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50 Book Challenge 2020 Part Nine

999 replies

southeastdweller · 10/10/2020 12:48

Welcome to the ninth 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 still not too late to join, and please try to let us all know your thoughts on what you've read.

The previous threads of 2020:

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8

OP posts:
Thread gallery
7
PepeLePew · 10/10/2020 12:55

Thanks, southeast. I agree, I think we are racing through the threads faster than before even though so many of us are having problems focusing on reading.

meg, I have toyed with The Count of Monte Cristo more than once but never got anywhere. Maybe I will try again. Although so far this weekend I’ve not picked up a book - 140 characters on Twitter seems to be my limit which is doing me no good at all!

InMyOwnParticularIdiom · 10/10/2020 13:01

Thanks, Southeast! Here is my list:

  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 53. Lustrum - Robert Harris 54. Love After Love - Ingrid Persaud 55. Biological Anthropology - Barbara J. King 56. Howl’s Moving Castle - Diana Wynne Jones 57. Into Thin Air - Jon Krakauer 58. The Wonderbox - Roman Krznaric 59. Haven’t They Grown - Sophie Hannah 60. So, Anyway... - John Cleese 61. Expectation - Anna Hope 62. Exploring the Roots of Religion - John R. Hale 63. Mansfield Park - Jane Austen 64. Full Circle - Michael Palin 65. The Orphan Choir - Sophie Hannah 66. Flow - Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi 67. Our Bodies, Their Battlefield - Christina Lamb 68. Dictator - Robert Harris 69. The Ultimate Job Hunting Book - Patricia Scudmore

Currently nearly finished It Shouldn't Happen to a Vet, and reading The Incredible Unlikeliness of Being by Alice Roberts, which is a pop science embryology/anatomy book.

southeastdweller · 10/10/2020 13:02

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 27. Me - Elton John 28. Nick and Charlie - Alice Oseman 29. Exciting Times - Naoise Dolan 30. Queen Bee - Jane Fallon 31. I Love the Bones of You - Christopher Eccleston 32. I Am Not Your Babymother - Candice Brathwaite 33. Hinch Yourself Happy - Sophie Hinchcliffe 34. Fleabag: The Special Edition - Phoebe Waller Bridge 35. Who Did You Tell - Lesley Kara 36. To Be a Gay Man - Will Young
OP posts:
RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie · 10/10/2020 13:18

Thanks, South.

Betts Grin

Just finished a big Blandings omnibus, which I loved.

MegBusset · 10/10/2020 13:20

It's all the lists making them race by WinkGrin

Seriously am impressed at anyone managing to keep focus on reading. My head is swimming by the end of the day and a few pages and I'm asleep.

Re; Monte Cristo, like Dickens it was written for serialisation hence the hefty word count. (I'm a Dickens fan so don't mind that!)

SatsukiKusakabe · 10/10/2020 13:22

I hadn’t noticed we were so near the end doesn’t seem like more than a few days we were arguing about lists.

meg agree love The Count of Monte Cristo, definitely worth making the time for.

TimeforaGandT · 10/10/2020 13:43

Meg - you have encouraged me to put The Count of Monte Cristo on my (long) list of books to read.

Bringing my list over:

  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 47. First Term at Malory Towers - Enid Blyton 48. Magpie Lane - Lucy Atkins 49. The Dutch House - Ann Patchett 50. Middlemarch - George Eliot 51. In the Frame - Dick Francis 52. Daughter of Time - Josephine Tey 53. Risk - Dick Francis 54. The Weekend - Charlotte Wood 55. Trial Run - Dick Francis 56. The Last Painting of Sara de Vos - Dominic Smith 57. A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth 58. The Binding - Bridget Collins 59. Whip Hand - Dick Francis 60. Reflex - Dick Francis 61. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd - Agatha Christie

Currently reading Marking Time - Elizabeth Jane Howard

Tarahumara · 10/10/2020 13:54

Thanks for the new thread, southeast.

