26-ish books in 2020

[drspouse]

A thread for those too busy or otherwise not able to aim for 50 books in a year!
I'm aiming for 12 from my shelves and 12 from a reading challenge

thebrokenspinedotnet.wordpress.com/2019/12/14/reading-classic-books-challenge/

There are loads of reading challenges here too

www.girlxoxo.com/the-master-list-of-2020-reading-challenges/

We are very laid back here, join any time, I imagine this thread will be open till Dec as it doesn't move too fast!

Made it to 26! The House on Mango Street - Sandra Cisneros, beautiful and lyrical

Also finally finished 6th Harry Potter with DS (Half-Blood Prince)

17. It's Not Me It's You by Mhairi McFarlane This was a reread as I needed something comforting and easy to read. I love her books but full disclosure she's a friend of mine and I tend to read the proofs and always love them to bits as she has such a good ear for conversation and an eye for characters. This is my favourite by her so far.

18: Case Histories by Kate Atkinson. I really wanted to like this as there are so many in the series. But it has such an old fashioned turn of phrase to it that it was kind of like reading a Joanna Trollope or something. I wanted to know the ending so carried on with it but I do t think I'll read any more.

Hi all, I've been reading just forgot to update.
14 The child by Fiona Barton
15 Moving by Jenny Eclair
16 The lake house by Kate Morton
17 Found by Erin Kinsley
18 The mother-in-law by Sally Hepburn
19 Everything I never told you by Celeste Ng

16 Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams

Superior chick-lit with added experiences of racism. There's a description of a violent one night stand that some may wish to avoid.

Amsterdam, Ian McEwan.
Nicely written, though somewhat contrived.

11. Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams

Funny, witty and often moving story about a young woman whose life seems to be falling apart. It felt particularly relevant reading it now with the current attention on the BLM campaign. I really enjoyed it.

11. The Butterfly Room by Lucinda Riley*
Really enjoyed this. Typical Luck da Riley - not particularly literary or challenging but really well plotted and gripping with a big cast of engaging characters. One of her best, I’d say.

*Lucinda

Just finished two more: Down Second Avenue by Ezekiel Mphalele (from the 50s, banned in South Africa, sooo well written. No 6 in Classics so that's halfway in that challenge and no 17 overall; and How to Be Successful Without Hurting Men's Feelings by Sarah Cooper, no 18 overall, hilarious and true to life.

27. Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, reading fresh to DS as I never read the books or saw the films when I was younger
28. Unsheltered by Barbara Kingsolver, I listened to this one and while I enjoyed it it wasn’t as gripping as The Poisonwood Bible which I read for the first time last year and loved
29. Know My Name by Chanel Miller - a memoir by Brock Turner’s rape victim, incredibly moving and powerful and beautifully written, highly recommeneded

22. The Silent Patient I really enjoyed this book.
23. The Other Wife by Claire McGowan. It was a just ok psychological thriller. A bit predictable and unbelievable in parts. I'm flame I got it free on prime.

Next up, yet another Lisa Jewell, I found you.

Hello! Joining so late. I joined the group for this a couple of years ago and I had a great time keeping up with my reading and loved all the suggestions. I've spent the first half of the year stressed about various things, and have taken to way too much time on my phone. So back to my favorite hobby of reading. I hope to make it to 12-13 to reflect half a year of involvement but a few more would he nice. So far

1. 9 Perfect Strangers
2. Where the Crawdads Sing

On the to read pile I have American Dirt which I'm looking forward to starting.

12. Tidelands - Philippa Gregory - enjoyed this, maybe not quite as much as other Philippa Gregory books I’ve read. Without wanting to give too much away it had a very abrupt ending - set up for a sequel I guess
13. Blood & Sugar - Laura Shepherd-Robinson - Loved this, historical fiction/murder mystery, read it in a weekend
14. Queenie - Candice Carty-Williams - loved this, raced through it in a couple of days
15. Why I’m no longer speaking to white people about race - Reni Eddo-Lodge - currently reading, trying to mix some more non-fiction into my reading this year!

@SpreadHummusNotHate (great name btw) I imagine there will be a flurry of BLM non fiction books now being read! How did you find Eddo-Lodge? I’m listening to “So You Want To Talk About Race” by Ijeoma Oluo and it’s very thought provoking and accessible but also full of useful ways of actually addressing systemic racism AND one’s own inherent biases (full disclosure I’m white)

Just finished Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me by Mindy Kayling and have to say I was disappointed, it was too fluffy for me. It officially puts me at #30 but in the interests of being fair to the group I’m going to redo my list taking out books I read for work and see if I can hit 26 books this year I’ve read/listened to purely for pleasure

1. Emerald Boy Gold Girl
2. Girl, Woman, Other
3. Hunger
4. Interpreter of Maladies
5. Bad Feminist
6. A Fist or a Heart (R)
7. The Underground Railroad
8. Rooftops of Tehran
9. The Hate U Give

10. Station Eleven 11. Walking on Glass 12. The House on Mango Street 13. The Half-Blood Prince 14. Unsheltered 15. Know My Name 16. Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?

