50 books challenge - 2023 round up

[Tarahumara]

Hello 50 bookers! Here's a separate thread to gather together our top recommendations from the year. Please post your final lists, or just your bolds if you prefer. I'll come back later with mine...

Here’s my final list for 2023!

64 books in total - slightly less than in recent years, I blame the puppy.
52% female / 48% male authors
42% fiction / 58% non-fiction
40% kindle / 37% hard copy / 23% Audible

1. Unmasking Autism: the power of embracing our hidden neurodiversity - Devon Price
2. Lolly Willowes - Sylvia Townsend Warner
3. Act of Oblivion - Robert Harris
4. Asperger’s and Girls - Tony Attwood et al
5. And Finally - Henry Marsh
6. Ask A Historian - Greg Jenner
7. Riddley Walker - Russell Hoban
8. An Immense World - Ed Yong
9. Head First: a psychiatrist’s stories of mind and body - Alastair Santhouse
10. A Million Years in a Day - Greg Jenner
11. The Dangerous Kingdom of Love - Neil Blackmore
12. Side Hustle - Chris Guillebeau
13. Feminism for Women - Julie Bindel
14. I’m a Fan - Sheena Patel
15. Exercised - Daniel Lieberman
16. Fairy Tale - Stephen King
17. Children of Paradise - Camilla Grudova
18. Woman, Eating - Claire Kohda
19. The Sensory-Sensitive Child - Karen A. Smith & Karen R. Gouze
20. Less is Lost - Andrew Sean Greer
21. Trespasses - Louise Kennedy
22. Dead Famous - Greg Jenner
23. Secrets of the Sea - Robert Vennell
24. From Here to Eternity - Caitlin Doherty
25. Fire Rush - Jacqueline Crooks
26. Confessions of a Bookseller - Shaun Bythell
27. The God Desire - David Baddiel
28. Untypical - Pete Wharmby
29. The Marriage Portrait - Maggie O’Farrell
30. An Emotional Dictionary - Susie Dent
31. Pod - Laline Paull
32. Pandora’s Jar - Natalie Haynes
33. The Happy Puppy Handbook - Pippa Mattinson
34. Life Ceremony - Sayaka Murata
35. Idol - Louise O’Neill
36. Jung: the key ideas - Ruth Snowden
37. For Thy Great Pain, Have Mercy on my Little Pain - Victoria Mackenzie
38. The Portable Door - Tom Holt
39. Mortal Monarchs - Suzie Edge
40. The Mental Load: a feminist comic - Emma
41. Wintersmith - Terry Pratchett
42. Puppy Taming - Caroline Davis
43. Where I End - Sophie White
44. Femina - Janina Ramirez
45. All Dogs Great and Small - Graeme Hall
46. The Old Curiosity Shop - Charles Dickens
47. The Book of Margery Kempe
48. Ancient Writing and the History of the Alphabet - John McWhorter
49. Our Wives Under the Sea - Julia Armfield
50. Sorrow and Bliss - Meg Mason
51. Words on the Move - John McWhorter
52. The Patriarchs - Angela Saini
53. Queens of the Wild - Ronald Hutton
54. Women’s Lore - Sarah Clegg
55. Utopia Avenue - David Mitchell
56. Ghost Stories of an Antiquary - M.R. James
57. Wild Things: how we learn to read and what can happen if we don’t - Sally Rippin
58. Let Sleeping Vets Lie - James Herriot
59. Unsettled Ground - Claire Fuller
60. The Word - John Barton
61. Magpie Lane - Lucy Atkins
62. Born for This: how to find the work you were meant to do - Chris Guillebeau
63. How to Overcome Trauma and Find Yourself Again - Jessamy Hibberd
64. Remainders of the Day - Shaun Bythell

I read 77 books this year, which is probably a record for me. 56 books were by women (73%); 8 were nonfiction (10%); 20 were by BAME writers (26%); 10 were in French (8%); only 3 were in translation (4%). I have alphabetised my reads below (good god, could I be any more of a geek??). I have lots of bolds (apparently I bold about a third of the books I read!), but I won’t apologise for that, ha.

Bold fiction

1. Canterbury Tales, Chaucer
2. Homesick, Jennifer Croft
3. David Copperfield, Charles Dickens
4. Ducks, Newburyport, Lucy Ellmann
5. Passion simple, Annie Ernaux
6. Journal du dehors [Exteriors], Annie Ernaux
7. The Beginning of Spring, Penelope Fitzgerald
8. Madame Bovary, Gustave Flaubert, read in French with the help of the translation by Lydia Davis
9. Just a Mother, Roy Jacobsen, trans. Don Bartlett and Don Shaw

10. Trespasses, Louise Kennedy 11. August Blue, Deborah Levy 12. The First Woman, Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi 13. The Cartographer Tries to Map a Way to Zion, Kei Miller 14. Augustown, Kei Miller 15. The Bee Sting, Paul Murray 16. Lucy by the Sea, Elizabeth Strout 17. Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont, Elizabeth Taylor 18. Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead, Olga Tokarczuk, translated from Polish into English by Antonia Lloyd-Jones 19. Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy, trans. by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky 20. Kala, Colin Walsh 21. L’Art de perdre [The Art of Losing], Alice Zeniter 22. Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, Gabrielle Zevin

Bold nonfiction

1. The History of Emotions: A Very Short Introduction, Thomas Dixon
2. Doppelganger: A Trip into the Mirror World, Naomi Klein
3. Giving Up the Ghost, Hilary Mantel
4. Aimer, enseigner, Yvon Rivard

Other fiction

1. A Spell of Good Things, Ayobami Adebayo
2. Windmill Hill, Lucy Atkins
3. Study for Obedience, Sarah Bernstein
4. Penance, Eliza Clark
5. The Moth Catcher, Ann Cleeves
6. L’Évangile du nouveau monde [Gospel According to the New World], Maryse Condé
7. Greenwitch, Susan Cooper
8. The Grey King, Susan Cooper
9. Silver on the Tree, Susan Cooper

