26-ish books for 2023

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) Confessions of a Failed Southern Lady by Florence King. Very dark humour and more sex than I expected. I didn't realise it was actually a real person's memoir either (because it's written like a novel and I didn't read the introductory section). When I twigged I made the mistake of looking her up to see what she looked like only to accidentally find out a major plot point. King is very academic and was feminist without knowing the word feminist. Much to her gran's horror she is not at all interested in modelling herself into the perfect wife and mother and refuses to keep her nose out of books - despite gran's advice that reading will ruin her chances with men. Lots of funny scenes, dialogue and one liners and the characters are brilliantly drawn. Really enjoyed it.

BobDear I LOVED Lessonsin Chemistry.
Bonnie Garmus was speaking at our local Waterstones this evening but I couldn’t go. Gutted.

Agree to the element of misery porn about it. It's relentless. But it's well written and I did also get caught up in the story.

9: The Thursday Murder Club bu Richard Osman. DS bought me this in hardback when it first came out and it was a DNF, but it popped up as available on Borrowbox (audio) so I thought I’d give it another go. I’m not great at books with lots of characters and twists and turns on audio, I get distracted and miss bits (I should stick to memoirs and the like) but I got through it, found myself somewhat confused by the end and thought it was just me, but from reading goodreads etc it seems I’m not alone. It was entertaining and I liked the characters, just far too many of them, probably won’t read the second one.

So far:

A Terrible Kindness
Shrines of Gaiety
Geneva (audible freebie by Richard Armitage - very average)
Lessons in Chemistry

all good - although Shrines of Gaiety took me a while and is not one of KA's best imo. Lessons in Chemistry is the standout so far.

A few chapters into 'Demon Copperhead' by Barbara Kingsolver and really enjoying it.

23 The Sleeping Beauties and other stories of mystery illnesses

My Other Family: A Woodford Child's Home in the Thirties by Joan Warne

A memoir of growing up in a home, with 60 other children, following the death of her mother. I found the book interesting but did feel sad reading it.

The author seems happy enough with the childhood she had, but looking at it as an outsider it does seem incredibly sad, hard and deprived even measured against the standards of the time.

Interestingly, this is the second time I have read this book. I read it when I was much younger, before I had a child. This seemed so much sadder on the second reading. I'm the age her mother was when she died.

Behind the Wand
Olive Mabel and Me
Do no Harm
Klara and the Sun
Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows
The last thing to burn
Silence of the Girls
Maps of our spectacular bodies

I've started off promisingly!!

I’ve finished
3.Spare , I skim read the rest since I got bored half way
4.Queen K - Sarah Thomas , I just finished this morning , was pretty good
5.Boys From Biloxy- John Grisham now continuing this

22 An Anthropologist on Mars

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 just started - The Glass Blowers by Daphne du Maurier.

21 The Man who mistook his wife for a hat.

They are very good. Laugh out loud funny. Gritty London Street policing with magic. Fabulous.

I tend to listen via audible to these and the narrator does the most amazing accents for each person, so clever. I often guffaw on a dog walk. Really enjoying.

Iamblossom I e always wanted to try the Rivers of London series....are they any good? Are they supernatural or sci-if?

List so far - I'll include this going forwards:

Twelve Secrets
People of Abandoned Character
The Herd
Last One at the Party
The Last Thing to Burn
Moon Over Soho

Book 6 - Moon over Soho, the second in Ben Aaronovitch's series. Loved 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. This is brilliant and when I was reading I had trouble putting it down because of the plot and complex characters. But not an easy read in terms of subject matter, and quite dense so I had to be in the right mood for reading it. I'm still making up my mind about the ending. There were turns I thought were going to be taken that weren't and things characters did that I wasn't expecting but it was all believable.

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

1. The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelidas

1. Freckles by Cecelia Ahern

Poor month for reading, only one book so determined to make more time for me in March.

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 Really good, would definitely recommend and will look out for more of her stuff.

No. 13 Mad Honey. Enjoying it so far.

*3) The man who died twice. Richard Osman.
*
A marmite book I know but I enjoyed it. Didn't love it. But an easy, funny read.

*4) The Funny thing about Norman Foreman. Julietta Henderson.
*
No idea what to expect with this, recommended and lent to me by a friend.

8: Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt - a story of two people whose lives intersect in an unexpected way with a little help from an octopus in an aquarium. Sounds utterly bonkers but I loved it.

Gosh some of you are storming ahead with your reading ! I’ve fallen off the thread and a bit behind with mine . I’ll keep to the 26 a year as a goal, I’m afraid I enjoy a good tv series etc far too much to do more . I am in the middle of two atm ,to my shame
3.Certain recent royal biography on my kindle 😁 although I have to say it’s slow going I’m somewhat bored and will probably not finish it
4.Queen K- Sarah Thomas I spotted in the newspaper the other day . Seems like an easy read so far I’m quite enjoying it .
Next might continue the Fairytale by Stephen King I started last year

5. The Silent Wife by A S A Harrison
Enjoyed this even though not my usual sort of read. About a partnership breakup and revenge. I think it comes from an interesting angle though.

Now started a non-fiction book, Deep Sea and Foreign Going about shipping containers.

I've done similar where I've been standing looking for books in the shop and it sounds familiar 🤔 so I've checked my kindle list and its been there. I had actually preordered it and forgotten all about it