50 Book Challenge 2021 Part Eight

[southeastdweller]

Welcome to the eighth (and probably final) 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, it’s not too late to and please try to let us all know your thoughts on what you've read.The lurkers among you are also very welcome to come out of the woodwork and share with us what you've read!

The first thread of the year is here, the second one here, the third one here, the fourth one here, the fifth one here, the sixth one here and the seventh one here.

How have you got on this year?

108. The Kraken Wakes by john Wyndham

My final book of 2021 was a real high point. I have loved every John Wyndham book I have read, and this was no exception. Alex Jennings narrated perfectly and captured the old school poshness that give Wyndham novels much of their tone. In some ways this was a bit similar to Day of the Triffids but the more gradual unfurling of the threat facing humanity ramped up the tension nicely. We really know so little about the sea, especially considering the fact that it covers 70% of the surface of our planet, and are so ill-equipped to explore it in any detail that I think the setting for the home of the 'baddies' was inspired as it shrouded their nature and intentions in mystery. The reaction of humanity, the media and governments to the situation made me think about the way in which we are dealing (or not) with climate change right now and just shows that human nature doesn't change much at all. Unfortunately. For those of you that have an audible subscription this book is free!

65. We Need to Talk About Kevin - Lionel Shriver A nice piece of seasonal good cheer to end the year

PermanentTemporary I am so sorry to hear about your DH. It's very sad that MH services, like much of the NHS, are just not able to function due to years of systemic underfunding.

I shall ready my (very short list) for your spreadsheet.

So here's my end of year list, highlights in bold. Less reading than I'd hoped for. I really want to get back to 50 next year.

Thanks as always to all the 50 bookers for making this thread one of the loveliest corners of the internet. Your reviews inspire me, and the bunfights entertain me. Here's to more of the same in 2022.

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 26. Adults by Emma Jane Unsworth 27. V2 by Robert Harris 28. Get Out of My Life: The bestselling guide to the twenty-first-century teenager 29. The Time-Traveller's Guide to Medieval England by Ian Mortimer 30. The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett 31. Mr Wilder and Me by Jonathan Coe 32. A Narrow Door by Joanne Harris 33. Traitor King: The Scandalous Exile of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor by Andrew Lownie 34.London, Burning by Anthony Quinn 35.The Confession by Jessie Burton 36.The Manningtree Witches by AK Blakemore

I'm not going to finish another book this year so here is my 2021 summary:

• Fiction / Non-Fiction (89% / 11%)
• Kindle / Hard Copy / Audible (62% / 6% / 32%)
• Re-reads (32%)
• Male / Female (36% / 64%)

I definitely want to read more non-fiction next year, although it is up slightly from 2020 (9%) and fewer re-reads, although a lot of those were when I was in hospital and needed comfort, easy reads so I re-read The Chronicles of St Mary's books. I have listened to way more audible books this year (up from 11% in 2020) and think I'll continue that into 2021, especially as Miriam Gargoyles is up next!

Here is the list of the books that I particularly enjoyed this year (this list has definitely changed throughout the year):

Misery by Stephen King
Pied Piper by Nevil Shute
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth
Another Day in the Death of America by Gary Younge
The Only Plane in the Sky: The Oral History of 9/11 by Garrett M. Graff This was by far the best book I read this year.
Rodham by Curtis Sittenfeld
I Am, I Am, I Am: Seventeen Brushes With Death by Maggie O’Farrell
The Pursuit of Love by Nancy Mitford
The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham
Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell
The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell
The Gunslinger by Stephen King
The Kraken Wakes by John Wyndham

49. The Map That Changed The World by Simon Winchester

This wasn't quite what I expected but was still very good. At a time when England believed that God created Earth in 4 days for fully-formed humans, a lone yeoman observed the strata and their fossils and came up with the ideas that shaped our understanding of geology and single-handedly drew a geological map of England in 1815. It is a story of hard work, achievement and eventual glory.

I liked it and would recommend it, but I would have liked to see more about how Smith's findings about the same fossils appearing in different strata, obvious life and even extinction of species in long-past eras etc changed minds and attitudes towards the Biblical story.

