50 Book Challenge 2020 Part Ten

[southeastdweller]

Welcome to the tenth (and final?) 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
9

I've just checked and these threads this year have moved more quickly than any other year since they started back in 2012! We'd never reached ten threads in any other year.

I remember the Georgette Heyer bookclub mackerella . I really enjoyed them, though I seem to remember they tailed off before some of my favourites ( Black Sheep specifically I don't think got a thread) - I like the older & less ditsy heroines better, which tends to mean the later books.

Just bringing a few bits over form the last thread.

Keith you've convinced me Roth will not be for me. I loved the Watership Down comment.

Equally Ham I will not be going for Infinite Jest either based on your thoughts. I'm really not into authors spaffing manliness about, no matter how literary.

Eine you can do it, even without Betts' helpful suggestion!

I have downloaded Eleanor and Park but I have a feeling I might be on Team Betts and Cote on this one.

Stitches thanks for the rec of Reading Lolita in Tehran it sounds right up my street.

Blackcountryexile The Dark Angel is my next Ruth Galloway. It's strange how things that can annoy in one book are forgivable with a different author. I have a soft spot for these too. Unlike Hill's Serailler series, which I keep reading, but can't fathom why.

Reading Lolita in Tehran is excellent.

Bookwitch I lead the pitchfork mob over Follet, but will freely admit he writes cracking page turners. I just wish they came with a bit less blatant misogyny.

I'd like to join please. I haven't been posting on MN much this year, but I've been keeping my own list of books. Looking over it, wow, I've sure been reading a lot of crap this year. It's been a weird mix and it's, um, very Blake's 7 heavy. I've been reading a lot of tie-ins and watching a lot of old school BBC scifi.

1.) Waterlog - Roger Deakin
2.) The Reddening - Adam Nevill
3.) Black Leopard, Red Wolf - Marlon James
4.) The Glass Woman - Caroline Lea
5.) She-Merchants, Buccaneers and Gentlewomen - Katie Hickman
6.) A Necessary Evil, Abir Mukherjee
7.) Ravencry (The Raven's Mark Trilogy book 2) - Ed McDonald
8.) The Spartans - Paul Cartledge
9.) The Wall - John Lanchester
10.) Murder Most Florid - Dr Mark Spencer
11.) Apartment 16 - Adam Nevill
12.) The Body in the Library - Agatha Christie
13.) A Murder is Announced - Agatha Christie
14.) The Moving Finger - Agatha Christie
15.) Antigone - Sophocles
16.) Under a Pendulum Sun - Jeanette Ng
17.) In You Defence: True Stories of Life and Law - Sarah Langford
18.) Horrorstor - Grady Hendrix
19.) Nine Pints: A Journey Through the Mysterious, Miraculous World of Blood - Rose George
20.) 24 Hours in Ancient Athens - Philip Matyszak
21.) The Luminous Dead - Caitlin Starling
22.) Underland: A Deep Time Journey - Robert Macfarlane
23.) A Talent for Murder - Andrew Wilson
24.) North Korea Journal - Michael Palin
25.) Dracula - Bram Stoker
26.) Consider This: Moments in my Writing Life - Chuck Palahniuk
27.) Anaconda: The Writer's Cut - Hans Bauer
28.) Storm Front - Jim Butcher
29.) Master of Sorrows - Justin Call
30.) Creaters, Conquerors, and Citizens - Robin Waterfield
31.) Rivers of London - Ben Aaronovitch
32.) Maigret Sets a Trap - Georges Simenon
33.) Dishonored: The Return of Daud - Adam Christopher
34.) Gideon the Ninth - Tamsin Muir
35.) Death in the East - Abir Mukherjee
36.) Dishonored: The Wyrmwood Deceit
37.) Blake's 7: The Forgotten - Mark Wright
38.) The Fifth Elephant - Terry Pratchett
39.) Adventures with the Wife and Blake: The Blake Years - Neil Perryman
40.) Jingo - Terry Pratchett
41.) Night Watch - Terry Pratchett
42.) Piranesi - Susannah Clark
43.) Lovecraft Country - Matt Ruff
44.) The Thursday Murder Club - Richard Osman
45.) Adventures with the Wife and Blake: The Avon Years - Neil Perryman
46.) Crowfall (The Raven's Mark Book 3) - Ed McDonald
47.) Adventures with the Wife in Space - Neil Perryman
48.) Blake's 7: Warship - Peter Anghelides
49.) Corpse Marker - Chris Boucher
50.) Unnatural Causes - Dr Richard Shepherd
51.) Blood on the Strand - Susanna Gregory
52.) Mary Reilly - Valerie Martin
53.) Maskerade - Terry Pratchett
54.) Blake's 7: Outlaw - Trevor Baxendale
55.) The Last Days of Pompeii - Edward Bulwer-Lytton
56.) Aliens: Earth Hive - Steve Perry
57.) Lost Acre - Andrew Caldecott

