26-ish books in 2022

Finished The Riddle of the Sands.
Good yarn, very old fashioned language and some rather offensive comments/descriptions (to be expected in a book from 1903) plot a little contrived, and ending was too jam packed into a couple of chapters.

On to The Bletchley Girls, by Tessa Dunlop. I started this a good while ago but misplaced it.

@StColumbofNavron Why thank you 😊

It's a mixture to be honest. We have a Little Free Library near us, so that's good for random finds. I also follow a few real life friends on Goodreads, and if I see they're reading something interesting I'll download a Kindle sample of it, even if it's not something I want to read straight away. It helps me to remember them, plus I like having a range of samples to choose from depending on my mood.

Oh and I love a good old fashioned charity shop browse!

My next book will be Marriage of a Thousand Lies by S.J. Sindu. It's about a gay woman and a gay man in a marriage of convenience to appease their conservative Sri Lankan-American families.

I've posted on this thread before under the name DonEmmanuelsDingleberries, but unfortunately got logged out with the site update and apparently registered with a now defunct email. So this is my new username!

1. The Inheritance Of Loss by Kiran Desai
2. The Perfect World of Miwako Sumida by Clarissa Goenawan
3. Allegedly by Tiffany D. Jackson
4. Milkman by Anna Burns
5. The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo
6. Can't Even: How Millennials Became the Burn Out Generation by Anne Helen Petersen
7. The Secret History by Donna Tartt
8. The Unwomanly Face of War by Svetlana Alexievich
9. Whistling for the Elephants by Sandi Toksvig

16. Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi - I thought Homegoing was fantastic, so had really high hopes for Gyasi's second novel, but sadly I couldn't get into it. It's beautifully written, and I know lots of people loved it, but it just wasn't for me.

Ok this is now 15 - From Aberystwyth With Love by Malcolm Pryce.
I used to love this series but now I'm not so sure. Still good but I think it's been too long since I read one.

9. Three Sisters by Heather Morris

Third book by this author centring on the true story of three sisters from Slovakia sent to Auschwitz.

1. How We Disappeared - Jing Jing Lee

2. The Confession - Jessie Burton

3. A Gentleman in Moscow - Amor Towles

4. The Vanishing Half - Brit Bennett

5. The Siege - Helen Dunmore

6. Rivers of London - Ben Aaranovitch

7. Moon over Soho - Ben Aaranovich

8. Circus of Wonders - Elizabeth MacNeal

9. The Mad Women's Ball - Victoria Mas.
   This was a short novel which was a very interesting fictional account of the Salpetriere Hospital in Paris when it was a 'mad women's' hospital in the late 1800's. It's well translated from the French original and worth a read.

Another HP for me:

15. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by JK Rowling (audio). I'm not going to summarise as most have probably read it but suffice it to say I'm enjoying them more and more as the series progresses.

I haven't updated in a while, but have been very slow to finish books due to my current workload going into the evenings and a family bereavement.

Book 8 - The Wide Window - next book in A Series of Unfortunate Events. My children are still really enjoying this series, when I am here to read to them!

Book 9 The Underground Railroad - Colson Whitehead. I couldn't wait to read this book and expected to love it, but I really didn't. I found the language sometimes hard to follow what was happening and didn't really like how the story was told. I actually started to avoid reading it and hence it took me an age to actually finish the book.

Book 10 Under the Hawthorn Tree - Marita Conlon McKenna, a book given to me to read by my DD about the Irish Famine and a sad very read.

Book 11 The Other Bennet Sister - Janice Hadlow I loved this book, but them I am a huge Pride and Prejudice fan. This is Mary's story. I really enjoyed it, however, I think the book is much longer than it actually needed to be!

I definitely won't be making my book target again this year at this rate!

I've had a bit of a reading slump as I'm recovering from Covid, but just finished book number 15, Tender Is The Flesh by Augustine Bazterrica.

This is a dystopian novel set in a world where a virus has made animal meat poisonous to humans, so cannibalism is now legal and humans are bred for consumption.

I think 'brutal' is the best word to describe this novel. There is little in the way of sentiment, and the writing is very stark, which fits with the horrorific world it's set in. Not sure I enjoyed this book particularly, but it was thought provoking. Feel like I need something a bit lighter now though!

1. Freckles by Cecelia Ahern (book)
2. The Midnight Library by Matt Haig (audio)
3. The Beekeeper of Aleppo by Christy Lefteri (audio)
4. Goodnight Mr Tom by Michelle Magorian (audio)
5. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone by JK Rowling (audio)

I love the Shell Seekers too

Finished Daisy Jones and The Six.
I liked it a lot. It was much better written than I had expected - agree with pp that the interview structure boosted the tale. DD4 had been bothering me for ages to read it and I thanked her heartily for the recommendation.

Currently reading The Riddle of the Sands, by Erskine Childers, a book set in the same time as The Thirty Nine Steps, and in some ways very like it, but set on the water. It's an oldie, written in 1903, and the English language has changed a lot since then. Very enjoyable so far.
Childers, an Irish Republican born in London to wealthy Anglo Irish parents, was executed by the Irish Free State government during the Irish Civil War. His son (also Erskine) served as President of Ireland about 40-50 years ago.

7. Ramble Book - Adam Buxton
I love Adam Buxton and I loved this book when I read it last year and now I love the audio version even more. It's full of extras, like little jingles for each chapter, rambly asides, and an interview with Joe Cornish at the end. Marvellous

8. The Shell Seekers - Rosamunde Pilcher
I've seen this book mentioned on here SO MANY TIMES. But now I see why - a great big warm hug of a book.

Ok I am only up to 14 (I think Goodreads is counting books with no date read)

A few more:
13 Again, Rachel by Marian Keyes. I love all her books but interestingly the traits of the non-main characters are irritating (not when in their own books though), I suppose like one's own family members.
14 Dark Lullaby* by Polly Ho-Yen. Wow. Was my science fiction novel in the end but who can say if it's really science fiction. It's certainly dystopian. Also a very quick read (I was on a journey though).
15 Unfollow by Megan Phelps-Roper. Former member of Westboro Baptist Church. Really scary childhood though partly not what I expected.
Goodreads is telling me I've read 16 now so I've miscounted somewhere.

Joining in! I changed jobs this year to something with a far better work life balance and have actually had time to read!

1. How We Disappeared - Jing Jing Lee
2. The Confession - Jessie Burton
3. A Gentleman in Moscow - Amor Towles
4. The Vanishing Half - Brit Bennett
5. The Siege - Helen Dunmore
6. Rivers of London - Ben Aaranovitch
7. Moon over Soho - Ben Aaranovich
8. Circus of Wonders - Elizabeth MacNeal

I just finished Circus of Wonders - it was a really great read, thoroughly recommended to anyone interested in books set in the Victorian era. It had lovely themes.

8. I follow You by Peter James

Man becomes obsessed with beautiful woman and takes it to extremes. This was average, not as good as some of Peter James's books (although I have gone off his later Roy Grace ones, think his writing style is starting to grate on me). It did pick up pace in the last third and I wanted to see what happened, so there's that.

4. Q by Christina Dalcher

A quick read which was just ok.
The premise is a society where worth is measured by intelligence. The less academically able children are taken from their parents and placed in boarding schools.
The main protagonist is married to one of pioneers of the system and the story follows her struggles when her own daughter is moved to one of these schools.
The author also wrote Vox, (which I preferred) another dystopian novel.