50 Book Challenge 2020 Part Eleven

[southeastdweller]

Welcome to the eleventh (and final!) thread of the 50 Book Challenge for this year.

The challenge was to read fifty books (or more!) in 2020, though reading fifty isn't mandatory. Any type of book can count, and it's still not too late to delurk and tell us your reading highlights and lowlights of the year.

Yay! Thank you, southeast. I’d have felt very odd posting 2020 chat on a 2021 thread. I will do some sorting and reporting on my list later on, ready for a shiny new thread next year.

Here's the previous threads, all ten of them comprising of 10,000 posts in total, the most since these threads started back in 2012:

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10

Thank you SouthEast for the new thread, which popped up while I was drafting my post, and thank you as always for enabling this chat throughout the year. You deserve key worker status in my world!

Welcome to all new joiners - this is definitely the most calming but interesting place on the internet. I intend to live here for 2021 with occasional lurking on Style and Beauty.

Congratulations Piggy on finishing W&P.

Remus, have you read any Margaret Mahy? She doesn't tick your boxes for Victorian/Gothic setting but I loved her as a teen, especially The Tricksters and The Changeover. They've got that YA formula right where you have the straightforward childhood emotions (love, fear, courage) mixed with the more ambiguous emotions of adolescence, and awakening adult feelings hand-in-hand with an awakening awareness of the supernatural.

We were all talking about Cynthia Harnett a couple of weeks ago - were you in that conversation? If so, apologies as you will already have read her books which are good adventure stories set in Medieval England. In a similar vein although different time periods I would recommend the Tre(ec/as)es, Geofrrey Trease ( Word to Caesar ) and Henry Treece ( Viking Dawn ), who was a poet and a teacher as well as a children's author. I haven't re-read these as an adult so I can only report that I found them gripping as a child.

Here are my final updates for 2020:

93. Apeirogon, Colum McCann

Widely reviewed here and elsewhere. You probably already know that this is the story of two bereaved fathers, one Israeli, the other Palestinian, who lost their daughters in the violence and conflict that runs through the region. The fathers, and their daughters, are real people - Rami's 13-year-old daughter Smadar was killed in a suicide bombing in Jerusalem while out shopping with friends; ten years later, Bassam's 10-year-old daughter Abir was killed by a rubber bullet fired by a teenage Israeli soldier outside her school. The two fathers met through the Parents Circle, a peace activism organisation run for and by bereaved parents from both sides, and have become friends and co-campaigners for peace. McCann includes interviews with them but, as he explains in his introduction, he has also imagined and embroidered.

This was the third of McCann's books that I have read, having loved the other two: Let the Great World Spin (which is the story of a tightrope walk between the twin towers in New York, but at its heart a story about 9/11), and Transatlantic, which pulls together the story of the first attempted non-stop flight across the Atlantic in 1919, a visit from the anti-slavery activist Frederick Douglas to Ireland in the 1840s, and Senator George Mitchell's journey from the US to Belfast to contribute to the Northern Irish peace talks. McCann's great skill (as those summaries suggest) is picking diverse stories and pulling them together in a way which brings out their connections, their universality; illuminating both the familiar story and the unfamiliar through putting them side by side.

So, then, to Apeirogon, which as well as being the story of Rami and Bassam, Smadar and Abir, is also a story about migrating birds, about the experiences of an Irish priest's doomed attempts to explore the sites of biblical cities on the Dead Sea, about bible stories and the tales of the 1001 Arabian Nights, about the long history of conflict in the area, about life in modern Israel and Palestine, the experiences of negotiating checkpoints and surviving a prison hunger strike, about the Holocaust, stories from the Bible, echoes of the two novels I mentioned previously (both the tightrope walk Petit and Senator Mitchell being linked to the Israel-Palestine area - and through whom McCann opens little narrative windows through which we can consider how the Troubles and 9/11 are linked to the stories of Rami and Bassam). All of this cleverly done through a structure of 1001 chapters, deliberately reflecting the stories of the Arabian Nights, and with the testimony of the two fathers at its heart.

