2026 - 50 Books a Year Challenge

4-Replenish the Earth-Anna Jacobs
Set in 1735. Sarah Mortonby is shocked when she inherits a wealthy estate. The manor house is in a neglected state but she is determined to repair and live in it. Her neighbour tries all sorts of bullying as he desperately wants the property, but she stands firm with lots of help from the villagers.
I love the way that AJ portrays the female heroines in her books, as strong, brave women.

Finished the first trilogy of The Forsyte Saga. A re read, but a thoroughly enjoyable re read. I will have a short break from the early 1900s for another re read from the 1930s. The Fortnight in September. Once I finish this The River Kings, which I am really looking forward to, will hopefully arrive at the library

Then I will order the 2nd trilogy of The F Saga preferably in 3 separate books and not the doorstop 3 in 1. A bit too physically heavy for bedtime reading.

4. At The Bottom of The Garden by Camilla Bruce. It's a bit of a gothic story but I really enjoyed it. Two orphan girls, who are witches, go to stay with aunt, who has murdered her husband, and chaos then ensues.

Book 3 Earth and Heaven by Sue Gee.

This is a lovely book ... tender and poignant and full of wonderful countryside descriptions which took me back to my childhood.

In the aftermath of WW1, a young artist, Walter Cox, leaves rural Kent for London. Britain is shell-shocked. There is no money. There are no jobs. Thousands of the young men have been killed including Walter's older brother.

At the Slade School of Art in London Walter tries to fit in and make friends. Students and de-commissioned soldiers mingle.

This book is beautifully written evoking the atmosphere of post-war London and the landscape of the Kent farms and hopfields and country life.

Walter meets a budding sculptor at the Slade who becomes a lifelong friend, and also two very different women, and the heart of this story is a love story and family life in the countryside between the wars.

I loved it. 10/10

That's on my to read list Sparklefizz, I think it was you who first made me aware of Sue Gee, I hadn't heard of her before. I really loved Coming Home, she writes very well. I do wonder why her books don't seem to be visible in either libraries or book shops. It's a shame.

7. Life as Planned by Amanda Prowse

A story of identical twins and how their lives differ based on a childhood decision.
I like AP’s books because there’s always a twist leading to an sometimes unexpected ending.

5-D is for Deadbeat-Sue Grafton
Lots of twists and turns in this so I kept a note of who is who!

#5. Guarding Diana by Ken Wharfe with Robert Jobson.

#6. The Crash by Freida McFadden.

I thought my book 8 would be Liane Moriarty’s Apples Never Fall, but it’s on my DNF pile. For me the story dragged once I got past the bicycle prologue. Are there any recommendations for her other books?

I’m now reading The Christmas Love Letters by Sue Moorcroft instead.

Mollygo

I thought my book 8 would be Liane Moriarty’s Apples Never Fall, but it’s on my DNF pile. For me the story dragged once I got past the bicycle prologue. Are there any recommendations for her other books?

I’m now reading The Christmas Love Letters by Sue Moorcroft instead.

I mentioned this one earlier in the thread Mollygo:
Here One Moment by Liane Moriarty.
A woman on a flight from Hobart to Sydney walks through the plane, making predictions about passengers and crew.
A lot of characters to remember but I do enjoy her books.

Thanks Allira I’ll have a look.

I’m another who has only quite recently discovered Sue Gee, with Coming Home. I like her writing.

My No 3 is The Land in Winter by Andrew Miller. It’s a novel about two young couples living in the ?Somerset countryside. It’s set in the Big Freeze winter of 1962/3. I’m just about old enough to remember that, including the sea freezing! The issue of mental health hangs over the book all the way through, beginning in a psychiatric hospital, as it explores the lives of the two couples over the course of the winter.

The characters are certainly unusual, in fact almost everyone in the book seems odd in one way or another! The descriptive writing I thought was wonderful. There’s a Christmas party that was so excruciating I wanted to leave early despite the fact I wasn’t there! 🤣. The descriptions of the snow and freezing temperatures of the winter made me feel chilly, I felt cold to the bone in real life and turned my electric blanket up.

Having said which, I’m not sure I actually enjoyed the book, even though I appreciated it.

I enjoyed The Land in Winter, although I do agree there was certainly an odd quality about the characters.

Have just read The Housemaid by Frieda McFadden and The Farmers Wife by Helen Rebanks.
Very different books but enjoyed them both.

