30 December 2006

Book Review: Motor Mouth by Janet Evanovich

Motor Mouth Motor Mouth picks up some months after Metro Girl left off. Alexandra “Barney” Barnaby, the bottle-blonde bombshell with a passion for cars, is working as a NASCAR spotter, guiding Sam Hooker around the track from her rooftop vantage point. This being Evanovich, things quickly get complicated when a car crashes out and fellow spotter Gobbles gets trapped in a rival race team’s hauler. Throw in a couple of hitmen, some extremely valuable technology, hi-tech cheating, some dead bodies and a Saint Bernard, you soon get chaos.

It wasn’t until I’d finished the book that I realised how similar the Barnaby series is to the more famous Stephanie Plum adventures. Sassy first-person heroine with hunky on again-off again boyfriend? Check. Boyfriend’s big dopey dog? Check. Fuller-figured woman with a skin-tight wardrobe and attitude to spare? Check. Feisty gun-toting grandma? Check. It might be a formula, but in Evanovich’s hands the formula works. I devoured the book in a day, laughing out loud at the absurd situations Barney and Hooker keep falling into. Sure it’s lightweight, but just like you have to have chocolate in the fridge, you need some frivolity in your reading pile as well. And it’s good to know that there’s at least one author you can always count on to cheer you up.

The Barnaby series, for me, highlights just why I love Janet Evanovich's books so much. They're so much fun that even a real non-sports fan like me can happily spend hours reading about NASCAR and emerge with a smile. And I don't even know what NASCAR stands for.

Rating: B

28 December 2006

Book Review: Labyrinth by Kate Mosse

Labyrinth This book did what few things can: it made me forget about food. And not just any food - dessert. Christmas dinner was supposed to be followed by a very tasty mango dish that I was supposed to make. But I was too absorbed in my reading to tear myself away long enough. And on Boxing Day, my mother had to remind me to eat lunch. Despite the book having close to seven hundred pages, I finished it a mere thirty hours after starting, and it only took that long because I didn’t take it to bed with me Christmas night (and I only avoided that because I knew that if I did I wouldn’t sleep).

Labyrinth is a grail quest with a couple of twists. The grail is something quite different from the usual theories, and the main characters are women. Modern-day archaeology volunteer Alice Tanner discovers a cave - complete with altar, wall carving, and skeletons - in the Sabarthés Mountains in southern France. Its significance becomes apparent when people react oddly to its discovery, and before long Alice realises that she's in danger.

Eight centuries earlier, Alaïs du Mas is entrusted with a secret by her father. Now she too is in danger, both from those who want the knowledge for themselves and the Catholic armies that are advancing on the Cathar Languedoc region. The books must be protected by being removed into the mountains, but with the infamous Simon de Montfort on the way travelling is the riskiest thing to do.

Of course you know as soon as you pick up a book like this that the villains are going down - eventually - but the question remains of how many of the good guys and girls they’ll take with them. Plus a host of others, like why various items were so important, and just who owned those bones? But it wasn’t just the mystery that dragged me through this book at breakneck pace; it was the author’s unerring ability to switch to the other century just when things were most interesting, and to hint at things that are only revealed toward the end. So you have to keep reading a) to find out what happens, and b) to find out if you’re right. Which in a way is immensely frustrating, but also immensely satisfying; it's been ages since I’ve been so thoroughly sucked into a book.

There’s so much I want to rave about in this book, but I don’t want to bore everyone (at least, not more that I already have :-). So I’ll just quickly - kind of - say this. Don’t let the book’s female focus fool you into thinking there’s no hero; there is, and oh what a hero he turns out to be ... when you finally find out who the hero is. No, not every character has an analogue in the other century, and they don’t all have such similar names as the two heroines. I loved the way the fiction had been woven into the historical record - it was done so well, in fact, that I had to Google Raymond-Roger Trencavel just to check that he was real. And I really, really wish I had a knack for languages not my own, because there’s words of Occitan (the recently revived tongue of the Languedoc region) scattered throughout the book. A language that nearly died out - now that would be cool to learn if I weren’t linguistically challenged.

Okay, you're yawning. I’ll stop raving now.

Rating: A

The Hazards of Borrowing Before Christmas

Why, oh why did I visit the library - twice! - in mid-December? Probably I should have known better, but I checked out a bunch of books anyway. The upshot of this is that on Christmas Day I had five books piled up on my bedroom floor waiting to be read and returned, and another four under the tree.