Here's my list:

  1. The Tattooist of Auschwitz - Heather Morris
  2. 11.22.63 - Stephen King
  3. The Yorkshire Shepherdess - Amanda Owen
  4. Thomas Hardy: the Time-torn Man - Claire Tomalin
  5. Lies Lies Lies - Adele Parks
  6. The Dark Side of the Mind - Kerry Daynes
  7. Back Story - David Mitchell
  8. The Path - Malcolm McKay
  9. Ulysses - James Joyce
10. The Mother of All Jobs: How to have Children and a Career and Stay Sane - Christine Armstrong 11. Wounds: A Memoir of War and Love - Fergal Keane 12. Ghost Wall - Sarah Moss 13. Smoke Gets in Your Eyes: And Other Lessons from the Crematory - Caitlin Doughty 14. Asymmetry - Lisa Halliday 15. Eat, Drink, Run: How I Got Fit Without Going Too Mad - Bryony Gordon 16. Bel Canto - Ann Patchett 17. To Throw Away Unopened - Viv Albertine 18. I Remember Nothing: And Other Reflections - Nora Ephron 19. Bring Me Back - B A Paris 20. My Lovely Wife: A Memoir of Madness and Hope - Mark Lukach 21. The Rules Do Not Apply - Ariel Levy 22. My Name is Lucy Barton - Elizabeth Strout 23. The Stand - Stephen King 24. Howl's Moving Castle - Diana Wynne Jones 25. Normal People - Sally Rooney 26. Juliet, Naked - Nick Hornby 27. The Year of Magical Thinking - Joan Didion 28. Hot Milk - Deborah Levy 29. Life Among the Savages - Shirley Jackson 30. I Never Said I Loved You - Rhik Samadder 31. The Epigenetics Revolution: How Modern Biology is Rewriting Our Understanding of Genetics, Disease and Inheritance - Nessa Carey 32. The Marshmallow Test: Understanding Self-Control and How to Master it - Walter Mischel 33. An Unsuitable Match - Joanna Trollope 34. Me - Elton John 35. Pale Rider: The Spanish Flu of 1918 and How it Changed the World - Laura Spinney 36. On The Beach - Nevile Shute 37. Big Little Lies - Lianne Moriarty 38. Hamnet - Maggie O'Farrell 39. Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About Race - Reni Eddo-Lodge 40. Black, Listed - Jeffrey Boakye 41. Paper Sparrows - Nathalie Abi-Ezzi 42. Expectation - Anna Hope 43. 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in this Strange World - Elif Shafak 44. The Silent Patient - Alex Michaelides 45. Magpie Lane - Lucy Atkins 46. Mindfxck - Christopher Wiley 47. Nothing to Envy: Real Lives in North Korea - Barbara Demick 48. Where the Crawdads Sing - Delia Owens 49. Platform Seven - Louise Doughty 50. The Things That Keep Us Here - Carla Buckley 51. The Graveyard Book - Neil Gaiman 52. The Secrets We Left Behind - Susan Elliot Wright 53. Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: A Therapist, HER Therapist, and Our Lives Revealed - Lori Gottlieb
EineReiseDurchDieZeit · 10/10/2020 14:42
  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 101. This Thing Of Darkness by Harry Thompson 102. Rough Magic by Lara Prior-Palmer 103. Churchill : Walking With Destiny by Andrew Roberts 104. First Lady by Sonia Purnell 105. Don’t Lets Go To The Dogs Tonight by Alexandra Fuller 106. Court Number One : The Trials That Shook The Old Bailey by Thomas Grant 107. Helter Skelter : The True Story Of The Manson Murders by Vincent Bugliosi with Curt Gentry 108. Gotta Get Theroux This by Louis Theroux 109. A People’s History Of The United States by Howard Zinn 110. A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara 111. Quartet In Autumn by Barbara Pym 112. The Looming Tower by Lawrence Wright 113. Clothes, Clothes, Clothes, Music, Music, Music, Boys, Boys, Boys by Viv Albertine 114. No One Writes To The Colonel by Gabriel Garcia Marquez 115. The Ratline by Philippe Sands 116. Delta Of Venus by Anais Nin 117. The Bitter Glass by Eilis Dillon 118. The Inheritance Of Loss by Kiran Desai 119. The Professors House by Willa Cather 120. IT by Stephen King 121. Daisy Jones And The Six by Taylor Jenkins-Reid 122. Breakfast At Tiffany’s by Truman Capote 123. The Black Dahlia by James Ellroy 124. Hillbilly Elegy by JD Vance 125. Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie 126. The Kennedy Curse by James Patterson and Cynthia Fagan 127. Transcription by Kate Atkinson 128. Leonard and Hungry Paul by Ronan Hession 129. Dune by Frank Herbert 130. Armada by Ernest Cline 131. Poverty Safari by Darren McGarvey 132. Instrumental by James Rhodes 133. The Binding by Bridget Collins

And thanks southeast for the thread

BestIsWest · 10/10/2020 14:44

Thanks for the new thread southeast. I have a few book to update on but I’ll do that later.

