50 Book Challenge 2020 Part Seven

[southeastdweller]

Welcome to the seventh 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, the fifth one here and the sixth one here.

What are you reading?

Thank you for the new thread southeast. Bringing over my list 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 38. Smokescreen - Dick Francis 39. Slay Ride - Dick Francis 40. April Lady - Georgette Heyer 41. All the Light we cannot See - Anthony Doerr 42. A Prayer for Owen Meany - John Irving 43. Knock Down - Dick Francis 44. Jamaica Inn - Daphne du Maurier 45. High Stakes - Dick Francis

46. The Silence of the Girls - Pat Barker

Set in the Trojan war and focused on the story of Briseis - a high-ranking young woman captured by the Greeks and given to Achilles as a reward. Achilles killed her four brothers and husband in the battle in which she was captured. Having read A Thousand Ships earlier in the year which gave brief snapshots of some of these characters, it was good to read a story focused on a few of them. Briseis has mixed emotions: she hates Achilles for killing her family but needs to please him so she is not relegated to being a general slave girl for the soldiers. She forms friendships with Patroclus, Achilles best friend, and with some of the other women in the camp and the story moves between her time in Achilles quarters and her work in the camp hospital, laying out dead soldiers and weaving with the other women. I enjoyed this very much as Briseis was well-drawn.

Thank you for the new thread!

Thank you!
Checking in and hoping you are all ok. Chessie, how is your DH doing? I’ll post my list and some reviews later, when I’m back at my desk.

Thanks for the shiny new thread :)

Thanks, South.

Thanks for the new thread, @southeastdweller

Here's my list to date, highlights in bold, no stinkers yet:

1. Autumn Term – Antonia Forest
2. Mutual Admiration Society – Mo Moulton
3. Swan Song – Kelleigh Greenberg-Jephcott
4. This Must be the Place – Maggie O’Farrell
5. The Bookshop – Penelope Fitzgerald
6. A Place Called Winter – Patrick Gale
7. The Reunion – Guillaume Musso
8. Black Water Lilies – Michel Bussi
9. Wilful Blindness – Margaret Heffernan
10. The Last Painting of Sara de Vos – Dominic Smith
11. The Farm – Joanne Ramos
12. The High Window – Raymond Chandler
13. The Lady in the Lake – Raymond Chandler
14. The Little Sister – Raymond Chandler
15. She Lies in Wait – Gytha Lodge
16. The Last Anniversary – Liane Moriarty
17. Bitter Orange – Claire Fuller
18. The Lost Man – Jane Harper
19. What Red Was – Rosie Price
20. Keeping an Eye Open – Julian Barnes
21. Heartburn – Nora Ephron
22. Crooked Heart – Lissa Evans
23. Old Baggage – Lissa Evans
24. A View of the Harbour – Elizabeth Taylor
25. The Crow Trap – Ann Cleeves
26. Lives of the Painters, Sculptors and Architects: Part 1 – Giorgio Vasari
27. Telling Tales – Ann Cleeves
28. The Year of Magical Thinking – Joan Didion
29. Burial Rites – Hannah Kent
30. How the Dead Speak – Val McDermid
31. Idaho – Emily Ruskovich
32. After the Party – Cressida Connolly
33. Miss Happiness and Miss Flower – Rumer Godden
34. Lives of the Painters, Sculptors and Architects: Part 2 – Giorgio Vasari
35. French Exit - Patrick DeWitt
36. Hidden Depths – Ann Cleeves
37. Expectation – Anna Hope
38. Silent Voices – Ann Cleeves
39. Girl, Woman, Other - Bernardine Evaristo
40. MrsPalfrey at the Claremont - Elizabeth Taylor

PMK until I finish the book I am no at the mo : it's a pile of crap, so shouldn't take long!

Hello everyone! Just place marking on the new thread - I'll bring my list over later.

