Wizzfizz's bookshelf: all en-US Wed, 02 Aug 2023 10:26:44 -0700 60 Wizzfizz's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg <![CDATA[The Lost Child of Philomena Lee: A Mother, Her Son and A Fifty-Year Search]]> 6791212
Philomena's son, renamed Michael Hess, grew up to be a top Washington lawyer and a leading Republican official in the Reagan and Bush administrations. But he was a gay man in a homophobic party where he had to conceal not only his sexuality but, eventually, the fact that he had AIDS. With little time left, he returned to Ireland and the convent where he was his desperate quest to find his mother before he died left a legacy that was to unfold with unexpected consequences for all involved.

The Lost Child of Philomena Lee is the tale of a mother and a son whose lives were scarred by the forces of hypocrisy on both sides of the Atlantic and of the secrets they were forced to keep. A compelling narrative of human love and loss, Martin Sixsmith's moving account is heartbreaking yet ultimately redemptive.]]> 452 Martin Sixsmith 0230744273 Wizzfizz 1 3.63 2009 The Lost Child of Philomena Lee: A Mother, Her Son and A Fifty-Year Search
author: Martin Sixsmith
name: Wizzfizz
average rating: 3.63
book published: 2009
rating: 1
read at: 2014/04/25
date added: 2023/08/02
shelves:
review:
Picked it up thinking I would learn about Philomena's emotional quest to find the long lost son she was forced to give up for adoption in the 50's by the Catholic church. I was so wrong. This is not Philomena's story at all, but Michael's (her son). Early section was OK but the remainder of the book focused entirely on his gay sex life (sordid) and his political career (boring). The final chapter - from Philomena's point of view at last - was sad and touching. I feel cheated and very, very disappointed.
]]> The Decision 11354668 It all comes down to love or money in a harrowing custody battle over a little girl, set against the glossy backdrop of the magazine and advertising worlds in 1960s London.
Ěý
A privileged girl from a privileged class, Eliza has a dazzling career in the magazine world of the 1960s. But when she falls deeply in love with Matt, an edgy working-class boy, she gives up her ritzy, fast-paced lifestyle to get married.
ĚýĚýĚýĚý
By the end of the decade, however, their marriage has suffered a harrowing breakdown, culminating in divorce and a dramatic courtroom custody battle over their little girl. Also at risk is Eliza's gorgeous family home, a pawn in the game, which she can't bear to give up.
ĚýĚýĚýĚý
True to form, Penny Vincenzi introduces a devious cast of characters seemingly plucked from the pages of sixties- and seventies-era magazines, as she deftly maneuvers between the glamorous, moneyed worlds of fashion and advertising, and a heart-wrenching custody battle going on in the courtroom where the social mores of the time are on full display.]]> 768 Penny Vincenzi 0755320905 Wizzfizz 3 3.75 2011 The Decision
author: Penny Vincenzi
name: Wizzfizz
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2011
rating: 3
read at: 2012/08/13
date added: 2017/10/30
shelves:
review:
This is a big book, but I didn't get bored one bit. Loved the descriptive setting - it really puts you right there in the thick of 60's/70's London. Enjoyed the journey of the Eliza/Matt relationship and it's inevitable demise. I found myself very much in Eliza's corner. Matt's sexist views made me so mad!
]]> <![CDATA[Dead Until Dark (Sookie Stackhouse, #1)]]> 4602032
Maybe having a vampire for a boyfriend isn't such a bright idea.]]> 292 Charlaine Harris 0441016995 Wizzfizz 1 3.68 2001 Dead Until Dark (Sookie Stackhouse, #1)
author: Charlaine Harris
name: Wizzfizz
average rating: 3.68
book published: 2001
rating: 1
read at: 2011/01/29
date added: 2016/10/29
shelves:
review:
Yuck. Don't know what all the fuss was about.
]]> The Secret Life of Bees 832098
South Carolina in the sixties is a place where segregation is still considered a cause worth fighting for. When racial tension explodes one summer afternoon, and Rosaleen is arrested and beaten, Lily is compelled to act. Fugitives from justice and from Lily's harsh and unyielding father, they follow a trail left by the woman who died ten years before.

Finding sanctuary in the home of three beekeeping sisters, Lily starts a journey as much about her understanding of the world, as about the mystery surrounding her mother.]]> 375 Sue Monk Kidd 0747266832 Wizzfizz 4 Charming. 3.89 2001 The Secret Life of Bees
author: Sue Monk Kidd
name: Wizzfizz
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2001
rating: 4
read at: 2012/06/26
date added: 2016/08/29
shelves:
review:
Charming.
]]> The Help 11974605 Alternate cover for this ISBN can be found here.

Enter a vanished world: Jackson, Mississippi, 1962. Where black maids raise white children, but aren't trusted to not steal the silver...

There's Aibileen, raising her seventeenth white child and nursing the hurt caused by her own son's tragic death; Minny, whose cooking is nearly as sassy as her tongue; and white Miss Skeeter, home from college, who wants to know why her beloved maid has disappeared.

Skeeter, Aibileen and Minny. No one else would believe they'd be friends; fewer still would tolerate it. But as each woman finds the courage to cross boundaries, they come to depend and rely upon one another. Each is in search of a truth. And together they have an extraordinary story to tell...]]> 444 Kathryn Stockett 0241956536 Wizzfizz 4 Fell in love with the characters.
Dropped one star because I wanted to know more at the end.]]> 4.37 2009 The Help
author: Kathryn Stockett
name: Wizzfizz
average rating: 4.37
book published: 2009
rating: 4
read at: 2012/10/07
date added: 2016/08/28
shelves:
review:
Fabulous!
Fell in love with the characters.
Dropped one star because I wanted to know more at the end.
]]> Divergent (Divergent, #1) 8306857 In Beatrice Prior's dystopian Chicago, society is divided into five factions, each dedicated to the cultivation of a particular virtue--Candor (the honest), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful), and Erudite (the intelligent). On an appointed day of every year, all sixteen-year-olds must select the faction to which they will devote the rest of their lives. For Beatrice, the decision is between staying with her family and being who she really is--she can't have both. So she makes a choice that surprises everyone, including herself.

During the highly competitive initiation that follows, Beatrice renames herself Tris and struggles to determine who her friends really are--and where, exactly, a romance with a sometimes fascinating, sometimes infuriating boy fits into the life she's chosen. But Tris also has a secret, one she's kept hidden from everyone because she's been warned it can mean death. And as she discovers a growing conflict that threatens to unravel her seemingly perfect society, she also learns that her secret might help her save those she loves . . . or it might destroy her.

]]> 487 Veronica Roth 0062024027 Wizzfizz 0 to-read 4.28 2011 Divergent (Divergent, #1)
author: Veronica Roth
name: Wizzfizz
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2011
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2016/05/28
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The 5th Wave (The 5th Wave, #1)]]> 16101128 unlucky survive. After the 4th wave, only one rule applies: trust no one.

Now, it's the dawn of the 5th wave, and on a lonely stretch of highway, Cassie runs from Them. The beings who only look human, who roam the countryside killing anyone they see. Who have scattered Earth's last survivors. To stay alone is to stay alive, Cassie believes, until she meets Evan Walker. Beguiling and mysterious, Evan Walker may be Cassie's only hope for rescuing her brother—or even saving herself. But Cassie must choose: between trust and despair, between defiance and surrender, between life and death. To give up or to get up.]]> 457 Rick Yancey 0399162410 Wizzfizz 4 4.01 2013 The 5th Wave (The 5th Wave, #1)
author: Rick Yancey
name: Wizzfizz
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2013
rating: 4
read at: 2015/02/12
date added: 2015/02/14
shelves:
review:
This book had me ripping through the pages at speed to find out what would become of brave and resourceful Cassie in a seemingly hopeless lose-lose situation. Hard to put down!
]]> The Giver (The Giver, #1) 3636 208 Lois Lowry 0385732554 Wizzfizz 3 4.12 1993 The Giver (The Giver, #1)
author: Lois Lowry
name: Wizzfizz
average rating: 4.12
book published: 1993
rating: 3
read at: 2015/02/15
date added: 2015/02/14
shelves:
review:
A simple yet deep tale of what it means to be human. Very clever.
]]> <![CDATA[Heart of Ice (Louis Kincaid, #11)]]> 15801683 A chilling new suspense novel in the critically acclaimed Louis Kincaid series! First Kincaid discovers he has a daughter he never knew. Then she leads him to fresh evidence in a decades-old murder case that threatens to claim new victims.

Detective Louis Kincaid cracks a murder case frozen in time in this new work of “crime fiction at its finest� (Lee Child) from bestselling author P. J. Parrish.

Florida PI Louis Kincaid wants to wear a badge again. But before he can, he must return home to Michigan� and some unfinished business. He hopes to bond with ten-year-old Lily, the daughter he only recently learned existed, and reunite with girlfriend Joe Frye. But new clues to an unsolved murder put his plans on ice. A trip with Lily to enchanting Mackinac Island turns grim when the child falls on a pile of old bones; the dangerous discovery reopens the cold case of Julie Chapman, a teenager from one of the wealthy summer families, who vanished two decades ago. And when Louis is forced to cooperate with a tough state investigator who once worked with Joe, tensions skyrocket. Now, what was supposed to be a time of building lasting ties splinters into disturbing fragments, personally and professionally, as Louis pursues a mystery entangled in dark family secrets and twists even he can’t predict.]]> 422 P.J. Parrish 1439189374 Wizzfizz 0 to-read 4.25 2013 Heart of Ice (Louis Kincaid, #11)
author: P.J. Parrish
name: Wizzfizz
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2015/01/15
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Lola's Secret 12690454
At the Valley View Motel in South Australia's picturesque Clare Valley, eighty-four-year-old Lola Quinlan is up to her usual mischief. She's sent her family away for Christmas and invited a number of mystery guests to come and stay. But who are all these people, and why aren't they spending the festive season with their own loved ones?

As the big day draws closer and Lola's personal family dramas threaten to unravel her plans, she discovers that at a special time of year, magic can happen in every family � especially your own.

From the bestselling author of At Home with the Templetons comes a funny, sad and moving novel about memories and moments and the very meaning of life.]]> 400 Monica McInerney 1921518758 Wizzfizz 0 currently-reading 3.61 2011 Lola's Secret
author: Monica McInerney
name: Wizzfizz
average rating: 3.61
book published: 2011
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2015/01/15
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> Eleven Hours 83147 One deranged man.
Eleven hours of hell.

Abducted from a shopping mall in Dallas, Didi Wood, in her ninth month of pregnancy, is taken on the most dangerous, horrifying ride of her life, as a madman drives her across Texas. While her husband and the FBI try furiously to track them down, they can only hope to find Didi -- and her unborn child -- alive.]]> 320 Paullina Simons 0312967004 Wizzfizz 3 3.63 1998 Eleven Hours
author: Paullina Simons
name: Wizzfizz
average rating: 3.63
book published: 1998
rating: 3
read at: 2015/01/11
date added: 2015/01/15
shelves:
review:
Fast paced page-turner read in a couple of sittings. Scary and gripping. The climax was a bit much - unnecessary gore and filth which kind of wrecked it.
]]> Never Never (Never Never, #1) 24378015
Charlie and Silas must work together to uncover the truth about what happened to them and why. But the more they learn about the couple they used to be, the more they question why they were ever together to begin with.

