2023 - Book Challenge - Second thread

#56 Romancing Mr Bridgerton Julia Quinn.
This is number 4, Colin's story, in a series about the romances of eight siblings. Netflix have a series about them. My sister in law gave me all eight: "Because you love Georgette Heyer". They are not a patch on G H but I suppose I will continue. Not yet though, my next read will be sci-fi.

#75 People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks
I enjoyed this, except for one short gory scene in the middle (I'm not good with those).

Hanna Heath is a rare-book restorer, and she's asked to restore a medieval Jewish prayer book which has been recovered from the smouldering ruins of war-torn Sarajevo.

She becomes very interested in the hidden history of this ancient book and begins researching tiny clues she finds - a hair, salt crystals and wine stains.

The background to this is a romance and also her difficult relationship with her mother.

It's a very interesting book and the author must have done a tremendous amount of research. I recommend it if you like history and foreign places. I really enjoyed it.

44 Blowing the Bloody Doors Off and Other Life Lessons by Michael Caine. Part memoir and part lessons he’s learnt through his long life. It’s nicely written although his memoirs are not that deep, they really skate over his life, though I felt it was enough to me. The ‘lessons’ were interesting, how he worked out how to find the positive in the negative and the benefits of giving even the worst job your best effort and doing it with a smile on your face. It was a bit repetitive at times and there was a lot of name dropping, all of whom were marvellous, wonderful, excellent and other descriptors, but overall, it’s a good read.

87-Blue Lightning-Ann Cleeves. Another in the Shetland series, based around birdwatchers on Fair Isle. Jimmy Perez is here visiting his parents with fiancee Fran, when he is compelled to investigate a murder. Although he's off duty, the weather is too bad for police to get there from Lerwick. As no-one can get off the island he knows that the murderer is there and he must find the culprit before they can escape.
This book really gripped me and I couldn't put it down.

Grandmattie, I recently finished Dark Tides by Philippa Gregory, and there were two characters in the New World that were being hidden, so I assume the same two men? Interesting. I know PG does a lot of research as well.

Book 50
Bewilderment - Richard Powers
This really is an extraordinary book, set in a dysfunctional future, but I don’t think very far into the future, I could be wrong, it was hard to tell.
Theo is an astrobiologist, a widower with a young son Robin.
Robin is special, possibly autistic, ADHD, and is struggling. It seems that parents rights have been eroded to the point where he can be forcibly medicated if there are too many incidents at school.
But besides his massive meltdowns, he is passionate about the natural world, and is unbearably angry that so many species are becoming extinct.
Dreading intervention from the state, Theo takes him to a colleague who suggests a revolutionary treatment using AI, despite Theo’s reservations, the results are amazing, and a period of calm follows.
But it can’t last, and it continues to an unbearably sad ending.
The relationship between man and boy is beautifully written, as is the understanding of Robins personality.
Really lovely book, would recommend.

grandMattie Yes, I really enjoyed "Oblivion" too. And I know he does a great deal of research so I feel I can trust his historical facts.

Just finishing a very good book by Robert Harris, “Act of Oblivion “. It’s about the relentless search for the “regicides”, the signatories of Charles I’s executions under Oliver Cromwell, and how two of them managed to escape to the new world.

No. 74 Fortune's Rocks by Anita Shreve

I have read several of her books and usually think of them as a light read, but Fortune's Rocks is her best book in my opinion. It's one of those books that I didn't want to finish as I was enjoying it so much.

It tells the story of a girl's sensual awakening at the age of 15 in 1899 in New Hampshire, USA, and what happens in her life over the next decade. It tells of families and a love story, the characters vividly expressed and rounded with all their faults and failings.

I enjoyed being drawn into the atmosphere of that era, and it will be a hard book to follow.

Learned By Heart by Emma Donoghue. A young Anne Lister (Gentleman Jack) meets Eliza Raine at boarding school in the early 1800s. I loved this, the story whirled along all of the characters vivid and the author's notes at the end made me want to find out even more about Anne.

