Recent reading all Scottish authors. Not intentionally, just worked out that way.
# 7. S.G.Maclean: The Bookseller of Inverness.
Historical fiction. Aftermath of Culloden. Jacobite Iain MacGillivray and his father Hector. Settling of old scores. Well written and well plotted.
# 8. Callum McSorley: Squeaky Clean.
Winner of the McIlvanney Prize: Scottish Crime Book of the Year. Tartan noir. Great Glasgow dialect. Strong stomach required.
After this , something gentler was called for 
# 9. Sara Sheridan: The Fair Botanists.
A really good read, set in Edinburgh, 1822
# 10. Alexander McCall Smith: A Distant View of Everything. An Isabel Dalhousie Novel. Gentle easy read.
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Books/book club
THE BRAND NEW 2024 50 BOOK CHALLENGE
(1001 Posts)Good Morning and a Happy New Year to all.
Well here it is on this new year's day, the brand new 50 book challenge and hope that all our regular posters will continue to contribute and anyone new who enjoys their books will consider joining us.
For the benefit of anyone who isn't familiar with this thread, I will run through my introductory spiel. Firstly I would like to point out that if you are someone who thinks that you wouldn't read 50 books in a year but would still be interested in joining in, don't let that number put you off, do come here and join us anyway, particularly if you think you would enjoy ongoing discussions about books which is the essence of this book challenge. This is a thread that I filched from MN, over there they have two threads running concurrently, one for 50 books a year and one for 25. Our reading community here on GN is relatively small so I think it's preferable to keep us as one group allowing for the fact that we all read at different rates, given time constraints or whatever else we have going on in our lives.
The choice of books you opt for is entirely up to you, anything is permissible, fiction, non fiction and I would particularly like to stress your reading material doesn't have to be a novel if you want to opt for something factual, biographies, memoirs, even a children's book if you want to revisit a childhood favourite maybe, audio/Audible. Again how you post is down to you, merely list your books, maybe a brief description, or feel free to waffle on, I do, particularly if I've been enthused about a book I've read. Sometimes we interject and comment on other posters choices, more often than not agreeing with their opinions, and taking up recommendations, occasionally interjecting with our own dislike of maybe one they have favoured, but always with a view of agreeing to disagree. Books as with most other forms of entertainment are subjective and will of course divide opinions as well.
I hope I have outlined all the relevant points for anyone who is contemplating joining us and I would like to wish everyone a happy year's reading and all the best for 2024.
#13. Death Comes To Marlow by Robert Thorogood.
TerriBull, you might enjoy Breathe, but it wasn’t for me.
Well it's my intention to read some more of Joyce Carol Oates this year, having only dipped my toe into her works, bu I'll give Breath a miss and opt for We were the Mulvaneys I think.
Book 12
Breathe - Joyce Carol Oates
I really didn’t like this book one bit.
Michaela and Gerard move to New Mexico, Gerard, an esteemed Harvard professor, is to take up a position at the Institute.
But Gerard is very quickly hospitalised with a fatal cancer which will rapidly kill him.
The first part of the book sees Gerard diminishing daily, and Michaela keeping a vigil by his bedside.
When Gerard dies Michaela is a widow in denial. I don’t know if I wasn’t interested enough, but I was constantly confused, things I thought had happened would turn out to be only her thoughts or dreams, and I never really separated fact from fiction.
Even the ending I failed to understand.
Joyce Carol Oates, one of my favourite writers, but this I found depressing and confusing.
Book 35, Angel`s Wish, by Sheila Newberry.
Book 11: The Shadows of London by Andrew Taylor - This is the last book in this series. I very much enjoyed it. The history of the period is cleverly woven into the fictitious plot. I hope that another book will be added to this series.
That was no.16. After 2 violent USA stories I need a change so starting a Kitty Neale now, set in London 1939.
