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?

I think I may squeeze in my 91st before 2020 as I am half way through Washington Black and racing along. It's ages since I devoured a book lie this, but that may partly be my urge to get it done for Hogmanay!

I'll put my list on when I have done that but it is very dominated by female writers!

135 Pretty Iconic by Sali Hughes

Short essays by beauty writer Sali Hughes on cult beauty products. I like Sali Hughes and her writing and this was fun and easy to read. It reminded me of some real gems from my past (Tinkerbell makeup, which aged 7 was the best birthday present ever, and Hard Candy nail varnish which was a huge treat when I was a student). I appreciated the fact she included low budget items and that it wasn’t all products she loves personally - she is quite honest about things she isn’t a massive fan of but which have a following nonetheless.

That’s going to be it for this year as I’m immersed in Ducks, Newburyport and there is no way that will be done any time soon. And then there is my ongoing battle with Ulysses which I was doing well with but then ran out of steam, so I may come back for motivation on that in January. 2019 list to follow when I’ve crunched the numbers!

Condolences to both Sadik and Waawo.

68. Hearing Secret Harmonies - Anthony Powell - the final instalment of A Dance to the Music of Time. A farewell to the series. Nick fared better than Widmerpool and the focus is shifting to the next generation. Very satisfying!

I had hoped to get to 70 books by the end of the year but that seems unlikely as I have a couple of busy days ahead. Now reading Northern Lights ahead of watching His Dark Materials which I have recorded - although slightly annoyed to discover that the TV series covers all three books not just the first one - is that correct?

I have the first Cazalet book on my kindle TBR so interesting to see how divisive it has been!

That is correct. My memory of the books is not quite as encyclopaedic/pedantic as some people on the MN thread about the adaptation though so I did not find anything annoying/confusing/wrong.
In fact the only thing I remembered from any of the books was the polar bear.

Although there are still two days of reading left in 2019, my current book is quite long so I am going to count it as, in all likelihood, my last complete read of the decade.

My list is below with highlights in bold (some of the non-highlighted ones were good in parts). 105 books. 68 by women, 35 by men and 2 with no single author. I did start counting classics but who counts as classic? Obviously Dickens, but is Angela Carter a classic? 16 by authors that I know are BAME although I didn't actually check every author out - that's one stat I would like to improve next year.

1. The Good Immigrant, Nikesh Shukla (Editor)
2. Everyone Brave is Forgiven, Chris Cleave

3. Bitter Orange, Clare Fuller 4. A Country Road, A Tree, Jo Baker 5. Waiting for Godot, Samuel Beckett

1. The Crown, Robert Lacey
2. Sunburn, Laura Lipman
3. Crazy Rich Asians, Kevin Kwan
4. The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Robert Louis Stevenson

10. Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America, Barbara Ehrenreich 11. Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe 12. The Bloody Chamber and other stories, Angela Carter 13. The Hunting Party, Lucy Foley 14. Microadventures: Local Discoveries for Great Escapes, Alastair Humphreys 15. Watling Street: Travels Through Britain and its Ever-Present Past, John Higgs 16. Force of Nature, Jane Harper 17. One True Thing, Anna Quindlen 18. Child of All Nations, Irmgard Keun 19. His Bloody Project, Graeme Macrae Burnett 20. The Winter Book, Tove Jansson 21. Long Road from Jarrow, Stuart Maconie 22. The Forgotten Hours, Katrin Schumann 23. Circe, Madeline Miller 24. Beyond Black, Hilary Mantel 25. On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century, Timothy Snyder 26. Poverty Safari, Darren McGarvey 27. The Truth About Lorin Jones, Alison Lurie 28. The Mars Room, Rachel Kushner 29. Snap, Belinda Bauer 30. Great Expectations, Charles Dickens 31. Ghost Wall, Sarah Moss 32. Natives: Race and Class in the Ruins of Empire, Akala 33. Spies, Michael Frayn 34. SPQR, Mary Beard 35. Ancient Rome (Hourly Histories) 36. Conclave, Robert Harris 37. Washington Black, Esi Edugyan 38. The Finishing School, Muriel Spark 39. East of Hounslow, Khurrum Rahman 40. Winter, Ali Smith 41. Foolish Mortals, Jennifer Johnston 42. Old Baggage, Lissa Evans 43. To Throw Away Unopened, Viv Albertine 44. Cousins, Salley Vickers 45. In Our Mad and Furious City, Guy Gunaratne 46. Black, Listed, Jeffrey Boakye 47. Into the Water, Paula Hawkins 48. The Crowded Street, Winifred Holtby 49. Lullaby, Leila Slimani 50. Stranger Than We Can Imagine: Making Sense of the Twentieth Century, John Higgs 51. There There, Tommy Orange 52. The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle, Stuart Turton 53. All Among the Barley, Melissa Harrison 54. The Blank Wall, Elizabeth Sanxay Holding 55. Take Nothing With You, Patrick Gale 56. A Visit from the Goon Squad, Jennifer Egan 57. An American Marriage, Tayari Jones 58. Everything Under, Daisy JOhnson 59. The Year of Reading Dangerously, Andy Miller 60. The Guilty Feminist: From Our Noble Goals to Our Worst Hypocrisies , Deborah Frances-White 61. Miller's Valley, Anna Quindlen 62. What Red Was, Rosie Price 63. Ordinary People, Diana Evans 64. Hired: Sixth Months undercover in Low Wage Britain, James Bloodworth 65. Home Fire, Kamila Shamsie 66. Crooked Heart, Lissa Evans 67. The Psychopath test: A Journey Tgrough the Madness Industry, Jon Ronson 68. The Farm, Joanne Ramos 69. Mary Ann Sate, Imbecile, Alice Jolly 70. Ten Arguments for Deleting your Social Media Accounts Right Now, Jaron Lanier 71. Relative Fortunes, Marlowe Benn 72. The Woman Who Met Her Match, Fiona Gibson 73. A tale of Two Cities, Charlies Dickens 74. Milkman, Anna Burns 75. Lowborn: Growing Up, Getting Away and Returning to Britan's Poorest Towns, Kerry Hudson 76. Courage Calls to Courage Everywhere, Jeanette Winterson 77. Our Spoons Came From Woolworths, Barbara Comyns 78. Transcription, Kate Atkinson 79. Your Pace or Mine?: What Running Taught Me About Life, Laughter and Coming Last , Lisa Jackson 80. The Vows of Silence, Susan Hill 81. After the Party, Cressida Connolly 82. The Pact We Made, Layla AlAmmar 83. Normal People, Sally Rooney 84. Resurrection Bay, Emma Viskic 85. The Ashes of London, Andrew Taylor DNF Unsheltered, Barbara Kingsolver 86. The Lost Man, Jane Harper 87. How to Fail: Everything I've Ever Learned From Things Going Wrong, Elizabeth Day 88. My Cousin Rachel, Daphne Du Maurier 89. Upbeat: the STory of the National Youth Orchestra of Iraq, Paul Macalindin 90. Educated, Tara Westover 91. The Sign of Four, Arthur Conan Doyle 92. Chinglish, Sue Cheung 93. U and Non U Revisited, Richard Buckie 94. The Hours, Michael Cunningham 95. The Overstory, Richard Powers 96. Fen, Daisy Johnson 97. Everything I Know About Love, Dolly Alderton 98. Hinch Yourself Happy, Sophie Hinchcliffe (Mrs Hinch) 99. IMagined London: A Tour of the World's Greatest Fictional City, Anna Quindlen 100. American Spy, Lauren Wilkinson 101. The Dark is Rising, Susan Cooper 102. Mindfck: Cambridge Analytica and the Plot to Break America, Christopher Wylie 103. Daisy Jones and the Six, Taylor Jenkins Reid 104. The Blind Assassin, Margaret Atwood

Interesting list for those like me who would like to read more by writers of colour next year

m.dailykos.com/stories/2019/11/21/1901074/-A-2020-reading-challenge-52-books-by-women-of-color-in-52-weeks

cheers Keith - I will definitely use that to update my wish list.

