THE BRAND NEW 2024 50 BOOK CHALLENGE

Book 19
I Still Dream about you - Fannie Flagg
A sweet feel good novel.
Maggie was many years ago crowned Miss Alabama, a defining moment in her life, which she expected to bring fame and fortune, but actually only brought a long affair with a married man.
Now, approaching retirement she works in real estate in her hometown of Birmingham.
She has dear friends, but her life seems empty, so very methodically she sets out to end it, only to have the big day pushed back time after time by circumstances.
It’s an old fashioned tale, Maggie is a character who is not only beautiful, but kind and honourable, all the characters apart from Babs, the rival real estate
agent, are likeable.
It’s a bit slow, but humorous and sweet, on the whole, enjoyable

Book 44 The Leavers by Lisa Ko - an 11 year old Chinese American boy’s mother goes to work one day and never comes back. The boy is adopted by an American couple who give him an American name and he grows up as the only Chinese boy in his town. It’s told in the voices of the boy and his mother and we learn about the lives of undocumented immigrants struggling to survive and make a better life. Very readable. I enjoyed it.

The Man W ho Wasn`t There, by Hjorth and Rosenfeldt. It`s a Scandi-noir type book, OK, but the ending left me feeling dissatisfied.

Sorry, should have said, that was book 61.

No 11. Life In The Balance by Dr Jim Down. He tells the stories of life in a London ICU where he is a consultant.

I’m quite scared of ever needing ICU care now - it sounds awful!

Sarah1954 - I love all the Fanny Flagg books.

Book 18: Murder in a Welsh Town by Pippa McCathie

Book 18: Murder in a Welsh Town by Pippa McCathie

I might try those, Nonny

#26. Reading In Bed by Sue Gee.

#14 was The Secrets of Hartwood Hall by Katie Lumsden. It was very well written and atmospheric -a modern take on Jane Eyre, but so much more than that. A governess, with secrets of her own, takes a position to tutor a young boy at the forbidding Hartwood Hall. I enjoyed the many twists and turns but felt the ending was just a little too much 21st century. That aside, I can still recommend it.

25-Private Rogue-James Patterson. A fast moving story where the family of a US Marine pilot is kidnapped because of something he has done. Jack Morgan's investigation company called 'Private' are tasked with finding them.

Book 62, Triumph of the Shipyard Girls, by Nancy Revell, one of an ongoing series.

I have read some fairly rubbish books since I last reported but I find the bad books help me drop off to sleep!

However the next 3 are, for me, the best books I have read this year so far.

13 Homecoming Kate Morton, I like Kate Morton. I was a little dissappointed by The Clockmaker's Daughter, but Homecoming is, I think, one of her best books. 2018 and Jess goes back to Australia to be with her seriously ill grandmother and discovers an old family tragedy from 1959 that has never been solved. The book slips between present day and the 1950s and sums up the way the events affected the family and the town.

14. The Winners Fredrik Backman. I didn't expect to be so engrossed in the story of two towns both obsessed with their ice hockey teams but I absolutely loved this book. The characters all come alive and make you want good things to happen to them, even though there are hints that there might not be a happy ending.

I then downloaded Beartown by the same author but realised I probably should have read it first and the events in The Winners were still too much in my head, so I have put it to one side for now. Instead I read:

15 Anxious People again by Fredrik Backman. Completely different type of story about an inept bank robber with 6 hostages. Complete strangers coming together in a stressful situation, much funnier than it sounds! 2 policemen who happen to be father and son trying to make sense of it all.

#22 was Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead. I’ve read a couple of his books before (The Underground Railroad and the Nickel Boys) and loved them, but I didn’t really enjoy this one at all.
Set in early 60s Harlem, Ray Carney is a small time furniture store owner trying to make his way amongst the crime, racial prejudice and corruption of the time. The writing is as good as ever, I just didn’t enjoy the story and it became bit of an endurance test. 7/10

I noticed some comments about Fannie Flagg. I read all her novels some years ago and loved them.

Book 45 Rachel Again by Marian Keyes - I read Rachel’s Holiday years ago and loved it. I enjoyed Rachel Again but it was too long and far too much mention of expensive brand names.

20 The Minotaur - Barbara Vine (Audible)

Revisiting some of the works of my favourite author of the psychological crime genre, I have yet to find a writer who can better her.

