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.

@StColombofNavron Yes, I have that same Kindle book of the whole Lemony Snicket series, so I'm sure it was on offer. I still have several of her books to read including The Bastard of Istanbul, though I've heard a lot of it on the radio.

I think the premise is very good but you can tell she is still finding her voice as a writer I think. I really want to read the one that was shortlisted for the Booker a couple of years ago.

I finished 4 books in November - not because I'm a fast reader just because I have several on the go at once.
21. The Body - Bill Bryson
Listened on Audible, absolutely fascinating and densely packed with incredible facts, none of which I can remember - probably need to buy a physical copy to refer to!
22. Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro. What a coincidence that PPs are talking about authors that Bernadine Evaristo recommends because I saw her talking about this on the Sky Arts book club programme, and obviously it's supposed to be a modern classic so I thought I'd give it a go. Sadly I didn't get the fuss at all
23. I Love the Bones of You - Christopher Eccleston. Listened to the audio book of this, read by the author. I was surprised at first at his delivery- it was so matter of fact and not what you'd expect from such a good actor. But listening to the content it made sense, as he is such a matter of fact person, and there was a lot of stuff that he revealed about his life that was incredibly difficult to listen to, and must have been so difficult for him to write about, it was like he had to distance himself from the words a bit to get through the reading otherwise he'd have been in pieces. I loved it, and his love for his family, his father especially, despite their relationship being far from straightforward, really shone through
24. Tim Book Two - Vinyl Adventures from Instanbul to San Francisco - Tim Burgess
This book is about albums and vinyl, and Tim's obsession with collecting it and his love of music. It's full of lovely stories about records he has loved and music recommendations from people he admires. I listened to lots of the records he talked about while reading it and discovered lots of new music along the way. A great book!

41. Wild - Cheryl Strayed I’ve been interested in reading this since seeing the film a few years ago then j worked on a book with an author earlier this year which he wrote after hiking the AT, and living in California I’m not far from the PCT and would love one day to do an epic thru-hike. Was a bit over written though, very in the vein of Elizabeth Gilbert and a bit too navel gazing but it does what it says on the tin

52. Frankenstein, Mary Shelley

I’m sure you all know the story. Victor Frankenstein, a scientist, creates a being. Calamities follow. This was a reread and I liked it less. It’s unecessarily complicated in the the narrative - a letter from an irrelevant character to an even more obscure one repeating the story told by another who also tells another person’s story! That said, some of the prose is lovely, some too long and overblown. I sympathised with the creature and would shoot Victor in the eye with a harpoon gun.

Which brings me to …

53. The End, A Series of Unfortunate Events, Lemony Snicket (Daniel Handler)

The series is finished! The villain, Count Olaf’s harpoon gun caused the final(ish) unfortunate event but I feel lots of loose ends. I just thought the entire series were superb, bonkers, far fetched and interesting. For a children’s book, I thought it had a really interesting discussion on whether anyone is truly noble or truly villainous.

Well I didn't make the 25. Does 20 qualify as 25ish??

Currently reading The Constant Rabbit by Jasper Fforde

Another absurd, original novel. This time about a UK where, due to a strange anthropomorphising incident, there are 1.5 million human-sized rabbits living in society.
So far, it's been hilarious, intelligent and heartwarming.
It's a reflection on attitudes towards those different to ourselves.
Recommend!

The numbers are irrelevant I reckon. 20 is great and frankly sometimes more = more
Mediocre reads.

Haha that’s true StColumbofNavron and I’ve read some superb books this year.
Favourites of 2021:
Shuggie Bain
Hamnet
American Dirt
The Dutch House
Troubled Blood.

Happy Christmas fellow bookworms, and here’s to another year of great reads!

My top reads this were:

Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands, Jorge Amado

Frenchman’s Creek, Daphne du Maurier

The Island of Missing Trees, Elif Shafak

26- Adele, >leila slimani -dirty tale, like catherine m
27. strangers on the train > patricia highsmith - great creepy thriller
28. Fleishman is in trouble - NYC jewish existential drama
29. fat is a feminist issue - susie orbach
30. why we eat too much

61. Lake child by Isabel Ashdown

I found this disappointingly try-hard, especially after loving a couple of her previous books (Hurry Up and Wait and Glasshopper in particular).

62. Total War: A People’s History of World War Two by Kate Clements

This accompanies the new World War Two galleries at The Imperial War Museum in London, which I took my son to back in the October half-term. I really enjoyed the exhibition and bought the book mainly as there was not time to digest all of the stories on the day we visited. It tells snippets of stories about lots of real people and their experience of the war, alongside a background of more general information. Fantastic for anyone with an interest in how people experienced WW2.

