*2021 - 50 BOOKS FOR THE YEAR*

I’m actually about to start reading book number 19 The girl you gave away Jess Ryder Psychological thriller, I will be able to complete 50 books this year, basically as the books I read are generally 350ish pages, ?

All thrillers, bar one for my July reads.

35 The Maidens - Alex Michaelides - Killer on the loose among Cambridge under graduates. Alright, not fantastic and somewhat implausible.
36The Secret Place - Tana French. (audio) This was so long about 19 discs if I remember rightly I thought I'd never find out who done it this side of Christmas but good nevertheless, set in a girls boarding school in Dublin, where a boy from neighbouring boys school was found in their grounds with his head caved in. The male narrator was brilliant at getting into teenage girl character, lots of "OMG and Hello!" in that off hand way girls talk these days.....yes it was a long time getting to the conclusion but whiled away the time when doing a pile of ironing!
37 Greenwich Park - Katherine Faulkner I remember I enjoyed this debut novel even though I've forgotten some of the plot, I know that because my husband picked it up and started reading it, but it had to go back to the library before he finished and I couldn't renew it .....he asked me to fill him and well that finer detail eluded me, but I whizzed through it. Again like the Maidens, partly set in the present around Greenwich and ten or so years prior to that when the main characters were students at Cambridge......and of course there is a murder at the heart of the story.
38 Follow You - Peter James (audio) Not one of his Roy Grace's. Main character creepy doctor fixated on woman he momentarily claps eyes on when he nearly runs over her at traffic lights and who later on enters his social circle. Not bad, again helped with polishing off the ironing.
37 The Vanishing Half - Brit Bennet, I saved the best till last. I loved this book it had a similar quality to Crawdads in that it had a theme that stays with the reader. It's the story of very light skinned, black twins, in the book they were described as coloured, the author's words who is black herself. Growing up in a small town in Louisiana. They run away from home to New Orleans when they are 16 and eventually take very separate paths in life. One twin marries a black man who is violent towards her, she leaves him and returns to the small town where she was raised with a daughter in tow. The other twin marries a white man, again has a daughter and lives a very different life in Los Angeles, erasing all traces of her previous identity to live the life of a wealthy white woman. Racial prejudice, racial identity, gender identity and motherhood are all very central to the narrative. Definitely one of the best books I've read so far this year.

Enjoyed The Widow Next Door. Have since read book 87, Apple of my Eye, by Claire Allan, really enjoyed it. Now just starting book 88, The Stolen Child, by Sajinda Kay.

#52 was Mistress of the Art of Death by Ariana Franklin. I wasn’t sure if it would be my thing before I started but I loved it. It is set in Cambridgeshire in 1171 and the main protagonist is a female doctor from Salerno. King Henry II is shown in a much more sympathetic light than history normally reports. I will be looking for more books in this series.
#53 was Scraping the Toast by Anne Main. I did not really enjoy this one.

Loved The Stolen Child, now reading Dead Flowers, by Nicola Monaghan, book 89

I enjoyed Dead Flowers, although it exposed the seedier side to Nottingham and it`s gangland. My next book will be a bit lighter, The Holiday Home, by Fern Britton.

29. Greenlights by Matthew McConaughey. It’s a sort of memoir cum how to do life book. It’s bonkers and I didn’t believe half of it!

#55 So Many Ways of Loving Christine Webber. The author writes for and about 60 something women. Quite good and it's refreshing to read about 'older' women having sex lives.
#56 A Second Chance Jodi Taylor. The third book in her very good 'St Mary's Chronicles'.

Book 90 The Holiday Home, by Fern Britton. It`s boring really, if it`s a typical example of her books, I don`t think I`ll bother with any more.

Just finished #54 Their Lost Daughters by Joy Ellis. Very much enjoyed this police procedural and could not have predicted the end.

#44. Careless Love by Peter Robinson.

Cheating a bit as I haven’t finished number 43, Before I Met You by Lisa Jewell. Her books are usually very readable, but 150 pages in, I found this one less than riveting. I may go back to it, I’ll see.

Did anyone else find this one not so good?

Finished The Holiday Home, it was okaaay, but not really my type of read. My next book, not started yet, will be Half of a Yellow Sun, by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. It`s set in Nigeria in 1960, during the troubles there.

#55 was A New Lease of Death by Ruth Rendell. Kindle are reissuing the Chief Inspector Wexford books and this is the second in the series, written in 1966. It was a really good story told well about a reinvestigation of a murder committed sixteen years previously and which had resulted in the culprit being hanged. I enjoyed the period details and attitudes almost as much as the story itself.

Half of a Yellow Sun was a really good read. If any of you remember the war in Nigeria and the attempt to set up the independent state of Biafra, you`ll understand what an emotional subject the author chose to write about. It was over 50 years ago, but I`ll never forget Michael Nicholson from ITN interviewing a young Biafran man in the street, and someone running up and shooting the man dead right there. That was book 91, book 92 is The Shock of the Fall, by Nathan Filer. To be honest, I`m not liking it at all, but will finish it, halfway through it now.

Just finished ‘My Last Supper’ by Jay Rayner. One of those books you don’t want to end - a joy. He is a very funny, self deprecating writer.
My next read will be ‘The Tattooist of Auschwitz’. I had intended to do a lot of reading whilst on holiday but my GS had other ideas, so I am still only on book 24.

Musicgirl there are three books in the Adela Aguilar series. I couldn’t put any of them down. Ariana Franklin died when she was writing the last one and her daughter finished it. Whilst it’s not seamless, it is as close as you will come to her writing style. A wonderful author - such a loss.

Finished The Shock of the Fall, but didn`t really like it, it`s written in the first person, by the mentally ill patient concerned.
My next book, if I read it, not sure yet about it, will be Bare Ground, by Peter Harris, set in S.Africa.

#45. Many Rivers To Cross by Peter Robinson.

I gave up on Bare Ground after 50 odd pages, now reading, as book 93, The Doll House, by Phoebe Morgan, it`s OK so far.

Secret of a Thousand Beauties by Mingmei Yip

A lovely book, very different from the norm and giving an insight into 1930s China and the lives of many girls and women in those days.

The Doll House was very good. Now reading book 94, The Best of Sisters, by Dilly Court. I love Dilly Court`s books.

Book 29 Carol Rifka : Tell the Wolves I'm Home. Really enjoyed this novel telling the story of how a young teenage girl in 1980s US deals with the aftermath of her uncle dying from AIDS.
Book 30: Maja Lunde : The History of Bees. Very thought-provoking. Tells 3 separate stories in different time periods, all relating to bee-keeping. The 3rd story is set in the future when bees have become extinct.
Book 31 Liam Callaman: Paris by the Book. Not a lot happens, found it a bit drawn out.
Book 32 Jo Nesbo: The Kingdom. My first Jo Nesbo and am enjoying it.

Loved the Dilly Court book. Now reading book 95, Invisible Girl, by Lisa Jewell.

#57 No Time Like the Past Jodi Taylor. Working my way through the St Mary's Chronicles, this is number 4. Very enjoyable.
#58 Royal Danielle Steel. A novel about an alternative British royal family. I found it irritating at times but it passed a few hours.

Invisible Girl was enjoyable. Now reading book 96, Holy Fools, by Joanne Harris, set in early 17th century France. Not sure what to think of it yet.