50 Book Challenge 2021 Part Six

[southeastdweller]

Welcome to the sixth 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, the third one here, the fourth one here and the fifth one here.

So, we're now almost half way through the year - how's the first half of the year gone for you, reading-wise?

Hi southeast, and thank you. Checking in, and will find my list later. I'd say, so far, I'm reading less than normal at this point measured by books read, but probably better than usual in terms of enjoyment/engagement/impact. I find I am so easily distracted by social media that finding time to actually concentrate on reading is really hard. It's something I was aware of last year, but seems even worse this year with arguably less reason for that to be the case. I had a pleasant daydream over the weekend about going to a cottage by a lake and sitting on a deck doing nothing but reading for a week, and occasionally going for a swim. Then I looked up places where I could do that and realised that I'd have to remortgage the house to pull that off any time soon, given prices for such things....

Thanks southeast - less bolds so far than I would like but doing well with buying less and using library and getting through my ridiculous TBR spanning physical, Kindle and audio.

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.	<strong>Arthur and George</strong> 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 
28.	A Brief History Of Time by Stephen Hawking
29.	Columbine by Dave Cullen
30.	A Demon Haunted Land by Monica Black
31.	The Art Of War by Sun Tzu
32.	Wiccan Book Of Candle Spells by Lisa Chamberlain
33.	Very Practical Magic by Nicola Kelleher
34.	<strong>Luna</strong> by Tamara Driessen
35.	The Hiding Game by Naomi Wood 
36.	Everyday Magic by Samra Haksever
37.	Love Spells by Samra Haksever
38.	Mama Moon’s Book Of Magic by Samra Haksever
39.	Natural Magic by Doreen Valiente
40.	Irish Witchcraft by Lora O’Brien
41.	<strong>The Crystal Code</strong> by Tamara Driessen
42.	Everyday Tarot Magic by Dorothy Morrison
43.	<strong>The Only Plane In The Sky</strong> by Garrett M Graff
44.	Candide by Voltaire
45.	Three Women by Lisa Taddeo
46.	Ulysses by James Joyce
47.	Ayoade on Ayoade by Richard Ayoade
48.	The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
49.	<strong>Dracula</strong> by Bram Stoker
50.	You Have To Make Your Own Fun Around Here by Frances Macken
51.	The Trial by Franz Kafka
52.	<strong>On The Road</strong> by Jack Kerouac
53.	Patsy by Nicole Dennis-Benn
54.	Reasons To Stay Alive by Matt Haig 
55.	The Power Of Now by Eckhart Tolle
56.	Metroland by Julian Barnes
57.	The Doll : Short Stories by Daphne Du Maurier
58.	<strong>The Curious Case Of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde</strong> by Robert Louis Stevenson
59.	Paris Echo by Sebastian Faulks
60.	<strong>Frenchman’s Creek</strong> by Daphne Du Maurier
61.	Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
62.	The Cockroach by Ian McEwan
63.	<strong>Georgiana, Duchess Of Devonshire</strong> by Amanda Foreman
64.	The Power Of Hope by Kate Garraway
65.	The Power And The Glory by Graham Greene
66.	An Unsuitable Job For A Woman by PD James
67.	What’s Left Of Me Is Yours by Stephanie Scott
68.	Black Swan Green by David Mitchell
69.	Nutshell by Ian McEwan

69. Nutshell by Ian McEwan

A foetus narrates his mothers affair with his Uncle.

The narrative voice is that of a cynical pompous academic. It's like Stewie from Family Guy but not funny.

Actual story not at all believable and though its an interesting experiment, I don't think he pulls it off.

Just checking in so I don't lose the thread!

**"Big Brother - George Orwell

This is another re-read for me, I originally read it 30 years ago. When I first read it at 15 I had no real concept of how truly forward thinking and scary this was. It is a distopian novel, that still to this day doesn't seem ridiculous in its visualisation.