Just finished Raising Hare
Started Wintering
DNF The Glassmaker

6-The Toffee Factory Girls-Glenda Young
This was a delightful read. It is 1915 and in the County Durham town of Chester-le-Street, the famous Jack's Toffee factory owner is worried about the sugar rationing caused by the war. Three local girls start to work there and become very close friends, supporting one another through their ups and downs.
A heartwarming story, and I look forward to reading the next two books in this trilogy.

3 Just finished Homecoming by Kate Morton. It's a very long book (about 650 pages, I think). Very enjoyable but there were a lot of characters and it was in two eras so I did have to refer back occasionally.
The ending was too abrupt, I thought, with some unresolved issues but otherwise I would recommend it.

The descriptions of the snow and freezing temperatures of the winter made me feel chilly, I felt cold to the bone in real life and turned my electric blanket up.
I remember it well - and we had no central heating then. Trudged a long way to school in the snow which was hedge height in some places! The buses weren't running but school was still open.

We had no CH heating, either. We lived in an old falling-down house with a coal fire in one downstairs room, where my granddad lived, a paraffin heater in the sittimgroom, that never went on until mid-afternoon, and in our bedrooms we had tiny greenhouse heaters, that looked like flying saucers and I think were also paraffin. I recall my mum getting sheets & towels in off the washing line. They were frozen stiff and she had to bend them in half and half again to fold them! I’d hate to go through that again.

SueDonim

We had no CH heating, either. We lived in an old falling-down house with a coal fire in one downstairs room, where my granddad lived, a paraffin heater in the sittimgroom, that never went on until mid-afternoon, and in our bedrooms we had tiny greenhouse heaters, that looked like flying saucers and I think were also paraffin. I recall my mum getting sheets & towels in off the washing line. They were frozen stiff and she had to bend them in half and half again to fold them! I’d hate to go through that again.

SueDonim
That brings back so many memories. Our home in early married life was heated by paraffin heaters, until we got one of those electric log fires in the living room.

DH would put the paraffin heater on in the bathroom in the morning ready for a suite with that pink rubber tap attachment we called a shower, or in the late afternoon ready for bath time.

I love central heating.

Allira - Kate Morton's one of my favourite authors, I like the fact that her books are thick, because often I don't want them to end.

On to another favourite author

5 Gabriel's Moon - William Boyd

I wouldn't normally go for a book about the CIA, MI5 and spies but William Boyd makes all his books, particularly the way he sets them against historical events, really readable. This was no exception.The setting is 1960, when the relations between the west and the Soviet Union are at an all time low. Gabriel Dax is a promising young travel writer who whilst researching in the newly independent Republic of Congo manages to secure an interview with the country's first prime minister, Patrice Lumumba, later to murdered. That incident some 65 or so years really resonates today after recent events, as it was thought, once again this left leaning leader had been deposed by outside forces, the Belgians with the help of the CIA and a trail leading back to the then president, Eisenhower. Returning to London Gabriel finds that the recordings he has in his possession are highly sought after given their sensitive nature. Courted by intelligence officers he finds himself drawn into the world of espionage in covert missions that take him firstly to Franco's Spain and then behind the iron curtain. Intermittent visits to a psychiatrist relating to childhood trauma which relates to the title of the book are also pivotal to the narrative.

I loved it, I am now reading the sequel "The Predicament"

Book 4 All her Fault by Andrea Mara
This book was a Christmas present. It was OK but I really don't like it when, towards the end, authors have one character explaining the plot which is often implausible.

It started off very well but didn't live up to my expectations. 7/10

Sparklefizz

Book 4 All her Fault by Andrea Mara
This book was a Christmas present. It was OK but I really don't like it when, towards the end, authors have one character explaining the plot which is often implausible.

It started off very well but didn't live up to my expectations. 7/10

I just bought the series on Amazon Prime and have binged on it. It got a very good write up when released. I can't remember who originally screened it. I thought it was really good, lots of twists and turns, implausible, yes it was, but I hadn't read the book so I didn't know what was coming.

Book 1: Margaret Beaufort Survivor, Rebel, Kingmaker by Laura Johnson. This was a Christmas present which I have really enjoyed. This is a very readable biography which reveals Margaret as she really was. It brings her vividly to life and shows her in a different light to some historical novels.

Book 2: Murder in York by J R Ellis. The latest in this detective series set in Yorkshire. Enjoyable.