Decades: Compiling the Ultimate Library with Lisa Gray

It’s mid December and it has been eleven months since my first Decades guest joined me back in January. That first guest was Sharon Bairden, an author I often met while attending book launches in Glasgow. So what a happy coincidence that my final guest of the year is also an author I would frequently meet when we attended book launches in Glasgow: Lisa Gray.

Don’t panic about the “last of the year” comment, I always say “DECADES WILL RETURN.” But with the busy holiday season approaching I have decided I am not going to share any new guest selections until 7th January 2022. Decades is as much about my guests as it is about their book selections so I do not want anyone to be overlooked while there are so many other distractions at this time of year. I have been asked to make my personal Decades choices so that may happen.

But back to the present (no Christmas pun indended). This week I am delighted to be joined by one of my best bookish pals, Lisa Gray. The challenge remains the same, Lisa has to nominate five of her favourite books which she thinks should be added to my Ultimate Library. She is allowed to choose any five books but can only select one book per decade from five consecutive decades.

Sometimes one of my guests will nominate a book and I will be instantly gobsmacked that the book or author has not yet featured in a previous selection. This is true of this week too…I shall let Lisa explain.

DECADES

Lisa Gray is an Amazon #1, Washington Post, and Wall Street Journal bestselling author. Her debut novel, Thin Air, was the third-bestselling Kindle book on Amazon.com in 2019. She previously worked as the chief Scottish soccer writer at the Press Association and the books editor at the Daily Record Saturday Magazine. She lives in Glasgow and writes full-time.

Lisa is the author of the Jessica Shaw books. Jessica is a troubled and tenacious private eye of no fixed abode, who investigates cases in and around Los Angeles. The latest in the series, Lonely Hearts, sees Jessica delve into the Lonely Hearts Club and the world of women who write to dangerous convicted criminals.

1970s — Carrie by Stephen King

I know, I know. Yet another Decades contributor picking a Stephen King book, but I do think it’s fascinating that we’re all choosing completely different ones! Carrie was the first King book I read, the first he had published, and it’s the one that has stayed with me the most. That heartbreaking scene in the girls’ locker room… That iconic scene with the pigs’ blood at the high school prom… It doesn’t matter if you read the book or watched the film, you’re not going to forget those images in a hurry. Carrie White is an outsider, bullied by her classmates and her own mother, before her telekinetic powers allow her to inflict a terrible, bloody revenge on the town that terrorised her. I liked that the novel was told in an epistolary style with newspaper articles and scientific reports included as part of the story. A true horror classic.

1980s — A is for Alibi by Sue Grafton

Confession time. Even though this book was published way back in the ‘80s (the best decade ever in my opinion), I only read it for the first time a couple of years ago. Like Grafton, I write a series about a plucky female private eye who doggedly investigates cases in Southern California. When people started comparing my Jessica Shaw books to the famous ‘Alphabet’ series, I knew I had to check it out. What can I say? That comparison is one hell of a compliment! I absolutely adore the twice-divorced Kinsey Millhone and her page-turning mysteries. If I can ever write a novel half as good as Sue Grafton, I’ll be happy.

1990s — The Concrete Blonde by Michael Connelly

The Concrete Blonde is one of the closest things you’ll get to a perfect police procedural in my opinion. It has everything—a complex plot, a warped killer, a dogged cop in the superb Harry Bosch, intrigue, suspense and plenty of twists. And all set against the wonderfully drawn backdrop of the City of Angels. For me, Connelly always nails the big three of character, plot and setting. He’s the best in the business. The fact that this book was only the third that he wrote kind of blows my mind.

2000s — Dark Places by Gillian Flynn

Everyone knows Gillian Flynn for Gone Girl, the book that made her a household name—but Dark Places is easily my favourite by the author. Libby Day is the sole survivor of a massacre that happened during the ‘satanic panic’ of 1980s small town America. Years later and strapped for cash, she agrees to help a group of amateur sleuths delve back into what really happened the night her mother and sisters were murdered, and her brother was jailed for the horrific crimes. Flynn is the queen of the unlikeable female narrator and just a really, really terrific writer. One of the few books I’ve read more than once.

2010s — Pretty Girls by Karin Slaughter

First of all, I should probably say that Karin Slaughter’s books aren’t for everyone. They are often brutal and unflinching, and Pretty Girls is no exception. It’s definitely not for the faint-hearted but what it is, is a masterclass in making the reader care about the characters. It’s about teenage girls who disappeared years apart and it gripped me, surprised me, and, ultimately, it broke my heart. I cried twice reading it and I don’t mean delicate tears dropping onto the page, I’m talking full-blown ugly sobbing. One twist floored me so much I actually shouted, ‘No way!’ and had to set the book aside for a few moments. Between the crying and the yelling, it’s just as well I read Pretty Girls at home and not on the morning commute to work…

Ending the year with King and Connelly and also introducing Karin Slaughter, Sue Grafton and Gillian Flynn to the Decades Library means I get to finish 2021 on a real high. My thanks to Lisa for these terrific recommendations. As this is the last Decades of the year I would like to thank all my wonderful guests who have made this feature a year-long celebration of booklove.

DECADES WILL RETURN

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December 5

My Five Favourite Audiobooks of 2021

It has been a great year for audiobooks so, after being dropped from the blog for the last couple of years, I am going to resurrect an end of year “Favourite Audiobooks” list for 2021.

This selection of books was brought to you in association with Odin.

No not the craggy, one-eyed Norse deity but a soon-to-be two-year old cockerpoo who needs a couple of good walks each day. My daily dog walking gives me the time and opportunity I need to get lots of listening done and this year I have enjoyed a couple of dozen full books while chucking sticks around a park and trudging up and down woodland paths. So thanks to Odin for bringing back the listening.

I have selected five of my favourites and although they are not in any specific order I will finish with the story I enjoyed the most. These five books are included because of a number of factors, a great narrator, an engaging story or subject matter, a tale I couldn’t stop thinking about or just beacuse I thought it was terrific. These are the five which I considered the best purchases I made through my Audible account.

Far From The Tree – Rob Parker

Brendan Foley has worked to balance the responsibilities of a demanding job and a troublesome family. He’s managed to keep these two worlds separate, until the discovery of a mass grave sends them into a headlong collision….

The juggle for Brendan Foley in this book is brilliantly handled by Rob Parker. Foley’s family have dubious criminal connections as his father is one of the North West’s biggest gangsters. So when Brendan’s nephew is found dead in a mass grave, family loyalty is not high on Brendan’s list of priorities. He is a man under huge pressure and there are a lot of corpses who deserve justice – can Brendan Foley step up for them?

Billy Summers – Stephen King

Billy Summers is a man in a room with a gun. He’s a killer for hire and the best in the business. But he’ll do the job only if the target is a truly bad guy. And now Billy wants out. But first there is one last hit….

How could I not include Billy Summers in my selections? King is the master storyteller and Billy Summers is one of his very best. A hitman with the chance to make enough cash from the next job that he could retire. But there are too many things Billy doesn’t like about the assignment and fate isn’t going to make it easy for him.

This was a book which had me making longer detours on my walks just so I could hear another ten minutes of story. When it was finished I wasn’t – I wanted more.

The Reacher Guy – Heather Martin

The Reacher Guy is a compelling and authoritative portrait of the artist as a young man, refracted through the life of his fictional avatar, Jack Reacher….

I don’t read non-fiction and I certainly don’t read biographies. Well that was true until I listened to Heather Martin’s excellent biography of Lee Child, author of the tremendous Jack Reacher novels.