An apeirogon, in case you were wondering, is a shape with a countably infinite number of sides - from this you might correctly deduce that there is more than one side to any story. Maths and Islamic art run through this book, which is constantly reflecting, repeating, looping back on itself. The stories jump back and forth in time so that the girls seem to be at the same time not yet born, alive, recently killed and long dead - it's a technique that worked powerfully to make their deaths seem both inevitable and avoidable, both a part of history and painfully recent, and to show the lifelong, never-ending grief and trauma visited both on their families and on the wider communities for whom these are only two deaths amongst many thousands.

I have to admit that, despite my admiration, I did find this book hard going, not so much because of the subject matter (which I was prepared for, and in which death and violence are mixed with other stories of beauty, resilience and love) but because of the structure, clever and effective as it is. I wasn't feeling well over the Christmas period and sometimes felt that I was wading through treacle reading this - it has little or no forward momentum, you wonder whether it would work as a conceptual novel where the 1001 chapters are printed on separate cards and picked up at random (I think probably not, but certainly you could consider it). I think I would have struggled less if I hadn't been fighting my own brain fog at times, but I do think this book needs a slow, reflective read with the expectation that you won't travel from A to B in the narrative - you'll start at A and end up at A, but with excursions to B, C and many other (often unexpected) letters in between.

94. If I Had Your Face, Frances Cha

After finishing Apeirogon, I whipped through this one in a single day. Absorbing, disturbing book about a group of young working class women living in modern-day Seoul.

Ara is working as a hair stylist in a busy salon, and dreams naively of meeting her K-Pop idol: the daughter of domestic servants, she has been mute since an incident in her childhood which is left as a mystery until later in the book. Her flatmate and childhood friend/protector is Sujin, whose ambition is to have extensive facial surgery so she can become a highly-paid room salon girl, employed to drink with rich male patrons. Across the hall live Miho, an artist whose scholarship to an American college has thrown her into an unfamiliar world of upper-class western-educated Koreans, and Kyuri, who is living the life that Sujin dreams of - she's a "Ten Per Cent" girl, working in an exclusive room salon where only the most beautiful and sought-after 10% of girls are employed. Finally, their neighbour Wonna, who has escaped an abusive childhood through marriage to a kind but poor man who she doesn't love, and remains haunted by unhappiness and demons of her past.

On the surface, this book is chatty, gossipy, full of scenes in bars and food houses, female friendship and support networks, light-hearted talk of clothes, make-up and hair. However, the picture that Cha paints of the lives of the young women is a bleak one. Even low-paid jobs are found through contacts and networking, and there is little opportunity for social or financial advancement. Ara and Wonna fear losing their jobs despite being hard workers - they know that without contacts they will struggle to find another place. Sexism and bullying are rife, and employee protections scant. Marriage isn't an easy option either, with low-status young wives frequently treated badly by their husbands and their inlaws. Kyuri is making good money through her room salon job, but it's humiliating, dehumanizing work where the girls are expected to submit to every whim of the rich, male customers - Kyuri has worked her way up from the red light district but even as a Ten Per Cent girl she is still expected to offer sex to her customers. With the highest rate of cosmetic surgery in the world (some estimates suggest that 1in 3 South Korean women between 19 and 29 have had plastic surgery), both the young women themselves and everyone around them is obsessed with appearance and beauty, while corruption, nepotism, rigid class structures, and sexism stifle the young women's opportunities and leave them with limited options, not just for social advancement but even for simple happiness.

I read an interesting comment in a Goodreads review, that while a reader would not think of a writer such as Eileen Mosfegh (whose characters he compares to Cha's in being unlikeable and appearance-obsessed) as representing a rounded view of American society, there is a risk that Cha's book is seen, because of a lack of English-language books about life in Korea, as being completely representative of Korean culture. I'm not sure that I agree that Cha is deliberately presenting unlikable women here - I felt that we were supposed to be sympathetic to their situation rather than repulsed by their characters - but certainly I came away wondering how realistic a portrait this is of modern Korea. If anyone can recommend any useful further reading please do (I'm starting here www.theguardian.com/books/2020/apr/23/south-korea-female-writers-rise-up-cho-nam-joo and here theculturetrip.com/asia/south-korea/articles/a-century-of-tumult-ten-important-modern-korean-authors/ )

95. Hercule Poirot's Christmas, Agatha Christie

Only partway through this one but listing it here as I think it will be my final read of 2020. So far a large and estranged family have gathered for Christmas at the request of the obscenely rich and deeply unpleasant patriarch. As well as the sons and their wives there are an important sprinkling of outsiders including a servant who goes pale at the mention of the police. The requisite murder has taken place. I'm going to settle in and enjoy Poirot doing his thing.

