50 Book Challenge 2021 Part Eight

I have been struggling to concentrate on reading so my latest books are easy reads:

86. Doing Time - Jodi Taylor
87. Hard Time - Jodi Taylor

These are the first two books in the Time Police spin off series from The Chronicles of St Mary’s.
They follow the stories of three new trainees: Luke, Jane and Matthew who are dubbed Team Weird as none of them fit the usual mould. It was interesting to see more from the Time Police perspective with various cameo appearances from the team at St Mary’s as Team Weird struggle to complete their training. Easy entertaining reading.

88. Twisted - Steve Cavanagh

I have previously read (and enjoyed) the Eddie Flynn books. However, this is not part of the Eddie Flynn series and is a standalone thriller. It’s clever and there are some good twists but I prefer the Eddie Flynn books.

I will be back with my highlights of the year…..

Just snuck in one more before the end of the year:

112. Humankind by Rutger Bregman

Subtitled 'A hopeful history', this looks at the fundamentally pro-social nature of human beings. There's quite a bit of debunking and/or reinterpretation of some famous 20thC experiments (the Stanford Prison experiment, the electric shock experiment etc). Bregman also discusses pre-agricultural societies and the likely size of any individual's personal networks/contacts (larger than you might think).

Taking as a base point the assumption that the vast majority of people are basically 'good', he then explores the situations in which they ill treat others, particularly in the context of depersonalisation and othering.

His conclusions were a bit low-key I thought - mainly around the need for more non-hierarchial management in companies and citizen engagement by government. He doesn't discuss worker co-ops or indeed ownership of resources at all. While he acknowledges that the modern state is underpinned by violence, and the corrupting effects of power he doesn't touch on the long history of anarchist thought (or even mention the A-word), despite the fact that his basic thesis is very much a secular version of Tolstoy's Christian anarchism.

49. The Map That Changed The World by Simon Winchester

This wasn't quite what I expected but was still very good. At a time when England believed that God created Earth in 4 days for fully-formed humans, a lone yeoman observed the strata and their fossils and came up with the ideas that shaped our understanding of geology and single-handedly drew a geological map of England in 1815. It is a story of hard work, achievement and eventual glory.

I liked it and would recommend it, but I would have liked to see more about how Smith's findings about the same fossils appearing in different strata, obvious life and even extinction of species in long-past eras etc changed minds and attitudes towards the Biblical story.

I'm not going to finish another book this year so here is my 2021 summary:

• Fiction / Non-Fiction (89% / 11%)
• Kindle / Hard Copy / Audible (62% / 6% / 32%)
• Re-reads (32%)
• Male / Female (36% / 64%)

I definitely want to read more non-fiction next year, although it is up slightly from 2020 (9%) and fewer re-reads, although a lot of those were when I was in hospital and needed comfort, easy reads so I re-read The Chronicles of St Mary's books. I have listened to way more audible books this year (up from 11% in 2020) and think I'll continue that into 2021, especially as Miriam Gargoyles is up next!

Here is the list of the books that I particularly enjoyed this year (this list has definitely changed throughout the year):

Misery by Stephen King
Pied Piper by Nevil Shute
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth
Another Day in the Death of America by Gary Younge
The Only Plane in the Sky: The Oral History of 9/11 by Garrett M. Graff This was by far the best book I read this year.
Rodham by Curtis Sittenfeld
I Am, I Am, I Am: Seventeen Brushes With Death by Maggie O’Farrell
The Pursuit of Love by Nancy Mitford
The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham
Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell
The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell
The Gunslinger by Stephen King
The Kraken Wakes by John Wyndham

So here's my end of year list, highlights in bold. Less reading than I'd hoped for. I really want to get back to 50 next year.

Thanks as always to all the 50 bookers for making this thread one of the loveliest corners of the internet. Your reviews inspire me, and the bunfights entertain me. Here's to more of the same in 2022.

1. An American Marriage by Tayari Jones
2. Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
3. Love, Nina by Nina Stibbe
4. Spring by David Szalay
5. Hidden Valley Road by Robert Kolker.
6. Robert Harris The Second Sleep
7. Lolita by Vladamir Nabakov

PermanentTemporary I am so sorry to hear about your DH. It's very sad that MH services, like much of the NHS, are just not able to function due to years of systemic underfunding.

I shall ready my (very short list) for your spreadsheet.

