50 Books Challenge 2022 Part six

[Southeastdweller]

Welcome to the sixth 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.

What are you reading?

Sorry, too much of a faff to do links for the previous threads on my phone - I’ll do it later when I get home.

Thank you south you're so efficient!

I'm currently reading Eight months on Gaza Street by Hilary Mantel, Rachel's holiday by Marian Keyes and just started Seven days of us by Francesca Hornak. (paper copy, audio and kindle respectively)

Bringing my little list over:

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
6. Life after Life – Kate Atkinson 9. Toast – Nigel Slater 10. 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 15. Case Histories – Kate Atkinson
11. Diary of a bookseller – Shaun Bythell
12. Shuggie Bain – Douglas Stuart 18. Foster – Claire Keegan
13. Peaches for Monsieur Le Curé – Joanne Harris
14. Early morning riser – Katherine Heiny 21. Pachinko – Min Jin Lee

Thanks, @Southeastdweller and thanks for further info re the Kindle deals, lovely 50 Bookers.

See you when the lists are over.

Thank you Southeast, that was quick!

Just a couple of comments I was going to make on the last thread before we ran out of room:
@StColumbofNavron That Ten Cities book looks like it fully deserved your snarky review. It's outside my area of expertise, but the footnote about how blonde Russian prostitutes revived the Turkish economy seems both cringy and bonkers.

@ChessieFL , I read The Blessing last year and I agree that it's not one of Mitford's better novels. Part of the book's message seems to be, French men will have mistresses, so deal with it. Hmm

Posting my list so far:

1. The Dark Is Rising, Susan Cooper
2. The Red Parts, Maggie Nelson
3. The Waning of the Middle Ages, Johann Huizinga, trans. by F. Hopman
4. Are We Having Fun Yet?, Lucy Mangan
5. Giovanni’s Room, James Baldwin
6. The Matrix, Lauren Groff
7. Some Tame Gazelle, Barbara Pym
8. Translations, Brian Friel
9. The Paper Palace, Miranda Cowley Heller

10. Remote Sympathy, Catherine Chidgey 11. The Final Revival of Opal and Nev, Dawnie Walton 12. The Wreath, Sigrid Undset, trans. by Tina Nunnally 13. Tales from Earthsea, Ursula Le Guin 14. Small Things Like These, Claire Keegan 15. The Fell, Sarah Moss 16. Le Pays des autres [The Country of Others], Leila Slimani 17. The Island of Missing Trees, Elif Shafak 18. Flamingo, Rachel Elliott 19. Death and the Penguin, Andrey Kurkov, trans. by George Bird 20. The Exhibitionist, Charlotte Mendelson 21. Build Your House Around My Body, Violet Kupersmith 22. Careless, Kirsty Capes 23. Sorrow and Bliss, Meg Mason 24. The Book of Form and Emptiness, Ruth Ozeki 25. The Sentence, Louise Erdrich 26. The Bread the Devil Knead, Lisa Allen-Agostini 27. Great Circle, Maggie Shipstead 28. Salt Lick, Lulu Allison 29. Traversée de la Mangrove [Crossing the Mangrove], Maryse Condé 30. Childhood, Youth, Dependency, Tove Ditlevsen, trans. by Tina Nunnally and Michael Favala Goldman 31. Atomic Habits: An Easy and Proven Way to Build Good Habits and Break Bad Ones, James Clear 32. L’Événement [Happening], Annie Ernaux 33. Foster, Claire Keegan 34. Lessons in Chemistry, Bonnie Garmus 35. This One Sky Day, Leone Ross 36. Peau noire, masques blancs [Black Skin, White Masks], Frantz Fanon 37. Violeta, Isabel Allende 38. The Colony, Audrey Magee 39. Meetings with Remarkable Manuscripts, Christopher de Hamel 40. Companion Piece, Ali Smith 41. Excellent Women, Barbara Pym 42. Prudence and Jane, Barbara Pym 43. Less Than Angels, Barbara Pym 44. La Place, Annie Ernaux 45. Assembly, Natasha Brown 46. My Mess Is a Bit of a Life: Adventures in Anxiety, Georgia Pritchett 47. Monkey’s Uncle, Jenny Diski 48. Nervous Conditions, Tsitsi Dangarembga 49. Run Towards the Danger, Sarah Polley 50. Olive, Again, Elizabeth Strout

Thanks for the new thread. My short list so far.