10. Fire Rush, Jacqueline Crooks 11. Love Me Tender, Constance Debré 12. The Wren, the Wren, Anne Enright 13. If I Survive You, Jonathan Escoffery 14. The Seventh Son, Sebastian Faulks 15. Children of Paradise, Camilla Grudova 16. Stone Blind, Natalie Haynes 17. Demon Copperhead, Barbara Kingsolver 18. Babel, Rebecca F. Kuang 19. Yellowface, Rebecca F. Kuang 20. The Other Wind, Ursula Le Guin 21. Prophet Song, Paul Lynch 22. Cursed Bread, Sophie Mackintosh 23. Dog of the North, Elizabeth McKenzie 24. Western Lane, Chetna Maroo 25. Histoires de la nuit [Birthday Party], Laurent Mauvignier 26. Black Butterflies, Priscilla Morris 27. Winter People, Gráinne Murphy 28. Hello Beautiful, Ann Napolitano 29. Open Water, Caleb Azumah Nelson 30. Tom Lake, Ann Patchett 31. I’m a Fan, Sheena Patel 32. Wandering Souls, Cecile Pin 33. Modern Ranch Living, Mark Poirier 34. No Fond Return of Love, Barbara Pym 35. An Unsuitable Attachment, Barbara Pym 36. An Academic Question, Barbara Pym 37. Quartet in Autumn, Barbara Pym 38. Les Cahiers d’Esther, Tome 1 [Esther’s Notebooks], Riad Sattouf 39. Les Cahiers d’Esther, Tome 2, Histoires de mes 11 ans [Esther’s Notebooks 2], Riad Sattouf 40. Bandit Queens, Parini Shroff 41. The Fraud, Zadie Smith 42. Memphis, Tara Stringfellow 43. At Mrs Lippincote’s, Elizabeth Taylor 44. The Soul of Kindness, Elizabeth Taylor 45. Palladian, Elizabeth Taylor 46. In a Summer Season, Elizabeth Taylor 47. The It Girl, Ruth Ware

Other nonfiction

1. George Sand: A Woman’s Life Writ Large, Belinda Jack
2. Spare, Prince Harry
3. Wavewalker, Suzanne Heywood
4. Madame de Maintenon, Peter de Polnay

And oh yeah, I'm cringingly old-fashioned and read 100% of the books in hard copy. Loads came from my local library though!

Done my best of the bolds & stinkers upthread. Full list below for completeness. I'm sparing (& quite possibly inconsistent from one thread to the next) with my bolds. Looking forward to getting back into reading in the new year - treated myself to a secondhand memoir that is coming in the posts on & some very long awaited bortowbox reservations should finally be available.

1.One for the Blackbird, One for the Crow, Olivia Hawker
2. Passing, Nella Larsen

1. Take My Hand, Dolen Perkins-Valdez
2. Abide With Me, Elizabeth Strout
3. So Sweet A Changeling, Ruth Adam
4. Im Not Complaining, Ruth Adam.

7.The Four Winds, Kristin Hannah

1. Human Kind, Rutger Bregman
2. Tall Bones, Anna Bailey

10. Watching Neighbours Twice a Day, Josh Widdicombe 11. The Game, Micah Richards 12 Devotion, Hannah Kent 13. Stay With Me Ayobami Adebayo 14.Love Marriage, Monica Ali 15. I'm Not Scared, Niccolo Ammaniti 16. The Cut Out Girl Bart Van Es 17. Excellent Women Barbara Pym 18. Wavewalker Suzanne Heywood 19. All Among the Barley Melissa Harrison 20. Some Tame Gazelle Barbara Pym 21. Transcendent Kingdom Yaa Gyasi 22. The Schoolhouse Sophie Ward 23 Lives Like Mine Eva Verde 24. The Paper Palace Miranda Cowley Heller 25. The God of That Summer Ralf Rothman 26. Other Women Emma Flint 27. Foster Clare Keegan 28. We Are Not Like Them Jo Piazza & Christine Pride 29. The Hours Before Dawn Celia Fremlin 30. Metronome Tom Watson 31. Vera Elizabeth von Arnim 32. A Trip of One's Own Kate Willis 33. Small Pleasures Clare Chambers 34. Snow John Banville 35. Uncle Paul Celia Fremlin 36. The Mysterious Affair at Styles Agatha Christie 37 I have some questions for you Rebecca Makkai 38. A Town Called Solace Mary Lawson 39. Trespasses Louise Kennedy 40. A Dry Spell Clare Chambers 41 Counting the Cost Jill Duggar 42. The Tennant of Wildfell Hall Anne Bronte 43. All Together Now? Mike Carter 44. The It Girl Ruth Ware 45. The Many Wyl Menmuir 46. Bone by Bone Sanjida Kay

Just realised I got my fiction and non fiction bolds mixed up. Can't even blame the wine - yet

I'm just finishing a reread of an old favourite The Diary of a Nobody which will bring me to a round 70 books this year. That's pretty much my average number; unusually in 2020 I reached a hundred, however 2020 was an unusual year ..

45 by women writers and 25 by men.

The authors who appeared most frequently were:

Alexander McCall Smith (his Scotland Street series - nice light reading to punctuate more challenging stuff)

Mary Lawson (3) - an author I came across for the first time this year

Alison Weir - I'm working my way through her Six Queens series.

Looking back at my list, I didn't mark them at the time, so I'm just going to bold the ones I recall enjoying (or thought were excellent .. not always the same thing) the most:

44 Scotland Street Alexander McCall Smith
Trespasses Louise Kennedy
A Son of War Melvyn Bragg
Ann Boleyn Alison Weir
A Corruption of Blood Ambrose Parry
Pied Piper Neville Shute
Demon Copperhead Barbara Kingsolver
Crow Lake Mary Lawson
Bomber Len Deighton
Music in the Dark Sally Magnusson
High Wages Dorothy Whipple
The Other Side of the Bridge Mary Lawson
Foster Claire Keegan
Paper Cup Karen Campbell
The Diary of a Nobody George and Weedon Grossmith

Special mentions go to Music in the Dark, High Wages, Foster and Paper Cup. Those are the books I'll be urging friends to read.

And The Diary of a Nobody is just a lovely way to finish the year.

My list this year is very short, so any stats will may well be skewed by such a a small sample size.
68% women authors
54% authors new to me, 46% authors I'd read before.
31% non fiction
9% BAME writers, and only one book in translation.
0% re-reads, no doubt reflecting reduced overall reading time

1. In a Good Light by Claire Chambers
2. Elizabeth Finch by Julian Barnes
3. Lean, Fall, Stand by Jon McGregor
4. The Juniper Tree by Barbara Comyns
5. The End of Innocence: Britain in the Time of AIDS by Simon Garfield
6. The Paper Palace by Miranda Cowley Heller
7. Children of Paradise by Camilla Grudova
8. Riceyman Steps by Arnold Bennett
9. Reputation by Sarah Vaughan
10. Men Who Hate Women by Laura Bates
11. This Must be the Place by Maggie O’Farrell
12. Giving up the Ghost by Hilary Mantel
13. Villager by Tom Cox
14. Old Filth be Jane Gardam
15. Whips by Cleo Watson
16. Night Waking by Sarah Moss
17. The Year of Living Danishly by Helen Russell
18. Maybe I Don't Belong Here by David Harewood
19. The Passenger by Ulrich Alexander Boschwitz.
20. Good Girls by Hadley Freeman
21. Another Year of Wonder by Clemency Burton Hill
22. YellowFace by Rebecca F Kuang

Four reads were real stand-outs : Lean, Fall, Stand; The End of Innocence, Riceyman Steps and Giving Up the Ghost.
Stinkers of the year were The Paper Palace, and Children of Paradise.