Standouts so far are The Thursday Murder Club, The Raven's Mark Trilogy (one of the best fantasy series I've read in ages), and the two Adventures with the Wife and Blake books, which are essentially just the author and his wife watching and taking the piss out of commenting on all the Blake's 7 episodes, but it's been a while since I laughed this hard at a book.

Thanks for keeping us all on track, southeast.

Here's my updated list:

1. The Hunting Party – Lucy Foley
2. The Unexpected Joy of being Sober – Catherine Gray
3. Ta deuxième vie commence quand tu comprends que tu n’en as qu’une – Raphaëlle Giordano
4. L’élégance du hérisson – Muriel Barbery
5. Three things about Elsie – Joanna Cannon
6. Restoration – Rose Tremain
7. The Dreams of Bethany Mellmoth – William Boyd
8. The girl you left behind – Jojo Moyes
9. Antigone – Jean Anouilh
10. The Light Years – Elizabeth Jane Howard
11. Scissors, Paper, Stone – Elizabeth Day
12. Standard Deviation – Katherine Heiny
13. Behind the scenes at the museum – Kate Atkinson
14. The Well-Kept Kitchen – Gervase Markham
15. The Passion of Artemisia – Susan Vreeland
16. Lord of the Flies – William Golding
17. Marking Time – Elizabeth Jane Howard
18. Smoke gets in your eyes – Caitlin Doughty
19. American Heart – Laura Moriarty
20. Sing, Unburied, Sing – Jesmyn Ward
21. An American Marriage – Tayari Jones
22. Beloved – Toni Morrison
23. Ultimate Care – J M Farmer
24. Still Alice – Lisa Genova
25. David Copperfield – Charles Dickens
26. Transcription – Kate Atkinson
27. 84 Charing Cross Road – Helene Hanff
28. The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street – Helene Hanff
29. The Buddha in the Attic – Julie Otsuka
30. The Bookshop on the Shore – Jenny Colgan
31. Run – Ann Patchett
32. I am, I am, I am – Maggie Farrell
33. Inventing Ourselves: The Secret Life of the Teenage Brain – Sarah Jayne Blakemore
34. The Sealwoman’s Gift – Sally Magnusson
35. By the light of my Father’s Smile – Alice Walker
36. Where the crawdads sing – Delia Owens
37. Charlotte – David Foenkinos
38. Girl – Edna O’Brien
39. Silver Bay – Jojo Moyes
40. The travelling cat chronicles – Hiro Arikawa
41. The Great Gatsby – F Scott Fitzgerald
42. Homegoing – Yaa Gyasi
43. Confusion – Elizabeth Jane Howard
44. Get out of my life… but first take me and Alex into town – Tony Wolf and Suzanne Franks
45. Beartown – Fredrik Backman

Currently reading Boule de Suif de Maupassant, The Christmas Chronicles by Nigel Slater, Tiny Habits by BJ Fogg, Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid and staring at OMF imagining it's going to read itself

Welcome, Billie! I recently read (and hugely enjoyed) The Thursday Murder Club, and I also have The Wall and the She-Merchants book waiting on my bedside table/Kindle, so I wouldn't agree that you've been reading a lot of crap this year . (Also, the Sophocles and Bulwer-Lytton make for an intriguing mixture with Blake's 7 and Terry Pratchett!)

