26-ish books in 2021

[MercedesDeMonteChristo]

Thought I’d kick start the new thread for this year.

I’m starting with Outlander by Diana Gabalon and reading Anna Karenina Tolstoy one chapter a day, so expect to finish September sometime - I’m on chapter 4.

12. Golden hill - Francis spufford

Midway through so can’t comment fully yet. A mysterious gentleman rocks up on the shores of New York in the 1800’s with a credit note for a large wad of cash. Everyone wants to know his plans but he is keeping Schtum....

10. My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell

Finished this about half an hour ago, still processing it.
Having an almost teenaged daughter, I found it hard to read.
How the brain of a child works in this situation was heartbreaking as it sounded so real.
And the damage done to the central character of Vanessa was equally devastating.
I thought the book was excellent - arresting and believable. 9/10

16. Inferno by Dan Brown
Like the Da Vinci Code but in different cities and different clues for Langdon to unravel. Enjoyable enough if not seriously far-fetched.

17. The Gardener by Charles Reeza
This was a Kindle 99p job. It was also unintentionally my first foray into gay romantic fiction. I bloody loved it. All the characters are wonderful and although the story is simple, it's well told. I finished it last week and I am missing the characters and struggling to get into anything else because I just want to hang out with Adam and Sam and their friends again.

Book 8, Gillespie and me by Jane Harris. Really excellent. So many unanswered questions.

Just saying hi to bookmark this thread - I don't want to annoy people by posting about my reads here. I'm not working at the moment and have nothing better to do, so my tallies are a bit higher. But I've read the first two pages of posts and enjoyed seeing what everyone was reading in January!

I also buy far too many books, mostly on Kindle, and borrow a lot from the library normally. While some of the libraries I use are closed and it's difficult to get there, I'm still trying to make myself read some of the books that I borrowed a year ago or more so that I can start returning some!

I watch out for the daily/monthly etc deals on Kindle. It's amazing what comes up on offer - I snaffled Hamnet at some point last year and read it at the end of the year. I recommend it with a sadness warning.

I read everything from literary stuff and quite serious biographies/non fiction to crime and chicklit. I always have a number of books on the go at once, with two or three at the top of the pile. I really like historical fiction and history too, and currently have several historical novels on the go.

Top of the pile is Abir Mukherjee, A Rising Man, about an English police detective, Sam who has just arrived in Calcutta to take up a new job. The author, Abir Mukherjee was brought up in Scotland and now lives in London, I think, and it's quite interesting to read him writing from the POV of a white English guy in India 100 years ago.

@elkiedee I promise we won’t be bored, we love seeing the lists 😃

Thanks. I really enjoyed reading about everyone's reading so far (2 pages/200 posts). It's more my volume of reading. I've recorded what I've read for the last 12 years on a site called Librarything, and it varies but my lowest was 46 books in 2020 (and that did seem very low), before that 49 in 2009. I've read more than 100 books a year in the 10 years between those and 2010/2011 it was over 300 (no idea how I read so many, and I was actually working from October 2009 when I returned from my 2nd maternity leave to September 2012 when I was made redundant). This year I've picked up speed a bit though I don't know whether I can match finishing 14 books in March each month (as I said, I have several books on the go so I might finish several books within a couple of days and then none for weeks).

It’s all good. I personally read (about 5 books) slowly normally. My target is only 20 but I’m up to 19 already and I love reading updates. I even sometime read the 50 book thread because I am obsessed.

1. Moon Tiger by Penelope Lively

This was a re-read of a book I first read almost 30 years ago and loved. I lent it to someone who never returned it but I always wanted to read it again to see if it was as good as I remembered.

It's the story of retired historian, Claudia, who is looking back on her interesting life as it draws to a close. I found it just as moving and readable as the first time round.

1. Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman by Haruki Murakami

I'm a big fan of Haruki Murakami and this is a book of his marvellous short stories. Infuriatingly the last 40 pages or so were missing from my copy and I spent some time wondering if the last short story was intentionally truncated but then I got a replacement sent with the complete story intact. Now I'm wondering where the missing pages ended up!

1. Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders

Late coming to this. I wasn't sure whether I would get on with this book with its unconventional style but I absolutely loved it. It's incredibly moving but also funny and fascinating in equal measures. And not at all difficult to follow.

