15 Books I read this year

Last year I managed to complete the GoodReads Reading Challenge by reading 30 books. At the beginning of this year, I became a little over ambitious and signed up to read 60 books in 2017.  It was only later on, when I did some calculation realization dawned that I need to read at least 5 books each month. What did I got myself into!!

Let’s see how I fared in the first quarter of the year. You are going to find a lot of murder mysteries 😛

1) Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find them – by Newt Scamander

Loved the creativity, the fascinating names and all things magical.

2) Crooked House – Agatha Christie

Watch out for the ending! Another brilliant Christie novel that leaves you wanting for more.

3) 2nd Chance – James Patterson

This is second in the series of Women’s Murder Club. The first one had left me completely heartbroken with the death of a favourite character. This one too has enough suspense and thrill that keeps you turning page after page.

4) Five Little Pigs – Agatha Christie

Absolutely loved this. Loved the way Agatha Christie has weaved her characters, making them so realistic and intriguing. I started having a love-hate relationship with the main characters in the book, and they stayed with me even after I had finished reading. This one is totally worth reading.

5) Along came a Spider – James Patterson

It’s a big book, and the story spans over a couple of years. This is the first of Alex Cross series (I thought Alex was a girl) The plot never lost its pace and it kept throwing curved balls in various parts.

6) Twelve Red Herrings – Jeffrey Archer

Twelve short stories, cleverly spun, with equally surprising endings.

7) Stories from Tagore – Rabindranath Tagore

Deep, insightful stories of people from various walks of life. I wish I could read this in it’s original language as a lot is lost in translation.

8) A pocketful of rye – Agatha Christie

I loved the quick pace of this book. The plot kept me hooked and even kept surprising me with it’s twists and turns.

9) W for Wasted – Sue Grafton

Too long. The lengthy details of the mundane made this quite boring. It makes me miss the intensity and brilliance of A for Alibi.

10) Endless Night – Agatha Christie

I was really confused on how to rate this novel. The story doesn’t really set in motion till the first death, which happens only after 200 pages. So while reading I became quite impatient and even thought of skipping forward. It’s in the last 50 pages that the mystery starts unfolding and to be honest, after reading numerous Agatha Christie novels, I kind of guessed the murderer. But, it’s only when I read the last few pages did I realize how the little details in the previous chapters mattered.

11) Kiss the Girls – James Patterson

This is a fast read that took me on an exciting ride and I wanted to catch the bad guys just as bad as Alex. Just beware of the rape scenes though, as it is quite descriptive and haunting. (I don’t think I have appetite for reading gory stuffs) I loved all the action parts, they were thrilling and kept me hooked. But the dialogues, not too much.

I get it that Alex loves his family, I get that he is the ‘Dragonslayer’, I get it that he loves Kate too… but when it’s repeated over and over again throughout the chapters, it gets a little too much. Plus how many times will I be told that Kate is beautiful. That’s why the kidnapper took her – duh!!

12) Nemesis – Agatha Christie

Not as brilliant as Agatha Christie’s other works

13) The Dressmaker – Rosalie Ham

I loved the movie and I liked this book. Somehow I felt this book isn’t an easy smooth read. There are words and sentences that I had to read again to understand it better. But I was so hooked that I woke till late in the night to finish it.

14) Grave Secrets – Kathy Reichs

In short, absolutely loved Ryan, loved how skilful and professional Tempe is but disliked her indecisiveness. The book had too much of technical details for my liking. I mean, now I know the types of cat hair and their DNA and how they can be differentiated. After that I kind of skimmed through all the technical DNA, mitochondria stuff.

I admire the fact that the author had thrown light on the brutal massacre at Chupan Ya which I didn’t know about. In fact I ended up looking for more articles on the topic. So that was my takeaway.

15) A quiver full of Arrows – Jeffrey Archer

A collection of short stories, but not as impressive as Archer’s later works.

Related post – Favorite Sci Fi Books I read in 2019

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