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

#23 Shy Creatures by Clare Chambers - a newly qualified art therapist has an affair with a married psychiatrist who is married to her cousin; a new patient is a man who has been shut in a house by and with his aunts, since an unfortunate incident in his early teens. It is the early 1960s. The period details are spot on.

#24 Black and Blue by Ian Rankin - number 8 in the Rebus series. I started reading this series decades ago. I have read at least one more recent title but realised I had never read Black and Blue which was Rankin’s ‘break out’ novel. I found it slow to start with and Rebus less likeable than I remembered but when I got into it I was totally absorbed. If you like Scottish cities as locations you have Glasgow and Aberdeen as well as Edinburgh in this book.

#25 James by Percival Everett, a retelling of Huckleberry Finn by the fleeing slave known in Mark Twain’s novel as ‘Jim’. Here we see slavery and racism from the side of the enslaved. I listened to this as an audiobook - it was brilliant.

#26 No One Round Here Reads Tolstoy - Memoirs of a Working-Class Reader by Mark Hodkinson. The childhood and reading life into adulthood, of the journalist and author. Again, this was an audiobook. I found it fascinating and easy to listen to.

#27 Casting Off by Elizabeth Jane Howard. This is the 4th of the 5 Cazalet Chronicles, relating the stories of this extended family who spend every summer at the family home in Sussex, from the 1920s to the 1950s. Much of the story in this book takes place in London where the two cousins are sharing a flat and making their way in work and love. Yet another audiobook, beautifully read by Jill Balcon. I first came across this absorbing
series when it was read on Woman’s Hour and wanted to revisit it. It is very well worth it.

#28 Show Us Who You Are by Elle McNicoll. The author for children/young adults, features neurodivergent young people. The plot centres on a technology company creating holograms of people who have died. I read this and then heard a programme on radio 4 about the technology which could be used to make us immortal by copying our brains and creating holograms which could live on when our physical bodies have died. Thought provoking and scary. I read these books because I have two grandchildren with autism and it’s interesting to get a fictional perspective. I’m not sure I’d recommend them in general for adult readers though.

I’m still reading Demon Copperhead as I had to leave it at home when travelling by train to Scotland recently. While I was there a started reading the memoir of a country doctor in the Scottish Borders at the end of the 19th and into the 20th century. I will report on it in 2025!

I am envious of the faster readers on here - or is it just that I’m too easily distracted by newspapers and social media posts and so don’t spend enough time on books which, in the end are more satisfying.

Thank you all for your interesting posts, however many books you’ve read and thank you TerriBull for the thread.

Litterpicker I loved No One Round Here Reads Tolstoy! Quite an insight into a wide range of books.

Book 66
The Whalebone Theatre - Joanna Quinn
It’s taken me ages to read this, I have quite enjoyed it, but somehow it didn’t really grab me, I never felt compelled to pick it up and get on with it.

A family saga, a big house, the rich and decadent upper classes and their disregard for their children, raised by maids and a succession of French governesses.

The children grow, and and develop a fascination for putting on plays, aided and abetted by a Russian bohemian artist and his tribe of feral children , they bring an enormous whalebone from the beach, hence the title.

War comes, the younger child, Digby, joins up, followed by feisty Christabel, whilst Flossie stays home to join the land army, we follow the war through France, encountering some memorable characters, and see the social changes at home, where staff and family join together to survive.

Some interesting characters, but somehow it doesn’t feel very original, it’s a bit like this kind of book has been written so many times with variations. But if you enjoy a good family saga, it’s probably worth a read.

I think your thoughts on The Whalebone Theatre resonated with me Sarah, it was, imo ovet hyped when I first picked it up, fairly good without being the compulsive reads, The Cazelets were set around the same era is how I perceived it.

Litterpicket don't worry about your total count of books, the 50 books applies very loosely here, but we do value your feedback.

No 36 A Christmas Card by Paul Theroux. This is a novella set in the US, the tale of a family getting lost on their way for Christmas in a remote country house. A strange old man appears…

Terribull I wonder if this thread will hit 1000 posts by NYE!? 📕 📚

Just dipping into this thread while travelling, currently in Berlin. So enjoying all the suggestions, will check out on Borrow box.
Has anyone mentioned ‘The Swimmers’ by Julie Otsuka?
Happy New Year to all

#56 Devil's Bargain Rachel Caine.
First in a recent supernatural series about two women, unknown to each other before the events in the novel, who are recruited and funded by a mysterious organisation to start a private investigation business. It is fast moving and imaginative and the characters are well developed. I enjoyed it. The book ends abruptly, more like a chapter than a book ending so I will probably look for book 2 at some point.

