*2021 - 50 BOOKS FOR THE YEAR*

#11
The Perfumed Sleeve by Laura Joh Rowland. The Sano Series set in 17th century Japan. I’ve read them in order. Very enjoyable.

Book 70, just started Heir to Greyladies, the first of a trilogy by Anna Jacobs.

#35. The Girls by Lisa Jewell.

Book 71, now reading the next in the trilogy, Mistress of Greyladies.

#44 The Vinyl Detective:Written in Dead Wax Andrew Cartmel. Nameless nerdy record collector hunts down the world's rarest jazz record encountering danger, murderous competitors and beautiful women. Unusual and enjoyable.
#45 Lockdown Peter May. Thriller set around a killer flu virus and a city in lockdown. The author wrote it 15 years ago but couldn't get it published because it was thought too unlikely! Unsettling but it makes you realise things could be worse.
I felt in need of something gentler next so am currently reading Friday's Child Georgette Heyer.

#36. A Dedicated Man by Peter Robinson.

Away with the Penguins by Hazel Prior.
Heart warming easy read.
Look what you made me do by Helen Walmsley-johnson
A memoir, Helens story of her abusive relationship, plus factual data... staggering and sad.
The Music Shop by Rachel Joyce.
A lovely uncomplicated love story to music.
The List by Carys Jones.
A pyscho thriller , page turner.

#46 was The Real James Herriot by James Wight. This was more of a skim read, picking and choosing and enjoying the photos. It was written by James Herriot’s son but was more like an extended eulogy than the gentle, highly readable memoirs of the originals.
#47 was The Lamplighters by Emma Stonex, which tells of a mysterious disappearance of three lighthouse keepers from a lighthouse off the Cornish coast in December 1972. I enjoyed it but only gave it four stars because there were several anachronisms (the author was born in the eighties).
Bridie22, I really enjoyed The Music Shop and it remains my favourite of Rachel Joyce’s charming books.

Book 72, Legacy of Greyladies

Have now finished the Greyladies trilogy, enjoyed them.Now on book 73, another Inspector Montalbano book, by Andrea Camilleri, The Terracotta Dog.

29 Lowborn - Kerry Hudson, non fictional account by the author of poverty stricken child hood in various parts of Scotland and England. She details the inter generational mental health problems within her family, and in particular her mother's lack of stability. Her mother's propensity to up sticks as the drop of a hat, usually to follow a man in her life, sometimes to the other side of Britain, led to umpteen different schools, homes and several periods spent in bed and breakfast accommodation. Similar to "Educated" in some ways, insomuch as the writer managed to overcome a pretty awful start and childhood to eventually, not without a struggle get to university and achieve success in her adult life as a writer.
30 The Catch T M Logan Quite good psychological page turner, daughter brings home boyfriend too good to be true in father's eyes. The book hinges on whether the boyfriend is a bad lot or whether the father is simply paranoid!
31 The Postscript Murders - Elly Griffiths. Not a Ruth Galloway, nevertheless enjoyed this new one and imagine she will use the characters again. Hope so!
32 The Push - Ashley Audrain The dark side of motherhood which gets darker for the mother as her baby progresses through the various stages of her young life.
33 and 34 Audios from the library vintage Agatha Christie Five Little Pigs and Lord Edgware Dies. Read all her books years ago but never remembered who done it!

The Family Upstairs by Lisa Jewell

I've just started reading The Sister's Twin by Jane Adam's.

Although I read and enjoyed The Apothecary's Daughter featuring the same detective, I'm finding this one a struggle, can't get into the characters at all.

Adams
(Autocorrect)

Just starting book 74, Cockroaches, by Jo Nesbo. It`s a while since I last read a Harry Hole story, looking forward to it.

#37. A Necessary End by Peter Robinson.