I've been missing presumed reading for the last week. I'm only briefly touching on recent books, as as you'll see. I've got some serious reading to do...

279. Yuletide (Austen Inspired Stories) – Christina Boyd
     Authors use the beloved characters in new storylines based at xmastime, including Darcy getting snowed in with the Bennetts. Amusing, but nothing noteworthy.

280. Oona Out of Order – Margarita Montimore
     A woman wakes up on New Year's Day many years into her future. She discovers she is destined to live her life out of order and doesn't know which year will come next. She writes herself a letter every year to give to a relative to give her to help her catch up on the years she's missed.
     Fun and entertaining. This really rattled along.

281. Cunk on Everything – Philomena Cunk
     Comedy persona Cunk of mockumentary fame delivers her unique take on everything. Probably funnier to write than it was to read. This would suit being dipped in and out of, but was tedious and a bit cringey to read straight through.

282. The Perks of Being a Wallflower – Stephen Chbosky
     Teen boy makes his way through all the issues in angsty coming of age. This had an interesting voice and dealt with a lot.

283. Testimony – Anita Shreve
     A sex scandal in a private school has wider implications on the local community. Gripping and I ripped through this.

284. The Spook Who Spoke Again – Lindsey Davis
     Offshoot to the Falco/ Flavia Albia series with the neurodiverse adopted son of Falco returning to live with his birth mother briefly. Plenty of previous characters abound, but it's a long time since I read the relevant ones in the series. This made it a little less enjoyable.

285. The Light Between Oceans – ML Stedman
     A lonely lighthouse keeper and his wife live on a remote island. After suffering a series of miscarriages, she finds a body and a baby washed up in a boat and decides to keep it. Her husband struggles with the secret. I loved this and couldn't put it down.

286. Their Finest – Lissa Evans
     A film making company are tasked with making films to help draw America into the war. A feature ends in disaster. So-so. I like her writing, but this failed to spread a meagre plot all the way to the edges. Far too long.

287. The Girl Who Fell from the Sky – Heidi W Durrow
     A young mixed race girl struggles to come to terms with her new life living with her black grandmother. As the sole survivor of a family tragedy, she struggles with her identity in a new community.
     Told in multiple POV by those involved, this is a really interesting look at race and identity.

288. Reading Lolita in Tehran – Azar Nafisi
     Memoir of a teacher running an illegal book group from her home, reading banned western literature. This is set against the backdrop of a changing political situation at the time of the Iranian revolution. Absolutely fascinating.

289. All You Can Ever Know – Nicole Chung
     A writer discusses her experience of being born to Korean immigrants to the US, but being adopted into a white family. She later chooses to seek out her birth parents and discover more of her culture and identity. This was a brilliant and insightful look at race and identity and how 'colour blindness' when it comes to race is a luxury only white people can claim.

290. Cheer Up Love – Susan Calman
     A memoir of her mental illness and how she copes with it. I don't know what I was expecting, but I didn't get it. Nonetheless a brave look at MH and I applaud those willing to discuss it openly.

291. One by One – Ruth Ware
     A killer in a remote luxury ski chalet is bumping off guests one by one. fairly faced paced, but easy to guess. I like Ruth Ware a lot and as a former ski bum this had the added interest. I'm missing the mountains this year.

292. Sex, Power, Money – Sara Pascoe
     A look at the sex and porn industry, what drives it and the effect it has on women. This was really interesting. I majorly disagree with her on some elements of her feminism, but this was right on the money for this topic. Literally.

293. A Deadly Education – Naomi Novik
     
     Trapped in a magic school where the only options are to graduate or die, a young magician battles with the monsters out to kill her. Alliances with other students are vital, but could also spell uncertain death. This isn't a genre I'd usually touch and it did nothing for me, but I can see why others would like it.

294-298 - The St Clare's Series separated out, as I'd previously only added the six as one book.

299. will be The Way of All Flesh - Ambrose Parry which I am currently enjoying and will finish today.

300, is TBC and whatever I can fit in tomorrow. Unless I can squeeze in a cheeky Wodehouse tonight and have a day off instead.