Book 67
A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
Just read this seasonal little novella, as always, enjoyed it

#83 was The Order of Things by Graham Hurley
I hadn’t read this author before, but this was #4 in a series featuring DS Jimmy Suttle, set in Devon.
DS Suttle investigates the brutal murder of a local GP Harriet Reilly. Suttle’s estranged wife Lizzie is a journalist investigating the rumours of a GP offering mercy killings to terminally ill people. The GP is Harriet Reilly.
This was a good story, I enjoyed the writing and the main characters, but unfortunately it gave away an awful lot of the backstory from previous books. I’ve ordered the first in the series from the library and will give it a go though. 8/10

#84 The Lantern Men by Elly Griffiths. 8/10
#85 The Night Hawks by Elly Griffiths. 8/10

I have been trying to space out the Elly Griffiths Dr Ruth Galloway series, but I seem to be racing towards the finish. The ending of Night Hawks meant I wanted to go straight on to The Locked Room (reading it now) and I have the final one on order from the library. My OH has really got into them too, he loves Nelson’s character and is constantly reading quotes out to me.

#86 was Dead Beat by Val McDermid. Interesting to see that you’ve recently read it too TerriBull. That type of whodunnit (lots of suspects, final showdown in the ballroom) isn’t really my kind of thing, but I will try another in the Kate Brannigan series to see how it develops. 6/10

I agree with recent comments again regarding Demon Copperhead . My 2023 book of the year, stunning.

Sparklefizz it may have been me who mentioned Seating Arrangements . I was given it last Christmas and really enjoyed it.

#96. A Kind Of Loving by Stan Barstow.

I first read this many years ago, but just fancied reading it again.

It was a different world back then (1960).

AliBeeee Sparklefizz it may have been me who mentioned Seating Arrangements . I was given it last Christmas and really enjoyed it.

Thank you so much. I have recommended it to various friends.

Glad you and your OH are enjoying the Elly Griffiths books. I read most of the series during the lockdowns and they will always remind me of that time in my life. I treated myself to the whole series (most of the books pre-loved from World of Books so not expensive). I love Ruth and Nelson and wish she would write a few more books about their lives.

Book68
Never let me go - Kazuo Ishiguro
I thought this was going to be my first book of 2025, but I just couldn’t put it down till I got to the end.
One of the saddest most poignant books I’ve read for a long time. Hailsham at first appears to be a very excellent boarding school, but it is infact, a home for cloned children, bred for nothing more than donating their organs, or caring for the people donating.
We follow Kath, Tommy and Ruth into adulthood, they know what awaits them, but still dream of another life.
It’s heartbreaking, so cruel, I won’t forget this one for a while.

Calendargirl, I read A Kind of Loving at school in the late sixties, made an enormous impression on me, had my dad known we were reading it, he would definitely gone up to the school and complained.
I still remember it well, and have since heard it dramatised in the radio.
I still have my school copy, couldn’t get rid of it.

SueDonim

No 36 A Christmas Card by Paul Theroux. This is a novella set in the US, the tale of a family getting lost on their way for Christmas in a remote country house. A strange old man appears…

Terribull I wonder if this thread will hit 1000 posts by NYE!? 📕 📚

I'm not sure, I'm veering on the side of possibly not unless there are a flurry of late posts.

77 Cher - The Memoir Part 1

I'm glad she's doing her memoir in two parts, when I started the year with Barbra Streisand's I thought it would never bloody end everything was relayed in such immense detail.

