50 Book Challenge 2020 Part Eleven

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/what_were_reading/4122000-50-Book-Challenge-2021-Part-One

Psst! - New thread for 2021

[https://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/what_were_reading/4122000-50-Book-Challenge-2021-Part-One]

I am being defeated in my reading ambitions by the return of the much dreaded home schooling, really hoped to have a quiet day this week to finish Polly Crosby - The Illustrated Child, fingers crossed I will be back soon to finally update my 2020 list...

I'm trying to support more independent bookshops but Amazon always seem to be cheaper - I'd like to buy the Twochubbycubs Diet Planner in paperback and they're at least £1 cheaper than anywhere else I can find it, annoyingly. (The Kindle edition is much, much cheaper but I would like an actual copy to write in!)

Hope you are all recovered now @SatsukiKusakabe and @TabbyM

Thanks to having time off and doing very little in 2020 other than work, not to mention 3 lockdowns and a broken limb, my total came to 222
which is up quite a bit. I also bought/acquired 56 books which is up a little, probably due to the book spree I went on when charity shops re-opened in July and the library being totally shut till August, and World Of Books online.

Hi all, I dropped off for health reasons about a month or two ago, reading came to a halt. I managed to get a few in this last week so posting my final list and hope to jump on the 2021 train. I’ve missed these threads and have enjoyed catching up with everyone’s final roundups. I over corrected towards women writers a couple of years ago as I wasn’t reading many and this year I did about 50/50 without thinking about what I was reading so pleased with that.

1. Black Hammer Vol 1

2. Life Among the Savages by Shirley Jackson

1. Comet in Moominland by Tove Jansson

4. Jim Henson The Biography by Brian Jay Jones 5. Catch and Kill by Ronan Farrow 6. A Spool of Blue Thread by Anne Tyler

1. Thin Air by Michelle Paver
2. 12 Rules for Life by Jordan Peterson

9. The Sisters Brothers by Patrick DeWitt 10. The Pied Piper by Neville Shute 11. The Empire of the Sun by JG Ballard 12. The 101 Dalamatians by Dodie Smith 13. The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien 14. My Wild and Sleepless Nights by Clover Stroud 15. Wild and Crazy Guys by Nick de Semlyen 16. The Topeka School by Ben Lerner 17. Trustee from the Toolroom by Neville Shute 18. The Indian in the Cupboard by Lynne Reid Banks 19. Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris 20. Sputnik Sweetheart by Haruki Murakami 21. Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid 22. Persuasion by Jane Austen 23. The Island 24. Ghost Wall by Sarah Moss 25. Stasiland by Anna Funder 26. Ice Cold in Alex 27. Rodham by Curtis Sittenfeld 28. Matilda by Roald Dahl 29. The Railway Children by E Nesbit 30. The Mothers by Britt Bennett 31. The Pursuit of Love by Nancy Mitford 32. Millions by Frank Cottrell-Boyce 33. Sweet Sorrow by David Nicholls 34. The Redhead at the Side of the Road by Anne Tyler 35. Back When We Were Grown-Ups by Anne Tyler 36. The Second Sleep by Robert Harris 37. Little Women by Louisa M Alcott 38. The Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger 39. The Mirror and the Light by Hilary Mantel 40. For Esme with Love and Squalor by Jd Salinger 41. The Silkworm by Robert Galbraith 42. Emma by Jane Austen 43. One Two Three Four: The Beatles in Time by Craig Brown 44. Mary Oliver Selected Poems 45. Intimations by Zadie Smith 46. Therese Raquin by Emil Zola 47. Heidi by Johanna Spyri 48. The Wonder Spot by Melissa Bank 49. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix 50. A Portable Paradise by Roger Robinson 51. The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead 52. Silence by Shūsaku Endō 53. Love and Other Thought Experiments by Sophie Ward 54. Negative Capability by Michele Roberts 55. Lost in a Good Game 56. Go Giants by Nick Laird 57. Beowulf by Seamus Heaney 58. Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince 59. The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper 60. The Fire of Joy by Clive James 61. Piranesi by Susanna Clarke 62. The Queen’s Gambit

I had a really good run this last week as enjoyed all 3 immensely.

