pages: 368  published: 2011

 Tessa Leoni is a state trooper, she is married and has one daughter. Her husband is lying dead on the kitchen floor, three bullet wounds in his chest, her daughter is missing, and she is the prime suspect. Something doesn't add up and Tessa isn't being completely honest with the detective on the case. Is she playing the authorities or trying to find her own way out?

This was a pretty good read for a crime novel. Sometimes these kinds of plots are annoying because you know something is being hidden from you (the reader). And it feels like the whole book is just playing on that one piece of information that you are missing, but apart from that there isn't actually any story to tell, so its just way to get more pages in? and then you get to the end and you finally get to find out what the big secret is, and it's kind of a disapointment. And you think, gosh they could have told me that 150 pages ago. This one had a bit more twists to it. Also, interestingly enough, if I'm not mistaken this is a crossover book between two detective series. It is the 5th book of the Detective D.D. Warren series, and the first of the Tessa Leoni series. Yeah, that was a bit of a spoiler, but to be honest, it was kind of obvious from the start wasn't it??

pages: 192   published:1945

Linda is one amongst a number of siblings in a larger than life family in England in the early 20th century. This book is the story of her life, and her misfortunes in love.

I read a biography on the Mitford sisters a few years ago, that I found extremely interesting. So when I stumbled upon a reference to one of Nancy Mitford's books a couple of weeks ago, it sparked my interest. I had no idea what to expect, and to be honest I expected it to be hard to read and boring. It was quite the opposite. Very easy read, much more modern than I thought it would be. Wikipedia classifies this book under the genre: Comic Fiction. I would classify tihs as chicklit, but it's not anything like our modern chicklit. I guess there is the Victorian chicklit (Jane Austen), the modern chicklit (Marian Keyes) and then there is this ... "war chicklit"... I just don't know how to name it or classify it. It's the first book of its kind that I've ever read. I'm intrigued. And convinced. There are two sequels to this book, and they stand firmly on my TBR now.

What I really enjoyed about this book was the narrative style. The book is written in first person, but not through the eyes of Linda, although she is the main character, but rather through the eyes of her cousin Fanny. I enjoy this kind of prose rather than having a third-person, god-like narrative who knows what everyone is thinking, which I find sometimes doesn't quite manage to convey emotions well. And a first person narrative by the main character also lacks an outside perspective. The whole story ends up being really quite one sided. With a first-person narrative by someone other than the main character, you get outside perspective and judgement (whether good or bad) but also various views, since the narrator will relay other character's opinions too, which they would not have necessarily shared with the main character.

Pages: 323     Published: 2011

Lincoln's job is to read people's emails. But, only emails that get flagged to him because they contain a word that appears on a list. His job is to check whether the content of the flagged email requires him to follow up with a warning to the sender, to ensure that company policies are followed when it comes to communication via email and the use of the internet during office hours. Beth writes a lot of personal emails to her colleague Jennifer. They talk about their personal lives, their ups, their downs. Their messages get flagged a lot. But Lincoln doesn't have the heart to issue them with warnings. The contents are harmless, and truth be told, he's enjoying reading these emails... maybe a little too much.

Ok, this is another chicklit to add to my list. I enjoyed this one more than I did some of the other chicklit I've already read this year. Once again, the ending was a bit too easy, but this book wasn't as nearly as infuriating as some of the chicklit I've read before (see my review of Going Dutch). And this book is seen through the eyes of a guy, rather than a girl, which is a refreshing change too.

pages: 329    published: 2015

This is not a fiction. Jenny Lawson is happily married, has a healthy daughter, and a job. However, she suffers from anxiety, depression and whole load of other mental issues. But she deals with them one day at a time, having made the decision that every moment she is not suffering from an anxiety attack or a bout of depression, she will live to the fullest by being Furiously Happy. This book is simply extracts of her life, dealing with her mental issues.

I laughed out loud on numerous occasions when reading this book. It's hard to understand that someone with such a great sense of humour and imagination could suffer from depression and anxiety attacks, but that's one of the mysteries of mental illness I guess? In any case, this is a great book if you want to have a laugh and feel a bit more relaxed about life in general.

pages: 422     published: 2013

 Ruth lives on a remote island in Canada. One day, walking along the beach, she stumbles upon a plastic bag which she picks up, with the idea of throwing it in the bin when she gets home. But when she does get home, she realises that the contents of the bag may not be trash but treasure: a Hello Kitty lunch box containing a young Japanese girl's diary and old letters dating from WWII. We unravel the story of the young girl's diary alongside Ruth as she starts reading the diary and tries to decipher the old letters.

