26-ish books in 2022

[StColumbofNavron]

Roll up, roll up ...

Shiny new thread for 2022.

I am setting my target at 25 this year.

I want to read at least a min of 5 in hardcopy and at least 4 non-fiction.

Sorry, meant to add thanks for the suggestion of Golden Hill Divebar2021 - I love Hamilton so this could be right up my street. Have added it to my watch list for a 99p deal!

Book 1 The Radium Girls - Kate Moore
This is the story of the girls employed as dial painters using luminous radium paint during the first world war. It is a difficult read in parts and infuriating in others as the employers denied that the radium was the cause of the girls horrific illnesses. Well worth a read though.

Book 2 The Ice Monster - David Walliams I'm counting the chapter books I am reading to my children and this is the first one of the year. We've read a lot of his books now and I'm getting a bit fed up with them now if I'm bring honest so we will have a change of tack I think - if I can convince the children!!

I've just started into American Dirt as my next read, after all the good reviews here, and am already hooked @Divebar2021, but haven't read any of the others on your list.

I love all the different views on the books we have here. I wasn't a big fan of Crawdad's either, however, I loved Girl on a Train and The Bee Keeper of Aleppo :)

@livingonpurpose thanks for the tip, I have just purchased The Underground Railroad and look forward to reading it.

1. The House at Old Vine by Norah Lofts
2. The House at Sunset by Norah Lofts
3. Paperback Crush: The Totally Radical History of '80s and '90s Teen Fiction by Gabrielle Moss
4. The Girl with the Louding Voice by Adi Dare

5. The Red Tent by Anita Daimant Fantastic read, I love female-centered historical fiction and this ticked all the boxes. Retells the story of Dinah, only daughter of Jacob and Leah in the Bible. I am in no way religious but I did enjoy this story.

1. Rachel's Holiday- Marian Keyes

I have read a number of Marian's books but somehow missed this one first time round. Finally got round it reading it because of all the hype about the sequel. I did enjoy it with lots of laughs and some tears. I especially enjoyed the Irish expressions such as poor crathur and quare stuff which reminded me so much of my lovely Irish mom who passed away many years ago. Will definitely be reading the sequel.

@Tinkhasflown re: children's reads, look at Danger Gang and The Christmas Pig (not that Christmassy)

Will do. Thanks @yoshiblue.

WeeFae, thanks for the mention of Paperback Crush. Affectionate mockery of YA lit from the 80s and 90s turned out to be exactly what I wanted last night. I hadn't actually read most of the series as it focuses on the US, but that didn't stop me enjoying it.

1. The House at Old Vine by Norah Lofts
2. The House at Sunset by Norah Lofts
3. Paperback Crush: The Totally Radical History of '80s and '90s Teen Fiction by Gabrielle Moss
4. The Girl with the Louding Voice by Adi Dare
5. The Red Tent by Anita Daimant

6. The Family from One End Street by Eve Garnett I read this kids book purely for nostalgic reasons, it was the first book I took out from the library as an 8-year-old when I was allowed to go all by myself! I read most of it during my chemo session as I can't concentrate on anything too serious and I needed the comfort of a familiar and happy story.

@bibliomania

WeeFae, thanks for the mention of Paperback Crush. Affectionate mockery of YA lit from the 80s and 90s turned out to be exactly what I wanted last night. I hadn't actually read most of the series as it focuses on the US, but that didn't stop me enjoying it.

Have you read Bookworm? That is a great journey through children's books which were more familiar and reminded me of so many cosy afternoons wrapped up in a blanket indulging my reading habit as a kid.

Yes, I read Bookworm too. I like books about books - i also really liked How to be a Heroine, by Samantha Ellis.

1. The House at Old Vine by Norah Lofts
2. The House at Sunset by Norah Lofts
3. Paperback Crush: The Totally Radical History of '80s and '90s Teen Fiction by Gabrielle Moss
4. The Girl with the Louding Voice by Adi Dare
5. The Red Tent by Anita Daimant
6. The Family from One End Street by Eve Garnett

7. Rock, Paper, Scissors by Alice Feeney A mediocre thriller that didn't really do much for me. Quick & easy to read though. The only reason I am getting through so many books just now is that I am laid up with side effects from my treatment. and can't do much else!

I've finished my first book of the year!

The sleeping Beauties: and other mystery illnesses by Suzanne O'Sullivan

A non fiction book which see's the author, a doctor travelling to different parts of the world where different groups of people have developed 'mystery' illnesses such as asylum seeker children in Sweden who have fallen asleep for years and teenage girls in a school in USA who experience seizures, one after the other. A very interesting read, and not my usual genre, I really enjoyed it and found it very insightful. I would recommend.

