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.

11. The Millstone by Margaret Drabble - Story about single-motherhood, written in 1965. Interesting story, enjoyable and thought provoking.

10 - Windswept and Interesting by Billy Connolly (audio). I knew a fair amount about the Big Yin already but this was a really interesting listen, what a life he has had, from a childhood with abusive family members through a rise to fame to slowing things down in later life living in Florida.

29 I Dont Talk to Dead People. Ok biography but not as interesting as others I've read.

30 Tomorrowland. Our journey from science fiction to science fact.

2023 Books:

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

The Girls Who Disappeared - OK, not amazing. A bit far fetched

1. Windswept and Interesting by Billy Connolly. To be honest the first few chapters I struggled to keep up with his brain pace. He writes as he speaks, and like my youngest child does. Every thought that comes through his head comes straight out his mouth and it's hard to keep up with the constant change of direction. But then i settled into it, like when you read a book that is written in a different way to the way you think, it takes a bit of time to adjust. Once I did, then I so enjoyed this. Laughed out loud many a time and it was indeed like Billy was in the room ranting away in his own windswept and interesting manner. Well worth a read.

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 The Glass Blowers by Daphne du Maurier
8 The travelling cat chronicles by Hiro Arkawa. Started this one today. It was a random charity shop pick but I'm enjoying it so far.

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I haven't updated in a while, but haven't made much progress. I am still reading We need to Talk about Kevin! It is a whopper of a book and I tend to fall asleep every night having only read half a page - so it will be a while yet.

I have listened to a few audio books, and had a couple that I DNF. I gave up on Life after Life. My first Kate Atkinson book, maybe it was because it was audio, but I just couldn't listen any longer.... I also gave up on To Kill a Mocking Bird - I definitely just need to read that one...

Book 7 was Menopausing Davina McCall and Naomi Potter. A great informative read and so useful for me following my surgery.

Book 8 was Strange Flower by Donal Ryan. (audio) I found this book beautifully descriptive but a bit disjointed. It is about a family whose daughter goes missing from a small Irish town in 1973 and returns after five years with a few secrets to be revealed.

Book 9 Small Things by Claire Keegan (audio) This was a short novel based in a small Irish town about a coal merchant who makes an unwelcome discovery while making a delivery to the local convent in the weeks leading up to Christmas. Short but packs a punch and I will look for other books by this Author.
Book 10 56 Days by Catherine Ryan Howard (audio) set during covid when a new couple move in together so they can be isolation buddies. One of them ends up dead and is being investigated as potentially the perfect murder... It kept me intrigued.

I'm currently listening to Duffy and Son by Damien Owens which is hilarious in parts and sad in others. The humour is very Irish though and all about the sayings so likely better as an audio book and may not be everyones cup of tea.

@Breathmiller I loved Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Her other books are great too. I loved Purple Hibiscus.

My update, I'm not getting through them at my usual pace, but am trying to read genres that are slightly out of my usual comfort zone.

1. The Devil You Know
2. I don't take requests
3. The Herd
4. Still Life
5. The 100 Years of Lenni & Margo
6. Phrophecy

Number 8 - The Chalk Man by C J Tudor

Pretty impressive for a debut novel. Well written, good story, nice twist at the end, although I enjoyed the first 3 quarters more than the final one

Book number 7 is The Stalker by Alex Gray

I finished
5.The Boys From Biloxy- John Grisham
I quite liked it but found it a bit long towards the end .
Just started
6.The Fairytale-Stephen King which is over 500 pages so will take me a while ,I’m not reading as much atm . Only 2 more books left in my to read pile after it . I’ve been reading and decluttering what I’ve read in the last year , DH has some books I might read I’m pretty sure so I won’t run out . Oh and I’ve got more on kindle …

Books 30-33. Playing Doctor 1,2 and 3. V similar to lots of other autobiographies but I like the humour that is there.

7: Deep Sea and Foreign Going by Rose George
Really interesting non-fiction book about container ships. Her passion for the sea really shines through.

1. The Night Ship - Jess Kidd - thank you to whoever suggested this. I really enjoyed it. Quite a dark story but has made me want to learn more about The Batavia.

Breathmiller it might have been me that recommended The Night Ship. I loved it, though I preferred Mayken’s story to the modern day one.
Yes, I too would like to find out more about the Batavia

Oh thanks for the recommendation baconandavocado.
I flitted sometimes between getting in to one of the stories more than the other but yes, was drawn to Mayken's. Although Gil's at the end was intriguing

I first found it a bit jarring to go from one to the other so quickly but saw them as more and more entangled as it went on.

I fell down a wiki hole about the Batavia last night. My dh is from Western Australia and if we ever get to visit there then I'd love to go visit the museums thay have bits about it.
There is also a replica of the Batavia in the Netherlands which would be amazing to go and visit. I'd like to walk the boat and imagine Mayken. I couldn't find anything about whether she was based on someone or completely fictional.

I’m really enjoying Stephen King’s new Fairy Tale !!!

I've just finished Her Name Was Rose, Claire Allan. Really enjoyed it. If anyone liked Behind Closed Doors, BA Paris, you'll love this.
Sometimes I Lie, Alice Feeney was great, too.
I've only read 6 books this year.
I read more in Summer !

I read The Girls, Lisa Jewell, too. I found it disappointing. I still maintain her best is And Then She Was Gone.
Thanks to whoever recommended A Terrible Kindness. I've ordered it.

I've just finished Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver.

I really enjoyed it. She is very hit and miss for me - loved The Poisonwood Bible, couldn't get on with Lacuna at all...

Demon Copperhead is a re-telling of David Copperfield but set against a backdrop of Rural Virginia during the 80s/90's/00'. For anyone that watched 'Dopesick' - you will recognise the ex-mining towns that fell first and hardest to the influx of Purdue Pharma's OxyContin, and this is a major theme.

Born to an addict mother and dead father, Demon (real name Damon) has the odds stacked against him, and for a long while it seems that he will never escape his pre-ordaned future. And then a glimmer of hope and a change in fortune, but addiction comes calling again...

Funny, sad, thought provoking and a really strong story. Close to David Copperfield in many ways - miles apart in others. Would recommend.

So far this year then:

The Vanishing Half
A Terrible Kindness
Shrines of Gaiety
Lessons in Chemistry
Geneva
Demon Copperhead.

On track!

1. Daughter's of Partition- Fozia Raja - very moving account of the author's grandmother's life.

11: How to be a Footballer by Peter Crouch - Peter played for the team I support as well as England, he is witty, observant and self-deprecating, on the whole I enjoyed this book but it could have done with being shorter, I kind of lost interest by the last third or so.

Just finished no 7 A Shepherd's Life by James Rebanks. It was a present from my DM for some birthday/Christmas or other and I hadn't looked at it but I loved it.

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) Difficult Women by Helen Lewis: A History of Feminism In 11 Fights.
10) The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson. I really don't know what I think of this book and I've been mulling it over a good while. I liked the odd dialogue, I think, with the fantasy talk and snarkinesness. I liked the characters, how the 2 late additions threw things onto a different tack and I liked the main character's blunt thinking and the plot. But I'm not sure about everyone's motivations and what exactly was going on. Especially with the main character. And it bothers me! I think some of that is genre related and it's not the sort of thing I normally read.

1. Zikora - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

This is a (very) short story, I chose it because I had liked Half of a Yellow Sun so much and wanted to read more of the author. It is free on Prime Reading for anyone who has it.