50 Books Challenge 2024 Part Five

[Southeastdweller]

Welcome to the fifth thread of the 50 Book Challenge for this year.

The challenge is to read fifty books (or more!) in 2024, though reading fifty isn't mandatory. Any type of book can count, and please try to let us all know your thoughts on what you've read.

If possible, please can you embolden your titles and maybe authors as well of books you've read or going to read? It makes it much easier to keep track.

Some of us bring over to the new thread lists of the books we've read so far, but again - this is your choice.

The first thread is here, the second one here , the third one here and the fourth one here

What are you reading?

My list so far

1. I Have To Save Them. Ellie Midwood
2. P.S Jane. Jessica Julien
3. Mrs. Quinns Rise to Fame. Olivia Ford
4. The Villa. Jess Ryder
5. Artificial Wisdom. Thomas Weaver
6. The Paris Spy's Girl. Amanda Lees
7. Twisting Time: Forbidden City of Gold. D.F Jones
8. The Liberation of Bella McCaa. Catherine Aitken
9. The Quelling. C.L Lauder

10. Munich Wolf. Rory Clements 11. Sam Time. Donna Balon 12. A Most Malicious Messenger. Katherine Black 13. Taken to the Hills. S.J Richards 14. Blood On The Tracks. Guy Hale 15. Black Money. S.J Richards 16. The German Child. Catherine Hokin 17. Phoenix Rising. Celia and Ephie Risho 18. The Bakers Secret. Lelita Baldock 19. The Vermillion Ribbon. Hayley Price 20. Inheritance. Philip Tyler 21. Nicole's War. Andrée Rushton 22. Aria and Liam: The Druids Secret. Coline Monsarrat 23. Dark Arts. Karen Taylor 24. Vermilion Sunrise. Lydia P. Brownlow 25. Opaque. Calix Leigh-Reign 26. Knights, Witches and Murder. R.M Schultz 27. The Advocate. Theresa Burrell 28. Queen of Secrets. E.J Tanda 29. The Lost Child. Kathleen McGurl 30. Blood Sapphires Revenge. Bruce Farmer 31. New Dreams at Polkerran Point. Cass Grafton 32. Highly Flawed Individual. T.C Roberts 33. Tale of Two Curses. Theresa Biehle 34. Right Across the Bay. Quinn Avery 35. How Boys Learn. Jeff Kirchick 36. The False Men. Mhairead MacLeod 37. Evermarked. A.J Eversley 38. Truth Sister. Phil Gilvin 39. Crodor The Ancient. Celia and Ephie Risho 40. The Whispering Palms. Annette Leigh 41. Good Girl Deprogramming. Michelle Minnikin 42. When The Moon Was White. Jeff Probst 43. Split Adam. Calix Leigh-Reign 44. The Wartime Book Club. Kate Thompson 45. House of Dreams. Mark Stibbe 46. Humebeasts. Lisa Munoz 47. Island In The Sun. Kate Fforde 48. Shooters. Julia Boggio 49. Escape to Polkerran Point. Cass Grafton 50. Knights, Necromancers and Murder. R.M Schultz 51. The Secrets of Blythwood Square. Sara Sheridan 52. Chasing the Light. Julia Boggio 53. Another Side of the Heart. C.H Lazarovich 54. Exodus. Steve Catto 55. My Perfect Family. Melanie Price 56. Fog Of Silence. S.J Richards 57. Daughters of Warsaw. Maria Frances 58. Olympia. Eva Grace 59. Mannigan. L. Ross Coulter 60. Pink Camouflage. Gemma Morgan 61. Hear her Scream. Dylan H Jones 62. Cursed by Slumber. Michelle Moras 63. The Clark's Factory Girls at War. May Ellis 64. An Elf With No Name. Mortimer Langford 65. Memory Road. Sarah Edghill 66. What we Thought We Knew. Claire Dyer 67. Moral Injuries. Christie Watson 68. A Woman Of Pleasure. Kiyoko Murata. Translated by Juliet Winters Carpenter. 69. All The World's A Stage. Guy Hale 70. Orson the Great. Colm McElwain 71. The Giveaway Girl. Chrissie Bradshaw 72. Knights, Witches and The Missing. R.M Schultz 73. Naked Truth. Vicki Rebecca 74. Into the Darkness. Steve Catto 75. Gathering of the Four. A.E Bennett 76. A Tale of Something New. D.S McColgan 77. Specular. Calix Leigh-Reign 78. Maybe It's About Time. Neil Boss 79. The Godfather of Dance. Andrea Barton 80. Dark Shadow. Simon Dinsdale 81. The Keeper of Secrets. Maria McDonald 82. Crown of Confessions. E.J Tanda 83. The Grief of Godless Games. J.T Audesley 84. The Magical Journey of John and Adele. Ancius M. Murray 85. Liddle Deaths. Morgan Christie 86. What Would Aimee Dean Do? Y.M Miller 87. 17 Alma Road. Ian Gouge 88. Chapel Field. Paula Hillman 89. Jesse's Triumph. Amra Pajalic. 90. The Pact. Lisa Darcy 91. Then There Were Giants. Nicky Heymans 92. Wolf's Keep. K.E Turner 93. Hindsight. Mary Turner Thomson 94. Awaken the Dawn. Ellis K. Popa 95. Knights, Witches and The Vanished City. R.M Schultz 96. Sweetness In The Skin. Ishi Robinson 97. Blackwolf. Phil Gilvin 98. The Journalist. John Reid Young 99. Death Under a Little Sky. Stig Abell 100. The Pictish Princess. Dolan Cummings 101. My Mystical Path. Donna Shin-Ward 102. Three Brave Hearts. Liz Middleton 103. Jericho Caine, Vampire Slayer, Love, Lust and Blood. Dee Rose 104. Love Lottie. Mel Higgins 105. The Orphans of Berlin. Jina Bacarr 106. Hard Times For The East End Library Girls. Patricia McBride 107. Leap. O.C Heaton 108. Death Walks In Mowhall. Benjamin Hanna 109. Corpse In The Chard. Anna A. Armstrong 110. Green Ray. O.C Heaton 111. The Weight of What Was. Pip Landers-Lett 112. Aria and Liam: The Baker Street Mystery. Coline Monsarrat 113. Let Me In. Claire McGowan 114. Through Blood and Dragons. R.M Schultz 115. Earth Protectors. Samuel Lawson 116. The Palladium. Thorsten Brandl 117. Birth of the Tiptons. Philip Davidson 118. Good Things. Kate MacDougall 119. Mask of the Gods. Karen Furk 120. The Rutland Connection. Michael Dane 121. Murder On The Isle. Anna. A. Armstrong 122. Fall From Grace. Alan Feldberg 123. The Photograph. Diane Clarke 124. Wolf's Prize. K.E Turner 125. Courting The Sun. Peggy Joque Williams