Good job I'd copied my reviews before trying to post on the old one. It ran out from under me. I had ended my comment with this....

southeastdweller I know it's only for a day and a bit, but please can we have another thread so everyone gets chance to have a round up / bit of list mania to finish off the year? Pretty please?

I'm desperate to see everyone's bolds to guide my list for next year.

I'm desperate to see everyone's bolds to guide my list for next year

Me too, it's so interesting seeing the same books come up again and again. Remus may have to avoid this thread for a while from this afternoon...

Piggy you must be thrilled to have W&P finally finished. I hate having books hanging over. Which has reminded me that I can't have a day off tomorrow as I haven't started finished my OMF chapters.

PermanentTemporary couldn't agree more regarding short stories. I want to like them more than I do and you've summed up why beautifully.

Welcome many new people! Looking forward to starting the new reading year in good company.

Keith great review of If I Had Your Face. It's really stayed with me and I was absorbed by it too.

I've been looking at lists of translated books for options for book club as we are having a different approach next year. I'd be interested to see what you find.

And here are my bolds (below). I did start counting up how many books I'd read by male/female, white/not white, fiction/non-fiction etc but my spreadsheet crashed. I did notice that the most common designation on my list was female/white/fiction, and am interested looking at my list of bolds that actually not much white-lady-fiction made it onto that list, considering how much of it I read! Might need to learn from that for next year.

Warlight, Michael Ondaatje
Airhead, Emily Maitlis
Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea, Barbara Demick
Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland, Patrick Radden Keefe
Slow Horses, Mick Herron
Olive Kitteridge, Elizabeth Strout
Uncanny Valley, Anna Wiener
Heaven, My Home, Attica Locke
Frankisstein: A Love Story, Jeanette Winterson
The Dutch House, Ann Patchett
Where is the Voice Coming From? Eudora Welty
The Leavers, Lisa Ko
The Street, Ann Petry
Long Bright River, Liz Moore
Swing Time, Zadie Smith
The Wych Elm, Tana French
Afropean, Johnny Pitts
Trust Exercise, Susan Choi
Shuggie Bain, Douglas Stuart
Apeirogon, Colum McCann

Hello!

Thanks OP!

Now liberated from W and P, I am finishing my OMF! chapters just a as a nudge!

The readalong keeps falling off my Threads I'm On but we have some newbies including one of my favourite posters jupp.

Thank you southeast for organising us yet again. This has been a great place to spend time in this most difficult of years.

Having made it to my target of 100 books but not posted for ages, a scrabbly attempt to catch up before the end of 2020 follows:

68. The Return of Captain John Emmett by Elizabeth Speller. A detective story/mystery/ exploration of the psychological effects of war on both soldiers and those left at home.
    John Emmett has apparently committed suicide, although he had seemed to be recovering from shellshock in the aftermath of WWI. His old school friend Laurence Bertram is asked, by JE's sister, to investigate his death.
    Laurence's quest to find the truth is intriguing, the period detail is well executed, and the plot works well. If you enjoyed Birdsong and Pat Barker's novels, it might be one for you.

69. Ordinary People by Diana Evans. Two couples in London struggling with middle age, parenthood, infidelity. Described as "utterly exquisite" by one reviewer. I beg to differ. For me it was unremarkable, but I did find it noteworthy that the four main characters were black which was treated as incidental rather than a major theme of the novel. That was refreshing.

70. Restoration by Rose Tremain. For me, RT is a great writer. Her themes are so various and she sets her novels in different countries, different time periods .. she is the antithesis of authors who churn out slightly different versions of what is essentially the same book.
    Merivel, the main character in this 17th century tale, starts as physician and a favourite of the king, and is married off to one of his mistresses and deposited in the countryside to be regularly cuckolded. Merivel is an interesting mix of intelligent, good-hearted, but weak, venal and confused at times; always entertaining however.
    I reread this prior to reading the follow-up book Merivel which I'm looking forward to.

Thank you Southeast, I'll post my list soon.

Reading Lolita in Tehran – Azar Nafisi - I read this years ago and really enjoyed it, far more so than Lolita. It was one I got from Bookcrossing when I used to do that in my pre-Kindle days.

Thanks for new thread.

294. Murder At The Gorge by Frances Evesham

Latest in the series, pretty average really.

Hoping there will be one more to get my number to a nice round 295!

