50 Book Challenge 2019 Part Six

[southeastdweller]

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

The challenge is to read fifty books (or more!) in 2019, 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.

Sorry, splother, that's really tough to deal with.

Not writing out full list as it's all carefully penned in a notebook, but I can report I've just started book 87. The Heartland, by Nathan Filer

I've only just started, but so far it''s excellent. The author trained as a mental health nurse and wrote a novel, The Shock of the Fall, which I didn't read but I know was hugely well-received. Here he revisits the topic of schizophrenia from a non-fiction perspective. He's knowledgeable and hugely empathetic - he really captures what it's like to quite genuinely believe that everyone wants to kill you or lock you up for your crimes.

My list:

1. One Hot Summer : Dickens, Darwin, Disraeli and the Great Stink of 1858 – Rosemary Ashton
2. The Shadow of the Wind – Carlos Ruiz Zafon
3. Making Kids Cleverer- David Didau
4. Becoming – Michelle Obama
5. The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle – Stuart Turton
6. The Beat of the Pendulum – Catherine Chidgey
7. A Suitable Boy – Vikram Seth
8. The Observations – Jane Harris
9. Mad Blood Stirring – Simon Mayo
10. The Cone Gatherers – Robin Jenkins
11. The Beauty of the Wolf – Wray Delaney
12. Whistle In The Dark – Emma Healey
13. Open- Andre Agassi
14. The Goldfinch – Donna Tartt
15. Heroes – Stephen Fry
16. Transcription – Kate Atkinson
17. Made in Scotland – Billy Connolly
18. The Cut Out Girl – Bart Van Es
19. The ABC Murders – Agatha Christie
20. The Chalk Man – CJ Tudor
21. Home Fire- Kamila Shamsie
22. Boys Don’t Try – Matt Pinkett and Mark Roberts
23. The Language of Kindness- Christie Watson
24. Dear Mrs Bird – AJ Pearce
25. The Lubetkin Legacy – Marina Lewycka
26. Dissolution – C.J. Sansom
27. The Confessions of Frannie Langton – Sara Collins
28. Five Little Pigs – Agatha Christie
29. Exam Literacy – Jake Hunton
30. The Western Wind- Samantha Harvey
31. Simplicity Rules – Jo Facer
32. The Suffragettes In Pictures – Diane Atkinson
33. The Thirty Nine Steps – John Buchan
34. The Familiars – Stacey Halls
35. Names For The Sea – Sarah Moss
36. Rosenshine’s Principles In Action – Tom Sherrington
37. Death On The Nile – Agatha Christie
38. How To teach English Literature : Overcoming Cultural Poverty – Jennifer Webb
39. Another day In The Death of America – Gary Younge
40. My Cousin Rachel - Daphne Du Maurier
41. Submarine – Joe Dunthorne
42. Silas Marner – George Eliot
43. Bloody Brilliant Women – Cathy Newman
44. Convenience Store Woman – Sayaka Murata
45. Ayoade on Ayoade – Richard Ayoade
46. Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit – Jeanette Winterson
47. Warlight – Michael Ondaatje
48. Big Sky – Kate Atkinson
49. Alias Grace – Margaret Atwood
50. I Am I Am I Am – Maggie O’Farrell
51. Shakespeare Saved My Life – Laura Bates
52. The Doll Factory – Elizabeth Macneal
53. The Silence of the Girls – Pat Barker
54. The Taking of Annie Thorne – CJ Tudor

Not many truly amazing books in there.

Just finished CJ Tudor's latest. She has disguised her gender in her name but has a photo of herself on the back cover. She does always uses male protagonists , though, and they have been very similar on both books. She has also never clearly been a teacher as her depiction of teaching and schools is probably 20 years out of date! However, at least she has dropped her Converse obsession, only mentioning them once.

This book is better than Chalk Man. Still needed good editing ; I was sometimes confused by discontinuities and characters' plotlines, motivations and voices. The ending is silly but that's to be expected. Wasn't sure about whether stuff was supernatural or not.

The actual title is a bit misleading but I think that might be the sort of title that sells a book perhaps.

