50 Book Challenge 2021 Part Seven

[southeastdweller]

Welcome to the seventh 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, the fifth one here and the sixth one here.

Thank you for the new thread Southeast

Best

I have my list ready for a change. I've also been tallying what's going on with it. From a total of 134
112 fiction
118 audiobooks
97 by female authors
6 classics - must try harder

1. Conjure Women – Afia Atakora
2. Prime Suspect – Lynda LaPlante
3. Ducks, Newburyport - Lucy Ellman
4. Three Hours – Rosamund Lupton
5. The Giver of Stars – Jojo Moyes
6. Honeymoon in Tehran – Aazadeh Moaveni
7. The Wife Upstairs – Rachel Hawkins
8. Fingersmith – Sarah Waters
9. The Goldfinch – Donna Tartt

10. Blue Ticket – Sophie Mackintosh 11. Death in Her Hands – Ottessa Moshfegh 12. The Art of Dying – Ambrose Parry 13. The Magician’s Assistant – Ann Patchett 14. Missing, Presumed – Susie Steiner 15. Persons Unknown – Susie Steiner 16. Dear Child - Romy Hausmann 17. Hum If You Don’t Know the Words - Bianca Marais 18. Crazy Rich Asians - Kevin Kwan 19. Away with the Penguins – Hazel Prior 20. Ghosts – Dolly Alderton 21. Summerwater – Sarah Moss 22. Mother for Dinner – Shalom Auslander 23. The Vows of Silence (Serailler #4) - Susan HIll 24. The Mystery of Mrs. Christie – Marie Benedict 25. The Troubadour’s Tale (Oxford Medieval #5) – Ann Swinfen 26. The Warden – Anthony Trollope 27. The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole – Sue Townsend 28. Flowers for Algernon – Daniel Keyes 29. Semper Fidelis (Ruso #5) – Ruth Downie 30. The Thirteenth Tale – Dianne Setterfield 31. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn – Betty Smith 32. The Memory Police – Yōko Ogawa 33. The Secret Barrister - Anon 34. The Green Road – Anne Enright 35. The Cut Out Girl – Bart Van Es 36. All Things Bright and Beautiful – James Herriot 37. The Echo Wife – Sarah Gailey 38. That Old Country Music – Sebastian Barry 39. The Liar’s Dictionary – Eley Williams 40. Dark Horses – Susan Mihalic 41. I Hate Men – Pauline Harmange 42. Consent – Annabel Lyon 43. Exciting Times – Naoise Dolan 44. How The One-Armed Sister Sweeps Her House – Cherie Jones 45. The Divines – Ellie Eaton 46. Because Of You – Dawn French 47. The Fours Winds – Kristin Hannah 48. The Year Of The Hare – Arto Paasilinna 49. Snow – John Banville 50. British History In 50 Events – James Weber 51. Putney – Sofka Zinovieff 52. No One Is Talking About This - Patricia Lockwood 53. Girl A – Abigail Dean 54. Our Mutual Friend – Charles Dickens 55. The Soul of a Woman - Isabel Allende 56. Goodbye Mr. Chips - James Hilton 57. Riot Baby - Tochi Onyebuchi 58. Burnt Sugar - Avni Doshi 59. The Narrowboat Summer - Anne Youngson 60. The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires - Grady Hendrix 61. Tipping the Velvet - Sarah Waters 62. Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy 63. We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves - Karen Joy Fowler 64. Small Pleasures - Clare Chambers 65. The Golden Rule - Amanda Craig 66. Cherry - Nico Walker 67. The Princess Spy - Larry Loftis 68. Rivers of London - Ben Aaronovitch 69. The Lost Apothecary - Sarah Penner 70. The Stonemason's Tale (Oxford Medieval #6) - Ann Swinfen 71. Of Women and Salt - Gabriela Garcia 72. My Name is Why - Lemn Sissay 73.Her Here - Amanda Dennis 74. Pale Fire - Vladimir Nabokov 75.Othello - William Shakespeare 76. Paradise Lost - John Milton 77. New Boy - Tracy Chevalier 78. I, Claudius - Robert Graves 79. Claudius the God and His Wife Messalina - Robert Graves 80. Peaces - Helen Oyeyemi 81. The Switch - Beth O'Leary 82. American Dirt - Jeanine Cummins 83. Nothing But Blue Sky - Kathleen MacMahon 84. Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy 85. Mountains of the Mind: A History of a Fascination - Robert Macfarlane 86. Unsettled Ground - Claire Fuller 87. The Wild Silence - Raynor Winn 88. Adults - Emma Jane Unsworth 89. Life After Life – Kate Atkinson 90. Crime and Punishment – Fyodor Dostoyevsky 91.Rebecca – Daphne du Maurier 92. Klara and the Sun – Kazuo Ishiguro 93. Orchard: A Year in England’s Eden – Benedict MacDonald 94. Mothering Sunday – Graham Swift 95. Notes on Grief – Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie 96. Ariadne – Jennifer Saint 97. See What You Made Me Do: Power Control and Domestic Violence – Jess Hill 98. The Betrayals – Bridget Colins 99. Braised Pork – An Yu 100. Nomadland: Surviving America in the 21st Century - Jessica Bruder 101. The Dig – John Preston 102. The Summer Before the War – Helen Simonson 103. The Last Painting of Sarah de Vos – Dominic Smith 104. Mrs Death Misses Death – Salena Godden 105. Pies and Prejudice: In Search of the North – Stuart Maconie 106. Did I Say That Out Loud: Midlife Indignities and How to Survive Them - Kristin van Ogtrop 107. The Other Black Girl – Zakiya Dalila Harris 108. The Siege – Helen Dunmore 109. Another Life – Jodie Chapman 110. Charlotte – Helen Moffett 111.Dreaming the Eagle (Boudica #1) – Manda Smiith 112. Dreaming the Bull (Boudica #2) – Manda Smiith 113. Dreaming the Hound (Boudica #3) – Manda Smiith 114. A Little Happier: Notes for Reassurance – Derren Brown 115. Jane and Prudence – Barbara Pym 116. Circus of Wonders – Elizabeth Macneal 117. Nobody, Somebody, Anybody – Kelly McClorey 118. Regeneration – Pat Barker 119. Trans: When Ideology Meets Reality – Helen Joyce 120. The Age of Innocence – Edith Wharton 121. The Menopause Manifesto: Own Your Health with Facts and Feminism - Dr Jenn Gunter 122. Ridley Road – Jo Bloom 123. Everything You Really Need to Know About Politics: My Life as an MP – Jess Phillips 124. Nightbitch – Rachel Yoder 125. The Lamplighters – Emma Stonex 126. Future Popes of Ireland – Martin Darragh 127. The Rose Code – Kate Quinn 128. Anxious People – Fredrik Backman 129. Daughters of Sparta – Claire Heywood 130. Mrs England – Stacey Halls 131. A Comedy of Terrors (Flavia Albia #9) – Lyndsey Davis 132. Maybe in Another Life – Taylor Jenkins Reid 133.A Gentleman in Moscow – Amor Towles 134. The Luminaries – Eleanor Catton