Just snuck in one more before the end of the year:

112. Humankind by Rutger Bregman

Subtitled 'A hopeful history', this looks at the fundamentally pro-social nature of human beings. There's quite a bit of debunking and/or reinterpretation of some famous 20thC experiments (the Stanford Prison experiment, the electric shock experiment etc). Bregman also discusses pre-agricultural societies and the likely size of any individual's personal networks/contacts (larger than you might think).

Taking as a base point the assumption that the vast majority of people are basically 'good', he then explores the situations in which they ill treat others, particularly in the context of depersonalisation and othering.

His conclusions were a bit low-key I thought - mainly around the need for more non-hierarchial management in companies and citizen engagement by government. He doesn't discuss worker co-ops or indeed ownership of resources at all. While he acknowledges that the modern state is underpinned by violence, and the corrupting effects of power he doesn't touch on the long history of anarchist thought (or even mention the A-word), despite the fact that his basic thesis is very much a secular version of Tolstoy's Christian anarchism.

I have been struggling to concentrate on reading so my latest books are easy reads:

86. Doing Time - Jodi Taylor
87. Hard Time - Jodi Taylor

These are the first two books in the Time Police spin off series from The Chronicles of St Mary’s.
They follow the stories of three new trainees: Luke, Jane and Matthew who are dubbed Team Weird as none of them fit the usual mould. It was interesting to see more from the Time Police perspective with various cameo appearances from the team at St Mary’s as Team Weird struggle to complete their training. Easy entertaining reading.

88. Twisted - Steve Cavanagh

I have previously read (and enjoyed) the Eddie Flynn books. However, this is not part of the Eddie Flynn series and is a standalone thriller. It’s clever and there are some good twists but I prefer the Eddie Flynn books.

I will be back with my highlights of the year…..

I haven't worked out quite the data that some of you have for my reads of 2021 but I'm pleased with what I've read. 107 books - will probably end up 108 - and a real mix. I've read fewer comfort reads and more racially diverse writers. I read quite a bit of YA at the start of the year to keep Dd1 company in lockdown but have stopped that now, Twilight was a step too far for me! I've started and not finished quite a bit of non fiction so that's a growth area for me.

Books of the year:
Mermaid of the Black Conch - Monique Roffey
Small Pleasures - Clare Chambers
Nothing But Blue Sky - Kathleen McMahon
Shuggie Bain - Douglas Stuart
Sorrow and Bliss - Meg Mason
Great Circle - Maggie Shipstead
Winter - Ali Smith
The only plane in the sky -Garrett Graff
YA BOTY The Hate U Give - Angie Thomas
Honourable mention for Piranesi which I actually read at the end of last year but still think about now.

I managed to finish off a final book (thanks, menopausal insomnia) - Matrix, by Lauren Groff. I have a sense it was not loved on here but can't remember why. I found it rather soothing and absorbing. I do love a good story about nuns and while this didn't have enough Church skullduggery for my liking it did hit the "detailed accounts of animal husbandry and weird medical practices" buttons. I was guilty of skimming in places but all in all it was time well spends

I've just finished what will undoubtedly be my final book of the year as I have several others on the go but they will be for the 2022 thread.

23. Sunrise by the sea - Jenny Colgan A most delightful, charming and cosy read - which is just what I needed as an antidote to the harrowing On earth we're briefly gorgeous

Thank you all for your reading companionship once again this year. I have read much less than in previous years but really love the recommendations and general book chat on this thread.

I wanted to even up the numbers of male and female authors read and have read 45% of male authors compared to 26% last year. I also wanted to increase my number of non-fiction books and indeed 30% of my books were non-fiction this year. I fully intended to read more books in French this year but on that point I've failed dismally - so that will be my challenge for next year!