In part one we learn how everything is controlled in your world, work, private life, speech, you are constantly watched, your family/partner/and especially your kids, will report you for the slightest wrongdoing, and history is forever being rewritten and evidence of such destroyed. Winston and Julia fall in love and are against Big Brother (secretly), they join The Brotherhood, a secret organisation whose aim is to bring down The Party." **

Could some explain?

I thought the book was called 1984?

1. Transcendence, by Gaia Vance.
2. Fat Cow, Fat Chance, by Jenni Murray
3. The Push, by Claire McGowan
4. A Field Guide to the English Clergy, by The Revd Fergus Butler-Gallie

5. Into Thin Air, by Jon Krakauer

1. Sweet Honey, Bitter Lemon: Travels in Sicily on a Vespa, by Matthew Fort
2. You Aren't What You Eat: Fed up with Gastro culture, by Steven Poole
3. Drive your Plow over the Bones of the Dead, by Olga Tokarczuk
4. Born to be Mild: Adventures for the Anxious, by Rob Temple

10. Written in Bone, by Sue Black 11. A Chip Shop in Poznan, by Ben Aitken 12. The Darkest Evening, by Ann Cleeves 13. The Midnight Library, by Matt Haig 14. The Postscript Murders, by Elly Griffiths 15. Hickory Dickory Dock, by Agatha Christie 16. The Last Confession of Thomas Hawkins, by Antonia Hodgson 17. A Death at Fountains Abbey, by Antonia Hodgson 18. Tales from the Folly, by Ben Aaronovitch 19. The Silver Collar, by Antonia Hodgson 20. The Pull of the Stars, by Emma Donohue 21. The Last, by Hanna Jameson 22. More than a Woman, by Caitlin Moran 23. Slough House, by Mick Herron 24. The Doomsday Book, by Connie Willis 25. Prairie Fires: the American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder, by Caroline Fraser 26. Small Pleasures, by Clare Chambers 27. Rapid Fire Europe, by Jason Smart 28. Three-Act Play, by Agatha Christie 29. The Fall of the House of Byron, by Emily Brand 30. Such a Fun Age, by Keiley Reid 31. Huntingtower, John Buchan 32. Another Time, Another Place, Jodi Taylor 33. The Adventures of Miss Barbara Pym, Paula Byrne 34. Remain Silent, Susie Steiner 35. 4.50 from Paddington, Agatha Christie 36. The Weekend, Charlotte Wood 37. Snow, John Banville 38. Walking the Great North Line, Robert Twigger 39. Elephants Can Remember, Agatha Christie 40. Blood Orange, Harriet Tyce 41. A Short History of Humanity: How Migration Made Us Who We Are, Johannes Krause and Thomas Trappe 42. A Necessary End, Hazel Holt 43. Death is a Word, Hazel Holt 44. The Word is Murder, Anthony Horowitz 45. The Sentence is Death, Anthony Horowitz 46. The Ministry of Bodies, Seamus O'Mahony 47. The Searcher, Tana French 48. Island Dreams, Gavin Francis 49. Eight Detectives, Alex Pavesi 50. Scoff, by Penn Vogler 51. Diary of an MP's Wife, Sasha Swire 52. The Golden Rule, Amanda Craig 53. Irreversible Damage, Abigail Shrier 54. Tales from Lindford, Catherine Fox 55. They Do It With Mirrors, Agatha Christie 56. The Appeal, Janice Hallett

Checking in Thanks SouthEast.
Was AWOL for much of the last thread so will try to pay more attention to this one. Currently reading not a lot but a new Hazel Holt arrived in the post today.

Thanks for the new thread, South. I'm finding it very up and down with my reading....still mourning my mum and going through phases of not being able to concentrate too well. Having said that, I think I'm ahead of where I was at this point last year, so who knows. I've managed to stick with my fiction/non-fiction regime as well. Plus, no real out-and-out stinkers....yet.

