2022 50 BOOKS - OR AS MANY AS YOU CAN MANAGE

AnitaNixon

Sabine Durrant, "Sun Damage," page 40 In the same way that I like Louise Candlish, Lisa Jewell, and Sarah Vaughan because their stories typically have some fairly nice twists, I'm a big fan of SD. It takes place in the South of France. The book's main character is a con man with a problematic past who works with a domineering older male partner. While evading his grasp and assuming another person's identity, she bluffs her way into the position of cook at a vacation home rented to an English family and their guests, each of whom has something to conceal. This was a fun holiday read for me[url=https://mybankinginformation.com/does-winco-accept-ebt/].[/url]

41 The first book in the Neapolitan Quartet by Elena Ferrante is My Brilliant Friend. commences with

I really agree with you regarding Sabine Durrant, Louise Candlish, Lisa Jewell and Sarah Vaughan. They are all my go to writers for the crime/psychological genre. I recently read Sun Damage too, nearly as good as Lie with Me, SD's best book imo.

Also recently enjoyed Elena Ferrante's My Brilliant Friend.

I liked Circle of Friends, never read Maeve Binchy before.

Have just started book 120, The Cultured Handmaiden, by Catherine Cookson.

#68 Bridgerton: The Duke and I Julia Quinn.
My sister in law knows I have been a fan of Georgette Heyer since my teens and recommended the Netflix series and Bridgerton books saying "they are even better than GH". I highly doubted that, but on the strength of her recommendation I bought this and several more in the series. All I can say is it bears no resemblance whatsoever to
Ms Heyer's well researched and beautifully written Regency novels other than being set in early 19th century London. Suffice to say Ms Quinn does not come off well in comparison. As I said I bought several of the series (special offer) so I will probably read them at some point but not yet.

I liked The Cultured Handmaiden, but it definitely wasn`t the sort of Catherine Cookson book I was expecting. My next book will be A Flicker in the Dark, by Stacey Willingham, her first book.

#88 was The Clockmaker’s Second by Jack Denton. This was a cosy murder mystery set on Bodmin Moor of average quality, obviously aimed at more an American audience, in spite of the British setting.
#89 was Call Me Sister by Jane Yeadon. I thoroughly enjoyed this memoir of a young district nurse in the far north of Scotland in the late sixties.
#90 was The Birdcage by Eve Chase. I have enjoyed this author’s books before but this one was much more laboured with the mystery of what happened twenty years earlier far too long drawn out and laboured. I spotted the twist long before it was spelled out.

38 The Searcher by Tanya French. I really ought to give up on crime novels, they just don’t do anything for me.

A Flicker in the Dark was very good, especially for a first book. Now reading book 122, My Name is Jenson, by Heidi Amsinck, translated from the original Danish.

51 A Slow Fire Burning - Paula Hawkins. It seems ages ago that I read Girl on a Train and I gather PH's follow up to that was deemed disappointing and given the reviews I didn't bother with it. So when I picked this one up from the library I wondered whether I'd like it or not. Definitely did! for me it was a page turner with all the elements to make it pacy highly charged "who dunnit"

52 The Good Girl Fiona Neil (Audio) Good! Contemporary issues and dark family secrets

53 Free Love - Tessa Hadley I was drawn to this book primarily because it was set in 1960s London. Conventional middle class housewife leading a humdrum, unremarkable but comfortably off life in the suburbs. When meeting and entertaining the young bohemian son of friends over the course of the evening, she becomes aware of a frisson leading her to pursue him into his bohemian, pot smoking, sexually free world. In a short space of time she abandons, decent, but rather stuffy husband and her children, almost on a whim to plant herself in a parallel universe. Repercussions inevitably follow, fractured relationships with children and several unexpected twists. I enjoyed it.

I'm re reading Ruth Rendell/Barbara Vine's novels, she was always my favourite author of the psychological/crime genre. Glad to say I've forgotten pretty much most of the plots in these books so they seemed fresh to me.

54 Vanity Dies Hard
55 The Keys to the Street
56 The Water's Lovely

67 Shrines of Gaiety - Kate Atkinson Probably my best book for this month. Set against the Jazz Age of the 1920s, Nellie Coker ruthless matriarch and proprietor of a chain of nightclubs in London's West End which are run by her and her six adult children. A touch of the Peaky Blinders, in that the dark underbelly of criminal gang warfare is prevalent in her establishments as are the creme de la creme of society. Into this milieu come naive runaways 16 year old Freda and her friend Florence out to make their names as dancers, (without too much talent). only to befall victim to the many predatory men drawing such young women into a life of vice. A good book possibly not up there with Life After Life or A God in Ruins, but certainly better than Transcription!

