2022 50 BOOKS - OR AS MANY AS YOU CAN MANAGE

It came up as a Kindle 99p book email I received. The author was raised in the castle that features in the book, which is about 12 miles from where I live, so it has local interest for me.

#31 was My Wild and Sleepless Nights by Clover Stroud. I found this a very inward looking and somewhat account of motherhood and what it means to the author, who is a mother of five.
#32 was Diamond and the Eye by Peter Lovesey. This is the latest Peter Diamond book, one of my favourite detective series, and it did not disappoint.
#33 was The Night Hawks by Elly Griffiths. I really enjoy the Ruth Galloway books and this was no exception but I do feel the political correctness grating.

Irritating l meant to say.

I loved The Silent Wife, took me longer than usual to read it, a lot of distractions. Book 36 will be Tales of the Suspected, by Joe Beltrami.

#25 Working For The Devil - Dante Valentine Lilith Saintcrow.
I believe the genre is 'urban fantasy'. Very dark and bleak but a good read. I will probably read the rest of the series at some point.
#26 Exit Belinda Bauer.
A very unusual crime novel which has as its central theme an assisted suicide that may be murder. Charming, funny and quirky. I really enjoyed it.

Gave up on Tales of the Suspected, so book 36 is now Private Paris, by James Patterson and Mark Sullivan.

#25. Those People by Louise Candlish.

I enjoyed Private Paris. Book 37 is going to be A Widow`s Courage, by Anna Jacobs.

Why didnt you just do w
hat you were told? by Jenny Diski...book of short stories, not one of her best offerings

Invisible Girl by Lisa Jewellery... Good read, dark and twisty.

Why has nobody told me this before by Dr. Julie Smith ...self help tips on coping tips for life, nothing really new in it.

The Foundling by Stacey Halls...really interesting read, enjoyable.

Kiss River by Diane Chamberlain...love and mystery combined an ok read.

#25 Kent Haruf ‘Eventide’. Follows on from ‘Plainsong’ and a similar delight.

Then, not novels but following my interests in Eng Lit and poetry:
#26 Daisy Hay’Young Romantics’ - group biography showing that Shelley, Byron, Keats and others valued sociability for creativity - and the particularly devastated lives of the women around them
#27 Hannah Lowe ‘The Kids’ - a teacher’s experiences, in a collection of short poems
#28 Stephen Greenblatt ‘Tyrant: Shakespeare on Power’. Insights on how Shakespeare’s plays explore the processes of power and its corruption, with obvious contemporary relevance to Trump, and beyond.

Oops I’ve double counted ‘Eventide’

14 Daisy Jones and The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid.

It’s a tale about a rock and roll band in the 70’s onwards. It’s based on Fleetwood Mac. All of the characters were very annoying, apart from the babies.

Green Dolphin Country by Elizabeth Gouge, a long read about a family on Jersey and the one of the daughters moving to New Zealand. The author had never been to NZ so the descriptions of local culture are at times a bit overblown, but its quite a gripping story and a real romance. It was made into a sweeping epic film post war. A real page turner, picked up from a phonebox library, and in tatters so went into recycling at the end.

Still Life by Kate Atkinson. I loved this book set in Italy and London, a sweeping tale spanning the century up to the 70s.

The Accidental Further Adventures of the Hundred Years Old Man by Jonas Jonasson one of those madcap stories and very funny
Eat the Buddha by Barbara Demick, about life in a Tibetan town, the conflict with China and the hardship within. Its written by a journalist and is broad ranging and fascinating.

Widow`s Courage made a nice change, a lighter read. Next book not decided yet.

I read a book a day. Have done for years. Hard to FIND a new book a day now, and of course budget...but I reread my collection when without new books.
Mostly science fiction, a wee bit of fantasy, grimdark preferably, and misc odd bits of non fiction and mainstream fiction.
Not mysteries unless someone can offer something like that that isn't a murder book.

A book a day? Wow! I read quite fast and usually I read a book over 3/4 days to a week.
Just read an Ann Cleeves - The Herons Cry.