#1 New York Times bestselling author of Hopeless joins forces with the New York Times bestselling author of Mud Vein. Together, they have created a gripping, romantic tale unlike any other.]]> 158 Colleen Hoover Wizzfizz 0 to-read 3.78 2015 Never Never (Never Never, #1)
author: Colleen Hoover
name: Wizzfizz
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2015/01/15
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Dogshit Saved My Life 23000635

Hardly any subject is taboo to the Englishman when he’s laughing, and this often seems insensitive to other cultures, but the bedrock of the British sense of humour is a strong sense of sarcasm and self-deprecation. The British can be very passionate � and if you doubt that try going to a football match - but that passion is often hidden deep in our humour so that other nationals fail to not only recognise the deadpan delivery and are never too sure if they’ve been involved in a serious conversation or just a little bit of friendly banter. Having said that my style of writing is now appealing more and more to the American market.

This book is not a novel, and if you’re looking for a book that is all sweetness and light, please give this one a miss. It’s not for you. I won’t be offended and I honestly wish you a great life. If everyone likes me, then I’m not being controversial enough.

If you’re looking for Humorous books about Life, Comedy Writing or even Humorous Books for Adults then take a chance on this book

If a chapter doesn’t suit, just move on.]]> 154 Karl Wiggins Wizzfizz 0 to-read 4.21 2014 Dogshit Saved My Life
author: Karl Wiggins
name: Wizzfizz
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2015/01/10
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Book of Tomorrow 6631792
What she discovers within the pages takes her breath away and shakes her world to its core.

A mesmerizing story about how tomorrow can change what happens today...]]> 320 Cecelia Ahern 0007233701 Wizzfizz 2 3.68 2009 The Book of Tomorrow
author: Cecelia Ahern
name: Wizzfizz
average rating: 3.68
book published: 2009
rating: 2
read at: 2014/12/29
date added: 2015/01/10
shelves:
review:
Almost gave up in the first half - Tamara is just awful and it feels like the author is trying too hard to appear as though she relates to teenagers. The story improves eventually and becomes quite a page turner in the final chapters.
]]> Pearl in a Cage 7359466 0 Joy Dettman 1742144977 Wizzfizz 2 Minuses: A cast of thousands it seemed. Long winded and unnecessary descriptions of what I felt to be minor characters. Found myself skimming large sections due to boredom. ]]> 4.06 2009 Pearl in a Cage
author: Joy Dettman
name: Wizzfizz
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2009
rating: 2
read at: 2014/12/10
date added: 2015/01/10
shelves:
review:
Pluses: Beautifully descriptive insight into small village life in Australia in the early years. Rich characterisation.
Minuses: A cast of thousands it seemed. Long winded and unnecessary descriptions of what I felt to be minor characters. Found myself skimming large sections due to boredom.
]]> <![CDATA[Shopaholic to the Stars (Shopaholic, #7)]]> 21064599
Red carpet premieres, velvet ropes, paparazzi clamoring for attention—suddenly Becky has everything she’s ever wanted.

Or does she?]]> 479 Sophie Kinsella 0812993861 Wizzfizz 1 3.34 2014 Shopaholic to the Stars (Shopaholic, #7)
author: Sophie Kinsella
name: Wizzfizz
average rating: 3.34
book published: 2014
rating: 1
read at: 2015/01/09
date added: 2015/01/10
shelves:
review:
As a fan of the previous Shopaholics, this was just a little too crazy, far fetched and ridiculous. Maybe I've finally outgrown Becky!
]]> Gone Girl 21480930 560 Gillian Flynn 0553418351 Wizzfizz 1 4.05 2012 Gone Girl
author: Gillian Flynn
name: Wizzfizz
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2012
rating: 1
read at: 2014/10/20
date added: 2014/10/23
shelves:
review:
Really? I'm sorry but really? Who are these people? Yuck. Left me cold. Wasted my dollars on the book. Won't make the same mistake at the cinema.
]]> Desert Fish 10187531 How far will Gilly go to become someone new?

'Gilly. You know we'll die here, don't you?' Pete's eyes are glazed and red-rimmed.
'Yes.'
'Aren't you afraid?'
'No, I'm not,' I tell him.
'I can't believe you,' he says. 'I don't believe you're not afraid.' He wants us to be joined now, at this moment. He doesn't want to die alone.
But I mean it. I'm not afraid.

Gilly lives in a drought-ridden small town in 1970s Australia. She's left school but hasn't found a job, it's always hot and life seems a little pointless.

Then Pete arrives. Golden-skinned with a kind smile and relaxed attitude, he boards with Gilly and her family and breaks the tension between her philandering father and anxious-to-please mother. Gilly can't help but fall in love with him and one sultry night, she gets what she wants.

A few weeks later, Pete disappears and Gilly finds out she's pregnant. She wants Pete so badly she'll do what it takes to find him and keep him, at any cost.

A dark love story, Desert Fish is a powerful and unflinching debut novel.]]> 336 Cherise Saywell 1864711159 Wizzfizz 3 3.38 2011 Desert Fish
author: Cherise Saywell
name: Wizzfizz
average rating: 3.38
book published: 2011
rating: 3
read at: 2013/11/20
date added: 2014/10/20
shelves:
review:
Completely depressing with not one likeable character. But I couldn't put it down. Beautifully written.
]]> The Tenth Circle 10909
»In atemberaubender Weise erzählt Jodi Picoult von familiären Missverständnissen, von Verrat und Vergebung. Unerschrocken und mit tiefem Verständnis für ihre Figuren ein absoluter Pageturner.« -Die Washington Post]]> 387 Jodi Picoult 074349671X Wizzfizz 3 3.53 2006 The Tenth Circle
author: Jodi Picoult
name: Wizzfizz
average rating: 3.53
book published: 2006
rating: 3
read at: 2014/06/09
date added: 2014/10/20
shelves:
review:
Lost momentum at the end when we were taken to Alaska, otherwise I would have given it 4 stars.
]]> Harvesting the Heart 10908 From the #1 New York Times Bestselling author of Leaving TimeĚýPaige has only a few vivid memories of her mother, who abandoned her at five years old. Now, having left her father behind in Chicago for dreams of art school and marriage to an ambitious young doctor, she finds herself with a child of her own. But her mother's absence and shameful memories of her past force her to doubt whether she could ever be capable of bringing joy and meaning into the life of her child, gifts her own mother never gave.


Harvesting the Heart is written with astonishing clarity and evocative detail, convincing in its depiction of emotional pain, love, and vulnerability, and recalls the writing of Alice Hoffman and Kristin Hannah. Out of Paige's struggle to find wholeness, Jodi Picoult crafts an absorbing novel peopled by richly drawn characters, and explores motherhood with a power and depth only she is capable of.

“A brilliant, moving examination of motherhood, brimming with detail and emotion.â€� â€�RichmondĚýTimes-Dispatch

“Jodi Picoult explores the fragile ground of ambivalent motherhood in her lush second novel. This story belongs to� the lucky reader.� �The New York Times Book Review]]> 453 Jodi Picoult 0140230270 Wizzfizz 2 3.60 1993 Harvesting the Heart
author: Jodi Picoult
name: Wizzfizz
average rating: 3.60
book published: 1993
rating: 2
read at: 2013/11/20
date added: 2014/10/20
shelves:
review:
Paige annoyed the hell out of me. Not one of JP's best.
]]> <![CDATA[The New Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain]]> 627206 Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain was first published in 1979, it hit the New York Times bestseller list within two weeks and stayed there for more than a year. In 1989, when Dr. Betty Edwards revised the book, it went straight to the Times list again. Now Dr. Edwards celebrates the twentieth anniversary of her classic book with a second revised edition.Over the last decade, Dr. Edwards has refined her material through teaching hundreds of workshops and seminars. Truly The New Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain, this edition includes:


the very latest developments in brain research
new material on using drawing techniques in the corporate world and in education
instruction on self-expression through drawing
an updated section on using color
detailed information on using the five basic skills of drawing for problem solving]]> 291 Betty Edwards 0874774241 Wizzfizz 4 It works! 3.86 1979 The New Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain
author: Betty Edwards
name: Wizzfizz
average rating: 3.86
book published: 1979
rating: 4
read at: 2012/06/08
date added: 2014/10/20
shelves:
review:
It works!
]]> <![CDATA[The Sweet Life: Desserts from Australia's MasterChef]]> 14531034 256 Kate Bracks 1864711361 Wizzfizz 5 I love that she has included (and noted) the faves of her family members. A beautiful book to keep in the family for generations.
Phooey to the latest "Quit Sugar" fad.....I'm working my way through Kate's recipes one wicked dish at a time. YUM YUM YUM!]]> 4.12 2012 The Sweet Life: Desserts from Australia's MasterChef
author: Kate Bracks
name: Wizzfizz
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2012
rating: 5
read at: 2012/06/28
date added: 2014/10/20
shelves:
review:
A book for all levels of skill - Kate gives you the basics plus options to build from there.
I love that she has included (and noted) the faves of her family members. A beautiful book to keep in the family for generations.
Phooey to the latest "Quit Sugar" fad.....I'm working my way through Kate's recipes one wicked dish at a time. YUM YUM YUM!
]]> Friends Like These 10799755 Jo - recently single, 45-year-old mother of two - is the former deputy headmistress of Sydney's most exclusive private girls' school - Darling Point Ladies College. A year ago she was forced to abandon her post in a scandal that had all the social set talking. In fact, they're still talking.
Jo is moving on - but with friends like hers, maybe leaving them behind is her only option.]]> 481 Wendy Harmer 1741751667 Wizzfizz 3 3.21 2011 Friends Like These
author: Wendy Harmer
name: Wizzfizz
average rating: 3.21
book published: 2011
rating: 3
read at: 2012/06/13
date added: 2014/10/20
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Angela's Ashes: A Memoir of a Childhood]]> 856990
"When I look back on my childhood I wonder how I managed to survive at all. It was, of course, a miserable childhood: the happy childhood is hardly worth your while. Worse than the ordinary miserable childhood is the miserable Irish childhood, and worse yet is the miserable Irish Catholic childhood."

So begins the Pulitzer Prize winning memoir of Frank McCourt, born in Depression-era Brooklyn to recent Irish immigrants and raised in the slums of Limerick, Ireland. Frank's mother, Angela, has no money to feed the children since Frank's father, Malachy, rarely works, and when he does he drinks his wages. Yet Malachy—exasperating, irresponsible and beguiling—does nurture in Frank an appetite for the one thing he can provide: a story. Frank lives for his father's tales of Cuchulain, who saved Ireland, and of the Angel on the Seventh Step, who brings his mother babies.

Perhaps it is story that accounts for Frank's survival. Wearing rags for diapers, begging a pig's head for Christmas dinner and gathering coal from the roadside to light a fire, Frank endures poverty, near-starvation and the casual cruelty of relatives and neighbors—yet lives to tell his tale with eloquence, exuberance and remarkable forgiveness.

Angela's Ashes, imbued on every page with Frank McCourt's astounding humor and compassion, is a glorious book that bears all the marks of a classic.]]> 426 Frank McCourt 000649840X Wizzfizz 4 Everyone needs to read it. 4.09 1996 Angela's Ashes: A Memoir of a Childhood
author: Frank McCourt
name: Wizzfizz
average rating: 4.09
book published: 1996
rating: 4
read at: 2012/07/17
date added: 2014/10/20
shelves:
review:
Everyone needs to read it.
]]> Uglies (Uglies, #1) 24770
But Tally's new friend Shay isn't sure she wants to become a pretty. When Shay runs away, Tally learns about a whole new side of the pretty world—and it isn't very pretty. The authorities offer Tally a choice: find her friend and turn her in, or never turn pretty at all. Tally's choice will change her world forever....]]> 425 Scott Westerfeld 0689865384 Wizzfizz 2 3.85 2005 Uglies (Uglies, #1)
author: Scott Westerfeld
name: Wizzfizz
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2005
rating: 2
read at: 2013/06/08
date added: 2014/10/20
shelves:
review:

]]> Salem Falls 10915
When Jack St. Bride arrives by chance in the sleepy New England town of Salem Falls, he decides to reinvent himself. Tall, blond, and handsome, Jack was once a beloved teacher and soccer coach at a girls' prep school -- until a student's crush sparked a powder keg of accusation and robbed him of his reputation. Now, working for minimum wage washing dishes for Addie Peabody at the Do-Or-Diner, Jack buries his past, content to become the mysterious stranger who has appeared out of the blue.