My favourite reads of the year in bold below, in no particular order:
To kill a mockingbird – Harper Lee
The Christmas Chronicles – Nigel Slater
Casting off – Elizabeth Jane Howard
The Shipping News – Annie Proulx
Prodigal Summer – Barbara Kingsolver
The world I fell out of – Melanie Reid
Olive, again – Elizabeth Strout

Just had my morning meeting cancelled so have worked out a few year-end stats on my coffee break:

64% women authors
67% kindle ebooks
61% authors that I hadn't read before
72% fiction - I think previously my lists have been 80-90%fiction, so that's a change
14% BaME authors - I'd like to see this increase next year

Definitely my last book of 2021 now -

108: Slough House - Mick Herron

A pleasure to return to this gripping and entertaining series, although it broke my heart a bit too (others who've read it will probably understand where I'm coming from). I hope there's going to be another.....

I'm not going to post my final tally but will just note that my wheeze of alternating fiction and non-fiction worked well (apart from the fact that the non-fiction always took me much longer to read), so I feel content with an even 50:50 split at the end of the year. I'll definitely keep this going in the New Year.

Thanks to all for a marvellous, entertaining, endlessly interesting and fun thread, my favourite bit of MN.

50. You Have Arrived At Your Destination by Amor Towles

I'm closing 2021 with a short SF by the author of A Gentleman In Moscow. This started out as a fairly predictable exploration of the near-future when parents can choose not only the sex but also the major character traits of their offspring, watching short videos of what their lives might be like with a certain genetic makeup. I would have placed it in the meh category if it had stayed there, but it went further, into the prospective father's sudden insight into his own life and that of his wife's.

I recommend it, and not just to get to 50 books before tomorrow night. It was interested, insightful, and well-constructed. I will look into reading this author's other books.

Are We Having Fun Yet? by Lucy Mangan

This is written in diary style from the POV of a harassed working mum, juggling work, children, husband and friends. This was funny and I did enjoy reading it, but equally I felt I had read it all before. All the usual stereotypes are there - crap boss, useless husband, queen bee PTA mums etc. There was nothing new there. Also, this didn’t really have any plot - at the end Liz is in exactly the same position she was at the beginning and normally in these books there would have been some big event to add a bit of character or situation development. All in all a bit disappointing but still worth looking at if you want something funny to fill a few hours up.

64. A Time to Keep Silence - Patrick Leigh Fermor

I think this will be my last finish of 2021, a short collection of three essays describing PLF's visits to monastic communities of different traditions. The bulk of the book describes his stays at Benedictine and Cistercian abbeys in France, which have very different rules, architecture and lifestyles. The Benedictine order is the closest to how I imagined monastic life to be, with the monks rising at 5am, spending hours each day at prayer and the rest working, studying and in private prayer. The life of the Cistercian community, at least when Leigh Fermor stayed with them in the 1950s, is brutal by comparison, the monks rising at 1am or 2am, sleeping in dormitories on straw mattresses laid on wood planks, and communicating in their own sign language. The monks spend almost all their waking hours at communal prayer, sometimes in total darkness, or working in the fields to support the community.

The final essay describes a visit to the Byzantine churches of Cappadocia, which PLF finds unmoving compared to the churches of Northern Europe. I found that surprising given his extensive travels in Greece and surrounding areas.

This was fairly hard going for such a short book but I learned something new and I'm glad to have read it.

I have the Lauren Groff book on my Kindle and I also really want to read Cathedral by Ben Hopkins, but after this one and The Professor and the Parson I'm all churched out for now.

I'm loving all this interesting data! Mine is:

Books read 50 (just!)
Fiction 90%
Women writers 46%
I can't really give a breakdown of audio / hard copy / e-books as I tend to read them all jumbled together (i.e I'll listen to a bit of an audiobook in the car and then read a bit of the e-book later).

Best reads:
A Gentleman in Moscow - Amor Towles
Our Man in Havana - Graham Greene
Shuggie Bain - Douglas Stuart
And Then There Were None - Agatha Christie
The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13 3/4 - Sue Townsend

97. Underbelly by Anna Whitehouse
    An easy fairly predictable read about two women who live their lives via Instagram. The social media commentary was fun.

