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?

Nigel always has that cheese in the back of his fridge AND poncy mushrooms. I’ve probably got a sad babybel.

although I do love his writing. Does anyone follow Laurenandthebooks? She got married recently and based her cake around some of his writing which I thought was lovely

Agree on the Nigel Slater ambivalence. Had to finish the Christmas Chronicles yesterday so he didn't carry on making me feel inadequate into January. He can keep his fancy mince pies and homemade marzipan (yuck) but I'm wildly jealous of his magical February break in Japan.

Finished number 36 this morning Eight months on Gazzah Street by Hilary Mantel and I’m done for 2022.

Didn’t make 50 but did better than last year (which had little room for reading) so I’m content with that.

• 58% were by authors I’d never read before.
• 70% were written by women.
• One third non-fiction which is a big increase compared to when I joined this thread 5 years ago so thanks to you all for bringing such great titles to my attention (and in the fiction department obviously!). Finally getting to grips with audible has also upped my non-fiction numbers as I find this format works really well for that.
• Shamefully not a single solitary French book read this year. If I hadn't kept a list I wouldn't have believed it possible 🙄 Must do better on this for 2023.

Last but not least, a huge thank you to southeast for keeping this lovely corner of the internet... well…lovely, as everything else comes tumbling down around our ears.

Are we posting lists? Who was volunteering to collate stats of our collective 2022 reading?

And damnit, he has made me want an £80 candle. I quite genuinely found myself sniffing my way along the line of reduced candles in TK Maxx, trying to work out which was closest to a mossy cloister wall.

Btw my last post was still grousing about Nigel Slater, in case it sounds entirely random.

I was on the readalong thread last year under my other MN name (winter based, I may amalgamate the two in the NY, don't know really why I keep both going!) and more than one person on the back of Nige (there's an image) received the Cire Trudon candle for Christmas.

A shout out though to homemade marzipan if you like marzipan- not Nigel's but Delia's. So so different to bought almond paste. I remember making it for cookery O level, but not since, but jeez the difference.

Sending lots of hugs and thoughts to you bett

A Curious History of Sex sounds right up my street and I've added it to my wishlist. I actually wrote my dissertation on the history of prostitution and had an amazing dissertation advisor who specialises in the history of sexuality

Finished my final book for 2022, didn't make it to 50 unfortunately

41. The Curious Habits of Doctor Adams by Jane Robins This was a fascinating non-fiction about Dr John Bodkin Adams who in the 1950s was put on trial for murdering patients in order to inherit from them. After the trial all records relating to the case were sealed for 75 years. This obviously created a lot of speculation over what was hidden in the records! Then a few years ago a successful freedom of information request was made and the records were released early. Adams very much seems like an early Harold Shipman and this book is extremely well researched and well written, I would definitely recommend. The world Adams lived and worked in seemed so far from modern life I had to keep reminding myself the events of the book occurred in my parents lifetime. It was such an amazing insight into everyday life in the 40s and 50s and really highlighted the incredible changes in society since then

Will be back later with my stats for the year when I'm not so surrounded by kids

Happy New Year to everyone when it comes.
This is my list for the year, not as many books as I hoped to get through as it’s been a hectic year.
I still have about 30 pages of The Expendable Man to get through but I should get it done today with any luck.