Poor year for me reading wise. I’ve been too absorbed in politics this year for what good it’s done.
I’ve done a lot of re-Reading and fell off the thread and lost count - I think I made 50 but not much more. There are a lot of unread books on my Kindle and I had a few for Christmas so no excuses for 2020.

I am planning which of my books in my Amazon shopping list to prioritise with my £50 voucher!

It's a hard life Piggy

Here is my final list as I’ll not be finishing any more books. I’m working tomorrow and busy on Hogmanay, so here is my final list.

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. 56. The Poetry Pharmacy by William Sieghart. 57. Why We get the Wrong Politicians by Isabel Hardman. 58. Talking to my Daughter about the Economy: A Brief History of Capitalism by Yanis Varoufakis. 59. 10 Minutes, 38 Seconds in this Strange World by Elif Shafak. 60. Bleak House by Charles Dickens.

Another good year of reading with 18 stand-outs.
31 female writers, 29 male writers
42 fiction, 15 non fiction, 3 poetry books
8 classics (from 1800’s and 1900’s)
Only 4 by BAME writers - something I should definitely try to improve next year.

My Top 10 are:

Milkman, Anna Burns.
Undying: A Love Story, Michel Faber.
The Better Angels of our Nature, Steven Pinker.
Natives: Race and Class in the Ruins of the Empire, Akala.
Tenth of December, George Saunders.
The Overstory, Richard Powers.
A Month in the Country, J.L.Carr.
Istanbul, Bettany Hughes.
Lincoln in the Bardo, George Saunders.
Gilead, Marilynne Robinson.

82. The Dutch House Anne Patchett. My first Patchett - narrated by Tom Hanks this is a beautifully written story about a brother and sister told over 50 years. It’s very subtle but the relationships are gripping and I’m looking forward to checking out more by this author.
83. Edge of Eternity by Ken Follett. The final instalment of the Century trilogy covering 5 families (American, European and Russian) through the important events of the 1900s. This is the longest book (1200 pages) from the Cold War to the fall of the Berlin Wall. The sex scenes have (if possible) gotten worse and there is a truly horrendous one in which JFK takes a young woman’s virginity. However, despite this I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the series and following these families. I’ve got about 100 pages left and looking forward to seeing how it all wraps up (posting now as busy few days).

Im thrilled to have read so much this year and this thread has been lovely both for recommendations and discussing books. When I told a pal I was trying to read 50 books she said ‘why would you do that’ so it’s been good to find my people. This was my first time contributing and I can’t wait for 2020.

I won’t take up space with my whole list but my stats are:

23 men, 60 women (happy with this as some previous years have been male dominated)
63 fiction, 20 non fiction
22 audio, 43 kindle, 7 real books (all in the latter part of the year), 11 library physical

Highlights: If Beale Street Could Talk, The Salt Path, The Unseen World, Sophia Khan is Not Obliged A Place For Us, Normal People (A good year for highlights).

Lowlights: I am Pilgrim, Three Women Our House and Then She Was Gone

My tbr has gotten mad (~300 kindle and physical) so for 2020 I’m attempting to read what I’ve got or via the library for as long as possible (I’m dubious but have been outrageously buying over the holidays in preparation).

I’ve really spent a lot of time with newer authors / books this year so hoping to change that up a bit too.

Thanks everyone for your kind words and thoughts.

Our tree came down a couple of days ago, it's the funeral today, and then it's just about time to kick 2019 to where it belongs - firmly in the past!