65. We Need to Talk About Kevin - Lionel Shriver A nice piece of seasonal good cheer to end the year

108. The Kraken Wakes by john Wyndham

My final book of 2021 was a real high point. I have loved every John Wyndham book I have read, and this was no exception. Alex Jennings narrated perfectly and captured the old school poshness that give Wyndham novels much of their tone. In some ways this was a bit similar to Day of the Triffids but the more gradual unfurling of the threat facing humanity ramped up the tension nicely. We really know so little about the sea, especially considering the fact that it covers 70% of the surface of our planet, and are so ill-equipped to explore it in any detail that I think the setting for the home of the 'baddies' was inspired as it shrouded their nature and intentions in mystery. The reaction of humanity, the media and governments to the situation made me think about the way in which we are dealing (or not) with climate change right now and just shows that human nature doesn't change much at all. Unfortunately. For those of you that have an audible subscription this book is free!

Argh! Forgot to add my final book.

*55 Vaxxers by Sarah Gilbert and Catherine Green. Bit of a busmans holiday for me but good to get some more of the story around certain issues (there was much gossip at work about the half dose issue at the time so interesting to read Cath's take on it). That'll bugger up all my percentages now!

Don't think I'll finish the book I've just started in the next 2 days so this will be my complete list. I'm sure some of the bolds have changed over the year.

1 Hilo Waking the Monsters by Judd Winick
2 The Nakano Thrift Shop by Hiromi Kawakami. Translated by Allison Markin Powell
3 Hilo Then Everything Went Wrong by Judd Winick
4 Three Apples Fell from the Sky by Narine Abgaryan. Translated by Lisa C Hayden
5 Hilo All the Pieces Fit by Judd Winick
6 Days of the Bagnold Summer by Joff Winterhart
7 The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper by Hallie Rubenhold
8 Serpentine by Philip Pullman
9 Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi. Translated by Geoffrey Trousselot
10 Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
11 Bright by Duanwad Pimwana. Translated by Mui Poopoksakul
12 The Politicization of Mumsnet by Sarah Pedersen
13 The Girl with the Louding Voice by Abi Daré
14 Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
15 The Pursuit of Love by Nancy Mitford
16 If Not, Winter. Fragments of Sappho. Translated by Anne Carson
17 Freedom Bound: Escaping Slavery in Scotland by Warren Pleece
18 The Abyss Surrounds Us by Emily Skrutskie
19 Tom's Midnight Garden by Philippa Pearce
20 On a Sunbeam by Tillie Walden
21 Black and British by David Olusoga
22 The Vegetarian by Han Kang. Translated by Deborah Smith
23 Havana Year Zero by Karla Suárez. Traslated by Christina MacSweeney
24 Memories: From Moscow to the Black Sea by Teffi. Translated by Robert Chandler, Elizabeth Chandler, Anne Marie Jackson and Irina Steinberg
25 Susanna Moodie, Roughing It In the Bush by Carol Shields and Patrick Crowe. Illustrated by Selena Goulding
26 Nervous Conditions by Tsitsi Dangarembga
27 Ms Ice Sandwich by Mieko Kawakami. Translated by Louise Heal Kawai
28 Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
29 Old Baggage by Lissa Evans
30 To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis
31 Heartstopper Vol 1 by Alice Oseman
32 Heartstopper Vol 2 by Alice Oseman
33 Heartstopper Vol 4 by Alice Oseman
34 Crampton Hodnet by Barbara Pym
35 The Last Brother by Nathacha Appanah. Translated by Geoffrey Strachan
36 The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole aged 13 3/4 by Sue Townsend
37 The Mermaid of Black Conch by Monique Roffey
38 Heartstopper Vol 3 by Alice Oseman
39 The Provincial Lady in America by E. M. Delafield
40 Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi
41 Earthlings by Sayaka Murata. Translated by Ginny Tapley Takemori
42 The Employees A workplace novel of the 22nd century by Olga Ravn. Translated by Martin Aitken
43 Butterflies in November by Auđur Ava Ólafsdóttir. Translated by Brian FitzGibbon
44 The Country of Others by Leïla Slimani Translated by Sam Taylor
45 Period by Emma Barnett
46 Celestial Bodies by Jokha Alharthi Translated by Marilyn Booth
47 The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid
48 The Lying Life of Adults by Elena Ferrante. Translated by Ann Goldstein
49 Difficult Women: A History of Feminism in 11 Fights by Helen Lewis
50 The Hottest Dishes of the Tartar Cuisine by Alina Bronsky. Translated by Tim Mohr
51 Material Girls. Why Reality Matters for Feminism. Kathleen Stock
52 Beautiful World, Where Are You by Sally Rooney
53 The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper
54 A Maigret Christmas and Other Stories by Georges Simenon. Translated by David Coward

