50 Book Challenge 2018 Part Nine

Thanks for the new thread, Southeast, and hope everyone has had a lovely Christmas.

I'm about 1/3 of the way through my 'big' Christmas read, David Mitchell's The Thousand Autumns Of Jacob de Zoet - book number 55 for 2018, or possibly 1 for 2019, depending on when I finish it!

Seriously considering making 2019 the year I reread my 50 favourite books (as rated on Goodreads), including some I've not read for 20+ years. Need to have a sort through the bookshelf as I don't have copies of all of them.

51. Jamaica Inn by Daphne du Maurier

1820s Cornwall. Mary follows her mother's dying wish and goes to live with her estranged aunt, unwittingly stumbling into a criminal gang operating from her new home.

Lots of tension and atmosphere, a bit of a twist, what's not to love. I really liked this. I don't think it was as good as Rebecca and MCR, but still a cracking read.

I'm not posting a list or breakdown until 31st as I have high hopes for the last 2 days of the year. We overdid it on our annual post-xmas podge busting hike today and I don't think I'll be fit for much tomorrow. Sofa surfing with a book is on the cards.

Also enjoying seeing the standouts for everyone to make next year a quality one. I've read too much rubbish this year compared to last.

Thanks for the new thread Southeast.

Matilda from your list I second All Quiet on the Western Front as it is beautifully written.

Is The Odyssey worth a read? I read The Illiad forever ago, but tried The Odyssey straight after it and couldn't get in to it. There's a lot of Greek lit based stuff I want to read, but feel I would get more from if I tackled that first.

Just checking in to the new thread, full list to follow when I've not been at the pub

Thanks southeast, this thread is already clearly a much needed public service.

Matilda my standouts from your bucket list are The Poisonwood Bible, The Handmaid's Tale and Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?.

Just spending my last few reading hours of the year snowed in in South Dakota with the lovely Jack Reacher...

Thanks for the new thread southeast! I'm really enjoying reading everyone's final lists, breakdowns and top fives. Very useful for compiling next years TBR list. Here's what will probably be my last book of the year...

68. To the Bright Edge of the World – Eowyn Ivey

A novel inspired by a real life expedition to navigate a remote area of Alaska in 1885. I love a good adventure story and it’s always nice to have a book you can escape into over the Christmas period. This fitted the bill perfectly.

The story is told through a series of journal entries and letters written by the expedition leader, Allen Forrester and his wife Sophie Forrester. There are also newspaper articles from the time and short articles from contemporary publications. Running parallel to the main plot is a subplot consisting of correspondence in the present day from an elderly relative of the Forresters, and a Curator at a museum located in the area which Forrester attempted to navigate.

The unusual structure meant that it took a while for me to get into this one, but once I had the hang of all the various threads I found it difficult to put down. I understand Eowyn Ivey also written The Snow Child which I will definitely be checking out in 2019.

Just started on Everything Under by Daisy Johnson. Although it's quite short, I doubt I'll get it finished in 3 days and it will probably be my first book finished in 2019.

Full list and top five to follow soon.

"Also I laughed at cote doing a “dead musicians” percentage "

Hey, 12% is a very respectable percentage, too

A very poor year from me reading wise. I’m not commuting any more so have lost 10 hours a week reading time and am about 50 books down on last year’s total.

Also new job is very mentally challenging so easy comfort reading has been needed.