1: The Dead of Winter - Nicola Upson
2: The Ratline - Philippe Sands
3: The Truants - Kate Weinberg
4: London Fog: The Biography - Christine L. Corton
5: Under the Rainbow - Susan Scarlett
6: The Haunting of Alma Fielding - Kate Summerscale
7: Box 88 - Charles Cumming
8: Periodic Tales: The Curious Lives of the Elements - Hugh Aldersey-Williams
9: Mr Wilder and Me - Jonathan Coe
10: Stasiland - Anna Funder
11: Civil to Strangers - Barbara Pym
12: Quicksand Tales - Keggie Carew
13: Woman With Birthmark - Håkan Nesser
14: Just My Type - Simon Garfield
15: A Song for the Dark Times - Ian Rankin
16: Shady Characters - Keith Houston
17: Clara - Janice Galloway
18: Cheek by Jowl: A History of Neighbours - Emily Cockayne
19: Decline and Fall - Evelyn Waugh
20: Gone to Ground - Marie Jalowicz-Simon
21: The Law of Innocence - Michael Connelly
22. Falling Upwards - Richard Holmes
23: The Darkest Day - Håkan Nesser
24: The Great Nadar: The Man Behind the Camera - Adam Begley
25: The Moving Toyshop - Edmund Crispin
26: Chelsea Concerto - Frances Faviell
27: The Thursday Murder Club - Richard Osman
28: One Hot Summer - Rosemary Ashton
29: Sweet Thames - Matthew Kneale
30: Murder on the Home Front - Molly Lefebure
31: The Most Fun We Ever Had - Claire Lombardo
32: Daphne du Maurier - Margaret Forster
33: If Morning Ever Comes - Anne Tyler
34: I Am, I Am, I Am - Maggie O’Farrell
35: To Love and be Wise - Josephine Tey
36: Outskirts: Living Life on the Edge of the Green Belt - John Grindrod
37: Fair Warning: Michael Connelly
38: Footprints in Paris - Gillian Tindall
39: The Singing Sands - Josephine Tey
40: The Land Where Lemons Grow - Helena Attlee
41: No Cure for Death - Hazel Holt
42: Pale Rider: The Spanish Flu of 1918 and How It Changed The World - Laura Spinney
43: Early Morning Riser - Katherine Heiny
44: The News from Waterloo - Brian Cathcart
45: I'm Not Complaining - Ruth Adam
46: Words & Pictures: Writers, Artists and a Peculiarly British Tradition - Jenny Uglow
47: The Inimitable Jeeves - PG Wodehouse
48: The Address Book - Deirdre Mask
49: The Guermantes Way - Marcel Proust
50: Shepperton Babylon - Matthew Sweet
51: A View of the Harbour - Elizabeth Taylor

Checking in and just wanting to ask, when you put some books in bold is it that they're a favourite of what you've recently read, or a fave ever?

@diggingatrench

**"Big Brother - George Orwell

This is another re-read for me, I originally read it 30 years ago. When I first read it at 15 I had no real concept of how truly forward thinking and scary this was. It is a distopian novel, that still to this day doesn't seem ridiculous in its visualisation.

In part one we learn how everything is controlled in your world, work, private life, speech, you are constantly watched, your family/partner/and especially your kids, will report you for the slightest wrongdoing, and history is forever being rewritten and evidence of such destroyed. Winston and Julia fall in love and are against Big Brother (secretly), they join The Brotherhood, a secret organisation whose aim is to bring down The Party." **

Could some explain?

I thought the book was called 1984?

It is, and oh my goodness I can't believe I called it Big Brother, doh!

@Hushabyelullaby

It's the ones that have stood out particularly in the year so far, not "all time"

[quote EineReiseDurchDieZeit]@Hushabyelullaby

It's the ones that have stood out particularly in the year so far, not "all time"[/quote]

Great thanks @EineReiseDurchDieZeit

@Terpsichore
Did you enjoy Sweet Thames? I have not read it, but I really enjoyed Kneale's YA novel When We were Romans a few years back.

