2022 50 BOOKS - OR AS MANY AS YOU CAN MANAGE

I liked The Night She Disappeared, but the ending was a bit in the air. Book 33 will be The Bone Code, by Kathy Reichs, I love the Temp Brennan books.

#23 A Cormorant On The Lightning Rod . T B Carter.
Very entertaining. It is a mixture of swords, dragons, high tech and interstellar travel.
#24 The Storm Sister Lucinda Riley.
The second book in the Seven Sisters series. I enjoyed the story and the way it moved from an earlier time to modern day. I just wish the editor had taken a firmer hand; it overlong.

The Last Thing he Told me, book 31, was very good. Now on book 32, The Night She Disappeared, by Lisa Jewel. Enjoying it so far.

Book 17
Nowhere to Hide - Alex Walters
I can’t remember buying this book, and when I took it off of my TBR pile, I couldn’t imagine why I’d bought it. I guess someone must have recommended it.
Not my kind of thing. Police corruption, contract killers, undercover police, but strangely I enjoyed it. I didn’t see the ending coming, and some of the characters were quite likeable.

Book 18
The Couple at the Table - Sophie Hannah
Not particularly realistic, and with some absolutely vile characters, but it was an interesting read.
Is was a whodunnit and how was it done ?
The answer was rather disappointing, almost as if she couldn’t work it out herself, so just plucked a character out of the bunch, whose reason for murdering the victim, seemed a bit silly.
It was a page turner though, a little bit like an Agatha Christie, but, I thought with a weak ending.

I really enjoyed 21st Birthday, but I`ve liked all the Womens Murder Club books. My next book will be The Last Thing He Told Me, by Laura Dave.

Thank you for the replies from Sara and Hellogirl .

21#. The Twyford Code by Janice Hallett.

I think I’ve read all the Karin Slaughter books, but preferred the earlier ones

I read and enjoyed the Karin Slaughter book, haven`t heard of A.S.A Harrison. I`ve just read False Witness by Karin Slaughter, it was very good.

Two books with the same title :
.
The Silent Wife by Karin Slaughter and also by A.S.A. Harrison .

Karin Slaughter is well known and A.S.A .Harrison has unfortunately died before realising her full potential .

Both books are highly recommended ,but have any of you read them ?

Am enjoying 21st Birthday

I forgot -
any book by Isabella Allende .
After The House of Spirits -I was hooked .
Brilliant author .

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.

#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.

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!).

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.

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.

#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!

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.