The Not So New 2024 50 Books a Year - Thread 2

38 Our Endless Numbered Days - Claire Fuller

I didn't really like this book, having read a couple of others by the author, one in particular that I found excellent. This is the story of a young girl Peggy, set mid '70s when she is aged about 7 or 8, living in North London with her successful, German pianist mother, and her English father some 7 years younger, when as a good looking 17 year old when he captures Ute's heart, having done nothing much more in life than turn her sheet music at concert halls when required.. Ute is the breadwinner, and James the father spends most of his days meeting up with a group of friends making plans for a post apocalyptic world, also a theme in The Bee Sting. A marital crisis trigger, sends father and daughter ostensibly off on a European holiday, but ultimately to some remote forest deep in Bavaria way off the beaten track. Dad has been told about "Die Hutte" which roughly translates to shack and this is where they spend the next decade eeking out an existence living off squirrels, rabbits, fish and berries, plentiful in the summer, but as their supplies dwindle in the winter reducing them to near starvation levels, young Peggy often in the throes of hunger whiles away those cold days dreaming constantly of her mother's food such apflekuchen .Father James spins her the line that everyone in the world is dead including her mother. The novel is told in flashback, Peggy back home at the age of 17 when a decade has passed and the time setting is now the mid '80s. In the meantime a younger brother was born just after her departure who she is getting to know. The tale is one of survivalists, Peggy embracing their new lives at first when they draw together.As time rolls on her rebellious spirit emerges whilst father James becomes increasingly batshit and eventually as she rebels, resenting their life and no longer hangs on his every word, an inevitable chasm opens up between them, leading to a shocking conclusion.

Followed “The King Must Die” (an interesting take on the mythology of the Minotaur) and followed it up with “The Bull From the Sea”, the rest of the Theseus story, which is a great adventure story and also one of the most beautiful and tragic love stories you will ever read.

#58. A Town Called Solace by Mary Lawson.

Two very different books on the go just now.
Keith Starmer the biography by Tom Baldwin and Resurrection Walk by Michael Connelly.

Calendargirl

#58. A Town Called Solace by Mary Lawson.

Did you enjoy it Calendargirl ?

Books 36 snd 37
The House at Seas End - Elly Griffiths
Ruth Galloway and Harry Nelson with a cast of characters I’m becoming familiar with, and enjoying.
This story involves a macabre discovery on a bleak stretch of coastline, Ruth is struggling to do her job and look after baby Kate, she’s such a likeable character, clever, dedicated, kind but insecure, and struggling to juggle life’s demands.
Always feel a bit bereft at the end of one of Elly Griffiths books, looking forward to getting around to the next one.

Old Rage - Sheila Hancock
Without becoming a Superstar, she’d had a fulfilling life as an actor, very versatile and seemingly not too proud to have a go at anything.
She’s also as the title suggests, full of rage, she rages against the government, hating the elite Tory government headed by Johnson.
She writes about her constant battle with RA and her miserable lockdown experience, her lovely family, eccentric friends, and of course her wonderful husband John Thaw
I liked her, I think I could get along with her, but maybe that’s because I’m a bit of a grumpy old woman myself now.

Book 36: The Booksellers Tale by Ann Swinfen Set in Oxford after the black death.
Book 37: The Last Bus to Woodstock by Colin Dexter- the first book in the Inspector Morse series.

Sara1954 I, too, liked Sheila Hancock’s ‘Old Rage’. It struck me as being very honest and unpretentious. I wonder if I’m also a bit of a grumpy old woman too … don’t ask my family!!

Parsley3, I loved Resurrection Walk, I think I`ve aged alongside Harry Bosch!

Clicked in error.
Book 122, The Golden Library, by Scott Mariani. Set in China, I loved it.

56-The Old Ducks Club-Maddie Please-How unusual to discover a story that's written about 4 over 60's ladies on holiday in Rhodes. It's a lesson in friendships, romance and bravery, showing us all that being 60 is not too old to have fun. A delight to read.

32. Because of You, Dawn French
Drawn in again by the rave reviews, I tried my second Dawn French novel. I didn’t find it any more to my liking than According to Yes. I’m a cynical old bat, and I just thought it was very twee and formulaic, with annoying one dimensional characters and a very daft plot. ironically, I thought the worst scenes in the book were the ones that were supposed to be funny. I used to like Dawn French on the TV, but I think I’ll give her books a wide berth in future.

