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?

MuseumofHam
Ideas for nature writing by women
ruthdawkins.net/2019/10/22/womens-nature-writing/

I’m conscious that people are doing their end-of-year round-ups now, but I just wanted to squeeze in my final book of 2019:

92: London Rules - Mick Herron

This was the 5th and last of the hugely enjoyable Slough House series, all of which I’ve read and loved this year - except that I see there’s now a new one, hurrah!
Anyway, I loved this too. I can’t take them remotely seriously as spy novels despite the reviews earnestly comparing them to John le Carré; they seem basically comedies to me, albeit black ones. If anything this was the broadest yet, and none the worse for it.

I’ll be back tomorrow with my year’s round-up

Thanks due to tanaqui, I took my three duplicate books back to Waterstones today. They obviously only offered their current selling price but I'd imagine that's what they sold for on Amazon as Sports books are often discounted.

I managed 4 paperbacks in return : Andrew Miller, Caroline Lea , Tiger Woods, and Jess Kidd.

Thinking of you Waawo and hope today is not too difficult.

Lady in Waiting by Anne Glenconner Lady Glenconner writes about her life, times spent with royalty and holidays on her husband's island of Mustique. Hmm, I'm not sure what to say about this. I did finish it and am glad I read it, however......

The writing isn't great and I found nearly all of the people tiresome, snobby and often appallingly unpleasant. It probably doesn't help to be reading it at this time in UK politics and with my political bent, (Zac Goldsmith is the latest affront to my diminishing sense of British democracy) and it is telling that Boris Johnson has chosen to go to Mustique for New Year. There were some truly awful examples of the patrician attitudes and casual cruelty prevalent in the social circles described. Anne Glenconner did suffer her own tragedies, but seemed to lack the self-awareness, particularly in regards to her children, as to how her lifestyle might have contributed. An interesting insight into the lives of the aristocracy, but not a great read. I would love to hear what others think.

And congratulations AliasGrape!

CluelessMama thank you so much, that link is exactly what my 2020 reading mojo ordered. I have just followed a load of Twitter accounts from that link, and my feed is already a nicer place (also need to go through and unfollow a load of shouty, doomy political tweeters who are really getting me down).

This won't be my last travel / nature book by a white male for a while, as I have a John Lister Kaye out of the library on a previous recommendation, but the outdoors is looking a lot more female next year.

67. Watling Street by John Higgs I'm glad I read this so soon after From Source to Sea, as the experience of having a cultured, organised, straightforward stroll down the Thames with Tom Chesshyre then picking up John Higgs at Dover for an altogether different trip back the way diagonally across England and Wales was invigorating. This was psychedelic and idiosyncratic. Dense writing giving very personal takes, on myth, stories, national identity, roads, significant moments in history. I didn't always agree with him, or thought he was focusing too much on some points at the expense of others, particularly in his thoughts on national identity (which admittedly looks very, very different from Scotland). However, he was a very lively and entertaining companion and I learnt lots from this. A good end to the reading year.

My top reads this year have been:
A Month in the Country by JL Carr
The Five Giants by Nicholas Timmins
Europe in Autumn / Europe at Midnight / Europe in Winter by Dave Hutchinson
Do Not Say We Have Nothing by Madeleine Thien
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon
Waterlog by Roger Deakin

Thank you 50 bookers. This has been my 4th year on the thread and I'm definitely reading more and better quality books thanks to you guys. So much that I read is originally recommended on here (so, a few weeks / months after you've read a great review on here, you can read my hashily thrown together echo of that ). Will try to branch out next year and, who knows, bring some good recommendations of my own!

Congratulations AliasGrape!

CluelessMama I was also quite excited to see that Sebastian Barry has a new book coming out focusing on one of the characters from Days without End which was my stand out read of 2017.

My last book of 2019...

70. Idaho – Emily Ruskovich

I’m really not sure what to make of this one. This is a novel packed full of ambitious themes, such as early onset dementia, rural isolation, motherhood to name just a few. However, it still felt slight and a bit meandering.

The central event at the heart of the novel is certainly intriguing, but the writer never lets you get close enough to really understand it. As a result the book felt frustrating to me. Although reviews of the book praised the writer’s haunting and spare style, I found it over written and like it was trying too hard in parts.

I also struggled a little at first with the time line which moves backwards and forwards in time, but I think this was more down to me being distracted by Christmas socialising than the structure being confusing. Once life calmed down a bit I felt able to appreciate the structure and now think this was one of the most successful things about it. The moving time line lets you fill in bits of the story like layers, so you feel rewarded as a reader for persevering, and I quite like that in a book. The novel more or less spans the lifetime of the central characters, which I also liked.

Ultimately, this tale had epic potential, but wasn’t substantial enough to carry it through. Although it certainly had its merits I was left feeling like it took itself a tiny bit too seriously.

My full 2019 list below. Highlights in bold.

