Musings of a South African Bookworm

sharing my love of books with a special focus on SA literature

1Q84

25 October.

3 months to go and then the new Haruki Murakami novel, 1Q84, will be published in English. Be still my beating heart! It is being published in two volumes, the first of 500 odd pages and the second of 250 odd. Ooh, something to get my teeth stuck into. It is rumoured to be his Magnus Opus and I am extremely excited to read it.

I thoroughly enjoyed Kafka on the Shore and have read most of what has been translated into English. A Wild Sheep Chase is also a particularly good one.

Check out Wikipedia for all the details, story line and publishers. I just wanted to share the exciting news with you all.

So who  is counting down the days?

(or wished they could read Japanese??)

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Apologies!

The Book Club Blog has been quite silent since our last give aways. First it was school holidays, then, we all got ill, well, me in particular, which is strange in itself as I don’t usually get ill, but for a week, there I was, stranded in my bed, luckily I had a few books to read when I had an hour where I felt awake enough to read;-)

 

So, I don’t have any give aways at the moment, but I thought, seeing as though it is half way through the year, HALF WAY!!!,  I would share with you the books that I have read so far. I am aiming for 100 books this year and I am pretty much half way, which is a good thing, though there is still so much to read and I am definitely on the market for a kindle. If I happen to end up going to the UK next year, that will be my first purchase….

 

So, back to books, here is my first half of the year books:

 

2011 January
1.  Helen of Troy – Margaret George*
2. Mr Toppit – Charles Elton
3.  Hindi-Bindi Club – Monica Pradhan
4.  Brown Owl’s guide to life – Kate Harrison
5.  The Sugar Queen- Sarah Allen Addison*
6.  Cloud Atlas – David Mitchell
7.  The Journey – Brandon Bayes*
8. Heart and soul – Maeve Binchy
9.  The Thirteenth Tale – Diane Setterfield*

February

10. The Cookie Club – Ann Pearlman
11.  After the Party – Lisa Jewell
12. Glitz – Louise Bagshaw
14.  The Devil you know – Louise Bagshaw
15.  The girl with the dragon tattoo – Steig Larson*
16.  The girl who played with fire – Stieg Larson*
17.  The Passage – Justin Cronin
18.   The Girl who kicked the hornets nest – Steig Larson*
19.  Dark Visions – LJ Smith

April
20  When God was a rabbit – Sarah Winman*
21  Time to smell the roses – Michael Hoeye*
22 Sin, Sushi and survival – Erla-Mari Diedericks
23 Under a blood red sky – Kate Furnivall
24  The girl who chased the moon – Sarah Addison Allen*
25 The Sisters Grimm – Michael buckley

May
26 Sepulchre – Kate Mosse*
27 Ants in the Big Onion – Annica Foxcroft*
28 The Flood -David Maine
30 For one more day – Mitch Albom
31 Garden Spells – Sarah Addison Allen*
32  Louise Bagshaw- Desire

June
33 Lucy Willow – Sally Gardner
34 The undrowned child – Michelle Louric*
34 Have a little Faith – Mitch Albom*
35 The Manservant Mysteries – Lee herrmann

July
36 Halo – Zizou Corder
37 The Winter Ghosts – Kate Mosse
38 The Game – Diana Wynne Jones
39 Garlic and Sapphires – Ruth Reichl*
40  Louise Bagshaw – Destiny
41  The Place of Secrets – Rachel Hore
42. Mini shopaholic –  Sophie Kinsella

 

The books with a star next to them I found were particularly great stories and the rest were good. I have a Jodi Piccoult book awaiting my perusal, she is not my favourite author but we will see how this book goes and I am eagerly awaiting an author interview with Kate  Mosse, I find her books very interesting and enjoyable, it will be great to get to know the author behind the books! Only two books I really really didn’t enjoy are the ones in bold. Have you read them, what were your thoughts?

 

So, what have you been reading this year, and anything which stands out?I am always looking for my next book hit, so please tell me what you have sunk your teeth into and enjoyed.

 

Happy reading all!

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Need something to read?

MY MOTHER KILLED CHRIST BUT GOD LOVES ME ANYWAY-Katie Roberta Stevens

Sent in by Katie Rickert

The title of this book caught my attention because it was a bit shocking.  However, after reading the Amazon description I was intrigued.  When I read the Prologue, I was hooked.  The writing was so powerful, I had to put the book down to catch my breath.  It’s the story of a girl raised by a mentally ill mother who thought she killed Christ.  But it is an inspiring, uplifting book.

This was the first time in 20 years that I read a book so well-written that I could not put it down and go to bed.  The beginning is tough to read, but in the middle I was laughing out loud.  By the end, I didn’t want it to be over.  The only bad part about the book was that it was over.

I highly recommend this book.  The writing was breathtaking.

 

Thanks Katie, for sending in the review,I have to admit to being very intrigued to read this book, the name, the review, so if any one else has read it, I would love to know if you found it as good as Katie did. This book only seems to be available on Kindle at the moment, so those of you with Kindles, go get yourself a new book to read!


 

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