What Sho read in 2009
Created | Updated Dec 31, 2009
Updated on: 31st December 2009
Carrying on from 2007, and 2008 here's my reading list for 2009. (If you're interested, here is 2010.
I am currently reading:
Sharpe's Waterloo - Bernard Cornwell.
Started: 24th December 2009
2nd from last...
The Reader - Bernhard Schlink.
Started: 31st December 2009
Yet another of my Charity Shop purchases when I was in the UK in October. Pity, it seems it's translated from the German, usually I'd read the original but since I have it, i'll read this one.
So far this year I have read:
- Milo Talon - Louis L'Amour.
Started: 26th December 2009
Finished: 31st December 2009
~Kind of a Sackett because his old ma, Em, was a Sackett before she married. Not bad, if I need a cowboy fix I'll track down the others he wrote about the Talons.
- The Ship That Died of Shame - Nicholas Monsarrat.
Started: 19th December 2009
Finished: 26th December 2009
~A collection of (excellently written) short stories by the author of The Cruel Sea. Gruesome #2 bought it for me (for 20p) from Rare and Racy in Sheffield. One of my favourite shops in the whole wide world.
- Sharpe's Revenge - Bernard Cornwell.
Started: 5th December 2009
Finished: 24th December 2009
~3rd from last... I'd say this was the weakest, plot-wise of all the Sharpe books. Certainly it would be the last one I choose to read. - Hunting Unicorns - Bella Pollen.
Started: 14th December 2009
Finished: 19th December 2009
~Romantic comedy with a Wodehouse feel. Hmmm. I think I'll be the judge of that. (a charity shop buy, it was apparently a Richard and Judy summer read in 2004)
~Started life as an idea for a film. Goodness only knows, maybe Hugh Grant or Colin Firth were in mind for Rory... however. It was hilariously funny in places, sad in others and insightful elsewhere. Wishy washy cop-out ending.
- Bolt - Dick Francis.
Started: 10th December 2009
Finished: 14th December 2009
I've definitely read it before, but I can't remember any of it, which is great because it's just like a new one!
- A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens.
Started: 9th December 2009
Finished: 10th December 2009
I always forget how much I like his writing. Totally hilarious in places, great use of language. Indeed, I can't believe i've never read this before.
- The Shipping News - Annie Prolux.
Started: 26th November 2009
Finished: 8th December 2009
I didn't know this had won the Pulizer Prize. Strange writing.
- Sharpe's Siege - Bernard Cornwell.
Started: 24th November 2009
Finished: 4th December 2009
~And the next one. Ah, Sweet William. I like that character a lot. - The Legend of Sleepy Hollow - Washington Irving.
Started: 23rd November 2009
Finished: 29th November 2009
~And yet another charity shop purchase. Quite boring, nice writing thought. - Sharpe's Regiment - Bernard Cornwell.
Started: 11th November 2009
Finished: 24th November 2009
~And the next one. Not one of my favourites, mostly because I don't like the character of Jane Gibbons.
- The Borrowers - Mary Norton.
Started: 20th November 2009
Finished: 23rd November 2009
~As brilliant as I remembered it. Now I have to buy all the others (which I haven't read yet). - Stonehenge - Bernard Cornwell.
Started: 11th November 2009
Finished: 20th November 2009
~ound it in a charity shop so I bought it. Not one of his best.
- Dead Cert - Dick Francis.
Started: 28th October 2009
Finished: 10th November 2009
The first of his many many novels. Published in 1962.
- The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society - Mary Ann Schaffer and Annie Barrows.
Started: 8th November 2009
Finished: 10th November 2009
Set in Guernsey during the German occupation.
- Attention All Shipping: A Journey Round the Shipping Forecast - Charlie Connelly.
Started: 27th October 2009
Finished: 7th November 2009
~A charity shop purchase. I see from the cover it was a Radio 4 Book of the Week. Quite.
~Well written in the standard ex-journo sarcastic-speak. I'm going to look for more of his though, because I do like his style.
- Harlequin - Bernard Cornwell.
