Reading Galore

Let books be your dining table and you shall be full of delights. Let them be your mattress and you shall sleep restful nights.

Books that I've read since I retired on 10 July 2009 to-date:

1/ The Accidental Wife by Rowan Coleman
2/ Another Woman's Husband by Sarah Duncan
3/ One Red PaperClip by Kyle MacDonald
4/ A Whiff of Scandal by Carole Matthews
5/ Sisters by Danielle Steel
6/ Live Writing: Breathing Life into Your Words by Ralph Fletcher
7/ Read Me and Laugh: A Funny Poem For Every Day of the Year by Gaby Morgan
8/ The Lost Diaries of Adrian Mole 1999 - 2001
9/ The Guardian by Nicholas Sparks

10/ Twisted Roots by Virginia Andrews (Record - completed within 5 hours on 21 August 2009)

Synopsis
The perfect family - and the perfect nightmare...

From the outside, Hannah Eaton seems to live a charmed life in wealthy Palm Beach, Florida. with her mother, Willow, a renowned psychologist, and her easygoing stepfather. But deep inside, she is miserable and lonely. She's been abandoned by her father, a pretentious lawyer whose family wants nothing to do with her. Now the arrival of a new baby has consumed her mother, who is obsessed with the sickly infant. And so Hnnah slips futher into the shadows....

With the help of her boyfriend, sexy guitar player Heyden Reynolds, and her crazy uncle Linden, Hannah sets out for New Orleans to follow her dreams of a successful singing career. But life on the road holds many dark surprises - and shattering realities that Hannah might not be ready to face....

My Review
A compelling tale of sinister deceptions and forbidden passion. The story is so spellbinding that I completed raeding the book within 4.5 hours.
Recommendation: MUST READ

11/ Punished by Vanessa Steel (Record - completed within 4.5 hours on 22 August 2009)

Synopsis
The harrowing but inspiring true story of a little girl who survived a terrifying childhood that nearly destroyed her.

Ever since Vanessa Steel was three years old, her mother had punished her whenever she put a foot wrong. Vanessa lived in a daily terror of her mother's unpredictable rage and the punishments she said were God's revenge on her for being the devil's child. If she was 'naughty', her mother would lash out at her in sadistic was - with beatings, torture, and starvation. Vanessa thought her mother would kill her.

At six years old, Vanessa's fear and torment increased when her grandfather began to sexually abuse her, aided and abetted by her mother and grandmother. Not even able to turn to her father to protect her, Vanessa bravely carried on as if her life were normal, trying to keep the dreadful secret of her life at home.

But then one day, when she felt her deepest despair, mysterious things started happening to Vanessa that changed her life forever. This resilient little girl found a secret way to survive and the truth about her mother was revealed....

My Review
A truly moving story of a mother's cruelty, and a daughter's survival. The story is so riveting that I had difficulty putting the book down once I began reading. Right from the Prologue up to the Epilogue, Vanessa Steel related with a great deal of torment and torture her moving and incredible true story.
Recommendation: MUST READ
 
12/ The Accidental Family by Rowan Coleman
13/ Against the Odds by Lynda Page
14/ Starting Over by Tony Parsons

Books that I've Read from 2007 to June 2009

1/ Answered Prayers by Danielle Steel
2/ I Am a Muslim by Dina Zaman
3/ Celeste by Virginia Andrews
4/ Lady Chatterley's Lover by D.H.Lawrence
5/ Night by Elie Wiesel
6/ Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden
7/ Lightning Strikes by Virginia Andrews
8/ Picnic at hanging Rock by Joan Lindsay
9/ The Testament by John Grisham
10/ Living History: Memoirs by Hilary Rodham Clinton
11/ The Secret Dreamworld of a Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella
12/ Red Dragon by Thomas Harris
13/ Lone Eagle by Danielle Steel
14/ Independence Day by Dean Devlin & Roland Emmerich and Stephen Molstad
15/ The Guardian by Nicholas Sparks
16/ Rain by Virginia Andrews
17/ Bittersweet by Danielle Steel
18 Lightning by Danielle Steel
19/ The Doomsday Conspiracy by Sidney Sheldon
20/ The Stars Shine Down by Sidney Sheldon