2022 50 BOOKS - OR AS MANY AS YOU CAN MANAGE

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.

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

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

Both brilliant books . Couldn't put them down .

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!

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

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

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 !

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.

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.

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

#20. Then She Vanishes by Claire Douglas.

Book 28, The Paris Library, is a bit slow going at the moment, but I`m persevering in the hope that it will get better.

My #21 Kent Haruf ‘Plainsong’. For my book group- listed as a classic (published 1999) and with a glowing introduction (to my mind, not always good signs). Plus it’s American rural small town life.

But. It’s. Beautiful. Every word counts, slowed me down to a pace where I pictured, and felt, every scene. Unforgettable.

Heartsick was good, if a bit gruesome in places. Have just started The Paris Library, by Janet Skeslian Charles.

#19 The Crossing Places Elly Griffiths.
A murder mystery and the first in the Ruth Galloway series. The lead character is an archaeologist with a special interest in bones. At first I didn't think I was going to enjoy it. I couldn't warm to Ruth and the setting was very bleak and unappealing. But... I was soon drawn in and really enjoyed it.
#20 The Secret Chapter Genevieve Cogman.
This is 7th in The Invisible Library series, a fantasy with a difference. I really love this series and its characters.

I enjoyed Turnstone, which apparently is a bird. Now reading Heartsick, by Chelsea Cain. A woman murderer favours some very gruesome ways of killing people.

Have just finished ‘The Heron’s Cry’, the second Matthew Venn story. A lot better than the first one, think I am slightly warming to Matthew.

#19. Do Not Disturb by Claire Douglas.

#22 was another nineties story - The Healers by Ann Cleeves. It featured DI Ramsay and l enjoyed it.
#23 was Neither Here Nor There by Bill Bryson about his travels in Continental Europe in 1990. Fun and informative as always with Bill Bryson and extra interesting as he travelled through the former Yugoslavia shortly before it split.
#24 was The Doll House by Phoebe Morgan. This one was set in 2017 so much more up to date than my recent reading. I thoroughly enjoyed this creepy suspense novel. The only thing that stopped me giving it five stars was that it was set in London and written by a British author but there were a lot of Americanisms in it. I have no problem with this in an American book but am not keen on it in a British book.

No 11 The Stoning by Peter Papathanasiou. It’s not my usual genre, being ‘Outback Noir’ but I quite enjoyed it.

13. Hell is Always Today, Jack Higgins
This was a bit different - a crime novel that started at the beginning, carried on through the middle and finished at the end. It was very simplistic, but made a change from all the dark psychological stuff.

14. The Family Tree, Sairish Hussain
The trials and tribulations of an Asian family, set in Bradford. A bit over-long, but enjoyable.

I’m going to have to stop downloading ebooks. Our local charity shop sells all its books 5 for £1, so I see one for the grandsons and end up adding another 4 for me. The pile of books waiting to be read will be taller than me if I don’t crack on with them.

My next read is for my book group - The Good Sister by Sally Hepworth.

Sister, Missing was quite good. Just started book 26, Turnstone, by Graham Hurley.

Loved Interest of Justice. Now reading Sister, Missing, by Sophie McKenzie. I think it`s meannt for the teenage market, as it`s sequel to a book that won a Childrens book prize, but I`m liking it.

#20 Janice Hallett ‘The Twyford Code’. Enjoyed the ventriloquism, the implied tributes to Blyton, librarians, children. Felt it went into a bit too much of an unwinding spiral at the end.

#18. The Heron’s Cry by Ann Cleeves.