50 Books Challenge 2022 Part Seven

[Southeastdweller]

Welcome to the seventh and (and probably) final 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, and even though it's late in the year, it’s not too late to join. Please try to let us all know your thoughts on what you've read.

How have you got on this year?

Thanks South!

Stokey- can't tag you because you're not here yet! Funnily, I was looking on my proper paper book pile this morning and pulled It Ends With Us out and read the blurb. I'm a bit scared to start anything new as I've had such a run of duffers...now that others have confirmed it's a bit M&B I've shoved it back on the shelf.

As I'm on the thread on Day 1 for once I'll go and get The List.

Ooh, new thread, thanks south

I'll bring my list over

1. The House at Riverton; Kate Morton
2. The Murder in the Tower; Jean Plaidy
3. The Baby Group; Caroline Corcoran
4. An Invincible Summer; Mariah Stewart
5. The Bourne Identity; Robert Ludlum
6. One Small Mistake; Dandy Smith
7. All the Rage; Cara Hunter
8. After the Last Dance; Sarra Manning
9. Family Money; Chad Zunker
10. The Killings at Badger's Drift; Caroline Graham
11. Death of a Hollow Man; Caroline Graham
12. The Lost Tudor Princess: A Life of Margaret Douglas, Countess of Lennox; Alison Weir
13. Uneasy Lies the Head; Jean Plaidy
14. Covent Garden Ladies: Pimp General Jack and the Extraordinary Story of Harris's List; Hallie Rubenhold
15. The Corpse Played Dead; Georgina Clarke
16. This is Going to Hurt: Secret Diaries of a Junior Doctor; Adam Kay
17. The Night Burns Bright; Ross Barkan
18. The Windsor Knot; S. J. Bennett
19. The Lady of the Rivers; Philippa Gregory
20. The White Queen; Philippa Gregory
21. The Red Queen; Philippa Gregory
22. The Kingmaker's Daughter; Philippa Gregory
23. The White Princess; Philippa Gregory
24. The Constant Princess; Philippa Gregory
25. The King's Curse; Philippa Gregory
26. Three Sisters, Three Queens; Philippa Gregory
27. The Other Boleyn Girl; Philippa Gregory
28. The Boleyn Inheritance; Philippa Gregory
29. The Taming of the Queen; Philippa Gregory
30. The Secret Rooms; Catherine Bailey
31. False Step; Victoria Helen Stone
32. The Bone Jar; S. W. Kane
33. A Fire Sparkling; Julianne MacLean
34. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd; Agatha Christie

Not sure if I'll hit 50 or not this year. I was a definite no a few weeks ago but night feeds have really upped my reading speed so it's possible now. Not too worried either way

Here's my list.
Bolding the goodies (5 stars only), and italicising the duffers.

1. Ramble Book -Adam Buxton
2. Enigma - Robert Harris
3. Christmas Chronicles Nigel Slater
4. 221163 - Stephen King
5. A Place of Execution -Val McDermid
6. Howards End is on the Landing -Susan Hill
7. Hidden Killers- Lynda La Plante
8. The Wreath- Sigrid Undset
9. Fatal Isles- Maria Adolfson
10. The Great Circle- Maggie Shipstead
11. The Whole Truth- Cara Huntley
12. A Dark Adapted Eye- Barbara Vine
13. The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher- Kate Summerscale
14. British Summer Time Begins- Ysenda Graham
15. The Haunting of Alma Fielding Kate Summerscale
16. The Day of the Jackal- Frederick Forsyth
17. How Iceland Changed the World Egill Bjarnasson
18. A Single Thread- Tracey Chevalier
19. The Essex Serpent- Sarah Perry
20. The Lost Continent- Bill Bryson
21. The Wimbledon Poisoner- Nigel Williams
22. Magpie Lane- Lucy Atkins
23. Slow Trains Around Spain- Tom Chessyre
24. Daughters of Spain- Jean Plaidy
25. Blood Orange- Harriet Tyce
26. Written in Blood Caroline Graham
27. September Rosamund Pilcher
28. The Family Upstairs- Lisa Jewell
29. Once Upon a River- Diane Setterfield
30. I know you- Clare McGowan
31. The Night Visitor- Lucy Atkins
32. Watching Neighbours Twice A Day- Josh Widdecomb
33. It Ends at Midnight- Harriet Tyce
34. The Bone Bed Patricia Cornwell
35. The Museum of Whales You Will Not See D Kendra Greene
36. The Secret History Donna Tartt
37. The Way through the woods- Bill Bryson
38. The Chestnut Man - Soren Sveistrup
39. The Magdalene Deception- Gary McAvoy
40. Hostage Clare Macintosh
41. Wintering Katherine May (DNF but got over halfway)
42. Let Me Lie- Clare Macintosh
43. I see you- Clare Macintosh
44. The Maidens Alex Michaelides

