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

Thanks for coming back Sarah, I will look out for the books you've mentioned, so impressed with JCO's writing I'm making her one of a handful of authors I intend to read more of.

TerriBull, I can’t remember specifically what I said, but the last JCO book I read was My Sister, My Love, which shows American society at its most dysfunctional, I loved it.
I would also recommend A Book of American Martyrs, a really good read.

TerriBull

Come back and let us know what you thought of it when you've read it Sparklefizz

Will do. There's only one person ahead of me in the queue for it at the library.

Come back and let us know what you thought of it when you've read it Sparklefizz

PS. I love Vanity Fair. We studied it for A Level.

I had just reserved The Romantic when I read your review TerriBull. I think I'm going to love it. I've enjoyed other William Boyd books. Hope I won't have to wait too long for the library to get it in!

Lady GaGa do give The Romantic a go, it was a wonderful read and great for a holiday.

Sarah, it was riveting, only my 2nd book by her, but I certainly want to read more of her books. I seem to remember a while ago you said there was one of JCO's you liked the best, at least I think that was you. If you read this what was it? Save me trawling back.

Thanks TerriBull I was wondering what to read on my holiday next week. I’ll definitely give The Romantic a go - I’ve read a few William Boyd’s and loved them.
I’m about half way through the The Cider House Rules by John Irving. I found The World According to Garp extraordinary. I’m not really into this one as much - it’s a bit disturbing at the beginning- but I’m hoping that once I have time on hol that will change.

TerriBull, I also really enjoyed The Babysitter, I love her books.

Book 156, The Figurine, by Victoria Hislop. I love her books set inGreece, apart from one, Cartes Postales from Greece, that one bored me.

60 Babysitter - Joyce Carol Oates

Brilliantly dark and disturbing, a page turner I found very hard to put down.

Hannah Jarrett is a glamorous 40 year Stepford type of wife to a prominent local businessman in the affluent suburbs of Detroit. The setting is 1977, the race riots of a decade have left the city a tinderbox that could be reignited at any time. Hannah who feels neglected by her husband often away on business and who she suspects plays away from home, spends much of her time attending charity functions. Her days are unfulfilled, minimal child care for her two young children, much on the domestic front being taken care by her Filiipino house keeper/maid. A chance meeting with a dark swarthy stranger at one such event, who lightly touches her wrist and draws her in with a sideways glance leads the susceptible Hannah to an affair that will have dangerous ramifications and lead to the gradual implosion of her safe, comfortable life. Meanwhile, a child killer stalks the environs of Detroit and when a wealthy couple are savagely murdered in their own home the well heeled suburban residents, Hannah's husband included, are to wrongly believe these crimes are racially motivated. All the while Hannah's life is spiralling out of control. Her liaisons with her shadowy lover, known only to her as YK, vague about his origins and with a slight foreign inflection to his accent are to leave her so bruised and bloodied she barely escapes with her life. Having survived one such assignation and determined to draw a line under them. All the while her husband is becoming increasingly suspicious of her injuries and comatose state and quite wrongly assumes she has been attacked by a black member of hotel staff where she was last seen, that unsubstantiated rumour producing a fatal outcome. Hannah's resolve is short lived when her lover persistently re-emerges in her life drawing her in with an altogether more sympathetic persona proving to be an attraction she cannot resist and under his influence she is to become increasingly malleable and reckless. Another child abduction leads her to wonder what his tenuous link is, to one of the main suspects in these child killings and what is their connection to the Catholic Mission for orphaned boys?

A compulsive page turner.

86-The Fairies of Fryfam-M C Beaton-Agatha Raisin rents a cottage in Norfolk and gets involved with a murder mystery once again.

85-Cold Earth-Ann Cleeves-When a landslide crashes through a cottage, a body is found in the ruins, so Detective Jimmy Perez has to find out who it is. A real mystery as no-one recognises her. Even the nearest neighbours thought the cottage was uninhabited. As always, lots of possible suspects for the murder. Most enjoyable

59 The Romantic William Boyd

There' are good books which give a temporary fix and then there are the rare exceptional ones that stay in the mind long after finishing them, so much so, there's often the desire to read them all over again. The Romantic will be one of those for me, it's hard to put into words how much I loved it..

The story of Cashel Greville Ross born illegitimately in 1799 to an Anglo Irish landowning father, Sir Guy Stillwell and a Scottish mother, Elspeth Souter. Cashel's life plays out to reflect pivotal junctures of the 19th century as William Boyd has cleverly inserted his protagonist into some of the defining moments of that century.

