50 Book Challenge 2019 Part Seven

[southeastdweller]

Welcome to the seventh, and possibly final, 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, the fifth one here and the sixth one here.

How've you got on this year?

Interesting how many of us find our reading affected by outside events. I’ve read more this year to escape Twitter and the news, and find myself becoming more immersed in books than in the past. Probably because reality seems so grim!

I’m halfway through my first (and the first!) Jack Reacher book. What great escapism - I am loving it.

Meg, Moby Dick is a meandering delight. It’s fun - once I stopped fighting it, I loved it (not like Captain Ahab...).

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
84 Celestial Bodies by Jokha Alharthi
85 Give Me Your Hand by Megan Abbott
86 The Library Book by Susan Orlean
87 The War on Women by Sue Lloyd Roberts
88 In Order To Live by Yeonmi Park
89 The Cost of Living by Deborah Levy
90 Bad Blood by John Carreyrou
91 Lost Souls by Poppy Z Brite
92 In Your Prime by India Knight
93 Blood Orange by Harriet Tyce
94 The Soldier’s Art by Anthony Powell
95 Life Moves Pretty Fast by Hadley Freeman
96 Our Lady of the Nile by Scholastique Mukasonga
97 Aurora by Kim Stanley Robinson
98 Outer Order, Inner Calm by Gretchen Rubin
99 The World I Fell Out Of by Melanie Reid
100 Beloved by Toni Morrison
101 What’s Your Type? by Merve Emre
102 Fleishman is in Trouble by Taffy Brodesser-Akner
103 Another Day in the Death of America by Gary Younge
104 The Military Philosophers by Anthony Powell
105 If Beale Street Could Talk by James Baldwin
106 Liar's Poker by Michael Lewis
107 Girls of Riyadh by Rajaa Alsjanea

And the most recent ones...

108 The Wych Elm by Tana French
This was a better than average thriller. I’ve not read any Tana French before but would seek more out on the basis of this. It was overly long - an edit would have helped - but entertaining enough.

109 Books Do Furnish A Room by Anthony Powell
I absolutely loved this, the tenth in the Dance To The Music of Time book. The three wartime ones that preceded it were less engaging, but this was just wonderful. These books are funny, precisely observed and have a vast and entertainingly diverse cast. And so much Widmerpool in this one. These have been a terrific read and I will be sad to come to the end.

110 The Winter King by Thomas Penn
This account of the latter stages of the reign of Henry VII has sat on my shelf for years. I am trying hard to read some of the backlog while also not denying myself the fun of new purchases. I didn’t have high expectations of this and while it was undeniably dense and deeply researched it was a fascinating account of the start of the Tudor period. Reading how Henry tried to legitimise his reign and secure the dynasty through taxes and fear was a welcome diversion from current political events. And at least we don’t behead people any more. Admittedly a low bar, but you take what you can!

Pepe, I am a huge fan of Tana French's Dublin Murder Squad series, which I think are better overall than The Wych Elm (although I also really enjoyed that). They are best read in order as elements from previous books appear in later books in the series.

Also realised that I have missed out one of my books - 63 should be Miss Pym Disposes by Josephine Tey, and A Ladder to the Sky at 64...

Thanks southeast

1. The Rise & Fall of Adam and Eve, Stephen Greenblatt
2. King of the World, Celia Fremlin
3. Tombland, CJ Sansom
4. Bad Feminist, Roxanne Gay

