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50 Book Challenge 2020 Part Six

999 replies

southeastdweller · 19/06/2020 22:13

Welcome to the sixth thread of the 50 Book Challenge for this year.

The challenge is to read fifty books (or more!) in 2020, 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 and the fifth one here.

So, we're now almost half way through the year - how's the first half of the year gone for you, reading-wise?

OP posts:
TheTurnOfTheScrew · 19/06/2020 22:22

Many thanks as ever south. I continue to progress slowly: no childcare, and increased work demands squeeze my reading time ever tighter. My list:

  1. March Violets by Philip Kerr
  2. Ring The Hill by Tom Cox
  3. The Stepford Wives by Ira Levin
  4. The Lost Man by Jane Harper
  5. Cat's Eye by Margaret Atwood.
  6. Wakenhyrst by Michelle Paver
7. Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
  1. The Secret Barrister - Stories of the Law and How It's Broken
  2. Enigma by Robert Harris
10.Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata 11. Fleishman is in Trouble by Taffy Brodesser-Akner 12. The Citadel by AJ Cronin 13. The Mirror and the Light by Hilary Mantel 14. Such a Fun Age by Kiley Read 15. Lady in Waiting by Anne Glenconner 16. A Journal of the Plague Year by Daniel Defoe 17. Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams

I've just started Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots by Deborah Feldman.

TimeforaGandT · 19/06/2020 22:35

Thank you southeast. Bringing my list across and updating with latest read:

  1. The Subtle Knife - Philip Pullman
  2. The Amber Spyglass - Philip Pullman
3. Once upon a River - Diane Setterfield
  1. Tombland - CJ Sansom
  2. Hercule Poirot’s Christmas - Agatha Christie
  3. White House Farm - Carol Ann Lee
  4. The Haunting of Hill House - Shirley Jackson
8. A History of Loneliness - John Boyne
  1. The Last Tudor - Philippa Gregory
10. The Pale Horse - Agatha Christie 11. The Sun Also Rises - Ernest Hemingway 12. Queenie - Candice Carty-Williams 13. Pigeon Pie - Nancy Mitford 14. A Country Escape - Katie Fforde 15. Slow Horses - Mick Herron 16. Bookworm - Lucy Mangan 17. Just One Damned Thing After Another - Jodi Taylor 18. A Symphony of Echoes - Jodi Taylor 19. The Light Years - Elizabeth Jane Howard 20. A Second Chance - Jodi Taylor 21. Slaughterhouse 5 - Kurt Vonnegut 22. Circe - Madeleine Miller 23. Dead Cert - Dick Francis 24. Nerve - Dick Francis 25. For Kicks - Dick Francis 26. Hamnet - Maggie O’Farrell 27. Odds Against - Dick Francis 28. Flying Finish - Dick Francis 29. Blood Sport - Dick Francis 30. Dishonesty is the second best policy - David Mitchell 31. Forfeit - Dick Francis 32. Rat Race - Dick Francis 33. Bonecrack - Dick Francis 34. A Farewell to Arms - Ernest Hemingway 35. The Thief of Time - John Boyne 36. The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins 37. A Thousand Ships - Natalie Haynes

And just finished:
38. Smokescreen - Dick Francis

Main character is an actor (comes from a riding background) who ends up in South Africa dodging death (attempts to kill him although he doesn’t immediately realise that). A cracking plot but not much in the way of horses - they are very peripheral to the story. Enjoyed the book but missed the horses.

BestIsWest · 19/06/2020 22:43

Thank you as always southeast

Finished with Malory Towers and now on Nevil Shute’s Requiem for a Wren which is so far very sad and yet almost feels as though it is set in the same world as Malory Towers.

PepeLePew · 19/06/2020 22:46

Thanks SouthEast and hello everyone. This thread is such a welcome respite from everything else.