I thought I knew Reacher well (I’d been reading his story for over 20 years). I knew Lee Child was an alias but that was all I knew. Heather Martin showed me how little I actually knew. She tells the story of three men and she shows how my favourite fiction was shaped by history and experiences and tells the reader about the stubborn determination of a man called James Grant.

This book opened my eyes and gave me an enjoyment of non-fiction which I had not previously experienced. Since reading The Reacher Guy I am now picking up more non-fiction titles and feel I am gaining from each one I read. This is a detailed and fascinating listen.

Chasing The Boogeyman – Richard Chizmar

In the summer of 1988, the mutilated bodies of several missing girls begin to turn up in a small Maryland town. The grisly evidence leads police to the terrifying assumption that a serial killer is on the loose in the quiet suburb. But soon a rumour begins to spread that the evil stalking local teens is not entirely human. Law enforcement, as well as members of the FBI, are certain that the killer is a living, breathing madman – and he’s playing games with them. For a once peaceful community trapped in the depths of paranoia and suspicion, it feels like a nightmare that will never end.

The release of this post was delayed 24 hours as I still had 45 minutes of Chasing The Boogeyman to listen to. Even before I had finished the audiobook I knew it was going to be included in my list of five favourites. It’s a story from the late 80’s when for six months a killer attacked a number of teenage girls and held a terror over a small town. The story is told by Richard Chizmar himself, a resident of the town in question, and he plays an integral part of the story even fearing he may become a suspect at one point. It is chilling ficton but presented as a true crime investigation – there is even a PDF of pictures of the characters to accompany the audiobook to allow listeners to see snapshots of the key figures in the story and locations important to the plot. It’s a really clever addition to a brilliant audiobook.

56 Days – Catherine Ryan Howard

No one even knew they were together. Now one of them is dead….

It is December 2021 and Covid and lockdown have been present in our lives for over 20 months yet this isn’t being reflected in the fiction I am reading. Who is writing the lockdown stories? Well Catherine Ryan Howard is – 56 Days takes all the anxiety, claustrophobia, tension and paranoia of 2020 and weaves it wonderfully into this murder story.

This is the audiobook I enjoyed most in 2021. The narration was wonderful, the shift in narrative across the 56 days which cover the novel kept the teases and reveals flowing through the story – it isn’t a linear narrative so you realise some characters know more than they are letting on at certain parts of the story and that just throws up more question around why they are behaving why they are. The story hangs on the characters and their actions and Catherine Ryan Howard has crafted a wonderful cast to make this story absolutely shine.

So there you have it five wonderful and unmissable audiobooks. Some non-fiction which includes a lot of fictional references, a serial killer thriller, a police investigation with gangland links, a hitman story which is so much more and a clever murder tale hidden from the world during a pandemic lockdown.

I limped over the finishing line with a busted pair of headphones so until I get back to the shops and replace my £10 headphones with a new pair of similar value no new audiobooks will be started. I can be confident, therefore, that no new audiobook will be listened to over the last three weeks of 2021 and that this five really are the best five audiobooks I listened to this year. Now all that remains is for you to seek them out too and see for yourself why I loved them so much.

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November 19

Decades – Compiling the Ultimate Library with Gordon Brown / Morgan Cry

It’s Decades. My ongoing quest to put together a library which is full of nothing but the very best books – as recommended by booklovers.

Back in January I had no books on the shelves of my Decades Library. Each week a new guest joins me and I ask them to nominate five books they want me to add to the shelves. Books which they feel all libraries should have available to allow them to be discovered by new readers.

Unfortunately for my guests I have made the selection process slightly more tricky than just nominating five books. I wanted to ensure my Decades Library would offer a great range of reading options. Therefore my guests are restricted to only selecting one book per decade from five consecutive decades – any fifty year publication span. I used to get a bit of flack about this second rule but these days it’s much more common for my guests to find clever ways to cheat when making their selections (just scroll down and take a look at Gordon Brown’s first pick).

As a sharp-eyed soul you will have noticed my guest this week is Gordon Brown. Gordon has just announced he will be penning two new books for Red Dog Press. News so fresh it didn’t make it into his introduction! The even sharper eyed reader will see one of these forthcoming books getting a wee mention in the paragraphs below.

Gordon Brown has eight crime and thriller books published to date, along with a novella and a number of short stories.

Under his new expat alias, Morgan Cry, Gordon’s latest crime thriller, ’Thirty-One Bones’, set in Spain, is published by Polygon. Available now in both the UK and the U.S. – the sequel, called ‘Six Wounds’, will be published in in May 2022.

Gordon also helped found Bloody Scotland, Scotland’s International Crime Writing Festival (see www.bloodyscotland.com), is a DJ on local radio (www.pulseonair.co.uk) and runs a strategic planning consultancy. He lives in Scotland and is married with two children.

In a former life Gordon delivered pizzas in Toronto, sold non-alcoholic beer in the Middle East, launched a creativity training business, floated a high tech company on the London Stock Exchange, compered the main stage at a two-day music festival and was once booed by 49,000 people while on the pitch at a major football Cup Final.

DECADES

Gordon is compiling the ultimate library and has asked me to contribute five books from five decades. That’s the deal, right? Okay I’ll admit up front that that is a serious challenge. Looking back on my reading am I to choose books that I loved? The one’s that I couldn’t put down. The ones I loathed (that would be a cracking list)? The ones I’ve read more than once? The ones I never finished but have tried time and time again to do so (take a bow ‘Lord of the Rings’). My own books? Fact or fiction? Or both? Do short stories get a look in? Do I ignore the rules and go for books from the same decade? Or do I just forget it all and go for the books that mean the most to me? The booky equivalents of the music albums that return to my turntable time and time again? Not necessarily the best books I’ve ever read. Nor the most technically proficient. Nor those of literary note. Good or bad the following five have one thing in common.

I love them and they fundamentally influenced my writing.

1960s – ‘What Happened at Midnight’ by Franklin W. Dixon

This is a Hardy Boys mystery. Okay so this is already a cheat. The book first came out in 1931 but was revised in 1967 (as were many of the books in the series to address issues with racial stereotyping and to make them more action oriented to compete with 60s TV). In addition, there is no such person as Franklin W. Dixon – the name was used to give consistency to the series – the books were written by a wide range of authors. If you want some real geekdom this book was originally penned by Leslie McFarlane and then re-written by Tom Mulvey. To add to my ‘cheatness’ quotient this is probably not my favourite Hardy Boys book – but it is the one that got me into reading in a big way. All Hardy Boys books rely on a simple premise. Two young adults, Frank (18) (16 in earlier books) and Joe (17) (15 in earlier books), whose father is a police detective, solve the criminal mystery each time. Later in the series they help their dad with his cases but in earlier books they fly solo. ‘What Happened at Midnight’ is centred on a new type of transistor that the boys are asked to steal (by dad) and keep safe. The plot involves smugglers, bi-planes and chases. That’s all you need to know on that front. What marks this out for me was the fact I read the whole thing in one afternoon. And then raided my local library for every other Hardy Boys book I could get my hands on. These books imbued me with a desire to write and to add mustard to this weird sandwich I’ve just put a Glasgow ‘Hardy Boys’ book set in 1973 out on submission.