With ghosts of her own haunting her, Addie Peabody is as cautious around men as Jack St. Bride is around women. But as this unassuming stranger steps smoothly into the diner's daily routine, she finds him fitting just as comfortably inside her heart -- and slowly, a gentle, healing love takes hold between them.

Yet planting roots in Salem Falls may prove fateful for Jack. Amid the white-painted centuries-old churches, a quartet of bored, privileged teenage girls have formed a coven that is crossing the line between amusement and malicious intent. Quick to notice the attractive new employee at Addie's diner, the girls turn Jack's world upside down with a shattering allegation that causes history to repeat itself -- and forces Jack to proclaim his innocence once again. Suddenly nothing in Salem Falls is as it seems: a safe haven turns dangerous, an innocent girl meets evil face-to-face, a dishwasher with a Ph.D. is revealed to be an ex-con. As Jack's hidden past catches up with him, the seams of this tiny town begin to tear, and the emerging truth becomes a slippery concept written in shades of gray. Now Addie, desperate for answers, must look into her heart -- and into Jack's lies and shadowy secrets -- for evidence that will condemn or redeem the man she has come to love.]]> 434 Jodi Picoult 0743418719 Wizzfizz 4 One of JP's best. 3.83 2001 Salem Falls
author: Jodi Picoult
name: Wizzfizz
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2001
rating: 4
read at: 2013/12/24
date added: 2014/10/20
shelves:
review:
One of JP's best.
]]> <![CDATA[Sliver of Truth (Ridley Jones, #2)]]> 32872 New York Times bestselling author Lisa Unger's second sensational thriller featuring Ridley Jones "bursts from the starting gate and never lets up." (Booklist, starred review) And it "will force you to stay up past your bedtime, just as you do with the books of James Patterson and Michael Connelly." (Richmond Times-Dispatch)

InĚýBeautiful Lies,ĚýRidley Jones stepped off a street corner and into an abyss of violence, deception, and fear. Now, she is just trying to get on with her life when another seemingly mundane act--picking up some prints at a photo lab--sends her on a mission to find a ghost from her past. A figure of the same man appears in too many pictures she's taken in the last year, lurking just far enough away to make identification impossible. But, she is not the only one who wants to know who the man is, and soon finds herself in the middle of a deeper investigation and unsure who to trust.

The only thing Ridley knows for sure is that she has to get to the truth about herself and her past if she is ever going to find her way home.]]> 308 Lisa Unger 0307338460 Wizzfizz 3 3.67 2007 Sliver of Truth (Ridley Jones, #2)
author: Lisa Unger
name: Wizzfizz
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2007
rating: 3
read at: 2013/11/20
date added: 2014/10/20
shelves:
review:
Didn't enjoy this as much as the first in the series "Beautiful Lies". Silly plot.
]]> Before I Go to Sleep 9736930
So what if you lost yours every time you went to sleep?

Your name, your identity, your past, even the people you love - all forgotten overnight.

And the one person you trust may only be telling you half the story.

Welcome to Christine's life.]]> 359 S.J. Watson 0062060554 Wizzfizz 3 3.90 2011 Before I Go to Sleep
author: S.J. Watson
name: Wizzfizz
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2011
rating: 3
read at: 2014/09/20
date added: 2014/10/20
shelves:
review:
That poor woman!! Living in such a nightmarish situation but having no idea of the danger because of the rare form of amnesia she suffers from. The slow pace in the first half the book unnerved me enough to keep turning the pages. The author really picks it up in the last section. Great ending.
]]> Burial Rites 16122081
Horrified at the prospect of housing a convicted murderer, the family on the farm at first avoids Agnes. Only TĂłti, a priest Agnes has chosen to be her spiritual guardian, seeks to understand her. As the winter months pass and Agnes's death looms closer, the farmer's wife and daughters learn there is another side to the sensational tale they've heard--but will their new knowledge be enough to save Agnes?

Hannah Kent makes real the saga of a doomed young woman who in the early nineteenth century became the last person to be publicly beheaded in Iceland. Rich with lyricism and startling in its revelations, Burial Rites evokes a dramatic existence in a distant time and place as it poses a heartbreaking question: How can one woman hope to endure when her life depends on the stories told by others?]]> 338 Hannah Kent 1447233166 Wizzfizz 2 4.15 2013 Burial Rites
author: Hannah Kent
name: Wizzfizz
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2013
rating: 2
read at: 2014/10/05
date added: 2014/10/20
shelves:
review:
If you pick up a book about the last woman in Iceland to be put to death for murder you don't expect a cheery read. But wow, this was just a bit too much. Eerie, depressing and dark I actually needed an extra blanket while reading. It chilled me to the bone.
]]> <![CDATA[The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time]]> 1618 226 Mark Haddon 1400032717 Wizzfizz 0 to-read 3.89 2003 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
author: Mark Haddon
name: Wizzfizz
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2003
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2014/10/07
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Special Topics in Calamity Physics]]> 3483
Special Topics in Calamity Physics is a darkly hilarious coming-of-age novel and a richly plotted suspense tale told through the distinctive voice of its heroine, Blue van Meer.]]> 514 Marisha Pessl 067003777X Wizzfizz 0 to-read 3.72 2006 Special Topics in Calamity Physics
author: Marisha Pessl
name: Wizzfizz
average rating: 3.72
book published: 2006
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2014/07/10
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Four Seasons 6359850
Jillian, Beatrice and Rose have gathered for the funeral of their younger sister, Meredith. Her death, and the legacy she leaves them, will trigger a cross-country journey in search of a stranger with the power to mend their shattered lives. As the emotions of the past reverberate into the present, Jillian, Beatrice and Rose search for the girls they once were, in hopes of finding what they really the women they were meant to be.]]> 432 Mary Alice Monroe 0778326845 Wizzfizz 3 Enjoyable read. 3.77 2001 The Four Seasons
author: Mary Alice Monroe
name: Wizzfizz
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2001
rating: 3
read at: 2010/04/25
date added: 2014/06/29
shelves:
review:
Enjoyable read.
]]> The Farm 17557913
But with that phone call, everything changes. Your mother's not well, his father tells him. She's been imagining things--terrible, terrible things. She's had a psychotic breakdown, and has been committed to a mental hospital.

Daniel prepares to rush to Sweden, on the first available flight the next day. Before he can board the plane, his father contacts him again with even more frightening news: his mother has been released from the hospital, and he doesn't know where she is.

Then, he hears from his mother:

I'm sure your father has spoken to you. Everything that man has told you is a lie. I'm not mad. I don't need a doctor. I need the police. I'm about to board a flight to London. Meet me at Heathrow.

Caught between his parents, and unsure of who to believe or trust, Daniel becomes his mother's unwilling judge and jury as she tells him an urgent tale of secrets, of lies, of a horrible crime and a conspiracy that implicates his own father.]]> 400 Tom Rob Smith 1471110672 Wizzfizz 4 3.55 2014 The Farm
author: Tom Rob Smith
name: Wizzfizz
average rating: 3.55
book published: 2014
rating: 4
read at: 2014/06/04
date added: 2014/06/04
shelves:
review:
Had me hooked. Read it in one day. Needed to know the truth. Sinister, clever, sad.
]]> Sacred Hearts 6060130 in motion a chain of events that will shake the convent to its core.

Ripped by her family from an illicit love affair, sixteen-year-old Serafina is willful, emotional, sharp, and defiant, young enough to have a life to look forward to and old enough to know when that life is being cut short. Her first night inside the walls is spent in an incandescent rage so violent that the dispensary mistress, Suora Zuana, is dispatched to the girl's cell to sedate her. Thus begins a complex relationship of trust and betrayal between the young rebel and the clever, scholarly nun, for whom the girl becomes the daughter she will never have.

As Serafina rails against her incarceration, others are drawn into the drama: the ancient, mysterious Suora Magdalena, with her history of visions and ecstasies, locked in her cell; the ferociously devout novice mistress Suora Umiliana, who comes to see in the postulant a way to extend her influence; and, watching it all, the abbess, Madonna Chiara, a woman as fluent in politics as she is in prayer. As disorder and rebellion mount, it is the abbess's job to keep the convent stable while, outside its walls, the dictates of the Counter-Reformation begin to purge the Catholic Church and impose on the nunneries a regime of terrible oppression.

Sarah Dunant, the bestselling author of The Birth of Venus and In the Company of the Courtesan, brings this intricate Renaissance world compellingly to life. Amid Sacred Hearts is a rich, engrossing, multifaceted love story, encompassing the passions of the flesh, the exultation of the spirit, and the deep, enduring power of friendship.]]> 432 Sarah Dunant 1400063825 Wizzfizz 1 3.78 2008 Sacred Hearts
author: Sarah Dunant
name: Wizzfizz
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2008
rating: 1
read at: 2014/05/28
date added: 2014/05/28
shelves:
review:

]]> Nowhere Else 13149723
But appearances can be deceiving and not all is perfect in Nicola's world. So when her boss offers to send her on an extended research trip to investigate the effects of the drought, she jumps at the chance to indulge in some country-style relaxation.

When Nicola arrives in the little town of Nowhere Else, nothing is as she expected: there's no spa in town, the locals are tight-lipped, and she senses it's not just the drought that is making the town nervous. So why has her boss sent her out here?

The deeper Nicola digs into the town's history, the more she realises coming to Nowhere Else wasn't a mistake after all. In fact, it may just unlock the mystery of her own past. And hold the key to her future happiness...]]> 376 Fiona McCallum Wizzfizz 1 3.68 2011 Nowhere Else
author: Fiona McCallum
name: Wizzfizz
average rating: 3.68
book published: 2011
rating: 1
read at: 2014/05/28
date added: 2014/05/28
shelves:
review:
The main character Nicola was a stuck up city princess. I was constantly wishing the worst for her. Besides Jerry the dog and maybe Tiff the barmaid, the other characters were unlikeable, pointless or both. Predictable and disappointing.
]]> <![CDATA[City of Bones (The Mortal Instruments, #1)]]> 2261214 An alternate cover edition with this ISBN can be found here and here.

When Clary Fray heads out to the Pandemonium Club in New York City, she hardly expects to witness a murder. Much less a murder commited by three teenagers covered with odd markings. This is Clary's first meeting with the Shadowhunters, warriors dedicated to ridding the earth of demons--and keeping the odd werewolves and vampires in line. It's also her first meeting with gorgeous, golden-haired Jace. Within twenty-four hours Clary is pulled into Jace's world with a vengeance, when her mother disappears and Clary herself is attacked by a demon. But why would demons be interested in an ordinary mundane like Clary? And how did she suddenly get the Sight? The Shadowhunters would like to know....]]> 485 Cassandra Clare 1416955070 Wizzfizz 0 to-read 3.97 2007 City of Bones (The Mortal Instruments, #1)
author: Cassandra Clare
name: Wizzfizz
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2007
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2014/04/22
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> In The Blood 20503902
College senior Lana Granger has told so many lies about her past that the truth seems like a distant, cloudy nightmare. But she meets her match when she begins babysitting for a volatile, manipulative eleven-year-old boy. Soon after Lana takes the job, her close friend Beck mysteriously disappears. Lana instantly begins fabricating stories-to friends, to police, to herself. Why doesn't her account jibe with those of eye-witnesses? Lana will do anything to bury the truth about that night...and about her life. But someone else knows her secrets. And he's dying to tell.]]> 420 Lisa Unger 147111144X Wizzfizz 5 Fave Lisa Unger yet.]]> 3.82 2014 In The Blood
author: Lisa Unger
name: Wizzfizz
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2014
rating: 5
read at: 2014/01/22
date added: 2014/01/30
shelves:
review:
Creepy and brilliant.
Fave Lisa Unger yet.
]]> Revolutionary Road 48328 355 Richard Yates Wizzfizz 4 3.92 1961 Revolutionary Road
author: Richard Yates
name: Wizzfizz
average rating: 3.92
book published: 1961
rating: 4
read at: 2014/01/15
date added: 2014/01/30
shelves:
review:

]]> The Best of Me 10766509
Now, twenty-five years later, Amanda and Dawson are summoned back to Oriental for the funeral of Tuck Hostetler, the mentor who once gave shelter to their high school romance. Neither has lived the life they imagined.