98. Mrs March by Virginia Feito
    A women who is married to a famous authors live and mind unravel. I very much enjoyed the start and end of this novel but unfortunately the middle section dragged because Mrs March is quite a boring person to spend time with (I can deal with her being unlikeable but not boring) the mundane of her life and thoughts ahhhhhh

99. People from my Neighbourhood by Hiromi Kawakami translated by Ted Goosen
    This really is an unusual one. It’s a tiny book of about 110 pages and is made up of about 50 short stories (all being about two pages long) about the narrator’s neighbourhood where there is a lot of magic realism. Its taken me ages to read this because I tended to only read a couple of stories before I went to bed but as the book went on I ended up recognising all the reoccurring characters (of which there are many) and ended up very much loving this.

I'm currently finishing Everything Under by Daisy Johnson which will make it an even 100 - its been many years since I've read that many in a year.

Think I am finished for the year. Here is my list :

1. The Gift of Rain – Tan Twan Eng
2. Such A Fun Age – Kiley Reid
3. Pine – Francine Toon
4. Small Island – Andrea Levy
5. Motherwell- Deborah Orr
6. A Fine Balance – Rohinton Mistry
7. Adam Bede – George Eliot
8. On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous – Ocean Vuong
9. Troy – Stephen Fry
10. Some Kids I Taught and What They Taught Me – Kate Clanchy
11. Sovereign – CJ Sansom
12. Our Mutual Friend – Charles Dickens
13. Half Of A Yellow Sun – Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
14. Revelation – CJ Sansom
15. His Bloody Project – Graeme Macrae Burnet
16. Wives and Daughters – Elizabeth Gaskell
17. Girl – Edna O’Brien
18. A Promised Land- Barack Obama
19. Shuggie Bain – Douglas Stuart
20. How Not To Be Wrong – James O’Brien
21. A Glasgow Gang Observed – James Patrick
22. The Folded Earth – Anuradha Roy
23. The Mysterious Affair at Styles – Agatha Christie
24. The Artful Dickens- John Mullan
25. Black Tudors – Miranda Kaufmann
26. The Spirit Level- Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett
27. The Pull of the Stars – Emma Donoghue
28. Poverty Safari – Darren McGarvey
29. We Should All Be Feminists – Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
30. Sweet Sweet Revenge Ltd – Jonas Jonasson
31. Behold, America – Sarah Churchwell
32. Elizabethans – Andrew Marr
33. The Courage to Care – Christie Watson
34. How To Be A Tudor – Ruth Goodman
35. Murder On The Links – Agatha Christie
36. The Authority Gap – Mary Ann Sieghart
37. Purple Hibiscus- Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
38. The Miseducation of Evie Epworth- Matson Taylor
39. Moonflower Murders – Anthony Horowitz
40. Gang Leader for a Day – Sudhir Venkatesh
41. Crisis? What Crisis? Britain in the 1970s – Alwyn W Turner
42. Americanah – Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
43. The Great Godden – Meg Rossoff
44. The Appeal – Janice Hallett
45. The Burning Girls – CJ Tudor
46. Heartstone –CJ Sansom
47. The Survivors- Jane Harper
48. Scoff – Pen Vogler
49. The Haunting of Alma Fielding- Kate Summerscale
50. Stigma – Imogen Tyler
51. The Inner Level – Wilkinson and Pickett
52. Toxic Childhood – Sue Palmer
53. The Time Traveller’s Guide to Elizabethan England – Ian Mortimer
54. A Scandinavian Christmas
55. The Christmas Murder Game- Alexandra Benedict
56. Unwell Women – Elinor Cleghorn
57. Little Dorrit – Charles Dickens

58% fiction
57% female.

Permanent I was so very sorry to read about your DH, and also those on the thread who have suffered similar losses.

Probably my last two reviews for 2021 below. I am currently reading Mrs Death Misses Death but unlikely to finish it before the end of tomorrow.

I've read some really good books this year. Below are my bolds (fiction then non-fiction). I can't decide on my top book of the year; it would be between Nomadland, My Rock 'n' Roll Friend and Findings - all brilliant.

