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

31 Love is Blind by William Boyd. Another of the author’s historical novels, fairly short, about 350 pages, I think. Our hero starts his adventures in Scotland, broadens out to Paris and then a number of other places. He moves in the world of music of the late 19th/early 20thC, I found it intriguing and ultimately, sad. As always, it’s well researched and written.

FGT I think my inability to suspend my disbelief is why I just can’t get on with the Harry Potter books or Tolkien’s writing. I’m a philistine.

O Caledonia is one of my favourite books. I rarely reread a book but did so with this one and got so much more out of it.

Sorry that was in reply to post about David Mitchell's "Unruly", a few pages back..

I'm enjoying this on Audio but I agree about his voice for long periods. Also he can talk too fast to take in all that's being said.

Alibeee, I recently read O Caledonia, and loved it, so much so that I’ve bought a couple of copies for Christmas presents.!

#75 was The Dark Angel by Elly Griffiths
This is the one where Ruth goes to Italy to look at some bones and turns it into a holiday with Shona and their children. It was enjoyable as all this series are, but I found the story surrounding their time in Italy less believable than usual. 7/10

A real positive about reading this series, though, is that it made me register with the library as I couldn’t find the ones I wanted in the charity shops. This one was the first library book I’ve borrowed in over 50 years, as I child I visited every Saturday. The next one in the series is waiting for me to collect on Monday.

#76, also from the library, was O Caledonia by Elspeth Barker. I picked this one as Maggie O’Farrell says it’s her favourite book. I can probably see why it appealed to her so much, but it didn’t have the same effect on me.
The book opens with 16 year old Janet lying fatally stabbed at the foot of the grand staircase in her home in the Scottish highlands. It’s set in the 1940-50s, the family is eccentric, their castle home is cold, draughty and in a poor state of repair. Janet is misunderstood by her parents, her siblings, their nanny, her teachers and pretty much everyone else. She spends all her time reading and learning languages and becoming more and more of an outsider. 6/10

sara1954 I read and enjoyed The Bottle Factory Outing many years ago during my Beryl Bainbridge phase. I’m sure I still have a copy of it.

I enjoyed The Salt Path when I read it a few years ago. It was obvious they had no idea what they were doing and no money.

TerriBull My Father’s House has been on my ‘to be read’ shelves for a while and I have hesitated about reading it. I shall increase its priority now. I also loved The Star of the Sea when I read it many years ago.

Book 62
The Bottle Factory Outing- Beryl Bainbridge
I’m guessing we are in the mid seventies, Brenda and Freda share a bed sitting room, and work in a wine bottling factory, the rest of the workforce are Italian, and although neither woman appears to be attractive in any way, Brenda is constantly pursued by one of the Italian managers, while Freda shamelessly throws herself at another one.
The story of course is a works outing, already in ruins before they set out, and gradually heading towards disaster
It’s bleak, the two women are certainly not likeable, and their lives seem grim and depressing, but there are some humorous moments along the way, and Ms Bainbridge has created some very believable characters
Not a favourite, a bit too depressing, but something a little different.

I hope I can join you for 2025, but late for 2024.

I agree Sara1954. Much of the story didn’t ring true for me either. And I particularly disliked how ‘pleased’ they were with themselves when they camped at a campsite overnight, used the facilities and left without paying before the warden ‘caught’ them in the morning. I’m a keen camper and am more than willing to pay my share for the upkeep of sites and facilities. What they were doing was tantamount to theft. I read their follow-up book, only because it was a Book Group choice, and disliked it even more! I’ll definitely not be reading any further books by Raynor Wynn.

The Salt path raised too many questions for me, I couldn’t really buy into it.
Foolhardy obviously, but there were times I just didn’t quite believe what I was reading.
But yes, lovely scenery

Thank you for that snippet of information theworriedwell, maybe that film will come up somewhere, sometime.

I enjoyed The Salt Path when I read it DiggingDoris, a difficult journey, but I knew many of the places they stopped off at along the way.

105-The Salt Path-Raynor Winn.
This is an unputdownable book in my opinion. It's not just a record of the lovely places along the West Coast Path, but an emotional record of a couples struggle to survive after being made homeless. A well deserved award winner, and soon to be made into a feature film.

Truths blur into lies, not blue

Book 73 Little Lies by Liane Moriarty

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It's set in a primary school in Australia and tells the stories of the children starting school and the mums at the school gate.

Jane and her little boy Ziggy move into the area and begin to make friends, specifically with Madeline and Celeste, two women with seemingly idyllic lives but their own secrets.

At the start of a new term, an incident involving the children of all 3 women occurs in the playground, causing a rift between them and other parents which escalates fast until whispers and rumours become vicious and spiteful, and truths blue into lies.

It was always going to end in tears, but no one thought it would end in murder .....

This book is well written with very relatable characters and I was sorry to finish it.

Gregory Peck played Hugh O'Flaherty in a film. I think it is called The Scarlet and the Black. It is a very good story.