As Amanda and Dawson carry out the instructions Tuck left behind for them, they realize that everything they thought they knew was not as it seemed. Forced to confront painful memories, the two former lovers will discover undeniable truths about the choices they have made. And in the course of a single, searing weekend, they will ask of the living, and the dead: Can love truly rewrite the past?]]> 292 Nicholas Sparks 0446547654 Wizzfizz 3 3.97 2010 The Best of Me
author: Nicholas Sparks
name: Wizzfizz
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2010
rating: 3
read at: 2014/01/17
date added: 2014/01/30
shelves:
review:
Typical Nicholas Sparks. A bit of intrigue and suspense, a lot of soppy and a whirlwind of emotion. Makes you long for that fairytale ending....but doesn't end quite as you hope :(
]]> Say It Again In A Nice Voice 14795027


'Mothers. those women with purses the size of meat trays that hold an entire deck of school portrait photos and a chequebook, make a casserole without a recipe, make the tightest bed you'll ever sleep in and only swear under extreme duress. How, how, would I go from me to that?'

At 24, Meg Mason was newly married to a man 'essentially indistinguishable from a young Matt Damon' after landing her dream job, writing for the times in London. What could possibly go wrong? A holiday in Greece, an accidental shortage of birth control, and eight months later she was sobbing on the side of a road over trading her career for something she knew zip about.

On October 8, 2003, she invented motherhood by Having A Baby. On October 9, she discovered a bunch of women had done that already. But still they couldn't tell her how to do it. Thanks to a helpful neighbour, she knew that convincing a newborn to take a bottle by letting it lick a Dorito first to 'get more thirsty' didn't always work, but not what to do when your child won't sleep for roughly two years in London or in Sydney, or how to remove your hand from a stroller - after you've superglued it to the handle. Hair-raising, terrifying and hilariously funny, along the way she discovers that being a mother, however disaster-prone, just might be the only thing that she is truly irreplaceable at.

'Mason is a comic natural, her admissions of ignorance are achingly funny and provide a tonic for anyone feeling the struggle' Better Homes & Gardens

'In between the amusing anecdotes, the author grapples with issues that many women will identify with - work, relationships and family life - with warmth and honesty.' Courier Mail]]> 304 Meg Mason 0732293529 Wizzfizz 0 to-read 3.81 2012 Say It Again In A Nice Voice
author: Meg Mason
name: Wizzfizz
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2012
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2014/01/19
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Past the Shallows 10762662 272 Favel Parrett 0733626572 Wizzfizz 4 A hopeless situation you know cannot end well, but still you hope.....
I wept and wept for those boys.
My heart aches because the unspeakable abuse they endure happens in real life more often than people realise.

I was grateful for the detailed surfing scenes - descriptive and poetic. And so they must be, as they describe the only moments the older boys experience any kind of freedom or joy. Yes, the Tasmanian surf is wild and treacherous, but is nothing compared to the daily cruelty at the hands of their useless excuse for a father.

Beautifully written.
Haunting.
Bleak.
Tragic.
]]> 3.90 2011 Past the Shallows
author: Favel Parrett
name: Wizzfizz
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2011
rating: 4
read at: 2012/09/14
date added: 2014/01/12
shelves:
review:
As a mother and someone who works in the child protection field, this was almost too much to bear.
A hopeless situation you know cannot end well, but still you hope.....
I wept and wept for those boys.
My heart aches because the unspeakable abuse they endure happens in real life more often than people realise.

I was grateful for the detailed surfing scenes - descriptive and poetic. And so they must be, as they describe the only moments the older boys experience any kind of freedom or joy. Yes, the Tasmanian surf is wild and treacherous, but is nothing compared to the daily cruelty at the hands of their useless excuse for a father.

Beautifully written.
Haunting.
Bleak.
Tragic.

]]> The Invention of Wings 18581771
Sarah Grimké is the middle daughter. The one her mother calls difficult and her father calls remarkable. On Sarah's eleventh birthday, Hetty 'Handful' Grimké is taken from the slave quarters she shares with her mother, wrapped in lavender ribbons, and presented to Sarah as a gift. Sarah knows what she does next will unleash a world of trouble. She also knows that she cannot accept. And so, indeed, the trouble begins ...

A powerful, sweeping novel, inspired by real events, and set in the American Deep South in the nineteenth century, The Invention of Wings evokes a world of shocking contrasts, of beauty and ugliness, of righteous people living daily with cruelty they fail to recognize; and celebrates the power of friendship and sisterhood against all the odds.]]> 384 Sue Monk Kidd 1472212754 Wizzfizz 0 to-read 4.20 2014 The Invention of Wings
author: Sue Monk Kidd
name: Wizzfizz
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2014/01/08
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Fault in Our Stars 11870085
Insightful, bold, irreverent, and raw, The Fault in Our Stars is award-winning author John Green's most ambitious and heartbreaking work yet, brilliantly exploring the funny, thrilling, and tragic business of being alive and in love.]]> 313 John Green Wizzfizz 4 4.13 2012 The Fault in Our Stars
author: John Green
name: Wizzfizz
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2012
rating: 4
read at: 2014/01/07
date added: 2014/01/06
shelves:
review:
Touching. Funny. Heartbreaking. One of the sweetest love stories I've read.
]]> Secret Life of Evie Hamilton 5554405 532 Catherine Alliott 071815360X Wizzfizz 2 3.67 2009 Secret Life of Evie Hamilton
author: Catherine Alliott
name: Wizzfizz
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2009
rating: 2
read at: 2013/12/20
date added: 2013/12/20
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[I Am Malala: The Story of the Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban]]> 17851885 I come from a country that was created at midnight. When I almost died it was just after midday.

When the Taliban took control of the Swat Valley in Pakistan, one girl spoke out. Malala Yousafzai refused to be silenced and fought for her right to an education.

On Tuesday, October 9, 2012, when she was fifteen, she almost paid the ultimate price. She was shot in the head at point-blank range while riding the bus home from school, and few expected her to survive.

Instead, Malala's miraculous recovery has taken her on an extraordinary journey from a remote valley in northern Pakistan to the halls of the United Nations in New York. At sixteen, she has become a global symbol of peaceful protest and the youngest-ever Nobel Peace Prize laureate.

I Am Malala is the remarkable tale of a family uprooted by global terrorism, of the fight for girls' education, of a father who, himself a school owner, championed and encouraged his daughter to write and attend school, and of brave parents who have a fierce love for their daughter in a society that prizes sons.]]> 327 Malala Yousafzai 0316322407 Wizzfizz 0 to-read 4.15 2012 I Am Malala: The Story of the Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban
author: Malala Yousafzai
name: Wizzfizz
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2012
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2013/12/03
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Autistic Brain: Thinking Across the Spectrum]]> 16056498 A cutting-edge account of the latest science of autism, from the best-selling author and advocate.

When Temple Grandin was born in 1947, autism had only just been named. Today it is more prevalent than ever, with one in 88 children diagnosed on the spectrum. And our thinking about it has undergone a transformation in her lifetime: Autism studies have moved from the realm of psychology to neurology and genetics, and there is far more hope today than ever before thanks to groundbreaking new research into causes andĚýtreatments. Now Temple Grandin reports from the forefront of autism science, bringing her singular perspective to a thrilling journey into the heart of the autism revolution.

Weaving her own experience with remarkable new discoveries, Grandin introduces the neuroimaging advances and genetic research that link brain science to behavior, even sharing her own brain scan to show us which anomalies might explain common symptoms. We meet the scientists and self-advocates who are exploring innovative theories of what causes autism and how we can diagnose and best treat it. Grandin also highlights long-ignored sensory problems and the transformative effects we can have by treating autism symptom by symptom, rather than with an umbrella diagnosis. Most exciting, she argues that raising and educating kids on the spectrum isn't just a matter of focusing on their weaknesses; in the science that reveals their long-overlooked strengths she shows us new ways to foster their unique contributions.

From the "aspies" in Silicon Valley to the five-year-old without language, Grandin understands the true meaning of the word spectrum. The Autistic Brain is essential reading from the most respected and beloved voices in the field.]]> 240 Temple Grandin 0547636458 Wizzfizz 0 to-read 4.09 2013 The Autistic Brain: Thinking Across the Spectrum
author: Temple Grandin
name: Wizzfizz
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2013/12/03
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> And the Mountains Echoed 16115612 404 Khaled Hosseini 159463176X Wizzfizz 0 to-read 4.06 2012 And the Mountains Echoed
author: Khaled Hosseini
name: Wizzfizz
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2012
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2013/12/03
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Millennium #1)]]> 2732977 Henrik Vanger, head of the dynastic Vanger Corporation, is tormented by the loss of a child decades earlier and convinced that a member of his family has committed murder.

The Journalist
Mikael Blomkvist delves deep into the Vangers' past to uncover the truth behind the unsolved mystery. But someone else wants the past to remain a secret an will go to any lengths to keep it that way.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Lisbeth Salander, the enigmatic, delinquent and dangerous security specialist, assists in the investigation. A genius computer hacker, she tolerates no restrictions placed upon her by individuals, society or the law.]]> 538 Stieg Larsson Wizzfizz 5 4.15 2005 The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Millennium #1)
author: Stieg Larsson
name: Wizzfizz
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2005
rating: 5
read at: 2010/09/18
date added: 2013/11/27
shelves:
review:

]]> Can You Keep a Secret? 75576 357 Sophie Kinsella Wizzfizz 4 3.75 2003 Can You Keep a Secret?
author: Sophie Kinsella
name: Wizzfizz
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2003
rating: 4
read at: 2011/03/28
date added: 2013/10/28
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Beautiful Lies (Ridley Jones, #1)]]> 171109
If Ridley Jones had slept ten minutes later or had taken the subway instead of waiting for a cab, she would still be living the beautiful lie she used to call her life. She would still be the privileged daughter of a doting father and a loving mother. Her life would still be perfect � with only the tiny cracks of an angry junkie for a brother and a charming drunk with shady underworld connections for an uncle to mar the otherwise flawless whole.

But that’s not what happened. Instead, those inconsequential decisions lead her to perform a good deed that puts her in the right place at the right time to unleash a chain of events that brings a mysterious package to her door � a package which informs her that her entire world is a lie.

Suddenly forced to question everything she knows about herself and her family, Ridley wanders into dark territory she never knew existed, where everyone in her life seems like a stranger. She has no idea who’s on her side and who has something to hide—even, and maybe especially, her new lover, Jake, who appears to have secrets of his own.

Sexy and fast-paced, Beautiful Lies is a true literary thriller with one of the freshest voices and heroines to arrive in years. Lisa Unger takes us on a breathtaking ride in which every choice Ridley makes creates a whirlwind of consequences that are impossible to imagine . . . .]]> 400 Lisa Unger 0307336824 Wizzfizz 3 3.68 2006 Beautiful Lies (Ridley Jones, #1)
author: Lisa Unger
name: Wizzfizz
average rating: 3.68
book published: 2006
rating: 3
read at: 2013/07/12
date added: 2013/07/19
shelves:
review:
Like being in a twilight zone where everything you think you know is brought into question and the people closest to you cannot be trusted. Very enjoyable.
]]> Good People 3084695 An irresistible temptation.
A split-second choice.
A dangerous decision.