I'm sorry I missed your post Waawo. Thinking of you today

Waawo hope 2020 is better for you

I have found a website of audio book/poem recordings, many from the late 1800s onward. I don't want to post on new thread in case it overloads the website as all the books are free. It's an American site with mostly American narrators. Perhaps everyone knows about it apart from me
librivox.org/search?primary_key=0&search_category=author&search_page=1&search_form=get_results
It plays fine on my iphone and laptop from their own player. There are regular statements of the website name etc at the start of chapters which is a bit intrusive but otherwise lots of quirky listening if you are interested.

Oh, have just seen that I could be violating copywright laws by downloading out of the US (first time I have looked at it on my laptop, didn't notice this on my iphone.)

I love the end of year round ups. In fact, I love this thread for the chat, support and recommendations. There is no doubt that my reading has improved in quantity and quality because of it.

Next year, I want to continue to read differently. More books in translation, more by BAME writers, more poetry. And more non-fiction, although I read a fair amount of it this year, some of it outstanding.

So, with thanks to all of you, here is the list, with standouts in bold. Happy New Year and see you in 2020.

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
108 The Wych Elm by Tana French
109 Books Do Furnish A Room by Anthony Powell
110 The Winter King by Thomas Penn
111 Killing Floor by Lee Child
112 The Right Stuff by Tom Wolfe
113 Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid
114 Time’s Convert by Deborah Harkness
115 Ma’am Darling by Craig Brown
116 Fierce Bad Rabbits by Claire Pollard
117 The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
118 The Year of Reading Dangerously by Andy Miller
119 Three Women by Lisa Taddeo
120 Me by Elton John
121 Girl, Woman, Other by Bernadine Evaristo
122 Temporary Kings by Anthony Powell
123 Three Elegies for Kosovo by Ismail Kadare
124 A Mathematician’s Apology by GH Hardy
125 Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris
126 Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky
127 Doctor Sleep by Stephen King
128 Hearing Secret Harmonies by Anthony Powell
129 Solaris by Stanisław Lem
130 How To Survive A Plague by David France
131 A Child’s Christmas in Wales by Dylan Thomas
132 The Whicharts by Noel Streatfield
133 Queens of the Kingdom by Nicola Sutcliffe
134 The Golden Thread by Kassia St Clair
135 Pretty Iconic by Sali Hughes

The best of the bunch were Beloved and Girl, Woman, Other in fiction and To Throw Away Unopened and How To Survive A Plague in non fiction. And loved the Dance To The Music Of Time series which is probably another stand out even if none of the individual books made the "best of" list. But very few shockers, as I've become more discerning about what I read.

It was more or less a 50/50 split between fiction and non-fiction and between books by men and women. 19 in translation (a result of a real effort to try to diversify) and 20 by non-white writers (not all of whom were writing in English so there is an overlap with the in translation list).

I read one book fewer than last year, but I made it through Moby Dick and Infinite Jest this year which were both rewarding and gruelling in equal parts, so I think there must have been more pages read.

On honeymoon in Dorset, just read 2 short Anne Perry Christmas novellas to get me to my personal target of 60 books this year - slightly cheating as their really are short but oh well.

My complete list of 2019

2019

1. Tied up in Tinsel - Ngaio Marsh
2. Nine Lessons - Nicola Upson

3.Bookworm - A memoir of childhood reading - Lucy Mangan

1. A History of Britain in 21 Women - Jenni Murray
2. The Mystery of Three Quarters (New Hercule Poirot Mysteries #3))

by Sophie Hannah

1. Cider with Rosie - Laurie Lee
2. Mythos - Stephen Fry
3. The Bear and The Nightingale - Katherine Arden
4. Heroes - Stephen Fry

