2023 - Book Challenge - Second thread

42. Lessons in Chemistry, Bonnie Garmus
My reading group choice, and for once we all enjoyed it. Following the life and career of a female scientist in 1950s America, and the discrimination and harassment she endured. It’s got the lot really - it’s an engaging family story with plenty of social history and tragedy and humour thrown in. Oh, and an intelligent talking dog, which all other members of the group loved (I wasn’t so sure).

43. Nine Perfect Strangers, Liane Moriarty
The nine turn up for what turns out to be a very unusual health retreat, and all get a lot more than they bargained for. They were promised a life-changing experience, and they got it. A great read, though I’ve heard the TV version is disappointing.

#54 The Masquerading Magician Gigi Pandian.
This is the second in the Accidental Alchemist series about the said alchemist who accidentally discovered the elixir of life in the 17th century and her quest to prevent her best friend, a French gargoyle, from returning to stone. Said gargoyle happens to be a gourmet vegan chef and the books include several recipes. It all sounds a bit odd but the first book was very enjoyable, this one not so much. I probably won't bother with book three.

40. The Winter Garden by Kristin Hannah. I have read other books by her but this wasn’t as good. It’s set between modern USA and Leningrad in the first half of the 20thC. It went on too long and there was one twist too many to make it believable.

39 The Blue Afternoon by William Boyd. This is quite an old one of his books, early 90’s and it’s a bit dated. It’s still a good story, though - there was such a twist part way through that it kept me awake that night!

54 Homecoming - Kate Morton

I usually love Kate Morton's books, but this one left me somewhat disappointed, at just over 600 pages , just too long, it could have done with some editing imo, A very slow ponderous start to get to the main thrust of the story. Switching between 2018 and 1959, when modern day Jess returns, having lived and worked in London, to her native Australia to be close to her ageing grandma who is now in hospital. Whilst alone in her grandmother's house and poking around her bedroom, Jess discovers a true crime book which relates to a family tragedy, her own family. The story switches between modern day and the happenings of 60 years ago to uncover the truth behind the mysterious deaths by poison of a great aunt and her children. Their bodies, as if asleep, are found in the garden of their home on a blisteringly hot Christmas Eve......and the baby of the family simply disappeared! I think I remember Sarah1954 mentioned on the other thread, not as good as her other books, and I would agree.

The Essex Serpent read it a few years ago now, didn't dislike it just thought, as so often is the case, somewhat over hyped.

Diggingdoris and Sara1954 I wasn't keen on The Essex Serpent either. I quite often find that books that are hyped up don't live up to my expectations.

I've got a lot going on in my family so needed an easy read. Book 71 Rescue by Anita Shreve was exactly this but not one of her best in my opinion.

Diggingdoris
I didn’t like it either, so much hype about it, but I found it very disappointing

81-the Essex Serpent-Sarah Perry. Found this in the book swap kiosk and as I live near Colchester I thought I should read this. It was widely acclaimed in our local press, so was expecting great things. Sadly I'm hugely disappointed. The style of writing was full of description with bits of dialogue here and there. The story was lukewarm in my opinion, though I've read glowing reviews online. Just not my cup of tea, so apologies to anyone who loved it.

Book 45
The Drift - C J Tudor
This is creepy and scary, I virus has torn through the world, there is no real cure, if you survive you remain infected, the survivors are known as Whistlers due to the awful whistling noise when they breathe. There is no vaccine, but plasma taken from the whistlers is the only way not to become infected. Therefore they are kept on ‘farms’ but there are lots of communities of breakaway groups.
The story is really three stories, a bus taking students to a secure institute in the mountains, the purpose of which never seems entirely clear,crashes in a snowstorm, half the students are dead, half survive, but some are infected.
A cable car stops heading for the same destination, but again. Not everyone is who we think they are.
The final story takes place in the institute, I still didn’t work out what they were all doing there.
Eventually the three stories come together, I don’t want to go into detail, but I didn’t see it coming
It’s a story of survival, absolute ruthlessness, and the occasional glimpse of humanity.

41. Streets of Darkness, A A Dhand

I’d read the other books in the series, but not this one, the first.