Thanks for the new thread @Southeastdweller.

1 The Chrysalids, John Wyndham
2 Bomber, Len Deighton
3 Stay With Me, Ayobami Adebayo
4 A Thread of Grace, Mary Doria Russell
5 Under Sea, Over Stone, Susan Cooper
6 Frenchman’s Creek, Daphne du Maurier
7 War Doctor, David Nott
8 Zoo Station, David Downing
9 Politics on the Edge, Rory Stewart
10 My Forth Time We Drowned, Sally Hayden
11 A Passage North, Anuk Arudpragasam
12 So Late in the Day, Claire Keegan
13 The Night Circus, Erin Morgenstern
14 The Rose Code, Kate Quinn
15 The Burgess Boys, Elizabeth Strout
16 Redhead by the Side of the Road, Anne Tyler
17 The House of Doors, Tan Twan Eng
18 Breathtaking, Rachel Clarke
19 Woman, Eating, Claire Kohda
20 The Alienist, Caleb Carr
21 Memphis, Tara M Stringfellow
22 Little, Edward Carey
23 Natives, Akala
24 Blood & Sugar, Laura Shepherd-Robinson
25 D-Day: Minute by Minute, Jonathon Mayo
26 Violetta, Isabel Alllende
27 On the Beach, Nevil Shute
28 Slow Horses, Mick Herron
29 Learning to Swim, Claire Chambers
30 The Glass Pearls, Emeric Pressburger
31 The Making of the Modern Middle East, Jeremy Bowen
32 The Thirteenth Tale, Diane Setterfield
33 One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
34 The Daughter of Time, Josephine Tey
35 The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde
36 Enter Ghost, Isabella Hammad

Still not many bolds for me and there are a couple that I probably wouldn't have bolded if I'd read them last year when I had loads of bolds.

Just finished 36. Bunny by Mona Awad. I think someone on here recommended this after I said I'd enjoyed Miranda July. I spent a lot of it quite bemused thinking it was a rather obvious version of Heathers or Mean Girls but just set in college and satirizing the admittedly pretentious creative lit professors and little rich girls. Samantha the first person narrator is the cool, poor, creative outsider whose literary classmates she labels bunnies - a privileged set who write derivative lit and wear cutsie clothes. She gets in with the bunnies much to the disgust of her best friend Ava and then ends up doing very weird workshops where exploding bunnies create strange young men. Anyway it all comes to a head in a cleverer way than I expected with some very odd twists but I'm not sure the pay off quite worked for me. Quite bonkers and hallucinatory though so I get the July parallels.

