50 Books Challenge 2022 Part Seven

Sending lots of hugs and thoughts to you bett

A Curious History of Sex sounds right up my street and I've added it to my wishlist. I actually wrote my dissertation on the history of prostitution and had an amazing dissertation advisor who specialises in the history of sexuality

Finished my final book for 2022, didn't make it to 50 unfortunately

41. The Curious Habits of Doctor Adams by Jane Robins This was a fascinating non-fiction about Dr John Bodkin Adams who in the 1950s was put on trial for murdering patients in order to inherit from them. After the trial all records relating to the case were sealed for 75 years. This obviously created a lot of speculation over what was hidden in the records! Then a few years ago a successful freedom of information request was made and the records were released early. Adams very much seems like an early Harold Shipman and this book is extremely well researched and well written, I would definitely recommend. The world Adams lived and worked in seemed so far from modern life I had to keep reminding myself the events of the book occurred in my parents lifetime. It was such an amazing insight into everyday life in the 40s and 50s and really highlighted the incredible changes in society since then

Will be back later with my stats for the year when I'm not so surrounded by kids

I was on the readalong thread last year under my other MN name (winter based, I may amalgamate the two in the NY, don't know really why I keep both going!) and more than one person on the back of Nige (there's an image) received the Cire Trudon candle for Christmas.

A shout out though to homemade marzipan if you like marzipan- not Nigel's but Delia's. So so different to bought almond paste. I remember making it for cookery O level, but not since, but jeez the difference.

Btw my last post was still grousing about Nigel Slater, in case it sounds entirely random.

And damnit, he has made me want an £80 candle. I quite genuinely found myself sniffing my way along the line of reduced candles in TK Maxx, trying to work out which was closest to a mossy cloister wall.

Finished number 36 this morning Eight months on Gazzah Street by Hilary Mantel and I’m done for 2022.

Didn’t make 50 but did better than last year (which had little room for reading) so I’m content with that.

• 58% were by authors I’d never read before.
• 70% were written by women.
• One third non-fiction which is a big increase compared to when I joined this thread 5 years ago so thanks to you all for bringing such great titles to my attention (and in the fiction department obviously!). Finally getting to grips with audible has also upped my non-fiction numbers as I find this format works really well for that.
• Shamefully not a single solitary French book read this year. If I hadn't kept a list I wouldn't have believed it possible 🙄 Must do better on this for 2023.

Are we posting lists? Who was volunteering to collate stats of our collective 2022 reading?

Agree on the Nigel Slater ambivalence. Had to finish the Christmas Chronicles yesterday so he didn't carry on making me feel inadequate into January. He can keep his fancy mince pies and homemade marzipan (yuck) but I'm wildly jealous of his magical February break in Japan.

Nigel always has that cheese in the back of his fridge AND poncy mushrooms. I’ve probably got a sad babybel.

although I do love his writing. Does anyone follow Laurenandthebooks? She got married recently and based her cake around some of his writing which I thought was lovely

PepeLePew 😂you have summed up my love-hate relationship with Nigel to an exquisitely perfumed lapsang souchong tea.

Looking back through my list, I think I judged the fiction more harshly, and would add to my list of bolds
Winchelsea by Alex Preston
Death and the Penguin by Andrey Kurkov
Woman on the Edge of Time by Marge Piercey (only not bolded because it was an n-th time re-read)
I've also read quite a bit of enjoyable even if forgettable light fiction.

I'm all done for this year. My final total was 112 books

46% women / 54% men
52% non fiction / 48% fiction (but almost all my bolded reads were non-fiction - definitely plan to try to read better fiction next year)

I did succeed in reducing my Kindle buys this year, and use the e-library a lot more. I share a family library with my dad, so do read his kindle books. 80% of my reads this year were e-book or audio, neither of which work well for me for serious fiction, so aim to buy more paper books & use the physical library more in 2023.
Library 8%
Owned / borrowed 12%
E-library 35%
Kindle 25%
Audible 21%

My bolded books when I read them:
Non fiction:
The Art of Fermentation Sandor Elix Katz
A Belfast Child John Chambers
The Life of Stuff Susannah Walker
From Miniskirt to Hijab Jacqueline Saper
The Naked Don't Fear the Water Matthieu Aikens
Land of a Thousand Hills Rosamond Halsey Carr
Cogs and Monsters Diane Coyle
Free: Coming of age at the end of history Lea Ypi
Consent Vanessa Springora
Superinfinite Katherine Rundell
Frontier Grit Marianne Monson
Janesville Amy Goldstein
Amusing Ourselves to Death Neil Postman
The Microdot Gang James Wyllie
If It's Smart, It's Vulnerable Mikko Hypponen
Welsh Food Stories Carwyn Graves
Say What You Mean Oren Sofer
The Islander Chris Blackwell

Fiction:
Shards of Earth Adrian Tchaikovsky
The Golden Enclaves Naomi Novik
A Gentleman in Moscow Amor Towles

Thinking of you betts

Nigel never yells - it would shatter the fragile Japanese porcelain he sips his morning tea from while contemplating his velvet slippers sewn by fifteen virgins on the slopes of Mount Fuji

😂😂😂😂😂

Pepe- your story reminds me of the first time we took dd to a hotel in Wales and they offered to do dinner early for the toddlers. Mine was at the stage where she would only eat spaghetti and tomato sauce or pesto. We were put with a glamourous American woman whose "Chloe" was shovelling broccoli in and asking for more and had to listen to the mother going on about "well Chloe just loves her greens, she couldn't sleep if she hasn't had at least <boak word alert> 10 veggies a day.