Thank you southeast.

Thanks for the new thread, southeast. Marking my place and I will dig out my list tomorrow. Am hoping to get some reading done after two days of tidying, cleaning, taking teenagers from A to B and buying vast amounts of return to school stuff.

Thanks southeast

The 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.	<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.	<strong>The Art Of War</strong> 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
70.	Latitudes Of Longing by Shubhangi Swarup
71.	Go Tell It On The Mountain by James Baldwin
72.	Chanel’s Riviera by Anne de Courcy 
73.	The Noise Of Time by Julian Barnes
74.	<strong>Malibu Rising</strong> by Taylor Jenkins Reid
75.	<strong>The Return Of The Native</strong> by Thomas Hardy
76.	<strong>The Vanishing Half</strong> by Brit Bennett
77.	Yes Please by Amy Poehler
78.	Everybody Died, So I Got A Dog by Emily Dean
79.	She Said by Jodi Kantor and Meghan Twohey
80.	A Wild Winter Swan by Gregory Maguire
81.	On The Frontline With The Women Who Fight Back by Stacey Dooley
82.	Dead Famous by Greg Jenner
83.	The Thousand Autumns Of Jacob De Zoet by David Mitchell
84.	<strong>Invisible Women</strong> by Caroline Criado Perez
85.	The Outsider by Albert Camus
86.	<strong>One. Two. Three. Four. : The Beatles In Time</strong> by Craig Brown
87.	The Absolute Book by Elizabeth Knox
88.	Travellers In The Third Reich by Julia Boyd
89.	My Cousin Rachel by Daphne Du Maurier
90.	Girl by Edna O’Brien
91.	<strong>Les Miserables</strong> by Victor Hugo