So, 9 goodies, 5 bollocking toshfests. Strange, it seems like it was so many more...

I’m going to steal bollocking toshfests for later use, soll 😂

Thanks for the new thread @Southeastdweller.

1. Action Park - Andy Mulvihill & Jake Rossen

2. The Moth and The Mountain - Ed Caesar

1. Cook, Eat, Repeat - Nigella Lawson
2. On Hampstead Heath - Marika Cobbold
3. Raising The Barre - Lauren Kessler
4. Such A Fun Age - Kiley Reid
5. The Mitford Scandal - Jessica Fellowes

8. Hamnet - Maggie O'Farrell

1. Labels - Evelyn Waugh

10. Head Over Heels (Geek Girl 5) - Holly Smale 11. St David of Dewisland - Nona Rees 12. We Are Bellingcat - Eliot Higgins 13. Nine Coaches Waiting - Mary Stewart 14. Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray 15. The Way We Eat Now - Bee Wilson 16. Hot Mess - Lucy Vine 17. Magpie Lane - Lucy Atkins 18. The Mission House - Carys Davies 19. The Fun of It - ed Lillian Ross 20. The Fine Art of Invisible Detection - Robert Goddard 21. Fall - John Preston 22. Mr Wilder and Me - Jonathan Coe 23. Young Jane Young - Gabrielle Zevin 24. High Rising - Angela Thirkell 25. Breathless - Amy McCulloch 26. Recovery - Gavin Francis 27. Things I Don't Want to Know - Deborah Levy 28. Moonfleet - J Meade Falkner 29. On The Road Again: Granta 94 ed Ian Jack 30. Wham! George and Me - Andrew Ridgeley 31. The Young Clementina - DE Stevenson 32. I Lost My Girlish Laughter - Jane Allen 33. Our House - Louise Candlish 34. A Florence Diary - Diana Athill 35. Forever Geek - Holly Smale 36. Idol - Louise O'Neill 37. Empire of Pain - Patrick Radden Keefe 38. Hidden Hands - Mary Wellesley 39. In A Lonely Place - Dorothy B Hughes 40. Three Women and a Boat - Anne Youngson 41. Court of Lions - Jane Johnson 42. The Maid - Nita Prose 43. Black Diamonds - Catherine Bailey 44. A Love Letter to Europe - various 45. A Lady's Guide to Fortune-Hunting - Sophie Irwin 46. A Class of Their Own - Matt Knott 47. Why Did You Stay? - Rebecca Humphries 48. 100 Things We've Lost to the Internet - Pamela Paul 49. The Fortunate Isles - Mary Stuart Boyd 50. How to be a Rock Star - Shaun Ryder 51. Bungalows - Kathryn Ferry 52.The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing - Melissa Bank 53. Royals - Emma Forrest

Only two stinkers on my list this year, but I've had a fair few DNFs. I'm back on a good streak, thank goodness. Currently reading Threads of Life, which is taking forever, and The Extra Man by Jonathan Ames (starts with a bit of cross-dressing involving an accident with a bra, in case Remus is around).

Thank you for the thread southeast

I'm really pleased to have past 50, given that I was so unwell this year I basically didn't read for 6 months. I'm also quite shocked at how few I have rated bold but that's basically me being a bit more select than in previous years.