1970s – ‘Nightmare Blue’ by Gardner Dozois and George Alex Effinger

The story of an alien race who land, planning to take over earth, bringing with them a drug that is instantly addictive. One shot and you’ll die, if you don’t keep taking it. The aliens target world leaders along with the great and the good, forcing them to take the drug. Riding to humanity’s rescue is a German private investigator who teams up with a multi-limbed alien slave to rid the planet of this evil threat. Go on tell me you don’t want to read it – I have, at least half a dozen times, maybe more. I have never been able to put my finger on why this book hooks me. It’s not famous, nor is it notorious. It’s not the best written book. Nor is it without its flaws. I’ve only met one other person who has read it and they thought it was ‘okay’ – given I’d put them on to it this was a better reaction than I thought they would have. I’m convinced that the drug that is so central to the story had somehow been infused into the pages of my copy and that’s why I need a regular fix. It still resonates with me to this day. A book populated with outsiders, misfits, underdogs fighting the odds, battling the baddies. Individuals thrown into situations that they are ill prepared for. Both those sentences could sum up every book I’ve written. That’s how influential this book is to me.

1980s – ‘Christine’ by Stephen King

The start of my ‘on/off’ love affair with Mr King. This takes me back to the summer of 1983 when I was working in a bar on the shores of Loch Lomond. The hours were long, the customers demanding and time off limited. When things were quiet we were allowed to read a book. My problem was that once I started Christine I could be found reading in the back cellar when things were the polar opposite of quiet. This is a story set in Libertyville, Pennsylvania in 1978 where two school friends, Arnie and Dennis, stumble upon a wreck of a car, a 1958 Plymouth Fury. Owned by a miserable old git called Roland D. LeBay, he agrees to sell the car to the boys for $250. Only the car isn’t quite what it seems (is any inanimate object in a King novel?). Arnie becomes obsessed with the car and works on it to bring it back to its former glory. When the car starts killing people (of its own volition) poor Arnie is in the frame with the local detective. This was considered King’s first return to a fully-fledged supernatural horror novel since the The Shining but to me the book is wonderful a tale of small-town America. Of a relationship between an old man and a young boy and what true obsession can do to a person and those around them. It’s all about the characters – and that sticks with me in my own writing. Oh, and it does feature a haunted car. A theme he came back to in my favourite King book ‘From a Buick 8’.

1990s – ‘A Man in Full’ by Tom Wolfe

The opposite of a rags to riches story in every way possible. Take a man who has everything and is stretching for even more and then we watch as it all unravels. Set in high society Atlanta and told from various points of views this was Tom Wolfe’s second novel, eleven years after the monster that was ‘Bonfire of the Vanities’. I love the set pieces in this book. I borrowed the idea of naming each chapter for my own books from this work. My favourite being ‘The Saddlebags’ – a ‘breakfast’ meeting where Charlie Croker meets with his bankers, believing that, despite the problems his new vanity project is facing, he is set fair to make more money. Only to discover that the people in the room are no longer friends but Rottweilers – out to disabuse him of the notion that he is in control. The Saddlebags refers to the sweat stains that start under Charlie’s armpits as he realises how much trouble he is in. As the meeting goes south and the bankers set upon him, the stains spread across Charlie’s shirt and when they meet in the middle of his chest the cry of ‘Saddlebags’ goes up and the Charlie is sunk and the bankers own him. A story of greed, excess, entitlement and written in a way that I aspire to.

2000s – ‘Why Don’t Penguins Feet Freeze’ – The New Scientist

In the New Scientist magazine there is a column called ‘The Last Word’. People write in with questions and scientists (and others) write in with answers. Often disagreeing with each other. Back in 2005 New Scientist decided to take the correspondence from over the years and bundle it into a book. The first book being ‘Does Anything Eat Wasps’. As the title of the books suggest the questions are anything but ordinary – take the other books in this series ‘Do Polar Bears Get Lonely?’, ‘Why Can’t Elephants Jump?’, ‘Why Are Orangutans Orange?’ and ‘Will We Ever Speak Dolphin?’ and you get the idea. Each book has a hundred odd questions loosely ordered by subject matter. And the beauty is that few questions have a definitive answer. ‘Why Don’t Penguins Feet Freeze’ got me into what I call my ‘chewing gum for the mind’ books. I always have one on the go. At the moment it’s the ‘QI Book of the Dead’. They are my ‘escape’ books. As leftfield from crime and thrillers as I can get. Birthdays and Christmases refill my ‘nonsense’ larder as my wife and kids buy me a never-ending supply. I’m looking at one of my book shelves and can see books entitled – ‘How Much Poo Does An Elephant Do’, ‘Usefully Useless – Everything You Didn’t Learn at School’, ‘How To Live Forever and 34 Other Really Interesting Uses of Science’, ‘The World’s Greatest Mistakes’, ‘Why Does E=MC²?’, ‘Elephants on Acid and Other Bizarre Experiments’ (What is it about elephants?), ‘Go Figure – Things you Didn’t Know You Didn’t Know’, ‘The Worst Case Scenario Handbook’ – and so on. But, in truth, these books, apart from allowing me to lose myself, are simply the dogs bollocks for providing the grist for my creative writing mill.

I would never have expected Why Don’t Penguins Feet Freeze? to make its way into my Decades Library but it’s a book I also loved to read. My wife and I both read our way through all the books The New Scientist released – me for the quirky questions and her for the “sciency bits”.

The non-fiction shelves of my Library are not as busy as the fiction ones at this time. Perhaps in future more non-fiction books will make their way through the doors and into the Decades Library? The only way to find out is to keep reading.

DECADES WILL RETURN

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October 23

Decades: Compiling the Ultimate Library with Steph Mullin and Nicole Mabry

A first for Decades this week as I am going to need two Curator Hats.

Each week I invite a guest to join me in my ongoing quest to add books to my Decades Library. In January 2021 I asked myself the question: If you were to fill the shelves of a brand new library but had no books, which books should you add to make sure the very best publications were represented?

Now that was far too difficult a question to answer alone so I am enlisting the assistance of booklovers (authors, publishers, journalists and bloggers) and I ask them which five books they would put into my library. However, I added an extra rule – my guests may only select one book per decade and they must select their five books from five consecutive decades. So they have any fifty year publication span to select from. Apparently this makes it harder to choose than it may sound!

Earlier this year I read a wonderful serial killer thriller: The Family Tree – it is the first novel co-authored by Steph Mullin and Nicole Mabry. The book reminded me of a discussion I had been having with my wife around DNA testing and the unforeseen outcomes which may arise from trying to trace your ancestry. In The Family Tree the protagonist (Liz) discovers she may be related to a serial killer. For clarity, I am not related to a serial killer (to my knowledge). My discussion with my wife was around charities who are helping people to cope with the trauma some people can experience when they learn their family are not their blood family.

The Family Tree was one of my favourite reads this year and as it was recently released into paperback I thought this would be a perfect opportunity to ask Nicole or Steph if they fancied taking on the Decades challenge. To my delight they were both keen to make their selections so, for the first time, I have co-authors to welcome to Grab This Book and we have ten new titles to add to the Library.

Steph Mullin and Nicole Mabry met as co-workers in New York City in 2012, discovering a shared passion for writing and true crime. After Steph relocated to Charlotte, North Carolina in 2018, they continued to collaborate creatively. Separated by five states, they spend countless hours scheming via FaceTime and editing each other’s typos in real time on live Google Docs. Steph’s dream of becoming a writer started at age six, followed by winning scholastic writing awards and crafting articles for her university literary magazine. She currently works as Creative Director for a Media, Entertainment and Digital Marketing Solutions company. Nicole works in television as Senior Manager of Post Production in the photography department. She is the author of Past This Point (2019), an award-winning apocalyptic women’s fiction novel. Past This Point was chosen as Best Book of the Year by Indies Today and won first place in the Global Thriller division of the Chanticleer International Book Awards. The Family Tree is the writing duo’s first co-authored crime novel.