1. Everything Under – Daisy Johnson
2. A God in Ruins – Kate Atkinson
3. Asymmetry – Lisa Halliday
4. Poverty Safari – Darren McGarvey
5. The Travelling Cat Chronicles – Hiro Arikawa
6. The Rotters’ Club – Jonathan Coe
7. Kindred – Octavia E. Butler
8. We Were the Mulvaneys – Joyce Carol Oates
9. Milkman – Anna Burns
10. The Amateur Marriage – Anne Tyler
11. Things Bright and Beautiful – Anbara Salam
12. A Woman in the Polar Night – Christiane Ritter
13. Barbara Hepworth – Penelope Curtis
14. Shrill: Notes From a Loud Woman – Lindy West
15. The Western Wind – Samantha Harvey
16. Notes to Self – Emilie Pine
17. Transcription – Kate Atkinson
18. The Summer Without Men – Siri Hustvedt
19. Go Went Gone – Jenny Erpenbeck
20. Memories of the Future – Siri Hustvedt
21. Ordinary People – Diana Evans
22. The Tenderness of Wolves – Stef Penney
23. The Closed Circle – Jonathan Coe
24. From a Low and Quiet Sea – Donal Ryan
25. An American Marriage – Tayari Jones
26. West – Carys Davies
27. My Sister the Serial Killer – Oyinkan Braithwaite
28. The Song of Achilles – Madeline Miller
29. Gun Love – Jennifer Clement
30. The Cost of Living – Deborah Levy
31. The Cut Out Girl – Bart Van Es
32. The Silence of the Girls – Pat Barker
33. End of Days – Jenny Erpenbeck
34. The Doll Factory – Elizabeth Macneal
35. To Throw Away Unopened – Viv Albertine
36. Visitation – Jenny Erpenbeck
37. What Red Was – Rosie Price
38. Surrender – Joanna Pocock
39. Signs Preceding the End of the World – Yuri Herrera
40. All the Lives We Never Lived – Anuradha Roy
41. The Female Persuasion – Meg Wollitzer
42. The Remainder – Alia Trabucco Zeran
43. Prayers for the Stolen – Jennifer Clement
44. Some Luck – Jane Smiley
45. Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead – Olga Tokarczuk
46. The Ginger Tree – Oswald Wynd
47. Jamaica Inn – Daphne du Maurier
48. The House of Broken Angels – Luis Alberto Urrea
49. Can You Tolerate This? – Ashleigh Young
50. The Dream of the Celt – Mario Vargas Llosa
51. Herland and The Yellow Wallpaper – Charlotte Perkins Gilman
52. The Handmaids Tale – Margaret Atwood
53. The Testaments – Margaret Atwood
54. Chernobyl : History of a Tragedy – Serhii Plokhy
55. The Confessions of Frannie Langton – Sara Collins
56. Girl – Edna O’Brien
57. 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World – Elif Shafak
58. The Collini Case – Ferdinand von Schirach
59. The Days of Abandonment – Elena Ferrante
60. Sleeping on Jupiter – Anuradha Roy
61. The Falconer – Dana Czapnik
62. The Great Believers – Rebecca Makkai
63. Olive, again – Elizabeth Strout
64. Godsend – John Wray
65. Middle England – Jonathan Coe
66. Regeneration – Pat Barker
67. Wounds – Fergal Keane
68. Our Lady of the Nile – Scholastique Mukasonga
69. Nothing to Envy : Real Lives in North Korea – Barbara Demick
70. Idaho – Emily Ruskovich

21% men and 79% women, with a rather puny 17% non-fiction – must do better next year on the non-fiction front.

No DNFs – I think I’m getting at picking them. I admit to finding The Confessions of Franny Langton hard work and almost giving up. Not a bad book, just not my cup of tea.

Top 3 Non-fiction

To Throw Away Unopened – Viv Albertine

No holds barred memoir about her dysfunctional family, being middle aged and female. Funny and sad in equal measure.

Chernoby: History of a Tragedy – Serhii Ploky

This one gave me nightmares. A thorough exploration of what went wrong and how it was the beginning of the end for the Soviet empire.

Nothing to Envy: Real Lives in North Korea – Barbara Demick

Fascinating account of life in the most secretive country on earth.

Top 5 Fiction

Asymmetry – Lisa Halliday

Beautifully written, with not a word wasted. If she wrote another book, I would buy it tomorrow.

Girl – Edna O’Brien

No one writes about women like Edna O’Brien, whether it be her early novels about best friends in 1950’s Ireland or this book about a present day young Nigerian woman kidnapped by Boko Haram.

Go Went Gone – Jenny Erpenbeck

Thought provoking and timely tale about refugees, past and present. I’ve read several books by this author this year and enjoyed this one the most.

Olive, again – Elizabeth Strout

Another outing for one of the greatest characters in fiction, Olive Kitteridge. Small town America made sublime. I’d already saved this spot for The Handmaid’s Tale – but Olive pipped it at the post for a spot in my top 5.

