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.

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 31. Mr Loverman, Bernardine Evaristo 32. Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy 33. The Ersatz Elevator, Lemony Snicket 34. The Pursuit of Love, Nancy Mitford 35. Straight Outta Crawley, Romesh Ranganathan 36. Someday in Paris, Olivia Lara 37. The Girls of Slender Means, Muriel Spark 38. Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows, Balli Kaur Jaswal 39. The Vile Village, Lemony Snicket 40. Catch-22, Joseph Heller

I am torn with this one, which was a readalong with my bookclub.

I recognise that there is some genius in this, but I feel really strongly that it could have been a novella - maybe 140 pages instead of over 500. For those not familiar with the story, it is the story of Yossarian a bombardier in the Second World War stationed on a fictional Italian island. It is very bonkers. Essentially, if the pilots want to go home they are considered insane so must fly more missions but if they don't want to go home they are sane and must fly more missions - or the other way around or something. The whole book is a massive set of confusions from various different character's point of view where everything just goes round and round in circles. It is satirically about the futility of war, which it does very well and some of the prose is stunning - but over 500 pages!

I can see tha some of you have smashed the target already 😳

I usually just scrape through the 25 books and I don't know if this year will be any different.

I've just started book 17, Brighton Rock by Graham Greene. Reading it fairly quickly so hopefully it will push me closer to the target

@BunnyRuddington I wouldn’t worry at all - a few people have read more than usual this year (me included) but there are plenty who are the same as you or have read less, it’s just a nice slow moving thread

29. Mr Loverman by Bernadine Evaristo

On recommendation from the group. I do love her writing and this was written so differently to Girl, Woman, Other and the perfect follow up to American Dirt as I needed something good with substance but too heavy. I actually found the whole situation incredibly sad, so many people living futile lives until they get old enough to be brave and not care anymore but loved the world she created

I’m not sure why my numbers are bigger this year, I normally average around 20-25. Don’t worry about numbers though.

p.s I did love Mr Loverman

16. The Golden Rule by Amanda Craig
The premise of this book is 2 women meeting on a train and planning to murder each other's husband, à la Strangers on a Train.
It's so much more than that.
Loved the writing and the plot which had some totally unpredictable twists.
Craig's usual astute social commentary covered Cornwall, the UK's increasingly disparate society regarding wealth and poverty and our expectations of personal relationships.
One of my favourites this year.

30. To The River - Olivia Laing

Listened to this when I couldn’t get hold of Crudo which a friend had recommended - I’ve not read any Olivia Laing before and loved this book so will def read more. She walks the full length of the River Ouse and weaves in local history, National history and the stories of individuals, particularly following the life of Virginia Wolf. Just beautifully written and expertly woven and the narrator was fantastic - was a lovely bit of escapism and education

22. Folk by Zoe Gilbert

This just might be my book of the year! Awesome! A modern folktale collection on the fictional island of Neverness. Magic. Loved it.

23. Circe by Madeleine Miller fantastic retelling of Greek mythology from the women’s POV. Not quite finished yet but highly recommended.

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 31. Mr Loverman, Bernardine Evaristo 32. Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy 33. The Ersatz Elevator, Lemony Snicket 34. The Pursuit of Love, Nancy Mitford 35. Straight Outta Crawley, Romesh Ranganathan 36. Someday in Paris, Olivia Lara 37. The Girls of Slender Means, Muriel Spark 38. Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows, Balli Kaur Jaswal 39. The Vile Village, Lemony Snicket 40. Catch-22, Joseph Heller 41. The Hostile Hospital, Lemony Snicket

More unfortunate events befall the Baudelaire siblings. I could do with a break from these, but DS10 is still enjoying.

Ooh, goodness, I proper fell off the thread! My reading has slowed down lately as just been so busy, but several to update as it’s been so long!

50. The Frequency of Us by Keith Stuart
A previous book by the same author (A Boy Made of Blocks) was a surprise hit for me, so I had hopes for this one. It was a really interesting premise, with interesting characters but there were a lot of irritations about all of them and the things they did and I’m afraid I hated the “explanation”.

51. The Last One at the Party by Bethany Clift
This also had a lot of irritations - starting with the fact that the protagonist supposedly thought she just had a stinking hangover and had no concerns about her symptoms but the “knew” her husband was going to die when he sneezed once! There was also a lot of unnecessary vomiting, and the continuation of essential services including electricity and mobile phone coverage was just implausible. That said, I found myself wanting to read on to find out what happened. And then... the ending was not at all satisfying for me.

52. The Pull of the Stars by Emma Donoghue
This one I did love. I also loved Room and you have to admire Donoghue for her skill at writing novels with incredibly confined settings.

53. The Foundling by Stacey Halls
This was ok. I think parts of it dragged on far too long, but the plot was interesting and it was thought provoking.

54. Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
I still can’t actually decide if I loved this or totally hated it.

55. Why Mummy Drinks by Gill Sims
I read this as a speedy, trashy read and it delivers on that. Full of the expected cliches and it somehow feels fairly dated already.

56. Boys Don’t Cry by Fiona Scarlett
This was a real disappointment. The reviews promised the kind of moving story that I should have loved but in fact I find it flat, one dimensional and so full of factual medical errors that I couldn’t see past.