1. The Next Time You See Me, Holly Goddard Jones
2. The Kindest Lie, Nancy Johnson
3. The Fell, Sarah Moss

& two new additions ...

1. The Black Friend, Frederick Joseph

Nonfiction that communicates the authors (and others) experiences of racism in the hope of inspiring change. It is targeted at teenagers, which I didn't realise when I downloaded it from borrowbox. A short book that communicates a powerful message.

1. A Walk in the Woods, Bill Bryson

A comfort re-read for me. I read most of Bryson's travel memoirs shortly after they were published. A Walk in the Woods was probably my least favourite at the time - I think I got bored by the sections describing how the Appalachian Trail was founded. However, it is now the one that I enjoy re-reading most. Some of he others seem a bit dated & stale, but this one still makes me smile. It follows Bryson's attempt to walk a long distance hiking trail with his friend Katz (whom he has not seen for many years). It is Bryson's interactions with Katz that I think set it apart from the other books. Katz provides a foil to Bryson's sensible and measured approach. He is petulant, ill prepared and struggles with the physical demands of the hike. I think in the highly unlikely event that I would attempt a similar feat, I would react similarly. Their trials are funny and at times poignant. Over 20 years since i first read it, I now identify much more with their realisation that they aren't young anymore.

Thanks southeast! Just marking my place on the new thread.

Thank you southeast

Bringing my list across as it’s the only way I can find my reviews now given the shocking search functionality:

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

1. Around the World in 80 Days - Jules Verne
2. A Springtime Affair - Katie Fforde
3. 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 45. Half of A Yelllow Sun - Chimamanda Ngozie Adichie 46. Frenchman’s Creek - Daphne du Maurier 47. A Dry Spell - Clare Chambers 48. Second Wind - Dick Francis 49. Clothes …. and other things that matter - Alexandra Shulman 50. The Evening and the Morning - Ken Follett 51. A Gentleman in Moscow - Amor Towles 52. Apples Never Fall - Liane Moriarty 53. The Appeal - Janice Hallett 54. Lethal White - Robert Galbraith 55. Destination Unknown - Agatha Christie 56. The Children of Jocasta - Natalie Haynes 57. A Little Life - Hanya Yanagihara 58. Saving Time - Jodi Taylor 59. Daisy Jones and the Six - Taylor Jenkins Reid 60. A Pocketful of Rye - Agatha Christie 61. Detransition, Baby - Torrey Peters 62. The Night Manager - John Le Carre 63. They Came to Baghdad - Agatha Christie 64. Shattered- Dick Francis 65. Under Orders - Dick Francis

And adding my latest book:

66. Death and the Penguin - Andrey Kurkov

I know that some of you have read this (but I have not managed to l find your reviews). Translated from the Ukrainian it tells the story of Viktor, a writer, who lives in Kiev with his penguin, Misha. He rescued Misha from the zoo when it was giving animals away.
Viktor is an unsuccessful writer of short stories who then gets a job writing obituaries for a newspaper. I won’t give spoilers but its definitely a quirky book with a sinister angle. My favourite aspect of the book was Viktor and Misha’s relationship.

Thanks southeast

30 Books. I don't have any bolds, sadly, a few came close

1.	My Friend Anna by Rachel Deloache Williams
2.	The Trouble With Lichen by John Wyndham
3.	Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? By Jeanette Winterson
4.	Passing by Nella Larsen
5.	Tokyo Ever After by Emiko Jean
6.	The Final Revival Of Opal and Nev by Dawnie Walton
7.	The Iliac Crest by Cristina Rivera Garza
8.	Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer
9.	Convenience Store Worker by Sayaka Murata
10.	Foster by  Clare Keegan
11.	Call Me By Your Name by Andre Aciman
12.	The Thirty Nine Steps by John Buchan
13.	My Policeman by Bethan Roberts
14.	Standard Deviation by Katherine Heiny
15.	Matrix by Lauren Groff
16.	Watching Neighbours Twice A Day by Josh Widdecombe
17.	Small Things Like These by Clare Keegan
18.	Taft by Ann Patchett
19.	Untold Night And Day by Bae Suah
20.	Valentine by Elizabeth Wetmore
21.	Carrie Soto Is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid
22.	Mad, Bad and Dangerous To Know by Karl Shaw
23.	Before The Memory Fades by Toshikazu Kawaguchi
24.	Golden Hill by Francis Spufford
25.	The Last Duel by Eric Jager
26.	Prairie Fires by Caroline Fraser
27.	Fire And Blood by George RR Martin
28.	Frankenstein In Baghdad by Ahmed Saadawi
29.	Luster by Raven Leilani
30.	I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman

Thanks for the new thread Southeast

Only going the list since the last thread.