Swedish 20 something Kerstin (pronounced Shastin) arrives at Lydstep Hall, a Gothic pile of a mansion in rural Essex to take on an unconventional au pair role to a grown man, John Cosway. His strange behaviour is explained by his mother and sisters as a form of madness, he is kept in a compliant stupor of over medication from barbiturates supplied by local GP who also happens to be his mother's lover. The family dynamics of four warring sisters and an imperious matriarch are the trials and tribulations Kerstin has to deal with, whilst simultaneously sympathetically empathising with her charge who she soon realises from her own medical background as a trained nurse, the over medication is having a detrimental affect on his well being. Into that mix comes a womanising artist who is simultaneously having affairs with two of the sisters, one who is engaged to be married to the local vicar. The story is related from the perspective of Kerstin as an elderly woman looking back some 50 years to her time at Lydstep Hall in the 1960s and the tragedy that happened whilst she was there. This was a time when very little was known about Autism, and retrospectively knowing that the condition John had was Asperger's Syndrome and not schizophrenia as was thought at the time.

#17 The Elfor Drop R R Haywood. An audiobook narrated by Colin Morgan.
Second in the Code series. A fleet of 40 giant ships have been travelling through space for over 100 years, since a meteor destroyed Earth, searching for a new planet. The descendents of stowaways known as Elforists still live unregistered and despised in the bowels of one of the ships. In book one an opportunistic thief from the Elfors with help from a genius hacker and coder inadvertently steals a secret code indicating that such a planet exists. The second book is about the fallout from the theft and the worsening situation between the Elforists and 'regular' residents. This is a sci-fi book but is actually about politics, power and violence and could be taking place in any large Earth city. It is extremely violent and the language is 😲. In spite of that it is darkly funny and brilliantly narrated. I enjoyed it.

14. The Foundling, Stacey Halls
Bess leaves her day old baby at London’s Foundling Hospital, believing that she would have a better life there than Bess could offer her, and always promising herself that one day she’ll be in a position to claim her back. When the day comes, six years later, she is horrified to find that Clara was claimed the day after she left her, by a complete stranger. She then has to find out who this was, where Clara is and how to get her back. I enjoyed this book, and learned a lot about the hard lives lived in eighteenth century London. Bess works long hard hours as a seafood seller, carrying heavy loads of boiled shrimps on her head, with the hot, pungent water trickling down her neck. Her brother is a crossing sweeper, which actually just meant that he clears up after the horses. The ending seems a bit rushed, and not of the same standard as the rest of the book. I’d still recommend it as a good read.
15. The Night She Disappeared, Lisa Jewell
Two teenage parents go out to their local one night and never return. Two years later a sign appears on a tree in the local woods - Dig Here. It’s found by a newcomer to the village, an author of cosy crime. She follows the instruction, and finds herself embroiled in the mystery of the missing couple. It’s not the best Lisa Jewell I’ve read, and some of the “clues” are so laughably obvious you’ve got to wonder why nobody else - police included - have worked them out on sight. But it kept me reading!

Book 63, Past Lying, by Val McDermid. A great read, she really is the British first lady of thriller writers!

#27. Faithful Unto Death by Caroline Graham.

Book 29 The Running Grave by Robert Galbraith.

I can't say I enjoyed this book as I found it a bit depressing and miserable. I really needed something more cheerful.

Book 15 A Death In the Parish by Richard Coles. I quite enjoyed his first book but I am about 80 pages into this one and the writing is so clunky that I have to keep looking back a few pages to identify who the improbable characters are. I can't decide which decade it is meant to be set in either. Disappointing so far but I will persevere for a few more chapters before I ditch it.

Parsley3 I have given up with Richard Coles books. I think he's trying to be another Richard Osman but not succeeding.

I like him and enjoyed his autobiography and grief books but not his fiction.

I have too now, Sparklefizz. I gave up on it this morning.

Book 19:Murder of a Gentleman by Pippa McCathie the last in a series of five books. I hope that you enjoy them Calendargirl! An easy read . Reading is like a tranquilizer and an escape from reality!

The Last Letter from Your Lover by Jojo Moyes

It was marked as unread on my Kindle although it's quite an old book; having got partway through I realised I had read it years ago but couldn't really remember it. Slow to start but really picks up and is very absorbing.