2022 50 BOOKS - OR AS MANY AS YOU CAN MANAGE

I am in my late sixties, but I talk to elderly people on the phone, who have very little idea how to use a computer.
I’m happy to talk them through placing an order, sometimes several times, I try and laugh along with them, and tell them I’m not very good at it either, but we’ll muddle through.
I really hope I don’t sound patronising or condescending, no one has complained about me yet.

Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr.

I've just started Burntcoat by Sarah Hall. A friend has read it and really liked it, though a bit 'off the wall'.
I think she lives in the north somewhere (Sarah Hall, not my friend!)

Sarahmob
I’ve just bought Crossroads, so I’m not looking forward to it now, to be honest I found ‘Purity’ a bit of a drag, but I keep trying because ‘The Corrections’ is one of my favourite all time books.

My latest audiobook is:

7. Somebody’s Mother, Somebody’s Daughter, Carol Ann Lee

It’s the story of the Yorkshire Ripper’s victims, concentrating entirely on them, rather than their killer.

And my book is:

8. The Beekeeper of Aleppo, Christy Lefteri

I’ve just started it, but so far, so good. It was a charity shop buy, and I’ve downloaded it from our library as well, so that I can also read it on my Kindle if I wake up at night, without disturbing DH.

#6. A Friend Of The Family by Lisa Jewell.

My first 4
The 100 years of Lenni and Margot - Marianne Cronin- brilliant
The Twyford Code - Janice Hallett - very different
Crossroads - Jonathan Franzen - 580 pages of wading through treacle
A Terrible Kindness - Jo Browning-Wroe - tremendously moving

Trick of the Dark was OK, but not really like anything else I`ve read by Val McDermid. I`m now on book 3, Die of Shame, by Mark Billingham, another author I really like.

#5. Just Like The Other Girls by Claire Douglas.

Lyndylou
Another Mary Lawson fan here, not a very prolific writer, but always worth waiting for.

I’ve just finished my first three books for the year. The first two were very average thrillers and it took me a long time to finish the second as I found it hard to get into. Here they are:
#1 No Time To Be Alone by Daniel Hurst
#2 If You Knew Her by Emily Elgar
#3 Magpie Lane by Lucy Atkins. I loved this one and gave it five stars. Unputdownable.

#3 The Other Side of the Bridge Mary Lawson I discovered her recently and I am working through her books. I really enjoy them - very like Anne Tyler but tighter story lines.

#4 The Lost Hours Susan Lewis - easy to read but too much padding for me.

My 50th book for last year was The Well by Catherine Chanter. As I didn't finish it till 7th January should I count it as the first one of 2022 or is that cheating?! It was a good story but over-long.
44 Scotland Street by Alexander McCall Smith was next and loved it. It was one of those books that you don't want to end! Have only read his books that are set in Botswana ( the Number One Ladies Detectives Agency series so was good to read a different one.
Next one will be Salt Lane by William Shaw, a thriller.

#3. The Silverado Squatters by Robert Louis Stevenson.

I picked this up some years ago on a visit to Napa Valley in California. It’s an account of RLS’s honeymoon with his American wife. I’m not sure I’d want to spend my honeymoon in an abandoned silver mine, but it takes all sorts! . He writes beautifully about the area, describes the nascent wine industry and populates the book with interesting characters. There are problematic cultural issues towards anyone who is different but I imagine that was pretty standard for the times.

#4 a sensible life - Mary Wesley

Sorry about all the “too’s” in the above post - I should have read it before posting!

I’ve just read “Class” by Jenny Colgan, a very easy read about life in a small boarding school. I’ve downloaded the second in the series “Rules”, which I’ve started. I’m also reading “The tattooist of Auschwitz” by Heather Morris - about 2/3rds the way through, and have the other two by this author to read after this one - harrowing, but important to read, I think.
I’ve bought “Odd boy out” by Gyles Brandreth today, so that is also on my list to read in the coming days, too. Got quite a few other books on my shelf that I intend reading in the coming months, too.
I’ve read American Dirt, too, and agree, it’s a difficult read, but glad I read it.

Book 6
Just What Kind of Mother are You?
Paula Daly

This was weird because I took it from my pile of unread, and read the back, and thought I’d definitely read it before, checked the bookshelf, not there.
I’d only read a page or two when I realised it had been a television adaptation, a missing girl in the Lake District. I read it anyway, although of course, it held no surprises, but I enjoyed it anyway, easy read, but quite good.

#4. The Girl Before by JP Delaney.

Thanks Granniesunite for reminding me of the series of books by Lilian Beckwith. I bought the complete set on EBay a few years ago now and just love them. A comforting and entertaining read.

6. The Secrets You Keep, Kate White

I’m enjoying this so far. Even though there’s been an early and very grisly murder, it’s not depressing me in the way the horrendous Last House on Needless Street did!

Sorry it’s my 3rd book!

2nd Book of this year of is an old favourite

The Hills is Lonely
By
Lillian Beckwith.

My #2 book is The Toast of Time Jodi Taylor. One of my favourite authors, she writes a Christmas story every year. I have only just got around to reading it. So enjoyable ?.
#3 The Midnight Library Matt Haig. Amazing.

#4 ‘John Keats: poetry, life and landscapes’ by Suzie Grogan is an accessible biography which gradually won me over. There’s a lot about the author herself: a touching, but bitty memoir which broke up the flow I thought. Yet her fascination with Keats’ letters in particular ended up giving me a much more rounded view of Keats as a brother and friend. And he wrote funny little doggerel for his younger sister