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
31.	Mrs March by Virginia Feito
32.	Acts Of Desperation by Megan Nolan
33.	Shrines Of Gaiety by Kate Atkinson
34.	<strong>The People In The Trees</strong> by Hanya Yanagihara
35.	Utopia Avenue by David Mitchell
36.	Witchfinder by Andrew Williams
37.	Madly, Deeply : The Alan Rickman Diaries ed. Alan Taylor
38.	The Anthropocene Reviewed by John Green
39.	<strong>Natives : Race And Class In The Ruins Of Empire</strong> by Akala
40.	Reality Is Not What It Seems by Carlo Rovelli
41.	<strong>Say Nothing</strong> by Patrick Radden Keefe
42.	Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
43.	Triflers Need Not Apply by Camilla Bruce
44.	Girl A by Abigail Dean
45.	The Camomile Lawn by Mary Wesley
46.	The Pursuit Of William Abbey by Clare North
47.	Burial Rites by Hannah Kent
48.	The Peripheral by William Gibson
49.	The Wonder by Emma Donoghue
50.	<strong>Madhouse At The End Of The Earth</strong> by Julian Sancton
51.	The Three Body Problem by Cixin Liu
52.	The Dark Forest by Cixin Liu
53.	Death&rsquo;s End by Cixin Liu 
54.	Magician by Raymond E Feist
55.	The Bront&euml;s by Juliet Barker 
56.	Altered Carbon by Richard Morgan
57.	A Spy Among Friends by Ben Macintyre
58.	The Twyford Code by Janice Hallett

Close but no cigar on bolds :

Foster, All The Small Things, My Policeman, Prairie Fires, Fire And Blood

As to Colleen Hoover, some weird antenna of mine has told me to avoid and I've listened.

Thanks for the new thread southeast. I’ll save my list for the end of the year.

Bringing across my list:

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 66. Death and the Penguin - Andrey Kurkov 67. Anti-Social - Nick Pettigrew 68. Small Things Like These - Claire Keegan 69. Notes on a Scandal - Zoe Heller 70. London Rules - Mick Herron 71. The Jewel in the Crown - Paul Scott 72. The Toll Gate - Georgette Heyer 73. The Secret of Chimneys - Agatha Christie 74. The Marriage Portrait - Maggie O’Farrell 75. The Game of Thrones - George RR Martin 76. 4.50 from Paddington - Agatha Christie 77. My Cousin Rachel - Daphne du Maurier 78. Octavia - Jilly Cooper 79. The Accomplice - Steve Cavanagh

And adding my latest book:

80. The Colour Purple - Alice Walker

I am probably the only person on the thread who had not read this or seen the film.
The story of Celie is told in letters to God and then letters to/from her sister Nettie. It’s set in the early 20th century in the Southern USA and Celie is poor and black and has a grim life populated by unpleasant men: father/husband/stepson. Notwithstanding Celie’s tough life, I found this an uplifting book because Celie avoids self-pity and there are some great female characters. Recommended!

Just marking place.
bollocking toshfests [Grin]

Am reading The Postscript Murders - Elly Griffiths.
I don’t think it’s anywhere near as good as the Ruth Galloway series which I loved but it’s ok. Too many characters maybe.

Hello everyone, checking in. You don't need my list - will save it for the end of the year.
maud, what did you think of Action Park? I loved it, and gave it to several people who I thought would love it but they were all horrified and saw it as a cautionary tale about what happens if you don't have good health and safety legislation in place. Which, to be fair, it is as well.
Did you ever read the Wikipedia article about it? It's quite special.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Action_Park

And thank you southeast!

@PepeLePew I loved Action Park but also was horrified at the health and safety/legal aspect. I grew up in an environment where jumping off garage roofs/bridges was normal teenage behaviour, so I understand why some of the employees acted the way they did. What was shocking to me was that the park could opt out of having insurance, meaning people had absolutely no comeback in the event of accidents. It's an eyeopener of a book, that's for sure.

Increasingly doesn't look like I'll make it to 50 this year...

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 Twan 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
27 Bring Up the Bodies - Hilary Mantel
28 Mary Ann Sate, Imbecile - Alice Jolly
29 The Snow Queen - Hans Christian Anderson
30 The Hundred and One Dalmations - Dodie Smith
31 Headlong - Micheal Frayn
32 Little Altars Everywhere - Rebecca Wells
33 The Buddha of Suburbia - Hanif Kureshi
34 Pereira Maintains - Antonio Tabbuchi
35 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell

Thanks for the new thread, south. I think I’ll leave my list till the year’s end too.

