2022 50 BOOKS - OR AS MANY AS YOU CAN MANAGE

I read The Lamplighters last year and found it was not particularly well written or gripping. There were some fairly glaring anachronisms, too, and it was obvious that the author was not well versed in the time it was supposed to be set.

I didn't find it gripping at all. As you say it didn't live up to its name. Interesting though in the detail of day to day routine in the lighthouse.

Fairfraise, I'm reading The Lamplighters right now, I'm about a third of the way in, I can't say it's living up to all the praise it has had heaped on it, for me at any rate, not bad. I imagine I'll reach the same conclusion as you have done once I've finished it.

The Lamplighters by Emma Stonex about the disappearance of some lighthouse men. Not always easy to follow as it jumps back and forth and there is a bit of twist at the end. I wouldn't read it again.

The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah. I loved this book and read it every spare moment. All about the dustbowl of Texas and the trek to California. Like The Grapes of Wrath.

The Giver of Stars by Jo Jo Moyes.I can see why it is a best seller.

Bigfoot Mountain by Roderick O'Grady. This is a charming book written for children, with a touch of The Three Bears and The Famous Five. About the Sasquatch bears in
California.

Maigret Travels
Maigret's Revolver
Maigret Doubts by Georges
Simenon.

I'm halfway through Sylvia's Lovers by Elizabeth Gaskell. all about the whaling and fishing community near Whitby in the last century. Picked up on a Tesco charity bookshelf. Interesting reading. Sylvia has two men interested in her. I don't know yet who she chooses.

#41 Plan For The Worst Jodi Taylor.
One of my favourite authors. This is number 11 in the Chronicles of St Mary's. Really good.
#42 Foxglove Summer Ben Aaronovitch.
Another good read. Number 5 in a series about a Metropolitan Police constable and trainee wizard.

Sorry, cannot read 18 pages. But if it hasn’t been mentioned I love William Boyd, currently enjoying Waiting for Sunrise.

Just finished 'The Red Tent', by Anita Diamant, for Reading Group. Recommended by someone who hadn't read it.
Dire.

Just started book 65, An Unsuitable Job For a Woman, by P.D.James. Finding it a bit boring and dated, but will stick with it.

I loved Darkest Fear. It`s a Myron Bolitar story, but Myron isn`t being flippant in this one.

#37. Want You Dead by Peter James.

Just finished book 63, The Naked Face, by Sidney Sheldon, about to start book 64, Darkest Fear, by Harlan Coben.

#36. Wish You Were Dead by Peter James. (Quick read).

This was anything but cosy Sara1954, it`s peopled by violent and nasty folk.

Hellogirl
My mother, many years ago, bought me a Martina Cole book, I cannot imagine what made her think I might enjoy it, I can’t remember what it was called, but it was my first and last.
We were on holiday, and I kept reading bits out to my husband, we were in fits of laughter, I’m sure she imagined it was a nice cosy romance.

I enjoyed Faceless, but it wasn`t a happy story, quite violent in places. Just starting book 62, The Empty Hearth, by Kitty Neale.

My latest batch

22. The Sealwoman’s Gift by Sally Magnusson. Based on a real event where several hundred Icelanders who were kidnapped and taken into slavery in Algiers in the 17th century. Really enjoyed it, very visual descriptions.
23. The Man Who Died Twice by Richard Osman. Enjoyable fluff.
24. The Prison of Heaven by Carlos Ruiz Zafon. Another excellent instalment in the Cemetery of Forgotten Books series.
25. Plainsong by Kent Hafur. This was a reread before reading the sequel, but it was every bit as wonderful as on the first reading.
26. Eventide by Kent Haruf. A fitting sequel to Plainsong, very poignant.
27. This is Going to Hurt by Adam Kay. Excellent, and should be a must read for all politicians involved in healthcare.
28. The Architect’s Apprentice by Elif Shafak. Given to me by a friend who had read it for her book club, but I kept thinking “what is the point of this story”. My first read of this author, I don’t think I will bother with any more.
29. Some luck by Jane Smiley. Excellent, don’t be put off by its 600 pages!

With those, I am on track for my 50 for the year.

I try to read a book a week and have just finished Still Dark by Alex Gray enjoyed it. New author for me, also read The Riverman by the same author.
Our local bus shelter was used as a library during Covid and contines to be so I'm able to try new authors.
Am about to start When Shadows Fall by Alex Gray. Crime series set in Scotland, easy read,apparently there's a series,would recommend this author.

I don’t think I’ll be choosing a Sophie Hannah again, Sara, or not a recent one anyway. I used to enjoy Agatha Christies, so thought I’d like The Killings of Kingfisher Hill, which is written as a Poirot mystery, but it was one of the few books I just gave up on.

Maggie
So glad I wasn’t the only one to find ‘the couple at the Next Table’ dreadful.
As you say, absolutely awful characters, a ridiculous plot, and a week ending

16. The Good Sister, Sally Hepworth
I really enjoyed this tale of the complex, close and ultimately dark relationship between two sisters.

17. The Last Thing to Burn, Will Dean Talking of dark - a trafficked woman held hostage on a remote farm plots her escape. It’s a page turner.

18. The Sight of You, Holly Miller
A young man who can see the future of those close to him falls in love, but dare he get too involved? Another great read.

