50 Book Challenge 2021 Part Eight

Thanks for the new thread southeastdweller. Haven't been around much recently as my MIL passed away suddenly a month ago, so between supporting DH and dealing with my coursework picking up pace, reading time has been a bit thin on the ground.

I won't post my list but have been slowly making my way through Longbourn by Jo Baker. This is the story of the servants who work in the home of the Bennet family from Pride and Prejudice and when a new servant is employed to deal primarily with the horses, the housemaid end up in a bit of a tizzy. It's clear he has his secrets and one of the maids is determined to find out what these are. Not quite sure yet what I make of this one, maybe still a bit too early to say for sure.

Thanks for the new thread @southeastdweller! Here's my list:

1. Eleanor the Secret Queen: The Woman Who put Richard III on the Throne by John Ashdown-Hill
2. 52 Times Britain was a Bellend: The History You Didn’t Get Taught At School by James Felton
3. A Double Life by Flynn Berry
4. The Stranger Beside Me by Ann Rule
5. Tall Tales and Wee Stories: The Best of Billy Connolly by Billy Connolly
6. A Million Dreams by Dani Atkins
7. The Never Game by Jeffery Deaver

1. The Crooked House by Agatha Christie

Thanks for the new thread! Here's my list:

1. Virginia Woolf by Hermione Lee
2. A Whole Life by Robert Seethaler
3. My Wild and Sleepless Nights by Clover Stroud
4. Some Kids I Taught and What They Taught Me by Kate Clanchy
5. Other Minds: The Octopus and the Evolution of Intelligent Life by Peter Godfrey-Smith
6. Somebody I Used to Know by Wendy Mitchell
7. Such A Fun Age by Kiley Reid
8. The Kind Worth Killing by Peter Swanson
9. Three Hours by Rosamund Lupton

And a new one to add:
54. Fifty Fifty by Steve Cavanagh. A man has been stabbed, and both his daughters claim the other did it. Pretty good as a page turner.

48. Comfort and Joy by India Knight

Started a bit early on the Christmas reads and despite finding the main character a little annoying (I loved her in previous books - I wonder if I have changed or she has?) I still couldn't put it down and snorted with laughter several times. Quite fun and good for this time of year.

@FranKatzenjammer I'm sorry, I meant to include you in the good wishes to magi - sorry to hear your year has been a grim one

Bienvenue en France magimedi - lovely to hear from you.

Thanks for the new thread southeast and reminding me that I haven't posted for ages!

Reading is advancing at a snail's pace and I haven't a hope in hell of reaching 50 this year but I have enjoyed most of what I've read so far this year. WIP = Little Dorrit, A year of living Danishly and Unorthodox.

1. Feel better in 5 – Dr Chatterjee
2. To kill a mockingbird – Harper Lee
3. The Christmas Chronicles – Nigel Slater
4. The Lioness of Morocco – Julia Drosten
5. Casting off – Elizabeth Jane Howard
6. The Shipping News – Annie Proulx
7. Go set a watchman – Harper Lee
8. Paris Echo – Sebastian Faulks
9. Love after love – Ingrid Persaud
10. The White Tiger - Aravind Adiga
11. All change – Elizabeth Jane Howard
12. Douce Frankreich – Frank Gröninger
13. Prodigal Summer – Barbara Kingsolver
14. A month in the country – JL Carr
15. Fingers in the sparkle jar – Chris Packman
16. The world I fell out of – Melanie Reid*
17. Get your sh*t together – Sarah Knight
18. Olive, again – Elizabeth Strout
19. Fingersmith – Sarah Moss
20. The Thursday Murder Club – Richard Osman

Many thanks, as always, to SouthEast for the new thread.

And bonne chance to magimedi in La Belle France.*

*iirc, 1977 French O'level.

I think I have ‘meaty seat pieces’, hence the size 14 trousers.