Piranesi is a mini masterpiece, it is so rare to find something so intelligent and stimulating and philosophical that also reads like a page-turning thriller. Not like anything else, and spoke to me very strongly. Best not too say too much about it as better to discover as you go. I’ve always been defeated by Jonathan Strange but this may send me back.

The Fire of Joy is a beautiful, beautiful moving book. James takes the reader on a journey through his life in poetry, giving commentary on his favourite poems, those which have lingered in his memory despite failing eyesight and deteriorating health, and what they have meant to him in the past and what they mean to him as he reaches the end of his life. This was extremely rewarding to read if you like poetry, and also to dip in and out of if you only have a passing interest.

The Queen’s Gambit really enjoyable read, ahead of watching the tv series. Will be reading Tevis’s other novels of which I am only familiar through the films.

I imagine I will read a similar amount next year as that seems to be where I sit, but would like to perhaps round up to 70.

Thanks and see you on the other side

[quote StitchesInChristmasTime]@bettbattenburg

Try this:

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/what_were_reading/4122000-50-Book-Challenge-2021-Part-One[/quote]
Thank you @Stitches.

@bettbattenburg

Try this:

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/what_were_reading/4122000-50-Book-Challenge-2021-Part-One

Help! The 2021 thread is invisible for some bizarre reason, I can't find it anywhere. Can anybody help with a clicky link please ?

Fortuna, great minds think alike

Thanks Count -will have a look.

@KeithLeMonde you were asking about South Korean literature. The Books and Bao blog is good on SE Asian literature, might be worth a look.

Magi thanks for the tip.

Noodle it's not cheating to include it as your last book. It was my backup read if I was struggling to make target.

Happy New Year fellow readers and looking forward to joining you on the 2021 threads. Thanks for running the threads southeast. And thanks for all the book chat everyone, agree with others that this is the nicest thread on Mumsnet.

I managed to sneak a couple more in at the end:

295. One By One by Ruth Ware

The staff of a tech company all go away together to a ski chalet in France. It’s obvious from the start that they don’t all get on and things get worse when they’re trapped by an avalanche. This is told from the point of view of Liz, one of the tech staff, and Erin, who runs the chalet. It’s good although it has put me off ever wanting to go skiing! All the chapters are short so it’s easy to race through (just one more chapter!)

296. A Village Murder by Frances Evesham

Average kindle freebie, not the best to end the year on but it was short enough to get in before the deadline!

I’m not going to add my full list but here’s my stats:

36% male authors, 58% female authors, 6% both (mainly Nicci French books!)

7% Audible, 21% kindle, 72% physical. I usually read more on the kindle when I’m travelling. Despite reading so many physical books I still don’t seem to have reduced my physical TBR pile!

11% children’s books, 8% chicklit, 30% crime/thriller, 29% other fiction, 22% non fiction.

12% rereads, 88% new books.

I have 219 unread books on my kindle this morning so my aim this year is to get it down to 100. I really need to stop buying random 99p books! I also want to make more of a dent in my physical TBR pile by not buying so many new books. I’m not having a complete ban as I want to support my local bookshop but will try and be more discerning with the ones I do buy!

De lurking to say that 8 or so of Jan Morris's books are all on today's Kindle deal.

It's still 2020 where I am, and I just sneaked in my 50.

48. The Book of Longings, by Sue Monk Kidd. Story of Ana, wife of Jesus. I didn't expect to love this as much as I did, but the writing is beautiful. Strong side eye to the reviewer who didn't like it because "those with even a passing familiarity with Jesus's life know what will happen"

49. Emily, by Jilly Cooper. Fell in love with it aged 13, and have read it countless times, but the comfort read factor was a bit dented this time by how badly it's aged. Despite everything, Rory Balniel is largely responsible for my having a soft spot for a tall, dark man in a navy jumper.