#28 Amor Towles ‘A Gentleman in Moscow’ Looked a bit daunting (600+ pages, Russian setting) but a bear hug of the warm and utterly charming kind.

Book 21 and 22
Both really good

Book 21
We Begin at the End- Chris Whitaker
Set in a small town in America, a group of people are changed and haunted by a tragic event thirty years ago.
The book would be a good crime novel anyway, you never know who to believe, it’s incredibly atmospheric, and hard to put down.
But the main attraction of this book are the characters. Walk, the town policeman with torn loyalties, and dealing with an illness which is progressing quickly.
Duchess Radley is a tiger, fighting ferociously for her family, then there are smaller but beautifully crafted characters like Thomas and Dolly and Grandpa.
Really enjoyed it.

Book 22
Outside the Sky is Blue - christina Patterson
A family memoir
A family who seem to be charmed, beautiful highly intelligent Swedish girl meets equally intelligent handsome Englishman.
They marry, take postings in some exotic parts of the world, and when the children start to arrive return to Surrey.
They have three adorable children, Caroline, Tom and Christina, but it’s not long till things start to go wrong.
It’s a wonderful tale of family, despite the trials they face, the parents never stop fighting for their children, and the children throughout continue to adore their parents.
Christina, now a journalist, writes it as it is, she is very candid about her own problems and constantly tries to support her family.
This is truly a heartwarming book.

Enjoying book 38, Born to Trouble, by Rita Bradshaw.

#27 Dead Man Rising - Dante Valentine Lilith Saintcrow.
The second in the Dante Valentine. A dark urban fantasy with a complicated, damaged female protagonist. I enjoyed it but for my next book felt in need of something lighter. So -
#28 The Grand Sophy Georgette Heyer.
One of my very favourite GH novels.

* The second in the Dante Valentine series.

16 Sweet Caress, The many Lives of Amory Clay - William Boyd I've become a great fan of William Boyd's books since I started reading them a couple of years ago, so far, all have very different subject matter. This one tells the tale of Amory Clay, born in the Edwardian era and as an adult embarks on a career of photojournalism unusual for a woman of her era. The book describes her time in a decadent Berlin during the Weimar Republic, 1930s London where the Blackshirts are emerging as violent far right fascists. She spends some time in New York before returning to Europe during the war to spend time with the Allied troops where she meets and marries her husband as the war draws to a close. Post war returns to his farm in Scotland has children and spends some quiet years there as a wife and mother. Returning to her former career as a widow with grown children when she flies to Vietnam in the '70s to photograph that war. Excellent.

17 Blue Eyed Boy - Joanne Harris (Audio} Having read a couple of other books by this author which I really enjoyed found this one rather disappointing. Described as a dark intricately plotted tale of a poisonously dysfunctional family, one of them a serial murderer who is not what he seems, told through a series of anonymous posts on the internet. Too intricate at times had me confused and I couldn't be bothered replaying any of it to clarify certain points. Persevered not one of her best.

18 Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant Ann Tyler. AT is such a great storyteller in relation to small town America. One of her earlier ones. The book tells the story of three siblings and their experiences and recollections of growing up with their mother after their family is deserted by their father and the different paths their lives take. I enjoyed it.

19 Reputation Sarah Vaughan Read this hot on the heels of the launch of her other book on Netflix, Anatomy of a Scandal, not quite as good as that imo. This time the focus is on a Labour MP accused of the murder of a tabloid journalist.

20 Trust Me - T M Logan Not awful but somewhat underwhelming standard sort of thriller. Implausible opening woman on a train gets asked to hold a baby by another woman who needs to make a phone call in a quieter part of the train, then she disappears and the first woman is left holding the baby!

21 Something in Disguise - Elizabeth Jane Howard. Loved the Cazalet Chronicles by this author. I haven't read anything of hers for a long time. Quite enjoyed this one. May, widowed in the war, terrible second marriage. Like the other couple of books mentioned, again dysfunctional adult children and their relationships.

#26. The Skylight by Louise Candlish.

I loved that book Sweet Caress by William Boyd. Might be time for a reread!

#27. Dead If You Don’t by Peter James.