Category: Top Ten Tuesday

These are all books I loved and that transported me to a different time and place. I would love to experience the same magic and pleasure I had when I first read them. They include murder mystery novels that I would love to read again without knowing the identity of the murderer. Some of them I read many years ago before I began this blog and I’ve linked those to Goodreads (marked with an *), the others I’ve read more recently are linked to my reviews.

*Dissolution by C J Sansom – the first book in his Shardlake series. It is 1537 and Thomas Cromwell has ordered that all monasteries should be dissolved. Cromwell’s Comissioner is found dead, his head severed from his body. Dr Shardlake is sent to uncover the truth behind what has happened. His investigation forces him to question everything that he himself believes. I’ve read each one of the following books in the series as they were published – 7 books in total.

The Crow Trap by Ann Cleeves – the first book in her Vera Stanhope series. It has a very intricate and clever plot, with plenty of red herrings subtly masking the important clues. Vera is a great character and even though I do like Brenda Blethyn’s portrayal of her in the TV series, I prefer her as she is in the books –  a large woman in her fifties, who looks like a bag lady!

*Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier – with its memorable first line ‘Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again . . .‘ I first read this when I was a young teenager, this is the haunting story of a young girl consumed by love and the struggle to find her identity. She is never named in the book. It’s one of those book where I was totally immersed in the story, lost in the plot.

Blood Harvest by Sharon Bolton – a modern Gothic tale about the Fletchers who have just moved into a new house, but someone seems to be trying to drive them away – at first with silly pranks but then with threats that become increasingly dangerous. It’s full of tension, terror and suspense and I was in several minds before the end as to what it was all about.

We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson, a weirdly wonderful book, that sent shivers down my spine. The narrator is Merricat. She lives with her sister, Constance in a grand house, away from the village, behind locked gates, feared and hated by the villagers. Merricat is an obsessive-compulsive, both she and Constance have rituals that they have to perform in an attempt to control their fears. Four members of the family have died in mysterious circumstances. Just what did happen is only gradually revealed and Merricat is a most unreliable narrator. 

Atonement by Ian McEwan – It begins on a hot day in the summer of 1935 when Briony, then aged thirteen witnesses an event between her older sister Cecelia and her childhood friend Robbie that changed all three of their lives. Briony’s imagination takes over providing her with a version of events that may or may not be right. The film of the book is mostly faithful to the book, with minor alterations, except for the ending.

*An Evil Cradling by Brian Keenan – I read this sometime after 1995 and thought it was one of the most remarkable books I’ve ever read. It’s Keenan’s account of his captivity in Beirut by fundamentalist Shi’ite militiamen for four and a half years.

*The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco – historical fiction set in 1327. Benedictines in a wealthy Italian abbey are suspected of heresy, and Brother William of Baskerville arrives to investigate. He collects evidence, deciphers secret symbols and coded manuscripts, and digs into the eerie labyrinth of the abbey, where “the most interesting things happen at night.”

*The Lord of the Rings by J R R R Tolkien – I first read this when I was at school and have since read it a few times, but would love to read it now for the first time. It’s a fantasy epic that tells of the quest undertaken by Frodo and the Fellowship of the Ring: Gandalf the Wizard; the hobbits Merry, Pippin, and Sam; Gimli the Dwarf; Legolas the Elf; Boromir of Gondor; and a tall, mysterious stranger called Strider.

Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie – which one of the passengers in the Athens to Paris coach on the Orient Express killed the millionaire Simon Ratchett? None of them appear to have a motive for killing Ratchett or to have any connection with him or each other. It would be great to read it not knowing the answer.

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme created by The Broke and the Bookish and now hosted by Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl. For the rules see her blog. The topic this week is Titles or Covers That Made Want to Read/Buy the Book. I’ve tweaked the topic because neither the title nor the cover alone makes me want to read a book. It’s the content and/or the author.

So, my topic this week is Titles that are Taken from Song Titles/Lines. These are all from books I’ve read/want to read. They are all crime fiction.

The first six are Inspector Rebus books by Ian Rankin:

Let It Bleed by Ian Rankin – Rolling Stones – the 7th book in the series

Black and Blue by Ian Rankin – Rolling Stones – the 8th book

Exit Music by Ian Rankin – Radiohead – Rebus’s last case before he retired

Saints of the Shadow Bible by Ian ~Rankin – Jackie Leven, a Scottish songwriter and folk musician – Rebus is back on the force

Even Dogs in the Wild by Ian Rankin – Scottish group, The Associates – Rebus is on his second retirement, and then DI Siobhan Clarke asks for his help on a case as a consultant.

The Beat Goes On by Ian Rankin – Sonny & Cher. The Complete Rebus Short Stories.

All the Lonely People by Martin Edwards – Harry Devlin is a Liverpool solicitor. This is the first book in the series set in Liverpool. From the Beatles Eleanor Rigby.

Yesterday’s Papers by Martin Edwards – Rolling Stones – the 4th Harry Devlin book.

And finally two Agatha Christie titles taken from nursery rhymes:

A Pocket Full of Rye by Agatha Christie – from Sing a Song of Sixpence – Miss Marple investigates a case of crime of by rhyme…

One, Two, Buckle My Shoe by Agatha Christie – Poirot investigates the apparent suicide of Mr Morley, Poirot’s Harley Street dentist, who was found dead in his surgery, shot through the head and with a pistol in his hand. 

