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.

Yes Best wanted to wish you well also x

Where are my manners? Take care of yourself Best

I really enjoyed The Consequences of Love, Desdemona, so I'd say go for it!

Was trying to post this on the previous thread without realising we'd moved on.... Thanks @southeastdweller. I will post a list after the add the copy and pasting is confusing me.

I picked up the House of Trelawney book in the deals, thanks @MaudOfTheMarches. Sorry about your mum @BestIsWest. We've just been at the in-laws for the weekend and my mother in law suspects her husband is in early stages of Alzheimer's or Parkinson's, not sure which, but he's of that generation that refuse to see a Dr unless they're dying so won't get checked out. It's hard on her.

73. Luster - Raven Leilani. I'm sure this has been reviewed before on her. It's a first person narrative by a 23 year old woman who's having an affair with a married man, although he has an open marriage and his wife knows about it. She ends up meeting his wife and moving into their house, and becoming a sort of mentor for their adopted daughter. It reminded me a bit of Queenie, mainly in how both women have not much self worth, and let men treat them abusively. It's meant to be funny but I found it quite sad. I really hope these books are not completely indicative of how young black women experience life. I would have liked more insight into the wife's motivation which we never really get. I think I preferred Queenie but that may be because it was British.

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 35. My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell 36. How to Make the World Add Up by Tim Harford 37. Hidden Valley Road by Robert Kolker 38. Girl, Woman, Other by Bernadine Evaristo 39. The Female Persuasion by Meg Wolitzer 40. Apeirogon by Colum McCann 41. The Only Plane in the Sky by Garrett M Graff 42. Ouch! Why Pain Hurts, and Why it Doesn't Have To by Margee Kerr and Linda Rodriguez McRobbie 43. My Absolute Darling by Gabriel Tallent 44. The White Lie by Andrea Gillies

And my list to follow, I feel like I've read some amazing books this year and not too many stinkers.

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 20. Where the Crawdads sing - Delia Owens 21. The Knife of Never Letting Go - Patrick Ness 22. The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath 23. Psychosis 4:48 - Sarah Kane 24. 84K - Claire North 25. The Ask & The Answer - Patrick Ness 26. The Buried Giant - Kazuo Ishiguro 27. Of Monsters and Men - Patrick Ness 28. Offshore - Penelope Fitzgerald 29. Bear head - Adrian Tchaikovsky 30. The Camomile Lawn - Mary Wesley 31. Because of you - Dawn French 32. Mermaid of Black Conch - Monique Roffey 33. Love after Love - Ingrid Persuad 34. An Invincible Summer - Mariah Stewart 35. Nine Perfect Strangers - Lianne Moriarty 36. Just like you - Nick Hornby 37. Small Pleasures - Clare Chambers 38. The mystery of three quarters - Sophie Hannah 39. The Truants - Kate Weinberg 40. Klara & the Sun - Kazuo Ishiguro 41. The Way of the Kings - Brandon Sanderson 42. Words of Radiance - Brandon Sanderson 43. Oathbringer - Brandon Sanderson 44. The Vanishing Half - Brit Bennett 45. The Survivors - Jane Harper 46. The Last House on Needless Street - Catriona Ward 47. Harnessing Peacocks - Mary Wesley 48. Not that Sort of Girl - Mary Wesley 49. No-one is Talking About This - Patricia Lockwood 50. The girl with the Louding Voice - Abi Dare 51. The Beautiful Summer - Caesar Pavare 52. Nothing But Blue Sky -Kathleen McMahon 53. Shuggie Bain - Douglas Stuart. 54. The Long Call - Ann Cleeves 55. The Darkest Evening - Ann Cleeves 56. Excellent Women - Barbara Pym 57. The Dutch House - Ann Patchett 58. Midnight Library - Matt Haig 59. The Cousins - Karen McManus 60. The other passenger - Louise Candlish 61. Sweet Sorrow - David Nicholls 62. The Glass Hotel - Emily St John Mandel 63. Girl A - Abigail Dean 64. The Kind Worth Killing - Peter Swanson 65. A mind to murder - PD James 66. Sorrow and Bliss - Meg Mason 67. The Wedding Party - Tamara Cohen 68. Conclave - Robert Harris 69. Transit - Rachel Cusk 70. In plain sight - the life and lies of Jimmy Saville 71. The Reality Dysfunction - Peter Hamilton 72. Great Circle - Maggie Shipstead 73. Luster - Raven Leilani

A few updates from me

26. How Women Rise - Sally Helgesen
    Bought this for 99p and would highly recommend it. It specifically covers 10 habits that hold women back from rising in companies. I read it while I was going through a job promotion application at work and I got it! Some of the messages it there definitely helped me focus on my strengths as a woman, including pushing myself to go for the role in the first place. Really readable in digestible sections.

