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.

I’m interested in those Trebizond books - they are set in Turkey aren’t they?

I’ve picked the The Gallows Pole by Benjamin Myers as my next book... nice bit of historical fiction set in my one of my favourite places in Yorkshire. Some escapism for the mind!

1: The Power - Naomi Alderman

Women develop an electrifying power which they can awaken in each other. The story follows a handful of women as they use and abuse this power. I really liked the premise but somehow it didn’t live up to expectation.

Wilderness I felt the same about The Power and I wasn’t keen on all the Americanisms.

@MercedesDeMonteChristo yes I am! Name changed just because I realised it had been several years since I last did! I’m counting longer books that we read together (like you it’s 50/50 who does the actual out loud reading) and longer books I read to them - currently The Lion, the With and the Wardrobe with DD and The Hobbit with DS

@BaconAndAvocado I’m an audiobook director so have to prep my books before I direct the actors

I’d 100% be counting Narnia and The Hobbit.

Finished The Hills Is Lonely by Lillian Beckwith. An enjoyable first read of the year, but not sure that I'll be rushing to read the sequels anytime soon. I think the format (essentially one anecdote per chapter) could get monotonous after a while.

Starting on Early Riser by Jasper Fforde next. It's been on my bookshelf for a while and I really enjoyed his Shades of Grey book, so I'm quite excited to read this one.

Kobani sounds like a really interesting job!
I might try my first audible book soon.

DonE
I really like Jasper Fforde and have Shades of Grey on my TBR pile. His Nursery Crime books are fab.

1. Talking to strangers - malcolm Gladwell

Why do we misunderstand people we don’t know well? What signals do we misread and why? Love a bit of Malcolm!!

1. Hubble and I just finished reading Me by Elton John- such a good laugh out loud autobiography!

@TeaTimeReader I read Gallow's Pole last year - I'll be interested to know what you think!

@MargotMoon I have to say first impressions aren’t great. I’m finding his style not quite to my tastes and the lack of punctuation & speech marks aren’t adding much but confusion. Hoping it livens up soon as I used to work with Ben many years ago and have heard good things (not to mention it’s excellent GR rating)!
What did you think?

Yes I really struggled with it as well. It took me a long time to finish as I kept dropping it in frustration and then going back. I think knowing that the clippers were real made me want to finish it. Once I'd got into the rhythm of the monologue bits they were much easier to follow

I just read the Guardian review and it looks really interesting. Is it weirdly fiction and non-fiction?

Number 2 - The Red Ribbon.

Has anyone read The Nightingale by I think it’s Kirsten Hannah? It seems massive so I’ll be at it for weeks!

Loving all the recommendations. I've just finished reading Behind the Scenes At the Museum by Kate Atkinson which I loved, especially because I'm relatively local to York. I read a mix of things from classics to chick lit to non-fiction depending on my mood and it's been great to see the recommendations on this thread. I'm an English teacher so sometimes get a bit disillusioned with text because I deal with them all day, with some very reluctant readers so this year I want to remind myself how happy reading makes me.

Moving onto Little Fires Everywhere for number 2.

1. Outlander, Diana Gabaldon
2. Diary of a Provincial Lady, E M Delafield

3. The Duke & I, Julia Quinn

With all the Bridgerton love/hate etc going on I thought I’d give it a read as it popped up on my Bookbub email. I haven’t seen the series, though I definitely imagined Rege-Jean as the Duke. I’ve not really read much in the way of Regency/historical romance. It was a page turner and I wanted to keep reading to the inevitable conclusion. I liked it - great literature it is not and might get to others in the series, but in no rush, but it does serve an easy reading purpose. My favourite character was the heroine’s oldest brother and there was a duel and I do love a duel.

I continue with the 3 other books I’m reading- all hardcopies from my shelves which pleases me. Thinking of Pachinko as my next Kindle read as it’s come up in two conversations in as many days and I’ve had it for a while.

Horribly I read The Nightingale last year. A good read and kept me interested, although it left me feeling quite sad. It sort of puts what we are going through now into perspective.

I’ve just finished The Snakes by Sadie Jones. So depressing.
I’ve started Homesick: Why I live in a Shed, by Catrina Davies. Has anyone read this?
I think I need to read more uplifting books.

You need the Provincial Lady to reset.

Well, Hamnet is living up to the hype.

Loving it so far - historical setting, characterisation, straightforward yet affecting writing - although I know, due to the blurb, that it’s going to be upsetting.

*2. Mythos - Stephen Fry
*
The Greek myths re-told in great style. Lots of lovely footnotes with additional detail. Will definitely give his re-telling of the Trojan war once the price comes down a bit. I loved the Greek myths as a child and it was lovely to revisit them now as an adult. The story of Persephone in the underworld remains a favourite.

I really want to read Hamnet but it's £10 on Kindle and I really can't justify spending that when I've got over 100 paperbacks in my tbr pile.

@Horriblyjealous I read The Nightingale last year too - it’s fairly hefty but it sucked me in so I ended reading it pretty quickly as I couldn’t put it down. Def one of my top books last year

@MercedesDeMonteChristo It's historical fiction, I get the impression that the author did a lot of research about the coin clippers and lives around that area

@wanderlove I loved Behind the Scenes but found Life After Life a complete slog! I think that's sacrilege round these parts though