50 Books challenge - 2024 roundup

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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. If you’re posting the full lists just a reminder to please bold your favourites, and italicise the books you wouldn’t even pass on to your worst enemy.

I'll come back later in December with mine!

It did that for me! No idea why it looked like that but I edited the post and went through and made it all follow on from the one that worked as a list and then it looked how I wanted it to.

Thanks @Kinsters . Im on my phone & dont seem to have the edit post option. Otherwise id go back & fidget with it.

Good luck @Owlbookend with your cancer treatment - sending best wishes.

Catching up on the thread in a minute. @Owlbookend 🌺 and sending best wishes.
Does anyone have any bookish new year resolutions other than the 50 target? Mine is to fall asleep listening to an audiobook as think it may help me achieve that 50. Also read some more historical fiction.

Posted on the wrong thread have posted on the other one

1. A Heart Full of Headstones - Ian Rankin
2. The Piano Shop on the Left Bank - T. E. Carhart
3. Late in the Day - Tessa Hadley
4. The Wah-Wah Diaries - Richard E. Grant
5. Resurrection Walk - Michael Connelly
6. A Fortunate Man - John Berger
7. The Messalina of the Suburbs - E. M. Delafield
8. The Tuscan Year: Life and Food in an Italian Valley - Elizabeth Romer
9. Dead Man's Riddle - Mary Kelly
10. Charlie Chaplin vs. America - Scott Eyman
11. Goats - Mark Poirier
12. Coffee with Hitler - Charles Spicer
13. The Glass Pearls - Emeric Pressburger
14. Giving Up the Ghost - Hilary Mantel
15. The Rector's Daughter - F. M. Mayor
16. Everywhere I Look - Helen Garner
17. A Sort of Traitors - Nigel Balchin
18. Two Sisters - Blake Morrison
19. Plenty Under the Counter - Kathleen Hewitt
20. Tunnel 29 - Helena Merriman
21. The Girls - Lori Lansens
22. The Secret of Cooking - Bee Wilson
23. The Bookshop - Penelope Fitzgerald
24. The Making of Home - Judith Flanders
25. Has Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter? - Nicci French
26. Jane's Fame - Claire Harman
27. Little Tales of Misogyny - Patricia Highsmith
28. Map of Another Town - M. F. K. Fisher
29. Saplings - Noel Streatfeild
30. Leftovers - Eleanor Barnett
31. The Hidden Man - Charles Cumming
32. The Dictionary People - Sarah Ogilvie
33. Tuesday Girl - Marjorie Gayler
34. 1599: A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare - James Shapiro
35. Romantic Comedy - Curtis Sittenfeld
36. Hitler, Stalin, Mum & Dad - Daniel Finkelstein
37. The L-Shaped Room - Lynne Reid Banks
38. The See-Through House - Shelley Klein
39. Waiting - Ha Jin
40. Rites of Passage - Judith Flanders
41. Who Will Run the Frog Hospital? - Lorrie Moore
42. Hokkaido Highway Blues - Will Ferguson
43. A Thousand Lies - Laura Wilson
44. Gwen Raverat - Frances Spalding
45. A Secret Life - Christobel Kent
46. Dancing into Battle - Nick Foulkes
47. Nicholas Nickleby - Charles Dickens
48. Private Faces - Siân Phillips
49. Out of the Bandbox - Marjorie Gayler
50. Public Places - Siân Phillips
51. Our Spoons Came From Woolworths - Barbara Comyns
52. To Be Young - Mary Lutyens
53. Bluebird, Bluebird - Attica Locke
54. London Underground by Design - Mark Ovenden
55. A House in the Country - Jocelyn Playfair
56. I Seek A Kind Person - Julian Borger
57. Persuasion - Jane Austen
58. The Man Who Drew London - Gillian Tindall
59. The Pursuit of Love - Nancy Mitford
60. Ruskin Park - Rory Cellan-Jones
61. Small Bomb at Dimperley - Lissa Evans
62. Too Late to Turn Back - Barbara Greene
63. The Librarianist - Patrick DeWitt
64. In No-Man's Land - Tony Parker
65. The Wife - Meg Wolitzer
66. Entanglement: The Secret Lives of Hair - Emma Tarlo
67. The Prisoner - Marcel Proust
68. The War Diaries - Nina Siegal
69. Ships of Heaven - Christopher Somerville
70. Anglo-Saxon Attitudes - Angus Wilson
71. The Book-Makers - Adam Smyth
72. Mistletoe Malice - Kathleen Farrell
73. Gut - Giulia Enders
74. Same As It Ever Was - Claire Lombardo
75. My Family - David Baddiel
76. The Country Girls - Edna O’Brien
77. Challenger - Adam Higginbotham
78. Bonjour tristesse - Françoise Sagan, trans. Heather Lloyd
79. The Friday Afternoon Club - Griffin Dunne
80. Shy Creatures - Clare Chambers
81. Patient - Ben Watt
82. May We Borrow Your Husband? - Graham Greene
83. Lev’s Violin - Helena Attlee
84. Orbital - Samantha Harvey
85. Vagabonds - Oskar Jensen
86. To All The Living - Monica Felton
87. Other People’s Houses - Lore Segal
88. It Had To be You - David Nobbs
89. The True History of the First Mrs. Meredith and other lesser lives - Diane Johnson
90. Strange Journey - Maud Cairnes
91. Ammonites and Leaping Fish - Penelope Lively
92. One Year’s Time - Angela Milne
93. Summer at Tiffany - Marjorie Hart
94. The Inn at the Edge of the World - Alice Thomas Ellis
95. Good Girls - Hadley Freeman
96. A Few Green Leaves - Barbara Pym
97. Wartime Women - ed. Dorothy Sheridan
98. Small Pleasures - Clare Chambers
99. Tarte Tatin - Susan Loomis
100. Accidents in the Home - Tessa Hadley
101. Diary of a Wartime Affair - Doreen Bates
102. Death at the Sign of the Rook - Kate Atkinson