5. The Long Shadow, Celia Fremlin

1. Jog on, Bella Mackie

7. The Bookshop at 10 Curzon Street: Letters between Nancy Mitford and Hayworld Hill

1. Viking Britain, Thomas Williams
2. Reading Allowed, Chris Paling

10. I'd Rather Be Reading, Anne Bogel 11. My Life with Bob, Pamela Paul 12. Wasted Calories & Ruined Nights, Jay Raynor 13. The Other Side of Silence, Philip Kerr 14. Love Story with Murders, Harry Bingham 15. The Cactus, Sarah Haywood 16. Lizzie Siddal, Lucinda Hawksley 17. The Whites, Harry Brandt 18. My European Family: The first 54,000 Years, by Karin Bojs 19. I'll be There for You, Kelsey Miller 20. Prisoner's Base, Celia Fremlin 21. March Violets, Philip Kerr 22. A German Requiem, Philip Kerr 23. The Unexpected Joy of Being Single, Catherine Barber 24. The British: A Genetic Journey, Alistair Moffat 25. This is What Happened, Mick Herron 26. The Trouble-Makers, Celia Fremlin 27. Primate Change, Vybarr Cregan-Reid 28. Lab Rats, Dan Lyons 29. Wish you were here: England on Sea, Travis Elborough 30. The Wych Elm, Tana French 31. The Stranger Diaries, Elly Griffiths 32. So me, Graham Norton 33. The Sixth Extinction, Elizabeth Kolbert 34. With Bold Knife and Fork, MFK Fisher 35. How to Behave Badly in Renaissance Britain, Ruth Goodman 36. Coming Clean, Kimberley Rae Miller 37. Eternal Boy: The life of Kenneth Grahame 38. About Time Too, Penelope Mortimer 39. Their Finest Hour and a Half, Lissa Evans 40. The Wandering Vine, Nina Caplan 41. The Coddling of the American Mind, Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt 42. The New Poverty, Stephen Armstrong 43. One Hot Summer: Dickens, Darwin, Disraeli and the Great Stink of 1858 44. Dreaming in Chinese, Deborah Fellows 45. A Walk Along the Wall, Hunter Davies 46. To Love and Be Wise, Josephine Tey 47. Clothes, clothes, clothes, music, music, music, boys, boys, boys, Viv Albertine 48. When in French: Love in a Second Language, Lauren Collins 49. The Pale Criminal, Philip Kerr 50. Old Baggage, Lissa Evans 51. The Bellweather Revivals, Benjamin Wood 52. The Gentle Art of Tramping, Stephen Graham 53. Civilisation, Kenneth Clark 54. Close to Home, Cara Hunter 55. A House of Ghosts, W C Ryan 56. Seven Signs of Life, Aoife Abbey 57. The Importance of Being Aisling, Emer McLysaght and Sarah Breen 58. A Sucky Love Story, Brittani Louise Taylor 59. In Search of England, by HV Morton 60 All the Single Ladies, Rebecca Taufner 61. Gene Eating Giles Yeo 62. The Temptation of Forgiveness, Donna Leon 63. Dawdling by the Danube, Eric Enfield 64. The Drop, Mick Herron 65. The Silence of the Girls, Pat Barker 66. Cracked: Why Psychiatry is doing more harm than good, James Davies 67. The House on Vesper Sands, Paraic O'Donnell 68. Lethal White, Robert Gilbraith 69. Worse Case Scenario, Helen Fitzgerald 70. A Cure for Heartache, Mary Jane Grant 71. Greenbanks, Dorothy Whipple 72. Travels with Epicurus, Daniel Klein 73. My Sister the Serial Killer, Oyinkan Braithwaite 74. Herring in the Smoke, LC Tyler 75. No Way Out, Cara Hunter 76. The Secret Garden: Oxford Revisited, Justin Cartwright 77. Waterlog, Roger Deakin 78. This Thing of Darkness, Harry Thompson 79. Hard Pushed: A Midwife's Story, Leah Hazard 80. Queenie, Candice Carty-Williams 81. In the Dark, Cara Hunter 82. Why Mummy Doesn't Give a Fxxx, Gill Sims 83. Home Grown: How Domestic Violence Turns Men into Terrorists Joan Smith 84. In the Days of Rain, Rebecca Stott 85. How to Treat People, Molly Case 86. Duty Free, Mani Mohsin 87. The October Man, Ben Aaronovitch 88. The Heartland: Finding & Losing Schizophrenia, Nathan Filer 89. The Stone Circle, Elly Griffiths 90. The Trauma Cleaner, Sarah Krasnostein 91. Smallbone Deceased, Michael Gilbert 92. Those People, Louise Candlish 93. Lost Dog, Kate Spicer 94. The Cost of Living Deborah Levy 95. Flash Count Diary, Darcey Steinke 96. The Hoarder, Jess Kidd 97. The Passage, Justin Cronin 98. Things in Jars, Jess Kidd 99. The Twelve, Justin Cronin 100. The To-do List & Other Debacles, Amy Jones 101. As Kingfishers Catch Fire: Books & Birds, Alex Preston & Neil Gower 102. London in Fragments: A Mudlark's Treasures, Ted Sandling 103. Joe Country, Mick Herron 104. On Chapel Sands, Laura Cumming 105. The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs, Steve Brusatte 106. The City of Mirrors, Justin Cronin 107. The Body Lies, Jo Baker 108. The Bad Mothers' Book Club, Keris Stanton 109. Behind the Chalet School, Helen McElland 110. Like a Tramp, Like a Pilgrim, Harry Bucknall 111. This is Shakespeare, Emma Smith 112. The Way, the Truth & the Dead, Francis Pryor 113. Seven Lean Years, Celia Fremlin 114. The Chalet School Revisited, Sheila Ray et al 115. Confessions of a Bookseller, Shaun Bythell 116. It's All in Your Head, Suzanne O'Sullivan 117. Fierce Bad Rabbits, Claire Pollard 118. Footnotes, Peter Fiennes 119. The Prison Doctor, Amanda Brown 120. The Dark Side of the Mind, Kerry Daynes 121. Fasting and Feasting: the Life of Visionary Food Writer, Patience Gray, Adam Federman 122. Meet me in the In-Between, Bella Pollen 123. The Warrior: A life of war in Anglo-Saxon Britain, Edoardo Albert and Paul Gething

