Snow flower and the secret fab - Lisa See

Read this from mum in New York.. A really quick read and very different to stuff I'd read before. vert interesting about a totally different culture.

7/10

Kracken Wakes - John Wyndam

OMG it was fantastic. Totally addicted to reading his other books now.. not sure if I'll start with day of the triffids or midwich cuckoos.

Was pretty scary (might have given me the odd nightmare) and really visual so almost felt like I'd watched the film rather than read the book

Defo 9.5 / 10

At Risk by Patricia cornwell

Gosh, a Patricia Cornwell book that isn't based on Dr Kay Scarpetta. A VERY fast read - in 24 hours (but I was travelling for a lot of those so had masses of time to read on the plane/ in the airport etc!). An american police/politics thriller with some style but it does read like a short story.

7/10

Last Man standing by David Baldacci

American FBI version of James Bond. A good read whilst I was by the pool in Florida and during all that leisure time I had over there. Not an ounce of literary quality, and all the men were macho, all the cars/vehicles were big, fast and macho, and all the women were sweet and caring or sexy. But a good junk read - all 460 pages of it. I have now given it to Mark, having checked that he liked 'action' films and books. At least he might read this one, Katy!

He's written more but I may decline them.

Marks? 5/10.

The Vanished by Celia rees

Very quickly stopped reading this - a supernatural book for kids. But, sadly, one with no merits to it - the opposite of Northern Lights. Might have been aimed at teenage kids, but not in any way an interesting read for me. So, lowest rating ever: 0/10

Fingersmith by Sarah Waters

A good story with plenty of twists in it. It's set in the mid 1800s and links the lives of two orphans: one lives in a mansion in the country and the other with thieves in the east end of London.
8/10

Enquiry - Dick Francis

I was on holiday!
Ok this was pretty rubbish - it didn't have the twisty turny plot I remember of Dick Francis, but it did have the same old formula. I can't actually remember if i'd read this before... but it was fun to sit by the pool and read it.
score 5.5/10

Seven Lies - James Lasden

Saw this reviewed in the paper and it looked quite intriguing. It's a short novel about a man who leaves East Germany to live in America. There's a thriller aspect - that he's obviously done something to escape communism that other people don't know about, but the narrator links this back to events (and lies) in his childhood.
Overall - I liked it, although I am still not sure what happens at the end (and it's a bit sad too).
score 8/10 (more if i'd understood it better!)