10. Don’t you forget about me - Mhairi McFarlane 11. Amy and Isabelle - Elizabeth Strout 12. Lethal White - Robert Galbraith 13. Parsnips, Buttered: How to baffle, bamboozle and boycott your way through modern life. - Joe Lycett 14. Swing Time - Zadie Smith 15. Born a Crime - Trevor Noah 16. The Cater Street Hangman - Anne Perry 17. Callander Square - Anne Perry 18. The House Between Tides - Sarah Maine 19. The Essex Serpent - Sarah Perry 20. Girl Meets Boy -Ali Smith 21. The Masqueraders - Georgette Heyer 22. My Name is Lucy Barton - Elizabeth Strout 23. Bonjour Tristesse & A Certain Smile - Françoise Sagan 24. Pure - Andrew Miller 25. Season of Light - Katherine McMahon 26. The Autograph Man - Zadie Smith 27. Becoming - Michelle Obama 28. Anything Is Possible - Elizabeth Strout 29. Classic Scrapes - James Acaster 30. Black Sheep - Georgette Heyer 31. Paragon Walk - Anne Perry 32. Women and Power - Mary Beard 33. This Thing of Darkness- Harry Thompson 34. The Years She Stole - Jonathan Harvey 35. Olive Kitteridge - Elizabeth Strout 36. The Hangman’s Daughter - Oliver Potzsch 37. All Among The Barley - Melissa Harrison 38. Hotel World - Ali Smith 39. From the Beast to the Blonde: On Fairy Tales and Their Tellers -Marina Warner 40. Longbourn - Jo Baker 41. Lucy Sullivan is Getting Married - Marian Keyes 42. The Queen of Bloody Everything- Joanna Nadin 43. Beloved Poison - E.S. Thomson 44. The House on Vesper Sands - Paraic O’Donnell 45. In Her Wake - Amanda Jennings 46. Pistols for Two - Georgette Heyer 47. Big Sky - Kate Atkinson 48. The House of the Spirits - Isabelle Allende 49. Fingersmith - Sarah Waters 50. Educated: A Memoir - Tara Westover 51. Home Fire - Kamila Shamsie 52. Recovery:Freedom from our addictions - Russell Brand 53. The Binding - Bridget Collins 54. Death in a White Tie - Ngaio Marsh 55. The Rules of Magic - Alice Hoffman 56. Persuasion- Jane Austen 57. An American Marriage- Tayari Jones 58. The Handsome Man’s Deluxe Cafe - Alexander McCall Smith 59. A Christmas Return - Anne Perry 60. A Christmas Hope - Anne Perry

I’m so sorry, Waawo , somehow I missed your post too in the general welter of the last week.

for you.

Congratulations AliasGrape

My final list. What I've boldened may well have changed with hindsight from last time I posted a list. Italics means I hated it, not that it's a bad book.

1. Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel
2. Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
3. Slade House by David Mitchell
4. Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie
5. Spies by Michael Frayn
6. Good Me Bad Me by Ali Land
7. Personal by Lee Child
8. The Five Giants by Nicholas Timmins
9. Mindful Thoughts for Walkers: Footnotes on the Zen Path by Adam Ford

