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50 Book Challenge 2018 Part Six

999 replies

southeastdweller · 05/06/2018 08:12

Welcome to the sixth thread of the 50 Book Challenge for this year.

The challenge is to read fifty books (or more!) in 2018, though reading fifty isn't mandatory. Any type of book can count, it’s not too late to join, and please try to let us all know your thoughts on what you've read.

The first thread of the year is here, the second one here, the third one here, the fourth one here, and the fifth one here.

How're you getting on so far?

OP posts:
ChessieFL · 05/06/2018 08:42

Just marking place, will bring list over later. Thanks for new thread!

Tarahumara · 05/06/2018 09:38

Checking in - thanks southeast.

SatsukiKusakabe · 05/06/2018 10:34

Checking in thanks south

TheTurnOfTheScrew · 05/06/2018 11:05

Thanks as ever, SouthEast.

My list, favourites in bold:

  1. The Wicked Boy by Kate Summerscale
  2. The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett
  3. The Descent of Man by Grayson Perry
4. What A Carve Up! by Jonathan Coe
  1. Death in the Clouds but Agatha Christie
  2. The Road Home by Rose Tremain
7. 21st Century Yokel by Tom Cox
  1. Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton
  2. Murder At The Vicarage by Agatha Christie
10. The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry 11. Bad Science by Ben Goldacre 12. Keep on Keeping On by Alan Bennett 13. A Spot of Bother by Mark Haddon 14. The Witch Finder's Sister by Beth Underdown 15. The Brooklyn Follies by Paul Auster 16. My Cousin Rachel by Daphne Du Maurier 17. The Last Tudor by Philippa Gregory 18. Conclave by Robert Harris 19. The Girl on the Landing by Paul Torday 20. Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman 21. A Very English Scandal by John Preston 22. The Devil in The Marshalsea by Antonia Hodgson. 23. London Under by Peter Ackroyd 24. Five Little Pigs by Agatha Christie 25. Lullaby by Leila Slimani
Terpsichore · 05/06/2018 13:45

Also marking place, with apologies for dismal lack of action recently. I've got two books nearing the end so hope to be back shortly with reviews.

Terpsichore · 05/06/2018 13:46

And thanks for the new thread, @southeastdweller Smile

CorvusUmbranox · 05/06/2018 14:12

Bringing over my list:

1.) Gossip From the Forest, Sara Maitland
2.) Ritual, Adam Nevill
3.) The Penny Heart, Martine Bailey
4.) Norse Mythology, Neil Gaiman
5.) The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim Library Volume 1: Histories
6.) The Fishermen, Chigozie Obioma
7.) The History of the English Puppet Theatre, by George Speaight
8.) The Year of Reading Dangerously, by Andy Miller
9.) Republic of Thieves, by Scott Lynch
10.) Women & Power: A Manifesto, by Mary Beard
11.) Wychwood, by George Mann
12.) Sleeping Beauties, by Stephen King and Owen King
13.) Last Days, by Adam Nevill
14.) The Owl Killers, by Karen Maitland
15.) Confessions of a Shopaholic, by Sophie Kinsella
16.) Happy, by Derren Brown
17.) A Surfeit of Lampreys, by Ngaio Marsh
18.) Death Knocks Twice, by Robert Thorogood
19.) Cheer up, Love, by Susan Calman
20.) The North Water, by Ian McGuire
21.) The Little Stranger, by Sarah Waters
22.) A Morbid Taste for Bones, by Ellis Peters
23.) Rogues, edited by George RR Martin
24.) End of Watch, Stephen King
25.) Brave, Rose McGowan
26.) The Blackest Streets, Life and Death of a Victorian Slum, Sarah Wise
27.) Eligible, Curtis Sittenfield
28.) The Buried Giant, Kazuo Ishiguro
29.) The Essex Serpent, by Sarah Perry
30.) The Running Hare: The Secret Life of Farmland, by John Lewis-Stempel
31.) The Woman in Black: Angel of Death, by Martyn Waites
32.) Game of Thrones, by George RR Martin
33.) The Fire Child, by SK Tremayne
34.) Death of Kings, by Bernard Cornwell
35.) Here Comes Everybody: The Story of the Pogues, by James Fearnley
36.) The Land of the Green Man: A Journey through the Supernatural Landscapes of the British Isles, by Carolyne Larrington
37.) The Break, by Marian Keyes
37.) Tudor Monastery Farm
38.) Under A Pole Star, by Stef Penney
39.) The Cheapside Corpse, by Susanna Gregory
40.) The Eyes of the Reindeer, Eva Weaver
41.) The Outcasts of Time, Ian Mortimer
42.) Death and the Dancing Footman, Ngaio Marsh
43.) Why Mummy Drinks, The Diary of an Exhausted Mum, by Gill Sims
44.) Colour Scheme, Ngaio Marsh
45.) Wide Sargasso Sea, Jean Rhys
46.) A Clash of Kings, George RR Martin
47.) The Harrowing, James Aitcheson
48.) Odd Girl Out: An Autistic Woman in a Neurotypical World, by Laura James
49.) Day Four, Sarah Lotz
50.) The Silent Companions, Laura Purcell
51.) This Thing of Darkness, by Harry Thompson