50. The boy, the mole, the fox and the horse, by Charlie Mackesy. Is it cheating to include a very short illustrated book as my last of the year? Maybe but I'm unrepentant. A mixed bag. Gorgeous illustrations, and text that is equal parts beautiful and 90s motivational poster. I think this wants to be Winnie the Pooh for the modern age, and it isn't quite. Still loved it though.

Thank you all 50 bookers; old, new and returning, and especially southeast for creating the threads. This corner of the internet has been a respite in a horrible year and I am very thankful to you all.

Thank you for the tips on which versions of A Streetcar Named Desire to watch Remus and Palegreen. I can definitely see Gillian Anderson in the Blanche roll (although I'm sure Marge Simpson is a close second!) I must have seen clips of Marlon as Stanley because I can see him in the white vest in my minds eye.

My top 5 2020 reads:

A Fine Balance - Epic, memorable tale of Indian oppression
The Green Mile - One of King's finest.
Love After Love - Original and captivating
Alias Grace - Beautifully written, open ended telling of a true crime
American Dirt - A real page turner

Honourable Mentions to:
Holes - a great YA book, clever plotting.
The Silence Of The Girls - Greek myth from the female perspective
Sweet Sorrow - Slight but sweet story of first love, very nostalgic
Bring Up The Bodies - Would have been top five if it hadn't been a re-read
The Homegoing - Multi generational story of black oppression

Happy 2021 to all 50 Bookers old and new, many thanks to southeast for keeping the threads going, and I'll see you on the shiny new thread later on today!

Just dropping in to say I made my 50 books with just two days to spare! Thank you to posters for your recommendations of shorter books that helped me get over the line when I had 5 books to go with just over a week left of the year.

I read Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell, Bel Canto by Ann Patchett, Daddy by Emma Cline, Face It by Debbie Harry and finished Barack Obama’s A Promised Land. All well worth it.

Here’s to 2021!

Oh, I forgot to add Dead Famous by Greg Jenner to the non-fiction highlights, but I think it probably belongs there .

I know it's technically 2021 now (happy new year, everyone!!!!), but I'm putting my list for last year on this thread so it doesn't clutter up the shiny new one with old news.

My full list:

1. Hall of Mirrors by Christopher Fowler
2. Festive Spirits by Kate Atkinson
3. The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher by Hilary Mantel
4. The Ghost Fields by Elly Griffiths
5. Angel With Two Faces by Nicola Upson
6. Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozie Adichie
7. The Road to Little Dribbling by Bill Bryson
8. The Woman in Blue by Elly Griffiths
9. The Chalk Pit by Elly Griffiths