Thanks for the new thread! Here’s my list:

1. Nicholas Nickleby - Charles Dickens
2. The Five-minute Garden - Laetitia Maklouf
3. A Symphony of Echoes - Jodi Taylor
4. Agent Sonya - Ben Macintyre
5. A Second Chance - Jodi Taylor
6. The Hunting Party - Lucy Foley
7. Homecoming - Kate Morton
8. Le Jardinage pour les Nuls - Michael MacCaskey (in French; tr. Valérie Martin-Rolland)
9. Once Upon a Crime - Robin Stevens
10. Heresy - SJ Parris
11. The Ministry of Unladylike Activity - Robin Stevens
12. Politics on the Edge - Rory Stewart
13. The Appeal - Janice Hallett
14. The Ferryman - Justin Cronin
15. The Twyford Code - Janice Hallett
16. The Mitford Girls - Mary S Lovell
17. Country Secrets - Fiona Walker
18. A Stitch in Time - Penelope Lively
19. The Wager - David Grann
20. The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels - Janice Hallett
21. The Hike - Lucy Clarke
22. Seeing a Large Cat - Elizabeth Peters
23. The Ski Trip - Sarah Clarke
24. The Scarlett Dress - Louise Douglas

Thanks for the new thread @Southeastdweller Shameless place marking

I have been lurking a bit on these threads, I’m only on 17 books so not sure I’ll make it to 50. But, I wanted to very much recommend The Other Valley by Scott Alexander Howard. I just finished it, and loved it. It’s a speculative fiction novel about a town that has an identical town to the east that’s 20 years in the future, another to the west that’s 20 years in the past. It’s beautifully written and is quite philosophical, I think I will be thinking about it for a while. It’s in the 99p kindle deals this month.

Also just an FYI that the Marriage Portrait by Maggie O’Farrell is in the Kindle Daily Deals today for 99p

Thanks for the new thread and the heads up about the The Marriage Portrait Odile0.

• *My list so far:

1 Appointment with Death Agatha Christie
2 Demon Copperhead Barbara Kingslover
3 Yellowface RF Kuang
4 The Bird Tribunal Agnes Ravatn (trans Rosie Hedger)
5 The Constant Rabbit Jasper Fforde
6 Steppenwolf Hermann Hesse (trans Basil Creighton)
7 The Seven Dials Mystery Agatha Christie
8 Notes on Grief Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
9 The Eye-Eye and I Gerald Durrell
10 The Great British Bucket List: Utterly Unmissable Britain Richard Madden
11 When the Dust Settles Lucy Easthope
12. On a Beam of Light Gene Brewer
13 The Worlds of Prot Gene Brewer
14 Mrs Dalloway Virginia Wolf
15 The Adventures of TinTin: Cigars of the Pharaoh Herge (trans L Lonsdale-Cooper & M Turner)
16 Mosquito: A Natural History of Our Most Persistent and Deadly Foe Andrew Speilman & Michael D'Antonio
17 Three Elegies for Kosovo Ismail Kadare (trans Peter Constantine)
18 The Passport Herta Muller (trans Martin Chalmers)
19 The Devils Workshop Jachym Topol (trans Alex Zucker)
20 Watermelon Marian Keyes
21 The Testament of Mary Colm Toibin
22 Under Milk Wood & A Child's Christmas in Wales Dylan Thomas
23 Foster Claire Foster
24 Charlotte Sometimes - Penelope Farmer
25 My Name is Lucy Barton - Elizabeth Stroud
26 The Ditch - Herman Koch (The Netherlands) trans. Sam Garrett
27a. Mythos - Stephen Fry - DNF
28 Rachel's Holiday - Marian Keyes
29 The Solitude of Prime Numbers - Paulo Giardano trans. Shaun Whiteside
30 The Only Plane in the Sky - Garrett Graff
31 Lovers at the Museum - Isabelle Allende
32 Autumn - Ali Smith
33 Metamorphosis- Franz Kafka
34 Small Things Like These - Claire Foster
35 The Tobacconist - Robert Seethaler trans. Charlotte Collins
36 This Boy - Alan Johnson
37 Broken April - Ismail Kadare trans. Peter Constantine
38 Around the World in 80 Novels. Henry Russell
39 Zikora - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
40 Chess - Stefan Zweig trans. Anthea Bell
41 Katalin Street - Magda Szabo trans. Len Rix1

Currently reading David Copperfield after loving Demon Copperhead

Thank you for the new thread, Southeast!

@FuzzyCaoraDhubh , that's a lovely review of A Woman's Story. I've never read a book by Ernaux I didn't like (at least not yet!).