1 Guest House for Young Widows by Azadeh Moaveni
2 Little Women by Louisa Alcott
3 Homegoing by Yaa Gyasin
4 Lady in Waiting by Anne Glenconner
5 The Institute by Stephen King
6 Dracula by Bram Stoker
7 The Growing Pains of Adrian Mole by Sue Townsend
8 Snowblind by Ragnor Jónasson
9 Chernobyl Prayer by Svetlana Alexievicho
10 A Little Book of Language by David Crystal
11 Rewild Yourself by Simon Barnes
12 Smashing Physics by Jon Butterworth
13 Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont by Elizabeth Taylor
14 Over The Top by Jonathan Van Ness
15 Rosewater by Tade Thompson
16 Imogen by Jilly Cooper
17 We Are Made of Diamond Stuff by Isabel Waidner
18 You’re Not Listening by Kate Murphy
19 Natural History of the Hedgerow by John Wright
20 Letters from an Astrophysicist by Neil deGrasse Tyson
21 Christy Malry’s Own Double Entry by BS Johnson
22 Ducks, Newburyport by Lucy Ellman
23 Maid by Stephanie Land
24 The Familiars by Stacey Halls
25 People Like Us by Caroline Slocock
26 Bad Blood by Colm Tóibín
27 Ghosts of the Tsunami by Richard Lloyd Parry
28 The Future We Choose by Christiana Figueres and Tom Rivett-Carnac
29 Unpacking Queer Politics by Sheila Jeffreys
30 Unreliable Memoirs by Clive James
31 Octavia by Jilly Cooper
32 The Visitor by Lee Child
33 A Journal of the Plague Year by Daniel Defoe
34 Under The Skin by Michael Faber
35 The Women’s Room by Marilyn French
36 The Stand by Stephen King
37 Charlotte Sometimes by Penelope Farmer
38 The Five by Hallie Rubenhold
39 Innocent Traitor by Alison Weir
40 The Journal of a Disappointed Man by WNP Barbellion
41 Excitements at the Chalet School by Elinor M Brent-Dyer
42 The Chalet School and Barbara by Elinor M Brent-Dyer
43 The Coming of Age of the Chalet School by Elinor M Brent-Dyer
44 Just For One Day by Louise Wener
45 Notes from an Apocalypse by Mark O’Connell
46 You People by Nikita Lalwani
47 The Iliad by Homer
48 The Tale of Troy by Roger Lancelyn Green
49 First Term at Malory Towers by Enid Blyton
50 Second Form at Malory Towers by Enid Blyton
51 Third Year at Malory Towers by Enid Blyton
52 Until The End of Time by Brian Greene
53 Frost in May by Antonia White
54 My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell

55 Pet Shop Boys, Literally by Chris Heath
Finished despite my plans for an early night because my neighbours are having a party. Really unhappy about that, as I was meant to be at a friend’s 50th tonight which has of course been cancelled. Anyway, grumpiness aside...this is an account of their first tour, in Japan. I liked the format - a combination of interviews and stories from Heath who accompanied them. And I like the PSB and can see they are funny and smart and would be entertaining company. And yet I was left a bit cold by this in the end, but that may just be because I am missing live music and want to be at gigs, not reading about them.

EineReiseDurchDieZeit · 19/06/2020 22:49

I have, embarrassingly, been refreshing for ages for this because my list ended up such a mess last time I was determined to put the effort in to doing it proper Blush

Thanks southeast watch me cock this up again now Grin

Northern Lights by Phillip Pullman

  1. Vox by Christina Dalcher
  2. In Evil Hour by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
  3. Spasm by Lauren Slater
  4. Elizabeth Is Missing by Emma Healey
  5. Lincoln In The Bardo by George Saunders
  6. Written On The Body by Jeanette Winterson
  7. Lion by Saroo Brierley
  8. Tony And Susan by Austin Wright
10. The Purveyor Of Enchantment by Marika Cobbold 11. Jamaica Inn by Daphne Du Maurier 12. His Bloody Project by Graeme Macrae Burnett 13. Friendly Fire by Patrick Gale 14. The Remains Of The Day by Kazuo Ishiguro 15. Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng 16. The Girl With All The Gifts by MR Carey 17. Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout 18. Portnoy’s Complaint by Philip Roth 19. Touch by Claire North 20. A Year Of Marvellous Ways by Sarah Winman 21. The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins 22. The Plot Against America by Philip Roth 23. The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead 24. Small Island by Andrea Levy 25. Unfollow by Megan Phelps-Roper 26. Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff 27. Ayoade On Top by Richard Ayoade 28. The Subtle Knife by Philip Pullman 29. The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman 30. Why I’m No Longer Talking To White People About Race by Reni Eddo-Lodge 31. My Sister, The Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite 32. The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern 33. The Wings Of The Dove by Henry James 34. The Mirror And The Light by Hilary Mantel 35. The Testaments by Margaret Atwood 36. The Adventures Of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain 37. The Five by Hallie Rubenhold 38. Half Of A Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie 39. The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers 40. The Name Of The Wind by Patrick Rothfuss 41. Hidden Valley Road by Robert Kolker 42. The Gift Of Fear by Gavin de Becker 43. Capital by John Lanchester 44. Love Child by Allegra Huston 45. The Wise Man’s Fear by Patrick Rothfuss 46. All Quiet On The Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque 47. Outlander by Diana Gabaldon 48. Little by Edward Carey 49. Lost Girls by Robert Kolker 50. Becoming by Michelle Obama 51. Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman 52. Normal People by Sally Rooney 53. Mrs Palfrey At The Claremont by Elizabeth Taylor 54. Catch and Kill by Ronan Farrow 55. The Rainbow Comes And Goes by Diana Cooper 56. The Light Of Common Day by Diana Cooper 57. Trumpets From The Steep by Diana Cooper 58. Nod by Adrian Barnes 59. Derby Day by DJ Taylor 60. The Power by Naomi Alderman 61. Rodham by Curtis Sittenfeld 62. The Memory Of Love by Aminatta Forna 63. And The Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseni 64. Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow 65. Lady In Waiting by Anne Glenconner 66. An American Marriage by Tayari Jones 67. The Psychology Of Time Travel by Kate Mascarenhas 68. Queen Bees by Sian Evans 69. A Woman Of No Importance by Sonia Purnell 70. Disobedience by Naomi Alderman 71. Dear Mrs Bird by AJ Pearce 72. Kick by Paula Byrne 73. The Dry by Jane Harper 74. Now We Shall Be Entirely Free by Andrew Miller 75. Swan Song by Kelleigh Greenberg Jephcott 76. This Is How You Lose The Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone 77. My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell 78. The Other Half Of Augusta Hope by Joanna Glen 79. Long Walk To Freedom by Nelson Mandela 80. American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins

Currently reading : The Paying Guests, Sarah Waters

InMyOwnParticularIdiom · 19/06/2020 23:00

Thanks for the new thread SouthEast. My reading slowed down a bit at the start of lockdown, but now we're in a routine where DD watches a Disney movie pretty much every day after lunch so I've sneaked a bit of my reading time back!

  1. The Secrets of Blood and Bone - Rebecca Alexander
  2. Little Women - Louisa May Alcott
  3. Identity Crisis - Ben Elton
  4. Sunny Side Up - Susan Calman
  5. How to Stop Losing Your Shit with Your Kids - Carla Naumburg
  6. Smoke Gets in Your Eyes - Caitlin Doughty
  7. This Book Will Change Your Mind about Mental Health - Nathan Filer
  8. Damascus - Christos Tsiolkas
  9. The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo - Taylor Jenkins Reid
10. Thinking About It Only Makes It Worse - David Mitchell 11. Queenie - Candice Carty-Williams 12. Between the Stops: the view of my life from the top of the number 12 bus - Sandi Toksvig 13. Murderous Contagion: a human history of disease - Mary Dobson 14. The Testaments - Margaret Atwood 15. Other Minds: the octopus, the sea, and the deep origins of consciousness - Peter Godfrey-Smith 16. When I Hit You - Meena Kandasamy 17. Around the World in Eighty Days - Michael Palin 18. How to Find Fulfilling Work - Roman Krznaric 19. The Foundling - Stacey Halls 20. The Butchering Art - Lindsey Fitzharris 21. How to Raise an Amazing Child the Montessori Way - Tim Seldin 22. Seven Worlds, One Planet - Jonny Keeling & Scott Alexander 23. Tamed: ten species that changed our world - Alice Roberts 24. The Reddening - Adam Nevill 25. Peas & Queues: the minefield of modern manners - Sandi Toksvig 26. Bookworm - Lucy Mangan 27. The Last Hero - Terry Pratchett 28. She’s Back: your guide to returning to work - Lisa Unwin & Deb Khan 29. I Am, I Am, I Am - Maggie O’Farrell 30. The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work - Alain de Botton 31. Unreliable Memoirs - Clive James 32. Buyer Beware: a New Zealand Home Buyer’s Guide - Maria Slade 33. The Five: the lives of Jack the Ripper’s women - Hallie Rubenhold 34. It’s Not Me, It’s You - Jon Richardson 35. Psycho-logical - Dean Burnett 36. The Ghost: a cultural history - Susan Owens 37. The Language Hoax - John McWhorter 38. The Secrets of Time and Fate - Rebecca Alexander 39. Wishful Drinking - Carrie Fisher 40. Savage Breast: one man’s search for the Goddess - Tim Ward 41. Normal People - Sally Rooney 42. Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race - Reni Eddo-Lodge 43. The Multi-Hyphen Method - Emma Gannon

And just finished...
44. If Only They Could Talk - James Herriot
The first of the vet's fictionalised memoirs. Luckily I enjoyed it a lot as my brother bought me the whole set for my birthday. The combination of mid-twentieth century nostalgia and medical (well, veterinary) terms to look up is perfect comfort reading for me. It's amazing how much of the TV series I remember, given that I was only a nipper in the 80s, but I can't help but picture Christopher Timothy, Robert Hardy etc in the main roles.

EineReiseDurchDieZeit · 19/06/2020 23:00

Success....ish

Halo
Terpsichore · 19/06/2020 23:11

Another lovely new thread - thanks, Southeast . I'm getting back into reading now, after a very fragmented and nervous period when I couldn't concentrate on anything much. An experience common to many of us, I think. My list so far:

1: Quartet in Autumn - Barbara Pym
2: The Sale of the Late King's Goods - Jerry Brotton
3: The House Opposite - Barbara Noble
4: Jacob's Room is Full of Books - Susan Hill
5: The Gathering - Anne Enright
6: The Night Fire - Michael Connelly
7: The Shadow District - Arnaldur Indriðason
8: 1939 - Frederick Taylor
9: North Korea Journal - Michael Palin
10: Clock Dance - Anne Tyler
11: The Missing Ink - Philip Hensher
12: A Very Private Eye - Barbara Pym
13: Odd One Out - Lissa Evans
14: Whistle in the Dark - Emma Healey
15: The Greengage Summer - Rumer Godden
16: Some Tame Gazelle - Barbara Pym
17: The Lying Room - Nicci Gerrard
18: Not in Your Lifetime: The Assassination of JFK - Anthony Summers
19: Our Friends in Berlin - Anthony Quinn
20: Airhead - Emily Maitlis
21: Pretty Jane and the Viper of Kidbrooke Lane - Paul Thomas Murphy
22: Conclave - Robert Harris
23: Bring up the Bodies - Hilary Mantel
24: Me - Elton John
25: The Poison Principle - Gail Bell
26: A Question of Upbringing - Anthony Powell
27: A Buyer's Market - Anthony Powell
28: The Town in Bloom - Dodie Smith
29: Short Life in a Strange World - Toby Ferris
30: Nothing to Report - Carola Oman
31: Somewhere in England - Carola Oman
32: The Bells of Old Tokyo - Anna Sherman
33: The Burning Man - Jane Casey
34: Rosie: Scenes from a Vanished Life - Rose Tremain
35: The Pulse Glass - Gillian Tindall
36: Eating Up Italy: Voyages on a Vespa - Matthew Fort
37: On the Plain of Snakes - Paul Theroux
38: The Tortoise and the Hare - Elizabeth Jenkins
39: Into the Wild - Jon Krakauer
40: The Benefit of Hindsight - Susan Hill
41: Jeremy Hutchinson's Case Histories - Thomas Grant
42: Babbacombes - Susan Scarlett
43: The Last Train to Zona Verde - Paul Theroux
44: Joe Country - Mick Herron

That did have some bolding but it's disappeared and I can't be bothered to put it back Grin

I'm also continuing with the David Copperfield readalong, have begun À la recherche du temps perdu for book club (Vol 1!), and rather stupidly took the latest Donna Leon out of the library as an ebook, so I'm not short of things to be getting on with.

Sadik · 19/06/2020 23:17

Thanks for the new thread SouthEast. I'm afraid unlike Eine I'm not feeling up to making my Excel spreadsheet into a nicely formatted list.
However, I have just finished
63. The Other Bennet Sister by Janice Hadlow
I think this was first recommended by Fortuna? Anyway, I enjoyed this, which tells Mary Bennet's story, enormously. It's no criticism to say that it reminded me of the best sort of fanfiction. It doesn't stand alone, and (quite reasonably) assumes that the reader knows Pride and Prejudice inside out. But it takes several secondary characters - not just Mary, but Charlotte Lucas, Mr Collins, the Gardiners and others and plays with them in a way that keeps them recognisably in character, but then builds from there. Many of the Amazon reviews complain about the novel's length (also a common fanfic characteristic Grin ) but I was more than happy spending time with them all. Not great literature (far fewer pretentions than Longbourn which I finished but didn't really think much of), but I'll definitely read it again.

I've just seen that Mansfield Revisited by Joan Aiken which is the only other Austen sequel that I've thought much of previously is cheap on Kindle, so I'm going to re-read that next & see how it compares.

SatsukiKusakabe · 19/06/2020 23:17

Thanks southeast

Just checking in. Have some reviews to catch up later. Finished reading The Railway Children to dc and started snivelling before I was anywhere near the daddy line. Dc highly amused Smile

FortunaMajor · 19/06/2020 23:23

Thank you for the new thread Southeast

Sorry to stick my very long list in the way. I've discovered it's a nuisance to go back and look for anything if I don't.