27. Excellent Women - Barbara Pym
    My first ever Barbara Pym, picked this up as a recommendation on Mumsnet as a good place to start. Really enjoyed it and have since chatted on another What We're Reading thread about what to read next. I have Some Tame Gazelle ready to go and aim to read them all chronologically.

28. The Girl with The Louding Voice - Abi Dare
Listened to this on Audible and wow! what a performance. I don't tend to listen to fiction books on Audible, but it had great reviews so gave it a go. Would highly recommend if you have spare credits to use. I won't say anything about the plot as I'm quite late to this one, but found the story really moving and I had a tear in my eye at one point when I was working out at the gym. Brilliant!

29. Everywoman - Jess Phillips Spotted this in Waterstones on my first bookshop outing after the last lockdown. A very readable memoir about Jess's life and getting into politics. I appreciate she won't be everyone's cup of tea, but like me, she comes from a very ordinary background in the West Midlands, so found her experiences and views very relatable. I'm planning to pick up her new book Everything You Really Need to Know About Politics: My Life as an MP which I presume is a lot more about day to day life in Westminster. It's not covered in detail in Every Woman, which is more about women speaking up.

I'm now starting on The Push - Ashley Audrain and thanks to recommendations from @FortunaMajor and Solinvictus listening to Pies and Prejudice - Stuart Maconie on Audible.

Thanks for the new thread Southeastdweller and sorry to hear you’re going through a difficult time Best .

Here is my list so far:

1. The Pull of the Stars – Emma Donoghue
2. Half A World Away – Mike Gayle
3. Pine – Francine Toon
4. In A Dark Dark Wood – Ruth Ware
5. Olive Kitteridge – Elizabeth Strout
6. The Girl on the Landing – Paul Torday
7. The Midnight Library – Matt Haig
8. The Silent Scream – Diane Hoh
9. The Thursday Murder Club – Richard Osman

10. The Devil and the Dark Water – Stuart Turton 11. Virgin River – Robyn Carr 12. The Guest Book – Sarah Blake 13. The Haunted Hotel – Wilkie Collins 14. Last Night at the Lobster – Stewart O’Nan 15. Nine Dragons – Michael Connelly 16. A Walk in the Woods – Bill Bryson 17. Walking With Ghosts – Gabriel Byrne 18. The Haunting of Alma Fielding – Kate Summerscale 19. Piranesi – Susannah Clarke 20. Started Early, Took My Dog – Kate Atkinson 21 .I’m Thinking of Ending Things – Iain Reid 22. The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo – Taylor Jenkins Reid 23. The Boy From The Woods – Harlan Coben 24. Firefly Lane – Kristin Hannah 25. Invisible Girl – Lisa Jewell 26. The Body – Bill Bryson 27. Brave New World – Aldous Huxley 28. The Long Long Afternoon – Inge Vesper 29. A Short History of Nearly Everything – Bill Bryson 30. The Seven Sisters – Lucinda Riley 31. Vol’jin Shadows of the Horde – Michael Stackpole 32. Summerwater – Sarah Moss 33. My Not So Perfect Life – Sophie Kinsella 34. All The Light We Cannot See – Anthony Doerr 35. Daddy – Emma Cline 36. The Visitor – Lee Child 37. No One Home – Tim Weaver 38. The Observations – Jane Harris 39. Eight Detectives – Alex Pavesi 40. Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen 41. The Storm Sister – Lucinda Riley 42. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes – Arthur Conan Doyle 43. The Reversal – Michael Connelly 44. The Shadow Sister – Lucinda Riley 45. Traveler – Greg Wiseman 46. Sense and Sensibility – Jane Austen 47. Later – Stephen King 48. Where the Crawdads Sing – Delia Owens 49. The Alice Network – Kate Quinn 50. Port of Peril – Ian Livingstone 51. Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte 52. American Dirt – Jeanine Cummins 53. Found – Harlan Coben 54. A History of Britain in 21 Women – Jenni Murray 55. Hillbilly Elegy – J D Vance 56. Dissolution – C J Sansom

So I never managed to finish Shuggie Bain when I borrowed the ebook from the library first time round, I’ve now borrowed it again and well on the way to completing it. I’m also keeping up with the Dickens readalong of Little Dorrit too and listening to Kate Atkinson’s Big Sky on audio.