Not a massively high strike rate for brilliant books. Starting to wonder why I even read this much...

Thanks for the new thread!

Quick update:
81) The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben. Interesting.

82. Erebus by Michael Palin. Also interesting. I'm not a major fan of non-fiction so these are both in progress.

83. Nine Perfect Strangers by Liane Moriarty
    Also in progress, I'll finish it now tonight, I'm close to the end. Nine people go to a health spa for different reasons. We learn their back stories and there's a twist to the health spa. I'm really enjoying this, it's unexpectedly insightful and funny. An easy read but intelligent I think.

84. Holy Island (DCI Ryan#1) by LJ Ross
    Murder mystery recommended on a different thread I think. It begins with the almost obligatory murder of a beautiful young woman. (I try to avoid books where women die violently to jump start the plot but what could I read in the detective genre otherwise? )
    The murder takes place on Lindisfarne and the Detective has a sorrowful past yet will pull himself together and track the killer. Despite the victim and cop both being cliches of the genre I really enjoyed this and have bought the next one in the series already

Shiny new thread Marking my place.

38. Curtain Call by Anthony Quinn 1930s set thriller following theatre critic Jimmy Erskine (based on a real writer from that era) and his rather bohemian set, as a killer is on the loose in London. The plot is tight and gripping, opening with a couple interrupting the killer's quest for another victim, and the menacing threat of another death is never far.

The characters are complex and believable and the writing is wry and witty. It's a contemporary novel but authentic enough to remind me of Patrick Hamilton, although a little lighter in tone. Loved it, and will definitely read more by this writer.