Currently Reading :

Ma'am Darling by Craig Brown
and
Nothing To Envy by Barbara Demick

Thanks @southeastdweller for sorting out new thread and links. I'm still updating my list on LibraryThing and will then work on it in Word. I think I've finished around 30 books in the 2 months since I posted my list on Thread 6 - that does include a very short book about Marianne Faithfull and a standalone short story, both library ebooks as I've been trying out ebook apps on my phone and exploring the catalogues.

Thanks for the thread, south.

My list so far:

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
52: Dirty Old London - Lee Jackson
53: Tonight You're Dead - Viveca Sten
54: Confessions of a Bookseller - Shaun Bythell
55: House of Correction - Nicci French
56: East West Street - Philippe Sands
57: The Picture of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde
58: The Uncommon Reader - Alan Bennett
59: Betty: The Story of Betty MacDonald - Anne Wellman
60: Guiltless - Viveca Sten
61: The Rare and the Beautiful - Cressida Connolly
62: All Adults Here - Emma Straub
63: Meetings with Remarkable Manuscripts - Christopher de Hamel
64: The Survivors - Jane Harper
65: Tormented Hope: Nine Hypochondriac Lives - Brian Dillon
66: Transient Desires - Donna Leon
67: The Adventures of Miss Barbara Pym - Paula Byrne
68: Modern Lovers - Emma Straub
69: Timekeepers: How the World Became Obsessed with Time - Simon Garfield
70: The Garden Party and other stories - Katherine Mansfield
71: Katherine Mansfield: A Secret Life - Claire Tomalin
72: Due to a Death - Mary Kelly
73: The Vanity Fair Diaries - Tina Brown
74: The Christmas Egg - Mary Kelly
75: An Encyclopaedia of Myself - Jonathan Meades

Thank you for the new thread southeast - was slightly worried when I saw the old one had filled up ….but, as ever, you’re on top of it!

My list:

1. A Place of Greater Safety - Hilary Mantel
2. Just One Damned Thing After Another - Jodi Taylor

1. Housekeeping - Marilynne Robinson
2. Banker - Dick Francis
3. Old Baggage - Lissa Evans

6. Crooked Heart - Lissa Evans

1. The Guest List - Lucy Foley

8. Fingersmith - Sarah Waters

1. A Symphony of Echoes - Jodi Taylor

10. A Second Chance - Jodi Taylor 11. The Spy and the Traitor - Ben MacIntyre 12. The Danger - Dick Francis 13. A Song for Summer - Eva Ibbotson 14. Alternative Li(v)es - Arnie Arnstein 15. The Offing - Benjamin Myers 16. A Trail Through Time - Jodi Taylor 17. No Time Like The Past - Jodi Taylor 18. Confusion - Elizabeth Jane Howard 19. Thirteen - Steve Cavanagh 20. Proof - Dick Francis 21. The Warden - Anthony Trollope 22. A Month in the Country - JL Carr 23. My Dark Vanessa - Kate Elizabeth Russell 24. What Could Possibly Go Wrong - Jodi Taylor 25. American Dirt - Jeanine Cummins 26. Small Pleasures - Clare Chambers 27. Three Act Tragedy - Agatha Christie 28. Break In - Dick Francis 29. Bolt - Dick Francis 30. Giovanni’s Room - James Baldwin 31. Regeneration - Pat Barker 32. The Eye in the Door - Pat Barker 33. The Ghost Road - Pat Barker 34. Lies, Damned Lies and History - Jodi Taylor 35. Acts and Omissions - Catherine Fox 36. The Girl with the Louding Voice - Abi Dare 37. The Defence - Steve Cavanagh 38. Hot Money - Dick Francis 39. The Plea - Steve Cavanagh 40. Wolf Hall - Hilary Mantel 41. The Pursuit of Love - Nancy Mitford 42. A Rose Petal Summer - Katie Fforde 43. Unseen Things Above - Catherine Fox 44. Shuggie Bain - Douglas Stuart 45. Realms of Glory - Catherine Fox 46. The Unknown Ajax - Georgette Heyer 47. To Calais in Ordinary Time - James Meek 48. Bring up the Bodies - Hilary Mantel 49. And the Rest is History - Jodi Taylor 50. An Argumentation of Historians - Jodi Taylor 51. Quartet in Autumn - Barbara Pym 52. Murder at the Vicarage - Agatha Christie 53. Hungry - Grace Dent 54. The Widow - Fiona Barton 55. Casting Off - Elizabeth Jane Howard 56. V for Victory - Lissa Evans 57. The Edge - Dick Francis 58. Straight - Dick Francis 59. The Mirror and the Light - Hilary Mantel 60. Box 88 - Charles Cummings 61. Longshot - Dick Francis 62. The Party - Elizabeth Day 63. Maurice - E M Forster