1 Hilo Waking the Monsters by Judd Winick
2 The Nakano Thrift Shop by Hiromi Kawakami. Translated by Allison Markin Powell
3 Hilo Then Everything Went Wrong by Judd Winick
4 Three Apples Fell from the Sky by Narine Abgaryan. Translated by Lisa C Hayden
5 Hilo All the Pieces Fit by Judd Winick
6 Days of the Bagnold Summer by Joff Winterhart
7 The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper by Hallie Rubenhold
8 Serpentine by Philip Pullman
9 Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi. Translated by Geoffrey Trousselot
10 Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
11 Bright by Duanwad Pimwana. Translated by Mui Poopoksakul
12 The Politicization of Mumsnet by Sarah Pedersen
13 The Girl with the Louding Voice by Abi Daré
14 Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
15 The Pursuit of Love by Nancy Mitford
16 If Not, Winter. Fragments of Sappho. Translated by Anne Carson
17 Freedom Bound: Escaping Slavery in Scotland by Warren Pleece
18 The Abyss Surrounds Us by Emily Skrutskie
19 Tom's Midnight Garden by Philippa Pearce
20 On a Sunbeam by Tillie Walden
21 Black and British by David Olusoga
22 The Vegetarian by Han Kang. Translated by Deborah Smith
23 Havana Year Zero by Karla Suárez. Traslated by Christina MacSweeney
24 Memories: From Moscow to the Black Sea by Teffi. Translated by Robert Chandler, Elizabeth Chandler, Anne Marie Jackson and Irina Steinberg
25 Susanna Moodie, Roughing It In the Bush by Carol Shields and Patrick Crowe. Illustrated by Selena Goulding
26 Nervous Conditions by Tsitsi Dangarembga
27 Ms Ice Sandwich by Mieko Kawakami
28 Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
29 Old Baggage by Lissa Evans
30 To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis

31 Heartstopper Volume 1 Alice Oseman
32 Heartstopper Volume 2 Alice Oseman
Popular YA graphic novels about a gay teenage romance which is being made into a Netflix series. Adorable.

Thanks for the new thread. Here’s my current 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 18. Bring Me Back by B A Paris 19. The Concrete Blonde by Michael Connelly 20. Scrublands by Chris Hammer 21. On Chapel Sands: My Mother and Other Missing Persons by Laura Cumming 22. Another Day in the Death of America by Gary Younge 23. The Roanoke Girls by Amy Engel 24. Klopp Actually by Laura Lexx 25. The Only Plane in the Sky: The Oral History of 9/11 by Garrett M. Graff 26. All the Hidden Things by Claire Askew 27. Feynman by Ottaviani and Myrick 28. Becoming by Michelle Obama 29. Piranesi by Susanna Clarke 30. Cross and Burn by Val McDermid 31. The Beautiful Land by Alan Averill 32. Doing Time by Jodi Taylor 33. Hard Time by Jodi Taylor 34. Why Is Nothing Ever Simple? by Jodi Taylor 35. Plan for the Worst by Jodi Taylor 36. The Ordeal of the Haunted Room by Jodi Taylor 37. Another Time, Another Place by Jodi Taylor 38. The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin

I’m a bit behind with my reviews (and to be honest the ones I have included below aren't up to much) as I’m between operations in hospital after falling over and breaking and dislocating my ankle. It’s left plenty of time for reading but it can be a bit of a struggle to concentrate so I’ve moved to audiobooks.

39. Raising Sparks by Ariel Kahn

Malke runs away from her ultra orthodox Jewish family in Jerusalem to explore Kabbalah. I found this a bit of an odd book, and while I found some of the religious discussions interesting I just found the whole thing a bit odd.

40. Ruth and Martin’s Album Club by Martin Fitzgerald

The concept behind the Ruth and Martin’s Album Club is simple: Make people listen to a classic album they’ve never heard before. Make them listen to it two more times. Get them to explain why they never bothered with it before. Then ask them to review it.

I had heard pretty much all of the albums in the book which I think helped my enjoyment but I definitely found the intro to each album by Martin much more interesting that the reviews by the new celebrity listeners.