Thank you so much for the new thread Southeast, I'm going to try and stay on this one. Keep falling off the thread as this is my busiest time of year work-wise. A real pain.
Here is my updated list:

1. A Spell of Winter – Helen Dunmore
2. Timon of Athens – William Shakespeare
3. The Water Cure - Sophie Mackintosh
4. My Year of Rest and Relaxation – Otessa Moshfegh
5. The Sun and Her Flowers – Rupi Kaur
6. On the Black Hill – Bruce Chatwin
7. The Blackwater Lightship – Colm Toibin
8. Florida - Lauren Groff
9. A Death in the Family – Karl Ove Knausgaard
10. At Last – Edward St Aubyn
11. Less – Andrew Sean Greer
12. Tell the Wolves I’m Home – Carol Rifka Brunt
13. Tomorrow – Elizabeth Taylor
14. Ghost Wall – Sarah Moss
15. From the Land of the Moon – Milena Agus
16. The Nature of Winter – Jim Crumley
17. Insomniac City: New York, Oliver Sacks and Me – Bill Hayes
18. Bookworm – Lucy Mangan
19. Justine – Lawrence Durrell
20. Between the World and Me – Ta-Nehisi Coates
21. The Lucky Ones – Julia Pachico
22. Last Bus to Woodstock – Colin Dexter
23. Wolf Winter – Cecelia Ekback
24. From a Low and Quiet Sea – Donal Ryan
25. Visitation – Jenny Erpenbeck
26. Waiting for the Last Bus – Richard Holloway
27. An Isolated Incident – Emily Maguire
28. The Taming of the Shrew – William Shakespeare
29. Darling Days: A Memoir – io Tillett-Wright
30. Howl’s Moving Castle – Diana Wynne Jones
31. Friday Night Lights – H.G Bissinger
32. History of Wolves – Emily Fridland
33. Diary of a Bookseller – Shaun Bythell
34. Father and Son – Edmund Gosse
35. Fish Have No Feet – Jon Kalman Stefansson
36. Doctor Brodie’s Report – Jorge Luis Borges
37. Amy and Isabelle – Elizabeth Strout
38. As You Like It – William Shakespeare
39. The Grand Babylon Hotel – Arnold Bennett
40. Notes to Self – Emilie Pine
41. I Feel Bad About My Neck – Nora Ephron
42. Of Wolves and Men – Barry Lopez
43. Landfill – Tim Dee
44. The Laura’s – Sara Taylor
45. Putney – Sofka Zinovieff
46. Summer Before the Dark – Volker Weidermann
47. Coal Black Mornings – Brett Anderson
48. The Provoked Wife – John Vanbrugh
49. Constellations – Sinead Gleeson
50. A Stranger’s Pose – Emmanuel Iduma
51. Nora Webster – Colm Toibin
52. Sea Monsters – Chloe Aridjis
53. Leaving the Atocha Station – Ben Lerner
54. The Gate of Angels – Penelope Fitzgerald
55. Do No Harm – Henry Marsh
56. Venice Preserved – Thomas Otway
57. Forest Dark – Nicole Krauss
58. A Nurse’s Story – Christine Watson
59. Spring – Ali Smith
60. The Princess Saves Herself in This One – Amanda Lovelace
61. The Lady of the Camellias – Alexandre Dumas
62. Where the Crawdads Sing – Delia Owens
63. Lanny – Max Porter
64. My Sister the Serial Killer – Oyinkan Braithwaite
65. A Manual for Heartache – Cathy Retzenbrink
66. The Woman Who Waited – Andre Makine
67. In the Days of Rain – Rebecca Stott
68. Acceptance – Jeff Vandermeer
69. Turbulence – David Szalay
70. A Modern Family – Helga Flatland
71. Force of Nature – Jane Harper
72. Last Stories – William Trevor
73. Milkman – Anna Burns
74. Oleander, Jacaranda – Penelope Lively
75. Tokyo Ueno Station – Miri Yu
76. Asymmetry – Lisa Halliday
77. Cassandra at the Wedding – Dorothy Baker
78. Where You Once Belonged – Kent Haruf
79. The Savage Detectives – Roberto Bolano
80. Still Water: The Deep Life of the Pond – John Lewis Stempel
81. Measure for Measure – William Shakespeare
82. Confession With Blue Horses – Sophie Hardach
83. Ulverton – Adam Thorpe
84. Amateur – Thomas Page McBee
85. Mother Ship – Francesca Segal
86. Bird Therapy – Joe Harkness
87. The Lost Man – Jane Harper
88. The Pisces – Melissa Broder
89. Reasons to be Cheerful – Nina Stibbe
90. The Incendiaries – R. O. Kwon
91. Love in a Fallen City – Eileen Chang
92. Night Boat to Tangier – Kevin Barry
93. All the Lives We Never Lived – Anuradha Roy
94. The New Me – Halle Butler
95. The Man Who Saw Everything – Deborah Levy
96. French Exit – Patrick Dewitt
97. The White Hotel – D. M Thomas
98. The Thing in the Gap Stone Stile – Alice Oswald
99. Under Land – Robert Macfarlane
100. Everyone is Watching – Megan Bradbury
101. Slow Horses – Mick Heron
102. Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? – Jeanette Winterson