And adding my recent reads:

64. Driving Force - Dick Francis

My latest Dick Francis read set in the world of commercial horse boxes/lorries which take the horses to and from race courses and move horses between stables. Life is looking good for Freddie, the owner of the horse boxes and former jockey, until one of his lorries turns up with a dead hitchhiker and then his mechanic dies in suspicious circumstances. What is going on and can Freddie find out before someone else dies? A good read (but not enough racing!). I have just realised that my bookshelf is out of order and I should have read Comeback before this one so will have to backtrack…..

65. The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo - Taylor Jenkins Reid

Read this following other reviews on here. Reclusive, retired film star, Evelyn Hugo regales journalist, Monique, with her life story telling her about her seven marriages and who was the love of her life. Evelyn handpicked Monique and there was a reason but she won’t tell Monique until they have finished her life story. Evelyn was a strong woman who went after what she wanted, was prepared to play dirty and made mistakes. I enjoyed this very much even though I can’t remember all the husbands! Will be reading Daisy Jones and the Six soon.

Thanks for the new thread South! Here’s my list:

1. The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13&3/4 - Sue Townsend
2. Inventing Ourselves: The Secret Life of the Teenage Brain - Sarah-Jayne Blakemore
3. The Dinosaurs Rediscovered - Michael J. Benton
4. Written in Bone - Sue Black
5. Life on Earth - David Attenborough
6. How to Talk to Anyone - Leil Lowndes
7. The Terror - Dan Simmons
8. Earthlings - Sayaka Murata
9. Night School - Richard Wiseman

10. A Life on Our Planet - David Attenborough 11. Piranesi - Susanna Clarke 12. The Artists’s Way - Julia Cameron 13. Hamnet - Maggie O’Farrell 14. Find Your Voice - Caroline Goyder 15. Nation - Terry Pratchett 16. You Let Me In - Camilla Bruce 17. Why You?: 101 Interview Questions You’ll Never Fear Again - James Reed 18. Our Mutual Friend - Charles Dickens 19. Laura Lake and the Luxury Press Trip - Wendy Holden 20. Wild and Free - Wendy Holden 21. Defining You - Fiona Murden 22. Brilliant Customer Service - Debra Stevens 23. Celebrating the Southern Seasons - Juliet Batten 24. The Luck Factor - Richard Wiseman 25. Writing Historical Fiction - Celia Brayfield & Duncan Sprott 26. Girl, Woman, Other - Bernardine Evaristo 27. The Celestial Hunter - Roberto Calasso 28. Three Women - Lisa Taddeo 29. How to Work Without Losing Your Mind - Cate Sevilla 30. Fierce Bad Rabbits - Clare Pollard 31. Fuck You Very Much - Danny Wallace 32. How the One-Armed Sister Sweeps Her House - Cherie Jones 33. Bill Bailey’s Remarkable Guide to Happiness 34. This Must Be The Place - Maggie O’Farrell 35. The French Lieutenant’s Woman - John Fowles 36. Metazoa: animal minds and the birth of consciousness- Peter Godfrey-Smith 37. Brideshead Revisited- Evelyn Waugh

Now 100 pages into The Absolute Book. I was thinking it made sense until about page 60, now I’m less confident…

Thanks for the new thread SouthEast :)

Thanks southeast and sorry about the situation, best.