34 male authors and 68 female (35 and 68 if you count the dual identities of Nicci French!)

Finally made it to NYE with no reasonable expectation of finishing another book today, so I’m calling it quits for 2024. I’m slightly surprised by the total as I got badly bogged down mid-year, but seemed to put a spurt on in the later stages, so I’m happy enough with reaching 100.
Having hit on the 50:50 fiction/non-fiction dodge a few years ago, this works well for me, so my list is an even mix of the two - I would have read a fair bit more overall if I’d allowed more fiction, as that’s just so much quicker to read, but I do enjoy non-fiction hugely and have had some good bolds (singling out Other People's Houses, The Dictionary People and Adam Smyth's fascinating book-about-books, The Book Makers).
I've enjoyed taking part in the Rather Dated Book Club and several of my fiction bolds are from there. Honourable mentions to the very enjoyable Clare Chambers novels. Just the one real clunker: the inexplicably acclaimed Mistletoe Malice (a ‘rediscovered festive classic with fangs' , apparently, which I found tedious, terminally unfunny and long-winded.
I'm afraid my fascination with the 40s and wartime has overcome me at times so lots of my reads are period ones and hopelessly niche, but they’ve kept me entertained!

This thread has been an absolute joy throughout the year - I not sure what I’d do without it now, tbh - so thanks to all 50 Bookers, and long may it continue!

Definitely want to join for 2025! Shameful year here but really desperate to read more this year. I just keep on buying them 🙈🙈.

This is a particularly good time of year for me reading wise, as Christmas break is quite low key other than Christmas Day, plus teen kids so I get a fair amount of time to read.

Bolds
· Betty, Tiffany McDaneil – my book of the year, not a week goes by when I don’t think about this
· The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels, India Holton – such fun
· The Darling Buds of May, H E Bates
· Ali and Nino, Kurban Said trans. by Jenia Graman
· The Eighth Life, Nino Haratischvili trans. by Charlotte Collins and Ruth Martin
· The Museum of Innocence, Orhan Pamuk trans by Maureen Freely
· Homegoing, Yaa Gyasi
· Half of a Yellow Sun, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
· Sidesplitter, Phil Wang

Italics
· Reading Chekhov: A Critical Journey, Janet Malcolm – mostly because she didn’t seem to like Chekhov, or Russia or even appreciate either

Full List

1. A Bollywood State of Mind, Sunny Singh
2. Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk, David Sedaris
3. Betty, Tiffany McDaniel
4. The Song of Achilles, Madeline Miller
5. Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte

6. Reading Chekhov: A Critical Journey, Janet Malcolm

1. The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels, India Holton
2. An Offer from a Gentleman, Julia Quinn (Bridgerton, 3)
3. The Waiter, Ajay Chowdhury

10. Romancing Mr Bridgerton, Julia Quinn (Bridgerton, 4) 11. Ruth, Elizabeth Gaskell 12. Remember, Mr Sharma, A P Firdaus 13. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Muriel Spark 14. A Lady’s Guide to Fortune Hunting, Sophie Irwin 15. Life Lessons from Literature, Joseph Piercy 16. Until August, Gabriel Garcia Marquez trans by Anne McLean 17. Homegoing, Yaa Gyasi 18. Heads and Straights, Ludy Wadham 19. Vladimir, Julia May Jones 20. The Darling Buds of May, H E Bates 21. The Twilight Garden, Sara Nisha Adams 22. Ali and Nino, Kurban Said trans. by Jenia Graman 23. The Eighth Life: for Brilka, Nino Haratischvili trans. by Charlotte Collins and Ruth Martin 24. The Pedant in the Kitchen, Julian Barn 25. The Museum of Innocence, Orhan Pamuk trans by Maureen Freely 26. The Dead Lake, Hamid Ismailov trans by Andrew Bromfield 27. Ayoade on Ayoade, Richard Ayoade 28. Cleopatra and Frankenstein, Coco Mellors 29. Half of a Yellow Sun, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie 30. Sidesplitter: How to be from Two Worlds at Once, Phil Wang 31. Jane and Prudence, Barbara Pym 32. Small Bomb at Dimperley, Lissa Evans 33. Shakespeare: The Man Who Pays the Rent, Judi Dench 34. The Silent Patient, Alex Michaelides 35. Les Liaisons Dangereuse, Pierre Choderlos de Laclos 36. The Hottest Dishes of the Tartar Cuisine, Alina Bronsky 37. Black & British: A Forgotten History, David Olusoga 38. Treasured Island: A Book Lover’s Tour of Britain 39. Remarkably Bright Creatures, Shelby van Pelt 40. The Canterville Ghost, Oscar Wilde (tentatively added as hoping to start and finish this evening)

