Thank you for your views this year and comments and stuff. You dudes are like the best dudes, evah.

And Mr Monster wishes you a Merry Christmas too, with this…

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

See you next year! <3 And I will hopefully have a review of The Little Stranger soon… *ominous silence*

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

Ghostwritten

Description:

David Mitchell’s electrifying debut novel takes readers on a mesmerizing trek across a world of human experience through a series of ingeniously linked narratives.

Oblivious to the bizarre ways in which their lives intersect, nine characters-a terrorist in Okinawa, a record-shop clerk in Tokyo, a money-laundering British financier in Hong Kong, an old woman running a tea shack in China, a transmigrating “noncorpum” entity seeking a human host in Mongolia, a gallery-attendant-cum-art-thief in Petersburg, a drummer in London, a female physicist in Ireland, and a radio deejay in New York-hurtle toward a shared destiny of astonishing impact.

Like the book’s one non-human narrator, Mitchell latches onto his host characters and invades their lives with parasitic precision, making Ghostwritten a sprawling and brilliant literary relief map of the modern world.

BookieMonster says:

This book is one of my top ten books of all time. All time. It’s that good. Mitchell is one of the best writers of the turn of our century, virtuoso, often crazy, but he has the talent to carry it off in spectacular ways.

Buy Ghostwritten from BookieMonster for $18.95!

(Yes ANOTHER sub-$20 paperback from us – we are great value!)

The Well of Lost Plots

Description:

The third book in the Thursday Next series.

Leaving Swindon behind her to hide out in the ‘Well of Lost Plots’ (the place where all fiction is created), Thursday Next, Literary Detective and soon-to-be one parent family, ponders her next move from within an unpublished book of dubious merit entitled “Caversham Heights”.

Landen, her husband, is still eradicated, Aornis Hades is meddling with Thursday’s memory, and Miss Havisham – when not sewing up plot-holes in ‘Mill on the Floss’ – is trying to break the land-speed record on the A409. But something is rotten in the state of Jurisfiction. Perkins is ‘accidentally’ eaten by the minotaur, and Snell succumbs to the Mispeling Vyrus.

As a shadow looms over popular fiction, Thursday must keep her wits about her and discover not only what is going on, but also who she can trust to tell about it …

With grammasites, holesmiths, trainee characters, pagerunners, baby dodos and an adopted home scheduled for demolition, “The Well of Lost Plots” is at once an addictively exciting adventure and an insight into how books are made, who makes them – and why there is no singular for ‘scampi’.

BookieMonster says:

Seriously y’all (I’ve started saying “y’all” a lot, why? who knows? Anyway, back to the programme) if you haven’t read Jasper Fforde yet – why not? WHY NOT?

His books are witty, clever and fun – perfect, in fact, for some relaxing holiday reading that doesn’t rot your brain at the same time.

Stop brain-rot this Christmas! Give a Jasper Fforde book today!

Buy The Well of Lost Plots from BookieMonster for just $18.95! (remember when all paperbacks cost under $20? I do. I’m old, clearly)

INXS

Description:

by INXS and Anthony Bozza

The real story behind INXS’s rise to fame.

And how they helped define the music of a generation.

INXS broke new musical ground. This Australian band, made up of three brothers and their three best mates, took the world by storm, turning rock, pop, and funk into a cutting edge, danceable style, and selling more than thirty million albums worldwide.

INXS: Story to Story tells the tale of their incredible journey, from playing the world’s biggest concert venues to living a high life rivaling any in rock history, filled with sex, drugs, and supermodels.

Now for the first time, they reveal everything they experienced in their more than two decades of making music — the partying, the pressure, the wild times on the road, the heights and depths of rock-star life, and the bonds of brotherhood and friendship that not only got them through the tough times but made the fun times even more intense.

They also talk about the sadness of watching their closest friend and collaborator, Michael Hutchence, slipping away from them, and share their thoughts about why he left them far too soon.

Fully authorized and reflecting the band’s firsthand point of view, this is the real story behind the phenomenon that is INXS — and the book every rock fan will need to own.

Packed with photos.

Purchase INXS : Story to Story from BookieMonster for just $22.95!

Why Do Pirates Love Parrots?

Description:

An Imponderables® book

Ponder, if you will . . . Is yawning contagious?

Do starfish have faces?

Why do they put crinkly paper into pairs of men’s socks?