Scribbly - I'll be interested to hear what you think of Cavalier and Clay. I found it a hard one to review and remain very much in two minds about it.

palegreenstars - I think you'll find that's navel-gazing unless you are fortunate enough to be an a ship with some refreshing sea air - yes pendants' corner is back (with acknowledgement to Sean Keaveney on Radio 6. have not started on E Taylor yet. Needed some light relief so re-read V wood books of scripts and am about to re-start Lucky Jim which I have read about 50 times on a loop. think you have to accept Agatha as someone writing in her time as you do with Philip Larkin et al. I think his girlfriend was worse though. I heard a recording of them laughing at racist jokes on some programme years ago. Don't read a little life or all my puny sorrows - too depressing. and there is something off I think about Australian Helen Fitzgerald who reminds me of Lionel Shriver. Laptop too hot now. am off for a paper book.

31. Worse case scenario by Helen Fitzgerald
I agree there are similarities between this author and Lionel Shriver and I enjoy both. This is about a probation officers last case with a man who appeals to the MRA and murdered his wife. Dark and entertaining.

32. The stranger diaries by Elly Griffiths
A murder investigation told from the perspective of the victim's colleague, her daughter and the detective interspersed with a creepy story. Set in an old school and about the English department. Loved this so much.

33. The easternmost house by Juliet Blaxland
A year in the life of a woman living in a house at risk from coastal erosion in Suffolk. Really beautiful nature writing and very informative about the area. A really relaxing read that I would definitely recommend.

@Pencilmuseum damn it. That’ll teach me to type and sweat at the same time.

I started late to the group so not clocked up quite as many as others but pretty pleased with what I’ve read in the last 7 or so weeks. It has been a brilliant distraction brexit, Boris et al.

Since my last update:
7. Milkman - Anna Burns
Was disappointed that I just didn’t get into this at all despite so many rave reviews from friends and family

8. My sister the serial Killer - Oyinkan Braithwaite
Quick and easy read, good page turned. I enjoyed it and read it very quickly

9. We need to talk about Putin - Mark Galleoti
Interesting, very short book on how we basically give Putin too much credit.

10. Moneyland - Oliver Bullough
I read this jaw to the floor. I knew the world was corrupt but given me a lot of food for thought.

11. An American Marriage - Tayari Jones
Quite enjoyed this but didn’t find it particularly compelling like a lot of other people did. The doll thing just didn’t work for me.

Currently reading Everything Under by Daisy Johnson and loving it!

Thanks for the new thread! Will try and bring my list over when I get chance to login from a proper computer rather than my phone.

131. Why Mummy Doesn’t Give A F&@£ by Gill Sims

Latest in the Why Mummy Drinks series. The children are now hideous teenagers. I liked this but it is just more of the same as the previous two so if you didn’t like those you won’t like this!

132. The Pedant In The Kitchen by Julian Barnes

A collection of short essays/articles about cooking and cookbooks. I did like this but I’m not familiar with most of the cookbooks he mentions so couldn’t really relate to some of it.

Thanks for the new thread, South.

😂 TurnoftheScrew, there is a lot to watch in 1 month, I can imagine that reading would take a back seat!

Cote, I read all the Hyperion books in my 20’s. I remember thinking they were very good at the time (although some better than others) and have them vaguely on my mind for a re-read. So many books on the tbr list though.. 📚📚📚

My books so far:

1. One Good Turn by Kate Atkinson.
2. Cassandra at the Wedding by Dorothy Baker.
3. The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton.

4. No.More.Plastic.What you can do to make a difference. By Martin Dorey.

1. Once upon a time in the East: A story of growing up by Xiaolu Guo.

6. Milkman by Anna Burns.

1. When will there be Good News? by Kate Atkinson.

8. The Better Angels of our Nature by Steven Pinker.

1. Fated by Benedict Jacka.

10. Silence by Shudaku Endo. 11. Sight by Jessie Greengrass. 12. The Wood: The Life and Times of Cockshutt Wood by John Lewis Stemple. 13. The Road to Wigan Pier by George Orwell. 14. Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut. 15. The Moon’s a Balloon by David Niven. 16. Started Early, Took My Dog by Kate Atkinson. 17. Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders. 18. Professor Andersen’s Night by Dag Solstad. 19. The Dark Day’s Club by Alison Goodman. 20. The Dark Day’s Pact by Alison Goodman. 21. Conversations with Friends by Sally Rooney. 22. City of the Lost by Kelley Armstrong. 23. Sincerity by Carol Ann Duffy. 24. The Shortest History of Germany by James Hawes. 25. Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy. 26. Tenth of December by George Saunders. 27. The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller. 28. The Fifth Risk by Michael Lewis. 29. The Return of the Soldier by Rebecca West. 30. Quiet: The Power of Introverts by Susan Cain. 31. The Seven Sisters by Margaret Drabble. 32. Regeneration by Pat Barker. 33. Educated by Tara Westover. 34. Destroying a Nation: The Civil War in Syria by Nikolaos Van Dam. 35. Cursed (An Alex Versus novel) by Benedict Jacka. 36. The Legacy of the Bones (Bk2 of The Baztan Trilogy) by Dolores Redondo. 37. My Sister, The Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite. 38. Wolf Hollow by Lauren Wolk. 39. Vanity Fair by William Thackeray Makepiece. 40. This Thing of Darkness by Harry Thompson. 41. Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik. 42. Undying: A Love Story by Michel Faber. 43. Holes by Louis Sachar.

