At the beginning of 2007 I decided to start keeping track of the books I read. I've been writing down titles, authors as well as first and last lines. I wish now that I had thought to write down exactly when I read them but maybe I'll try to do that this year.
So
I present in no particular order the good, the bad and the slightly embarrassing
...
2007
Alone by Lisa Gardner
Bestial by Harold Schechter
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Chart Throb by Ben Elton
Copycat by Erica Spindler
Death's Acre by Bill Bass and Jon Jefferson
Diary of Manhattan Call-Girl by Tracy Quan
Embers by Sandor Marai
Exquisite Corpse by Poppy Z. Brite
Fat by Rob Grant
Ghost Girl by Torey Haden
God is my Broker by Brother Ty with Christopher Buckley
and John Tierney
God's Callgirl by Carla Van Raay
Good Girls Do Swallow by Rachael Oakes-Ash
Goodnight Nobody by Jennifer Weiner
Haunted by Chuck Palahniuk
Hotel Babylon by Imogen Edwards and Anonymous
I'm Good Enough, I'm Smart Enough and Doggone
It, People Like Me by Stuart Smalley (Al Franken)
Jamaca Inn by Daphne Du Maurier
Just Another Kid by Torey Haden
Little Girls in Pretty Boxes by Joan Ryan
Masters of Doom by David Kushner
Of Time and Stars by Arthur C. Clarke
Plain Truth by Jodi Picoult
Rant by Chuck Palahniuk
Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier
Reflections From a Bookshop Window by Clive
Linklater
Salem Falls by Jodi Picoult
She's Come Undone by Wally Lamb
Sellevision by Augusten Burroughs
Shrouded by Carol Anne Davis
Sickened by Julie Gregory
Suffer the Little Children by Barbara Davis
Survivor by Chuck Palahniuk
Thank You For Smoking by Christopher Buckley
The Dark Fields by Alan Glynne
The Devil Wears Prada by Lauren Weisberger
The Fattest Man in America by Christopher Nicholson
The Last Juror by John Grisham
The Little Prisoner by Jane Elliott
The Madness of Adam & Eve by David
Herrdon
The Pact by Jodi Picoult
The Professor and the Madman by Simon Winchester
True UFO Stories by Terry Deary
What's Eating Gilbert Grape by Peter Hedges
With It - A Year on the Carnival Trail by Barbara Bamberger-Scott
2008
A Scanner Darkly by Philip K Dick
(New!)
Beam Me Up Scotty by Michael Guinzburg (New!)
Blind Faith by Ben Elton (New!)
I'm Not the New Me by Wendy McClure (New!)
Perfect Match by Jodi Picoult (New!)
Popcorn by Ben Elton (New!)
The Ghost Map by Steven Johnson (New!)
Walt Disney Hollywood's Dark Prince by Marc Eliot
(New!)
(More to come! Haven't been keeping track properly so there's quite a
bit of catching up to do!)
True UFO Stories
by Terry Deary
On this winter morning I see my first UFO
An empty sky … perhaps
The Little Prisoner
by Jane Elliott
When people talk about evil they are usually thinking of mass murders
like the fictional Hannibal Lecter or dictators like Adolf Hitler but
for most of us our actual encounters with evil are more mundane.
But despite everything I know I was right to speak out.
Suffer the Little
Children by Barbara Davis
The citizens of Oklahoma patiently suffered through the summer's blazing
temperatures waiting for the fall to bring in a welcome reprieve.
Instead, Melissa Marie Moody will remain forever in our hearts, forever frozen in time - forever eleven.
Sickened by
Julie Gregory
The part I hated most was the shaving
I pick up the phone and call Children's Services.
Exquisite Corpse
by Poppy Z. Brite
Sometimes a man grows tired of carrying everything the world heaps upon
his head.
Soon they were picked clean, their bones an ivory sculpture-puzzle shining in the dark, waiting to tell their mute love story.
The Last Juror
by John Grisham
After decades of patient mismanagement and loving neglect the Ford County
Times went bankrupt in 1970.
Eventually, slowly, with great agony I began the last obituary.
I'm Good Enough,
I'm Smart Enough and Doggone It, People Like Me by Stuart Smalley (Al
Franken)
All my life I've kept hearing the same things over and over again.
I'm only cheating myself when I do that.
Rebecca by Daphne
Du Maurier
Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again.
And the ashes blew towards us with the sale wind from the sea.
Diary of Manhattan
Call-Girl by Tracy Quan
Today I had the most embarrassing experience - with one of my regulars.
It's probably true of working girls too.