Bricks and Mortar, Helen Ashton
A Spell of Winter, Helen Dunmore
The Pull of the Stars, Emma Donoghue
Redhead by the Side of the Road, Anne Tyler
Love After Love, Ingrid Persaud
Such a Fun Age, Kiley Reid
Spring, Ali Smith
Shadowplay, Joseph O'Connor
Three Hours, Rosamund Lupton
Klara and the Sun, Kazuo Ishiguro
Hamnet, Maggie O'Farrell
Throw Me to the Wolves, Patrick McGuinness

Stasiland, Anna Funder
Findings, Kathleen Jamie
Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder, Caroline Fraser
My Rock 'n' Roll Friend, Tracey Thorn
Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century, Jessica Bruder
Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup, John Carreyrou
One of Them, Musa Okwonga

88. Come Again, Robert Webb

Kate has recently lost her husband, Luke, to a tumour which has, unbeknownst to him, been growing in his brain since he was a boy. Broken by grief, she falls asleep one night after too much booze only to wake up in the past - in the early 90s, in university halls, on the day she met Luke for the first time. Will she be able to let him know about the tumour and somehow save him from his fate?

This was OK. I came for the depiction of early 90s student life, and enjoyed that (poster sales! cheap cider! paying for everything by cheque!). Webb's emotional intelligence is not as clear here as it was in How Not to Be a Boy, but he finds a good balance between romanticism and pragmatism which takes the plot in a different direction to the one I had expected initially.

The ending, sadly, is not great and feels like the ending from a different book bolted on (goodbye grief, melancholy, nostalgia, hello car chases and spies). I was just finishing this while we were discussing chick lit and it struck me how a not-brilliant book by a bloke about a woman and her husband gets described as "hilarious, brilliantly plotted", a "comedy thriller, a "wistful science-fictional romance", "well paced, nicely written and highly entertaining" - I'm not sure that female writers get given so much space to be mediocre in?

89. Ninth House, Leigh Bardugo

Comfort read which delivered. I didn't make huge efforts to follow the finer details of the plot which involves the (real life) secret societies at Yale actually being up to their elbows in magic, necromancy, and murder. At times it was all a bit confusing, and I didn't really bother to learn which society was which, and what sort of magic they specialised in. And that was OK - I was still able to engross myself in the escapist mix of Secret History (ivy league students, misfits, loyalties and secrets) and Harry Potter (protagonist from unhappy childhood discovers that they are actually Very Very Important and Powerful in a magic way, gets inducted into brilliant world of spells, libraries that read your mind, portals that travel through space etc) plus gritty social issues and more than a hint of romance (Bardugo has done the Twilight/Discovery of Witches thing here and taken sex between the main characters firmly off the table while hinting at it like mad to create a nicely simmering erotic undertone). I can't deny that there were times when it all got a bit silly, but generally this was a successful, engrossing, guilty pleasure.

I've done my stats, but still need to tinker with the bolds for my final list. I've included the two books I will finish today and tomorrow.

Total 221 books
Female authors 85%
Fiction 80%
BAME 12%
Audiobooks 86%

I find it interesting to compare to the previous years to see if I have hit my reading goals.

2021/2020/2019

Total 221/300/202
Female 85/83/68 %
Fiction 80/87/90 %
BAME 12/19/13 %
Audiobooks 86/94/70 %

This year I wanted to read more women, more non-fiction and more classics. I also wanted to decrease the amount of audiobooks.

My classic tally is woeful this year. I need to try to add more next year.

Ooh I forgot one!

90. Happy Endings, Adele Geras

It's possible that some of you may remember me posting on the "help me find this book" threads about an 80s teen book I had read about being in a play. I had forgotten a lot of the key facts that would have helped me to track it down (the play in question is Chekov's Three Sisters, it's a UK teen book not an American one) but I chanced across it when I saw the cover of another book from the series and remembered the thrill that I used to get in the library when I spotted a new title with the brightly coloured jackets (see photo!). A bit of searching later and I finally had a copy of my half-remembered teen read.

What had stuck with me for 30 years, despite forgetting a lot of the details about the story, was the emotions that the book inspired - wistfulness, possibility, the giddy intimacy of being in a stage production, the simultaneous realisations that one part of life is coming to an end while another is just opening up in front of you. This is a light touch teen book with gossip, snogging, awkward 80s slang and worry over outfits, but Geras makes clever use of the play (both its text and its themes) to give her story real depth and impact.

