27/1/11 - Haruki Murakami - Norwegian Wood

My favorite book last year was probably Wind-up Bird - so I thought it was time to try Murakami's most famous book. And even though it is only January - this certainly looks like it will be my favorite for 2011. A beautiful love story set in the late 60 Japan - with student revolutions fizzing and fizzing out, free love. Why did it take him so long to go back to Midori - she was lovely from the start - he just had to get over his nutter girlfriend from before. Some very dark parts in the book for sure - but such lovely quirky characters all the way through. Oh - and a fair dose of free love too which lubricates the story nicely.

15/1/11 - Jo Nesbo - The Snowman

Father Christmas bought me this book - but the Book Depository mail was a little slow of the season - so it arrived late. Was it the new Steig Larsson? Maybe. Another gripping murder mystery - just couldn't put it down. Obviously set in the cold autumn in Norway - so rather a chilly edge. Pretty gruesome and sexy in places too. This is apparently the fifth in the series of books about Harry Hole - the detective - and certainly will not be the last one of these I read.

30/12/10 - Rosamund Lupton - Sister

Father Christmas gave this to Catherine - and she wasn't too pleased when I borrowed it while she was reading it - and couldn't give it back until I had finished it. It certainly pulled me into the mystery - I was desperate by the end wanting to know what had happened. I also felt a little home-sick for the sound of the song birds in spring and the frost.

28/12/10 - Joseph Conrad - Heart of Darkness

I've read it a few times - so nice to come back. So haunting - the mystery, even cult, of Kurtz. Then we hear so little from him before he dies. Loved the book again - but think I need to read it again - only a few pages about the horror and I think I missed their significance at the time. Excellent last words - 'The horror! The horror!' - beats 'Could you pass the mayonnaise'.