#48 Kelly Andrew: The Whispering Dark
Librarian choice for our Book Club.
Beginning with the positive, the author's writing style is impressive: flowing, poetic, descriptive.
The fact that the author is deaf made the protagonist feel more realistic.
I'm less convinced by the plot, which seemed a bit muddled, vague and repetitive at times.
The characters of the two main protagonists, Delaney Meyers-Petrov and Colton Price, felt underdeveloped.
The key themes are death, darkness, love, tragedy and beauty.
Overall, this is for fans of the paranormal...just not for me!

Have really enjoyed this thread, especially where contributors have taken time to provide detail. Have been introduced to several new authors, for which I'm grateful. Thanks!

Since my last post....

# 47 (I think )
C J Wray: The Excitements.
Gifted to me by a friend on Remembrance Day.
A feelgood mystery and a good yarn. Great fun and "excitements". Main protagonists are two sprightly 90 year olds who both served in WW2: Josephine and Penny and their great nephew Archie. An improbable romp and great fun ("toujours gai") but with a poignancy running through it about lives that have been changed and scarred by war and greed.
Would recommend.

69 A Place of Greater Safety - Hilary Mantel (Audible)

This was one of Hilary Mantel's earlier works about the French Revolution, incredibly long and dialogue heavy, and the complicated politics of the time. I'm prone to waking around 4 am in the morning so in go the Airpods and I've been listening along for a few hours and cracked through it fairly quickly, although I may have drifted off in parts. I'm not sure how she dreamed up the title, it was a horrible time and there didn't seem to be any place of greater safety, unless those affected saw the writing on the wall and were one of the many boats landing on the south coast of England, France wasn't a place to hang around in then, it wasn't called the Great Terror for nothing.

The main protagonists in this are Georges Danton, Maximilien Robespierre, Camille Desmoulins, who was male, the Camille pronounced Cam me. All part of the revolutionary movement, eventually going to the guillotine like everyone else. An example of "be careful what you wish for!" It was almost a blessing that Napoleon mounted a bloodless coup d'etat to bring this vicious era to an end in overthrowing the rule of the Directory, even if at a later stage he was to crown himself Emperor of France. His authoritarianism replaced the revolutionary battle cry of "Liberte, egalitie and fraternite" as France passed into the hands of an autocrat with far more power than Louis XV1 ever had, and imo that's what happens in revolutions, one strata of power is merely replaced with another, and sometimes what the people get is worse. However, I'm glad I listened to this rather than read it, that would have been quite an undertaking, Not knowing too much about those times, I've been busy Googling. Nevertheless, what a brilliant mind Hilary Mantel has, or rather had.

#51 Tempt the Stars
#52 Reap the Wind
Numbers 6 and 7 in the Cassie Palmer series by Karen Chance.
Cassie has unexpectedly become the Pythia, reincarnation of the High Priestess and oracle of the temple of Apollo. She is surrounded by vampires, ghosts, mages and ghosts. Complete escapism which was just what I needed recently.

57. The Christmas Appeal, Janice Hallett

A nice light, and short, read set at Christmas time. Undemanding and enjoyable, and I think anyone who liked The Appeal will like this too.

Book 175, The Burning Man, by Phillip M Margolin. A very enjoyable read.

104-Death of a Perfect Wife-M C Beaton.
Another Hamish Macbeth light hearted murder mystery. I just love the descriptions of the Highlands in these books. They take me back to our many holidays there.

68 My Father's House - Joseph O'Connor

Joseph O'Connor, brother of the late Sinead, is a massively talented author. This is loosely based on a true story. An Irish Priest, Monsignor Hugh O'Flaherty, assigned to the Vatican in the troubled times of 1943 during the German occupation of Rome. This brave priest together with a band of covert comrades from various walks of life, risked their own lives in smuggling out escaped prisoners and Jews, hiding them when needed within the Vatican State and supplying them with false papers, money, medicines if required, whatever they had to have to facilitate their safety, all the while playing a game of Cat and Mouse with their cruel nemesis, Gestapo Commander Paul Hauptmann. Not a thick book, just over 250 pages but moves along laced with tension throughout. Good but I've never read another of his books I've loved quite the way I did with his most acclaimed one "Star of the Sea" Forever one of my favourite books of all time. .

Book 174, Nucleus, by Rory Clements. Set in Cambridge in the summer of 1939, just before WW2, British scientists are trying to prevent Germany getting hold of their plans for an atomic bomb.

Book 61
The Puppet Show - MW Craven
I hadn’t come across this writer before, but it was a really good read, I couldn’t put it down.
A serial killer is in the loose in Cumbria, burning people alive in Stone Circles, and leaving no evidence.
It’s fast paced, full of surprises, good strong characters, my favourite being Tilly Bradshaw, super brainy but socially very awkward, an analyst who loves data, who forms her first ever friendship with disgraced detective, Washington Poe, who has been reinstated to solve the crime
Loved it

Calandargirl, I really enjoyed The Moonflower Murders, it can be a bit confusing, but a really good story