Started: 23rd October 2009
Finished: 27th October 2009
~First of the Grail Quest trilogy (which, I think, has now morphed into... a trilogy in 4 parts).
- Ice Bound: A Doctor's Incredible Battle for Survival at the South Pole - Dr. Jerri Nielsen with Maryanne Vollers.
Started: 15th October 2009
Finished: 22nd October 2009
~I read about Jerry Nielsen at the time her story first hit the headlines about 10 years ago. She died recently and in the obituary I discovered that she'd written about her experiences.
- Tripwire - Lee Child.
Started: 19th October 2009
Finished: 22nd October 2009
~Reading the Jack Reacher novels in any old order. This one, apparently, is number 3.
- Sharpe's Honour - Bernard Cornwell.
Started: 9th October 2009
Finished: 18th October 2009
~My obsession with Sharpe seemingly knows no end.
- Reading Lolita in Tehran - Azar Nafisi.
Started: 5th October 2009
Finished: 14th October 2009
~About a professor who resigns from Tehran uni and starts private lessons for selected students in the form of a book club instead.
~Definitely piqued my interest, not only to try the books on her reading list that I have not yet read, but to find out more about Iran - pre- and post-revolution.
- The Crowded Shadows - Celine Kiernan.
Started: 6th October 2009
Finished: 9th October 2009
~The 2nd of the Moorhawke Trilogy. And can I point out again that Celine is a friend of mine?
- Sharpe's Sword - Bernard Cornwell.
Started: 26th September 2009
Finished: 8th October 2009
And the next...
- Lonely on the Mountain - Louis L'Amour.
Started: 3rd October 2009
Finished: 4th October 2009
~The last of the Sackett Books. Apparently there are 2 short stories so I'll have to be a huntin' 'em down.
- Verblendung - Stieg Larsson.
Started: 17th Setptember 2009
Finished: 3rd October 2009
~Translated from the Swedish into German, i borrowed this off someone at work. The book thread aren't keen on this writer but so far I like it. (apparently the English version is called The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo)
~Too much description and detail that aren't needed. But not a bad story.
- Sharpe's Company - Bernard Cornwell.
Started: 20th September 2009
Finished: 25th September 2009
And the next...
- A Crowning Mercy - Bernard Cornwell (with Susannah Kells - actually that's the name under which he originally published it)
Started: 19th September 2009
Finished: 20th September 2009 - Gallow's Thief - Bernard Cornwell.
Started: 17th Setptember 2009
Finished: 19th September 2009
A stand-alone novel about a Regency period investigator. 2nd go at this and I really like it.
- Schattenpfade - Celine Kiernan.
Started: 31st August 2009
Finished: 16th September 2009
~Celine is a friend of mine, I read the Irish edition when it came out last year. Now I'm reading the translation to see what it's like (totally fab, and I can really see why reviewers etc are making the connection with Cornelia Funke)
- Sharpe's Battle - Bernard Cornwell.
Started: 8th September 2009
Finished: 16th September 2009
~And on with the next one...
~(suddenly discovered that I don't have the next one! HOW DID THAT HAPPEN?! so there will be a pause in all things Sharpe while I wait impatiently for Mr. Amazon to post it.)
- Sharpe's Escape - Bernard Cornwell.
Started: 21st August 2009
Finished: 7th September 2009
~The next one in the series...
- The Book Thief - Markus Zusak.
Started: 23rd August 2009
Finished: 30th August 2009
~That was beautifully written. Very strange in that often the narrator - Death - tells the reader what is going to happen, before it actually takes place. And even though I knew what was coming I still had a lump in my throat and a tear in my eye when it came. But it was totally, totally fantastic.
~Well this is a bit different from my usual fare, actually, but I'm totally enjoying it.
- Proof - Dick Francis.
Started: 21st August 2009
Finished: 22nd August 2009
~Having read Silks, recently, I checked my Dick Francis collection and discovered that I didn't have a copy of Proof which I know I've read (probably my mum's copy) so I got one. And now I have to read it. (there are a few more I don't own but I know I've read them too).
- Sharpe's Story - Bernard Cornwell.
