Our Fabulous 50 Books a Year Thread - All Your Best Ones from 2024

Two special mentions for the Elly Griffiths' "Dr Ruth Galloway/Nelson" series of books, and also the books by Jane Harper set in Australia.

Happy New Year TerriBull and all the regulars here. I have really enjoyed being part of this group and have picked up many great recommendations here. I’ve read 86 this year, much more than usual, I suspect this thread has something to do with that.

I had no standout 10/10 reads this year, but here are my 9s.

At the Table by Claire Powell
Shrines of Gaiety by Kate Atkinson
The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams
Dead Man’s Creek by Chris Hammer
The Ghost Fields by Elly Griffiths
Strange Sally Diamond by Liz Nugent
The Heart’s Invisible Furies by John Boyne
Water by John Boyne

Plus a special mention for Elly Griffiths, Dr Ruth Galloway series. I have read 11 of them this year and thoroughly enjoyed all of them. I have the final one on order from the library.

This winter I have also rediscovered the joy of the public library, after a gap of more than 50 years. I thank all of you on this thread for that too.

Big thanks to Terribull for creating these threads, I really enjoy and appreciate them! ❤️

I only got through 36 books this year so picking ten seems on the generous side. I’ll keep mine to my top five. In no particular order:

The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams.

An American Marriage by Tayari Jones.

Road Ends by Mary Lawson.

Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt.

Love is Blind by William Boyd.

There wasn’t a standout book for me, like Demon Copperhead, this year.

TerriBull

Thank you so much FGT, Happy New Year to you too and to all of our regulars. Many thanks also for your contributions to the thread.

Regular poster or not, please feel free to dip in and out, there are no hard and fast rules even if the "50" of the title suggests otherwise Well our thread had to be called something

Thanks from me too TerriBull am very much a dipper in and I make notes about books which sound interesting.
Another year of reading in front of us, marvellous😃

Thankyou TerriBull, I’ve had some good recommendations this year, and love hearing what others find enjoyable, some of Sparklefizz favourites, are some of my all time favourites as well.

But to be honest, I have struggled a bit to find ten books which I absolutely loved, so they are at the top of my list, but have very much enjoyed the others.

1. American Dirt - Jeanine Cummins
2, Never let me go - kazuo Ishiguro
3, One, Two, Three, Four - Craig Brown.
4, The Women- Kristen Hannah
5, The Silence of the Girls - Pat Barker
6, O, Caledonia
7, The House of Fortune - Jessie Burton
8 A Fatal Crossing - Tim Hindle
9, Dissolution - C J Sansom
10 Trespasses- Louise Kennedy

I MUST write down all the books I read this year. I read fast and almost instantly forget the book I’ve just finished. This must be old age because, when One Hundred Years of Solitude started on Netflix (excellent adaptation) I was easily able to tell someone what it was all about even though I’d read it 20 years ago.

I don’t remember all the books I’ve read or reread, but some that stick in my mind are new to me books like
The siege trilogy by K J Parker
Lady Tan’s Circle of Women by Lisa See
Some books by Diana Gabaldon
The Eagle and the Heart by Helen Castor
And rereading
The King Must Die by Mary Renault
Loads of D E Stevenson books,
Chalet School Books
Hamish McBeth by M C Beaton
So many books, so little time.

Greyduster I loved Mary Renault. I shall read her again, now you have reminded me. Thank you

Thank you so much for this thread TerriBull. I've been introduced to so many wonderful books here and I look forward to many more. Happy New Year to you and to everyone here.

My Top Ten Favourites for 2024 are (I think - I enjoyed so many):

The Hours of the Night by Sue Gee
Coming Home by Sue Gee
All the Broken Places by John Boyne
Digging to America by Anne Tyler
Road Ends by Mary Lawson
Ordinary Human Failings by Megan Nolan
Dirt Town by Hayley Scrivenor
A Complicated Matter by Anne Youngson
The Women by Kristin Hannah
Seating Arrangements by Maggie Shipstead

Oh, and
The Shadow King by Harry Sidebottom

Fire from Heaven by Mary Renault
The Praise Singer by Mary Renault
The Bull From the Sea by Mary Renault
Stone Blind by Natalie Haynes
The Figurine by Victoria Hislop

My favourite book of the year is And The Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hasseini.