See you in 2024 with a new name!

Finished my last book of the year this morning giving me a total of 69 books

List with bolds below
What You Did; Claire McGowan
Me; Elton John
She Lies in Wait; Gytha Lodge
Watching From the Dark; Gytha Lodge
Lie Beside Me; Gytha Lodge
Little Sister; Gytha Lodge
Broken Summer; J. M. Lee
Secrets of the Sea House; Elisabeth Gifford
The Mysterious Affair at Styles; Agatha Christie
Gallows Court; Martin Edwards
Finding Freedom: Harry and Meghan and the Making of a Modern Royal Family; Omid Scobie & Carolyn Durand
Stealing the Crown; T. P. Fielden
City Dark; Roger A. Canaff
An Eye for an Eye; Carol Wyer
The Housewarming; S. E. Lynes
Return to Fourwinds; Elisabeth Gifford
The Duchess; Amanda Foreman
The Importance of Being Kennedy; Laurie Graham
Habits of the House; Fay Weldon
Long Live the King; Fay Weldon
The New Countess; Fay Weldon
Her Last Holiday; C. L. Taylor
No Home for Killers; E. A. Aymar
Twilight; Stephanie Meyer
Midnight Sun; Stephanie Meyer
New Moon; Stephanie Meyer
Eclipse; Stephanie Meyer
Breaking Dawn; Stephanie Meyer
Mortmain Hall; Martin Edwards
The Stroke of Winter; Wendy Webb
The Wheel of Fortune; Susan Howatch
Take Six Girls: The Lives of the Mitford Sisters; Laura Thompson
The Lies We Tell; Meg Carter
The Magnificent Spilsbury and the Case of the Brides in the Bath; Jane Robins
The Memory of Lost Senses; Judith Kinghorn
Fatal Throne: The Wives of Henry VIII Tell All; Candace Fleming, Stephanie Hemphill, Deborah Hopkinson, M.T. Anderson, Linda Sue Park, Jennifer Donnelly, Lisa Ann Sandell
The Last Summer; Karen Swan
The Emerald Affair; Janet MacLeod Trotter
The IT Girl; Ruth Ware
Perfectly Impossible; Elizabeth Topp
The Dinner Guest; B. P. Walter
The Hunting Party; Lucy Foley
Divine Lola: A True Story of Scandal and Celebrity; Cristina Morato
Taming Mr. Walker; Rosa Lucas
Resisting Mr. Kane, Rosa Lucas
Fighting Mr. Knight, Rosa Lucas
Silent Vows; Jill Ramsowner
The Princes in the Tower; Alison Weir
Harriet; Jilly Cooper
Savage Collision; Gwyn McNamee
Tortured Skye; Gwyn McNamee
The Appeal; Janice Hallett
Real Ghost Stories: Haunted Castles, Inns and Mansions in the UK; Carole Somerville
The Sapphire Child; Janet Macleod Trotter
Fifth Avenue Fling; Rosa Lucas
The Rescue; Julie Weaver
The Diamond Daughter; Janet MacLeod Trotter
Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing; Matthew Perry
Guilty Pleasures; Kitty Thomas
Renishaw Hall: The Story of the Sitwells; Desmond Seward
Random Acts of Unkindness; Jacqueline Ward
A Fool's Gold Christmas; Susan Mallery
The Turn of the Key; Ruth Ware
Killing Floor; Lee Child
Die Trying; Lee Child
Tripwire; Lee Child
Murder on the Christmas Express; Alexandra Benedict
The Visitor; Lee Child

20% were by male authors, 78% by female and 2% by both

86% fiction

Only 2 books were paper, all the rest were kindle. The is mainly due to having a baby at the end of 2022 so the majority of my reading was during night feeds

81% were new books compared to 19% re-reads

My most popular genre was mystery and most read author was Stephanie Meyer

I was on the main thread and didn’t realise there was a separate round-up one - so hopefully this will just squeak through in time!

I made it to 90 this year, quite a lot fewer than last year, but I’ve found it difficult to concentrate for various reasons - plus, I've read a lot of very long non-fiction books, as a consequence of keeping up with my 50:50 fiction/non-fiction split. I was happy to have ticked another volume of Proust off the list, and the Rather Dated Book Club on here has been very enjoyable.

Top reads:

Célestine: Voices from a French Village - Gillian Tindall
Someone at a Distance - Dorothy Whipple
The Pocket: A Hidden History of Women's Lives, 1660-1900 - Barbara Burman & Ariane Fennetaux
Contested Will - James Shapiro
Back in the Day - Melvyn Bragg
Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont - Elizabeth Taylor
One Fine Day - Mollie Panter-Downes
The Secret Rooms - Catherine Bailey
Snow Falling on Cedars - David Guterson
Thunderclap: A Memoir of Art and Life & Sudden Death - Laura Cumming - my number 1 book of this year, I think.
Frauen - Alison Owings (this one held me up for weeks as it was very long and often distressing but also an important book to read - which kept down my overall total)
The Last September - Elizabeth Bowen
Diamond Street: The Hidden World of Hatton Garden - Rachel Lichtenstein
The Fancy - Monica Dickens
Modern Ranch Living - Mark Poirier

Two didn’t really do it for me:

The Life and Lies of Charles Dickens - Helena Kelly
The Adversary - Emmanuel Carrère (trans. Linda Coverdale)

Hello, I fell by the wayside after a couple of months, but have still been logging my reading. I've read 56 books this year, 47 (84%) women and 9 (16%) men. Only 4 BME authors (that I know of) and 1 LGBT author (that I know of). I read 22 Chalet School books, so very low brow lol.

I've got about an hour left on an audio book, so will make a strong start to 2024.

My bolds:

Rizzio - Denise Mina
Hex - Jenni Fagan
Kindred – Olivia E Butler
House of Glass – Hadley Freeman
The Midnight Library – Matt Haig
Stone Blind – Natalie Hayes

I will try to keep up with the new thread. I love getting other peoples' recommendations.

I posted my top three books of the year earlier in the month, I've read four books since then so here's my complete list plus stats. I may have added some extra bolds.