  1. Asymmetry - Lisa Halliday
  2. The Silent Patient – Alex Michaelides
  3. Woke – Titania McGrath
  4. My Year of Rest and Relaxation - Ottessa Moshfegh
  5. The Familiars – Stacey Halls
  6. The Hunting Party – Lucy Foley
  7. The Poisonwood Bible – Barbara Kingsolver
  8. Frankenstein – Mary Shelley
  9. The Sanctuary Murders – Susanna Gregory
10. North and South - Elizabeth Gaskell 11. Villette – Charlotte Brontë 12. Night Boat to Tangiers – Kevin Barry 13. Americanah – Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche 14. Homesick for Another World - Ottessa Moshfegh 15. Middlemarch – George Eliot 16. Galatea – Madeline Miller 17. The Country Girls – Edna O’Brien 18. The Running Hare – John Lewis Stempel 19. The Hidden World of the Fox – Adele Brand 20. The Janus Stone (Ruth Galloway #2) – Elly Griffiths 21. Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine – Gail Honeyman 22. And Then There Were None – Agatha Christie 23. The Witches Are Coming – Lindy West 24. Lost Children Archive – Valeria Luiselli 25. The Confession – Jessie Burton 26. The Wall – John Lanchester 27. The Man Who Saw Everything – Deborah Levy 28. Bone China - Laura Purcell 29. I Am, I Am, I Am – Maggie O’Farrell 30. Call the Midwife – Jennifer Worth 31. Candide - Voltaire 32. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn – Mark Twain 33. The Mercies – Kiran Millwood Hargrave 34. Wolf Hall – Hilary Mantel 35. The Name of the Rose – Umberto Eco 36. Such A Fun Age- Kiley Reid 37. Bring Up the Bodies – Hilary Mantel 38. Conviction – Denise Mina 39. Disappearing Earth – Julia Phillips 40. The Illness Lesson – Clare Beams 41. A History of Britain in 21 Women – Jenni Murray 42. Three Things About Elsie – Joanna Cannon 43. Dear Edward – Ann Napolitano 44. Djinn Patrol on the Purplr Line – Deepa Anappara 45. The Outsiders – SE HInton 46. Before the Coffee Gets Cold – Toshikazu Kawaguchi 47. The Mars Room – Rachel Kushner 48. Red at the Bone – Jacqueline Woodson 49. Nightingale Point – Luan Goldie 50. The Most Fun We Ever Had – Claire Lombardo 51. Ask Again, Yes – Mary Beth Keane 52. The Death of Mrs Westaway – Ruth Ware 53. The Mirror and the Light – Hilary Mantel 54. Sometimes I Lie – Alice Feeney 55. The Confessions of Frannie Langton – Sara Collins 56. Long Bright River – Liz Moore 57. Silas Marner – George Eliot 58. Persona Non Grata (Ruso #3) - Ruth Downie 59. Heroes – Stephen Fry 60. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (POirot #4) – Agatha Christie 61. Lark Rise to Candleford – Flora Thompson 62. The Spire – William Golding 63. The Furies – Natalie Haynes 64. The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo – Taylor Jenkins Reid 65. The House at Sea’s End (Ruth Galloway #3) – Elly Griffiths 66. If You Want to Make God Laugh – Bianca Marais 67. A Woman of No Importance – Sonia Purnell 68. A Good Neighbourhood – Therese Anne Fowler 69. The Absolutist – John Boyne 70. Daisy Jones and the Six - Taylor Jenkins Reid 71. My Dark Vanessa – Kate Elizabeth Russell 72. Actress – Anne Enright 73. Dominicana – Angie Cruz 74. Fleishman is in Trouble – Tiffany Brodesser-Akner 75. Weather – Jenny Offill 76. Saltwater – Jessica Andrews 77. How We Disappeared – Jing-Jing Lee 78. Guest House for Young Widows – Azadeh Moaveni 79. Unsheltered – Barbara Kingsolver 80. A Thousand Ships – Natalie Haynes 81. When Will There Be Good News (Jackson Brodie #3) – Kate Atkinson 82. Supper Club – Lara Williams 83. Hamnet – Maggie O’Farrell 84. He Said/She Said – Erin Kelly 85. Surfacing – Kathleen James 86. The Other Bennet Sister – Janice Hadlow 87. Our Women on the Ground – Zahra Hankir 88. The Five - Hallie Rubenhold 89. Dear Mrs Bird –AJ Pearce 90. The Reservoir Tapes – Jon McGregor 91. The Story of My Teeth – Valeria Luiselli 92. Topics of Conversation – Miranda Popkey 93. A Single Thread – Tracy Chevalier 94. The Opposite of Fate – Alison McGhee 95. The Girl With the Louding Voice Abi Daré 96. Miss Austen – Gill Hornby 97. Redhead By the Side of the Road – Anne Tyler 98. I Know Who You Are – Alice Feeney 99. The Book of Longings – Sue Monk Kidd 100. Akin – Emma Donaghue 101. Out of Darkness, Shining Light – Pettina Gappah 102. The Sealwoman’s Gift – Sally Magnusson 103. Jonathan Pie Off the Record – Jonathan Pie 104. Dept of Speculation – Jenny Offill 105. The Lesser Bohemians – Eimer McBride 106. We must Be Brave – Frances Liardet 107. All the Birds Singing – Evie Wyld 108. Know My Name – Chanel Miller 109. The Little Stranger – Sarah Waters 110. Say Nothing – Patrick Radden Keith 111. Absolution By Murder ( Sister Fidelma #1) – Peter Tremayne 112. The Rise of Darkness (Serailler #3) – Susan Hill 113. The Story of the British Isles in 100 Places – Neil Oliver 114. The Secretary – Zoe Lea 115. Everyday Sexism – Laura Bates 116. A Bit of a Stretch – Chris Atkins 117. Pamela – Samuel Richardson 118. Three Women – Lisa Taddeo 119. The Yellow Bird Sings – Jennifer Rosner 120. The Uncoupling – Meg Wolitzer 121. Strange Hotel – Eimear McBride 122. If Beale Street Could Talk – James Baldwin 123. A Different Class of Murder: The Story of Lord Lucan – Laura Thompson 124. The Foundling – Stacey Halls 125. St Clare’s Collection – Enid Blyton 126. Days Without End – Sebastian Barry 127. A Thousand Moons – Sebastian Barry 128. The Grove of the Caesars (Flavia Albia #8) – Lindsey Davis 129. The Bookseller’s Tale (Oxford Medieval #1) - Ann Swinfen 130. Clock Dance – Anne Tyler 131. If I Had Your Face – Frances Cha 132. These Women – Amy Pochoda 133. Brit(ish):On Race, Identity and Belonging – Afua Hirsch

Latest update
134. The Equivalents: A Story of Art, Female Friendship and Liberation in the 1960s – Maggie Doherty
Narrative non-fiction about 5 women who attended the Radcliffe Institute (now part of Harvard) in the 60s in a program designed to get high achieving women back into academia after marriage and kids. Those with a PhD or equivalent in artistic merit were eligible for a grant to attend the new Institute for Independent Study. This was on the cusp of the Women's Lib movement. Five artistic women admitted as 'Equivalent' to formal education formed a firm friendship that shaped their lives and work. Includes poets Sexton and Kumin, Swan a painter, Pineda a sculptor and Olsen a writer.