Thanks for the new thread, southeast.

Stokey, I also thought Luster was sad rather than darkly comic but then that’s the way with dark humour.

Biblio, I added The Consequences of Love to my to-read pile. As it’s 99p I’ll probably snap it up, although, I’m trying not to buy more books as I have so many to read already.

Here is my list:

1. Fates and Furies by Lauren Geoff.
2. Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 by Cho Nam-Joo.
3. Piranesi by Susanna Clarke.

4. Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland by Patrick Radden Keefe.

1. The Heart’s Invisible Furies by John Boyne.
2. The Lying Life of Adults by Elena Ferrante.

7. To Throw Away Unopened by Viv Albertine. 8. Other Minds: The Octopus and the Evolution of Intelligent Life by Peter Godfrey-Smith. 9. Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson. 10. William Blake Poems, Selected by Patti Smith. 11. The Shadow King by Maaza Mengiste. 12. Shards of Honour (The Vorksigan Saga) by Lois McMaster Bujold. 13. A Burning by Megha Majumdar. 14. The Book You Wish Your Parents Had Read (and Your Children Will Be Glad That You Did) by Philippa Perry. 15. Beastie Boys Book by Michael Diamond and Adam Horowitz. 16. A God in Ruins by Kate Atkinson. 17. Boys Don’t Try: Rethinking Masculinity in Schools by Matt Pickett and Mark Roberts. 18. For Goodness Sex: Changing the way we talk to teens about sexuality, values and health by Al Vernacchio. 19. Black and British: A Forgotten History by David Olusoga. 20. The Mountains Sing by Nguyên Phan Quê Mai. 21. A Promised Land by Barack Obama. (Audiobook) 22. Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo. 23. In The Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado. 24. North by Seamus Heaney. 25. Holy Sister (Book of the Ancester #3) by Mark Lawrence. 26. The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett. 27. Value(s): Building a Better World for All by Mark Carney. 28. Daisy Jones and The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid. 29. The Fifth Season (The Broken Earth, Book 1) by N.K. Jemisin. 30. Luster by Raven Leilani. 31. Birdcage Walk by Helen Dunmore. 32. A Room of One’s Own and Three Guineas by Virginia Woolf. 33. The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood. 34. The Way of All Flesh by Ambrose Parry. 35. The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E.Schwab. 36. Women, Race & Class by Angela Y.Davis. 37. The Sign of the Four by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. 38. The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter. 39. Homing: On Pigeons, Dwellings and Why We Return by Jon Day. 40. The Power by Naomi Alderman. 41. The Bridges of Madison County by Robert James Waller. 42. The Obelisk Gate (The Broken Earth, Book 2) by NK Jemisin. 43. Six Poets Hardy to Larkin - An Anthology by Alan Bennett. 44. The World I Fell Out Of by Melanie Reid. 45. A Deadly Education by Naomi Novic. 46. The Secret Barrister: Stories of the Law and How It’s Broken by The Secret Barrister.

And my latest read:
47. Veiled (An Alex Versus Novel 6) by Benedict Jacka.

Felt like a filler book in this urban fantasy series: likeable with comfy characters and a bit of intrigue. 3/5

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 Color Purple - Alice Walker
8. Trespass - Rose Tremain
9. Lolita - Vladimir Nabakov

10. The Left Handed Booksellers of London - Garth Nix 11. Poor Cow - Nell Dunn 12. Goodnight Mr Tom - Michelle Magorian 13. The Orphan Master's Son - Adam Johnson 14. Private - Keep Out - Gwen Grant 15. Kafka on the Shore - Haruki Murakami 16. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz - L Frank Baum 17. Felicia's Journey - William Trevor 18. Cutting for Stone - Abraham Verghese 19. Our Dancing Days - Lucy English 20. The Call of the Wild - Jack London 21. The Outcast - Sadie Jones 22. Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden 23. Digging to America - Anne Tyler 24. The Miracle Life of Edgar Mint - Barry Udall 25. Maurice - EM Forster 26. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest - Ken Kesey 27. The Secrets of the Chess Machine - Robert Lohr 28. The Long Falling - Keith Ridgeway 29. Piranesi - Susanna Clarke 30. Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks 31. A Memory Called Empire - Arkady Martine 32. Hamnet - Maggie O'Farrell 33. Merivel - Rose Tremain 34. Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams 35. The Underground Railroad - Colson Whitehead 36. Parrot and Olivier in America - Peter Carey 37. Everything is Illuminated - Jonathan Safran Foer 38. Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy 39. The Last Days of New Paris - China Mieville 40. Circe - Madeleine Miller 41. Utopia Avenue - David Mitchell 42. Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy 43. Black Beauty - Anna Sewell 44. True History of the Kelly Gang - Peter Carey

