2022 50 BOOKS - OR AS MANY AS YOU CAN MANAGE

#12 Marianne Cronin ‘The 100 years of Lennie and Margot’. I’ll remember especially the foregrounding of honesty, kindness, starlight. Some wickedly funny hospital scenes.

Loved The Funeral Boat. Now reading book 12, I Am Death, by Chris Carter. A bit gruesome.

Monica, your choice of reading can be anything including non fiction whatever you enjoy.

Rosalyn if you come back, Twyford Code any good? my next to read, I really liked the author's last one, The Appeal.

#11. Bad Boy by Peter Robinson.

#10 an audiobook Whispers Underground Ben Aaronovitch. The excellent narrator is Kobna Holdbrook-Smith.
Book 3 in the Rivers of London series. A supernatural crime series with a Metropolitan Police constable who is training to be a wizard. Love it!
#11 The Mortal Word Genevieve Cogman.
Book 5 in the Invisible Library. Another really good series with a supernatural theme.

#3
The Twyford Code by Janice Hallett.

No 6. The Fortune Men by Kalifa Mohamed. It’s a novel based on a true story about a Somalian man accused of murder in 1950’s Cardiff. It’s eye-opening, to say the least, and I didn’t expect the ending.

#11 Richard Osman ‘The Thursday Murder Club’. Mischievous.

Oh yes Granmarie it’s such a treat to read to children and see them absorbed isn’t it? I’m beginning to understand how Enid Blyton’s magic faraway tree stories work perfectly for a 5 year old. Look forward to seeing if Jackie Wilson can get the same effects with her new version.

Thanks, Callistemon21.
I love Julia Donaldson's books, especially Room on the Broom. They're ideal for reading aloud with the grandchildren.

Not sure I belong here. I read very few novels, except old historic favourites I reread when tired.

So far this year I have read two books about the navy in the early 19th century. One is about the squadron we sent to West Africa to try to stop slave ships taking slaves across the Atlantic after we abolished slavery and emancipated all the slaves in Britain.

Other countries abolished the trade on their statute books, but we were the only country to actively send a naval squadron to the areas the slaves were being shipped from to physically try to stop the slave ships leaving port.

I have also read one about the culture of the navy, officers and men, at the time of the Battle of Trafalgar. It is amazing how much the culture on board contributed to our sea victories, at that time, not just Trafalgar, a fact even our opponents, the Spanish and French recognised its importance to our victory, but could not replicate it.

I am currently reading Scoff by Penn Vogler, which describes itself as recounting the history of food and class in the UK. Having read Dorothy Hartley's Food in Britain that showed how what we eat is dictated by what we can grow in our fields or the animals we can pasture, I am finding this book tedious and convoluted. I am halfway through and really am not sure whether I want to waste more time reading anymore of it. I think the publisher decided on the title and subject and then looked for an author to write it. Pen Vogler works very hard to show that what everyone eats all the time is governed by their social class and always has been, but she really has to work at it and it is not convincing.

Next another book about the navy and then The Man in Scarlet by Julian Barnes,

Oh, I like that!

I saw this on FB and thought of us!

Book 2 was Umberto Eco’s The Name of the Rose. I had read it a long time ago and couldn’t remember much about it.

Book 3 is non-fiction. Mediaeval Europe by Chris Wickham, enjoying it very much.

Close my Eyes got better towards the end. Book 11, not started yet, will be The Funeral Boat, by Kate Ellis.

Hello, TerriBull and all the avid readers on here?.
So many interesting recommendations, I'm going to look at/ download samples of In Plain Sight, Put a Wet Paper Towel on it, Frostquake, A Terrible Kindness...thank you ladies!
I gave up on the Cecilia Ahern, How to Fall on Love, I might revisit it later. I got sidetracked by finding a few Norah Lofts' titles on kindle unlimited, I'm enjoying her historical novels, incredible detail, sense of time and place, and good strong narrative. I remember my Mum and Aunties reading her novels from the library when I was young.
So, my titles read to date...
#1 The Man Who Died Twice, Richard Osman
#2 The Lost Queen Norah Lofts
#3 Scent of Cloves Norah Lofts
#4 Anxious People Fredrik Backman
( I had to reread it for our Book group at the end of January, cos I can't remember details after a few weeks. I used to have a great memory!)
#5 The Grit in the Pearl Lyndsey Spence ...fascinating, well documented biography of Margaret, Duchess of Argyll.
#6 The Lobotomist's Wife Samantha Greene Woodruff...interesting fiction loosely based on the person who carried out the disastrous procedure on Kathleen Kennedy, JFK's poor sister.
#7 Behind the Scenes at the Museum Kate Atkinson. Not my favourite K.A. novel, but I persevered to see the loose ends tied up.

I'm not sure which book I'll start reading tonight. I've downloaded American Dirt for our Book group at the end of the month, but I'll keep it til nearer the time so it is fresh in my mind for our discussion.

#7 was Dark Corners by Ruth Rendell, her final novel. I enjoyed it as much as usual and found the final sentence quite moving: “And now it was all over.”
#8 was School Days by Jack Sheffield. An easy read but enjoyable.
“9 was Murder by the Book, edited by Martin Edwards, a miscellany of short stories published at different times in the twentieth century. Very enjoyable.

Rosalyn69 I hope you feel welcome to join in.

The Lying Room by the excellent duo of Nicci French. A super plot with plenty of twists and turns to keep the reader guessing.

Rosalyn69

Does anyone read novels or crime books or romance or fantasy? Or it is just worthy books?

For crime novels, I recommend books written by Peter Robinson, Ellie Griffiths, Susan Hill, Cara Hunter to name just a few.

#10. Dead Right by Peter Robinson.

I have been moved to tears by the kindness shown by Brian Clough and
his whole family to these two boys in
'Be Good, Love Brian'. Truly wonderful people.

Rosalyn69

Does anyone read novels or crime books or romance or fantasy? Or it is just worthy books?

I haven't seen many worthy books touted on here. There are plenty of recommendations for novels and crime books, if that's what you're wanting, plus a few that are romances. I'm not sure about fantasy - it's not my sort of thing.

Maybe check through the thread?

I read “A Terrible Kindness” Joe Browning Wroe last week. Set primarily at the time of the Aberfan disaster, it’s a story of duty, redemption, forgiveness and community. I was 11 in ‘66 and remember the tv pictures. The story follows a newly qualified embalmer called to help with the children.
Sad but intriguing book.