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.

@Kobanidaughters I definitely enjoyed Mr Loverman - on balance probably more than Girl, Woman, Other actually.

@KobaniDaughters I can recommend The Explorer by Katherine Rundell and The Boy at the Back of the Class by Onjali Q Rauf, both of which I have read to my ds this year (he turned 10 in March). We are in the middle of reading The Midnight Guardians by Ross Montgomery which he is also loving. I try to mix up reading him favourites from my childhood (i.e. Goodnight Mister Tom) with more modern books. Oh, another one he enjoyed recently was Tom's Midnight Garden by Philippa Pearce.

I'd love to join this discussion, rather than just lurk, so I'm going to share my list of what I've read so far this year. After a fairly slow year of reading in 2020 I've decided I want to pick up the pace in 2021. My other big focus will be on reading some classics, as although I read quite widely, I tend to focus on modern novels.

1. The Kiss Quotient - Helen Hoang
2. Miss You - Kate Eberlen
3. The Cuckoo’s Calling - Robert Galbraith
4. One Day in Summer - Shari Low
5. Missing, Presumed - Susie Steiner
6. What If? - Shari Low
7. Everything I Never Told You - Celeste Ng
8. Rebecca - Daphne du Maurier
9. The House by the Sea - Louise Douglas

10. Verity - Colleen Hoover 11. Such a Fun Age - Kiley Reid 12. The Husband’s Secret - Liane Moriarty 13. My Dark Vanessa - Kate Elizabeth Russell 14. The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald 15. I Let You Go - Clare Mackintosh 16. The Silence of the Girls - Pat Barker 17. All the Lonely People - Mike Gayle 18. Writers & Lovers - Lily King 19. Big Magic - Elizabeth Gilbert 20. Saving Missy - Beth Morrey 21. Case Histories - Kate Atkinson 22. When We Believed in Mermaids - Barbara O’Neal

Of the above, my favourites have been The Cuckoo's Calling, My Dark Vanessa, The Silence of the Girls and Case Histories.

Like many on here I have a Kindle deals addiction and my Kindle currently has well over 100 unread books on it, so I really should not be buying any more...but despite saying this, I have bought several more today after reading this thread!

Been a bit slack with my reading so far this year! The weather was lovely over the weekend so I decided I needed a book to read while sat in the garden. Currently reading 'The Woman In The Window'

@livingonpurpose hello... that is a great list.

I am addicted to Kindle special offers whether daily, monthly, sale or random offers, and spend lots of time seeing whether the prices of anything on my Wishlist or others that look interesting have dropped. Generally I look for books that are under £2.

I'm also addicted to requesting Netgalley books, and in normal times library books and charity shops. I have cards for several library services as I'm in London, and have started to reserve books from the library system which offers free reservations agaiin.

I enjoyed The Silence of the Girls, I think in 2019, and last year I really liked Natalie Haynes's book A Thousand Ships.

I have a Netgalley of a follow up to The Silence of the Girls to read, though I tend to spend ages pondering my choices.

I spend an ordinate amount of time reading about reading, thinking about reading, updating Goodreads, just looking at Goodreads, staring at the bookshelf, flicking through my Kindle. Mercifully, bookbub emails haven’t had anything of interest for me for a few weeks now. Because they are mostly 99p I can easily get carried away.

@TheAnswerIsCake thanks - put it on my birthday list!

@livingonpurpose thanks for the recommendations, DD has decided she’s enjoying When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit but will look at your suggestions to line up the next one

@elkiedee I have A Thousand Ships still TBR on my Kindle. I hope I enjoy it as much as The Silence of the Girls. I read Circe last year and really liked it - although I see that a few on this thread found it hard to get into.

I actually find it fascinating how different people feel differently about books. For example - Where the Crawdads Sing. I read that last year too and really enjoyed it. But then I read The Color Purple a few months later, which had some similarities in setting/class and it totally blew Crawdads out of the water for me.

Having check the Kindle daily deals (my morning ritual!) I'm sure my bank account was relieved that there was nothing I wanted to buy today.

@StColumbofNavron I can relate to your obsession with reading. I recently discovered Goodreads and get a buzz every time I mark a book as finished, and I love checking my Challenge page.

