Fifty Books a Year (or fewer)

I've only just noticed this post so I'll have to think back and check my kindle to see what I bought since the start of the year. I do always have at least 2 books on the go simultaneously. Am I the only one to read in the bathroom? Always a book going there! Then my kindle for bedtime reading as my bedroom is never heated so sitting up is not an option in winter ?so much easier snuggled in with a backlit kindle.
And then a real book for those times during the day I sit down long enough to read, specially the winter evenings.
I'm finally catching up with Harry potter this year, having held out as the hype always put me right off. I'm on no.5 now, Harry potter and the order of the phoenix.
To my surprise I'm enjoying them tremendously, j.k.Rowling is one clever lady. I started as my oldest gd likes talking about her books with me and and I couldn't do that with all the Harry potter stuff, so she persuaded me to have a go....
My daytime book is Sepulchre by Kate Moss which I'm enjoying and my bathroom book is the Women's Room by Marylin French, why haven't i read her long ago??? Can't think...it shows women have come a long way since that was written, pretty hard hitting and so well observed. So far men are getting a pretty bad press, might change later in the book though..maybe! Yes times have certainly changed but I'm off the age to be able to identify with so many of the women and the situations they found themselves in. Echos of Spare Rib!

Gosh,yes, Marilyn French. I read this book in the 1970s and it made a huge impression on me. As did Fear of Flying by Erica Jong. I will read these again to see if my 70 year old self is as impressed as my 24 year old self was.

My January books so far:

The Glass House Ann Cleeves
The Robber Bride Margaret Atwood
The Rumour Lesley Kara
The Missing Girl Jenny Quintana (audio)
The Chalk Pit Elly Griffiths
The Dark Circle Linda Grant.

As usual a mixed bag, Ann Cleeves is always highly readable. I've only just discovered Elly Griffiths as a crime writer. On holiday a few months ago I ran out of books and went to the library of left behind books in the hotel where we were staying and I picked up The Dark Angel, the latest Ruth Galloway, but my first of hers. I am now working my way back through her catalogue, piecing together the personal relationships of the main characters in reverse, The Chalk Pit is the 2nd book I've read so far. Definitely like her writing.

I quite enjoyed The Robber Bride, Margaret Atwood remains one of my favourite authors, absolutely loved The Blind Assassin, Alias Grace and Cat's Eye, this one wasn't up there with any of those but very readable. The story of 3 friends, their troubled childhoods, their relationships and the shadowy figure of Zenia (The Robber Bride) of the story. The 3 women meet for lunches after Zenia's funeral who they learn has betrayed them all at some stage but is also a professional liar, so a certain amount of ambiguity about her character.

The Rumour picked up from Sainsburys, I'd told myself to stop picking up books whilst I'm shopping for groceries, mainly because I tend to opt for lame psychological thrillers thinking they will be good and more often than not they aren't, this was no exception to that pattern. Disappointing!

The Missing Girl, audio book from my local library. I like to listen to audiobooks when I'm dropping off to sleep, trouble is I find I can't remember a damn thing about the story in the morning and inevitably have to listen to the disc again, so it's a long drawn out process. This was story was ok, a bit laboured, maybe that was down to me having to replay it so often.

My favourite book so far has been The Dark Circle by Linda Grant. I picked this up at the library as I'd read a couple of her books before and really enjoyed them. Didn't read the blurb and only realised once I got into it that the whole book was set in a TB sanatorium just post war, soon after the inception of the National Health Service. It tells the story of two 18 year old London Jewish working class twins Lenny and Miriam who are sent to such a place that previously only served well to do private patients. The story unfolds with the relationships they make in the sanatorium with fellow residents and as the narrative progresses the miracle drug streptomycin is launched but limited to treat just a few. A strange subject for a book but knowing very little about TB, I nevertheless found it interesting and a good read.

Just started The Man With No Face by Peter May. One of his first he wrote in the early 80s which has just been re published.

Just finished 'The Glove maker's daughter' by Leah Fleming. Thoroughly recommend. The story is told by said daughter a 'friend seeker' or early 'Quaker' and follows her through her travels from Yorkshire Dales, making the journey across to the New World and the making of a new settlement and life. A good read and educational.

My Book no 7 is Bitter Lemons of Cyprus by Laurence Durrell. It's a memoir of his time living in Cyprus after WW2 and is perfect for this chilly weather. It's a fascinating mix of politics (Cyprus wanting to unite with Greece) and local characters and very funny episodes such as claiming to his neighbours that his brother Gerald died at the Battle of Thermopylae and then meeting a man who claimed to have fought beside him!

Terribull I'm glad you persisted - it's wonderful, isn't it?

The Sealwoman's Gift was ultimately disappointing. It could have been so much better. It's a novel based on a true episode of Barbary slavers kidnapping people from Iceland in the 1600's. The Icelandic bits were good but the Algeriers side of the story just wasn't credible. I came away thinking that being a white slave wasn't so bad, lots of scented rosewater and warm sun, jasmine and purple satin.

The time line was also confusing, three years would pass as you turned a page. It's as though Sally Magnusson didn't have enough belief in herself to write a truly good book and so made it rather chick-lit like.

Grandy The Glovemaker's Daughter was a wonderful story, wasn't it? I've read a few of Leah Fleming's books - The Captain's Daughter and The Girl Under the Olive Tree were particular favourites.

Hi Bathsheba, I've read both of those as well. Just checking out Amazon and see she has a new book out in October.

Finished ‘Songwoman’ by Ilka Tempke. A novel about Caractacus and the Roman invasion of Britain. It was peculiarly engaging to start with but became sort of flabby. She is no Manda Scott, whose Boudicca trilogy stands peerless for that period. This afternoon I will pickup Pat Barker’s ‘Silence of the Girls’, a novel about the Trojan wars. I have read Pat Barker before but it was a novel about the First World War. I hope it won’t disappoint.