1 Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay by Elena Ferrante. Translated by Ann Goldstein
2 The Story of the Lost Child by Elena Ferrante. Translated by Ann Goldstein
3 The Thirty-Nine Steps by John Buchan
4 Black Narcissus by Rumer Godden
5 The Godmother by Hannelore Cayre. Translated by Stephanie Smee
6 Excellent Women by Barbara Pym
7 Tomb of Sand by Geetanjali Shree. Translated by Daisy Rockwell
8 Kristin Lavrandatter II: The Wife by Sigrid Undset. Translated by Tiina Nunnally
9 Children of Paradise by Camilla Grudova
10 Heaven by Mieko Kawakami. Translated by Sam Bett and David Boyd.
11 South Riding by Winifred Holtby
12 Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus
13 The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton
14 Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell
15 Jamilia by Chingiz Aïtmatov. Translated by James Riordan
16 Alberta and Jacob by Cora Sandel. Translated by Elizabeth Rokkan
17 Scattered All Over the Earth by Yoko Tawada. Translated by Margaret Mitsutani.
18 Island by Siri Ranva Hjelm Jacobsen. Translated by Caroline Waight
19-21 Childhood, Youth, Dependency by Tove Ditlevsen. Translated by Tiina Nunnally and Michael Favala Goldman
22 Music and Silence by Rose Tremain
23 Watch Us Dance by Leïla Slimani. Translated by Sam Taylor
24 Persuasion by Jane Austen
25 A Bookshop in Algiers by Kaouther Adimi. Translated by Chris Andrews
26 The End of the Affair by Graham Greene
27 Places by Setouchi Jakuchō. Translated by Liza Dalby
28 The Last Children of Tokyo by Yoko Tawada. Translated by Margaret Mitsutani.
29 Doomsday Book by Connie Willis
30 The Children of Green Knowe by Lucy M Boston
31 Small Pleasures by Clare Chambers
32 And So This is Christmas. Brian Bilston

Male: 4 12%
Female: 28 88%
Translation: 18 56%
Non-fiction: 2 (autofiction) 6%
Childrens: 2 6%
Rereads: 2 6%
Poetry: 1 3%
All paper books, I don't like my kindle.

Thank you @Tarahumara for the round-up thread, and @Southeastdweller for the threads throughout the year!

I read a total of 62 books in 2023, broken down as follows:

42 (68%) by female authors, 20 (32%) by male authors
52 (84%) fiction, 10 (16%) non-fiction
6 (9.6%) in French

Not sure what the mix of hard copy and electronic was, but I didn’t read any audiobooks (I listen to lots of podcasts instead). My reading choices were mainly driven by what was available in the library and on BorrowBox, except for a few I actually own in hard copy.

And only 2 that I read to my kids - we have mostly watched things together before bed, instead of reading (including almost all the Marvel films, and some good series including Wednesday). I really want to read more to them in 2024!

My absolute standouts were (in no particular order):

Fiction

Tomorrow x3 - Gabrielle Zevin
Angelmaker - Nick Harkaway
The Bandit Queens - Parini Shroff
A Change of Climate - Hilary Mantel
Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell - Susanna Clarke

Non-fiction

House of Glass - Hadley Freeman
The Spy and the Traitor - Ben Mackintyre
Operation Mincemeat - Ben Mackintyre

No absolute stinkers, but my least favourites were:

The End of Mr Y
Hiding from the Light
Insomnia
Melmoth
Babel (although I can see that there are a lot of good elements, I really hated the preachiness)
The Atlas Paradox
Abandon
Rooftoppers

I’ll put my full list in a separate comment, to avoid losing everything I’ve just written!

Here’s my full list, with mini-comments to remind me what each one was about / what I thought of it:

1. Exit - Belinda Bauer (cosy crime)
2. Watching Neighbours twice a day… - Josh Widdicombe (lovely nostalgia)
3. The Bastard of Istanbul - Elif Shafak (weird but interesting)
4. The Plant Hunter - T L Mogford (very average)
5. House of Glass: The Story and Secrets of a Twentieth-Century Jewish Family - Hadley Freeman (excellent and enjoyable)
6. The End of Mr Y - Scarlett Thomas (weird and not as good as it thinks it is)
7. The Suspicions of Mr Whicher - Kate Summerscale (interesting re. Victorian detectives)
8. Apples Never Fall - Liane Moriarty (real-feeling characters in Sydney)
9. Great Circle - Maggie Shipstead (quite good in parts)
10. Angelmaker - Nick Harkaway (weird but really good)
11. Hiding from the light - Barbara Erskine (too long, very religious and bad characterisation)
12. A Curious Beginning - Deanna Raybourn (frivolous and fun Victorian detective)
13. Snap - Belinda Bauer (great characterisation and story)
14. Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow - Gabrielle Zevin (lovely and readable)
15. Femina - Janina Ramirez (interesting bits of mediaeval history)
16. Insomnia - Sarah Pinborough (disappointing)
17. Les années - Annie Ernaux (French cultural history) (in French)
18. A Spoonful of Murder - Robin Stevens (another great story)
19. A Perilous Undertaking - Deanna Raybourn (more silly fun)
20. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd - Agatha Christie (great poirot)
21. The Holiday - T M Logan (ok thriller)
22. Melmoth - Sarah Perry (depressing and bitty)
23. Le Chapeau de Mitterand - Antoine Laurain (in French) (80s Paris)
24. A Desperate Fortune - Susanna Kearsley (romantic Jacobites)
25. Wrong Place, Wrong Time - Gillian McAllister (timey-wimey-crimey)
26. A Hat Full of Sky - Terry Pratchett (read to the DDs) (brilliant YA witchiness)
27. Ne lâche pas ma main - Michel Bussi (in French) (thriller Réunionnais)
28. The Atlas Six - Olivie Blake (magical YA)
29. Beach Read - Emily Henry (hallmark film)
30. The It Girl - Ruth Ware (Oxford murder)
31. Babel: or the Necessity of Violence - R F Kuang (preachy American)
32. Bonjour Tristesse - Françoise Sagan (in French) (50s Côte d’Azur)
33. Percy Jackson and the lightning thief - Rick Riordan (fun kids' Greek myths)
34. Warrior Queens and Quiet Revolutionaries - Kate Mosse (lists of women)
35. The Death of Mrs Westaway - Ruth Ware (gothic thriller)
36. Stupeur et Tremblements - Amélie Nothomb (in French) (Japanese corporate hell)
37. Percy Jackson and the Sea of Monsters - Rick Riordan (more of the same)
38. That Night - Gillian McAllister (dull criminal siblings)
39. Les Cahiers d’Esther: Histoires de mes 12 ans - Riad Sattouf (in French) (BD in 6ème)
40. The Spy and the Traitor - Ben Macintyre (excellent true spy story)
41. The Ghost Woods - C J Cooke (spooky fungus)
42. Percy Jackson and the Titan’s Curse - Rick Riordan (more Greek myth)
43. Exiles - Jane Harper (Aussie murder mystery)
44. Percy Jackson and the Battle of the Labyrinth - Rick Riordan (more questing)
45. The Bandit Queens - Parini Shroff (dark humour with downtrodden women)
46. Death in the Spotlight - Robin Stevens (theatre murders)
47. The Atlas Paradox - Olivie Blake (YA fantasy sequel)
48. Upgrade - Blake Crouch (genetic sci-fi)
49. A Change of Climate - Hilary Mantel (excellent Norfolk & Africa)
50. Equal Rites - Terry Pratchett (read to the DDs) (proto-Tiffany)
51. Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell - Susanna Clarke (magical Dickensian epic)
52. Operation Mincemeat - Ben Macintyre (excellent WW2 non-fiction)
53. Lessons - Ian McEwan (boomer grows old)
54. Finding Hildasay - Christian Lewis (rubbish dad walks and camps)
55. Percy Jackson and the Last Olympian - Rick Riordan (good end to the series)
56. Rooftoppers - Katherine Rundell (half a story)
57. Abandon - Blake Crouch (gory, gruesome Wild West)
58. Top Marks for Murder - Robin Stevens (school anniversary intrigue)
59. Death Sets Sail - Robin Stevens (Egyptian final instalment)
60. The Lost Man - Jane Harper (death in the outback)
61. All Our Hidden Gifts - Caroline O’Donoghue (witchy Irish YA)
62. Just One Damned Thing After Another - Jodi Taylor (crazy time-travelling historians)

Loved your mini review-summaries @DuPainDuVinDuFromage I admit when posting my list my memory of some titles was hazy.