58 Coming To Find You - Jane Corry Reasonably good thriller. After the murder of her mother and step father by her step brother and his subsequent incarceration, the main female character, Nancy takes off to her late grandmother's Regency house in Sidmouth, Devon to take refuge away from the glare of publicity. Whilst at the house, she discovers that during the war, it harboured its own secrets whilst used as a boarding house and home to some evacuee children from the London Blitz. Two stories simultaneously unfold from the two time spans. In the present what actually happened the night of the murder and the events that lead up to it and during the 1940s who was the person who lived at the Devon house as shown in records and mysteriously disappeared never to be seen again!

59 If Looks Could Kill - Olivia Kiernan, set in the writer's native Dublin featuring her Detective Frankie Sheehan who is summoned to the outlying Wicklow Mountains to search for a missing woman where foul play is suspected. Quite good initially, but a bit too much gangland stuff towards the latter part of the book which tends to leave me a bit disinterested.

60 The Running Grave - I've only just started it, I gather it's one of her best so will crack on, although I'll be a while I imagine before I'm back here!!!! Calendar Girl has a head start

86-Run Rose Run-James Patterson and Dolly Parton. Predictably a story of a country girl's rise to fame in the music business. It set me wondering if some of the details may have come from Dolly's own experiences. It's a thriller-cum-romance so quite readable.

Book 49
After the Funeral - Tessa Hadley
This is an anthology of short stories.
I’m not really keen on short stories, nothing to really get into, just a few observations about people’s lives, and no real endings.
This was no exception, they all seemed to run into one another, hard to separate one story from another, now I’ve finished I can’t separate them.

I haven't kept track of all my books so far this year, but I read 2 or 3 per month.

I've started reading Homecoming by Kate Morton and so far enjoying it. I love her detailed descriptions. This is a book group pick, and I had read a previous book of hers, The Clockmaker's Daughter and enjoyed it.

I just finished None of This is True by Lisa Jewell. I enjoy her books; the stories move along well with a twist at the end.

Okeydoke Calendargirl. I look forward to it.

Sparklefizz

What did you think of it Calendargirl ?

Oh, I post when I start a book, not finish it!

I must do it in the wrong order!

I have read the first 60 or so pages, out of over 900, and am hooked!

Will give you my review when completed.

Book 47
Our King - Robert Jobson
A very complimentary book about our king.
Nothing new in there, apart from an insight into the young prince’s behaviour, not so complimentary
But our King is one of my heroes, so I enjoyed it.

Book 48
To Dream of the Dead - Phil Rickman
I love a Merrily Watkins.
This one was a bit lacking in deliverance, and more about police procedures, but all the usual characters were there, and it was a good story.

I have The Running Grave on my TBR pile, but after struggling through Ink Black Heart, I’m leaving it for a while.

What did you think of it Calendargirl ?

#55. The Running Grave by Robert Galbraith.

I'll take a look at Scrublands. Thanks SueDonim

No 43. Scrublands by Chris Hammer. A most enjoyable Australian noir.

#73 The Housekeepers by Alex Hay

This is his debut novel and I enjoyed it very much.

Upstairs Madam is planning the party of the season.
Downstairs the servants are plotting the heist of the century.
They say "We came with nothing but we leave with everything."
Never under-estimate the women downstairs.

This is a glamorous heist set in 1905-06 and it's great fun.

Calendargirl Yes, I found "The Ink Black Heart" heavy going too, and really didn't like all those messages. If her latest book has a similar format, I won't be bothering with it. I await your review TerriBull.

Thanks Terribull.

Have read some reviews, ‘best one in the series’ was a frequent comment.

I found ‘The Ink Black Heart’ a bit heavy going, not keen on all the ‘chat’ in it.

#62 was Waste of a Life by Simon Brett. A nice, easy cosy mystery, which l enjoyed very much.

We bought it Calendargirl, half price in Waterstones, my husband is a third of the way through, it's another one of her 900 plus pages. Very good he tells me, her last one not so good. Over on MN there is a thread is this the best Strike ever? So enjoy, I'll be starting it soonish.