In early childhood Cashel and his mother leave Ireland for England, his father having set them up in a comfortable house in Oxford, there Elspeth is to assume the name of Mrs Pelham Ross to give her an air of respectability and at a later stage twin brothers will follow when Cashel is well into his teens. Discovering the true nature of his birth and in a fit of pique, Cashel leaves his school mid teens where he is destined for Oxford University, and signs up with the British Army having added a year or two to his actual age. Only later to find himself in the Battlefields of Waterloo. Returning to England in the aftermath, an esteemed young veteran of that famous battle, his father then buys him a commission in the East Indian Army. When on secondment in Ceylon, Cashel finds himself questioning the authority of a commanding officer relating to a moral dilemma. Discharged from the army or insubordination but escaping being court marshalled and on half pay he moves to mainland Europe and whilst in Pisa he finds himself a guest of Romantic poets Byron and Shelley. It is also in Italy he meets and loses the love of his life, a woman to haunt his longing and dreams until the end of his days.. His life is to follow a roller coaster of unfolding successes and disasters in various guises, author, debtor during a spell in Marchelsea Prison. Farmer in the US where he marries and has children. That doesn't end well, his wife's increasing descent into madness leads him to fall out with his in-laws and return to England, but not for long. A chance meeting with an old army colleague convinces him that a proposed expedition into central Africa in seeking to be the first men to discover the source of the Nile will lead them to fame and fortune which he will use to return to America and reclaim his children who are in the clutches of his father in law. Life never goes to plan though. More twists and turns follow as Cashel moves towards his older years and the opportunity of being offered the highly improbable position of Consul to NIcaragua based in Trieste through one of his shady previous acquaintances. Lucrative it turns out to be, but also merely a front for some illegal pilfering of antiquities from the ancient world being sent abroad.. It is in Italy that he is to meet his first love who he has continually held a flame for throughout most of his adult life and finding her a widow he hopes the opportunity to rekindle their lost love will come to fruition, although they are both now in the Autumn of their years and Cashel is to to find his life in danger when he exposes the criminal activities that are emanating from the consulate in Trieste.

The first part of the book had shades of Thackeray's Vanity Fair/Barry Lydon nevertheless, I think William Boyd has created his own masterpiece in this book, definitely the best of his I've read so far. 5 big stars. Wonderful!

I have just finished reading Mary Renault’s brilliant, unputdownable ‘Alexander’ trilogy. I read them years ago and had forgotten how good they were. Currently reading Val McDermid’s “Queen Macbeth”. An interesting twist on Shakespeare’s version.

58 The Cyclist Tim Sullivan (Audible)

This is my second book in the Bristol based George Cross detective series, they are very good and would recommend them for fans of crime books in that they have the added bonus of never being overly long or lose the momentum in building the plot. The investigations always bring into focus the pedantic nature of Autistic DS Cross who uses his unique dogged logic to get the answers that aren't always obvious to colleagues. In this case the body of a young man is found wrapped in plastic in a garage close to a demolition site. How did the keen amateur cyclist who is found to have used performance enhancing drugs end up murdered? Cross delves into recently deceased 30 something Alex's Greek background, the family run restaurant business that has some dodgy connections with a Greek criminal element, not to mention strained family relationships and a certain amount of sibling rivalry with his brother. Into that toxic mix is a newly pregnant, considerably younger 17 year old girlfriend who seems to be estranged from her family and has come to live with his. Cross has to fit all these jigsaw pieces together to reach the final outcome.

No. 43. - Tiananmen Square by Lai Wen - a novel about growing up in Beijing in the 70s and 80s and taking part in the Tiananmen Square protests. It’s an interesting, very believable and disturbing account of events.

Book 155, Holmes, Margaret and Poe, by James Patterson and Brian Sitts.

#75. The Woman Who Lied by Claire Douglas.

I’ve been on holiday without much time for reading or wifi for keeping up to date here. I got through 3 books on my kindle though.

#65 The Education of Dixie Dupree by Donna Everhart
Fairly well written, but a disturbing story. Set in a very small town in Alabama in 1969, Dixie records every aspect of her life in her diary, a fact that becomes critical when her life takes a very unpleasant turn. 7/10

#66 The Estate by Denzil Meyrick
I’ve enjoyed his other books, a detective series set on the remote Scottish west coast, but this one was different. It’s a standalone book about the aftermath of the death of the billionaire head of a hedge fund company. His will is not what anyone expected and it causes turmoil in his family.
I thought it was utter tosh and very disappointing. 4/10

#67 My Favourite Mistake by Marian Keyes
I’ve read 3 or 4 of her books about the Walsh family and found them okay. This was a recent one focused on Anna Walsh. It was far too long, not very good, and I only continued reading it because I was on a very long journey. 5/10

84-1st Case-James Patterson &Chris Tebbetts-Angela Hoot is offered a job at the FBI because she's a computer genius. She is put in a team who are investigating the murder of a whole family with a link to a mobile phone virus. A few technical bits in this story that went over my head, but it was fast moving and exciting with me always wondering what's going to happen next.

45. Kiss cut, Karin Slaughter

The second of the Sara Linton series. Having found the first one very violent, and seeing that this one was about child abuse, I approached it warily! But it wasn’t nearly as graphic as the first, and I enjoyed it much more.

46. They Thought I Was Dead, Peter James

The story of Sandy, the missing wife from the DSupt Grace books. I think he’s come up with a pretty good story for her years in the wilderness, though some of it’s a bit unlikely to say the least. Worth a read though.

Book 154, Keep Her Secret, by Mark Edwards. Not one of his best offerings, but quite good,

#63 Ruthless by Cath Staincliffe
It was quite good but possibly not one of her best.