What a strange and peculiar book. I think I would have prefered if the story hadn't taken such a strange and mystical twist near the end. But other than that, an interesting storyline, that very well depicts and denounces the tough and sometimes unforgiving Japanese culture. I read quite a few negative reviews on this book, where people claimed that it was "not believable" for Nao (the young girl who wrote the diary) to have gone through such torments without alerting some kind of adult intervention. Unfortunately, and as crazy and unbelievable as it may sound, it is the case that a lot of violence and bullying happens in Japan, without adults intervening to put a stop to it. 

Pages: 352 Published: 2013

I really enjoyed this book. It's the story of Emily, a woman who is running from herself and everyone she knows, unable to cope with a traumatic event that has turned her life upside down. She wants to start over, to bury the past and forget. Needless to say that running away is never the answer.

***SPOILER ALERT*** If you want to read this book, don't read the rest of the review. ***SPOILER ALERT***

I was surprised to see that this book had quite a few negative reviews. A lot of the reviews did not appreciate the fact that the author led the reader into thinking that Charlie was Emily's son and not her dog. At first I wasn't sure why the author had decided to go with this deception. I didn't understand the point of it, it seemed counter-intuitive to create such a big misunderstanding. However, after giving it some thought, I find it quite clever. It goes to show that our minds are always interpreting what we see or read or hear. I never once questioned whether Charlie was a little boy. And yet, at the very end of the book, with one single sentence, the whole misunderstanding is cleared up and my vision became clear. I think there is a parallel here with the communication difficulties between Emily and her husband. I read other reviews complaining that if Emily and her husband had just communicated properly after their son's death, the whole book could have been avoided and they could have just kept on going with their lives. The "Charlie" misunderstanding underlines that it's not always that simple. Sometimes things seem absolutely crystal clear in people's mind and they are so convinced that they are correct, they don't even think to question it. I never questioned whether Charlie was Emily's son or not. Had I questioned it, yes, the misunderstanding might have easily been cleared up. Had Emily been less convinced of her guilt, of her husband blaming her for the death of her two children, maybe she would have tried to verbalise her fears. But she was convinced, so she reacted to what she truly believed to be the truth.

pages: 103    published: 1843

Who doesn't know this Christmas classic? Old Scrooge is a grumpy old man, who doesn't have the Christmas spirit. Until, one year, he is visited by the Ghost of Christmas past, the Ghost of Christmas present and the Ghost of Christmas to come. 

Although I've known this story since I was a child, I'd never actually read the original book by Charles Dickens. I'd had the story told to me as a child, I'd seen a movie version on TV, the usual. So when my 2016 "Year in 52 books" challenge prompted me to read a classic book with less than 200 pages, this seemed like a good choice. I enjoyed the read but I was overall a little bit disapointed. I guess I've already heard/seen so many variations of the story, that in the end, the original seemed a little bland, too easy, too short.

pages: 120   published: 2007

As she's walking her dogs, the Queen stumbles upon a mobile library. Feeling obliged to borrow a book, she does so, and quickly becomes engrossed by this new hobby. This does not go down too well with her entourage.

A short, easy read. Good idea for a plotline, but I was disapointed with how the author decided to go with this story. I wouldn't have gone in the same direction. Furthermore, despite it being a short book, I became bored quite quickly. Nothing much happens, except for the "big surprise" at the very end of the book (so much at the end of the book, that it's literally the last line of the book and that was a little disappointing too). This just felt like page after page of the Queen enjoying reading, and people disapproving, the Queen reading some more, and more people disapproving. Ok, got it. Didn't need 120 pages for it.

pages: 308    published: 2015

Charmaine and Stan live in a society that is seemingly struggling to get back on it's feet after some kind of economic crash. Jobs are scarce, life on the street is dangerous. Everyone dreams of a better life. When Charmaine sees an advertisement for a social experiment that promises a perfect life (a safe community, jobs for everyone), she convinces Stan that this is their best hope. The key to this social experiment? An alternate lifestyle, one month of freedom and happiness and one month of living in a prison cell...

I really enjoyed this book. For my 2016 "Year in 52 books" challenge, I had to read a book on the topic of a dystopia. I learnt that this term meant "a community or society that is undesirable or frightening". Funny that I didn't know this term, because I'm actually a HUGE fan of three books in particular that fall into this category: 1984, A brave New World, Animal Farm. These are three books that I think everyone should read. I'm adding "The heart goes last" to this list.

pages: 288     published: 2005

A snippet into the lives of five women and one man who decide to start a Jane Austen book club. Every month they read a different book by Jane Austen and meet to discuss. 

I think I would have enjoyed this book more if I had read more Jane Austen books. As it was, I kind of skipped over the book club discussion parts, which were probably the more interesting bits. The rest of the storyline is simple. Good for a summer/holiday read.