39 They Thought I was Dead - Peter James

Anyone who has read the Roy Grace series will know that, disappeared wife Sandy is a reoccurring theme in many of the books. The fact that she was never really dead and was always omnipresent watching over Roy's life from afar dripped in little tantalising sequels gave some of his books an edge.. So no spoilers! Sandy was always complicated, never quite what she seemed on the surface, where did she go? to up sticks and leave her whole life behind and what triggered that impulse. He certainly kept that sub plot going on, a tad too long imo before much of that was revealed in later books. Not everything though! because many of the answers as to what happened are in this book. Her shady back history, her compulsions and addictions and her foray in being sucked into a criminal underworld.. The villains, as always with Peter James books are larger than life, truly horrible and sometimes unnecessarily sadistic. Sandy gets in way above her head, whilst pregnant with the much longed for child that was lacking from her marriage to Roy. The book gallops along at speed with short sharp chapters, Peter James never drops the momentum. Definitely a book for fans of the Roy Grace series, better than some of the others imo.

sequels sequences

Book 49 The Other Woman by Daniel Silva.
This was a random pick when I was in the library collecting reservations, and it's the first book by this author that I've read.

I thorough enjoyed it. It's a spy novel - not my usual genre - and is like James Bond but more realistic and without the misogyny. This book is part of the Gabriel Allon series, a character who heads the Israeli Secret Services.

A mysterious Frenchwoman living in isolation in the mountains in Spain begins a dangerous memoir telling the story of a man she once loved in Beirut, and a child taken from her and introduced to treason. The woman is the keeper of the Kremlin's most closely guarded secret. Long ago the KGB inserted a mole into the heart of the West.

I will definitely be reading more in this series.

Book 38
O Caledonia - Elspeth Barker
Loved this, it’s very poignant from the beginning, because we already know that Janet’s life will end at 16
Janet, the oldest of five children, the odd one, the plain one, the clever one, Janet has little time for people, especially her parents and siblings, but has a deep love for animals and nature, but most of all her books and her devoted jackdaw.
Home is a Scottish castle which doubles as a boys boarding school, cold, dilapidated but surrounded in beautiful wild countryside, Janet wishes to be nowhere else.
Janet broke my heart, so lonely, so misunderstood, I wanted a happy ending, but knew that wasn’t going to happen.

#49 was Hit and Run by Doug Johnstone.
Set in Edinburgh, as many of his books are. Driving home from a party with his girlfriend and brother, Billy accidentally hits a stranger. In a panic because he shouldn’t have been driving, they drive off. The next day Billy, a journalist, finds he has been assigned to cover the hit and run story for the local paper. From that point on, Billy’s life spirals out of control as he struggles to comes to terms with what he did.
I didn’t enjoy this as much as Doug Johnstone’s other books. The characters made such terrible decisions at every turn. The writing was good, but it just didn’t sit well with me. 7/10

I’ve just finished Ellie Griffiths’ last book, I had already read a couple of the short stories published elsewhere. It was good to find out what happened to Ruth and Nelson.

Susie42
I only discovered Elly Griffiths a year or so ago, I’m trying to space them out so I’ve always got the next one to look forward to

Book 123, A Mother`s Sorrow, by Margaret Dickinson. Set during WW1, not a bad read, but yet another fanciful title.

Sparklefizz

Calendargirl

#58. A Town Called Solace by Mary Lawson.

Did you enjoy it Calendargirl ?

I’ve just finished it. Yes, I did enjoy it when I got into it.

I was hoping things turned out ok for Liam in the end- glad they did.

Book 124, Goodbye Mersey View, by Lyn Andrews. I enjoyed this, it gives a good insight into life during WW2.

#59. Good Girl, Bad Blood by Holly Jackson.

It has been a while since I last posted about the books I have been reading, so here are my latest reads …

No.23. - Too Many Reasons to Live by Rob Burrow. I bought this just two days before Rob died. It covers his rugby career and a short period after his MND diagnosis. What an inspirational person.

No. 24. - The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath. I recently read a biography of Sylvia Plath so wanted to read her novel. It is autobiographical to a certain extent. I enjoyed it.

No. 25. - Blue Sisters by Coco Mellors. This was an ‘impulse read’, I just saw it listed in the Library catalogue. It was ok.

No. 26. - The Shetland Bus by David Howarth. This book recounts the journeys of the small fishing boats which travelled across the North Sea between Shetland and Norway during WW2, taking weapons and supplies to Norway and returning with refugees. Fascinating.

Strange Sally Diamond by Liz Nugent.
Thank you Terribull for recommending this stunningly disturbing book!!
I have to say I enjoyed it despite its horrific content.
Sallys character is mesmerising and rightly strange.
The book is sad, emotional, dark, horrific, funny and at times took your breath away.
What an imagination Liz Nugent has, it was unputdownable.