26-ish books in 2022

Whoops posted too soon. Book 21 by Paula Hawkins

20. Watching You by Lisa Jewell
21. A Slow Fire Burning

Finished no 30 Just One Damned Thing After Another by Jodi Taylor, recommended by someone on here. Really liked it but I'm not too sure I'll read more in the series. The "whacky" tone gets a bit confusing after a while and she seems to think it's illegal to name people in a conversation.

24. The Eye of The Reindeer by Eva Weaver - Ritva, a young Finnish woman, is sent to an asylum on a remote island by her father when she starts having visions. There she befriends Martta, a Sami woman, and together they escape and head north to start a new life among Martta's kin.

This was an interesting book. I enjoyed learning more about the Sami, however I thought the unquestioning and universal acceptance of outsider Ritva into their community was a bit unrealistic given the prejudices the Sami had faced from southerners like Ritva in the past. It would have been more interesting to see some conflict there. Overall a good read which gave me Captain Corelli vibes towards the end.

Currently reading The Ink Black Heart, about a quarter of the way through.
Loving it, another superb story, don’t want it to end!

I've made a slow start with The Ink Black Heart too, finding the online dialogue tricky to read the way it's been printed (and I've been pre-occupied with getting DS off to Uni). Glad to hear someone has finished it, I have loved the other Strike books.

Finished 29 Ink Black Heart by Robert Galbraith.
I have to admit it was a slow start and I wasn't as impressed as with previous books but once I got into it I was engrossed. It's spot on with internet trolls/MRAs of course and the twist at the end was well written.

26 - Dear Edward by Ann Napolitano

This is the first book that's made my cry in a very long time. It's amazing, a real highlight of my reading year.

23. Underbelly by Anna Whitehouse - A tale of 2 Influencers. One a glossy, middle class, aspirational Instagrammer and 'activist'. The other a single mum on a zero hours contract, with dreams of becoming a writer & an anonymous blog about the realities of parenting on a shoestring and tips on how to make ends meet. They met IRL when their kids start at the same school and become friends. Things spiral from there.

I enjoyed this book, which delved into cancel culture and the toxic side of social media. I didn't think it touched on anything particularly new, but there were some witty observations.

I've now started on The Eye of the Reindeer by Eva Weaver.

25 Peach Blossom Spring - Melissa Fu

This was a fantastic book, read as part of my quest to read more Asian literature this year. Only thing was all the way through the author uses the word quieten instead of quiet. I found it super annoying as it was otherwise very well researched and written. This will be right up the street of any Pachinko fans

I'm really behind everyone here but I finished book 9 last night

Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi - it's not my usual type of book but I absolutely loved it, so interesting.

Recently finished 'The Documents in the Case', and 'Whose Body?' both by Dorothy L. Sayers. Strange to have such a big dollop of the British class system served up all at once. Both books were a fascinating glimpse into preoccupations and mores of another age.

Currently dipping my toes into 'Winston Churchill's War' by Max Hastings.

24- The Foundling - Stacey Halls

Having not enjoyed one of her other books, I was not sure about this initially but I found it an enjoyable and easy read.

Finally finished the quite heavy going “ Under The Affluence “ and now working on the
19 The Whistler - John Grisham
20 The Elevation - Stephen King I read on our trip then started on
21.Evicted ;Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond
When I’m done with The Whistler I think I want to start the huge new Fairytale by Stephen King I just got

I've just got back into reading in a big way again following a hand injury meaning I couldn't. I'd love to join your club 😍😍🫣

28: Tap to Tidy by Stacey Solomon (audio). Stacey's collected wisdom on the subjects of organising your home and crafting. I like Stacey, but this was sickly sweet in the extreme, a lot of it fell in the category of stating the obvious but some good tips. Could have done with out all the Christmas crafting stuff at the end, it doesn't translate very well to audio. But overall a nice feelgood book.

23 - Bitter Orange by Claire Fuller

I can't really make up my mind about this, the writing was lovely but the story I found a little unconvincing in places.

27: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (audio) - dragged on a bit in places but a great end to the series. My first ever listen/read of the HP books is complete

Those look good for DD!

Have you read them the Agatha Parrot books by Kjartan Poskitt, drspouse? I thought they were hilarious.

They are 8 and 10 but both probably have lower reading ages and the 10 year old resists everything that isn't HIS idea (he has ADHD/demand avoidance). He prefers funny/zany books and superheroes anyway.
DD couldn't read this by herself and she prefers funny also though she's OK with fantasy e.g. Kevin the flying pony.

@drspouse

How old are your DCs? I'm not sure that DS1 (now 15 and about to start his GCSE exam year at school) reads much for pleasure now, but he did read quite a lot between 7 and 12 - before that he could read perfectly well and seemed to enjoy bedtime stories and poems but not to be interested in reading on his own. His breakthrough books were from the Horrible Science books and a book called the Hundred Mile an Hour Dog, originally discovered in a park cafe.

27 Hackney Child by Hope Daniels. Very harrowing story of neglect and abuse, which took place while I was a teenager so seems very close to home.
28 A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle, loved this, no idea why I've never read it. I might try it on the DCs (they are a bit resistant to longer chapter books at the moment).

22 - Unsettled Ground by Claire Fuller

There was so much sadness in this book, but it's a very engaging read which I finished quickly.

Haven't updated in a while.

17. Daisy Jones and the Six - Taylor Jenkins Reid
18. The Girls in the Garden - Lisa Jewell
19. The Making of Us - Lisa Jewell

Gave all three 4 stars on GR