getting in the way and I'm not happy.

Queen's Play - Dorothy Dunnett. Why would I re-read an old favourite when I have so many other books to be read? Because I can. 5/5

Dirt Music - Tim Winton. Winton can take pages to describe the ocean (a habit of his) but it is only a minor quibble. I like his characters and his style. As I was reading, I thought this book should be made into a movie, and indeed plans have just been announced. 4/5

Naked in Death - J.D. Robb. What can I say - I like a bit of fluff every now and again :o Definitely not HF. 3.5/5

[SonjaMarie]

The "In Death" series is "Da Bomb" (do they still even say that? man am I out of touch! LOL). Seriously, it's a great series and I'm already waiting for the next two new full novels and the short story out in a few months.

SM

[Mello]

The "In Death" series is "Da Bomb" (do they still even say that? man am I out of touch! LOL). Seriously, it's a great series and I'm already waiting for the next two new full novels and the short story out in a few months.

SM

It sure is da bomb! A friend gave me the first 3 in the series, so I will probably read them pronto, but she said there are over 30 and counting in the series :eek: Not sure how I'll go with that!

[annis]

I loved this series, but ran out of steam at about book #20 ---

[SonjaMarie]

I loved this series, but ran out of steam at about book #20 ---

I'm still chugging along!

SM

[wendy]

Recently finished Cormac McCarthy's "Blood Meridian." Not sure what to make of this either.

[Mello]

Recently finished Cormac McCarthy's "Blood Meridian." Not sure what to make of this either.

I have heard that book is hard going. I like his writing, perhaps just not the subject matter.

[Mello]

Only a couple of relatively easy reads....

Ross Poldark by Winston Graham. I remember watching some episodes of the tv series from way back, but reading the book has left more of an impression. This is a favourite time period of mine, but often characters from this period are portrayed as automatons who are too bound up by rules of etiquette to say or do anything untoward. At last, real people! 4.5/5

The Quiet Gentleman by Georgette Heyer. I’ve read quite a few Heyer novels, and overall enjoyed them. This one is probably down the list though. There were just too many Regency expressions in there, even for Heyer, and it did grate after a while. I’ve never met one of her heroes I didn’t like though! 3.5/5

[Mello]

Better finish 2010 before I forget.

Catherine by Juliette Benzoni. A re-read of a book most-beloved in my teens. I was surprised really by how much I still enjoyed it. Now that I am middle-aged, even the notion of the impossibly beautiful heroine who beguiles everyone man she meets didn’t put me off. I have faced a truth – I secretly want to be her! 4/5

Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel. I remember a poster here sometime ago wrote that they didn’t want the book to finish. My feelings are exactly the same. I was utterly entranced by Cromwell’s mind. I felt I was lurking in places I shouldn’t have been. The best book I have read in some time. 5/5

The Brontes by Juliet Barker. A disclaimer – I have not finished it yet and probably won’t for some time. It is such a tome that I am a little intimidated. I read a chapter in between finishing other books. It is incredibly well researched, so much so that the early chapters are a bit dry. I am hoping it will pick up as the Brontes age.

On to 2011.