I was a bit sceptical at first, but was soon hooked by this lively and productive group. I admit to not knowing of any of them prior to this but they crossed paths with Plath, Walker, Morrison, Steinem and Friedan. This is incredibly well written and a fascinating look at the arts and society in a age where women were rarely taken seriously.

  1. The Inimitable Jeeves – PG Wodehouse Jolly japes for some much needed light relief.

Still plodding on with David Copperfield for the Dickens group and slowing working my way through Testament of Youth

EineReiseDurchDieZeit · 19/06/2020 23:29

Oh Fortuna (Pun Intended)

You must have been the person who recommended Woman Of No Importance - it was great, I really enjoyed it

FortunaMajor · 19/06/2020 23:31

Sadik It was me. I think your description of it as fanfic is very apt. I also wasn't that keen on Longbourn and I liked that this didn't take itself too seriously. I found it really fun and now have a real soft spot for Mary as a result.

FortunaMajor · 19/06/2020 23:39

Eine guilty again. I've also been eyeing up Madame Fourcade's Secret War by Lynne Olson which looks to be very much in the same vein.

I've also looked at Purnell's book on Clementine Churchill, but there's a new one out by Marie Benedict, so I'm a little torn which to choose. I don't think I'm interested enough to want to read both.

FortunaMajor · 19/06/2020 23:51

Sorry, I'm just spamming the thread now, but I really love a good bit of list porn.

I find it fascinating to see which books come up as highlights again and again. I'm taking notes and adding to my TBR list.

EineReiseDurchDieZeit · 20/06/2020 00:03

Yes.

I have been eyeing up the Purnell Clem Churchill too and I am obsessed with the patterning in the lists both in terms of coincidental random choosing and in popularity and the ripple effect of one good review catching the book on throughout the thread

But then I am a ridiculous nerd about books

teaandcustardcreamsx · 20/06/2020 00:31

Is it okay if I join in? Smile

I will admit my list so far is rather short compared to everyone else’s Blush

  1. Anna Karenina
  2. The road to Avalon
  3. A little life
  4. A Christmas carol
  5. An inspector calls

And I’m currently reading:
Gone with the wind
The trauma of everyday life
A simple favour
Dracula
Labyrinth
Wuthering heights
Wind in the willows
The Picture of Dorian Gray
The castle of otrano

Smile
mackerella · 20/06/2020 01:07

Evening, all. Like InMyOwnParticularIdiom and Terpsichore, I've finished 44 books so far - it's obviously a popular number! I've still got some reviews to catch up with, but the list so far is:

  1. Hall of Mirrors by Christopher Fowler
  2. Festive Spirits by Kate Atkinson
  3. The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher by Hilary Mantel
  4. The Ghost Fields by Elly Griffiths
  5. Angel With Two Faces by Nicola Upson
  6. Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozie Adichie
  7. The Road to Little Dribbling by Bill Bryson
  8. The Woman in Blue by Elly Griffiths
  9. The Chalk Pit by Elly Griffiths
10. The Crow Trap by Ann Cleeves 11. The Dark Angel by Elly Griffiths 12. Normal People by Sally Rooney 13. The Stone Circle by Elly Griffiths 14. The Herring Seller's Apprentice by L. C. Tyler 15. To Siri With Love by Judith Newman 16. The Screaming Staircase (Lockwood & Co) by Jonathan Stroud 17. 9th and 13th by Jonathan Coe 18. Literary Life by Posy Simmonds 19. Bach by Denis Arnold 20. The Constant Nymph by Margaret Kennedy 21. An American Marriage by Tayari Jones 22. Smallbone Deceased by Michael Gilbert 23. England's Finest by Christopher Fowler 24. How Not To Be A Boy by Robert Webb 25. The Quest for the Golden Hare by Bamber Gascoigne 26. Masquerade by Kit Williams 27. Vermeer to Eternity by Anthony Horowitz 28. Wine and Punishment by Sarah Fox 29. Back When We Were Grownups by Anne Tyler 30. True Love by Posy Simmonds 31. Airhead by Emily Maitlis 32. Grown Ups by Marian Keyes 33. The Porpoise by Mark Haddon 34. Annabel Scheme by Robin Sloan 35. The Mystery of Three Quarters by Sophie Hannah 36. Noble Savages by Sarah Watling 37. Coffin, Scarcely Used by Colin Watson 38. The Time Machine by H. G. Wells 39. Look Who's Back by Timur Vermes 40. Where Do Comedians Go When They Die? by Milton Jones 41. Mount! by Jilly Cooper 42. Love, Nina by Nina Stibbe 43. The Hoarder by Jess Kidd 44. One More Croissant for the Road by Felicity Cloake
Piggywaspushed · 20/06/2020 07:49

