UPDATE: I have now read all of these books – read my thoughts here.
Richard and Judy have revealed the eight books to make it into their new book club:
Operation Mincemeat – Ben Macintyre
A Place of Secrets – Rachel Hore
Waiting for Columbus – Thomas Trofimuk
The Crying Tree – Naseem Rakha
My initial thoughts are that this is a fantastic selection of books!
I’m a bit sad that I haven’t read any yet, but half are already in my sights. I was very impressed by the sounds of The Snowman, but decided that I wanted to start the series at the beginning. I even had The Redbreast
I’m also gutted that I haven’t already read The Wilding. It was one of only three books from the Orange long list that I didn’t read. I’m kicking myself for not completing the list now!
I have heard wonderful things about The Crying Tree and Waiting for Columbus. These two books appeal to me most, so I think I’ll grab copies as soon as I can.
I haven’t heard of the others before, but look forward to finding out more about them.
What do you think of the list?
Have you read any of the books?
For more information about the Book Club visit Richard and Judy’s website.
44 replies on “The 2010 Richard and Judy Book Club Selection Revealed….”
[…] UPDATE: The eight Richard and Judy books have been revealed. […]
I haven’t read any, I’ve heard of No and Me (interesting title!) and a few of the covers in that list catch my eye. It’s the way it’s created but the Place Of Secrets makes me think of The Secret Garden so just for that I’ll have to look out for it.
The Wilding most appeals from the cover, so it’s nice to hear it made the Orange list, makes me want to read about it earlier than I might have.
Charlie, I hadn’t heard of No and Me before I saw it on the list, but agree that it is an interesting title – I am very tempted to read it just to discover the meaning behind the title 🙂
You are right about The Place of Secrets looking like The Secret Garden. It also reminds me of The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton – a former R&J author.
It does look a good list doesn’t it and very clever of WHS to get first dibs on it – they must have got more alert marketing people than when I worked there back when the first Richard & Judy Book Club was launched: then we kept getting people coming in to buy books from their list and had no idea what they were talking about because head office hadn’t got around to sending advance information about it around to the shops and none of us in the book department had seen the programme because we were all at work at the time!
I read The Redbreast earlier this year and was very impressed so if R&J picking the latest means that all the earlier ones will become available again it will be great! I think that I will still try and read them in order, just in case Jo Nesbo is the sort of writer who refers back to previous cases – there is nothing more irritating than getting into a crime novel or thriller only to discover that you already know how it ends because the author gave the game away in another of the series!
I have read Operation Heartbreak by Duff Cooper (published by Persephone) which is a fictional version of the story of Operation Mincemeat, so it will be interesting to read the real story but other than The Wilding, I haven’t heard of any of the others so will be interested to have a closer look at them.
LizF, LOL! Thanks for the insight into WHS 🙂 It is a fantastic deal for them and I hope it goes well.
I hadn’t heard of Operation Heartbreak. Thanks for bringing it to my attention – if I love Operation Mincemeant then I’ll seek it out.
I’ve just spotted that I bought a copy of Redbreast so now I’m even more confused as to which to read first!! I’m sure they’re both wonderful.
you can get all the books at amazon for half price plus free delivery!
S Peach, I didn’t realise they’d started to do them all half price – WHS won’t like that 😉 Thanks for the tip 🙂
I don’t mind reading crime novels out of sequence. It’s not always guaranteed that they’re translated in sequence anyway.
Nesbo is fantastic, btw.
lizzysiddal, I worry that I’ll miss out on some of main character’s plot development, but Redbreast isn’t the first in the series anyway so I guess all that is lost in the first ones which haven’t even been translated into English (yet – hopefully they will now!) I’m pleased that you enjoy Nesbo. Hopefully that means I will too 🙂
The only book on the list that I have read is Waiting for Columbus, which got some rave reviews from other bloggers. Sadly, it didn’t live up to the hype for me, but I think it would be a great book for discussion!
Stephanie, Sorry to hear that you didn’t love it as much as others have – either way I enjoy a good discussion, so I look forward to reading it.
This looks great – three of these were on my to-read shelf already and the others look interesting. And even better, Smith’s is the ony bookshop in the village where I live! (Though I have to say the window display there is guaranteed to put off any genuine bookaholic)
Deborah, It must be nice to have such easy access to these books. My nearest WHS is about 5 miles away – in a town I only visit about 6 times a year. It is a shame I won’t be able to admire the R&J displays for a while, but I’m sure I’ll get the books some other way 😉
I started reading Jo Nesbo from The Snowman and only later have I read the earlier novels. There is a trilogy, so called Oslo trilogy, which should be read in the correct order, but The Snowman is not part of it. Still, there is some information about the private life of the main character in the Snowman which probably should be read in the correct order, but no spoilers about the criminal cases from the previous books.
padma, Thanks for letting me know that I will miss things about the main character. I thought that might be the case and so I’ll ensure I read them in order.