TheNavigator · 10/10/2020 15:29

1My Sister the Serial Killer - Oyinkan Braithwaite
2 We Have Always Lived in the Castle - Shirley Jackson
3All The Light We Cannot See - Anthony Doerr
4The Silence of the Girls - Pat Barker
5 Station Eleven - Emily St John Mandel
6 The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood (re read)
7The Testaments - Margaret Atwood
8 A Life Like Other People’s- Alan Bennett
9 The Mermaid & Mrs Hancock - Imogen Hermes Gowar
10 The Trouble with Goats & Sheep - Joanna Cannon (audio)
11 The Psychopath Test - Jon Ronson
12 Circe - Madeline Miller
13Lost for Words - Stephanie Butland
14The Mirror and the Light - Hilary Mantel
15The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle - Stuart Turton
16Persuasion- Jane Austen
17The Line of Beauty - Alan Hollinghurst
18Ten Days in the Hills - Jane Smiley (audio)
19 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
20A Little Life- Hanya Yanagihara
21The Summer of Impossible Things - Rowan Coleman (audio)
22Where the Crawdads Sing - Delia Owens
23Year of Wonders - Geraldine Brooks
24Little Fires Everywhere - Celeste Ng
25Normal People - Sally Rooney (audio)
26The Red Tent - Anita Diamant
27 I Capture the Castle - Dodie Smith (re read)
28 Of Love and Shadows - Isabel Allende
29The Queen of Bloody Everything- Joanna Nadia (audio)
30 4 3 2 1 - Paul Auster
31 The Pursuit of Happiness - Douglas Kennedy
32 Those People- Louise Candlish (audio)
33 Where the Truth Lies - MJ Lee
34 The Binding - Bridget Collins
35 The Language of Kindness - a Nurse's Story - Christie Watson
36 Girl, Woman, Other - Bernardine Evaristo
37 The Porpoise - Mark Haddon (audio)
38 My Name is Lucy Barton - Elizabeth Strout
39 Moon Tiger - Penelope Lively (audio)

ChessieFL · 10/10/2020 16:01

Thanks for the new thread southeast. I can’t be bothered to sort my list out but here are my latest reviews:

  1. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

I was intrigued by the premise of this - set in an unspecified future/alternate universe where firemen burn books instead of putting out fires - but was very disappointed. I spent the first half of the book completely confused with no idea what was going on. The second half was slightly less confusing but by then I didn’t really care what happened. I only finished it because it was short.

  1. Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome

I’ve decided to read/reread the whole S&A series as there’s some I’ve never read. Started with the original which I have read a few times before.

  1. Rodham by Curtis Sittenfeld

I didn’t plan to read another Sittenfeld so soon but when this was on daily deal in the week I got the sample to see if I liked it, then decided I may as well keep going. Reading this was a strange experience. I’m trying to think of another book I’ve read that is a novel about real people who are still alive. I’ve read novels about real people who are now dead (Austen, Dickens, various kings and queens) and I’ve read books where real people are tangentially mentioned but I can’t think of another book that’s directly about a live person although I’m sure there must be some! As a result I kept having to remind myself this wasn’t a biography, and I found the sex descriptions particularly awkward to read. I don’t really know much about the Clintons beyond the basics that anyone would know from scanning the newspapers, and I also don’t know much about the America’s political system so I wonder if those who know more about either will get more out of this book than I did. I liked the premise of this (what would Hillary’s life have been like if she hadn’t married Bill?) but I did think the ending was quite predictable. I did like it though as Sittenfeld writes well.

  1. I’d Rather Be Reading: The Delights and Dilemmas of the Reading Life by Anne Bogel

A short collection of short essays about various aspects of loving books and reading. Nothing new here but I liked it.

Piggywaspushed · 10/10/2020 16:17

Just placemarking. It'll probably be a while before I resurface from Black and British.

EineReiseDurchDieZeit · 10/10/2020 16:28
  1. Us by David Nicholls

I popped this on iPlayer last week, realised it was a book, and promptly turned it off.

Because Given The Chance I Must Read The Book First OK? It's Just Who I Am!

So, Douglas Petersen is woken in the night by his wife Connie. Their only child Albie is about to leave for uni, and they are about to have one last family holiday. But she wants these milestones to also mark the end of their marriage. He doesn't, and feels completely blindsided.

As Douglas lurches about disastrously trying to make everything alright again, he reflects on their past, and it becomes clear their life was not as perfect as he wanted to think.

