26-ish books for 2023

[Tinkhasflown]

A shiny new thread for 2023. There didn't appear to be one do hope it's ok that I have created it this year.

All welcome and note 26 is just a number. Everyone can set their own target and you are welcome here even if you only read 3 books a year.

I personally count the larger novel style books I read to my children and audio books I listen to. Others don't and there are no rules.

I look forward to all your suggestions again this year.

1)Case Histories by Kate Atkinson
2)Little Boy Lost by Marghanita Laski
3) My Name Is Why by Lemn Sissay
4) Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhy
5) The Murder Of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie.
6) The Loved One by Evelyn Waugh
7) The Prison Doctor by Dr Amanda Brown.
8) Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. This is brilliant and when I was reading I had trouble putting it down because of the plot and complex characters. But not an easy read in terms of subject matter, and quite dense so I had to be in the right mood for reading it. I'm still making up my mind about the ending. There were turns I thought were going to be taken that weren't and things characters did that I wasn't expecting but it was all believable.

Book 6 - Moon over Soho, the second in Ben Aaronovitch's series. Loved it.

List so far - I'll include this going forwards:

Twelve Secrets
People of Abandoned Character
The Herd
Last One at the Party
The Last Thing to Burn
Moon Over Soho

Iamblossom I e always wanted to try the Rivers of London series....are they any good? Are they supernatural or sci-if?

They are very good. Laugh out loud funny. Gritty London Street policing with magic. Fabulous.

I tend to listen via audible to these and the narrator does the most amazing accents for each person, so clever. I often guffaw on a dog walk. Really enjoying.

21 The Man who mistook his wife for a hat.

1 The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman
2 The Parasites by Daphne du Maurier
3 lessons in Chemistry
4 touch of love by Jonathan Coe
5 The bird in the bamboo cage by Heather Webb
6 The man who died twice by Richard Osman
7 just started - The Glass Blowers by Daphne du Maurier.

22 An Anthropologist on Mars

I’ve finished
3.Spare , I skim read the rest since I got bored half way
4.Queen K - Sarah Thomas , I just finished this morning , was pretty good
5.Boys From Biloxy- John Grisham now continuing this

Behind the Wand
Olive Mabel and Me
Do no Harm
Klara and the Sun
Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows
The last thing to burn
Silence of the Girls
Maps of our spectacular bodies

I've started off promisingly!!

My Other Family: A Woodford Child's Home in the Thirties by Joan Warne

A memoir of growing up in a home, with 60 other children, following the death of her mother. I found the book interesting but did feel sad reading it.

The author seems happy enough with the childhood she had, but looking at it as an outsider it does seem incredibly sad, hard and deprived even measured against the standards of the time.

Interestingly, this is the second time I have read this book. I read it when I was much younger, before I had a child. This seemed so much sadder on the second reading. I'm the age her mother was when she died.

23 The Sleeping Beauties and other stories of mystery illnesses

So far:

A Terrible Kindness
Shrines of Gaiety
Geneva (audible freebie by Richard Armitage - very average)
Lessons in Chemistry

all good - although Shrines of Gaiety took me a while and is not one of KA's best imo. Lessons in Chemistry is the standout so far.

A few chapters into 'Demon Copperhead' by Barbara Kingsolver and really enjoying it.

9: The Thursday Murder Club bu Richard Osman. DS bought me this in hardback when it first came out and it was a DNF, but it popped up as available on Borrowbox (audio) so I thought I’d give it another go. I’m not great at books with lots of characters and twists and turns on audio, I get distracted and miss bits (I should stick to memoirs and the like) but I got through it, found myself somewhat confused by the end and thought it was just me, but from reading goodreads etc it seems I’m not alone. It was entertaining and I liked the characters, just far too many of them, probably won’t read the second one.

Agree to the element of misery porn about it. It's relentless. But it's well written and I did also get caught up in the story.

BobDear I LOVED Lessonsin Chemistry.
Bonnie Garmus was speaking at our local Waterstones this evening but I couldn’t go. Gutted.

1)Case Histories by Kate Atkinson
2)Little Boy Lost by Marghanita Laski
3) My Name Is Why by Lemn Sissay
4) Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhy
5) The Murder Of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie.
6) The Loved One by Evelyn Waugh
7) The Prison Doctor by Dr Amanda Brown.
8) Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.
9) Confessions of a Failed Southern Lady by Florence King. Very dark humour and more sex than I expected. I didn't realise it was actually a real person's memoir either (because it's written like a novel and I didn't read the introductory section). When I twigged I made the mistake of looking her up to see what she looked like only to accidentally find out a major plot point. King is very academic and was feminist without knowing the word feminist. Much to her gran's horror she is not at all interested in modelling herself into the perfect wife and mother and refuses to keep her nose out of books - despite gran's advice that reading will ruin her chances with men. Lots of funny scenes, dialogue and one liners and the characters are brilliantly drawn. Really enjoyed it.

1. The Midnight Library- Matt Haig
2. The Switch - Beth O'Leary
3. The Coroner - MR Hall
4. Faking Friends - Jane Fallon (audio)
5. The Marlow Murder Club - Robert Thorogood
6. The Killing Kind - Jane Casey
7. Missing, Presumed - Susie Steiner (Audio). Really enjoyed the story but the narration was awful.

I'd like to join please. My aim is to read more. I'm not sure whether to add books I've read for work/study.

I also have a memory like a sieve and can't remember what I have read so far this year so I will start from now in March.

1. The Fortune Men - Nadia Mohamed.

I'm going to look back at this thread for inspiration. I am a bit guilty of getting books on Prime for free but they're not always the best so always glad of recommendations.

Finished no 6 Slug by Hollie McNish which is brilliant though for someone who appears to know that the experience of being a woman is female socialisation and having a woman's body she seems rather tone deaf to the idea that men can't be women and it's insulting to be called "cis".

A Maigret Christmas by Georges Simenon - good read, quite moving
Zone of Interest by Martin Amis - fantastic novel but harrowing, set in a concentration camp
A Morbid Taste for Bones by Ellis Peters - rubbish, made me sad as I loved these books as a child!
Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell - very good
Lolly Willoes or the loving huntsman by Sylvia Sylvia Townsend Warner - loved this, would really recommend
Diary of a Nobody by George and Weedon Grossmith - Not for me really, found it a bit sneering
Rosemary's Baby by Ira Levin - clever idea and quite original but dialogue is awful
Five Little Pigs by Agatha Christie - love this book, comfort re-read
The Talented Mr Ripley by Patricia Highsmith - brilliant novel, absolutely gripping

Just started my 10th book which is The Moon and Sixpence by Somerset Maugham. So far it's great!

Have you read many Agatha Christie books? I don't know which to read first.
Anyone have any recommendations?

This is a great thread on Agatha Christie and what to read first.

I am not counting them but I'm currently listening to all the Albert Campion books on audio (in the car/bed).

I love Agatha Christie! On what to read first that thread does look good. My favourites are The Murder of Roger Ackroyd and Sparkling Cyanide.