41. Rodham by Curtis Sittenfeld

I really enjoyed this imagining of the life Hillary Rodham might have led had she not married Bill. There’s a lot to unpick here from Hillary’s reaction to Bill’s infidelities, the sexual misconduct allegations against Bill, sexism (generally and in politics) and the ability of women to ‘have it all’. I really liked Hillary Rodham but this book has really made me think about my opinion of Hillary Clinton.

42. Only the Innocent by Rachel Abbott

This is the first in the DCI Tom Douglas series and wasn’t bad. Hugo Fletcher is murdered and the prime suspect is a woman. As the story unfolds it becomes clear that the list of suspects is not short, especially as the investigation into the victim’s charity to support prostitutes is conducted.

43. I Am, I Am, I Am: Seventeen Brushes With Death by Maggie O’Farrell

A memoir from the novelist Maggie O’Farrell which covers 17 brushes with death from various points of her life. I loved this book, from the beautiful, evocative writing to the zig-zag approach. The fact that each story was so short worked well for me too as I’m struggling to read for long periods at the moment.

44. The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom

Eddie awakes in the afterlife, where he learns that heaven is not a destination. It's a place where your life is explained to you by five people, some of whom you knew, others who may have been strangers. One by one, from childhood to soldier to old age, Eddie's five people revisit their connections to him on earth, illuminating the mysteries of his "meaningless" life, and revealing the haunting secret behind the eternal question: "Why was I here?"

I remember reading this years ago and loving it but absolutely loathed it this time. It was so twee and pretentious in equal measure.

Bringing over my list

1. Cilka's Journey - Heather Morris
2. The Testaments - Margaret Atwood

1. The Baby Group - Caroline Corcoran
2. Who Killed Ruby - Camilla Way
3. The Angina Monologues - Samer Nashe
4. The Shelf - Helly Acton
5. Too Scared To Tell - Cathy Glass
6. I Can't Believe You Just Said That - Danny Wallace
7. No One Ever Has Sex On A Tuesday - Tracy Bloom

10. 10 Minutes 38 Seconds In This Strange World - Elif Shafak 11. Her Perfect Lies - Lana Newton 12. The Warning - Kathryn Croft 13. Between You And Me - Lisa Hall 14. Dead To Me - Lesley Pearce 15. Below The Big Blue Sky - Anna McPartlin 16. Unnatural Causes - Dr Richard Shepherd 17. Never Let Me Go - Kazuo Ishiguro 18. So....Anyway - John Cleese 19. Of Mice And Men - John Steinbeck 20. We Need To Talk About Kevin - Lionel Shriver 21. Night Music - JoJo Moyes 22. The Road - Cormac McCarthy 23. 29 Seconds - T M Logan 24. The Thursday Murder Club - Richard Osman (DNF) 25. All That Remains - Sue Black 26. The Girl With The Louding Voice 27. Johnny Got His Gun - Dalton Trumbo 28. Last Night - Mhairi McFarlane 29. The Picture On The Fridge - Ian W Sainsbury 30. Thing We Never Said - Nick Alexander 31. Logging Off - Nick Spalding 32. The Generation - Holly Cave 33. My Husband The Stranger - Rebecca Done 34. Ghost Wall - Sarah Moss 35. The Silent House - Neil Pattison 36. My Better Half - M M Boulder 37. Invisible Girl - Lisa Jewel 38. I Let Him Go - Denise Fergus 39. The Fog - James Herbert 40. The One - John Marrs 41. Fighting For Your Life A Paramedic's Story - Lisa Walder 42. 1984 - George Orwell

I don't seem to have as many books this year as I once would have, but have also been into some other interests as well. Here are mine so far:

1. The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell. Very similar style to many of his other books such as Outliers, and very engaging as it covers lots of different subjects.
2. Married Love, Tessa Hadley. I enjoyed most of the short stories, though I can't remember most of the plots off the top of my head.
3. The House We Called Home, Jenny Oliver. Enjoyable although many of the family members weren't very likeable.
4. The Affair, Amanda Brooke. As above (with regards to the family!)
5. The Goodbye Gift, Amanda Brooke. I absolutely loved this one! I found myself really enjoying how all the plots weave together and wanting the best for most of the characters.
6. The Argument, Victoria Jenkins. Very well-written but with quite a disturbing twist which I was not expecting.
7. The Midnight Library, Matt Haig. Not my usual genre, but it was recommended to me by a friend reading it for her book club. I really enjoyed it and found myself wanting to know what would happen to Nora. My only complaint about it was that I did not find the opening scene very realistic, just in the sense that I thought some of the characters, such as the woman from the shop (KerryAnn?) just seemed unrealistically cold.
8. This Beautiful Life, Katie Marsh. I really, really enjoyed this one and found it thought-provoking. It is about a woman who returns home after cancer remission and is trying to rebuild her family life. Unfortunately, a few months after reading it I found out someone close to me has cancer, and although I know all experiences are different I was very grateful that I had read the book.

9-11. The first 3 books of the Sussex series by William Nicholson: The Secret Intensity of Everyday Life, I Could Love You, and The Golden Hour. I loved reading about the goings-on of the residents of the community, although I found myself rooting for some characters more than others. Nicholson writes well, although I felt that the theme of re-connecting with lost lovers from long ago did get a bit old. 12. Signing Their Lives Away by Denise Kiernan and Joseph D'Agnese. It's about the signers of the US Declaration of Independence. Initially I found it enjoyable but as time went on, I felt that the short biographies were getting a bit less detailed (such as leaving out wives' names, I'm just one of these who enjoys family trivia!) but I finished it as I was almost done by that point. Currently reading two books, Confessions of a Bookseller by Shaun Bythell which I am really enjoying (after having read and enjoyed the first book earlier) and In a Sunburned Country by Bill Bryson which I feel is funny and engaging at times, but slow at others.

Thanks for the new thread Southeast.
Thanks to BorrowBox and Audible I'm on track for 50 books this year, my list so far is:
1. The Girl With The Louding Voice by Abi Daré
2. One Two Three Four: The Beatles in Time by Craig Brown
3. Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
4. My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell
5. When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi
6. The Last Thing To Burn by Will Dean
7. War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
8. Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens
9. Lady In Waiting by Anne Glenconner
10. Valley of Bones by Anthony Powell DTTMOT
11. The Home Stretch by Graham Norton
12. Daisy Jones and The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid
13. The Soldiers Art by Anthony Powell DTTMOT
14. The Military Philosophers by Anthony Powell DTTMOT

15. The Offing by Benjamin Myers
16. Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell
17. A Town Like Alice by Nevil Shute
18. The Last House On Needless Street by Catronia Ward
19. The Long Song by Andrea Levy
20. And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie
21. Brazzaville Beach by William Boyd
22. Later by Stephen King
23. Mr Loverman by Bernadine Evaristo
24. The Pursuit Of Love by Nancy Mitford
25. Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart

26. Things In Jars by Jess Kidd
27. The Last Painting Of Sarah de Vos by Dominic Smith
28. Stasiland by Anna Funder

It is, and oh my goodness I can't believe I called it Big Brother, doh!

I was half hoping there was a sequel or prequel that I'd missed! Shame!

Thanks for the new thread, just checking in, not much happening on the reading front here as busy at work & not enough brainspace/time for reading.

Did you enjoy Sweet Thames? I have not read it, but I really enjoyed Kneale's YA novel When We were Romans a few years back

@ComeDoonTheStairs tbh I didn't enjoy it as much as I'd hoped - I loved When We Were Romans too, and recently I enjoyed Pilgrims a lot as well....but I dunno, Sweet Thames was just a bit effortful. It was a shame because I'm really interested in that subject (Victorians grappling with sewage problems! What's not to like?!! ) and I'd just finished a non-fiction on the same topic.

