26-ish books 2024

[Tinkhasflown]

A shiny new thread for 2024.

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. Corvus. A Life with Birds by Esther Woolfson. Non fiction. For thos really like birds! Esther lives with lots of different birds, her main are a rescued rook and a magpie she has taken in. Mixture of chapters of anecdotes about the birds (like the first time Spike the magpie talks) and chapters of science, such as the make up of feathers. The science bits were very interesting but a bit dense forme - I'm not scientifically minded.
Esther has written short stories too which I will look out for.

The Heart’s Invisible Furies is definitely in my all-time top 10

Agreed - just wonderful

@coolmum123 thanks for the further rec! So weird reading about someone you know. My work means I sometimes sort of know/have worked with people in the news, always juicy!

2 - Winter Solstice by Rosamunde Pilcher
A wonderful comfort blanket of a book! Pilcher wrote so well about people and the everyday. In this book she creates a community of people, all ‘misfits’, all a bit broken, who create a family together. Beautiful depictions of landscapes, as always - this time the Scottish Highlands in winter rather than Cornwall, where so many of her books are set. I just wish I’d started this sooner so that I could have finished it around Christmas as it has the most heart-warming Christmassy ending. Definitely a recommendation if you are looking for something non-challenging but uplifting. I feel a. It bereft to be leaving this book and its characters.

I made it half-way through book 1 (The Guest Room) but got bored of it, it’s not living up to expectations.
Finished book 2 Stone Yard Devotional which I really enjoyed.
Then I went rogue and read something not on my list - Strange Sally Diamond which I also enjoyed. Now to decide whether to go back to book 1 or move on?

@Asiatoyork Yes it is! When I was reading Rigged I kept thinking back about what I had known about the people I had worked with. Quite surreal.

If I skim read a book because I'm not enjoying it but want to know the ending does that count as a read one!
I did this to The Satsuma Complex by Bob Mortimor. Maybe I just didn't get his humour but I found it strange to read because of the language and the way he writes but I did get 150 pages I. So was interested enough to know what happened at the end but not enough to spend more time reading it properly.🫣 So I skim read it. By the end I knew that I hadn't missed anything by doing this. I didn't enjoy it and wouldn't recommend it but like I said maybe it's because I didn't get the humour as it was billed as a very funny book!

1. An Astronomer In Love - Antoine Laurain - As always a great book from Antoine Laurain! 8.5/10 2. The Familiars - Stacey Halls. I loved reading this, it was hard to put down, but now I think I'm a witch . Better than Mrs England IMO. 8.5/10 Going to have a read through the thread again for recommendations.

3. Unruly - David Mitchell

A very brief history of all the Kings and Queens of England. Really good funny. I laughed out loud at some of it. Pretty sweary, but I don't mind that.

I meant to say really good or really funny and ended up saying both 😂

It was good. It was also funny. Think I need an early night

1. Redhead By The Side Of The Road by Anne Tyler

I read this after seeing it featured on In Between The Covers - and I loved it! Read it in a day (it is only short). Would recommend. 4 out of 5.

1. The Heart's Invisible Furies - John Boyne

This feels an important book to be read. Beautifully written, honest brutal at timed but with humour at life.

A story of adoption, familes and being gay in 20th century Ireland and the consequences.

The thing about these kind of threads is that I end up feeling a bit embarrassed because… well… I only read shite. 🤣

I am currently reading three books (because I’m incapable of concentrating on one thing at a time): a ballad of songbirds and snakes (Suzanne Collins), house of sky and flame (Sarah j mass) and A river enchanted (Rebecca Ross).

But other people read proper books. 🤣

I'm sure no one judges @StragglyTinsel , some people read more highbrow books than me, so long as you are enjoying what you are reading that's what counts.

I‘m sure nobody does judge. It’s my own judgement that’s the problem. 🤦🏻‍♀️

The thing is, it’s not even like I’m
judging what other people are reading. But still, I just become increasingly aware that my main criteria for reading choice is about whether it will be easy to read, escapist and largely nonsense.

I also realise that I never count any of my nonfiction reading as reading. Which is quite weird. It possibly stems from having been an academic, so that was ‘work’ and ‘reading’ was something else in my mind.

@StragglyTinsel i agree - why read books you don’t want to read?? I do tends towards Booker type books but frankly it’s none of my business if you read somethjng totally different, sharing the joy of reading is magical in and of itself (though I LOVE a bit of Suzanne Collins!)

I have to read books for work too (usually fiction) but don’t count those

@StragglyTinsel half the books I've read this year have been Twilight books, so I think you're doing better than me! Easy reading books that I know I'm more likely to finish is a great way to spend a cold January.

My current audiobook is The Handmaid's Tale and I'll finish it eventually but it's not fun light listening.

Has anyone read The Promise by Damon Galgut
I'm struggling with it but it's a book group choice and it won the Booker!

1. Shrines of Gaiety - Kate Atkinson

Lots of people didn't seem to like this, but I enjoyed it.

1. The Satsuma Complex - Bob Mortimer

Bit slight, but raised a few smiles

@BaconAndAvocado yes I read it last year/year before

it took me a while to get into it and I did enjoy it but wouldn’t call it one of my top reads. Once I got to know the characters better it vastly improved

Citygirlrurallife
That's precisely what I'm finding tricky.....there are alot of characters and the prose isn't straightforward.

Also, their names are quite unusual so yep, finding it a struggle!

I read on average 40 to 50 a year.. one a week.
Reading one of my biggest passions .
Usually psychological thrillers.
At the moment I'm reading The Homemaker by Miranda Rijks . My third book of 2024.
Next on list is The Mother by T.M Logan.

@EEuniceLopril

One of my favourite ever books and I've read it 5 times..my youngest is named after Meggie .

4. Lucy by the Sea - Elizabeth Strout

A really wonderful book. I absolutely loved it. I had heard a lot of good things about it and I was honestly a bit underwhelmed at the beginning but by the end was completely sold! Really recommend

3 Harry Potter and the chamber of secrets - very slowly working through the series with DD