December Books
*NEWSFLASH* December book review is up on 2nd day of January – very quick for me haha!! 
Perfume by Patrick Suskind
Source – Sent by Charis. I remember hearing about this book and the film as well but I had never read it. It was a little disturbing and gruesome in places but I really did enjoy it. I have always been interested in perfumes and scents so it was good to read a book about them. I wonder should I watch the film, is it worth it?? 4/5
The Shops by India Knight
Source – library, picked at random. I liked the cover of the book and I recognised the author’s name so I thought I would give it a go. It is not a novel but an account of the author’s experiences with shopping throughout her life and lists of the best places she has found to buy all number of different items. Most of the recommendations are in London however. A nice easy companionable read. I think I would like to try reading some of her ”proper” novels. 2.5/5
The Drowning Girl by Margaret Leroy
Source - bought in Home Bargains for 39p months and months ago! I picked this up a) because I liked the cover and b) because it was only 39p lol! I assumed it would be pretty rubbish so I avoided reading it for ages. I picked it up one night as my library book was downstairs and I couldn’t be bothered going down to get it. And wow – I was hooked right from the beginning with this book and read half of it in one night! It tells the story of a little girl with behavioural problems and her unusual past. I though it would be predictable at the end, but it wasn’t. I would totally recommend this book! 4/5
The Luminous Life of Lilly Aphrodite by Beatrice Colin
Source – Sent by Charis. Ooooh I loved it! You have to read this if you haven’t already. I finished it and immediately wanted to read it all over again, and that rarely happens to me with books! It is set in war time Germany – a period of history that I have always enjoyed reading about. The only teensy thing that I didn’t like was that every chapter started with a random few paragraphs about cinema and film in Germany at the time. It wasn’t directly related to the story so I never really read them. 4.5/5
It’s Not Grim Up North by Judith Holder
Source – the title caught my eye at the library as we had been discussing the North/South divide at the pub quiz one week (!). It was Ok – it was very biased towards the North and I found myself not really caring, but I’m not even English anyway! There were some good bits of history in there and some interesting facts and figures. Mainly I tried to read it as quickly as I could so I could finish it! 2/5
Wow – 5 books in 1 month?! That is a record for me!
Book of the month = The Luminous Life of Nelly Aphrodite
Book of 2011 = One Day
What was your favourite book of 2011?? Let me know and I will read it 
x
This entry was posted on Monday, January 2nd, 2012 at 5:07 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
January 2nd, 2012 at 6:44 pm
Ohhh there's some I think I might read
the home bargains book sounds good! xx
January 3rd, 2012 at 1:04 pm
I loved Luminous Life… (but why have you said Nelly?!!) Comfort and Joy by India Knight is a good read and is set at Christmas time. I've reserved The Drowning Girl as I'm running out of books to read.
Might try and keep track of all the books I read this year too!
January 3rd, 2012 at 10:45 pm
My favourite book of 2011 was the Ice Cream Girls by Dorothy Koomson, I literally could not put it down and read it in less than a day! It was a bit dark but soooo gripping!
January 4th, 2012 at 5:47 pm
Thanks for popping over and leaving a comment!
I love books, but they tend to be teach-me-how-to-do-something ones(!), rather than 'story' books.
I do like India Knights' style of writing, I have a couple of her books, the thrifty one and the diet one!
I do hope you find the CBT helpful; I have found it a great tool, that lasts long after the teaching sessions. It can be a long, difficult slog getting your life back to a more acceptable, liveable state, if you know what I mean! Hang on in there; blogging has proved such an invaluable source of support for me, so I hope you find that too. You can always email me if you feel the need!
Wishing you all, (including all your beautiful animals!), a wonderful 2012!
Zoe xx
January 4th, 2012 at 9:33 pm
Thanks for visiting my blog
I'll have to look up the Luminous Life, it sounds interesting. I haven't read One Day yet. I have it on my Kindle, but have not read it yet. I'll push it up the to read list after this though! I didn't read many fiction book in 2011 because of the baby. I found it too hard to concentrate being sleep deprived and all, but hopefully I read more novels this year.
January 5th, 2012 at 10:12 am
I haven't read The Drowning Girl or One Day… I'll have to have a look for them at the library. Glad you enjoyed the books.. I found Perfume really intense & unusual but I don't think I'd want to read it again!
January 5th, 2012 at 1:01 pm
IHi there, thanks for your comment! I really enjoyed reading the Roald Dahl collection – some I read as a child but there were lots I had not read before and his autobiographical books were really interesting, I highly recommend the box set I got, I linked to its amazon page in my post!
I have enjoyed seeing your read too. I'm sure I watched a film about the perfume murderer but I've never read that book so I think I'll add it to my list as I enjoyed the film.
Louise
January 6th, 2012 at 12:31 pm
I now have The Drowning Girl from the library so it is next on my to-read list.
Have signed up to the Goodreads site to keep track of everything I read this year so hopefully it works!!! http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/7341746
January 6th, 2012 at 12:32 pm
Have just reserved this one too so thanks for the recommendation Kim
January 12th, 2012 at 2:42 pm
Ah like the sound of the Luminous Life… Those North South divide books always annoy me because they're always so Manchester-centred – erm, hello, there's another 200 miles or so of England before before you reach Scotland! My books of 2011 were The Road by Cormac McCarthy and Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood. I've had Reader's Block since August though, really trying to get a book under my belt for 2012 to get my mojo back!! xx