2. The Man Who Died Twice - Richard Osman I liked this more than The Thursday Murder Club, as I was more interested in 'whodunnit', but the character Joyce does witter on a lot!

Just finished book number 3: The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett

I liked a lot of things about this, the story was very engaging and readable and I really enjoyed getting to know the characters who were well crafted. I found the coincidental bumping into each other in a country as huge as the USA a bit unbelievable but overall I enjoyed it.

@WeeFae sorry to hear about your treatment, sound like escapism into comforting worlds in books is exactly what the doctor ordered

I’m still reading my book 3 but popped into a bookshop today to buy the next one and want to start it now! Must be patient and finish this one first

@CaptainChannel On holiday in Florida from the UK we bumped into some neighbours from a few doors down so it can happen!!

@ChipPotts it happens 3 times in this book - once I could believe but not 3 times in different parts of the US 😂.

1. Ariadne - Jennifer Saint

Another book from what seems a new genre/trend of myths retold from the female perspective. I haven't read any others so i don't have anything to compare it to.
I enjoyed the story but felt the writing style was quite flat and the characters quite one dimensional.
I need to borrow my mums book about the Greek myths to refresh my memory.

1. The Hogfather by Terry Pratchett
2. Piranesi by Susannah Clarke
3. The Red House by AA Milne
4. Other Minds: the Octopus and the Evolution of Intelligent Life by Peter Godfrey-Smith

5. Foe by Iain Reid Just finished this! It’s interesting and quite an enjoyable read but I didn’t like it as much as I liked his other novel (I’m thinking of ending things). This was all about identity and I didn’t think did anything very original on the trope.

Next is going to be The Algebraist by Iain M Banks - it’s a reread!

7. Fifty Fifty - Steve Cavanagh
Part of the Eddie Flynn series, I've previously read his book 'Thirteen' which I enjoyed. This was was equally good and kept me second guessing myself until the very end. I kind of knew who had to be the murder to make it a good story, but I couldn't quite work out how he was going to do it. I did notice a few annoying typos in the book that a proofreader should have caught, but otherwise a good read.

Currently reading The Dutch House and listening to Stephen Fry read his book Mythos.

1. Paradise by Abdulrazak Gurnah. Loved this - I'm familiar with the area and it was like meeting the grandparents of good friends when they were young.

1. Freckles by Cecelia Ahern (book)
2. The Midnight Library by Matt Haig (audio)
3. The Beekeeper of Aleppo by Christy Lefteri (audio)

4. Goodnight Mr Tom by Michelle Magorian (audio) - I have this on the shelf waiting to be read but found it on audio while I was browsing Borrowbox. Young Will has been sent to the countryside as a refugee from London in WW2. He gets billeted with Tom Oakley. Will has had a tough life and still has more hardship to come but Tom and the villagers welcome him and make him one of their own. Beautifully written and narrated.

@ExtremelyDetermined oh I love Goodnight Mr Tom

3. Still Life by Sarah Winman

Listened to it and loved it so much I’ve done 5-10k steps a day just to have the excuse to walk and listen! The author reads which was a pleasant surprise (I’m not normally a fan of author read books) as she did a wonderful job.

It spans decades and a cast of incredible characters who come together or are thrown together or meet briefly, lose each for a life time and find each other again to make a family. It’s a love letter to Florence that had me searching for trips there inbetween listening. Truly wonderful and highly recommend the audiobook

1. The Inheritance Of Loss by Kiran Desai

2.The Perfect World of Miwako Sumida by Clarissa Goenawan 3.Allegedly by Tiffany D. Jackson

1. Milkman by Anna Burns - I can see this being a marmite book based on the very stylistic writing, but I personally really liked it and found a lot of the descriptions darkly funny.

I did get a little frustrated with the passivity of the narrator at times, although appreciate this was part of her coping strategy to 'opt out' of her rather grim reality. I also thought the final chapter ended her main conflict with Milkman a bit too neatly. Overall you could really feel a sense of claustrophobia and menace throughout the book. In particular the young narrator unable to voice her concerns about a predatory man who was stalking (but not overtly threatening) her felt uncomfortably real.

I fancy some non-fiction next, so I'm going to start on Murderous Contagion: A Human History of Disease by Mary Dobson.

It's about the impact that diseases have had in shaping history from the Black Death to the AIDS epidemic.