2022 50 BOOKS - OR AS MANY AS YOU CAN MANAGE

#20. Then She Vanishes by Claire Douglas.

I've enjoyed any crime novel by Ruth Rendell .

Otherwise :

The Cairo Trilogy by Naguib Mahfouz

Istanbul and My Name Is Red by Orhan Pamuk

The Raj Quartet by Paul Scott

Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides

Esmay do agree loved Ruth Rendell/Barbara Vine's writing. Also Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides would definitely be in my top ten of all time favourite books.

Book 14
Little Disaters-Sarah Vaughn
This was a good read, four friends, all with children, all basically living the dream, nice homes, good careers, wonderful husbands.
It starts to turn sour, when one of the women, the perfect stay at home mummy is suspected of harming her baby, quite seriously. It’s a poignant read, a little bit unrealistic at times, but I would recommend.

Book 15
Free Love-Tessa Hadley
This novel cleverly mingled respectable suburbia, with the crazy, anything goes, culture of the sixties.
Phyllis is respectably married, she’s not dis satisfied with her life, till a young man, the son of some friends is invited for supper, they start an affair, Wednesday afternoons only, till one day, she just walks away from her life and into his.
What I loved about this book is it’s lack of anger, it’s a gentle book. It could be full of rage and recriminations, but it’s not
Again, would recommend.

Book 16
Beautiful world, where are you?-Sally Rooney
Having read and loved Normal People, I had great hopes for this book.
But I felt like abandoning it early on, I ploughed on till the end, hoping it might improve, it didn’t.
It’s about four thirty something dysfunctional people, none of them were remotely likeable, Eileen I particularly disliked, and her on off religious boyfriend Simon, was so creepy.
Alice, a successful novelist with mental health problems, and Felix, not a particularly nice person, but the most likeable of the foursome.
The book is a series of long tedious emails between the two women, I started skimming them, they were so boring.
It’s one of those books, where you are so disinterested in the characters, that you hardly care what happens to any of them.

Hi TerriBul -

Never met anyone ,who has read Middlesex !

It's brilliant .

I'd like to add -

The Kite Runner by Khaled Husseini

Of Human Bondage by Somerset Maughan

The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan .

All great reads !

If we’re talking favourite books of all time, I would like to nominate
The Shipping News-Annie Proulx

I read it about fifteen years ago, and it hasn’t been knocked off the top spot yet.

Like your choices though Esmay, especially The Joy Luck Club

Esme they should! Pulitzer Prize winner! Not about the county of Middlesex, just how interesting can Middlesex be thought I when I picked the book up to win such a prestigious award No it's about the main character, born of an indeterminate sex, written before that became the hot topic it is today, and that character's family story told through three generations starting with their flight to America in the 1920s apropos of the Greco/Turkish war. Fantastic, amazing book.

Going back to your post a couple of days ago, I reread Ruth Rendell/Barbara Vine's book "Asta's Book" last year that was definitely one of her best, I miss her writing I've read them all.

Have read, like most of us, Khalid Hussain's "A Thousand Splendid Suns" but not the Kite Runner

I`ve read both, liked The Kite Runner, but A Thousand Splendid Suns was vastly superior, brilliant book, and to think I only bought it by accident!

Both brilliant books . Couldn't put them down .

The No 1 Ladies Detective Agency and Forever Girl by Alexander McCall Smith. Always like his writing.
Westwind by Ian Rankin, an early thriller of his, which gets a bit confusing as everyone us out to get each other!
Wilt by Tom Sharpe which I first read years ago, and is still hilarious in parts.
Life in Between by Julia Richardson, This is a very personal and honest account of her foster placement and adoption and finding her birth mother. It's heart rending at times and a true account of what it was like giving up babies for adoption in the 1960s.
The Second Inheritance by Melvyn Bragg. Written 60 years ago it reads like Thomas Hardy in parts in the description of the countryside and the farming characters. I'm halfway through at the moment

I found The Kite Runner heartbreaking. Read it a couple of times.

