Remember Me? By Sophie Kinsella

Sometimes I feel like steak and sometimes I feel like McDonalds, and this book was fabulous for a nice, light, Big Mac-style read. Better than Kinsella's more recent books and a very funny story about a woman who loses three years of her memory and is trying to find out why she was thinner, richer and more successful than she had been three years prior.

Genre rating: 9/10
Over all rating: 7 / 10
Laugh out loud rating: 8/10

The Boy in Striped Pyjamas by John Boyne

This is one of those books that I don't want to say too much about for fear of giving too much away so will keep it brief - the book is far too cutesy in places and historically inaccurate, but has a very brave plot and is one of those books that I am still thinking about a week after finishing it. Worth a read but it's very short so perhaps not worth buying.

Overall rating: 7.5 / 10
Historical accuracy rating: 4/10
Plot twists and turns rating: 9/10

The Color Purple by Alice Walker

This wasn't a book that I ever intended to read until I saw it sitting on the bestsellers table at Borders and decided to flip through. It pulled me in right away so I not only bought it but ripped through it in less than 24 hours. The Colour Purple is set in Georgia in the inter-war period and narrated by Celie, a woman that is physically and emotionally abused by both her father and husband. In spite of the gritty subject matter though the book feels surprisingly light and remarkably uplifting in parts.

I don't want to give away to much of the plot so won't say more, but would like to add that The Color Purple was a fabulous read and the best book that I have read in a long time.

Overall rating: 9/10

Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh

Brideshead Revisited was one of those books that I had meant to read for ages as I felt like I ought to have read it and was never forced to do so at school. After finally reading it, though, I still haven't quite decided whether I liked it or not. On one hand I loved the fact that it was an excellent insight into what aspects of life may have been like in the inter-war period in a way that only a book written near the time could. For example, the main characters smoked in bed, and you'd not read about that in a book written now about the 1920s and 30s. On the other hand, though, I thought that Brideshead Revisited was a bit long winded and quite dull in parts. On the whole I am glad that I finally read it and doing so wasn't a waste of time, but it's not a book I'll be recommending to others either.

Genre rating: 5/10
Overall rating: 6/10
Satisfaction at finally having read it rating: 10/10

East of the Sun by Julia Gregson

So much historical fiction written in the present day has a tendency to overplay the impressions that we have about the time written about, and ignores how things may have actually been. East of the Sun, set in the late 1920s England and India, has a tendency to do just this as some of the characters are a little too stereotypical in their prissiness. The pace of the book was a little odd as well as it swung from being quite dull to very exciting to dull again, and there were some jumps in plot and character development that didn't really flow. But, I still stayed up late reading it, and I enjoyed learning more about colonial India.

Overall it was a good, solid read - like so many others not a book that I would recommend, but not one that I regret reading either.

Genre rating: 6/10
Overall rating: 6/10
Learning interesting things about history and the world rating: 8/10

Little Earthquakes by Jennifer Weiner

I really respect Jennifer Weiner as an author of women's fiction because she writes funny and warm stories without making me feel somehow inadequate for not owning a pair of Jimmy Choos and chasing rich men. I loved In Her Shoes and Good in Bed, and was not disappointed by Little Earthquakes. It's a little more complicated than the other two books and sometimes the plot jumped around a little bit, but it's a good solid read that's perfect for a lazy evening in. One of the best chick-lits I've read since the last Marian Keyes.

Genre rating: 8.5/10 Overall rating: 7/10

No Time for Goodbye by Linwood Barclay

I don't want to say much about this book as am terrified of giving too much away, so all I will say about the plot is that it is about a young girl that wakes up one morning to find her entire family gone. The book is set a number of years later when she is trying to discover what happened to them, and it was so good I not only finished it in under 24 hours, but also lost a serious amount of sleep playing the "one more chapter" game. I am sure that you could fault this book for being sloppy or perhaps even predictable, but I don't care - I was too busy wanting to find out what was going to happen to notice any flaws.

Genre rating: 9/10
Overall rating: 8/10
Staying up way too late reading rating: 10/10