1. Northern Lights by Phillip Pullman
2. Vox by Christina Dalcher
3. In Evil Hour by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
4. Spasm by Lauren Slater
5. Elizabeth Is Missing by Emma Healey
6. Lincoln In The Bardo by George Saunders
7. Written On The Body by Jeanette Winterson
8. Lion by Saroo Brierley
9. 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 81. The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters 82. Corpus Christi by Bret Anthony Johnston 83. The Coincidence Authority by John Ironmonger 84. Permanent Record by Edward Snowden 85. The Lost Art Of Keeping Secrets by Eva Rice 86. The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things by JT LeRoy 87. The Body Keeps The Score by Bessel Van Der Kolk 88. Stasiland by Anna Funder 89. Such A Fun Age by Kiley Reid 90. The Accidental Tourist by Anne Tyler 91. The Wall by John Lanchester 92. Attachments by Rainbow Rowell 93. Another Day In The Death Of America by Gary Younge 94. Written In History by Simon Sebag Montefiore 95. Queen Mab by Kate Danley 96. The Devil All The Time by Donald Ray Pollock 97. Caging Skies by Christine Leunens 98. Where The Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens 99. Milkman by Anna Burns 100. Once Upon A River by Diane Setterfield

Currently reading : This Thing Of Darkness

Took Rodham, Little Fires Everywhere and Girl With All The Gifts off being bold this time.

I've also noticed that I seem to be strongly favouring non fiction this year 🤔

And thanks southeast for the thread

Thanks for the new thread southeast

My list so far:

1. The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton
2. Death is a Welcome Guest by Louise Welsh
3. Bird Box by Josh Malerman
4. Stranger With My Face by Lois Duncan
5. Calmer, Easier, Happier Homework by Noel Janis-Norton
6. Skeletons by Jane Fallon
7. The Wolf Gift by Anne Rice
8. Red: A Natural History of the Redhead by Jacky Colliss Harvey
9. The Neutronium Alchemist by Peter F Hamilton

10. The Hunting Party by Lucy Foley 11. 99 Red Balloons by Elisabeth Carpenter 12. Starcrossed by Josephine Angelini 13. Female Chauvinist Pigs by Ariel Levy 14. The Scent of Shadows by Vicki Pettersson 15. The Silver Dream story by Neil Gaiman & Micheal Reaves, written by Michael Reaves & Mallory Reaves 16. By Light Alone by Adam Roberts 17. The Treatment by C L Taylor 18. Days of Blood and Starlight by Laini Taylor 19. The Escape by C L Taylor 20. The Chalk Man by C J Tudor 21. No Dominion by Louise Welsh 22. How to Lose Weight Without Being Miserable by Richard Templar 23. The Fire Sermon by Francesca Haig 24. Chimera by Mira Grant 25. God Bless the NHS by Roger Taylor 26. Bring Me Back by B A Paris 27. The Shape We’re In by Sarah Boseley 28. The Understudy by B A Paris, Clare Mackintosh, Holly Brown and Sophie Hannah 29. Someone Like Me by M R Carey 30. Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman 31. Calmer Easier Happier Screen Time by Noel Janis-Norton 32. The Unthinkable by Amanda Ripley 33. Rotherweird by Andrew Caldecott 34. The Family Upstairs by Lisa Jewell 35. First Term at Malory Towers by Enid Blyton 36. Night Film by Marisha Pessl 37. Second Form at Malory Towers by Enid Blyton 38. Third Year at Malory Towers by Enid Blyton 39. Believe Me by J P Delaney 40. Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones 41. The Record Keeper by Agnes Gomillion 42. Charlotte Sometimes by Penelope Farmer 43. The Demon Code by Adam Blake 44. Dragonflight by Anne McCaffrey 45. Everything Begins With Asking For Help by Kevin Braddock 46. Evil Star by Anthony Horowitz 47. Blackbirds by Chuck Wendig 48. Surrounded by Idiots by Thomas Erikson 49. Trigger Warning by Neil Gaiman 50. Castle in the Air by Diana Wynne Jones 51. The Invasion by Peadar O’Guilin 52. The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker 53. Early Riser by Jasper Fforde 54. Friend Request by Laura Marshall 55. A Stranger in the House by Shari Lapena 56. The Little White Horse by Elizabeth Goudge 57. When She Woke by Hillary Jordan 58. The Naked God by Peter F Hamilton

