Thanks for the new thread @Southeastdweller
Bringing over my list:
- After Henry – Joan Didion
- Year of Wonder – Clemency Burton-Hill
- Motherwell – Deborah Orr
4. Just Kids – Patti Smith
5. Best of Friends – Kamila Shamsie
6. Macbeth – William Shakespeare
7. Wyrd Sisters – Terry Pratchett
8. War Gardens – Lalage Snow
9. Soul Music – Terry Pratchett
10. Daisy Jones and the Six – Taylor Jenkins Reid
11. The Eyre Affair – Jasper Fforde
12. How to Train Your Dragon 11: How to Betray a Dragon’s Hero – Cressida Connolly
13. Trespasses – Louise Kennedy
14. The Brexit Tapes – John Bull
15. Real Tigers – Mick Herron
16. The Sins of Our Fathers – Asa Larsson
17. Ordinary People – Diana Evans
18. My Pen is the Wing of a Bird: new fiction by Afghan women – various
19. A Room of One’s Own – Virginia Woolf
20. Malibu Rising – Taylor Jenkins Reid
21. How to Train Your Dragon 12: How to Fight a Dragon’s Fury – Cressida Cowell
22. Becoming – Michelle Obama
23. The It Girl – Ruth Ware
24. Lessons in Chemistry – Bonnie Garmus
25. The Map of Salt and Stars – Zeyn Joukhadar
26. Here Comes the Sun – Nicole Dennis-Benn
27. Wings of Fire #1: The Dragonet Prophecy – Tui T. Sutherland
28. The Story of a New Name – Elena Ferrante
29. I Have Some Questions for You – Rebecca Makkai
30. Pyramids – Terry Pratchett
31. Witches Abroad – Terry Pratchett
32. Nine Perfect Strangers – Liane Moriarty
33. Midnight at Malabar House - Vaseem Khan
34. Foster –
Claire Keegan
35. Carrie Soto is Back – Taylor Jenkins Reid
36. To the Lighthouse – Virginia Woolf
37. Love Letters – Virginia Woolf and Vita Sackville-West
38. The Memoirs of Ethel Smyth – abridged and with an introduction by Ronald Crichton
39. The Christie Affair – Nina de Gramont
40. Friendaholic – Elizabeth Day
41. Wings of Fire 2: The Lost Heir – Tui T. Sutherland
42. Mother Tongue: The Surprising History of Women’s Words – Jenni Nuttall
43. The Left Hand of Darkness -
Ursula Le Guin
44. The Dance Tree – Kiran Millwood Hargrave
45. Little Disasters – Sarah Vaughan
46. The Color of Air – Gail Tsukiyama
47. Treacle Walker – Alan Garner
48. A is for Arsenic: the poisons of Agatha Christie – Kathryn Harkup
And my latest read:
49. Into Every Generation a Slayer is Born: How Buffy Staked Our Hearts by Evan Ross Katz
My husband bought me this for my birthday. I am love Buffy and this purports to be a definitive analysis following the allegations made against Joss Whedon in recent years. I enjoyed it in parts, but it was flawed. The author is a huge Sarah Michelle Gellar fan (I like SMG too, but....not as much!) and that definitely slants his analysis. The first part is a synopsis of each series with some fan discussion, which I did like although it was arguably largely superfluous. The remainder of the book wasn't brilliantly structured; it meandered a bit through queer, feminist etc analyses of Buffy, SMG worship and (in several apparently fairly random places) discussion of the problems with the show in terms of race, deaths of gay characters and of course those allegations. There were some interesting comments from cast members (especially SMG, Charisma Carpenter, Emma Caulfield, Julie Benz, Amber Benson and Nicholas Brendon) but Alyson Hannigan had pulled out after the allegations became public, and Whedon himself didn't comment at all. It did make me think about the issues around "problematic" creators - maybe I'm just too old and stuck in my ways, but I feel Buffy has to be seen in the context of its time, when it really did change the rules about who could be the central protagonists of a hit show and how they could do it. The allegations about Whedon are different, but I don't find it particularly difficult to separate the genius who created what remains my favourite TV show from his other actions. Maybe I'd find it harder if I didn't love Buffy so much...
Anyway, the book is thought-provoking, but too long, meandering, and doesn't quite know what to think itself about what it perceives as Buffy's problems. Absolutely worth a look if you're a fan, though.