and finally:

52.) Thin Air, by Michelle Paver -- Finished this in one day in the end. It's a short, compelling read, but in the end very similar to Dark Matter, with a similar sort of set-up: internally conflicted young man who isn't quite at ease with his companions, hostile environment, a possible haunting. Oh, and the comforting companionship of a dog.

Dark Matter was scarier (I know not everyone found it scary, but I listened to it on audiobook and found the ending chilling), with more memorable haunted objects: it had a skinning pole, while Thin Air has a [clears throat] rucksack, but I liked the ever-present danger of the environment, and it had a lovely MR Jamesian feel to it with the bone trumpet in the beginning, along with certain later events. A few bits, like the window onto the abyss, weren't capitalised on as well as they could have been, and while Dark Matter had some gripping moments throughout, here the tension doesn't really ramp up until the end.

Well worth a read if you like ghost stories, but it is a bit of a shame it all felt so familiar.

~~

Continuing the easy quick reads theme with Spectacles, Sue Perkins's memoir, . So far, funny with a few slightly silly bits. Worth it, though, even if just for the photograph of Sue as a child looking like Damien from the Omen. It's... a little unnerving.

EmGee · 05/06/2018 15:06

Hi all,

  1. Biography of Queen Eliz II - Sally Beddell Smith
  2. The Betrayal - Helen Dunmore
  3. The Witches - Roald Dahl
  4. 2nd in the Quartet but can't recall name - Elena Ferrante
  5. Infinite Home - Kathleen Alcott
  6. The Aviator's Wife - Melanie Benjamin
  7. Ghosts of Everest - Hemlebb, Simonson
  8. The Poisonwood Bible - Barbara Kingsolver
  9. American Wife - Curtis Sittenfeld
10. Object Lessons - Anna Quindlen 11. Une Vie - Simone Veil 12. Incendiary - Chris Cleave 13. Into the Silence - Wade Davis 14. A Very British Scandal - John Preston 15. Before We Were Yours - Lisa Wingate 16. Mystery at Styles - Agatha Christie 17. The Tatooist of Auschwitz - Helen Moore 18. The Heart's Invisible Furies - John Boyne 19. Four Sisters: The lost lives of the Romanovs - Helen Rappaport 20. Educated - Tara Westover 21. Then she was gone - Lisa Jewell 22. A long, long way - Sebastian Barry 23. My name is Leon - Kit de Waal 24. Mennonite in a little black dress - Rhoda Janzen 25. Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell 26. Little Fires Everywhere - Celeste Ng 27. The Language of Others - Clare Morall 28. The Coincidence of Coconut Cake - Amy C. Reichart 29. Career of Evil - Robert Galbraith 30. The Girl who fell from the Sky - Simon Mawer 31. The Men and the Girls - Joanna Trollope 32. Valley of the Dolls - Jacqueline Susann 33. Sing, Unburied Sing - Jesmyn Ward 34. Cherry: the life of Apsley Cherry-Garrard - Sara Wheeler 35. Th Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society - Mary Ann Schaffer+Annie Burrows 36. Bright, Precious Things - Jay McInerney
nowanearlyNicemum · 05/06/2018 15:15

Thanks for the new thread.