19. The Family Holiday, Elizabeth Noble
I really enjoyed this one, a feel-good read that I saved for a family holiday.

20. Right Behind Her, Melinda Leigh
After a good run, I downloaded this. Apparently it was the fourth in a series, which might explain why I was baffled by the hundreds of good reviews. A standard and predictable tale of a US police officer with a complex home life, not playing by the rules.

21. Like Me, Hayley Phelan
Another cheapie download - will I never learn? The cautionary and depressing tale of a modern girl addicted to drink, drugs and her phone. This started off very well, ended badly.

22. The Couple at the Next Table, Sophie Hannah
Oh dear. Unlikeable characters, unbelievable storylines and a perpetrator and motive seemingly picked at random in the last couple of chapters.

23. The Man Who Died Twice, Richard Osman
I know it’s over-hyped and not to everyone’s taste, but I took it at face value and enjoyed it.

24. A Life Lost, Cathy Glass
The tale of a foster parent and child, simplistic, over-long and in the end, a bit pointless.

25. Life Without Children, Roddy Doyle
A collection of short stories set in the pandemic. I found the quality variable, but they were all poignant and two of them outstanding.

26. Copycat, Diane Saxon
A murder mystery with a predictable twist. And pages of unnecessary detail about what the detective team ate, drank and chose to wear. A bit of serious editing wouldn’t have come amiss!

27. Charlie Savage, Roddy Doyle (again!)
This one was a tonic. An ordinary man of a certain age trying to come to terms with the modern world. Some of the characteristics of his family were a bit overblown, but the rest of the book made up for it.

Halfway through the year, so it looks like I’m on track for the fifty.

Half a year's reading and some great holiday books from the following, a couple are recommendations from other threads. I enjoyed all of these.

29 How to Kill Your Family - Bella Mackie, we've all been there only joking! I loved this book, darkly comic, all wrapped up in a debut novel, the writer has set a very high bar for herself. Grace Bernard is born after a brief fling her mother had with a creep of a lothario. When her French mother living in London dies, estranged from her family in France, Grace has to come to terms with that and the fact that she doesn't figure at all in her paternal side of her filthy rich family either. All the while her and her mother were living in relative poverty her father was making millions from dodgy tax evading enterprises. Whilst still a child and alone in the world she is taken in by the kindly and pretty wealthy North London parents of a school friend who she describes as Guardian reading socialists who shop in exclusive up market delis, never having suffered any depravation in their lives but are nevertheless permanently angry about something or other. When she reaches 18 she leaves their home and sets about her life's ambition of eliminating the paternal side of her family one by one. The head honcho being her unscrupulous and wealthy Philip Greenesque father, who got rich on the back of a chain of boutiques called "Sassy Girl" selling cheap old tat. She gets a job in his flagship boutique and works her way up the corporate ladder to begin her plan of campaign. He is her ultimate target and along the way grandparents, uncle who she manages to bump off in a sado/masochism establishment, one of his guilty secrets a nasty wife who lives in Monaco, a rather nice eco warrior cousin, a horrible half sister addicted to Instagram. All in all the writer manages to take a pot shot at many of the things she finds irksome in life today, such as social media. A real page turner with a great twist at the end. Highly recommended.

30 The Beloved Girls Harriet Evans Described as both Gothic and psychological featuring an eccentric family their old house where every summer they have an opening of the numerous hives of the bees they keep in a honey tasting ritual. Spanning several decades and a host of multi layered relationships of the main characters Too involved to describe. . Bees play a large part in this story, very good again a page turner.

31 The Paper Palace Miranda Cowley Heller, it's the must read book of the summer I gather. Again spans several generations of a family who come together to spend their holidays in the cabins built by their grandfather on Cape Cod and known as The Paper Palace. In particular the main focus is on Elle a 50 year old woman who is struggling to choose between her loving husband and father of her children and her lover and childhood friend.

32 The Black Dress - Deborah Moggach, I read a lot of DM at one time, but haven't read anything by her lately until this was recommended on another thread. Prue abandoned, lonely wife buys black dress in second hand shop to attend a funeral and goes to the wrong one, easily done, crematoriums being the conveyor belts that they are. Prue enjoys the wake which gives her the impetus to embark on slipping, uninvited into others as a way of striking up relationships. Very good I did wonder whether this book gave any readers who identified with the main character the same idea!

33 The Island of Missing Trees Elif Shafak An unusual book partly set against the 1974 Civil War in Cyprus the Turkish writer has told it from both the Greek and Turkish perspective and has woven in a lot of detail about the history and eco systems of Cyprus into the narrative.

21 Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov. A classic. Nuff said.

I enjoyed Only a Mother Knows, it`s part of a series, but Annie Groves died after writing this one, However, her 2 daughters found her notes and ideas for the last 2 books in the series, and have written the last 2 themselves.
Now on book 61, Faceless, by Martina Cole, have never read her before.

#49 was Yours Cheerfully by A. J. Pearce, a sequel to Dear Mrs. Bird. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
#50 was Silent Voices by Ann Cleeves. This was a Vera Stanhope mystery and classic Cleeves. Five stars.
#51 was The Creak on the Stairs by Eva Bjorg Aegisdottir, an Icelandic. Very suspenseful and enjoyable.

#35. You Are Dead by Peter James.