I’ve read more this year so far but think I’ll probably still end with a similar total as my reading rate usually slows down during the second half of the year.

Currently reading Akala’s non-fiction about race in Britain and listening to Life after Life by Kate Atkinson. Both very good so far.

Thank you for the new thread Southeast

Splother dementia is the absolute worst.

Just got back from another yomp around the Lake District and didn't manage a single page while I was away. I've got 5 things on the go (by accident) and I can't settle with any of them. I don't feel like I've had an outstanding read for ages, despite having some good ones. I've just done a tally on the list and interested to see that I am roughly 50/50 between print and audio which will explain the significantly higher total this year. I've gone audiobook crazy.

1. The Odyssey - Homer (trans. - Emily Wilson)
2. Bookworm: A Memoir of Childhood Reading - Lucy Mangan
3. The Song of Achilles - Madeline Miller
4. Eleanor of Aquitaine: - the Wrath of God, Queen of England - Alison Weir
5. Picnic at Hanging Rock - Joan Lindsay
6. Too Much Happiness - Alice Munro
7. The Last Hours - Minette Walters
8. Conversations with Friends - Sally Rooney
9. The Woman in Cabin 10 - Ruth Ware

10. A Killer of Pilgrims - Susanna Gregory 11. Beloved - Toni Morrison 12. Lullaby - Leila Slimani 13. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll 14. A Dog’s Purpose - W. Bruce Cameron 15. Commonwealth - Ann Patchett 16. Frenchman’s Creek - Daphne du Maurier 17. Mutiny on the Bounty - John Boyne 18. The Secret History - Donna Tartt 19. Lamentation - CJ Sansom 20. Mystery in the Minster - Susanna Gregory 21. Witches Abroad – Terry Pratchett 22. Wolf Hall – Hilary Mantel 23. The Secret Adversary – Agatha Christie 24. Planet of the Apes – Pierre Boulle 25. Circe – Madeline Miller 26. Atonement – Ian McEwan 27. Partners in Crime – Agatha Christie 28. The Good People – Hannah Kent 29. The Salt Path – Raynor Winn 30. Murder by the Book – Susanna Gregory 31. Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte 32. Wide Sargasso Sea – Jean Rhys 33. Reaper Man – Terry Pratchett 34. Reader I Married Him – Tracy Chevalier 35. From Doon with Death (Insp Wexford #1) – Ruth Rendell 36. Shadow of Night – Deborah Harkness 37. The Last Detective (Peter Diamond #1) - Peter Lovesey 38. The Lost Words by Robert Macfarlane 39. The Book of Life – Deborah Harkness 40. The Lost Abbott – Susanna Gregory 41. Displaced - Malala Yousafsai & Liz Welch 42. Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine - Gail Honeyman 43. A Place of Greater Safety – Hilary Mantel 44. House of Names – Colm Tóibín 45. Autumn – Ali Smith 46. Fruit of the Drunken Tree - Ingrid Rojas Contreras 47. The River – Peter Heller 48. Birdcage Walk - Helen Dunmore 49. Danny the Champion of the World – Roald Dahl 50. Madame Bovary – Gustave Flaubert 51. Death of a Scholar (Matthew Bartholomew #20) – Susanna Gregory 52. The Silence of the Girls – Pat Barker 53. A Question of Upbringing – Anthony Powell 54. The Turn of Midnight – Minette Walters 55. A Buyer’s Market – Anthony Powell 56. The Acceptance World – Anthony Powell 57. At Lady Molly’s – Anthony Powell 58. My Name is Lucy Barton - Elizabeth Strout 59. Casanova’s Chinese Restaurant – Anthony Powell 60. One Hundred Years of Solitude – Gabriel García Márquez 61. Becoming – Michelle Obama 62. The Kindly Ones – Anthony Powell 63. A Poisonous Plot (Matthew Bartholomew #21) – Susanna Gregory 64. Invisible Women – Caroline Criado Pérez 65. Diary of a Provincial Lady – E.M.Delafield 66. Five Children on the Western Front – Kate Saunders 67. The Valley of Bones – Anthony Powell 68. A Column of Fire – Ken Follett 69. Convenience Store Woman – Sayaka Murata 70. The Moonstone – Wilkie Collins 71. Cartwheel – Jennifer duBois 72. State of Wonder – Ann Patchett 73. The Soldier’s Art – Anthony Powell 74. A Grave Concern – Susanna Gregory 75. The Military Philosophers – Anthony Powell 76. The Book of Lost Things – John Connolly 77. H is for Hawk – Helen Macdonald 78. Bitter Orange – Claire Fuller 79. The Female Persuasion – Meg Wolitzer 80. Bel Canto – Ann Patchett 81. Tangerine – Christine Mangan 82. Strangers on a Train – Patricia Highsmith

