My top ten Books...The best way to escape!

Books! Ain't they great!
 I love to read, I read in the bath, on the loo ( Sorry TMI, but comes from the days that we had a stack of  Mandy's, Dandy's and Beano's nestled in our bathroom!) BUT I am gutted for kids that they just don't seem to have the passion for reading these days.
I understand, a computer gives you instant access to a world where you feel involved, a fantastic escape, but so do books! But it all depends on you as a parent for how you get your kids into books.
Do you read alot yourself? Granted, a lot of the time there just isn't enough hours in the day, but MAKE time. Reading for yourself will make your kids sit up and want to do it themselves, our own little copy-cats!

My idea of Heaven...Just throw in some digestives and I'm there baby! 

My kids only started to love to read because of one book I shared with them from my childhood. I had great fun reading it to them, I made the characters sound fun, I screamed where it was needed, I left them wondering at the end of each chapter what was going to happen next.....Before I knew it, I had got them!
I blogged a little about this book the other day, Room 13 by Robert Swindells. Its a fantastic book, its slightly scary, about kids on a school trip and their encounter with ....Nawww, you'll have to read it for yourself, blimey there are some cracking good reads out there! 

I am actually pretty soon going to be related to one of those! Teresa Ashby ( http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=Teresa+Ashby&x=0&y=0!) has been a writer pretty much all her life. I love her way of writing, I always feel comfortable in her stories, and that is what I look for when I'm reading a book, just how quickly have I adjusted to this authors use of words?
Teresa does a lot of magazine work, as well as taking care of her grandchildren. I really don't know how she does it! But a lovelier writer you couldn't hope to meet. Read her cracking blogs here! ( I am hoping to learn alot, namely how to shorten my blogs lol) http://teresaashby.blogspot.co.uk/

So I guess I'll start my top ten with Firestarter!

10. Firestarter. Stephen King 

It starts with Charlie McGee, ( In the film played by a very young Drew Barrymore) Many years before her mother and father participated in a psychological study back in college which gave them very strange powers indeed. However, theirs is nothing compared to what their beautiful baby daughter can do....This sparks interest in the Founders of the study and they want little Charlie, and will stop at nothing to get her back. 


 http://www.amazon.co.uk/Firestarter-Stephen-King/dp/0340899042/ref=sr_1_13?ie=UTF8&qid=1335349058&sr=8-13

The book made me cry, the film made me cry harder, however it will always be a firm favourite.

9. Second Child. John Saul.  

Secret Cove. Ruggedly beautiful and remote, bordered by dark woods and deserted beaches, this postcard-perfect village harbours the mansions of the wealthy - families who have summered in splendid seclusion at Secret Cove for generations.

Here, one hundred years ago, on the night of the annual August Moon Ball, a shy and lovely servant girl committed a single, unspeakable act of violence - an act so shocking its legacy lives still. And now, long after the horror of that night has faded to a tale whispered by children around summer camp fires, an unholy terror is about to be reborn. Now, one family is about to feel the icy hand of supernatural fear - as Melissa Holloway, shy and troubled and just thirteen years old, comes to know the blood-drenched secret that waits behind a locked attic door ....

For in the dead of night as Secret Cove sleeps unaware, a soul-chilling presence slowly begins to enact a terrifying vengeance. 


Most of John Saul's books are terribly frightening, and based around young children, which makes them more terrifying. I do love to be scared, however in John Saul's books you are never quite sure who the goody or baddie is until the final twist, which is why he is such a favourite with me. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Second-Child-John-Saul/dp/0553058770/ref=sr_1_30?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1335349407&sr=1-30 

8.  Heaven By Virginia Andrews.  

Such a fabulous story. I love it, I never wanted the family saga to end.

HER NAME WAS HEAVEN, HER LIFE WAS ANYTHING BUT

Heaven’s mother Angel,  had died in childbirth, and from that moment her father turned against her. Her only allies, it seemed, were her four half-brothers and sisters.

When their father, poor and desperate, sold them to strangers, Heaven was left alone and friendless. Her only hope was to reunite her family. But how?