Impressively this ends up quite balanced, because even though its Douglas' POV you can really tell what Connie and Albie's perspective is without being told which makes it a bit patronising when Nicholls then gives completely superfluous alternate POVs towards the end. Like he succeeded in achieving "show don't tell" and then had a BUT WHAT IF MY READER DOESN'T GET IT panic and undid the good work.

Nicholls I don't think is the best writer ( I HATED One Day - 1 unbelievable premise, 2 absolute knobbers) but again easy page turner, none too challenging, which is what I am currently in the market for.

The opening of the series proved very likeable and witty and it does have "better than the source" written all over it. At least I can watch it now Grin

MuseumOfHam · 10/10/2020 16:50

Thank you southeast.

  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 53. Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari 54. The Sound of Echoes by Eric Brent 55. Tangerine by Christine Mangan 56. The Only Way is West by Bradley Chermside 57. Drink? The New Science of Alcohol and Your Health by David Nutt 58. Dishonesty is the Second Best Policy by David Mitchell 59. Surfacing by Kathleen Jamie 60. The Whisper Man by Alex North 61. The Moth Catcher by Ann Cleeves (Vera #7) 62. Moon Tiger by Penelope Lively 63. Sleeping Embers of an Ordinary Mind by Anne Charnock 64. The Autistic Brain by Temple Grandin and Richard Panek 65. The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers 66. The Con Man by Ed McBain 67. Ax by Ed McBain 68. Bread by Ed McBain 69. Walking to Aldebaran by Adrian Tchaikovsky 70. Bridge 108 by Anne Charnock 71. Pale Rider: The Spanish Flu of 1918 and How it Changed the World by Laura Spinney

Infinite Jest progress report: 41%

Piggy hope you are enjoying Black and British, it was one of my stand out reads from earlier this year and I learnt so much from it.

Question for people who have read the James Herriot books. Would you class them as non-fiction or fiction? I just can't decide, as they are fictionalised memoirs, and as such inhabit the liminal zone somewhere in between, much like the stories your child tells you about incidents at school.

BestIsWest · 10/10/2020 17:31

I’m enjoying the series of Us more than I enjoyed the book mainly because I like Tom Hollander who plays Douglas. I remember feeling very sorry for him in the book.

FortunaMajor · 10/10/2020 17:49

Thanks for the new thread Southeast

Feel free to scroll on by...

  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 134. The Equivalents: A Story of Art, Female Friendship and Liberation in the 1960s – Maggie Doherty 135. The Inimitable Jeeves – PG Wodehouse 136. A Far Cry from Kensington – Muriel Spark 137. One, Two, Buckle my Shoe – Agatha Christie 138. Invitation to Die – Lyndsey Davis 139. Mouthful of Birds - Samata Schweblin 140. McGlue – Ottessa Moshfegh 141. David Copperfield – Charles DIckens 142. Disgrace - JM Coetzee 143. A Room Full of Bones (Ruth Galloway #4) – Elly Griffiths 144. Testament of Youth – Vera Brittain 145. Crooked Heart – Lissa Evans 146. Ithaca – Patrick Dillon 147. The Mothers – Brit Bennett 148. Red Dress in Black ad White – Elliot Ackerman 149. All My Mother’s Lovers – Ilana Masad 150. Pericles: Prince of Tyre – William Shakespeare 151. The Porpoise – Mark Haddon 152. The Other Americans – Leila Slimani 153. What We Lose – Zinzi Clemmons 154. Home Remedies – Xuan Juliana Wang 155. The Vanishing Half – Brit Bennett 156. Caveat Emptor – Ruth Downie 157. The Gathering – Anne Enright 158. The Truants – Kate Weinberg 159. Watching You – Lisa Jewell 160. What’s Left of Me Is Yours – Stephanie Scott 161. Little Eyes – Samata Schweblin 162. My Mother’s House – Francesca Monplaisir 163. Drifts – Kate Zambreno 164. A Burning - Megha Majumdar 165. The Book of Rosy - Rosayra Pablo Cruz 166. The Gustav Sonata – Rose Tremain 167. American Spy – Lauren Willkinson 168. Human Acts – Han Kang 169. Intimations – Zadie Smith 170. The Novice’s Tale (Oxford Medieval #2) – Ann Swinfen 171. Winter (Seasonal Quartet #2) – Ali Smith 172. Dear Ijeawele – Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche 173. The Huntsman’s Tale Oxford Medieval #3) – Ann Swinfen 174. The Sun Also Rises – Ernest Hemingway 175. Hidden Valley Road – Robert Kolker 176. After Leaving Mr MacKenzie - Jean Rhys 177. Where the Crawdad’s Sing – Delia Owens 178. Half of a Yellow Sun – Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche 179. Night, Sleep, Death, the Stars – Joyce Carol Oates 180. The Pull of the Stars – Emma Donoghue 181. Remain Silent (DI Bradshaw #3) – Susie Steiner 182. The Night Circus – Erin Morgenstern 183. Sisters – Daisy Johnson 184. Mother Land – Leah Franqui 185. Ballet Shoes – Noel Streatfeild 186. Burning Bright – Tracy Chevalier 187. The Royal Governess – Wendy Holden 188. A Darker Shade of Magic – V.E. Schwab 189. Betty – Tiffany McDaniel 190. The Imperfects – Amy Meyerson 191. The Living Mountain – Nan Shepherd 192. Migrations – Charlotte McConaghy 193. The Boy in the Field – Margot Livesey 194. The Less Dead – Denise Mina 195. The Stars Are Fire – Anita Shreve 196. The Exiles – Christina Baker Kline 197. A Traveler at the Gates of Wisdom – John Boyne 198. Daddy – Emma Cline 199. Transcendent Kingdom – Yaa Gyasi 200. What Are You Going Through – Sigrid Nunez 201. Little Scratch – Rebecca Watson 202. True Story – Kate Reed Petty 203. The Shadows – Alex NOrth 204. Spring - Ali Smith 205. Summer – Ali Smith

