*2021 - 50 BOOKS FOR THE YEAR*

Just finished 3rd book Christmas is Murder by Val McDermid....good short stories...picked up when too busy to sit and read all day. Christmas present

My no.2 was Kissing the gunner's daughter by Ruth Rendell, one of the Inspector Wexford mysteries. I find some of her ordinary stories a bit weird but the Wexford's are worth a read.
Now reading no.3- Margaret Dickinson's The Buffer girls. 1920s hard life in the cutlery industry with a romance. A good read

Oh, sorry for the huge link!

2. Winter in Sokchow by Elisa Shua Dusapin.

This is a brief novel set in S Korea near the border with the north. It features an out-of-season french tourist and a French/Korean hotel receptionist. I suppose at base, it’s a novel about identity. One for my book group, I think. The cover is beautiful, too. www.amazon.co.uk/Winter-Sokcho-Elisa-Shua-Dusapin/dp/1911547542/ref=asc_df_1911547542/?hvlocphy=1007383&hvlocphy=1007383&linkCode=df0&hvptwo&hvptwo&psc=1&psc=1&hvnetw=g&hvnetw=g&hvadid=394244066349&hvadid=394244066349&hvpone&hvpone&hvlocint&hvlocint&ref&th=1&hvpos&hvpos&hvdev=c&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl&hvdvcmdl&hvqmt&hvqmt&tag=gransnetforum-21&hvtargid=pla-879022331973&hvtargid=pla-879022331973&hvrand=9495151636479902752&hvrand=9495151636479902752&adgrpid=85953220470

I’d heard the last seven sisters book was due out soon Sarahmob. It’ll be interesting to find out the answers to some of the questions raised in the other books! I’ve got ‘The Sun Sister’ waiting to be read on my shelf and then I’ll be ready for the last one ?

Finished book 2 last night, Katherine Webb, The Disappearance.
Normally really enjoy her books, but couldn’t really get into this one. It’s set in wartime Bath, a little girl who disappeared 20 years before, is uncovered when a bomb falls on her home. Frances, her best friend. , gradually, and not very convincingly, starts to remember things, which lead to the real killer.
I just didn’t find the characters very believable, and Frances, I found very irritating.

Finished 2nd book ..audio... In Strictest Confidence, Craig Revel Horwood...easy listen during the night.... found out about his life and his career.....met him on a cruise and he was really warm and welcoming there.

Just started my 2nd book, "Such A Fun Age" Kiley Reed, highly lauded debut novel, featuring the themes of race and class.

I enjoyed The Doll Factory too.

Now that I have started term time l don't expect to read as many books as quickly as this.

I've just finished number four. Number three was Murder in Midwinter, a collection of short stories by Agatha Christie and the one l have just read was The Glass House by Eve Chase. I really enjoyed this one. Just remembered. That was number five. Number four was The Woman Who Kept Everything by Jane Gilley. I was expecting to enjoy this one much more than l did. I found it repetitive with an obvious storyline and the colloquialisms were wrong for the area it was set in.

Ready to start reading One More Croissant for the Road by Felicity Cloake. Described as part travelogue, part food memoir. Sounds just right for dark winter afternoons.

I can recommend ‘3 hours’ by Rosamund Lupton. Couldn’t put it down

I'm reading a hand-me-down book to take my mind off all the bad news:
Flora's Lot by Katie Fforde; a romantic skip through the antiques business.

annsixty I really enjoyed detective stories set in Ancient Rome by Steven Saylor, the Roma Sub Rosa series about Gordianus the Finder, if you want something different.
Then there is the Shardlake series of historical mystery novels by C. J. Sansom, set in the reign of Henry VIII in the 16th century.

I’ve loved ‘The Seven Sisters’ series *jenniewren’. Did you know the last in the series is due out in spring this year? May, I think.

My number 3 is ‘This time next year’ by Sophie Cousens. It was ok (not my typical genre and read for book club). I’ve just started ‘The Man who saw Everything’ by Deborah Levy which I hope will be a bit more substantive.

Just finished The Dressmaker’s Gift by Fiona Valpy - unputdownable! Just started Brick Lane by Monica Ali for our February Book Club.

I’ve finished book 3, Dear Reader by Cathy Rentzenbrink. It’s a memoir about reading and how books have helped the author through difficult times. I enjoy books about reading and this was good, but I enjoyed The Reading Cure by Laura Freeman and Bookworm by Lucy Mangan more. I’m now reading The Moon Sister by Lucinda Riley, the 5th in the Seven Sisters series. Quite a tome (738 pages) so should keep me quiet for a while!

@Blossoming I read that on my kindle (Rise and Fall of the 3rd Reich), having re-read his Berlin Diary after a gap of many years. My DF had bought the Berlin D either just before, or during the early days of WW2.

It’s not the sort of thing I’d usually read at all, but I found it absolutely un-putdownable. Not to mention a horrifying lesson in how such people can rise to power, and their utter ruthlessness once there.

Did you find one or two of the Roy Grace books not up to the usual standard GrannyOwl
I did think there were a couple of pot boilers amongst them.
Generally though I enjoyed the series.
One of my other favourites is the Simon Serailler series ( tongue twister) by Susan Hill. Awaiting the next one its been a while.

I will be interested to hear what people make of Shuggy Bain Greyduster it was is on my to be read pile.

Just finished my no2 book Loving Harry Joan Fallon. An easy read which I enjoyed but it won't be in my top reads of 2021. I am now embarking on Lethal White the fourth of Robert Galbraith's marathon Strike novels.

I have read seven chapters of “Shuggie Bain” and so far I have never read anything so unremittingly bleak and devoid of hope and expectation. I don’t usually give up on books, but can anyone tell me whether this is all that I can expect from it?

annsixty

I read and read and read, firstly because of my age and secondly I love books and reading.
My current book, a recommendation from someone on GN is The Essex Serpent, a mystery from the 19th century.
My favourites are mystery/ crime novels
Enjoyable authors are Kate Ellis, Robert Galbraith, Ann Cleeves, Ian Rankin and some American authors such as Micheal Connelly.
Any other recommendations from similar writer are very welcome.

annsixty I have enjoyed reading the novels of Louise Penny and her Chief Inspector Gamache; set in Canada. The first one is “Still Life”. Have also enjoyed the books written by Peter James on Superintendent Roy Grace - the first one is called “Dead Simple”

Following recent events in the USA I have decided my next read will be William L Shirer’s excellent book on The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. I read it some years ago, it’s an in depth look at the events that led to WW2, events which have helped to shape the world we live in. It’s a very weighty tome and fortunately now available as an audiobook.