81% female authors, 33% translated fiction, 15% non-fiction. Best fiction: The Country of Others, Best non-fiction: Memories: From Moscow to the Black Sea. I always love these threads, there's so many interesting recommendations. Thanks to southeastdweller for running them.

And the list:

1 There Are Places In The World Where Rules Are Less Important Than Kindness by Carlo Rovelli
2 The Gifts of Reading by various authors
3 Girl in a Band by Kim Gordon
4 Burnt Sugar by Avni Doshi
5 The Promised Land by Barack Obama
6 The World According to Garp by John Irving
7 Black Hole Survival Guide by Janna Levin
8 The Power and The Glory by Graham Greene
9 Acts and Omissions by Catherine Fox
10 Changing Places by David Lodge
11 The School at the Chalet by Elinor M Brent Dyer
12 At Freddie’s by Penelope Fitzgerald
13 The Hunting Party by Lucy Foley
14 Unseen Things Above by Catherine Fox
15 A Month In the Country by JL Carr
16 The World According to Physics by Jim Al-Khalili
17 The Book of Collateral Damage by Sinan Antoon
18 In This House of Brede by Rumer Godden
19 Ducks, Newburyport by Lucy Ellman
20 The Truants by Kate Weinberg
21 And The Band Played On by Randy Shilts
22 Loved Clothes Last by Orsola de Castro
23 Against Nature by JK Huysmans
24 Last Exit to Brooklyn by Hubert Selby Jr
25 Prairie Fires by Caroline Fraser
26 Little Town on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder
27 Look At Me by Anita Brookner
28 The Indifferent Stars Above by Daniel James Brown
29 Death in Venice by Thomas Mann
30 Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart
31 Realms of Glory by Catherine Fox
32 Diary of an MP’s Wife by Sasha Swire
33 Small Pleasures by Clare Chambers
34 The Cactus by Sarah Haywood
35 Family and Friends by Anita Brookner
36 O Pioneers by Willa Cather
37 Picnic at Hanging Rock by Joan Lindsay
38 The Midnight Bell by Patrick Hamilton
39 Rivers of London by Ben Aaranovitch
40 Latecomers by Anita Brookner
41 Who Was Changed and Who Was Dead by Barbara Comyns
42 Monday Morning by Patrick Hamilton
43 H is for Hawk by Helen MacDonald
44 Luster by Raven Leilani
45 Mr Bowling Buys a Newspaper by Donald Henderson
46 More Than A Woman by Caitlin Moran
47 Howards End Is On The Landing by Susan Hill
48 Failures of State by Jonathan Calvert and George Arbuthnott
49 Insignificance by James Clammer
50 American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins
51 Hungry by Grace Dent
52 Material Girls by Katherine Stock
53 The Address Book by Deirdre Mask
54 Jamaica Inn by Daphne du Maurier
55 Nomadland by Jessica Bruder
56 Tales from Lindford by Catherine Fox
57 The Vet’s Daughter by Barbara Comyns
58 The Other Side of the Coin by Angela Kelly
59 In Praise of Walking by Shane O’Mara
60 Quite by Claudia Winkleman
61 Who Is Rich by Matthew Klam
62 Chip Shop in Poznań by Ben Aitken
63 Hollywood Wives by Jackie Collins
64 Summerwater by Sarah Moss
65 We Wish To Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families by Philip Gourevitch
66 Jews Don’t Count by David Baddiel
67 Unorthodox by Deborah Feldman
68 Premonition by Michael Lewis
69 Bay of Angels by Anita Brookner
70 Learning to Swim by Clare Chambers
71 House of Trelawney by Hannah Rothschild
72 The Fortnight in September by RC Sherriff
73 The Only Plane in the Sky by Garrett M Graff
74 Nine Perfect Strangers by Lianne Moriarty
75 A Handful of Dust by Evelyn Waugh
76 The Mere Wife by Maria Dahvana Headley
77 Open Water by Caleb Azumah Nelson
78 My Ántonia by Willa Cather
79 Absolute Beginners by Colin MacInnes
80 The Furies by Katie Lowe
81 Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead
82 The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid
83 The Children Who Lived in a Barn by Eleanor Graham
84 Bedsit Disco Queen by Tracey Thorn
85 Starlight by Stella Gibbons
86 Trans by Helen Joyce
87 Parents’ Guide to ADHD medicines by Prof Peter Hill
88 Pandora by Jilly Cooper
89 The Lamplighters by Emma Stonex
90 The Weil Conjectures by Karen Olson
91 Vida by Marge Piercy
92 There Are Crocodiles In the Sea by Fabio Geda
93 The Mars Room by Rachel Kushner
94 And Then We Came To The End by Joshua Ferris
95 The Long Weekend by Adrian Tinniswood
96 HHhH by Laurent Binet
97 The Hopkins Manuscript by RC Sherriff
98 Bridgerton by Julia Quinn
99 The Tent, the Bucket and Me by Emma Kennedy
100 Vaxxers by Professor Sarah Gilbert and Dr Catherine Green