All my sympathy to you Best, I have been through something similar with my own mum.

List. I've never hit 50 books before so early in the year; I blame these threads, ha!

1. The Fire Next Time, James Baldwin
2. A Thousand Moons, Sebastian Barry
3. Over Sea, Under Stone, Susan Cooper
4. Mémoire de fille, Annie Ernaux
5. Someday Angeline, Louis Sachar
6. Magpie Lane, Lucy Atkins
7. Good Omens, Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
8. The Discomfort of Evening, Marieke Lucas Rijneveld
9. Foreign Affairs, Alison Lurie

10. Shuggie Bain, Douglas Stuart 11. A Wizard of Earthsea, Ursula Le Guin 12. The Tombs of Atuan, Ursula Le Guin 13. Burnt Sugar, Avni Doshi 14. The Farthest Shore, Ursula LeGuin 15. Flowers for Algernon, Daniel Keyes 16. Detransition, Baby, Torrey Peters. 17. Aeneid, Vergil, trans. by Shadi Bartsch 18. The Private Joys of Nnenna Maloney, Okechukwu Nzelu 19. Transcendent Kingdom, Yaa Gyasi 20. Lord of the Flies, William Golding 21. The Door, Magda Szabo 22. Luster, Raven Leilani 23. Tehanu, Ursula Le Guin 24. The Vanishing Half, Brit Bennett 25. Guest House for Young Widows, Azadeh Moaveni 26. Because of You, Dawn French 27. No One Is Talking About This, Patricia Lockwood 28. Exciting Times, Naoise Dolan 29. Consent, Annabel Lyon 30. Nothing But Blue Sky, Katherine MacMahon 31. Trauma and Recovery, Judith Herman 32. Unsettled Ground, Claire Fuller 33. How the One-Armed Sister Sweeps Her House, Cherie Jones 34. The Unseen, Roy Jacobsen, trans. by Don Bartlett and Don Shaw 35. Homeland Elegies, Ayad Akhtar 36. White Shadow, Roy Jacobsen, trans. by Don Bartlett and Don Shaw 37. The Mermaid of Black Conch, Monique Roffey 38. My Name Is Why, Lemn Sissay 39. The Pursuit of Love, Nancy Mitford 40. Love in a Cold Climate, Nancy Mitford 41. The Blessing, Nancy Mitford 42. Don’t Tell Alfred, Nancy Mitford 43. What’s Left of Me Is Yours, Stephanie Scott 44. The Mercies, Kiran Milwood Hargrave 45. Eyes of the Rigel, Roy Jacobsen 46. Days Without End, Sebastian Barry

47. Real Estate, Deborah Levy
48. Still Waters, Viveca Sten, trans. by Marlaine Delargy
49. Daughter of France: The Life of Anne Marie Louise d’Orléans, Duchesse de Montpensier, 1627-1693, La Grande Mademoiselle, by Vita Sackville-West
50. Inventory of a Life Mislaid: An Unreliable Memoir, by Marina Warner
51. Crow Trap, by Ann Cleeves

Plus a few new reviews which mean that I'm completely caught up for the 1st time in months:

52. Frère d’âme, by David Diop [Trans. into English as At Night All Blood Is Black] 5/5
    Winner of this year’s International Booker Prize. I approached this book with some trepidation as I find war novels hard to read in general, and this one, about the relationship between two Senegalese soldiers in WW1, sounded grisly. However, it turned out to be brilliant. The original French title Soul Brother seems a far better fit for the novel to me than the title given to the English translation, which is a quote from the text; perhaps the English publishers wanted to highlight the theme of race? I haven’t read the English translation, but the novel is written in what seems to me a very pure, minimalist French; there isn’t a lot of difficult vocabulary, and the narrative has a timeless feel, like a fable. What struck me most was the novel’s ending, where things take a turn for the surreal, after what seems like the plain realism of the story. There’s a kind of fairy tale, and then you’re no longer quite sure who is narrating. It’s subtle and moving. And also very short – more like a novella than a novel.

