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

After listening to A Good Read on radio 4 the other week, Gyles Brandreth recommended books by E F Benson, written mainly 100 years ago, hard to get I guess in paperback but I found I could get 30 novels and 70 short stories by him on Kindle for £1.99😃for the lot, bargain!
He wrote the Mapp and Lucia books, hilarious, great social manners comedy.The first book is called Queen Lucia, I loved it.
I looked up background around E F Benson, he was very intelligent and went to Cambridge, also very good looking and gay as were his four siblings apparently.His Father was the Archbishop of Canterbury.He certainly writes well.
Lots of his short stories are spooky ones, after reading them I thought they’d be great televised, I think he was probably influenced by MR James, who he may actually have known at Cambridge as it must have been around the same time.
Anyway they’re all a good read.

33. First Wife’s Shadow, Adele Parks

I’ve enjoyed all but one of the Adele Parks I’ve read and this turned out to be one of my favourites. The twists kept me guessing and the ending was particularly satisfying. I love a good mystery.

Book 128, Alibi, another by Lynda la Plante, enjoyed it, but very gruesome killings.

34. The Dry, Jane Harper

I’ve had this one on my to read pile for a long time, and finally got round to it. Melbourne cop Aaron Falk comes back to his claustrophobic drought hit home town for the funeral of his boyhood friend and his family, all found shot dead at their home in what appears to be a murder suicide. He stays on for a few days to help the local police investigation. And gets drawn back in to the mystery of another death in the town, one that he was blamed for and which led to him leaving many years ago. This is a real page turner, the past and present cleverly intertwined until the truths of both cases are finally revealed.

I like Jane Harper`s books.

Me too, Hellogirl1. I really enjoyed Force of Nature too, with the same detective.

#51 was Sarah Thornhill by Kate Grenville. Set in the early days of Australian settlers, as many of her books are. Sarah is the youngest daughter in a family who have come up in the world, despite her father having been transported. There is a dark family secret, however, that will affect her life and her future choices.
Kate Grenville writes beautifully and evocatively of the early days of Australia. I thought this book was lighter than her others, but I still enjoyed it and raced through it. 7/10

#52 was Ghost Wall bt Sarah Moss. Seventeen year old Sylvie and her parents join an experimental archaeological encampment in Northumberland, run by an archaeology professor. Her farther is overbearing and controlling and as the days progress, their relationship deteriorates into dangerous areas mirroring the past.
Only 149 pages but quite dark. A well written but uncomfortable read. 7/10

I’m another one who enjoys Jane Harper’s books.

59-Jailhouse Lawyer/Power of Attorney-James Patterson and Nancy Allen. 2 very powerful lawyer stories in one book. Completely engrossing, both unputdownable. I'll look for some more books by this duo. Though I'm never sure how much input JP has with all the partners he supposedly writes with.

Playing catch-up again 😊. I’ve listened to a few audiobooks as seem to lack the energy to read any fiction at the moment and my non-fiction is a rather haphazard dipping in and out of books and longer articles.
12 The Cure of Souls by Phil Rickman, on audio. This is part of the Merrily Watkins series which I had seen recommended. The central character is a woman priest (Anglican) and exorcist. She is also a single parent to a teenage daughter. I enjoyed this to start with and then I got bored and gave up.
13 Confusion by Elizabeth Jane Howard (Cazalet Chronicles). I listened to the audiobook in bed but kept missing bits when I fell asleep, so I went in search of a copy of the book and, miraculously, found the whole set in immaculate condition in the local Oxfam shop. I had heard them years ago on the radio but really enjoyed hearing, and reading this one again. I will work my way through the series gradually.
14 American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins. This was good but pretty harrowing. It’s about a mother and young son having to flee their home in Mexico for the US after the family are murdered by a drug baron. The background and characters are well described and brought alive a situation which has been told in film from the law enforcers’ point of view (Sicario).
15 None of this true by Lisa Jewell (audiobook). I listened to a lot of this while in hospital recently and it was a welcome distraction!
16 Yellowface by Rebecca Kuang. Another listen, this time the abridged version on radio 4. This was interesting and raises the issues of who can tell a story that doesn’t come from their own culture. It is also about author envy and about power and deception. None of the characters are very likeable but I was glad I’d heard it. I don’t have any desire to read the unabridged book.
17 The Exiles by Hilary McKay. This is a children’s book that I read years ago. It tells of the family of four sisters who are packed off to Big Grandma’s for the summer where they are shocked to find that there are no books for them to read and Big Grandma expects them to do chores and go for long walks in the hills. I love all this author’s books, though probably her later series are better. This is humorous, insightful and a great comfort read.