The Madness
of Adam & Eve by David Herrdon
One summer morning in 1879 a nine-year-old Spanish girl, Marie de Sautuoia,
was particularly excited.
We have not solved schizophrenia yet, but the progress made can provide guidelines for all.
She's Come Undone
by Wally Lamb
In one of my earliest memories my mother and I are on the front porch
of our rented Carter Avenue house watching two delivery men carry our
brand new television set up the steps.
I saw!
Embers by Sandor
Marai
In the morning, the old general spent a considerable time in the wine
cellars with his winegrower inspecting two casks of wine that had begun
to ferment.
But like every kiss, this one is an answer, a clumsy but tender answer, a clumsy but tender answer to a question that eludes the power of language.
Hotel Babylon
by Imogen Edwards and Anonymous
All of the following is true.
Come Monday morning I'll be back at my desk to do the whole thing all over again.
Ghost Girl by
Torey Haden
There are 152 miles between the city and Falls River and from there another
23 miles to Pecking.
The real Jodie's far too busy getting on with her life.
God is my Broker
by Brother Ty with Christopher Buckley and John Tierney
And the end of each chapter of this book you will find one of the seven
and a half Laws of Spiritual and Financial Growth.
Amen!
NOTE: This book has the best prayer in the world, one I cannot resist sharing with all of you:
Saint Thad's Prayer in Time of Tribulation
Lord, look down on me, a wretch, and grant that my suffering be even greater than my sins. Let the pain wrack my limbs. And when that pain is done, unleash an even greater agony. And when I think the worst is over, surprise me with unimaginable torments, so that on Judgment Day, my sins shall be paid for and all shall say "Truly this man knew pain."
Alone by Lisa
Gardner
He'd put in a fifteen-hour shift the night the call came in.
He stuck his hands into his front jacket pockets and headed home.
Reflections
From a Bookshop Window by Clive Linklater
I know there's a property slump but this is ridiculous.
Just a mantra I keep repeating to myself.
Of Time and
Stars by Arthur C. Clarke
"This is a slightly unusual request," said Dr. Wagner, with
what he hoped was commendable restraint. (From The Nine Billion Names
of God)
I do not think we will have to wait for long (From The Sentinel)
Sellevision
by Augusten Burroughs
You exposed your penis on national television, Max.
So when she leaned over, her left breast fell out.
The Pact by
Jodi Picoult
There was nothing left to say.
Chris tucked the note in the pocket of his shorts an turned away from Emily's house, thinking that maybe it didn't really matter one way or the other.
Shrouded by
Carol Anne Davis
The boy awoke - was wakened.
Bag swinging out before her, Marjorie broke into an awkward half-run.
Just Another
Kid by Torey Haden
It was a hodgepodge setup, that classroom not unlike the rest of my life
at the time.
It's the way I'll always want to remember things.
Jamaca Inn by
Daphne Du Maurier
It was a cold grey day in late November.
He laughed then, and took her hand, and gave her the reins and she did not look back over her shoulder again but set her face towards the Tamar.
God's Callgirl
by Carla Van Raay
I was born a Catholic girl child on 28 November 1938, at seven minutes
past four in the afternoon, in a little town called Tilburg.
For ever.
NOTE: The boo is pretty good but includes a scene worth mentioning: a rather graphic account of an epiphany she had whilst doing a poo. Worth reading for that alone.
The Devil Wears
Prada by Lauren Weisberger
The light hadn't even officially turned green at the intersection of 17th
and Broadway before an army of overconfident yellow cabs roared past the
tiny death trap I was attempting to navigate across the city streets.
And then, while the pretty brunette girl finished singing her verse, he buzzed me through like I was someone who mattered.
With It - A
Year on the Carnival Trail by Barbara Bamberger-Scott
The Crawfish Kid had a hell of a handshake.
For the first time since the season had started, years ago last spring, I was glad to be heading home.
Thank You For
Smoking by Christopher Buckley
Nick Naylor had been called many things since becoming chief spokesman
for the Academy of Tobacco Studies, but until now no one had actually
compared him to Satan.
Emotional issue.
Copycat by Erica
Spindler
The girl's hair looked silky.
Lots of time.
The Dark Fields
by Alan Glynne
It's getting late.
Then I look at the keyboard once more and, wishing the command had a wider, smarter application - wishing it could somehow mean what it says - press "Save".
Fat by Rob Grant
Grenville Roberts got out of bed.
They were all gone.
Plain Truth
by Jodi Picoult
She had often dreamed of her little sister floating dead beneath the surface
of the ice but tonight for the first time, she envisioned Hannah clawing
to get out.