Here's mine:

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 (YES @EineReiseDurchDieZeit it was!) 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 54. One, Two, Three, Four: The Beatles in Time - Craig Brown

Ducks update: still only on 59%!

Also, I'm so glad you also remember those threads, Sadik! Looking back over some of them just now, I was wondering what had happened to some of the posters, who were so witty and knowledgeable. (Name changed, I guess.)

It's a shame we never got to Black Sheep, but I'd totally be up for reviving the book club temporarily, in the name of completeness

I guess a lot of people namechanged when there was the password leak Mackarella (and on a separate note I want to know whether Horatia Winwood did actually give her - presumably now well into primary school - baby a GH derived name....)

@FortunaMajor

Bookwitch I lead the pitchfork mob over Follet, but will freely admit he writes cracking page turners. I just wish they came with a bit less blatant misogyny.

Yeah Fortuna I hear you.

I am loving the thought that there's a 7yo Venetia, Sylvester, Waldo, Ancilla or Theophania somewhere! I myself was "in a promising condition" during some of those threads, and DD does actually have a name used in Heyer, but it's one of the more common ones (and the eponymous heroine is not one of my favourite ones).

(Also, the Sophocles and Bulwer-Lytton make for an intriguing mixture with Blake's 7 and Terry Pratchett!)

Funnily enough, Last Days of Pompeii is probably one of the trashiest books I’ve read this year.

I really enjoyed it, but this Goodreads review made me laugh for how accurately it skewers the style:
www.goodreads.com/review/show/969669125?book_show_action=true&from_review_page=1

Thanks southeast.

Hi Billie, that is by no means a trashy list. You'll fit right in.

Not doing a list myself as it's hardly moved on since last month due to my abandoned incursion into IJ.

Yes it's funny how you will forgive some authors some things. I could stand any amount of plot related bobbins in the Ruth Galloway series to get my fix of Ruth, Nelson, Cathbad et al. And the other day I noticed that I was tolerating, nay even enjoying, my pet hate of spelling out accents (particularly working class or foreign ones) phonetically while rendering the middle class characters in standard English. That was James Herriot doing Yorkshire farmers. When anyone else does it I'm raging.

I was on some of those Heyer threads - as a possessor of a Heyer influenced name myself, had to be! Love Cotillion, especially Lord L and poor old Dolph.

1 My Sister the Serial Killer - Oyinkan Braithwaite
2 We Have Always Lived in the Castle- Shirley Jackson
3 All The Light We Cannot See - Anthony Doerr
4 The Silence of the Girls - Pat Barker
5 Station Eleven - Emily St John Mandel
6 The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood (re read)
7 The 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
13 Lost for Words - Stephanie Butland
14 The Mirror and the Light - Hilary Mantel
15 The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle - Stuart Turton
16 Persuasion- Jane Austen (reread)
17 The Line of Beauty - Alan Hollinghurst
18 Ten Days in the Hills - Jane Smiley (audio)
19 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
20 A Little Life- Hanya Yanagihara
21 The Summer of Impossible Things - Rowan Coleman (audio)
22 Where the Crawdads Sing - Delia Owens
23 Year of Wonders - Geraldine Brooks
24 Little Fires Everywhere - Celeste Ng
25 Normal People - Sally Rooney (audio)
26 The Red Tent - Anita Diamant
27 I Capture the Castle - Dodie Smith (re read)
28 Of Love and Shadows - Isabel Allende
29 The 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)
40 Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie
41 The Road to Little Dribbling - Bill Bryson
42 Warlight - Michael Ondaatje (audio)
43 Mexican Gothic - Silvia Moreno-Garcia
44 After the Party - Cressida Connolly
45 The Bass Rock - Evie Wyld

My list - I seemed to have a really good run at the begining of the year then a less inspiring period. Anyway, I will make the 50 easily, but I am in awe of how much some of you read - I thought I was reader!