Fortuna, please could you remind me what you didn't like about Picnic at Hanging Rock? I was planning to listen to it soon (I've also gone audiobook crazy!).

FranKatzenjammer The ending was none existent, there wasn't really any conclusion or wrap up to the mystery leaving me wondering what the whole point of the book was. However, the quality of the writing itself was actually quite good.

Hello everyone, and thanks for the new thread. This thread is such a welcome escape from the world - so much of what I've read this year has come from here and it means I have so many books on the TBR list that I am reading faster to get to them.

1 Severance by Ling Ma
2 China Rich Girlfriend by Kevin Kwan
3 Conundrum by Jan Morris
4 I'll Be There For You by Kelsey Miller
5 A Short History of England by Simon Jenkins
6 The Penguin Lessons by Tom Michell
7 Lethal White by Robert Galbraith
8 To Throw Away Unopened by Viv Albertine
9 The Child That Books Built by Francis Spufford
10 Get Out Of My Life But First Take Me And Alex Into Town by Tony Wolf and Suzanne Franks
11 The SCUM Manifesto by Valerie Solanas
12 The Chalk Man by CJ Tudor
13 I Find That Offensive by Claire Fox
14 My Life with Bob by Pamela Paul
15 Becoming by Michelle Obama
16 Rich People Problems by Kevin Kwan
17 Fifty Things That Made The Modern Economy by Tim Harford
18 The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu
19 The Wife by Meg Wolitzer
20 The Growing Summer by Noel Streatfield
21 Ex Libris by Anne Fadiman
22 Middle England by Jonathan Coe
23 Harriet by Jilly Cooper
24 Under the Glacier by Haldor Laxness
25 A Question of Upbringing by Anthony Powell
26 A Buyer's Market by Anthony Powell
27 The Bible For Grownups by Simon Loveday
28 Neuromancer by William Gibson
29 The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker
30 The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion
31 The Door by Magda Szabó
32 Brief Answers to the Big Questions by Stephen Hawking
33 L’Assomoir by Emile Zola
34 If On A Winter’s Night A Traveller by Italo Calvino
35 The Heart's Invisible Furies by John Boyne
36 The Lover’s Dictionary by David Levithan
37 Rum Punch by Elmore Leonard
38 Five Giants by Nicholas Timmins
39 The Genius in my Basement by Alexander Masters
40 Another Planet by Tracey Thorn
41 The Acceptance World by Anthony Powell
42 How to be Right by James O'Brian
43 Fall Out by Tim Shipman
44 Ordinary People by Diana Evans
45 NOS4A2 by Joe Hill
46 At Lady Molly's by Anthony Powell
47 They Were Sisters by Dorothy Whipple
48 The Cut Out Girl by Bart van Es
49 Inventing Ourselves by Sarah-Jayne Blakemore
50 Everything I Know About Love by Dolly Alderton
51 Unnatural Causes by Richard Shepherd
52 Moby Dick by Herman Melville
53 Please Look After Mother by Kyung-Sook Shin
54 The Henchmen of Zenda by KJ Charles
55 Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace
56 An American Marriage by Tayari Jones
57 See A Little Light by Bob Mould
58 The Moon's A Balloon by David Niven
59 Casanova's Chinese Restaurant by Anthony Powell
60 The Salt Path by Raynor Winn
61 Hired by James Bloodworth
62 The Diving Pool by Yokō Ogawa
63 Chernobyl by Serhii Plokhy
64 The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole by Sue Townsend
65 The Kindly Ones by Anthony Powell
66 Woman: An Intimate Geography by Natalie Angier
67 The Character of Physical Law by Richard Feynman
68 Social Creature by Tara Isabella Burton
69 The Hot Zone by Richard Preston
70 Zazie in the Metro by Raymond Queneau
71 The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett
72 Evening in the Palace of Reason by James Gaines
73 The Big Necessity by Rose George
74 Against Nature by J-K Huysmans
75 American Prison by Shane Bauer
76 Alexander McQueen: Blood Beneath the Skin by Andrew Wilson
77 The Valley of Bones by Anthony Powell
78 The Antidote by Oliver Burkeman
79 Dear Ijeawale by Chimamanda Ngozie Adichie
80 The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey
81 Exercises in Style by Raymond Queneau
82 My Sister The Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite
83 Let The Right One In by John Lindqvist

