*2021 - 50 BOOKS FOR THE YEAR*

I have the Reading List app and it is fun to rate the books I have read before listing them here.
#48 was Mrs England by Stacey Halls. Very enjoyable but much suspension of disbelief required.
#49 was The Birthday by Carol Wyer. Rather formulaic mystery/police procedural.
#50 was What Am I Bid? By Philip Serrell. A lovely memoir by the well-known auctioneer. Full of humour and many eccentric characters and situations.
#51 was Hughie Mittman’s Fear of Lawnmowers by Conor Bowman. This is a very moving story of a young boy coming to terms with grief and loss.

I really enjoyed Ark Angel, despite the fact that it was written for teenagers,.

Current read (only number 23!) is “My Last Supper” by Jay Rayner. An amusing and erudite insight into his life, foods and dishes he loves and would like to include in his last meal on earth - and also peppered with interesting recipes.

81 Ark Angel, by Anthony Horowitz

79 A Nest of Vipers by Andrea Camilleri
80 Escape from Shangri-La by Michael Morpurgo

#40. The Missing Sister by Lucinda Riley.

Still have to read The Sun Sister, but this one has come in from the library, waiting list, so reading out of order.

#48 The Inimitable Jeeves P G Wodehouse. An audiobook read by the inimitable Stephen Fry.
#49 Just One Damn Thing After Another Jodi Taylor. Very enjoyable and exciting. I have read several of this author's books and she never disappoints.

I don't know whether this has been mentioned before as I haven't read the full thread.

I started a notebook/journal to record books to read/books read. It was Ok but I kept forgetting to fill it in.

Someone told me about an App called Reading List. It is free to download. You can add books by scanning the barcode or find them online. There are different lists (To read/reading/finished) and you can also create your own list.

I am finding it great for when I am in the charity shops as I can never remember all of the books I want to read. It is also good to add suggestions from this great thread.

#39. When The Music’s Over by Peter Robinson.

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.

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.

#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.

#38. I Found You by Lisa Jewell.

#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!

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!

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

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.

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 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.

#37. A Necessary End by Peter Robinson.

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

Adams
(Autocorrect)

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.

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!

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