And my favourite book of the year…

Milkman – Anna Burns

This book really wasn’t like anything I’ve ever read before, probably best described as a stream of consciousness with a razor sharp sense of humour. I’ll be re-reading this in 2020 as it’s on the list for my book club.

Thanks everyone for all your brilliant recommendations - looking forward to joining the 2020 thread. Happy New Year all!

Thanks for all that detail indigo!

One thing I must take issue with.. it's not you, it's her. Frannie Langton really is just a bad book...

No round up from me because I didn't count or even keep my reviews in the end, as things were going so badly.

Hopefully 2020 will be a better reading year.

Currently reading The Golden Thread but not liking it much.

My last few additions of 2019:

46. Red Carpets and Other Banana Skins - Rupert Everett. The first memoir from the actor and I preferred this to his second, Vanished Years. It's an entertaining ride, well-paced and very gossipy. I read that the paperback was edited because some people objected to what he said about them in the hardback (I think probably Madonna).

47. The Gift of Therapy: An Open Letter to a New Generation of Therapists and Their Patients - Irvin D. Yalom. Nonfiction book about insights into the work of an existential psychiatrist, written with a lot of compassion.

48. I'm Special: And Other Lies We Tell Ourselves to Get through Our Twenties - Ryan O'Connell. I loved the Netflix tv show, Special, and this is the main actor's memoir. I'm no prude but even for me his sexual exploits were too graphic. An OK read but nothing amazing.

49. How to Stay Sane - Philippa Perry. Short CBT themed personal development book nicely written and handy if you need a mental health boost.

50. The Book Lovers' Companion: What to Read Next - various. This is a book about recommended books including Lolita, Mary Barton, The Thirty Nine Steps, and Notes on a Scandal so quite an eclectic range. Joanna Trollope is also here. I thought this was great but not recommended if you don't want to add to your TBR! I liked that the plot summaries didn't give spoilers, and the inclusion of discussion points, background books, one critic review for each book, and suggested similar books - this book is exceptionally well-organised.

Slipped off the thread as had a busy month and not much reading time so just a final check in before I see you all again in January.

53. Dark Matter Michelle Paver

Ghost story that many have reviewed here - I enjoyed it and particularly the arctic setting, it wasn’t spectacular but easy to read and hit the spot.

Top 5 of 2019 in no particular order:

1. The Fortnight in September by RC Sheriff
2. Brazzaville Beach by William Boyd
3. Standard Deviation by Katharine Heiney
4. The Accidental Tourist by Anne Tyler
5. Maus by Art Spiegelman

Hope to read more classics next year and more in translation.

Having just caught up on the thread also want to say waawo so sorry for your loss, hope you can find some comfort and peace in the next days.

aliasgrape congratulations!

TimeforaGandT I think the His Dark Materials adaptation is only really of the first book, but with some elements introduced from the second a little earlier. There is another series coming so don’t think they are going too far with it (I haven’t finished watching yet)

Thanks Satsuki - very helpful. I will start watching the TV adaptation (and can always stop if it looks like it’s entering unfamiliar territory!)

69. Northern Lights - Philip Pullman - I am still not quite sure how I feel about this. I enjoyed some aspects (the storytelling and characterisation), found some confusing (Dust...) and others annoying (Lyra’s continued use of “ent”). However, having bought the entire series on kindle and recorded the TV adaptation I am going to stick with it.

Hoping to hit 70 so will post my full list and highlights and low points after that.

Here is my final list for 2019...

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
103. Girl, Woman, Other - Bernardine Evaristo
104. Wakenhyrst - Michelle Paver
105. The Friend - Sigrid Nunez
106. Sabrina - Nick Drnaso
107. Rhine Journey - Ann Schlee
108. Stories of Your Life and Others - Ted Chiang
109. Great Granny Webster - Caroline Blackwood
110. Kitchen - Banana Yoshimoto
111. Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont - Elizabeth Taylor
112. Big Sky - Kate Atkinson
113. The Various Haunts of Men - Susan Hill
114. Kindred - Octavia Butler
115. Sightlines - Kathleen Jamie
116. Flying to Nowhere - John Fuller
117. The Confession - Jessie Burton
118. Bad Behavior - Mary Gaitskill
119. The Burgess Boys - Elizabeth Strout
120. Dark Pines - Will Dean
121. 10 Minutes, 38 Seconds in this Strange World - Elif Shafak
122. A Wind in the Door - Madeleine L'Engle
123. On Chapel Sands - Laura Cumming
124. The Lottery - Shirley Jackson
125. Under the Rock - Benjamin Myers
126. Olive, Again - Elizabeth Strout
127. The Heartland: Finding and Losing Schizophrenia - Nathan Filer
128. The Private Life of the Hare - John Lewis-Stempel
129. Reunion - Fred Uhlman
130. The Owl Service - Alan Garner

If I finish The Wolves of Willoughby Chase by the end of tomorrow it's 131 but I won't count it for now.

Reading stats are as follows:
Of 130 books read, 30 were non-fiction and 100 were fiction.

