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.

Also, I wanted to add that I agree that this thread has had a positive impact on my reading habits too! It's exciting to discover new books/authors that I may not have considered before, and to broaden my range (I too tend to stick with formulaic thrillers otherwise).

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 26. The Viscount Who Loved Me, Julia Quinn 27. A Series of Unfortunate Events #4: The Miserable Mill, Lemony Snicket 28. To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee 29. The Holiday, Guy Bellamy 30. The Austere Academy, Lemony Snicket

Still working my way through this with DS3. More misery follows the Baudelaire orphans and Count Olaf escapes - AGAIN. I actually think this one was my favourite one so far.

Book 14, When will There be Good News by Kate Atkinson, this was after I read Big Sky and I didn't actually remember much of it. I love her Jackson Brodie books though.

42. The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane by Lisa See

A thank you to those who recommended this, as it wasn’t a book I’d come across before. After reading The Girl With the Louding Voice, I wanted something good to draw me in, as I often struggle after reading something really outstanding. Based on recommendations here I went with Tea Girl. Although it wasn’t as much of a stand out as The Girl With the Louding voice for me, it was very good. If anything I was slightly disappointed with the ending. Not the ending per se (and I did find it funny that the author addressed the issue of overt coincidence in writing in Haley’s own essay) but the fact that I saw the connections coming a long way from the end. I am glad that the story closed where it did though.

The book has also inspired me to reignite my love affair with tea. Once upon a time I had many varieties of leaf in my cupboard, but I’ve fallen out of that and want to go back!

I did think the ending let it down a little @TheAnswerIsCake but I found the Akha and tea producing stuff so compelling.

20. When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit Just finished reading this to DD and then we went to a local art house cinema and saw the German film made 2 years ago which was wonderful. Getting the next two for her. I loved this trilogy growing up and she seemed to enjoy it

I finished two books this month. I've really slowed down compared to last year! And miles behind some of you on this thread, it is getting hard to keep up with all the posts! I think there's a 52 Books thread each year, which might be better suited to the faster readers.

1. The Secret Commonwealth - Philip Pullman. Well, it's all gone very dark hasn't it? I still love being in Lyra's world but it's not the escape it once was

10. An Unwanted Guest - Shari Lapena. A friend passed this on to me as I said I wanted an absorbing-but-easy page-turner and she said this would fit the bill. It kind of did, in that I read it in 2 days, but there were so many plot holes it just felt like a waste of time.

@MargotMoon

I finished two books this month. I've really slowed down compared to last year! And miles behind some of you on this thread, it is getting hard to keep up with all the posts! I think there's a 52 Books thread each year, which might be better suited to the faster readers.

1. The Secret Commonwealth - Philip Pullman. Well, it's all gone very dark hasn't it? I still love being in Lyra's world but it's not the escape it once was

10. An Unwanted Guest - Shari Lapena. A friend passed this on to me as I said I wanted an absorbing-but-easy page-turner and she said this would fit the bill. It kind of did, in that I read it in 2 days, but there were so many plot holes it just felt like a waste of time.

Hmmm... thing is, despite the thread title, I don’t see the number of books as being important at all. It’s not a race, just about sharing books.

I’m certainly one of those you are probably thinking of when you refer to those who have read a lot. I’ve read much more, much faster, than I usually do precisely because this thread has inspired me to find exciting books that I really want to read, and I’m choosing reading books over magazines or watching television or doing puzzles. I know that the number of books I’ve read has ended up fitting better with the 50 books thread, but that thread moves very fast (they’re at almost 5000 posts this year) which doesn’t suit me, and I think that is more important than the number. I like that we’re a smaller group and that everyone is going at their own speed. Some people contribute a couple of posts per week, others only one a month, and I think all are welcome.