Best wishes to you @Owlbookend.

Only finished 46 this year but it was a good reading year with no stinkers and 19 bolds:

Ranger Confidential: Living, Working and Dying in the National Parks, by Andrea Lankford.

True West, by Betsy Gaines Quammen.
Impossible Creatures, by Katherine Rundell.
The Indifferent Stars Above, by Daniel James Brown.
The Book of Love, by Kelly Link.
Two Old Women: An Alaskan Legend of Betrayal, Courage and Survival, by Velma Wallis.
Wild, by Cheryl Strayed.
Day One, by Abigail Dean.
Ghost Wall, by Sarah Moss.
Subculture Vulture, by Moshe Kashner.
Again, Rachel, by Marian Keyes.
The Man Who Died Twice, by Richard Osman.
When the Dust Settles, by Lucy Easthope.
The Mess We're In, by Annie McManus.
I'm Mostly Here to Enjoy Myself, by Glyniss MacNicol.
Trust Her, by Flynn Berry.
Alphabetical Diaries, by Sheila Heti.
Orbital, by Samantha Harvey.
Heartburn, by Nora Ephron.

Absolute best was I'm Mostly Here to Enjoy Myself, which I adored and have also bought for several friends.

If I have to pick a stand out read it was Betty without a shadow of a doubt.

Here's my roundup. My whole list for the year (including bolds)