73 were written by women, 57 by men

Of the non-fiction, 9 were nature writing and of the 100 fiction, 5 were plays, 3 were poetry. Fiction in translation was only 9 of the total sum.

I read a lot of books I enjoyed this year - the highlights for me were (in no particular order):

My Year of Rest and Relaxation
The Water Cure
A Death in the Family
Underland
Under the Rock: The Poetry of a Place
Rhine Journey - Ann Schlee

I have loved reading all the reviews and book chat on here and have got so many good recommendations. It's been brilliant.

So sorry for your loss waawo, I hope 2020 is good for you.

Congratulations to aliasgrape, enjoy your honeymoon.

Happy New Year to you all

I've fallen off the thread a few times this year as it's just been a strange year and not read as much as normal. My list for the year below.

1.The Secret Barrister
2.<strong>The Rumour - Lesley Kara</strong>
3.The President is Missing - Bill Clinton and James Patterson
4.Juror No.3 - James Patterson and Nancy Allen
5.Part-time Working Mummy: A Patchwork Life - Rachaele Hambleton
6.<strong>The Tattooist of Auschwitz - Heather Morris</strong>
7.An Anonymous Girl - Greer Hendricks & Sarah Pekkanen
8.The Flower Girls - Alice Clark-Patts
9.Nine Perfect Strangers - Liane Moriarty
10.The Secretary - Renee Knight
11.Dirty Like Me - Jaine Diamond
12.Dirty Like Brody - Jaine Diamond
13.<strong>Close to Home - Cara Hunter</strong>
14.<strong>The Perfect Child - Lucinda Berry</strong>
15.Saving Noah - Lucinda Berry
16.The Silent Patient - Alex Michaelides
17.When Breath Becomes Air - Paul Kalanithi
18.<strong>Stalker - Lars Kepler</strong>
19.Becoming - Michelle Obama
20.Truth and Lies - Caroline Mitchell
21.The Secret Child - Caroline Mitchell
22.One Day in December - Josie Silver
23.Twisted - Steve Cavanagh
24.I Found You - Lisa Jewell
25.Everything I Know About Love - Dolly Alderton
26.Our House - Louise Candlish
27.Not My Daughter - Kate Hewitt
28.<strong>In The Dark - Cara Hunter</strong>
29.<strong>No Way Out - Cara Hunter</strong>
30.On a Beautiful Day - Lucy Diamond
31.Not That I Could Tell - Jessica Strawser
32.After the end - Clare MacKintosh
33.Rachel’s Holiday - Marian Keyes
34.The Wives - Lauren Weisberger
35.Surprise Me - Sophie Kinsella
36.<strong>Pieces of Her - Karin Slaughter</strong>
37.The Prison Doctor - Amanda Brown
38.<strong>The Family Upstairs - Lisa Jewell</strong>
39.Stop At Nothing - Tammy Cohen
40.The Holiday - T M Logan
41.The Vanishing Season - Dot Hutchison
42.The Child - Fiona Barton
43.Educated - Tara Westover
44.Lies Lies Lies - Adele Parks
45.No Further Questions - Gillian McAllister
46.Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine - Gail Honeyman
47.Clear My Name - Paula Daly
48.My Name is Leon - Kit De Waal
49.American Royals - Katharine McGee
50.Take it Back - Kia Abdullah 
51.PS I Love You - Cecelia Ahern
52.<strong>Postscript - Cecelia Ahern</strong>
53.Whisper Network - Chandler Baker
54.Second Draft - C M Seabrook 
55.Finding Faith - Bridget E Baker 
56.Sometimes I Lie - Alice Feeney
57.The Understudy - BA Paris, Sophie Hannah, Clare Mackintosh and Holly Brown
58.<strong>The Rabbit Girls - Anna Ellory</strong>
59.A Wedding in December - Sarah Morgan 
60.Christmas Cakes and Mistletoe Nights - Carole Matthews 
61.Murder in Slow Motion - Anne B Suza

Currently reading The Dilemma - B A Paris so whether that's book 62 or number 1 for the New Year has still to be determined.
Going to try hard to focus on my TBR pile this year as its just ridiculous and I find myself trying to buy books for my kindle that I have but haven't read yet

Here are my stats for the year:
81 books read
46% male, 54% female authors
42% fiction, 58% non-fiction (of which an awful lot was biography)
24 of my own paper books, 23 on kindle, 18 on Audible and 16 paper books from the library

5 best books
Adventures of a Young Naturalist - David Attenborough
The Bull from the Sea - Mary Renault
A Streetcar Named Desire - Tennessee Williams
The Silence of the Girls - Pat Barker
Himself - Jess Kidd

Absolute stinker of the year
The Tournament - Matthew Reilly; also wins the boobwatch prize for youthful breasts 'extending skyward'

Full list:

1. Little Fires Everywhere - Celeste Ng
2. Animal - Sara Pascoe
3. The Bull from the Sea - Mary Renault
4. Women and Power - Mary Beard
5. Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue - John McWhorter
6. The Winter Isles - Antonia Senior
7. Dynasties: the Rise and Fall of Animal Families - Stephen Moss
8. A History of the World In 21 Women - Jenni Murray
9. The Monogram Murders - Sophie Hannah

