2023 - Book Challenge - Second thread

Book 89 The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah
I first read this several years ago but someone mentioned it a few pages back and I decided to give it a 2nd read. It's not a cheerful book but very interesting regarding the Depression and America's Dust Bowl.

I'm not a great Kristin Hannah fan as I haven't liked several of her books, but in my view The Four Winds is her best.

I'd never read Kristin Hannah before recently reading The Four Winds which I thought was excellent. I'll bear in mind your comments Sparklefizz I was given a couple of others of hers so maybe I'll have to lower my expectations before reading those.

The Herons Cry-Ann Cleeves. This is the second in the Detective Matthew Venn series and was unputdownable. When a man is found murdered by a broken glass vase his daughter had made in her studio, everyone is shocked in the small complex of properties. The story gets us all thinking about the who, when and how this has happened. The plot is twisted around a few families who have suffered bereavement so it gets you trying to work out where the link is.

The herons cry was my 100th book this year. Can I squeeze another one in before we start on 2024's list?

#64. Career Of Evil by Robert Galbraith.

Another re-read.

#68 ^The Outcast Dead^Elly Griffiths.
Number 6 in the Ruth Galloway series about a forensic archaeologist. Very enjoyable.

53. The Amish Wife, Gregg Olsen
A journalist investigates the real life cold case murder of a mother and child in the Amish community. Intriguing and very sad.

54. The Last Devil To Die, Richard Osman
I like Richard Osman’s books - I know opinions vary. I’ve grown fond of the main characters and think this might be my favourite of the series so far.

55. Bad Women: The Ripper Retold, Hallie Rubenhold
This is a bit of a cheat, being a podcast based on a book. It’s a fascinating exploration of the life stories of the victims of the Victorian “Ripper”’, who are often just dismissed as “prostitutes”. As it happens they had varied and interesting backgrounds - one of them even lived at one stage on a country estate with servants. This is well worth a listen or read, though the author’s arguments with other ripperologists do go on a bit.

Book 146, Dolly`s Dream, by Dilly Court.

My reading progress has been very slow recently. Obviously, we are all extra busy at this time of year but it is even more so for a musician - l love playing all the Christmas music, though.
#69 was The Thirteen Days of Christmas by Jenny Overton. This book, which I read years ago, is a children’s book and was mentioned on MN. It is a lovely fairy tale about a young man who wants to marry his sweetheart and the girl’s family are equally keen for their older sister to be married as, since the death of their mother, she has taken over her mother’s mantle but she is bossy, given to romantic leanings and a terrible cook. The story takes us through the traditional twelve days of Christmas, with its relevance to the church services for each day and the celebrations significant to the day as the young man seeks to win the affections of his true love by dreaming up more elaborate presents for each of the twelve days. Obviously, it is based on the famous carol but is a lovely story.
#70 was The Book of Beginnings by Sally Page. This was a somewhat formulaic feel-good book but enjoyable nevertheless.

101-Shattered-James Patterson/James Born. Another in the Michael Bennett series. MB is such a loveable character- who wouldn't warm to a man who has adopted 10 children? He is a great detective who feels driven to find who has killed one of his fellow partners. A great thriller, punctuated with bits of family life.

49 Dickens and Christmas by Lucinda Hawksley. The author is a descendant of Dickens and this book explores Dickens’ influence on Christmas.

I now need to find a short book so that I can complete my 50 books!

Book 58
Anatomy of a Scandal - Sarah Vaughan
I had only read a few pages when I realised I had recently watched this on Netflix.
I carried on, but it was a tense courtroom drama,, and I already knew the outcome.
Centres around the privileged and wealthy, around MPs and Oxford undergraduates who think because of their class nothing can touch them.
A bit predictable at times (especially if you know what’s going to happen) and and a lot of stereotyping, but a good read.

Book 90*The Lady of Misrule by Suzannah Dunn*

I really enjoyed this. Elizabeth Tilney volunteered for the job of companion to Lady Jane Grey who was imprisoned in the Tower of London after only 9 days as queen. The two sixteen year-olds couldn't be less compatible . Jane is a Protestant and a self-composed idealist, and Catholic Elizabeth is a bit flighty.

I didn't know much about Lady Jane Grey and this was an interesting take on the subject. I shall read other books by Suzannah Dunn.

Just finished Book 91 The Pilot's Wife by Anita Shreve.

This is one of her best books, I thought. The title makes it sound a bit "chick-lit" but it's not.

Kathryn is the wife of a pilot and one night she has a knock at the door to say that her husband has died when the plane that he was flying crashed. There are numerous rumours about what exactly happened.

Did her husband have a secret life?

This is a powerful story which captures the sense of a person succumbing to the shock of an emotional tidal wave.

#71 was A Christmas gift by, of course, Charles Dickens. I wasn’t intending to read it this year but I was reading a miscellany of Christmas books on my kindle when this one came up. The familiar words soon had me hooked and I read it one sitting. A lovely, comforting read,

Hurrah, I made it to 50 books! Though my dd put the dampeners on it by saying ‘Fifty? Why not fifty two?’ Maybe that should be my 2024 aim.

Anyway…no 50 My Name is Lucy Barton by Elizabeth Strout. I’m not sure what others see it in, I found it rather depressing. At least it was short.

I didn't like it either SueDonim

SueDonim
I have loved all the Lucy books, Lucy by the Sea, was definitely one of my favourite books of the year.

SueDonim I was also disappointed in My Name is Lucy Barton, not as good as Elizabeth Strout’s other books. I recently read the follow up Oh William! and was disappointed in it too.

#69 Christmas Pie Jodi Taylor.
This year's Christmas novella from the wonderful Jodi Taylor featuring the best characters from her St Marys & Time Police series. I will start another book but this is likely to be the last one I finish in 2023.

I think maybe Elizabeth Strout isn’t my type of writer. I tried reading the Burgess Boys and abandoned it in the end, I just didn’t care about them.

I feel as though I now have permission from GN to not read any more of the Lucy books!

Strange isn’t it, I just love the Lucy books, I love Elizabeth Strouts style of writing.
I must admit though, that if I had to make a choice I would opt for Olive, such a great character.
But, obviously not everyone’s choice.

Book 59
The Woman on the Pier - B P Walter
I would think this is probably my last book of the year, not very memorable, it was okay, but nothing special.
A young girl is killed in a terrorist attack, but she wasn’t meant to be there
Her distraught mother is determined to find out why she was in London when she was supposed to be in Somerset, and this leads her into a nightmare situation.
I know it wasn’t meant to be funny, but I found parts of it quite amusing, pretty low in my favourite books of the year list, but it was alright.

Message deleted by Gransnet. Here's a link to our Talk guidelines.

Managed to squeeze in one more book before the end of the year. No. 92 If Looks Could Kill by Olivia Kiernan

I enjoyed this book but have read a couple of hers which were better.

Set in Ireland, a local woman, mother of 2, goes missing. The investigation shows that this is a family built on lies.