I should have put Underland in bold too! It was amazing.

Thanks for the new thread, South.

Here are my reads 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. 44. Natives: Race and Class in the Ruins of the Empire by Akala. 45. From a Low and Quiet Sea by Donal Ryan. 46. Death’s End (Bk 3 of The Three Body Project) by Cixin Liu. 47. Life After Life by Kate Atkinson. 48. The Overstory by Richard Powers. 49. Istanbul by Bettany Hughes. 50. A Month in the Country by J.L.Carr. 51. The Bear and the Nightingale (Bk 1) by Katherine Arden. 52. The Eye in the Door (Bk 2 of The Regeneration Trilogy) by Pat Barker. 53. Gilead by Marilynne Robinson. 54. The Female Persuasion by Meg Wolitzer. 55. The Girl in the Tower (Bk 2) by Katherine Arden.

And my latest:

56. The Poetry Pharmacy by William Sieghart.

A very nice anthology of poems that William Sieghart has put together to console the heart, mind and soul through difficult times. One page describes why the poem is helpful, a philosophical aside, and then the poem is on the other. Particularly good, I think, for a poetry beginner like myself.

Curtain Call is such fun. For me, none of his others have worked quite so well. Not awful, but not as clever or tight as CC.

My list so far:

1. I Invited Her In by Adele Parks
2. The Roanoke Girls by Amy Engel
3. Deceived Wisdom: Why What You Thought Was Right Is Wrong by David Bradley
4. Beswitched by Kate Saunders
5. To The Letter: A Celebration Of The Lost Art Of Letter Writing by Simon Garfield
6. The Seven Deaths Of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton
7. Never Mind The Quantocks by Stuart Maconie
8. My Name Is Anne, She Said, Anne Frank by Jacqueline van Maarsen
9. Borrowed Time by Robert Goddard