Bringing my list over:

1. Rooftoppers, Katherine Rundell
2. The Wife of Bath: A Biography, Marion Turner
3. Pond, Claire-Louise Bennett
4. Angel, Elizabeth Taylor
5. The Wife of Willesden, Zadie Smith
6. Black and British: A Forgotten History, David Olusoga
7. The Darkest Evening, Ann Cleeves
8. Le Coeur à rire et à pleurer : Contes vrais de mon enfance [Tales from the Heart : True Stories from My Childhood], Maryse Condé
9. The Wool-Pack, Cynthia Harnett

10. Soldier Sailor, Clare Kilroy 11. Super-Infinite, Katherine Rundell 12. Rizzio, Denise Mina 13. The Maiden, Kate Foster 14. River East, River West, Aube Rey Lescure 15. Les Disparus du Clairdelune, La Passe-Miroir Livre 2 [The Missing of Clairdelune, The Mirror Visitor Book 2], Christelle Dabos 16. Enter Ghost, Isabella Hammad 17. Ordinary Human Failings, Megan Nolan 18. The Great Fortune, Olivia Manning 19. 8 Lives of a Century-Old Trickster, Mirinae Lee 20. And Then She Fell, Alicia Elliott 21. Brotherless Night, V. V. Ganeshananthan 22. Restless Dolly Maunder, Kate Grenville 23. Nightbloom, Peace Adzo Medie 24. The Spoilt City, Olivia Manning 25. Friends and Heroes, Olivia Manning 26. Ruth, Elizabeth Gaskell 27. The Great House, Cynthia Harnett 28. Ring Out Bow Bells!, Cynthia Harnett 29. Trois femmes puissantes [Three Strong Women], Marie NDiaye

And some new reviews:
30. The Sweet Dove Died, Barbara Pym 4/5
Pym’s next-to-last novel, this is rather melancholic. The main female character, Leonora, is self-centred and in some ways quite unsympathetic, as she tries to control the life of the younger man she has fallen in love with, but her vulnerability eventually becomes evident.

31. La Honte [Shame], Annie Ernaux 5/5
    It’s amazing to me that Ernaux can mine her own childhood experience over and over again, to form the substance of many different novels, and the results are always gripping and insightful. This book begins with an incident of domestic violence that marked the narrator’s life (her father threatening to kill her mother), but rather than focusing on the relationship between her parents, Ernaux meticulously recreates the whole social environment her family occupied. The wealth of everyday cultural detail reminds me of her later masterpiece Les Années. There is also an interesting account of her experience as a pupil at a Catholic girls’ school: the fact that she attended a private school set her apart from her working-class peers.

32. Before We Were Trans: A New History of Gender, Kit Heyam 5/5
    Recommended on the 50-book threads earlier this year, this is a fascinating book, impressively researched and very readable. The chapters are organised thematically rather than according to historical period or geographical region, so the analysis moves frequently between centuries and cultures, but this structure, ambitious as it is, works well. The author is particularly careful not to pigeonhole or label the historical figures they discuss: instead, they are interested in how people across history forged their own gendered identities within their own particular contexts. I borrowed this book from the library, but am going to buy it to have as a reference, because the introduction especially is so conceptually useful: a lucid, thoughtful account of what it might mean to be trans, and why there is no single definition.

33. The Rising Tide, Ann Cleeves 4/5
    Another very enjoyable novel in the Vera series. I hated the ending though! And when will Vera ever stop deciding to go confront the murderer on her own, once she’s worked out who they are?! Four stars because I did like the book a lot, despite this niggles.

Thanks as ever @Southeastdweller for the new thread. My reading's been off the boil a bit recently - mental health not the best ATM - and so the pace is slowing.

1.Just Like You by Nick Hornby
2.Oxblood by Tom Benn
3.My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell
4.Vernon God Little by DBC Pierre
5 The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid
6.Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart
7.Tresspasses by Louise Kennedy
8.Black Dogs by Ian McEwan
9.Music and Silence by Rose Tremain
10.The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
11.Mouth to Mouth by Antoine Wilson
12.Mantel Pieces by Hilary Mantel
13.Freya by Anthony Quinn
14.Ghost Wall by Sarah Moss
15.Our Friends in Berlin by Anthony Quinn
16.Paper Cup by Karen Campbell
17.Matrix by Lauren Groff
18.Picnic at Hanging Rock by Jean Lindsay
19.Ordinary Human Failings by Megan Nolan
20.Exiles by Jane Harper
21. The House on Half Moon Street by Alex Reeve
22.Undoctored by Adam Kay
22.Exit West by Mohsin Hamid
23.Bewilderment by Richard Powers

And I've just finished the whopper that was Caledonian Road by Andrew O'Hagan. A state of the nation novel charting the rise and fall of working class Glaswegian Campbell Flynn, now a successful writer and academic with an upper class wife and matching spending habits. Along the way it takes in oligarchs, cannabis farms, people smuggling, hackers, right wing clickbait columnists, superstar DJs and street gang culture. In a Dickensian way there were a few too many ancillary plots and minor characters, but I couldn't help being drawn in, and although there's a strong sense that things probably aren't going to go well for Flynn it's not too predictable.