1. The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding- Agatha Christie
2. Without Fail – Lee Child
3. In A Lonely Place – Dorothy B Hughes 4. Midwinter Murders – Agatha Christie
4. The Inn – James Patterson
5. Into The Water – Paula Hawkins
6. Longbourn – Jo Baker
7. Rear Window – Cornell Woolrich
8. The Lamplighters – Emma Stonex
9. Bel Canto – Ann Patchett
10. The Mall – Richie Tankersley Cusick 12. Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant – Anne Tyler
11. Wrecking Ball – Jeff Kinney 8 14. Footsteps in the Dark – Georgette Heyer
12. The Storyteller – Dave Grohl
13. The Lottery and Other Stories – Shirley Jackson
14. They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? – Horace McCoy
15. Mr Bowling Buys a Newspaper – Donald Henderson
16. Not A Happy Family – Shari Lapena
17. Guards! Guards! – Terry Pratchett
18. The Yearbook – Peter Lerangis
19. The Juke and I – Julia Quinn
20. Mrs March – Virginia Feito
21. The Grand Sophy – Georgette Heyer
22. Life Among the Savages – Shirley Jackson
23. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire – J K Rowling
24. The Other Passenger – Louise Candlish
25. The Twins at St Clares – Enid Blyton
26. Hard Times – Charles Dickens
27. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix – J K Rowling
28. Breakfast at Tiffanys – Truman Capote 32. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn – Betty Smith 33. Mrs England – Stacey Halls
29. Miracle Cure – Harlan Coben
30. The Fifth Witness – Michael Connelly
31. Emma – Jane Austen
32. Travelling Cat Chronicles – Hiro Arikawa
33. The Gran Tour – Ben Aitken
34. Apples Never Fall – Liane Moriarty
35. The Paris Apartment – Lucy Foley
36. Life to the Limit – Jensen Button
37. Spark Joy – Marie Kondo
38. The Paper Palace – Miranda Cowley Heller
39. The House With No Rooms – Lesley Thomson
40. Persauder – Lee Child
41. Prep – Curtis Sittenfeld
42. More Than A Woman – Caitlin Moran 48. The Miniaturist – Jessie Burton
43. Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince – J K Rowling
44. The Silent Companions – Laura Purcell
45. Ghost Stories – M R James
46. The Roommate – Diane Hoh
47. The Hobbit – J R R Tolkien
48. Lessons in Chemistry – Bonnie Garmus
49. The Importance of Being Kennedy – Laurie Graham
50. Stories I Only Tell My Friends – Rob Lowe 57. The Woman In White – Wilkie Collins
51. Murder in Christmas River – Meg Muldoon
52. Skipping Christmas – John Grisham
53. Murder on Christmas Eve – Various
54. The Christmas Train – David Baldacci
55. Christmas at the Beach Café – Lucy Diamond 63. A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens
56. War and Peace – Leo Tolstoy 9
57. The Expendable Man – Dorothy B Hughes

38 female, 25 male, 1 mixed
24 audiobooks
17 ebooks
23 physical books
58 fiction, 6 non fiction

Ok I'm not quite sure what happened to the numbering on my list there! But it was a total of 65 books this year.

I never quite reached my reading goals this year eg had wanted to read two or three Stephen Kings but never managed a single one. Too much doomscrolling which I need to rectify for next year.

Morning everyone, loving the Nigel Slater reviews, can just imagine this all occuring in my rather gentrified neighbourhood.

I've managed 76 books this year down from 107 last year, mainly due to not falling for Kindle thrillers, and not being able to stop scrolling through the news for large chunks of the year. Hopefully will be a bit calmer this year. Exclusively fiction bar Grace Dent although I do have 2 or 3 non-fictions on the go. I've read 75% female authors and 22% non- white authors.

My top reads:
The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida - Shehan Karunatilaka
Nightcrawling - Leila Mottley
Still Life - Sarah Winman
A Town Called Solace - Mary Lawson
The Paper Palace - Miranda Cowley Heller
*The Bread The Devil Knead - Lisa Allen-Agostini *
Summer - Ali Smith, though this should be the whole seasonal quartet which I read over the year

Best classic - Moon Tiger - Penelope Lively

Best SF - The Space Between Worlds - Micaiah Johnson

Strange but good - Build Your House Around Your Body - Violet Kupersmith

Thanks to everyone here for being fellow book geeks and providing in-depth insight, very funny reviews and lots of amazing recommendations - a very un Mumsnetty ❤️ to you all.