10. Burning Bright by Helen Dunmore 11. Double Vision by Tricia Sullivan 12. The Chalk Pit by Elly Griffiths (Ruth Galloway #9) 13. Whatever Happened to Baby Jane by Henry Farrell 14. Energise You by Oliver Gray 15. Worth Dying For by Lee Child 16. Thin Air by Ann Cleeves (Shetland #6) 17. Death of a Red Heroine by Qiu Xiaolong 18. Walking the Nile by Levison Wood 19. Our Lady of Everything by Susan Finlay 20. Gemsigns by Stephanie Saulter 21. The Witch at Wayside Cross by Lisa Tuttle 22. Wild Swans by Jung Chang 23. Contact by Carl Sagan 24. Hidden Depths (Vera #3) by Ann Cleeves 25. Tombland by CJ Sansom 26. Affinity by Sarah Waters 27. English in 100 Words by David Crystal 28. A Conspiracy of Violence by Susanna Gregory 29. The Hidden Ways by Alistair Moffat 30. We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson 31. A Perfectly Good Man by Patrick Gale 32. Bird Therapy by Joe Harkness 33. Never Go Back by Lee Child 34. The True History of the Kelly Gang by Peter Carey 35. The Dark Angel by Elly Griffiths 36. Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky 37. Europe in Autumn by Dave Hutchinson 38. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot 39. Notes from an Exhibition by Patrick Gale 40. Ancillary Sword by Ann Leckie 41. A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole 42. All Among the Barley by Melissa Harrison 43. The Council of Twelve by Oliver Pötzsch 44. Old Filth by Jane Gardam 45. Europe at Midnight by Dave Hutchinson 46. Dreams Before the Start of Time by Anne Charnock 47. Europe in Winter by Dave Hutchinson 48. The Overstory by Richard Powers 49. Standard Deviation by Katherine Heiny 50. Do Not Say We Have Nothing by Madeleine Thien 51. How to live with Autism and Asperger Syndrome by Chris Williams and Barry Wright 52. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon 53. The Salt Path by Raynor Winn 54. Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarcsuk 55. Walden and On the Duty of Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau 56. The Heart's Invisible Furies by John Boyne 57. A Month in the Country by JL Carr 58. The House of Hidden Mothers by Meera Syal 59. Fingers in the Sparkle Jar by Chris Packham 60. Binary by Stephanie Saulter 61. 21st Century Yokel by Tom Cox 62. Waterlog by Roger Deakin 63. The Speed of Sound by Eric Bernt 64. Option B: Facing Adversity, Building Resilience, and Finding Joy by Sheryl Sandberg and Adam Grant 65. From Source to Sea: Notes from a 215-mile Walk Along the River Thames by Tom Chesshyre 66. The Stone Circle by Elly Griffiths (Dr Ruth Galloway #11) 67. Watling Street by John Higgs (just realised still to review this, will do so asap)

29 by female authors (43%); 36 by male authors (54%); 2 by female / male co-authors (3%)

37 kindle (55%); 20 library (30%); 10 hard copy other / Dad's kindle (15%)

49 Fiction (73%); 18 Non fiction (27%)

Interestingly, the male author dominance was boosted in part by reading a lot of outdoors / nature / walking / historical landscapes non-fiction books by male authors. To balance this, I received Wanderlust by Rebecca Solnit for Christmas. But that's one book. I want to read more female musings on these topics in 2020.

I haven't counted how many in translation or by BME authors, and I know my tally would be woeful. Like others I want to do better on this. However, I already have teetering digital and physical TBR piles stretching into 2020, so in some ways I've got what I've got, though new things can always be added in.

Back later to review my last book and pick my top reads for the year.

I am sorry for your loss Wawoo, and congratulations to AliasGrape. for both of you.

Also, thank you to everyone who contributed to this wonderful thread. This was my seventh year with the 50 bookers!

Here's my final list. I slowed down towards the end of the year, mainly because I was reading some longer / more challenging books (a couple of which are still in progress so will appear on next year's list) rather than because I stopped reading.

1. The Crossing Places - Elly Griffiths
2. Things I Don't Want to Know - Deborah Levy
3. The History of Wolves - Emily Fridlund
4. Black Hole Blues and Other Songs From Outer Space - Janna Levin
5. Smile - Roddy Doyle
6. Mad Girl's Love Song: Sylvia Plath and Life Before Ted - Andrew Wilson
7. The Story of a Marriage - Andrew Seer Green
8. The Child That Books Built - Francis Spufford
9. My Year of Rest and Relaxation - Ottessa Moshfegh