So begins the heartbreaking, magical story of the Casteel family, continued in ‘Dark Angel’, ‘Fallen Hearts’, ‘Gates of Paradise’ and ‘Web of Dreams’.
One of the most tragic yet beautiful stories I have read. 

7. Bless the Child. Cathy Cash-Spellman 

AN INNOCENT CHILD IN MORTAL DANGER. AN AGE-OLD BATTLE BETWEEN GOOD AND EVIL.

 Vibrant, youthful, and a grandmother at forty-two, Maggie O'Connor has lovingly raised her drug-addicted daughter's child ever since the newborn appeared on her doorstep three years ago. But when little Cody is kidnapped and sequestered inside a satanic cult, Maggie's world is shattered by unimaginable evil. Drawing strength from the bond she shares with her granddaughter, Maggie vows to fight anyone and everyone who dares to claim this child for themselves. Even the Devil.

This had to be in my top ten, as the story grips me like no other. I love the belief of life after death, and they touch upon this a lot in this book. If you have watched the film, it barely even TOUCHES the book, a sad disappointment to the book, but worth watching on its own ground. Stars Kim Basinger. http://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Bless_the_Child.html?id=kSbBhpHh1M0C&redir_esc=y

6. Flowers in the Attic. Virginia Andrews. 

Cathy and her brother Chris and their younger twin siblings are waiting for their beloved Daddy to come home for his surprise party. They get the surprise though with the tragedy that soon unfolds. A loving mother turns into a stranger they barely know, an evil grandmother who knows no love for the Devils Spawn' she believes her grandchildren to be, and a moment of love, that despite laws, no-one could blame anyone for. A story of life, death and hardship but most of all the courage to escape the claws of evil before the children are lost to the world forever.


The first Virginia Andrews book I ever read, and it is a corker. An absolute must-read, but have a hanky ready!   http://fallenangels.fan-sites.org/books/vcandrews/dollanganger/

5. Intensity; Dean Koontz 

I have watched the film of this, and Edgler Vess is actually played by one of my favourite actors, and actually does the guy justice! Shame its not on DVD as its a corker of a film, really a tense thriller that you can get your teeth into. Edgler Vess is a sociopath intent on murder. He lives for one purpose only: to satisfy all appetites as they arise, seeking ever more outrageous experience. To live with intensity. 

When he attacks her friend, Laura, Chyna Shepherd is saved by the instincts developed during a dark and turbulent childhood. Not knowing Laura is already dead, Chyna follows, hoping to save her friend, as Vess carries her body to his motor home - a dungeon and morgue on wheels. The killer, unaware of her presence, drives away.  But Chyna is now trapped in his dangerous orbit.

 Her sole aim is to get out alive, but when she learns the identity of the killer's next intended victim, a young girl he has abducted and keeping at home in his cellar, she knows she must act to save that precious life - and take risks beyond any that she ever imagined she could endure.
So tense, if you bite your nails on a regular basis I suggest having a teething ring handy for this book, I usually have to read it sitting bolt upright, as you cannot slouch when Edgler Vess is about! http://www.amazon.co.uk/Intensity-Dean-Koontz/dp/0747248400/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1335358867&sr=1-1

4.The Adultery Club; Tess Stimson

Something a little less sad and gruesome! I never thought I would get into any kind of chic-lit, what a mistake that was! I had read this book in one evening, not because it was so easy to read but simply because the story had got me hook line and sinker!

  Nicholas Lyon is the perfect husband—a handsome divorce attorney who dotes on his family. Sara Kaplan is the perfect seductress—a vivacious young lawyer unburdened by sexual scruples. And Malinche Lyon is the perfect wife—a beautiful cookbook writer and mother to three darling daughters. Now, in this smart, wickedly sexy novel, Nick, Sara, and Malinche are all about to join…The Adultery Club

Suddenly Nicholas—a man totally in love with his wife—is fantasizing about Sara. Sara is toying with Nick. And Malinche is facing temptations of her own. While appetites are whetted and sated from London to the English countryside, one heretofore happily married man and two very different women are about to discover the difference between fulfilling your wildest desires—and getting your just deserts!