Oh the mini-reviews are brilliant @DuPainDuVinDuFromage! I especially liked the time-wimey-crimey one I am definitely pinching that idea for my own reading record.

Me too @Owlbookend - I apparently read Paris Echo by Sebastian Faulkes in August - and can't remember a single thing about it.

Hello and happy new year all. I’m making my way through the thread and making a list of the recommendations that appeal - although I fell short of 50 this year and my kindle (and bedside table actually) are absolutely full of stuff I should get round to before buying anything new - I know full well I won’t though.

Can’t say 2023 was an amazing year for me really - reading or otherwise. But here’s my list -

1 Christmas is Murder- Val McDermid
Meh, wouldn’t bother
2 The Christmas Chronicles- Nigel Slater
3 The Anthology of English Folk Tales - The History Press (Pub)
4 The Book of Form and Emptiness - Ruth Ozeki
5 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens (Audible narrator Hugh Grant)

6 Daisy Jones and the Six - Taylor Jenkins Reid Hesitated over bolding this but hey, I loved it, so why not?

7 Rizzio - Denise Mina Received much, deserved, praise on the thread and I very much enjoyed it too - not a word wasted and has stayed with me more than most of the other books I read this year (don’t think I bolded it originally but the fact it’s left such a strong impression earned it a bold now!)

8 Queenie - Candice Carty-Williams
9 How to Talk so Little Kids Will Listen - Joanna Faber and Julie King
10 Ramble Book - Adam Buxton

11 The Diary of a Bookseller - Shaun Bythell - don’t get the love for this series at all!

12 The Etymologican - Mark Forsyth - very entertaining

13 A Net For Small Fishes - Lucy Jago
14 Starlight - Stella Gibbons
15 Lessons in Chemistry - Bonnie Garmus
16 I’m a Fan - Sheena Patel

17 Book Lovers - Emily Henry Bolding although it’s not particularly high brow, was a good romantic comedy type book done well and a perfect distraction when I needed it - another recommendation from the thread so thank you for that! Have been able to pass this on to a friend going through chemo who is also very grateful for the lighthearted entertaining distraction!

18 Mad About You - Mhairi McFarlane

19 The Thursday Murder Club - Richard Osman - I can’t in all conscience bold this but I have to say I bloody loved this series and it’s been a lovely comfort read (listen actually) for me this year - I know that the reviews are mixed, and can completely see why they wouldn’t work for others - I also feel they got increasingly ridiculous as they went on, but still glad of them.

20 Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow - Gabrielle Zevin
21 The Man Who Died Twice - Richard Osman
22 The Bullet That Missed - Richard Osman
23 Journey to the River Sea - Eva Ibbotson
24 Agatha Raisin and the Quiche of Death - M.C. Beaton

25 Kiss Myself Goodbye: The Many Lives of Aunt Munca - Ferdinand Mount
Another 50 Booker recommendation (think all my 2023 bolds have been actually!) and just a fascinating tale.

26 Ask a Historian - Greg Jenner
27 Bodies of Light - Sarah Moss

28 Moon Tiger - Penelope Lively
My favourite read of the year

29 A Change of Climate - Hilary Mantel
30 Very Good Jeeves - PG Wodehouse
31 Hotel Du Lac - Anita Brookner
32 Ultra Processed People - Chris van Tulleken

33 The Dark Queens - Shelley Puhak
Dark indeed. Fascinating period of history, the story of two remarkable women really well told.

34 You and Me on Vacation - Emily Henry
35 Between Us - Mhairi McFarlane
36 Beach Read - Emily Henry
37 The Last Devil to Die - Richard Osman
38 Holding - Graham Norton
39 A Christmas Cornucopia- Mark Forsyth
40 A Child’s Christmas in Wales - Dylan Thomas (illustrated by Peter Bailey)
41 Murder in the Snow - Gladys Mitchell

42 Another Year of Wonder - Clemency Burton-Hill
Same format as the previous one, I just enjoy the whole experience really and discovering music the vast majority of which is new to me.

Since I switched to audiobooks, I've averaged around 250 for the past 5 years. I started on the 50 Bookers thread in 2017 and I managed the 50 mainly in print for the first 2 years of that. I've still got a house full of books though so I'm going to force myself to sit with a real book for at least 30 mins every day to get back into the habit. I'm aiming to give up doom scrolling on the phone too.

I'm really enjoying looking at everyone's lists/bolds as it gives me books to look out for and reminds me who to keep an eye out for on the threads if we have similar tastes. I haven't posted anywhere near as much as I used to in the past few years, but I do still keep up with the threads. I find the quality of what I read increases when I pay attention to the recommendations.

I've been very led by library holds becoming available this past year and I'd like to be a bit more deliberate in my choices this time round rather than reserving everything new and shiny.

I can't believe I just lost my post! I finished my last book of the year yesterday afternoon when I was meant to be tidying the house for people coming over. Bringing final list and stats over.