10. Elizabeth Jane Howard: A Dangerous Innocence by Artemis Cooper 11. Mr Wrong by Elizabeth Jane Howard 12. Snap by Belinda Bauer 13. The Day Of The Dead by Nicci French 14. Parting Shot by Linwood Barclay 15. The Librarian by Salley Vickers 16. Bookworm: A Memoir Of Childhood Reading by Lucy Mangan 17. Secrets by Jacqueline Wilson 18. In Miniature: How Small Things Illuminate The World by Simon Garfield 19. Take Me In by Sabine Durrant 20. The World Of Vanity Fair by Emma Marriott 21. Anne Boleyn: A King's Obsession by Alison Weir 22. Jane Seymour: The Haunted Queen by Alison Weir 23. How To Be A Heroine by Samantha Ellis 24. What Alice Knew by T A Cotterell 25. I'll Be There For You: The One About Friends by Kelsey Miller 26. Watching You by Lisa Jewell 27. Paperback Crush: The Totally Radical History Of 80s and 90s Teen Fiction by Gabrielle Moss 28. The Mitford Murders by Jessica Fellowes 29. Open Your Eyes by Paula Daly 30. Highland Fling by Nancy Mitford 31. Where'd You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple 32. What A Carve Up! by Jonathan Coe 33. Everything I Know About Love by Dolly Alderton 34. 84 Charing Cross Road/The Duchess Of Bloomsbury Street by Helene Hanff 35. Terms & Conditions: Life In Girls' Boarding Schools 1939-1979 by Ysenda Maxtone Graham 36. A Vicarage Family by Noel Streatfeild 37. Die Of Shame by Mark Billingham 38. The Nanny by Gilly Macmillan 39. The Explorer by Katherine Rundell 40. A Tale Of Two Cities by Charles Dickens 41. The Madwoman Upstairs by Catherine Lowell 42. The Lottery And Other Stories by Shirley Jackson 43. The Lost Man by Jane Harper 44. I Owe You One by Sophie Kinsella 45. The Stranger by Kate Riordan 46. Days Without Number by Robert Goddard 47. The Mennyms by Sylvia Waugh 48. The Genius Of Jane Austen: Her Love Of Theatre And Why She Is A Hit In Hollywood by Paula Byrne 49. I'm Fine And Neither Are You by Camille Pagan 50. The Perfect Child by Lucinda Berry 51. The Beautiful And Damned by F. Scott Fitzgerald 52. The Familiars by Stacey Halls 53. Why Mummy Drinks by Gill Sims 54. Transcription by Kate Atkinson 55 A Noise Downstairs Linwood Barclay 56 Sunburn Laura Lippman 57 Ghost Wall Sarah Moss 58 Toto: The Dog-Gone Amazing Story of The Wizard of Oz Michael Morpurgo 59 The Suspect Fiona Barton 60 Nine Perfect Strangers Liane Moriarty 61 The Perfect Girlfriend Karen Hamilton 62 Countries Of The World In Minutes Jacob F. Field 63 Behind the Throne: A Domestic History of the British Royal Household Adrian Tinniswood 64 The Flower Girls Alice Clark-Platts 65 It's All Relative: Adventures Up and Down The World's Family Tree A J Jacobs 66 Blacklands Belinda Bauer 67 Service With A Smile P G Wodehouse 68 A Pelican At Blandings P G Wodehouse 69 Cold Comfort Farm Stella Gibbons 70 Dark Fire C J Sansom 71 Return To The Secret Garden Holly Webb 72 No Way Out Cara Hunter 73 You Were Gone Tim Weaver 74 Sovereign C J Sansom 75 The Language Of Kindness: A Nurse's Story Christie Watson 76 How Not To Get Married: Confessions Of A Wedding Photographer George Mahood 77 Vanity Fair William Makepeace Thackeray 78 Started Early, Took My Dog Kate Atkinson 79 Hope For The Best Jodi Taylor 80 Tangerine Christine Mangan 81 Cider With Roxie: A Walk Around The Borders Of Somerset With A Longdog Paul Hending 82 The Confusion of Karen Carpenter Jonathan Harvey 83 Closer K L Slater 84 The Friend Teresa Driscoll 85 Wigs On The Green Nancy Mitford 86 The Clockmaker's Daughter Kate Morton 87 One False Move Robert Goddard 88 Rivals Jilly Cooper 89 The Real McCoy: And 149 Other Eponyms Claire Cock-Starkey 90 Amateurs In Eden: The Story Of A Bohemian Marriage, Nancy and Lawrence Durrell Joanna Hodgkin 91 Three Things You Need To Know About Rockets: A Real-Life Scottish Fairy Tale Jessica A Fox 92 A Book Of Book Lists: A Bibliophile's Compendium Alex Johnson 93 Stone Mothers Erin Kelly 94 East of Croydon: Blunderings through India and South East Asia Sue Perkins 95 Anna of Kleve: Queen of Secrets Alison Weir 96 The Other Wife Michael Robotham 97 The Chalk Pit Elly Griffiths 98 The Narnia Code: C S Lewis and the Secret of the Seven Heavens Michael Ward 99 It Shouldn't Happen To A Rep: The Hideous And Hilarious Tales of a Holiday Rep Cy Flood 100 One Red Paperclip Kyle Macdonald 101 The Exmoor Files: How I Lost A Husband and Found Rural Bliss Liz Jones 102 The Secret Lives Of Colour Kassia St Clair 103 The Strawberry Thief Joanne Harris 104 Murder Most Unladylike Robin Stevens 