@IJumpedAboardAPirateShip - absolutely there’s lots of BLM non-fiction on my to-read list and also lots of fiction written by black authors. My eyes are being opened and I’m learning a lot, shameful really that it’s taken this long.

I tend to get quite a lot of recommendations from the High Low podcast and then I add them to my goodreads “want to read” list so I don’t forget about them! I much prefer reading paperbacks so I’m always a year or so behind on new releases

'My Life in France' by Julia Child.
A book for your inner Francophile.

20 Little fires everywhere by Celeste Ng
I read this as I watched the series on prime. Really enjoyed the book and not that different to the show.
21: The holdout by Graham Moore. I was really looking forward to this book but must say I was disappointed with it. Alot of American courtroom jargon which I didn't really understand. Found the plot a bit farfetched too.

Finished another book for work which was a collection of short stories by Susan Minot which I really enjoyed but won’t put it on book count

17. Untamed by Glennon Doyle. I don’t normally read these kind of Elizabeth Gilbert self help books but a friend bought it for me for my birthday and the first two chapters hooked me in. After that though I got increasingly annoyed by her self proclaimed wisdom and just found it really annoying. I’ve taken away one or two things but mainly cringed my way through it

18. So You Want To Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo - highly recommend for anyone wanting to build in their BLM reading. Quite uncomfortable in places and very US orientated but very accessible and frank and with practical steps and guidance and resources that pull one (White readers anyway, I can’t speak for POC readers) away from centring oneself in the movement. I listened to it (narrated by the always brilliant Bahni Turpin) but think I’ll buy the paperback once it’s available from indie bookshops again because I’d like to read and make notes

19: The Rosie Effect by Graeme Simsion I read the first one of these last year and really enjoyed it. I have a bit of a vested interest with having a DS with Aspergers. This one though...I was a bit frustrated by it. The first one gave me hope. This one brought home how difficult DS might find certain aspects of adult life. And I was frustrated with Rosie's sudden lack of understanding when she'd previously accepted Don for who he is.

20: The Shut Eye by Belinda Bauer This was an interesting mystery and I love her books. I enjoyed this although it wasn't my favourite of hers. Took a bit of suspension of disbelief though!

17 Invisible Women by Caroline Criado Perez

Non-fiction on the data gap on women and how that means we are living in a world designed for men. Very interesting, some of I was aware of (crash test dummies, and my own field of pharmaceuticals) and some I was not.

To pick up on the BLM reading comments above. The publishing industry are really pushing it, all the papers seem to have essential reading lists, my local Waterstones had a full display (in the whitest area of the country) and Amazon seem to have sold out of pretty much every book by a black author at the moment. But I do wonder how much of it is virtue signalling, the white middle class buying these books (how many will actually get read?) but nothing much will change. I'm as much part of it as anyone else, I've just read Queenie after all for precisely this reason and am currently watching all the David Olusoga documentaries on BBC. And I do suspect a book like Queenie (which is an entertaining and accessible read) might have more of an effect where it matters than all the worthy non-fiction.

Book 11 Educated by Tara Westover. Hard to read at times but very good.

Book 12 Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro . Found it very odd in parts but an interesting concept.

Book 13 Logging Off by Nick Spalding. This wasn't what I was expecting. OK but nothing more.

@CountFosco I have the same worries about performative virtue signalling but also feel like if you read the book then hopefully SOMETHING will change. I see myself as a life long anti racists but learnt a huge amount about my subs IOU’s inherent biases and how to challenge them and help challenge the system from reading So You Want to Talk About Race

@Sportycustard I really loved Educated it was so vulnerable and brilliantly written, so different to any other memoir I’ve read especially her exploration on how true her memories were. Just fascinating

19. The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah, following the experiences of 2 estranged sisters living in France during the Second World War, one of whom is a resistance figure smuggling downed airmen across the Pyrenees to Spain. Easy to read but a beautiful story, been a while since a book has made me cry! Highly Recommended

*16. The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
*
This is one of those books I feel like I have read, having seen so many films and TV adaptations of the story, but actually hadn't until now. Thoroughly enjoyable, but long, hence it taking me three weeks to read!

12. The Chilbury Ladies’ Choir by Jennifer Ryan
I picked this up after reading good reviews and because I work in professional choral music. This is a wartime story about a women’s choir which forms when the men go away to war. A really good, multi-faceted story with likeable characters, but the epistolary style - it’s told through letters and journal entries - just didn’t work for me. If this had been a straight forward novel with a 1st/3rd person narrator, it would have been excellent.