2023 - 50 BOOK CHALLENGE

Sheila O'Flanagan's 'The women who ran away' was fascinating on many levels. A widow and a younger woman meet in unusual circumstances and drive through France to Spain on a treasure hunt. So the story has interesting bits about each of their destinations, and the clues keep you guessing how to solve the mysteries at each one. They also help one another with their emotional ups and downs along the way, so a great story that keeps you guessing. Well worth the read.
No. 20 is M.C.Beaton's 'The potted gardener'. I've read some of hers before and found them a bit silly, but thought I'd try this one as a friend enjoyed it.

Oh, Sparklefizz, you raced through that in record time! I’m still way down the queue but plenty to read in the meantime. I enjoyed Magpie, I very much like her style of writing.

I've finished The Last Remains by Elly Griffiths and won't say anything about it so as not to spoil it for others, but enjoyed it!!

Now going to move on to Magpie by Elizabeth Day which someone recommended earlier.

Although, I should add The Shetland tv ones are much better than the Veras.

Glad you enjoyed Cold Earth Hellogirl, Anne Cleeves books are great reads and imo are often better than the dramatisations.

Loved Cold Earth, now on book 29, Don`t Wake Up, by Liz Lawler.

Oh no, Sparklefizz, always the case! I’ve finished Hear No Evil, very well written story based on real life about a deaf woman being tried for murder in Glasgow in the nineteenth century. A weak ending, in my opinion, was frustrating. I’ve parked the Elly Griffiths - an old one - for now as six new releases picked up from the library today. So book 21 is Getting Better by Michael Rosen.

I absolutely loved The Berlin Girl, will be looking out for more by Mandy Robotham. Now on book 28, Cold Earth, a Shetland story by Ann Cleeves. I loved the TV series, but have never read any of the books. Enjoying this so far.

I have only managed to read 60 pages, Pigma because - today of all days - friends have decided to phone me for a chat!!!

Oooohhhh, Sparklefizz, lucky you!!! No cleaning, cooking, ironing for you now!!!!

Yay! I have collected the new Elly Griffiths book The Last Remains from the library this afternoon

Book 11 is Dying Fall by Cynthia Harold-Eagles. A traditional police procedural, an easy read with lots of bad puns and some awful jokes leavening the mix. Really don’t know what to read next, would like something meaty but also cheerful.

#11 The Book of Candlelight Ellery Adams.
I wanted something undemanding as I have quite a lot going on in RL. This was billed as a "cozy (sic) mystery" and I was attracted to it as the lead character is a bookshop owner who provides help and therapy to her customers by recommending suitable titles. It involves the said bookshop owner and her three friends, collectively known rather tweely as the Book and Scone Society. They live in a small American town where a murder has taken place. It is actually number 3 in a series but although I quite enjoyed it I don't intend to seek out the earlier books or the later ones.
My sister in law recommended the Bridgerton books "better than Georgette Heyer". They aren't but I bought the first four in the series on the strength of her recommendation and she keeps asking me how I'm getting on. So a change of genre, the next book will be: The Viscount Who Loved Me number 2 in the series.

Chocolatelovinggran (love your name, by the way )

Yes, I agree with you about the genre. I'll continue with any more books that Richard Osman churns out as I like his gentle very British touches (which all went over the head of my American friend who read it), but don't want to read any others on the same lines.

Sparklefizz, I agree with you, aa I preferred the Richard Osman book to the Richard Cole but I feel that this genre has become a little over exposed now. If I want a crime solving, I'm expecting a police officer to do it from now on !

Finished Mothering Sunday by Graham Swift and loved it. Beautifully written and atmospheric, set in 1924 with the First World War and loss of so many young men an underlying theme.... it's a book I shall still think about in years to come.

What to read next? It will be hard to follow Mothering Sunday. Sigh.

I've just finished Miss Benson's Beetle written by Rachel Joyce. An excellent book, read in 2 sittings.

Our library had a rack of books individually wrapped in paper and tied with string inviting you to choose a book without knowing anything about it. I wouldn't have chosen this book off the shelf, I dont think. But I'm so glad I chose this 'surprise package'.

