2023 - 50 BOOK CHALLENGE

Sara
I’m three quarters of the way through The Shrines of Gaiety and agree with you, not her best but an enjoyable read and worth persevering with.

Sparklefizz
You need to persevere, it took me quite a while to get into it, not one of her best, but definitely worth hanging in there, it does improve

44. Heidi Perks- The Whispers. 4 close friends and a face from the past turns up. What is the secret that upsets the applecart?
Good thriller but multiple timelines which I found a bit confusing.

No 16 The Romantic by William Boyd. I loved this book, which is a biography of a fictional character but integrated with the lives of people who really did exist at the time. So clever and WB writes so beautifully.

It’s taking me ages to read books right now, I’m not going to hit 50 this year.

Started reading Shrines of Gaiety by Kate Atkinson but just can't get into it after 57 pages.

It may be me because I've had a very stressful few days (weeks/months) so I've put it to one side and have started something else.

Find You First was really very good, in fact, one of Linwood Barclay`s best.

Book23
The Heights - Louise Candlish
Very enjoyable.
A middle class family face their worst nightmare when the police bring news of the death of their seventeen year old son, killed while joy riding with his friend.
The friend, who they dislike, and consider a very bad influence on their boy survives.
T he story is told between Ellen, the distraught, but slightly unhinged tiger mum, and her likeable, and more reasonable ex, the boys dad.
She is out for revenge, and it seems nothing can stop her.
It’s heartbreaking, what parent hasn’t dreaded that knock on the door, but not everything is quite as it seems.

I’m reading a translation of Homer’s ‘The Iliad’ at the moment. I’ve read a lot of fact and fiction about the fall of Troy, but wanted to know where all the literature and the poetry sprang from. And here it all is, the bones on which all the flesh is hung, so that the characters already seem to be old friends.

I have just finished my second book by Mark Billingham. Thank you so much to the person (sorry, can't remember who it was) who recommended his crime books. They are excellent "who-dunnits".

This was my no. 37 Cry Baby. I'm now going to try and read them in order after starting with a random pick from the library.

Book 32. Death of a Hollow Man by Caroline Graham. I enjoy Midsommer Murders on TV but, as usual, the books are so much better. Just wish BorrowBox had more of them.

#25. Princess Margaret-A Life Of Contrasts by Christopher Warwick.

Only half way through my previous book, but decided to have two on the go at the same time, for a change in tempo.

Hi Cs, yes I'm finding Craig Brown's book on The Beatles really good, I was going to pick it up and put it down whilst reading a novel at the same time, but have found it so absorbing I'm just keeping on with it. Very insightful, I thought I knew quite a lot about them, but it's very far reaching into their backgrounds, particularly John who had a lot to deal with in his early years which I imagine accounted for his acerbic nature to an extent, although there are some achingly funny revelations about some of the high jinx he got up to in various stages of his life, ultimately he comes across, as quite a damaged soul in many respects. I've just got to Brian Epstein's death which left them devastated and somewhat directionless, he was undoubtedly their lynch pin.

One of the things I found most shocking in the book, when they were invited to various functions at embassies and the like on the back of their fairly recent success, how utterly rude some of the upper class dignitaries and their acolytes were towards them. Referring to them as working class and uneducated. Whilst talking about them in a disparaging way in earshot, without actually addressing them directly, for example when signing autographs, comments such as "oh they can write" a woman coming up and tugging George's hair with a "oh it is real!" that sort of thing, absolutely appalling people with zero manners it seemed Brian Epstein who usually accompanied them to these affairs, on permanent tenterhooks, John being the loose cannon he was, I think there was always the possibility he may have decked someone! The grammar school boys weren't as daft as these oafs would liked to imagine, sometimes they liked to play up to their ridiculous preconceived ideas, on one occasion pointing at a table laid out with knives and forks, tongue in cheek remarked "what are they" just to get a rise out of the hushed shocked tones "they don't know what they are used for "

Terribull we are overlapping a little; happy coincidences! ‘Foster’ by Keegan is another novella, really charming I thought despite the hardships portrayed. How have you got on with the Craig Brown? I found his introduction to Epstein’s quirky autobiography was tone-perfect.

Also just read Clare Keegan's, Small Things Like These, slim volume very good, grim subject, which the Irish Catholic Church tried to hide from the world for so long

#23 Louise Douglas ‘The Lost Notebook’ An Englishwoman dies in Brittany; her sister goes to support her niece and discovers a murder mystery. Despite the setting, which interested me, not really my genre.
#24 Claire Keegan ‘Small Things Like These’. I’m loving Keegan’s little jewels of Irish writing. Despite grim subject matter, it reveals what moral heroism can look like. A re-read from last year, for my book group.

Musicgirl, I thought Place of Execution was excellent, I'd be interested to know what you think of it when you've read it.

Hello Elaine and welcome. Please come back and post it's always good to have new people on the forum. Entirely up to you as to your choice of reading matter, we don't have a prescribed format here, I think many of us appreciate each other's recommendations and often like to discuss a book we've read or comment on books that others have chosen, particularly when we have also read the book in question.

Oh, and another welcome, Elaine, from me. This is my favourite thread on Gransnet and I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

#38 was Playing with Bones by Kate Ellis, the second in her Joe Plantagenet series, set in a thinly disguised York. I enjoyed it.
TerriBull, l have just bought Place of Execution on your recommendation and it will be my next book to read.

Juno
I love the Scarpetta books, really like the early ones when Kay and Marino were a team.
I started at the beginning a few years ago, and haven’t completely caught up.

Enjoyed Revenger, but then I love historical stuff. Have just started book 67, Find You First, by Linwood Barclay.

#25 Postmortem Patricia Cornwell.
The first in this very long running series about medical examiner Kay Scarpetta. I first read it over 25 years ago; the 'cutting edge' procedures seem dated now and I'd forgotten how
much she and those around her smoked! A very good read though, I enjoyed it.

I enjoyed Drop Shot, fairly early Harlan Coben, but very good. Now reading book 66, Revenger, by Rory Clements, set in the English Royal Court in 1592.

Hello Elaine and welcome to this lovely group that TerriBull has started. There's no list. We just read what we want to read and report back. I'm finding it great to get ideas from the books others are reading and we're all reading at our own pace.

Where do you see the list? I know we are nearly halfway through the year (how did that happen?) but I would love to join in.