Kate Mosse - The Winter Ghosts

You can tell I was busy reading over Christmas can't you, and what is more fitting than an excellent ghost story. Kate once again returns to France, this time set after the First World War and up to 1933.

This is beautifully written and leads us slowly and surely to the dramatic conclusion. The descriptions of the countryside around the Haute Vallee in the Pyrenees, really take you there and you can well imagine the Cathars whispering on the wind. I think it would make an excellent reading group book, due to the themes of war, family loss, and religious fanaticism to name a few. It is also a shorter read and more manageable for a group that perhaps meets monthly. The idea of putting in drawings to illustrate it, is really inspired and adds to the whole period style of the book. A very classy package.

Louise Penny - The Brutal Telling

This is the latest in the Inspector Gamache series, and the fifth title. They just get better. Please do read them from the beginning as we gradually get to know the characters as the books progress. They really are a sort of Donna Leon, Midsommer Murders and absolutley delightful, aside from the brutal murders of course!! However even these are handled well, and these books should appeal to all fans of classic crime or who dunnits........

Andrew Davidson - The Gargoyle

This is a peculiar and extraordinary book. Well written, absorbing, disturbing and just plain odd. I loved it.

This is the story of a male porn star who receives horrendous burns over 90% of his body. This is the story of his redemption. The descriptions of the burn recovery ward and what he has to go though are harrowing, and so well written I became very squeamish.

Into this comes a mentally disturbed , beautiful female sculptress, who states that they have meet though many previous lives, and her role now is to make him remember. Initially he humours her as it relieves the boredom of his days, but gradually he, as well as we, get sucked into the descriptions of these other lives, and of his return to some sort of normality and the final dramatic resolution.

This was a Richard and Judy title and as with many of their choices will make a superb reading group discussion book and a very provoking and satisfying read.

Seth Grahame- Smith and Jane Austen - Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

I have to confess that I read this book in September and had forgotten to upload my review until I had another excellent one from one of my colleagues. This book is hilarious, forget about being a purist Jane Austen fan and revel in the delightfully Gothic zombie fest. This is the classic book but added to, in a very clever, silly and entertaining way.
This is an England where the zombie plague has been creeping through the countryside. Where the army are devoted to killing the marauding menace. Young well brought up young ladies are trained in do-jos whist still maintaining every decorum and certainly not losing the desire to acquire a suitable husband. In this book the girls kick arse, head , and anything else - quite literally in the sense of the zombies - total and utter malicious mayhem. I have bought a set of these for our reading groups as I can guarantee it will be a lively meeting!!
If you enjoyed Thursday Next's adventures in classic books,( see Jasper FForde) who can forget her foray into Jane Eyre, you will enjoy this.
Also try the DVD series " Lost in Austen" wonderful!

Jasper FForde - Something Rotten

This is the fourth book in the excellent Tuesday Next Series. In this the Goliath Corporation has decided to become a religion. The Prime Minister is a fictional character on the run, and announces, in a chilling parody of the Weimarcht, that the Danes are public enemies. Danish books are burned, absurd claims are made...and all just as Hamlet comes to stay with Tuesday! Ophelia is making a bid to take over the play - of course she is mad.....Very, very funny. I also loved the World Croquet League and of course the wonderful president of GB - George Formby and the, could she be Danish, romantic novelist, Daphne Farquitt.

Rose Melikan - The Blackstone key

This is a great historical read in the tradition of Daphne du Maurier.

Set in 1795, it cracks along at a lively pace and is an easy and compelling read. Our rather charming and somewhat naive heroine embarks on a journey to meet her wealthy uncle who she has never met. Various exciting episodes unfold on the journey and at the end. It is very hard to review it without giving too much away. It involves spies, and smuggling at a time when Britain was at war with France.It kept me beautifully entertained on a long train journey and back.

It was well plotted and although I thought I knew who the real "baddy" was I was on tenderhooks to see if I was completely wrong!

A very satisfying read for this time of year, curled up warm or to take on holiday, or a long journey. It is the first part of a trilogy, and I have already ordered the second in the series. However this book does stand alone, all the loose ends are tied up.

Hilary Mantel - Wolf Hall

I can confirm that I am rather shallow. Once again I am unable to enjoy a Booker winner.

I was so excited when this won as I love the Tudor period, and Cromwell is such a complex and interesting figure at that time.

I found this though, very hard going, yes Hilary writes well, but it is very dense, the minutiae became tedious, and too objective. I found her dialogue very confusing as she always used "he said" and I would read a page and then realise I had no idea which 'he' and then had to re-read it again.

I also had hoped to gain some insight into Cromwell's character, this is fiction after all, but we the readers were so distanced from him, we gained nothing, in fact he came over as rather boring, why did he behave the way he did? Who was he? I do not want to guess, I like to be led by the author, to engage in the characters. With a total lack of investment in these characters, I am afraid I gave up about two thirds through, read the end and left.

At least with The Tudors on TV you have something to discuss, debate, despair and ultimately engage with no matter what you think, this book left me cold.