Bringing my (teeny tiny) list over. Don't worry it won't take up much space Wink

  1. Birdcage Walk - Helen Dunmore
  2. Wonder - RJ Palacio
  3. Why Mummy Drinks - Gill Sims
  4. The Trouble with Goats and Sheep - Joanna Cannon
  5. The Rosie Effect – Graeme Simpson
  6. The secret life of bees – Sue Monk Kidd
  7. The Cupboard - Rose Tremain
8. History of Love - Nicole Krauss
  1. Two by two – Nicholas Sparks
10. Educated – Tara Westover 11. Any Human Heart - William Boyd 12. The boy in the Striped Pyjamas – John Boyne 13. Lion: A long way home – Saroo Brierley 14. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society – Mary Anne-Shaffer & Annie Barrows

About to finish On Green Dolphin Street by Sebastian Faulks...

BellBookandCandle · 05/06/2018 16:12

@CorvusUmbranox - I agree about the ambiguous mix of eerie/religious/paranormal. I think he did it better in the Dr.Dee books, but there are only two of those!

Merrily does become tiresome calling Jane "flower" and Jame is tiresome because she's a proper little madam. Rickman captures the teenage angst a bit too well!!

Hope you enjoy Midwinter, Denzil is truly creepy.

AliasGrape · 05/06/2018 16:31

Thanks @southeast

Here’s my list, I need to get a wiggle on! Highlights in bold:

  1. Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief - Rick Riordan
2. Lincoln in the Bardo - George Saunders
  1. The Ice Princess - Camilla Läckberg
  2. Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine- Gail Honeyman
  3. The Silkworm - Robert Galbraith
6. The Talented Mr Ripley - Patricia Highsmith
  1. Career of Evil - Robert Galbraith
  2. The Wicked Boy - Kate Summerscale
  3. The Wonder - Emma Donoghue
10. Just One Damned Thing After Another (The Chronicles of St Mary’s) - Jodi Taylor 11. Ella Minnow Pea - Mark Dunn *12. The Shadow of the Sun - Ryszard Kapuściński 13. Everything I never told you- Celeste Ng1. Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief - Rick Riordan
  1. Lincoln in the Bardo - George Saunders
  2. The Ice Princess - Camilla Läckberg
  3. Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine- Gail Honeyman
  4. The Silkworm - Robert Galbraith
  5. The Talented Mr Ripley - Patricia Highsmith
  6. Career of Evil - Robert Galbraith
  7. The Wicked Boy - Kate Summerscale
  8. The Wonder - Emma Donoghue
10. Just One Damned Thing After Another (The Chronicles of St Mary’s) - Jodi Taylor 11. Ella Minnow Pea - Mark Dunn *12. The Shadow of the Sun - Ryszard Kapuściński 13. Everything I never told you- Celeste Ng* 14. The Wee Free Men - Terry Pratchett 15. The Minority Report - Philip K Dick 16. Old Rose and Silver - Myrtle Reed 17. David Copperfield- Charles Dickens (Bolded due to quality of the narration by Richard Armitage - this was on audio) 18. Early One Morning - Virginia Baily 19. Money for Nothing - PG Wodehouse 20. All for Love - Dan Jacobson 21. Lady Susan, The Watsons, Sanditon - Jane Austen 22. The Heist - Janet Evanovich and Lee Goldberg 23. 84 Charing Cross Road - Helene Hanff 24. Bridget Jones’ Baby - Helen Fielding 25. Swimming Lessons - Clare Fuller 26. The Inside-Out Revolution: The Only Thing You Need to Know to Change Your Life Forever - Michael Neill 27. Snow Falling on Cedars - David Guterson
AliasGrape · 05/06/2018 16:33

Argh, not quite sure what happened to my list above! Trying to bold the highlights and appear to have copied sections of the list repeatedly Blush

Still makes it look a nice long list! Grin

SatsukiKusakabe · 05/06/2018 16:48
  1. I Love Dick by Chris Kraus
  2. The Bees by Carol Ann Duffy
3.Game of Thrones 1 by George R R Martin
  1. The Nix by Nathan Hill
5. This Thing of Darkness by Harry Thompson 6. Burial Rites by Hannah Kent 7. Mariana by Monica Dickens
  1. Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
9. A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn 10. The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers 11. You Play The Girl by Carina Chocano 12. Heartstone by CJ Sansom 13. Life Moves Pretty Fast by Hadley Freeman 14. Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day by Winifred Watson 15. The Happy Prisoner by Monica Dickens 16. The Wild Other by Clover Stroud 17. My Favourite Thing Is Monsters by Emil Ferris 18. Enigma by Robert Harris 19. I Feel Bad About My Neck by Nora Ephron 20. The Portable Veblen by Elizabeth McKenzie 21. Hag-Seed by Margaret Atwood 22. You Think It I’ll Say It by Curtis Sittenfeld

I’ve got a couple of updates but will do later.