10. This is Going to Hurt - Adam Kay 11. Adventures of a Young Naturalist - David Attenborough 12. In Your Defence - Sarah Langford 13. Did You See Melody? - Sophie Hannah 14. A History of Britain in 21 Women - Jenni Murray 15. All That Remains: a Life in Death - Sue Black 16. Bridget Jones’s Baby - Helen Fielding 17. A Hat Full of Sky - Terry Pratchett 18. The Ark Before Noah - Irving Finkel 19. Dear Mrs Bird - A.J. Pearce 20. The Outcasts of Time - Ian Mortimer 21. Burning Bright - Helen Dunmore 22. Unnatural Causes - Richard Shepherd 23. The Silence of the Girls - Pat Barker 24. Brooklyn - Colm Tóibín 25. I Contain Multitudes - Ed Yong 26. Closed Casket - Sophie Hannah 27. Slade House - David Mitchell 28. The Gentle Discipline Book - Sarah Ockwell-Smith 29. Educated - Tara Westover 30. How Not to be a Boy - Robert Webb 31. Bright Air Black - David Vann 32. Warriors of the Storm - Bernard Cornwell 33. The Mystery of Three Quarters - Sophie Hannah 34. Bloody British History: Winchester - Clare Dixon et al 35. A Streetcar Named Desire - Tennessee Williams 36. The Idle Parent - Tom Hodgkinson 37. Under the Pendulum Sun - Jeannette Ng 38. War Doctor - David Nott 39. Daisy Jones & the Six - Taylor Jenkins Reid 40. Monkeys with Typewriters - Scarlett Thomas 41. Bernard Who? - Bernard Cribbins 42. The Book You Wish Your Parents Had Read - Philippa Perry 43. Back Story - David Mitchell 44. The Tournament - Matthew Reilly 45. The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs - Steve Brusatte 46. My Sister, the Serial Killer - Oyinkan Braithwaite 47. The Dark Side of the Mind - Kerry Daynes 48. Home Grown: how domestic violence turns men into terrorists - Joan Smith 49. The Whole-Brain Child - Daniel J. Siegel & Tina Payne Bryson 50. Superior: the return of race science - Angela Saini 51. Conversations with Friends - Sally Rooney 52. Forensics - Val McDermid 53. The Darkening Age - Catherine Nixey 54. The Secrets of Life and Death - Rebecca Alexander 55. Everywoman - Jess Phillips 56. Language Families of the World - John McWhorter 57. Unseen Academicals - Terry Pratchett 58. The Confessions of Frannie Langton - Sara Collins 59. The Missing Lynx: the past and future of Britain’s lost mammals - Ross Barnett 60. The Descent of Man - Grayson Perry 61. A Short History of Drunkenness - Mark Forsyth 62. Less - Andrew Sean Greer 63. Under the Knife: a history of surgery in 28 remarkable operations - Arnold van de Laar 64. Convenience Store Woman - Sayaka Murata 65. The Mermaids Singing - Val McDermid 66. Civilisations: How Do We Look / The Eye of Faith - Mary Beard 67. Got to Get Theroux This - Louis Theroux 68. Himself - Jess Kidd 69. My Year of Rest and Relaxation- Ottessa Moshfegh 70. Grendel - John Gardner 71. The Elements of Eloquence - Mark Forsyth 72. The Woman in the Window - A.J. Finn 73. Sex Power Money - Sara Pascoe 74. Journeys to the Other Side of the World - David Attenborough 75. ‘Twas the Nightshift Before Christmas - Adam Kay 76. Seven Days of Us - Francesca Hornak 77. Dishonesty is the Second Best Policy - David Mitchell 78. Venus and Aphrodite - Bettany Hughes 79. Born Lippy - Jo Brand 80. Hellraisers - Robert Sellers

Today finished 81. Reluctant Adult - Katie Kirby: perfect for a light post-Christmas read, her musings on modern life fit my almost-middle-aged outlook perfectly. I don't understand Top Shop any more either.

List below - hope the boldness works!
Obviously I can up recording authors at some point but can definitely say that women writers significantly out number men.