A family, and the security to enjoy it: that’s all Tom and Anna Reed ever wanted. But years of infertility treatments, including four failed attempts at in vitro fertilization, have left them with neither. The emotional and financial costs are straining their marriage and endangering their dreams.

Then one night everything changes. Offered a chance at a future they’d almost lost hope in, they seize it. One simple choice. A fairy tale ending.

But Tom and Anna soon realize that fairy tales never come cheap. Because their decision puts them square in the path of ruthless men. Men who’ve been double-crossed, and who won’t stop until they get revenge.

No matter where they find it.]]> 327 Marcus Sakey 0525950842 Wizzfizz 3 3.69 2008 Good People
author: Marcus Sakey
name: Wizzfizz
average rating: 3.69
book published: 2008
rating: 3
read at: 2013/07/19
date added: 2013/07/19
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Fiftieth Gate: A Journey Through Memory]]> 1294356 ′This gate here, I recognise it. Behind it is a steep slope, a hill, fields, grass. We would slide down it in winter.�
At last, an incontrovertible test through which my father′s memory might be vindicated. Two lone gates that appear to lead nowhere.
′Push,� we scream, ′lift the latch and push.�
′No. I remember too much now. No.�

A love story and a detective story, a study of history and of memory, this spellbinding new work explores a son′s confrontation with the terror of his parents� childhood.

Moving from Poland and Germany to Jerusalem and Melbourne, Mark Raphael Baker travels across the silence of fifty years, through the gates of Auschwitz, and into a dark bunker where a little girl hides in fear. As he returns to scenes of his parents� captivity, he struggles to unveil the mystery of their survival.

The Fiftieth Gate is a journey from despair and death towards hope and life; the story of a son who enters his parents� memories and, inside the darkness, finds light.]]> 339 Mark Raphael Baker 0732258049 Wizzfizz 0 to-read 3.04 1997 The Fiftieth Gate: A Journey Through Memory
author: Mark Raphael Baker
name: Wizzfizz
average rating: 3.04
book published: 1997
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2013/06/22
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[On the Island (On the Island, #1)]]> 15506110 Anna Emerson is a thirty-year-old English teacher desperately in need of adventure. Worn down by the cold Chicago winters and a relationship that's going nowhere, she jumps at the chance to spend the summer on a tropical island tutoring sixteen-year-old T.J.
T.J. Callahan has no desire to go anywhere. His cancer is in remission and he wants to get back to his normal life. But his parents are insisting he spend the summer in the Maldives catching up on all the school he missed last year.
Anna and T.J. board a private plane headed to the Callahan's summer home, and as they fly over the Maldives' twelve hundred islands, the unthinkable happens. Their plane crashes in shark-infested waters. They make it to shore, but soon discover that they're stranded on an uninhabited island.
At first, their only thought is survival. But as the days turn to weeks, and then months, the castaways encounter plenty of other obstacles, including violent tropical storms, the many dangers lurking in the sea, and the possibility that T.J.'s cancer could return. As T.J. celebrates yet another birthday on the island, Anna begins to wonder if the biggest challenge of all might be living with a boy who is gradually becoming a man.]]> 281 Tracey Garvis Graves 1101609095 Wizzfizz 0 to-read 4.14 2011 On the Island (On the Island, #1)
author: Tracey Garvis Graves
name: Wizzfizz
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2011
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2013/06/22
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Fragile (The Hollows, #1) 7083584
The investigation has her husband, Jones, the lead detective on the case, acting strangely. Rick, already a brooding teenager, becomes even more withdrawn. In a town where the past is always present, nobody is above suspicion, not even a son in the eyes of his father.

Determined to uncover the truth, Maggie pursues her own leads into Charlene's disappearance and exposes a long-buried town secret--one that could destroy everything she holds dear.]]> 336 Lisa Unger 0307393992 Wizzfizz 3 3.60 2010 Fragile (The Hollows, #1)
author: Lisa Unger
name: Wizzfizz
average rating: 3.60
book published: 2010
rating: 3
read at: 2013/06/12
date added: 2013/06/11
shelves:
review:
My fingernails are bitten to the quick. Not because there's a lot of frenzied action, just the opposite most of the time. The book builds gradually with an underlying creepiness that I found really unnerving. In saying that, I do think it's a great book. Loved the different points of view of all the characters. I also love a book that wraps up all the loose ends, which this one does.
]]> Nothing Prepared Me ! 6451164
During her 31 years on Lansdowne, a million acre cattle station in the rugged Kimberley Ranges of Western Australia, Mrs Quilty traces the development of the Cattle Industry in Australia's 'Top End'; from traditional mustering and droving to the use of helicopters and road trains.

The story is interwoven with domestic and social scenes now mostly a part of history. Making no concessions to modern 'political correctness', it is told in the language of the time, providing a true picture of life as it was, not how we would have liked it to be.

It is not only a tale of the courage, loneliness and strength of women in a 'man's world', it is also the history of a great love.]]> 281 Edna Eckford Quilty 0957760809 Wizzfizz 0 to-read 4.12 1999 Nothing Prepared Me !
author: Edna Eckford Quilty
name: Wizzfizz
average rating: 4.12
book published: 1999
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2013/06/08
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Giving Tree 370493
So begins a story of unforgettable perception, beautifully written and illustrated by the gifted and versatile Shel Silverstein.

Every day the boy would come to the tree to eat her apples, swing from her branches, or slide down her trunk...and the tree was happy. But as the boy grew older he began to want more from the tree, and the tree gave and gave and gave.

This is a tender story, touched with sadness, aglow with consolation. Shel Silverstein has created a moving parable for readers of all ages that offers an affecting interpretation of the gift of giving and a serene acceptance of another's capacity to love in return.]]> 64 Shel Silverstein 0060256656 Wizzfizz 0 to-read 4.38 1964 The Giving Tree
author: Shel Silverstein
name: Wizzfizz
average rating: 4.38
book published: 1964
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2013/05/12
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> If I Stay (If I Stay, #1) 4374400 208 Gayle Forman 0525421033 Wizzfizz 0 to-read 3.92 2009 If I Stay (If I Stay, #1)
author: Gayle Forman
name: Wizzfizz
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2009
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2013/05/12
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Zoo (Zoo, #1) 13353667
Total
For 36 years, James Patterson has written unputdownable, pulse-racing novels. Now, he has written a book that surpasses all of them. ZOO is the thriller he was born to write.

World
All over the world, brutal attacks are crippling entire cities. Jackson Oz, a young biologist, watches the escalating events with an increasing sense of dread. When he witnesses a coordinated lion ambush in Africa, the enormity of the violence to come becomes terrifyingly clear.

Destruction
With the help of ecologist Chloe Tousignant, Oz races to warn world leaders before it's too late. The attacks are growing in ferocity, cunning, and planning, and soon there will be no place left for humans to hide.]]> 395 James Patterson 1846058295 Wizzfizz 2 Chloe was pointless.
The effect of years of environmental abuse on animal behaviour was somewhat believable. The reversal of it after just 3 days was absolutely not!
Sometimes far-fetched, sometimes thrilling/suspenseful, at times gory and overall rather depressing. ]]> 3.48 2012 Zoo (Zoo, #1)
author: James Patterson
name: Wizzfizz
average rating: 3.48
book published: 2012
rating: 2
read at: 2013/05/12
date added: 2013/05/12
shelves:
review:
For a scientific genius Oz made some really dumb decisions.
Chloe was pointless.
The effect of years of environmental abuse on animal behaviour was somewhat believable. The reversal of it after just 3 days was absolutely not!
Sometimes far-fetched, sometimes thrilling/suspenseful, at times gory and overall rather depressing.
]]> Safe Haven 15789401



When a mysterious young woman named Katie appears in the small North Carolina town of Southport, her sudden arrival raises questions about her past. Beautiful yet self-effacing, Katie seems determined to avoid forming personal ties until a series of events draws her into two reluctant one with Alex, a widowed store owner with a kind heart and two young children; and another with her plainspoken single neighbor, Jo. Despite her reservations, Katie slowly begins to let down her guard, putting down roots in the close-knit community and becoming increasingly attached to Alex and his family.

But even as Katie begins to fall in love, she struggles with the dark secret that still haunts and terrifies her . . . a past that set her on a fearful, shattering journey across the country, to the sheltered oasis of Southport. With Jo's empathetic and stubborn support, Katie eventually realizes that she must choose between a life of transient safety and one of riskier rewards . . . and that in the darkest hour, love is the only true safe haven.]]> 365 Nicholas Sparks 1455523542 Wizzfizz 0 to-read 4.09 2010 Safe Haven
author: Nicholas Sparks
name: Wizzfizz
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2010
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2013/05/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Fever 15802983 Mary Beth Keane, named one of the 5 Under 35 by the National Book Foundation, has written a spectacularly bold and intriguing novel about the woman known as "Typhoid Mary," the first person in America identified as a healthy carrier of Typhoid Fever.

On the eve of the twentieth century, Mary Mallon emigrated from Ireland at age fifteen to make her way in New York City. Brave, headstrong, and dreaming of being a cook, she fought to climb up from the lowest rung of the domestic-service ladder. Canny and enterprising, she worked her way to the kitchen, and discovered in herself the true talent of a chef. Sought after by New York aristocracy, and with an independence rare for a woman of the time, she seemed to have achieved the life she'd aimed for when she arrived in Castle Garden. Then one determined medical engineer noticed that she left a trail of disease wherever she cooked, and identified her as an asymptomatic carrier of Typhoid Fever. With this seemingly preposterous theory, he made Mallon a hunted woman.

The Department of Health sent Mallon to North Brother Island, where she was kept in isolation from 1907 to 1910, then released under the condition that she never work as a cook again. Yet for Mary, proud of her former status and passionate about cooking, the alternatives were abhorrent. She defied the edict.

Bringing early-twentieth-century New York alive, the neighborhoods, the bars, the park carved out of upper Manhattan, the boat traffic, the mansions and sweatshops and emerging skyscrapers, Fever is an ambitious retelling of a forgotten life. In the imagination of Mary Beth Keane, Mary Mallon becomes a fiercely compelling, dramatic, vexing, sympathetic, uncompromising, and unforgettable heroine.]]> 306 Mary Beth Keane 1451693419 Wizzfizz 0 to-read 3.66 2013 Fever
author: Mary Beth Keane
name: Wizzfizz
average rating: 3.66
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2013/05/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Vanishing Acts 14885 418 Jodi Picoult 1741145600 Wizzfizz 4 3.45 2005 Vanishing Acts
author: Jodi Picoult
name: Wizzfizz
average rating: 3.45
book published: 2005
rating: 4
read at: 2013/04/03
date added: 2013/04/27
shelves:
review:

]]> Perfect Match 111180
What does it mean to be a good mother?
How far would you go in the name of love -- and justice?

In the course of her everyday work, career-driven assistant district attorney Nina Frost prosecutes child molesters and works determinedly to ensure that a legal system with too many loopholes keeps these criminals behind bars. But when her own five-year-old son, Nathaniel, is traumatized by a sexual assault, Nina and her husband, Caleb, a quiet and methodical stone mason, are shattered, ripped apart by an enraging sense of helplessness in the face of a futile justice system that Nina knows all too well. In a heartbeat, Nina's absolute truths and convictions are turned upside down, and she hurtles toward a plan to exact her own justice for her son -- no matter the consequence, whatever the sacrifice.]]> 368 Jodi Picoult 0743418735 Wizzfizz 4 3.97 2002 Perfect Match
author: Jodi Picoult
name: Wizzfizz
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2002
rating: 4
read at: 2013/02/08
date added: 2013/04/27
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Girl and the Ghost-Grey Mare]]> 12912573 From Rachael Treasure, one of Australia's favourite rural storytellers, comes this charming collection of short stories.

