50 Books Challenge 2022 Part Five

[Southeastdweller]

Welcome to the fifth thread of the 50 Books Challenge for this year.

The challenge is to read fifty books (or more!) in 2022, though reading fifty isn't mandatory. Any type of book can count, it’s not too late to join, and please try to let us all know your thoughts on what you've read.

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

What are you reading?

Thanks southeast! Here's my list:

1. The Bean Trees - Barbara Kingsolver
2. Notes on Grief - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
3. When Breath Becomes Air - Paul Kalanithi
4. Braised Pork - An Yu
5. The Weekend - Charlotte Wood
6. The Year of the End - Anne Theroux
7. This Much is True - Miriam Margolyes
8. Hungry - Grace Dent
9. Rough Magic: Riding the World's Wildest Horse Race - Lara Prior-Palmer
10. Mum & Dad - Joanna Trollope
11. Vaxxers: The Inside Story of the Oxford AstraZeneca Vaccine and the Race Against the Virus - Sarah Gilbert and Catherine Green
12. The Tsar of Love and Techno - Anthony Marra
13. The Red Parts - Maggie Nelson
14. Sorrow and Bliss - Meg Mason
15. Early Morning Riser - Katherine Heiny
16. James Acaster's Classic Scrapes - James Acaster
17. The Girl With the Louding Voice - Abi Dare
18. The Last Migration - Charlotte McConaghy
19. What's Left of Me is Yours - Stephanie Scott
20. HhhH - Laurent Binet
21. Spinning Plates - Sophie Ellis-Bexter
22. History of the Rain - Niall Williams
23. My Dear, I Wanted to Tell You - Louisa Young
24. Those People - Louise Candlish
25. The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo - Taylor Jenkins Reid
26. Untangled: Guiding Teenage Girls Through the Seven Transitions into Adulthood - Lisa Damour
27. Operation Mincemeat: The True Spy Story that Changed the Course of WWII - Ben Macintyre
28. Cogs and Monsters: What Economics Is, and What It Should Be - Diane Coyle

And a new one to add:

29 Ask Again, Yes - Mary Beth Keane. Kate and Peter have known each other from birth - they grew up as neighbours in a small town in New York state, and their families are inextricably linked after a shocking incident in their teens. This is a family saga which follows the two families over several decades. I enjoyed this and I think it would appeal to fans of Ann Patchett (although it's not as good as Patchett).

Thanks for new thread Southeast. I have been largely absent lately as I’ve been re-reading the Ruth Galloway books. Pure comfort reading. I’ve finished them now so looking for new reads.

Thanks SouthEast

57 Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman
Written in 1985, this is an examination of the effects of television on politics and public life more widely, and the perils of turning serious matters into entertainment. Although he's writing about Reagan and television, clearly his thesis hasn't been disproved in the era of Trump / Johnson & social media.

I think he also gets a prescience prize for: "Until, years from now, when it will be noticed that the massive collection and speed-of-light retrieval of data have been of great value to large-scale organizations but have solved very little of importance to most people and have created at least as many problems for them as they may have solved.”

I listened to this on audio read by the author & that in itself was a pleasure (largely because he sounds so very much like Tom Lehrer in full sarcastic mode). Really excellent and worth reading.

Read and very much enjoyed by myself and a few others here, This Much is True by Miriam Margolyes is on Kindle Daily Deal: www.amazon.co.uk/This-Much-True-eye-popping-hilarious-ebook/dp/B095BHVJ3Z/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

Thanks @Southeastdweller here is my list:

1. Needful Things by Stephen King
2. Ramble by Adam Buxton

3. Small Pleasures by Clare Chambers 4. Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones

1. A Rip in Heaven by Jeanine Cummins
2. Rachel's Holiday by Marian Keyes
3. A Good Enough Mother by Bev Thomas

8. Dark Tower V: Wolves of the Calla

1. Things We Left Unsaid by Emma Kennedy

10. 1979 by Val McDermid 11. The Dark Tower: Song of Susannah by Stephen King 12. Brass Ring by Diane Chamberlain 13. The Dark Tower VII: The Dark Tower by Stephen King 14. The Door into Summer by Robert A Heinlein 15. Shadow Man by Cody McFadyen 16. The Face of Death by Cody McFadyen 17. Postcards from the Edge by Carrie Fisher 18. Einstein’s Secret by Irving Belateche 19. Becoming Unbecoming by Una 20. Kill Me Again by Rachel Abbot 21. This Much is True by Miriam Margolyes 22. The Cold Moon by Jeffery Deaver 23. Anything is Possible by Elizabeth Strout 24. This Must be the Place by Maggie O’Farrell 25. She Said by Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey 26. The Dream Daughter by Diane Chamberlain 27. Eve by Una 28. The Last Lost Girl by Maria Hoey 29. My Sister Milly by Gemma Dowler 30. The Distant Echo by Val McDermid 31. A Darker Domain by Val McDermid 32. Consider Her Ways: And Others by John Wyndham 33. A Catalogue of Catastrophes by Jodi Taylor 34. Again, Rachel by Marian Keyes 35. The Editor's Wife by Clare Chambers 36. The Vision by Dean Koontz 37. The Waiting Rooms by Eve Smith 38. Girl A by Abigail Dean 39. Gerald’s Game by Stephen King 40. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern 41. Cop Town by Karin Slaughter 42. An Artist of the Floating World by Kazuo Ishiguro 43. The Sixth Window by Rachel Abbot

Thanks for the new thread Southeast.

Just marking my place for now.

Thanks SouthEastDweller. Also marking my place.

Thanks Southeast.

My list:

1. The Wisdom of the Ancients, by Neil Oliver

1. The Artful Dickens, by John Mullan
2. Conversation Piece, by Molly Keane
3. Islands of Abandonment, by Cal Flynn
4. Five Little Pigs, by Agatha Christie
5. Paperback Crush, by Gabrielle Moss
6. The Man in the Brown Suit, Agatha Christie
7. The Antidote, Oliver Burkeman

9. Hurdy Gurdy, Christopher Wilson 10. A Change of Circumstance, Susan Hill 11. Wintering, Katherine May 12. Windswept, Annabel Abbs, 13. Coastlines, Patrick Barkham 14. My Mess is a Bit of a Life: Adventures in Anxiety, Georgia Pritchett 15. Why Women Read Fiction, Helen Taylor 16. Death on the Nile, Agatha Christie 17. What to Read Next, Stig Abell 18. Hidden Hands, Mary Wellesley 19. The Twyford Code, Janice Hallett 20. The Fact of a Body: A Murder and a Memoir, Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich 21. The Madness of Grief, Richard Coles 22. End to End, Paul Jones 23. Can't Even: How Millennials became the Burnout Generation, Anne Helen Petersen 24. Murder on the Links, Agatha Christie 25. One Two Buckle My Shoe, Agatha Christie 26. No One Round Here Reads Tolstoy, Mark Hodkinson 27. Taken at the Flood, Agatha Christie 28. Everything is True, Roopa Farooki 29. The Clocks, Agatha Christie 30. Bringing in the Sheaves: Wheat and Chaff from my Years as a Priest, Richard Coles 31. Peril at End House, Agatha Christie 32. Tiny Churches, Dixie Willis 33. The Moth and the Mountain, Ed Caesar 34. A Pocket full of Rye, Agatha Christie 35. The Locked Room, Elly Griffiths 36. 1922, Nick Rennison 37. How Words Get Good, Rebecca Lee 38. The Button Box, Lynn Knight 39 A Catalogue of Catastrophes, Jodi Taylor 40 Grown Ups, Marian Keyes 41. Operation Mincemeat, Ben MacIntyre 42 Kill My Darling, Cynthia Harrod-Eagles 43 Castle Skull, John Carr 44 General Impressions, E M Delafield 45 Watching Neighbours Twice a Day, Josh Widdicombe 46 Fathomless Riches, Richard Coles 47 Tristram Shandy, Lawrence Sterne 48 Beginners, Tom Vanderbilt 49 How to Kill your Family, Bella Mackie 50 Some Kids I Taught and What They Taught Me, Kate Clanchy 51 A Year in the Life: Adventures in British Subcultures, Lucy Leonelli 52 Headlong, Cynthia Harrod-Eagles 53 Dying Fall, Cynthia Harrod-Eagles 54 Stuff I've been Reading, Nick Hornby 55 British Summer Time Begins, Ysenda Maxtone Graham 56 Crippled: Austerity and the Demonization of Disabled People, Frances Ryan 57 Cruel as the Grave, Cynthia Harrod-Eagles 58 Books v Cigarettes, George Orwell 59 In Search of H V Morten, Michael Bartholomew 60 Have His Carcasse, Dorothy L Sayers 61 Bring your Baggage and Don't Travel Light, Helen Ellis 62 Square Haunting, Francesca Wade 63 A History of Britain in 100 Places, Neil Oliver 64 The Couple at the Next Table, Sophie Hannaha 65 Kiss Myself Goodbye: The Many Lives of Aunt Munca, Ferdinand Mount 66 This Charming Man, C K McDonnell 67 Summer Half, Angela Thirkell 68 Lost Japan, Alex Kerr 69 The Sentence, Louise Erdlich 70 The Seven Ages of Death, Richard Shepherd 71 The Instant, Amy Liptrott 72 An English Library Journey, John Bevis 73 Shadowlands: A Journey Through Lost Britain Matthew Green 74 A Peaceful Retirement, Miss Read 75 The Hollow, Agatha Christie 76 Amongst Our Weapons, Ben Aaronovitch 77 Bad Actors, Mick Herron 78 Tutankhamen's Trumpet, Toby Wilkinson 79 Killed at the Whim of a Hat, Colin Cotterill