Thanks for the new thread! Here's my list:

1. Virginia Woolf by Hermione Lee
2. A Whole Life by Robert Seethaler
3. My Wild and Sleepless Nights by Clover Stroud
4. Some Kids I Taught and What They Taught Me by Kate Clanchy
5. Other Minds: The Octopus and the Evolution of Intelligent Life by Peter Godfrey-Smith
6. Somebody I Used to Know by Wendy Mitchell
7. Such A Fun Age by Kiley Reid
8. The Kind Worth Killing by Peter Swanson
9. Three Hours by Rosamund Lupton

10. All That Remains: A Life in Death by Sue Black 11. I Thought I Knew You by Penny Hancock 12. Red Dust by Ma Jian 13. Sun Fall by Jim Al-Khalili 14. We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie 15. Passing by Nella Larsen 16. The Yellow Birds by Kevin Powers 17. Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi 18. Piranesi by Susanna Clarke 19. The Reading Cure: How Books Restored My Appetite by Laura Freeman 20. When We Were Bad by Charlotte Mendelson 21. The Seven Sisters by Margaret Drabble 22. Invisible Women by Caroline Criado Perez 23. The Origin of our Species by Chris Stringer 24. The Dutch House by Ann Patchett 25. Long Bright River by Liz Moore 26. The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid by Bill Bryson 27. Longbourn by Jo Baker 28. Who They Was by Gabriel Krauze 29. The Life Project by Helen Pearson 30. Republic of Lies by Anna Merlan 31. Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi 32. The Cost of Living by Deborah Levy 33. A History of the World in 21 Women by Jenni Murray 34. No One Is Talking About This by Patricia Lockwood

@MamaNewtNewt ouch That sounds really miserable for you. I hope you can get it sorted as soon as practicable.

Thank you so much @southeastdwelller

1. The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides
2. The Diving Bell by Jean-Dominique Bauby
3. Kitchen Confidential Anthony Bourdain
4. Wundersmith by Jessica Townsend
5. The trials of Morrigan Crow by Jessica Townsend
6. Over the Top by Jonathan Van Ness
7. Hollowpox by Jessica Townsend.
8. Know My Name by Chanel Miller.
9. Rivers of London by Ben Aaronvitch.

10. Plain, Bad, Heroines by Emily Danforth. 11. 29 Seconds by T M Logan. 12. Lanny by Max Porter 13. My name is Why by Lemn Sissay 14. The President is Missing by Bill Clinton and James Patterson. Excellently silly audio book, in the vain of a Rock action movie. Well recommended by @mackerella. 15. American Dirt Jeannie Cummings. My view is that this was widely miss-sold as great literature when it has more in common with number 14. If viewed as a simple thriller then very gripping.

Gosh - I’m far behind and haven’t posted much but finding my way again recently. I have many books on the go so hoping to post more this thread.

Here's my list:

The Girl With the Louding Voice - Abi Dare
Hard Times - Charles Dickens
Cranford - Elizabeth Gaskell
Bad Science - Ben Goldacre
The Woodlanders - Thomas Hardy
Normal People - Sally Rooney
The Waves - Virginia Woolf
And Then There Were None - Agatha Christie
What Ho! The Best of PG Wodehouse
O Pioneers! - Willa Cather
The Midnight Library - Matt Haig
The Quiet American - Graham Greene
The Dutch House - Ann Patchett
Lincoln in the Bardo - George Saunders
The Various Haunts of Men - Susan Hill*
The English Patient* - Michael Ondaatje
Girl, Woman, Other - Bernardine Evaristo
The Heart of the Matter - Graham Greene
Circe - Madeline Miller
The Way We Live Now - Anthony Trollope
The Graveyard Book - Neil Gaiman
Maurice - EM Forster
Hamnet - Maggie O'Farrell
Shuggie Bain - Douglas Stuart
Death on the Nile - Agatha Christie

