26-ish books for 2023

12 My Life In Orange by Tim Guest. I wanted to like this memoir about growing up in a cult / commune more, but in truth long passages were just really dull. There were some huge scandals and fair play to Tim for not going to town on the more sensational aspects, but there were too many really boring or repetitive memories for me. I would actually have preferred to know more about things like the corrupt woman's laboratory in the basement full of rats and blood samples and the hit squad, rather than his toys or what field he played in. But then I suppose it was a book about him, rather than the organisation itself. Also, the time line seemed to shift about at points and it was hard to keep track then of what happened when.

I agree about The Radium Girls too, if anyone mutters to me about "Health and Safety gone mad" I tell them about this book.

Totally agree with you about Radium Girls. I listened to it last year and it just horrified me how they were treated.

I heartily recommend the above book if you are interested in miscarriages of justice, and real life stories. It's so sad the way a lot of the dial painters suffered and the way the companies ducked and dived to avoid being responsible for any reparations.

I'm in need of light and fluffy now, though. So
38 is an Ilona Andrews spin-off book The Iron Covenant.

37 The radium girls.
It's a re-read but I've not read it for a couple of years.

36 Dead Serious. Memoirs of a funeral director.

37 Working stiff. Forensic pathologist's biography. Very well written.

Just starting 38 A Matter of Life and Death. Another pathologist book.

Pourmeanotherwine · 31/03/2023 09:19
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.
Read books 8-10 quite quickly as I had a week off work to use up my leave before the end of the leave year and it was a bit rainy.
11 About to start The Helingor Sewing Club by Ella Gyland

@Breathmiller I loved Hungry too

I think I'm going to abandon my number 12, which I very rarely do. It's Queen of the Tambourine by Jane Gardam. I'm near 70 pages in and really not taking to it but hate giving up. Be interested to hear other views if anyone else has read it.

Not quite finished yet with
6.Fairy Tale - Stephen King but I read the short
7.Death and Papa Noel -Ian Moore and started on
8.Bad Mormon - Heather Gay
I’m just aiming to read about 2 books a month like last year and I’m on track with that . I have added 4 books to my bedroom book drawer that had just 2 left and I finished one of them the short one already . I started this as conscious effort to read more and stare at screens less . I have worked through my stash in the last year I had for ages .

1. Hungry - Grace Dent.

Oh my goodness! I laughed out loud at times as she could have been describing my childhood and she did it with such honesty and humour. And I wept at the end. The similarities of someone's life, someone who has a life so far from mine, was deeply poignant. I would recommend this to anyone.

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.

Break up for easter tomorrow and the weather looks fairly rubbish so I shall be making full use of my kindle unlimited membership!

34 Just One More Question. Q interesting memoir from a neurologist.

35 Disease & History: From ancient times to Covid-19. Fascinating.

This was a good month for me. I managed to read 5 books. In the last week I’ve been read 2 nearly 600 pages books !

6- Counterfeit by Kirstin Chein. Something different and quite good. Mad thinking this is kind of true !
7- One true loves. My first Taylor Jenkins. Book. Really liked it , tho sometimes I was too disappointed with the main character
8- Every summer after - by Carley Fortune. Quite a basic book but easy el read
9 and 10. By Lucy Score Things we never got over and Things we hide from the light. Omg I want to meet the morgan brothers tho I think 570 is quite a lot for this books and parts of it I kind of skipped them because I felt they didn’t add anything to the story.

mu plan was to read 15 by the end of the year and I’m on 10 now so probably I’ll read 26 by the end of the year :)

Book 8 Echo of The Dead Alex Gray

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. An easy read, fast paced, regular plot twists and good fun - which is what was needed after unsettling Hill House. Although another massive house with many sections again and a cooped up cast. Not sure the police procedural aspects stand up to much scrutiny, or the part about the very major information being with held at the end. I suspected who dunnit but had someone else or 2 as possibles in mind as well, so it wasn't overly obvious. Nice change to have a motive that's a bit different from the norm.

1. Zikora - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

This is a (very) short story, I chose it because I had liked Half of a Yellow Sun so much and wanted to read more of the author. It is free on Prime Reading for anyone who has it.

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. I really don't know what I think of this book and I've been mulling it over a good while. I liked the odd dialogue, I think, with the fantasy talk and snarkinesness. I liked the characters, how the 2 late additions threw things onto a different tack and I liked the main character's blunt thinking and the plot. But I'm not sure about everyone's motivations and what exactly was going on. Especially with the main character. And it bothers me! I think some of that is genre related and it's not the sort of thing I normally read.

Just finished no 7 A Shepherd's Life by James Rebanks. It was a present from my DM for some birthday/Christmas or other and I hadn't looked at it but I loved it.

11: How to be a Footballer by Peter Crouch - Peter played for the team I support as well as England, he is witty, observant and self-deprecating, on the whole I enjoyed this book but it could have done with being shorter, I kind of lost interest by the last third or so.

1. Daughter's of Partition- Fozia Raja - very moving account of the author's grandmother's life.

I've just finished Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver.

I really enjoyed it. She is very hit and miss for me - loved The Poisonwood Bible, couldn't get on with Lacuna at all...

Demon Copperhead is a re-telling of David Copperfield but set against a backdrop of Rural Virginia during the 80s/90's/00'. For anyone that watched 'Dopesick' - you will recognise the ex-mining towns that fell first and hardest to the influx of Purdue Pharma's OxyContin, and this is a major theme.

Born to an addict mother and dead father, Demon (real name Damon) has the odds stacked against him, and for a long while it seems that he will never escape his pre-ordaned future. And then a glimmer of hope and a change in fortune, but addiction comes calling again...

Funny, sad, thought provoking and a really strong story. Close to David Copperfield in many ways - miles apart in others. Would recommend.

So far this year then:

The Vanishing Half
A Terrible Kindness
Shrines of Gaiety
Lessons in Chemistry
Geneva
Demon Copperhead.

On track!

I've just finished Her Name Was Rose, Claire Allan. Really enjoyed it. If anyone liked Behind Closed Doors, BA Paris, you'll love this.
Sometimes I Lie, Alice Feeney was great, too.
I've only read 6 books this year.
I read more in Summer !

I read The Girls, Lisa Jewell, too. I found it disappointing. I still maintain her best is And Then She Was Gone.
Thanks to whoever recommended A Terrible Kindness. I've ordered it.

I’m really enjoying Stephen King’s new Fairy Tale !!!