Those who are getting sucked into doomscrolling, can I recommend Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman - long pre-dates the twitter era (published in 1985), but has really helped me re-think my media use.

No sex to be found in Waterstones, sadly, so I opted for Michael Palin instead.

Thanks @sadik I've added your recommendation to my wishlist.

Quote of the Year I think.

And here is my year end list. Almost entirely fiction by women, but I've no plans to change that. My book of the year is either Matrix or the controversial Whalebone Theatre, though if I'm being honest the most fun I had reading anything was Circle of Friends which certainly came as a surprise.

1.	Rizzio by Denise Mina
2.	Rachel’s Holiday by Marian Keyes
3.	Magpie by Elizabeth Day
4.	Why Breastfeeding Grief and Trauma Matter by Amy Brown
5.	Luster by Raven Leilani
6.	The Sanatorium by Sarah Pearse
7.	The Women of Troy by Pat Barker
8.	<strong>Matrix by Lauren Groff</strong> 
9.	The Lamplighters by Emma Stonex
10.	Watch Her Fall by Erin Kelly
11.	The Turnout by Megan Abbott
12.	<strong>Still Life by Sarah Winman</strong>
13.	Intimacies by Katie Kitamura
14.	Long Bright River by Liz Moore 
15.	The Cutting Season by Atticka Locke
16.	<strong>Unsettled Ground by Clare Fuller</strong> 
17.	<strong>Open Water by Caleb Azumah Nelson</strong> 
18.	Brown Girls by Daphne Palasi Andreades
19.	True Crime Story by Joseph Knox
20.	Learning to Swim by Clare Chambers
21.	Friends and Strangers by J. Courtney Sullivan 
22.	Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi
23.	<strong>The Sealwoman&rsquo;s Gift by Sally Magnusson</strong> 
24.	Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus
25.	Love Marriage by Monica Ali
26.<strong>	Circle of Friends by Maeve Binchy</strong> 
27.	Broken Harbour by Tana French
28.	The Exhibitionist by Charlotte Mendelson 
29.	Gentlemen and Players by Joanne Harris
30.	Different Class by Joanne Harris
31.	The Narrow Door by Joanne Harris 
32.	Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid
33.	Book Lovers by Emily Henry
34.	Daughters of Night by Laura Shepherd-Robinson 
35.	<strong>You Made a Fool of Death with your Beauty by Akwaeke Emezi</strong> 
36.	Young Mungo by Douglas Stuart
37.	The Uninvited Guests by Sadie Jones
38.	Companion Piece by Ali Smith
39.	The Trio by Joanna Hedman
40.	Miss Aldridge Regrets by Louise Hare
41.	Idol by Louise O&rsquo;Neill
42.	You Be Mother by Meg Mason 
43.	Everything I Know About Love by Dolly Alderton 
44.	The Lie by Helen Dunmore
45.	The Dry by Jane Harper
46.	The Stranding by Kate Sawyer
47.	Ruth and Pen by Emilie Pine 
48.	Free Love by Tessa Hadley
49.<strong>	The Skeleton Key by Erin Kelly</strong> 
50.	The Accidental Tourist by Anne Tyler
51.	Trust by Hernan Diaz
52.	<strong>Honey and Spice by Bola Babalola</strong> 
53.	<strong>Shrines of Gaity by Kate Atkinson</strong> 
54.<strong>	Amy and Lan by Sadie Jones</strong> 
55.	V for Victory by Lissa Evans
56.	The Night Visitor by Lucy Atkins
57.	Eight Days in June by Tia Williams 
58.	People Person by Candice Carty-Williams 
59.	<strong>Burntcoat by Sarah Hall</strong>
60.	The Fell by Sarah Moss
61.	The Other Side of the Bridge by Mary Lawson 
62.	<strong>The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O'Farrell</strong>
63.	The Paris Apartment by Lucy Foley
64.	The Female Persuasion by Meg Wolitzer 
65.<strong>	The Whalebone Theatre by Joanna Quinn</strong> 
66.	The Long Call by Ann Cleeves
67.	Winter Solstice by Rosamunde Pilcher 
68.	The Heron&rsquo;s Cry by Ann Cleeves
69.	The Secret Place by Tana French

There was a Nigel readalong??! Very disappointed to have missed that. Some things are better shared and scoffed at together.

