2022 50 BOOKS - OR AS MANY AS YOU CAN MANAGE

#3. In A Dry Season by Peter Robinson.

Just finished 'American Dirt' - not easy reading, there's a world out there that we don't know about!

I needed something restful after that, so I'm re-reading 'The Remains of Day' - soothing.

Thanks Terribull for starting this thread again this year. I think, like a lot of others, I start off the year with all good intentions of updating with each of the books I read but after a while just forget to do so. Hopefully I promise to try harder this year!
First book for 2022 is A Narrow Door by Joanne Harris. I think you would call this a physiological thriller so very different from her well known book Chocolat which I think was her first novel. I really enjoyed A Narrow Door although the ending was a bit disappointing. I only read for pleasure theses days so only what I enjoy. If I start a book and don’t like it I just don’t continue to read it. I like to give my finished books a score out of 10 so would give this first one of the year 8/10.

Just finished ‘Here we Are’ Graham Swift.
I thought I was going to enjoy it, definitely seemed to be my kind of book, but I was left feeling a bit disappointed.

I like the Irish writer, Sheila O'Flanagan and I'm half way through "The Women Who Ran Away". It's good.

Severnsider I agree about The Remains of the Day, it is very good, and on my re-read list for this year.

At last I`ve finished I Remember You, really did not enjoy it, and will avoid this author in future. Just about to start book 2, Trick of the Dark, by Val McDermid.

# 2 The Siege by Helen Dunmore. It’s set in the first year of the siege of Leningrad in WW2. Harrowing but fine writing.

Book 5
The Guest List-Lucy Foley
This is so like her previous novel, The Hunting Party, really only the location has changed, at times I felt like I was reading the same book.
As in her previous novel, all the characters are truly unlike able, you couldn’t care less who was murdered, or by whom, they are all really unpleasant characters.
I think you need to like at least a few of them, or you don’t care what happens, Hannah was the best of a bad lot.
I won’t be buying any more Lucy Foley.

Some good suggestions on here for me to look into.

So far this year I have read Magpie by Elizabeth Day which was interesting but a little disappointing.

Also How to Kill Your Family Bella Mackie - I really enjoyed this one - good twist at the end.

I finished readingThe Silence by Susan Allott
A story interwoven between a missing person and the Stolen Generation in Australia.

#1 The Night She Disappeared by Lisa Jewell
Gripping but the ending left questions, for me anyway.

Book number 2 - Fisher of Men by Pam Rhodes who used to present Songs of Praise on BBC tv. I have only just discovered that she is also an author and really enjoyed this book. It is about a new curate and perhaps to get the best out of the book it may help if you are part of a Christian church where you live. To me it was just an enjoyable, easy read that is of course ‘comfortable fiction’ but having said that it does also focus on the problems people have to cope with in their lives. It is the first in a series and I intend to read them all and other books by this author.

#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

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.

2nd Book of this year of is an old favourite

The Hills is Lonely
By
Lillian Beckwith.

Sorry it’s my 3rd book!

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!

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.

#4. The Girl Before by JP Delaney.

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.

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.

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

#4 a sensible life - Mary Wesley

#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.

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.