The Paris Library may have told the true story of what happened there during WW2, but I found it slow and a bit boring, I`m afraid. Now on book 29, False Witness, by Karin Slaughter, it promises to be a good read.

10 Regeneration - Pat Barker seemed a timely read given the times we are living in. The year is 1917 and war poet Siegfried Sassoon has been sent to Craiglockhart War Hospital, a mental facility in Scotland rather than being court marshalled in the aftermath of his open letter to The Times blowing the lid off the futility of the war effort. Much of the dialogue takes place between Sassoon and his psychiatrist, his friendship with another patient, Wilfrid Owen and the horrors of fellow inmates suffering. Thought provoking.

11 The Couple at Number 9 - Claire Douglas Young couple inherit her grandmother's house, remains of two bodies under the patio discovered during building work which are found to date from the time of grandmother's occupation. Grandmother now in a home suffering from an advanced state of dementia. Pretty Good.

12 His Bloody Project - Graeme Macrae Burnett. (Audio) Glad I picked this up at my library, I needed something to listen to when I was lying on my Covid sickbed during what were the worst two days. Much lauded on MN and I agree with the praise heaped on it. Shortlisted for the Booker Prize back in 2016, sadly didn't win, having read a few winning novels I often think a prerequisite for such an accolade is to produce a boring load of drivel, which is probably why this excellent book didn't win! Set in a crofting community in the Scottish Highlands of the late 1860s It tells the tale of the young 17 year old protagonist awaiting trial for committing a triple murder within his community and what lead him to carry out these atrocities. Whilst the author paints a very bleak picture of the life and hardships of a crofter at that time, I found this book both compelling and riveting. At times strands of it reminded me of both "Burial Rites" and "Alias Grace" Albeit a miserable tale, definitely a 5 star book for me.

13 It Ends With Us - Colleen Hoover. On scanning the best sellers of late couldn't help noticing this author has 3 or more of her works in the top ten, which led me to question "who the hell is Colleen Hoover and where did she come from?" From the blurb I've discovered she is allegedly a Tik Tok sensation, which means little to me a social media site I understood to be aimed at adolescents. Must be more to it this book would not appeal to that age demographic dealing with the adult theme of domestic violence. In a nutshell young woman meets who she thinks is the perfect man, cracks in their relationship appear when her first teenage love reappears in her life. Loads of five star reviews on Amazon. Reasonable but certainly not a 5 star read for me, I enjoyed it without giving me the impetus to rush out and read another of her books right away, but in time maybe.

14 The Lying Room - Nicci French (Audio) Undemanding crime genre, whiles away the time when I'm doing the ironing or cooking. Absorbing whilst I'm listening but once it's over and passed out of my consciousness I've completely forgotten what it's about.

15. The Locked Room - Elly Griffiths.. I just love the Ruth Galloways, as much for the cast of characters, than the actual crimes committed. Ruth's rather messy on off love life with married DCI Nelson father of her daughter Kate and the evocative mind's eye picture I have of her cottage on the edge of the Norfolk saltmarshes where she, Kate and Flint the cat live are a very enjoyable part of these books for me. Happy to see a picture of said cottage on the cover which is just how I imagine it. Set against the sudden lockdown of 2020, we find Ruth grappling with Zoom tutorials for her students at the university where she is a lecturer in forensic archaeology whilst simultaneously home educating her daughter. A series of unexplained suicides has Nelson and DS Judy Johnson investigating. In the meantime a much favoured character has succumbed to Covid, very much touch and go as to whether they survive, but I'll say no more on that score. Ruth has an interesting new neighbour in the cottage next door, therein hangs a bombshell subplot. For cat lovers like me the neighbour owns a rare breed of cat a "Maine Coon" which I'd only heard of whilst playing Cat Bingo with my grandchildren. Googled the breed, huge! practically the size of a lion, (small) Derek the large feline is thankfully timid so not threat to Flint who remains suitably socially distanced when he first eyeballs him. Great loved it one of the best in the series.

