2022 50 BOOKS - OR AS MANY AS YOU CAN MANAGE

I was going to list the last few books of the year but life and not having been well has caught up with me. I have beaten my personal goal of reading 100 books this year and look forward to starting anew in January.

I loved The Child Left Behind, set during the 2 world wars, in France and Britain. Now reading book 145, one of my Christmas presents, The Ballroom Blitz, by Anton du Beke, the 5th book in a series. I`ve loved all of them.

47. A Year in the Life of the Yorkshire Shepherdess by Amanda Owen. I’ve never seen any of her tv programmes but the author farms sheep in the bleak Yorkshire dales. She also has eight (now nine) children to juggle! Sadly she and her husband are now separated but this was a perfect read for the Christmas season.

Didn’t think i would finish another one, but couldn’t put this down.
47. Tall Oaks-Chris Whitaker
A small boy is missing in an affluent American town.
His mother is in bits, the whole town deeply shocked.
There is a cast of strange and wonderful characters, little sub plots, some really heart warming stories.
The truth when it eventually comes out is absolutely not what I expected,
It’s a crime novel, but parts are really funny, and the characters are largely, very likeable

Happy to find that others loved Reservoir 13. A book I’ll re-return to one day.

#51 Douglas Stuart ‘Shuggie Bain’ Took me three goes to get into this. My book group had read it before I joined and all had loved it. Glad I got past the first chapter this time and followed this story of a child growing up with an alcoholic mother. Who would not warm to Shuggie.

Now reading book 144, The Child Left Behind, by Anne Bennett.

Many thanks Sara. I hope all the readers who have contributed to this thread will be back with us in 2023.

I haven't managed that much reading this month, what with a horrible cold that lingered and the palaver that surrounds the preparation of Christmas, just these.

63 About Face - Donna Leon (audio) my husband is a huge fan of Donna Leon's Commissario Brunetti books set in Venice, this was my first foray into them. I enjoyed it, murky goings on in the underworld of the transportation of illegal sinister materials with inevitable Mafia involvement. I must admit that I quite like the dulcet tones of whoever narrated the Commissario whilst I drifted off to sleep mid afternoon when my cold was playing havoc with my sinuses. I probably ought to read the book rather than listening to it, I think I missed some finer points whilst briefly not quite awake.

64 The Ink Black Heart - Robert Galbraith This 1,000 page tome is definitely going to be my last book of the year, I'm about half way through, enjoying it in spite of the on line gaming conversations which sometimes lose me, but once out of the virtual world of gaming and back in the real world of the detective agency run by the undeclared but smitten with each other partners, Strike and Robin it's a good plot. Although for me her last, Troubled Blood takes a lot of beating, still her best so far and I don't think this one will surpass it, although maybe I should reserve judgement as I'm still only 500 pages in so far. She precedes each chapter with a small excerpt from the works of a 19th century and earlier female writers, such as Christina Rossetti which makes me think "I bet JK studied English Literature when she was at university"

At times I feel inclined to jump into the pages of the book to give Cormoran Strike a good talking to about the neglect of his health, too much drinking and smoking and a bad diet is clearly impacting badly on what remains of one leg. Galbraith goes into quite a lot of detail about how painful the stump can be, if he has a bad day, and he has a few of those, when he takes the prosthetic leg off. Robin needs a word I think

Happy Christmas to all our readers and do keep posting with any final reads before we wind this year up.

I loved Dead Run, have now run out of books, hoping to fit another in before the year ends.

I doubt I’ll be back this year, so just to say, I really enjoy this thread have read several recommendations, and have enjoyed other people’s opinions on the books I have read.
So Thankyou Terri, and see you all next year

First of all, I also loved Reservoir 13.
I’m not going to make it to fifty, but here are my latest.
43. The It Girl-Ruth Ware
It was okay, but nothing special, disliked the characters, and didn’t find any of them very believable.
44 Anne Boleyn, A Kings Obsession-Alison Weir
Loved this, you would think there couldn’t possibly be anything new to learn about Anne Boleyn, and there are no great revelations, but little snippets make you sympathetic towards her.
She most certainly was a Kings Obsession.
45. The Gilded Cage-Camilla Lackberg
I’m a big fan of hers, so was a bit disappointed in this.
It’s basically a story of revenge, women finding strength to outwit and crush the vile men in their lives.
I have one really big problem with this book, I’m guessing we are meant to applaud our heroine, admire her strength and determination to ruin her husband, but how are we expected to overlook the cold blooded murder of her blameless ex boyfriend, to avoid him revealing her past.
Sorry, but I can’t get past that.
Book 46. Cross Her Heart-Sarah Pinborough
This was good, started a bit slow, but once it got going, it was a real page turner. About a child killer with a new identity, which suddenly and horrendously becomes known to to the public.
It keeps you guessing, not sure who can be trusted, would recommend.

