2022 50 BOOKS - OR AS MANY AS YOU CAN MANAGE

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

Musicgirl
That’s an amazing achievement, I don’t know how you do it!

In the spirit of MN's 50 Books a year thread, I'm listing my year's reading, with the best books in bold if anyone else wants to do the same, please feel free to do so. Although if I were Hello Girl or Music Girl I could quite understand with that many you wouldn't want to, amazing totals! I quite like to look back on my year's reading particularly the highlights.

1 Magpie Elizabeth Day
2 Hanging Hill Mo Hayder
3 Unheard Nicci French
4 Anything is Possible Elizabeth Strout
5 Mrs England Stacy Halls
6 Frostquake Juliet NIcholson
7 Before We Say Goodbye Louise Candlish
8 Twyford Code Janice Hallett
9 Regeneration Pat Barker
10 The Couple at Number 9 Claire Douglas
11 It Ends With Us Colleen Hoover
12 His Bloody Project Graeme Macrae Burnett
13 The Lying Room Nicci French
14 The Locked Room Elly Griffiths
15 *Sweet Caress" William Boyd
16 Reputation Sarah Vaughan
17 Blue Eyed Blue Joanne Harris
18 Trust Me T M Logan
19 River Kings Cat Jarman
20 Dinner at The Homesick Restaurant Ann Tyler
21 Something in Disguise Elizabeth Jane Howard
22 The Maid Nita Prose
23 Saturday Night Requiem Nicci French
24 The Heatwave Kate Riordan
25 Forever Young Hayley Mills
26 No! I don't Want To Join a Bookclub Virginia Ironside
27 Under Your Skin Sabine Durrant
28 The Beloved Girls Harriet Evans
29 How to Kill Your Family Bella Mackie
30 The Paper Palace Miranda Cowley Heller
31 The Island of Missing Trees Elif Shafak
32 The Black Dress Deborah Moggach
33 The Lamplighters Emma Stonex
34 In the Dark Wood - Amanda Craig
35 Trespassers Rose Tremain
36 Balancing Act Joanna Trollope
37 The Stopped Heart Julie Myerson
38 State of Wonder Ann Patchett
39 Sun Damage Sabine Durrant
40 My Brilliant Friend Elena Ferrante
41 The Garden of Lost and Found Harriet Evans
42 The Storyteller Dave Grohl
43 The Family Remains Lisa Jewell
44 Laura Blundy Julie Myerson
45 The Governess Wendy Holden
46 The Whalebone Theatre Joanna Quinn
47 The Radleys Matt Haig
48 A Line to Kill Anthony Horrowitz
49 Blackbird Tim Weaver
50 Late in the Day Tessa Hadley
51 A Slow Fire Burning Paula Hawkins
52 The Good Girl Fiona Neil
53 Free Love Tessa Hadley
54 Vanity Dies Hard Ruth Rendell
55 The Keys to The Street Ruth Rendell
56 Shrines of Gaiety Kate Atkinson
57 The Water's Lovely Ruth Rendell
58 The Palace Papers Tina Brown
59 Nonfiction Julie Myerson
60 The Carer Deborah Moggach
61 The Skeleton Key Erin Kelly
62 The Killing Doll
63 About Face Donna Leon
64 The Ink Black Heart Robert Galbraith (haven't finished it yet but I think it deserves to be listed as one of my best books)

Looking back I can see the majority of my books are by female writers, not by design. Note to self will try to read more books by men, I have a Robert Harris waiting for me and I do love William Boyd.

Sweet Caress William Boyd

I had The Ink Black Heart for Christmas but it's such a whopper that I won't be able to read it in bed as I couldn't hold it up for long. Looking forward to getting stuck in, though.

I read a great deal and must remember to come onto this thread which looks very interesting.

Yes please do Sparklefizz.

It's one heavy book especially to read in bed

We must have a similar taste in books TerriBull as I have read 20 of the ones you've listed....

I notice you've read The Locked Room by Elly Griffiths. I love that series and have read all the previous 12 (some of them twice when I've had a "run out of books crisis"!) Her next one in the series is due out in January.

Yes they're great the Ruth Galloways, so descriptive of that North Norfolk area, which we decided to visit after we'd read a couple. I very much like the way she paints a picture of the cottage where Ruth lives with her daughter Kate and lovely Flint. Heavens! though where's it all going to go with Nelson ? We'll have to wait and see, if the new one is coming out in January maybe there will be some developments on that front, looking forward to it already

Terribull, my total isn`t that admirable really, just the signs of a mis-spent life, when I should be doing housewifely jobs, I`m more often than not to be found reading! I hate not having anything to read. I`m currently reading book 146, The Empire, by Michael Ball, another Christmas present,but not sure if I`ll finish it by midnight tomorrow, we`ll see.

I have the next Ruth Galloway on order from the library, but got a ticking off from another GN’er as apparently it’s the biggest insult to an author not to buy the book, but to get it from the library.

Tough!

I understand the authors do get some sort of royalty from their books being borrowed though.

Calendargirl I've got it on reservation from the library too.

Libraries buy 10 or more copies of books to lend out, and multiply that across the UK, it can't be a bad number of sales.... plus people are more likely to buy copies of future books by an author they have grown to like.

TerriBull I love the Ruth Galloway series, and although I have read Elly Griffiths' Brighton series, I don't enjoy them nearly as much. I think the will they/won't they relationship between Ruth and Nelson is the lynchpin so a part of me hopes they won't definitely get together (yet!)

Hellogirl I'm like you in that I hate not having something to read and actually feel quite miserable. I look forward to reading a good book, and I love that feeling when I come home from the library with a stack to choose from. If a book I'm reading is really good, I will actually pace myself so that I don't finish it too quickly because I don't want it to end! There have been times when I've felt bereft once I've finished.

I have just re-read the Cromwell trilogy by Hilary Mantel. Such wonderful writing. Even though I've read them all before, I still had that sadness at the end of each one. I guess there's no hope for me

Hellogirl also like you, I hate being without a book.

Sparklefizz - I'm really not keen on Elly Griffiths' Brighton based series set in the 1950s, I read a couple and found them disappointing, although she wrote another more contemporary one which was partially set in Brighton which I quite liked.

Although Ruth fantasises about a life with Nelson I'm not sure the reality of it would work for them, anyway he doesn't like Flint the cat so he can't move in can he? Her cottage is too small anyway, I think Elly is going to spin out that conundrum for a few books yet, but we'll see what developments the new one brings on that front.

Just fit in one last book
Just Like You- Nick Hornby
Sweet book about the relationship between a forty two year old white school teacher, and a twenty two black DJ/leisure centre worker/butcher.
It’s a lovely story, both really nice characters, you really want it to work, whilst knowing it properly won’t.
Clever dialogue as always with Hornby, would probably make a great film.