I'm away from laptop and my hard copy reading log so might have to skip my full list this time.

Thank you southeast.

Enjoying looking at others' lists but not posting mine - personal choice.

48. Sybille Bedford by Selina Hastings I really liked Selina Hastings' style as a biographer. She is great at creating cliffhangers leaving you panting for more. She has plenty to work with here with the life of Bedford, born in the early years of the 20th century to a minor German aristocrat and a beautiful merchant's daughter who were immediately miserably unhappy. Her upbringing was steeped in upper class pleasures such as a lifelong passion for good wine (almost literally lifelong, from the age of 9 or so) and literature. As a teenager she dealt with the end of her parents' marriage, the relentless sex life and morphine addiction of her mother, a love for good writing and a longing to create without formal education. She was saved by a charm that is evident from her life story though completely invisible in this book. She had a huge phalanx of lengthy friendships which included lots of money provided and practical support, starting with Aldous Huxley and his wife Maria with whom she lived for some time. She also inspired passionate love, frequently at first sight, in a slightly dizzying number of women plus one man. She was still inspiring these huge upheavals into her eighties. She said herself that she didn't really seem to fall in love - perhaps her upbringing made her unable to do so. But passionate, loving, sensual she obviously was.

The difficulty with this for me is Selina Hasting's choice to simply describe these events in practical terms - women who fell in love with Bedford extricate themselves from their suddenly inconvenient marriages or other partnerships without considering the impact, often returning to them when they and Bedford were over. This spills over into describing Sybille's enjoyable friendship with Norman Douglas, a serial child rapist, and her racism, in equally neutral terms. It's very difficult to know where to draw the line, and moralistic scolding from a biographer is pretty pointless. But it soured my perception of Bedford. Descriptions of her writing in this book are deadening, sounding as if her success was largely due to her enormous circle of well-connected friends - her first novel was badly reviewed until her friend Nancy Mitford sent it to Evelyn Waugh, who liked it and reviewed it well. This all put me off. However, after this, I read a short memorial piece in the Guardian by Victoria Glenfinnan which describes her novel A Legacy as a brilliant European classic, and maybe I will try it.

Thanks Southeast (shameless place marking from me)

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. 15. American Dirt Jeannie Cummings. 16. Blood Orange Harriet Tyce. 17. The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce. 18. Book of Two Ways by Jodi Picoult. 19. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis. 20. The Light Years by Elizabeth Jane Howard.

A very short list for me, with a fair number of audiobooks. I’ve definitely lost my mojo a little but have 2 months at home with a bit of rare commuting and a full tbr so I’m hoping for a bumper Autumn.

New thread, hurray! Thank you southeast.

My list:

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
3. The Book of Lamps and Banners, by Elizabeth Hand
4. Emma in Love, by Honor Arundel
5. The Thursday Murder Club, by Richard Osman

10. The Less Dead, by Denise Mina 11. The Searcher, by Tana French 12. Girl A, by Abigail Dean 13. The Ruins, by Mat Osman 14. What Doesn't Kill You, by Tessa Miller 15. Glorious Rock Bottom, by Bryony Gordon 16. Fall: The Mysterious Life and Death of Robert Maxwell, by John Preston 17. The Appeal, by Janice Hallett 18. Pickard County Atlas, by Chris Harding Thornton 19. A Crooked Tree, by Una Mannion 20. The Lamplighters, by Emma Stonex 21. The Cutting Room, by Jane Casey 22. The Postscript Murders, by Elly Griffiths 23. The Final Revival of Opal and Nev, by Dawnie Walton 24. Borrowed Time, by Tracy Clark 25. When the Stars Go Dark, by Paula McClain 26. A Bit of a Stretch, by Chris Atkins 27. We Are Watching Eliza Bright, by A. E. Osworth 28. The Maidens, by Alex Michaelides 29. Malibu Rising, by Taylor Jenkins Reid

and some new ones:

30. What You Don't See, by Tracy Clark. Another in the Cass Raines PI series. I absolutely love the characters in these books, but for some reason find the plots a bit uninspiring.

