Not sure that I've posted my whole list, certainly not for a while. I haven't done the bold thing so the fact that none of them are bold doesn't mean that I didn't like them :)
- NW, Zadie Smith
- A God in Ruins, Kate Atkinson
- The Marble Collector, Celia Aherne
- Did you Ever Have a Family, Bill Clegg
- Lucky Break, Esther Freud
- The Penelopiad, Margaret Atwood
- Wonder Boys, Michael Chabon
- Longitude, Dava Sobel
- Marking Time, Elizabeth Jane Howard
10. Confusion, Elizbeth Jane Howard
11. River of Ink, Paul MM Cooper
12. The Burgess Boys, Elizabeth Strout
13. All That Man Is, David Szalay
14. Big Brother, Lionel Shriver
15. Today Will Be Different, Maria Semple
16. Cold Light, Jenn Ashworth
17. Our Endless Numbered Days
18. The Likes of Us: A Biography of the White Working Class, Michael Collins
19. The Elegance of the Hedgehog, Muriel Barbery
20. The Accident, Ismail Kadare
21. Railhead, Philip Reeve
22. The Various Haunts of Men, Susan Hill
23. We were Liars, E Lockhart
24. So You've Been Publicly Shamed, Jon Ronson
25. Don't Stop Me Now, Vassos Alexander
26. Us, David Nicholls
27. The Nightingale, Kristen Hannah
28. Swimming Home, Deborah Levy
29. Mariana, Susanna Kearsley
30. Restless, William Boyd
31. The Elephant in the Room, Jon Ronson
32. The Smell of Other People's Houses
33. The Tidal Zone, Sarah Moss
34. Beck, Mal Peet and Meg Roscoff
35. Golden Hill, Francis Spufford
36. Nobody has Sex on a Tuesday, Tracy Bloom
37. The Stars at Oktober Bend, Glenda Millard
38. The Sellout, Paul Beatty
39. Testimony, Anita Shreve
40. A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, Dave Eggers
Hard to be fair to a book which has received so much enormous hype. I did enjoy this, it was energetic, and moving, and very original. Full of that youthful arrogance that allows you to mess about with the novel form and think you are oh-so-clever, but at the same time - WOW. For such a young man to write so movingly about death, and intersperse it between random witterings about trying to let laid, or the revolting meals that he eats with his brother.... Definitely worth reading if you haven't read it already.
41. The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Stephen Chbosky
Another one which got loads of publicity and (interestingly) also compared to The Catcher in the Rye. This is like the king of YA angsty books isn't it? Checked all the boxes - drugs/alcohol/teen pregnancy/dysfunctional family/bullying/abuse - check check check. Actually it was a rather sweet book, if a little meandering, and nice enough to read. I don't get why it was such a Thing for people but then I guess I am not a 13 year old girl.