10. The Crow Trap by Ann Cleeves 11. The Dark Angel by Elly Griffiths 12. Normal People by Sally Rooney 13. The Stone Circle by Elly Griffiths 14. The Herring Seller's Apprentice by L. C. Tyler 15. To Siri With Love by Judith Newman 16. The Screaming Staircase (Lockwood & Co) by Jonathan Stroud 17. 9th and 13th by Jonathan Coe 18. Literary Life by Posy Simmonds 19. Bach by Denis Arnold 20. The Constant Nymph by Margaret Kennedy 21. An American Marriage by Tayari Jones 22. Smallbone Deceased by Michael Gilbert 23. England's Finest by Christopher Fowler 24. How Not To Be A Boy by Robert Webb 25. The Quest for the Golden Hare by Bamber Gascoigne 26. Masquerade by Kit Williams 27. Vermeer to Eternity by Anthony Horowitz 28. Wine and Punishment by Sarah Fox 29. Back When We Were Grownups by Anne Tyler 30. True Love by Posy Simmonds 31. Airhead by Emily Maitlis 32. Grown Ups by Marian Keyes 33. The Porpoise by Mark Haddon 34. Annabel Scheme by Robin Sloan 35. The Mystery of Three Quarters by Sophie Hannah 36. Noble Savages by Sarah Watling 37. Coffin, Scarcely Used by Colin Watson 38. The Time Machine by H. G. Wells 39. Look Who's Back by Timur Vermes 40. Where Do Comedians Go When They Die? by Milton Jones 41. Mount! by Jilly Cooper 42. Love, Nina by Nina Stibbe 43. The Hoarder by Jess Kidd 44. One More Croissant for the Road by Felicity Cloake 45. The Golden Age of Murder by Martin Edwards 46. Celestial Bodies by Jokha Alharthi 47. The Tidal Zone by Sarah Moss 48. Gentlemen & Players by Joanne Harris 49. The Watchmaker of Filigree Street by Natasha Pulley 50. Slow Horses by Mick Herron 51. Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens 52. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by JK Rowling 53. The Woman Who Went to Bed for a Year by Sue Townsend 54. Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman 55. Northbridge Rectory by Angela Thirkell 56. Apricots on the Nile by Colette Rossant 57. Chasing the Dram by Rachel McCormack 58. Growing Up by Angela Thirkell 59. Closed Casket by Sophie Hannah 60. Winter by Ali Smith 61. Tales from the Folly by Ben Aaronovitch 62. The Other Bennet Sister by Janice Hadlow 63. Death is Hard Work by Khaled Khalifa 64. The Zig-Zag Girl by Elly Griffiths 65. Smoke and Mirrors by Elly Griffiths 66. The Secret Life of Cows by Rosamund Young 67. Me by Elton John 68. Mortmain Hall by Martin Edwards 69. The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett 70. The Organised Mum Method by Gemma Bray 71. The Mystery of Henri Pick by David Foenkinos 72. Maths on the Back of an Envelope by Rob Eastaway 73. One Good Turn by Kate Atkinson 74. When Will There Be Good News? by Kate Atkinson 75. The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman 76. The Doctor Who Sat for a Year by Brendan Kelly 77. The Monogram Murders by Sophie Hannah 78. Mr Finchley Discovers His England by Victor Canning 79. Gingerbread by Helen Oyeyemi 80. Where the Bodies Are Buried by Chris Brookmyre 81. When the Devil Drives by Chris Brookmyre 82. Confessions of a Bookseller by Shaun Bythell 83. Selection Day by Aravind Adiga 84. Hamilton: the Revolution by Lin Manuel Miranda and Jeremy McCarter 85. The Carer by Deborah Moggach 86. The Deaths of December by Susi Holliday 87. The Thirteen Days of Christmas by Jenny Overton 88. Dead Famous by Greg Jenner 89. A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens 90. Grimble and Grimble at Christmas by Lucian Freud 91. Ruth's First Christmas Tree by Elly Griffiths 92. Flesh Wounds by Chris Brookmyre 93. The Children of Green Knowe by Lucy M. Boston 94. An English Murder by Cyril Hare 95. A True Story by Lucian of Samosata 96. Good Habits, Bad Habits by Wendy Wood 97. The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper 98. A Horse Walks Into a Bar by David Grossman

Of my 98 books:

• 57% were by women and 43% by men
• 79% were fiction and 21% were non-fiction (I think I had a higher “hit” rate with the latter, so I’m definitely planning to read more next year)
• 6 were translated from other languages (Arabic, German, French, Hebrew and Latin)
• 87% were by authors based in the UK or USA, which is also something I’m going to try to rectify next year.
• 49% were mine, 46% were from the library and the other 5% were borrowed from other people (I’m pleased to see that my efforts to use the library more have been successful!)
• 44% were audiobooks (which I only started using last year!), 36% were ebooks and only 20% were print books.
• 66% were written in the last decade (and 30% in 2018-20). I was really surprised by this – I hadn’t realised how many very recent books I’d been reading, but maybe this is because of my greater library use? My books averaged 301 pages each, but the shortest was only 41 pages ( Ruth’s First Christmas Tree ) and the longest was 658 pages ( The Other Bennet Sister, closely followed by Grown Ups and Mount!* at 656 and 640 pages respectively).