Thanks TerriBull and I will look out for some of these. You reminded me of Pat Barker. ‘Union Street’, her first novel, was set around 1970s working class women, and I loved that. She has also written on a theme I enjoy, women’s retelling of events in Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey.

On that theme, I’ve just read my #22 Natalie Haynes ‘A Thousand Ships’. Particularly enjoyed touches of dry humour from the muse, and in Penelope’s letters; but also the sympathy for all the deeply disturbed women. Tragic resonance with current events.

My next three books all scored five stars with me.
#25 was The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame. This choice was inspired by the lovely thread about our favourite childhood books and my Lent reading, The Gospel in the Willows by Leslie J. Francis. It was lovely to be back in the world of Mole, Ratty, Toad, Badger and their friends.
#26 was The Keeper of Stories by Sally Page. A lovely feel good story.
#27 was The Library by Bella Osborne. Another feel good story; this time about an unusual friendship between two lonely people and the sub-plot about saving a small library from closure.

Cs783, A Thousand Ships sounds interesting it gets good reviews, I enjoyed reading Circe last year, which was something quite different for me.

Musicgirl I can imagine still enjoying Wind in the Willows, I've got my well thumbed and much loved childhood book of that somewhere, no reason why shouldn't take a trip down memory lane and relive those childhood favourites.

TerriBull
I remember reading Regeneration one very hot weekend when we lived in our last home, I sat in a garden chair, and read it cover to cover, I couldn’t put it down.
I think it’s one of the most moving books I’ve ever read.
I fell in love with Wilfred Owen, and had to search out his biography.

Yes Sarah it was very moving and the horror of that particular war such a waste of all those young men's lives on both sides, for what I remember my children studying Wilfred Owen's poems as part of their English literature course work at school, that was a kind of introduction for me never having done or even heard of these men when I was at school.

No, I didn’t know anything about the War poets until I read Regeneration.

#23 Love poetry, never tried to write it, don’t think I will, but inspired by Kate Clanchy (my #17) I library-reserved her ‘How to Grow Your Own Poem’. Delightfully accessible, practical approaches to getting started. Obviously self-help, but as it includes lots of good writing I hope it fits this thread!

Thanks for the recommendation for The Stoning by Peter Papathanasiou SueDonim, I like “outback noir” and haven’t heard of this author.

Another vote here for Middlesex. I read it a few years ago and thought it was very good. Also Plainsong, a superb read. I have the follow up Eventide on my to be read pile, but I think I will re read Plainsong first.

My March reads were:
10. An Experiment in Love by Hilary Mantel, okay, but disappointing for a Mantel
11. Out of Bounds by Val McDemid. This filled a key gap in the “Karen Pirie” novels for me, I loved it
12. Possession of Mr Cave by Matt Haig, disappointing
13. Wolf Winter by Cecelia Ekback, very good
14. 1979 by Val McDermid, okay but not as good as I had hoped

Next up is Cunning Women by Elizabeth Lee, a copy I have from lovereading to review.

AliBeeee, I was disappointed with Val McDermid's 1979 found it quite dull, I love her Karen Pirie books, particularly the last one in that series, can't remember the name but thought it was excellent.

TerriBull

AliBeeee, I was disappointed with Val McDermid's 1979 found it quite dull, I love her Karen Pirie books, particularly the last one in that series, can't remember the name but thought it was excellent.

I am glad it’s not just me, a friend gave me the book and had loved it. I wonder if perhaps they will get better as she develops the main character (who is my namesake!).

#21 Broken Homes Ben Aaronovitch.
Number 4 in the hugely entertaining Peter Grant/Rivers of London series.
#22 Jack and Jill James Patterson.
This is number 3 in the lengthy Alex Cross series. A very exciting read.

Jack and Jill was the first James Patterson book I ever read, got me hooked on him.
Book 29, False Witness, was really very good, sad though. Book 30 is going to be 21st Birthday, by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro.