nocto

Fab. I'll have to go back over my list of books but this is a leading contender for my best read of 2007 (not that I ever get around to the award ceremony). As with many of the best reads it was a book I wasn't at all sure I'd like when I pulled it off the library shelf.

Historical story of a Waterloo veteran muddled up with a present day (well 1976, does that count as historical yet?) story of a teenage girl. The paired stories fought for my attention and at the joins between them I was torn between wanting to keep on reading the half of the tale I was in and needing to find out what was happening in the other half. Extremely well written, I look forward to more books from Darwin, this is her first.

Borrowed.

Well, that didn't take very long to come up with a comic I really liked! It's billed as "the comic book to give to someone who doesn't read comics" and it did pretty well at fleshing out the characters (something I thought was missing in V for Vendetta). Will be searching out the rest of this series!

Borrowed.

First graphic novel I've ever read (lets not count all those feature length Bunty specials!) and I'll be back for more. This wasn't really my kind of thing and I found that because I'm not used to reading comics any more I forget to look at the pictures as well as read the text! But still, I'm willing to try something different, though I'll wait for Darren to recommend something he thinks I'll enjoy.

Borrowed.

Riding on the back of Taylor's recent successes (Richard & Judy books and TV adaptions) his publishers seem to have decided to reprint a couple of his old books. Which is good news for me as I've been hunting round second hand bookshops for his books for the past couple of years.

I loved this story. There's a quote on the back cover comparing it to Daphne du Maurier which isn't far off the mark. It's a very moody sort of story with an odd narrator, Thomas Penmarsh, who has lived all his life in the same house. He tells of his childhood with his cousin Esmond whilst in the present day he & Esmond are preparing for a visit from his daughter Alice. The story unfolds very slowly and atmospherically with some very sinister twists.

Highly recommended.

Purchased on 29th April 2007.