10. The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ - Philip Pullman 11. The Magicians - Lev Grossman 12. Inventing Ourselves: The Secret Life of the Teenage Brain - Sarah-Jayne Blakemore 13. My Sister, the Serial Killer - Oyinkan Braithwaite 14. The Cyber Effect - Mary Aiken 15. A Life of My Own - Claire Tomalin 16. Our House - Louise Candlish 17. Whatever You Love - Louise Doughty 18. Bitch in a Bonnet - Robert Rodi 19. The Wife - Meg Wolitzer 20. Everything I Never Told You - Celeste Ng 21. This is the Story of a Happy Marriage - Ann Patchet 22. Station Eleven - Emily St John Mandel 23. A Spool of Blue Thread - Anne Tyler 24. Touching Distance - James Cracknell and Beverley Turner 25. Utopia for Realists: And How We Can Get There - Rutger Bregman 26. The Wallcreeper - Nell Zink 27. The Hunting Party - Lucy Foley 28. An American Marriage - Tayari Jones 29. The Sleep of Reason - David James Smith 30. Finders Keepers - Belinda Bauer 31. The Siege - Helen Dunmore 32. Infinite Jest - David Foster Wallace 33. The Break - Marian Keyes 34. To Rise Again at a Decent Hour - Joshua Ferris 35. The Flower Girls - Alice Clark-Platts 36. An Almond for a Parrot - Sally Gardner (writing as Wray Delaney) 37. Brazzaville Beach - William Boyd 38. Truth and Beauty: A Friendship - Ann Patchett 39. Empire of the Sun - JG Ballard 40. Nine Perfect Strangers - Liane Moriarty 41. Yes! 50 Secrets from the Science of Persuasion - Noah J Goldstein, Steve J Martin and Robert B Cialdini 42. The Broken - Tamar Cohen 43. The Book You Wish Your Parents Had Read (and Your Children Will Be Glad That You Did) - Philippa Perry 44. The Forty Rules of Love - Elif Shafak 45. After the End - Clare Mackintosh 46. The Heartland: Finding and Losing Schizophrenia - Nathan Filer 47. On Chapel Sands: My Mother and Other Missing Persons - Laura Cumming 48. The Little Friend - Donna Tartt 49. A Place of Greater Safety - Hilary Mantel 50. Black Swan Green - David Mitchell 51. The Confession - Jessie Burton 52. State of the Union - Nick Hornby

My stats are:
67% fiction, 33% non fiction
66% female, 34% male
Only 8% BAME so that's something to aim for next year

My top 10 (roughly in order):
The Heartland: Finding and Losing Schizophrenia
The Siege
Black Swan Green
A Place of Greater Safety
This is the Story of a Happy Marriage
Infinite Jest
Utopia for Realists and How We Can Get There
Inventing Ourselves: the Secret Life of the Teenage Brain
Mad Girl's Love Song: Sylvia Plath and Life Before Ted
The Cyber Effect

Happy new year everyone!

(Nearly) Happy New Year 50 Bookers, and thank you for being the biggest single influence on how much and what I read this year!
My final list:
1. The Seven Deaths Of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton
2. Bookworm by Lucy Mangan
3. Just William by Richmal Crompton
4. Les Miserables by Victor Hugo translation by Catherine Doughton
5. Bird Box by Josh Malerman
6. All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
7. Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng
8. Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie
9. Everyone Brave Is Forgiven by Chris Cleave
10. The Hearts Invisible Furies by John Boyne
11. The Green Road by Anne Enright
12. A Month In The Country by J L Carr
13. Not My Fathers Son by Alan Cumming
14. After You by Jojo Moyes
15. The Salt Path by Raynor Winn
16. Yellow Crocus by Laila Ibrahim
17. Milkman by Anna Burns
18. The Collector by John Fowles
19. The Cutout Girl by Bart Van Ess
20. David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
21. The Girls by Lisa Jewell
22. Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austin
23. My Thoughts Exactly by Lilly Allen
24. The Hoarder by Jess Kidd
25. Clothes Music Boys by Viv Albertine
26. The Passenger by Lisa Lutz
27. Floret Farm’s Cut Flower Garden by Erin Benzakein
28. When All Is Said by Anne Griffin
29. The Tattooist Of Auschwitz by Heather Morris
30. I Am Legend by Richard Matheson
31. My Sister The Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite
32. A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara
33. This Is Going To Hurt by Adam Kay
34. The Good People by Hannah Kent
35. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
36. Anne Of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery
37. The Sleeper and The Spindle by Neil Gaiman
38. The World I Fell Out Of by Melanie Reid
39. Dear Mrs Bird by A J Pearce
40. Any Human Heart by William Boyd
41. Spinning Silver by Naomi Novak
42. Mansfield Park by Jane Austen
43. Becoming by Michelle Obama
44. The Girls by Emma Cline
45. The Testaments by Margaret Atwood
46. Station 11 by Emily St John Mandel
47. Gotta Get Theroux This by Louis Theroux
48. Heartburn by Nora Ephron
49. Uprooted by Naomi Novak
50. Just William at Christmas by Richmal Crompton
51. Ma’am Darling by Craig Brown
52. Dance To The Music Of Time: Book 1: A Question Of Upbringing by Anthony Powell
53. Dance To The Music Of Time: Book 2: A Buyer’s Market by Anthony Powell