DECADES

My co-author and I are 18 years apart in age, so we loved the idea of doing a list like this separately, knowing our different generations would surely affect our lists.

NICOLE MABRY

I started my list in the 60’s, the decade before I was born, because it was responsible for some of the most incredible literary works of our time.

1960s: I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou (1969)

I was introduced to this autobiography in my college African American History class in 1997 and could not put it down. I read it start to finish in one sitting and those hours brought a range of emotions. It impacted me on so many levels, not just because of the important racial subject matter that I wasn’t fully aware of before this class, but also as a woman and a writer. Angelou’s writing is so beautifully elegant and lyrical that it makes the tough subject matter so much more compelling. I cried multiple times and then undoubtably sighed at the exquisite words Angelou put down on the page. I remember sitting in my dingy college apartment on my unmade bed after reading the last page and just staring off into space, my head filled with Angelou’s life and words. My only regret is that I didn’t read this book sooner. It is a book that has stayed with me over the years and the first I recommend.

1970s: Go Ask Alice by Beatrice Sparks {as Anonymous} (1971)

I was raised by a busy, full time working mom who was brilliant at finding ways to impart parental wisdom without actually having difficult conversations. For example, instead of exasperatingly telling me for the 100th time not to wander off in stores, she had me watch the made-for-tv movie Adam, the true story of Adam Walsh’s kidnapping from a shopping center. And it worked. I never left her side at stores again. When I entered my teens, even though she never needed to worry about me taking drugs as I didn’t even drink at parties, my mom gave me the book, Go Ask Alice. The book is in diary entry form and is written by an anonymous fifteen-year-old girl who falls headfirst into drug addiction. I was glued to the page, flipping them rapidly as I devoured a first-hand account of a drug fueled journey of a girl my own age–the good and the bad. To my naïve teenage self, it felt real, as though I was doing drugs alongside her, experiencing the highs and the lows that come with such a life. As I followed her through her addiction and into a more hopeful future, the epilogue delivered a gut punch that left me sitting stunned in my bedroom, anxiously looking for another chapter. Needless to say, it scared the bejeezus out of me and did the superfluous job my mother had hoped it would. But to this day, the final words of this book still haunt me.

1980’s: Misery by Stephen King (1987)

I’m a horror movie lover so King is one of my go-to authors. But Misery is without a doubt my favorite of his. I had watched the movie before I read the book and was certain the book could not be better. James Caan and Kathy Bates gave such incredible, unforgettable performances, I couldn’t fathom that King could top that. I was so wrong. King’s writing in this book is so visceral and each character’s reactions are so perfectly laid out that Caan and Bates had a very detailed map of what to do at each step. And even though I knew what happened, I was glued to every page. Now when I watch the movie, I can see King’s words in my head like a script for the movie.

1990’s: The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky (1999)

A friend recommended this book to me and when I first got it, I looked at the slim volume skeptically. How could such a small book fully tell the story of an awkward teen navigating life and learning who he is? But within a few pages I was hooked and fully immersed in Charlie’s world. The concept and formatting were unique and drew me in. Once I got to the poem that’s deep into the book, I cried openly. I read that poem about ten times before moving on. The book is perfect, and I wouldn’t change a thing about it. I still read it once a year.

2000s: Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn (2006)

During the 2000’s I really dug into the thriller/suspense/mystery genre that eventually led me to choose the same genre for my own writing. But I didn’t know about this book until everyone was raving about Gone Girl years later. While I liked Gone Girl, I decided to search out more by Flynn and found Sharp Objects. This has to be my favorite debut from any thriller author. Flynn created such a devious and emotional plot, and to top that off with a deliciously flawed main character just sweetened the pot. Full of twists and turns, complex, well-developed characters and an ending that will leave you gasping, this was an easy pick for the 2000s.

STEPH MULLIN

1970s: The Shining by Stephen King (1977)

The Shining was my first Stephen King novel and really showed me what it was like to be a master of suspense. I didn’t read this book until my teen years, but it played a huge role in influencing the types of books I love to read…and what areas of writing I enjoy the most. Part of what I love so much about this book is the way King is able to turn the atmosphere and setting into a character in itself – the hotel playing such an integral role in the story and the torment of the characters. It so expertly blurs the lines between fantasy and reality, using masterful character development to bring out the horror and mystery woven through the pages. Now, as a writer, developing characters and atmosphere are the two areas I enjoy the most, and as a reader I love to seek out stories that execute them expertly like Stephen King.

1980s: The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood

As I was born in 1990, The Handmaid’s Tale was a story I didn’t become familiar with until a bit later in life – however, what’s so brilliant about Atwood’s masterpiece is its uncanny ability to be relatable even decades later. Every woman who reads The Handmaid’s Tale can place themselves into the shoes of these women, feeling the terror at how close society feels at times to turning into Atwood’s world. The Handmaid’s Tale really made me take note of the political policies in today’s society as it relates to women’s rights, and to also realize that this is a timeless concern that we all feel in our bones. I normally read fiction for the entertainment and escapist value in it, but this thought-provoking book is one that sticks with me for entirely different reasons.

1990s: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by JK Rowling (1997)

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone is the first book I have a distinctive memory of reading. I was only seven years old when it came out, and I remember another girl in my elementary school had a copy and leant it to me – and I was hooked. Over the years, I aged alongside the characters as each book came out and it was something that really shaped my childhood years. I remember convincing my parents to take me to midnight book releases, staying up all night at sleepovers with friends reading through the night and refusing to sleep until we finished the book. I owe a lot of my love of reading, and ability to read quickly, to when I picked up that first Harry Potter book in the late 90s. It was the first time I really felt what it was like to escape into another world through fiction.

2000-2010: The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold (2002)

The Lovely Bones was one of the first books I read growing up that was of “darker” subject matter. It was also the first book I read that was told through a unique format, the narrator being that of the young Susie Salmon, after she was murdered. Susie watches as her loved ones try to solve her murder and figure out how to move on in life without her. I was only a teenager when this book came out, and the haunting and heartbreaking narrative really struck a chord with me, paving the way for me to continue seeking out books that explored crimes and mysteries. That path The Lovely Bones sent me down is what now has manifested into a love for thrillers and true crime, and ultimately, becoming a thriller writer where one of my favorite things to consider – is unique format and storytelling perspectives.

2010-2020: The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides (2019)

As an avid thriller reader and writer that takes in a lot of true crime media, it’s very hard to surprise me in a book. I’m constantly playing detective as I read, subconsciously trying to solve the mystery before the author reveals it. The Silent Patient was one of the first books in a long time to actually surprise me in the end. Masterfully crafted so that the twist reveal was unraveled by the story’s format and unreliable characters (that you didn’t even realize at first were unreliable), I delightfully didn’t guess everything Michaelides had up his sleeve and enjoyed every page-turning moment. As both a reader and a writer, this book really made me think about the way we reveal our own inner truths and I hope to one day pull off an ending with such finesse.

My thanks to Nicole and Steph for the longest Decades span I have shared (while still keeping within the rules). But we’re not quite done as Nicole added a bonus recommendation which I will also share now. As the publication was in the 1920’s it doesn’t qualify for Library inclusion but as a booklover it is in my blood to pass on a recommended title!