Good luck for your move magimedi

Thank you highlandcoo & Sapatsea. I'll maybe give the fifth Cazalet book a swerve if I make it that far.
Good luck with the move magimedi

Oops and forgot to say thank you south for the new thread

DesdamonasHandkerchief, the first four Cazalets are fine. It's only the fifth that goes badly wrong. When I want a cosy reread I will be pretending it doesn't exist.

Hello all. I've been a lurker for a while; it's been a strange year. But I've really appreciated everyone's reviews and will try to contribute more myself in 2022.

magimedi all the very best for your move. I spent a couple of months in France myself recently and in many ways it felt like a saner place to be.

to FranK and to everyone who's had a tough time this year.

No list but a few book reviews to come when I can get myself organised.

If I don't make 50 then I don't, I won't be cheating to get there.

Mary Crawford as Lizzie's dark twin - excellent description, Perm. Amused by "meaty seat pieces" but I've also noticed that the book I read about Larkin is now apparently about Larking, which is rather different. Bloody autocorrect.

Oh @magimedi good luck with your move, I hope it is healing.

59. Mansfield Park by Jane Austen
The author i turn to when things are really tough. And this is my favourite to read, even though surely Pride and Prejudice is her masterpiece. I love the sense of the great house, full of people, their different employments and pleasures and faults, their interactions and relationships. Full of meaty seat pieces - Fanny's childhood, the ball, the arrival of the Crawfords, her quest/journey to Portsmouth. Mary Crawford, the most fascinating and corrupted character Austen wrote, the dark twin of Elizabeth Bennett.

So lovely to hear from you @magimedi x

Wishing you strength magi and Fran. And welcome StColumb! I sometimes lurk on the 26 book thread and always notice your posts there. The numbers really don't matter, but there does seem to be support for a slower thread as well as a fast one.

Ugh at Mr Men books - there are better picture books to read. Or novellas? Short stories? Standalone short stories?

Magimedi wishing you all the best for your move.

Fran

So good to hear from you, magimedi, and I wish you all the very best for your move to France - look forward to hearing from you when you're all settled in and back to reading.

Thanks for the new thread southeast.

for FranKatzenjammer and everyone who's struggling at the moment.

I can't believe how long some of these lists are! I am grimly determined to get to 50 but at this rate it may require me switching to Mr Men books.

List so far:

1. I am an Island, by Tamsin Calidas.
2. Emma's Island, by Honor Arundel.

1. The Law of Innocence, by Michael Connolly.
2. This is Chance, by Jon Mooallem.
3. The Book of Lamps and Banners, by Elizabeth Hand.
4. Emma in Love, by Honor Arundel. hat out.
5. The Thursday Murder Club, by Richard Osman.

Wishing you the very best with your move,Magi.

@elkiedee - yes, it's London, Burning. I can never remember the names of things I read on Kindle, although in my defence I am only a chapter or so in.

@TheTurnofTheScrew I read Anthony Quinn's most recently published novel earlier this year, set at the end of the 1970s, just before the 1979 election. It's called London, Burning - is it that one? I think Eureka might also be set in the 1970s but I can't quite remember (it's a sequel to a previous book, Freya) .

Lurker alert!

It's now a year since I lost DH & very shortly (days) I am moving to France to join my family. Reading has taken a backseat except for comfort & crap crime fiction. But I still check in here regularly & have a wish list as long as my arm of all the things so many of you have recommended for when I get back to proper reading again.

H U G E thank you to South East for keeping these threads going and to all of you who post all your critiques of books - it's a lovely place to come amongst the madness of the world & the internet.

Thanks for new thread
Here’s my list

1. Career of Evil - Robert Galbraith
2. What Lies Between Us - John Marrs

1. The Casual Vacancy JK Rowling
2. In an Instant- Suzanne Redfern
3. Girl A - Abigail Dean
4. Exit - Belinda Bauer
5. Hungry - Grace Dent
6. Stop at Nothing Tammy Cohen