2. Brother Odd, Dean Koontz

364 páginas

Odd Thomas is looking for peace. But in the silence and snow of the mountains, danger and desperation haunt him still ! By popular demand, the story of the life and times of Odd Thomas continues. To escape the haunting memories of his lost soul-mate Stormy Llewellyn, Odd has retreated to a monastry in the High Sierra. It's December. Icy winds and deep snow besiege the remote abbey, a contrast to the sunbleached desert town of Pico Mundo where Odd was born. A white dog named Boo befriends Odd. The King of Rock 'n' Roll has followed him there and silently serenades man and dog. But Elvis isn't the most spooky phenomenon in the place. Odd is one of four guests there. Another is John Heineman, world-famous physicist, who years earlier left the secular world because he found the nature of reality, as quantum mechanics reveals it, so very weird. But Heineman continues his physics experiments down in the catacombs of the facility. Added to this, those shadowy harbingers of extreme violence, bodachs, are prowling the halls. Only Odd can see them. Only he knows what their presence means. Odd has a knack for finding himself in the path of trouble no matter where he goes, even among the eccentric monks in their sanctuary ! where Odd is about to encounter an enemy that eclipses any he has yet known.

1. Crazy for You, Jennifer Crusie

298 páginas

Quinn McKenzie is living what she calls a beige life, and she's bored to the point of insanity. But it's when she adopts a stray dog that her life is turned upside-down. There is adultery, theft, stalking, gossip, seduction and dognapping - just another day in Tibbett, Ohio.

2009

2008 não correu muito bem em termos de leituras, li menos que em 2007, e houve poucos livros muito bons ou grandes revelações. Pode ser que o novo ano seja melhor. Mais tempo, mais leitura, mais qualidade.

57. Despedida de Solteiro, Peter James

382 páginas

Quatro corpos. E um suspeito sem rasto... Estava destinado ser uma inofensiva noite de despedida de solteiro, uma paródia sem consequências. Mas, algumas horas mais tarde, quatro dos seus melhores amigos estão mortos e Michael Harrison desapareceu.

Apenas a três dias do casamento, o detective Roy Grace, um homem também amargurado pelo desaparecimento da mulher, é contactado pela noiva de Michael, uma mulher bonita mas preocupada. Grace descobre que aquele que deveria conhecer melhor o caso, o sócio de Michael, não tem nada a revelar, mas tem muito a ganhar... mais do que se pode imaginar. A desgraça de uns pode ser a sorte de outros...

56. Open Season, Linda Howard

337 páginas

Be careful what you wish for.... On her thirty-fourth birthday, Daisy Minor decides to make over her entire life. The small-town librarian has had it with her boring clothes, her ordinary looks, and nearly a decade without so much as a date. It's time to get a life -- and a sex life. The perennial good girl, Daisy transforms herself into a party girl extraordinaire -- dancing the night away at clubs, laughing and flirting with abandon -- and she's declared open season for manhunting. But her free-spirited fun turns to shattering danger when she witnesses something she shouldn't -- and becomes the target of a killer. Now, before she can meet the one man who can share her life, first she may need him to save it.

55. O Priorado do Cifrão, João Aguiar

384 páginas

Em Londres, na sala do Museu Britânico onde está exposto o Estandarte de Ur, foi encontrado morto Sir Alastair Hopkins-Smith, um conhecido académico inglês. O corpo estava numa estranha posição, com o polegar da mão direita metido na boca, como se estivesse a chuchar no dedo.

Paralelamente, há outras ocorrências: o desaparecimento misterioso, na Áustria, de outro académico, o Prof. Heinrich Loewe; e a morte, num acidente de viação suspeito, de um escritor português, Alfredo Estria, um velhote excêntrico que escreve e publica obras de cunho esotérico.

Há algo de comum nos três homens: todos eles se preparavam para atacar violentamente um livro que acaba de ser lançado nos Estados Unidos e promete ser um êxito mundial, o romance The Caravaggio Papers, de Ben Browning, que, através de um suspense bem urdido, passa a mensagem de que, na sua origem, a doutrina cristã era de tipo orgiástico…

The Caravaggio Papers foi publicado por um grande grupo editorial de origem americana, a Thoth International, que detém uma editora portuguesa, a Codex 3, onde trabalha Miguel, o jovem protagonista deste romance.

E mais não se pode dizer… Quem leu estas linhas já certamente percebeu que O Priorado do Cifrão é uma (excelente) charge a realidades que todos nós conhecemos e que têm hoje em Portugal uma inesperada actualidade.

54. The Tales of Beedle the Bard, J.K.Rowling

128 páginas

'You've never heard of The Tales of Beedle the Bard?' said Ron incredulously. 'You're kidding, right?' (From Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows) Published by the Children's High Level Group in association with Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, The Tales of Beedle the Bard is the first new book from J. K. Rowling since the publication of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. The Tales of Beedle the Bard played a crucial role in assisting Harry, with his friends Ron and Hermione, to finally defeat Lord Voldemort. Fans will be thrilled to have this opportunity to read the tales in full. An exciting addition to the canon of Harry Potter, the tales reveal the wonderful versatility of the author, as she tackles with relish the structure and varying tones of a classic fairy tale. There are five tales: 'The Tale of the Three Brothers', recounted in Deathly Hallows, plus 'The Fountain of Fair Fortune', 'The Warlock's Hairy Heart', 'The Wizard and the Hopping Pot', and 'Babbitty Rabbitty and her Cackling Stump'. Each has its own magical character and will bring delight, laughter and the thrill of mortal peril. Translated from the original runes by Hermione Granger, the tales are introduced and illustrated by J. K. Rowling. Also included are notes by Professor Albus Dumbledore, which appear by kind permission of the Hogwarts Headmasters' Archive.

53. Lightning, Dean Koontz

355 páginas

The first time the lightning strikes, Laura Shane is born...The second time it strikes, the terror starts...though eight-year-old Laura is saved by a mysterious stranger from the perverted and deadly intentions of a drug-crazed robber. Throughout her childhood, she is plagued by ever more terrifying troubles, and with increasing courage she finds the strength to prevail - even without the intervention of her strange guardian. But, despite her success as a novelist, and her happy family life, Laura cannot shake the certainty that powerful and malignant forces are controlling her destiny. Then, the lightning strikes once more and shatters her world. The adventure - and the terror - have only just begun.