The power of novelty being what it is, I went straight for the new goodies rather than the ones with due dates attached. Now I’m faced with the challenge of finishing all seven remaining books in a shade under two weeks, or crossing my fingers and hoping I can renew the ones I need to. I know I should have set the new ones aside until I’d finished all the library volumes, but . . . well, my To Be Read piles are testimony to my ability to resist temptation.

Naturally I’m trying to justify it, by telling myself it would be bad manners to leave those thoughtfully-chosen presents gathering dust while I worked my way round to them. And I'm promising myself that next year I’ll do better. I’ll give my library card a rest and spend December reducing my TBR stacks in preparation for the forthcoming Lifeline Bookfest.

And with my luck, Christmas will bring me not a single book.

Considering that possibility, I’ll end up in the library again next December, getting out a handful of books . . . just in case.

25 December 2006

The Twelve Reading Days of Christmas

On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me
A Tolkien trilogy

On the second day of Christmas my true love gave to me
Two Austen tales
And a Tolkien trilogy

On the third day of Christmas my true love gave to me
Three comedies
Two Austen tales
And a Tolkien trilogy

On the fourth day of Christmas my true love gave to me
Four Jasper Ffordes
Three comedies
Two Austen tales
And a Tolkien trilogy

On the fifth day of Christmas my true love gave to me
Five Hitchhikers
Four Jasper Ffordes
Three comedies
Two Austen tales
And a Tolkien trilogy

On the sixth day of Christmas my true love gave to me
Six Harry Potters
Five Hitchhikers
Four Jasper Ffordes
Three comedies
Two Austen tales
And a Tolkien trilogy

On the seventh day of Christmas my true love gave to me
Seven Shakespeare plays
Six Harry Potters
Five Hitchhikers
Four Jasper Ffordes
Three comedies
Two Austen tales
And a Tolkien trilogy

On the eigthth day of Christmas my true love gave to me
Eight English histories
Seven Shakespeare plays
Six Harry Potters
Five Hitchhikers
Four Jasper Ffordes
Three comedies
Two Austen tales
And a Tolkien trilogy

On the ninth day of Christmas my true love gave to me
Nine fast-paced thrillers
Eight English histories
Seven Shakespeare plays
Six Harry Potters
Five Hitchhikers
Four Jasper Ffordes
Three comedies
Two Austen tales
And a Tolkien trilogy

On the tenth day of Christmas my true love gave to me
Ten romantic Heyers
Nine fast-paced thrillers
Eight English histories
Seven Shakespeare plays
Six Harry Potters
Five Hitchhikers
Four Jasper Ffordes
Three comedies
Two Austen tales
And a Tolkien trilogy

On the eleventh day of Christmas my true love gave to me
Eleven classic novels
Ten romantic Heyers
Nine fast-paced thrillers
Eight English histories
Seven Shakespeare plays
Six Harry Potters
Five Hitchhikers
Four Jasper Ffordes
Three comedies
Two Austen tales
And a Tolkien trilogy

On the twelfth day of Christmas my true love gave to me
Twelve Christie mysteries
Eleven classic novels
Ten romantic Heyers
Nine fast-paced thrillers
Eight English histories
Seven Shakespeare plays
Six Harry Potters
Five Hitchhikers
Four Jasper Ffordes
Three comedies
Two Austen tales
And a Tolkien trilogy.



24 December 2006

Index Guide

The reviews index pages have a few quirks of organisation, to whit:

By author

- If an author has a non-hyphenated surname with more than one part, only the last part is used for alphabetisation (e.g. John le Carré is under C).

- Multiple books by the same author are listed in series order when applicable, otherwise in alphabetical order by title.

- If a book has more than one author, it will have more than one listing - one for each author.

- Anthologies are listed under “Various Authors.”

By title

- Articles (the, a, an) are ignored in the alphabetising of titles (e.g. The Historian is under H).

- Some books will be listed under their British titles.

By grade

- If multiple books by the same author have received the same grade, they are listed in series order when applicable, otherwise in alphabetical order by title.


Authors A - E

A

Allende, Isabel - The Forest of the Pygmies
Allende, Isabel - The House of the Spirits
Amis, Martin - The Rachel Papers
Archer, Jeffrey - Cat o’ Nine Tales
Archer, Jeffrey - A Matter of Honour
Atkinson, Kate - Emotionally Weird
Atkinson, Kate - Human Croquet
Austen, Jane - Mansfield Park
Austen, Jane - Persuasion
Austen, Jane - Pride and Prejudice