1. The Kiss Quotient - Helen Hoang
2. Miss You - Kate Eberlen
3. The Cuckoo’s Calling - Robert Galbraith
4. One Day in Summer - Shari Low
5. Missing, Presumed - Susie Steiner
6. What If? - Shari Low
7. Everything I Never Told You - Celeste Ng
8. Rebecca - Daphne du Maurier
9. The House by the Sea - Louise Douglas

10. Verity - Colleen Hoover 11. Such a Fun Age - Kiley Reid 12. The Husband’s Secret - Liane Moriarty 13. My Dark Vanessa - Kate Elizabeth Russell 14. The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald 15. I Let You Go - Clare Mackintosh 16. The Silence of the Girls - Pat Barker 17. All the Lonely People - Mike Gayle 18. Writers & Lovers - Lily King 19. Big Magic - Elizabeth Gilbert 20. Saving Missy - Beth Morrey 21. Case Histories - Kate Atkinson 22. When We Believed in Mermaids - Barbara O’Neal 23. Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov 24. Girl, Woman, Other - Bernadine Evaristo

Lolita - I decided to read this as one of my classics after reading My Dark Vanessa, and a (much more well read) friend also suggested it to me. I have to say I thought it was fantastic. The writing and word-play was incredible. I had the annotated version on my Kindle and enjoyed all the notes explaining key points/themes/choices of the author - it really helped.

Girl, Woman, Other - Not sure what I thought about this one. I listened to the audiobook via my library app, so I didn't have to deal with the 'boundary-pushing' formatting/punctuation issues, but I just didn't feel/care about any of the characters, and I also didn't like the lack of dialogue or proper plot. That said, it was still an enjoyable book and some of the characters stories were interesting.

livingonpurpose I also enjoyed My Dark Vanessa. Heartbreaking and compelling.
The way it portrayed how Vanessa perceived their relationship as being consensual and one involving real love was devastating.

11. Knots and Crosses by Ian Rankin. This was ok. I was expecting to love it but I just liked it a bit. I gather from other readers that the series improves but I don't think I'll read any more. Started American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins and can't put it down.

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 22. The Disappearance of Lydia Harvey, Julia Laite 23. A Series of Unfortunate Events #4: The Wide Window, Lemony Snicket 24. The Alienist, Caleb Carr

I have seen the TV series but only retain the characters rather than the plot so this thriller set in a meticulously researched 19th century New York read like new. I really liked the main characters, their idiosyncrasies are drawn really well. The actual crimes, which are heinous and the process of catching the killer was good because I thought it was well written, though I didn’t always understand quite how they came to their conclusions or remember all of the many twists and turns that they took. Nevertheless, because everything else was very well done I enjoyed. Solid 3 stars. I might read the others but not in a rush.

1. Hamnet - Maggie O'Farrell
2. Comet in Moominland - Tove Jansson
3. Miss Benson's Beetle - Rachel Joyce
4. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
5. The Midnight Library - Matt Haig
6. Dear Mrs Bird - A.J Pearce
7. The Racehorse Who Wouldn't Gallop - Clare Balding
8. Because of You - Dawn French
9. The Angel Tree - Lucinda Riley

10. Jamaica Inn - Daphne DuMaurier 11. The Duke and I - Julia Quinn 12. Home Stretch - Graham Norton 13. Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen

14. Mansfield Park - Jane Austen
The only one of Jane Austen’s novels which I hadn’t read. Enjoyable but not in the same league as P&P, Emma or S&S for me as I didn’t like the characters as much.

1. The Kiss Quotient - Helen Hoang
2. Miss You - Kate Eberlen
3. The Cuckoo’s Calling - Robert Galbraith
4. One Day in Summer - Shari Low
5. Missing, Presumed - Susie Steiner
6. What If? - Shari Low
7. Everything I Never Told You - Celeste Ng
8. Rebecca - Daphne du Maurier
9. The House by the Sea - Louise Douglas

10. Verity - Colleen Hoover 11. Such a Fun Age - Kiley Reid 12. The Husband’s Secret - Liane Moriarty 13. My Dark Vanessa - Kate Elizabeth Russell 14. The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald 15. I Let You Go - Clare Mackintosh 16. The Silence of the Girls - Pat Barker 17. All the Lonely People - Mike Gayle 18. Writers & Lovers - Lily King 19. Big Magic - Elizabeth Gilbert 20. Saving Missy - Beth Morrey 21. Case Histories - Kate Atkinson 22. When We Believed in Mermaids - Barbara O’Neal 23. Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov 24. Girl, Woman, Other - Bernadine Evaristo

25. The Mermaid of Black Conch - Monique Roffey
A young fisherman becomes intrigued with a mermaid he discovers off the coast of his Caribbean island. When she is captured by Americans during a fishing tournament he rescues her, but before he can return her to the sea she starts to change back into a woman. As he tries to help her adapt into modern Caribbean life, her presence begins to impact on those around her.

I really enjoyed this book. It was a fast read and I felt the pace kept my interest going. Told in a combination of first and third person, with some via diary entries from 40 years later, it has the potential to be confusing, but felt it easy enough to follow.