BestIsWest · 05/06/2018 16:56

Thank you South. Will update list later.

Matilda2013 · 05/06/2018 17:01

List so far

  1. Sisters and Lies - Bernice Barrington
  2. Her Husband’s Secret - Janice Frost
  3. Mount! - Jilly Cooper
  4. They All Fall Down - Tammy Cohen
  5. The Word Game - Steena Holmes
  6. The Good Widow - Liz Fenton and Lisa Steinke
  7. Mummy’s Favourite - Sarah Flint
  8. The Paper Year - Avery Aster
  9. Gone - TJ Brearton
10. My Sister’s Grave - Robert Dugoni 11. Carrie - Stephen King 12. Based on a True Story - Delphine de Vigan 13. Every Last Lie - Mary Kubica 14. The Darkness Within - Lisa Stone 15. Anatomy of a Scandal - Sarah Vaughan 16. The Trap - Melanie Raabe 17. Flawed - Cecelia Ahern 18. Bring Me Back - BA Paris 19. Perfect - Cecelia Ahern 20. The Roanoke Girls - Amy Engel 21. He Said/She Said - Erin Kelly 22. 3,096 Days - Natascha Kampusch 23. Diamonds - K A Linde 24. First One Missing - Tammy Cohen 25. Lullaby - Leila Slimani 26. Just What Kind of Mother Are You - Paula Daly 27. Elizabeth is Missing - Emma Healey 28. The Fear - C L Taylor 29. My (not so) Perfect Life - Sophie Kinsella 30. The Roses of May - Dot Hutchison 31. The Serial Killer’s Daughter - Lesley Welsh 32. Then She Was Gone - Lisa Jewell

Currently reading 33. Never Let You Go - Chevy Stevens.

noodlezoodle · 05/06/2018 17:13

Thank you South. I'm going very slowly, but trundling on. List with favourites in bold, stinkers in italics:

  1. Two Kinds of Truth, by Michael Connolly
  2. In a Dark, Dark Wood, by Ruth Ware
3. Logical Family, by Armistead Maupin
  1. Startup, by Doree Shafrir
  2. My Lady Jane, by Cynthia Hand
  3. American Heiress, by Jeffrey Toobin
  4. The Child, Fiona Barton
  5. Cold Blood, by Robert Bryndza
9. Missing, Presumed, by Susie Steiner 10. Persons Unknown, by Susie Steiner 11. The Lying Game, by Ruth Ware 12. Deadly Secrets, by Robert Bryndza 13. Theft by Finding; Diaries 1977-2002, by David Sedaris 14. The Past, by Tessa Hadley 15. Neon in Daylight, by Hermione Hoby 16. New People, by Danzy Senna
RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie · 05/06/2018 17:24

Thanks, South.