B

Baldacci, David - The Camel Club
Baldacci, David - The Collectors
Baldacci, David - Stone Cold
Baldacci, David - Total Control
Banks, Melissa - The Girls’ Guide to Hunting and Fishing
Barry, Brunonia - The Lace Reader
Beddor, Frank - The Looking Glass Wars
Berendt, John - The City of Falling Angels
Bernard, André - Madame Bovary, C’est Moi
Boccaccio, Giovanni - The Decameron
Bolland, Craig - I Knit Water
Bowler, Peter - The Superior Person’s Second Book of Words
Bradbury, Ray - Fahrenheit 451
Braddon, Mary Elizabeth - Lady Audley’s Secret
Brewer, John - Sentimental Murder
Brockway, Connie - Hot Dish
Bronte, Charlotte - Jane Eyre
Bryson, Bill - Down Under
Bryson, Bill - Notes from a Small Island
Buckley, Fiona - To Shield the Queen
Bulgakov, Mikhail - The Master and Margarita
Burney, Frances - Evelina
Burridge, Kate - Weeds in the Garden of Words

C

Capote, Truman - In Cold Blood
Carr, Caleb - The Alienist
le Carré, John - The Naive and Sentimental Lover
le Carré, John - The Night Manager
Cast, P. C. - Goddess of Spring
de Cervantes, Miguel - Don Quixote
Chaucer, Geoffrey - The Canterbury Tales
Chesterton, G. K. - The Man Who Knew Too Much
Chevalier, Tracey - The Lady and the Unicorn
Christie, Agatha - Detectives and Young Adventurers: The complete short stories
Christie, Agatha - The Secret Adversary
Christie, Agatha - Three-Act Tragedy
Clarke, Susanna - Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell
Coelho, Paulo - The Alchemist
Connolly, John - The Book of Lost Things
Connolly, John - Every Dead Thing
Connolly, John - Nocturnes
Cox, Michael - The Meaning of Night
Crusie, Jennifer - Crazy For You
Cumming, Charles - The Hidden Man

D

Dawkins, Richard - The God Delusion
Dexter, Colin - The Daughters of Cain
Dexter, Colin - Last Seen Wearing
Dickens, Charles - Bleak House
Donoghue, Emma - Slammerkin
Dougan, Andy - Raising the Dead
Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan - The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
Doyle, Roddy - The Woman who Walked into Doors
Dunant, Sarah - The Birth of Venus
Dunn, Mark - Ella Minnow Pea
Durrell, Gerald - The Bafut Beagles
Durrell, Gerald - Rosy is My Relative
Durrell, Lawrence - Justine

E

Editors of the American Heritage Dictionary - Word Histories and Mysteries
Evanovich, Janet - Lean Mean Thirteen
Evanovich, Janet - Twelve Sharp
Evanovich, Janet - Plum Lovin’
Evanovich, Janet - Plum Spooky
Evanovich, Janet - Motor Mouth
Ewing, Barbara - The Mesmerist

Lost? Confused? Read the Index Guide.

Authors F - N

F

Faber, Michel - The Crimson Petal and the White
le Fanu, J. Sheridan - Madam Crowl’s Ghost and other stories
Fforde, Jasper - The Big Over-Easy
Fforde, Jasper - Something Rotten
Fforde, Jasper - First Among Sequels
Fielding, Helen - Bridget Jones’s Diary
Finlay, Victoria - Buried Treasure: Travels Through the Jewel Box
Foden, Giles - The Last King of Scotland
Follett, Ken - The Key to Rebecca
Forsyth, Frederick - The Fourth Protocol
Fowles, John - The French Lieutenant’s Woman
Fowles, John - A Maggot
Franklin, Miles - My Brilliant Career

G

Gabaldon, Diana - Cross Stitch
Gabaldon, Diana - Dragonfly in Amber
Gabaldon, Diana - Lord John and the Hand of Devils
Gaiman, Neil - Anansi Boys
Gaiman, Neil - Stardust
Gaskell, Elizabeth - Cousin Phillis and other tales
Gaskell, Elizabeth - Cranford
Gaskell, Elizabeth - North and South
Gere, Cathy - The Tomb of Agamemnon
Gibson, Rachel - Daisy’s Back in Town
Goldsmith, Oliver - The Vicar of Wakefield
Grant, Tracy - Daughter of the Game
Greene, Graham - The Quiet American
Gregory, Philippa - The Constant Princess
Gregory, Philippa - The Boleyn Inheritance
Gregory, Philippa - The Virgin’s Lover
Gregory, Susanna - A Plague on Both Your Houses
Grogan, John - Marley & Me