1. I Have To Save Them. Ellie Midwood

1. P.S Jane. Jessica Julien

1. Mrs. Quinns Rise to Fame. Olivia Ford

1. The Villa. Jess Ryder

1. Artificial Wisdom. Thomas Weaver

1. The Paris Spy's Girl. Amanda Lees

1. Twisting Time: Forbidden City of Gold. D.F Jones

1. The Liberation of Bella McCaa. Catherine Aitken

1. 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

126. The Time That Never Was. Steve Fallon

127. Atom Inc. O.C Heaton

128. Them Old Bones. Astor Y Teller

129. Black Mark. Paul Spencer

130. The Nine. Gwen Strauss

131. Amateurs. Gill Oliver

132. The Hedge Witch. Colleen Delaney

133. Turkish Delight. Anjelica Søndergaard

134. Out Of Her Mind. Sally Hart

135. Miracle Number Four. Paul Marriner

136. The Advocates Betrayal. Teresa Burrell

137. Catch Me Twice. Catherine Yaffe

138. Conditions Are Different After Dark. Owen W. Knight

139. Broken Shadows. Sorrel Pitts

140. Make the Dark Night Shine. Alan Lessik

141. Accidental Dragons. Astor Y Teller

142. Catalog of Desire and Disappearance. Ana Cruz

143. Husbands. Mo Fanning

144. Knife River. Justine Champine

145. 8ish. Luing Andrews and Jack East

146. Truestory. Catherine Simpson

147. The Flower Queen. Kay Freeman

148. Secrets Dark and Wicked. Jessica Julien & Juliet Stevens

149. The Guardians Light. Oliver Crane

150. A Simple Foundation. Larry Heitz

151. How Soon is Now? Paul Carnahan

152. Murder on Stage. F. L. Everett

153. Murmurations. Sarah Thompson

154. Sun of Endless Days. L.G Jenkins

155. The Days of Our Birth. Charlie Laidlaw

156. The Florence Letter. Anita Chapman

157. The Game of War. Glen Dahlgren

158. Under her Roof. A.A Chaudhuri

159. Remedy. Emily Bridget Taylor

160. One Month's Notice. Katie Lou

161. The Second Life of Jonathan
     Sendel. Jeffrey Ashkin.

162. Second Glance. AE Bennett

163. Allison Consents. D. Accord

164. Be More Octopus. Suzanne
     Lissaman

165. Halfmoon Lane. Paula Hillman

166. The Diary at the Last House Before the Sea. Liz Eeles

167. Gallows Wood. Louisa Scarr

168. The Swan's Nest. Laura McNeal

169. Killing Nan and other crime short stories. Keith Wright.

170. The Croaking Raven. Guy Hale

171. Catalyst. Cameron Phoenix

172. Destiny of a Free Spirit. Stephen Ford

173. All in Monte Carlo. Anna Shilling

174. Seven Summers. Paige Toon

175. The Consciousness Company. M.N Rosen

176. About Last Night. Laura Henry

177. The Bite. Jim X Dodge

178. Searchlight, The Rock. Ann Bryant

179. The Walk. Emma Marns

180. Vengeance Day. Simon Dinsdale

181. Serabelle. Tavi Taylor Black

182. War Bunny. Christopher St. John

183. Descended. Ingrid J. Adams

184. If I Can Save One Child. Amanda Lees

185. Sweet Delusions. Bea Miller

186. The Broken Pieces of Us. Celia Tandy

187. Infinite Stranger. Wendy Skorupski

188. Walking Out of This World. Stephen Ford

189. All The Light We Cannot See. Anthony Doerr

190. Vengeance Street. Louise Sharland

191. When The World Went Silent. Ellie Midwood

192. The Cage. Danielle Bannister

193. Love and Other Sins. Emilia Ares

194. Season For Murder. Anna A Armstrong

195. Here Lies A Vengeful Bitch. Codie Crowley

196. Benidorm, Actually. Jo Lyons

197. Spencer Edwards: Emperor of the Galaxy. Alex Prior

198. The Library Girls of the East End. Patricia McBride

199. The Self-Education Manual. Gary Dean Peterson

200. Eighth Moon Bridge. Angus Peter Cambell

201. The Safehouse. Danielle Bannister

202. The Codebreaker Girl. Gosia Nealon

203. The Orphan List. Ann Bennett

204. The Last Bird of Paradise. Clifford Garstang

205. When The Sky Falls. B.R Spangler

206. The Boy Behind the Glass Screen. Ian Siragher

207. Summer at Pine Lake. Alyssa Delle Palme

208. The Physics of Relationships. Chas Halpern

209. A Promise to my Sister. S.E Rutledge

210. Elite Sauna. Craig Lowe.

211. The Swaddling: Search for the Healing Cloth. P.H Bray

212. Istanbul Crossing. Timothy Jay Smith

213. Soul Love. DF Jones

214. Christmas at Polkerran Point. Cass Grafton

215. The Officer. Michael E Bistrica

216. Wartime Wishes for the Land Girls. Ellie Curzon

217. A Seaside Murder. Alice Castle

218. The Human Trial. Audrey Gale

219. Love And Other Cages. Emilia Ares

220. Her Secret Soldier. Julie Hartley

221. Rising Shadows.

222. The Telegram. Debbie Rix

223. The File. Gary Born

224. Journey of A Radiant Heart. Niomi Nicci

225. The Harlan Artefact. Greg Marchand

226. Blue Heart. Nicola Davies

227. The Orphan With No Name. Shirley Dickson

228. The Woman Of Blythe Manor. Miriam Wade

229. Their Little Lies. Quinn Avery

230. Before She Fell. Natalie Sammons

231. Michel's Destiny. Roberta Kagan

232. One Night Only. G.P. Ritchie

233. Just One Weekend. Catherine Aitken

234. A Family Shattered. Roberta Kagan

235. A Killer of Influence. J.D Kirk

236. The Ballerina of Auschwitz. Edith Eger

237. Wolf Boy. David Fitzpatrick

238. Bring Back Time. Julia Sutton.

239. In The Shadows of Love. Awais Khan

240. Susanne: Anne Frank's Forgotten Friend. Sloane Ballou

241. Summerday. Christopher St John

242. The Enlightenment Club. Chris West

243. Ghost Talker. Byrd Nash

244. Death in the Sunshine. Steph Broadribb

245. Mother. Hristina Bloomfield.