Cherilyn Sarkisian was born in 1946 to a glamorous young Jackie Jean Crouch and her recently met bad boy husband Armenian/American Johnny Sarkisian. The marriage was short lived, and he floated out of their lives when she was a mere baby. Her singer/model mother Jackie Jean later to become Georgia Holt clocked up another 6 or 7 marriages, I kind of lost count, including weirdly yet one more to Cher's father when Cher was about 11 at which time they moved closer to the Armenian side of the family in Texas when she recounts how happy she was to learn about their ethnicity and customs.. She has a lovely picture of her and her new baby with 3 previous generations of the matriarchs in her Armenian family. Cher's maternal side which she went into in some depth, were drawn from some of the impoverished of Arkansas, the poor subsistence level people who went west to California during The Depression to pick grapes and cotton. Cher's maternal grandmother was just 13 when she gave birth to Cher's mother. Cher's own growing up years, similar to her mother's were very much of a peripatetic nature, as a baby she was handed over to an orphanage in the care of nuns to enable her mother to work, and when her mother came to reclaim her the nuns wouldn't let her go as they deemed her mother, being single, therefore unfit. Eventually she got her back. Their fortunes as a family ebbed and flowed depending on who her mom married, her third husband who fathered Cher's much loved sister was a good father to them both and his parents were much loved grandparents. Sadly the marriage didn't last Cher changed schools umpteen times as they moved about. Eventually at 16 she was to hook up with Sonny who was some 10 years older, friends first before they morphed into a couple. They started their edge into showbiz courtesy of Phil Spector, Cher was very much part of "The Wall of Sound" that gave his recordings their special edge. Eventually, with Sonny and on the advice of MIck Jagger, "try London you're too weird for the US" so there they launched themselves via "I've Got You Babe" and the rest is kind of history. Initial highs, followed by big dips when their careers were in the doldrums and they were consigned to working dives in backwaters, before re-emerging to great success when they broke into tv with The Sonny and Cher Show. By that time their marriage was all but over, Cher after putting up with years of Sonny's control, he stitched her up contractually. Other relationships follow, including a marriage to Gregg Allman. She talks of her two children, Chastity by Sonny and Elijah with Gregg Allman and their childhood, lots of famous names cropping up.Remarkably she and Sonny emerged from their acrimony to become friends and even worked alongside each other after their divorce; The book finishes with a conversation with the director, Francis Ford Coppola an early friend now an Oscar winner for The Godfather, encouraging her to break into films given that's where she wanted her career to go. I'm not sure I'd bother with part 2, I think she covered all the interesting bits in this book, but maybe. I quite enjoyed it, when she first became famous I remember how much I loved her hair and eyeliner, there's loads of pics in the book from those days, but I'll commit them to memory as it belongs to the library.

#87 will be my final completed book of the year. It was The Locked Room by Elly Griffiths. This is the penultimate book in the Dr Ruth Galloway series, it was set during the first lockdown in 2020. As enjoyable as all the others in the series. 8/10

#57 Voyage of the Damned Frances White.
The heirs to the twelve principalities of Concordia are travelling on a magical ship making a twelve day pilgrimage. All but one of them, Ganymedes (Dee), possess a secret 'blessing' a magical power. Dee the representative of the lowliest fish province has to pretend that he too possesses a blessing. On the first night the beloved heir to the empire is murdered and the bodies keep piling up. Dee is the only one willing to investigate the murders. It is a very unusual book which I enjoyed.

115-The Little Flower Shop by the Sea-Ali McNamara.
What a delightful story this is.
Poppy Carmichael inherits her grandmother's florists, but hasn't a clue what to do as she has a phobia of flowers, especially roses. Along the way she discovers a book about the language of flowers and their magical properties.
This is more than just a romance, it's more a lesson in friendships, loss and heartache.

Now for something completely different-Gone Fishing by Mortimer and Whitehouse.

Book 58: Lamentation by C J Sansome. I have just finished this excellent book for the second time and enjoyed meeting Shardlake again. I enjoyed it more with the second read.

Sparklefizz

Book 78 Seating Arrangements by Maggie Shipstead.

Someone further back recommended this book - sorry I can't remember who - but I am pleased. It was a very enjoyable read centred around a family wedding and relationships of the young couple's parents and family members, bridesmaids, etc with broken hearts, disagreements, bad behaviour and social climbing all playing their part.

I would recommend it.

I think it was me!

I’m very pleased to have this thread around. I log my books on Good Reads but for some arcane reason it has wiped all the books I’ve read since October. I was able to back-fill it from my record on here.

#1 Lights! Camera! Mayhem! Jodi Taylor.
Every Christmas Day the author releases a short story. I have only just had an opportunity to read this the latest. It involves members of St Mary's Institute of Historical Research and a movie star finding themselves in Troy just before the city falls to the Greeks. Just wonderful! I think Ms Taylor is one of my favourite authors.

Sorry, wrong thread 🫢.

Book 183, Death`s Jest-Book, another Dalziel and Pascoe book by Reginald Hill. I`ve enjoyed previous books, but not this one, it dragged on and on. Finished it though!

In the last 12 months I have read all the 7 sisters novels by Lucinda Riley which are all different and intriguing. In the past I have also read all the C J Sansom "Shardlake " books, which are excellent. I was sorry to hear of Sansom's death last year. His last Shardlake book was set in Norfolk and was about the Kett rebellion. There is a blue plaque on a hotel in Norwich where Shardlake "stayed" during his investigations. Also great favourites of mine are the Inspector Gamache, 3 pines books, set in Canada, by Louise Penny. (See you in the Bistro)