Have had a flurry of light reads as I currently have Covid, although it's a fairly mild dose.

Of my recent reads, they are all sterling examples of that particular author's work. The Miss Read was the literary equivalent of a nice cup of tea and a potter around a sunny garden, with the main jeopardy being whether our heroine would get her gifts (soap) sent off by the last overseas posting date before Christmas. I won't give a spoiler. The Agatha Christie was a particularly good one, with interesting characters, and for once a sound explanation for the false leads, rather than just deeply unlikely coincidence. The latest Rivers of London and Slough House installments were up to scratch. Not the place to start if you're new to the series, but an enjoyable update provided you know the background. The Tutankhamen's Trumpet book is non-fiction, using 100 items from the tomb to illustrate Ancient Egyptian culture. It was a good way in. I'll admit I skimmed a bit, but overall it did keep my interest. The Colin Cotterill is new to me, a crime fiction set in southern Thailand. It's at the lighter end of the spectrum with zany characters and amusing dialogue rather than anything more gritty. I enjoyed it and plan to read the others in the series.

Thanks for the new thread Southeast. Here's my list:

1. Writing the Bible: Origins of the Old Testament - Martien Halvorson-Taylor
2. Brain Storm: Detective Stories from the World of Neurology - Suzanne O'Sullivan
3. Breaking Free of Child Anxiety and OCD - Eli R. Lebowitz
4. Fantastically Great Women Scientists and Their Stories - Kate Pankhurst
5. This Thing of Darkness - Harry Thompson
6. Language and the Mind - Spencer Kelly
7. Nine Nasty Words - John McWhorter
8. You’re Doing It Wrong - Kaz Cooke
9. Luster - Raven Leilani

10. Before the Coffee Gets Cold - Toshikazu Kawaguchi 11. The Poems of T.S. Eliot 12. Vinegar Girl - Anne Tyler 13. Kindred: Neanderthal Life, Love, Death and Art - Rebecca Wragg Sykes 14. Beautiful World, Where Are You - Sally Rooney 15. Invisible Women - Caroline Criado Perez 16. Material Girls - Kathleen Stock 17. Hag-Seed - Margaret Atwood 18. The Women of Troy - Pat Barker 19. The Explosive Child - Ross W Greene 20. Wordslut - Amanda Montell 21. Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are? - Frans de Waal 22. God: an anatomy - Francesca Stavrakopoulou 23. The Starting School Book - Sarah Ockwell-Smith 24. Can I tell you about Pathological Demand Avoidance syndrome? - Ruth Fidler and Phil Christie 25. Wild Magic - Tamora Pierce 26. Temporary - Hilary Leichter 27. Put a Wet Paper Towel On It - Lee Parkinson and Adam Parkinson 28. Bitch: a revolutionary guide to sex, evolution and the female animal - Lucy Cooke 29. Permission to Feel - Marc Brackett 30. Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov 31 Putting the Rabbit in the Hat - Brian Cox 32. The Family Experience of PDA - Eliza Fricker 33. In Control: dangerous relationships and how they end in murder - Jane Moncton Smith 34. The Intoxicating Mr Lavelle - Neil Blackmore 35. Hard Times - Charles Dickens 36. The Animals in That Country - Laura Jean McKay 37. Hidden Valley Road - Robert Kolker 38. Wolf Speaker -Tamora Pierce 39. What Lies Buried - Kerry Daynes 40. The Out-of-Sync Child - Carol Stock Kranowitz 41. Emperor Mage - Tamora Pierce 42. Trans - Helen Joyce

And a couple more in the last few days:
43. Toast: autism in the early years - Alice Boardman
Heartfelt exploration of Boardman's experience as a mother of two boys with autism - thank you to whoever recommended it here.

