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!

Plan B, Further Thoughts On Faith by Anne Lamott, a re-read so not counted in one of my lists, but no 6 overall.
So I'm up to
6 overall
3 new "books I own"
0 finished classics so far.

8 Fun Home, A Family Tragicomic by Alison Bechdel
Graphic (comic) memoir of the author's father. A fast read due to the format but absolutely incredible, engrossing, literary, and emotionally complex. The best thing I've read so far this year, only The Silence of the Girls comes close. The obvious comparison is with Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi but I think this is a better book (and I loved Persepolis).

Next up: The Children's Book by AS Byatt, only read Possession by her a million years ago which I loved so hope this is as good. Already read the first 100 pages and it's a step back in time with the first all-seeing author I've read all year. No unreliable narrator, how will I cope?

It's taken ages for me to find my way back to this thread!

I've been reading but not at such a pace over the last week or so.

Just finished Before I Met You by Lisa Jewell. We did it for book group and most people liked it. It's not her best but it's a good read.

Also read The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle and found it realy hard going. While fab writing and language etc it was SO complicated it rather sucked the enjoyment out for me.

Got You Back by Jane Fallon. Not literary but a good read. I like all of her books!

The Third Wife by Lisa Jewell. Again, not mind expanding but kept me reading!

I also read The Star Outside My Window with my 10 year old. It's by Onjali Rauf and utterly beautiful whilst also v sad. A book that everyone should read. It's about domestic abuse, the care system and bereavement so could be triggering.

I think I've got my 10 Books badge!

Next books waiting are book group selections - The Summer of Impossible Things by Rowan Coleman, and The Man Who Didn't Call by Rosie Walsh.

Just finished Agatha Christie "and then they were none" loved it! One of those books you don't know if you should slow down and savour or binge read.
Next on my list is Liz Nugent "lying in wait", easy and entertaining read so far. She's great at hooking you in from the first paragraph.

Number 10 - the interpreter of maladies, a collection of short stories that won the Pulitzer, some were very engaging but on the whole I didn’t enjoy it as much as the other short story collections I’ve read this year

I have a huge tbr pile and am ahead of myself for book club and no work books on the horizon so now starting Rooftops if Tehran which I picked up at a second hand bookshop a few months ago

6. Blood Orange - I absolutely loved this. Couldn't put it down and really got behind the main character. Would definitely recommend. 7. The Silent Patient - another one I really enjoyed. Didn't see the twist at the end coming! 8. Dear Mrs Bird - I'd had this on my kindle for a while and finally got round to reading it. I enjoyed it but it didn't keep me turning the page any chance I got. Just started reading 9. Lying in Wait. Only one chapter in but I'm enjoying it so far.

Finished Treasure Island, cracking read, no 1 in Classics, 7 overall.

Haven't been on in a while. As always, reading slows right down in term time. Numbers 5-8 were listens, as I have a long commute:

1. The Various Haunts of Men by Susan Hill
2. The Pure in Heart by Susan Hill
3. The Risk of Darkness by Susan Hill
4. Found by Erin Kinsey
5. The Trespasser by Tana French

Totally overdosed on Susan Hill, and taking a break from her for a while - started to get a bit tedious. Same with Tana French, tbh. I do really like her, but this was very same-y.

Found was a hard book - very dark. It's about a yong boy who gets kidnapped, and is found six months later. It's mainly a police procedural, but it also spends a lot of time with Evan, the boy, and his family, and the question of recovery. That part is very sensitively written. I was a bit worried that it would be too dark, but it doesn't go into the crime much and is more about what happens afterwards. I would recommend it, with the proviso that the back story is paedophilia.

I'm currently listening to Michelle Paver's Wakenhyrst, and LOVING it. It's a Gothic mystery set in the early 1900s. I love gothic fiction anyway, and this is glorious (even if it is a bit close to what I'm doing in work at the moment!).

1. Kudos by Rachel Cusk

This is the final part of a trilogy about Faye, a writer. Actually the books are not really about Faye at all, but more about the people she meets and the conversations they have with her. In this book she is at a literary festival and everyone she bumps into completely opens up to her in a way that seemed implausible to me. They reveal intimate details about their lives while we learn very little about Faye at all.

Stylistically, it's an interesting book. I think I preferred the first two books in the trilogy but I did find some of the writing in this one quite compelling and thought-provoking, if a little intense.

I'm loving all the inspiration here! Keep adding to my tbr list on GoodReads!

Just finished another Lisa Jewell Watching You - was a good page turner but nothing I'd be desperate to read again.