Permanent, I'm so sorry to hear about your DH. I lost a friend in similar circumstances and it was very hard knowing the system let him down.

I will come back with reads of the year when I find my list, but just dropping in to post what I assume will be my final reviews. Can't see me fitting in another book this year.

96 HHhH by Laurent Binet
The story of the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich by the Czech resistance. This must have been recommended to me by someone on here and I will try to keep better track next year. I loved the experimental narrative style. Heydrich was a horrible horrible man even by the standards of his contemporaries and the story of the plot and its aftermath is an extraordinary one. Would recommend.

97 The Hopkins Manuscript by RC Sherriff
This was a wonderful serendipitous find. I read and loved A Fortnight in September and thought this would be similar. Apart from a certain wistful quality it could not have been more different but this was a wonderful and transporting piece of early science fiction. What would happen if the moon crashed into the Atlantic Ocean (spoiler: nothing good) and how do people react to the threat of apocalypse? This was an immensely good read and one that I am surprised isn’t better known.

98 Bridgerton by Julia Quinn
Enjoyably fluffy. No surprises having seen the tv show.

99 The Tent, the Bucket and Me by Emma Kennedy
This was more of a “started so I will finish” than anything else. The first chapter made me cry with laughter but the endless stories of falling into disgusting pits while camping in the rain got a little tiresome.

100 Vaxxers by Professor Sarah Gilbert and Dr Catherine Green
I flew through this - it’s an easy read but very informative. I’m taking part in a drug trial at the moment so this was enlightening on that front but also a clear and concise rebuttal to anyone who says the vaccine isn’t safe because it was rushed. The authors go painstakingly through the whole process and show how no steps were skipped. A great and important book, which would do a good job of addressing concerns of someone who may be mildly vaccine hesitant.

@PermanentTemporary.
129) (perhaps) We are Satellites by Sarah Pinsker. Rather good speculative fiction, will just check which of you lovely lot recommended this upthread.

PermTemp I am very sorry to hear about your husband. We lost 2 male cousins to suicide about 20 years ago and access to help was woefully poor then and even worse now. The devastation it causes to the family left behind is palpable.

Thank you for collating the bolds.

I seem to have lost the necessary punctuation marks in my main list to denote bolds etc, so will have to go over my full list and add them back in.

My absolute stand out fictions this year are

Lucy Ellman - Ducks, Newburyport
Salena Godden - Mrs Death Misses Death
Sarah Winman - Still Life
Kamila Shamsie - Home Fire
John Milton - Paradise Lost

Non-fic
Derren Brown - Happy (this was a life changing book for me)
Garrett Graff - The Only Plane in the Sky
Helen Joyce - Trans: When Ideology Meets Reality
Abigail Shrier - Irreversible Damage
Philippe Sands - The Ratline

I could easily bold many more, but these are the 5 of each that were the very best of the best.

I'm on around 220 books for the year, not counting the 23 Enid Blyton book binge I had in the summer.

I've decided I want more poetry in my life next year and was wondering if anyone can recommend a collection of the very best English poetry please? I read A Poem for every Day of the Year last year and wasn't keen, but it was a funny year all round.