1 The Short End of the Sonnenallee by Thomas Brussig, translated by Jonathan Franzen and Jenny Watson
2 The Five Minute Garden by Laetitia Maklouf
3 Kristin Lavrandatter III: The Cross by Sigrid Undset. Translated by Tiina Nunnally
4 Stars of Fortune by Cynthia Harnett
5 Heartstopper Vol 5 by Alice Oseman
6 Nimona by ND Stevenson
7 Territory of Light by Yuko Tsushimo. Translated by Geraldine Harcourt
8 Rizzio by Denise Mina
9 Sophia, Princess, Suffragette, Revolutionary by Anita Anand
10 The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa. Translated by Stephen Snyder
11 Nightingale Wood by Stella Gibbons
12 The Door by Magda Szabó. Translated by Len Rix
13 Aya: Claws Come Out by Marguerite Abouet and Clément Oubrerie. Translated by Edwige Renée Dro.
14 Poor Things by Alasdair Gray
15 Pereira Maintains by Antonio Tabucchi. Translated by Patrick Creagh
16 Moms by Yeong-shin Ma. Translated by Janet Hong
17 The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett
18 Hags. The demonisation of middle-aged women by Victoria Smith
19 The Thing Around Your Neck by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
20 The Blue Flower by Penelope Fitzgerald
21 Last Train to Istanbul by Ayşe Kulin. Translated by John W. Baker

And my latest review:

No Surrender by Constance Maud. Adapted by Scarlett and Sophie Rickard

This is a graphic novel adaptation of a 1911 novel written by a suffragette and based on several real life incidents in the movement's history. It focuses on the friendship between Jenny, a Lancashire mill worker, and Mary, an aristocrat, and the stunts they pulled to draw attention to the campaign. There's even a romance between Jenny and the local Labour MP. This was very entertaining (in 1911 the violence had not really started and so much of what Jenny and Mary did was intended to embarrass Liberal MPs and generate column inches) and looked gorgeous, with the double page spreads in particular having a host of details to enjoy.

1. Lessons in Chemistry - Bonnie Garmus
2. The Years of Rice and Salt - Kim Stanley Robinson
3. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
4. Yellowface - RF Kuang
5. The Great Post Office Scandal - Nick Wallis
6. The Seven Sisters - Lucinda Riley
7. The Kitchen Gods Wife - Amy Tan
8. Dreaming the Eagle - Manda Scott
9. The Calculating Stars - Mary Robinette Kowal

10. The Fated Sky - Mary Robinette Kowal 11. Red Side Story - Jasper Fforde 12. The Relentless Moon - Mary Robinette Kowal 13. One Good Turn - Kate Atkinson 14. Expecting Better - Emily Oster 15. The Gift of Rain - Tan Twan Eng 16. Little Women - Louisa May Alcott 17. The Lost Man - Jane Harper 18. Ultra Processed People - Chris Van Tulleken 19. Paper Cup - Karen Campbell 20. The Dry - Jane Harper 21. When the Dust Settles - Lucy Easthope 22. Rachel Ryan's Resolutions - Laura Starkey 23. The Silent Patient - Alex Michaelides 24. Assassin's Apprentice - Robin Hobb 25. Royal Assassin - Robin Hobb 26. Assassin's Quest - Robin Hobb 27. Over My Dead Body - Maz Evans 28. The Nothing Man - Catherine Ryan Howard 29. The Fellowship of The Ring - JRR Tolkein 30. The Light That Bends Round Corners - Alexandra Carey 31. The Burning Girls - CJ Tudor 32. The Two Towers - JRR Tolkein 33. The Bookbinder - Pip Williams 34. Enter Ghost - Isabella Hammad 35. The Return of The King - JRR Tolkein 36. The Other People - CJ Tudor 37. The Three Body Problem - Cixin Liu (translated by Ken Liu)

I've been a bit stingy with my bolds, there were a lot of books that I enjoyed but didn't bold.

Latest read for me is 37. The Three Body Problem - Cixin Liu (translated by Ken Liu). This is a Chinese sci fi recently made into a netflix show (which is, by all accounts, terrible). Pretty slow to get going and the reader doesn't have much idea what is going on until 50% of the way through. Scientists are committing suicide and there is a strange virtual reality game called Three Body. It was hard to keep track of who everyone was because of the unfamiliar Chinese names being quite hard to remember but that didn't bother me too much. I enjoyed it and I'll be reading the sequels.

Adding my latest reads:
29. Devil’s Table - Kate Rhodes

I forgot to add and review this book at the end of April. It’s the fifth in the detective/murder mystery series following detective Ben Kitto and set in the Isles Of Scilly. This was set on St Martin - the only inhabited island that hadn’t yet been the scene of a murder. The story revolves around the dysfunctional family who own the vineyard and starts with a missing child before progressing to murder. The sense of place is very good (as I visited St Martin not long after finishing the book) and I like the recurring characters and their relationships. The plot relies on relationships between the islanders which are inevitable in such a small community but the level of dysfunction felt unrealistic to me. Still enjoyed it though.