Well 😂

This unexpected extra thread will allow me to shamelessly revel, so here we go :

The Full 200 :

BOOKS 2020

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 Hosseini 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 Cumins 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 134. Us by David Nicholls 135. A Story Lately Told by Anjelica Huston 136. Watch Me by Anjelica Huston 137. Mrs Jordan’s Profession by Claire Tomalin 138. Noble Savages by Sarah Watling 139. The Inugami Curse by Seishi Yokomizo 140. Mexican Gothic by Silvio Moreno-Garcia 141. The Alienist by Caleb Carr 142. The Angel Of Darkness by Caleb Carr 143. Mongol by Uuganaa Ramsay 144. Wild Swans by Jung Chang 145. Just Kids by Patti Smith 146. To War With The Walkers by Annabel Venning 147. No Place To Hide by Glenn Greenwald 148. Tony Hogan Bought Me An Ice Cream Float Before He Stole My Ma by Kerry Hudson 149. Heartburn by Nora Ephron 150. A History Of Britain Vol 1 : 3000 BC-1600 AD by Simon Schama 151. Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston 152. Corregidora by Gayl Jones 153. I Capture The Castle by Dodie Smith 154. One On One by Craig Brown 155. Pale Rider by Laura Spinney 156. Big Sky by Kate Atkinson 157. Unnatural Causes by Richard Shephard 158. Trustee From The Toolroom by Nevile Shute 159. The Silence Of The Lambs by Thomas Harris 160. Mindfuck by Christopher Wylie 161. To Throw Away Unopened by Viv Albertine 162. Quite by Claudia Winkleman 163. The Power Of The Subconscious Mind by Joseph Murphy 164. The Crown In Crisis by Alexander Lerman 165. Devolution by Max Brooks 166. Putin’s People by Catherine Belton 167. The Seven Husbands Of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid 168. The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman 169. Before The Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi 170. Daddy by Emma Cline 171. The Guest Cat by Takashi Hiraide 172. The Peculiar Life Of A Lonely Postman by Denis Thériault 173. Who Will Run The Frog Hospital? by Lorrie Moore 174. The Postman’s Fiancee by Denis Thériault 175. The Vegetarian by Han Kang 176. Before The Coffee Gets Cold : Tales From The Cafe by Toshikazu Kawaguchi 177. The Queens Gambit by Walter Tevis 178. I Will Not Grow Downward by Yikealo Neab 179. Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov 180. Old Baggage by Lissa Evans 181. Crooked Heart by Lissa Evans 182. A Promised Land by Barack Obama 183. V For Victory by Lissa Evans 184. Anyone For Edmund? By Simon Edge 185. The Diary Of A Provincial Lady by E.M Delafield 186. Not The End Of The World by Kate Atkinson 187. The Order Of Time by Carlo Rovelli 188. Modern Love ed. Daniel Jones 189. The Alice Network by Kate Quinn 190. Reaching Down The Rabbit Hole by Allan Ropper 191. Greenlights by Matthew McConaughey 192. Walking With Ghosts by Gabriel Byrne 193. Affinity by Sarah Waters 194. Foundation by Isaac Asimov 195. Jack by Marilynne Robinson 196. Drive Your Plow Over The Bones Of The Dead by Olga Tokarczuk 197. Circe by Madeleine Miller 198. Relentless by Wudasie Nygazi 199. Piranesi by Susanna Clarke 200. Lanny by Max Porter

I made a mistake in Standouts on last threa

Standouts Fiction :

Lincoln In The Bardo by George Saunders
Jamaica Inn by Daphne Du Maurier
The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins
Small Island by Andrea Levy
Half Of A Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Achede
All Quiet On The Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
Swan Song by Kelleigh Greenberg-Jephcott
My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell
American Dirt by Jeanine Cumins
This Thing Of Darkness by Harry Thompson
Daisy Jones and The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid
The Seven Husbands Of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Before The Coffee Gets Cold/Tales From The Cafe by Toshikazu Kawaguchi
The Guest Cat by Takeshi Hirade
The Vegetarian by Han Kang
Old Baggage by Lissa Evans
Circe by Madeleine Miller
Lanny by Max Porter

Non Fiction :

Why I'm Not Talking To White People About Race by Reni Eddo-Lodge

Enlightening and topical about racial construct issues of the UK

Hidden Valley Road by Robert Kolker

A large US family receives multiple diagnoses of schizophrenia devastating a generation.