My list: stand-outs in bold; stinkers marked *!!!###

1: Quiet London
2: Walking in Berlin: A Flaneur in the Capital - Franz Hessel
3: Death at the Dolphin by Ngaio Marsh
4: Our Man in Havana – Graham Greene !!!###
5: Whatever Happened to Baby Jane – Henry Farrell
6: The Berlin Wall – My Part in its Downfall by Peter Millar
7: The Winter Queen – Boris Akunin
8:: The Thorn Birds – Colleen McCullough
9: The Nix – Nathan Hill
10: N or M – Agatha Christie
11: A Presumption of Death by Jill Paton Walsh
12: The Attenbury Emeralds – Jill Paton Walsh
13: An Almond for a Parrot – Wray Delaney
14: Strong Poison – Dorothy L Sayers
15: The Strange Last Voyage of Donald Crowhurst - Nicholas Tomalin and Ron Hall
16: Christine – Stephen King
17: From Here to Eternity – Caitlin Doughty
18: Miss Pym Disposes – Josephine Tey
19: Forever – Judy Blume
20: Munich – Robert Harris
21: Corpus – Rory Clements
22 Blood Brothers – Ernst Haffner
23: Have His Carcase – Dorothy L Sayers !!!### (except for one exquisite page)
24: Artists in Crime – Ngaio Marsh
25/26/27/28: Little Women series – Louisa May Alcott
29: The Masqueraders – Georgette Heyer
30: Enigma – Robert Harris
31: Venetia – Georgette Heyer
32: Gaudy Night – Dorothy LS
33: The Last Necromancer – CJ Archer
34: The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle – Stuart Turton
35: Larkinland by Jonathan Tulloch
36: The Silent Companions – Laura Purcell
37: Last Ditch – Ngaio Marsh
38, 39, 40 Jeeves Omnibus Volume 2
41: The Reluctant Widow – Georgette Heyer
42: Died in the Wool – Ngaio Marsh
43: The Guns of Navarone – Alistair Maclean
44: Berlin’s Third Sex - Magnus Hirschfeld
45: A Clutch of Constables – Ngaio Marsh
46: Swing, Brother, Swing – Ngaio Marsh
47: Off with his Head – Ngaio Marsh
48: Being Mortal – Atul Gawande
49: Grave Mistake – Ngaio Marsh
50: A Very English Scandal – John Preston
51: The Hollow – Agatha Christie
52 Gillespie and I – Jane Harris !!!###
53: Greeks Bearing Gifts – Philip Kerr
54: The Foundling – Georgette Heyer
55: The Mermaid and Mrs Hancock Imogen Hermes Gowar
56: Eat Me: A Natural and Unnatural History of Cannibalism – Bill Schutt
57: Giovanni’s Room – James Baldwin
58: Bath Tangle – Georgette Heyer
59: Reasons to Stay Alive – Matt Haig !!!###
60: The Forest Lake Mystery - Palle Rosenkrantz
61: Travels in the Third Reich – Julia Boyd
62: The ABC Murders – Agatha Christie
63: March Violets – Philip Kerr
64: The Pale Criminal – Philip Kerr

Toomuchsplother · 05/06/2018 18:08

Checking in with my list. Highlights and stinkers.

1. Golden Hill - Francis Spufford

  1. How to measure a cow - Margaret Forster
3. 21 women who made British History - Jenni Murray. 4. Home Going - Yaa Gyasi 5. The reader on the 6.27 - Jean- Paul Didierlaurent
  1. Fire and Fury - Inside the Trump White House - Michael Wolff
7. Sugar Money - Jane Harris 8. Wuthering Heights - Emily Brontë
  1. The Book of Eleanor - Pamela Kaufman
10. The Victoria Letters - The Heart and Mind of a Young Queen - Helen Rappaport 11. A place called Winter - Patrick Gale 12. Fingers in the Sparkle Jar - Chris Packham 13. Amy and Isabelle - Elizabeth Strout 14. Housekeeping - Marilynne Robinson 15. Brooklyn - Colm Tóibín 16. Night waking - Sarah Moss 17. How to stop Brexit - Nick Clegg 18. Life after Life - Kate Atkinson 19. A thousand acres - Jane Smiley 20. A God in Ruins - Kate Atkinson 21. Birdcage Walk - Helen Dunmore 22. All quiet on the western front - Erich Maria Remarque 23. Gut Symmetries - Jeanette Winterson 24. Fall down 7 times get up 8 - Naoki Higashida 25. The girl with the Dragon Tattoo- Stieg Larsson 26. Priestdaddy - Patricia Lockwood 27. The Mermaid and Mrs Hancock - Imogen Hermes Gowar 28. The more you ignore me - Jo Brand 29. The Reservoir Tapes - Jon McGregor 30. The bone clocks - David Mitchell 31. Unless - Carol Shields 32. The Co-op’s got bananas- Hunter Davies 33. The Witch Finder’s Sister - Beth Underdown 34. Burial Rites - Hannah Kent 35. A Very English Scandal - John Preston 36. Jane Austen at Home - Lucy Worsley 37. When you disappeared - John Marrs 38. The Wolf Border - Sarah Hall 39. Moon Tiger- Penelope Lively 40. Sacrilege - S J Parris 41. Perfect - Rachel Joyce 42. The night rainbow- Claire King 43. Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks 44. The passion - Jeanette Winters 45. Lady of the English - Elizabeth Chadwick 46. Behind the scenes at the museum- Kate Atkinson 47. Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine- Gail Honeyman 48. Sing, unburied, sing - Jesmyn Ward 49. When I hit you : Or, Portrait of The Writer as a Young Wife - Meena Kandasamy 50. Three things about Elsie- Joanna Cannon. 51. Amsterdam- Ian McEwan 52. Nelly Dean - Alison Case 53. A Boy in Winter - Rachel Seiffert 54. A life in the day - Hunter Davies 55. A hero for high times: A younger readers' guide to the Beats, Hippies, Freaks, Punks, Ravers, New-Age Travellers and Dog-on-a-Rope Brew Crew Crusties of the British Isles, 1956 - 1994 by Ian Marchant. 56. The Ministry of Utmost Happiness - Arundhati Roy 57. Educated - Tara Westover 58. White Houses - Amy Bloom 59. Plot 29 - Allan Jenkins 60. Uniquely Human: A different way of seeing Autism - Dr Barry M. Prizant with Tom Fields-Meyer 61. My name is Leon - Kit De Waal 62. The Trick to Time - Kit De Waal 63. wildflower Hill - Kimberly Freeman 64. Lincoln in the Bardo - George Saunders 65. Enigma - Robert Harris 66. Victorians Undone- Kathryn Hughes 67. Little Fires Everywhere - Celeste Ng 68. This thing of Darkness- Harry Thompson 69. Jane Seymour : the haunted Queen - Alison Weir 70. Sight - Jessie Greengrass 71. This is going to hurt- Adam Kay 72. I am, I am, I am - Maggie O’Farrell 73. The Ghost - Robert Harris 74. The Silent Companions - Laura Purcell 75. Women and Power - Mary Beard 76. Bluebird, Bluebird - Attica Locke 77. In the days of rain- Rebecca Stott 78. Reader, I married him - Edited by Tracy Chevalier 79. The wicked cometh - Laura Carlin 80. the year of magical thinking - Joan Didion 81. The shell seekers - Rosamunde Pilcher 82. The end we start from - Megan Hunter
Murine · 05/06/2018 18:57