A flaming great read n a little bit saucy! http://www.randomhouse.com/book/173652/the-adultery-club-by-tess-stimson

3.The Walking Dead; Charlie Adlard & Robert Kirkman.

Now you might have caught the last two series of the Walking Dead on Sky, however yet again, the programme does not touch the books, and the programme is great in itself. 

I bought these for my fella after a friend of his at work loaned him the first two, and we never looked back. Sadly my fella had pneumonia last Feb but these books kept him going throughout all the agony. 

Set in a comic book style, these are most definitely NOT for children!!

From sexual scenes to children having their heads cut off, ( oh Lord watch out for book seven!) This book really doesn't have anywhere to hide for any of the characters. Its gutting, like real life. Death is indiscriminate to whom he picks. No-one, not even your lead character is safe, and this makes the whole collection of books so amazing to read. The artwork is phenomenal. So if you have a Zombie-hungry fella, these would make the perfect gift! As they say, In a world ruled by the Dead, we are finally forced to start living!

Have re-read and re-read, and awaiting book fifteen!  http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Walking-Dead-Compendium-Volume/dp/1607060760/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1335354310&sr=1-1

2.Juniper / A Year and a Day ; Monica Furlong

A beautiful story known by two names. Ninnoc is a haughty Princess who enjoys the finer things in life: That is until her Godmother Euny comes to take her for her training to become a Doran. Ninnoc is told her real name is Juniper, and that if she is to save her parents' Kingdom and her new-born baby sibling from her fathers sister, the Black Witch Meroot Juniper must take the powers of the Doran seriously. For Juniper the way Euny lives is unbelievable, the poorness, the cold winters, and the cruel way in which Euny treats her, so can she really stick at it for a Year and a day to save the ones she loves?

A beautiful book that follows on with Wise Child and Colman, full of magic and love and sheer beauty. You can almost smell the salt of the sea and feel the strength of the Dorans magic in Monica Furlongs books!  http://www.amazon.co.uk/Juniper-Monica-Furlong/dp/0679833692/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1335354512&sr=1-4 

So, Number one! I haven't really done these in any particular order, however my number one book has to go to............................................

 

1. Lets Pretend; Jacqueline Wilson.

When you say the name Jacqueline Wilson, these days you think of kids books, (AWESOME) kids books and perhaps the programme Tracey Beaker. However years ago when she first started, Jacqueline started writing crime/thrillers, and they are to date the first books I pack if I go away anywhere.
They are a little dated, but it honestly doesn't spoil the books one iota. Its not really so's you'd notice, and it actually makes the books a little darker.

Young Emily, a girl bordering on puberty awakens one morning to have a massive argument with her

quiet down-trodden mother, and storms off to school. On arriving home, Emily is shocked to realise her mother is now missing, and no-one knows where she could be.
In Emily's mind, there's only one answer. Her nerdy Step-father Adrian whom she dislikes.
No-one will listen to her, no-one will take her seriously, and at first Emily is enjoying the attention having a missing mother gives you, but what happens if mummy never comes back, and this is no longer fun, but reality?
Unwanted by her real father who has re-married, Emily struggles with life without her mum and tries desperately to find her. But where could she be?

This book was bought for me by my mum when I was little, the picture of the little girl on the front leading her to believe this was a kids book. Its actually a very dark twisted story that really captures the imagination. Everyone has been the kid that no-one listens to at some point or another, and I identified with this book massively. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Lets-Pretend-Penguin-crime-fiction/dp/0140046259/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1335353074&sr=1-1

I cannot live without reading, I read at least three books a week, whether they are new or old ones I'm re-reading. Its a home away from home, somewhere where I can hide for a while and live vicariously through a million different people. When I lived in a hostel, and there was no-where to go but the one little room I dwelled within, I turned to Books the way some people turn to God. So for your kids sake, or even your own, get a book, and get reading. My choices are mainly quite macabre, but there are a zillion different books out there from Child Wizards to the Wizard of Oz! I want to know what YOU read, what books I should try next, and maybe when they see how much pleasure can be derived from a few hundred pages of text on paper, we can all get our kids loving books as much as they love their PS3! 

Well, Maybe!