Love Child by Allegra Huston

Allegra, sister of Anjelica, is raised by the film director John Huston unaware
Catch And Kill by Ronan Farrow
Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow
Lady In Waiting by Anne Glenconner
A Woman Of No Importance by Sonia Purnell
Kick by Paula Byrne

Aaargh I hadn't finished!!! Trying again

Betts it was Stitches who recommended it earlier this year that put it on my radar. I know others have read and enjoyed it too. Is book crossing still a thing? I used to worry they would just get binned if they weren't claimed.

Book club this year are having an extended reading list with 12 themes which we can dip into throughout the year if the book of the month doesn't appeal. I've had a lovely time putting together suggestion shelves for each theme and have been researching best of x theme lists. I can't wait to see which others get added and which books get chosen for each one. We're trying to improve the quality of what we read as there have been some stinkers this year and it's very thriller heavy from the turn taking selections.

Thread 11? Wow.

Nothing new to add but already spent money on the basis of this thread and bought the ski chalet Ruth Ware book.
Never been skiing and not likely to either (tendency to break bones) but always entertained a fantasy of hurtling down slopes and drinking hot chocolate.

I attempted a quick raid on the last thread with my final book for 2020, but got there too late, so:

104: Scoff - Pen Vogler

Enjoyable, fact-packed goldmine of a book about the history of food, cooking and eating. Very long - over 800 pages on my BorrowBox library copy - but organised in quite short chapters, so you can pick it up and delve at leisure. It’s also bang up to date, referencing COVID lockdowns, flour and yeast shortages (and Mumsnet!). Anyone who’s keen on food or social/domestic history would appreciate this.

I’ll come back later with some 2020 stats - though not my whole list, as some will be relieved to hear But I’m pleasantly surprised to have reached, and just edged past, 100.

I made a mistake in Standouts on last thread.

Standouts Fiction :

Lincoln In The Bardo by George Saunders

A greek chorus of ghosts witness Abraham Lincoln's grief for his son

Jamaica Inn by Daphne Du Maurier

A young woman is sent to her Aunt and Uncle's creepy pub to live. Smuggling capers.

The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins

A family feels cursed by a stolen jewel

Small Island by Andrea Levy

Looking at the racism experience of the Windrush generation

Half Of A Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Achede

Twin sisters lives go in very different directions during the Biafran war

All Quiet On The Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque

Unforgettable account of German troops in WW1.

Swan Song by Kelleigh Greenberg-Jephcott

A fictionalised biography of Truman Capote

My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell

A woman re-examines her relationship with a teacher in the Me Too era

American Dirt by Jeanine Cumins

A woman tries to escape Mexico with her son after becoming the target of a drug cartel

This Thing Of Darkness by Harry Thompson

Darwin. A boat. Like this book or vacate this thread.

A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara

4 friends face multiple tragedies

Daisy Jones and The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid

A singer with the IT Factor gives a band that Je Ne Suis Quoi. Ate it like fast food. Still aggravated by the last sentence NO RACHEL THEY OWE YOU NOTHING YOU GOT WHAT YOU WANTED SIT THE FUCK DOWN

The Seven Husbands Of Evelyn Hugoby Taylor Jenkins Reid

A young woman is asked to interview an aging enigmatic film star.

Before The Coffee Gets Cold/Tales From The Cafe by Toshikazu Kawaguchi

A tiny Japanese coffee shop has time travel powers.

The Guest Cat by Takeshi Hirade

A couple become overly attached to their neighbours cat

The Vegetarian by Han Kang

A woman becomes a vegetarian. Mayhem ensues. Amazing frankly.

Old Baggage by Lissa Evans

Mattie, a former suffragette, tries to find meaning in her life

Circe by Madeleine Miller

Greek myths and legends. Beautifully written

Lanny by Max Porter

A precocious small child causes his parents concern.

Non Fiction :

Why I'm No Longer Talking To White People About Race by Reni Eddo-Lodge

Enlightening and topical about racial construct issues of the UK

Hidden Valley Road by Robert Kolker

A large US family receives multiple diagnoses of schizophrenia devastating a generation.

Love Child by Allegra Huston

Allegra, sister of Anjelica, is raised by the film director John Huston unaware she is the love child of her mother a ballerina and a British viscount.