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme created by The Broke and the Bookish and now hosted by Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl. For the rules see her blog. The topic this week is Books I’d Want With Me While Stranded On a Deserted Island. There are so many books I’d love to have with me that I’d really, really want to have my Kindle and an endless battery that never needs recharging, but failing that I’d want these ten books, mostly long ones that I’ve read and would love to re-read:

•  Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen – I’ve read this many times, but each time I still think it’s wonderful. It’s a novel based on character, plot and is a study of society in the late 18th/early 19th centuries, but above all it is a love story.

• Bleak House by Charles Dickens – I first read this years ago after being captivated by Charles Dance as Mr Tulkinghorn, Gillian Anderson as Lady Dedlock and Dennis Lawson as John Jarndyce in a BBC TV production and have been wanting to re-read it. It’s about the obscure case in the Court of Chancery of Jarndyce and Jarndyce.

• Pompeii by Richard Harris. The story of the eruption of Vesuvius, destroying the town of Pompeii and killing its inhabitants as they tried to flee the pumice, ash and searing heat and flames. Harris gives vivid descriptions of the luxury of the town – its villas and baths – the corruption of its leaders, the poor living conditions of the general population and the savage cruelty shown to the slaves. 

• Bones and Silence by Reginald Hill, the 11th book in his Dalziel and Pascoe series. When Detective Superintendent Andy Dalziel witnesses a bizarre murder across the street from his own back garden, he is quite sure who the culprit is. But is he right? 

• The Sunne in Splendour by Sharon Penman – one of the best historical novels that I’ve read. It’s about Richard III from his childhood to his death at Bosworth Field in 1485. And it’s a long book, nearly 900 pages that took me a while to read it, but never once did I think it was too long, or needed editing.

• The Wolf Hall Trilogy by Hilary Mantel – I suppose I’m cheating here but these three books Wolf Hall, Bring Up the Bodies and The Mirror & the Light belong together as they trace the life and death of Thomas Cromwell, the blacksmith’s son who climbed to the heights of power in Henry VIII’s Tudor England. 

• Saints of the Shadow Bible by Ian Rankin. I think this is one of his best – a realistic and completely baffling mystery, a complex, multi-layered case, linking back to one of Rebus’s early cases on the force as a young Detective Constable.

• Lark Rise to Candleford by Flora Thompson – a trilogy of semi-autobiographical novels about the countryside of north-east Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire, England, at the end of the 19th century. I first read this years ago whilst I was recovering from a bad case of flu.

• War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy – I forgot that I don’t like reading about battles and war when I read this book, a vast epic centred on Napoleon’s war with Russia. Like all the other books on this list I loved it.

• Charles Dickens: a Life by Claire Tomalin – an immensely detailed biography, that brings Dickens, his books, his work for the poor, downtrodden and ill-treated, and his world to life. It’s a ‘warts and all’ biography; nothing is left out.

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme created by The Broke and the Bookish and now hosted by Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl. For the rules see her blog. The topic this week is Book titles that are questions.

These are all books that I own. I’ve read the first six:

Why Didn’t They Ask Evans? by Agatha Christie, a standalone mystery about a dying man found at the bottom of a cliff whose last words were Why didn’t they ask Evans?

N or M? (Tommy and Tuppence 3) following the publication of N or M? Agatha Christie was investigated by MI5 because she had named one of the characters ‘Major Bletchley’ and MI5 suspected she had a spy in Britain’s undercover code breaking centre, Bletchley Park.

When Will There Be Good News? by  Kate Atkinson, this is a case of bad news all round, beginning when six year old Joanna witnesses the murder of her mother, older sister and baby brother.  It goes from bad to worse.

Who Killed Ruby? by Camilla Way, Ruby was murdered 32 years ago, but her killer was never found. This is a tense and emotional mystery that kept me guessing to the very end.

Did You See Melody? by Sophie Hannah, Melody was seven when she disappeared and although her body had not been discovered her parents were tried and found guilty of murdering her. But is Melody dead or not?

Is Anybody Up There? by Paul Arnott. This is easy reading, with information about a number of religious beliefs, but it’s not very enlightening. It’s more a biography or memoir than an exploration of why Paul Arnott calls himself a devout sceptic. 

These four books are TBRs, most of them books I’d forgotten I’d bought, and found buried deep within my Kindle:

Whose Body? by Dorothy L Sayers – the first of her Lord Peter Wimsey books, first published in 1923. Wimsey investigates the mystery of the corpse in the bath.

Can You See Me? by Lynne Lee, her first psychological thriller. Julia, a doctor grieving the death of her husband, worries about her daughter’s reaction.

Who Pays the Piper? by Patricia Wentworth, an Inspector Ernest Lamb murder mystery in a quiet English village, first published in 1940.

You Talkin’ to Me: Rhetoric from Aristotle to Obama? by Sam Leith in which he defines rhetoric and looks its history. Along the way, he tells the stories of its heroes and villains, from Cicero and Erasmus, to Hitler, Obama – and Gyles Brandreth.