246. Watch Over My Child. Roberta Kagan

247. Witch Wife. Lumen Reese

248. The Paris Inheritance. Natalie Meg Evans

249. The Asymmetric Man. Alex Rushton

250. Eden's Comfort Kitchen. Tilly Tennant

251. Moral Code. Lois and Ross Melbourne

252. The Twins on the Train. Suzanne Goldring

253. The Jack O'Lantern Men. Lee Allen.

254. The Angel's Gate. G.P Ritchie

255. Through Fire and Shadow. R.M Schultz

256. Nowhere Man. Deborah Stone.

257. The Night Counsellor. L.K Pang

258. The Witch of White Lady Hollow. C. David Belt

259. Selena Flowers and the Cursed Ruby. Ella English

260. The Other Couple. Tríona Walsh.

261. The Witch and the Devourer of Souls. C.David Belt

262. Another Breath Another Sunrise. Roberta Kagan.

263. Mona Lisa's Daughter. Belle Ami

264. The Irish Family Secret. Daisy O'Shea

265. Cemetery Lodge. Paula Hillman

266. The Last Agent in Paris. Sharon Maas

267. The Christmas Party. Mikayla Davids

268. The Family Secret. Mikayla Davids

269. All Mine Enemies. C. C Gilmartin

270. Flora and Busby's First Christmas. Anna A Armstrong

271. Wait For It. A.L. Glennon

272. Winter Wishes in the Scottish Highlands. Donna Ashcroft.

273. What The Nanny Saw. Kaira Rouda

274. The Ranch at the End of the World

275. Earth Hagiography. Sfarda L. Gül

276. The Witch, The Warlock and The Damned. C. David Belt

277. Catbird. Julia

278. A Safe Place. Stephanie Carty.

279. The Good Witch of Abbotsford. Alaisdair Hutton.

280. Bewitching Rosemary. Colleen Delaney

281. Sailing For Grace. Joseph Bauer

282. Why are you sick? Benjamin L. Smith

283. The Michalmas Daisy. Paul Marriner.

284. The Stolen Sisters. Ann Bennett

285. Scream If You Wanna Go Faster. Wade Beauchamp.

286. The Girl With The Irish Secret. Susanne O’Leary.

287. The Photographer's Secret. Ellie Midwood.

288. Zero Risk. Simon Hayes

289. Earthlings. Ray Star

290. Murder At the Harmony Hollows Resort. Gina Kirkham

291. Double Takedown. Kevin G Chapman

292. The Santa Secret. D Thrush

293. Prelude of Fire. Christine E. Schulze

294. A Little Christmas Magic. Suzanne Rogerson

295. Happyagony. Mem Ferda

296. Operation Fools Mate 24. M. L Baldwin

297. The Widow's Lie. Melanie Price

298. Childhood Behind Barbed Wire. Bogdan Bartnikowski

I was surprised at how many were 5 star reads. But of those 5 star the best were...
Standalone fiction
Artificial Wisdom. Thomas Weaver
Maybe It's About Time. Neil Boss (although i think a sequel is coming)
The Weight of What Was. Pip Landers-Lett
All The Light We Cannot See. Anthony Doerr
Zero Risk. Simon Hayes

Nonfiction
Pink Camouflage. Gemma Morgan
Naked Truth. Vicki Rebecca
The Nine. Gwen Strauss

Fiction Series
Queen of Secrets/Crown of Confessions. E.J Tanda
Truth Sister/Blackwolf Phil Gilvin

My shortest read was Elite Sauna (29 Pages of gay porn!)
Longest was either Through Fire and Shadow, or Zero Risk (Goodreads and storygraph disagree on how many pages they are and i can't be bothered to go and find them to check)

Most read genre was Thriller
Most read author was R.M Schultz

I did have 2 or 3 DNFs, but as I didn't list them I can't remember what they were.

And I didn't include audio books. Personal preference before anyone comes for me!

I'm finally done for the year so here's my list and stats. I've had a good year and met a few of my reading aims - to make more use of Kindle Unlimited / Audible Plus, listened to more audio books, and to read more non fiction, but have read less overall.

• Total: 130 (153 in 2023)
• Fiction/Non-Fiction: 85% - 15% (91% - 9% in 2023)
• Print/Audio/Digital: 6% - 14 % - 80% (7% - 9% - 84% in 2003)
• Male/Female: 36% - 64%
• Average Rating: 3.26 (3.17 in 2023)
• Longest Book: Pillars Of The Earth by Ken Follett (1090 pages)
• Shortest Book: So Late In The Day by Claire Keegan (43 pages)

Here are my fiction bolds:

• The Road by Cormac McCarthy
• Last Dance at the Discotheque for Deviants by Paul David Gould
• The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett
• Doomsday Book by Connie Willis
• Why Don’t You Love Me? by Paul Rainey
• One Day All This Will Be Yours by Adrian Tchaikovsky
• The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss
• Black House by Stephen King and Peter Straub
• Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata
• Foster by Claire Keegan
• Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery
• The Ballad of Smallhope and Pennyroyal by Jodi Taylor
• The Lies You Wrote by Brianna Labuskes
• Soldier Sailor by Claire Kilroy
• Sometimes People Die by Simon Stephenson
• The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

Here are my non-fiction bolds:

• Reaching Down the Rabbit Hole: Extraordinary Journeys into the Human Brain by Allan H Ropper and BD Burrell
• A Heart That Works by Rob Delaney
• On Bloody Sunday: A New History of the Day and its Aftermath By the People Who Were There by Julieann Campbell
• Wishful Drinking by Carrie Fisher
• All the Beauty in the World by Patrick Bringley
• Infinity in the Palm of a your Hand: Fifty Wonders That a reveal an Extraordinary Universe by Marcus Chown
• Me by Elton John
• Elena: A Hand Made Life by Miriam Gold

And here is my full list for the year.