Thank you! List so far:

  1. Following On – Emma John
  2. Number One Chinese Restaurant – Lillian Li
  3. If Cats Disappeared From The World – Genki Kawamura
  4. Midnight’s Children – Salman Rushdie
  5. The Hunting Party – Lucy Foley
  6. Now We Shall Be Entirely Free – Andrew Miller
  7. The Ballroom – Anna Hope
  8. Emma - Jane Austen
  9. The Mercies – Kiran Millwood Hargrave
  10. Remembered – Yvonne Battle- Felton
  11. Contested Will - James Shapiro
  12. The Glass Woman – Caroline Lea
  13. All The Lives We Never Lived – Anuradha Roy
  14. Invisible Women – Caroline Criado Perez
  15. The Five – Hallie Rubenhold
  16. The Lost Girls – Charlotte Woolley
  17. The Night Circus – Erin Morgenstern
  18. Hard Pushed – Leah Hazard
  19. The Year of Living Danishly – Helen Russell
  20. Three Hours – Rosamund Lupton
  21. Hamnet- Maggie O’Farrell
  22. War Doctor – David Nott
  23. Period – Emma Barnett
  24. The Volunteer – Jack Fairweather
  25. This is Shakespeare – Emma Smith
  26. Teach Like A Writer – Jennifer Webb
  27. 1599: A Year In The Life of Shakespeare – James Shapiro
  28. Dear Edward – Ann Napolitano
  29. The Darkness – Ragnur Jonasson
  30. Around the World in 80 Trains – Monisha Rajeshi
  31. Things In Jars – Jess Kidd
  32. Sounds Appealing – David Crystal
  33. Shakespeare On Toast – Ben Crystal
  34. Fierce Bad Rabbits- Clare Pollard

Still on my David Copperfield readalong and reading TMATL slowly!

SatsukiKusakabe · 20/06/2020 08:01
  1. Black Hammer Vol 1
2. Life Among the Savages
  1. Comet in Moominland
4. Jim Henson’s Biography 5. Catch and Kill 6. A Spool of Blue Thread
  1. Thin Air by Michelle Paver
  2. 12 Rules for Life
  3. The Sisters Brothers
10. The Pied Piper 11. The Empire of the Sun 12. The 101 Dalamatians 13. The Hobbit 14. My Wild and Sleepless Nights 15. Wild and Crazy Guys 16. The Topeka School 17. Trustee from the Toolroom 18. The Indian in the Cupboard 19. Me Talk Pretty One Day 20. Sputnik Sweetheart 21. Such a Fun Age 22. Persuasion 23. The Island 24. Ghost Wall 25. Stasiland 26. Ice Cold in Alex 27. Rodham 28. Matilda 29. The Railway Children 30. The Mothers by Brit Bennett
Terpsichore · 20/06/2020 08:50

Like InMyOwnParticularIdiom and Terpsichore, I've finished 44 books so far

Mackerella, that prompted me to go back and check on where I'd been at this point last year, because I feel I've surmounted my reading wobble and pulled comfortably ahead. I'm only 3 books further forward, though!

And spookily, I discovered that I did exactly the same checking thing at roughly the same point in the year, and concluded then that I'd settled at my natural reading level. I now feel as if my lizard brain has taken charge and is unconsciously prompting me. It's a bit unnerving Grin

Tarahumara · 20/06/2020 09:00

Thanks for the new thread, southeast.

Here's my list:

  1. The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris
  2. 11.22.63 by Stephen King
  3. The Yorkshire Shepherdess by Amanda Owen
  4. Thomas Hardy: the Time-torn Man by Claire Tomalin
  5. Lies Lies Lies by Adele Parks
  6. The Dark Side of the Mind by Kerry Daynes
  7. Back Story by David Mitchell
  8. The Path by Malcolm McKay
  9. Ulysses by James Joyce
10. The Mother of All Jobs: How to have Children and a Career and Stay Sane by Christine Armstrong 11. Wounds: A Memoir of War and Love by Fergal Keane 12. Ghost Wall by Sarah Moss 13. Smoke Gets in Your Eyes: And Other Lessons from the Crematory by Caitlin Doughty 14. Asymmetry by Lisa Halliday 15. Eat, Drink, Run: How I Got Fit Without Going Too Mad by Bryony Gordon 16. Bel Canto by Ann Patchett 17. To Throw Away Unopened Viv Albertine 18. I Remember Nothing: And Other Reflections by Nora Ephron 19. Bring Me Back by B A Paris 20. My Lovely Wife: A Memoir of Madness and Hope by Mark Lukach 21. The Rules Do Not Apply by Ariel Levy 22. My Name is Lucy Barton by Elizabeth Strout 23. The Stand by Stephen King 24. Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones 25. Normal People by Sally Rooney 26. Juliet, Naked by Nick Hornby 27. The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion 28. Hot Milk by Deborah Levy 29. Life Among the Savages by Shirley Jackson 30. I Never Said I Loved You by Rhik Samadder