Bringing over my list

1.The xenophobes guide to the English, Anthony Miall

1. Between the stops, Sandi Toksvig

3.Once gone, Blake Pierce 4.The Guilty Mother, Diane Jeffrey 5.The little book of hygge, Meik Wiking 6.It’s too late now, A.A. Milne 7.The world I fell out of, Melanie Reid 8.The Hunting Party, Lucy Foley 9.Christmas at Rachel’s pudding pantry, Caroline Roberts 10.The Patron saint of lost souls, Menna van Praag 11.The octopus nest, Sophie Hannah 12.The 50 list, Nigel Holland 13.The power trip, Jackie Collins 14.The lost child, Patricia Gibney 15.Heads you win, Jeffrey Archer 16.Titanic survivor: Life boat number 6, Pierre Beaumont 17.Sunny Side Up, Susan Calman 18.Honeysuckle House, Christina Jones 19.Double take tales, Donna Brown 20.The deal of a lifetime, Frederick Backman 21.My life in comedy, Nicholas Parsons 22.Seahouses, Richard Barnett 23.Little fires everywhere, Celeste Ng 24.A crime short story collection, Bloomsbury 25.Little girl missing, J.G. Roberts 26.The second book of general ignorance, John Lloyd (QI) 27.New Zealand calling, Alex Richards 28.Swimming with orca, Ingrid Visser 29.The sealand incident, Brent Saltzman 30.Ka Mate, Dan Coxon 31.Fresh of the boat, Simon Collins 32.New Zealand, James Boyle 33.The british colonisation of New Zealand, Charles River 34.The laughing policeman, Glenn Wood 35.Trustee from the toolroom, Nevil Shute Norway 36.The very picture of you, Isabel Wolff 37.Cop Out, Glenn Wood 38.The divine storyteller, William McCandless 39.Swell: a waterbiography, Jenny Landreth 40.If clouds were sheep, Sue Andrews 41.The telephone box library, Rachael Lucas 42.Two old fools down under, Victoria Twead 43.You’ll never see me again, Lesley Pearce 44.Keep calm and swim to France, Mark Ransom 45.Step by step, my life in journeys, Simon Reeve 46.Christmas at the lucky parrot garden centre, Beth Good 47.Hourly Histories American Revolution 48.Squashed possums: off the beaten track in NZ Jonathan Tindale 49.All balls and glitter, Craig Revel Horwood 50. The Photographer's Saga, Petra Durst-Benning 51. Pulse, Felix Francis 52. The Sealwoman's Gift, Sally Magnussen* 53. QI Book of general ignorance 54. The pants of perspective, Anna McNuff 55. Pied Piper, Nevil Shute 56. Round the bend, Nevil Shute 57. The Flower Shop, Petra Durst-Benning 58. Breaking Borders, James Asquith 59. The corner shop in Cockleberry Bay, Nicola May 60. If street lights could glow ultraviolet, Katherine Highland 61. The Seedwoman, Petra Durst-Benning 62. Secrets at At Bride's, Debbie Young ^Returned for refund* 63. New Zealand: 36 days in wonderland, Mark Wallace 64. Mythos, Stephen Fry 65. Hope Close, Tina Seskis 66. Walking Shorts, Mark Richards 67. Father, Son and the Pennine Way, Mark Richards 68. A wedding at the beach hut, Veronica Henry 69. The complete Uxbridge English dictionary 70. Father and son return to the Pennine Way, Mark Richards 71. Father, son and the Kerry Way, Mark Richards 72. All that she can see, Kerry Hope Fletcher 73. Travelling in a box, Mike Wood 74. Two in a box, Mike Wood 75. While the world is still asleep, Petra Durst-Benning 76. Family life on a narrowboat, Richard MacKenzie 77. Unsinkable, Jane MacDonald 78. The Champagne Queen, Petra Durst-Benning 79. Fierce Bad Rabbits, Clare Polland 80. Stories from the heart, Amanda Prowse 81. Mr Portobellos morning paper, Amanda Prowse 82. The queen of beauty, Petra Durst-Benning 83. A short history of nearly everything, Bill Bryson 84. Expedition, Steve Backshall 85. The girl from the sea, Shalini Boland 86. The perfect family, Shalini Boland 87. The bookshop on the shore, Jenny Colgan 88. Rough Magic, Lara Prior-Palmer 89. 100 things you will never find, Daniel Smith 90. Dumped actually, Nick Spalding 91. The Space Race, Hourly History 92. Guilty, not guilty, Felix Francis 93. Closer, KL Slater 94. Botanical Folk Tales of Britain and Ireland 95. The Night you Left, Emma Curtis 96. The Ravenmaster, Christopher Skaife 97. Charlee and the chocolate shop, Jessica Redland 98. Beyond the Lens, Robert Rodriguez 99. A short history of *** (my town)