Started: 20th August 2009
Finished: 21st August 2009
~The story of how Cornwell came to write the Sharpe series and a short autobiographical article. Produced by the Fan Club, no less.
- Sharpe's Gold - Bernard Cornwell.
Started: 18th August 2009
Finished: 20th August 2009
~It's a race. I am one whole book ahead of
and he has more opportunity to read than I do at the moment. 
!
- Sharpe's Eagle - Bernard Cornwell.
Started: 16th August 2009
Finished: 18th August 2009
~As far as I remember, this was the very first Sharpe that Cornwell wrote. When he went back to fill in the back-story, he started just before this one (with Rifles) then went back some more. Which makes some of the small details in the stories inconsistent. But I still love them.
- Sharpe's Rifles - Bernard Cornwell.
Started: 15th August 2009
Finished: 16th August 2009
~It was a mistake reading a Sharpe while I was on my jollies. Now I've started I just can't stop...
- Sharpe's Fury - Bernard Cornwell.
Started: 12th August 2009
Finished: 15th August 2009
Surprisingly it's only the 2nd time I've read this one. Currently it's the most recent of the Sharpe novels, but set back in 1811 so pretty early on in the Sharpe time-line.
- Sharpe's Enemy - Bernard Cornwell.
Started: 10th August 2009
Finished: 11th August 2009
~The Sharpe addiction strikes again! Enough already!
- Sharpe's Havoc - Bernard Cornwell.
Started: 7th August 2009
Finished: 9th August 2009
~Probably the best of them all.
- Silks - Dick Francis and Felix Francis
Started: 6th August 2009
Finished: 7th August 2009
~I haven't rated the last few Dick Francis novels, but this one was right up there with the best of his. I hope there are a few more to come.
~Coincidence alert: watched an early episode of Lewis (as in Morse's Sidekick) where the hotel where the barrister from Silks stayed was a large feature. It used to be a prison and looks pretty spectacular (and expensive).
- Hornblower and the Crisis - C.S. Forester
Started: 6th August 2009
Finished: 6th August 2009
~An unfinished explanation of what Hornblower was doing while the rest of the navy was at Trafalgar. Would have been brilliant.
~Plus two short stories Hornblower and the Widow McCool set early on in Hornblower's career and
~The Last Encounter set after his retirement.
- Dorfpunks - Rocko Schamoni
Started: 4th August 2009
Finished: 6th August 2009
~About growing up as a punk in northern Germany in the early 80s. Felt like parts of my life.
- Shakespere on Toast - Ben Crystal.
Started: 2nd August 2009
Finished: 4th August 2009
~A "how to read and enjoy Shakespeare" job, without dumbing it down. I'm keen to read King Lear again now.
- Stalin's Ghost - Martin Cruz Smith.
Started: 28th July 2009
Finished: 2nd August 2009
~The latest Arkady Renko novel.
- Wolves Eat Dogs - Martin Cruz Smith.
Started: 21st July 2009
Finished: 28th July 2009
~Tagline: Renko returns. Totally brilliant - can't wait to read the next one.
- Ride the Dark Trail - Louis L'Amour.
Started: 24th July 2009
Finished: 26th July 2009
~The 2nd to last of the Sackett novels.
- Young Hornblower: Mr. Midshipman Hornblower, Lieutenant Hornblower, Hornblower and the 'Hotspur' - CS Forester
Started: 10th June 2009
Finished: 21st July 2009
~First three books in one volume - I've decided to read all the Hornblowers in order this time instead of just a few.
~And, totally totally fantastic. Real page turners. Highly recommended as a companion set to the Sharpe novels - and (IMO) far superior to the O'Brian novels.
- The Day The Universe Changed - James Burke.
Started: 1st May 2009
Finished: 19th July 2009
~The book which accompanies his TV series of the same name.
~Totally fantastic, although it was a bit too much work for the ol' grey-matter at times. The series is available to watch on YouTube.
- Classic Collection 1 - Ray Bradbury.
Started: 14th March 2009
Finished: 19th July 2009
~About time I checked him out. Not as good as I thought it would be.