Finished Among the lemon trees by Nadia Marks...an easy read holiday type book.
No 8 will be The Suspect by Fiona Barton

So far have read, The Clockmaker's Daughter by Kate Morten, 2 JP Delaney books Believe Me and The Girl Before and A Place to Lie by Rebecca Griffiths. All excellent reads. My one disappointment The Librarian by Sally Vickers. Just received my copy of The Suspect by Fiona Barton so will curl up with this tonight whilst the rugby's on tv!

Book 8 - The Rumour Lesley Kara - a kindle 99p if I remember correctly - was okay is all I can say really

I have been reading books by Lisa Jewell online from my library. I have run out now, I have several more on the wait list. It is I suppose chick lit, but written well, and the stories really drew me in straight away. Rather like Celecia Ahearne books.

I loved Vince and Joy, I Found You, The Third Wife, Before I Met You, The Girls, and Then She was Gone.

I have just borrowed Bitter Lemons of Cyprus, thanks Sue Donin. Looking forward to escaping to the warm Mediterranean for a few hours. I love his descriptions of the landscape.

I’ve enjoyed my number 4, The Snowman, highly implausible though it was, and I’ll be reading more Jo Nesbø on the back of it. But for now I’ve to be a bit more highbrow with Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own, for my library reading group meeting on Friday.

Book 9 - Where the Forest meets the Stars - started yesterday and finished today - what a wonderful book
Oh sorry author Glendy Vanderah

3 more books for the list! Nothing like cold and snowy weather for settling down by the fire with a book!
5..Amanda Owen..The Yorkshire Sheperdess. Lovely read, many of you will have seen the TV Programmes about Amanda and Clive Owen and their life as sheep farmers, while rearing their growing family. Funny and interesting, from Yorkshire traditions to dialect, from dreadful weather endured in a very remote part of North Yorkshire to all the friends and neighbours who share their lives. Lovely!
6.. Love and War in London by Olivia Crocket. Another Mass Observation diary kept by a young woman during part of WW2. Fascinating detail about daily lives, not quite in the Nella Last class but entertaining.
7, Marcus Crouch..The Nesbit Tradition, The Children's Novel 1945-1970. A serious look at children's reading, but I loved it as I read many of these books as a child and some of them I read to my children. Brought back many happy memories!

Here are my next 5 books
6 little big man by Katy Reagan
7 summer with my sisters by Holly Chamberlain
8 the mouseproof kitchen by Saira Shah
9 Silver bay by Jojo Moyes
10 The Briny cafe by Susan Duncan

All enjoyable easy reads.

Just finished ‘The Murder of Harriet Monckton’ by Elizabeth Haynes. Enjoyable but I found it jumped around too much because of the numerous changes of narrator. Worth reading though.

Now on with ‘The Duchess of Nowhere’ by Laurie Graham and enjoying it very much as I have all this author’s books. This is one of her several books which is based on historical fact and her very engaging literary style makes the history both cone to life and entertain. Other books of hers in a similar theme are ‘Gone With the Windsors’, ‘The Importance of Being Kennedy’ and ‘Humble Companion’, the latter about Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s maid. All highly recommended.

My eighth book is Love in an English Garden by Victoria Connelly. It's exactly as you might imagine a book of that title to be!

https://www.gransnet.com/uploads/talk/201902/medium-691211-images-2.jpg https://www.gransnet.com/uploads/talk/201902/medium-707257-images-6.jpg https://www.gransnet.com/uploads/talk/201902/medium-534016-images.jpg

Should check out some of these, probably your list will exceed the mark 100...... :p

www.books2door.com

I've just finished number 4.I'm pretty sure I won't read 50 novels unless children's picture books count as I have read several of those to my grandchildren.
Book 4 was 'an academic question 'by Barbara Pym. I only discovered her last year and have to say I do like her. She reminds me of a twentieth century Jane Austen. Stories about manners, romance, relationships and the middle class with a mix of humour and pathos. I loved Quartet in Autumn which I read last year and an unsuitable attachment which I also read last year. I didn't enjoy an Academic Question as much. I think maybe because it was published after her death based on drafts she had written which Hazel Holt has amalgamated to complete the novel.
It's about Caro a graduate who married an academic just after university without ever having worked. Her life is focused on , her husband's career and her colourful friends. She has a child but is not particularly interested in her. She is lot more resourceful than her husband and probably more intelligent but it is he with the career. . I found this book quite an interesting snapshot of life in the 70s

Just finished The Little Stranger by Sarah Walters. Rather disappointed with the ending, not as chilling as I expected. Next is Before this is over byAmanda Hickie.

Just finished number seven ‘Silence of the Girls’ by Pat Barker. I’ve read many books about the Trojan War, but not from a female perspective. Brilliant, harrowing, unputdownable.

I’ve just finished The Necessary Marriage by Elisa Lodato it was a bit of a disappointment and not especially enjoyable. I read An Unremarkable Body by the same author a few weeks ago and thought it was much much better and was really looking forward to reading more of her books. Disappointed.
I’ve now started The Winter Loon by Susan Bernhard and so far I am really enjoying it. It is beautifully written.

I’m a bit of a “pot luck” reader, I have favourite authors but I read on Kindle and tend to download anything that catches my eye providing it’s not expensive. I generally skim the reviews and tend to read the 5 star and 1 Star ones and then make up my own mind. I’m finding this thread really useful for recommendations.

Kackie I agree with you about The Little Stranger - it was all a bit of a let down and not really what I expected/hoped for.
I love Sarah Waters though so she is forgiven.