120 books read this year

77% women
4% in translation
17% BAME
11% Irish - I gave this a separate category as I felt like I read a lot of Irish books this year ( and they were mainly excellent)

5% audio - but mainly bolds
Most of the rest on Kindle

Prize with most bolds - The Women's Prize

1. Glory - NoViolet Bulawayo
2. The Sentence - Louise Erdrich
3. The Paris Apartment - Lucy Foley
4. Crossroads - Jonathan Franzen
5. Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow Gabrielle Zevin
6. The Whalebone Theatre - Joanne Quinn
7. Transcendent Kingdom - Yaa Gyasi
8. Mrs Palfrey at The Claremont - Elizabeth Taylor
9. Americanah - Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche

10. State of Terror - Louise Penny & Hilary Clinton 11. Cat Brushing - Jane Campbell 12. The Colony - Audrey Magee 13. Cloud Cuckoo Land - Anthony Doerr 14. The Book Of Form And Emptiness - Ruth Ozeki 15. Cleopatra and Frankenstein - Coco Mellors 16. Love Marriage - Monica Ali 17. I'm Sorry You Feel That Way - Rebecca Wait 18. Trespasses -Louise Kennedy 19. I'm A Fan -Sheena Patel 20. Children Of Paradise - Camilla Grudova 21. Pod - Laline Paul 22. Go, Went, Gone - Jenny Erpenbeck 23. Miller's Valley - Anna Quindlen 24. Memphis - Tara Stringfellow 25. The Bandit Queens - Parini Shroff 26. Maps of Our Spectacular Bodies - Maddie Mortimer 27. Demon Copperhead - Barbara Kingsolver 28. Burntcoat - Sarah Hall 29. Wandering Souls - Cecile Pin 30. Still Born - Guadalupe Nettel translated by Rosalind Harvey 31. The It Girl - Ruth Ware 32. Fire Rush - Jacqueline Crooks 33. Horse - Geraldine Brooks 34. Whale - Cheon Myong-Kwan, translated by Chi-Young Kim 35. Djinn Patrol on The Purple Line - Deepa Anappara 36. Black Butterflies - Priscilla Morris 37. The Marriage Portrait - Maggie O Farrell 38. French Braid - Ann Tyler 39. The Writing Retreat - Julia Bartz 40. The Rising Tide - Anne Cleeves 41. The Moth Catcher - Anne Cleeves 42. At the Table - Claire Powell 43. The Birthday Party - Laurent Mauviginier, translated by Daniel Levin Becker 44. Eleanor and Park - Rainbow Rowell 45. The Madness of Crowds - Louise Penny 47. The Feast - Margaret Kennedy 48. The Storied Life of AJ Firkey - Gabrielle Levin 49. Homesick - Jennifer Croft 50. Boulder - Eva Baltasar, translated by Julia Sanches 51. Foster - Claire Keegan 52. Plainsong - Kent Haruf 53. The Cliff House - Christopher Brookmyre 54. Death of a Bookseller - Alice Slater 55. Carrie Soto is Back - Taylor Jenkins Reid 56. Mrs Dalloway - Virginia Woolf 57. The Hours - Michael Cunningham 58. In Memoriam - Alice Winns 59. The Lying Game - Ruth Ware 60. Little Monsters - Adrienne Brodeur 61. Antartica -Claire Keegan 62. Remains of The Day - Kazuo Ishiguro 63. For Thy Great Pain Have Mercy On My Little Pain - Victoria Mckenzie 64. Kala - Colin Walsh 65. The Puppet Show - M W Craven 66. Black Summer - M W Craven 67. Exciting Times - Naoise Dolan 68. In Ascension - Martin MacInnes 69. How To Build A Boat - Elaine Feeney 70. The House of Doors - Tan Twan Eng 71. Winter People - Grainne Murphy 72. Chain-gang All Stars - Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah 73. Yellowface - R F Kuang 74. The Curator - M W Craven 75. Birnam Wood - Eleanor Catton 76. A Spell of Good Things - Ayobami Adebayo 77. Actress - Anne Enright 78. The Enchanted April - Elizabeth Von Armin 79. Time Shelter - George Gospodinov, translated by Angela Rodel 80. Best of Friends - Kamila Shamsie 81. All the Little Bird Hearts - Viktoria Lloyd-Barlow 82. Love And Other Thought Experiments - Sophie Ward 83. Soldier, Sailor - Claire Kilroy 84. Notes On An Execution - Danya Kukafka 85. Old God's Time - Sebastian Barry 86. The Bee Sting - Paul Murray 87. A world of Curiosities - Louise Penny 88. Prophet Song - Paul Lynch 89. Babel - R F Kuang 90. Amy & Lan - Sadie Jones 91. Maame - Jessica George 92. The Sea Of Tranquility - Emily St John Mandel 93. She's a Killer - Kirsten Mcdougall 94. Romantic Comedy - Curtis Sittenfeld 95. Woman, Eating - Claire Kohda 96. Study For Obedience - Sarah Bernstein 97. In Her Nature - Rachel Hewitt 98. Dead Ground - M W Craven 99. Boy Parts - Eliza Clark 100. The Life To Come - Michelle De Kretser 101. If I Survive You - Jonathan Escoffery 102. The Rachel Incident - Caroline O'Donoghue 103. Trust - Hernan Diaz 104. Kindred - Octavia E Butler 105. The Other Side of Mrs Wood - Lucy Barker 106. Venemous Lumpsucker - Ned Beauman 107. The Half Moon - Mary Beth Keane 108. The Botanist - M W Craven 109. The Secret Of High Eldersham - Miles Burton 110. Lanny - Max Porter 111. Penance - Eliza Clark 112. Lucy By The Sea - Elizabeth Strout 113. The Wych Elm - Tana French 114. Spill, Simmer, Falter, Wither - Sara Baume 115. The Stranding - Kate Sawyer 116. Really Good, Actually - Monica Heisey 117. The Year Of Marvellous Ways - Sarah Winman 118. The Mysterious Case of The Alperton Angels - Janice Hallet 119. Twelve Days of Christmas - Andreina Cordani 120. This Family - Kate Sawyer

Bringing my final list over. I've had a really good year with 33/103 bolds. I can't decide on my top 5 but Giovanni's Room would be in my top 10 ever books so that was my standout favourite. No DNF and only 4 or 5 that I wished I hadn't bothered with.

62% female / 38% male authors
76% fiction / 24% non fiction
50% kindle / 48% physical / 2% audio

