Finished Colm Toibin’s ‘House of Names’. Harrowing, sinister and, ultimately, too many loose ends. Back now to Kate Atkinson.
Please help! (grandchild being locked in bedroom)
Sometimes it’s just the small things that press the bruise isn’t it? 😢
Gransnet forums
Books/book club
Here it is then, GN very own 50 books a year thead, or as the title suggest for those who think that may be a tad too many for them, whatever your personal best may be after a culmination of reading for a year. Don't be daunted by the "50" benchmark, as this is the first thread of its kind, it is experimental and will evolve as it progresses.
So to recap, start off with what you are reading now, or with a new book. How often you come to the thread is up to the individual. Over on MN, some seem to up date every so often with the next few they've read. If you feel so inclined post a review or a synopsis of the book. Definitely share if it's something you've loved......or hated, or shelved 
Reading material is not restricted to fiction, it can be anything, factual, audio, childrens, The Hungry Caterpillar or the like even!, such books count towards the 50, so who knows, you could be at that figure by the end of today 
At the end of the year post your complete list with your best read in bold, worst in italics and mention your top five, or top book if you've just read five 
Here's wishing those who partake a great reading year ahead in 2019.
Oh, I enjoyed Our House, Parsley3! What an intriguing book it is.
15. The House on Cold Hill Peter James
A very daft ghost story, but scary enough to keep me awake with the duvet over my head when I read it in bed one night.
16. Honeymoon Suite Wendy Holden
Not my choice, it was my book club read, and not really my sort of thing. But I enjoyed it as a nice light read to go with the sunny weather we had a week or two back.
I'm just finishing number 17. Daughter, by Jane Shemilt, the story of two doctors whose daughter disappears and how the subsequent events and police enquiry blow apart what at first seems like the perfect family. It's really tense. I've 50 pages to go, so hope it isn't going to fizzle out at the end - I need answers!
April's books,
21 - The Welsh Girl - Peter Ho Davies audio set in 1944 war time Wales, a German Jewish refugee sent to Wales to interview Rudolf Hess. Meanwhile the Welsh girl of the title, Esther daughter of a fierce Welsh nationalist is raped and impregnated by her English soldier boyfriend stationed in Wales building a POW camp before his unit are moved. Into that mix is a German POW taken at the D Day landings in Normandy who Esther finds herself drawn to. Quite good without being fantastic.
22. Milkman - Anna Burns (audio) I veered between loving and hating this one, nearly shelved it about 2 discs in, in spite of winning the Booker Prize, although having read some of those accolade winners before I find I usually either love "The Blind Assassin" or hate "Lincoln in The Bardo" so it was no surprise that I loved and hated this one in equal measures. Set in Northern Ireland in the 1970s against a backdrop of the troubles. None of the characters have actual names they are either "somebody Mcsomebody", "maybe boyfriend" "big sister to little sisters" The "Milkman" of the title is actually an armed guerilla, although we do meet "real milkman" her mother's love interest if I remember rightly. I don't think this book would be for everybody but I did find listening to it really engaging at times and there were certainly flashes of humour. Great Northern Irish narrator and I couldn't get the accent out of my head for a long time particularly the way "now" which I find I just can't emulate no matter how many times I heard it and try to copy that word it just eludes me At it's best quirky and original at its worst tedious at times.
23 Engleby - Definitely one up there with my best reads. I'd had this languishing on my shelf for quite a while having read a couple of Sebastian Faulks others and not enjoying them, this broke the mould though. Mike Engleby a rather frightening sociopath of an individual, we follow him through his rather miserable childhood where he has picked up some delinquent ways mainly from his school where he is brutally bullied. Extraordinarily clever he wins a place at Cambridge there he takes copious amounts of drugs and finds he has alarming memory lapses. He also finds himself drawn to a fellow female student who goes missing, the outcome of that forms the crux of the book. There are some amusing moments after university when his career sends him on a journalistic path interviewing both the likes of Ken Livingstone and Margaret Thatcher.
24 The Moon Sister - Lucinda Riley - nearly finished. I love her books really easy to read, and boy does she bang them out quickly, no waiting around for the next one. I think this is the 5th one in the series of The Seven Sister books. Fans like me know what they are about so won't do a review, suffice to say like the others they never disappoint.
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