50 Book Challenge 2021 Part Four

[southeastdweller]

Welcome to the fourth thread of the 50 Book Challenge for this year.

The challenge is to read fifty books (or more!) in 2021, though reading fifty isn't mandatory. Any type of book can count, and please try to let us all know your thoughts on what you've read. Could everyone embolden their titles and/or authors as well, please, as it makes the books talked about easier to track?

The first thread of the year is here, the second one here and the third one here.

Thanks for the new thread Southeast

Thanks southeast late to the party Betts - thats why I didn't close

Just for Remus my list :

1.	Schindler’s List by Thomas Keneally
2.	Behind The Scenes At The Museum by Kate Atkinson
3.	Thinking About It Only Makes It Worse by David Mitchell
4.	The Duke and I by Julia Quinn
5.	Lolly Willowes by Sylvia Townsend Warner
6.	Dishonesty Is The Second Best Policy by David Mitchell
7.	Annie Dunne by Sebastian Barry
8.	Aquarium by David Vann
9.	The Enchantment Of Lily Dahl by Siri Hustvedt
10.	<strong>La’s Orchestra Saves The World</strong> by Alexander McCall Smith
11.	Vile Bodies by Evelyn Waugh
12.	Tangerine by Christine Mangan
13.	<strong>Five Rivers Met On A Wooded Plain</strong> by Barney Norris
14.	The Inheritors by William Golding
15.	Around The World In Eighty Days by Jules Verne
16.	<strong>The Bone Clocks</strong> by David Mitchell
17.	<strong>Falling Angels</strong> by Tracy Chevalier 
18.	A History Of Britain Vol 1 : 3000 BC-1605 AD by Simon Schama
19.	Arthur and George by Julian Barnes
20.	Dinner With Edward by Isabel Vincent
21.	<strong>The Woman In White</strong> by Wilkie Collins
22.	Jude The Obscure by Thomas Hardy
23.	A History Of Britain Vol. 2 : 1603-1776 The British Wars by Simon Schama
24.	A History Of Britain Vol. 3 1776-2000 by Simon Schama
25.	Lost Children Archive by Valeria Luiselli 
26.	<strong>The Sandman</strong> by Neil Gaiman 
27.	How Much Of These Hills Is Gold by C Pam Zhang

Thanks for the new thread Southeast My list so far, with a fair number of good ones :)

1. Patrick Hennessey The Junior Officers Reading Club
2. Martha Wells Rogue Protocol
3. Martha Wells Exit Strategy
4. Nella Larsen Passing
5. VE Schwab The Invisible Life of Addie la Rue
6. Matthew Kneale Pilgrims
7. Susanna Clarke Piranesi
8. Jon Gower The Story of Wales
9. Ben Aaronovitch Tales from the Folly

10. Norman Collins London Belongs to Me 11. Compton Mackenzie Figure of Eight 12. Horatio Clare The Prince's Pen 13. Cynan Jones Bird Blood Snow 14. Matthew Hongoltz-Hetling A Libertarian Walks into a Bear 15. Tishani Doshi Fountainville 16. Helen Moffett Charlotte 17. Horatio Clare Running for the Hills 18. Jenny Kleeman Sex Robots and Vegan Meat 19. Horatio Clare Truant 20. Kate Russell My Dark Vanessa 21. Margee Kerr , Linda Rodriguez McRobbie Ouch: Why pain hurts and why it doesn't have to 22. Shirley Conran Lace 23. KJ Charles The Gentle Art of Fortune Hunting 24. Caro Fraser The Pupil

Just found this thread! I'm enjoying reading all of your recommendations. Hope it's okay for me to join with my list so far.

1. Best Kept Secret - Jeffrey Archer (3/5)
2. We Begin At the End - Chris Whitaker (5/5)
3. All The Wicked Girls - Chris Whitaker (3/5)
4. At the Water's Edge: A Walk in the Wild - John Lister-Kaye (4/5)
5. The Beekeeper of Aleppo - Christy Lefteri (4/5)
6. A Darkness More Than Night - Michael Connelly (4/5)
7. Daisy Jones & The Six - Taylor Jenkins Reid (3/5)
8. The Woods - Harlan Coben (2/5)
9. The Dutch House - Ann Pratchett (4/5)