I've just read Pat Parker is going to publish a sequel to The Silence of the Girls next year - I'll definately read that.

Loving these threads.

I've never read any Georgette Heyer - clearly something that needs to be remedied!

120. Sacrifice, by Sharon Bolton
A woman turns up a body in a field in Shetland and is determined to find out what happened. But who can she trust?

This haa puff from Sophie Hannah on the cover ("One of the best thrillers ever!") and what very much in her mould - intriguing premise, a central female character you want to cheer on - and then an ending that sets your eyes rolling and your teeth grinding at its sheer implausibility.

That's not a trashy list Billie, you should see mine - I'm the lightweight on these threads anyway welcome, just in time to finish off the year with us.

First, thank you everyone for good suggestions for DD's reading. I bought her a copy of Normal People and I heard her say to her friend last night on a video call that she had to go as she wanted to read more of her book before bedtime. Quite unprecedented, so thank you all. I shall report back on other suggestions.

Inspired by the discussion on the last thread I found the copy of Eleanor and Park I bought her for her birthday and am reading it myself. I'm loving the musical references - Skinny Puppy on page 1!

I will bring my list over at some point when I can work out where I saved it. And do some more reviews as they are backing up. I am very close to 100 books which was my revised target for this year (previously it's been somewhere around 130 but Covid took a bite out of my concentration and I stalled for a large part of this year). But thinking back, I've enjoyed almost everything I've read this year, and it's largely been books I have chosen carefully and for good reasons.

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 59. Big Fat Lies by Hannah Sutter 60. The Migration by Helen Marshall 61. Circe by Madeline Miller 62. Sleep by C L Taylor 63. The Nowhere Girls by Amy Reed 64. Dreams of Gods and Monsters by Laini Taylor 65. Gone by Leona Deakin 66. White Cat by Holly Black 67. An Unwanted Guest by Shari Lapena 68. White Silence by Jodi Taylor 69. The Institute by Stephen King 70. All New Wolverine Volume 1: The Four Sisters 71. Dracula by Bram Stoker 72. Roman Quests: The Archers of Isca by Caroline Lawrence 73. Malory Towers Upper Fourth by Enid Blyton 74. Uhura’s Song by Janet Kagan 75. Just What Kind of Mother Are You? by Paula Daly 76. The Season of Passage by Christopher Pike 77. Autism: How to Raise a Happy Autistic Child by Jessie Hewitson 78. Nod by Adrian Barnes 79. The Ogre Downstairs by Diana Wynne Jones 80. Touch by Claire North 81. What’s in a Surname? by David McKie 82. Dark Light by Jodi Taylor 83. The Sweet Poison Quit Plan by David Gillespie 84. Fellside by M R Carey 85. Roman Quests: Return to Rome by Caroline Lawrence 86. Kensuke’s Kingdom by Michael Morpurgo 87. Whispers Underground by Ben Aaronovitch 88. The Map of Bones by Francesca Haig 89. Hazards of Time Travel by Joyce Carol Oates 90. The Hatching by Ezekiel Boone 91. The Thieves of Ostia by Caroline Lawrence 92. Girl by Edna O’Brien 93. The Wolves of Winter by Tyrell Johnson 94. Panic by Lauren Oliver 95. My Son’s Not Rainman by John Williams 96. In The Fifth at Malory Towers by Enid Blyton 97. No. More. Plastic. by Martin Dorey 98. Last Term at Malory Towers by Enid Blyton 99. The 21st Century Is Making You Fat by Pat Thomas 100. New Term at Malory Towers by Pamela Cox 101. Summer Term at Malory Towers by Pamela Cox 102. Winter Term at Malory Towers by Pamela Cox 103. The Turn of the Key by Ruth Ware 104. The Grace Year by Kim Liggett 105. Hurrah for Gin by Katie Kirby 106. All New Wolverine Vol 2: Civil War II 107. All New Wolverine Vol 3: Enemy of the State 108. All New Wolverine Vol 4: Immune 109. All New X-Men Vol 1: Yesterday’s X-Men 110. All New X-Men Vol 2: Here to Stay 111. All New X-Men Vol 3: Out of Their Depth 112. Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi

Managed to get organised this month and post my list for the first time this year, easily manged my target of 52 books which has included some very large books.