I was thinking that on this current page quite a few of you look set to easily make it to 50+ books.

@elkiedee please don’t let the number of books put you off. If going over 26 is going to be a problem then I’ll be outta here in the next few days! I’ve been feeling a tiny bit self conscious about the speed on my reading on this thread this year, but I joined in good faith not expecting to read quite so fast: first lockdown paralysed my reading last year for some reason, and I finished nothing for months. I often have a strong start in cold, dark January and tale off by spring and I usually read around 35 book a year, so 26-ish always seems a good thread to join. I do dip in to the 50 books threads too, but I find that they often move a bit too fast.

I do wonder sometimes if a thread called something like “What we’re reading with no specific number in mind” would be good. But then, perhaps that would get really busy and I’d struggle to keep up!

Anyway, do share what you’ve been reading. I pick up lots of the daily and monthly deals too - I still have lots from January and February’s deals that I haven’t actually read yet, so need to try and stop looking! If you don’t want to share your whole list, then I’d love to hear your highlights so far.

To update my list:

Just My Luck by Adele Parks

1. The Prison Doctor by Amanda Brown
2. The Doctor Will See You Now by Amir Khan
3. The Other Passenger by Louise Candlish
4. The Babysitter by Phoebe Morgan
5. The Open House by Sam Carrington
6. Invisible Women by Caroline Criado Perez
7. Everyday Sexism by Laura Bates
8. The Only Plane in the Sky by Garrett M. Graff

10. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer 11. Brave Girl, Quiet Girl by Catherine Ryan Hyde 12. Dear Edward by Ann Napolitano 13. Vox by Christina Dalcher 14. The Mandibles: A Family, 2029 - 2047 by Lionel Shriver 15. Scattered Minds by Gabor Maté 16. Some Kids I Taught and What They Taught Me by Kate Clanchy 17. May Contain Nuts by John O’Farrell. 18. The Prison Doctor: Women Inside by Amanda Brown 19. Q by Christina Dalcher 20. My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell 21. Notes on a Scandal by Zoë Heller 22. The Choice by Claire Wade

23. The Last Thing to Burn by Will R. Dean

This has been reviewed a few times and so far is definitely a favourite this year, although I’m struggling to articulate why. It’s one of those stories that actually has limited mystery or suspense (very few potential outcomes really) but yet keeps you turning the pages rapidly. The writing is straightforward and unpretentious and I like that there were no ridiculous twists simply to be able to call it “gripping and twisty” or however such books are all described these days! It was slightly reminiscent of Emma Donohue’s Room which I also enjoyed despite its dark topic.

24. Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng

I actually wasn’t that bowled over by Little Fires Everywhere although I know it’s been popular, and I actually preferred this, earlier, book from Ng. It had a lot of different layers and reading it felt like peeling them back one at a time. The opening chapters could easily have been those of any of the ten-a-penny “gripping twisty thriller” (see above!) type that are all over the bestseller lists, and I loved that this book did something a bit different. The disappearance of a girl was not the main storyline, as it is in so many books right now, but a catalyst to explore many other threads including racial prejudice in 1970s America and the effects of parental expectation - how by desperately try8ng to avoid doing something or being like someone, you can inadvertently end up taking the path you so wished to avoid.

25. Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother by Amy Chua

I’ve been meaning to read this for a long time. It’s the parenting memoir of a second generation Chinese-American, also an accomplished law professor, who subscribed to a strict parenting style in order to help her daughters achieve outstanding results, especially in music. t was brought back to mind by some of my earlier books (May Contain Nuts and Some Kids I Taught ). Then I read Everything I Never Told You which featured a very pushy parent who Chua would define as a “Chinese Mother”. The irony being that Marilyn is white but hersel married to a second generation Chinese-American, who did not appear to share her desire to push their elder daughter. Anyway - it brought this book to mind!