Thanks southeast.

New thread, new 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
6. My name is why – Lemn Sissay
7. Life after Life – Kate Atkinson 9. Toast – Nigel Slater 10. Open Water – Caleb Azumah Nelson
8. The Lie – Helen Dunmore 12. 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
12. Diary of a bookseller – Shaun Bythell
13. Shuggie Bain – Douglas Stuart 18. Foster – Claire Keegan
14. Peaches for Monsieur Le Curé – Joanne Harris
15. Early morning riser – Katherine Heiny 21. Pachinko – Min Jin Lee
16. Rachel’s Holiday – Marian Keyes
17. The Island – Victoria Hislop
18. Seven days of us – Francesca Hornak
19. One August night – Victoria Hislop 26. I thought it was just me (but it isn’t): telling the truth about perfectionism, inadequacy and power – Brené Brown DNF : The devil in the Kitchen – Marco Pierre White & James Steen 27. The man who died twice – Richard Osman
20. Frugal Food – Delia Smith
21. Public Library and other stories – Ali Smith
22. Moon Tiger – Penelope Lively
23. Half-baked idea – Olivia Potts 32. Heart of Darkness – Joseph Conrad

Currently reading Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngoni Adichie and am surprisingly underwhelmed so far, having loved both Americanah and Half of a Yellow Sun. I'm also listening to Taste by Stanley Tucci - and loving it!

What is going on with the numbering??

WIDMERPOOL!

Phew! Got to the end of the last thread and panicked - thanks @Southeastdweller.

I've been saving The Twyford Code so now I'm feeling somewhat crestfallen, boooooo.

Almost no chance of me reaching 50 this year (currently on #31, although I am halfway through about 5 other books) so I've stopped hoping.

Snorting at bollocking toshfests which is so much more poetic than stinkers.

The update royally cacked up the numbering @nowanearlyNicemum. I can almost wrangle it into the corret format, but for some reason the first item in the list is always out.

@noodlezoodle I really liked The Twyford Code so hopefully you will too!

Thanks Chessie - fingers crossed!

Thanks @Southeastdweller

Thanks for the recs at the end of the old thread, everyone. Will check them out later.

@EineReiseDurchDieZeit You have unwittingly placed me in a puzzle and a quandary and a dilemma. I read and liked the sample of Jamrach's Menagerie but then I realised the author wrote one of the worst books I've ever finished: Review below.

Orphans of the Carnival by Carol Birch
I hated this. Only finished it because it was a freebie and I had to review it. I have absolutely no idea how it was Booker shortlisted because it is very badly written and, considering that its subject matter (19th century freak shows) is right up my street, it was very dull. So – there’s a woman covered in hair who looks like an ape but sings and dances like an angel. So far, so good. She sings and dances her way through about 250 pages, however, so not so good. Interspersed with that is some really dull stuff about another woman, this time a v uninteresting modern woman, who is a hoarder. Cue lots of boring stuff about her shelves of crap, and even more boring stuff about two men who seem to love her anyway. It all comes together in the end, but not in a way that makes the journey at all worthwhile. I see the Guardian reviewer didn’t like it either. Frankly, I’m astonished that a publisher was prepared to sell this drivel. The cover was beautiful though.

And now I feel like I can't spend even a mere six English pounds of my hard-earned dosh on Jamrach's, even though it has the history and sea voyage I yearn for. Bugger.

@stokey Sounds like an Oscar award just made me do a terribly undignified snort whilst sipping my Earl Grey.

Fell Farm books not on Kindle, sadly. Have got the sample of the Ransome - I actually have only ever read one of his (the obvious one) so that could potentially be a whole new world to explore.

Sticks head above parapet...I don't think I can cope with Sebastian Barry, based on previous experience. Ducks...

@RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie Ransome did a collection of Russian stories with a definite wintery feel - no idea if it's on Kindle as I have a paper copy.

Go with God @noodlezoodle

<Sign Of The Cross>