Thanks for the continued life-saving threads, southeast

My list to date:

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
45: Rebecca - Daphne du Maurier
46: Trace Elements - Donna Leon
47: Nine Pints - Rose George
48: David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
49: The Catcher in the Rye - J. D. Salinger
50: The House by the Thames - Gillian Tindall

And I'm just over the hump with:

51: Pilgrims - Matthew Kneale

This was added to my wish list a couple of weeks ago and randomly went to 99p for a day last week so I grabbed it. I was charmed by this tale of an ill-assorted group of pilgrims journeying to Rome from 13th-century England, all for very different reasons. Will poor ragged Tom find peace for the soul of his beloved cat Sammy, who fell into the well and drowned? Will rich (but scheming) Lady Lucy get the divorce she's after? Will the lecherous attorney Jocelyn be able to resist temptation for long enough to do the penance that's required of him? And who exactly are the mysterious mother and daughter, Mary and Helena? Kneale writes from each character's POV in a chatty style that sounds believably medieval and is often very funny. I really enjoyed this.

Thank you South Afternoon all you 50 bookers.

My small but perfectly formed list to date:

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 Reid 15. Lady in Waiting by Anne Glenconner 16. A Journal of the Plague Year by Daniel Defoe 17. Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams 18. Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots by Deborah Feldman 19. The Five by Hallie Rubenhold

And 20. Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell A depiction of Shakespeare’s family, most often from the perspective of his wife, son, and daughters left at home in Stratford while he was away in London.

I enjoyed this, but perhaps not as much as I was expecting to. O’Farrell goes for the third person present (which I know irks lots of posters on the thread), presumably to create an immersive sense of time and place like Mantel does. However, I found it very much lacking in the rich period detail of the Wolf Hall trilogy and less successful in that regard.

That being said, I thought Shakespeare’s wife Agnes was beautifully drawn, and the devastating and different effects of grief and loss for each character were haunting.

Just started In the Days of Rain by Rebecca Stott, which thus far is ok but not amazing.

1.The Dilemma - B A Paris
2. Dangerous Crossing - Rachel Rhys
3.The Testaments - Margaret Atwood
4.A Wedding in December - Anita Shreve
5.The Other You - J S Monroe
6. To The Lions - Holly Watt
7.Here to Stay - Mark Edwards
8.The Bigamist - Mary Turner Thomson
9.The Other Wife - Claire McGowan
10.Finding Cupid - Bridget E Baker
11.All the Rage - Cara Hunter
12.The Donor - Clare Mackintosh
13.Who Did You Tell - Lesley Kara
14.I Wanted You to Know - Laura Pearson
15.The Recovery of Rose Gold - Stephanie Wrobel
16.I Did It For Us - Alison Bruce
17.Half a World Away - Mike Gayle
18.The Suspect - Fiona Barton
19.War Doctor - David Nott
20.Tell Me Your Secret - Dorothy Koomson
21. My Dark Vanessa - Kate Elizabeth Russel
22.In Safe Hands - J P Carter
23.Anything You Do Say - Gillian McAllister
24. The Flatshare - Beth O'Leary
25.Keeper - Jessica Moor
26.Blood Orange - Harriet Tyce
27.Where the Crawdads Sing - Delia Owens
28.How to Marry Your Husband - Jacqueline Rohen
29.The Chain - Adrian McKinty
30.Just My Luck - Adele Parks
31.Strangers on a Train - Patricia Highsmith
32. "Daisy Jones and The Six - Taylor Jenkins Reid*
33.Little Disasters - Sarah Vaughan
34.The Craftsman - Sharon Bolton
35.His & Hers - Alice Feeney
36.Missing Pieces - Laura Pearson
37.Little White Lies - Philippa East
38. The Ice Cream Girls - Dorothy Koomson
39.Pretending - Holly Bourne
40.Seven Days - Alex Lake
41.Those People - Louise Candlish
42.We Know You Know - Erin Kelly
43. All My Lies Are True - Dorothy Koomson

Thank you for the new thread! Just bringing my list over! Pretty sure my holds change every time I post this depending on how I'm feeling! Ice Cream Girls was a re-read in preparation for the sequel I never knew I needed.