You’ll laugh and smile your way through this collection, which includes the favourite tales, 'The Girl And The Ghost-Grey Mare' and 'The Evolution Of Sadie Smith', as well as some new stories that have never published before in book form. All the stories have rural settings, but they’re not all romances. These stories are lively and full of warmth, heart and humour.

Rachael Treasure is the author of Jillaroo, The Rouseabout, The Cattleman's Daughter and The Stockmen. The Australian Women's Weekly said, "Rachael Treasure writes with true grit, wit and warmth."]]> 236 Rachael Treasure Wizzfizz 2 3.58 2011 The Girl and the Ghost-Grey Mare
author: Rachael Treasure
name: Wizzfizz
average rating: 3.58
book published: 2011
rating: 2
read at: 2013/04/27
date added: 2013/04/27
shelves:
review:

]]> Bridie's Choice 16087483 314 Karly Lane 1743311605 Wizzfizz 4 4.17 Bridie's Choice
author: Karly Lane
name: Wizzfizz
average rating: 4.17
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2013/01/01
date added: 2013/02/12
shelves:
review:
Who can resist a hot wealthy cowboy??? Lots of sizzling romance in this great Aussie story!
]]> Oh Dear Silvia 15990487
A matchless lover? A supreme egotist? A selfless martyr? A bad mother? A cherished sister? A selfish wife?

All of these. For this is Silvia Shute who has always done exactly what she wants. Until now, when her life suddenly, shockingly stops.

Her past holds a dark and terrible secret, and now that she is unconscious in a hospital bed, her constant stream of visitors are set to uncover the mystery of her broken life. And she must lie there, victim of the beloveds, the borings, the babblings and the plain bonkers.

Like it or not, the truth is about to pay Silvia a visit. Again, and again and again...]]> 352 Dawn French 0718156064 Wizzfizz 4 3.21 2012 Oh Dear Silvia
author: Dawn French
name: Wizzfizz
average rating: 3.21
book published: 2012
rating: 4
read at: 2013/01/12
date added: 2013/01/13
shelves:
review:
Funny, touching, surprising, sad, dark and very cleverly written. Highly recommended!
]]> Exiles 1224399 496 Anita Burgh 0752844091 Wizzfizz 3
Brutally honest Netta is my fave character. She speaks her mind with perfect bluntness and gets away with it every time!

Fave quote (Netta to god-daughter Caroline):
" That you love him is not in dispute. Whether it is wise of you to do so is the question we have to face."
]]> 3.11 2001 Exiles
author: Anita Burgh
name: Wizzfizz
average rating: 3.11
book published: 2001
rating: 3
read at: 2013/01/06
date added: 2013/01/07
shelves:
review:
A nice story that drew me in to the character's lives and made me keep reading into the night. Felt like a good gossip over the neighbour's fence!

Brutally honest Netta is my fave character. She speaks her mind with perfect bluntness and gets away with it every time!

Fave quote (Netta to god-daughter Caroline):
" That you love him is not in dispute. Whether it is wise of you to do so is the question we have to face."

]]> The Breakdown Lane 397904 464 Jacquelyn Mitchard 0060587253 Wizzfizz 1 Got too impatient and put it back on the shelf!]]> 3.54 2006 The Breakdown Lane
author: Jacquelyn Mitchard
name: Wizzfizz
average rating: 3.54
book published: 2006
rating: 1
read at: 2012/12/02
date added: 2013/01/02
shelves:
review:
Hated the writing style.
Got too impatient and put it back on the shelf!
]]> The Cattleman's Daughter 7456476
Locked in an unhappy marriage in the suburbs, Emily misses the high country with a fierce ache. To make matters worse, her heritage is under threat. A government bill to evict the mountain cattlemen is about to be passed, and the Flanaghans could be banned from the mountains their family has looked after for generations.

When a terrible accident brings Emily to the brink of death, she realises she must return to the high country to seek a way forward in life; healing herself, her daughters and her land. Along the way, she finds herself falling in love with a man who works for the government - the traditional opposition of the cattlemen - new Parks ranger, Luke Bradshaw. But just as she sees that the land and Luke are the keys to regaining her life, Emily faces losing them both in the greatest challenge of all . . .

Set in the beautiful snowgum country of the Victorian Alps, The Cattleman's Daughter is a haunting and unforgettable tale of love, self-discovery and forgiveness from one of Australia's best-loved authors.]]> 432 Rachael Treasure 1921518243 Wizzfizz 2 Saved by the final chapters - brought tears to my eyes!
And the imagery of the highlands - just breathtaking.]]> 4.15 2009 The Cattleman's Daughter
author: Rachael Treasure
name: Wizzfizz
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2009
rating: 2
read at: 2012/12/05
date added: 2012/12/05
shelves:
review:
Ho hum and predictable.
Saved by the final chapters - brought tears to my eyes!
And the imagery of the highlands - just breathtaking.
]]> Cloudstreet 343881 Cloudstreet exemplifies the brilliant ability of fiction to captivate and inspire.

Struggling to rebuild their lives after being touched by disaster, the Pickle family, who've inherited a big house called Cloudstreet in a suburb of Perth, take in the God-fearing Lambs as tenants. The Lambs have suffered their own catastrophes, and determined to survive, they open up a grocery on the ground floor. From 1944 to 1964, the shared experiences of the two overpopulated clans -- running the gamut from drunkenness, adultery, and death to resurrection, marriage, and birth -- bond them to each other and to the bustling, haunted house in ways no one could have anticipated.

]]> 426 Tim Winton 0743234413 Wizzfizz 0 to-read 4.02 1991 Cloudstreet
author: Tim Winton
name: Wizzfizz
average rating: 4.02
book published: 1991
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2012/12/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[A Thousand Bones (Louis Kincaid, #8)]]> 3303417 480 P.J. Parrish 184739132X Wizzfizz 5 I'll be reading more!]]> 3.73 2007 A Thousand Bones (Louis Kincaid, #8)
author: P.J. Parrish
name: Wizzfizz
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2007
rating: 5
read at: 2012/10/01
date added: 2012/10/07
shelves:
review:
Fabulous.
I'll be reading more!
]]> <![CDATA[Fever Of The Bone (Tony Hill & Carol Jordan, #6)]]> 6936226 Fever of the Bone offers a bravura display of her exceptional storytelling talents. Criminal profiler Tony Hill and his ally Detective Chief Inspector Carol Jordan are back in this terrifying psychological thriller, tracking down a brutal killer who’s targeting a group of young people through a social networking site.]]> 501 Val McDermid 0751543217 Wizzfizz 5 4.09 2009 Fever Of The Bone (Tony Hill & Carol Jordan, #6)
author: Val McDermid
name: Wizzfizz
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2009
rating: 5
read at: 2012/05/30
date added: 2012/09/29
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Bronze Horseman (The Bronze Horseman, #1)]]> 83144 Librarian note: alternate covers for this edition can be found here and here and here.

During the summer of 1941 the Metanov family are living a hard life in Leningrad. As the German armies advance their future looks bleak. For Tatiana, love arrives in the guise of Alexander, who harbours a deadly and extraordinary secret.]]> 637 Paullina Simons 0006513220 Wizzfizz 0 to-read 4.32 2000 The Bronze Horseman (The Bronze Horseman, #1)
author: Paullina Simons
name: Wizzfizz
average rating: 4.32
book published: 2000
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2012/09/23
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Stargirl (Stargirl, #1) 22232
Leo Borlock follows the unspoken rule at Mica Area High School: don't stand out--under any circumstances! Then Stargirl arrives at Mica High and everything changes--for Leo and for the entire school. After 15 years of home schooling, Stargirl bursts into tenth grade in an explosion of color and a clatter of ukulele music, enchanting the Mica student body.

But the delicate scales of popularity suddenly shift, and Stargirl is shunned for everything that makes her different. Somewhere in the midst of Stargirl's arrival and rise and fall, normal Leo Borlock has tumbled into love with her.

In a celebration of nonconformity, Jerry Spinelli weaves a tense, emotional tale about the fleeting, cruel nature of popularity--and the thrill and inspiration of first love.]]> 186 Jerry Spinelli 0439488400 Wizzfizz 0 to-read 3.76 2000 Stargirl (Stargirl, #1)
author: Jerry Spinelli
name: Wizzfizz
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2000
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2012/09/23
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Wire In The Blood (Tony Hill & Carol Jordan, #2)]]> 964751
Nobody gets inside the messy heads of serial killers like Dr Tony Hill. Now heading up a National Profiling Task Force, he sets his team air exercise: they are given the details of missing teenagers and asked to discover whether there is a sinister link between any of the cases. Only one officer, Shaz Bowman, comes up with a concrete theory - a theory that is ridiculed by the group... until one of their number is murdered and mutilated.

Could Bowman's outrageous Suspicion possibly be true? For Tony Hill, the murder of one of his team becomes a matter of personal revenge, and, joined again by colleague Carol Jordan, he embarks on a campaign of psychological terrorism - a game where hunter and hunted can all too easily be reversed.]]> 533 Val McDermid 0007217129 Wizzfizz 4 Chilling.
Clever.
Shocking.

A truly evil baddie made even more sickening by his cleverly manufactured public facade. The blinkered incompetent Yorkshire police had me tearing my hair out. The gore and terror had me gnawing my fingernails to the quick. The page-turning suspense kept me up at night.

I am bald, exhausted and bleeding - and I am totally recommending this book. Read it!]]> 4.02 1997 The Wire In The Blood (Tony Hill & Carol Jordan, #2)
author: Val McDermid
name: Wizzfizz
average rating: 4.02
book published: 1997
rating: 4
read at: 2012/09/23
date added: 2012/09/23
shelves:
review:
Gruesome.
Chilling.
Clever.
Shocking.

A truly evil baddie made even more sickening by his cleverly manufactured public facade. The blinkered incompetent Yorkshire police had me tearing my hair out. The gore and terror had me gnawing my fingernails to the quick. The page-turning suspense kept me up at night.

I am bald, exhausted and bleeding - and I am totally recommending this book. Read it!
]]> On the Jellicoe Road 1162022 I'm dreaming of the boy in the tree. I tell him stories. About the Jellicoe School and the Townies and the Cadets from a school in Sydney. I tell him about the war between us for territory. And I tell him about Hannah, who lives in the unfinished house by the river. Hannah, who is too young to be hiding away from the world. Hannah, who found me on the Jellicoe Road six years ago.

Taylor is leader of the boarders at the Jellicoe School. She has to keep the upper hand in the territory wars and deal with Jonah Griggs—the enigmatic leader of the cadets, and someone she thought she would never see again.

And now Hannah, the person Taylor had come to rely on, has disappeared. Taylor's only clue is a manuscript about five kids who lived in Jellicoe eighteen years ago. She needs to find out more, but this means confronting her own story, making sense of her strange, recurring dream, and finding her mother—who abandoned her on the Jellicoe Road.