Book 41
Crossroads-Jonathan Franzen
This has been on my shelf a long time , I’ve been a bit reluctant to pick it up because I’ve yet to find anyone who enjoyed it.
But I did enjoy it it, very much,
Usual dysfunctional American family, a pastor, his wife and their four children. Nothing is as it seems, and no one comes out of it well, they really aren’t a likeable bunch, Becky, the only daughter, the most devout, is actually quite shallow and horrible.
Set in the seventies, it deals with drugs, abortion, mental health, and of course religion!
I think it’s the first in a trilogy, looking forward to the next.

My Name is Jensen was OK, but a bit like a watered down Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. Now reading book 123, Light Seekers, by Femi Kayode, set in Nigeria and based on something that happened there several years ago.

39. She’s Up To No Good, Sara Goodman Confino
Easy reading, about a road trip taken by a grandmother and granddaughter to the place where the grandmother grew up. I was in the mood for something light, and enjoyed it.

40. The Curfew, T M Logan
A missing girl, two cousins who might have been involved in her disappearance/possible murder, their fathers (two brothers) torn apart by the investigation. Not a bad read, though a bit predictable.

41. A Slow Fire Burning, Paula Hawkins
Like Terribull, I enjoyed this one.

42. The Hike, Susi Holliday
A British family hiking in France, murderous plots afoot. About as daft as a supposed thriller can get. Cardboard and really unlikeable characters, unbelievable and repetitive storylines. I don’t know why I stuck with it really, but the ending was the best bit.

43. Rabbit Hole, Mark Billingham
Mysterious deaths in a psychiatric unit, one of the residents - an ex cop suffering from PTSD - tries to solve the case. My fault probably, that I listened to it as an audiobook over quite a long period and wasn’t really sure in the end whodunnit and why! I like Mark B and did think it was cleverly written - the main character was irritatingly sweary for my liking though.

44. The Love of my Life, Rosie Walsh
A missing actor, all the past lies of the people around her coming to light. I enjoyed this one.

I’m not sure where to go next. At the top of my reading pile is The Bookseller of Kabul, but I think I might dig down a bit for a juicy thriller.

Light Seekers was alright, but not riveting reading. Have just started book 124, Fog Island, by Mariette Lindstein.

53#. Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother by William Shawcross.

A huge book, but there again, she lived to be over 100.

A lot of life to write about.

39. Another children’s classic, Minnow On The Say by Philippa Pearce. It was a trip back in time to a simpler world.

#69 Frederica Georgette Heyer.
After the disappointment of Bridgerton, I returned to the wonderful Georgette Heyer. This book is one of her best.
#70 About Time Jodi Taylor.
This is number 4 and latest in the Time Police series. So enjoyable, but unfortunately there will be a wait now for the next book by this author ☹️.

#91 was The Apothecary’s Daughter by Jane Adams. I very much enjoyed this mystery which spanned the seventeenth century and the present day.
#92 was Further Confessions of a GP by Dr. Ben Daniels. A sometimes funny, sometimes shocking look at the life of a modern GP.
#93 was Seven Kinds of People You Meet in Bookshops by Shaun Bythell. I thoroughly enjoyed this acerbic yet kind look at the typical people who are to be found in a second hand bookshop, or at least Shaun Bythell’s second hand bookshop in Wigtown.

I enjoyed Fog Island more than I expected to. Have just started one by John Le Carre, A Most Wanted Man, but not sure about it yet, have never read any Le Carre.

A Most Wanted Man was OK, but I`m not really into complicated spy plots. Now just starting book 126, Ghost Girl, by Torey Hayden, a true story of a teacher`s experience with children with problems.

#43 Fiona Valparaiso ‘The Storyteller of Casablanca’ read like a Young Adult book - not putting it down just its way of dealing with adult themes (war, holocaust, relationship strain) in a slightly masked way. Interesting on Casablanca in WW2. And it takes quilting seriously.

#44 William Boyd ‘Restless’. Seems well-researched and well-plotted though the characters don’t convince me. Still, a good solid read.

#45 James Shapiro ‘1606 The Year of Lear’ Impressive review of Shakespeare’s likely experiences including resonant themes of plague lockdowns, and government spin against its enemies (the would be terrorists of the gunpowder plot thankfully didn’t succeed but what a powerful and long lived ‘othering’ was invoked against them).

I liked Ghost Girl, but it wasn`t a very happy book. Now reading Homeland, by Clare Francis, book 127.

40. A book that’s been on my shelf for a long time A Single Swallow by Horatio Clare. The author follows the migration path of swallows from S Africa to Wales. In truth, the book isn’t much about swallows but it is an absorbing read.

#71 The Copper Heart Sarah Painter.
Number 5 in the Crow Investigations series. A good read.