63. Love in the Blitz: The Greatest Lost Love Letters of the Second World War by Eileen Alexander

I’d had this for a while after picking it up on a Kindle deal, and it was a natural choice after Total War. This is a collection of letters written during WW2 and they weave a fascinating story, even though we can only read one half. Loved this.

64. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S Lewis

My first re-read of the year! Haven’t read it in years, but it was a pleasurable, quick read, as always.

65. Skipping Christmas by John Grisham

The basis of the film “Christmas with the Kranks. Totally ridiculous and full of nonsensical plot issues, but fun nonetheless.

66. Goose by Dawn O’Porter

Not quite as good as Paper Aeroplanes, to which it is the sequel, but once again captured the pain of friendship, grief and growing up very effectively. Would love the know what happened next, so hopefully there may be another book eventually!

67. One Day in December by Josie Silver

The sort of romantic tosh I read too much of in my twenties (when it used to be called “chick-lit”. The main characters see each other through the window of a bus and somehow know they are meant for each other but the spend years not being with each other. It was ridiculously dragged out, with whole chapters of irrelevance (saying goodbye to parents at an airport, for example, added nothing to the plot). Could probably have been told in a quarter of the time, but was redeemed by poking fun at that very fact towards the end! Also only really needed to read 2 pages in 3, so a fast read!

Well, I recently started The Heart's Invisible Furies and I don't think I will finish it before the end of the year, so I thought I finish off my 2021 list now:

55. Autumn - Ali Smith
Unusual writing style with no speech marks, but I didn't find it difficult once I got used to it. I enjoyed the story and contemporary references.

56. The Manningtree Witches - A. K. Blakemore
Award winning debut novel about the Sussex witch hunts that focuses mostly on the lives of the women caught up in the trials. I loved it and highly recommend picking it up as it's only 99p on Kindle at the moment.

57. Station Eleven - Emily St. John Mandel
I'm late to the party with this one, but after hearing lots of good things about it I managed to pick it up for 99p recently and got stuck in. I found it though provoking and loved the message of hope.

58. Small Pleasures - Clare Chambers
Another one that I was looking forward to reading after seeing such great feedback from others. It didn't disappoint. Enjoyable story with likeable characters and I loved the setting/time period.

59. Malibu Rising - Taylor Jenkins Reid
Enjoyable read about a family living in Malibu throwing a crazy party that gets out of hand.

@livingonpurpose I’m tackling Ali Smith next year, but starting in Sept to tie in with Autumn so they’ll take me into 2023!

I’m battling to finish Vanity Fair but am only about 65% through so don’t think I will make it by tomorrow, plus I’m finding it a slog.

Thanks for the company this year. I’ve really enjoyed all the reviews.

@StColumbofNavron I have to say I didn't really get the seasonal reference of the Ali Smith book. Sure, there were a few mentions of the time of year, but no more than the scene setting in any other book, so I wouldn't particularly hold off reading it until September!

Also, I just wanted to say thank you for starting this thread - I've really enjoyed being a part of it, and it's helped keep me focused on my own reading, as well as giving me some good inspiration for books to add to my TBR pile.

I've just started The Casual Vacancy which I don't think I will finish tomorrow as it's 500+ pages so I will finish my list as well. I'm very pleased I made it to 25 as it's a nice round number

25. We Are All Completely Besides Ourselves - Karen Joy Fowler. I bought this on a 99p Kindle deal solely on the basis of it being on the Booker Shortlist, had no idea what it was about so the twist really was a surprise to me. Thought it lost its way badly in the final third, and found the bits about the housemates confusing as they hadn't really been developed earlier on. Not sure I'd recommend it.

Very out of date! This might have to be two posts.
21. 123 Magic by Thomas Phelan. The course book for a course we did on ADHD parenting. Pretty helpful. The course emphasised "stopping" unwanted behaviour and it is helpful for that but some of the parts on starting "wanted" behaviour are actually just as helpful.

22 Come Again by Robert Webb. Really liked the premise, he's not as good a fiction writer as in his autobiography.

23 The Red Tent by Anita Diamant. Another library book that I've had for ages. I was put off starting by the historical period but I really liked it. Very feminist.

24. Small Pleasures by Clare Chambers. Another really fascinating premise and a lovely sense of time/place, especially the feel of childhood at the time. Final ending a bit obvious. 25 Trans - When Ideology Meets Reality by Helen Joyce. Library book. Really really clear and well written though of course nobody at work who disagrees with me on pronouns etc will read it! 26 The House of Hidden Mothers by Meera Syal. Surrogacy theme with a twist. Not all roses and sunshine and surrobubs. Do recommend this if you have doubts about the whole idea and want to think more about it (but a bIt chick lit).

