26-ish books for 2023

15 The Truth About The Harry Quebert Affair by Joël Dicker. Very twisty plot with a central "who dunnit?" thread. Some aspects I found rather gimmicky and irritating - ever chapter starting with something about writing, central character's mother is a one dimensional stereotype, some very clunky dialogue and psychology, dislikable characters and I got beyond fed up of the controversial "love story" and love letters. I didn't give a monkeys about the publishing aspects. Possibly something was lost in translation. I was very involved up to page 450, by page 500 I was flagging but then there was a twist that pulled me back in and everything shifted.
It kept me hooked just wanting to know what had happened, it's a bit different from other crime novels and I would actually recommend it to someone who wanted something twisty but not too demanding.

1.One Minute Later by Susan Lewis

1. The Night Watch by Neil Lancaster
2. Some Kind of Wonderful by Giovanna Fletcher
3. Undoctored by Adam Kay
4. The Perfect Couple by Jackie Kabler
5. The Library of Lost and found by Phaedra Patrick
6. The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelidas

1. Freckles by Cecelia Ahern

Haven't updater for a while:

No. 9. The Family Lie By Jake Cross
No.10. The Man Who Died Twice By Richard Osman

1. The Midnight Library- Matt Haig
2. The Switch - Beth O'Leary
3. The Coroner - MR Hall
4. Faking Friends - Jane Fallon (audio)
5. The Marlow Murder Club - Robert Thorogood
6. The Killing Kind - Jane Casey
7. Missing, Presumed - Susie Steiner (Audio). *8) My Sweet Revenge - Jane Fallon (Audio)
8. The Christmas Bookshop - Jenny Colgan (Audio)
9. Listen to me - Tess Gerritsen.* *Recommended to me and was easy to read

I've really struggled to find my flow since January, but audiobooks have kept me going.

4 'The Road to Little Dribbling' by Bill Bryson. Started slowly but gathered pace.

Jumping in. I've been lurking on this thread so thought I'd contribute.

I finally got back to reading in March after approx 6 years of not reading- my eldest is 6 🙄.

Here are my reads so far:

✓	The Girl on the Train
✓	The Memory  Collector
✓	The Dinner Guest
✓	We Begin at the End 
✓	American Dirt
✓	Hamnet 
✓	Piranesi 
✓	Beekeeper of Aleppo 
✓	Lessons in Chemistry 

Book 10 is The Radium Girls.

I've loved most but really didn't enjoy The Dinner Guest, really bad continuity/editing errors. I found it really jarring to read.

Also didn't quite get into We Begin at the End, until the last chapter really.

I've rediscovered my love of reading and I'm hammering my local library which is great- use it or lose it!

I finally finished
6.Fairytale- Stephen King
7.Death and Papa Noel - Ian Moore I read in between it was very short
8.Bad Mormon -Heather Gay I’m now continuing

Book 10 Dead Find by T F Muir

I'm doing so much better than I expected

14. Bilgewater by Jane Gardam. Very enjoyable "coming of age" story about an academic and unworldly teenage girl's last few months at school. Many quirky and well drawn characters and scenes. I liked the narrator, could easily visualise the scenes, loved her way of describing things and the dialogue. Satisfying ending which still left some "what if?s". I think it would make a good film - one of those slightly daft but quietly moving very British ones, where not a lot happens and there's a lots of manners and faux pas and you root for the odd bod underdogs.

13: The Enchanted Aprilby Elizabeth von Arnim - four English women rent a castle in Italy for a month in order to get away from their everyday lives (and the men in them). At first it seems they won’t get along with each other but as the days pass they all learn a great deal about each other, the men in their lives and the meaning of love. Beautifully written.

10 - The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah

I found the start a little slow but loved it from about 20% onwards.

*Bah, therapists not therapist's - sorry!