And my most recent one...

84 Celestial Bodies by Jokha Alharthi
My sister's choice for July's book in translation. It's an Omani novel about an extended family living through the massive changes in Omani society over several decades. Oman's a beautiful and fascinating place and has undergone the most extraordinary changes - in 1970, it had a two electricity generators, two hospitals, three private schools, and six miles of paved roads, and slavery was legal. I thought this story, which is understated and elegant, was wonderful. I would have liked more about the three sisters at the centre of the novel but that is a small complaint.

@toomuchsplother

So very sorry you are going through the whole dementia hell. Massive sympathy.

The only book I ever read that made some sense of the whole disaster was 'Keeper' by Andrea Gillies.

And I read it some 8+ years after my mother had died.

It helped me hugely & I wish I had read it earlier.

Thank you southeast for the new thread.

to you Splother

Kavalier and Clay is one of my favourite books ever... But I do wonder how it would stand up to a re-read. I've read a couple of other Chabons in recent years and found them irritatingly masculine. I think I would still love K&C though, just for the beauty of its ideas.

I've got a feeling that Kavalier and Clay might be one of those books that I should be reading rather than listening to. It's one of those books where you sense that the writing is excellent and the themes and characters are complex and intelligently drawn but it’s all just rattling along at such a speed the best that I can do is hope to keep up with the plot. Like going to view the Bayeux tapestry in a pair of Heelies.

ShakeIt - I remember very much loving Hyperion Cantos #1& 2, but being at #3 & 4 but I think I'll read them all some time soon to see if my assessment has changed. Still, the idea is brilliant and the worldbuilding head and shoulders above 90% of all SF out there.

29. Past Tense (Jack Reacher #23) by Lee Child

I enjoyed this a lot more than I thought I would. It is a pretty good thriller, a lot better than many of the more recent Jack Reacher books, some of which were just stupid.

In this one, Reacher stops by his father's home town and stumbles across a modern day horror plot while retracing his family's history.

Recommended to those interested in a bit of 'dick-lit' as their beach read.

Just finished Michael Palin's Erebus recommended by many on this thread. It is an absorbing read and Palin takes you along with him. It is less maritime in its language than I thought it would be. I do wish he had spent some time for his lay reader explaining the latitude longitude readings as I had to keep trying to work it all out! As I explained on a prior thread part of my desire to read this was based on the presence of a Crozier in the book. Typically hardy and stubborn and destined never to be a leader . Yup. Sigh.

Off on hols on Monday so will take a couple of potboilers with me and endeavour to read my July Bleak House chaps tomorrow!

Yes, Cote, that definitely rings a bell. The series started off so well, then it all went a bit ..

As usual, I've had several books on the go- these are my latest ones:

127. Mythos- Stephen Fry These stories are beautifully told by the lovely Stephen Fry, with plenty of humour. I didn’t know very much about Greek mythology beforehand: there are so many different characters and legends that I tended just to read a couple of stories each day, to avoid information overload. Therefore, it took me a while to get through, but it was very enjoyable.

128. The Little Coffee Shop of Kabul- Deborah Rodriguez This is the sixth book set in Afghanistan that I’ve read this year. It’s not up to the standard of The Kite Runner et al, but there is plenty of local colour and I did eventually care about (some of) the characters by the end. Has anyone read the sequel: is it worth bothering with?