Currently reading The Dead Line - Holly Watt as I'm trying to get my hardback books done while I'm off on holiday from work as carrying them about is much more difficult!

Thanks for the new thread south and also thank you chessie for the reply on the previous thread

1. A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
2. An inspector calls

3. The Road to Avalon - Joan wolf 4. Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy 5. A little life - Hanya Yanaghira

1. The castle of otrano - Horace Walpole

7. A simple favour - Darcey Bell

1. The trauma of everyday life - Mark Epstein

9. Dracula by Bram Stoker 10. Miss Perigrine’s home for peculiar children by Ranson Riggs 11. Labyrinth - Kate Moss

Currently reading wuthering heights by Emily bronte and the picture of Dorian Gray. Have to finish wuthering heights in the next few days as have to return it!

There is one type of books I never thought I’d cry over. High school text books . Had to pack them up for returning yesterday and my friends and I almost cried over them. Anyone else had that experience?

Thank you for the new thread. I don't have much time for reviewing at the moment, but here is my current list:

1. Wakenhyrst - Michelle Paver
2. Faces: Profiles of Dogs - Vita Sackville-West

1. Country Life - Paul O'Grady

4. French Exit - Patrick DeWitt

1. I've Got Your Number - Sophie Kinsella
2. Hard Pushed - Leah Hazard
3. Trigger Mortis - Anthony Horowitz

8. The Man Who Died - Antti Tuomainen 9. How To Break Up With Your Phone - Catherine Price 10. Burmese Days - George Orwell 11. The Ravenmaster - Christopher Skaife 12. Old Baggage - Lissa Evans 13. Around The World In 80 Trains - Monisha Rajesh 14. The Moomins and The Great Flood - Tove Jansson 15. Size Zero - Victoire Dauxerre 16. Shopaholic Ties The Knot - Sophie Kinsella 17. The Turn of The Key - Ruth Ware 18. My Friend Anna - Rachel DeLoache Williams 19. A Shropshire Lad - A E Housman 20. Get Me The Urgent Biscuits - Sweetpea Slight 21. Up - Ben Fogle 22. The Truth About These Strange Times - Adam Foulds 23. Invisible Women - Caroline Criado Perez 24. Shopaholic and Sister - Sophie Kinsella 25. Rupture - Ragnar Jonasson 26. A House of Ghosts - W C Ryan 27. The Book of Forgotten Authors - Christopher Fowler 28. Sushi & Beyond - Michael Booth 29. Metropolitan Stories - Christine Coulson 30. Rebecca - Daphne du Maurier

31. The Thunder Girls - Melanie Blake
    Really quite bad. Reminded me of the 70s TV series Rock Follies crossed with Eastenders, although that makes it sound more entertaining than it really was.

32. Watling Street - John Higgs

33. Shopaholic and Baby - Sophie Kinsella
The Shopaholic series is my preferred comfort read and I really enjoyed this instalment.

34. Brer Rabbit Stories - Enid Blyton I had Enid Blyton's Brer Rabbit books as a child so I read this out of curiosity.

35. Unfree Speech - Joshua Wong & Jason Ng
I'm bolding this one because although not the best written, it was very eloquent in explaining the background to the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong. Ot's shocking how young this wave of activists started out and the punishment they have received already. Recommended.

36. The Deep - Alma Katsu
    Weird and slightly distasteful retelling of the Titanic story which suggests the (real-life) sinking was caused by a vengeful sea-nymph. It veered towards the exploitative for me, but maybe I'm being over-sensitive.

37. The Guest List - Lucy Foley
    Deeply disappointing follow-up to The Hunting Party, which I enjoyed. It felt like the author was working to a formula and the characters never acquired a life of their own.