Thanks, southeast! My list so far....

  1. Sixteen Trees of the Somme by Lars Mytting
  2. The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett
  3. He Said/She Said by Erin Kelly
  4. River of Teeth by Sarah Gailey
  5. The Good Daughter by Karin Slaughter
  6. The Girls by Lisa Jewell
7.Dead Sky by Tami Hoag
  1. Fever by Megan Abbot
  2. Court of Lions by Jane Johnson
10. The Son by Jo Nesbo 11. Nothing On Earth by Conor O'Callaghan 12. I Let You Go by Clare Mackintosh 13. Fukushima Dreams by Zelda Rhiando 14. The Emperor of All Maladies by Siddhartha Mukherjee 15. The Wrong 'Un by Catherine Evans 16. Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys 17. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte 18. Stone Mattress by Margaret Atwood 19. I See You by Clare Mackintosh 20. Monsters by Raphaela Weissman 21. Reader, I Married Him edited by Tracy Chevalier 22. The Seagull by Ann Cleeves 23. Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jessmyn Ward 24. Three Things About Elsie by Joanna Cannon 25. Cousins by Salley Vickers 26. When I Hit You by Meera Kandasamy 27. The Pumilio Child by Judy McInerney 28. I Am, I Am, I Am by Maggie O'Farrell 29. Love Bites by Elena Kaufman 30. My Cousin Rachel by Daphne du Maurier 31. The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox by Maggie O'Farrell 32. Smoke Gets in Your Eyes by Caitlin Doughty 33. The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt 34. A Boy In Winter by Rachel Seiffert 35. The Moor by Sam Haysom 36. The Hunger by Alma Katsu 37. White Rabbit, Red Wolf by Tom Pollock 38. Manhattan Beach by Jennifer Egan 39. The Breakthrough by Daphne du Maurier 40. The Burning Hill by A.D.Flint

I'm gradually reading Miss Burma by Charmaine Craig and An Instance of the Fingerpost by Iain Pears at the moment, I'm enjoying both but it's very slow going.

RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie · 05/06/2018 19:56

Splother You've just reminded me that I STILL haven't finished Jane Austen at Home. I was finding it so very dull. :(

Toomuchsplother · 05/06/2018 20:01

Remus It was very dull. I only finished it as it was for book club and it turned out I was the only one who had bothered! Better Austen biographies out there.

RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie · 05/06/2018 20:27

Such a shame; the cover is so pretty!