1 Diary of an Ordinary Schoolgirl - Margaret Forster
2 Sunday Morning Coming Down -Nicci French
3 OVer Sea Under Stone -Susan Cooper
4 Cider with Rosie - Laurie Lee
5 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
6 The Dark is Rising - Susan Cooper
7 How Hard Can it Be? - Alison Pearson WORST BOOK
8 Skellig -David Almond
9-13 Shopaholic books 5-8 Sophie Kinsella
14. Into Thin Air - Jon Krakauer
15. Eiger Dreams -Jon Krakauer
16. Balancing Act - Joanna Trollope
17. City of Friends -Joanna Trollope
18. Excellent Women -Barbara Pym
19. The Threat Level Remains Severe - Rowena Macdonald
20. Conchie, What my Father didn’t do in the war - Gethin Russell
21. Reservoir 13 - Jon McGregor
22. The Year that Changed Everything - Cathy Kelly
23. My Cousin Rachel - Daphne Du Maurier
24. The Descent of Man - Grayson Perry
25. Sourdough -Robin Sloan
26. The Pedant in the Kitchen - Julian Barnes
27. The Dry - Jane Harper
28. Force of Nature - Jane Harper
29. The Trick to Time - Kit De Waal
30. Unless - Carol Shields
31. Mother Country - Jeremy Harding
32. The Moth Catcher -Anne Cleeves
33. Harbour Street -Anne Cleeves
34. Conclave - ROBERT Harris
35. The Glass Room - Anne Cleeves
36. Silent Voices -Anne Cleeves
37. Hidden Depths -Anne Cleeves
38. Revelation - CJ Sansom
39. The Dark Angel - Ellie Griffiths
40. Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
41. Telling Tales -Anne Cleeves
42. The Crow Trap - Anne Cleeves
43. Telling Tales - Anne Cleeves
44. The Seagull - Anne Cleeves
45. Raven Black -Anne Cleeves
46. White Nights - Anne Cleeves
47. Red Bones -Anne Cleeves
48. Blue Lighteining - Anne Cleeves
49. Dead Water - Anne Cleeves
50. Thin Air - Anne Cleeves
51. Too good to be True - Anne Cleeves
52. Cold Earth - Anne Cleeves
53. Wild Fire - Anne Cleeves
54. This Is Going To Hurt - Adam Kay
55. Day of The Dead - Nicki French
56. The Various Haunts Of Men - Susan Hill
57. The pure in Heart - Susan Hill
58. The Risk Of Darknesss - Susan Hill
59. Educated - Tara Westover
60. Lethal White - Robert Galbraith
61. The Vows Of Silence - Susan Hill
62. The Shadows in the Street - Susan Hill
63. The Betrayal Of Trust - Susan Hill
64. A Breach Of Security- Susan Hill
65. The soul of Discretion - Susan Hill
66. The Comforts Of Home
67. A Question of a Identity - Susan Hill
68. The Crossing Places - Ellie Griffiths
69. The Butchering Art - Lindsey Fitzharris
70. Kennixstone - A Gower Farm
71. The Janus Stone - Ellie Griffiths
72. The House at Seas End - Ellie Griffiths
73. A Room Full Of Bones - Ellie Griffiths
74. Dying Fall - Ellie Griffiths
75. The Outcast Dead - Ellie Griffiths
76. The Ghost Fields - Ellie Griffiths
77. The Woman in Blue - Ellie Griffiths
78. The Chalk Pit - Ellie Griffiths

Star book of the year - My Cousin Rachel. Outstanding and kept me on the edge of my seat. Going to read more Du Maurier next year (Rebecca is already in my top 5).

Lost on my kindle to look forward to - Shardlake for example. See you all next year.

Do do do read Lord Of The Flies again Matilda

I hated my memories of it from school. Remus persuaded me to read it again last year and it was brilliant. I read it again straight away afterwards. It’s now in my top 10 too.

I’ve read Lord of the Flies at school but definitely want to do that again!

Matilda - Lord of the Flies and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest would be two of my top choices from that list.

1. Munich – Robert Harris
2. Continuum Contemporaries : Studying The God of Small Things
3. Cleverlands – Lucy Crehan
4. The Learning Rainforest – Tom Sherrington
5. Middlemarch – George Eliot
6. An Almond For A Parrot -Wray Delaney
7. The Muse – Jessie Burton
8. The Secret History – Donna Tartt
9. Daisy Christodoulou : The Seven Myths of Education
10. Sapiens – Yuval Noah Harari
11. The Secret Of Literacy – David Didau
12. A Tale of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
13. Homegoing –Yaa Gyasi
14. If Only They Didn’t Speak English – Jon Sopel
15. Northanger Abbey –Jane Austen
16. 1606 –James Shapiro
17. Tall Oaks – Chris Whitaker
18. Rise Up Women! – Diane Atkinson
19. Cheer Up Love- Susan Calman
20. The Book Of Dust - Philip Pullman
21. I, Coriander – Sally Gardner
22. Their Eyes Were Watching God – Zora Neale Hurston
23. Fatherland – Robert Harris
24. The Nightingale –Kristin Hannah
25. The Witchfinder’s Sister - Beth Underdown
26. The Travelling Cat Chronicles – Hiro Arikawa
27. The Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck
28. Frankenstein – Mary Shelley
29. This is Going To Hurt – Adam Kay
30. When The Adults Change – Paul Dix
31. Little Fires Everywhere – Celeste Ng
32. Gillespie and I – Jane Harris
33. Closing The Vocabulary Gap – Alex Quigley
34. The Fourteenth Letter - Claire Evans
35. The Mermaid and Mrs Hancock – Imogen Hermes Gowar
36. The Keeper of Lost Things – Ruth Hogan
37. Women and Power – Mary Beard
38. The Colour of Bee Larkham’s Murder – Sarah J Harris
39. Charlotte Gray – Sebastian Faulks
40. How Not To Be A Boy – Robert Webb
41. How To Stop Time – Matt Haig
42. Burial Rites – Hannah Kent
43. Circe – Madeline Miller
44. This Thing of Darkness – Harry Thompson
45. The Music Shop – Rachel Joyce
46. Northanger Abbey – Val McDermid
47. The Music Shop- Rachel Joyce
48. The Lido- Libby Page
49. White Rabbit Red Wolf – Tom Pollock
50. Reservoir 13 – Jon McGregor
51. The Illumination of Ursula Flight – Anna-Marie Crowhurst
52. Tin Man – Sarah Winman
53. Unbelievable – Katy Tur
54. A History of Britain in 21 Women –Jenni Murray
55. North and South – Elizabeth Gaskell
56. The Sealwoman’s Gift – Sally Magnusson
57. The Toy Makers – Robert Dinsdale
58. Waterland- Graham Swift
59. Force of Nature – Jane Harper
60. The Summer of Impossible Things- Rowan Coleman
61. Vanity Fair – William Makepeace Thackeray
62. Like Water for Chocolate – Laura Esquivel
63. The Taliban Cricket Club – Timeri N Murari
64. Dark Water - Elizabeth Lowry
65. Hag-Seed – Margaret Atwood
66. Snap – Belinda Bauer
67. The Accidental Further Adventures of the 101 Year Old Man – Jonas Jonasson
68. Bookworm – Lucy Mangan
69. The Wish Child- Catherine Chidgey
70. Norse Mythology – Neil Gaiman
71. The Elephant In The Staffroom- Chris Eyre
72. Armistice – ed Carol Ann Duffy
73. Blood Brothers – Willy Russell
74. Sugar Money – Jane Harris
75. Mythos – Stephen Fry
76. The Rotters’ Club – Jonathan Coe
77. Christmas : A Biography – Judith Flanders
78. A Literary Christmas : An Anthology – The British Library
79. Christmas Days – Jeanette Winterson
80. Uncommon Type – Tom Hanks
81. Lullaby – Leila Slimani

