2023 - 50 BOOK CHALLENGE

Calendargirl

#10. The Last Remains by Elly Griffiths.

Surprised to get this so quickly from library, was 11th on list.

In demand, but I won’t be long reading it I imagine!

Lucky you Calendargirl, I'm still about 140th, my fault for putting my name down late.

#10. The Last Remains by Elly Griffiths.

Surprised to get this so quickly from library, was 11th on list.

In demand, but I won’t be long reading it I imagine!

Last night I finished my Book 12 "The Last to Disappear" by Jo Spain. Wow! Couldn't put it down.

It's the story of a young woman who goes missing while working as a tour guide and is found dead in a frozen lake in Lapland. Beautiful atmospheric scenery. Her brother flies out to bring home her body but then the story unfolds. (I won't say more as I don't want to spoil it)

I thoroughly enjoyed it and would recommend it. I'll definitely read more by Jo Spain.

I`ve just finished The Children of Witches, but didn`t really enjoy it.

#10 The Ink Black Heart Robert Galbraith narrated by Robert Glenister.
Number 6 in the Strike series, Ms Rowling maintains the high standard of the previous books. I really enjoyed it (all 32+ hours of it) and it keeps you guessing until the end. Because of poor vision many of the books I 'read' are audiobooks. However, I wish that I had bought the Kindle version instead. Large chunks of the book take place in an online chatroom or as Twitter messages and it doesn't work very well when spoken. That is a fairly minor complaint though, if you haven't read it yet I would recommend it.
Not sure what to read next but it will probably be short and quite trivial 😃.

The Brutal Art started to get good, but then was spoilt by the ending, I just didn`t get it, but I`m probably thick! Have just started book 24, The Children of Witches, by Sherri Smith, set in Germany in the 1600s, hard going so far.

Now starting Book 12 "The Last to Disappear" by Jo Spain, and I got hooked in immediately so I hope this carries on. It's set in Lapland with plenty of snow and is feeling very atmospheric (and chilly!)

Time to catch up. My no.13 Erica James 'Letters from the past' was good but so many characters I had to write a list of who's who.
Then on to Mark Billingham's Good as Dead as no.14. What a great story! A hostage situation in a newsagents, with Tom Thorne coming to the rescue. Fabulous read.
Then a change of genre to Anne Baker's Love is blind. An easy read about wartime Liverpool's rag trade. A good one for no.15.
Now on to no.16 Tess Gerritsen's The shape of night. Just read the first 2 pages and already I'm hooked!

Book 7 You Said Forever by Susan Lewis.

teabagwoman I think you'd find The Stolen Marriage very interesting in view of your Mum's polio nursing experiences. I hope so anyway.

Iron lung.

Sparklefizz it all depends on what’s available on Borrow Box. I can only read on my IPad and the budget won’t stretch to buying books on Kindle. I’m hoping The Stolen Marriage will be available. My mother nursed polio victims in those huge ventilators that I’ve forgotten the name of.

Pigma and TerriBull I'm another one who's ordered the Louise Candlish book from the library as I've enjoyed others by her.

I've just finished my Book 11 "The Stolen Marriage by Diane Chamberlain which I enjoyed as it began during WW2, set in America, and covered the Polio Epidemic until 1955 which I found very interesting indeed as the main female character trained as a nurse. I remember my Mum being very cautious about Polio when I was a young child in the 1950s until the vaccine arrived, and a schoolfriend wore a caliper after Polio. The author mentions in her acknowledgments all the research she did on the subject. The book also covers racial segregation in America during those years, not in a preachy way but as part of the backdrop, and that was interesting too.

I'm waiting for Elly Griffiths' latest book to arrive in the library. Apparently it's "in transit" and I was hoping to have it by now, but will have to start another book while waiting.

teabagwoman Glad you enjoyed Elly Griffiths' "A Room Full of Bones". Will you move on to the next in the Ruth/Nelson series?

TerriBull - yes, I’ve enjoyed her books in the past so fingers crossed. I’ll report back when I’ve finished it, I’m due a really good read so hoping this is it!

Pigma

Book 18 will be The Only Suspect, the latest by Louise Candlish.

I've ordered that from the library Pigma, I like her books, hopefully you'll enjoy it.

Book 18 will be The Only Suspect, the latest by Louise Candlish.

#6 When the Dust Settles, Stories of love, loss and hope from an expert in disaster by Lucy Easthope.

This maybe needs to come with a trigger warning as the author does not spare us some of the distressing details of what can happen to the human body when it is subjected to the violence of a bomb or a vehicle/aeroplane crash. The author was a 10 year old in Liverpool when the Hillsborough disaster unfolded on television in front of her and her teacher parents. The horror of the incidents she attends during her training and career in risk, crisis and disaster management is mitigated by her humanity. Her emphasis is on absolute respect and careful thoroughness in piecing together evidence from the disaster scene, honesty with the victims’ families and on finding out what people’s real needs are (as opposed to what is convenient for the authorities).

I highly recommend this, subject to the warning above.

Book #6 will be Ronald Blythe’s diaries and articles on the countryside around his home in the Stour Valley, with introductory pieces by people who knew him.

Finished book 16 - Diana, Closely Guarded Secret by her protection officer, Ken Wharfe. Very disappointing, I’d hoped to learn more about his role in protecting Diana and her boys but it was just rehashing details of her life and adding more stories I hadn’t known. She’s not here to defend herself and I wish I hadn’t read it. Anyway, on we go. I’m persevering with Becky by Sarah May, there’s been a lot of publicity and several interviews with the author online and in the press, have to say it hasn’t grabbed me yet but I’ll see where it goes. Will need another to read ‘alongside’ so will revisit my pile of library books and see what I fancy.

Book 10 A Room Full of Bones by the ever reliable Elly Griffiths. Likeable characters, interesting plots and a great sense of place. Sparklefizz I’m with you in losing patience with characters and giving up on books.

No 7 Red Sauce, Brown Sauce by Felicity Cloake. She’s a food writer and this is an account of her cycling trip round the UK I search of the perfect breakfast. It’s very amusing and my goodness, she can pack away some food! Lots of interesting info about our traditional foods and some recipes as well.

Sparklefizz- that book is definitely not going on my ‘to read’ list! So irritating!

Pigma Also in the same annoying book, a character drove to the lake then walked slowly home through the woods, the author seemingly having forgotten she drove there! Silly little mistakes but, as you say, should have been picked up.

Sparklefizz - oh yes, I’m totally with you on this. It’s really disappointing, isn’t it? The ending of BSYard being a cast in point! Just ridiculous! I also hate inaccuracies - think I mentioned earlier I can’t understand why editors or proofreaders or whoever don’t point things out. Can’t remember what I read recently but the female character had made a cake and she got out jam and cream to fill it and in the very next sentence was creaming together butter and icing sugar and filling the cake. For heavens’ sake!! I then get really cross and lose all faith in the story. In my head I was shouting ‘But what about the cream??!!’. Thanks for the heads up, though, won’t be adding that one to my list anytime soon!

Strangely, I loved The Holiday Cottage by the Sea. Strangely because I don`t usually like love stories with added sex, but this one was really nice. Just about to start book 23, The Brutal Art, by Jesse Kellerman, son of Jonathan and Faye Kellerman.

I'm reading The Dead Wife by Sue Fortin - 360 odd pages in and the author has had the main female character do something so ridiculous that I feel highly irritated and it has ruined the storyline in my view. Now I don't feel like reading the final 100 pages as I just can't be bothered to invest more time in it and have lost all interest in the characters.

Anyone else ever feel like this with a book? Fortunately I have a lovely stash of books still to read, so plan to choose another one.