10. The Glass House - Eve Chase (5/5) 11. The Passengers - John Marrs (4/5) 12. 84 Charing Cross Road/The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street - Helene Hanff (3/5) 13. Buried - Lynda La Plante (2/5) 14. Cannery Row - John Steinbeck (4/5) 15. I Am, I Am, I Am - Maggie O'Farrell (2/5) 16. Snowblind - Ragnar Jonasson (4/5) 17. Surprisingly Down to Earth, and Very Funny: My Autobiography - Limmy (4/5) 18. The Familiars - Stacey Halls (4/5) 19. Flowers for Algernon - Daniel Keyes (a re-read) (5/5) 20. Everything I Never Told You - Celeste Ng (3/5) 21. Cold Earth - Ann Cleeves (3/5)

Finally reading Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens and trying some science fiction with Dogs of War by Adrian Tchaikovsky. I tend to read anything that costs 99p on Kindle! One DNF so far this year which was I Am Pilgrim by Terry Hayes. Got about a quarter in and just couldn't go any further but might give it another bash.

@InTheCludgie I've seen a few people have it as a read of the year, so I'm hoping so.

I'm also doing this Crochet Along which the designer based on the book. I'm doing the cream/green/pink one

Thanks for the new thread South - I'm trundling along at a much slower pace than the rest of you:

1. The Trouble with Peace – Joe Abercrombie
2. How to Break Up With Your Phone: The 30-Day Plan to Take Back Your Life – Catherine Price
3. Tea By The Nursery Fire: A Children's Nanny at the Turn of the Century – Noel Streatfield
4. And Then There Were None – Agatha Christie
5. The Secret Barrister: Stories of the Law and How It’s Broken – The Secret Barrister
6. The Duke and I (first in the Bridgertons series) – Julia Quinn
7. The Ravenmaster: My Life with the Ravens at the Tower of London - Christopher Skaife

I bought A spell of winter by Helen Dunmore on the monthly deals for 99p
I love this book and I have read it before. Beautiful writing

Thanks southeast for the new thread.

List so far:

1. I am an Island, by Tamsin Calidas
2. Emma's Island, by Honor Arundel

3. The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, by Sue Townsend 4. Wintering, by Katherine May

1. The Law of Innocence, by Michael Connolly
2. This is Chance, by Jon Mooallem

And two new ones:
7. The Book of Lamps and Banners, by Elizabeth Hand. This should be right up my street as I love a crime novel with an unconvential woman protaganist. Our hero here is photographer (and addict) Cass Neary, in search of an ancient book. I did really enjoy it but the misery was a bit relentless at times and I just wanted to give Cass a shake. This is actually the fourth in a series which I didn't realise - unyet decided whether I'll give the others a go.

8. Emma in Love, by Honor Arundel. Last in the trilogy of 'Emma' books which were a childhood favourite I've been re-reading. This is my least favourite of the three, as Emma's boyfriend is a bit of a dick, and it takes her far too long to work that out. Despite this, still a happy wander down memory lane.

At the risk of being expelled from the thread, I'm currently 2/3 of the way through The Thursday Murder Club and really enjoying it.

Hello again everyone! Bringing my list over:

1. In the Shadow of Power – Viveca Sten
2. Our Endless Numbered Days - Claire Fuller
3. The Truants - Kate Weinberg
4. Olive Kitteridge - Elizabeth Strout
5. Olive, Again – Elizabeth Strout
6. The Winter Book – Tove Jansson
7. Waiting for Sunrise – William Boyd
8. The Collector of Lives: Giorgio Vasari and the Invention of Art – Ingrid Rowland and Noah Charney
9. Lanny – Max Porter
10. Murder on Safari – Elspeth Huxley
11. The Magpie Murders – Anthony Horowitz
12. In Black and White: A Young Barrister’s Story of Race and Class in a Broken Justice System – Alexandra Wilson

And my latest read:

13. Guest House for Young Widows: Among the Women of Isis - Azadeh Moaveni

This was excellent. The author, a journalist, spent the best part of three years interviewing and researching the lives of young women who played a role in ISIS. Her subjects include the four Bethnal Green girls who famously ran away to Syria (a timely read for me, in view of the Supreme Court decision in Shamima Begum's case last week), but also women from Germany who followed husbands, women and girls who lived in Raqqa and were caught up in the new state, Tunisians and Americans. Although it is obvious that women will have ended up with ISIS for a variety of different reasons, the news reporting very rarely shows us this and so it was really interesting and enlightening to read about the routes these women and girls took to Syria. The author clearly has some sympathy particularly for the young girls who were groomed by a slick propaganda machine. Whilst she doesn't seek to justify their decisions, she does discuss in some depth the challenges and difficulties in the lives of particularly the Tunisian, Syrian and German women, to give an understanding of why a rather socialist sounding Islamic state, with jobs and free healthcare, seemed so appealing to them.