1)Case Histories by Kate Atkinson
2)Little Boy Lost by Marghanita Laski
3) My Name Is Why by Lemn Sissay
4) Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhy
5) The Murder Of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie.
6) The Loved One by Evelyn Waugh
7) The Prison Doctor by Dr Amanda Brown.
8) Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.
9) Difficult Women by Helen Lewis: A History of Feminism In 11 Fights.
10) The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson.
11) Crooked House by Agatha Christie.
12) My Life In Orange by Tim Guest
13) Regeneration by Pat Barker. I don't know if i would say I enjoyed this but i am glad I read it and I intend to read the next one inthe trilogy and more of Barker's work. Set in a military psychiatric hospital in Edinburgh during war (1917.) Follows a handful of the patients during their stay there, including Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owen, and also one of the therapist's. Interesting insights into therapeutic interventions of the time, opposing views on the war, aspects of societal views on men and women, class and so on... You might need a strong stomach for some of the more graphic descriptions of the soldiers' experiences on the front line.
I was quite pleased when some female characters were brought in as it opened to story out a bit, lightened the mood and gave a glimpse of what some women were doing. (I did not know that working in a munitions factory turned skin yellow.)
If you aren't keen on poetry or naval gazing it probably isn't for you.

1 The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman
2 The Parasites by Daphne du Maurier
3 lessons in Chemistry
4 touch of love by Jonathan Coe
5 The bird in the bamboo cage by Heather Webb
6 The man who died twice by Richard Osman
7 The Glass Blowers by Daphne du Maurier
8 The travelling cat chronicles by Hiro Arkawa. Lovely but sad.
9 Red Birds by Mohammed Hanif. Enjoyed I think. Darkly funny.
10 Everyone in this room will someday be dead by Emily Austin.
11 The Helingor Sewing Club by Ella Gyland. Really enjoyed this one, about the evacuation of Danish Jews to Sweden in the second world war by local fishermen with the help of the whole community.
12 The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller

Oops didn’t post

1. Songbirds by Christy Lefteri
2. Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan
3. Lies by Michael Grant
4. The Promise by Damon Galgut
5. On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong
6. The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton
7. A Heart That Works by Rob Delaney
8. The Midnight Library by Matt Haig
9. This Must Be the Place by Maggie O’Farrell
10. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone by JK Rowling (read to DD)

been a good year so far and I especially recommend On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous and A Heart That Works

12: The Ink Black Heart by Robert Galbraith. Well, I love the two main characters and their ongoing story but this was a slog, it's taken me 6 months and is so long, with so many minor characters and alter-egos that it has left me a bit confused.

Haven’t updated in eons and need to get my mojo back after a few weeks of not picking up a book, but here’s my list so far

Lots of lovely reading time over the bank holiday.
Novellas
40 Magic Dreams
41 Magic Steals

Novels
42 Magic Bites
43 Magic Bleeds

Just starting 44 Magic Strikes.

All by the very excellent Ilona Andrews. If you like contemporary fantasy and havent read her work I heartily recommend it. 10 book series.

The Perfect Husband , Lisa Gardner. I loved this. I myst read more of hers as I love her style.

Book 9 No One Home by Tim Weaver

5) Difficult women. A history of feminism in 11 fights. Was promoted to get this off my TBR shelf by someone in here who recommended it. Anyway glad I did. Informative, easy to read, some chapters better than others in that they were more to the point, others drifted away at times I felt.

Now back to some fiction...
6) All the light we cannot see by Anthony Doerr. Heard good things about this, we shall see.

I just finished The last to disappear, and Invisable girl, both of which I really enjoyed. I have just started no. 23, Strange Sally Diamond.

8: Death in Heels by Kitty Murphy
Not my usual type of read but the author was a childhood friend of mine. I really enjoyed it, it was fun and fast paced. I did actually guess who the murderer was but not why.

9 The Glass House by Eve Chase

Pretty average but was searching for an easy read and it fulfilled this

Book 39 is more of a novella.
The Lovely Drop by Darynda Jones.

10. West with Giraffes - a novel. Lynda Rutledge
    This was beautiful, i kept wishing it would be made into a film as I'd love to see it. A novel based around the true story of 2 giraffes being taken across America in 1938.

Did someone on this thread recommend it? I can't remember. Thank you of you did.

Away to look back at the thread for my next book.

This thread has been so good to help me get back into reading. I ony started in March and have read 10. I've enjoyed every one of them.