The moving, joyous and brilliantly compelling new novel from the best-selling, multi-award-winning author of Looking for Alibrandi and Saving Francesca.]]> 290 Melina Marchetta 0670070297 Wizzfizz 0 to-read 4.10 2006 On the Jellicoe Road
author: Melina Marchetta
name: Wizzfizz
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2006
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2012/09/17
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Tomorrow, When the War Began (Tomorrow, #1)]]> 71865 276 John Marsden 0439829100 Wizzfizz 3 I enjoyed the development of the characters as they were forced to take action in dire circumstances.
Planned to stop at Book 1....but Mr Marsden - you got me.
I NEED to know what happens next!!]]> 4.05 1993 Tomorrow, When the War Began (Tomorrow, #1)
author: John Marsden
name: Wizzfizz
average rating: 4.05
book published: 1993
rating: 3
read at: 2012/09/17
date added: 2012/09/17
shelves:
review:
Fast paced, quick read.
I enjoyed the development of the characters as they were forced to take action in dire circumstances.
Planned to stop at Book 1....but Mr Marsden - you got me.
I NEED to know what happens next!!
]]> <![CDATA[Visions of Sugar Plums (Stephanie Plum, #8.5)]]> 6420 **A Stephanie Plum “In Between the Numbers� Christmas novel**

It's five days before Christmas and things are not looking merry for Fugitive Apprehension Agent Stephanie Plum. She hasn't got a tree. She hasn't bought any presents. The malls are jam-packed with staggering shoppers. There's not a twinkle light anywhere to be seen in her apartment.

And there's a strange man in her kitchen.

Sure, this has happened to Stephanie Plum before. Strangers, weirdos, felons, creeps, and lunatics are always finding their way to her front door. But this guy is different. This guy is mysterious, sexy-and he has his own agenda. His name is Diesel and he is a man on a mission. And Diesel is unlike anyone Stephanie has ever met before in her life. The question is, what does he want with her? Can he help her find a little old toy maker who has skipped out on his bail right before Christmas? Can he survive the Plum family holiday dinner? Can he get Stephanie a tree that doesn't look like it was grown next to a nuclear power plant? These questions and more are keeping Stephanie awake at night. Not to mention the fact that she needs to find a bunch of nasty elves, her sister Valerie has a Christmas "surprise" for the Plums, her niece Mary Alice doesn't believe in Santa anymore, and Grandma Mazur has a new stud muffin. So bring out the plastic reindeer, strap on your jingle bells, and get ready to celebrate the holidays--Jersey style. In Janet Evanovich's Visions of Sugar Plums, the world of Plum has never been merrier!]]> 152 Janet Evanovich 0312986343 Wizzfizz 2 What did I think?
Strange.
A few laughs.
With a really cool Granny.

2 stars for me.]]> 3.71 2002 Visions of Sugar Plums (Stephanie Plum, #8.5)
author: Janet Evanovich
name: Wizzfizz
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2002
rating: 2
read at: 2012/09/13
date added: 2012/09/13
shelves:
review:
I'm thinking I picked the wrong title for my first Janet Evanovich read.
What did I think?
Strange.
A few laughs.
With a really cool Granny.

2 stars for me.
]]> <![CDATA[Mockingjay (The Hunger Games, #3)]]> 7260188 My name is Katniss Everdeen.
Why am I not dead?
I should be dead.

Katniss Everdeen, girl on fire, has survived, even though her home has been destroyed. Gale has escaped. Katniss's family is safe. Peeta has been captured by the Capitol. District 13 really does exist. There are rebels. There are new leaders. A revolution is unfolding.

It is by design that Katniss was rescued from the arena in the cruel and haunting Quarter Quell, and it is by design that she has long been part of the revolution without knowing it. District 13 has come out of the shadows and is plotting to overthrow the Capitol. Everyone, it seems, has had a hand in the carefully laid plans—except Katniss.

The success of the rebellion hinges on Katniss's willingness to be a pawn, to accept responsibility for countless lives, and to change the course of the future of Panem. To do this, she must put aside her feelings of anger and distrust. She must become the rebels' Mockingjay—no matter what the personal cost.]]> 390 Suzanne Collins 0439023513 Wizzfizz 5 Evil!
Heartbreaking!
Sickening!
Awesome!
The perfect ending to an amazing and unforgettable trilogy.]]> 4.10 2010 Mockingjay (The Hunger Games, #3)
author: Suzanne Collins
name: Wizzfizz
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2010
rating: 5
read at: 2012/09/09
date added: 2012/09/09
shelves:
review:
Terrifying!
Evil!
Heartbreaking!
Sickening!
Awesome!
The perfect ending to an amazing and unforgettable trilogy.
]]> <![CDATA[Catching Fire (The Hunger Games, #2)]]> 6148028 Sparks are igniting.
Flames are spreading.
And the Capitol wants revenge.

Against all odds, Katniss Everdeen has won the Hunger Games. She and fellow District 12 tribute Peeta Mellark are miraculously still alive. Katniss should be relieved, happy even. After all, she has returned to her family and her longtime friend, Gale. Yet nothing is the way Katniss wishes it to be. Gale holds her at an icy distance. Peeta has turned his back on her completely. And there are whispers of a rebellion against the Capitol—a rebellion that Katniss and Peeta may have helped create.

Much to her shock, Katniss has fueled an unrest that she's afraid she cannot stop. And what scares her even more is that she's not entirely convinced she should try. As time draws near for Katniss and Peeta to visit the districts on the Capitol's cruel Victory Tour, the stakes are higher than ever. If they can't prove, without a shadow of a doubt, that they are lost in their love for each other, the consequences will be horrifying.

In Catching Fire, the second novel of the Hunger Games trilogy, Suzanne Collins continues the story of Katniss Everdeen, testing her more than ever before . . . and surprising readers at every turn.]]> 391 Suzanne Collins 0439023491 Wizzfizz 5 4.34 2009 Catching Fire (The Hunger Games, #2)
author: Suzanne Collins
name: Wizzfizz
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2009
rating: 5
read at: 2012/09/02
date added: 2012/09/02
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Hunger Games (The Hunger Games, #1)]]> 2767052
In the ruins of a place once known as North America lies the nation of Panem, a shining Capitol surrounded by twelve outlying districts. The Capitol is harsh and cruel and keeps the districts in line by forcing them all to send one boy and one girl between the ages of twelve and eighteen to participate in the annual Hunger Games, a fight to the death on live TV.

Sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen regards it as a death sentence when she steps forward to take her sister's place in the Games. But Katniss has been close to dead before-and survival, for her, is second nature. Without really meaning to, she becomes a contender. But if she is to win, she will have to start making choices that weigh survival against humanity and life against love.]]> 374 Suzanne Collins Wizzfizz 5 Immediately started on book 2....I've heard it's even better.]]> 4.34 2008 The Hunger Games (The Hunger Games, #1)
author: Suzanne Collins
name: Wizzfizz
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2008
rating: 5
read at: 2012/08/28
date added: 2012/08/28
shelves:
review:
Beyond amazing actually.
Immediately started on book 2....I've heard it's even better.
]]> Keeping Faith 10913 � Richmond Times Dispatch “Extraordinary.�
� Orlando Sentinel From the #1 New York Times bestselling author Jodi Picoult ( Nineteen Minutes, Change of Heart, Handle with Care ) comes Keeping Faith : an “addictively readable� ( Entertainment Weekly ) novel that “makes you wonder about God. And that is a rare moment, indeed, in modern fiction� ( USA Today ).]]> 422 Jodi Picoult 0060878061 Wizzfizz 3 3.79 1999 Keeping Faith
author: Jodi Picoult
name: Wizzfizz
average rating: 3.79
book published: 1999
rating: 3
read at: 2012/08/23
date added: 2012/08/23
shelves:
review:

]]> Don't Kiss Them Goodbye 13258080 224 Allison DuBois 1847395880 Wizzfizz 3 3.39 2004 Don't Kiss Them Goodbye
author: Allison DuBois
name: Wizzfizz
average rating: 3.39
book published: 2004
rating: 3
read at: 2012/02/03
date added: 2012/07/29
shelves:
review:

]]> The Wedding 824861
Did You Know?---

The Wedding is a follow-up to The Notebook?

The Wedding was inspired by a few unnamed couples that Nicholas knows well?

The novel is set in the North Carolina town in which Nicholas now lives?]]> 311 Nicholas Sparks 0751535419 Wizzfizz 3 3.80 2003 The Wedding
author: Nicholas Sparks
name: Wizzfizz
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2003
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2012/07/16
shelves:
review:

]]> My Sister's Keeper 6233691
"My Sister's Keeper" examines what it means to be a good parent, a good sister, a good person. Is it morally correct to do whatever it takes to save a child's life, even if that means infringing upon the rights of another? Is it worth trying to discover who you really are, if that quest makes you like yourself less? Should you follow your own heart, or let others lead you? Once again, in "My Sister's Keeper, " Jodi Picoult tackles a controversial real-life subject with grace, wisdom, and sensitivity.]]> 528 Jodi Picoult 143915726X Wizzfizz 3 4.08 2004 My Sister's Keeper
author: Jodi Picoult
name: Wizzfizz
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2004
rating: 3
read at: 2010/04/24
date added: 2012/07/16
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest (Millennium, #3)]]> 6979651 Lisbeth Salander - outsider and apparent enemy of society - is charged with attempted murder. The state has also ruled that she is mentally unstable, and should be locked away in an institution once again But she is closely guarded in a hospital having taken a bullet to the head so how will she prove her innocence?

The Enemy
Pulling the strings of the prosecution is the powerful inner circle of Säpo, the state security police. Determined to protect the secrets and corruption at Sweden's rotten core, Säpo is not an adversary to take on alone.

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest
Only with the help of Mikael Blomkvist and the journalists at Millennium magazine can Salander avoid the fate that has been decided for her. Together they form a compelling and dynamic alliance. This final volume of the Millenium Trilogy is the culmination of one of the most mesmerizing fictional achievements of our time.]]> 746 Stieg Larsson 1849162743 Wizzfizz 5 4.27 2007 The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest (Millennium, #3)
author: Stieg Larsson
name: Wizzfizz
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2007
rating: 5
read at: 2010/10/11
date added: 2012/07/16
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Shopaholic Abroad (Shopaholic, #2)]]> 5197824 Shopaholic Abroad will prove a big treat for fans of The Secret Dreamworld of a Shopaholic with the irrepressible Rebecca Bloomwood, the financial journalist with the stratospheric credit card bills, returning to the high streets. But things have changed for the impulsive shopper: "I'm a completely different person from the old Becky. I'm a reformed character. I haven't even got an overdraft!" Her high-flying boyfriend Luke has got a job in America and Becky's going with him to the land of "yellow taxi cabs and skyscrapers, and Woody Allen and Breakfast at Tiffanys"; she's also got the possibility of a television slot advising viewers on money matters. Of course New York also has department stores, lots of them:
There's always that buzz as you push open the door, that hope, that belief that this is going to be the shop of all shops, which will bring you everything you ever wanted, at magically low prices.
And Rebecca starts to indulge in the poetry of purchasing. Unfortunately she's brought down to earth with a bump, the light and glitter and the voices telling her she was the next big thing are an illusion, her debts are still scary and her boyfriend hates her. So it's back to England for Becky, for an inventive denouement and a delayed happy ending.

This is a hugely engaging novel. The breathless pace speeds you through the story, and Becky's character is so funny and feckless that you'll be laughing out loud, while turning a blind eye to your own credit card bill. This is a must-read for retail therapy addicts everywhere. --Eithne Farry

]]> 351 Sophie Kinsella 0552775681 Wizzfizz 3 3.79 2001 Shopaholic Abroad (Shopaholic, #2)
author: Sophie Kinsella
name: Wizzfizz
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2001
rating: 3
read at: 2011/02/02
date added: 2012/07/16
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Secret Dreamworld of a Shopaholic (Shopaholic, #1)]]> 9423
Her job writing at Successful Savings not only bores her to tears, it doesn't pay much at all. And lately Becky's been chased by dismal letters from the bank –letters with large red sums she can't bear to read–and they're getting ever harder to ignore.

She tries cutting back. But none of her efforts succeeds. Becky's only consolation is to buy herself something ... just a little something....