I am a bit of a data geek, so I have put all this information into a spreadsheet so I can make pivot tables and plot graphs and so on. A graph of pages read against time shows that I had big reading spurts in February and December, with a rather slow period from mid-March to late-June (hardly surprising, given that I was struggling with work, homeschooling, volunteering and general covid-related chaos, but it’s nice to see that this was a real dip in my rate of reading, not just my perceptions).

Fiction highlights (not necessarily the best books, but the ones that have stayed with me):
Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozie Adichie
The Constant Nymph by Margaret Kennedy
Grown Ups by Marian Keyes
The Porpoise by Mark Haddon
The Hoarder by Jess Kidd
Celestial Bodies by Jokha Alharthi
The Tidal Zone by Sarah Moss
The Other Bennet Sister by Janice Hadlow
The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman
Gingerbread by Helen Oyeyemi

Non-fiction highlights:
How Not To Be A Boy by Robert Webb
The Quest for the Golden Hare by Bamber Gascoigne
Noble Savages by Sarah Watling
The Golden Age of Murder by Martin Edwards
Me by Elton John
Good Habits, Bad Habits by Wendy Wood

My aim for next year will probably be 100 again (depending on what happens with my work, as I used to do a lot of reading in the days when I was actually commuting to the office!). I am also thinking of putting a total stop to impulse Kindle deal purchases (I’m terrible for this), and trying not to buy more than 5 new books next year (). I’ve just bought a secondhand Kobo so I can read more ebooks from the library (as the native app is so dreadful). I’m also considering getting a pile of, say, 30 books that I already own, giving them each a number, and using a random number generator to pick one for me every other book. If I don’t want to read a book when its number comes up, then I’ll get rid of it – I’m just sick of having piles of unread books everywhere, making me feel guilty but not actually getting read!

Happy New Year Folks

This thread or new thread as of 2021? @southeastdweller

Happy new year to all 50 Bookers :)

Just been through the year's threads to add my books to Goodreads and realised that due to some mid-year miscounting I'd actually underestimated the number of books completed - I actually managed 29 which is not too bad considering that two of them were the huge Moby-Dick and The Count of Monte Cristo. There were some real corkers in the year - as you may know I'm not a fan of the huge lists so will just add my top five here:

Wolf Hall trilogy - Hilary Mantel
Libra - Don Delillo
The Hopkins Manuscript - RC Sherriff
The Emigrants - WG Sebald
Journal of a Disappointed Man - WNP Barbellion

My full 2020 list.
I read 118 books in 2019, so a slight increase this year to 125 books, despite a reading slump around the start of the first lockdown.

1. The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton
2. Death is a Welcome Guest by Louise Welsh
3. Bird Box by Josh Malerman
4. Stranger With My Face by Lois Duncan
5. Calmer, Easier, Happier Homework by Noel Janis-Norton
6. Skeletons by Jane Fallon
7. The Wolf Gift by Anne Rice
8. Red: A Natural History of the Redhead by Jacky Colliss Harvey
9. The Neutronium Alchemist by Peter F Hamilton

