It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

It's Monday! What are you reading? is hosted by Sheila at  Book Journey. For this meme, bloggers post what they finished last week, what they're currently reading, and what they plan to start this week. 
It's been a slow reading week, with other stuff getting in the way.
Also I seem to be stuck on suspense stories mainly because I have a backlog of them on my reader and want to finish them before buying new books.


Finished this week:

Synopsis here.
I like most of Berry's books, easy to read, interesting back story, intriguing characters, and he does a lot of research on his topics.  I especially liked this story as it involved the Terra Cotta Warriors in China which we had visited a couple of years ago.
However, I didn't enjoy this book as much as the previous Cotton Malone's sagas. I have never been fond of the character  Cassiopeia Witt who returns in Berry’s sixth book as she intertwines her tale  to rescue a boy (weak  storyline) and get involved in a political intrigue in China. 
Still a good read but not very memorable.

Started this week:

From the book jacket:
Eight days before the summer solstice, a man is butchered in a blood-freezing sacrifice on the ancient site of Stonehenge before a congregation of robed worshippers. Within hours, one of the world's foremost treasure hunters has shot himself in his country mansion. And to his estranged son, young archaeologist Gideon Chase, he leaves a cryptic letter. Teaming up with an intrepid policewoman, Gideon soon exposes a secret society-an ancient international legion devoted for thousands of years to Stonehenge.With a charismatic and ruthless new leader at the helm, the cult is now performing ritual human sacrifices in a terrifying bid to unlock the secret of the stones. Packed with codes, symbology, relentless suspense, and fascinating detail about the history of one of the world's most mysterious places, The Stonehenge Legacy is a blockbuster to rival the very best of Dan Brown.


I didn't like this book at the start but then it started to grow on me. We had visited Stonehenge a couple of years ago.

Started a couple of weeks ago and still in my reading pile (it's not in my regular reading pile):
 
Synopsis here.



2012 books read:
The Coast Road - John Brady
Still Midnight - Denise Mina
The Bulgari Connection - Fay Weldon
Good Bait - John Harvey
The Heretic's Treasure - Scott Mariani 
Dead I Well May Be - Adrian McKinty
The Devil's Elixir - Raymond Khoury 
A Darker Domain - Val McDermid
The Impossible Dead - Ian Rankin 
GB84 - David Peace
The Emperor's Tomb - Steve Berry

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

It's Monday! What are you reading? is hosted by Sheila at  Book Journey. For this meme, bloggers post what they finished last week, what they're currently reading, and what they plan to start this week.   


Finished this week: 

Synopsis here.
WOW is all I can say. I first heard of this book while reading a Darker Domain and immediately downloaded it. It is a long read but so definitely worth it.
Each chapter alternates between the heart-breaking diaries of two miners, Martin and Peter, and the politics of the strike. 
This is not for the feint of heart, it is disturbing, violent and dark.
Peace covers the strike from most angles - the miners, the police, the government, the union, the secret services. Nobody but the miners come out of this looking good but at what cost to them and their families? Peace highlights how the government was prepared to stop at nothing in order to win, and how the media (including the BBC and press) assisted with this travesty.


Started last week and still in my reading pile:

Synopsis here.

Also started this week:


From the book jacket:
The tomb of China’s First Emperor, guarded by an underground army of terra-cotta warriors, has remained sealed for more than 2,000 years. Though it’s regarded as one of the greatest archaeological sites in the world, the Chinese government won’t allow anyone to open it. Why?
 
That question is at the heart of a dilemma faced by former Justice Department operative Cotton Malone, whose life is shattered when he receives an anonymous note carrying an unfamiliar Web address. Logging on, he sees Cassiopeia Vitt, a woman who’s saved his life more than once, being tortured at the hands of a mysterious man who has a single demand: Bring me the artifact she’s asked you to keep safe. The only problem is, Malone doesn’t have a clue what the man is talking about, since Cassiopeia has left nothing with him. So begins Malone’s most harrowing adventure to date—one that offers up astounding historical revelations, pits him against a ruthless ancient brotherhood, and sends him from Denmark to Belgium to Vietnam then on to China, a vast and mysterious land where danger lurks at every turn.




2012 books read:
The Coast Road - John Brady
Still Midnight - Denise Mina
The Bulgari Connection - Fay Weldon
Good Bait - John Harvey
The Heretic's Treasure - Scott Mariani 
Dead I Well May Be - Adrian McKinty
The Devil's Elixir - Raymond Khoury 
A Darker Domain - Val McDermid
The Impossible Dead - Ian Rankin
GB84 - David Peace