1 The Snow Child, Eowyn Ivey
2 What Could Possibly Go Wrong, Jodi Taylor
3 Lamentation, CJ Sansom
4 City of Girls, Elizabeth Gilbert
5 Tombland, CJ Sansom
6 House of Glass, Hadley Freeman
7 Sorrow & Bliss, Meg Mason
8 A Terrible Kindness, Jo Browning Wroe
9 10 Minutes, 30 Seconds in This Strange World, Elif Shafak
10 The Garden of Evening Mists, Tan Twan Eng
11 Lies, Damned Lies and History, Jodi Taylor
12 Love in a Cold Climate, Nancy Mitford
13 Carrie's War, Nina Bawden
14 Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe
15 Human Croquet, Kate Atkinson
16 The Railway Man, Eric Lomax
17 Testament of Youth, Vera Brittain
18 Stay Where You Are And Then Leave, John Boyne
19 Queenie, Candice Carty-Williams
20 Pompeii, Robert Harris
21 Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight, Alexandra Fuller
22 Beartown, Fredrik Backman
23 Giovanni's Room, James Baldwin
24 Say Nothing, Patrick Radden Keefe
25 My Name is Why, Lemn Sissay
26 The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida, Shehan Karunatilaka
27 A Monster Calls, Patrick Ness
28 Lincoln in the Bardo, George Saunders
29 Master Georgie, Beryl Bainbridge
30 The Bell, Iris Murdoch
31 A Fine Balance, Rohinton Mistry
32 And the Rest is History, Jodi Taylor
33 Trespasses, Louise Kennedy
34 Jews Don't Count, David Baddiel
35 My Father's House, Joseph O'Connnor
36 The Great Gatsby, F Scott Fitzgerald
37 Five Chimneys, Olga Lengyel
38 A Village in the Third Reich, Julia Boyd
39 Before the Coffee Gets Cold, Toshikazu Kawaguchi
40 English Patient, Michael Ondaatje
41 People Person, Candice Carty-Williams
42 Espedair Street, Ian Banks
43 Metronome, Tom Watson
44 The Bandit Queens, Parini Shroff
45 Take My Hand, Dolen Perkins-Valdez
46 The Lincoln Highway, Amor Toles
47 Our Wives Under the Sea, Julia Armfield
48 The Light Years, Elizabeth Jane Howard
49 Strange Sally Diamond, Liz Nugent
50 Cannery Row, John Steinbeck
51 A Spell of Good Things, Ayobami Adebayo
52 Travellers in the Third Reich, Julia Boyd
53 The Mitfords: Letters Between Six Sisters, ed Charlotte Mosley
54 Olive Kitteridge, Elizabeth Strout
55 Foster, Claire Keegan
56 Trust, Hernan Diaz
57 The End of Days, Jenny Erpenbeck
58 Once Upon a River, Diane Setterfield
59 Evidence of the Affair, Taylor Jenkins-Reid
60 Great Circle, Maggie Shipstead
61 A History of Burning, Janika Oza
62 Tears of Amber, Sofia Segovia
63 Kala, Colin Walsh
64 A Long Petal of the Sea, Isabel Allende
65 East West Street, Phillipe Sands
66 This Tender Land, William Kent Kruger
67 For Thy Great Pain Have Mercy on My Little Pain, Victoria Makenzie
68 The Man Who Wasn't There, Pat Barker
69 Prisoners of Geography, Tim Marshall
70 Goodbye to Berlin, Christoper Isherwood
71 The Escape Artist, Jonathon Freedland
72 Amongst Our Weapons, Ben Aaronovitch
73 Yugoslavia, Hourly Histories
74 Fall and Rise: The Story of 9/11, Mitchell Zuckoff
75 The Return of Faraz Ali, Aamina Ahmad
76 Down and Out in Paris and London, George Orwell
77 Notes on an Execution, Danya Kukafka
78 The Glass Castle, Jeannette Walls
79 When the Dust Settles, Lucy Easthope
80 Attack Warning Red, Julie McDowall
81 Tunnel 29, Helena Merriman
82 The Island of Sea Women, Lisa See
83 A Town Called Solace, Mary Lawson
84 The Beauty of Your Face, Sahar Mustafah
85 The Mermaid of Black Conch, Monique Raffey
86 Lightning Strike, William Kent Krueger
87 Lucy by the Sea, Elizabeth Strout
88 Bournville, Jonathan Coe
89 Fingersmith, Sarah Waters
90 The Wind Knows my Name, Isabel Allende
91 The Life of an MP, Jess Philips
92 Zikora, Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche
93 The School the Escaped the Nazis, Deborah Cadbury
94 The Mad Woman's Ball, Victoria Mas
95 We Need New Names, NoViolet Bulawayo
96 The Echo Chamber, John Boyne
97 Rizzio, Denise Mina
98 Once Upon a Time in the East, Xialou Guo
99 Penance, Eliza Clark
100 O Caledonia, Elspeth Barker
101 Nightcrawling, Leila Mottley
102 Black Butterflies, Priscilla Morris
103 Complicity, Iain Banks

1. The Murder Room by PD James

2 Vaxxers by Sarah Gilbert and Catherine Green 3 The Christmas Chronicles - Nigel Slater (annual reread) 4 The Ghost Robert Harris. 5 Anatomy of a Scandal Sarah Vaughan 6 Wolf Hall Hilary Mantel 7 No More Dying Then. Ruth Rendell. 8 Snow John Banville 9 Career of Evil Robert Galbraith 10. Trust Me TM Logan 11 Tigerlily's Orchids Ruth Rendell 12 The Ex SE Lynes 13 The rites of Spring. Anders de la Motte 14 Brighton Mermaid Dorothy Koomson. Without a doubt, the stinker of the year. Would not read this writer again if I was on a desert island with the choice of one of her books or sex with Piers Morgan and Jeremy Clarkson at the same time. Only Katherine May has enraged me more in the last 5 years. 15. The Woman in Black Susan Hill 16 A Thousand Ships Nathalie Haynes. 17 Shut Eye Belinda Bauer 18 Trespasses Louise Kennedy 19 The full English Stuart Maconie 20 Queen of our times Robert Hardman 21. Road to Jarrow Stuart Maconie 22Death Deserved (Blix and Ramm 1) Thomas Enger 23 Summerwater Sarah Moss 24 Smoke Screen Thomas Enger Blix and Ramm 2 25 Lethal White Robert Galbraith 26. Kane and Abel Jeffrey Archer 27 Put on by cunning Ruth Rendell 28 Slow Horses Mick Herron 29 Toast Nigel Slater 30 Never Mind the Quantocks Stuart Maconie 31 When God Was a Rabbit Sarah Winman 32 Cold Earth Ann Cleeves Shetland 7 33 He said/she said Erin Kelly 34 Six Tudor Queens Katherine of Aragon Alison Weir 35 The Last Party Claire Mackintosh (Morgan 1) 36 Let Me In Clare McGowan 37 The other wife Clare McGowan 38 Frostquake Juliet Nicholson 39 Bizarre England David London 40. Notes From a Small Island Bill Bryson 41 The Road to Little Dribbling. Bill Bryson 42. A Walk Through the Woods. Bill Bryson 43 Dead Lions Mick Herron 44 The Philosopher's Stone 45 The Chamber of Secrets 46 The Prisoner of Azkaban 47 The Dark is Rising Susan Cooper 48 The Goblet of Fire.

DNF Hamnet. Shoot me.

Probably too many rereads to say I've had a blinding year, but the new books/authors to me or the mountain I finally managed to climb (Wolf Hall) were magnificent. Not as much non-fiction as I'd have liked, and too many quick, yet ultimately unsatisfying crime procedurals.

Going to give my book of the year to Slow Horses.

Read 50 books so just made it! Thanks to those who recommended shorter reads to get me over the finish line.