I was sort of stoked to join with you Jackie in following this book club, but now I am a bit put off. Waiting for Columbus? Really? I read it earlier this year and expected great things from it. It came it pretty darn close to being the worst book I have ever read. Having not heard of any of the others on this list, I am a bit leery now. Are you sure this pair knows how to pick books?
Robbie, Oh no! I had only seen good things about Waiting for Columbus before today. The worst book ever? Wow! That almost makes me want to read it now just so I can find out why!! I love books that divide opinion. I’m going to read it soon 🙂
What a fantastic list. I’ve got The Wilding on my bedside table waiting for me to pick up the rest of the Orange longlist, but so many of these books look wonderful! I hope you read them all so I can pick your brain about them!
Carrie, I’m hoping that The Wilding will be fairly easy to find since it has already been on the Orange list. I hope that you enjoy it 🙂
Although it is almost against Danish nature not having read any of Nesbø’s books (they are quite famous here, also because they are almost Danish), I am still not sure I want to. I definitely keep hearing great things about them, and since I like mysteries and thrillers, I don’t know why I don’t want to read them. Everyone say they are fab 🙂
List looks great!
Louise, It sounds as though we should both read our first Nesbo 🙂
Interesting list! I haven’t heard of all of them, but have heard of Nesbo, of course, and Waiting for Columbus was the book Rebecca called a mindf**k. I am in awe of your positive attitude towards conquering all of these lists!
Sandy, I’m not planning to read the entire list. I’ll read a few and see wht the R&J book club experience is like. I’m really hoping it will be as good as before and if that is the case I might end up reading them all, but no crazy time limits to this list reading!
Operation Mincement piqued my interest when I first heard about it and I’m really pleased that R&J have picked it as it will have a much wider audience now, it just sounds so implausible and wonderful!
I won The Snowman a few months ago but haven’t yet got round to reading it. Think I’ll move it up the list now.
Carole, I haven’t read a WWII spy story before so I’m not sure if that means I should jump to read Operation Mincemeat or be cautious with it – I can’t decide whether I’d enjoy it. Perhaps that is just a good reason to give it a try 🙂
Looks like a great list. I’ve only read Waiting for Columbus (which I LOVED). I’ll be watching for the rest of them.
Amy, It is good to hear that you enjoyed Waiting for Columbus too. I’m going to try to read it soon 🙂
[…] up with WHSmith and you can find more about that on their site. And Farm Lane Books Blog has the covers, links to Amazon and initial thoughts on her blog. Though the only one that’s grabbed me is The Snowman, which I’ve had in […]
We need Richard and Judy over here in the States. What a fantastic list and such fun to participate in a big book club like this. If we have something similar to this over here, I am not aware of it. I’ll look forward to your thoughts on these.
Kathleen, The good news is that R&J are doing their book club on the Internet this year. All the video clips/reviews etc will be on their website (link above) so it doesn’t matter where in the world you live 🙂
I have only heard of A Place of Secrets, because I had my eye on it to buy a couple of weeks ago and Waterstones did not have it. Am I allowed to say Waterstones on here when R&J are in with Smiths!
Anyway, defintiely and interesting list and will seek some of them out and also keep track of others who do.
I am posting about R&J on my blog probably tomorrow now!
Jo, You can say Waterstones as often as you like on my blog 🙂
I haven’t heard of A Place of Secrets before. I hope that you read it and let me know if it is worth me reading.
I look forward to your R&J post 🙂
Nesbo has been on my TBR for a long time!
Lydia, This has pushed him closer to the top of my reading pile 🙂
The only one I read was “Waiting for Columbus.” I think you’ll really really like it.
Great news 🙂
I think it’s an interesting selecting too since half of these books are also on my Wishlist. A palace of secrets looks gorgeous
Violet, It does seem very promising. I just hope they are as good as they look 🙂
I’ve read No and Me and I thought it was brilliant, this is a good list though, I keep hearing very good things about The Place of Secrets.
Dot, You’re the first person I’ve seen who has read No and Me. I’m so pleased that you enjoyed it 🙂
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