55. The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai
56. 11.22.63 by Stephen King
57. Small Island by Andrea Levy 52. Silence by Shusaku Endo
58. Talking to Strangers by Malcolm Gladwell
59. The Discomfort of Evening by Marieke Lucus Rijneveld
60. A Place of Greater Safety by Hilary Mantel
61. The Gathering by Anne Enright
62. The Famished Road by Ben Okri 46. We the Animals by Justin Torres
63. The Ten Loves of Mr Nishino by Hiromi Kawakami
64. Pale Rider: The Spanish Flu of 1918 by Laura Spinney 43. The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox by Maggie O’Farrell
65. David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
66. Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid
67. Unexplained: Supernatural Stories by Richard MacLean Smith
68. Kindred by Octavia E.Butler 38.The City & The City by China Mieville 37. Drive your plow over the bones of the dead by Olga Tokarczuk
69. Queens of the Kingdon: The woman of Saudi Arabia by Nicola Sutcliff
70. The Magus by John Fowles
71. Literary Landscapes by John Sutherland
72. Last Orders by Graham Swift
73. Lorna Doone by R.D.Blackmore
74. Undermajordomo Minor by Patrick deWitt
75. Something childish but very natural by Katherine Mansfield 29. Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin
76. Whole of a Morning Sky by Grace Nichols
77. The last day of a condemned man by Victor Hugo
78. Vernon God Little by D.B.C Pierre
79. The Unthinkable: Who survives when disaster trikes – and why by Amanda Ripley
80. A Grain of Wheat by Ngugi wa Thiong’o
81. Normal People by Sally Rooney
82. The Sealwoman’s Gift by Sally Magnusson
83. Last Days by Adam Nevill
84. Oscar and Lucinda by Peter Carey
85. Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo
86. Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra
87. The Lottery and other stories by Shirley Jackson
88. H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald 15. Johnny got his gun by Dalton Trumbo
89. Bibliophile: An Illustrated Miscellany by Jane Mount
90. Elmet by Fiona Mozley
91. Ask Again, Yes by Mary Beth Keane
92. The greengage summer by Rumer Godden
93. The Dutch House by Ann Patchett

1. The Testaments by Margaret Atwood
2. A Spool of blue thread by Anne Tyler

7. The Five: The lives of Jack the Ripper’s Woman by Hallie Rubenhold

1. The Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst
2. The Secret Barrister
3. Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams
4. The Confession by Jessie Burton

2. Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie 1. Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari

Currently making my way through The Bone Clocks which I'm enjoying.

I love the Bone Clocks, I think it is my favourite David Mitchell - I found the ending v moving (no spoilers!)

Thanks Southeast.

My list:
1. The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaimen
2. Holes by Louis Sachar
3. The Hunting Party by Lucy Foley
4. The Girl With All The Gifts by M R Carey
5. The Green Mile by Stephen King
6. Sweet Sorrow** by David Nichols
7. Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout
8. The Acceptance World (Book 3) by Anthony Powell
9. Bring Up The Bodies by Hilary Mantel
10. Himself by Jess Kidd
11. The Mother Tongue by Bill Bryson
12. The Mirror and The Light by Hilary Mantel
13. The Dutch House by Anne Pratchet
14. Where The Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens.

