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Pick of the Paperbacks 2009
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Click the links below to be taken straight to the area of 'Books of 2009' that interests you. For our 'Stocking Fillers' selection or the 'Christmas Gifts' selection then just click on the relevant link in the left hand column.
Pick of the Paperbacks 2009
Pick of the Paperbacks 4 Teens
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Sworn to Silence
Linda Castillo
December 2009 Book of the Month.
A well devised plot with Amish and ‘English’ communities facing the prospect that a serial killer from the past has returned to their now peaceful lives. With...
Format: Paperback - Released: 04/12/2009
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The Message
Julie Highmore
December 2009 Book of the Month.
If you want some well written, indulgent escapism then try The Message. Great characters and witty observations make this a delightful read with this author going from...
Format: Paperback - Released: 10/12/2009
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Girl Missing
Tess Gerritsen
December 2009 Book of the Month.
Interestingly this is the first thriller that she wrote back in 1994 for she started her writing career with romantic fiction. She adds an introduction to this...
Format: Paperback - Released: 03/12/2009
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Suffer the Children
Adam Creed
December 2009 Book of the Month.
A gritty crime novel, sometimes making for uncomfortable reading, Adam Creed has DI Staffe, covering a case where a paedophile has been murdered. The reader finds themselves...
Format: Paperback - Released: 05/11/2009
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Palace Circle
Rebecca Dean
A family saga of the aristocratic and political circles of London and Cairo from 1911-1941. Infidelities, spying, high society, intrigue and passions sweep you through a multi-voiced narrative of a dramatic and fascinating period spotted with real historical characters. Lovely...
Format: Paperback - Released: 14/05/2009
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Revelation
C J Sansom
The killer takes his methods of killing from the Book of Revelation in a period beset with religious violence, for this is the wane of the reign of Henry VIII. It is part of an excellent series starring the sleuth...
Format: Paperback - Released: 01/05/2009
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Cathedral of the Sea
Ildefonso Falcones
An epic of the 14th century which follows the entire life of a Barcelona boy and the cathedral he comes to love and helps to build. Powerful, moving, engrossing, it charts his rises and falls as well as those of...
Format: Paperback - Released: 26/03/2009
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Guernica
Dave Boling
Reviewed on Richard & Judy on Wednesday 20 May 2009.
A literary page-turner, an epic story of love and war straddling the dreadful bombing during the Spanish Civil War and an involved family saga. This is Captain Corelli territory for Spain,...
Format: Paperback - Released: 21/04/2009
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Past Imperfect
Julian Fellowes
Reviewed on Richard & Judy on Wednesday 13 May 2009.
Featured on The Book Show on Sky Arts on 29 January 2009.
Wealthy Damian Baxter is dying without an heir when an unsigned letter arrives inferring he had a son thirty...
Format: Paperback - Released: 30/04/2009
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Anarchy and Old Dogs
Colin Cotterill
Another wonderful, whimsical, humorous and magical tale featuring an ancient chief coroner of Laos in the 1970s and his bunch of eccentric colleagues, here with a plot to overthrow the government to be thwarted. He has won this year’s Crime...
Format: Paperback - Released: 07/05/2009
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A Snowball in Hell
Christopher Brookmyre
Starring a feisty, mixed-race Glaswegian female police officer and her illusionist-cum-bank robber lover, whom we met in The Sacred Art of Stealing, this is one heck of a tale. Complex, violent and humorous, it is a satire on reality...
Format: Paperback - Released: 02/04/2009
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The Third Angel
Alice Hoffman
She is one of my favourite authors with a large back catalogue that fluctuates between tales with a magical or fey slant and stories of American life. This is the first one she has set in London. It centres around...
Format: Paperback - Released: 02/04/2009
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The Death Maze
Ariana Franklin
Ariana Franklin was shortlisted for the CWA Dagger in the Library 2009 - the prize awarded for an author's body of work.
A very special historical murder mystery and a wonderful follow-up to her prize-winning Mistress of the Art of...
Format: Paperback - Released: 09/04/2009
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Broken
Daniel Clay
April 2009 Debut of the Month.
The story of three very different families in one square seen mostly through the eyes of an eleven-year old girl. There is an innocence to her narration but certainly...
Format: Paperback - Released: 02/04/2009
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A Simple Act of Violence
R J Ellory
April 2009 Book of the Month.
R J Ellory was shortlisted for the CWA Dagger in the Library 2009 - the prize awarded for an author's body of work.
I am an enormous fan...
Format: Paperback - Released: 02/04/2009
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Six Seconds
Rick Mofina
April 2009 Book of the Month.
Six seconds is the time between detonation and the bomb exploding. In this excellent thriller six seconds becomes real nail-biting stuff. The target is the Pope on...
Format: Paperback - Released: 17/04/2009
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Small World
Matt Beaumont
February 2009 Book of the Month.
In a multi-voiced, first person narrative we follow characters large and small through a convoluted plot that has groups of people crossing and their experiences laid one...