48/80 women 60% (1 n/a) ; 20 non fiction 25% ; 6 pre 20th century 0.75%

I only read about 4 books on the Kindle and these tended to be my least favourites, which may be connected. Think I will stick to paper. A small spattering came from my school library. Next year , I may aim to up my percentage of pre 20th but proud that I eventually did Middlemarch!

Stand outs to me were This Thing of Darkness , The Travelling Cat Chronicles and Gillespie and I. I thank MN for introducing me to Jane Harris!

1. Sisters and Lies - Bernice Barrington
2. Her Husband’s Secret - Janice Frost
3. Mount! - Jilly Cooper
4. They All Fall Down - Tammy Cohen
5. The Word Game - Steena Holmes
6. The Good Widow - Liz Fenton and Lisa Steinke
7. Mummy’s Favourite - Sarah Flint
8. The Paper Year - Avery Aster
9. Gone - TJ Brearton

2018 list as above and reading The Secret Barrister which I doubt I’ll finish in time.

Top 5: Then She Was Gone , Lethal White, Thirteen , Flawed and First One Missing

Will post the book poster lists again for recommendations on favourites/where to start

Won't post my list yet, as I should finish My Week With Marilyn before the end of the year, but jut had a quick look at it and, very unusually, I've read lots more by women than by men this year. It's largely because of 'golden age crime' novels.

Also I laughed at cote doing a “dead musicians” percentage

tara glad you liked Milkman as much as I did.

Thanks for the (very necessary, ahem, Mr Tarahumara) bonus thread south will be back with my list later.

Place marking :)

Here is my list for 2018:

1. White Teeth - Zadie Smith
2. According to Mark - Penelope Lively
3. Conversations With Friends - Sally Rooney
4. Grief is the Thing With Feathers - Max Porter
5. The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
6. The Game Theorist's Guide to Parenting - Kevin Zollman and Paul Raeburn
7. Out of Time - Miranda Sawyer
8. Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine - Gail Honeyman
9. Gut Symmetries - Jeanette Winterson

And my favourites of the year are

Top Five Fiction:
Milkman - Anna Burns
Prodigal Summer - Barbara Kingsolver
The Mill on the Floss - George Eliot
The Sense of An Ending - Julian Barnes
Human Traces - Sebastian Faulks

Top Five Non-Fiction:
Educated - Tara Westover
A Spy Among Friends - Ben Macintyre
I Am, I Am, I Am - Maggie O'Farrell
Bookworm - Lucy Mangan
With The End in Mind - Kathryn Mannix

Marking my place on the bonus thread

Thanks for the bonus thread! I think I might be done for 2018, having scraped to 50 for the first time.

Here's my full list and selected stats:

1.The Wicked Boy by Kate Summerscale

1. The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett
2. The Descent of Man by Grayson Perry

1. Death in the Clouds but Agatha Christie
2. The Road Home by Rose Tremain

1. Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton
2. Murder At The Vicarage by Agatha Christie

20% non fiction
49% women
33% library books
8% charity shop books
44 different authors
26 authors read for the first time
12 proper corkers

Top five books in no particular order: The Essex Serpent, Conclave, Hangover Square, Reservoir 13 and My Cousin Rachel

Stinkers of the year: The Girl on the Landing, Ashes of London, The Party, Left Bank, Lullaby

Thanks to all the posters for inspiration - see you on the 2019 thread.