I don't think I'll finish another book this year, so here is my final list for 2021:

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

Top five fiction:
Transcendent Kingdom
Piranesi
The Dutch House
East of Eden
Three Hours

Top five non fiction:
Invisible Women
How to Make the World Add Up
The Life Project
Virginia Woolf
The Only Plane in the Sky

The weird thing about my stats is how unintentionally similar they are to last year! I have hit my reading sweet spot.
Total books 57 (last year 57)
Fiction 51%, non fiction 49% (last year 54/46)
Women 63%, men 37% (last year 68/32)
I have managed to read more BAME authors this year (18% compared to 9% last year).

Hi Biblio yes, I'm pleased with that one! My first choice was Meetings with Remarkable Manuscripts, which I see Terpsichore has acquired, but I couldn't get a copy in time for Christmas.

cassandre I think we do have quite similar tastes - I wasn't sure whether I was "allowed" two books by the same author and would otherwise have included A Girl's Story by Annie Ernaux too; I gave it 9/10 but it was pipped by The Years with 9.5/10.

I'm sorry you didn't enjoy Dusty Answer so much. I read it during the Covid lock-down and loved it because I found it very nostalgic, though whether that was for life at the time it was set or for my own lost youth I don't know - perhaps a bit of both.

Stokey After posting, I started on Series 2 of The Big Steal while cleaning the bathroom. It's just as good but focuses more on more recent political opposition to Putin.

Maud, your haul reminded me I've been wanting to read Hidden Hands. May have bought myself a little present....

Terps and Cassandre I felt quite sorry for Hugh Trevor-Roper over the Hitler diaries. Where I work currently we have a couple of people who regularly pop up in similar circumstances, though not so extreme. I recognise the pattern of becoming aggressive when challenged and creating a lot of work and upset. You have to deal with them fairly and, of course, you never know what difficulties someone is facing, so I do have sympathy.

Terpsichore, my DH read The Professor and the Parson and was equally agog!

I've done more leisure reading this year than ever before. This was also the first year I participated in this thread. This was not a coincidence. Thank you, everyone, for so many great recommendations and thought-provoking reviews!

I asked for and received no books for Christmas . But this is probably a good thing as my TBR piles are pretty out of control.

Here are my bolded books, and yes, I know I bolded a ridiculous number of books this year. I'm just very enthusiastic, what can I say?

Fiction:

1. Mémoire de fille (A Girl's Story), Annie Ernaux
2. La Femme gelée (The Frozen Woman), by Annie Ernaux
3. Foreign Affairs, Alison Lurie
4. Shuggie Bain, Douglas Stuart
5. A Wizard of Earthsea, Ursula Le Guin (plus the subsequent books in the Earthsea series)
6. Aeneid, Vergil, trans. by Shadi Bartsch
7. Lord of the Flies, William Golding
8. The Door, Magda Szabo
9. The Vanishing Half, Brit Bennett

Non-fiction:

1. The Fire Next Time, James Baldwin
2. Guest House for Young Widows, Azadeh Moaveni
3. Trauma and Recovery, Judith Herman
4. My Name Is Why, Lemn Sissay
5. Inventory of a Life Mislaid: An Unreliable Memoir, by Marina Warner
6. The Right to Sex, Amia Srinivasan

@MaudOfTheMarches I'm so pleased to see someone else who read The Professor and the Parson - I spent most of it with my jaw on the floor at the sheer brass neck of the so-called Rev. Though there did seem a certain grim humour in the fact that Hugh Trevor-Roper was then so comprehensively taken in over the Hitler diaries. Ouch.

@Boiledeggandtoast I've just seen that Dusty Answer was one of your books of the year; it must have been your recommendation that made me read it! Our taste seems to be quite similar in many respects (I love most of your other top books, at least the ones I've read), so I'm not sure what happened with Dusty Answer. I have the feeling that if I had read it when I was younger, I would have loved it. Maybe I'm too old and cynical now. It does have a very distinctive feel to it, and it reminds me a bit of a 1920s version of The Secret History -- one young character on the outside of a glamourous circle of young people, wanting to be part of the group.

PermanentTemporary, I'm so sorry about your DH. A younger medievalist colleague I follow on Twitter lost her husband in very similar circumstances this year -- shortly before taking his own life, he had tried to access help and was not taken seriously by the NHS. Mental illness is terrible when it transforms us and our loved ones into people who are not themselves.