1. The Salt Path - Raynor Winn
2. Everything Under - Daisy Johnson

1. An almond for a parrot- Wray Delaney
2. Courage calls to courage everywhere- Jeanette Winterson
3. Admissions: A life in brain surgery- Henry Marsh

6. Ghost Wall - Sarah Moss

1. Snap - Belinda Bauer

8. Chronicle of Youth : Vera Brittain’s War Diary, 1913 - 17 - Vera Brittain

1. Transcription - Kate Atkinson**

10. Votes for Women - Jenni Murray 11. Henry VIII and the man who made him - Tracy Borman 12. The Woman in the Window - A J Finn 13. The Tudor Crown - Joanna Hickson 14. How to build a girl - Caitlin Moran 15. The silence of the girls - Pat Barker 16. The Song of Achilles- Madeleine Miller 17. A long way from home - Peter Carey 18. The Binding - Bridget Collins 19.The Glass Woman - Caroline Lea 20. Bodies of light - Sarah Moss 21. Scrublands- Chris Hammer 22. From a low and quiet Sea - Donal Ryan 23. Bookworm . A memoir of childhood reading - Lucy Mangan 24. The Casual Vacancy- J K Rowling 25. Is there anything you want? - Margaret Forster 26. The lion the witch and the wardrobe- C S Lewis 27. The daughter of time - Josephine Tey 28. All that remains: A life in death - Sue Black 29. London lies beneath - Stella Duffy 30. Old baggage - Lissa Evans 31. Crooked Heart - Lissa Evans** 32. The five - The untold lives of the women killed by Jack the Ripper - Hallie Rubenhold 33. After the party- Cressida Connolly 34. The Hidden - Mary Chamberlain 35. The Queen and I - Sue Townsend 36. The lost words - Robert Macfarlane 37. Abide with me - Elizabeth Strout 38. Parliament of rooks : Haunting Bronte Country - Karen Perkins 39. Beyond Black - Hilary Mantel 40. Human Croquet- Kate Atkinson 41. The Bloody Chamber - Angela Carter 42. The complete poems of Rupert Brooke 43. Letters from a lost generation- First World War letters of Vera Brittain and Four Friends- Ed. Alan Bishop and Mark Bostridge 44. Boy of my heart - Marie Connor Leighton** 45. Because you died : Poetry and Prose of the First World War and After - Vera Brittain 46. The Familiars - Stacey Halls 47. Graceland - Bethan Roberts 48. The Cut Out Girl- Bart van Es 49. The Cutting Season- Attica Locke 50. My sister the serial killer 51. Bottled Goods - Sophie van Llewyn 52. Lost children archive - Valeria Luiselli 53. Picking up the pieces - Jo Worgan 54. Signs for lost children- Sarah Moss 55. A Little Life - Hanya Yanagihara 56. This Stolen Life - Jeevani Charaki 57. Stanley and Elsie - Nicola Upson 58. The house at the end of hope street - Meena van Preeg 59. Templar Silks - Elizabeth Chadwick 60. In the shadows of wolves 61. The Doll Factory - Elizabeth Macneal 62. The Rapture - Claire McGlasson 63. A man called Ove 64. Ordinary people - Diana Evans 65. Mrs Everything- Jennifer Weiner 66. An American Marriage 67. Know no evil 68. Remembered- Yvonne Battle Felton 69. Our Little secrets 70. Lowborn - Kerry Hudson 71 Expectation-Anna Hope 72. Tigers Child - Torey Hayden 73. bitter Orange - Claire Fuller 74. The Warlow Experiment- Alix Nathan 75. In the Company of Strangers 76. The Murder of Harriet Monckton - Elizabeth Haynes 77 . Beneath the surface 78. Born a crime - Trevor Noah 79. Arguing with the dead - Alex Nye 80. Don’t think a single thought - Diana Cambridge 81. The Moss House - Clara Barley 82. On Chapel Sands - Laura Cumming 82. Control 83. In the full light of the sun- Clare Clark 84. The Nickel Boys - Colson Whitehead 85. Witches sail in Eggshells- Chloe turner 86. Lanny - Max Porter 87. Three Women - Lisa Taddeo 88. Shadow on the Lens 89. Heaven, my home 90. Frankissstein - 91. Bone China 92.The lost Daughter 93. Duality 94. The Art Of Taxidermy 95. 10 minutes and 38 seconds in this strange world 96. Swan Song 97. The fourth victim 98. I wanted you to know 99. The Lost Ones 100.The Oshun Diaries 101. the Art Of Dying - Ambrose Parry 102. A Single Thread - Tracy chevalier 103. The last landlady - Laura Thompson 104. The Wayward Girls - 105. Ten thousand doors of January 106. Identity Crisis - Ben Elton 107 The Caravaners 108 The ten thousand doors 109 The Testaments 110 The Shepherds Hut 111. Simon S - Susan Hill 112. The Seagulls Laughter 113An author on triaL 114.Stone Mothers 115 The Confessions of Frannie Langton 116 my name is why - Lemmen Sissay 117 Olive Kitteridge 118 Anna of Kleves 119 Wake 120 Once upon a river 121 ‘‘Twas the night shift 122 The Daylight Gate 123 Ghoster 124 The corset 125 Children of fire 126 Olive again** 127 Naseby horses 128 The Dutch house** 129 First in Fight 130 daisy jones and the six 131 Festive Spirits 132. American Dirt 133 the Photographer of the lost 134 girl Women other 135 The outrun 136 The light years 137 Curtain down at her majesty’s 138 Salt slow 139. Things in Jars - Jess Kidd Really enjoyed this last one. Set in Victorian England , beautifully written and will appeal if you liked The Mermaid and Mrs Hancock, The Doll Factory or The Essex Serpent

Oh yes inmyownparticularidiom my stinker of the year was Words Best Sung by Lee Stuart Evans which contained this criminal assault of a sentence:

“leaving the image of her breasts trembling like two perfectly set jellies hanging in the uncomfortable silence”

Boobwatch rating 💯

Thanks so much for the recommendations - very helpful.