10. The Hunting Party by Lucy Foley 11. 99 Red Balloons by Elisabeth Carpenter 12. Starcrossed by Josephine Angelini 13. Female Chauvinist Pigs by Ariel Levy 14. The Scent of Shadows by Vicki Pettersson 15. The Silver Dream story by Neil Gaiman & Micheal Reaves, written by Michael Reaves & Mallory Reaves 16. By Light Alone by Adam Roberts 17. The Treatment by C L Taylor 18. Days of Blood and Starlight by Laini Taylor 19. The Escape by C L Taylor 20. The Chalk Man by C J Tudor 21. No Dominion by Louise Welsh 22. How to Lose Weight Without Being Miserable by Richard Templar 23. The Fire Sermon by Francesca Haig 24. Chimera by Mira Grant 25. God Bless the NHS by Roger Taylor 26. Bring Me Back by B A Paris 27. The Shape We’re In by Sarah Boseley 28. The Understudy by B A Paris, Clare Mackintosh, Holly Brown and Sophie Hannah 29. Someone Like Me by M R Carey 30. Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman 31. Calmer Easier Happier Screen Time by Noel Janis-Norton 32. The Unthinkable by Amanda Ripley 33. Rotherweird by Andrew Caldecott 34. The Family Upstairs by Lisa Jewell 35. First Term at Malory Towers by Enid Blyton 36. Night Film by Marisha Pessl 37. Second Form at Malory Towers by Enid Blyton 38. Third Year at Malory Towers by Enid Blyton 39. Believe Me by J P Delaney 40. Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones 41. The Record Keeper by Agnes Gomillion 42. Charlotte Sometimes by Penelope Farmer 43. The Demon Code by Adam Blake 44. Dragonflight by Anne McCaffrey 45. Everything Begins With Asking For Help by Kevin Braddock 46. Evil Star by Anthony Horowitz 47. Blackbirds by Chuck Wendig 48. Surrounded by Idiots by Thomas Erikson 49. Trigger Warning by Neil Gaiman 50. Castle in the Air by Diana Wynne Jones 51. The Invasion by Peadar O’Guilin 52. The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker 53. Early Riser by Jasper Fforde 54. Friend Request by Laura Marshall 55. A Stranger in the House by Shari Lapena 56. The Little White Horse by Elizabeth Goudge 57. When She Woke by Hillary Jordan 58. The Naked God by Peter F Hamilton 59. Big Fat Lies by Hannah Sutter 60. The Migration by Helen Marshall 61. Circe by Madeline Miller 62. Sleep by C L Taylor 63. The Nowhere Girls by Amy Reed 64. Dreams of Gods and Monsters by Laini Taylor 65. Gone by Leona Deakin 66. White Cat by Holly Black 67. An Unwanted Guest by Shari Lapena 68. White Silence by Jodi Taylor 69. The Institute by Stephen King 70. All New Wolverine Volume 1: The Four Sisters 71. Dracula by Bram Stoker 72. Roman Quests: The Archers of Isca by Caroline Lawrence 73. Malory Towers Upper Fourth by Enid Blyton 74. Uhura’s Song by Janet Kagan 75. Just What Kind of Mother Are You? by Paula Daly 76. The Season of Passage by Christopher Pike 77. Autism: How to Raise a Happy Autistic Child by Jessie Hewitson 78. Nod by Adrian Barnes 79. The Ogre Downstairs by Diana Wynne Jones 80. Touch by Claire North 81. What’s in a Surname? by David McKie 82. Dark Light by Jodi Taylor 83. The Sweet Poison Quit Plan by David Gillespie 84. Fellside by M R Carey 85. Roman Quests: Return to Rome by Caroline Lawrence 86. Kensuke’s Kingdom by Michael Morpurgo 87. Whispers Underground by Ben Aaronovitch 88. The Map of Bones by Francesca Haig 89. Hazards of Time Travel by Joyce Carol Oates 90. The Hatching by Ezekiel Boone 91. The Thieves of Ostia by Caroline Lawrence 92. Girl by Edna O’Brien 93. The Wolves of Winter by Tyrell Johnson 94. Panic by Lauren Oliver 95. My Son’s Not Rainman by John Williams 96. In The Fifth at Malory Towers by Enid Blyton 97. No. More. Plastic. by Martin Dorey 98. Last Term at Malory Towers by Enid Blyton 99. The 21st Century Is Making You Fat by Pat Thomas 100. New Term at Malory Towers by Pamela Cox 101. Summer Term at Malory Towers by Pamela Cox 102. Winter Term at Malory Towers by Pamela Cox 103. The Turn of the Key by Ruth Ware 104. The Grace Year by Kim Liggett 105. Hurrah for Gin by Katie Kirby 106. All New Wolverine Vol 2: Civil War II 107. All New Wolverine Vol 3: Enemy of the State 108. All New Wolverine Vol 4: Immune 109. All New X-Men Vol 1: Yesterday’s X-Men 110. All New X-Men Vol 2: Here to Stay 111. All New X-Men Vol 3: Out of Their Depth 112. Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi 113. Doing Time by Jodi Taylor 114. House of Many Ways by Diana Wynne Jones 115. Fun and Games at Malory Towers by Pamela Cox 116. Fire and Thorns by Rae Carson 117. The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid 118. The Killer Next Door by Alex Marwood 119. Broken Homes by Ben Aaronovitch 120. The I.D.I.C Epidemic by Jean Lorrah 121. The Clever Guts Diet by Dr Michael Mosley 122. The Venus Conspiracy by Michael Cordy 123. Identity Crisis by Ben Elton 124. Secrets at Malory Towers by Pamela Cox 125. The Meg by Steve Alten