I read Meera Syal's books years ago and really enjoyed them so will look out for this. She lived where I went to school and near a writers/drama group I used to attend so I got to do some workshops with her, Nina Wadia and Deepak Verma (Sanjay from Eastenders at the time).

@livingonpurpose I'm not in a hurry with Ali Smith and it is quite nice knowing I have it coming up. I am saving Mexican Gothic for October.

I am 70% through Vanity Fair and have about 7hrs left and other than dinner don't have loads to do today so I might try and finish. It was on my prompt grid that I created for myself at the beginning of the year and I am pleased I cleared the grid (of 20 books) with the exception of not getting to an Emile Zola and not yet finishing this one. I have therefore read 12 hardcopy books from my shelves which I am really happy about.

The 2022 thread is live www.mumsnet.com/Talk/what_were_reading/4440618-26-ish-books-in-2022?watched=1

Here with my final update for the year! Some Christmas gifts, planned time off work and a relaxed Christmas has allowed me to fit in a few more in the last week or so.

68. ‘Twas the Nightshift Before Christmas by Adam Kay
I read the first volume quite a while back, and this was really more of the same, with a Christmas theme running through it. It’s a mix of funny and bleak.

69. This Time Next Year by Sophie Cousens
This was another pretty terrible rom-com that was full of so many unlikely happenstances that it came off more as a parody than anything else. Also seemed to subscribe to the theme of a woman needing a man to “save” her quite a bit. Wish I’d not bothered.

70. Many Different Kinds of Love by Michael Rosen
I’m a lifelong Rosen fan, and actually quite late to this book. Despite the subject matter being Covid, and my previous assertion that I’m not going to keep reading Covid books (spoiler for next year, I have at least 2 more upcoming) I loved this.

71. Dear NHS: 100 Stories to Say Thank You edited by Adam Kay
Also late to this book. A collection of stories to and about the NHS mainly detailing the writers’ experiences with it. They are mostly well written, many are touching and thought provoking. My criticisms are that some of them actually show the entitlement that, whilst not the cause of the downfall of the NHS, is a problem in its own right. And for a book saying “thank you” that felt odd. It also became a bit repetitive, a dose oft he entires were a bit pointless (especially Joanna Lumley).

72. Watching Neighbours Twice a Day... How 90s TV (Almost) Prepared Me for Life by Josh Widdicombe
This was a real surprise hit, despite appearing at first glance to be the kind of book written purely to fill the shelves in discount stores. It is a social and cultural history of the 90s told through the television programmes we viewed. I actually laughed out loud more than once. For anyone who was born in the late 70s to mid/late 80s (i.e was a teenager in the 90s) and watched any mainstream TV in the 90s, this is bound to elicit nostalgia. I’m a few years older than the author, but I really saw myself in the pages describing everything from The Broom Cupboard to the Big Brother via Ceefax, the 1997 Election and the death of Diana.

That will definitely be it for the year. I managed a whopping 72 books - far more than in any year since before I had a child (and back then I was commuting for 2 hours a day!). This thread has really spurred my reading on this year, so thank you all.

Of my 72 books, 50 were fiction and 22 non fiction, 54 written by female authors, just 18 by male authors. 86% of my reading was ebooks, with the remainder hard copy books.

I’m considering dipping my toe in to the 50 books threads next year, but will probably hang out on 26 books too as I really like it here!

Happy New Year to all!

27 The Years that Followed by Catherine Dunne. Thriller? Gentle novel about a bygone age? Fairly well written but like another book I read this year didn't really flag up DV in the reviews.

The Special Parents' Handbook by Yvonne Newbold. DNF. I know the writer has had a hard time with her kids but this didn't contain anything I didn't know (OK now we don't read books to find out about the EHCP process). Very Pollyanna. "Don't get upset! It's not worth it!" Yeah thanks.

28 The Nanny State Made Me by Stuart Maconie. Loved this. Really interesting and made me think/quote random facts from it. Library book

29 The Man Who Died Twice by Richard Osman. Library book. Actually better than the first one - the detectives in particular are more well developed characters.

@TheAnswerIsCake given that I was born in 1977 I just know I will appreciate that Josh Widdicombe book - so just bought it for £1.99!

30 Material Girls by Kathleen Stock. This is more philosophical (doh) than Trans but that made it really interesting - lots of stuff I hadn't thought about.
If I can get the kids in bed and in the bath before midnight I might finish a 31st.