Just finished my final book. Reached 91 . Next year , I'll try 100 but as I only read paper books, I'm not sure I can do this! List below:

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
55. Erebus – Michael Palin
56. Love Is Blind – William Boyd
57. Firefly- Henry Porter
58. Sharp Objects- Gillian Flynn
59. Murder On The Orient Express – Agatha Christie
60. Dracula – Bram Stoker
61. The Empress – Tanika Gupta
62. Romantic Outlaws – Charlotte Gordon
63. Moon Tiger – Penelope Lively
64. The Beekeeper of Aleppo – Christy Lefteri
65. The Rapture – Claire McGlasson
66. All The Wicked Girls – Chris Whitaker
67. Sal – Mick Kitson
68. Love In Small Letters – Frances Miralles
69. The Conviction of Cora Burns – Carolyn Kirby
70. Bleak House – Charles Dickens
71. The Song Collector – Natasha Solomons
72. The Wych Elm – Tana French
73. The Water Cure – Sophie Mackintosh
74. The Body in the Library – Agatha Christie
75. The Body – Bill Bryson
76. The Lost Man – Jane Harper
77. The Wolf and the Watchman – Niklas Natt och Dag
78. And Then There Were None – Agatha Christie
79. The Sentence is Death – Anthony Horowitz
80. House of Gold – Natasha Solomons
81. Once Upon A River – Diane Setterfield
82. The Last – Hanna Jameson
83. My Sister, the Serial Killer – Oyinkan Braithwaite
84. The Wave – Morton Rhue
85. Sincerity- Carol Ann Duffy
86. The Binding – Bridget Collins
87. Frost Fair – Carol Ann Duffy
88. Festive Spirits – Kate Atkinson
89. Ghosts of Christmas Past – ed Tim Martin
90. The Penguin Book of Christmas Stories – ed Jessica Harrison
91. Washington Black – Esi Edugyan

Male authors 35%
Female authors 55% (doesn't add up to 110 because I read multiple novels by some authors, especially Agatha Christie!)
Non fiction 24% which includes some of my standouts
Pre 20th : 3 books (plus War and Peace half read!) aiming to up this next year but cracked Bleak House this year!
Books in translation : 5 books
BAME authors 10% , I think.

Just finished Washington Black which I really enjoyed. reminded me in some ways of This Thing with the gaze turned around. Also, definitely echoes of Frankenstein. A surprisingly quick read and it definitely brings under a microscope the White Saviour trope. Never read anything by this author before so might look out some other stuff. I think the cover is misleading! I thought it was all going to be about the aerocutter and some sort of Jules Verne-esque frolic!

A few turkeys this year, mainly books that lured me in Waitrose, so I should know better! I was most disappointed by The Binding.

Ummm...doesn't add up to 100! I do realise what percentages are

Piggy agree about The Binding. The premise was good, could have been amazing

I've had a generally poor reading year - just 1/5 of my total were highlights so I need to be more discerning next year.

1. The Woman in the Window – A.J. Finn
2. This is Going to Hurt - Adam Kay
3. Home Truths - David Lodge
4. The Fast 100 - Dr Michael Mosley
5. Reading Allowed - Chris Paling
6. Lullaby - Leila Silmani
7. Never Mind - Edward St. Aubyn
8. A Ladder to the Sky - John Boyne
9. Another Planet: A Teenager in Suburbia - Tracey Thorn

10. Ghost Wall - Sarah Moss 11. Mentors: How to Help and be Helped - Russell Brand 12. The World I Fell Out Of - Melanie Reid 13. The Only Story - Julian Barnes 14. Tell Me a Secret - Jane Fallon 15. Started Early, Took My Dog - Kate Atkinson 16. My Brother's Name is Jessica - John Boyne 17. Logical Family - Armistead Maupin 18. Can You Ever Forgive Me - Lee Israel 19. Never Greener – Ruth Jones 20. A Better Me – Gary Barlow 21. Spring – Ali Smith 22. To Throw Away Unopened - Viv Albertine 23. Pride - Matthew Todd 24. Jar of Fools - Jason Lutes 25. Sweet Sorrow - David Nicholls 26. Very British Problems: Vol 3 - Rob Temple 27. Born Lippy - Jo Brand 28. An American Marriage - Tayari Jones 29. Queer Graphic History - Meg-John Barker and Jules Scheele 30. Common People: An Anthology of Working Class Writers 31. Nora Ephron: The Last Interview and Other Conversations - Nora Ephron 32. State of the Union - Nick Hornby 33. Our Stop - Laura Jane Williams 34. Big Sky - Kate Atkinson 35. We Should All Be Feminists -Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie 36. Inside Out - Demi Moore 37. The Good, The Bad and The Multiplex - Mark Kermode 38. The Sound of Laughter - Peter Kay 39. Heartstopper: vol 1 - Alice Oseman 40. Ian McKellen: A Biography - Garry O'Connor 41. Afternoons with the Blinds Drawn - Brett Anderson 42. Home Work: A Memoir of my Hollywood Years - Julie Andrews 43. Through the Wall - Caroline Corcoran 44. Wham! George and Me - Andrew Ridgeley 45.How to Grow Old: A middle-aged man moaning -John Bishop 46. Red Carpets and Banana Skins - Rupert Everett 47. The Gift of Therapy: An Open Letter to a New Generation of Therapists and Their Patients - Irvin D. Yalom. 48. I'm Special: And Other Lies We Tell Ourselves to Get through Our Twenties - Ryan O'Connell. 49. How to Stay Sane - Philippa Perry. 50. The Book Lovers' Companion - various.