Top 5, in no particular order:

The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker
Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones
Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
Girl by Edna O’Brien
Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi

Statistics:

Library books 38% (63% in 2019)
Non-fiction 14% (8% in 2019)
Male authors 31%, Female authors 63%, Not sure 6% (64% female authors in 2019, so not much change there)
Ebooks 6%

I’ve not got any reading goals for 2021, other than to continue enjoying reading.

I'll just pop my list for the year here. I've not managed nearly as much reading as most years (work-related), so I'm not sure there's enough for a statistical breakdown. I hope I'm not forced to turn in my 50 Bookers badge, and promise to try harder next year.

1. March Violets by Philip Kerr
2. Ring The Hill by Tom Cox
3. The Stepford Wives by Ira Levin
4. The Lost Man by Jane Harper
5. Cat's Eye by Margaret Atwood.
6. Wakenhyrst by Michelle Paver
7. Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
8. The Secret Barrister - Stories of the Law and How It's Broken
9. Enigma by Robert Harris

10.Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata 11. Fleishman is in Trouble by Taffy Brodesser-Akner 12. The Citadel by AJ Cronin 13. The Mirror and the Light by Hilary Mantel 14. Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid 15. Lady in Waiting by Anne Glenconner 16. A Journal of the Plague Year by Daniel Defoe 17. Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams 18. Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots by Deborah Feldman 19. The Five by Hallie Rubenhold 20. Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell 21. In the Days of Rain by Rebecca Stott 22. Magpie Lane by Lucy Atkins 23. Peaches for Monsieur le Curé by Joanne Harris 24. American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins 25. Bone China by Laura Purcell 26. Another Day in the Death of America by Gary Younge 27. The Familiars by Stacy Hall 28. The Benefit of Hindsight by Susan Hill 29. The Murder of Harriet Monckton by Elizabeth Haynes 30. Elmet by Fiona Mozley 31. Inheritance by Jenny Eclair 32. Jeremy Hutchinson's Care Histories by Thomas Grant 33. Three Hours by Rosamund 34. A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickend 35. The Chimes by Charles Dickens

Top five of the year:

Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
The Mirror and the Light by Hilary Mantel
Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid
Lady in Waiting by Anne Glenconner
Another Day in the Death of America by Gary Younge

Stinker of the year: Fleishman is in Trouble

Yikes, I’d better post my final 3 reviews before Big Ben strikes!

96. A True Story by Lucian of Samosata
I had this on my TBR list because I saw it referred to somewhere as “the first science fiction novel”. It was written in the mid-2nd century AD (yes, really!) by Lucian of Samosata, a Greek-speaking author of Assyrian descent. Despite the title, it’s basically a giant shaggy dog story-cum-literary trolling exercise, and is one of the weirdest books I’ve ever read. The author begins with a disingenuous claim that this work has been written to relax the minds of serious scholars after their labours, just as athletes must pay attention to rest as well as exercise. Lucian’s aim is to parody other philosophers and poets who have written about miracles and fables – but, unlike them, he’s completely upfront about that fact his fabulous tales are all made up … which therefore makes him more truthful than them because at least he’s telling the reader not to believe a word he says .