BONUS 1920s: The Boxcar Children by Gertrude Chandler Warner

When I was 6, I was a very hyperactive child. My single mom didn’t know how to occupy my curious mind. My teacher had given us a vocabulary workbook for homework assignments for the entire year. I misunderstood the instructions because, being hyperactive also meant I rarely paid attention to adults, and I completed the whole workbook in one night. My exasperated teacher didn’t have any other homework for me so she said I should start reading a book a week instead. So, my mom took me to the library and told me I had to pick a book that was over 100 pages. I chose The Boxcar Children and my mom sat me down on the living room floor with a thick dictionary and my chosen book. I had to read at least 20 pages a night and if I didn’t know a word, I had the dictionary to look it up. The story, about four orphaned kids who make a home in an abandoned boxcar, captivated me instantly. This sparked a passion for stories very early on I never looked back. I became a voracious reader and a regular at the local library.

The Family Tree is published by Avon and is available in Digital and paperback formats now. Nicole and Steph have also just revealed the cover of their next thriller – When She Disappeared – which will release next year.

DECADES WILL RETURN

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October 11

Decades: Compiling the Ultimate Library with Rachel Amphlett

Rachel Amphlett has a new book out today (11th October) and I am opening the blog tour for The Lost Boy – my review is here. In addition to reviewing The Lost Boy, Rachel is also on my blog today making her Decades selections. You are probably thinking that this was great planning but, if you knew me, you’d know that was highly improbable.

As as much as I would like to claim it was all planned out, I had asked Rachel if she could become my Decades Curator a few weeks before I was given the opportunity to host a leg of the blog tour for The Lost Boy. I have been a fan of Rachel’s writing for a few years now and was keen to see which titles she would select when faced with my Decades challenge.

If you haven’t encountered Decades before today let me quickly explain what’s about to happen: I am trying to assemble a brand new library of unmissable books. Each week I invite a guest to join me and I ask them to nominate five books which should be added to my Library. However, publication dates are important as my guests can only choose one book per decade and they must select from five consecutive decades – so a fifty year publication span of their choosing.

If you want to see which books have previously been selected here is a handy link: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/GrabThisBookDecades

Let me now hand over to Rachel Amphlett to guide you through five exciting new Decades recommendations.

Before turning to writing, USA Today bestselling crime author Rachel Amphlett played guitar in bands, worked as a TV and film extra, dabbled in radio as a presenter and freelance producer for the BBC, and worked in publishing as an editorial assistant.

She now wields a pen instead of a plectrum and writes crime fiction and spy novels, because that’s what she grew up reading. When she was 11 years old, her grandad gave her his copy of The Eagle Has Landed, and she’s been an avid fan of the genre ever since.

Her debut thriller, White Gold was released in July 2011 and features British secret agent Dan Taylor. The series established Rachel as an author to watch and spurned three more novels before Rachel turned her attention to a new character, Detective Kay Hunter.

The Kay Hunter crime thrillers are based in Kent and feature a tight-knit team of detectives. Praised by experts for their attention to detail, the books are also much loved by readers for their page-turning plots and devious twists with comparisons to TV shows NCIS and Law & Order: Criminal Intent.

More recently, Rachel created a new crime thriller series based around the central character Mark Turpin, an Oxfordshire-based detective. The first book, None the Wiser, received critical acclaim from Adrian McKinty (The Chain) and Jo Spain (With Our Blessing, The Confession), with the follow-up book, Her Final Hour being praised by the creator of the DCI Banks series, Peter Robinson.

In addition to her detective stories, Rachel also writes the English Assassins series featuring female assassin Eva Delacourt, and a number of standalone crime thrillers, psychological thrillers and conspiracy thrillers.

A keen traveller, Rachel has both Australian and British citizenship.

You can find out more about Rachel and her books at www.rachelamphlett.com

Contact details: Email: info@rachelamphlett.com

Website: www.rachelamphlett.com

Twitter: @RachelAmphlett

Instagram: @RachelAmphlett

DECADES

The Eagle Has Landed, Jack Higgins (1976)

This is how I discovered “proper” thrillers when I was 11 years old. My grandad had a secondhand copy of it from 1976 and one rainy weekend when I was bored, he took The Eagle Has Landed off the shelf and said “Go and read this – I think you’ll enjoy it”. I’ve re-read it every decade since.

The Talisman, Stephen King and Peter Straub (1984)

This is one of my favourite Stephen King books. I think I’m on my fourth or fifth copy now because when I first discovered it, I kept loaning it out to friends saying “read this!” and then never seeing it again. I love Stephen King, and he’s one of the few writers I’ll willingly read even though some of his work is from the horror genre – I just can’t resist speculative fiction.

The Pelican Brief, John Grisham (1992)

When this was published, I was playing lead guitar in bands around Oxfordshire so I think I picked it up one Saturday afternoon in Blackwell’s or somewhere like that. I’d already read A Time to Kill and The Firm, but it was The Pelican Brief that resonated with me the most because the characters were so well developed. There’s so much depth to the writing as well so you’re completely immersed within the first couple of pages. It’s a masterclass in getting a hold of a reader and not letting them come up for air. Again, The Pelican Brief is a book I’ll re-read every few years or so.

The Lincoln Lawyer, Michael Connelly (2005)

I first discovered Michael Connelly’s writing in my early thirties while living in Australia and quickly devoured everything from the backlist in the space of about three months. It got to the point where I’d read everything in the bookshop I used to go in on my way home from work so they were ordering in copies for me. I wanted to include Angel’s Flight here too but I already have a 90s book, so I’m picking The Lincoln Lawyer because I love how Connelly approached introducing a new character to readers while remaining in Harry Bosch’s world. As with all his books, the scene-setting is so good, I feel like I know LA even though I haven’t been there yet.

I Am Pilgrim, Terry Hayes (2014)

I was instantly drawn to this book when it was published based on Hayes’ screenwriting credits, all of them part of my teenage years including Mad Max 2 and 3, Dead Calm, and Hotel Bangkok. It just doesn’t let up from the first page, and is an absolute masterclass in thriller writing. I’ve lost count how many people I’ve recommended this to over the years!

The Talisman is one of the few Stephen King books I have yet to read so I really *must* get around to recitfying that soon. This feature really does make my TBR pile grow each week. But as a booklover I don’t see that as a problem! My thanks to Rachel for five brand new books to add to my Library.

DECADES WILL RETURN

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October 1

Decades – Compiling the Ultimate Library with Simon Bewick

A new week and a new Decades guest with five new books to add to the Decades Library. If you are new to my weekly challenge then let me explain what’s about to happen. I have asked Simon Bewick to nominate five books which he would want to see included within my Ultimate Library.

The Ultimate Library is a concept I started back in January and I had zero books on the virtual shelves. I wanted to assemble the very best collection of books and knew I could not fill a Library on my own so I decided to invite a new guest to join me each week and have them add five books to the collection.

But choosing five books is a little too easy so I add a second rule which my guests need to follow:

1 – Choose ANY five books
2 – You may only select one book per decade over five consecutive decades.

This week we start in the 1960s and progress to the 00’s.

I have been a bit lax of late in updating and promoting the actual Library but now I am all caught up. I try to add each recommendation to the Grab This Book Decades Library at Bookshop.Org – you can view all the previous selections, see who nominated the book for inclusion and even buy the books you fancy. Sadly there are a couple of gaps where books are no longer in print.

Here is a handy link: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/GrabThisBookDecades

Now that I have covered why we are here, the rules of selection and how to find out more about previous Decades recommendations I can hand over to my guest curator, Simon Bewick.