I don’t think I’m going to finish any more books this year as I DNF the book I was reading on Princess Mary, the late Queen’s Aunt (lovely woman, but nothing much happened and the book was not well written) so here is my 2022 summary.

• I read 111 books, 3 more than I managed in 2022.
• 15% were re-reads, compared with 38% in 2021.
• 86% fiction / 14% non-fiction, compared with 89% fiction / 11% non-fiction in 2021.
• 90% kindle / 4% books / 6% audible, compared with 62% kindle / 6% books / 32% audible in 2021 (I think I listened to more audible books as I found them easier when recovering from a broken ankle)
• 33% were by male authors and 67% were by female authors, compared with 36% male / 64% female.

My absolute stand-out books are listed below, and all of those that that I really enjoyed or have stayed with me this year are highlighted in my full list:

Fiction

• Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day by Winifred Watson
• The Chrysalids by John Wyndham
• Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
• Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones
• The Dark Tower series by Stephen King

Non-Fiction

• Becoming Unbecoming by Una
• This Much is True by Miriam Margolyes
• The Dark Queens by Shelley Puhak
• Odd Girl Out: An Autistic Woman in a Neurotypical World by Laura James

It’s been lovely reading with you all this year, looking forward to more book recommendations and chat in 2023.

1 NEEDFUL THINGS by STEPHEN KING
2 RAMBLE BOOK by ADAM BUXTON
3 SMALL PLEASURES by CLARE CHAMBERS
4 HOWL'S MOVING CASTLE by DIANA WYNNE JONES
5 A RIP IN HEAVEN by JEANINE CUMMINS
6 RACHEL'S HOLIDAY by MARIAN KEYES
7 A GOOD ENOUGH MOTHER by BEV THOMAS
8 WOLVES OF THE CALLA by STEPHEN KING
9 THE THINGS WE LEFT UNSAID by EMMA KENNEDY
10 1979 by VAL MCDERMID
11 SONG OF SUSANNAH by STEPHEN KING
12 BRASS RING by DIANE CHAMBERLAIN
13 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 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 MAGOLYES
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 CATASTROPHE by JODI TAYLOR
34 AGAIN, RACHEL by MARIAN KEYES
35 THE EDITOR'S WIFE CLARE CHAMBERS
36 THE VISION by DEAN KOONTZ
37 THE WAITING ROOM 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 DOLORES CLAIBORNE by STEPHEN KING
48 ODD GIRL OUT: AN AUTISTIC WOMAN IN A NEUROTYPICAL WORLD by LAURA JAMES
49 NEW POMPEII by DANIEL GODFREY
50 THE BOOKSHOP by PENELOPE FITZGERALD
51 THE BLACKBIRD SEASON by KATE MORETTI
52 THE OPPENHEIMER ALTERNATIVE by ROBERT J SAWYER
53 MISS PETTIGREW LIVES FOR A DAY by WINIFRED WATSON
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 MASTERTON
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 SHELLEY 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 by RICHARD HERRING
69 NETHERSPACE by ANDREW LANE
70 DID YOU SEE MELODY? by SOPHIE HANNAH
71 THE CHRYSALIDS by JOHN WYNDHAM
72 WHERE SHE LIES by MICHAEL SCANLON
73 THE REHEARSALS by ANNETTE CHRISTIE
74 A CLOCKWORK ORANGE by ANTHONY BURGESS
75 THE CUCKOO'S CALLING by ROBERT GALBRAITH
76 THE SILKWORM by ROBERT GALBRAITH
77 CAREER OF EVIL by ROBERT GALBRAITH
78 LETHAL WHITE by ROBERT GALBRAITH
79 TROUBLED BLOOD by ROBERT GALBRAITH
80 THE INK BLACK HEART by ROBERT GALBRAITH
81 THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON by F SCOTT FITZGERALD
82 ABOUT TIME by JODI TAYLOR
83 HUNGRY by GRACE DENT
84 THE SKELETON ROAD by VAL MCDERMID
85 OUT OF BOUNDS by VAL MCDERMID
86 BROKEN GROUND by VAL MCDERMID
87 STILL LIFE by VAL MCDERMID
88 HILLSBOROUGH VOICES by KEVIN SAMPSON
89 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY by ARTHUR C CLARKE
90 THE FIVE DYSFUNCTIONS OF A TEAM PATRICK LENCIONI
91 BEFORE THEY ARE HANGED by JOE ABERCROMBIE
92 LAST ARGUMENT OF KINGS by JOE ABERCROMBIE
93 MARKING TIME by APRIL WHITE
94 TEMPTING FATE by APRIL WHITE
95 CHANGING NATURE APRIL WHITE
96 WAGING WAR by APRIL WHITE
97 CHEATING DEATH by APRIL WHITE
98 THE FACT OF A BODY by ALEXANDRIA MARZANO-LESNEVICH
99 IN A HOLIDAZE by CHRISTINA LAUREN
100 NO SECOND CHANCE by HARLAN COBEN
101 BLACKLANDS by BELINDA BAUER
102 A CHRISTMAS CORNUCOPIA by MARK FORSYTH
103 DARKSIDE by BELINDA BAUER
104 FINDERS KEEPERS by BELINDA BAUER
105 RUBBER NECKER by BELINDA BAUER
106 THE FACTS OF LIFE AND DEATH by BELINDA BAUER
107 NINE ELMS by ROBERT BRYNDZA
108 A SPARK OF LIGHT by JODI PICOULT
109 SANTA GRINT by JODI TAYLOR
110 AMERICANAH by CHIMAMANDA NGOZI ADICHIE
111 LAST CHANCE SALOON by MARIAN KEYES