38. Travels in a Dervish Cloak - Isambard Wilkinson
Evocative account of the author's travels over several years in Pakistan. The descriptive passages and the character studies are beautiful, and the descriptions of local politics were very enlightening. This was the first book I received in my Eland Books subscription, in which Eland send you all the books they publish in the current year for £99. There were eight scheduled for 2020/21 but there are now nine, plus Dervish Cloak as a welcome gift, so I'm very pleased with this subscription. I signed up in April as a lockdown treat.

39. Is There Still Sex in the City? - Candace Bushnell "Candace, you still have one more book to deliver under this contract." "Seriously?" Mostly this plods along rehashing Candace Bushnell's usual subject matter, then near the end takes a profound and very moving turn. It would have been better if she had started there and ditched some of the bad-date material.

40. The Cat and The City - Nick Bradley
Loved this. Be aware that although it sounds cute (a series of interlinked stories featuring a calico cat which wanders around Tokyo) it explores some dark themes and there are scenes where the cat is treated, to put it mildly, callously. It repays close attention because the characters pop up as bit players throughout the book with only slight clues as to their identity. It all comes together happily at the end, which makes it worth the sometimes painful journey.

41. Breakfast at Tiffany's - Truman Capote

42. Rough Magic - Lara Prior-Palmer
    I'm giving LP-P the benefit of the doubt because she seems nice enough and the writing reminds me of my own pseudo-literary musings at that age (19) which I subsequently destroyed. Still, it was fun to read about the Mongolian Derby, which I'd never heard of before, and her rivalry with an American rider who had trained for the event like she was going into battle was highly amusing.

43. Dangerous Crossing - Rachel Rhys
Just finished this and lobed the atmosphere, the characters and the settings. I felt it was let down slightly by the ending, which was overly dramatic.

Currently reading:
44. Dead Famous, which is highly recommended and in July's monthly deal. It's billed as a history of celebrity but it has some serious points to make about what celebrity is and how it happens. It's also quite funny and has some great historical anecdotes, mostly from the 18th and 19th centuries - it deliberately doesn't talk much about the present day.

45. Adults - Emma Jane Unsworth. I've just started this so no comments yet, but I'm hoping it will be Sally Rooney with a sense of humour and a plot.

Terpsichore, thank you for the review of Pilgrims. I have that and I'm looking forward to it now. I also have the RS Thomas book. You are all a very bad influence, that's all I can say.

Thanks for the new thread south!

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
44. If Only They Could Talk - James Herriot
45. Northanger Abbey - Jane Austen
46. A Shadow Above: the fall and rise of the raven - Joe Shute
47. I Thought It Was Just Me - Brene Brown
48. Imperium - Robert Harris
49. Animal Societies - Ashley Ward
50. Botanical Folk Tales of Britain and Ireland - Lisa Schneidau
51. An Orc on the Wild Side - Tom Holt
52. The Language of Kindness - Christie Watson

Currently reading Lustrum (Cicero #2) by Robert Harris and The Wonderbox by Roman Krznaric, a philosophical look at ways of living through history. Also just started a Great Courses series on Biological Anthropology on Audible.

Thanks as always for the new thread southeast. The old one barely lasted a month. As I was in the notorious Gang of 44 at the start of the last thread, I seem to have added a fair few to my tally. Admittedly none of them were particularly long or demanding, except the sodding Silk Road. Although I haven't had any standout reads recently, I'm generally enjoying what I'm reading (except...yeah). Will be slowing down soon, as I'm returning to work next month, but reading and this thread has definitely helped me get through lockdown.

1. Gods of the Morning by John Lister-Kaye
2. The Unexpected Joy of Being Sober by Catherine Grey
3. Half a King by Joe Abercrombie
4. Ten to Zen by Owen O'Kane
5. Flight Behaviour by Barbara Kingsolver
6. The Other Daughter by Lisa Gardner
7. Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach
8. Black and British by David Olusoga
9. The World I Fell Out Of by Melanie Reid