Vito

Raising Hare , a gift of a book

Think this was on bbc radio 4 this week. Didnt hear it all - im going to do a search as what I heard was great. Thank you.

Raising Hare , a gift of a book

The Camomile Lawn. Mary Wesley
The Source James Michener
Wolf Hall Hilary Mantel
Behind the Scenes at the Museum Kate Atkinson
Passing Clouds Briony Buck
In a land of Plenty. Tim Pears
All Among the Barley. Melissa Harrison
Good Wives. Margaret Forster
Shadow Baby Margaret Forster
Toby’s Room. Pat Barker

Thank you so much FGT, Happy New Year to you too and to all of our regulars. Many thanks also for your contributions to the thread.

Regular poster or not, please feel free to dip in and out, there are no hard and fast rules even if the "50" of the title suggests otherwise Well our thread had to be called something

Another. This one was recommended to me years ago by my late mum (an avid reader like me).
Thank you mum.
It stayed with me for ages.

Happy New Year to you all on TerriBull’s threads.
I hope to be with you next year for more of the same!

One of my all-time favourites.

And this.

Firstly, a heartfelt ‘thank you’ to you TerriBull for giving all of use bookworms a platform to share our love of reading. I haven’t posted regularly but I’ve dipped in occasionally. Always given a kindly warm welcome, again thank you - to everyone. It’s meant a lot to me especially during some anxious times.

Sometimes I’ve not posted but I haven’t read - and taken note of your recommendations. It’s wonderful to discover new genres and authors this way up isn’t it?

At times this year I’ve enjoyed reading-reading some of my old favourites. Stories I’ve loved that have, for various reasons,a special place in my heart. Here are some of them:

Gosh. I'm such a consumer of books that I can barely remember the one I've just read! I get through at least two a week or more if there's time.
I like older books so read lots of Colleen McCulloch's and lots of Trollopes starting with the Barchester Chronicles and moving on through others. DE Stevenson's galore and lots of Angela Thirkells. Am trying to remember some of the others. Oh yes. I recently read two Denzil Meyrick books about a policeman. Very funny. Catriona McPherson Dandy Gilver books are good as are Caron Allan' s Dottie Manderson books.

In no particular order my ten favourite books this year.

The Running Grave Robert Galbrait

Lessons in Chemistry Bonnie Garmus

Once Upon a River Diane Setterfield

Dead Lions Mick Herron

The Last Letter Rebecca Yarros

Fourth Wing Rebecca Yarros

Killing Time Jodi Taylor

The Ballad of Smallhope & Pennyroyal Jodi Taylor

The Woman in Blue Elly Griffiths

Voyage of the Damned Frances White

Here are my own absolute Ten out of Ten, in no particular order.

Lessons in Chemistry Bonnie Garmus
All The Broken Places John Boyne
Three Worlds, Memoirs of an Arab Jew Avi Shlaim
A History of Loneliness John Boyne
Unsettled Ground Claire Fuller
The Story of the Forest Linda Grant
Coming Home Sue Gee
The Grapes of Wrath John Steinbeck
Strange Sally Diamond Liz Nugent
The Romantic - William Boyd
Babysitter Joyce Carol Oates
Any Human Heart William Boyd

Pretty Damn Good - But Not Quite A Perfect 10

The Bee Sting Paul Murray
The Marriage Portrait Maggie O'Farrell
The Three Graces Amanda Craig
The Amateur Marriage Ann Tyler
Tomorrow, Tomorrow and Tomorrow Gabrielle Zevin
Ordinary Human Failings Megan Nolan
The Guest Emma Cline
Between Two Worlds Olivier Norek
The Feast Margaret Kennedy
Americanah Chamanda Ngozi Adichie
Narrow Door Joanne Harris
A Place of Greater Safety Hilary Mantel
Long Island Colm Tobin
A Perfectly Good Man Patrick Gale
My Father's House Joseph O'Connor