Then I hurried down the stairs outside to where the world was waiting.
Haunted by Chuck
Palahniuk
This was supposed to be a writers retreat.
Starting on that sun-glorious day, the whole world is going to love us.
What's Eating
Gilbert Grape by Peter Hedges
Standing with my brother Arnie on the edge of town has become a yearly
ritual.
The sirens fill the air, the walls in Mommas room fall down in flames, and Amy says "Yes, Arnie, look at the lights."
Little Girls
in Pretty Boxes by Joan Ryan
The little girls marched into the Atlanta arena in single file, heads
high, shoulders back, bare toes pointed.
To close the lid is to close down that part of our soul that still wants to believe in beautiful princesses and happy endings.
Salem Falls
by Jodi Picoult
Several miles into his journey, Jack St. Bride decided to give up his
former life.
Her mind was already a million miles away by the time her father's moth settled over hers, sealing their deal once again.
Death's Acre
by Bill Bass and Jon Jefferson
A dozen tiny bones nestled in my palm: They were virtually all that remained,
except for yellowed clippings, scratchy newsreel footage and painful memories,
from what was called "the Trial of the Century".
Killers to catch.
Goodnight Nobody
by Jennifer Weiner
"Hello?" I tapped on Kitty Cavanaugh's red front door, then
lifted the brass knocker and gave it a few thumps for good measure.
"I've seen enough," I said.
Bestial by Harold
Schechter
We tend to think of serial murder as a symptom of our own alarmingly violent
age - and there's some truth to this perception.
There, in the early morning hours of Sunday January 15, 1928 it was received by Lillian Fabian and Mary Fuller, Earle Leonard Ferral's only mourners.
The Fattest
Man in America by Christopher Nicholson
I guess it's only right and proper if I begin with my name Mickey.
It doesn't signify anything at all.
Good Girls Do
Swallow by Rachael Oakes-Ash
When I am thin I will get a boyfriend.
Now all I have to do is swallow.
Chart Throb
by Ben Elton
Seven years from now.
At the current rate of expansion it is reckoned that by the year 2050 everybody in the world will either be a pop star or the subject of their own reality TV show.
Masters of Doom
by David Kushner
There were two games.
There was work to be done.
The Professor
and the Madman by Simon Winchester
In Victorian London, even in a place as louche and notoriously crime ridden
as Lambeth Marsh, the sound of gun shots was a rare event indeed.
It was the heroic creation of a legion of interested and enthusiastic men and women of wide general knowledge and interest, and it lives on today, just as lives the language which it rightly claims to be a portrait.
Brave New World
by Aldous Huxley
Chronic remorse, as all the moralists are agreed, is a most undesirable
sentiment.
South-south-west, south, south-east, east …
Survivor by
Chuck Palahniuk
Testing, testing.
Testing, testing, one, two -
Rant by Chuck
Palahniuk
Wallace Boyer (Car Salesman): Like most people, I didn't meet and talk
to Rant Casey until after he was dead.
Toni Wiedlin (Party Crasher) continues to participate in Party Crash events but denies all rumors that she's assumed the role of game organizer.
Beam Me Up Scotty
by Michael Guinzburg
My name is Ed and I'm a stupid stinking drug addict and alcoholic.
I need to hear myself say 'My name is Ed, God's beloved child and I'm
feeling guilty today.'
A
Scanner Darkly by Philip K Dick
Once a guy stood all day shaking bugs from his hair.
A present for my friends, he thought, and looked forward inside his mind,
where no one could see, to Thanksgiving.
Blind Faith by Ben Elton
Trafford said goodbye to his wife, kissed their tiny baby on the forehead
and began to unlock the various bolts and deadlocks that secured their
front door.
Trafford knew that natural selection would save the world, as it had done
before when other tyrants had tried to crush the human spirit, and that
one day the Confessors of the Temple would be extinct.
I'm Not the New Me by Wendy McClure
You need to be brave to tell it.
It keeps insisting here and I believe it.
Perfect Match by Jodi Picoult
We're in the woods, just the two of us.
'He needs us.'
Popcorn by Ben Elton
On the morning after the night it happened, Bruce Delamitri was sitting
in a police interview room.
They claim she should not have been taken into care and are suing.
The Ghost Map by Steven Johnson
It is August 1854 and London is a city of scavengers.
So let's get on with it.
Walt Disney Hollywood's Dark Prince by Marc Eliot
Walt Disney descended from a long line of crusaders, expert in the art
of self-preservation.
His genius, of course, was his ability to survive that kind of internal
wreck, and the make great art out of it.