Simon Bewick has had short stories published in the UK and US and is represented by A for Author agency, who have his first novel out on submission… He’s also half of Virtual Noir at the Bar and Bay Tales with Vic Watson. Through their shows and website (www.baytales.com) they have hosted more than 300 crime and mystery authors to date and will be hosting their first physical one-day crime festival in Whitley Bay on February 12^th 2022. Visit the Bay Tales site for more details. You can follow him on Twitter @simonbewick

DECADES

60s – Something Wicked This Way Comes – Ray Bradbury

Growing up I loved Ray Bradbury’s work – his short stories in collections bought second hand from Blyth market on a Saturday. The stories were different from the Pan Book of Horror shorts I’d read. They weren’t ‘graphic’. They weren’t ‘scary’ and, they didn’t always necessarily seem to have ‘an end’. A teacher in my English class used the term ‘purple prose’ but I knew even as a fourteen year old he was wrong. Bradbury didn’t write in an overly ornate or elaborate way, he just wrote beautifully. I preferred his short stories to his novels for the most part – and Something Wicked This Way Comes was one of the few non ‘fix-up’ novels Bradbury wrote. Do I prefer Dandelion Wine? Maybe…but Something Wicked is a fine pairing with it and probably the one that I’ve gone back to most often. The film version of the book was disappointing, but the poster for it and which hangs in my writing room, sums up the story perfectly in its’ Halloween feel. As the book starts:

First of all, it was October, a rare month for boys.

Ah – I think I copied Bradbury’s openings more than any other author as a teenager. (and that dumb old English teacher never event knew…)

70s – Danny, Champion of the World – Roald Dahl

I’m not sure how soon after publication I read DCotW, but I’m guessing if it was published in 1975 maybe two years? That would make me around 8 and seems about right. I know I read it a lot of times in the following years. I’m guessing it seemed a somewhat bygone tale on publication: but I loved the descriptive writing (has anyone written such a description of a pie? I haven’t read it if they have). I loved all of Dahl’s books back then (other than The Great Glass Elevator, which started a long history of disappointment in sequels…), but Danny despite, or perhaps because of, being the least fantastical of his children’s fiction if the one that stayed with me and was re-read again and again.

80s – Christine – Stephen King

Christine may not be the first choice of many people as Stephen King’s best piece of work but for me it sums up everything I love about his writing. It’s about a haunted car: a ’58 Plymouth Fury to be precise– but that, in some ways, is the least interesting part of the book for me (good though it is). What it’s really about, and what it felt as if it was really about when I read it as a fifteen year old back in the day, is about friendship, growing up and growing apart. Dennis Guilder and Arnie Cunningham’s relationship felt so real to me. Dennis’ voice, which much of the book is told from, struck me as so authentic. The trials of school and being ‘different’. Even though I wasn’t a high school jock or a complete social outcast, that I didn’t live in a US suburb, that my first car was a Mark II Escort rather than an American classic…it seemed real. I remember going (underage) to the cinema to see the movie version: my first certificate 18 movie. I loved John Carpenter who directed it and the effects were spot on, but it summed up why so many of the adaptations of King’s work don’t work for me. The movie was about the car. The book was about the characters.

90s – Body and Soul – Frank Conroy.

Conroy didn’t write too many books in his lifetime. A memoir Stop-Time in 1967); a collection of short stories – Midair in 1985 and only one novel as far as I know of: 1993’s Body and Soul. It’s a book that is criminally hard to get, which is a true shame. I was given my copy by the manager of a café I used to sit and read in who said she thought I might like it. Since then, I’ve loaned it to a few close friends I’m sure I’ll get it back from and I think it’s one of the greatest books written about music and, particularly, about being a musician. If Christine isn’t just about a car, this isn’t just about being a musical prodigy. What it is, is a beautifully written story of chance, coincidence, talent and a life and the characters encountered along the way.

00s – The Bottoms – Joe R Lansdale.

I was a big fan of Joe R Lansdale by the time The Bottoms came out in 2000. His Hap and Leonard novels had become firm favourites of mine since Savage Season had come out. I loved the dialogue – outrageous and hilarious. I devoured his short stories ranging from horror to mystery to sci fi to who-knows-how-to-describe? (Bob the Dinosaur Goes to Disneyland springs to mind). But The Bottoms is a very different sort of novel. It’s a book about family, racism, small town mind set and good and bad people and those in between. Set during the Great Depression in East Texas the story concerns Harry Crane, a young boy who finds the body of a black woman and the unfolding mystery amid mounting violence and This story takes place during the Great Depression in East Texas. Young Harry Crane discovers the mutilated body of a black woman – a murder he and his younger sister, Thomasina, believe is the work of local urban legend The Goat Man. As they investigate further and the killings continue, racial tensions rise around them, and their childhoods will be forever changed. The book has drawn comparisons to To Kill a Mockingbird, and while it’s easy to see why on a surface level, Lansdale is very much his own writer and has his own unique style. No matter what genre he writes in (and he writes in a lot), his voice is unmistakable. I’ve recommended The Bottoms to more people than any other book I’ve read. I haven’t had any people tell me they were disappointed. That’s got to be a good sign, right?

My thanks to Simon for these brilliant choices. Another Stephen King book warms my heart, particularly as it is one of the first I read and remains a firm favourite. I am also delighted to see Danny Champion of the World, a childhood favourite in my house too.

DECADES WILL RETURN

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March 22

Decades: Compiling the Ultimate Library with Noelle Holten

When I first started blogging I knew I needed people to help me. I could do the reading and I knew what I wanted to say about the books but once you start releasing content into the world you do want to check that the delivery and promotion elements are correct. Also, getting established in the blogging community and Book Twitter needs a wee bit of understanding – I enlisted the help of a few bloggers that I felt were doing what I (one day) wanted to be able to do.

One of these very helpful souls was the CrimeBookJunkie – Noelle Holten. Noelle was supportive, generous with her time and her advice and helped me to shape this blog into the award winning ramble it has become. When I started my Decades project I knew Noelle was one of the booklovers I wanted to have in my team of curators helping to build my Ultimate Library.

A quick recap for new visitors. I am building the Ulitmate Library from a starting point of zero books. I am asking booklovers to help me select the books I should include in the Library. There are just two rules governing their selections…pick any five books…only one book per decade over any five consecutive decades.

Enough from me, you want the books. I will hand over to Noelle and allow her to introduce herself and her work and then she will share her (excellent) selections.

Decades

Hi! My name is Noelle Holten and I live in a small village in North Warwickshire. My author bio states I am an award-winning blogger at www.crimebookjunkie.co.uk and I have won a few awards so I guess that’s true! I am a PR & Social Media Manager for Bookouture, a leading digital publisher in the UK, and before this I worked as a Senior Probation Officer (for eighteen years), covering a variety of risk cases as well as working in a multi-agency setting. I have three Hons BA’s – Philosophy, Sociology (Crime & Deviance) and Community Justice, a Diploma in Probation Studies and a Masters in Criminology. My hobbies include reading, attending as many book festivals as I can afford and sharing the #booklove via my blog. In 2017 I started writing my first crime novel and in 2019, Dead Inside – my debut novel with One More Chapter/Harper Collins UK was published and is an international kindle bestseller. It is the start of a new series featuring DC Maggie Jamieson – Dead Wrong and Dead Perfect followed and Dead Secret is now available for pre order.

