April 2010 Books

These are the novels that I read this month. The number at the beginning refers to the number so far this year. Some old favourites this month.


10) Hot Money - Dick Francis (April 29, 2010)*
Malcolm Pembroke had 5 marriages and 9 children. His latest wife was recently murdered and someone made an attempt on his life. It was up to one of his children to find the murderer and protect his father. Ian takes on the difficult job and gets to know his father in a new way. A cracking great read!

9) "K" is for Killer - Sue Grafton (April 27, 2010)*
Kinsey Millhone is hired to discover the murderer of a beautiful young woman with a shady life. She searches for information and and looks at the seedy side of life. Vintage Grafton. Good stuff.


8) The Guy Not Taken - Jennifer Weiner (April 9, 2010)*
A book of short stories from a good writer. I think I read them before, but a re-read was fine. Some stories are better than others.


7) Certain Girls - Jennifer Weiner (April 5, 2010)
This novel is a sequel to Weiner's first novel, Good in Bed. It takes up when Joy is 13 years old and preparing for her bat mitzvah. Weiner uses two voices in this novel, Cannie, the mother and lead character from her earlier novel, and Joy, her hearing impaired daughter. They switch telling their stories every chapter. It makes it a very interesting way to follow the story as events that are low in importance to one character take on great meaning to the other.

Jennifer Weiner is generally considered a writer of "Chick Lit" but she is such a good writer, that it is unfair to label her as such. This is a very good book and the suspense builds and the novel is difficult to put down. I stayed up an hour later than I wanted to so I could finish the novel, and it was worth it!


6) The Elusive Mrs. Pollifax - Dorothy Gilman (April 4, 2010)
The wonderful Mrs. Pollifax takes on Bulgaria in her quest to aid the Underground, rescue a imprisoned American and deliver a package. Armed with her ability to read people, her sympathy and an uncanny knack of being in the right place at the right time, this unusual spy tale is a lot of fun. Very enjoyable, a fast read.