Battle Hymn received a lot of backlash when it was first released a decade ago. I think some of that is to do with the way it is written. I think Chua is surprisingly lacking in awareness in some respects, and so likely leaves a lot of her relationship with her daughters out of the story, forgetting that the readers only know what she directly shows or tells us. I’ve no doubt that things other than music practice featured in their lives, but if you took the book at face value, it does sound pretty awful. I have an interest in this stuff because there are elements of “Chinese Mother” in me - I value hard work and would have a tendency towards being pushy... but.... I can’t be bothered! I don’t have the determination or drive necessary to keep up the kind of pace that she sustains (and I suspect much of this is cultural - I’m currently reading Lucy Crehan’s Cleverlands for more on this.) this was definitely an interesting insight though.

8: Trespass by Rose Tremain
A mildly diverting read about an English guy who wants to buy a house in rural France near his sister. The house he falls in love with is owned by a French man, whose own sister lives next door and resolutely does not want him to sell.

9: Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
Yep, didn’t love it or hate it. Really liked the nature elements (I know that put a lot of people off), but thought a lot of it was fantasist nonsense. The references to bloody Amanda Hamilton were almost enough to make me quit reading it.

I’m feeling good that I’m not the only one who was ‘meh’ about Crawdads.

I was also totally meh about Crawdads

I don’t mind faster readers being on - I had a very strong start to the year then got side tracked and lost my mojo but I love hearing others’ recs and non recs. 50books thread moves too quickly for me!

Just finished listening to Reservoir 13 by Jon McGregor” and loved it (the narrator was fab), I had to reborrow it from the library as it took me 4 weeks to listen to it all but I felt totally immersed throughout. Loved the simplicity and the intertwining of village life and nature going about its way and the seasons changing. Something gently bleak about it which only the British can manage well! #13 for me

1. Outlander, Diana Gabaldon
2. Diary of a Provincial Lady, E M Delafield
3. The Duke & I, Julia Quinn
4. Pachinko, Min Jin Lee
5. Us, David Nicholls
6. The Autumn of the Ace, Louis de Bernieres
7. Migrant City: A New History of London, Panikos Panayi
8. Frenchman’s Creek, Daphne du Maurier
9. The Outsider, Albert Camus

10. The Battle of Green Lanes, Cosh Omar 11. Malamander, Thomas Taylor 12. Where the Crawdads Sing, Delia Owens 13. The Interest, Michael Taylor 14. Twenty Years After, Alexandre Dumas 15. The Disappearance of Emile Zola: Love, Literature and the Dreyfus Case, Michael Rosen 16. Gargantis, Thomas Taylor 17. A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian, Marina Lewycka 18. The Uses and Abuses of History, Margaret Macmillan 19. The Wrong Side of the Table, Ayser Salman 20. Stoner, Jonathan Williams

Book club read. I loved this. Stoner is a pretty average man who leads a pretty average life, he leaves his farm and goes off to university where he ends up a professor of English. That’s a very simplistic explanation. I actually think he is not average at all given where he comes from and where he ends up and the things that happen and how he chooses to approach them.

I thought it was brilliant. So beautifully written, removed but somehow still managing to elicit a reaction, sympathy and empathy. I remember when this was reissued a few years ago and my lecturers were raving about it and I don’t think that they were wrong.

I’ve also hit my target for the whole year which is lovely and I’ve got four boxes left on my grid which was largely designed to read more non-fic and some books off my shelf and not just on Kindle. I’ve done that and the only ones left are Anna Karenina, a Zola, a Hardy and Vanity Fair.

Where is the edit button - John Williams.

I’d like to join please! Always looking for good book recommendations, but I’ll be lucky to scrape 26, let alone 50 - those were the days!

I’ve just started Sophie’s World. I’ve never read it and have recently started reading all the books I feel I should have read by now but haven’t. Lord of the Flies was the previous one.

Welcome @OlivesTree.

@KobaniDaughters Oh I loved Reservoir 13! Have you read any of his other books? If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things is fantastic, I love his understated style of writing.

I loved Sophie's World when I read it many years ago @OlivesTree. It's another book I would love to re-read but I lent my copy to someone and it was never returned. Must stop lending people books I enjoy!

Thanks @StColumbofNavron.

I’m really enjoying it @CharliesMouse! I’m looking forward to DD being ready for it in a couple of years - I think she will love it.

I’m really enjoying re-reading all my childhood faves with DD at the moment. We recently finished Anne of Green Gables - I blubbed the whole way through, to the point where she had to take over reading. And now we’re onto Goodnight Mr Tom. Love!

