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What Was Lost – Catherine O’Flynn

‘What Was Lost’ was long listed for the Booker Prize in 2007, and won the 2007 Guardian First Book award.

The story begins in 1984, and is seen through the eyes of Kate Meaney, a ten year old girl who has set herself up as a detective agency with her pet monkey, Mickey. It continues 20 years later, when we discover that Kate went missing, and her disappearance is re-investigated by the few people who were close to her.

Kate’s section was completely absorbing. It took me right back to my childhood. I can remember being a ten year old girl, having the same sort of thoughts as her, and being obsessed with stationery too! It was amusing, well observed and quite moving in places.

The rest of the book wasn’t as good. The characters were flat, formulaic and not as accurately observed. The plot moved along at a fair pace, but I was craving the return of Kate for all the sections based in 2004. I was rewarded with a brief glimpse of her at the end, and was quite satisfied with the way it finished, but wish that Catherine O’Flynn had based the whole book on Kate’s life, as she was such an interesting character.

I look forward to reading more books by the author in the future, but hope the characters are as realistic as Kate’s.

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Top ten reads in 2008

2008 has been an amazing year of reading for me. Thanks to the Internet I have read many more great books than in other years. In fact about five of my all time top ten will come from books read (but not necessarily published) in 2008. In previous years, I picked books from the shelves of a bookshop, or library, based on the cover, and blurb on the back. I found some good books this way, but most were disappointing.

This year, thanks to sites like Story code, and through reading the recommendations of bloggers, with similar book tastes to me I have found a much higher quality of reading material.

My top ten for the year are:

1. A Fine Balance– Rohinton Mistry

2. Fingersmith – Sarah Waters

3. Random Acts of Heroic Love– Danny Scheinmann

4. Water for Elephants– Sara Gruen

5. Paperchase– Marcel Theroux

6. A Thousand Splendid SunsKhaled Hosseini

7. A Kestral for a Knave – Barry Hines

8. The Invention of Hugo Cabret – Brian Selznick

9. Middlesex– Jeffrey Eugenides

10. The End of Mr Y – Scarlett Thomas

Thank you for visiting my site in 2008! Have a happy, wonderful year of reading in 2009!

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Water for Elephants – Sara Gruen

Books Before Blogging Review

I finished this book about six months ago, and remember it as a beautifully written, well researched book, with a great ending.

It is set during the American depression, and centres around Jacob, who finds himself working for a circus after he is unexpectedly orphaned. Life in the circus is described so vividly that I feel I could recognize each individual animal if they were ever put in front of me.

The story alternates between Jacob’s life in the circus, and Jacob as an old man, living in a nursing home. It is very cleverly paced, and full of twists and turns.

This book transports you to another world. It has a cast of amazing characters, and a very satisfying ending, with a clever twist. You can’t ask for more in a book! Highly recommended.

Also reviewed by: Dreamy Bee

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The Rebel Angels – Robertson Davies


The Rebel Angels tells the story of four academics in a Canadian University, and how their lives are changed by the death of an eccentric art collector. It does not feel like a book in its own right, as it ends fairly abruptly, without covering many of the issues raised initially. It seems to be more like an introduction to the rest of The Cornish Trilogy. The pace of the book is fairly slow, but the writing is so rich that it doesn’t really matter. The characters are introduced gradually, but are all interesting people.

The plot is fairly minimal, but life inside the Canadian University is described well. It may not be strictly realistic, but it was probably more interesting than the real thing.

There were quite a few academic references, and some of them went over my head, as I’m not an expert in art/literature, but it didn’t detract from the enjoyability of the book, and I’m now looking forward to reading the rest of the trilogy.

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999 Challenge

I’ve decided to take part in the 999 challenge which involves reading nine books, from nine different categories in 2009. This is going to be a massive challenge for me, as I normally only read about 80 books a year, so making sure they all fit into one of the categories might be quite hard! I’m willing to give it a try though!

My nine categories are:

1. Books published in 2009

2. Books short listed for Booker Prize

3. Books short listed for the Orange Prize

4. Non – Fiction

5. Books in translation

6.  Books set in America

7. Books set in Asia

8. Books set in Europe

9. Classics

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To Be Read Challenge 2009

My ‘To Be Read’ (TBR) pile contains about 300 books at the moment, so this is a great challenge to force me to read a few that have been lurking at the bottom of the pile for a while!

The TBR challenge is to make a list of 12 books now, and then read them all in 2009 – the list CANNOT be changed after 31st December 2008.

My 2009 TBR challenge list is:

1. Going Out – Scarlett Thomas

2. Lamb in His Bosom – Caroline Miller

3. The Catcher in the Rye – J.D. Salinger

4. Half of a Yellow Sun – Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

5. The Stone Diaries – Carol Shields

6. When We Were Orphans – Kazuo Ishiguro

7. The Hiding Place – Trezza Azzopardi

8. The Secret History – Donna Tartt

9. Reading in the Dark – Seamus Deane

10. Outlander – Diana Gabaldon

11. Interpreter of Maladies – Jhumpa Lahiri

12. Things Fall Apart – Chinua Achebe

I’m not going to create an alternative list, as I do not want any excuse not to read any of the books on this list!