These are now my most recent books:

33. The Chateau - William Maxwell

I first read this about 12 years ago and recall loving it at the time. Harold and Barbara are recently married Americans and are visiting France for the summer of 1948. As part of their trip they stay at the chateau which has started taking paying guests to make ends meet. France is struggling economically and emotionally in the immediate post war period. The Americans want to become friends with everyone and make some misjudgments. In the chateau they dine with the family and become friendly with the younger family members who they then spend time with in Paris but are in that tricky position of still being paying guests. I didn’t love it this time but enjoyed it - it’s definitely a slow burn and does social awkwardness well but I can see it could be quite marmite.

34. The Trial - Roberts Rinder

A quick easy read. Adam Green is a pupil barrister who becomes part of the defence team for Jimmy who is charged with murdering a senior high profile police officer. The KC is convinced of Jimmy’s guilt but Adam thinks that not all is as it seems and sets out to investigate and clear Jimmy. A page turner although I think the outcome was unrealistic and some of the barristers felt a bit stereotypical. Not sure Jonathan (the KC) would have survived doing so little prep and relying so heavily on Adam but maybe I am wrong. All the barristers I know work incredibly hard.

I fell off the last thread for the same work-related reasons as I failed to attend the 50 bookers meet (so sorry to have missed that, really hope we can do another one). @TimeforaGandT from my perspective, barristers do indeed work very hard! I read the last two books on my list a while ago so the reviews are not very thorough.

@AgualusasLover so glad you liked The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, it is (as I keep saying on here to general bewilderment) my favourite book of all time. The 50 bookers meet up members should probably think themselves lucky I didn't come as it would inevitably have been the book I brought!

1. The Trial – Rob Rinder
2. The Generation Divide: Why we can’t agree and why we should – Bobby Duffy
3. The Fell – Sarah Moss
4. Impossible Creatures – Katherine Rundell
5. Over Sea Under Stone – Susan Cooper
6. Greenwitch – Susan Cooper
7. The Grey King – Susan Cooper
8. Silver on the Tree – Susan Cooper
9. Orlando – Virginia Woolf

10. Liza’s England – Pat Barker 11. Winter – Ali Smith 12. Farewell Fountain Street – Selcuk Altun 13. Hungry – Grace Dent 14. The Shadow Murders – Jussi Adler-Olsen 15. The Wayward Bus – John Steinbeck 16. My Dark Vanessa – Kate Elizabeth Russell 17. Giving Up the Ghost – Hilary Mantel 18. Spook Street – Mick Herron 19. The Waves – Virginia Woolf 20. At Freddie’s – Penelope Fitzgerald 21. Before the Queen Falls Asleep – Huzama Habayeb 22. The Progress of a Crime – Julian Symons 23. Death of a Lesser God – Vaseem Khan 24. Giovanni’s Room – James Baldwin 25. Green Dot – Madeleine Gray 26. Family Politics – John O’Farrell 27. The Five – Hallie Rubenhold 28. London Rules – Mick Herron 29. The Brightest Night (Wings of Fire 5) – Tui T. Sutherland 30. Joe Country – Mick Herron

And my two latest:

31. Spring – Ali Smith

Third in the seasons quartet, I felt this was less coherent than Autumn and Winter, but when it was good, it was still really, really good.* The focus of this one is immigration, and the story brings together magical realist child Florence (I've managed the magical realism in the others, but this one went a bit too far), Brit, an officer in an immigration detention centre and Richard, a film-maker grieving his mentor, friend and sometime lover Paddy. I think the thing Smith does fantastically well in all three of the books I've read so far is relationships between different ages. Richard is significantly younger than Paddy and, like Elisabeth and Daniel in Autumn*, the complexities of their intimacy are beautifully explored. I wanted the book to end after Paddy's last letter to Richard, which broke my heart. Instead it meandered back to Florence and Brit and hammered me over the head a bit more about immigration (on which I am entirely sympathetic to Smith's position, but don't think it worked well in a novel) and the power ebbed away.

32. Yellowface – Rebecca F. Kuang

You have probably all read this by now. After the tragic death of her friend Athena, Juniper finishes her masterwork and passes it off as her own. A thrillerish romp through the world of publishing with musings on cultural appropriation. I enjoyed reading this and thought it was well done, but I don't feel it contained any great insights.

Meant to add - I currently have Sidesplitter by Phil Wang and Wifedom on the go, but although I'm enjoying both I'm making very slow progress because work is still madness.