#60. Sidney Chambers and the Forgiveness Of Sins by James Runcie.

#74 A Room Full of Bones Elly Griffiths.
Number 4 in the excellent Ruth Galloway series.

46 Undoctored by Adam Kay. I didn’t enjoy it as much as his other books.

Loved that, but it might be too gruesome for some. Now reading, and enjoying, book 143, Dead Run, by P.J.Tracy. I`ve read a couple of her books before, and loved them.

I enjoyed The Club. Now on book 142, I Kill, by Giorgio Faletti, very good up to now.

#59. Holy Island by LJ Ross.

Have just finished ‘Murder In Paradise’ by Ann Cleeves.

Sooo boring, cannot believe the same writer of ‘Shetland’ and ‘Vera’.

Cs783

Litterpicker nice to ‘meet’ you and I look forward to seeing where your reading takes you in 2023. This thread is not competitive at all and I’ve found it interesting, and valuable in that I’ve made myself record a few notes. ‘Reservoir 13’ was actually a re-read for me and all I’d remembered was that I’d loved it!! Now I’ve written a short note I’m sure it really will be memorable for me.

Thank you for this thread TerriBull it’s been an inspiration

Thank you Cs783 that's really nice to know.

Yes I like to think of it as more of a book appreciation thread than anything else and a good way of keeping a record of our reading highlights and sometimes not so good books throughout the year. Plus it's always good to get other people's recommendations too. I'd have never discovered a few of the best books I've ever read if I hadn't taken notice of similar threads to this on MN.

Not Arundel spellchecker but Rundell..

#50 Katherine Arundel ‘Super Infinite: the Transformations of John Donne’ I realise I hadn’t noted this wonderful biography. Published this year and a prize winner, it is written with verve and is very readable for a book about a poet, and close contemporary to Shakespeare (they had very likely crossed each other’s paths in London). Unlike Shakespeare, quite a lot is known of Donne’s life, and what a vivid one it was. But oh dear his poor wife, who it seems really did give up everything for love.

Litterpicker nice to ‘meet’ you and I look forward to seeing where your reading takes you in 2023. This thread is not competitive at all and I’ve found it interesting, and valuable in that I’ve made myself record a few notes. ‘Reservoir 13’ was actually a re-read for me and all I’d remembered was that I’d loved it!! Now I’ve written a short note I’m sure it really will be memorable for me.

Thank you for this thread TerriBull it’s been an inspiration

45 Lily by Rose Tremain. A novel about a girl in Victorian times who says she’s a murderer. Rose Tremain is such a lovely writer, she uses words so beautifully.

Litterpicker I’m not sure I’ve ever read 50 books in one year! I just join in with the thread and I hope you do, too.

Thank you Terribull 🙂

#73 Heroes Stephen Fry.
This was an audio book read by the author. It is the second of the Mythos trilogy and is about the adventures of ancient legendary Greek heroes: Herakles, Perseus, Theseus and others. It took me a long time to finish, not because I didn't enjoy it (I loved it) but because the complicated family relationships and names required me to take it slowly.

I loved The Ripper Secret. Now reading book 141, The Club, by Mandasue Heller. OK so far.

Litterpicker

*Cs783*, Reservoir 13 is one of my favourite books. I re-read it, making notes on the different threads as I went. It made it even more rewarding.

I haven’t ever joined in this thread, as my reading rate is quite slow (too much time spent following links to articles on Twitter is partly to blame). But I keep an eye out for inspiration. I’ve just read Kamila Shamsie ‘Home Fires’ which was a powerful reimagining of the Antigone story, with a Muslim family brought to tragedy through involvement with an extremist.

Maybe I will aim for 50 books in 2023 🙂. Thank you to all who have posted in 2022.

Please join the 2023 thread Litterpicker, I always stress at the beginning and will again for any new people that the "50" books is something I lifted from MN, just a benchmark not everyone reaches that figure, don't let that preclude you from joining in this is really a thread for those who love reading and talking about what they've read more than anything else.