The book has some more objective commentary as well as the stories of the young women, but the latter are paramount and I found that human element made the detail easier to absorb. Definitely recommended.

Thank you southeast. A good reading year so far, with plenty of bolds, no stinkers, and something worthwhile and no regrets about investing the time even in the ones I didn't love everything about.

1. Crooked Heart by Lissa Evans
2. Laidlaw by William McIlvanney
3. A Question of Upbringing by Anthony Powell (A Dance to the Music of Time: Spring: 1)
4. The Land of Maybe by Tim Ecott
5. Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
6. Cold Earth by Ann Cleeves (Shetland #7)
7. The Ashes of London by Andrew Taylor
8. Dead Man's Walk by Larry McMurtry
9. Invisible Women by Caroline Criado Perez

10. Rough Magic by Lara Prior-Palmer 11. All Things Bright and Beautiful by James Herriot

The Mermaid of Black Conch is 99p and just won the Costa.

I recommend The Mermaid of Black Conch - one of my better reads so far this year.

Eine - I'm not looking at the lists, and am doing the equivalent of sticking my fingers in my ears.

I also bought Mermaid from the sale - had forgotten.

I got the sample of Magpie Lane to try.

Just finished 14.Between You and Me - Lisa Hall which was a kindle unlimited read. I read tonnes of these types of thrillers, what goes on behind closed doors. I was absolutely hooked on this. Had quite short chapters building the tension and switching between both the main characters who are a couple. May be a bit slow but I didn't see the twist at all . Thoroughly worth a day off reading!

My list so far:

1. Wolf Hall - Hilary Mantel
2. Up the Junction - Nell Dunn
3. The Trick is to Keep Breathing - Janice Galloway
4. Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
5. The Man who Wasn't There - Pat Barker
6. The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle - Haruki Murakami
7. The Colour Purple - Alice Walker
8. Trespass - Rose Tremain
9. Lolita - Vladimir Nabakov

10. Left handed Booksellers of London- Garth Nix 11. Poor cow - Nell Dunn

Thanks for the new thread @southeastdwellersoutheast and welcome to the thread @Puddock1

Here's my list:

1. Eleanor the Secret Queen: The Woman Who put Richard III on the Throne by John Ashdown-Hill
2. 52 Times Britain was a Bellend: The History You Didn’t Get Taught At School by James Felton
3. A Double Life by Flynn Berry
4. The Stranger Beside Me by Ann Rule
5. Tall Tales and Wee Stories: The Best of Billy Connolly by Billy Connolly
6. A Million Dreams by Dani Atkins
7. The Never Game by Jeffery Deaver

8. Misery by Stephen King

1. The Crooked House by Agatha Christie

10. Pied Piper by Nevil Shute 11. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald 12. Then She Was Gone by Lisa Jewell 13. The Stubborn Lives of Hart Tanner by Shawn Inmon 14. The Tommyknockers by Stephen King 15. Fever of the Bone by Val McDermid 16. A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth

17. The Retribution by Val McDermid

I enjoyed this instalment of the Tony Hill / Carol Jordan series much more than the previous couple. An old foe escapes from prison and seeks revenge on those who put him there. Although a bit melodramatic there were a few shocks along the way and as always I really enjoy the main characters. That said the 'will they, won't they' is getting a bit boring now and the obstacles thrown in their way increasingly stupid. Still I needed something I didn't need to think about too much and this fit the bill.

Thanks for the new thread @southeastdweller. I hadn't realised we were so close to the end of the third.

@yoshiblue DH gave me the Tiger Mother book for Christmas last year, I wondered what he was trying to tell me! I found it fascinating in the same way I find threads in AIBU fascinating, slightly appalling but I can't stop reading.