44. The Seven Ages of Death - Richard Shepherd Second volume of memoirs from the forensic psychologist, structured around the life stages of the cases he has worked on. Very interesting if this is your sort of thing (with mercifully less about flying light aircraft than the first volume), although several of the cases he describes at length weren't investigated by him personally, and the accounts of his work on the very young and very old have the potential to be very distressing to carers of these groups.

Thanks Southeast.

Just wanted to reply to @RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie as we ran out of room on the last thread:

@IsFuzzyBeagMise and @DameHelena Well, Amazon are marketing it as, "The sun-kissed follow up to the bestselling Snow" so I'd assumed it was supposed to be a sequel. Interesting. Might just be how Amazon see it?

I've got his Ghosts on my TBR pile but this has put me off a bit from trying it!
Is Ghosts a 'literary' one rather than one of his 'genre' ones? You might find it quite a different experience, if so.

Thanks for the new thread @Southeastdweller.

I'm a bit behind - also just had covid AGAIN and although I had a lot of time to read, I couldn't get into anything. Finished two very light reads:

20. Fashion Babylon, by Imogen Edward Jones and Anonymous. Enjoyable fluff about life behind the scenes in the fashion industry.

21. Inside the NBA Bubble: A Championship Season under Quarantine, by Jared Dudley. Short, behind-the-scenes account from an LA Lakers player about time in the NBA playoff 'bubble' in 2020. Enjoyable, but only for basketball fans - not sure if there are any others on this thread!

Thanks southeast. Bringing across my list (but really struggled with formatting):

1. The Long and Short of It - Jodi Taylor
2. The Manningtree Witches - A K Blakemore
3. The Passenger - Ulrich Alexander Boschwitz
4. Midsummer Mysteries - Agatha Christie
5. Real Tigers - Mick Herron
6. The Man in the Brown Suit - Agatha Christie
7. Around the World in 80 Days - Jules Verne
8. A Springtime Affair - Katie Fforde
9. Love is Blind - William Boyd
10. Come to Grief - Dick Francis
11. Behind the scenes at the Museum - Kate Atkinson
12. The Madness of Grief - Richard Coles
13. Death on the Nile - Agatha Christie
14. The Bookshop - Penelope Fitzgerald
15. Love after Love - Ingrid Persaud
16. In a Good Light - Clare Chambers
17. To the Hilt - Dick Francis
18. Another Time, Another Place - Jodi Taylor
19. After the Funeral - Agatha Christie
20. Magpie Murders - Anthony Horowitz
21. Sixteen Horses - Greg Buchanan
22. The Light Between Oceans - ML Stedman
23. What Does Jeremy Think - Suzanne Heywood
24. Travels with my Aunt - Graham Greene
25. 10lb Penalty - Dick Francis
26. Why didn’t they ask Evans? - Agatha Christie
27. Restoration - Rose Tremain
28. Mothering Sunday - Graham Swift
29. The Devil’s Advocate - Steve Cavanagh
30. Spook Street - Mick Herron
31. Cecily - Annie Garthwaite
32. All Change - Elizabeth Jane Howard
33. Open Water - Caleb Azumah Nelson
34. Murder on the Links - Agatha Christie
35. The Grand Sophy - Georgette Heyer
36. Diary of an MP’s Wife - Sasha Swire
37. Operation Mincemeat - Ben McIntyre
38. Invisible Women - Caroline Criado Perez
39. Field of 13 - Dick Francis
40. Murder in Mesapotamia - Agatha Christie
41. Falls the Shadow - Sharon Penman
42. The Reckoning - Sharon Penman
43. Cousin Kate - Georgette Heyer
44. At Bertram’s Hotel - Agatha Christie

Thank you for the new thread Southeastdweller!

Here is the continuation of my list.