31. When No One Is Watching, by Alyssa Cole. Pardon my language, but this was absolutely fucking batshit. I really loved the first 3/4 - it's a slow burn look at a gentrifying neightbourhood in Brooklyn where the mainly Black homeowners are being driven out by white incomers. In the last quarter things take a fantastical turn and... I don't even know how to describe without massive spoilers. Like two books from different genres hastily glued together.

Thanks Southeast for the new thread and thanks everyone for the good wishes and to everyone who’s been through it themselves. She is not too bad at present, still managing to live independently.

No list for me but enjoying everyone else’s.

Thanks southeastdweller for the new thread.

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. Translated by Louise Heal Kawai
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 Vol 1 by Alice Oseman
32 Heartstopper Vol 2 by Alice Oseman
33 Heartstopper Vol 4 by Alice Oseman
34 Crampton Hodnet by Barbara Pym
35 The Last Brother by Nathacha Appanah. Translated by Geoffrey Strachan
36 The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole aged 13 3/4 by Sue Townsend
37 The Mermaid of Black Conch by Monique Roffey
38 Heartstopper Vol 3 by Alice Oseman
39 The Provincial Lady in America by E. M. Delafield
40 Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi
41 Earthlings by Sayaka Murata. Translated by Ginny Tapley Takemori
42 The Employees A workplace novel of the 22nd century by Olga Ravn. Translated by Martin Aitken
43 Butterflies in November by Auđur Ava Ólafsdóttir. Translated by Brian FitzGibbon.

Thanks for the new thread southeast

Here's my list:

1. Feel better in 5 – Dr Chatterjee
2. To kill a mockingbird – Harper Lee
3. The Christmas Chronicles – Nigel Slater
4. The Lioness of Morocco – Julia Drosten
5. Casting off – Elizabeth Jane Howard
6. The Shipping News – Annie Proulx
7. Go set a watchman – Harper Lee
8. Paris Echo – Sebastian Faulks
9. Love after love – Ingrid Persaud
10. The White Tiger - Aravind Adiga
11. All change – Elizabeth Jane Howard
12. Douce Frankreich – Frank Gröninger
13. Prodigal Summer – Barbara Kingsolver
14. A month in the country – JL Carr
15. Fingers in the sparkle jar – Chris Packman
16. The world I fell out of – Melanie Reid
17. Get your sh*t together – Sarah Knight

Number 17 nearly got the italic treatment but I figured that the redeeming feature of the book was that it gave me a much-needed kick up the arse to get my sh*t together and remind me to stop buying/reading any more of these kinds of books!!!!

Thanks for the new thread @southeastdweller

My list:

1. Mary Barton by Elizabeth Gaskell
2. The Girl with the Louding Voice by Abi Dare
3. Hard Times by Charles Dickens
4. Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell
5. Bad Science by Ben Goldacre
6. The Woodlanders by Thomas Hardy
7. Normal People by Sally Rooney
8. The Waves by Virginia Woolf
9. And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie

10. O Pioneers by Willa Cather 11. What Ho! The Best of PG Wodehouse 12. The Midnight Library by Matt Haig 13. The Quiet American by Graham Greene 14. The Dutch House by Ann Patchett 15. Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders 16. The Various Haunts of Men by Susan Hill 17. The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje 18. Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardino Evaristo 19. The Heart of the Matter by Graham Greene 20. Circe by Madeline Miller 21. The Way We Live Now by Anthony Trollope 22. The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman 23. Maurice by EM Forster 24. Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell 25. Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart 26. Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie 27. The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James 28. The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer 29. The Pursuit of Love by Nancy Mitford 30. Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer 31. Barchester Towers by Anthony Trollope 32. The Mystery of the Blue Train by Agatha Christie 33. Our Man in Havana by Graham Greene 34. A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles 35. A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving

Thanks Southeast.
My list so far:
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
29. The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
30. Year Of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks
31. All The Lonely People by Mike Gayle
32. Moon Tiger by Penelope Lively
33. Books Do Furnish A Room DTTMOT by Anthony Powell
34. Temporary Kings DTTMOT by Anthony Powell
35. Hearing Secret Harmonies DTTMOT by Anthony Powell
36. My Cousin Rachel by Daphne du Maurier
37. Small Pleasures by Clare Chambers
38. The Mermaid of Black Conch
Currently listening to:
39. Empire Of The Sun by J. D. Ballard
And reading from BorrowBox:
40. My Name Is Why by Lemn Sissay

Pleased to hear your positive review of The Consequences Of Love on the last thread biblomania as that was the one book I bought in the monthly deals. Maybe that'll be my next read.