Why, thank you! 😀

This is my list for the year - bolds indicate books I particularly liked or was impressed by, not necessarily any indication of literary merit.

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 54. Threads of Life - Clare Hunter 55. Geek Drama - Holly Smale 56. Jews Don't Count - David Baddiel 57. A Christmas Cornucopia - Mark Forsyth 58. A German Christmas - Festive Tales from Berlin to Bavaria 59. My Body - Emily Ratajkowski 60. Free Love - Tessa Hadley 61. The Mystery of the Sorrowful Maiden - Kate Saunders

Thanks to @southeastdweller for keeping us all on track and to everyone for your lovely company and bookish chats throughout the year.

Ooh I can also add my number 55 now - Year of Wonder: Classical Music for Everyday by Clemency Burton Hill

This has been a fantastic reading/ listening/ learning experience this year. Truly it’s been a gift, I’ve learned a lot and listened to some fabulous pieces of music I’d probably never have come across otherwise. I still don’t know much about classical music, but I know more than I did and am inspired to keep listening because it’s there to be enjoyed by everyone.

I can’t remember which 50 Booker first brought it to my attention on this thread, but I’d like to thank them as well as @IsFuzzyBeagMise (unless it was you Fuzzy in which case double thanks) for starting the readalong/ listen along thread which has also been a real delight this year.

For anyone considering this for next year, I heartily recommend it (and may well go back to the beginning again myself).

I'm not going to bring my list over because it's really long and I cba to pull it all together, but here are my stats.

42% by male authors, 57% by female authors, 1% by both.

6.62% audible, 46.36% kindle, 17.22% library books, 29.8% physical. My physical to read towers are getting a bit out of control now so I definitely need to prioritise them over my kindle this year!