18. The Killing Kind, Jane Casey.
19. The Tin Drum, Günter Grass.
20. The Sealwoman's Gift, Sally Magnusson.
21. April in Spain, John Banville.
22. Age Proof, Rose Ann Kenny (non fiction)
23. The Island of Missing Trees: Elif Shafak.
24. Chanson Douce: Leïla Slimani.
25. The Third Man and The Fallen Idol, Graham Greene.
26. True Tales of American Life, compiled by Paul Auster.
27. Hard Times, Charles Dickens.
28. Small Pleasures, Clare Chambers.
29. Les Quatre Saisons de l'Eté, Grégoire Delacourt.
30. The Bread the Devil Knead, Lisa Allen Agostini.
31. The Paper Palace, Miranda Cowley Heller. * *

Also reading War and Peace, The Woman in White aand nearly finished Arsène Lupin.

I enjoyed most of these books and perhaps I could have highlighted more as recommendations. I think The Bread the Devil Knead was excellent. Otherwise, they were all good except for Les Quatre Saisons which I didn't like, but was thankfully short. * *

Thanks for the new thread southeast.

Here's my list:

1. Unorthodox – Deborah Feldman
2. Me - Elton John
3. Pies and prejudice – Stuart Maconie
4. Winter – Ali Smith 5. The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood 6. How to build a girl – Caitlin Moran
5. My name is why – Lemn Sissay 8. Life after Life – Kate Atkinson 9. Toast – Nigel Slater
6. Open Water – Caleb Azumah Nelson
7. The Lie – Helen Dunmore
8. Banish clutter forever: How the toothbrush principle will change your life – Sheila Chandra
9. Watermelon – Marian Keyes
10. Hungry – Grace Dent
11. Case Histories – Kate Atkinson

Thank you for the new thread southeast

Here is my list by way of placemarking!

1. Hercule Poirot’s Christmas - Agatha Christie
2. Golden Hill - Francis Spufford
3. The Heart’s Invisible Furies - John Boyne
4. 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in this Strange World - Elif Shafak
5. Sorrow and Bliss - Meg Mason
6. And Away - Bob Mortimer
7. Excellent Women - Barbara Pym
8. Moonflower Murders - Anthony Horowitz
9. The Man In the Brown Suit - Agatha Christie

10. His Bloody Project - Graeme Macrae Burne 11. Diary of a Provincial Lady - E.M. Delafield 12. Death on the Nile - Agatha Christie 13. Cotillion - Georgette Heyer 14. The Corinthian - Georgette Heyer 15. The Sleeping Beauties - Suzanne O’Sullivan 16. A Civil Contract - Georgette Heyer 17. Sprig Muslin - Georgette Heyer 18. Summerwater - Sarah Moss 19. Small Pleasures - Claire Chambers 20. Hungry - Grace Dent 21. More than a Woman - Caitlin Moran 22. Love After Love - Ingrid Persaud 23. Ditching Diets - Gillian Riley 24. Foster - Claire Keegan 25. Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell - Susanna Clarke 26. Carry On Jeeves - P.G. Wodehouse 27. Rachel’s Holiday - Marian Keyes 28. Still Life - Sarah Winman

Thanks for the new thread, south!

To update briefly, I'll just add the books I’ve finished since the start of the last thread. I’m still managing to stick to my self-imposed alternating fiction/non-fiction rules, just about.

31: Ice Cold in Alex - Christopher Landon
32: No Halt at Sunset - Elizabeth M. Harland
33: The Facts of Life - Patrick Gale
34: This Long Pursuit - Richard Holmes
35: Judas 62 - Charles Cumming
36: Patricia Highsmith - Her Diaries and Notebooks (ed. Anna von Planta)
37: Murder's Little Sister - Pamela Branch
38: Digging Up the Dead - Druin Burch
39: The Late Mrs Prioleau - Monica Tindall
40: A Carnival of Snackery - David Sedaris
41: In a Good Light - Clare Chambers
42: The Private Lives of the Tudors - Tracy Borman
43: Hard Times - Charles Dickens
44: Empire of Pain - Patrick Radden Keefe
45: A Change of Circumstance - Susan Hill
46: Agent Sonya - Ben Macintyre
47: Chronicle of a Death Foretold - Gabriel García Marquez
48: Moonwalking with Einstein - Joshua Foer

Also currently enjoying The Woman in White for the readalong - excellent fun.