I don’t know whether I’m misremembering the others, or if this one is different, but it seemed far more violent and graphic than the rest. So much so that I’m now a bit less enthusiastic about the TV series currently in production - I hope it’s not going to be too focussed on the violence. For me the most interesting parts of the books are the ones that centre on Detective Harry Virdee’s character and complicated family life, and the locations in Bradford.

Books 43 and 44 both a bit disappointing.

43 - Snow Country - Sebastian Faulks
Just didn’t do it for me at all.
Didn’t care for the characters, and it all felt a bit silly, and not really very believable.
Love some of his books, so was probably expecting more.

Accidents in the Home - Tessa Hadley
Again, I normally love her writing, but I didn’t much care for this.
It’s quite hard to follow, way too many characters, I had to keep going back and checking who was who, and a lot of them could easily have been left out.
There seemed to be lots of loose ends, and very little actual plot, basically it was just quite boring.

80-Red Bones-Ann Cleeves. Another in the Shetland series, based around a dig for ancient artifacts. Then 2 deaths occur that could be an accident and a suicide. Inspector Perez seems to let Detective constable Sandy Wilson take a leading role in this story as his grandmother was one of the deaths.
I didn't find this as gripping as the last one I read, a bit slow to get going.

TerriBull
That sounds really interesting.
I’m not really keen on technology , I use a desktop at work, but I never use my laptop.
But, I confess that not having my phone would probably make me a bit twitchy

52 Too Close to Breathe - Olivia Kiernan

Having enjoyed a recent stand alone psychological thriller by this author I've discovered she's written four crime novels set in her native Ireland featuring her main character Detective Frankie Sheehan. This debut of the four starts with a female academic found hanging in her home, the original conclusion being suicide but that opinion soon turns to the death looking like murder. A missing husband and another murder of a young woman that is thought to be having an affair with the unreachable husband follow along with the murky associations with the Dark Web of the main suspects. Fairly good, a bit gruesome at times.

53 Stolen Focus (Why You Can't Pay Attention) Johann Hari
(Non Fiction)

A book for our times, how distracted we've all become! Johann Hari sets out on a personal quest of seeing whether he can do without any form of electronic gadgetry when he goes off to far flung Cap Cod, first having dumped his laptop, mobile phone etc. He relates how a sort of panic sets in when in the nano second before remembering, his keen jerk reaction as to "where's my phone" After a period of adjustment, he slowly begins to realise how much of the natural world we are all missing and how much sharper appreciation of the environment is without that omnipresent distraction to the beeping that comes from our screens! I think this book should be in schools, although of course in time much of the technology Hari is writing about today will be superseded by whatever is coming down the line. In the aftermath of his self enforced purge of his electronic paraphernalia he sets out on a quest of interviews with scientists and behavioural therapists to dig deeper into how there is an ever present sustained strategy to rob subscribers to social media of their attention span by constant interruptions and worse still to control and pervade consciousness. The writer also investigates the catastrophic effect the fast food industry is having on the behaviour of children. He expands on that through his own upbringing and the sharp contrast between two sides of his own family The impoverished Scottish maternal side he grew up with who fed him a diet of chips, pizzas and burgers, which brought him up sharp when annually dispatched to his father's side of the family who lived half way up a Swiss mountain grew, farmed and slaughtered their own food. What was presented on the dinner table was often met with an aghast young Johann declaring miserably to grandma "ce n'est pas de la nourriture" until she was forced to take him down the mountain to the nearest McDonald's. He describes her looking disgusted whilst he munched his way through a Big Mac. He spends much of the latter part of the book exploring how the all pervading fast food diet particularly prevalent in the US has been one of the factors that has lead to the burgeoning amount of children now having ADHD and being prescribed amphetamines. The twin themes of chronic diet being a factor of amphetamine/opiate dependency that is rife in the US does pose the question of the murky link between the food manufacturers and the drug companies. I borrowed this book from the library, but I'll probably buy it to have on my shelves, if for no other reason to highlight certain paragraphs to read to my children and grandchildren although much of his analysis applies to me too!

#51. The Murder Room by PD James.

I read A Town Called Solace during the pandemic. It was good and I loved all the different quirky characters.