Currently reading The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James, which is a bit of a slog. I must admit, having read The Turn of the Screw late last year, I was expecting something sinister. However, it's not sinister at all and draaaaags aloooooong in veeeeeeeery long paragraphs 🥱

Thanks for the new thread southeast

My list so far:

1. Sweet Pea by C J Skuse
2. Dracul by Dacre Stoker and J. D. Barker
3. Cotillion by Georgette Heyer
4. Skitter by Ezekiel Boone
5. Dragonquest by Anne McCaffrey
6. Dragonsong by Anne McCaffrey
7. The Pandora Room by Christopher Golden
8. Dragonsinger by Anne McCaffrey
9. Goodbye to Malory Towers by Pamela Cox

10. The Trench by Steve Alten 11. The Foundling by Georgette Heyer 12. Monster by C J Skuse 13. American Gods by Neil Gaiman 14. Birthday Boy by David Baddiel 15. In Bloom by C J Skuse 16. A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens 17. The Guest List by Lucy Foley 18. Unwind by Neal Shusterman 19. Bright Young Things by Scarlett Thomas 20. Escape the Diet Trap by Dr John Briffa 21. In The Wake of The Plague by Norman F Cantor 22. Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata 23. The Long War by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter 24. American War by Omar El Akkad 25. My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell 26. Hard Time by Jodi Taylor 27. Survival of the Sickest by Dr Sharon Moalem 28. One Night For Love by Mary Balogh 29. Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier 30. The Morning Gift by Eva Ibbotson 31. Archangel by Sharon Shinn 32. Hater by David Moody 33. She Was The Quiet One by Michele Campbell 34. Meg: Primal Waters by Steve Alten 35. The Fear by C L Taylor 36. Behind Her Eyes by Sarah Pinborough 37. A Sudden Wild Magic by Diana Wynne Jones 38. One By One by Ruth Ware May 39. There’s Someone Inside Your House by Stephanie Perkins 40. Troy by Stephen Fry 41. The Escape Room by Megan Goldin 42. Hekla’s Children by James Brogden 43. X-Men: Nation X 44. The School at the Chalet by Elinor M Brent-Dyer 45. Plan For The Worst by Jodi Taylor 46. Fast Asleep by Dr Michael Mosley 47. The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood 48. Pride And Prejudice by Jane Austen 49. The White Dragon by Anne McCaffrey 50. Eating Less by Gillian Riley 51. Dragondrums by Anne McCaffrey 52. Clear My Name by Paula Daly 53. New Model Army by Adam Roberts 54. Playing Nice by J P Delaney

Plus

55. Surprise Me by Sophie Kinsella

After being told that they can expect to live for another 68 years, happily married Sylvie and Dan start to panic about whether their relationship will last that long.

So they decide to keep their marriage fresh by surprising each other (just for the record, I hate surprises. This book did not change my initial feeling that Sylvie and Dan’s plan is a terrible one).

Unsurprisingly, this is not a total success. There’s some good surprises, but also clashing surprise lunches, boring surprises, horrible surprises. And a deep dark secret that everyone’s been keeping from Sylvie.

All very similar in tone to Kinsella’s other stand alone books, so if you like those you’ll probably like this one.

56. Dragonsdawn by Anne McCaffrey

This is a sort of prequel to the Dragonriders of Pern books, set when humans first landed on Pern and started colonising it. It’s all going great until the nasty devouring thread appears, but as anyone familiar with this series will guess, the settlers manage to adapt to the threat.
I enjoyed rereading this.

57. The Ickabog by J K Rowling

This one’s aimed at children, we got it for DS1.
There’s an idyllic kingdom, ruled by a weak king, that’s brought to the brink of destruction by greedy wicked men who use the threat of an imaginary monster to gain power. And then the monster turns out to be real, and quite nice really.

It’s a good little story, DS1 enjoyed it a lot.
I liked the illustrations too, they’ve selected some lovely illustrations drawn by children who sent them into the artwork competition - I think that was running while J K Rowling was publishing the chapters online last year?