1 The Road by Cormac McCarthy
2 The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 3/4 by Sue Townsend
3 Here’s Looking At You by Mhairi McFarlane
4 Christmas Pie by Jodi Taylor
5 The Scarecrow by Michael Connelly
6 Last Dance at the Discotheque for Deviants by Paul David Gould
7 The Maid by Nita Prose
8 One Day With You by Shari Low
9 Fool Me Once by Ashley Winstead
10 Excellent Women by Barbara Pym
11 Sabrina by Nick Drnaso
12 Les Enfants Terribles by Jean Cocteau
13 The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
14 Wandering Souls by Cecile Pin
15 Call the Canaries Home by Laura Barrow
16 The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett
17 Magpie Lane by Lucy Atkins
18 The Spare Room by Laura Starkey
19 Hags by Victoria Smith
20 Rachel Ryan's Resolutions by Laura Starkey
21 Amy Perry’s Assumptions by Laura Starkey
22 Doomsday Book by Connie Willis
23 Why Don’t You Love Me? by Paul Rainey
24 Cider With Rosie by Laurie Lee
25 Reaching Down the Rabbit Hole: Extraordinary Journeys into the Human Brain by Allan H Ropper and BD Burrell
26 The Princes in the Tower by Alison Weir
27 A Pocketful of Happiness by Richard E Grant
28 The Duke and I by Julia Quinn
29 Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy
30 One Day All This Will Be Yours by Adrian Tchaikovsky
31 The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss
32 The Perfect Husband by Lisa Gardner
33 The Third Victim by Lisa Gardner
34 The Next Accident by Lisa Gardner
35 The Killing Hour by Lisa Gardner
36 Gone by Lisa Gardner
37 Say Goodbye by Lisa Gardner
38 Right Behind You by Lisa Gardner
39 How To Clean Everything by Ann Russell
40 Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons
41 Eye For An Eye MJ Arlidge
42 Little Ghosts by Gregg Dunnett
43 Meet Me On The Bridge by Sarah J Harris
44 Black Diamonds: The Rise and Fall of an English Dynasty by Catherine Bailey
45 To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis
46 On Bloody Sunday: A New History of the Day and its Aftermath By the People Who Were There by Julieann Campbell
47 The Night Raven by Sarah Painter
48 Wishful Drinking by Carrie Fisher
49 The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid
50 Who’s That Girl by Mhairi McFarlane
51 All the Beauty in the World by Patrick Bringley
52 Killing Time by Jodi Taylor
53 Wise Man’s Fear by Patrick Rothfuss
54 Romancing Mr Bridgerton by Julia Quinn
55 You Belong With Me by Mhairi McFarlane
56 Time Shards by Dana Fredsti and David Fitzgerald
57 Frenchmen’s Creek by Daphne Du Maurier
58 Infinity in the Palm of a your Hand: Fifty Wonders That a reveal an Extraordinary Universe by Marcus Chown
59 A Time to Change by Callie Langridge
60 Take It Back by Kia Abdullah
61 The Inmate by Freida McFadden
62 Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin
63 Me by Elton John
64 Black House by Stephen King and Peter Straub
65 He Said / She Said by Erin Kelly
66 Alvar the Kingmaker by Annie Whitehead
67 The Burning Air by Erin Kelly
68 The House With the Golden Door by Elodie Harper
69 Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata
70 The Quiet Game by Greg Iles
71 Turning Angel by Greg Iles
72 The Devil’s Punchbowl by Greg Iles
73 Natchez Burning by Greg Iles
74 The Bone Tree by Greg Iles
75 The Dig by John Preston
76 China Room by Sunjeev Sahota
77 Her Last Words by Brianna Labuskes
78 The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal
79 Your Place or Mine by Portia MacIntosh
80 Bridesmaid For Hire by Meghan Quinn
81 Lovelight Farms by BK Borison
82 The Devil and Mrs Davenport by Paulette Kennedy
83 Retribution by Julianne Hoffman
84 Foster by Claire Keegan
85 Yearbook by Seth Rogen
86 Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery
87 We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
88 Goodbye, Vitamin by Rachel Khong
89 I’m Thinking of Ending Things by Iain Reid
90 Hons and Rebels by Jessica Mitford
91 Ten Little Words by Leah Mercer
92 Deja Dead by Kathy Reichs
93 Happy Place by Emily Henry
94 Book Lovers by Emily Henry
95 The Ballad of Smallhope and Pennyroyal by Jodi Taylor
96 The Curse of the Burdens by John Wyndham
97 The Lies You Wrote by Brianna Labuskes
98 The Truth You Told by Brianna Labuskes
99 Ghost Stories Vol 1 by MR James
100 Girls of Glass by Brianna Labuskes
101 Missing, Presumed by Susie Steiner
102 Persons Unknown by Susie Steiner
103 Remain Silent by Susie Steiner
104 Loathe to Love You by Ali Hazelwood
105 Sal by Mick Kitson
106 Soldier Sailor by Claire Kilroy
107 The Dreamers by Karen Thompson Wall
108 Scaredy Cat by Mark Billingham
109 Lazybones by Mark Billingham
110 Patient Zero and the Making of the AIDS epidemic by Richard A McKay
111 Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont by Elizabeth Taylor
112 Just Date and See by Portia MacIntosh
113 Sometimes People Die by Simon Stephenson
114 Hekla’s Children by James Brogden
115 Blood and Iron: The Rise and Fall of the German Empire by 1871 - 1918 by Katja Hoyer
116 The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
117 Tell Me Your Secret by Dorothy Koomson
118 Normal People by Sally Rooney
119 In the Weeds by BK Borison
120 Elena: A Hand Made Life by Miriam Gold
121 Beach Read by Emily Henry
122 Mercy by Jussi Adler-Olsen
123 And Then She Vanished by Nick Jones
124 Everyone Brave is Forgiven by Chris Cleave
125 So Late In The Day by Claire Keegan
126 Tom Lake by Ann Patchett
127 Ghost Wall by Sarah Moss
128 Disgrace by Jussi Adler-Olsen
129 A Heart That Works by Rob Delaney
130 Lights! Camera! Mayhem! by Jodi Taylor