CheerfulMuddler · 05/06/2018 21:40

Thanks for the new thread.

  1. Make More Noise! Various
  2. Rose in Bloom L M Alcott
  3. Alice in Wonderland Lewis Carroll
  4. Alice Through the Looking-Glass Lewis Carroll
  5. Eight Cousins L M Alcott
  6. How to Be a Victorian Ruth Goodwin
  7. A London Child of the 1870s MV Hughes
  8. Hostages to Fortune Elizabeth Cambridge
  9. A London Girl of the 1880s MV Hughes
10. Star by Star Sheena Wilkinso 11. A Spoonful of Murder Robin Stevens 12. How to Talk so Little Kids Will Listen Joanna Faber and Julie King 13. Falconer's Lure Antonia Forest 14. Life After Life Kate Atkinson 15. Bookworm: A Memoir of Childhood Reading Lucy Mangan 16. This is Going to Hurt Adam Kay 17. Lady Rose and Mrs Memmary Ruby Ferguson 18. Mapp and Lucia EF Benson 19. Dr Horrible and Other Horrible Stories Zack Whedon 20. The Murder at the Vicarage Agatha Christie 21. A Month in the Country JL Carr 22. The Mysterious Affair at Styles Agatha Christie 23. Stranger Karen David 24. No Fixed Address Susin Nielsen 25. Behind the Scenes at the Museum Kate Atkinson 26. The Skylark's War Hilary McKay 27. To Sir With Love ER Braithwaite 28. And Then There Were None Agatha Christie

Getting on a lot better than I expected to be.

Terpsichore · 05/06/2018 21:45

Feeling a bit twitchy that everyone's bringing their lists over, so here's mine:

  1. Van Gogh's Ear - Bernadette Murphy
  2. Sleeping in the Ground - Peter Robinson
  3. No Fond Return of Love - Barbara Pym
  4. What She Ate - Laura Shapiro
  5. The Home-Maker - Dorothy Canfield Fisher
  6. The Blackest Streets - Sarah Wise
  7. Searching for Caleb - Anne Tyler
  8. Two Kinds of Truth - Michael Connolly
  9. The Party - Elizabeth Day
10. Sunday Morning Coming Down - Nicci French 11. A Very English Scandal - John Preston 12. The Time Traveller's Guide to Restoration Britain - Ian Mortimer 13. Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day - Winifred Watson 14. What Dark Clouds Hide - Anne Holt 15. Into Thin Air - Jon Krakauer 16: A Life of my Own - Claire Tomalin 17: The Strange Last Voyage of Donald Crowhurst - Nicholas Tomalin & Ron Hall 18: A Life in the Day - Hunter Davies 19: Adult Onset - Ann-Marie MacDonald 20: Doctor's Children - Josephine Elder 21: A Life in Questions - Jeremy Paxman 22: An Academic Question - Barbara Pym 23: Still Waters - Viveca Sten 24: A Talent for Murder - Andrew Wilson 25: The Pedant in the Kitchen - Julian Barnes 26: Mother Country - Jeremy Harding 27: The Disappearance of Adèle Bedeau - Graeme Macrae Burnet 28: The Fact of a Body - Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich 29: Cherry: A Life of Apsley Cherry-Garrard - Sara Wheeler 30: Closed Circles - Viveca Sten 31: A Glass of Blessings - Barbara Pym 32: The Small Back Room - Nigel Balchin 33: All My Friends Are Going To Be Strangers - Larry McMurtry 34: Force of Nature - Jane Harper 35. Scissors, Paper, Stone - Elizabeth Day 36. The Story of Alice - Robert Douglas-Fairhurst 37. Jane and Prudence - Barbara Pym 38. Darkness Falls from the Air - Nigel Balchin 39: Serious Sweet - A. L. Kennedy

Highlights in bold. No real clunkers except for the A. L. Kennedy, and I feel bad calling it a clunker because it was good in parts Grin

Sadik · 05/06/2018 22:01
  1. Making Sense of the Troubles: A History of the Northern Ireland Conflict by David McKittrick & David McVea

Does what it says on the tin - clear, non-partisan history of the Troubles from partition through to 2012 when this version was published. I was born in 1969, & grew up with Northern Ireland a constant backdrop on the news (plus spent quite a bit of time in NI in the 1990s for work), so had a fair sense of the timeline, but this was a good read to put it all in context.

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