30. The Flatshare by Beth O’Leary

I got this on a Kindle Deal, purely because so many people had recommended it to me. I’m still not entirely sure what I thought. The premise was daft and there were a whole bunch of cliches. But it was a very undemanding read and I did find myself wanting to know what was going happen in the last quarter or so of the book. In some ways it does make another nice change from all the “twisty” thrillers - it reminded me of the kind of boy-meets-girl romances that was the big thing in the early noughties, so I guess a bit refreshing in that way.

31. The Whole Truth by Cara Hunter

This is book 5 in the DI Fawley series, which I’ve been enjoying, so had this one on pre-order. This was the weakest one so far though. I think there is a lot of effort in making it stand alone, so you can read it if you haven’t read earlier ones, but this means it covers quite a bit of ground again, especially one of the two main cases in this book which was raked through in book 4. The whole thing felt a bit far fetched as well, which is a shame. It was another quick and fairly undemanding read though, and I’ll still read the next when it comes out though!

32. The Last House on Needless Street by Catriona Ward

I read this purely on the strength of recommendations on Mumsnet. To be honest, I felt a bit meh about it. It was an interesting premise, but sadly I thought it was obvious early on, so the whole thing felt quite dragged out, but at the same time some of it was rushed and the character explorations more superficial tHan I wanted. It’s a brave subject though, and it was readable... just not as good as I wanted it to be.

17. Remains of the Day Kazuo Ishiguro. One of those classics I’ve never read and thought it would be good to. It wasn’t as devastating as various reviews make out but I did find myself getting sucked in.

I only finished one book in April. I have slowed down a lot as having a bit of a TV drama box set phase atm!

1. Easily Distracted - Steve Coogan. I love SC in all his different guises, comedic and straight. This was an interesting read, I enjoyed hearing about his childhood and early influences, but there was a bit of repetition in places.

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 22. The Disappearance of Lydia Harvey, Julia Laite 23. A Series of Unfortunate Events #4: The Wide Window, Lemony Snicket 24. The Alienist, Caleb Carr 25. Mixed/Other, Natalie Morris

Short new release by journalist Natalie Morris about what it means (or doesn’t mean) to be of mixed heritage in Britain today. It’s part memoir, part journalistic with interviews with people with different backgrounds. It was interesting to me as someone of a mixed background with a mixed family but also from an academic perspective. It’s very short, under 200 pages and is definitely recommend for anyone who is interested in or has read Natives etc.

StColumbofNavron I loved watching The Alienist and didn't realise it was based on a book. I've added the series to my wishlist.

26. King Lear - William Shakespeare
I'm embarrassed to say that this is only the second time I've ever read Shakespeare (the first being Romeo & Juliet while at secondary school). I bought the Collins Classroom book of King Lear so that I could read about the themes and so that I would have a good 'translation' to help me understand the meaning. Although I found this a bit stilted at first - reading the text, then reading the glossary/translation, then reading the text again so I could fully appreciate it, it was fine once I got the hang of it. I enjoyed the story and I think I would benefit from watching the play now, so I'm contemplating buying the BBC DVD of the various plays, so I can do this after reading each of them.

I know there are some experienced Shakespearians on this thread, and wondered if you have any advice/tips for reading and appreciating his plays?

@livingonpurpose I don’t routinely read Shakespeare, I did read along with a televised Hamlet when the Andrew Scott version was screened and usually read along with Much Ado About Nothing but largely (my personal view) I like to consume Shakespeare through performance since that is the purpose. That said I really enjoyed reading the plays at school.

I’m a theatre director and I only ever read Shakespeare when in prep these days!! Read a lot at university and when I was younger and had time on my hands.

I would say find a process that works for you with to read through and check glossary as you go and then read through again without or do it the other way round. Once you’ve read a fair bit you start to know what certain turns of phrase mean as they crop up again, like learning another language almost - I now rarely look up terms unless I’m very uncertain

I love that you read King Lear though!! You’ve inspired me, I should go back to some of the texts and re-read

13. Love in the time of rebellion- Ahmet altan

Picked up at random to celebrate library reopening and I am loving it. Evocative, sensual, imaginative and full of Turkish history that I knew nothing about. Have even gone to bed early to get some extra pages in- which is a rare treat with toddler ( who walked today for the first time!)

I now have Thursday Murder Club and have 3 weeks only to read it, lockdown rules have gone, and I have a book for a book club ahead of that! 😬

Altan was one of the many journalists in prison in Turkey. He was only released last month I think. So much of his newer stuff was written whilst in gaol.

Not that I have read his work, but he is definitely on a list.