10. Sightlines by Kathleen Jamie 11. Silent Voices by Ann Cleeves (Vera #4) 12. Wonder by RJ Palacio 13. My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite 14. Dogs of War by Adrian Tchaikovsky 15. The Chosen Dead by MR Hall (The Coroner #5) 16. This Book Will Change Your Mind About Mental Health by Nathan Filer 17. The Outrun by Amy Liptrot 18. A Place Called Winter by Patrick Gale 19. Hot Milk by Deborah Levy 20. The Glass Room by Ann Cleeves (Vera #5) 21. The Affair by Lee Child (Jack Reacher #16) 22. Wanderlust: A History of Walking by Rebecca Solnit 23. The Book You Wish Your Parents Had Read by Philippa Perry 24. The Alice Network by Kate Quinn 25. An Officer and a Spy by Robert Harris 26. Heartburn by Nora Ephron 27. The Dry by Jane Harper 28. Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry 29. Dry by Augusten Burroughs 30. The Poison Tree by Erin Kelly 31. Children of Ruin by Adrian Tchaikovsky 32. Harbour Street by Ann Cleeves (Vera #6) 33. Darkmans by Nicola Barker 34. Death Toll by Jim Kelly 35. Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for Dummies by Rhena Branch and Rob Willson 36. Unsheltered by Barbara Kingsolver 37. What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami 38. The Dead Season by Christobel Kent (Sandro Cellini #3) 39. High and Low: How I Hiked Away from Depression Across Scotland by Keith Foskett 40. Regeneration by Stephanie Saulter (Revolution #3) 41. All Creatures Great and Small by James Herriot 42. Handstands in the Dark by Janey Godley 43. The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead 44. The Lion Tamer Who Lost by Louise Beech 45. Black Water Rising by Attica Locke 46. Findings by Kathleen Jamie 47. The Infatuations by Javier Marías 48. Operation Ironman: one man's four month journey from hospital bed to Ironman triathlon by George Mahood 49. The Silk Road: A New History of the World by Peter Frankopan 50. The Book of Dust Volume One: La Belle Sauvage by Philip Pullman 51. Sunny Side Up by Susan Calman 52. Women of the Dunes by Sarah Maine

Ham - we are now both in the Gang of 52! Spooky...

I'm tempted by Pilgrims for 99p. I ended up buying Magpie Lane the other night under the influence of this thread and Baileys. I'm only under the influence of tea at the moment though, so might be able to resist...

Just checking in thanks for new thread south

Part of the Family.

Oh dear. I don't think many of you would like this thriller which has female protagonists but presents all of us as being groomed by spies who offer drugs or sex and caring most about what we wear and slipping easily into alcoholism and possibly mental instability, whilst inexplicably holding down a great job as a high end magazine editor. There is also a subplot of a dead twin (not a spoiler) which leads nowhere.

The plot is highly derivative as it the writing. The only point of interest is that Charlotte Philby is Kim Philby's granddaughter (the book is basically repackaged, retitled and marketed off the back of this).

It passes the time and is a quick read but has one of those exasperating non endings. Reminded me a bit of Lucy Foley in that you think, now who actually lives like that?? I think she wants TV rights as it has TV beloved settings : Brighton for uni then lavish London townhouse,various encounters at Canary Wharf and Hampstead Heath, Greek Islands and the Maldives, with a bit of Africa for grit.

I give you this description as typical :

'Slipping my second phone into the pocket of the burnt orange silk pantaloons I had paired with a cotton t shirt, I headed back downstairs'

I really don't care what fabric ,colour or style your effing trousers were!!

It also has lots of analepsis, and changes of tense, which unless it's done well is really annoying 'if only I had known back then what I know now which I may reveal to you on page 418 unless I don't really feel like it' Bleugh. And handsome men everywhere with ridiculous amounts of corrupt money.

As you can tell, I LOVED it.

Thank you for the new thread Southeast.
Not keeping a list but just marking place.

Thoroughly enjoying the RS Thomas biography. What a dour, grim unpleasant man he seems and his poor son. It is so well written, though, he is really brought to life on the page - and yes, it’s funny. Perfect for my mood.

Thanks, southeast.