@LadybirdDaphne
Thanks for the list. Have ordered Kindred and Brainstorm as a result!

Thanks, South.

Only doing my list since the last thread as it's getting unwieldy and the app is nigh on unusable for such things.

89. The Historian - Elizabeth Kostova
90. The Grace Year - Kim Liggett
91. Careless - Kirsty Capes
92. The Outrun - Amy Liptrot
93. Desperate Undertaking - (Flavia Albia #10) - Lyndsey Davis
94. The Instant - Amy Liptrot
95. Fireworks - Angela Carter
96. Build Your House Around My Body - Violet Kupersmith

Some Tame Gazelle - Barbara Pym
98. The Schooldays of Jesus - JM Coetzee
99. Seven Ways to Change the World - Gordon Brown
100. Bad Feminist - Roxane Gay
101. Bewilderment - Richard Powers
102. Girl Meets Boy - Ali Smith
103. Sistersong - Lucy Holland
104. Hungry - Grace Dent
105. We Are All Birds of Uganda - Hafsa Zayyan
106. The Long Call - Ann Cleeves
107. The Midwife - Tricia Cresswell
108. Cloud Street - Tim Wonton
109. Noughts and Crosses - Malorie Blackman
110. The Reluctant Fundamentalist- Mohsin Hamid
111. Moab is my Washpot - Stephen Fry
112. The Good Wife of Bath - Karen Brooks
113. Notherners - Brian Groom
114. People Person - Candice Carty-Williams
115. The Girls of Slender Means - Muriel Spark
116. Cold Enough for Snow - Jessica Au
117. Nothing But The Truth - The Secret Barrister
118. The Story of the World in 100 Moments - Neil Oliver
119. Tangleweed and Brine - Deirdre Sullivan
120. The Night Manager - John le Carré
121. Fen - Daisy Johnson
122. Cathedral of Bones - JG Lewis
123. Riders - Jilly Cooper
124. China Room - Sunjeev Sahota
125. Project Hail Mary - Andy Weir
126. Guards! Guards! - Terry Pratchett
127. The Time Machine - HG Wells
128. Fix the System Not the Women - Laura Bates
129. You Made a Fool of Death With Your Beauty - Akwaeke Emezi
130. The Ministry of Guidance - Golnoosh Nour
131. The Compendium of (Not Quite) Everything - John Elledge
132. Good and Mad: The Revolutionary Power of Women's Anger - Rebecca Traister
133. Pandora's Jar: The Women in the Greek Myths - Natalie Haynes
134. Hare House - Sally Hinchcliffe

130. The Ministry of Guidance - Golnoosh Nour
Short stories exploring the lives of young LGB people in modern day Iran.
I'm not a massive short story fan, but these are well written and have an interesting perspective.

132. Good and Mad: The Revolutionary Power of Women's Anger - Rebecca Traister
Journalist looks at turning points in US history where women have made a difference, concentrating mainly on more recent events from the Me Too movement and Hilary Clinton's presidential campaign. She discusses what triggered these events and the women behind them. Really interesting analysis.

133. Pandora's Jar: The Women in the Greek Myths - Natalie Haynes
Haynes explores the women in the myths and how different authors have treated them. Brilliant look at different versions and how they have been twisted to suit a narrative. I've had a bit of a up down relationship with Haynes, love her on the radio, but have found some of her books hard going. This was excellent. She knows her stuff.

134. Hare House - Sally Hinchcliffe
A disgraced teacher hides out in rural Scotland trying to salvage her life after a scandal. She becomes embroiled with a local family on their estate as storage things start to happen and an elderly neighbour though to be a witch is blamed.
Fairly lightweight frothy mystery/suspense, but enjoyable enough.

Thanks @Southeastdweller for the new thread. I'm not going to post my list as it hasn't changed since last time I posted it. I've DNF'd several books since then and have three on the go. Currently reading (extremely slowly) Young Clementina by DE Stevenson. Still follow the thread but don't have much time to post but happy to see you're all here.