Oops should have also bolded book number one The Girl With The Louding Voice!

Thanks for the new thread southeast. No list but here’s a couple of my latest reads:

Daisy Jones and The Six* by Taylor Jenkins Read

Rather behind everyone else on this one. Personally, I didn’t think it was that great and not worth all the hype. I didn’t hate it, it was an easy quick read, but I was expecting more. The blurb tells you that the band is now explaining, 40 years later, why they suddenly split after a concert in 1979. I was therefore expecting something a bit shocking, but the reasons they split are exactly the reasons you would expect a rock band to split. It was also never explained why they’re all suddenly talking about it now after not talking about it for 40 years. For me, I didn’t get any sense of the 70s either - other than no mention of modern tech like phones they could have been talking about any decade. I think if this hadn’t been hyped so much I wouldn’t have been so disappointed with it.

Conversations with Friends by Sally Rooney

I didn’t like Normal People when I read it last year, so I wouldn’t have bothered with this except I already had it hanging about on my kindle. I liked it better than NP, but still didn’t like it that much. However I am older than the target market and if I was a student I may well have liked it. Otherwise this is just a load of not that nice or interesting people being very introspective all the time.

On the plus side, I’ve just spent a couple of days in Hay on Wye and now have a couple of bags full of new books to work through!!

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

1. Coronation Everest - Jan Morris
2. Look Again - David Bailey
3. The Little Book of Humanism - Andrew Copson & Alice Roberts
4. The Chalet - Catherine Cooper
5. The Colours of All The Cattle - Alexander McCall Smith

6. The Way of All Flesh - Ambrose Parry

1. Bill Bailey's Remarkable Guide to Happiness - Bill Bailey

8. The Heat of The Moment - Sabrina Cohen-Hatton

1. The Woman in Cabin 10 - Ruth Ware

10. The Corner Shop - Babita Sharma 11. Expectation - Anna Hope 12. Beastars Volume 1 - Paru Itagaki 13. The Windsor Knot - SJ Bennett 14. Dolce Vita Confidential - Shawn Levy 15. In Ghostly Japan - Lafcadio Hearn 16. All That Glitters - Holly Smale 17. The Dreamers - Karen Thompson Walker 18. Highland Fling - Nancy Mitford 19. Sonic Youth Slept On My Floor - Dave Haslam 20. Shopaholic To The Stars - Sophie Kinsella 21. Maigret's Memoirs - Georges Simenon 22. Daisy Jones and The Six - Taylor Jenkins Reid 23. Hotel - Arthur Hailey 24. Becoming - Michelle Obama 25. Under Another Sky - Charlotte Higgins 26. Miss Benson's Beetle - Rachel Joyce 27. Quite - Claudia Winkleman 28. Around The World In Eighty Days - Jules Verne 29. Snow - John Banville 30. How To Stay Sane - Philippa Perry 31. Madam, Will You Talk? - Mary Stewart 32. Remember Me? - Sophie Kinsella 33. Flight or Fright - ed Stephen King 34. The Chiffon Trenches - Andre Leon Talley 35. The Women In Black - Madeleine St John 36. Picture Perfect - Holly Smale 37. Watch Her Fall - Erin Kelly 38. Maigret Goes To School - Georges Simenon

I've tended towards undemanding reads so far this year and as a result I haven't had many standouts. Between now and Christmas I will be pushing myself a bit harder, because I know I will enjoy my reading more and probably read more quickly, too.

Thanks South

Best - hope you're okay. I think I missed your earlier post.

Wake me up when the lists are over, folks.

Thank you!

Just marking my place...

My list is so small it doesn't seem worth posting it, plus I've only had one standout - All at Sea by Decca Aitkenhead.

I think The World I Fell Out Of is one of the very few books (the only one?) that everyone on these 50 Books threads who's read it has really enjoyed it.

I'm mulling over pre-ordering the new Sally Rooney book that's out next week. I adored her other two books so my expectations are very high.