With regards to your reads, I still have both La Belle Sauvage and Secret Commonwealth to read. I’ve sort of been putting them off because I’d like to re-read the original trilogy for the first time in years, but keep finding new books to read instead. I remember enjoying another Shari Lapena book a few years ago, so Unwanted Guest has always been on my “maybe I should pick it up” list. Plot holes really irritate me though, so perhaps I’ll not bother!

I’m not really a fast reader, this year for whatever reason I am managing more than usual. I really like the coziness of this thread.

I’ve never managed any Pullman or anything remotely world building or fantasy like. DS3’s choices seem a little more real life/fantasy hybrid and since I read to him it might come up.

I agree that the 52 books thread moves too quickly for me to follow. I'm about to finish my 13th book this year so I'm pretty much on target to read 26 this year. I'm not worried if people on here have read more or less than me.

@MargotMoon don't think of it as being 'behind' other people, just think of it as each of us reading at our own pace and sharing our thoughts with a smaller group of people than the 52 book thread. As previously said, I like that this thread feels cosy. I also find it easier to identify books I might enjoy from the reviews on this thread, whereas the other one has so many people posting it gets a bit much/overwhelming.

39. The Girl With The Louding Voice - Abi Dare
The story of Adunni, a teenage girl from a village in Northern Nigeria and her quest to obtain an education and have a meaningful life. I loved this book! Adunni was a wonderful character, strong and compassionate - it was easy to connect and empathise with her, and to want to her to succeed. I enjoyed the use of language and it some of her observations made me chuckle out loud. Highly recommended.

Yeah I like the pace of this thread too, and we all seem to have quite similar reading sensibilities which is helpful for recommendations

I really loved the book of dust but it was more of a forced read with the secret commonwealth though I love being back in Lyra’s world and it still captivated me. I reread His Dark Materials with DS last year before watching the series which was great.

I wasn’t going to include work books but just finished one which was heartbreaking and I had to just read properly before going back to read it for prep, so highly recommend everyone looking out for what strange paradise later this year by Omar El Akkad, the story of a Syrian refugee boy who finds himself on a smugglers boat to the Greek island and is the only survivor when the boat capsizes. I’m actually desperate to talk to someone about it because a not exactly what you think it is....and I couldn’t get the image of the little boy in the red t shirt who washed up from one of those boats years ago. Beautiful book

I have read/reread the His Dark Materials trilogy over the last 18 months as I felt I would like to do this before starting on La Belle Sauvage,

I've heard the two so far Book of Dust books in abridged adaptations on the radio, and am reslly bothered by the very unsatisfactory cliffhanger ending to The Secret Commonwealth. I might read La Belle Sauvage while I'm waiting but I'm not reading TSC in print/eink until the third book in the trilogy comes out. I'm a bit anxious about Philip Pullman's health, not as far as I know that there is a particular issue but he is in his mid 70s and I am all too conscious that things can happen suddenly.

I think over time any group where you've settled into talking to a number of people, that's more important than any specific target number of reads. On LT my regular group has been the 75 group - last year was the first in 11 years that I hadn't made it to 100 - I finished 46 books altogether but those were mostly at the beginning and end of the year - between 16 March and the end of September I only finished 6 books

What a thoughtful and considerate lot of replies! See, that's why I like this thread - you are all perfectly right and I apologise if I sounded like I was trying to make anyone feel like they were doing anything wrong posting here. Whether I read 5 books or 50 books a year I would appreciate you all.

I am delighted to hear that there is a When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit film. I usually watch c.100 films in a year but have only managed a couple of dozen so far (television has totally reeled me in this year) so I will look for that and hope it will get my movie mojo back.

I'm also now panicking that Philip Pullman pops his clogs before knocking out the 3rd Book of Dust! But not as much as I used to panic about myself dying before JKR finished the Harry Potters!

@MargotMoon it was made in 2019, I highly recommend it!

Oh god, I've bought 12 books in this month's 99p Kindle deals! I really don't need to add MORE books to be TBR pile, but I can't resist a bargain.