Just place marking for now

Thanks @Southeastdweller! Placemarking with my list:

1. Slouching Towards Bethlehem - Joan Didion
2. Diary of an MP’s Wife – Sasha Swire
3. Fake Law – The Secret Barrister
4. Buried in Secret – Viveca Sten
5. Truth And Beauty – Ann Patchett
6. Material Girls – Kathleen Stock
7. 1979 – Val McDermid
8. Mrs Hemingway – Naomi Wood
9. Mort – Terry Pratchett
10. Scrublands – Chris Hammer
11. The Other Americans – Laila Lalami
12. The Magician’s Assistant – Ann Patchett
13. Equal Rites – Terry Pratchett
14. Thief of Time – Terry Pratchett
15. The Greengage Summer – Rumer Godden
16. The Pull of the Stars – Emma Donoghue
17. Mrs Dalloway – Virginia Woolf
18. Square Haunting – Francesca Wade
19. Strange Hotel – Eimear McBride
20. Don’t Ask Me Why – Tania Kindersley
21. The White Album – Joan Didion
22. The Long Call – Ann Cleeves
23. The Heron’s Cry – Ann Cleeves
24. The Women in Black – Madeleine St John
25. South Riding - Winifred Holtby
26. A Narrow Door – Joanne Harris
27. An Unsuitable Match – Joanna Trollope
28. Taft – Ann Patchett
29. Again, Rachel – Marian Keyes
30. Slow Horses – Mick Herron
31. The Decagon House Murders – Yukito Ayatsuji
32. The Searcher – Tana French
33. The Patron Saint of Liars – Ann Patchett
34. Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café – Fannie Flagg
35. Two Heads – Uta, Chris and Alex Frith and Daniel Locke
36. Here We Are – Graham Swift
37. On Connection – Kae Tempest

Thanks for the new thread southeast

I’m not going to bring my list over as it takes too long on my phone and by the time I get round to logging in on the desktop things will have moved on.

151 Churchill’s Rebels: Jessica Mitford and Esmond Romilly by Meredith Whitford

Biography of Jessica Mitford and her first husband. For those who know the Mitford sisters, Jessica was ‘The Communist’ who ran away to marry Esmond Romilly and then went to live in America. I knew the broad story but didn’t previously know much about Esmond and it was interesting to read a bit more detail about Jessica. This does only cover her life up until Esmond died though (he died in the war when they were both still in their early twenties), so it’s not a full biography of her life.

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

1. Snow - John Banville
2. First Class Murder - Robin Stevens
3. Jolly Foul Play - Robin Stevens
4. The Betrayals - Bridget Collins
5. Possession - A S Byatt
6. The Wee Free Men - Terry Pratchett (read to the DCs)
7. Seventy-eight Degrees of Wisdom: A Tarot Journey to Self-Awareness - Rachel Pollack
8. Officers and Gentlemen - Evelyn Waugh
9. A History of the World in Twelve Maps - Jerry Brotton
10. A Summons to Memphis - Peter Taylor
11. Alias Grace - Margaret Atwood
12. Where are you now? - Mary Higgins Clark
13. The Brass Verdict - Michael Connelly
14. Girl with a Pearl Earring - Tracy Chevalier
15. An Instance of the Fingerpost - Iain Pears
16. Les Cahiers d’Esther: Histoires de mes 10 ans - Riad Sattouf (in French)
17. Mistletoe and Murder - Robin Stevens
18. A Moment of Silence - Anna Dean
19. Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage - Alfred Lansing
20. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone - JK Rowling
21. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets - JK Rowling
22. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban - JK Rowling
23. The Hobbit - J R R Tolkien (read to the DCs)
24. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire - JK Rowling
25. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix - JK Rowling
26. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince - JK Rowling
27. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - JK Rowling
28. The Hours - Michael Cunningham
29. Destination Unknown - Agatha Christie
30. Entry Island - Peter May
31. The lady and the unicorn - Tracy Chevalier
32. The Potter's House - Rosie Thomas
33. Mrs England - Stacey Halls
34. Killers of the Flower Moon - David Grann
35. Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome (read to the DCs)
36. A Beautiful Spy - Rachel Hore
37. Five Star Billionaire - Tash Aw
38. The pursuit of happiness - Douglas Kennedy
39. The Maze of Doom - David Solomons (read to the DCs)
40. The Prague Cemetery - Umberto Eco
41. The Lighthouse Witches - C J Cooke
42. Hamnet - Maggie O'Farrell
43. The tea girl of Hummingbird Lane - Lisa See
44. The Prince of the Marshes: and other occupational hazards of a year in Iraq - Rory Stewart
45. The Blame Game - C J Cooke
46. Glass Houses - Louise Penny
47. Just William - Richmal Crompton (read to the DCs)