Book 38
Demon Copperhead - Barbara Kingsolver
I liked this a lot, but not as much as a lot of people seemed to, it was never a book I couldn’t put down, but I did enjoy it.
Poor Demon, born to a teenage junkie mum, gets himself a vicious, violent stepfather, ultimately becoming the problem of the woefully inadequate welfare state.
If I really love something about this book it’s the characters, they are so fleshed out you feel you know them, Demon, Angus, Coach, Maggot, June, so well written, but even the B listers have well rounded personalities, Tommy, Betsey and Brother Dick, and of course the wonderful tribe of Peggots.
She also makes you love the redneck, trailer trash characters, who, if the meth or oxy don’t get them, are resilient and kind.
I want to think Demon had a happy ending, but I worry that recovering addicts can slip at any time.
Definitely up there among the good books, but for me probably won’t make the years top ten.

41 Breaking the Dark - Lisa Jewell

Well! one of my favourite authors, Lisa Jewell, may be on the cusp of enormous success with this new book, but sadly it's a departure from what many of her devotees like me enjoy so much with her writing. This is a tie-in with the Marvel Empire, where the protagonists are super heroes and their comic form publications are designed for an adult following. Nevertheless this isn't a genre, that has ever resonated with me apart from seeing them occasionally lying around my children's bedrooms when they lived at home.

The main person in this new book is Jessica Jones, already an established character in the Marvel world, here she is a retired super hero, and a private investigator. To precis the plot, the setting is New York, anguished mother of twins consults with Jessica as to the disquiet she is feeling over her 16 year old twins, who having spent the summer with their British father in Essex have come back to the States hardly recognisable, as well as unbelievable skin, they have a dreamy far away persona that she finds completely out of character. Jessica is commissioned to travel off to Barton Wallop in the depths of Essex to investigate. where it seems they have fallen into the sphere of a somewhat unhinged influencer.

Sorry Lisa this wasn't my cup of tea at all, I'm sure for every person like me who would like to see a return to what we expect from her, she will reach a wider audience and good luck to her. She is already mooted as a number one New York Times best seller any way, so I imagine her next level of success is only a hair's breadth away, given this is the first in a series.

I was pleased to read that her last book, the excellent"None Of This is True" has been bought by Netflix to film. I do hope she manages to bang out the odd book unrelated to this new series. I know having read this first one, it didn't grab me in the way her books usually do and the implausibility of the overriding factor that she has now delved into the world of the super hero genre, it's just not my thing!

Sarah1954 - I must shut up about how much I loved Demon Copperhead, I could just wax lyrical for hours about it, not quite the same for you, but glad you enjoyed it, if not quite with the same enthusiasm.

Litterpicker - Also loved American Dirt, definitely a stand out book from a couple of years ago.

I seem to have been away from this thread for quite some time. I have also been reading much more slowly this year than ever before - normally I would have read 45-50 books by this time. I have forgotten to log the books l have read, but I think l have read around 25 so far and I am simply going to log the last book l read as number 25 and carry on from there. This was The Real Doc Martin by Martin Stagg, which is an account of his life as a GP on the outskirts of Manchester. It was a 99p buy on kindle and a three star read for me.