My top five this year would probably be The Hearts Invisible Furies, Bookworm, The World I Fell Out Of, Any Human Heart, The Salt Path. I think these five books made the biggest impression on me, but I loved all my highlights.

36% Male authors
64% Female authors

5 Classics

Biggest change this year to my reading habits has been the increase in my use of audible, with 27 books 'read' in this format. Ebooks total is 26 (4 read as a bit of both) and only three printed books, two of those being lent by a friend.
Format:
Kindle: 18
Audible: 17
Whispersync Audible/Kindle:2
BorrowBox ebook: 6
BorrowBox audio: 5
Borrow Box ebook & audio: 2
Print: 3

Looking forward to more excellent reading in excellent company in 2020, particularly excited about the release of the third book in the Wolf Hall trilogy, Hilary Mantel's The Mirror and The Light in March which I shall be snapping up with an audible credit on the day of release.

Hi all.
I'm loving all the end of year updates on here, thank you all for sharing. I keep up with reading the thread even when I fall behind with posting and my own reading grinds to halt as it has done more than once this year. It's ages since my last post. I finished three books in November:
33. The Century Girls by Tessa Dunlop (Audible)
Non-fiction, telling the life stories of 6 women born in the 1910s through the social changes of the century as they turn 100.
34. Enigma by Robert Harris (Audible)
Fiction set at Bletchley Park during WW2.
35. This Isn't The Sort of Thing That Happens To Someone Like You by Jon McGregor
Short stories.
I found The Century Girls interesting, particularly as it made me think of the lives of my grandparents who are no longer with us but belonged to the same generation of the 'girls'. The other two were ok, but I didn't enjoy them as much as Conclave and Reservoir 13 by the same authors which I read earlier in the year.
I've started and put aside a few books in December, some of which I might return to. Finally completed one today:
36. Hitler's Canary by Sandi Toksvig
Fiction based on true stories Toksvig's father told her of growing up in Denmark during WW2 and his family's involvement in the resistance movement during German occupation. This was a really good read. I think it was written as a book for older children/young adults so it's really accessible but I felt that it was perhaps working on more than one level and there were nuances that adults would pick up on which might go over younger heads. A fascinating account of a bit of history I knew very little about.
I was a bit disappointed in my total, particularly as I was on course for a 50+ figure for the first 6 months of the year. I looked back at last year's list though and realised I only read 6 more books in 2018 which included some books I read to my son which I no longer count (hated seeing too many My Brother's Famous Bottom titles on my list!). Listening to more podcasts has eaten into my audiobook time too, and I'm working more hours.
Looking forward to new Will Deans Scandi crime in 2020, and was excited to see Sebastian Barry has a new book coming out which picks up the story of the adopted daughter of the main characters in Days Without End.
Look forward to joining you all on the 2020 threads