Book 9
The Marriage Portrait- Maggie O’Farrell
This is a wonderful book, I thought to begin with, I wasn’t going to enjoy it as much as Hamnet, but I did, it’s rich with characters, and who couldn’t worry for the child Lucretia, and her strange arranged marriage.
Don’t want to spoil it for anyone, but although I was happy for Lucretzia in the end, I felt so sorry for her lovely loyal little maid.
Full of colour, but with menace running through the story, this is a book not to miss.

Book 10 The Unheard - Nikki French
Totally different, and completely gripping from the first page.
The story of a marriage breakup, and a little girl, Poppy, who is behaving strangely.
Poppy is so loveable, so well written, that you have to love her, there is threat, but you can’t tell where it’s coming from, her mum is determined to protect her, and begins to trust no one.
It’s one of those books you wander around the house reading, because you can’t put it down.
I really didn’t guess the ending, didn’t even consider it a possibility, well worth a read, if you fancy something fast paced and sinister.

Book 11
The Visitors - Caroline Scott
If I was a person who abandoned books, I would have abandoned this one at about page sixty , I thought it was dull, and the writing seemed really old fashioned.
However, I’m happy to say I kept reading, and thoroughly enjoyed it.
It deals with the horrors of war, and the long term affects, but also of healing and renewal.
Set in Cornwall, a group of comrades struggle to rebuild their lives in a wonderful old farmhouse, enter Esme, a grieving war widow, and her kind employer Mrs Pickering, sister of the farms owner, and of course romance follows, but nothing is straightforward.
A pleasant, gentle read.

I’ve thankfully finished both Becky and The Onky Susoect and didn’t rate either of them sadly. Couldn’t get into the characters at all and both disappointing. Books 19 and 20 will be Hear No Evil by Sarah Smith and a re-read of Dying Fall by Elly Griffiths. Need a Ruth Galloway fix as I am still way down the queue for the latest and last.

Starting no.19 tonight, Sheila O'Flanagan's 'The Women Who ran Away'. I haven't read one of hers for a long time, so I'm looking forward to it.

I loved the snippets of information in Monty Don's My Garden World. Who would have guessed a baby blue tit eats 1000caterpillars each day! A really relaxing read with a moving tribute to Nigel at the end.

I`m really enjoying The Berlin Girl, can recommend it.

‘The Last Remains’ didn’t take long to read. Sorry it’s the last Ruth Galloway, they are a pleasant, not taxing read, and the characters are easy to warm to.

#11. Marking Time by Elizabeth Jane Howard.

Am reading the Cazalet Chronicles in totally wrong order, have read the first and the last. This is the second one, so I sort of know what’s coming. I tried to order them all from the library, they didn’t stock this one, but because it’s part of a saga, they have bought a copy.

Highly impressed with our library.

Anyone else reading and counting non fiction?
#11#12 re readings of golden oldies by Dr Phil Hammond ‘Staying alive: how to get the best out of the NHS’ (still helpful) and ‘Medicine Balls’ which includes the script from his stage show (still helpful, and funny).
#13 Henry Marsh ‘And Finally’ notes by a retired neurosurgeon on discovering life as a patient. A sweet man, even if he now says he wasn’t always. A popular book, if the long reservation queue at the library is any guide.
#14 Claire Tomalin ‘The Young H G Wells’ shows how Wells studied despite ill health and relative poverty and became a radical and a very successful author. Tomalin is very readable, and I’m now prepared to see if Wells is…

Chocolatelovinggran I enjoyed The Bullet that Missed more than the Rev Richard Coles' book which I gather is the first of a series he's going to write. Don't think I'll bother with any more of them.

What did you think?

6 7 and 8 - a plethora of whodunit.. The Bullet that Missed and Rev Richard Coles Murder Before Evensong followed by Mark Billingham's The Murder Book. I think that I'm done with the crime- solved - by- unlikely- wrinklies genre ( although I have a soft spot for Miss Marple) so I preferred The Murder Book. However, I don't like the device of returning to a previous "baddie" which the book does. I regard it as lazy thinking on the part of the author! Just about to start Trespass.