Connect with me on Social Media here:
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I hear Sharon Bairden set the bar for this, so I hope I can meet those expectations. The fabulous Gordon of Grab this Book asked me to pick five of my favourite books, one from each decade over five decades – WTAF? So simple then, right? It’s a lot harder than you think, especially as I just wrote a piece which some of the same books fall into – but I am going to choose different ones because I love so many. So here goes – My range is the 1970’s through to present day and it was tough – but I focused on books that had memorable characters to me – as characters are what keep me hooked on a book/series!

1970- 1980

(Published 1974) Mystery of The Glowing Eye – Carolyn Keene (Nancy Drew Mystery series)

I was a HUGE Nancy Drew fan and this book creeped me right out as I read it on a family trip to our cottage in the summer. I was probably eight or nine, and we had no tv so books were how we entertained ourselves. This book made me slightly afraid of the dark and every time I had to go outside to the loo (no indoor plumbing) I was convinced I saw that damn glowing eye! This book was ahead of it’s time for sure as it touched upon robotics but it is the characters and how they work together that really brings this story and series to life. There was danger, abduction and a good old fashion mystery to solve and I was addicted despite my fear.

1980 – 1990

Pet Sematary – Stephen King (published 1983)

Just thinking of this book sends shivers down my spine. The whole idea of bringing back our loved ones in theory is a nice thought – but what they may return as – well they are better off dead for ebveryone’s sake. I loved the dynamics of the characters in this story – a lovin family find what they think could be their dream home – and then of course…the cemetery for loved pets…a phenomenal read and one of my favourites. As the tagline says: Sometimes dead is better…

1990 – 2000

The Silence of the Lambs – Thomas Harris (Published 1991)

OMFG what can I say about this book that hasn’t already been said. A crime thriller with one of the best serial killers ever created – Hannibal ‘The Cannibal’ Lecter. I have read this book a zillion times and watched the movie just as many times. The sheer fear I had as I raced through the pages was addictive. I wanted to be Clarice Starling and even looked into what I needed to do to become an FBI agent – no joke. She was living my dream! This book has everything – psychological, crime, horror – really set my heart racing. I had always had a fascination with serial killers and loved how this book almost showed the process in tracking and arresting those elusive killers. The characterisation was everything I could hope for and so much more.

2000 – 2010’s

Fleshmarket Close / Alley by Ian Rankin (published 2008)

Another one of my favourite series – I particularly liked Fleshmarket Close (also known as Flesh Market Alley) because of the setting (the darker side of Edinburgh is brought to life) and how we see a different Rebus and Siobhan to the ones we are first introduced to in earlier books in this series. Issues of racism, illegal immigration, and corruption are all tackled along with so much more. What I love about this book is it is quite complex and the characters complement each other even when conflict arises. If you haven’t met one of the grumpiest, old school detectives going – you really need to as he gets under your skin and you’ll find you will be hooked.

2010 – 2020

Lennox – Craig Russell (published 2010)

I was recommended this series by a friend and fell in love with it immediately. Lennox was born in Glasgow but raised in Canada so when he returns to Glasgow in the 1950’s we see the cultural differences immediately. It’s dark and littered with dry humour and the characters are just amazing. A very raw, gritty, violent and intoxicating read. The author is a master at bringing the reader into the stories – and I’ve been a fan of his work ever since.

My thanks, once again, to Noelle for these marvellous selections. This is the closest I have come to having read all five selections made by one of my guests – I have read four of these books and the fifth is still in my TBR (so close).

You can see all the books which have been added to my Library here: https://grabthisbook.net/?p=5113

Decades Will Return

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February 19

Decades: Compiling the Ultimate Library with Chris McDonald

As you may be aware, I am inviting guests to join me here at Grab This Book to help me curate the Ultimate Libary. It is a feature I have dubbed Decades, the reason for which will soon become apparent. Each guest gets to nominate five books which they believe should be included in the definitive collection of unmissable reads. Other than limiting my guest to five books (Rule One), I also insist that they only select one book per decade over five consecutive decades (Rule Two).

Simple!

Or apparently not as everyone who starts making a list suddenly finds choosing just five books is HARD. Then choosing only one book per decade is also HARD. But there have to be rules or anarchy ensues.

You can visit the Library HERE.

Today I am thrilled to welcome Chris McDonald. Chris grew up in Northern Ireland before settling in Manchester via Lancaster and London. He is the author of the excellent DI Erika Piper series, A Wash of Black, Whispers In The Dark as well as the forthcoming third – Roses For The Dead. He has also recently dabbled in writing cosy crimes, as a remedy for the darkness. The first in the Stonebridge Mysteries was released in early 2021. He is a full time teacher, husband, father to two beautiful girls and a regular voice on The Blood Brothers Podcast. He is a fan of 5-a-side football, heavy metal and dogs.

You can (and should) visit Chris’s Amazon Page here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Chris-McDonald/e/B083VRLYPM?ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_2&qid=1613758627&sr=8-2

The Archive of Blood Brothers podcasts can be found here: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-blood-brothers-podcast/id1504641524

And without futher ado – Chris’s wonderful choices…the first guest to take us up to a 2020 release

DECADES

1987 – Misery – Stephen King

I wasn’t alive when this was published! I only read my first King book last year, and very quickly read more. I’m a scaredy cat, and starting with The Shining was a bad idea! Misery was a masterclass in tension – the action happens in a house but never grows dull. Annie is a terrifying character and does some shocking things! King made it scary, funny, tense and pacy and blew my mind in the process. I ordered The Stand off the back of reading this but was overawed by the sheer size of it!! Maybe this year…

1997 – Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone – JK Rowling

Harry Potter is where my love affair with reading started. I remember the moment I set eyes on the cover – I was passing Easons in Ballymena on my way back from the toilet. I was ten years old and was entranced by the display. I ran back to my mum who gave me the money to go and buy it. I was blown away by this story, as millions were and continue to be. It led to me queuing at midnight outside Waterstones for the latter books, where I would go home with my cherished copy and read until the morning. The world was massive and main characters were frequently in peril. It was eye opening stuff and I truly believe that without this eureka moment, I wouldn’t enjoy books like I do!

2001 – Heavier Than Heaven – Charles R Ross

This is a non-fiction book. It’s a biography of Kirt Cobain and one of the books I re-read regularly. Nirvana were a massive part of my teenage years, and continue to be one of the bands I come back to regularly. Kurt was an extraordinary human being – flawed and talented in equal measure. This book is a warts and all account – it paints him in a very fair light and is a perfect read for any music fan.

2010 – Slow Horses – Mick Herron

Foolishly, I’ve waited 11 years to discover this man’s genius. The Slough House series features MI5 rejects, all of whom have made a massive mistake and ended up as Jackson Lamb’s underling. Again, the characters make this book – the plot is great, but I could easily read 300 pages of the cast having a chat over a cup of coffee! As the series has worn on, Herron has tackled bigger political issues, though the characters have remained as acerbic as ever!

2020 – We Begin At The End – Chris Whitaker

We Begin At The End blew me away. It won our Blood Brothers book of the year award and was my vote. It’s a story set in small town America. The story is wonderful, but the book will be remembered for the characters – Duchess Radley in particular. Chris’s writing is just so, so good and will be fully deserving of all the awards he will inevitably win!

My thanks to Chris for these brilliant selections – I have read three of the five which is my highest personal completion percentage so far! I will add all five books to The Library where they join the ten books selected by Sharon Bairden and Heather Martin.

Decades Will Return

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January 20

Decades: Compiling the Ultimate Library with Sharon Bairden

Imagine you were tasked with the impossible responsibility of stocking a library from scratch but you were only allowed to include the very best books. Where would you start? Could you do it? Would you include that book everyone loves but you don’t understand why?