No 38 Pathogenesis by Jonathan Kennedy. It’s a different take on the history of the world, depicting how we arrived where we are today because of germs rather than any other influence such as our cleverness etc. A sobering read.

#53 Virgin River Robyn Carr.
I watched an episode of Virgin River on Netflix and fancied reading the book. It is an undemanding story of a nurse/midwife who after a tragedy relocates from Los Angeles to a quirky little town in rural north California. A bit too much sex but enjoyable.

I meant to say that nearly all my reading has been done on my kindle - a bonus on holiday.

I have done quite a lot of reading while away but not posted. Most have been of the feel-good variety and I have enjoyed all bar one, which was the first on my list.
#54 was A Family Torn Apart by Cathy Glass. This book never came to anything.
The rest l really enjoyed:
#55 was University Tales by Jack Sheffield; a light-hearted, enjoyable story about a year in a teacher training college.
#56 was Death at the Auction by E C Bateman; a cosy murder mystery set in the Stamford auction rooms.
#57 was The Last List of Mabel Beaumont by Laura Pearson; a feel-good story in the style of Rachel Joyce about a lonely elderly widow looking for her long-lost school friend.
#58 was The Last Chance Library by Freya Sampson. Another feel-good story about a lonely young library assistant whose library is under threat of closure.
#59 was The Lost Bookshop by Evie Woods. A lovely, imaginative fairy tale for adults that combines magic with realism.

Really pleased to hear that Litterpicker.

I have just finished Book 70 Truly Madly Guilty by Liane Moriarty which I found unputdownable.

A group of friends and neighbours in Australia get together for a BBQ. Now everyone remembers what happened that day a little differently. They all have their reasons and no one wants to be blamed. Home truths and old secrets surface.

Sparklefizz, I got “A Country Road, A Tree”from the library but gave it to DH to read as I had a book club one to finish - he really loved it and asked who had recommended it. I’m looking forward to starting it soon. Thank you for the recommendation.

Book 69 The Last Devil to Die by Richard Osman - Book 4 of the Thursday Murder Club series

I received this on the day it was released as it was a pre-booked birthday present from my daughter. In my opinion it is not the best of the 4 books in the series, but still very enjoyable.

I’ve just finished “The Chilbury Ladies’ Choir” by Jennifer Ryan. It is a charming, inconsequential book about a village in Kent, near Dover around the time of the Battle of Britain. The only annoying note is that she says the nearest town to them is Litchfield! If she didn’t want to mention Canterbury, perhaps she could have invented another name…

Thanks for this review TerriBull. I enjoy Lisa Jewell's books so have just reserved this at the library.

51 None Of This Is True - Lisa Jewell, Her latest and a treat for Lisa Jewell fans, of which I am one!

The premise of this new book, two women both out for dinner celebrating their 45th birthdays, have a chance meeting in the washroom when during a brief conversation they discover they are the same age, born on the same day. One of the women, Alix is a podcaster whose subjects are usually the extraordinary lives of ordinary women. Another chance encounter follows when a further chat reveals, the other woman Josie's own life has been somewhat tumultuous and her story, given she is on the cusp of some great changes, she suggests would make an interesting subject matter for a podcast. Therein hangs the tale!. As Josie's story unfolds, under the guise of "My Birthday Twin" it becomes apparent she has been harbouring some very dark secrets, but are they the truth, or merely her version of events? As the story progresses, the reader realises Josie is somewhat in thrall to Alix, as when she goes to her home to be interviewed for the series they are making, she surreptitiously removes small keepsakes. Whilst we learn during the interviews, that Josie's husband is portrayed as a somewhat sinister older man who Josie became involved with as a teenager, at the same time Josie gleans that all is not well with Alix's marriage either. To that end she fans the flames of her new found friend's discontent. As revelations unfold so does Alix's growing disquiet about Josie, her husband, the two shadowy daughters, one who left home at 16 and the other now early 20s who never comes out of her room. Definitely a page turner, Lisa Jewell always delivers in the tense psychological genre to which she's turned her hand to of late.

Just wondering if Hellogirl is ok, I do hope so, can't help noticing as one of the most prolific posters here, she hasn't posted for quite a while. If you are reading Hellogirl, hoping all is well with you.