H

Haggard, H. Rider - She
Hammett, Dashiell - The Maltese Falcon
Hammett, Dashiell - The Thin Man
Hardy, Thomas - Far From the Madding Crowd
Hardy, Thomas - Tess of the D’Urbervilles
Hardy, Thomas - Under the Greenwood Tree
Hardy, Thomas - The Woodlanders
Harris, Joanne - Holy Fools
Harris, Robert - Enigma
Harris, Robert - Imperium
Harris, Robert - Pompeii
Harris, Thomas - The Silence of the Lambs
Hawthorne, Nathaniel - The Scarlet Letter
Hewson, David - A Season for the Dead
Heyer, Georgette - Arabella
Heyer, Georgette - Sylvester
Hill, Peter - Stargazing: Memoirs of a Young Lighthouse Keeper
Hill, Susan - The Woman in Black
Hoffman, Alice - Skylight Confessions
Holdstock, Robert - Mythago Wood

I

Ibsen, Henrik - A Doll’s House and other plays
Ishiguro, Kazuo - The Remains of the Day

J

James, Henry - Daisy Miller and other stories
Jolley, Elizabeth - Lovesong
Jonson, Ben - Three Comedies

K

Kesey, Ken - One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
Kidd, Sue Monk - The Secret Life of Bees
Kostova, Elizabeth - The Historian
Kraus, Nicola - The Nanny Diaries
Kundera, Milan - The Unbearable Lightness of Being

L

Lake, Deryn - The King’s Women
Lawrence, D. H. - Lady Chatterley’s Lover
Lee, Laurie - Cider With Rosie
Lessing, Doris - The Fifth Child
Lette, Kathy - How To Kill Your Husband (and other handy household hints)
Lindsay, Joan - Picnic at Hanging Rock
Ludlum, Robert - The Bourne Identity
Ludlum, Robert - The Bourne Supremacy

M

MacInnes, Helen - Decision at Delphi
Malouf, David - Johnno
Marsh, Ngaio - Death at the Bar
Marsh, Ngaio - A Man Lay Dead
du Maurier, Daphne - My Cousin Rachel
du Maurier, Daphne - Rebecca
McInerney, Monica - Odd One Out
McLaughlin, Emma - The Nanny Diaries
Moore, C. J. - In Other Words
Moore, Lucy - The Thieves’ Opera
Morton, Kate - The Forgotten Garden
Morton, Kate - The House at Riverton
Mosse, Kate - Labyrinth
Mosse, Kate - Sepulchre

N

Neville, Katherine - The Eight

Lost? Confused? Read the Index Guide.

Authors O - Z

O

Orwell, George - 1984

P

Penman, Sharon - The Queen’s Man
Penman, Sharon - The Sunne in Splendour
Phillips, Graham - Alexander the Great: Murder in Babylon
Plaidy, Jean - The Goldsmith’s Wife
Plaidy, Jean - William’s Wife
Pryor, Francis - Britain A.D.

Q

R

Rees, Sian - The Floating Brothel
Rendell, Ruth - The Best Man to Die
Rendell, Ruth - No More Dying Then
Rendell, Ruth - The Water's Lovely
Rice, Anne - Blood and Gold
Richardson, William A. R. - Was Australia Charted Before 1606? The Jave la Grande Inscriptions
Rowling, J. K. - Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone
Rowling, J. K. - Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
Rowling, J. K. - Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Rowling, J. K. - Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
Rowling, J. K. - Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Rowling, J. K. - Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Rowling, J. K. - Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

S

Scott, Sir Walter - Ivanhoe
Sedaris, David - When You Are Engulfed in Flames
Selzer, Anita - Governors’ Wives in Colonial Australia
Setterfield, Diane - The Thirteenth Tale
Shakespeare, William - Antony and Cleopatra
Sheehan, James - The Mayor of Lexington Avenue
Shinn, Sharon - The Shape-Changer’s Wife
Simenon, Georges - The Blue Room
Singh, Simon - The Code Book
Smollett, Tobias - The Expedition of Humphry Clinker
Sobel, Dava - The Planets
Somerset, Anne - Ladies in Waiting
Spark, Muriel - The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
Stoker, Bram - Dracula
Stout, Rex - The League of Frightened Men
Styron, William - Sophie’s Choice
Summerscale, Kate - The Suspicions of Mr Whicher
Swift, Jonathan - Journal to Stella

T

Tartt, Donna - The Secret History
Tey, Josephine - The Daughter of Time
Tinti, Hannah - The Good Thief
Tóibín, Colm - The Heather Blazing
Tolkien, J. R. R. - The Silmarillion
Toltz, Steve - A Fraction of the Whole
Trollope, Anthony - Barchester Towers
Turgenev, Ivan - Fathers and Sons
Turgenev, Ivan - Liza
Tyler, Anne - The Accidental Tourist

