Struggled a bit to find my next book after the William Boyd, which was super-readable and rather gripping.
31. The Elephant in the Room, Jon Ronson
This was more of an essay or long magazine article than a book. Scary stuff about the alt-right and their involvement with Trump (published before he became one of the most powerful men in the world). I was a bit naïve before I read this - I knew that the alt-right were nasty, and mad, but seriously - there are people who believe that Sandy Hook was staged by the US Government in order to give Obama and excuse to change the gun laws. And they tweet vile abuse to the parents who lost their children :( Horrific. Very interesting (albeit disturbing) topic although I didn't think the brief format did it justice.
32. The Smell of Other People's Houses, Bonnie-Sue Hitchcock
I continue to read my way through the Carnegie shortlist for work. This one is set in 1970s Alaska and tells the story of four troubled teens whose lives intersect in a series of coincidences. Loved the setting - it is woven all through with the Alaskan way of life and I haven't read anything like this in a modern book (it opens, for example, with a childhood memory of the butchering of a recently shot deer, and this is a happy memory - the blood, the smell. You might find bits of the book tough if you're squeamish).
My problem with this is it has that YA thing of cramming way too much plot into a rather short book. Four characters, dealing with everything that the author can throw at them: teenage pregnancy, alcoholism, parental divorce, domestic violence, sexual abuse, mental illness.... I would happily have read a book about any one of these characters or their stories. Having them all in the one book was too much.
I now have the Cornish Trilogy (recommend here I believe - good so far :) ) and also a number of books about the neuroscience of the teenage boy brain. Happy reading everyone :)