List so far. Like Eine I may tinker with borderline bolds - feel a bit mean for not bolding Reading Lessons (which I hope you enjoy, @bibliomania )

1 The Three Dahlias - Katy Watson
2 A Twist of the Knife - Anthony Horowitz
3 Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 - Cho Nam-Joo (tr. Jamie Chang)
4 Τhe Secret Hours - Mick Herron
5 Little Dorrit - Charles Dickens
6 The Great Post Office Scandal - Nick Wallis
7 Carbonel and The Kingdom of Carbonel - Barbara Sleigh
8 Messalina of the Suburbs - E. M. Delafield
9 A Glove Shop in Vienna and other winter stories - Eva Ibbotson
10 Τhe Fancy - Monica Dickens
11 System Collapse - Martha Wells
12 Welcome to the Hyunam-dong Bookshop - Hwang Bo-Reum (tr. Shanna Tan)
13 A Village in the Third Reich - Julia Boyd
14 The Rachel Incident - Caroline O’Donoghue
15 Conversations with Friends - Sally Rooney
16 Glossy - Marisa Meltzer
17 The Old Maid - Edith Wharton
18 The Revolt - Clara Dupont-Monod (tr. Ruth Diver)
19 Eve Bites Back - Anna Beer
20 Blood, Sweat and Pixels - Jason Shreier
21 Caroline O’Donoghue, All Our Hidden Gifts
22 Minor Mage - T. Kingfisher
23 Τhe Unexpected Inheritance of Inspector Chopra - Vaseem Khan
24 Opal Country - Chris Hammer
25 Τhe Rabbit Factor - Antti Tuomainen (tr. David Hackston)
26 A Tomb with a View - Peter Ross
27 Blue Water - Leonora Nattrass
28 The Glass Pearls - Emeric Pressburger
29 Rouge - Mona Award
30 The Rector’s Daughter - F.M. Mayor
31 The Secret River - Kate Grenville
32 Aunt Margaret’s Lover - Mavis Cheek
33 The Brief - Simon Michael
34 River East, River West - Aube Rey Lescure
35 Killing Thatcher - Rory Carroll
36 A Bookshop of One’s Own - Jane Cholmeley
37 Children of Time - Adrian Tchaikovsky
38 Thunderclap - Laura Cumming
39 Greek Lessons - Han Kang (tr. Deborah Smith, Emily Yae Won)
40 Miss Kim Knows and other stories - Cho Nam-Joo (tr. Jamie Chang)
41 Coffee with Hitler - Charles Spicer
42 8 Lives of a Century-Old Trickster - Mirinae Lee
43 The Bookshop - Penelope Fitzgerald
44 Absolutely & Forever - Rose Tremain
45 How to Say Babylon - Safiya Sinclair
46 Enter Ghost - Isabella Hammad
47 The Wolf Den - Elodie Harper
48 Soldier Sailor - Claire Kilroy
49 Ordinary Human Failings - Megan Nolan
50 Shadows of London - Andrew Taylor
51 Scarlet Town - Leonora Nattrass
52 Mercury Pictures Presents - Anthony Marra
53 What I’d Rather Not Think About - Jente Posthuma (tr. Sarah Timmer Harvey)
54 Hands of Time - Rebecca Struthers
55 The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi - Shannon Chakraborty
56 Brotherless Night - V.V. Ganeshananthan
57 Red Memory - Tania Brannigan
58 Restless Dolly Maunder - Kate Grenville
59 Western Lane - Chetna Maroo
60 In Defence of the Act - Effie Black
61 Wifedom - Anna Funder
62 I Have Some Questions For You - Rebecca Makkai
63 Witch King - Martha Wells
64 The Librarianist - Patrick deWitt
65 Saplings - Noel Streatfeild
66 Fire Weather - John Vaillant
67 Murder in the Family - Cara Hunter
68 The Details - Ia Genberg (tr. Kira Josefsson)
69 The House with the Golden Door - Elodie Harper
70 Tom Lake - Ann Patchett
71 Reading Lessons - Carol Atherton
72 Music in the Dark - Sally Magnusson
73 Not a River - Salva Almada (tr. Annie McDermott)

Currently reading Enlightenment by Sarah Perry in between two marathon projects: Judgement at Tokyo by Gary Buss and Kairos by Jenny Erpenbeck in the original, as Michael Hofmann's translation (which just won the Intl. Booker) was raising my hackles - 50something smug male critic translator consistently softens arseholery of 50something smug male critic protagonist shocker! But it's v. dense and allusive, and I really don't enjoy spending time in the book's world so IDK... if I end up finishing it in English I will add to the list/review (otherwise not counting books in other languages).