53. Out Stealing Horses, by Per Petterson, trans. by Anne Born. 4/5
    Recommended to me by Boiledeggandtoast. I thought this was beautifully written but was put off early on due to a freaky convergence of the story with my own past – someone is accidentally shot and killed in an uncannily similar way to a little boy I babysat when I was a teenager in the US. So I found it quite hard to read about for that reason. Also, it’s very much a father/son story. I look forward to reading I Curse the River of Time which Boiledegg said was about a mother and son.

54. The Adventures of Miss Barbara Pym, by Paula Byrne. 4/5
    Much reviewed on this thread already. This was pacey and fun to read. I agree with Boiledegg and Terpsichore that there was an unduly heavy emphasis on Pym’s relationships with the men in her life, rather than with the women. Incidentally, I didn’t realise that Pym died in the Sobell House hospice, which is only a short walk away from where I live. I’ve only read a few of Pym’s novels so far and reading this bio made me decide to read through them chronologically from start to finish, like yoshiblue.

55. La Femme gelée, by Annie Ernaux [Trans. into English as The Frozen Woman] 5/5
    Part of my programme of reading Ernaux slowly in chronological order. This is her third novel, so still quite early, but very powerful. Many of her novels tell and retell the story of her childhood and of how she makes the transition away from her working-class French family into the world of academia and the middle class. Her parents are depicted more positively here than in other novels by her I’ve read; precisely because they’re working class, they don’t conform to traditional gender norms: her mother is very energetic and a strong force in the community, and her father peels the potatoes and does the washing up in the evenings. The protagonist marries young with notions of gender equality in her head, but her young husband carries on with his intellectual pursuits while she devotes her time to babies and to wandering around the supermarkets trying to work out what to cook for dinner (so relatable!). This turns her into the ‘frozen woman’ of the title. Powerful feminist stuff.

56. Mortal Engines, by Philip Reeve. 4/5
    Original and heart-stopping fantasy. I’m still a bit more attached to the Fever Crumb trilogy (a prequel to Mortal Engines) than to the Mortal Engines trilogy itself. But the characters are great, and satisfyingly nuanced (even the baddies).

Oops, I forgot to thank southeastdweller for starting the new thread. Thank you!

Annie Ernaux sounds interesting - Islington has one of her books, but I have so many out, to collect and on reserve at the moment - I have actually finished quite a few library books recently but books seem to come through faster than I can read those I already have out.

thanks as ever South for the new thread.
Best

My list to date:

1. An American Marriage by Tayari Jones
2. Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
3. Love, Nina by Nina Stibbe
4. Spring by David Szalay
5. Hidden Valley Road by Robert Kolker.
6. Robert Harris The Second Sleep
7. Lolita by Vladamir Nabakov

8. House of Glass by Hadley Freeman 9. Small Pleasures by Clare Chambers 10. The Appeal by Janice Hallett 11.The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield 12. Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie 13. Diary of an MP's Wife by Sasha Swire 14. Excellent Women by Barbara Pym 15. Snobs by Julian Fellowes 16. Girl A by Abigail Dean 17. Acts and Omissions by Catherine Fox 18. The Survivors by Jane Harper 19. The Prosecutor by Nazir Afzal 20. The Madness Of Grief by the Reverend Richard Coles 21. Summer by Ali Smith 22. Expo 58 by Jonathan Coe 23. Summerwater by Sarah Moss 24. Anatomy of a Scandal by Sarah Vaughan 25. The Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz

Due to forgetting to bring my books places with me I'm a third to halfway through three different reads currently. So hopefully a few reviews to follow very soon.

cassandre I am so sorry to hear about the little boy you babysat for, what a terrible tragedy. That must have made the Per Petterson particularly difficult.

Thank you for the review of your latest Annie Ernaux read. I have added it to my wishlist as I have loved your previous AE recommendations.

cassandre thanks for your review of at night all blood is black, I bright this on a whim recently (I was in a bookshop and didn't want to leave empty handed)

Thanks @southeastdweller
Will bring list over tomorrow..

Congrats @yoshiblue on your promotion - added How Women Rise to my wish list - sounds useful!