206. The Margot Affair – Sanaë Lemoine
Coming of age of the secret daughter of a politician who has had a longstanding affair with a famous actress. She struggles to reconcile the loving but limited relationship she has with him and the lack of formal recognition. She meets a journalist and his wife who draw her in and expose the story.

This had a lot of promise and was an interesting idea, but sadly didn't really do anything much with it. Not a lot of plot but plenty of teen angst made it overall a bit boring. Fairly competent writing but went with the new trend of no quotation marks. It was trying very hard to be literary. The author made a very big deal of this being set in Paris, with lots of references to locations, but didn't really create a sense of place or atmosphere. I lived briefly in Paris and this wasn't convincing.

BestIsWest · 10/10/2020 17:53

Girl, Woman, Other - Bernardino Evaristo. I was very apprehensive about this as I posted on a previous thread but I was surprised at how enjoyable I found it. Thought provoking and uplifting stories about 12 women linked by various threads. I’ve recommended it to quite a few people.

A Walk In The Woods - Bill Bryson Comfort read - I attempted to watch the film the other day but gave up due to the outrageous miscasting of 80 year old Robert Redford as 40 something Bill.

Some Kids I taught and what they taught me - Kate Clanchy Laughed and (mostly) cried my way through this. Thanks to all you teachers on these threads - it continually amazes me how you all do it.

Where The Crawdads Sing - Delia Owens. Much reviewed on here so I won’t go into detail. It was ok I thought.

Death on The Nile - Agatha Christie What is it about Christie’s books that makes them so enjoyable yet instantly I finish the book forget the story. I know I’ve read this in the last few years - and that I’ve read it at least twice before that but I had not a clue whodunnit. Nor could I remember any of the characters. Looking forward to the film. I’ll have forgotten again by the time I see it.

FortunaMajor · 10/10/2020 17:56

Chessie I was also a bit baffled by Farenheit 451 and couldn't see the big deal about it. I was really disappointed.

TheNavigator · 10/10/2020 18:08

Another one a bit baffled by Farenheit 451 - I expected it to be great but it somehow never caught alight, as it were.

EineReiseDurchDieZeit · 10/10/2020 18:47

I didn't understand the anticlimactic end, particularly IIRC.

RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie · 10/10/2020 18:49

I really liked Farenheit 451 but can remember very little about it. I think there was a frog and a sheep? The ending has completely escaped me.

ChessieFL · 10/10/2020 19:01

Think you’re thinking of something else there Remus, no frog or sheep in Fahrenheit 451 (although it is possible I skipped over them in my confusion). Glad I’m not the only one who didn’t get on with it.

EineReiseDurchDieZeit · 10/10/2020 19:07

@FortunaMajor

I'm going to take a copy of your list as I think you and Satsuki are the two readers I have most in common with on the thread and I want to sniff your bolds Grin

RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie · 10/10/2020 19:09

Ah - were the frog and sheep in Do Androids Dream, maybe? That would make sense!