I think I did get Why Mummy Drinks the other day, for precisely the reason you say. I also have Piranesi but I’m not hugely drawn to it beyond the rest of my TBR pile.

17 A Place of Execution by Val McDermid

My first VM book.
It was alright.
A good twist towards the end but, for me, nothing special.
A bit one dimensional for my liking.

I finished 3 books this month:

16. Lyra's Oxford &

17. Once Upon a Time in the North - Phillip Pullman
    Loved these little companion books, helping tide me over until the final instalment of Book of Dust

18. Fifty-Fifty - Steve Cavanagh
    Good holiday read, enjoyed it a lot

18.Haven't They Grown by Sophie Hannah
A textbook psychological thriller.
Was glad to finish it and not that bothered about finding out what happened.
Oh dear, I've hit a bit of a bad patch with my last two books.
Need to choose something next with a bit more oomph and depth.

42. The Return of the Native, Thomas Hardy

This finished rather abruptly as I read it on Kindle and it said I had about 15% left, but it turned out that there were many appendices.

19th century Wessex countryside, evoked and described beautifully. Diggory Venn loves Thomasin Yeobright who 💕 Damon Wildeve, who loves Eustacia Vye who decides Clym Yeobright is a better option. People largely try to do the right thing, some misunderstandings occur which leads to Hardy-esque drama.

I was really drawn in and have previously enjoyed Hardy’s writing. I had a real sense of all the characters, they all wound me up and pleased me at various point and I really could envisage the world that he created.

Re choosing something with a bit more oomph and depth, I’m now reading Shuggie Bain. Ticks all the boxes so far.

Dropped off the thread because I suddenly had a lot of books I had to read for work (which I don’t count in my annual book count)

31. The Four Winds - Kristin Hannah Story of a woman who takes her children west to California after their homes and livelihoods are destroyed by the Great Depression and sand storms in Texas. Well written as ever but I dunno, it felt a little “easy”, I mean the weather and circumstances were brutal, don’t get me wrong, but it didn’t leave me with my heart in my mouth in quite the same way her other books have. On paper it’s perfect but just didn’t grab me as much as I’d hoped it would

43. Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands, Jorge Amado

Absolutely loved this book by Brazilian writer Jorge Amado. Obviously it’s translated so I am sure has lost something but it is so witty and wonderful drawn. I gave it four stars (which for me is rare).

Flor marries Vadinho who is charming and incredible in bed, but he is a gambler and womaniser. She quietly suffers the ups and downs with him for 7 years when he literally drops dead at Carnival. After a year or so she marries the upright Teodoro who is educated and upstanding and treats Flor with respect. She is happy but slightly unfulfilled sexually and accidentally calls Vadinho from the dead. He turns up as a naked ghost trying to lure her into bed. There is a touch of magical realism, lots of humour, lots of interesting stuff about Afro-Brazilian religion and practices that were fascinating even if they were a bit over my head sometimes. Lots and lots and lots of characters.

For anyone with the time, or indeed, the inclination there is a War & Peace readalong happening on Twitter. It’s 15 or so pages a day and started today. Search #TolstoyTogether for details.

44. The Carnivorous Carnival, Lemony Snicket

Unfortunate events continue. Still think these are clever. I thought DS3 was going to want a break to read a new release that we have been waiting for, but he wants to finish the series first. So, book 10 it is.

32. The Breadwinner - Deborah Ellis
    Read this with DD for her book club summer reading, little did we imagine we’d be discussing Afghanistan in such a terrifying way once we’d finished it 😔 reading the next one with her now

33. The Mercies - Kiran Millwood Hargrave
    Fictional account of witch trials in the seventeenth century in North Finland. Beautifully written and utterly captivating - highly recommend this one. The pace was slow in a good way to begin with but ratcheted up to an insane crescendo by the end

20. Shuggie Bain
Loved this book.
It tells the tale of the relationship between Shuggie and his alcoholic mother.
Heartbreaking, warm and unforgettable.
It's also extremely funny in places. Deserved winner of the Booker imo.

My reading has slowed down even more as I’ve had a lot of academic reading to do instead. Have one to add though.

57. The Shell Seekers by Rosamund Pilcher
This came about as my son was playing librarian at my in-laws’ house. When I asked him to give me a recommendation, he picked this one off the shelf. Rosamund Pilcher, (along with Maeve Binchy, among others) remind me of childhood, as their huge doorstep paperbacks were often the reading material of choice for my mum during my childhood summers. I remember her having a hardback copy of The Shell Seekers. So when my son pulled MILs copy out, I started reading it (she also recommended it).

It is the story of Penelope Keeling, her children and events that have shaped their lives. I did enjoy it - it had a warmth to it and a sense of nostalgia. Not just in the actual story, but in the type of writing and plot line. However, in many ways it has also aged badly (originally published in the late 80s), and so many elements seemed either implausible or just too convenient. It was also seemingly much longer than it needed to be (a tendency to over describe unnecessary detail) but at the same time rushed in places. As I say, I did enjoy it, and think it is probably “of its time”. Not rushing to pick up any other titles from the same era just yet though.

I loved Shuggie Bain as well @BaconAndAvocado

TheAnswerIsCake
Oh the Shell Seekers! It really is very much of its time....
A big warm hug of a book as I recall.