The narrator sets off on a long voyage and find many wonders – within the first couple of pages, they’ve discovered an island visited by Dionysus where springs of wine rise from the ground, and where the fish who inhabit those springs are wine-coloured and -flavoured (and make the crew drunk when they eat them). Within a few more pages, they’ve been caught up in a whirlwind, sail through the air for seven days, and land on a round, shining island that they later discover to be the moon. They are caught up in a battle between Endymion and Phaeton, the respective rulers of the moon and sun, who are fighting to colonise the Morning Star with the aid of their troops: the Vulture Dragoons, who ride giant vultures; the Grassplume-riders, who ride birds with grass for plumage and wings like lettuce leaves; the Flea-archers; the Millet-shooters; the Sky-mosquitoes; the Stalk-mushrooms; the Sky-dancers, who sling lethally poisoned radishes at their enemies, and so on . Lucian’s travels continue in this vein, and take him to places where men bear children in the calves of their legs, where the people wear clothes of polished glass and have removable eyes; and where the sea is made of milk and contains islands of cheese. It’s all rather entertaining in a hallucinogenic way, but fortunately stops after about 80 pages because I think the determined weirdness and arch jibes at other writers would have worn thin after many more pages. I’m still glad that I’ve read it, though!

97. Good Habits, Bad Habits by Wendy Wood
I listened to this on Borrowbox, but thought it was so good that I am planning to buy a proper copy so I can refer to it again and again. Wendy Wood is an academic psychologist, and an expert in habits – what they are, how we form them, and how we maintain them. This is not a self-help book (it’s not going to tell you how to stop smoking or how to develop a gym habit), but it’s a really interesting and accessible overview of what psychologists like her know about habits, and how we can put that knowledge to use in everyday life. Wood points out that our society is based on a rather puritan ideal of “willpower” – that if we want to do something enough, and if we have a rational enough reason for wanting to achieve it, then we can do so by sheer force of mind – and anyone who fails is just weak. Obviously, this isn’t true for the vast majority of people, as we know both from empirical evidence and from psychology experiments. Wood takes us through the ways in which context, cues, automaticity, state of mind, personality and other factors all influence our behaviours and habits – and I found that understanding really useful in helping me to understand where I’ve been going wrong and how I can set myself up to succeed in future. (Having said that it’s not a “how to” guide, there are some useful tips in the last chapter about how to be less in thrall to your phone, which I’m definitely going to start using ).

98. A Horse Walks Into a Bar by David Grossman
My last book of the year, but definitely not one of my favourites! I basically read it because I was looking for more books in translation, and this one had won the International Booker Prize in 2017 (it was originally written in Hebrew, and the author is Israeli). The action all takes place within a single comedy show, with digressions for back story; the comedian, Dovaleh G (otherwise known as Dov Greenstein), does a late-night set and progressively gets more and more crude and confessional, essentially having a breakdown on stage as the audience gradually walk out. The set is watched (and the book is narrated) by Avishai Lazar, a retired judge and old schoolfellow of Dov’s, who has been invited to attend so he can report back to Dov about what he sees. Dov is intensely unlikeable – he has a charismatic, manic energy on stage, but his jokes are tasteless and abusive, he makes fun of audience members, and his disintegration manages to be repellent as well as pitiable. As he unravels, you find out more about the tragic events that have led him to be the way he is – and it’s quite a harrowing read, taking in much of Israel’s less salubrious history. But although I admired the writing, I didn’t particularly enjoy it – I found it a rather “male” book in the way that Philip Roth and Martin Amis can be (which, to me, is just as off-putting as overtly "girly" books are).

Anyway, that’s my final review for 2020, just in time for midnight! I'll post the full list, with highlights, stinkers and analysis in a moment. Thank you to all you wonderful 50 bookers for keeping me company on this journey - see you next year!