I wanted to know which books would be in the Ultimate Library so I decided to find out. But I don’t get to choose – I want others to do the hard work for me. Readers, writers, bloggers, publishers – I am going to ask people to help me in my epic task but I am going to set my guests two rules:

Rule 1 – Nominate Five Books which should be included in my Ultimate Library

Rule 2 – You can only select one title per decade and the decades must be consecutive so we get a 50 year publication span

Easy!

To kick things off I asked my blogger pal, and debut author, Sharon Bairden to make the first five selections. I hand over to Sharon to introduce herself and I asked her to include some self-promotion before she speaks about other people’s books.

Hi, my name is Sharon and I live just outside of Glasgow. By day I am a manager in a small independent advocacy service and by night I have a passion for all things crime! Some of you may know me as Chapterinmylife Book Blogger https://chapterinmylife.wordpress.com where I blog about the books that I love and book festivals and launches I attend.

I have also just stepped over to the other side and my debut novel, Sins of the Father was published by Red Dog Press on 27th November 2020. It is a dark psychological thriller/suspense set in Glasgow and it explores the impact of trauma through the eyes of Rebecca Findlay – a woman who has married her husband, not out of love, but to destroy him. Book two, another standalone psychological thriller, will be out later this year.

Gordon set me an almost impossible task! He has asked me to pick five of my favourite books and tasked me to choose one from each decade over five consecutive decades, from the 60s through to the noughties! So here goes!

DECADES

1960s – it has got to be Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird. Not only is this a damn good read, it has an important message and one that resonates with me deeply. Social justice and inequality are the themes that drive this book forward and outside of reading, upholding social justice, challenging inequality, discrimination and stigma are my passions.

1970s – Stephen King’s The Shining. Before I delved into crime, horror was my go to read and there was nothing better than curling up with a good Stephen King novel. The Shining is probably the only book and film which has terrified me throughout my life, the isolation, the addictions, the supernatural, God, it still sends shivers down my spine!

1980s William McIllvaney’s The Papers of Tony Veitch, what can I say, McIlvanney was, and in many respects, still is the icon of Scottish crime fiction. I’m currently rereading this series and realise that when I read it many years ago, I did not appreciate the beauty of his writing.

1990s – Martina Cole’s The Ladykiller, this ignited a love of crime, gritty gang life and saw me down at my library on an almost daily basis to get my fix. I’d fallen away from reading as much in my later teen years and Martina Cole set me back on track!

2000 – Lin Anderson’s Driftnet. Lin’s books cemented my love of Scottish crime fiction and it was my love of her writing which led me to start to go along to book events and festivals, which in turn brought me into contact with bloggers, writers and gave me the confidence to make the first steps in realising my dream to write my own book.

My thanks to Sharon for starting the curation process. Decades will return and more books will be added to The Library.

Until then I’d recommend picking up Sharon’s book Sins of the Father. Click through this link and grab a copy today: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sharon-Bairden/e/B0899BQMJX?ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1&qid=1611164121&sr=1-1

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May 11

My A-Z of Books

Having seen a few of these posts I thought I would have a stab at my own A-Z of books. Seems like a great way to let a few of my favourite books get a little bit of love.

I have pinched the questions from my blogger buddy Kate at Bibliophile Book Club. Fingers crossed I get them all!

Author you’ve read the most books from:

Probably Agatha Christie if you count individual titles. Then Terry Pratchett. Though if you count re-reads then I have read most of the Discworld books 4 or 5 times (at least) which puts Pratchett on top.

Best Sequel Ever:

Men At Arms (Terry Pratchett). I love the City Watch books, Vimes and Carrot first appeared in Guards! Guards! and returned in Men At Arms. Am cheating a little but it is my A-Z!

Currently reading:

Doctor Who: In The Blood (Jenny T Colgan), Baby Doll (Holly Overton), Nomad (James Swallow), The Wolf Trial (Neil MacKay)

Drink of choice while reading:

Coffee (strong), no sugar.

E-reader or physical book:

One of my pet hate questions. It is all about the story…book, e-reader, audio book, my phone’s Kindle App…I care not as I am happy with them all.

Fictional character you probably would have actually dated in high school:

I was a painfully shy teen – lets just go for having a major crush on Nancy Drew.

Glad you gave this book a chance:

Many years ago I picked up a new release called Killing Floor by a chap called Lee Child. He wrote about a character called Jack Reacher – glad I took a chance on an author I hadn’t heard of – been a fan ever since.

Hidden Gem book:

Haterz (James Goss).

Important moment in your reading life:

Deciding to write that first blog post about the book I had just finished? (James Oswald – Natural Causes) OR at age 14(ish) making the full transition to reading ‘grown up’ books and purchasing Pet Sematary.

Just finished:

Long Time Lost (Chris Ewan)

Kind of books you won’t read:

Romance and Non Fiction.

Longest book you’ve ever read:

Probably The Stand (Stephen King) but I don’t really stop to count the number of pages.

Major book hangover:

In a good or bad way? In the Cold Dark Ground by Stuart MacBride was MAGNIFICENT and I felt bad for the books that followed.

On the flip-side I read a thriller recently which had a plot twist that I really didn’t enjoy (book had been cruising to a 5*score) – I have yet to decide if I will review that one.

Number of bookcases you own:

Less than I once had! One, Two, Many…LOTS. Last year we removed our bannister at the top of the stairs and replaced the spindles with a new fitted bookcase.

One book you’ve read multiple times:

Just one? IT (Stephen King). Most of the Terry Pratchett books and ALL of the Mr Men books!

Preferred place to read:

On the train (guilt free reading time).

Quote that inspired you/ Gives you all the feels from a book you’ve read:

“At last Ben drops his hands. He starts to say something, shakes his head, and walks away. Ritchie follows him, then Beverly and Mike, walking together. No one talks; they climb the embankment to Kansas Street and simply take leave of one another. And when Bill thinks it over twenty-seven years later, he realizes that they really never did all get together again. Four of them quite often, sometimes five, and maybe six once or twice. But never all seven.” – IT, Stephen King.

Reading regret:

Lord of the Rings. Absolute dross – not sure why I stuck with it.

Series you started and need to finish:

John Sandford’s ‘Prey’ novels. I have missed the last couple of releases.

Three of your all time favourite books:

IT (Stephen King), Night Watch (Terry Pratchett), Belgarath The Sorcerer (David and Leigh Eddings)

Unapologetic fangirl for:

“fangirl” perhaps this challenge was not written with me in mind!

Doctor Who – been reading these books for over 35 years and have easily read over 400 unique Doctor Who titles.

Very excited for this release more than all others:

I never know what is coming up. I always look forward to the new Lee Child. I used to count down to the publication date of the new Terry Pratchett *sobs*.

Now that I have given it some thought…one of my favourite books last year was Tenacity by J.S. Law – am watching eagerly for the next from Mr Law.

Worst bookish habit:

Starting too many books at one time.

X marks the spot- start on the top left of your bookshelf and pick the 27th book:

The Defence – Steve Cavanagh. A signed copy I picked up at the Edinburgh Festival in Summer of 2015 – not realising that I would have the opportunity to meet Steve at Bloody Scotland just 3 weeks later where I could have asked him to personally sign it. This reveals quite a lot about how my life seems to pan out!!!

Your latest purchase:

Two: Exclusion Zone (J.M. Hewitt) and The Amber Shadows (Lucy Ribchester)

Zzzzz Snatcher book (the book that kept you up way too late):

A Quiet Belief In Angels (RJ Ellory). I bloody loved that one.

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