Features
Reader chart: January 2010
These are the books published in autumn 2009 that were rated most highly by readers on Waterstones.com
1: The Dogs and the Wolves
by Irène Némirovsky
Chatto & Windus
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As always, Némirovsky’s writing is full of detail, bringing the characters and locations
to life and setting this apart from run of the mill love stories. It has a classic feel; a book to be revisited in the hope of finding more delights within.
Karen Merchant, Waterstone’s Cardholder
2 The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest
by Stieg Larsson
Maclehose Press
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This is the fantastic final part to the Millennium Trilogy. Lisbeth Salander is the most incredible female protagonist I have ever had the pleasure of dedicating far too much of my life to. Stieg Larsson was a man of exceptional talent and his death a tragic loss to the publishing world.
Naomi Johnson
3 The Pantomime Life of Joseph Grimaldi
by Andrew McConnell Stott
Canongate
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Stott portrays a world populated by the most colourful heroes and villains imaginable and, at its centre, the most famous clown of them all. This is a wonderful book, surprisingly easy to read and, at the same time, scholarly.
Eric Hindle
4 Of Bees and Mist
by Erick Setiawan
Headline
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This could so easily have been an average family saga but it wasn’t. Erick Setiawan’s wonderful use of descriptive words turned this into something magical
and enchanting. Love, betrayal and the tale of two families’ lives… extraordinary.
R Lee
5 Return to the Hundred Acre Wood
by David Benedictus
Egmont
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I don’t think any book this year has given me as much pleasure. Reading this is like meeting your oldest and best friends again after a long, long absence, and finding they’re exactly as you remember them, only more so.
Henry Coningsby
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