U

V

Various authors - The Mammoth Book of Historical Whodunits
Various authors - Purr-fect Crime
Vidal, Gore - 1876
Vreeland, Susan - The Girl in Hyacinth Blue

W

Walters, Minette - The Sculptress
Waters, Sarah - The Night Watch
Weber, Caroline - Queen of Fashion
Weisman, Alan - The World Without Us
Wells, H. G. - The Time Machine
Wharton, Edith - The Age of Innocence
Willis, Connie - Doomsday Book
Willis, Connie - To Say Nothing of the Dog
Winterson, Jeanette - Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit
Wolff, Isabel - Rescuing Rose

X

Y

Z

Zafón, Carlos Ruiz - The Shadow of the Wind
Zusak, Markus - The Messenger

Lost? Confused? Read the Index Guide.

Titles # - G

#

1876 - Gore Vidal
1984 - George Orwell

A

The Accidental Tourist - Anne Tyler
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
The Age of Innocence - Edith Wharton
The Alchemist - Paulo Coelho
Alexander the Great: Murder in Babylon - Graham Phillips
The Alienist - Caleb Carr
Anansi Boys - Neil Gaiman
Antony and Cleopatra - William Shakespeare
Arabella - Georgette Heyer

B

The Bafut Beagles - Gerald Durrell
Barchester Towers - Anthony Trollope
The Best Man to Die - Ruth Rendell
The Big Over-Easy - Jasper Fforde
The Birth of Venus - Sarah Dunant
Bleak House - Charles Dickens
Blood and Gold - Anne Rice
The Blue Room - Georges Simenon
The Boleyn Inheritance - Philippa Gregory
The Book of Lost Things - John Connolly
The Bourne Identity - Robert Ludlum
The Bourne Supremacy - Robert Ludlum
Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding
Britain A.D. - Francis Pryor
Buried Treasure: Travels through the jewel box - Victoria Finlay

C

The Camel Club - David Baldacci
The Canterbury Tales - Geoffrey Chaucer
Cat o’ Nine Tales - Jeffrey Archer
Cider With Rosie - Laurie Lee
The City of Falling Angels - John Berendt
The Code Book - Simon Singh
The Collectors - David Baldacci
The Constant Princess - Philippa Gregory
Cousin Phillis and other tales - Elizabeth Gaskell
Cranford - Elizabeth Gaskell
Crazy For You - Jennifer Crusie
The Crimson Petal and the White - Michel Faber
Cross Stitch - Diana Gabaldon

D

Daisy Miller and other stories - Henry James
Daisy’s Back in Town - Rachel Gibson
Daughter of the Game - Tracy Grant
The Daughter of Time - Josephine Tey
The Daughters of Cain - Colin Dexter
Death at the Bar - Ngaio Marsh
The Decameron - Giovanni Boccaccio
Decision at Delphi - Helen MacInnes
Detectives and Young Adventurers: The complete short stories - Agatha Christie
A Doll’s House and other plays - Henrik Ibsen
Don Quixote - Miguel de Cervantes
Doomsday Book - Connie Willis
Down Under - Bill Bryson
Dracula - Bram Stoker
Dragonfly in Amber - Diana Gabaldon

E

The Eight - Katherine Neville
Ella Minnow Pea - Mark Dunn
Emotionally Weird - Kate Atkinson
Enigma - Robert Harris
Evelina - Frances Burney
Every Dead Thing - John Connolly
The Expedition of Humphry Clinker - Tobias Smollett

F

Fahrenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury
Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
Fathers and Sons - Ivan Turgenev
The Fifth Child - Doris Lessing
First Among Sequels - Jasper Fforde
The Floating Brothel - Sian Rees
The Forest of the Pygmies - Isabel Allende
The Forgotten Garden - Kate Morton
The Fourth Protocol - Frederick Forsyth
A Fraction of the Whole - Steve Toltz
The French Lieutenant’s Woman - John Fowles

G

The Girl in Hyacinth Blue - Susan Vreeland
The Girls’ Guide to Hunting and Fishing - Melissa Banks
The God Delusion - Richard Dawkins
Goddess of Spring - P. C. Cast
The Goldsmith’s Wife - Jean Plaidy
The Good Thief - Hannah Tinti
Governors’ Wives in Colonial Australia - Anita Selzer

Lost? Confused? Read the Index Guide.