105 On Rereading Patricia Meyer Spacks 106 The Overdue Life Of Amy Byler Kelly Harms 107 Into The Blue Robert Goddard 108 Pigeon Pie Nancy Mitford 109 Finding Grace K L Slater 110 Valencia and Valentine Suzy Krause 111 Forget My Name J S Monroe 112 Around The World In 80 Novels Henry Russell 113 Ballet Shoes Noel Streatfeild 114 The Life-Changing Magic Of Numbers Bobby Seagull 115 Hard Pushed: A Midwife's Story Leah Hazard 116 Annelies David Gillham 117 Believe Me J P Delaney 118 Big Sky Kate Atkinson 119 The Bronte Cabinet: Three Lives In Nine Objects Deborah Lutz 120 Lowborn: Growing Up, Getting Away and Returning To Britain's Poorest Towns Kerry Hudson 121 The Prime Of Miss Jean Brodie Muriel Spark 122 Pie Fidelity: In Defence Of British Food Pete Brown 123 The Famous Five Complete Collection Enid Blyton 124 Sorry I'm Late: I Didn't Want To Come Jessica Pan 125 The Darksome Bounds Of A Failing World Gareth Russell 126 A Cornish Summer Catherine Alliott 127 Once Upon A River Diane Setterfield 128 At Home: A Short History of Private Life Bill Bryson 129 Playgroups and Prosecco: The (Mis)adventures Of A Single Mum Jo Middleton 130 The Binding Bridget Collins 131 The Pedant In The Kitchen Julian Barnes 132 Why Mummy Doesn't Give A F*@&! Gill Sims 133 The Flatshare Beth O'Leary 134 How To Be Right…In A World Gone Wrong James O'Brien 135 Wild And Crazy Guys: How The Comedy Mavericks Of The '80s Changed Hollywood Forever Nick de Semlyen 136 Impossible Things Before Breakfast: Adventures In The Ordinary Rebecca Front 137 The Daughter Michelle Frances 138 Those People Louise Candlish 139 Sleep C L Taylor 140 Work Like A Woman: A Manifesto For Change Mary Portas 141 Confessions Of A Barrister Russell Winnock 142 Fierce Bad Rabbits: The Tales Behind Children's Picture Books Clare Pollard 143 Close To The Edge Toby Faber 144 Doctor Who Psychology: A Madman With A Box Travis Langley 145 Big Little Lies Liane Moriarty 146 Rules Jenny Colgan 147 Alone Time: Four Seasons, Four Cities, and the Pleasures of Solitude Stephanie Rosenbloom 148 I Looked Away Jane Corry 149 Curious: True Stories And Loose Connections Rebecca Front 150 The Bookish Life Of Nina Hill Abbi Waxman 151 Chocolat Joanne Harris 152 The Lollipop Shoes Joanne Harris 153 Humble Pi: A Comedy Of Maths Errors Matt Parker 154 Peaches for Monsieur le Cure Joanne Harris 155 Perigord Summer Julianna Simor Lees 156 A Girl Called Justice Elly Griffiths 157 Blackberry Wine Joanne Harris 158 Brazzaville Beach William Boyd 159 Good Me, Bad Me Ali Land 160 The Cactus Sarah Haywood 161 1411 QI Facts To Knock You Sideways John Lloyd 162 The Stranger Diaries Elly Griffiths 163 Everything But The Truth Gillian McAllister 164 Rock Needs River: A Memoir Of A Very Open Adoption Vanessa McGrady 165 Take No Farewell Robert Goddard 166 Holy Fools Joanne Harris 167 Date Night Samantha Hayes 168 After The End Clare Mackintosh 169 The Last Hanna Jameson 170 Everything You Know About London Is Wrong Matt Brown 171 The Girl In The Letter Emily Gunnis 172 The Storied Life Of A J Fikry Gabrielle Zevin 173 The Secrets She Keeps Michael Robotham 174 Arsenic For Tea Robin Stevens 175 Friends Like These Sarah Alderson 176 Invisible Women: Data Bias In A World Designed For Men Caroline Criado-Perez 177 Adventures of the Yorkshire Shepherdess Amanda Owen 178 Cabin Fever: The Sizzling Secrets of a Virgin Air Hostess Mandy Smith 179 No Time To Wave Goodbye Jacqueline Mitchard 180 The Family Upstairs Lisa Jewell 181 The Testaments Margaret Atwood 182 The Secret Rooms: A Castle Filled With Intrigue, A Plotting Duchess and a Mysterious Death Catherine Bailey 183 Lie With Me Sabine Durrant 184 Becoming Michelle Obama 185 Good Girl, Bad Girl Michael Robotham 186 The Good Thief's Guide To Amsterdam Chris Ewan 187 Literary Britain and Ireland Jane Struthers 188 Cocktails For Three Madeleine Wickham 189 Departures: A Guide To Letting Go, One Adventure At A Time Anna Hart 190 Sleeping Arrangements Madeleine Wickham 191 Liz Jones's Diary Liz Jones 192 55 James Delargy 193 I Carried A Watermelon: Dirty Dancing And Me Katy Brand 194 Recursion Blake Crouch 195 First Class Murder Robin Stevens 196 The Evidence Against You Gillian McAllister 197. The Missing Ingredient: The Curious Role Of Time In Food And Flavour by Jenny Linford 198. Bone China by Laura Purcell 199. The Lying Room by Nicci French 200. My Salinger Year by Joanna Rakoff 201. Elevator Pitch by Linwood Barclay 202. Blink by K L Slater

