26ish books 2026

I was put off by the first few pages. Even then I seemed confused by it.

Book no 11 (my numbers have got confused!). The Outside Boy by Jeanine Cummins. This was a gentle book following the life of an Irish Traveller boy (Pavee) and his search to understand his roots. I've worked with the community before when I was a school attendance manager, so I found this book really inciteful. Would recommend.

I'm struggling with this, it's a borrowbox loan and I'm so tempted to just let it expire. Your review indicates it does not get any better.

Book 11

The Safekeep. Im a bit conflicted about this one. I did really enjoy it, but found the change in Isobels behaviour/thoughts just wild. I was drawn back to keep reading though so I'd say the positives outweighed any negatives.

17 The Talented Mr Ripley - Patricia Highsmith
A re-read after having finally watched the Netflix series with Andrew Scott (excellent series but he was too old for the role of Tom Ripley. Nice touch with the cameo by John Malkovich who played the same character in Ripley's Game). Tempted to read the recent biography about Patricia Highsmith, it does sound like she was extremely strange.

@Philandbill totally agree re The Seven and a half Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle. This was a DNF for me, it was awful.

Hours of my life I'll never get back 😂I should have given up but I'd got a third of the way through and I don't like quitting...

I was going to read this. Thanks for the heads up!

I decided to plough on because I thought it was an easy Goodreads bookmark. At least I didn't spend that long reading it (this year!).

I read this last year. It was awful. I don't recommend even picking it up 😂

25 The Seven and a half Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton.
I don't recommend putting this book down for 3 years and then trying to work out what's going on.

17. Heart the Lover by Lily King. I got really swept away by this novel, it's characters and story. It felt sparse but meaningful. My only complaint is that the female protagonist seems to bear the burden of expectation of tolerating and enduring the naive male characters at her own cost. Like she is meant fix them and wait in the sidelines while they figure themselves out

12 Flesh by David Szalay this had largely received positive reviews but I found it very disappointing. The positive reviews have a whiff of the emperor's new clothes about them. It is so sparse as to be almost meaningless, the plot is unbelievable and even more so given that there is no indication about any of the character or traits of the protagonist that could have helped him achieve the life he did. It all seems to be held together by an underlying theme that the protagonist has sex with women he finds physically repulsive because they almost beg him to. The benefits are that it does not have many words on a page and is a short read. Not for me.

1. Brain Damage- Frieda McFadden
2. The Housemaid- Frieda McFadden
3. The Assassin's Blade- Sarah J. Mass
4. The Housemaids Secret- Frieda McFadden
5. Not Quite Dead Yet- Holly Jackson
6. The Wives- Tarryn Fisher
7. The Housemaid's Wedding- Frieda McFadden.
8. The Surrogate Mother- Frieda McFadden.
9. Act of Will- Barbara Taylor-Bradford.

Reading the last of the Housemaid series. It is okay but I probably wouldn't read them again. I am not sure if I really rate McFadden's book. I did quite enjoy the sweeping romance of Barbara Taylor-Bradford.

Book 13 was Even Dogs In The Wild by Ian Rankin. My first Rebus in aaaaages and I devoured it - not one of the standout ones, but pretty good. I was about halfway through Half of A Yellow Sun but it was just getting so bleak and with the state of the world I needed some light relief so thought a murder novel in Edinburgh would fit the bill....

8: The Only Plane in the Sky - The Oral History of 9/11 by Garrett M Graff
I'm sure this was recommended on either this thread or the thread about great non-fiction. It is such an interesting book - I have been raving about it to anyone that will listen for the time it has taken me to read it.

I haven’t been keeping up with the thread OR my reading (too much doom scrolling lately!!) but just finished book number 8. The Vaster Wilds by Lauren Groff
loaned to me by a colleague and it’s not at all what I would usually choose, being set in early Colonial America and is the story of a young woman trying to survive in the wilderness. It didn’t have me gripped at first so I took almost a month to read it, but by the end i was totally drawn into it, it’s a meditation on life and nature and (amongst the graphic horrors!) is darkly beautiful.

12 - The Death of Us - Abigail Dean
This kept me reading so from that angle it was good, but not life changing and I think I’ll forget it pretty soon.

23 Await your Reply by Dan Chaon. Really unusual. I would say I didn't see the twist coming but it was all one big twist.
24 The Authenticity Project by Clare Dooley. I love her books, I think this is the first one. They are quite chick lit but they always have less "perfect" characters as well as the ones who suddenly become beautiful without their glasses and Get Mr Right.

1. Silence of the girls
2. By Any Other Name - Jodi Picoult.
3. We live here now - Sarah Pinborough.
4. Lone Wolf - Jodi Picoult.
5. We begin at the end - Chris Whittaker
6. Things we do not tell the people we love - Huma Qureshi
7. Names - Florence Knapp.

Loved Names, found it really emotional and intelligently written.

Going back to Jodi Picoult for my next read - the book of two ways

16. Orbital by Samantha Harvey

I loved this slow, remarkable and yet completely unremarkable story of six astronauts living at the international space station. I read it as an allegory of life. Short but packs a punch; I read it slowly, really savouring it, like a book of poetry.

Oh no I haven't. Didn't know there was one! Can see it would easily translate to film. I'm picturing lots of acting via the use of looks and silences...knowing looks, lingering looks, pensive looks, wistful looks, mistrustful looks... And quite yokel but common sense locals to counterbalance the h'educated niche professionals.
I particularly liked the scene where he's sent off on a borrowed bike to give a sermon, and the ones with that forthright teenage girl telling him what's what.
I'll try to find it, thank you.

1.One of us by Elizabeth Day.
2.The Backpacking Housewife by Janice Horton.
3.The Hike by Lucy Clarke
4.Postcards from a stranger by Imogen Clark
5.Introducing Mrs Collins by Rachel Parris
6.Remarkably bright creatures by Shelby van Pelt
7.Sleeping Tiger by Rosamund Pilcher
8.When the cranes fly south by Lisa Rizden
9.A midlife holiday by Carry Hanson
10. Nesting by Rosie O'Donnell
11. I know why the caged bird sings by Maya Angelou
12. Ripeness by Sarah Moss
13. Three Days in June by Anne Tyler
14. The Great Alone by Kristen Hannah
15.Slags after seeing @MargotMoon had read this, it was very nostalgic about things I had forgotten from my teenage years

I'm going away tomorrow so loading up my kindle will try and find the Hris Whittaker book @Everintroverte read as I enjoyed all the colours of the dark (which I think is back on 99p kindle real right now if anyone wants it)

9: On Days Like This by Martin O’Neill (audio). Football memoir by one of the great managers of the last 30 years or so who also played for Nottingham Forest through the unforgettable Brian Clough era. It is all about the football, not much about his personal life, so unlike some footballer’s memoirs I wouldn’t recommend it if you aren’t a fan, but I am and have followed Martin’s career since he managed Wycombe Wanderers where I lived at the time, he performed miracles for that team. Narrated by the author, which I generally like when it’s a memoir, and Martin has such a lovely soothing voice, I have found it interesting, entertaining and soothing all at the same time.

@Scout2016 Have you watched the film version of A Month in the Country? It stars Colin Firth and Kenneth Branagh and both are wonderful. And very easy on the eye.

I started following this post back in January and have been pretty slow off the mark!

1. The Bee Sting, Paul Murray

I thought it was good until the end, which has left me disappointed!