Format: Paperback - Released: 02/02/2009
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A Mile of River
Judith Allnatt
A story of farming folk in the 1970s fighting for their living. A brute of a father dominates his eight-year old son and treats his 17-year old daughter like a skivvy. The mother walked out seven years earlier. How, why...
Format: Paperback - Released: 16/07/2009
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City of Thieves
David Benioff
A tale of an unlikely friendship bent on a seemingly impossible task performed to gain their freedom. We are in the Siege of Leningrad, the city is starving and our two heroes must find a dozen eggs so the NKUD...
Format: Paperback - Released: 01/06/2009
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The Other Hand
Chris Cleave
One of my favourite books of the year. It’s about an African immigrant who, fleeing the atrocities of her country, comes over here to find the family who tried to save her sister. What she finds is more pain and...
Format: Paperback - Released: 05/02/2009
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Swallowing Darkness
Laurell K Hamilton
The seventh instalment in this fantastic series of erotica, from the author of the ‘Anita Blake’ novels. We continue to follow the charismatic Merry through perils and adventures as she tries to become pregnant and attain the Unseelie throne. At...
Format: Paperback - Released: 05/11/2009
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The Jewel Box
Anna Davis
1920’s London and Grace is a society girl who also writes a weekly gossip newspaper column which each chapter charmingly starts with. This is sister rivalry/husband seeking stuff with lots of period detail and nicely written. It is something to...
Format: Paperback - Released: 05/11/2009
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The Hidden Oasis
Paul Sussman
Fast paced action adventure with a plane-load of enriched uranium disappearing in the Sahara and twenty years later being discovered in a sacred place. Its cargo must now be ‘hushed up’. This is a complex tale with plenty of twists...
Format: Paperback - Released: 19/11/2009
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True Detectives
Jonathan Kellerman
Two half brothers have competed against each other all their lives, now one is a private detective, the other a LAPD police officer, interestingly one is black and one white. Here they are forced together in the case of a...
Format: Paperback - Released: 29/10/2009
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Born Evil
Kimberley Chambers
Definitely in the mould of Martina Cole, Kimberley Chambers’ second novel is as equally gripping as her first, Billie Jo. Trying to escape a past of criminals and lowlifes is not always that easy. Believable, gritty characters and...
Format: Paperback - Released: 05/11/2009
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Found Wanting
Robert Goddard
This is Goddard back in the area I prefer him in, the contemporary thriller with strong historical undertones. Here the mystery revolves around the authenticity of Anastasia and her possible survival. If that were so then were there descendants? Full...
Format: Paperback - Released: 08/10/2009
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The Fire Gospel
Michel Faber
A contemporary reworking of Prometheus’ story is the latest addition to this fascinating series of the myths retold by some of our most renowned authors. It’s a satire on the popularity of the historical conspiracy thriller which beautifully mocks the...
Format: Paperback - Released: 02/07/2009
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The Monsters of Templeton
Lauren Groff
July 2009 Debut of the Month.
A tale of small-town America with some wonderful characters in the present and even more going back over eight generations. The periods flow back and forth as...
Format: Paperback - Released: 02/07/2009
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The Ask and the Answer
Patrick Ness
Winner of the Costa Children's Book Award 2009.
Costa Book Awards 2009 Judges' comment: "A strikingly original and compelling work."
Shortlisted for the prestigious Teenage Book of the Year Award 2009.
Prize-winning author Patrick Ness follows up The Knife of Never...
Format: Paperback - Released: 07/09/2009
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The Great Death
John E. Smelcer
This is an extraordinary story of courage, commitment and survival of two young sisters in the harsh snowy Alaskan wilderness as they try to save themselves and in doing so, save each other. Beautifully written, this novel is inspired by...
Format: Paperback - Released: 08/10/2009
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The Resistance
Gemma Malley
This is a powerful, absolutely chilling sequel to Gemma Malley’s acclaimed debut, The Declaration. With a dark and sinister vision of the future, it is set in 2140, The Resistance is an incredibly thought-provoking read. We raved about her...
Format: Paperback - Released: 04/05/2009
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Auslander
Paul Dowswell
Shortlisted for the prestigious Teenage Book of the Year Award 2009.
A tense and dramatic story of growing up in Berlin during World War
Two. When Piotr’s parents are killed he is taking to an orphanage in
Warsaw. But Piotr is a...
Format: Hardback - Released: 02/03/2009
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The Ant Colony
Jenny Valentine
Shortlisted for the prestigious Teenage Book of the Year Award 2009.
An irresistible new novel from Jenny Valentine, winner of the Guardian Children's Book Prize with Finding Violet Park.
Written with a wonderful lightness of touch, the author manages to
weave...
Format: Paperback - Released: 05/03/2009
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Skin
Mo Hayder
DI JACK CAFFERY - a London cop in self-exile in Bristol who is running
from his past, now working in tandem with a local female police diver.
Not for the faint-hearted, a series that explores the heart of darkness
and chills to the...
Format: Paperback - Released: 19/11/2009
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Gone
Michael Grant
Your chance to interview Michael Grant – Author of Gone and Hunger.
If you are fan of these books and you have a question you would like to ask the author Michael Grant now is your chance.