Why is it that cans of Diet Coke float, but cans of regular Coke don’t?

Pop culture guru David Feldman demystifies these questions and much more in Why Do Pirates Love Parrots?

One of the Imponderables® series - the unchallenged source of answers to civilization’s most perplexing conundrums - and charmingly illustrated by Kassie Schwan, this book provides you with knowledge about everyday life that encyclopedias, dictionaries, and almanacs just don’t cover.

And think about it: Where else are you going to find out how they get the paper tag into a Hershey’s Kiss?

Buy Why Do Pirates Love Parrots? from BookieMonster for just $20.95!

Steak Lover's Cookbook

by William Rice

Description:

 Steak for Every Occasion. Succulent, sizzling, sublimely delicious–for eating bliss thre’s nothing like steak. And for William Rice finding the perfect steak has become a passion.

Now the results of his search are served up in the essential steak lover’s companion, with over 140 recipes for perfectly cooked steaks, from craving to carving, plus the starters, the sauces, the sides, the desserts, the wines. And steak talk, too.

Here’s a taster:

Steakhouse at Home Grilled Giant Porterhouse, The Famous Fiorentina, Wine-Bathed Sirloin

Unexpected Steak Asian Beef Salad with Cucumber, Thai Red Beef Curry, Nicole’s Moroccan Steak Casserole

Weeknight Steak Grilled Skirt Steak with Fresh Tomato Sauce, Eye Round Steaks with Onion Cream Gravy

Brunch, Lunch, or Picnic Steak Cold Filet with Orange-Cumin Viaigrette, Short-Order Steak and Eggs, Steak Sandwiches with Red Pepper-Dill Ketchup

Steak Occasions True Steak au Poivre, Chateaubriand with Bearnaise Sauce, Rib-Eye with Pinot Noir Beurre Rouge

And many more mouthwatering recipes!

Buy Steak Lover’s Cookbook from BookieMonster for just $24.95!

This one’s entitled My Favourite Books of 2009 (that’d be books I read, not just books published this year).

1. Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates – again, I say, how did I NOT know about Richard Yates? Oh English degree, how you have failed me. 
2. Coraline by Neil Gaiman – button eyes will never be cute again. Never. NB this was read pre-blog so no review link. Did I have a life pre-blog?? It’s like a haze…
3. Under the Skin by Michel Faber – *speechless*. Creeped the jeebies out of me. Then made me feel ill. Then made me think, lots. 
4. The Boy in the Dress by David Walliams - whimsical and funny and perfect and written by my favourite celebrity. Celebrity books can be good – if they’re written well, surprise. 
5. The Messenger by Marcus Zusak – an ordinary guy being extraordinary – a basic story made powerful by brilliant writing. 
6. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith – yes, it was total fluffery, but it was such enjoyable fluffery. 
7. The Worst Hard Time by Timothy Egan – I listened to it as my first audiobook experience. What a good choice (pat on back). History at its best. 
8. Unseen Academicals by Terry Pratchett – of course. 

More lists to follow…

P.S. Please thank me for not mentioning the ‘C’ word. And I do rather like whiskers on kittens but I’m not that fussed about raindrops on roses.

And your favourite things?

Avoiding Prison

Description:

Adventures in Love and Danger

Just when gainfully employed 20-something Wendy Dale thinks she can’t take another moment of corporate tedium, her parents impulsively sell everything they own and move to Honduras with no plan. And then things get interesting.

From salsa dancing in a rum-induced haze and struggling to exercise in Colombia (“the guerillas were using the track again today”), to crossing international borders unconventionally and dodging bombs in Lebanon (“the good news was that they were small bombs”), Wendy somehow manages to find herself in the midst of hysterical, adventurous, and often illegal situations.

Case in point every time she heads to Costa Rica, she is forced to visit another prison. Although a jail may not be everyones idea of a place to find a date, Wendy soon falls in love with a man, a country, and its people and risks everything she has to clear his name.

Avoiding Prison and Other Noble Vacation Goals is a bumpy and hilarious ride in which Wendy discovers that a successful vacation much like that elusive thing, happiness can be found in some of the most unlikely places imaginable.

Mix David Sedaris, Lucille Ball, and a fifth of tequila in a blender [and] you get Wendy Dale

Buy Avoiding Prison & Other Noble Vacation Goals from BookieMonster for just $18.95!