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?

Thanks as always southeast

My list

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 29. A Spool of Blue Thread - Anne Tyler 30. Assembly - Natasha Brown 31. Small Things Like These - Claire Keegan 32. Booth - Karen Joy Fowler 33. Pandora’s Jar: Women in the Greek Myths - Natalie Haynes 34. No One is Talking About This - Patricia Lockwood 35. We Were Liars - E Lockheart 36. Jane Fairfax - Joan Aiken 37. Again, Rachel - Marian Keyes 38. Troy - Stephen Fry 39. A Gentleman in Moscow - Amor Towles 40. The Fell - Sarah Moss 41. My Family and Other Animals - Gerald Durrell 42. The Library Book - Susan Orlean

Not sure I completely stand by my bolds to be honest, they may have been different on previous lists and could well change again.

Just finished 43. Troubled Blood - Robert Galbraith
Couldn’t put it down, as always, despite finding it a bit too long and I really wish she wouldn’t ‘do accents’ as it were. I never remember the previous books/ storylines and I’m sure I won’t remember this one once I eventually get round to the latest instalment, but I was certainly gripped for the time it took to read. I lost my mum as a baby too (she died in childbirth) - not anything like the storyline obviously but Anna’s character did throw me a few sucker punches along the way.

Thanks for the new thread @Southeastdweller . I'm going for the short form list since the last thread.
41. The Blazing Heather - Colm Toibin
42. The Murder List - Jackie Kabler
43. The Echo Chamber - John Boyne
44. A Town Called Solace - Mary Lawson
45. How To Kill Your Family - Bella Mackie
46. Moon Tiger - Penelope Lively
47. Blood Sugar - Sascha Rothschild
48. Still Life - Sarah Winman
49. The Island of Missing Trees - Elif Shafak
50. Nightbitch - Rachel Yoder
51. The Other Side of The Bridge - Mary Lawson
52. Frieda: The Real Lady Chatterley - Annabel Abbs
53. Heartstopper - Alice Osman
54. Old Filth - Jane Gardam
55. Young Mungo -Douglas Stuart
56. Summer - Ali Smith

A good selection for me over the year ending with the final of Ali Smith's quartet which I read each season and think improved with each book.

@TimeforaGandT I really like Restless by William Boyd. Also A Sweet Caress is kind of a female version of Any Human Heart but not as good IMO.

Just started O Caledonia and it's exquisite so far. With every new 'scene' in it, I seem to be reminded of pictures from the Ladybird books of my childhood.

Thanks for the new thread southeast. Not bringing a list over so will be back when I’ve finished a book!

Many thanks Southeastdweller.
September reading so far has been low quantity and high quality - a fab historical fiction pairing with a plague theme.
40. Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks
Set in the mid-1600s, fiction inspired by the true story of how the residents of Peak District village Eyam cut themselves off from the rest of the world to limit the spread of the plague. I loved the rich language which really evoked the rural, historical setting. There were fascinating characters and a plot that kept moving (very dramatically and in unexpected directions). Some elements definitely struck a different chord after our experiences during the Covid pandemic even though this was released over 20 year ago.
41. Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell
Much read and previously reviewed on these threads, I'm so glad I finally got round to reading this and thought it was brilliant.
It was great to read these titles one after the other, as they tell different stories but with overlaps, very much set in the same world.
Have now started Case Study by Graeme Macrae Burnet.
As ever, my TBR is growing faster than I can keep up with!

I'm shattered, keep staying up late reading it!

Thanks southeast

Dick Francis - Second Wind Quick read from the holiday cottage bookshelf.

Tried a sample of O Caledonia but didn’t immediately like it. Reminded me of Kate Atkinson. I’ll try again in a few weeks.
Onto The Man who died Twice - Richard Osman - seems to be nicely daft.

AliasGrape I was just about to comment on the accents as I hate that too but then read the rest of your post

If anyone is a fan of Daphne du Maurier, The Glass-Blowers is 99p today. I haven't read this one yet so I'm very pleased to get it at that price.

www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B008258Z0C

I read The Glass Blowers earlier this year and enjoyed it. As you may know, it's based on her own family's history.

Boiledeggandtoast

I didn't know that. That's interesting to know, thank you. I'll enjoy it even more now.

Oh God, just heard Hilary Mantel has died. So shocked.

Oh goodness that's a bit of a shock. 70 doesn't seem old at all these days.

I didn't know she was ill but I guess she must have been.

1 The Dutch House - Ann Patchett
2 Cloud Cuckoo Land - Anthony Doerr
3 Life at the Top - John Braine
4 The Mermaid of Black Conch - Monique Roffey
5 Ducks, Newburyport - Lucy Ellman
6 A God in Ruins - Kate Atkinson
7 The Watchers on the Shore - Stan Barstow
8 A Fraction of the Whole - Steve Toltz
9 Bridget Jones's Diary - Helen Fielding
10 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
11 Mr Foreigner - Matthew Kneale
12 A Short History of Tractors in Ukranian - Monica Lewycka
13 My Mate Shofiq - Jan Needle
14 Red Shift - Alan Garner
15 Dogs of War - Adrian Tchaikovsky
16 To Calais, in Ordinary Time - James Meek
17 Never Let Me Go - Kazuo Ishiguro
18 Burial Rites - Hannah Kent
19 The Garden of Evening Mists - Tan Twang Eng
20 Arthur & George - Julian Barnes
21 Life Isn't all Haha Heehee - Meera Syal
22 The Collected Short Stories of F Scott Fitzgerald - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Star of the Sea - Joseph O'Connor
24 Klara and the Sun - Kazuo Ishiguro
25 The Chosen Ones - Steve Sem-Sandberg
26 I Capture the Castle - Dodie Smith

Oh God, just heard Hilary Mantel has died. So shocked.

That's so sad. 70 really isn't that elderly now. I have her books on my shelf waiting to be read. I'll have to do so soon.

Apparently Dame Hilary's death was peaceful but entirely unexpected

Sorry to hear that. Bring up the Bodies is one of the best things I've ever read.

I'm really sorry to hear that. I know she is (rightly) famous for the Wolf Hall trilogy, but I very much enjoyed some of her other books too such as An Experiment in Love. She truly was a great writer.

So sorry to hear it.

May she rest in peace.

For me too. I also really enjoyed her short story collection. And her Reith lectures were interesting too I remember. Think they’re still available as a podcast.

Such sad news.

The BBC have just said that they will be putting the Reith lectures on Sounds/i player (sorry I can't remember which but they are there if you google Hilary Mantel Reith lectures bbc).

Gosh that’s a bit of a shock, about Hilary Mantel. Very sad.

55 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens I’ve made it to almost 40 before reading this, having very much enjoyed Bleak House and Little Dorrit years ago. I absolutely loved it - so funny, a really exciting story with unexpected twists (I had managed not to come across any spoilers except for a vague awareness of Miss Havisham, and haven’t seen any of the adaptations), and very emotional at times. And I liked the ending too, which is always a bonus! I feel like Dickens was the Netflix blockbuster writer of his day, especially as the chapters came out in instalments - I’d definitely watch any series he created if he was around now 😄

I've just seen the new about Hilary Mantel, shocking and really sad.