Thanks @Southeastdweller for the thread

My list

1. Echo Burning; Lee Child
2. The Mysterious Affair at Styles; Agatha Christie
3. Without Fail; Lee Child
4. Persuader; Lee Child
5. Beg, Borrow or Steal; Susie Tate
6. Lights Out; Elise Hart Kipness
7. A Fatal Inversion; Barbara Vine
8. The Secret Adversary; Agatha Christie
9. The Witcher: The Last Wish; Andrejz Sapkowski
10. I'll Never Tell; Catherine McKenzie
11. A Doctor Blind Date for the Cowboy; Dobi Daniels
12. The Frightened Lady; Edgar Wallace
13. The Mystery of the Blue Train; Agatha Christie
14. Manhattan State of Mind; Rosa Lucas
15. The Cowboy's Unexpected Love; S. J. McCoy
16. The Guesthouse; Abbie Frost
17. The Maul and the Pear Tree: The Ratcliffe Highway Murders, 1811; P. D. James & T. A. Critchley
18. Murder at the Vicarage; Agatha Christie
19. The Duke and I; Julia Quinn
20. Murder Most Royal; S. J. Bennet
21. Death in the Sunshine; Stephanie Broadribb
22. The Dead of Winter; S. J. Parris
23. The Highland Kiss; Amy McGavin
24. In a Dark, Dark Wood; Ruth Ware
25. The ABC Murders; Agatha Christie
26. Untouched; Dakota Willink
27. All Fired Up; Lili Valente
28. The Last Resort; Susi Holliday
29. The Housemaid; Frieda McFadden
30. And May the Best Girl Win/Johnnie Casanova; Jilly Cooper

Hello all and thank you southeast.

Currently deep in Fall Out by Tim Shipman. Lots of interesting bolds and reviews already here. Can't post my list as I am currently stranded between phones...

@Kinsters

Three Body the Netflix series has been Westernised but is not that bad. Unfortunately it has been cancelled by Netflix one more series and that's it, and it will be impossible to do the books justice. I would recommend finishing the books first.

Many thanks for the Annie Ernaux reviews FuzzyCaoraDhubh and cassandre. I haven't read either of those but love AE and have added them to my wishlist.

TimeforaGandT I was also interested to see your review of The Chateau. I tried reading it several years ago and just couldn't get into it and abandoned half-way through. I keep thinking I should try it again but I have so many other new books I'm keen to read...

I enjoy Tim Shipman, PT, hope you like that one.

@EineReiseDurchDieZeit oo ok, maybe we'll try it. Not that I get much time to watch TV. Once the kids are in bed I read for an hour then go to sleep myself.

58. Red Queen by Juan Gomez-Jurado

Jon Gutierrez is a disgraced cop, but the mysterious Mentor can make it go away if he can recruit the elusive Antonia Scott for an urgent assignment.

I mean, this is an airport or beach thriller, that is desperately trying to be the next Girl With The Dragon Tattoo with its savant like outsider who is so intelligent it's almost impossible to believe.

As of right now, I don't think it did enough for me to rush to read the sequels.

A slightly more detailed review from me for Anthony Horowitz's newest murder mystery Close To Death. It's set in a leafy close in Richmond, hence the punning title . There is lots of homage to Agatha Christie which is what makes it enjoyable and silly. I can't say much more about it for those who have read other Horowitzes because there is a bit of a spoiler about how it begins even!

Read in two sittings so easy reading and all jolly good fun. Nothing complex or spectacular, although I do like the way he has the confidence to play around in a rather meta way with structure. Hits the spot.

Thanks @Southeastdweller for the new thread and I hope everyone is doing well.

1. Just One Damned Thing After Another – Jodi Taylor
2. Bad Luck and Trouble – Lee Child
3. So Late In The Day – Claire Keegan
4. Night and Fear – Cornell Woolrich
5. A Woman in Berlin – Anon
6. The Hotel Nantucket - Elin Hilderbrand
7. Win – Harlan Coben
8. I’m Over All That – Shirley MacLaine
9. Howl’s Moving Castle – Diana Wynn Jones

10. The Third Man – Graham Greene 11. Spectacles - Sue Perkins 12. Some Kids I Taught and What They Taught Me – Kate Clanchy 13. Fingersmith – Sarah Waters 14. Make Em laugh – Debbie Reynolds 15. Small Things Like These – Clalre Keegan 16. My Secret Admirer – Carol Ellis 17. Autumn – Ali Smith 18. The Secret Adversary – Agatha Christie 19. Shadows of the Workhouse – Jennifer Worth 20. The Hard Way – Lee Child 21. Black Rabbit Hall – Eve Chase 22. Spare – Prince Harry 23. The Sun Down Motel – Simone St James 24. The Return of the King – J R R Tolkien 25. The Family Remains – Lisa Jewell 26. the News of the World – Paulette Jiles

I'm still ploughing through Nicholas Nickleby although I'm a few months behind and am also on the Dangerous Liaisons readalong. I'm alternating between The Moon Sister and River East River West, both of which are great but I just don't seem to have enough time in the day for reading atm. I started listening to Barbra Streisand's book My Name is Barbra and while it wasn't bad, it became obvious at 48 hours in length that she was starting to focus on minute details of her life which I felt I didn't have enough time in my own life for! I may go back to it one day but now just isn't the right time.