Bringing over my list:

1. Ramble Book - Adam Buxton
2. The Darkness - Ragnar Jonasson
3. Burnt Sugar - Avni Doshi
4. Fleishman is in Trouble - Taffy Brodesser Anker
5. The Raven Tower - Ann Leckie
6. Feersum Endjinn - Iain M Banks
7. The City of Brass - S A Chakraborty
8. Inversions - Iain M Banks
9. The Hate U Give - Angie Thomas

10. Look to Windward - Iain M Banks 11. Excession - Iain M Banks 12. The Old Drift - Namwali Serpell 13. Outline - Rachel Cusk 14. Three Hours - Rosamund Lupton 15. Divergent - Veronica Roth 16. Insurgent - Veronica Roth 17. Allegiant - Veronica Roth 18. The Marlow Murder Club - Robert Thorogood 19. Shadow Box - Luanne Rice

And adding
20. Where the Crawdads sing - Delia Owens
I resisted this for ages as it felt really hyped, but actually quite enjoyed it. It follows Kya, a girl who grows up virtually alone in a marsh after being neglected by her parents.

I'd forgotten it was book deals say!
Off to add more to the 905 on my Kindle.
(In my defence 65 of them are in my "read" collection and about 100 are out of copyright classics I downloaded years ago)

*day even.

Placemarking - will be back with my list soon!

Thanks for the new thread, southeast.
I will bring my list over when I’ve updated my reviews.
Where do I find the Monthly Deals? I can never find the page. It’s not as if I need any more books. So it’s just out of curiosity, honestly.

Thanks for the new thread SouthEast .

Pepe, they don't call them monthly deals and more. They're just Kindle book deals which change on the first of the month!

I can recommend In This House of Brede if you want a well-written modern-ish novel.about nuns. Well worth your 99p.

Yoshi I really enjoyed Tiger Mother and thought that the hand-wringers at the time had completely missed the self-skewering humour in the book. I was also very taken by her points about how miserable it is learning an instrument in the early years, and how desperately most children want to give up, but how wonderful and rewarding it is when you come out the other side and have the lifelong gift of being able to play. It did make me think both about my own perseverance, and about whether it's right to make your kids do things that they don't like.

channellightvessel, I think it was me who recommended The Door a couple of years ago. Isn’t it wonderful? Unlike anything else I have read in the last few years and a slow but elegant unfurl of the story. I still think about it a lot.

My list below.

1 There Are Places In The World Where Rules Are Less Important Than Kindness by Carlo Rovelli
2 The Gifts of Reading by various authors
3 Girl in a Band by Kim Gordon
4 Burnt Sugar by Avni Doshi
5 The Promised Land by Barack Obama
6 The World According to Garp by John Irving
7 Black Hole Survival Guide by Janna Levin
8 The Power and The Glory by Graham Greene
9 Acts and Omissions by Catherine Fox
10 Changing Places by David Lodge
11 The School at the Chalet by Elinor M Brent Dyer
12 At Freddie’s by Penelope Fitzgerald
13 The Hunting Party by Lucy Foley

14 Unseen Things Above by Catherine Fox
Thanks again to (I think) biblio for recommending this series. I'm having to ration myself because I don't want them to be over too soon. I am loving the church bits, in particular - the Anglican intricacies are delightful.

15 A Month In the Country by JL Carr
I came across this on Backlisted, and didn't think too much about it but then it was in the Daily Deals last week so I thought I'd give it a go. So glad I did. Set just after the First World War, Tom Birkin has survived the trenches and has been employed to uncover a mural in a village church that was thought to exist under coats of whitewash. He makes friends with people he comes across, including a Methodist family, the wife of the church's vicar, and another veteran who's been tasked with digging up the land outside the churchyard in search of a grave and whose differences to Birkin are pronounced, despite their shared experiences. The month Birkin spends in the village is hot and languid, and the gentleness of life and the friendships he makes contrast with the occasional reminders of the war, and the impact it had on the men who fought in it. That's what gives this an edge - it's tender and thoughtful but not at all saccharine or overly nostalgic. I thought it was terrific.

16 The World According to Physics by Jim Al-Khalili
A short canter through what we know - or think we know - about physics, from quantum theory to relativity, thermodynamics and string theory, as well as some helpful and practical chapters at the end that show how all this really is relevant to our day to day lives. Well, string theory not so much...

Thanks Viking. Found them. And who doesn't like a well-written modern-ish novel about nuns?

Pepe well quite

Courtesy of this month's deals, I have decided no more Occupation of Place-Where-Bad-Things-Happened (yes, you, Cellist of Sarajevo, Beekeeper of Aleppo, Tattooist of Auschwitz et al).

And who buys "dark High School bully romance"? Or "age gap Mafia romance"? Is it weird to prefer nuns?