Come and Get Us-JamesPatterson. A Bookshot short story this one. A family heading out on holiday are driven off the road down a cliff. It seemed to be deliberate but why would a lawyer be targeted? Could it be anything to do with the fracking oil company he works for?
Sparklefizz
I am so happy you enjoyed The Hours of the Night, I agree with everything you’ve said, it’s so poignantly beautiful.
It is on my top ten ever book list
Forgot to mention the author Gabrielle Zevin
12 Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow
This is one of a handful of books that I got for Christmas and wouldn't have been a natural choice for me and certainly has been a best seller for quite a while. Putting my preconceived ideas aside that a book with gaming as a central theme wasn't something I would find particularly interesting, it turned out to be a really engrossing and at times a moving book.
The story opens in the mid eighties, Sam and Sadie meet as children in a hospital setting when she is there whilst her sister is having ongoing treatment for leukemia and Sam is a patient with some catastrophic injuries in the aftermath of a car accident,. Sadie, whilst hanging around the corridors, is directed by a nurse to a games room in which she meets Sam playing Super Mario and we learn this is the first time he has spoken and interacted with anyone since his accident. In the coming together of their enjoyment of games a friendship is borne that spans 30 years.
They bump into each other, again by chance, years later in Boston where they are now at two of the most prestigious universities in the US, Sam at Harvard and Sadie and MIT. Once again their spark is reignited by their mutual love of gaming and decide to write and produce their own game which subsequently becomes an instant success on its launch and makes them both a lot of money before they have even graduated. The money is more important to Sam, unlike Sadie he comes from a background where money is tight, at a later stage we learn that in the car accident which badly damaged his foot, his mother had died alongside him and he was brought up by his kindly Korean grandparents who had made financial sacrifices to send him to university.
Eventually Sadie and Sam go from success to success in the development of further games and forming a company with Sam's roommate and best friend Marx who is also a pivotal character. . Gaming aside at the heart of this book is a love story, but not in a conventional sense, this is essentially a friendship that somehow misses the right time to turn their obvious feelings for each other into something deeper. Sam often shuts himself off and prefers to deal alone with the ongoing physical pain of a very damaged foot which eventually has to be amputated because of a series of infections which he is advised have the potential to lead to sepsis. . Similarly, at times, Sadie also switches off from the world to deal with bouts of ongoing depression. Into that mix, their relationship is sometimes further strained by fame, rivalries, jealousies and feelings of betrayal and the loss of their partner Marx who Sadie has gone on to form a relationship with, although their mutual deep love for each other never entirely leaves them.
In spite of the central theme of gaming not being of much interest to me, I remember my children spending time on things called "Metal Gear Solid" and "Grand Theft Auto" both of which are mentioned in the book. I'm glad to say they didn't spend too much time closeted in darkened rooms in those pursuits, whereas a friend's son, ten years or so younger spent inordinate amounts of time doing just that. Gaming has such a huge reach, a multi million dollar industry, in fact almost certainly a billion dollar industry, and that does come across in this book. I always thought living in a virtual world as opposed to the real world was a waste of life, unless of course you are like the characters in the book and developing your own games, but again that totally consumes them.
The title of the book, conjured up a futuristic feel but I was surprised to learn that it was taken from a soliloquy from Macbeth, in an excerpt that slots very cleverly into the narrative.
Certainly an unusual book it had a filmic quality about it, I could imagine it being turned into a production for say Netflix sometime in the future..In spite of reservations, I enjoyed it and thought it was a beautifully crafted novel.
Sara1954 Thank you so much for recommending The Hours of the Night by Sue Gee.
My goodness, I thought her book Reading in Bed was terrific, but The Hours of the Night is even better .... so poignant, so tender, so profound. She has a gift of creating a sense of place. I could feel myself in that countryside, walking past those hedgerows ... the sheep. Wonderful. Such beautiful writing. I have just finished reading it over breakfast and I'm in tears.