Finally a story arises that Becky actually cares about, and her front-page article catalyzes a chain of events that will transform her life–and the lives of those around her–forever.]]> 320 Sophie Kinsella 0552998877 Wizzfizz 5 3.71 2000 The Secret Dreamworld of a Shopaholic (Shopaholic, #1)
author: Sophie Kinsella
name: Wizzfizz
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2000
rating: 5
read at: 2011/02/10
date added: 2012/07/16
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Mini Shopaholic (Shopaholic, #6)]]> 7534846 Book by Sophie Kinsella 396 Sophie Kinsella 0593059794 Wizzfizz 4 3.72 2010 Mini Shopaholic (Shopaholic, #6)
author: Sophie Kinsella
name: Wizzfizz
average rating: 3.72
book published: 2010
rating: 4
read at: 2011/01/04
date added: 2012/07/16
shelves:
review:
My first taste of Sophie Kinsella. I LOVED it! Becky is extremely lovable - such a ditz, yet she surprises with the odd brilliant idea. Loads of LOL moments. I've since read Confessions, Abroad and Can You Keep A Secret - all of which I enjoyed immensely, but nothing measures up to this one.
]]> The Pact 5996588
So when midnight calls from the hospital come in, no one is ready for the appalling truth: Emily is dead at seventeen from a gunshot wound to the head. There's a single unspent bullet in the gun that Chris took from his father's cabinet—a bullet that Chris tells police he intended for himself. But a local detective has doubts about the suicide pact that Chris has described.]]> 451 Jodi Picoult 1741754704 Wizzfizz 5 3.67 1998 The Pact
author: Jodi Picoult
name: Wizzfizz
average rating: 3.67
book published: 1998
rating: 5
read at: 2011/07/25
date added: 2012/07/16
shelves:
review:
My favourite book of the year!
]]> <![CDATA[The Pilot's Wife: A Novel,2001 publication]]> 22180 293 Anita Shreve 0349114765 Wizzfizz 4 3.57 1998 The Pilot's Wife: A Novel,2001 publication
author: Anita Shreve
name: Wizzfizz
average rating: 3.57
book published: 1998
rating: 4
read at: 2012/02/27
date added: 2012/07/16
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Girl Who Played with Fire (Millennium, #2)]]> 6177872 Millenium publisher Mikael Blomkvist has made his reputation exposing corrupt establishment figures. So when a young journalist approaches him with an investigation into sex trafficking, Blomkvist cannot resist waging war on the powerful figures who control this lucrative industry.

The Murder
When a young couple is found dead in their Stockholm apartment, it's a straightforward job for Inspector Bublanski and his team. The killer left the weapon at the scene - and the fingerprints on the gun point in only one direction.

The Girl Who Played with Fire
Ex-security analyst Lisbeth Salander is wanted for murder. Her history of unpredictable and vengeful behaviour makes her an official danger to society - but no-one can find her. The only way Salander can be reached is by computer. But she can break into almost any network she chooses...]]> 649 Stieg Larsson 190669415X Wizzfizz 5 4.11 2006 The Girl Who Played with Fire (Millennium, #2)
author: Stieg Larsson
name: Wizzfizz
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2006
rating: 5
read at: 2010/09/04
date added: 2012/07/16
shelves:
review:

]]> Honey Moon 1380041 Seven years on, with the memory of THAT night relegated to the realms of pure fantasy, Honey marries Ed, her nice suitable man, and unbeknown to her on the other side of the Atlantic, Alex marries another woman. As fate would have it, Honey and Alex do meet again. But what happens if they meet completely by coincidence, on a balcony in New York - even if they are both on their respective honeymoons?]]> 368 Amy Jenkins 0340771267 Wizzfizz 1 2.79 2000 Honey Moon
author: Amy Jenkins
name: Wizzfizz
average rating: 2.79
book published: 2000
rating: 1
read at: 2011/01/01
date added: 2012/07/16
shelves:
review:
A quick, easy, but pointless read, with stupid and very unlikeable characters.
]]> The Thirteenth Tale 2181571 454 Diane Setterfield 0752881949 Wizzfizz 4 3.96 2006 The Thirteenth Tale
author: Diane Setterfield
name: Wizzfizz
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2006
rating: 4
read at: 2010/09/18
date added: 2012/07/16
shelves:
review:

]]> The Book Thief 19063 Librarian's note: An alternate cover edition can be found here

It is 1939. Nazi Germany. The country is holding its breath. Death has never been busier, and will be busier still.

By her brother's graveside, Liesel's life is changed when she picks up a single object, partially hidden in the snow. It is The Gravedigger's Handbook, left behind there by accident, and it is her first act of book thievery. So begins a love affair with books and words, as Liesel, with the help of her accordian-playing foster father, learns to read. Soon she is stealing books from Nazi book-burnings, the mayor's wife's library, wherever there are books to be found.

But these are dangerous times. When Liesel's foster family hides a Jew in their basement, Liesel's world is both opened up, and closed down.

In superbly crafted writing that burns with intensity, award-winning author Markus Zusak has given us one of the most enduring stories of our time.

(Note: this title was not published as YA fiction)]]> 592 Markus Zusak Wizzfizz 0 to-read 4.38 2005 The Book Thief
author: Markus Zusak
name: Wizzfizz
average rating: 4.38
book published: 2005
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2012/07/10
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Beyond Fear 10604866
At seventeen, Jodie Cramer survived a terrifying assault at the hands of three strangers. Her schoolmate Angie was not so lucky.

Now thirty-five, Jodie is a teacher and mother of two - and her past is a horror she's buried deep. When she sets out for a weekend in the country with three friends, all she has in mind are a few laughs and a break from routine.

However, unknown to the four women, their secluded cabin was once the focus of a police investigation and, like Jodie, holds a very dark secret.

When Jodie finds evidence of prowlers at the cabin, she is convinced they are being watched, though none of her friends believe her. And after suffering flashbacks to the night of Angie's murder, she also starts to doubt her own sanity.

Until two men come knocking at their door.]]> 422 Jaye Ford Wizzfizz 3 ]]> 3.74 2011 Beyond Fear
author: Jaye Ford
name: Wizzfizz
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2011
rating: 3
read at: 2012/07/10
date added: 2012/07/10
shelves:
review:
Reminiscent of a B-Grade horror film, with lots of running around in the dark and corny lines. Still, it had me turning pages past midnight, gave me a splitting stress headache and I now have no fingernails left to speak of.

]]> A Crowded Marriage 1399252
When the Camerons hit dire financial straits they’re forced to leave London and accept Eleanor Latimer’s offer of a rent-free cottage on her country estate. Ordinarily, such an offer is not to be sniffed at but, as Eleanor happens to be Alex’s beautiful, rich and frankly flirtatious ex, Imogen is very sniffy indeed.

And with good reason. Once installed in Shepherd’s Cottage, Imogen’s life is suddenly full to bursting with surly locals, psychotic chickens, a maddening (if handsome) headmaster, mountains of manure, visits from the infuriatingly bossy vet, and Eleanor, who seems to be glued to Alex’s side.

As far as Imogen’s concerned, two’s a marriage, three’s a family and this...well, this is just silly, someone’s going to have to go. The question is who?]]> 608 Catherine Alliott 0755335201 Wizzfizz 3 Weird moments included the vicious chooks (really?), the red dress/tight undies scenario and the gory surprise birth in the Latimer's posh master suite.
I'm sorry, but I did not 'get' Pat the vet. He was all over the place - flirty when Imo first meets him, patronising and downright rude during his call-outs to the perfect passionate romantic at the end. Psycho!
I did really warm to most of the other characters though - particularly Imogen's wacky family. Also 9 year old Rufus (the only sensible one in the entire book!) The cow-chasing scene and the rabbit causing havoc at the vet surgery had me cracking up out loud.]]> 3.78 2006 A Crowded Marriage
author: Catherine Alliott
name: Wizzfizz
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2006
rating: 3
read at: 2012/07/09
date added: 2012/07/09
shelves:
review:
Tossing up between liking this one and REALLY liking it.....if I could give it 3 and a half stars I would. Some parts I loved - others, not so much.
Weird moments included the vicious chooks (really?), the red dress/tight undies scenario and the gory surprise birth in the Latimer's posh master suite.
I'm sorry, but I did not 'get' Pat the vet. He was all over the place - flirty when Imo first meets him, patronising and downright rude during his call-outs to the perfect passionate romantic at the end. Psycho!
I did really warm to most of the other characters though - particularly Imogen's wacky family. Also 9 year old Rufus (the only sensible one in the entire book!) The cow-chasing scene and the rabbit causing havoc at the vet surgery had me cracking up out loud.
]]> The Memory Keeper's Daughter 10441 401 Kim Edwards 0143037145 Wizzfizz 0 to-read 3.70 2005 The Memory Keeper's Daughter
author: Kim Edwards
name: Wizzfizz
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2005
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2012/07/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Darkfever (Fever, #1) 112750 "My name is MacKayla, Mac for short. I'm a sidhe-seer, one who sees the Fae, a fact I accepted only recently and very reluctantly.

My philosophy is pretty simple—any day nobody's trying to kill me is a good day in my book. I haven't had many good days lately. Not since the walls between Man and Fae came down. But then, there's not a sidhe-seer alive who's had a good day since then."

When MacKayla's sister was murdered, she left a single clue to her death, a cryptic message on Mac's cell phone. Journeying to Ireland in search of answers, Mac is soon faced with an even greater challenge: staying alive long enough to master a power she had no idea she possessed—a gift that allows her to see beyond the world of man, into the dangerous realm of the Fae.

As Mac delves deeper into the mystery of her sister's death, her every move is shadowed by the dark, mysterious Jericho…while at the same time, the ruthless V'lane—an alpha Fae who makes sex an addiction for human women—closes in on her. As the boundary between worlds begins to crumble, Mac's true mission becomes clear: to find the elusive Sinsar Dubh before someone else claims the all-powerful Dark Book—because whoever gets to it first holds nothing less than complete control of both worlds in their hands.]]> 309 Karen Marie Moning 0385339151 Wizzfizz 0 to-read 4.08 2006 Darkfever (Fever, #1)
author: Karen Marie Moning
name: Wizzfizz
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2006
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2012/07/03
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Truth About Forever 51737
But sometimes, unexpected things can happen—things such as the catering job at Wish, with its fun-loving, chaotic crew. Or her sister's project of renovating the neglected beach house, awakening long-buried memories. Things such as meeting Wes, a boy with a past, a taste for Truth-telling, and an amazing artistic talent, the kind of boy who could turn any girl's world upside down. As Macy ventures out of her shell, she begins to question her sheltered life.]]> 374 Sarah Dessen 0142406252 Wizzfizz 0 to-read 4.12 2004 The Truth About Forever
author: Sarah Dessen
name: Wizzfizz
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2004
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2012/07/03
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Just the Sexiest Man Alive 3863861
Cool, Calm, Collected...

Nothing fazes Taylor Donovan. In the courtroom she never lets the opposition see her sweat. In her personal life, she never lets any man rattle her—not even her cheating ex-fiancé. So when she's assigned to coach People's "Sexiest Man Alive" for his role in his next big legal thriller, she refuses to fall for the Hollywood heartthrob's charms. Even if he is the Jason Andrews.

Confident, Famous, Irresistible...

Jason Andrews is used to having women fall at his feet. When Taylor Donovan gives him the cold shoulder, he's thrown for a loop. She's unlike any other woman he's ever met: uninterested in the limelight, seemingly immune to his advances, and shockingly capable of saying no to him. She's the perfect challenge. And the more she rejects him, the more he begins to realize she may just be his perfect match.]]> 296 Julie James 0425224201 Wizzfizz 0 to-read 3.92 2008 Just the Sexiest Man Alive
author: Julie James
name: Wizzfizz
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2008
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2012/07/03
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>