TerriBull
I saw with pleasure that Lisa Jewell had a new book out, but when I read about it decided it definitely is not for me
American Dirt, much preferred that one to Demon Copperhead, that one will definitely make my top ten of 2024

Book 129, The Edge, by David Baldacci. A crackingly good read, but I always enjoy David Baldacci`s books.

60-All Creatures great and Small-James Herriot-An audio book this time, which I had running while I was sorting out cupboards. A nice distraction.

61-Dead Letter Drop-Peter James-This was the first book he wrote, so his style hadn't really developed. Reading it was like watching a Bond movie. Fast moving story about a spy investigating MI5 staff. I much prefer his later works.

#60. Local Girl Missing by Claire Douglas.

I just couldn't get on with Demon Copperhead. I really did try, but I found it depressing and I was having a lot of family stress at the time and decided I needed a different sort of book to read.

I must look out for American Dirt.
I haven’t read any Lisa Jewell, I will look out for her, but maybe not the new one.
I loved Demon Copperhead. I was a hard read at times, but it was my book of the year in 2023.

My #53 was The Vineyard by Barbara Delinsky. I hadn’t read this author before, but I think she’s big in the US, I got this at the Friends store at a US public library.
Natalie Sebring is head of a successful wine production company on the New England coast. When she announces her wedding to a vineyard employee only 6 months after the death of her husband of 58 years, her family are horrified. She hires dreamer Olivia to write her memoir, which will explain the background to her decision.
I didn’t realise until I has started it that this was going to be fundamentally a romance, otherwise I wouldn’t have started it. It was quite well written though, with well developed characters. I could see how it was going to end, but not how it got there. 6/10

Book 130, The Toffee Factory Girls, set during WW1. A nice light read.

Book 131, The Bone Hacker,by Kathy Reichs. Very good, but her books usually are.

42 Notes from an Exhibition - Patrick Gale

I'd read this book years ago, but had forgotten most of it, but as one of the characters appeared in A Perfectly Good Man, I decided to revisit it. As with many other of his books, PG evokes his Cornish settings almost as if the reader were there.

Rachel Kelly, newly arrived from Canada is studying in Oxford, when she meets post graduate Antony. She is both pregnant and suicidal with her lecturer's baby, who has no intention of leaving his wife. Antony rescues bi polar Rachel and takes her back to his Cornish home in Penzance where they are eventually to marry, Antony adopts the baby and they go on to have three more children of their own. Antony a Quaker is tolerant and patient with Rachel who sets up her artists studio in the loft of their house and she goes on to have a measure of success with her painting, her best abstract painting however go on to be coveted works after her death. Nevertheless she appears to sell some of her work whilst ostensibly immersed in the role of wife and mother and that combined with Antony's teaching career give them a fairly comfortable standard of living. However, Rachel is somewhat of an erratic mother and her style of parenting, depending on whether she has taken her medication, has left a mark on all of the children, particularly their one and only daughter Morwenna, who whilst academically able, descends into an itinerant life style as an adult, inheriting some of her mother's mental problems. The tragedy of losing their youngest son Petroc as a teenager, probably Rachel's favourite child is a defining element of the book. As is the discovery of Antony's eventual unravelling of Rachel's difficult upbringing in Canada, a subject that was never brought up until after her death. Antony provides a solid linchpin to the erratic and troubled Rachel and the Quaker philosophy gives a calming spiritual element to the narrative.

Like the other PG books I've read, very good

62-Death of a Maid-M C Beaton. Another Hamish Macbeth murder mystery. This had so many suspects that I got confused, but a light hearted story. Having read many of this series I am learning about life in the remote Sutherland area of Scotland.

#26 Not From Round Here by Bradley Chermside. A faintly amusing account of a southern man’s transplantation to Bolton with his northern wife. It came up on my kindle feed. Every stereotype imaginable.

#61. Good As Dead by Holly Jackson.