69.54% fiction, 25.5% non fiction, 4.3% children's books, 0.66% short stories.

87.75% were new to me this year, 12.25% were rereads. A lot of the rereads were books I read every Christmas, plus when I go on holiday I like to read books set in that place and this year I went to Corfu so that involved a lot of Durrell rereads.

50.66% of my books I rated as 4 or 5 stars. 36.75% were rated 3 stars, with 12.58 being rated just 1 or 2 stars.

My 5 star reads were:
Watching Neighbours Twice A Day: How '90s TV (Almost) Prepared Me For Life- Josh Widdicombe
Rachel's Holiday - Marian Keyes
Victoria Wood Unseen On TV - Victoria Wood
Again, Rachel - Marian Keyes
Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day - Winifred Watson
Life After Life - Kate Atkinson
My Family And Other Animals - Gerald Durrell
Birds, Beasts and Relatives - Gerald Durrell
The Garden Of The Gods - Gerald Durrell
Behind The Scenes At The Museum - Kate Atkinson
Once Upon A Tome: The Misadventures of a Rare Bookseller - Oliver Darkshire
The Wayward Bus - John Steinbeck
The Diary Of A Provincial Lady - E M Delafield
The Woman In White - Wilkie Collins
Bibliomaniac - Robin Ince
The Children Of Green Knowe - Lucy M Boston
A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
The Christmas Chronicles: Notes, Stories and 100 Essential Recipes For Midwinter - Nigel Slater
Bournville - Jonathan Coe

23.. YEAR OF WONDER: Classical Music for Every Day by Clemency Burton-Hill

For every day of the year, the author talks about a different piece of classical music from the 13th Century to the 20th. It's an interesting enough idea and it was good to get exposure to some types of music that I had never listened to before, but the information was 10% commentary about the music and 90% superficial trivia about the composers.

Only upon finishing it did I realize that the author is a pretty American woman in her 30s. This is no doubt partly my prejudice against women authors, but I couldn't help thinking that this book's lack of substance had something to do with that.

Forgot to say... I happen to know some of the pieces mentioned in that book rather well, and the pages about them were very disappointing. It made me doubt the information she gave on the music that I didn't know.

@AliasGrape and @CoteDAzur There is a sequel, Another Year of Wonder. Sounds a wonderful project but I don't think I have time to follow along each day.

1. The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress - Robert A Heinlein
2. Dark Places - Gillian Flynn
3. Handel in London - Jane Glover
4. Doomsday Book - Connie Willis
5. De l'art ou manière de chanter - Christoph Bernhard (translated from German by Frédéric Graber)
6. The Diamond Age: Or, a Young Lady's Illustrated Primer - Neal Stephenson
7. The Little Bach Book - David Gordon
8. Ancient Rhetoric - from Aristotle to Philostratus translated and edited by Thomas Habinek
9. Blood Ties - A J Quinnell

10. Mockingbird - Walter Tevis 11. Tai-Pan James Clavell 12. The Devil's Alternative - Frederick Forsyth 13. Consider Her Ways - John Wyndham 14. In The Name of the Father - A J Quinnell 15. Termination Shock - Neal Stephenson 16. The Ipcress File - Len Deighton 17. Judas 62 by Charles Cummings 18. Ogres by Adrian Tchaikovsky 19. The Sentinel (Jack Reacher #25) - Lee Child 20. Shards of Earth - Adrian Tchaikovsky 21. Better Off Dead (Jack Reacher #26) - Lee Child and Andrew Child 22. All You Need Is Kill - Hiroshi Sakurazaka 23. YEAR OF WONDER: Classical Music for Every Day - Clemency Burton-Hill

17% female and 83% male authors

22% non-fiction and 78% fiction

39% SF, 17% thrillers, 4% historical fiction, 9% espionage, 17% non-fiction about music.

Although I managed only about half of my target this year, I enjoyed an exceptionally high 70% of them.

See you all in next year's 50-Book threads