Title: Persuasion

Author: Jane Austen

Started Reading: 12 September 2008

Finished Reading: Sometime in October 2008

Synopsis: At twenty-seven, Anne Elliot is no longer young and has few romantic prospects. Eight years earlier, she had been persuaded by her friend Lady Russell to break off her engagement to Frederick Wentworth, a handsome naval captain with neither fortune nor rank. What happens when they encounter each other again is movingly told in Jane Austen’s last completed novel. Set in the fashionable societies of Lyme Regis and Bath, “Persuasion” is a brilliant satire of vanity and pretension, but, above all, it is a love story tinged with the heartache of missed opportunities. (amazon.co.uk)

Verdict: This wasn’t my favourite Austen book, but neither was it my least favourite. I foud Anne Elliot endearing as we joined her thoughts and events that lead her back to Mr Wentworth.

Title: The Handmaid’s Tale

Author: Margaret Atwood

Started Reading: 4 September 2008

Finished Reading: 12 September 2008

Synopsis: The Republic of Gilead offers Offred only one function: to breed. If she deviates, she will, like dissenters, be hanged at the wall or sent out to die slowly of radiation sickness. But even a repressive state cannot obliterate desire – neither Offred’s nor that of the two men on which her future hangs… (amazon.co.uk)

Verdict:

Title: What Would Buffy Do?

Author: Jana Riess

Started Reading: 28 May 2008

Finished Reading: 12 September 2008

Synopsis: What Would Buffy Do? explores the fascinating spiritual, religious, and mythological ideas of television’s hit series Buffy the Vampire Slayer–from apocalypse and sacrifice to self-reliance, redemption, and the need for humor when fighting our spiritual battles. (amazon.co.uk)

Title: A Long Way Down

Author: Nick Hornby

Started Reading: 25 August 2008

Finished Reading: 6 September 2008

Synopsis: ’Can I explain why I wanted to jump off the top of a tower block?’ For disgraced TV presenter Martin Sharp the answer’s pretty simple: he has, in his own words, pissed his life away’. And on New Year’s Eve, he’s going to end it all. But not, as it happens, alone. Because first single-mum Maureen, then eighteen-year-old Jess and lastly American rock-god JJ turn up and crash Martin’s private party. They’ve stolen his idea, but brought their own reasons. Yet it’s hard to jump when you’ve got an audience queuing impatiently behind you. A few heated words and some slices of cold pizza later, and these four strangers are suddenly allies. But is their unlikely friendship a good enough reason to carry on living? (amazon.co.uk)

Verdict: Told by 4 very different characters, this story is at sometimes warm, sad and a little odd.

Title: Katherine

Author: Anya Seton

Started Reading: 14 August 2008

Finished Reading: 30 August 2008

Synopsis: Love story of John of Gaunt and Katherine Swynford

Verdict: Captivating characters. A fascinating tale of love, honour and heartache.

Title: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time

Author: Mark Haddon

Started Reading: 19 August 2008

Finished Reading: 21 August 2008

Synopsis: Christopher is an intelligent youth who lives in the functional hinterland of autism–every day is an investigation for him because of all the aspects of human life that he does not quite get. When the dog next door is killed with a garden fork, Christopher becomes quietly persistent in his desire to find out what has happened and tugs away at the world around him until a lot of secrets unravel messily. (amazon.co.uk)

Verdict: A heart-warming and engaging story. Christopher is a character that can be empathised with and admired. Living in his world world for a short time, was a breath of fresh air and a truly enjoyable experience.

Title: Breaking Dawn

Author: Stephenie Meyer

Started Reading: 10 August 2008

Finished Reading: 11 August 2008

Synopsis: To be irrevocably in love with a vampire is both fantasy and nightmare woven into a dangerously heightened reality for Bella Swan. Pulled in one direction by her intense passion for Edward Cullen, and in another by her profound connection to werewolf Jacob Black, she has endured a tumultuous year of temptation, loss and strife to reach the ultimate turning point. Her imminent choice to either join the dark but seductive world of immortals or pursue a fully human life has become the thread from which the fate of two tribes hangs. Now that Bella has made her decision, a startling chain of unprecedented events is about to unfold with potentially devastating and unfathomable consequences. (amazon.co.uk)

Verdict: Each book in the Twilight series became my favourite (of said series) after reading it, so hopes were high for this, the last from Bella’s perspective. Hopes weren’t dashed, but were left a little deflated. We get a new narrator for the middle section of the book and I just didn’t like some of the plot points, but I was still rivited to find out how the story would end and overall felt it a satisfying ending to the series.

So, having just moved, I sorted through books and decided which ones I’d like to read over the next (school) year:

• Sepulchre by Kate Mosse
• Villete by Charlotte Bronte
• Shirley by Charlotte Bronte
• Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer
• Katherine by Anya Seton
• Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie 
• The Dream of Scipio by Iain Pears
• The Woman Warrior by Maxine Kingston
• The Sixth Wife by Susannah Dunn
• The Curious Incident of the Dog and the Night Time by Mark Haddon
• A Long Way Down by Nick Hornby
• The Power and the Glory by Graeme Greeene
• A River Runs Through It by Norman Maclean
• A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
• The Glass Palace by Amitar Ghosh
• Notes From An Exhibition by Patrick Gale
• The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova
• Persuasion by Jane Austen
• Life of Pi by Yann Martel
• The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan
• The Seven Daughters of Eve by Bryan Sykes
• The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood

Title: Animal Farm

Author: George Orwell

Started Reading: 13 July 2008

Finished Reading: 16 July 2008

Synopsis: ‘It is the history of a revolution that went wrong-and of the excellent excuses that were forthcoming at every step for the perversion of the original doctrine,’ wrote George Orwell for the first edition of Animal Farm in 1945. His simple and tragic fable, telling of what happens when the animals drive out Mr Jones and attempt to run the farm themselves, has since become a world-famous classic of English prose. ‘Surely the most important fictional satire to be written in twentieth-century Britain’ Malcolm Bradbury (amazon.co.uk)

Verdict: A good quick read that had me fascinated from the beginning. A fascinating look at how seemingly good ideals can alter over time and how greed and power are all corrupting. Can’t believe it took me so long to read this, but very glad I have!

Title: Eclipse

Author: Stephenie Meyer

Started and Finished Reading: June 2008

Synopsis: ‘Bella?’ Edward’s soft voice came from behind me. I turned to see him spring lightly up the porch steps, his hair windblown from running. He pulled me into his arms at once, and kissed me again. His kiss frightened me. There was too much tension, too strong an edge to the way his lips crushed mine – like he was afraid we had only so much time left to us. As Seattle is ravaged by a string of mysterious killings and a malicious vampire continues her quest for revenge, Bella once again finds herself surrounded by danger. In the midst of it all, she is forced to choose between her love for Edward and her friendship with Jacob – knowing that her decision has the potential to ignite the ageless struggle between vampire and werewolf. With her graduation approaching, Bella has one more decision to make: life or death. But which is which? (amazon.co.uk)

Verdict: Could Meyer produce a third book in the series that had me reading night and day? Yes, she could. It turned out to be my favourite of the Twilight series so far. The relationships more complicated, the plot more exciting. As soon as I’d finished it, I read it again!