So here are my bolded books / my stinkers and my stats:

My recommended reads - quite a lot - but reasonably high book count (89 so far):

A Place of Greater Safety - Hilary Mantel
Crooked Heart - Lissa Evans
Fingersmith - Sarah Waters
The Spy and the Traitor - Ben MacIntyre
A Song for Summer - Eva Ibbotson
The Offing - Benjamin Myers
Confusion - Elizabeth Jane Howard
American Dirt - Jeanine Cummins
Small Pleasures - Clare Chambers
Break In - Dick Francis
Bolt - Dick Francis
Regeneration - Pat Barker
The Girl with the Louding Voice - Abi Dare
Wolf Hall - Hilary Mantel
The Pursuit of Love - Nancy Mitford
Shuggie Bain - Douglas Stuart
Bring up the Bodies - Hilary Mantel
Hungry - Grace Dent
Casting Off - Elizabeth Jane Howard
The Mirror and the Light - Hilary Mantel
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo - Taylor Jenkins Reid
Leave the World Behind - Rumaan Alam
Americanah - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
In the House of Brede - Rumer Godden
The Only Plane in the Sky - Garrett M Graff
A Bit of a Stretch - Chris Atkins

If I had to do a top 5 it would be:

Hungry
Shuggie Bain
Americanah
In the House of Brede
The Only Plane in the Sky

Don’t waste your time:
House of Trelawney - Hannah Rothschild
Box 88 - Charles Cummings
To Calais in Ordinary Time - James Meek
Alternative Li(v)es - Arnie Arnstein

Female authors : 60%
Fiction / non-fiction : 93% fiction and 7% non-fiction
Real books / kindle : 32% books and 68% kindle

A woeful classic count this year and a lot of comfort reads.

for Permanent. And thank you so much for collating the favourites, looking forward to a great 'best of' list.

My bolded favourites this year have been:
The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, by Sue Townsend.
Wintering, by Katherine May.
The Searcher, by Tana French.
Girl A, by Abigail Dean.
The Ruins, by Mat Osman.
Pickard County Atlas, by Chris Harding Thornton.
A Crooked Tree, by Una Mannion.
The Cutting Room, by Jane Casey.
The Final Revival of Opal and Nev, by Dawnie Walton.
When the Stars Go Dark, by Paula McClain.
We Are Watching Eliza Bright, by A. E. Osworth.
Malibu Rising, by Taylor Jenkins Reid.
Summerwater, by Sarah Moss.
Northern Spy, by Flynn Berry.
Dope, by Sara Gran.
The Guide, by Peter Heller.
The Paper Palace, by Miranda Cowley Heller.
Who is Maud Dixon, by Alexandra Andrews.
Monogamy, by Sue Miller.
Into Thin Air, by John Krakauer.
That's a pretty good strike rate I think! Favourite overall was The Paper Palace.

Only one stinker, but by god it was bloody awful: The Maidens, by Alex Michaelides.

Some late reviews and I am DETERMINED to get to 50 this year even if I have to stay in bed reading for the next 2 days .

47. This Is Going To Hurt, by Adam Kay. I think I might be the last person in the world to read this so nothing much to add. I enjoyed it, it was funny, heartbreaking and infuriating about the state of the NHS. I know some people were upset by his tone and jokes sometimes, but to me it seemed very like the gallows humour I hear from medical staff and the other emergency services.

48. Octavia, by Jilly Cooper. I haven't read this for ages and had forgotten how… erm… retro some of the language is, but much more than that, how outdated the tone and how horribly sexist it is. I love the 'single name' Jilly Coopers but I don't think I'll revisit this one in a hurry, it's beyond even a period piece.

49. Leave The World Behind, by Rumaan Alam. Well this took a turn. I knew this was about a family in a holiday home who are joined by a couple who claim to own the house. I thought this would then be a domestic thriller but… NOPE. Hard to discuss without spoilers but this dissects race, class, the physical vs the cerebral, how we prepare for disaster and much more. Having said that it needed a thorough edit to cut it down and I found myself very frustrated by the end - although I have spoiler-y thoughts about why it was written that way.

@southeastdweller I'm sorry that I launched off into doing this spreadsheet without even asking you - I hope you don't mind x