Been a great year for excellent books. My favourites and I've bolded my very favourites but would recommend all of these:

The Romantic by William Boyd
The Long Shot: The Inside Story of the Race to Vaccinate Britain by Kate Bingham
The Far Field by Madhuri Vijay
The One Hundred Years of Lenni and Margot by Marianne Cronin
Good Pop, Bad Pop by Jarvis Cocker (laugh out loud funny, don't read on public transport like I did!)
Greenwood by Michael Christie
In the Beginning by Simon Edge
Sea Bean by Sally Huband
The All-Girl Filling Station's Last Reunion by Fannie Flagg
A Spy Among Friends by Ben Macintyre
Trust by Herman Diaz
The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton
The Whalebone Theatre by Joanna Quinn
The Running Grave by Robert Galbraith
Rizzio by Denise Mina
The Nurse by Valerie Keogh
Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan
Tom Lake by Ann Patchett

My final list and stats below:
88 books (only 6 non-fiction)
52 authors : 61% female / 39% male authors

Overall favourites:
Trespasses - Louise Kennedy
A Terrible Kindness - Jo Browning Wroe
Rizzio - Denise Mina

Most disappointing:
Hags - Victoria Smith
Endless Night - Agatha Christie

Full list:

1. Old Filth - Jane Garam
2. Sad Cypress - Agatha Christie

3. Three Hours - Rosamund Lupton

1. Light Perpetual - Francis Spufford

5. Trespasses - Louise Kennedy

1. Crossfire - Felix Francis
2. Long Story Short - Jodi Taylor
3. A Storm of Swords - George RR Martin
4. Partners in Crime - Agatha Christie

10. Back Trouble - Clare Chambers 11. The Man in the Queue - Josephine Tey 12. Joe Country - Mick Herron 13. To Live - Yu Hua 14. Gamble - Felix Francis 15. The Lamplighters - Emma Stonex 16. The Moving Finger - Agatha Christie 17. Stone Blind - Natalie Haynes 18. Faro’s Daughter - Georgette Heyer 19. Excellent Women - Barbara Pym 20. About Time - Jodi Taylor 21. The Skylark’s Secret - Fiona Valpy 22. Agent Zigzag - Ben MacIntyre 23. The Forgotten Garden - Kate Morton 24. Sparkling Cyanide - Agatha Christie 25. Bloodline - Felix Francis 26. After the End - Clare Mackintosh 27. A Feast of Crows - George RR Martin 28. The It Girl - Ruth Ware 29. The Sentence - Louise Erdrich 30. Unfinished Portrait - Mary Westmacott 31. Great Expectations - Charles Dickens 32. The Trees - Percival Everett 33. The Lullaby - Leila Slimani 34. The Black Moth - Georgette Heyer 35. Refusal - Felix Francis 36. Marie Antoinette - Antonia Fraser 37. They do it with Mirrors - Agatha Christie 38. Tokyo Express - Seicho Matsumoto 39. Whistleblower - Robert Peston 40. Troubled Blood - Robert Galbraith 41. Rizzio - Denise Mina 42. Sylvester - Georgette Heyer 43. Beyond the Wand - Tom Felton 44. Evil under the Sun - Agatha Christie 45. The Secret Diaries of Charles Ignatius Sancho - Paterson Joseph 46. Damage - Felix Francis 47. The Mirror Crack’d from Side to Side - Agatha Christie 48. Labyrinth - Kate Mosse 49. The Third Man and The Fallen Idol - Graham Greene 50. Demon Copperhead - Barbara Kingsolver 51. Riders - Jilly Cooper 52. Halloween Party - Agatha Christie 53. Rivals - Jilly Cooper 54. The Cliff House - Chris Brookmyre 55. Peril at End House - Agatha Christie 56. Free Love - Tessa Hadley 57. Five Little Pigs - Agatha Christie 58. The Echo Chamber - John Boyne 59. A Wedding in the Country - Katie Fforde 60. A Terrible Kindness - Jo Browning Wroe 61. Death comes as the End - Agatha Christie 62. The Crow Road - Iain Banks 63. Hags - Victoria Smith 64. Slough House - Mick Herron 65. Appointment with Death - Agatha Christie 66. Colditz - Ben MacIntyre 67. Crampton Hodnet - Barbara Pym 68. Educated - Tara Westover 69. Triple Crown - Felix Francis 70. A Man with One of Those Faces -Caimh McDonnell 71. Bloody Christmas and Dog Day Afternoon - Caimh McDonnell 72. Lord Edgware Dies - Agatha Christie 73. The Day that Never Comes - Ciamh McDonnell 74. The Skeleton Key - Erin Kelly 75. Masqueraders - Georgette Heyer 76. The Phone Box at the Edge of the World - Laura Imai Messina 77. Frontrunner - Felix Francis 78. Kala - Colin Walsh 79. Endless Night - Agatha Christie 80. Instructions for a Heatwave - Maggie O’Farrell 81. Go tell the Bees that I am gone - Diana Gabaldon 82. Cloud Cuckoo Land - Anthony Doerr 83. Sleeping Murder - Agatha Christie 84. On Chesil Beach - Ian McEwan 85. One Fine Day in the Middle of the Night - Chris Brookmyre 86. Prudence - Jilly Cooper 87. Family Album - Penelope Lively 88. Hell Bay - Kate Rhodes

I'll finish getting some bolds stats together at the weekend, so for anyone who hasn't done so, please post by the end of the week.

Thanks! 📚

I read 28 books this year but the overwhelming majority were very good - see bolds.

89% male / 11% female authors
79% fiction / 21% non-fiction
54% SF
I loved 75% of the books I read this year

1.. The Hustler by Walter Tevis
2.. Run by Blake Crouch
3.. La Controverse sur le Timbre du Contre-ténor by René Jacobs
4.. One Day All This Will Be Yours by Adrian Tchaikovsky
5.. Tomorrow by Chris Beckett
6.. The Road by Cormac McCarthy
7.. Ready Player Two by Ernest Cline
8.. No Plan B by Lee Child
9.. The Massacre of Mankind by Stephen Baxter
10.. The Steps of the Sun by Walter Tevis
11.. Siege of Silence by A J Quinnell
12.. The Ink-Black Heart (Cormoran Strike #6) by Robert Galbraith
13.. The Midwich Cuckoos by John Wyndham
14.. The Second Sleep by Robert Harris
15.. Ada's Algorithm: How Lord Byron's Daughter Ada Lovelace Launched the Digital Age by James Essinger
16.. Upgrade by Blake Crouch
17.. The Baklava Club (Yashim the Ottoman detective #5) by Jason Goodwin
18.. The Eiger Sanction by Trevanian
19.. The Nobel Lecture by Bob Dylan
20.. Trans: When Ideology Meets Reality by Helen Joyce
21.. Chocky by John Wyndham
22.. Baroque Music Today: Music as Speech by Nikolaus Harnoncourt
23.. Abandon by Blake Crouch
24.. Critical Mass by David Suarez
25.. Another year of Wonder: Classical Music for Every Day by Clemency Burton-Hill
26.. Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky
27... Children of Ruin (Children of Time #2) by Adrian Tchaikovsky
28.. Lexicon by Max Barry

You are a superstar for doing this.