It's not quite 50 books this year, but we did manage to read a lot while traveling!
- Coraline, Neil Gaiman An interesting book that starts off with a good first sentence: "Coraline discoverd the door a little while after they moved into the house." I'd read almost every book in the house and this was one that I'd skipped, until I read this post on Wendy's blog. There's a movie coming out February 2009; keys are available here. Neil Gaiman was also the author of the original Sandman graphic novel series, which I loved.
- The Faber Book of Science, John Carey, ed. Short stories on science. I found the story on Marie and Pierre Curie's discovery of polonium and radium really interesting. '"I wonder what It will be like, what It will look like," Marie said one day with the feverish curiosity of a child who has been promised a toy. "Pierre, what for do you imagine It will take?" "I don't know," the physicist answered gently. "I should like it to have a very beautiful color..."'
- The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell Starts off strong, loses focus at the finish.
- Moab is My Washpot, Stephen Fry Rambling.
- The Pursuit of Happiness, Douglas Kennedy Interesting that this was written by a man, because it's a love story from a woman's point of view. Part of the novel is set in 1950s America, when McCarthyism ran rampant.
- A Widow for One Year, John Irving Funny and poignant.
- On a Buick 8, John Stephen King Running out of books to read...
- The Dead Zone, Stephen King Mm... meh.
- Bag of Bones, Stephen King
- Faithless, Karin Slaughter
- Triptych, Karin Slaughter Surprisingly good. She's a new crime author for me.
- City of Bones, Michael Connelly I like his Harry Bosch books because they're based in L.A.
- A Son of the Circus, John Irving Funny.
- London, Edward Rutherford One of those stories spanning over a thousand years.... Good camping readingy!
- The Evolution Man, Roy Lewis Witty, I like it.
- The Secret Pilgrim, John Le Carré Another good old spy novel! Puts the dime-a-dozen crime novel writers to shame...
- Watchman, Ian Rankin Pretty good.
- Strip Jack, Ian Rankin This and the following books are part of his John Rebus series, all based in and around Edinburgh. Scots slang, takes getting used to. Good reading during rainy days.
- The Black Book, Ian Rankin
- Mortal Causes, Ian Rankin
- The Falls, Ian Rankin
- Fleshmarket Alley, Ian Rankin
- R is for Ricochet, Sue Grafton This is the first of her alphabet series I've ever read, and I'm sad to say that it wasn't very compelling...
- Sixty Million Frenchmen Can't Be Wrong: Why We Love France but Not the French, Jean-Benoît Nadeau and Julie Barlow Eye-opening book about how and why the French function; not exactly the most in-depth study, more of an entertaining read, but engaging.
- Trace, Patricia Cornwell Yay, another Scarpetta novel! Slower than past novels, but retains the same voice.
- The Other Side of the Story, Marian Keyes Of all the lighthearted romance/humor novelists out there, Keyes is one of the best writers.
- The House of Blue Mangoes, David Davidar Somehow, not compelling to me.
- Spartan: A Novel, Valerio Massimo Manfredi Not as good as Steven Pressfield's Gates of Fire, quite honestly.
- The Poet, Michael Connelly Murder mystery; a fast read. This guy knows how to write a good yarn. Found this book at a farm in Marcilly.
- The Concrete Blonde, Michael Connelly Another good murder mystery.
- My Name Is Red, Orhan Pamuk Murder mystery centered around the lives of illustrators in 17th century Turkey. Illustration in the Muslim world at the time was quite interesting.
- The Little Drummer Girl, John Le Carré Funny how we come across good books. I found this in the trash bin near our studio apartment in Greece. Great writing rarely seen in today's suspense/action novels.
- Stonehenge, Bernard Cornwell
- Winter in Madrid, C. J. Sansom
- The God Delusion, John Dawkins This was a difficult book for me to read; I realized that just because I say I'm an atheist doesn't mean I truly am. There are vestiges of Catholic upbringing still rooted in me...
- The Shakespeare Secret, Jennifer Lee Carrell Awful, read like a script, like it was expected to be made into a movie. If you're interested in reading about the conspiracy surrounding who really wrote William Shakespeare's plays, don't read this.