Haven't quite finished Girl, Woman, Other* but I had to post as I'm enjoying it so much!
Didn't think I would at first due to the unconventional style of writing but I'm hooked. It's so vibrant and alive 😊

Wondered if anyone has read any other Bernardine Evaristo novels they could recommend?

I’m half way through Mr Loverman and I actually like it way more than Girl, Woman, Other. The voice/narrative is fab and really interesting in places. She still messes about with punctuation which I still don’t think adds much, but it also doesn’t take away.

@livingonpurpose I had a period like that last year where everyday I was buying 2-3 books because they were 99p. I’ve been trying to be more discerning and Bookbub has been less compelling recently. I don’t really read a lot of thriller or historical romance (Bridgerton aside) so there hasn’t been a lot for a while. I did get Go Set a Watchman though even though I have a hardback copy because my mini book club might read it so I will pass the hard copy to a member who doesn’t like Kindle if/when we get to it.

I’ve also just officially DNF’d a book. It won’t count and I did get 40% through.

The Rat Line, Phillippe Sands

Non-fiction about a Nazi and his family. Based on family documents it is quite an interesting exploration of ‘doing’ history. There is some compelling stuff around blame, acceptance etc where the author is trying to get the son to agree that his father was responsible for so many deaths. The son is very involved in the research and opening the family archive but ultimately believes his father was good. Most of the material has been left by the mother Charlotte and it was interesting to see how she manipulated so many things to create a legacy. Though the Rat Line was the journey via Italy that many Nazis used to escape to South America. The half I read barely touched on that.

I should have loved it, but I didn’t. Reading Group has happened and there aren’t spoilers really given it’s a history book.

On Bernardine Evaristo, when I was actually getting round to writing book reviews I got invited to a couple of Penguin events aimed at book bloggers and focusing on promoting/launching a few authors. Through that I read and loved Mr Loverman and I still haven't written a proper review but I think I've recommended it to lots of people - my stepbrother's wife bought and loved it.

I did like Girl Woman Other but not quite so much, plus it didn't feel like a discovery but I am thrilled to see the author getting more of an audience. Several of her other books are verse novels and I find that a bit daunting.

I don't mind punctuation being less than conventional if the author includes some kind of breaks and pauses so I can fit my style of reading to her/his style of writing - I'm more put off by multi page sentences and overly long paragraphs - one reading group I went to for 2 or 3 years chose some books that were more conventional in form but there were a couple that I found really hard - both translations but I believe the translators tried to match the quirks of the original Italian/Portuguese, because I can't imagine why they would have wanted to make the books more of a challenge!

@BaconAndAvocado definitely Mr Loverman. I read it earlier this year (should be somewhere uothread) and also think it topped Girl, Woman, Other. I’ve been eying up others, but with an overwhelming TBR pile (and a lot of temptation on the monthly deals) I think I will need to wait for more of hers!

@livingonpurpose I’ve been good and only bought one so far, but I have a shortlist of 9 more (and picked up 2 books in the charity shop today). I really need to go on a book buying detox!

Gah... typos/spelling... hopefully still makes sense!

TheAnswerIsCake
Thanks, I'll add that to my mahoosive TBR pile.

Next stop, The Cazalets. Bliss.

I've just got Mr Loverman from the Shelterbox book club, it's next on my to-read pile.

23. All The Lonely People - Mike Gayle
This was delightful. All the characters were so beautifully drawn and vibrant. It's one of those books where you know some bad things are going to happen through the course of the story, but that everything will be alright in the end.

24. Eagle In The Snow - Wallace Breem
My mum lent me this about seven years ago and I've only just got round to reading it! It's not an easy read but worth pursuing. It tells the story of Maximus, a Roman general, attempting to hold the imperial border at the Rhine against invasion as the Roman Empire is collapsing behind him. As I said, it's hard going in places and ultimately doesn't have a happy ending but it's a great story and a very well written piece of historic fiction.