domingo, fevereiro 28, 2010

7. Diário de Uma Nanny, Emma McLaughlin & Nicola Kraus

340 páginas

Nan, in her early twenties, goes to work for the wealthy X family to help put herself through college, and is shocked by their antics. Between raising the X's son Grayer, keeping on top of her studies, moving house and ensuring Mrs X's day runs smoothly, it's a wonder Nanny ever finds time to hang out with the gorgeous HH on the sixth floor. With divorce on the cards, Nanny finds herself caught up in the X's embittered world of power plays, lies and deciet. As communication rapidly breaks down, will Nanny be able to maintain the mental health of Grayer, despite the onslaught of Personal Problem Consultants, macrobiotic nutritionist and bilingual meals?

segunda-feira, fevereiro 22, 2010

6. The Cat Who Knew Shakespeare, Lilian Jackson Braun

249 páginas

Vastly wealthy due to his inheritance of the Klingenschoen estate in Pickax City way up North, Jim Qwilleran now enjoys the eccentricities of life in Moose County. Series fans will know about his pampered pair of Siamese cats; Koko, the male, pushes various Shakespeare plays off the shelf in Qwilleran's library, presumably commenting on events that excite and scandalize the town: the "accidental" death of the newspaper publisher, the disastrous fire that destroys the office, etc. A comfortable, quaint diversion, with interesting character names, wry remarks about feline behavior, and a deus ex machina protagonist.

terça-feira, fevereiro 16, 2010

5. Duplo Crime, Tess Gerristsen

346 páginas

Tess Gerritsen excede-se neste thriller em que a patologista Maura Isles é obrigada a autopsiar o corpo da irmã gémea. Entre mãos, com a mesma frieza e rigor com sempre analisa os mortos, corta desta feita um corpo à sua imagem. Enquanto um serial killer parece obcecado em assassinar mulheres grávidas, Maura investiga o seu próprio passado para descobrir a origem da sua irmã gémea. Entretanto a detective Jane Rizolli, que faz com ela uma dupla implacável, está no término da sua gravidez. Estará também ela em perigo? Arrepiante, de vigoroso suspense, «Duplo Crime» confirma Tess Gerritsen como uma das grandes autoras do género. É o seu corpo mas não é ela. Todos a tomam por morta, mas quando chega, serenamente de viagem, percebe que algo de estranho se passa na vizinhança. Num carro foi encontrado o corpo de uma mulher. O tiro na cabeça foi fatal. Essa mulher é igual a Maura Isles...Depois das aventuras partilhadas em «O Cirurgião», «O Aprendiz» e «A Pecadora», a dupla volta a unir esforços para descobrir o serial killer que escolhe mulheres grávidas como vítimas a torturar. Enquanto Jane Rizolli, a expedita detective de homicídios, vive ela própria os últimos meses de gravidez - tornando-se também ela um alvo - a sua parceira de investigação, Maura, parece correr um perigo ainda maior. Sem saber que tinha uma irmã gémea, efectua a autópsia ao corpo dessa irmã desconhecida. Profissional experiente não deixa ainda assim de tremer face a um corpo que é em tudo igual ao seu. Os testes de ADN comprovam o seu parentesco e a data de nascimento é igual. Maura vê-se forçada a voltar ao seu próprio passado – aos negros mistérios que sempre evitara. Visita a verdadeira mãe, um mulher fria e distante, que se faz passar por esquizofrénica, e lhe lança uma ameaça... O que aconteceu à sua irmã pode acontecer a ela.

terça-feira, fevereiro 09, 2010

4. The Life You Want, Emily Barr

416 páginas

Ever wished you could just leave it all behind again? Emily Barr's unputdownable new novel is about a mother of two with a seemingly perfect life who's really cracking up and longing to get away from it all. But when she finally gets to go away, toIndia, things are far from what she expects...She has to go away to come home to what she loves again.

quarta-feira, janeiro 27, 2010

3. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Stieg Larsson

542 páginas

Financial journalist Mikael Blomkvist has made his living uncovering the corrupt and crooked practices of Stockholm's leading financiers in his magazine, Millennium. But one expose unexpectedly backfires, and Blomkvist's reputation is in tatters. When he is offered an investigative job by powerful businessman Henrik Vanger, he is in no position to refuse. But he is surprised to find it has nothing to do with high finance - this time, it is a case of murder.Many years ago, Henrik's niece, Harriet, disappeared during a family gathering on the island owned and inhabited by the Vangers. No-one saw her leave the island, and no body was ever found. Even so, Henrik is convinced that she was murdered by a member of his own family - the tightly knit but dysfunctional Vanger clan.Blomkvist is soon in over his head. He has linked Harriet's disappearance to a number of gruesome murders from forty years ago, but it has become too dangerous to proceed alone. He needs a competent assistant, and he gets one: the gifted and conscience-free computer specialist, Lisbeth Salander. This truculent young woman has problems of her own. She in unwilling to take orders, rides a motorbike like a Hell's Angel and handles makeshift weapons with a skill born of rage.This improbably pair unravel a dark and appalling family history. But the Vangers are a secretive clan, and Blomkvist and Salander are about to find out just how far they are prepared to go to protect themselves.

sábado, janeiro 09, 2010

2. Long Lost, Harlan Coben

371 páginas

Myron hasn't heard from Terese Collins in years. Not since their affair ended without explanation. He's had no contact with her since, so her call catches him off guard. She's in Paris, she says, in trouble and only Myron can help. Terese tells him a sad story she's never before revealed: a good marriage, her struggles to get pregnant, the happiest moment of her life when her only child was born, the day everything she'd ever loved was taken from her. As the years passed Terese heard nothing from her ex-husband, until the phone call that brought her to Paris. But on arrival, Terese finds her husband has been murdered, leaving her as a prime suspect. Then comes a startling piece of evidence that turns the entire case upside down, laying bare Terese's long-buried family secrets in the most shocking way and leaving Myron nowhere to turn for help. Caught in a foreign landscape where nothing is as it seems, he must tear apart the city - and eventually the globe - fighting for answers to unfathomable questions that will take Myron, and Harlan Coben's readers, where they have never gone before.

domingo, janeiro 03, 2010

1. Crocodile on the Sandbank, Elizabeth Peters

296 páginas

Amelia Peabody is Elizabeth Peters' best loved and brilliant creation, a thoroughly Victorian feminist who takes the stuffy world of archaeology by storm with her shocking men's pants and no-nonsense attitude! In this first Egyptian mystery, our headstrong heroine decides to use her substantial inheritance to see the world. On her travel, she rescues a gentlewoman in distress - Evelyn Barton-Forbes - and the two become friends. The two companions continue to Egypt where they face mysteries, mummies and the redoubtable Radcliffe Emerson, and outspoken archaeologist, who doesn't need women to help him solve mysteries - at least that's what he thinks!

sexta-feira, janeiro 01, 2010

2010

Parece que os anos passam e os livros lidos diminuem. Nem sei bem para onde vai o tempo que não se tem para ler, apesar das promessas iniciais de ler mais que no ano anterior! A ver vamos se 2010 traz ao menos boas leituras.