I’ve already given my top reads and they haven’t changed.
My total figures for 2024 are 216, of which 20% were non-fiction (big improvement for me on the non-fic)
My average rating is 3.82
I’d like to reduce my number next year and increase my average score- I foresee more DNFing in 2025!

Almost my full list but in reverse order of reading (spreadsheet woes using Mac Numbers, come back Excel, all is forgiven, I still love you).

Some cracking non fiction this year. My bolds haven't changed since I posted up thread.
It's been a joy revisiting Jilly Cooper although otherwise not a great year fictionalise really but much of this is due to my inability to concentrate on anything much in the latter half of the year.

The Darkest Evening - Ann Cleeves

Sunset over the Cherry Orchard Jo Thomas

Less: Stop Buying So Much Rubbish: How Having Fewer, Better Things Can Make Us Happier Patrick Grant

You Are Here David Nicholls

Thrown - Sara Cox

Mayflies -Andrew O'Hagan

The Olive Branch - Jo Thomas

Please, Mister Postman - Alan Johnson

This Boy - Alan Johnson

Diaries Volume One: Prelude to Power - Alastair Campbell

Beautiful Wales - Edward Thomas

Some Tame Gazelle - Barbara Pym

Berlin: The Downfall 1945 - Antony Beevor

A Pocketful of Happiness - Richard E. Grant

Say Nothing - Patrick Radden Keefe

Polo - Jilly Cooper

One True Loves - Taylor Jenkins Reid

Madensky Square - Eva Ibbotson

The Raging Storm - Ann Cleeves

American Wife - Curtis Sittenfeld

Eligible - Curtis Sittenfeld

Retreat to the Spanish Sun- Jo Thomas

My Lemon Grove Summer - Jo Thomas

The Oyster Catcher - Jo Thomas

The Vintage Shop of Second Chances - Libby Page

The Burning - Jane Casey

Coming Home to Winter Island - Jo Thomas

Riders - Jilly Cooper

Rivals - Jilly Cooper

The Honey Farm on the Hill - Jo Thomas

The Man Who Made Husbands Jealous - Jilly Cooper

Appassionata - Jilly Cooper

Score! - Jilly Cooper

Who Dares Wins: Britain, 1979-1982 - Dominic Sandbrook

Keir Starmer: The Biography - Tom Baldwin

Politics On the Edge: A Memoir From Within - Rory Stewart

Thunderclap: A Memoir of Art and Life and Sudden Death - Laura Cumming

The Drawing Book - Sarah Simblet

Around The World In Eighty Days - Michael Palin

Killing Thatcher - Rory Carroll

State of Emergency: the Way We Were - Britain, 1970-1974 - Dominic
Sandbrook

Pole to Pole - Michael Palin

The Blair Years: Extracts from the Alastair Campbell Diaries - Alastair Campbell

The House of New Beginnings - Lucy Diamond

Steeple Chasing: Around Britain by Church - Peter Ross

Tunnel 29: The True Story of an Extraordinary Escape Beneath the Berlin Wall - Helena Merriman

The Worst Journey in the World (Illustrated Edition) - Apsley Cherry-Garrard

Life in the Balance: A Doctor’s Stories of Intensive Care - Jim Down

Murder Before Evensong - Richard Coles

Paper Cup - Karen Campbell

A Tomb With a View: The Stories & Glories of Graveyards - Peter Ross

The Great Post Office Scandal - Nick Wallis

Adventures on the High Teas: In Search of Middle England - Stuart Maconie

Diamond Street: The Hidden World of Hatton Garden- Rachel Lichtenstein

Bringing Columbia Home: The Untold Story of a Lost Space Shuttle and Her Crew - Michael D. Leinbach