I really am playing 'catch up'! I seem to be very slow this year.
#15. A Ladder to the Sky - John Boyne 4.5*
#16. The Good Daughter - Karin Slaughter 4.5*
#17. The Last Widow - Karin Slaughter 4.5*
#18. The Puppet Boy of Warsaw - Eva Weaver 5*
#19. Scissors, Paper, Stone - Elizabeth Day 5*
#20. The Silent Ones - KL Slater 5*
#21. The Last Thing She Told Me - Linda Green 5*
#22. The Murmur of Bees - Sofia Segovia 4.5*
#23. Force of Nature - Jane Harper 5*
#24. Hidden on the Fens - Joy Ellis 5*
#25. Secrets on the Fens - Joy Ellis 5* - currently reading.

Greyduster and *Hellogirl" re LJ Ross and the "DC Ryan" Books - I really enjoyed them and currently have number 18 waiting to be read!!
He also has another series not long started with the main character of 'Alex Gregory', so far I think there are only 3 in the series and you might prefer them.
I'm inclined to find an author, stick to them .....regardless!! Not always the best idea but I seem to have a weird sense of loyalty! Lord only knows why.

I am so impressed by some of your reading lists, I’m lagging behind a bit, but here are my latest.
The Kingdom-Jo Nesbo
A stand alone novel, two brothers growing up in an isolated farm, with loving, but very dysfunction parents. The most charismatic and popular son, leaves, and returns years later, apparently rich, and with a beautiful wife, he also has big plans for the farm, and for the village.
Plenty of murders follow, and you are never certain which is good brother or which is bad!
Books 20 and21
The Crossing Places-Ellie Griffiths
Coffin Road-Peter May
I read these on a short break, ideal easy reading, enjoyable, but not too demanding.
Book 22
Trio- William Boyd
I enjoyed this, a film being made in Brighton in the swinging sixties. He selects three characters and tells their stories, predictable in some ways, but well told, and very poignant in places.
Book 23
Ten minutes and 38 seconds in this Strange World- Elif Shafak
Tequila Leila was a prostitute, now murdered, her brain has yet to totally close down, and she is taken on a whistle stop tour of her life.
From a cruel family, to her life as a in a brothel, her love, but most of au, her five friends.
This you have to read, there were times when I thought that she was trying to cover every subject in one book, prostitution, incest, murder, transsexual, dwarfism, you name it , it’s in there, but still a good read.

I loved Jo Nesbo`s Cockroaches. Just about to start book 75, Blade of Light, another Inspector Montalbano book.

No 26. A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles. It’s taken me aaages to to read this, for some odd reason, because it’s not a difficult book at all. I enjoyed it a lot!

#53 All the Rage by Cara Hunter. 4th in the DI Adam Fawley series. A good page-turner.
#54 Sea Glass by Anita Shreve. I thought I’d read all her novels but this one had somehow slipped through the net! Set in 1929/30 in New Hampshire USA at the time of prohibition and the Depression. I’ve loved all her books.
#55 The Running Hare: the secret life of farmland by John Lewis-Stempel. Beautifully described nature writing, poetic but doesn’t shy away from the difficult stuff about the damage done to our countryside by intensive farming etc. Both uplifting and depressing!

#38. I Found You by Lisa Jewell.

#46 Friday's Child Georgette Heyer. I have been returning to Georgette Heyer's Regency novels when I want something charming and romantic for over 50 years. Lovely.
#47 Sweet Pea C J Skuse. Oh my, this is quite different from #46! The note on the front says "American Psycho meets Fleabag" and that's about right. It is about a psychopathic female serial killer. I found it weirdly enjoyable but do NOT read if you are at all easily offended.

The Sister's Twin by Jane Adams.

I didn't really get into it and didn't find it as good as The Apothecary' s Daughter. The characters are all too nebulous.

Books 76 and 77, Toro!Toro! by Michael Morpurgo, and The Amazing Tale of Adolphus Tips, same author. I know his books are for children, but have read a few now, and think they can be enjoyed by adults as well.