15. My Antonia by Willa Carter
16. Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood
17. 11.22.63 by Stephen King
18. The Heart Goes Last by Margaret Atwood
19. Abomination by Robert Swindells
20. Me by Elton John
21. Knots and Crosses by Ian Rankin
22. Hide and Seek by Ian Rankin
23. Carry On Jeeves by PG Wodehouse
24. The Flat Share by Beth O’Leary
25. At Lady Molly’s (Book 4) by Anthony Powell
26. Casanova’s Chinese Restaurant (Book 5) by Anthony Powell
27. The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters
28. The Kindly Ones (Book 6) by Anthony Powell
29. Girl, Woman Other by Bernadine Evaristo
30. Love After Love by Ingrid Persaud
31. The Other Bennett Sister by Janice Hadlow
32. American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins
33. Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell
34. Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi
35. The Silence Of The Girls by Pat Barker
36. Once Upon A River by Diane Setterfield
37. A History of Loneliness by John Boyne
38. The Institute by Stephen King
39. A Tale For The Time Being by Ruth Ozeki
40. The Foundling by Stacey Halls
41. Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman
42. Jamaica Inn by Daphne Du Maurier
43. Malorie by Josh Malerman

I'm 40% of the way through the Craig Brown Beatles book and about 16% through the hefty A Fine Balance, which I'm enjoying despite my daughter warning me that it's unrelentingly grim. I may be choosing my books by shortness of length rather than desire to read after those two if I want to crack 50 by 2021!

Formatting completely to pot there! Highlights have been: Holes, Green Mile, Bring Up the Bodies, Alias Grace, Love After Love, American Dirt.

1. One day in the life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhenitsyn.
2. Bookwormby Lucy Mangan.
3. Educated by Tara Westover.
4. The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead
5. Finding Jenifer Jones by Anne Cassidy

6. The Girl With the Lower Back Tattoo by Amy Schumer. 7. Me by Elton John.

1. Black Car Burning by Helen Mort.
2. The Trauma Cleaner by Sarah Krasnostein.

10. Conviction by Denise Mina. 11. In The Woods by Tana French. 12. when the wind Blows by Raymond Briggs. 13. Girl, women, other by Bernadine Evaristo. 14. Glass Town by Isabel Greenberg. 15. Dominicana by Angie Cruz. 16. Wolf hall by Hillary Mantel 17. Blue Monday by Nicci French 18. Its not ok to feel blue (and other lies) by Scarlett Curtis. 19. Adults by Emma Jane Unsworth. 20. Bridget Jones’ Diary Helen Fielding. 21. Bring Up the Bodies Hilary Mantel. 22. A thousand Ships by Natalie Haynes. 23. The Wife Between Us by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanan. 24. The Stand by Stephen King. 25 Vox by Christina Dalcher. 26. Natives: Race and Class in the Ruins of Empire by Akala. 27. The Mercies by Kiran Millwood Hargreaves. 28. The Only Plane In The Sky: An Oral History of 9/11. By Garrett Graff. 29. Rodham by Curtis Sittenfeld. 30. Mallory Towers 1 by Enid Blyton 31. Mallory Towers 2 by Enid Blyton 32. Mallory Towers 3 by Enid Blyton 33. Mallory Towers 4 by Enid Blyton 34. Mallory Towers 5 by Enid Blyton 35. On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Voung. 36. Such a fun age by Kiley Reid. 37. Afropean by Johny Pitts. 38. To Love and Let Go by Rachel Brathean. 39. Ramble Chat by Adam Buxton. 40. In this Country We Love by Diane Guerrero. 41. The Party by Elizabeth Day. 42. Grown Ups by Marian Keyes 43. Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell 44. Homecoming by Luan Goldie 45. Alex Ryder: Stormbreaker by Anthony Horowitz 46. Small Great Things by Jodie Picoult. I 47. The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett 48. The mirror and the Light: Hillary Mantel 49. Street Child by Beryl Doherty. 50. Case Histories Kate Atkinson. 51. Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia. 52. *The Trials of Morrigan Crow by Jessica Townsend. Thanks as ever @southeast. It’s been great following the pace of the threads this year even if my reading has slowed a bit.

I definitely get the warm fuzzies from remembering Elanor and Park but think I read it when it came out and can remember very little