2023 - 50 BOOK CHALLENGE

I read both those books Sarah and thought they were both very good page turners.

Also enjoyed Birdcage Walk mentioned by Sparkefizz up thread.

TerriBull
Yes, I recently read Birdcage Walk and enjoyed it.

Just saw your description "a bit sordid" regarding Blood Orange it was a bit!

#42. Original Sin by PD James.

TerriBull
The incident in the train toilet comes to mind!

Book 99 is Dixie City Jam, by James Lee Burke. I didn`t think I`d stick with it at first, but curiosity is keeping me there.

63-Vernon Coleman's-Bilbury Country. This is the 3rd of this series I've read. Reading this one was a bit like watching a Brian Rix farce, silly but amusing. Such an easy relaxing read.

Perservering with Dixie City Jam, but not really enjoying it.

31 The Young Ardizzone by Edward Ardizzone, who I’m sure everyone is familiar with. It’s a short memoir, mostly of his childhood but also venturing briefly into adulthood. He had an utterly bizarre upbringing which today would mean he’d be in therapy for the rest of his life but he seemed to harbour no resentment at all.

Best of all, almost every page has one of his wonderful illustrations on it.

Hellogirl1

Perservering with Dixie City Jam, but not really enjoying it.

I have decided ti stop perservering with books I'm not really enjoying - so many books, so little time!!

I totally agree pandapatch. It's not as if we're forced to study them.

64-Vernon Coleman's Bilbury Pie. A collection of 49 short stories that were originally written for a newspaper column. Very colourful characters!

33. The Cove, L J Ross
The main character seeks refuge in a Cornish hamlet after a shocking incident in London leaves her fearful and vulnerable. But it turns out that a small community isn’t necessarily a safe one. An easy read, quite entertaining.

34. Mothering Sunday, Graham Swift
I loved this novella, which I borrowed from the library as an audio book. It’s set mostly over one day in the life if a 1920s maid. It’s so beautifully written and narrated.

Killing Floor, Lee Child, would have been No 35, but I returned the audiobook after 15 minutes as I just couldn’t take to the narrator’s voice. It would have been my first Jack Reacher - I’ll wait till I’ve got a bog-standard JR book!

Now on book 100, Dark Winter, by David Mark, so far enjoying it very much.

Maggiemaybe, I loved Killing Floor, but then I love Jack Reacher!

Ah, it was just the narration that put me off, Hellogirl1. I’ll definitely get the “proper” book some time as I really want to try a Jack Reacher. So many friends have recommended them.

Book 59 Do Me No Harm by Julie Corbin. An ok read but don't you hate it when the author has a character do something totally out of character to make more of a story, and it becomes implausible? Wouldn't recommend.

#44 Jane Yellowrock Skinwalker Faith Hunter.
I read books of all genres and this time I chose urban fantasy. This is the first in quite a long series about Jane/Beast a dual souled being who makes her living hunting rogue vampires and is a 'skinwalker' of Cherokee descent. The action takes place in a steamy New Orleans. Not sure if I will continue with the series but I enjoyed this book. Don't know yet what I shall read next but it will be a change of genre.

Loved Dark Winter. Book 101 is The Directive, by Matthew Quirk.

65- The Russian-James Patterson. One of the Michael Bennett series . Serial Killer in New York, but has he killed elsewhere? Fast paced as always with some surprises along the way. I love the Bennett family of 10 children who always play a part in these books.

“53 was The Shadow Doctor: The Further Adventures by Adrian Plass. Adrian Plass is a well known Christian speaker and author. I have read many of his books. This one was a work of fiction with a Christian theme. It was ok but slightly underwhelming.

42 The Last Goodbye - Tim Weaver Anyone familiar with this crime writer will know that his books feature David Raker finder of missing persons extraordinaire! Some of this series I have found very enjoyable others a bit meh!, this one on the whole was pretty good. Fast past as usual, in it we meet up with a female character who was abandoned on an uninhabited island off New York a couple of books ago. Well obviously she was eventually rescued to feature again. A chance meeting with David Raker at the end of that book we learnt about her earlier life in England, where as a child her mother had disappeared many years ago, literally walking out of the house leaving her three young children forever wondering what had happened to her, which set the scene for a new case for Raker to get his teeth into. As with all his books, lots of sub plots and different threads and an expose of criminal activities some rooted well in the past and in particular the main villain of the piece is a nasty evil white supremacist in a South Africa of the apartheid years.

43 No One Saw A Thing - Andrea Mara Sticking with the theme of missing persons. Pretty good, fast paced thriller. Child aged 6 goes missing on the London tube when she and her younger sister step on to the train and the door closes before their mother trying to keep up whilst manoeuvring pram reaches the train only to see the carriages pull off with her children on board her palpable anxiety jumped off the page at that stage. The upshot, younger daughter is found a station ahead but the six year old is missing! We learn that Sive, the mother in question and her husband Aaron are from Dublin, here to meet up with all his housemates from 15 years ago when he was a student, in the meantime he has become a highly successful criminal barrister. Is this a kidnapping related to a case he is defending? and what of the housemates who are not all they seem below the surface? When eventually the various strands all cantilever together there are some implausible sub plots, but I often think that's the case, the writer has to wind it up somehow, but on the whole not too bad.

Just started to read Atlas the final instalment in The Seven
Sisters a fairly long one, over 600 pages, but at least expect to find out about the enigmatic Pa Salt and how he came to acquire 7 daughters from all over place!

past paced

Book 60 ... just finished A Country Road, a Tree by Jo Baker and I'm bereft.

This is a terrific book and beautifully written. It's set in France during the war and is poignant and evocative and unflinching and very moving.

I can't recommend it highly enough.

Goodness knows what I can read next because nothing will compare .....

#43. The Bridges Of Madison County by Robert James Waller.

First read this book nearly 30 years ago, on a plane flying to USA to see our 19 year old daughter, who was working there. Hadn’t seen her for several months, and was so excited.
The book was short and a good read.

Don’t know what made me order it again from the library to re-read.

The Directive was OK, but not brilliant. Now reading book 102, The Intercept, by Dick Wolf. OK so far, it deals with terrorism and counter terrorism.