Catch And Kill by Ronan Farrow

Journalist Farrow attempts to expose Harvey Weinstein and finds himself under surveillance.

Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow

I am the AL-EX-AND- he are/we are meant to be a colony that runs independently, meanwhile Britain keeps shittin' on us endlessly

Lady In Waiting by Anne Glenconner

Memoir of Princess Margaret's best friend who had a full life of her own.

A Woman Of No Importance by Sonia Purnell

Biography of Virginia Hall an unsung WW2 spy.

Kick by Paula Byrne

Biography of John F Kennedy's sister Kathleen

Long Walk To Freedom by Nelson Mandela

Self explanatory

The Body Keeps The Score by Bessel Van Der Kolk

The link between physical unwellness and mental health

Another Day In The Death Of America by Gary Younge

A 24 hour picture of underage gun deaths

Rough Magic by Lara Prior Palmer

A young woman participates in the worlds hardest horse race.

First Lady by Sonia Purnell

Biography of Clementine Churchill

Clothes, Clothes, Clothes, Music, Music, Music, Boys, Boys, Boys by Viv Albertine

Authors memoir of her life in music

Poverty Safari by Darren McGarvey

A trumpet sound from Britain's overlooked underclass

Mrs Jordan's Profession by Clare Tomalin

A biography of Dora Jordan, King William IV mistress

Noble Savages by Sarah Watling

Biography of the Olivier sisters

Just Kids by Patti Smith

Autobiographic perfection

No Place To Hide by Glenn Greenwald

The Snowden Whistleblowing Affair

Mindfuck by Christopher Wylie

The scary truth about Cambridge Analytica

To Throw Away Unopened by Viv Albertine

A deep and affecting look at her parents marriage.

A Promised Land by Barack Obama

Self explanatory

Walking With Ghosts by Gabriel Byrne

Gorgeously Written Memoir

The 💩💩💩💩 List

The Gift Of Fear by Gavin De Becker

Should be retitled The Gift Of Rape Apology

Written In History by Simon Sebag Montefiore

Money for old rope.

Delta Of Venus by Anais Nin

Nauseating. As erotic as sandpaper to the arse.

IT by Stephen King

1000 pages of annoying people, low scare rate, rampant homophobia and racism

The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern

A pretentious, baffling and half baked novel, which is frankly a devastation coming from The Night Circus writer

@bettbattenburg I found this with Swing Time too, the only other Zadie Smith novel I have read - very well written but didn't grab me. I think her long form essays and articles for the New Yorker and other such sites are her best work

@Boiledeggandtoast Thank you, I was able to focus on non-fiction better than fiction this year so ended up with a more eclectic and science-y list than usual

I can't wait to read Hidden Valley Road now - it's on my kindle and so many here have mentioned it. Have also downloaded Old Baggage and Another day in the death of America and have put Piranesi and Hamnet on the list

Laughing at your Anais Nin review EineReise

Thank you for the extra bonus thread SouthEast. I can see this is going to be bumping up my 2021 TBR list - I've already added Reading Lolita in Tehran and now need to read the rest of the thread!

Thanks, Keith. I'll check those out.

Thanks, South. Wake me up when all the lists are over!

Sniggering at your one-liners Eine. Especially liked

Darwin. A boat. Like this book or vacate this thread

@Terpsichoreindeer

I attempted a quick raid on the last thread with my final book for 2020, but got there too late, so:

104: Scoff - Pen Vogler

Enjoyable, fact-packed goldmine of a book about the history of food, cooking and eating. Very long - over 800 pages on my BorrowBox library copy - but organised in quite short chapters, so you can pick it up and delve at leisure. It’s also bang up to date, referencing COVID lockdowns, flour and yeast shortages (and Mumsnet!). Anyone who’s keen on food or social/domestic history would appreciate this.

I’ll come back later with some 2020 stats - though not my whole list, as some will be relieved to hear But I’m pleasantly surprised to have reached, and just edged past, 100.

This has been on my Wishlist for ages.

Ooh thank you @highlandcoo I've been meaning to read Restoration for years, I'll have to get onto it in 2021

Thanks Cake and Best but I've just spotted my own French error and I will be fuming with the embarrassment for at least four days...

Type A personality Ahoy.