My top five are:

The World I Fell Out Of
Started Early, Took My Dog
Another Planet: A Teenager in Suburbia
Logical Family
Big Sky

The worst book I read was Lullaby.

'See' you all next decade!

This is my 2nd year on the thread and both years I've read 44 books. Maybe next year I'll hit the big 5-0.

Here's my full list. Highlights in bold, stinkers in italics.

1. Featherboy – Nicky Singer
2. Three Cups of tea - Greg Mortenson & David Oliver Relin
3. Bookworm: A memoir of childhood reading – Lucy Mangan
4. Leap In – Alexandra Heminsly
5. Half of a yellow sun – Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
6. Fasting & Feasting – Anita Desai
7. The Millstone – Margaret Drabble
8. A Midsummer Night’s Dream – Shakespeare
9. After You – Jojo Moyes

10. The Bean Trees – Barbara Kingsolver 11. Normal People – Sally Rooney 12. Becoming – Michelle Obama 13. Conversations with Friends – Sally Rooney 14. Return to the little Coffee Shop of Kabul – Deborah Rodriguez 15. Fruit of the lemon – Andrea Levy 16. Unsheltered – Barbara Kingsolver 17. The Bookseller of Kabul – Asne Seierstad 18. One plus One – Jojo Moyes 19. The Hate U Give – Angie Thomas 20. Olive Kitteridge – Elizabeth Strout 21. The Butterfly Tattoo – Philip Pullman 22. How I live now – Meg Rosoff 23. The Old Man and the Sea – Ernest Hemingway 24. Breathing lessons – Anne Tyler 25. The Little Friend – Donna Tartt 26. Chanson Douce – Leïla Slimani 27. Burial Rites – Hannah Kent 28. Still me – Jojo Moyes 29. Flowers for Algernon – Daniel Keyes 30. The Secret Keeper - Kate Morton 31. Deliciously Ella – Ella Woodward 32. Autumn – Ali Smith 33. Zazie dans le métro – Clément Oubrerie / Raymond Queneau 34. The Break – Marian Keyes 35. Regeneration – Pat Barker 36. Slow Cooker – Martha Stewart 37. The Bluest Eye – Toni Morrison 38. Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck 39. Cyrano de Bergerac – Edmond Rostand 40. Animal Farm – George Orwell 41. War Horse – Michael Morpurgo 42. Nine perfect strangers – Liane Moriarty 43. The Secret Scripture – Sebastian Barry 44. The Rotters’ Club – Jonathan Coe

All my standouts were in the first half of the year but I still enjoyed most of the books I read in 2019. Only one DNF.

Top 5 (in no particular order)
Burial Rites – Hannah Kent
Olive Kitteridge – Elizabeth Strout
Half of a yellow sun – Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Unsheltered – Barbara Kingsolver
The Bean Trees – Barbara Kingsolver

Stats:
70% female authors
18% non-fiction
7% in French
16% BAME authors

27% were books from my children's reading lists
56% authors I'd never read before
4 books on Kindle, 40 physical books (of which 29 were library books)

Thanks to you all for your amazing recommendations and chat. Look forward to more of that in 2020. Cheers

Last update of the year, I’m not going to finish any more books today!

117. My Child’s Different by Elaine Halligan

Memoir about raising a child with SEN mixed with parenting advice. Short and easy to read, with a compelling and ultimately heart warming story.

118. X-Force: Angels and Demons

Trade paperback featuring the X-Men’s black ops team.
Very violent and one that assumes lots of background knowledge about the characters from the reader.

119. My Name is Anna by Lizzy Barber

A story about an abducted child, Emily. Told in alternating chapters from the point of view of the abducted child, now an 18 year old renamed Anna, and Emily’s younger sister, Rosie, who’s hoping to uncover new leads about her sister’s disappearance.

It’s obvious right from the start who Anna really is, this is more about why she was abducted and whether the truth will come out. It started out well, but I thought it ran out of steam towards the end - which was far too abrupt IMO.