- In Bed With..: Unashamedly sexy stories by your favourite woman novelists - Various.
Started: 30th June 2009
Finished: 13th July 2009
~Supposed to be erotic fiction by 15 women authors. I am singularly unimpressed - I expected way way better sex than that. I've read better sex on Star Trek Fanfiction sites. Very very disappointing. In fact, I'm going to leave a review on Amazon for that. It really was a waste of trees, time and money.
- Treasure Mountain - Louis L'Amour.
Started: 11th July 2009
Finished: 13th July 2009
~Another of the Sacketts. Turns out there are 19 not 17 as I thought. (although I suspect that the 2 I had never heard of are short stories) Which means there are two I haven't read. Yippee!
- Tintenblut - Cornelia Funke.
Started: 6th June 2009
Finished: 12th July 2009
~Last in the trilogy. I've been putting off reading it because these novels are SO good, when this one is finished, that's it. Gone. There are no more.
~And indeed, it was most excellent. But now I'm sad because the story is wrapped up.
- Bath Tangle - Georgette Heyer.
Started: 5th June 2009
Finished: 9th June 2009
~A Regency novel, and it seems to be as excellent as the others.
~Easily as good as Jane Austen. I'm off to find more!
- Journey to the Centre of the Earth - Jules Verne.
Started: 21st May 2009
Finished: 5th June 2009
~I think I read this as a teenager but I can't remember anything about it, all memories are from some film from the 60s or 70s.
- Freakonomics - Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner.
Started: 30th May 2009
Finished: 3rd June 2009
~Interesting stuff - not sure I agree with all of it. And they seem like smug academics, which I don't like. But definitely a lead-in to looking at things slightly differently.
- The High Lord - Trudi Canvan.
Started: 24th May 2009
Finished: 29th May 2009
~3rd (and, in an original twist, final) installment of the Magician trilogy.
~Really good until the last chapter when it descended into poo soap-opera. I see she's now written a prequel - not sure I should try that.
- The Novice - Trudi Canvan.
Started: 22nd May 2009
Finished: 23rd May 2009
~2nd of the Magician trilogy.
- Moonfleet - JM Falkner.
Started: 9th May 2009
Finished: 20th May 2009
~Classic tale of smugglers, wreckers and those who try to catch them.
- Mustang Man - Louis L'Amour.
Started: 16th May 2009
Finished: 19th May 2009
~Next of the Sackett books - not many left now. Totally brilliant, as are the others.
- A$$hole - by Martin Kihn.
Started: 27th April 2009
Finished: 16th May 2009
~How to succeed in business and life by becoming one of those arrogant idiots we all hate. (reading this one in German)
- Hard Time - Lee Child.
Started: 27th April 2009
Finished: 9th May 2009
~Another Jack Reacher novel. Again I worked it out not far into the novel and the attempt at detail in the descriptions of the UK annoyed me. But I'll read more about this guy. - The Energy Bus - Jon Gordon.
Started: 27th April 2009
Finished: 1st May 2009
~One of those "improve your performance at work and in your private life" piles of tosh. It was a promotion present from my boss.
- Venetia - Georgette Heyer.
Started: 14th April 2009
Finished: 26th April 2009
~This is fantastic. I must be an ol' romantic.
- Tintenblut - Cornelia Funke.
Started: 15th March 2009
Finished: 25th April 2009
~2nd of the Tintenwelt trilogy. Totally brilliant - but the last few chapters made me cry.
- Fearless Fourteen - Janet Evanovich.
Started: 17th April 2009
Finished: 18th April 2009
~Totally ridiculous. Enjoyed it immensely.
- Ivanhoe - Sir Walter Scott.
Started: 16th February 2009
Finished: 12th April 2009
~One of my favourite novels.
- Lean Mean Thirteen - Janet Evanovich.
Started: 4th April 2009
Finished: 4th April 2009
~Number 13 in the Stephanie Plum series - one more to go.
- Twelve Sharp - Janet Evanovich.