Thanks @Palegreenstars it all happened quite quickly but the book channeled the right message at the right time for me!

Thanks South for the new thread. List as below.

1. The Three Mrs Wrights - Linda Keir
2. Holly's Christmas Countdown - Suzie Tullett
3. Butterfly Kisses - Patrick Logan
4. The Push - Ashley Audrain
5. The Last Thing To Burn - Will Dean
6. The Silent Treatment - Abbie Greaves
7. How to Disappear - Gillian McAllister
8. Contacts - Mark Watson
9. Girl A - Abigail Dean

10. Dead Simple - Peter James 11. Behind Her Eyes - Sarah Pinborough 12. A Song of Isolation - Michael J Malone 13. The Suicide Pact - David B Lyons 14. Between You and Me - Lisa Hall 15. The One Hundred Years of Lenni and Margot - Marianne Cronin 16. A Glasgow Kiss - Sophie Gravia 17. The One - John Marrs 18. The Heart Keeper - Alex Dahl 19. Written in Blood - Chris Carter 20. Saint X - Alexis Schaitkin 21. The Secrets of Strangers - Charity Norman 22. The Book Of Two Ways - Jodi Picoult 23. Shiver - Allie Reynolds 24. 1st to Die - James Patterson 25. Kane and Abel - Jeffrey Archer 26. When I Was Ten - Fiona Cummins 27. The Singles Table - Tasmina Perry 28. A Bit of A Stretch - Chris Atkins 29. The Good Samaritan - John Marrs 30. The Whole Truth - Cara Hunter 31. Vox - Christina Dalcher 32. The Marble Collector - Cecelia Ahern 33. The Woman Next Door - Cass Green 34. Don't You Cry - Mary Kubica 35. Sweet Little Lies - Caz Frear 36. Malibu Rising - Taylor Jenkins Reid 37. The Pact - Sharon Bolton 38. The End Of Men - Christina Sweeney-Baird 39. The Final Revival of Opal and Nev - Dawnie Watson 40. The Stopover - T L Swan 41. Hostage - Clare Mackintosh 42. The Crucifix Killer - Chris Carter 43. The Road Trip - Beth O'Leary 44. The Executioner - Chris Carter 45. The Hunting Party - Lucy Foley 46. The Midnight Library - Matt Haig 47. The Dinner Guest - B P Walter 48. Falling - T J Newman 49. The Takeover - T L Swan 50. Dark Pines - Will Dean 51. The Idea of You - Robinne Lee 52. We Begin at the End - Chris Whitaker 53. The Night She Disappeared - Lisa Jewel 54. That Night - Gillian McAllister 55. This is How We Are Human - Louise Beech 56. Someone I Used to Know -Paige Toon 57. The Devil’s Advocate - Steve Cavanagh 58. Tall Oaks - Chris Whitaker 59. The Casanova - T L Swan

My biggest question after seeing so many bold Shuggie Bain is how did you decide you were in the right frame of mind for that? I have it but I just can’t decide when is the right timing to read it?

92. Ma'am Darling by Craig Brown

IIRC on Graham Norton, Anne Glenconner said she was inspired to write her book because of her hatred of this one.

At the same time, this book doesn't seem unfair, drawing on many peoples impressions of Princess Margaret.

She does cut a tragic figure, really, someone who never really belonged anywhere, with people across backgrounds and classes treating her as both a figure of awe and of ridicule, as she desperately clung to her status simply because without it she was nothing.

Interestingly, The Peter Townsend Affair is not painted as the love of all loves. It is strongly pointed out that she was very sheltered and met him at 14, and that the person he ultimately did marry was also 14 at their first meeting...

I did not care for the number of Alternate History type chapters, about 6 in total. They were jarring and added nothing.

Overall like reading a long gossip rag, and in that sense quite satisfying.

I’m very disappointed with the new deals this month. I have a long amazon wish list and there’s usually at least a couple on there that go down to 99p but nothing this month. Looked through the first 20 or so pages of the deals and nothing grabbing me. I don’t even fancy any of the first reads freebies this month.

Probably just as well considering the mountain of unread books I already have but still disappointing.

If any Little Dorrit-ers are about, a reminder that is is September 1st. I have soldiered on and done my chaps, although can't promise I concentrated!

@ChessieFL I looked through them all - pants!

Lurker de lurking to say thanks to southeast .

The only books that interested me onthis month's deals are ones I already have!