To get involved
Format: Paperback - Released: 03/09/2009
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The Traitor Game
B. R. Collins
Winner of for the 2009 Branford Boase Best Debut Novel Award
An extraordinary fantasy novel from a supremely talented debut
novelist. Set partly in a boys’ school and also in another world that
is both fierce and dangerous, it has themes of cowardice,...
Format: Paperback - Released: 07/09/2009
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Brisingr
Christopher Paolini
Oaths are sworn, loyalties tested and forces collide in this unmissable fantasy epic.
Brisingr means fire and was the first word that came out of the
mouth of the dragon. Following the colossal battle against the Empire's
warriors on the Burning Plains, Eragon...
Format: Paperback - Released: 27/08/2009
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What I Saw and How I Lied
Judy Blundell
Winner of the prestigious National Book Award.
Julia Eccleshare's comment:
Utterly gripping and beautifully told, this is a stunning rite of passage novel full of powerful and conflicting emotions, which captures Evie’s dramatic shift from child to adult in pinpoint sharp, painful...
Format: Paperback - Released: 06/07/2009
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Darke Academy: Secret Lives
Gabriella Poole
This is the first story in a series of three featuring supernatural spirits, with each one set in a different exotic city. Secret Lives has a gripping unputdownable plot, a sophisticated Parisian setting and paranormal romance that will set the...
Format: Paperback - Released: 06/08/2009
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Young Loaded and Fabulous: Secrets and Liars
Kate Kingsley
More from the jet-set lives of the Young, Loaded and Fabulous crowd. Follow the gang as they head off to Rome for a lavish engagement party, thrown by Italian Vogue. Just a normal Friday night out really!!! Great fun and...
Format: Paperback - Released: 23/07/2009
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The Forest of Hands and Teeth
Carrie Ryan
July 2009 Debut of the Month.
This is a quite remarkable and moving debut novel that has was causing waves well before it was published. The author has crafted a powerful and, at...
Format: Hardback - Released: 01/07/2009
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Creature of the Night
Kate Thompson
Shortlisted for the Carnegie Award 2009 and shortlisted for the
Bisto Irish Children's Book Award. From multi-award winning author Kate
Thompson comes another absorbing read, blazing an enthralling path
between the stark realities of modern-day society and the fantasy for
which she has become...
Format: Paperback - Released: 02/04/2009
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Jackdaw Summer
David Almond
In his exceptional, delicate writing, prize-winning author David
Almond weaves together many strands which together give an intimate
insight into the thinking of two boys growing up in his familiar
Northumberland countryside. Against a background of fighter planes
swooping overhead, the boys follow the...
Format: Paperback - Released: 07/05/2009
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Stolen
Lucy Christopher
This controversial debut is a moving drama about kidnapping, isolation and survival and an extraordinary psychological thriller that will steal the minds of those who read it. Sensitive, intelligent and gripping, Stolen is a contemporary story which will force the...
Format: Paperback - Released: 04/05/2009
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Jake Highfield: Chaos Unleashed
Alec Sillifant
A fast-paced and thrilling spy story that is also a debut novel, Chaos Unleashed tells how school boy Jake becomes an outsider when the Academy turns
against him and he finds himself having to use all his skills and
training to survive...
Format: Paperback - Released: 18/03/2009
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Wildthorn
Jane Eagland
Set in Victorian England, this is a thought-provoking and shocking
debut story for teenagers and adults of how a young woman with an
ambition to become a doctor (at a time when it was frowned upon for
women to have such thoughts) is...
Format: Paperback - Released: 06/03/2009
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The Lady in the Tower
Marie-louise Jensen
Intrigue, treachery and political ambition drive this story of how courageous Eleanor keeps herself and her mother safe by defying her father and even the great King Henry V111 himself. Eleanor is a feisty heroine whose bravery brings the results...
Format: Paperback - Released: 01/01/2009
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Numbers
Rachel Ward
A tough, teenage novel about being different. Jem’s life has been hard from the beginning and it is not made any easier by her dangerous secret; every time she looks into a person’s eyes, she sees the date on which...
Format: Paperback - Released: 05/01/2009
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2009 was a fantastic year for fiction. So many good paperback books were published it’s quite possible even the most dedicated of readers missed a few. So, we thought it would be a perfect time to pull together some of Sarah Broadhurst’s favourites.
So, browse away and make sure you haven't missed out our 'must reads' of 2009.
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Don't forget too, that it's worth checking out other areas of the Lovereading site for little gems that we've featured over the last year.
Here are some suggestions to take a peek at:
Large Print Books in association with the RNIB's 'Focus on Books' initiative, for cult fiction look no further than the Hitchhiker's Guide sequel, And Another Thing, for armchair sports books there’s nowhere better than our Sports Books selection, connoisseurs of crime can visit the crime prizewinners of the year, if it's topicality you're looking for then take a look at The Real World or if it's History or Popular Science then we can guide you in those areas too.
Finally, if you're still stuck then our most visited area of the site is a must for you to look at - Prizewinners - it's positively choking with stunning reads.
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