135. Metamorphosis - Penelope Lively
136. The Men - Sandra Newman
137. Burning Questions - Margaret Atwood
138. Daffodils: A Memoir - Louise Beech
139. Queens of the Conquest - Alison Weir
140. The Woman In Blue (Ruth Galloway #8) - Elly Griffiths
141. A Question of Identity (Serrailler #7) - Susan Hill
142. Letters to the Lady Upstairs - Marcel Proust
143. Funny You Should Ask - QI Elves
144. Funny You Should Ask Again - QI Elves
145. Lessons in Chemistry - Bonnie Garmus
146. The Feminine Mystique - Betty Friedan
147. The Dark Flood Rises - Margaret Drabble
148. Courage Calls to Courage Everywhere - Jeanette Winterson
149. The Miniaturist - Jessie Burton
150. Wisdom of the Ancients - Neil Oliver
151. Moby Dick - Herman Melville
152. A Passage North - Anuk Arudpragasam
153. Real Life Organizing - Cassandra Aarssen
154. The Dance Tree - Kiran Millwood Hargrave
155. Trust - Hernan Diaz
156. Who They Was - Gabriel Krauze
157. Maps of Our Spectacular Bodies - Maddie Mortimer
158. The Arrangements - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
159. Ghost Wall - Sarah Moss
160. The Colony - Audrey Magee
161. Golden Girl - Elin Hildebrand
162. Beach Read - Emily Henry
163. Treacle Walker - Alan Garner
164. The House With the Golden Door - Elodie Harper
165. The Dark Queens: Bloody Rivalry - Shelley Puhak
166. The Party Crasher - Sophie Kinsella
167. The Trees - Percival Everett
168. The Manningtree Witches - AK Blakemore
169. Flights of Fancy - Richard Dawkins
170. Just William - Richmal Crompton
171. Glory - NoViolet Bulawayo
172. The Nation's Favourite Poems - John Nettles
173. The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida - Shehan Karunatilaka
174. Booth - Karen Joy Fowler
175. Nightcrawling - Leila Mottley
176. Case Study - Graeme McRae Burnet
177. After Sappho - Selby Wynn Schwartz
178. The Fortune Men - Nadifa Mohamed
179. The Thorn Birds - Colleen McCullough
180. A Tidy Ending - Joanna Cannon
181. The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning - Margareta Magnusson
182. Close to Home (DI Adam Fawley #1) - Cara Hunter
183. The Defense (Eddie Flynn #1) Steve Cavanagh
184. Troubled Blood (Cormoran Strike #5) - Robert Galbraith
185. Mind Over Clutter - Nicola Lewis

The 5th Strike nothing original to say, enjoyed by far too long. Not sure I can face the next one for a while.

Mind Over Clutter - Nicola Lewis
This struck me as an Insta celeb bandwagon book. If you want vague hints to sort your stuff out and then loads of ideas for instagrammable shite to replace it with them this is the book for you.

Thanks southeast! Not bringing my list over but I'm halfway through Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin and am utterly captivated. I can't wait to find out what happens but I think I'll be bereft when it's over.

Interesting noodle I've already heard good things

Thanks DameHelena for flagging the William Boyd offers. Does anyone have any recommendations? I loved Any Human Heart and Love is Blind.

Grr - I loved Any Human Heart but was more lukewarm about Love is Blind - it was more of a slow burn.

Place marking

The Blood Flower by Alex Reeve
The final book in the Leo Stanhope series, set in the late 19th century and featuring a female to male transgender hero. They're not great literature but definitely worth checking out by anyone who likes historical crime. The narrative voice is largely convincing and the relationships are nicely evoked. It all got a bit farcical at the end, but I'd definitely read anything else Reeve might produce.

Thanks for the new thread, south.