I've started Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng this evening and I'm enjoying it already.

1. Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens. Loved loved loved this book. Absolutely fell in love with Kya, she was beautifully written. It is a beautiful book full of prosaic descriptions of nature and I could visualise everything so easily because it was so clear. Definitely recommend this one.

A few more to add:
6 Mad Girl by Bryony Gordon. Really good, documents her struggle with mental health. A very easy read.
7: The family upstairs by Lisa Jewell. I enjoyed it although it was predictable. Would recommend though.
8: Life, death and Vanilla slices by Jenny Eclair. This was brilliant, it was funny but with a lot of dark humor and I did feel for the women written about in this book. Am planning to read some more written by this author
9: Then she was gone: Lisa Jewell. This was a page turner read it in two days.

There's a lot of love for Lisa Jewell on here! Have never read any of hers. What sort of thing does she write?

I love Lisa Jewell. She used to be a boy meets girl kind of writer but nowadays she does sort of psychological mysteries. Really good writer though and the last few years she’s done a book a year. Then She was Gone is brilliant but sad and I Found You is my favourite by her. Definitely great books.

Seems like ages since I updated!

7 - Miranda Road by Heather Reyes. Rather a nice coming of age, mother and daughter relationship story. Glad I read it.

8 - The Librarian of Auschwitz by Antonio Iturbe. Disturbing at times, but utterly illuminating when I realised how little I really knew of what had gone on inside the concentration camps. Highly recommended.

I recommend Lisa Jewell too. I'll definitely be reading some more of her books.

I always enjoyed Lisa Jewell in her old style but I really like her newer, more suspense-ridden guise.

I dropped off this thread. As usually happens when I"m reading non-fiction, I started jumping around and not finishing much. Last time I updated I'd finished my third book and was reading Why Social Media is Ruining Your Life, which I still haven't finished! I then read a book about World War Two with my son, which lead me to dipping in to my huge History of Britain Book - but I only read a handful of pages. That did lead me to my true book 4 though, a re-read of Anne Frank - Diary of a Young Girl which surely needs no explanation. It's the first time I've read it in more than 15 years though.

Keeping with the war theme, although not the holocuast, book 5 was What Happened to the Corbetts by Nevil Shute followed by book 6 On the Beach also by Nevil Shute. These are both re-reads too. I was always fascinated by the prophetic nature of What Happened to the Corbetts when I first read it as a teenager. I only discovered much later that Shute had some degree of inside knowledge about the sort of effects air raids could have and how they would be carried out, so it wasn't exactly the coincidental foretelling that I first imagined. I still like On the Beach as an example of the post-apocalyptic genre, but it struck me far more on this reading about both books how devoid of emotion they are. The characters really are rather flat and I honestly cannot imagine anyone acting quite as they do in the circumstances.

I haven't yet decided whether to pick up A Town Like Alice as my next book or to leave the Shutes there for a while!

I am rubbish at reading fiction
I have read 4 x non fiction this year and I have a hard going fiction book in the loo and I am not getting very far with it

Oh, I used to be such a fan of Shute! I could add one to my classics list.

I've never read any Lisa Jewell. I'd always given her books a wide swerve as I thought they were romance-type jobs. But I'm quite intrigued now and will have a look next time I'm in the library.

5. Finding Ultra - Rich Roll
This is two thirds memoir and one third self-help book. The author took up a plant-based diet and started competing in ultra endurance events like Ironman triathlons after having a bit of an epiphany as he turned 40.
I am also approaching the big 4-0 and have an interest in sports, health and well-being so a lot of this resonated with me.
However I can see how it's quite niche and wouldn't appeal to everybody.

Finished The Excursion Train, by Edward Marston, no 8 overall, no 4 of books I own. A murder mystery set on the Victorian railway system.

Finished Book 6 The Five - the untold story of the women killed by Jack the Ripper, I found this a good read and an insight into London of the past.

Book 7 was Baby Doll by Hollie Overton, this was a good read about someone who escapes her abductor after 8 years in captivity. A bit like Room, but it kept me intrigued and I read it quite quickly.

Can I join? I'll add books I'm reading later. I think I've read about 6 this year already: on the train and in bed.

5. Howards End by E. M. Forster - enjoyed this but not as much as A Room with a View or Where Angels Fear to Tread.
6. Now You See Her by Heidi Perks - a nice easy read, nothing unique about it though.
Now reading 7. Lying in Wait by Liz Nugent - so far so good.