Titles H - P

H

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone - J. K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets - J. K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban - J. K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire - J. K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix - J. K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince - J. K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - J. K. Rowling
The Heather Blazing - Colm Tóibín
The Hidden Man - Charles Cumming
The Historian - Elizabeth Kostova
Holy Fools - Joanne Harris
Hot Dish - Connie Brockway
The House at Riverton - Kate Morton
The House of the Spirits - Isabel Allende
How To Kill Your Husband (and other handy household hints) - Kathy Lette
Human Croquet - Kate Atkinson

I

I Knit Water - Craig Bolland
Imperium - Robert Harris
In Cold Blood - Truman Capote
In Other Words - C. J. Moore
Ivanhoe - Sir Walter Scott

J

Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
Johnno - David Malouf
Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell - Susanna Clarke
Journal to Stella - Jonathan Swift
Justine - Lawrence Durrell

K

The Key to Rebecca - Ken Follett
The King’s Women - Deryn Lake

L

Labyrinth - Kate Mosse
The Lace Reader - Brunonia Barry
Ladies in Waiting - Anne Somerset
The Lady and the Unicorn - Tracey Chevalier
Lady Audley’s Secret - Mary Elizabeth Braddon
Lady Chatterley’s Lover - D. H. Lawrence
The Last King of Scotland - Giles Foden
Last Seen Wearing - Colin Dexter
The League of Frightened Men - Rex Stout
Lean Mean Thirteen - Janet Evanovich
Liza - Ivan Turgenev
The Looking Glass Wars - Frank Beddor
Lord John and the Hand of Devils - Diana Gabaldon
Lovesong - Elizabeth Jolley

M

Madam Crowl’s Ghost and other stories - J. Sheridan le Fanu
Madame Bovary, C’est Moi - André Bernard
A Maggot - John Fowles
The Maltese Falcon - Dashiell Hammett
The Mammoth Book of Historical Whodunits - Various authors
A Man Lay Dead - Ngaio Marsh
The Man Who Knew Too Much - G. K. Chesterton
Mansfield Park - Jane Austen
Marley & Me - John Grogan
The Master and Margarita - Mikhail Bulgakov
A Matter of Honour - Jeffrey Archer
The Mayor of Lexington Avenue - James Sheehan
The Meaning of Night - Michael Cox
The Mesmerist - Barbara Ewing
The Messenger - Markus Zusak
Motor Mouth - Janet Evanovich
My Brilliant Career - Miles Franklin
My Cousin Rachel - Daphne du Maurier
Mythago Wood - Robert Holdstock

N

The Naive and Sentimental Lover - John le Carré
The Nanny Diaries - Emma McLaughlin & Nicola Kraus
The Night Manager - John le Carré
The Night Watch - Sarah Waters
No More Dying Then - Ruth Rendell
Nocturnes - John Connolly
North and South - Elizabeth Gaskell
Notes from a Small Island - Bill Bryson

O

Odd One Out - Monica McInerney
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest - Ken Kesey
Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit - Jeanette Winterson

P

Persuasion - Jane Austen
Picnic at Hanging Rock - Joan Lindsay
A Plague on Both Your Houses - Susanna Gregory
The Planets - Dava Sobel
Plum Lovin’ - Janet Evanovich
Plum Spooky - Janet Evanovich
Pompeii - Robert Harris
Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie - Muriel Spark
Purr-fect Crime - Various authors

Lost? Confused? Read the Index Guide.

Titles Q - Z

Q

Queen of Fashion - Caroline Weber
The Queen’s Man - Sharon Penman
The Quiet American - Graham Greene

R

The Rachel Papers - Martin Amis
Raising the Dead - Andy Dougan
Rebecca - Daphne du Maurier
The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
Rescuing Rose - Isabel Wolff
Rosy is My Relative - Gerald Durrell

S

The Scarlet Letter - Nathaniel Hawthorne
The Sculptress - Minette Walters
A Season for the Dead - David Hewson
The Secret Adversary - Agatha Christie
The Secret History - Donna Tartt
The Secret Life of Bees - Sue Monk Kidd
Sentimental Murder - John Brewer
Sepulchre - Kate Mosse
The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafón
The Shape-Changer’s Wife - Sharon Shinn
She - H. Rider Haggard
The Silence of the Lambs - Thomas Harris
The Silmarillion - J. R. R. Tolkien
Skylight Confessions - Alice Hoffman
Slammerkin - Emma Donoghue
Something Rotten - Jasper Fforde
Sophie’s Choice - William Styron
Stardust - Neil Gaiman
Stargazing: Memoirs of a Young Lighthouse Keeper - Peter Hill
Stone Cold - David Baldacci
The Sunne in Splendour - Sharon Penman
The Superior Person’s Second Book of Words - Peter Bowler
The Suspicions of Mr Whicher - Kate Summerscale
Sylvester - Georgette Heyer