My list so far:

1. Forever Young - Hayley Mills
2. Mr. Bowling Buys a Newspaper - Donald Henderson

3: House of Glass - Hadley Freeman 4: A Cold Coming - Mary Kelly 5: Will She Do? - Eileen Atkins 6: The Man Who Died Twice - Richard Osman 7: The Dinosaur Hunters - Deborah Cadbury 8: The Victorian Chaise-longue - Marghanita Laski 9: The Life Project - Helen Pearson 10: The Snowman - Jo Nesbø 11: Letters from Hollywood - ed. Rocky Lang & Barbara Hall 12: Tory Heaven - Marghanita Laski 13: Family Secrets: Living with Shame from the Victorians to the Present Day - Deborah Cohen 14: The Dark Hours - Michael Connelly 15: A Year with Swollen Appendices - Brian Eno's Diary 16: Parson's Nine - Noel Streatfeild 17: A Mudlark's Treasures: London in Fragments - Ted Sandling 18: Staring at the Sun - Julian Barnes 19: The BBC: A People's History - David Hendy 20: The Trinity Six - Charles Cumming 21: The Button Box: Lifting the Lid on Women's Lives - Lynn Knight 22: Learning to Swim - Clare Chambers 23: This Golden Fleece - Esther Rutter 24: Hangover Square - Patrick Hamilton 25: Blitz Spirit: Voices of Britain Living Through Crisis - Ed. Becky Brown 26: Small Things Like These - Claire Keegan 27: Kiss Myself Goodbye: The Many Lives of Aunt Munca - Ferdinand Mount 28: Exposure - Helen Dunmore 29: Hidden Hands: The Lives of Manuscripts and their Makers - Mary Wellesley 30: Foster - Claire Keegan 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 49: An Awfully Big Adventure - Beryl Bainbridge 50: Rummage - Emily Cockayne 51: The Blank Wall - Elizabeth Sanxay Holding 52: Swan Dive - Georgina Pazcoguin 53: Bramton Wick - Elizabeth Fair 54: It's All in Your Head - Suzanne O'Sullivan 55: Landscape in Sunlight - Elizabeth Fair 56: The Premonitions Bureau - Sam Knight 57: March to the Gallows - Mary Kelly 58: Backroom Boys: The Secret Return of the British Boffin - Francis Spufford 59: The Blackbirder - Dorothy B. Hughes 60: This Is Not About Me - Janice Galloway 61: This Way Out - Sheila Radley 62: The Library Book - Susan Orlean 63: Overboard - Sara Paretsky 64: Bleak Health - Nicholas Cambridge 65: The Bookshop - Penelope Fitzgerald 66: All Made Up - Janice Galloway 67: Bad Actors - Mick Herron 68: Cold Cream - Ferdinand Mount 69: The Road to Lichfield - Penelope Lively 70: And In the End: The Last Days of the Beatles - Ken McNab 71: French Braid - Anne Tyler 72: All Day Long: A Portrait of Britain at Work - Joanna Biggs 73: On the Side of the Angels - Betty Miller 74: The Trial of Lady Chatterley's Lover - Sybille Bedford

Currently reading yet another Donna Leon Brunetti book, and loving the Woman in White readalong.

(What’s this weird glitch that insists on putting a space between the first and second items in the list? Very annoying!)

Here's my list since the last thread:

31 Whatever It Takes by Adele Parks
32 Dracula by Bram Stoker
33 The Calligrapher by Edward Docx
34 Lord of the Flies by William Golding
35 Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart
36 Good Habits, Bad Habits: The Science of Making Positive Changes that Stick by Wendy Wood
37 Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
38 Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
39 Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky
40 Foxglove Summer by Ben Aaronovitch
41 House Arrest: Pandemic Diaries by Alan Bennett
42 The Road to Lichfield by Penelope Lively
43 Erebus by Michael Palin
44 The Devil You Know by Gwen Adshead and Eileen Horne
45 The Mars Room by Rachel Kushner

Thanks @Southeastdweller

My list:

1. Troubled Blood Robert Galbraith.

1. Many Different Kinds of Love by Michael Rosen.

1. Heartstopper Volume 2 Alice Osemann.

1. Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi.

1. The Madness of Grief by Richard Coles.
2. Hostage by Claire Mackintosh
3. Dracula by Bram Stoker
4. The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters.