129. Short Stories in German for Beginners- Olly Richards and Alex Rawlings I got this for 99p on the Kindle last month and it has proved an excellent purchase. The stories are written in a variety of genres and are great fun: I learnt plenty of new vocabulary about pirates, Vikings, magic, spaceships etc. The standard is intermediate rather than beginner and by the end I felt that my German had really improved. The book is also available in other languages (which I won’t be attempting to read!).

16. Artemis by Andy Weir I young woman living in the only city on the moon makes a whole lot of bad decisions and ends up with the Brazilian mob trying to kill her. I really liked the Martian by Andy Weir but this one was just a bit disappointing. The main character felt rather one dimensional to me and the whole thing seemed a bit of a mess with a lot of people doing slightly inexplicable things just to keep the plot going. There was some fun science though and a lot of practicalities of everyday life in a moon colony that were well done. Basically good worldbuilding, crappy characters.

Thank you, SouthEast , and another great job from you.

I have been a bit preoccupied this year and haven’t been counting my books but will try and do so this week. I think it’s around 50 so far.

Lily Allen - My thoughts exactly. I wasn’t exactly sure what my thoughts were on this tbh. She is astonishingly frank but there is a lot of ‘poor me’ . I’m not really familiar with her songs - I know a handful - I think The Fear is very clever and I’m always pleased when it comes on the radio. I felt very sorry for her in some ways - she clearly was badly let down by her parents, especially her father but her experiences are a million miles away from mine. Not sure I liked her much but she wouldn’t care.

The Break - Marian Keyes OTOH, thoroughly enjoying this, sharp, funny and warm.

Splother apologies, I missed your update. DSIL and a close friend are dealing with this at the moment. Unbelievably hard.

1. Dark Tower IV : Wizard and Glass – Stephen King
2.Normal People – Sally Rooney
3. The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle – Stuart Turton
4.Mornings in Jenin – Susan Abulhawa
5.Convenience Store Woman – Sayaka Murata
6.Behind Closed Doors – B.A. Paris
7.Elizabeth is Missing – Emma Healey
8. Commonwealth – Ann Patchett
9. A Gentleman in Moscow – Amor Towles
10. The Wife – Meg Wolitzer
11.Guns Germs and Steel – Jared Diamond
12.Homegoing – Yaa Gyasi
13.Dark Tower V: Wolves of the Calla – Stephen King
14. Reservoir 13 – Jon McGregor
15.Love Your Enemies – Nicola Barker
16.Crazy Rich Asians – Kevin Kwan
17.The Hunting Party – Lucy Foley
18.After the Crash – Michel Bussi
19. The Sympathizer – Viet Thanh Ngyuyen
20.Stuart: a life backwards – Alexander Masters
21.Misogynies – Joan Smith
22.The Song of Achilles – Madeline Miller
23. The Rotters’ Club– Jonathan Coe
24.The Closed Circle – Jonathan Coe
25.Middle England – Jonathan Coe
26.Cold Comfort Farm – Stella Gibbons
27.When God was a Rabbit – Sarah Winman
28. Our House – Louise Candlish
29. Bel Canto – Ann Patchett
30.The Darkness – Ragnar Jonasson
31.Educated – Tara Westover
32. The Wych Elm – Tana French
33.If Beale Street Could Talk – James Baldwin
34. Their Eyes Were Watching God – Zora Neale Hurston
35.The Door – Magda Szabo
36.The Comforts of Home – Susan Hill
37. Loitering With Intent – Muriel Spark
38. The Things They Carried - Tim O'Brien
39. The Reservoir Tapes - Jon McGregor
40. The Shepherd's Life - James Rebanks
41. To Love and Be Wise- Josephine Try
42. Grief is the Thing With Feathers - Max Porter
43. The Green Road - Anna Enright
44. The Female Persuasion - Meg Wolitzer
45. Woman on the Edge of Time - Marge Piercy**
46. Home Fire - Kamila Shamsie
47. The Book Thief - Markus Zusak

Bringing my list over- standouts in bold, stinkers with two asterisks. I've only had one so far...

And updating with my latest:

48. The Knife - Jo Nesbo

Breaking my "read in order of purchase" rule for the 12th Harry Hole. Objectively this is a mess - too many plotlines, several very large doses of implausibility, massive plot holes, dubious motivations and a jumping around timeline that had me completely confused at several points. But such is my love for Harry that I didn't really care. If you're already a fan, strap in and enjoy the ride. If you're not, you definitely need to start from the beginning!

Splother, sorry to read about your troubles. Hope the reading and blogging is providing some respite.