T

Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
The Thieves’ Opera - Lucy Moore
The Time Machine - H. G. Wells
The Thin Man - Dashiell Hammett
The Thirteenth Tale - Diane Setterfield
Three-Act Tragedy - Agatha Christie
Three Comedies - Ben Jonson
To Say Nothing of the Dog - Connie Willis
To Shield the Queen - Fiona Buckley
The Tomb of Agamemnon - Cathy Gere
Total Control - David Baldacci
Twelve Sharp - Janet Evanovich

U

The Unbearable Lightness of Being - Milan Kundera
Under the Greenwood Tree - Thomas Hardy

V

The Vicar of Wakefield - Oliver Goldsmith
The Virgin’s Lover - Philippa Gregory

W

Was Australia Charted Before 1606? The Jave la Grande Inscriptions - William A. R. Richardson
The Water's Lovely - Ruth Rendell
Weeds in the Garden of Words - Kate Burridge
When You Are Engulfed in Flames - David Sedaris
William’s Wife - Jean Plaidy
The Woman in Black - Susan Hill
The Woman who Walked into Doors - Roddy Doyle
The Woodlanders - Thomas Hardy
Word Histories and Mysteries - Editors of the American Heritage Dictionary
The World Without Us - Alan Weisman

X

Y

Z


Lost? Confused? Read the Index Guide.

A grades

A+

Persuasion - Jane Austen
Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
Cross Stitch - Diana Gabaldon
North and South - Elizabeth Gaskell
Marley & Me - John Grogan
The Maltese Falcon - Dashiell Hammett
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban - J. K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince - J. K. Rowling
The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafón

A

The City of Falling Angels - John Berendt
I Knit Water - Craig Bolland
Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
Notes from a Small Island - Bill Bryson
Weeds in the Garden of Words - Kate Burridge
Rosy is My Relative - Gerald Durrell
Word Histories and Mysteries - Editors of the American Heritage Dictionary
Buried Treasure: Travels through the jewel box - Victoria Finlay
The French Lieutenant’s Woman - John Fowles
Dragonfly in Amber - Diana Gabaldon
Stardust - Neil Gaiman
Cranford - Elizabeth Gaskell
Daughter of the Game - Tracy Grant
The Thin Man - Dashiell Hammett
Far From the Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
Imperium - Robert Harris
The Silence of the Lambs - Thomas Harris
Stargazing: Memoirs of a Young Lighthouse Keeper - Peter Hill
Labyrinth - Kate Mosse
The Sunne in Splendour - Sharon Penman
Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone - J. K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire - J. K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - J. K. Rowling
The Code Book - Simon Singh
Dracula - Bram Stoker
The Suspicions of Mr Whicher - Kate Summerscale
The Girl in Hyacinth Blue - Susan Vreeland
Queen of Fashion - Caroline Weber
To Say Nothing of the Dog - Connie Willis
The Messenger - Markus Zusak

A-

A Matter of Honour - Jeffrey Archer
Emotionally Weird - Kate Atkinson
The Looking Glass Wars - Frank Beddor
The Decameron - Giovanni Boccaccio
Down Under - Bill Bryson
In Cold Blood - Truman Capote
The Alienist - Caleb Carr
Detectives and Young Adventurers: The complete short stories - Agatha Christie
Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell - Susanna Clarke
The God Delusion - Richard Dawkins
Bleak House - Charles Dickens
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
The Woman who Walked into Doors - Roddy Doyle
Something Rotten - Jasper Fforde
First Among Sequels - Jasper Fforde
Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
Enigma - Robert Harris
Pompeii - Robert Harris
The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
Alexander the Great: Murder in Babylon - Graham Philips
The Floating Brothel - Sian Rees
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets - J. K. Rowling
The Mayor of Lexington Avenue - James Sheehan
The Daughter of Time - Josephine Tey
The Silmarillion - J. R. R. Tolkien
Barchester Towers - Anthony Trollope
The Sculptress - Minette Walters
Doomsday Book - Connie Willis

Lost? Confused? Read the Index Guide.