1. Becoming, Unbecoming Una

10. Take Your Breath Away by Linwood Barclay.

11. Una

12. On Tyrannyby Timothy Snyder.

13. Dissolutionby C J Sansom.

14. In Cold Blood by Truman Capote.

15. The Secret Barrister by anonymous.

16. Brain on Fire by Susanah Cahalan.

17. Alexa, what do you know about love? by Brian Bilston.

18. Verity by Colleen Hoover.

19. Slouching towards Bethlehem by Joan Didion.

20. What’s the T: Juno Dawson

21. Invitation to The Game

22. Jamaica Inn by Daphne du Maurier.

23. Stepping Up by Sarah Turner.

24. The Girl Before J P Delaney

25. The Liar Steve Cavanagh.

26. Fifty Fifty Steve Cavanagh.

27. This Much is True: Miriam Margolyse

28. How to Kill your Family: Bella Mackey

29. 52 times Britain was a bell end - James felton

30. We Were Never Here: Andrea Bartz

31. The Devil’s Advocate: Steve Cavanagh

32. Catch and Kill: Ronan Farrow

33. The Encyclopaedia of Early Earth by Isabella Greenberg

34. I am Not Your Baby Mother: Candice Braithwaite

35. Lessons in Chemistry: Bonnie Garmus

36. Buried Beneath the Boarding House: Ryan Green

37. Hyperbole and a Half: Allie Brosh

38. Dear Edward: Ann Napolitano

39. The Waves: Virginia Wolf.

40. The Family Upstairs by Lisa Jewell.

41. The Family Remains by Lisa Jewell

42. Empire of Pain by Patrick Radden Keefe.

43. Her Majesty’s Royal Coven by Juno Dawson

I’m currently reading Tomb of Sand by Geetanjali Shree for a new work book club. It won the booker international this year and is a bit unusual. An elderly woman in India refuses to get out of bed after the death of her husband. So far so good.

Thanks for the new thread @Southeastdweller !

I’ve had a very slow few weeks in reading terms so nothing new to add at the moment - hopefully I’ll get back into the books I have on the go soon! In the meantime here is 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)
48 Polo - Jilly Cooper
49 I know my name - C J Cooke
50 Lonely Planet: Explorer la Région Alpes - various (in French)
51 Winter Holiday - Arthur Ransome (read to the DCs)
52 Vango: Entre Ciel et Terre - Timothée de Fombelle (in French)
53 Exposure - Helen Dunmore (audiobook)
54 Les Cahiers d’Esther: Histoires de mes 11 ans (in French)

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 43. Toast: autism in the early years - Alice Boardman 44. The Seven Ages of Death - Richard Shepherd 45. Some Assembly Required - Neil Shubin 46. Immune - Philipp Dettmer 47. No One is Talking About This - Patricia Lockwood 48. Realms of the Gods - Tamora Pierce 49. The Diary of a Bookseller - Shaun Bythell 50. The Tempest - William Shakespeare 51. Woke Racism - John McWhorter 52. Mr Loverman - Bernardine Evaristo 53. Autism: how to raise a happy autistic child - Jessie Hewitson 54. The Sleeping Beauties - Suzanne O’Sullivan 55. Medieval Myths and Mysteries - Dorsey Armstrong 56. This is Your Own Time You’re Wasting - Lee Parkinson and Adam Parkinson 57. The Raven’s Head - Karen Maitland 58. The Black Death - Dorsey Armstrong 59. The Restraint of Beasts - Magnus Mills

Recently finished 60. Bird by Bird - Anne Lamott, a guide to writing and life by a writer whose main claim to fame seems to be writing this guide... Funny and down to earth, though a bit twee in an American way - and if I followed her advice to just sit down each day until some writing happens I'd go insane, I can only generate ideas when I'm in motion!

Now loving Word Hord, a guide to Old English - because I'm a giant linguistics nerd.