Sending kind thoughts to @bettbburg and many thanks to @Southeastdweller - this thread is keeping me reading. I was hoping to finish one more in 2022, but am out all day today so despite having about three books on the go not going to finish anymore this year.
My short list (I'm a latecomer)
1.The Next Time You See Me, Holly Goddard Jones

1. The Kindest Lie, Nancy Johnson
2. The Fell, Sarah Moss
3. The Black Friend, Frederick Joseph
4. A Walk in the Woods, Bill Bryson

1. Anything is Possible, Elizabeth Strout
2. . Mrs England, Stacey Halls
3. Small Things Like These, Clare Keegan

All fiction except two and all female writers bar one joint effort and two men.

Cant get the formatting to work today in my list, but standouts were Ghost Wall, A Change of Climate and Anything is Possible. Stinkers * *were People Like Her and Our House (both boring and cliched).
See you all in 2023.

@CornishLizard Thank you for the Polly Morland review. Have added it to my wishlist. (I'm still bleaching my soul after Adam Repulsive Woman Hating Fuckwit Kaye so to read about a doctor who actually cares about their patients sounds lovely.)

The Whalebone theatre book sounded good until I saw that part of it is written from the perspective of a 3 year old and then the penny dropped that whichever of you said it (Remus I think?) would be spot on. Someone has been asked at a creative writing class to write as if they were a 3 year old, so I'm not even going to try it.

I curled up in bed last night and began no 49. A PD James. Oh ye crime writers of ye 99p psycho thrillers. I'll never tire of saying it. Read some decent bloody crime writing and learn. It's beautifully written, it's a pleasure to read, I already know more about real life crimes in the interwar years from reading 3 chapters of this than any BBC archive or Netflix "the harrowing true crime story of X, a lowly parlour maid, hacked to death on the Wilton carpet for which the son of the lord of the manor was hanged, but now we think it was Albert the grocer's lad" etc. And nobody is even murdered yet. It's fab. It's also clearly a later PDJ as someone is renting a room for £350 a week (!!!) rather than 25 shillings like in her earlier stuff. (Just checked and it's Inspector Dalgliesh 12 and from 2008- I have about 10 Dalglieshes on the Kindle and was going to read them in order at some point but went for random number generator last night and there it was.

If Nigel had ever had to feed a two year old who only wanted to eat dinosaur shaped food he'd have to stop titting about at the farmer's market and get on with real life. Reminds me of a single friend who offered to look after my children when they were small - she asked what to cook them and I said pasta and pesto. She looked in the fridge, failed to find fresh basil or pine nuts in the cupboard, ignored the jar of pesto (or possibly didn't recognise it as pesto) so served them rose harissa instead. One child ate the lot, the other was still sobbing when I got home. Sweet of her to offer and I still tease her about it but not the act of someone who has had to get dinner on the table at 5pm every day for three years for three tiny tyrants.

Also loving the Nigel Slater review thanks @PepeLePew I have similar feelings about him and, as i mentioned on another thread, have found myself shouting at my kindle on more than one occasion; ‘some of us live in a 2-bed terrace and shop at lidl Nigel’.

I think I gave up on it entirely last year, but enjoying it more despite the sheer fusspottery this time round.

I’m finishing up some seasonal (re)reads which I meant to get to in the run up/ over the main event itself but life just got too hectic.

53 Christmas Pudding Nancy Mitford - I always sort of enjoy Mitford and sort of don’t. As with this. I’m still full of the cold that won’t die and my brain isn’t working well enough to explain what I mean better, but it’s that arch slightly pleased with oneself tone that doesn’t always work for me. I get that it’s comic, but doesn’t always hit the mark for me - though sometimes it does!

54 A Child’s Christmas in Wales - Dylan Thomas Bit of a cheat including this as it’s so short, and a regular re read, but my numbers are low this year so it’s going in. Just sublime and I love the Peter Bailey illustrations too.

Loved that Nigel Slater review. He’s an odd un. I quite like reading him, but all he seems to eat is tomatoes and ice cream.

For anybody who was new to Wilkie Collins this year with The Woman in White I highly recommend No Name as your next read.

😂 I’ve got a Waterstones voucher, so will see if I can find the sex book in the flesh.

69. The Secret Place by Tana French. Managed to just finish this one today to make it my final book of the year! A detective follows up a past murder on the grounds of a private girls' school following a tip off from one of the students. This is the fifth of the Dublin Murders series which I'm a big fan of. They're all quite tough crime novels but with a slight fairytale edge - which sounds mad but I can't think of a better way to describe it. I enjoyed this. Definitely need a break from crime fiction in the new year though.

57. Why Be Happy When You Can Be Normal? by Jeanette Winterson
Memoir, borrowed from the library but I'd now like my own copy to dip into again in future. I really like Winterson's writing and her humour. Am currently about a third of the way through Christmas Days which I am also loving.
58. A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
Audible version narrated by Hugh Grant, enjoyable annual listen to put me in the Christmas spirit :)

Haven't looked too closely at my stats for the year. Total is less than last year but in the same region. Roughly two thirds fiction to one third non-fiction seems to work well for me. And as for many others, my aim for 2023 is to read books I own and reduce the TBR (almost laughing as I type, but it's good to be ambitious!).
Best wishes to @bettbburg
Many thanks to @Southeastdweller
Hope to see you all in 2023 :)

Love your review of The Christmas Chronicles, @PepeLePew. I’m exactly the same - haven’t made anything from it and definitely don’t have a Nigel style Christmas but I do love reading it!

Sending you my best wishes Betts

I’m so sorry @bettbburg , thinking of you 💐

56. Magpie Lane by Lucy Atkins
Fairly well read on here i think? I really enjoyed just being gripped by a page turner. I felt a bit of a cop-out by the end, but satisfying nonetheless.