B grades

B+

Fahrenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury
To Shield the Queen - Fiona Buckley
The Night Manager - John le Carré
Goddess of Spring - P. C. Cast
The Secret Adversary - Agatha Christie
The Book of Lost Things - John Connolly
Nocturnes - John Connolly
Crazy For You - Jennifer Crusie
The Daughters of Cain - Colin Dexter
Last Seen Wearing - Colin Dexter
Slammerkin - Emma Donoghue
Twelve Sharp - Janet Evanovich
Lean Mean Thirteen - Janet Evanovich
The Mesmerist - Barbara Ewing
Madam Crowl’s Ghost and other stories - J. Sheridan le Fanu
Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding
The Last King of Scotland - Giles Foden
My Brilliant Career - Miles Franklin
Cousin Phillis and other tales - Elizabeth Gaskell
The Boleyn Inheritance - Philippa Gregory
A Plague on Both Your Houses - Susanna Gregory
Arabella - Georgette Heyer
The Woman in Black - Susan Hill
Mythago Wood - Robert Holdstock
The Secret Life of Bees - Sue Monk Kidd
The Unbearable Lightness of Being - Milan Kundera
The King’s Women - Deryn Lake
In Other Words - C. J. Moore
The Forgotten Garden - Kate Morton
The Eight - Katherine Neville
1984 - George Orwell
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix - J. K. Rowling
The Thirteenth Tale - Diane Setterfield
The Shape-Changer’s Wife - Sharon Shinn
The Expedition of Humphry Clinker - Tobias Smollett
The League of Frightened Men - Rex Stout
The Night Watch - Sarah Waters
The Time Machine - H. G. Wells

B

Cat o’ Nine Tales - Jeffrey Archer
Mansfield Park - Jane Austen
The Camel Club - David Baldacci
Stone Cold - David Baldacci
Total Control - David Baldacci
The Lace Reader - Brunonia Barry
Madame Bovary, C’est Moi - André Bernard
The Superior Person’s Second Book of Words - Peter Bowler
Lady Audley’s Secret - Mary Elizabeth Braddon
Hot Dish - Connie Brockway
The Canterbury Tales - Geoffrey Chaucer
Every Dead Thing - John Connolly
Raising the Dead - Andy Dougan
Ella Minnow Pea - Mark Dunn
Motor Mouth - Janet Evanovich
The Key to Rebecca - Ken Follett
The Fourth Protocol - Frederick Forsyth
Lord John and the Hand of Devils - Diana Gabaldon
The Tomb of Agamemnon - Cathy Gere
The Constant Princess - Philippa Gregory
She - H. Rider Haggard
Under the Greenwood Tree - Thomas Hardy
The Woodlanders - Thomas Hardy
Holy Fools - Joanne Harris
The Scarlet Letter - Nathaniel Hawthorne
A Season for the Dead - David Hewson
Sylvester - Georgette Heyer
A Doll’s House and other plays - Henrik Ibsen
Daisy Miller and other stories - Henry James
Cider With Rosie - Laurie Lee
The Fifth Child - Doris Lessing
Death at the Bar - Ngaio Marsh
Rebecca - Daphne du Maurier
The Thieves’ Opera - Lucy Moore
Sepulchre - Kate Mosse
The Goldsmith’s Wife - Jean Plaidy
Britain A.D. - Francis Pryor
Antony and Cleopatra - William Shakespeare
The Blue Room - Georges Simenon
The Good Thief - Hannah Tinti
Liza - Ivan Turgenev
The Accidental Tourist - Anne Tyler
The Mammoth Book of Historical Whodunits - Various authors
Purr-fect Crime - Various authors
The World Without Us - Alan Weisman

B-

The Forest of the Pygmies - Isabel Allende
The Rachel Papers - Martin Amis
The Collectors - David Baldacci
Sentimental Murder - John Brewer
Don Quixote - Miguel de Cervantes
The Man Who Knew Too Much - G. K. Chesterton
The Lady and the Unicorn - Tracey Chevalier
The Bafut Beagles - Gerald Durrell
Plum Lovin’ - Janet Evanovich
Plum Spooky - Janet Evanovich
The Big Over-Easy - Jasper Fforde
The Quiet American - Graham Greene
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest - Ken Kesey
The Historian - Elizabeth Kostova
Lady Chatterley’s Lover - D. H. Lawrence
Picnic at Hanging Rock - Joan Lindsay
A Man Lay Dead - Ngaio Marsh
The Water's Lovely - Ruth Rendell
Ivanhoe - Sir Walter Scott
When You Are Engulfed in Flames - David Sedaris
The Planets - Dava Sobel
Ladies in Waiting - Anne Somerset
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie - Muriel Spark
Journal to Stella - Jonathan Swift
The Secret History - Donna Tartt
Fathers and Sons - Ivan Turgenev

Lost? Confused? Read the Index Guide.

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Header image shows detail of A Young Girl Reading by Jean-Honoré Fragonard, c. 1776