2023 - 50 BOOK CHALLENGE

25 French Braid by Anne Tyler. Another of her gentle family novels. She gets right to the heart of how families function.

Terribull, The White Ship is an easy read, if somewhat tedious with so many names! I don’t think I knew about it at all but I now understand why that period of time was called the Dark Ages. Life truly was short and brutal.

I`m enjoying Falls the Shadow.

Do let us know what you think Sarah when you finish it, as I will with Kate Morton's languishing under a pile of library books right now.

Definitely agree about The Farm at The Edge of the World Sparklefizz pretty much what I thought, her later ones are much better.

I have just finished The Farm at the Edge of the World, (Book no. 49) another Sarah Vaughan book and definitely not one of her best. Having started with her later books and worked backwards, I think she was definitely finding her feet with the first two books.

I made the effort to finish it but wouldn't recommend it. The descriptions of Cornish scenery are nice but I could well have done without the occasional descriptions of animal slaughter on the farm. I'm much too sentimental about animals.

Not sure what to read next ......

TerriBull, sounds like a book I will enjoy, just ordered it.

37 The Other Mothers - Katherine Faulkner

2nd book by this fairly new writer, I read her first one, Greenwich Park but can't remember too much about that. Just finished this new one, a definite page turner with a slight Motherland feel about it. Plot centres around freelance journalist and mother of a young child who enters the world of sleek, moneyed, yummy mummies, ostensibly to research a piece she is writing about the unexplained death of a young nanny who was recently employed by one of them. . She is drawn into their upmarket world firstly through their child centred playgroup activities but soon finds as the various friendships develop coffees and cocktails in their expensive North London townhouses follow, a moneyed existence that outstrips her own, in spite of being married to an A&E doctor. As she becomes further ensconced in this new environment, conflicting loyalties emerge and doubts as to whether the other mothers are true friends or also have an agenda and all appear to be very circumspect about the deceased girl. I would definitely recommend it to fans of Louise Candlish books, a fairly similar vein.

#34 Looking Good Dead Peter James.
Number 2 in a police procedural series. It is set in Brighton and features Detective Superintendent Roy Grace. At first I thought it a bit tedious but as the crimes unfolded I really enjoyed it.

Now reading book 83, Falls the Shadow, by William Lashner, seems promising.

Loved Sacred.

Traitor`s Kiss was OK, but didn`t grab me all that much. Have just started Sacred, by Dennis Lehane, book 82. It`s from 1997, but liking it so far.

#45 was Promises, Promises by Erica James. A frothy easy read but enjoyable nonetheless.

The Barbara Taylor Bradford book improved in the last 100 pages!
Book 18, Alexander McCall Smith: The Full Cupboard of Life. He writes such lovely stories.

Book 27
Dog Rose Dirt - Jen Williams
A book to make you jump at every sound, very scary.
The story of a deeply twisted serial killer, in prison for many years when the murders start up again.
Ex journalist, Heather returns to her home town where her estranged mother has committed suicide, but something seems wrong.
It’s a creepy tale, I wouldn’t read it at night alone.

Book 27
The Long Long Afternoon - Inga Vesper
Loved this book, got up one night when it was too hot to sleep, and read most of it through the night.
America, late fifties, perfect little families living the dream, but all is not as it seems.
One perfect summer’s afternoon, Joyce disappears, leaving two young daughters, and a pool of blood.
The scene is discovered by the help, Ruby, who is promptly arrested, but later released by the detective working the case.
Between them, they start to follow the clues, but Joyce had a lot of secrets.
Some very unpleasant racial abuse, Ruby was treated by her employers worse than they’d treat a dog, so you have the disappearance of Joyce, and running alongside, simmering racial tension.

35 Bittersweet - Colleen McCullough (audio)

I loved The Thorn Birds when I read it many years ago, I don't know why I've never read anything by Colleen McCullough since, picked this up at the library, described as an Australian Gone with the Wind, not really! Set in the 1920s, four sisters, two sets of twins leave home to train as nurses where their paths take different directions, the decade culminating in the Great Crash which affect their lives in different ways and how they individually cope with the Depression that follows. Quite good, but I wasn't swept away with it the way I was with The Thorn Birds.

36 V for Victory - Lissa Evans

Follow up to Old Baggage and Crooked Heart which I loved. In this "grifter" Vee and her adopted son 15 year old, orphaned Noel, who she took under her wing when he was evacuated out of London return to the house he was brought up in by elderly suffragette and godmother, the late Mattie, who was the main character in the first book of the trilogy. There, they are just getting by running a boarding house next to Hampstead Heath, the highly intelligent and ingenious Noel being home schooled by some of the very academic lodgers. It lacked some of the humour from the last book, but nevertheless still quirky and the conclusion tied in very well as the war drew to a close.

SueDonim The White Ship sounds really interesting, that came up in history lessons when I was at school, years ago, I remember it vaguely, England was in a state of civil war for a while sides split between King Stephen and Matilda in the aftermath I believe? Wouldn't mind reading up on all of that again, I'll make a note of the book!

53-Michael Connelly- The Black Echo. This is his first novel and introduces us to Detective Bosch. I thought it was a bit slow to get going but then we're introduced to the reckless nature of Harry, who doesn't sick to the rules. He is a veteran of the Vietnam war, so some of that comes into the story. For a first novel it was good and makes you want to read more of his.

I've had a couple of false starts with books, and then found I'd run out of books until I could get to the library, so my books Nos. 47 and 48 are re-reads of 2 Elly Griffiths books in her Ruth Galloway/Nelson series which I knew I'd enjoy:
The Lantern Men and The Night Hawks.

Actually I don't think "Night Hawks* was one of her best in this series, but I still like the characters and enjoyed it.

Book 41. My Animals and Other Family by Clare Balding.
I think I saw this recommended upthread, thoroughly enjoyed it, highly recommend.

After several false starts with books I saw Georgette Heyer’s The Three Crowns on BookBub and now have a book I want to get back to.

#44 was The Road to Little Dribbling by Bill Bryson. I have had this book on my shelves for some time but it was well worth waiting for. It is a follow-up to his first book, Notes from a Small Island and is, as ever, filled with his wonderful humour and is a paen of praise for his adopted country. I can thoroughly recommend it.

#33 Run Rose Run Dolly Parton and James Patterson.
I believe JP often collaborates with other authors. This stand alone novel about an aspiring country music singer trying to escape her traumatic early life was enjoyable but not a patch on Patterson's Alex Cross novels.

23 The White Ship by Charles Spencer. Covering the period from the reign of William the Conqueror to HenryII this encompasses the calamity of the sinking of the White Ship, which I have to confess I knew nothing about. I felt I learnt something about the history of that period even if all the men were called Henry, William and Geoffrey and the women were all named Matilda.

24 Madam Will You Walk by Mary Stewart. I was intrigued by the blurb that her books had come back into print as I wasn’t familiar with her. Murder is at the heart of the plot and I’ve now learned that it’s of the romantic crime genre. The descriptions of France are beautiful, and the many literary references interesting.

Holding the Zero turned out to be better than I thought it would be. Very sad and depressing though. Am just starting book 81, Traitor`s Kiss, by Gerald Seymour.

Reported.

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#33. Sidney Chambers and The Dangers Of Temptation by James Runcie.

Holding the Zero is OK, but it isn`t grabbing me like A Line in the Sand did. Am just over halfway through it, so will definitely finish it.