*2021 - 50 BOOKS FOR THE YEAR*

Holy Fools was OK, but a lot more thinking needed on my part. Book 97 was Call Me Elizabeth, by Dawn Annandale. I didn`t expect to like it as not really my cup of tea, but actually enjoyed it. A true narrative by a woman who answered an ad for callgirls at the age of 30, married, with 6 children. She was trying to settle thousands of pounds of debt as her husband just ignored all bills.
Book 98 is going to be Message in a Bottle, by Nicholas Sparks.

I've lost track of the number, sorry

#59 was an audiobook We Are Legion (We Are Bob) written by Dennis E Taylor narrated by Ray Porter. Sci-Fi book heavy on the science and even heavier on the fun. A hugely enjoyable listen.

30 The Leopard by Tomas Lampedusa.

I’m so slow in my reading right now. I don’t know why.

Just finished Away With the Penguins by Hazel Prior

Thoroughly enjoyable but I wasn't quite sure about the ending

Still reading Holy Fools, it`s quite good actually, but taking me longer because I have to keep thinking about things, and going back to check out something or other.

Sorry. I pressed the post button too soon. I felt the need for some light reading so #56 was Secrets of the Last House Before the Sea; a tale of a young woman returning to her mother's Devon home after the mother's death and finding where she really belonged.
#57 was The Inaugural Meeting of the Fairvale Ladies Book Club by Sophie Green. This was a lovely, bittersweet book about a group of ladies in a remote part of Australia's Northern Territories in the late seventies/early eighties. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Thank you Greyduster. I have borrowed the second one in the series from the private library l belong to and am looking forward to reading it. I am sorry to hear that Arianna Franklin has died.
I felt a

#46. The Hanging Valley by Peter Robinson.

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.

#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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

#45. Many Rivers To Cross by Peter Robinson.

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.

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.

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.

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.

#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.

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.

#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?

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