sorry about the formatting!

34. Riceyman Steps - Arnold Bennett

This was a really fun, atmospheric read - published in 1923 and set in Clerkenwell just after WW2, it concerns the parsimonious bookseller Henry Earlforward, his courtship of the widow who owns the confectioner's opposite, and their practical and kind-hearted servant Elsie who's dealing with a heartache of her own. It's light and funny but also perceptive and beautifully evocative of a time and place of working-class London.

Now on to Moby-Dick - I may be some time...

That sounds good, Meg. I've never tried any Arnold Bennett but that makes me want to give it a go.

In fact, at 49p on Kindle, I'll take a punt on Riceyman Steps.

Ooh, I love Arnold Bennett. In pre-Kindle days I once had to sit in the toilet block whilst on a camping holiday to have enough light to finish The Old Wives Tale late one night, which is a wonderful book. I also enjoyed Anna of the Five Towns. I read Riceyman Steps a few years ago and really enjoyed it. Very atmospheric.

Love the toilet block anecdote (not a phrase I expected to write today). A couple of those are in my library, so I may have to toddle over late on.

I’ve gone for it too - every time I hear Arnold Bennett though I think it’s a cocktail

Kindle has revolutionised camping holidays.

95. Blood of Dragons by Robin Hobb

Final book in The Rain Wild Chronicles. I loved this, Robin Hobb is one of my favourite authors.

I've also bought the Richeyman Steps. I like a bit of Arnold Bennett.

Did you know Arnold Bennett has an omelette named after him?

Chessie - the omelette is the only thing I know about him. I didn't even know that he was a writer! I think I read a recipe for it in an ancient book years ago (it might have been one about cooking in a bedsitter) and have never forgotten it, because it seemed such a very strange name for beaten and fried eggs!

I guess that’s why I thought it was a cocktail but that’s an Arnold Palmer, the Arnold Bennett is what you have the next day after a few Arnold Palmers.