I have the same issue with lending books. The trouble is, if I really love a book I want everyone else to read it too but then I regret it when I don’t get it back. My latest book share regret was with ‘The Power’. Think I’m going to have to re-buy it.

1. Outlander, Diana Gabaldon
2. Diary of a Provincial Lady, E M Delafield
3. The Duke & I, Julia Quinn
4. Pachinko, Min Jin Lee
5. Us, David Nicholls
6. The Autumn of the Ace, Louis de Bernieres
7. Migrant City: A New History of London, Panikos Panayi
8. Frenchman’s Creek, Daphne du Maurier
9. The Outsider, Albert Camus

10. The Battle of Green Lanes, Cosh Omar 11. Malamander, Thomas Taylor 12. Where the Crawdads Sing, Delia Owens 13. The Interest, Michael Taylor 14. Twenty Years After, Alexandre Dumas 15. The Disappearance of Emile Zola: Love, Literature and the Dreyfus Case, Michael Rosen 16. Gargantis, Thomas Taylor 17. A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian, Marina Lewycka 18. The Uses and Abuses of History, Margaret Macmillan 19. The Wrong Side of the Table, Ayser Salman 20. Stoner, John Williams 21. A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Reptile Room, Lemony Snicket

Read this to DS. I am familiar with the stories from the film and pretty sure the DC watched the series and DS1 read them. This was book two that follows the Baudelaire orphans as they try to settle into their new home with their Uncle Monty, but things get all unfortunate when their nemesis, which here mean, ‘mortal enemy in the disguised form of Count Olaf’ turns up. I think this is very cleverly written and some of the language and the way that it is explained is really useful. Anyway, he is keen to read the others and I have the whole collection on Kindle, but I’m not sure I want to dive straight in with the next one so will try to encourage something else and then come back to them.

@OlivesTree I love Mister Tom. I still have really vivid memories of reading it at school and have read it a couple of times since.

@MargotMoon no I haven’t but I think I will - I love that he’s the second author this year I’ve read for the first time and have the joy of finding other books of us to read

Another Sophie’s World lover here, in fact I tried to start it with DS (12) as I was I think 11ish when I read it but he’s finding it a bit much so I’ve put it aside for another year, might dig out The Solitaire Mystery instead because I think it’s a little more accessible for younger people but I can’t find my bloody copy either! Also frustratingly I can’t find my cope of the first Book of Dust which DH wanted to read nor my childhood copies of A Tale of Two Cities or 1984 which I was going to try on DS instead Thankfully we have a copy of Animal Farm so I’m introducing him to Orwell with that.

Any suggestions for a book at bedtime for a 9yr old? I like to read to them above their level to help with vocabulary etc. We’re just finishing When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit because I loved it so much when I Was her age but she was a little bored by it so I might need more up to date recommendations rather than continuing to force my favourite childhood books on the DC!

26. Cleverlands by Lucy Crehan

This book is an examination of some of the top performing education systems in the world - Crehan visited Finland, Japan, Singapore, Shanghai and Canada - to see what lessons can be learned from what they do. It was a very revealing read, particularly after reading Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother (which is one of many references in the text. Others included a couple of other books I’ve read in recent years Drive by Daniel Pink and Mindset by Carol Dweck.) I would recommend it if you have an interest in education and motivation (if you enjoyed Pink or Dweck, example!) However, it is quite a dry read - it could almost have been a thesis rather than a book. I think it would have benefitted from deepening the personal stories - I wanted to know more about how people viewed the educational systems in their countries, not justly how Crehan viewed them or what the statistics show. There were personal stories, but I felt they were superficial.

27. Silver Sparrow by Tayari Jones

I picked this up as a Kindle Daily Deal because it’s by the author of An American Marriage - which I haven’t read but has been on my list for a while (waiting for a deal, or the library to re-open. I no longer make library requests for much since our libraries started charging for them and Kindle Deals are often cheaper!) I’m glad I chose it.

This is the story of the two daughters of a bigamist, only one of whom is aware of the other. It’s written from two points of view, but not in the alternating chapters style, which I think helped give both girls a voice. It really identified that often in life there are no real winners, that many people end up suffering as a result of complex situations that are not of their own making, but also that you can have things that you are not aware of that make you rich in someone else’s eyes.