2026 - 50 Books a Year Challenge

51. A Spool of Blue Thread, Anne Tyler

I’ve somehow missed this Anne Tyler before now (I thought I’d read them all). This is the tale of three generations of the Whitshank family from Baltimore. I read it in a couple of sittings because I just didn’t want to put it down.

52. The Perfect Son, Freida McFadden

Another easy read.

Maggiemaybe

51. A Spool of Blue Thread, Anne Tyler

I’ve somehow missed this Anne Tyler before now (I thought I’d read them all). This is the tale of three generations of the Whitshank family from Baltimore. I read it in a couple of sittings because I just didn’t want to put it down.

She's such an observational writer about families and small town America, her books have a unique simplicity about them, always a joy to read.

69 The Golden Hours Louisa Young

I think to enjoy this book, any reader must have read the four Cazalet Chronicles. Predictably there are so many references back to the characters' history contained in it, that it wouldn't necessarily make a lot of sense to those who haven't immersed themselves in the forerunners. Louisa Young is a relative by marriage to Elizabeth Jane Howard and enjoyed a close relationship with her, maybe this follow on was discussed as a project with her before she died.

In this, the family are living in a much changed landscape of the 1960s. The family home having been sold and the family timber merchant business handed down to the three Cazalet brothers went to the wall through post war changes and a lack of their collective business acumen. In this book they're living in variously changed circumstances. Edward who possibly enjoyed the most extravagant lifestyle which encompassed a wife and a mistress who he subsequently married. Now twice divorced and somewhat living on his uppers. Each chapter follows one of the family and how their lives have panned out, the focus is very much on the generation who were the children of the earlier books. I enjoyed it but it wasn't quite up there for me with the originals, The Cazalets were very much EJH's creation and whilst I think her successor has captured the dynamics of the family, it lacked something which I can't quite put my finger on, although, I think I would if I were to read those again. Maybe just too many story lines. She's definitely left it open for follow ups, this one concluded with a twist in the tale that would certainly point to that.

I agree, TerriBull, they are a joy. If I didn’t have a massive “to be read” pile to plough through, I could quite happily re-read all her books.

That last comment was re Anne Tyler.

45 The Ghost Ship by Kate Mosse

This is book 3 in the Joubert family chronicles. One more to go.

82-Dead if you don't-Peter James
Another unputdownable thriller in the Grace series. Although I had seen the tv adaption, this book is 10 times more thrilling and complex. With the local Albanian mafia causing death and destruction, with bomb making and kidnaps thrown in for good measure, this is a great read.

Lie To Me by DS Butler.

#94. Lie To Me by DS Butler.

70 Clever Girl Tessa Hadley

First person narration by the "Clever Girl" of the title, Stella who looks back on her life with the benefit of hindsight, from her school years to middle age. The only child of a single mother and a step father she doesn't much care for. Her ambitions and the potential of an academic life hit the buffers when, by accident she finds herself a single mother still in her teens. Her life takes her from a bedsit to becoming a housekeeper of a well heeled family, whilst living intermittently in a communal house where her second child is conceived. Unfortunately neither of her children's fathers are there to see them grow up. However, whilst trying to live a life less ordinary than that she felt she might have been destined for, Stella has to deal with poverty, chaos, broken relationships and death. Although blessed with a high level of resilience her early ambitions are not entirely lost. Eventually she marries and goes on to realise some of the academic potential that was evident in her early school years.

a good book to read that is of interest and fun and very informative is FastTrack English Grammar from www.grammarbox.co.uk, it helps you understand how sentences are formed and how the english lanuage is made up of parts. I learned a lot from it, i wish it had been around sooner! have a look! its worth the read.

53. Certainty, Laura Dave
54. My Husband’s Wife, Alice Feeney

The first was just a short story from Prime First Reads involving a court case and possible juror manipulation.

The second a very involved story about a woman who goes off for a jog and finds when she gets home that her key doesn’t work - another woman is in her house with her husband, both of them claiming not to know her. It was an intriguing start, but the whole thing involved a lot of characters and several twists. A few too many of both for me to get my head round.

#95. What The Dying See by MJ Lee.

71 A Deadly Episode Anthony Horowitz

AH's latest in the Hawthorne series. Filming is underway of the first book in the series, "The Word is Murder" Daniel Hawthorne's status having been elevated to that of a celebrity through his ability as a Private Investigator and former disgraced detective to always nail the perpetrator of the crime. The setting for the filming is Hastings where both Anthony who features in his own books, and the permanently grumpy Hawthorne visit the set where there appears to be a major clash of personalities between the director, the screenwriter and the two leading actors who hate each other. To add to those divisions the producer has run out of money. Into that mix of potential catastrophes in preventing the film to come to fruition, is one that is to bring a halt to the filming altogether, the actor playing Hawthorne is stabbed to death. The plot then unfolds with the ever abrasive Hawthorne stepping in to investigate the most personal of crimes his own murder.

Excellent crime fiction, will be enjoyed by those familiar with the Hawthorne series.