1 The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
2 Kirstin Lavransdatter I: The Wreath by Sigrid Undset. Translated by Tiina Nunnally
3 Esther's Notebooks 1. Tales from my ten-year-old life by Riad Sattouf. Translated by Sam Taylor
4 Breasts and Eggs by Mieko Kawakami. Translated by Sam Bett and David Boyd
5 Esther's Notebooks 2. Tales from my eleven-year-old life by Riad Sattouf. Translated by Sam Taylor
6 Esther's Notebooks 3. Tales from my twelve-year-old life by Riad Sattouf. Translated by Sam Taylor
7 Oldladyvoice by Elisa Victoria. Translated by Charlotte Whittle
8 Crooked Heart by Lissa Evans
9 Death and the Penguin by Andrey Kurkov. Translated by George Bird
10 The Instant by Amy Liptrot
11 The Book of Not by Tsitsi Dangarembga
12 Nick and Charlie by Alice Oseman
13 The Clothes They Stood Up In by Alan Bennett
14 The House with the Stained Glass Window by Żanna Słoniowska. Translated by Antonia Lloyd-Jones
15 Elena Knows by Claudia Piñeiro. Translated by Frances Riddle
16 Letters written in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark by Mary Wollstonecraft
17 The Pear Field by Nana Ekvtimishvili. Translated by Elizabeth Heighway
18 Love after Love by Ingrid Persaud
19 Alexa, what is there to know about love? by Brian Bilston
20 Grey Bees by Andrey Kurkov. Translated by Boris Dralyuk
21 The Owl Service by Alan Garner
22 The Embassy of Cambodia by Zadie Smith
23 My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante. Translated by Ann Goldstein
24 Morvern Callar by Alan Warner
25 The Story of a New Name by Elena Ferrante. Translated by Ann Goldstein.
26 Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 by Cho Nam-Joo. Translated by Jamie Chang
27 Wondrous Journeys in Strange Lands by Sonia Nimr. Translated by Marcia Lynx Qualey
28 Our Lady of the Nile by Scholastique Mukasonga. Translated by Melanie Mauthner
29 Hilo Book 8: Gina and the Big Secret by Judd Winick
30 The Road to Lichfield by Penelope Lively

Read for the 'rather dated' book group. Not going to say much about the plot since some are still reading. Lots of lovely period detail: salaries and pocket money values, Span Houses and the middle class dislike of 'ugly' 1930s and Edwardian houses, the description of the old argricultural buildings turned into homes made me laugh since my parents have several friends who live in those kind of houses and they were decorated with agricultural implements in exactly the same way (although at least my parent's friends knew what they were for!).

Continuation of list since last time;

32. The Cuckoo's Calling: Robert Galbraith.
33. Un Certain Sourire: Françoise Sagan.
34. Agnes Gray: Ann Brontë.
35. The Lovers: John Connolly.
36. The New Mistress at the Chalet School: Elinor Brent-Dwyer.
37. The Book of Form and Emptiness: Ruth Ozeki.
38. Toutes Les Aventures d'Arsène Lupin: Maurice LeBlanc.
39. Hamnet: Maggie O'Farrell.
40. Bleak House: Charles Dickens.
41. Small Things Like These: Clare Keegan.
42. After The Party: Cressida Connolly.
43. The Penguin Book of English Short Stories: edited by Christopher Doltey.
44. The Road to Lichfield: Penelope Lively.
45. La Danseuse du Gai Moulin: Georges Simenon.
46. The Cutting Place: Jane Casey.
47. Frankenstein: Mary Shelley.

Also enjoying War and Peace and The Woman in White.

Thanks for the new thread and for all the brilliant recommendations!

Love the look of that Wordhord book, @LadybirdDaphne - that’s gone straight onto my wishlist!

Thanks for the new thread @Southeastdweller here's 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

6. Rachel's Holiday by Marian Keyes

1. 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 44. Now We Shall Be Entirely Free by Andrew Miller 45. Lie With Me by Sabine Durrant 46. Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid 47. Odd Girl Out by Laura James 48. New Poppeii by Daniel Godfrey 49. The Bookshop by Penelope Fitzgerald 50. The Blackbird Season by Kate Moretti 51. The Oppenheimer Alternative by Robert J Sawyer 52. Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day by Winifred Watson 53. Dolores Claiborne by Stephen King 54. Empire of Time by Daniel Godfrey 55. Insomnia by Stephen King 56. Instructions for a Heatwave by Maggie O’Farrell 57. White Bones by Graham Masterson 58. The Premonitions Bureau: A True Story by Sam Knight 59. The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker 60. Behind Closed Doors by Susan Lewis 61. The Lamplighters by Emma Stonex 62. The Dark Queens by Shelly Puhak 63. Maybe in Another Life by Taylor Jenkins Reid 64. The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie 65. The Sealwoman’s Gift by Sally Magnusson 66. The Butterfly Garden by Dot Hutchison 67. Mrs England by Stacey Halls 68. The Problem With Men: When Is International Men's Day? By Richard Herring

Currently reading Midnight in Chernobyl and Netherspace and listening to The Chrysalids