I try not to buy books these days but my library didn't have Hours so I bought a 2nd hand copy from World of Books. I'm so glad I own it as I know I'll want to read it again in the future.
Goodness knows how I'll follow this book with something else. Sigh.
Book 10 The Only Suspect by Louise Candlish. I do like this author as her plots are riddled with surprising twists and turns.
I am finally able to post more. It has been very hectic here and my reading has become much slower as a result.
#7 was Showstopper by Peter Lovesey, the latest outing for DI Peter Diamond. As ever, a murder mystery combined with a lot of humour. Peter Lovesey remains one of my favourite authors.
#8 was The Blackbird by Tim Weaver. This was a gripping thriller featuring David Raker, who is a private investigator finding missing persons,
#9 was Little Disasters by Sarah Vaughan, A psychological thriller.
All three books were worth five stars in my opinion and l can thoroughly recommend them.
15-Three Women Disappear-James Patterson. When a mob accountant is found murdered, three women are suspected, but where are they? His wife, his chef and his maid all have reasons to want him dead. Is Detective Walsh to be trusted to find them?
Book 34, The Institution, by Helen Fields. Set in a detention centre in the middle of nowhere, for murderers who are destined never to be released. A cracking good read, can highly recommend it.
#12. Suffer In Silence by Jack Cartwright.
Small Mercies by Dennis Lehane - Wow, this was an amazing read. It’s 1974 in Boston when the schools are about to be desegregated. The Irish community are up in arms. One night Mary Pat’s 17 year old daughter doesn’t come home and a young Black man is found dead in mysterious circumstances. The racism is shocking and Mary Pat’s quest for the truth and vengeance is unremittingly savage. I was totally absorbed and read it in one go.
Book 11
Jane Seymour, The Haunted Queen - Alison Weir
This is , obviously, the third in the Six Tudor Queens series.
I enjoy anything involving the Tudor Court, and I enjoyed this one, but there was a lot of overlap with the Anne Boleyn book, same story different perspective.
I also found Jane Seymour rather dull, and a bit hypocritical, Annne, obviously not a good person is nevertheless far more interesting to read about.
Of course there are no surprises, we all know the end. I didn’t enjoy it as much as Katherine and Anne, but will still carry on with the series, I’m thinking with the first three Queens dead, there won’t be such an overlap with the next one.
Book 27 The Unfinished Business of Eadie Browne by Freya North. I should have abandoned this book but kept on to the end. It was a coming of age novel with a great deal of nostalgia for being a student in Manchester in the 80’s. I found it overly sentimental and trite. Others may enjoy it but it’s just not for me.
#10 Sister Rosamund Lupton.
Two sisters Beatrice and Tess, very different but very close. Beatrice flies over from New York when Tess goes missing. Tess is subsequently found dead in a park toilet, suicide is the official verdict. Beatrice alone does not believe this and sets out to prove that her sister has been murdered. The story is told in both first person narrative and second person when Bea is talking or writing to Tess.
I have read a couple of the author's books through recommendations from this thread and really enjoyed them so when I found this, the author's debut, I had high hopes. Those hopes were justified, it is a wonderful book.
Book 33, The Secrets of Mill House, a great thriller by Anne Wyn Clark.
#14 was non fiction Grandma Gatewood’s Walk - the inspiring story of the woman who saved the Appalachian Trail by Ben Montgomery .
The true story of Emma Gatewood, a 67 year old mother of 11 and grandmother or 23, a survivor of 30 years of domestic abuse, who, in 1955, became the first woman to walk the 2050 mile Appalachian Trail in the US. She went on to complete it another twice.
A great read for any GNs who are hikers, it’s a fascinating read.
Six years ago, at the age of 59, I walked some day sections of the trail and met people who were “thru hikers” walking the trail end to end. They were all young and fit with huge backpacks. Emma Gatewood was the exact opposite, with only tennis shoes and a home made duffel bag she carried on one shoulder.
#10 Anybody Out There - Marian Keyes.
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