1. Writer's Block, Judith Flanders
2. The Warm South, Robert Holland
3. A Bed of Scorpions, Judith Flanders
4. The Second Sleep, Robert Harris
5. Confessions of a Bad Mother: The Teenage Years, Stephanie Calman
6. Hope Not To Diet, Michael Geger
7. The Body, Bill Bryson
8. Homesick: Why I Live in a She'd, Cartriona Davies
9. The Benefit of Hindsight, Susan Hill

10. Under the Tump, Oliver Bolch 11. The Lives and Loves of Edith Nesbit, Eleanor Fitzsimons 12. Salt on your Tongue, Charlotte Runcie 13. Haven't They Grown, Sophie Hannah 14. Britain by the Book, Oliver Tearle 15. Nine Lessons, Nicola Upson 16. Notes to Self, Emilie Pine 17. Surfacing, Kathleen Jamie 18. Plastic, Christopher Fowler 19. Big Sky,. Kate Atkinson 20. Skint Estate, Cash Carraway 21. Reasons to be Cheerful, Nina Stibbe 22. The Thirteenth Take, Diane Setterfield 23. Long Bright River Liz Moore 24. A Rum Affair, Karl Sabbagh 25. Dreadful Company, Vivian Shaw 26. Dark Water, Parker Bilal 27. Around the World in Eighty Trains, Manisha Ranjesh 28. The Lantern Men, Elly Griffiths 29. An English Murder, Cyril Hare 30. To Say Nothing of the Dog , Connie Willis 31. High and Low; How I Hiked away from Depression across Scotland, Keith Foskett 32. The Written Word: How Literature Shaped History, Martin Puchner 33. A Murder is Announced, Agatha Christie 34. Walk, Sleep, Repeat, Stephen Reynolds 35. The Chalk Man, C J Tudor 36. The Wrong Way: How Not to Walk the West Highland Way, Bart Stevens 37. I am Number Four, Pittacus Lore 38. The Book of Humans, Adam Rutherford 39. Walking the Thames River, Joyce Mackie 40. Stood, by Dan Simmons 41. Plan for the Worst, Jodi Taylor 42. False Value, Ben Aaronovitch 43. Dear Bill Bryson, Bill Aitken 44. Father, Don and the Kerry Way, Mark Richards 45. Father, Son and the Pennine Way, Mark Richards 46. Lincoln in the Bardo, George Saunders 47. Seven Days of Us, Francesca Hornak 48. The Power of Six, Pittacus Lore 49. Father, Son and a Return to the Pennine Way, Mark Richards 50. Diary of a Somebody, Brian Bilston 51. The Last Policeman, by Ben H Winters 52. Breaking and Mending, Joanna Cannon 53. The Rise of Nine, Pittacus Lore 54. The Fall of Five, Pittacus Lore 55. Countdown City, Ben H Winters 56. The Revenge of Seven, Pittacus Lore 57. A World of Trouble, Ben H Winters 58. Negative Capability, Michele Roberts 59. Quit Like a Woman, Holly Glenn Whittaker 60. Lady in Waiting, Anne Glenconner 61. Untangled, Lisa Damour 62. Requiem for a Wren, Neville Shute 63. When I Walk, I Bounce, Mark Moxon 64. Death at the Opera, Gladys Mitchell 65. Miss Austen, Hill Hornby 66. Is There Still Sex in the City? Candace Bushnell 67. The Guest List, Lucy Foley 68. A Theatre for Dreamers, Polly Samson 69. Nine Perfect Strangers, Liane Moriarty 70. The Woman in the Window, A J Finn 71. Reading the Decades, John Sutherland 72. Spam Tomorrow, Verily Anderson 73. Magpie Lane, Lucy Atkins 74. David Copperfield, Charles Dickens 75. Haunts of the Black Masseur, Charles Swanson 76. Murder at the Vicarage, Agatha Christie

Bringing over my updated list:

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 17. Platform Seven - Louise Doughty 18. How Not to Be a Boy - Robert Webb 19. Heartstopper vol 2 - Alice Oseman 20. Heartstopper vol 3 - Alice Oseman 21. Two Besides: A Pair of Talking Heads - Alan Bennett 22. Talking Heads - Alan Bennett 23. Motherwell: A Girlhood - Deborah Orr 24. The Shielding of Mrs Forbes - Alan Bennett 25. No One Is Too Small to Make a Difference - Greta Thunberg 26. The Glossy Years: Magazines, Museums and Selective Memoirs - Nicholas Coleridge