And here are my last two books - both non-fiction:

  1. The Epigenetics Revolution: How Modern Biology is Rewriting Our Understanding of Genetics, Disease and Inheritance by Nessa Carey. Epigenetics is the study of the characteristics in an organism that are the result of genetic differences but not alterations in the underlying DNA (the prefix epi- implies features that are "on top of" or "in addition to" the traditional genetic basis). This often means the way that genes are expressed, either due to external factors or as part of normal cell development. For example, we all know there is a breast cancer gene (specifically a mutation in BRCA1 or BRCA2) which significantly increases the risk of developing cancer, but having the gene does not mean that you will get cancer. It depends on whether or not the gene is activated. In fact many cancers use epigenetic mechanisms to deactivate the anti-tumour systems in our cells, so there are hopes that an epigenetic drug (i.e. one which interrupts these mechanisms) could be used to treat cancer, although it has so far been difficult to develop such a drug that is safe and effective, despite huge amounts of investment from the pharmaceutical industry. The book also considers epigenetic processes in animals and plants (I particularly enjoyed the section on bees!) and in ageing, mental illness and memory.

I find this a really fascinating topic, and the book is well researched and well written. But it is technically demanding, and I say that as someone with science A Levels (although not biology). I kept having to re-read sentences and remind myself of the definitions of phenotype, methylation, histones, chromatins etc (reading it on a kindle with the dictionary facility really helped) which made it a slow read. Not for the faint-hearted!

  1. The Marshmallow Test: Understanding Self-Control and How to Master it by Walter Mischel. The author was the researcher behind the famous marshmallow test back in 1972, in which young children were left in a room with a marshmallow, and told that if they had not eaten it by the time the adult returned, they would be rewarded with two marshmallows. The interesting bit is that children were tracked, and in later life those who had been able to 'delay gratification', and forgo one marshmallow now in return for two later on, turned into adults with, on average, better educational outcomes, lower BMI and a higher sense of self-worth. Since then, Mischel has done a lot more research around the same broad topic of self-control and whether it is in-built or, as Mischel believes, a skill that can be acquired.

This book was a much easier read than the previous one, and again it is a topic I find very interesting. It also had some practical advice for parents and teachers about developing these traits in children. I see it's currently available on kindle at £1.99 if anyone is interested.

Phew! Now off to read something a bit lighter!

CoteDAzur · 20/06/2020 09:06

Shiny new thread Smile

Here is my list so far:

  1. The Rest Is Noise by Alex Ross
  2. L'Ambiance Va Être Chouette! - Dans les coulisses de la musique ancienne by Vincent Flückiger
  3. Beneath The World, A Sea by Chris Beckett 4. Origin by Dan Brown
  4. The Afghan Frederick Forsyth
  5. Fall, or Dodge in Hell by Neal Stephenson
  6. The Eyes of Darkness by Dean Koontz
  7. The Dogs of War by Frederick Forsyth
  8. Altered Carbon (Takeshi Kovacs #1) by Richard K Morgan
10. Cold Storage by David Koepp 11. Broken Angels (Takeshi Kovacs #2) 12. Foundation (Foundation #1) by Isaac Asimov 13. Guitar Fretboard - Memorize the Fretboard in Less Than 24 Hours by Guitar Head 14. Mindbridge by John Haldeman 15. The Ideal Bench by Lito Seizani 16. The Fox by Frederick Forsyth 17. Dogs of War by Adrian Tchaikovski
southeastdweller · 20/06/2020 09:13

Posting with my updated list. Very few highlights so far but the three bolded were really superb books:

  1. Bridget Jones's Diary - Helen Fielding
  2. The Reason I Jump - Naoki Higashida
  3. My Year of Rest and Relaxation - Ottessa Moshfegh
  4. The Family Upstairs - Lisa Jewell
  5. You Will Not Have My Hate - Antoine Leiris
  6. They Shoot Horses, Don't They? - Horace McCoy
  7. Something to Live For - Richard Roper
  8. From Prejudice to Pride: A History of LGBTQ+ Movement - Amy Lamé
  9. 84, Charing Cross Road - Helene Hanff
10. Queenie - Candice Carty-Williams 11. Blood Orange - Harriet Tyce 12. Those People - Louise Candlish 13. Lady in Waiting - Anne Glennconner 14. Authentic - Stephen Joseph 15. Girl, Woman, Other - Bernardine Evaristo 16. Clothes and Other Things That Matter - Alexandra Shulman

Currently have a few on the go - How Not to Be a Boy, Platform Seven, and Motherwell.

OP posts:
bibliomania · 20/06/2020 09:29

Laughing at the nerdy analysis. Actually, our threads would be good material for a proper analysis of how people choose what to read and how being in dialogue with other readers influences a person, along with Kindle sales and advertising. Are there super-influencers in our network, as well as those who resolutely tread their own path?

Welcome tea

Not sure if I can face retyping list from notebook. I find myself fretting disproportionately over when to give stars. There are some I enjoy in the moment, but I know I'll forget as soon as I finish the final page, and I'm never sure whether to star them.