Started: 30th March 2009
Finished: 1st April 2009
~Number 12 in the Stephanie Plum series.
- Eleven on Top - Janet Evanovich.
Started: 28th March 2009
Finished: 30th March 2009
~Number... duh... 11 in the Stephanie Plum series.
- Ten Big ones - Janet Evanovich
Started: 25th March 2009
Finished: 28th March 2009
~Number 10 in the series.
- To the Nines - Janet Evanovich
Started: 23rd March 2009
Finished: 25th March 2009
~Number... duh... 9 in the Stephanie Plum series. Four more to go.
- The Mill on the Floss - George Elliot.
Started: 1st March 2009
Finished: 15th March 2009
~I can't believe I've never read this as the two others of hers I've tried I've loved. And that despite the fact that Silas Marner was one of my O-Level set books!
~I didn't much like the ending - although the last chapter was better than I thought it would be. Also it hasn't put me off George Elliot. Which is good.
- Hard Eight - Janet Evanovich.
Started: 12th March 2009
Finished: 13th March 2009
~Number (duh!) 8 in the Stephanie Plum series.
- Life and Fate - Vassily Grossman
Started: 7th February 2009
Finished: 1st March 2009
~Robert Chandler has redone his translation and says it's better. This is a monster of a novel and I can't say I 'enjoyed' reading it (some parts were positively painful) but I'm glad I gave it a go. (War and Peace on the horizon, methinks)
- The Toll Gate - Georgette Heyer.
Started: 3rd February 2009
Finished: 15th February 1009
~An ex-Dragoons captain, a highwayman, a Bow Street Runner. Mix a dying local squire and his capable daughter and some dastardly relatives. Brilliant.
- The Magicians' Guild - Trudi Canavan.
Started: 1st February 2009
Finished: 7th February 2009
~Fantasy. Right up my street. Poor girl is discovered to have magic and is eventually taken into the Magician's Guild. There are two more to go and I can't wait to get (and start) the next one. That's a good sign.
- Dead Man's Footsteps - Peter James.
Started: 29th January 2009
Finished: 3rd February 2009
~A thriller that jumps around the timeline. Completely gripping.
- A History of Modern Britain - Andrew Marr.
Started: 3rd January 2009
Finished: 29th January 2009
~I'm interested in modern history and politics, and I generally like Andrew Marr. This was a birthday present from - Bad Luck and Trouble - Lee Child.
Started: 11th January 2009
Finished: 27th January 2009
~Another Jack Reacher novel (I bought it for for Christmas). Chugging along nicely, thank you.
~Slow start. Could have been cut down with good editing and not missed anything. But not too bad at all.
- Desert Flower - Waris Dirie.
Started: 5th January 2009
Finished: 11th January 1009
~I've been waiting to read this for a while - so far it's not as squicky as I thought it would be (which is good). It got a bit gushy and wearing and, frankly, unbelievable towards the end. But undoubtedly it has helped raise the profile for charities working towards eradicating FGM (Female Genital Mutilation) so you can't really complain.
- Flashman - George MacDonald Frasier.
Started: 27th December 2008
Finished: 5th January 2009
~I read Tom Brown's schooldays again so I could make a start on these. They were recommended to me due to my penchant for things like Sharpe and Hornblower.
~I'll definitely read more of these
- Krabat - Ottfried Preußler.
Started: 10th November 2008
Finished: 3rd January 2009
~Just seen the film which was great, now reading the book, which is much better.
~There's so much more to this than there is in the film - excellent stuff. I wish I hadn't put it down for so long, I think it would have been better in one go.
Missing in Action
Der Dativ ist dem Genitiv Sein Tod - Bastian Sick.
Started: 26th December 2007
Yes. It's a book about German grammar. It's fun. It's also currently lost which is why it's been on this page for about 3 years...
Officially given up on:
The Great Eskimo Vocabulary Hoax - Geoffrey K. Pullum.
Started: 5th October 2009
Officially gave up on: 31st December 2009
~Subtitled 'Irreverent essays on the study of language'.
~The title promises so much more than the horribly clever-clever dry academic prose the actual book delivers.