A Village in the Third Reich Julia Boyd

Breathtaking: The story you haven't been told - Rachel Clarke

Travellers in the Third Reich - Julia Boyd

A Woman of No Importance - Sonia Purnell

Village Christmas: And Other Notes on the English Year - Laurie Lee

Posting my complete list below - although with apologies in advance for the formatting, which looks fine when I preview it then not when I post! - my reading was derailed a bit by taking out a Kindle Unlimited subscription to read a couple of books, then reading the whole of some related series. I was surprised to enjoy the two autobiographies I did read this year - Wes Streeting and Tom Felton - as it's not a genre I read often, but they were both most entertaining with Wes' being the one I enjoyed slightly more.

Next year I'm looking forward to the The Legendary Scarlett and Browne as there will be no more Lockwood books <sobs quietly> - I'd also re-read the Patrick Rothfuss books if I thought there was any hope the next one would be out any time soon! @MamaNewtNewt hope you enjoyed those? Pleased to see that Sometimes People Die was a bold for someone else, I read it at random from the library and thought it was great!

@Terpsichore I gave up on Mistletoe Malice too, in theory it was right up my street, but I just found it tedious...

Sending best wishes for a better 2025 @Owlbookend

My final list of the year:

1. Rory Clements - The English Fuhrer
2. Rhys Bowen - The Proof of the Pudding
3. Janice Hallett - The Christmas Appeal
4. Kate Saunders - The Case of the Wandering Scholar
5. Karen M McManus - One of Us is Back
6. Alex Coombs - Murder on the Menu
7. Richard Osman - The Last Devil to Die
8. Faith Martin - Murder by Candlelight
9. Lindsey Kelk - The Christmas Wish

10. Nathan Anthony - Bored of Lunch 11. Simon Stephenson - Sometimes People Die 12. Hannah Richell - The Search Party 13. Sophia Holloway - Isabelle 14. Cynthia Murphy - Win Lose Kill Die 15. Richard Armitage - Geneva 16. Richard Coles - A Death in the Parish 17. Tom Hindle - Murder on Lake Garda 18. Bill Bryson - A Walk in the Woods 19. CJ Sansom - Heartstone 20. Laura Wood - The Agency for Scandal 21. Laura Wood - A Season for Scandal 22. Sophia Holloway - The Devil You Know 23. Agatha Christie - Sinister Spring 24. Bridget Walsh - The Tumbling Girl 25. RR Haywood - Extracted 26. RR Haywood - Executed 27. RR Haywood - Extinct 28. Liz Hedgecock & Paula Harmon - Death on the Towpath 29. Liz Hedgecock - All At Sea 30. Liz Hedgecock - Off the Map 31. Liz Hedgecock - Gone to Ground 32. Liz Hedgecock - In Plain Sight 33. Finley Turner - The Engagement Party 34. Liz Fielding - Murder under the Mistletoe 35. Peter Robinson - Gallows View 36. Jan Durham - Death at the Abbey 37. Jan Durham - Death at Neptune Yard 38. Jan Durham - Death at the Feast 39. Jan Durham - Death at the Anchorage 40. Jan Durham - Death on the Stella Mae 41. Jan Durham - Death on the West Cliff 42. Jenni Keer - No 23 Burlington Square 43. Izzie Harper - Murder at the Christmas Carols 44. Lesley Cookman - Death Plays a Part 45. Lesley Cookman - Entertaining Death 46. Lesley Cookman - Death Treads the Boards 47. Tom Mead - Death and the Conjuror 48. Tom Mead - The Murder Wheel 49. Helena Dixon - Murder at the Highland Castle 50. Helena Dixon - Murder at the Island Hotel 51. Enid Blyton - Five Go To Smuggler's Top 52. Jenni Keer - At The Stroke of Midnight 53. Benedict Brown - Murder at Everham Hall 54. Benedict Brown - The Hurtwood Village Murders 55. Benedict Brown - Murder at the Spring Ball 56. Benedict Brown - A Body at a Boarding School 57. Benedict Brown - Death on a Summer's Day 58. JM Hall - A Clock Stopped Dead 59. Taylor Zajonc - The Maw 60. CM McDonnell - Relight My Fire 61. JR Ellis - The Canal Murders 62. Lesley Cookman - Murder after Midnight 63. Enid Blyton - Five Go Off To Camp 64. Mark Richards & E S Richards - The Hanged Woman 65. Benedict Brown - The Mystery of Mistletoe Hall 66. Benedict Brown - The Tangled Treasure Trail 67. Emily Organ - The Baker Street Murders 68. Emily Organ - The Curse of the Poppy 69. Emily Organ - The Bermondsey Poisoner 70. Emily Organ - An Unwelcome Guest 71. Emily Organ - Death at the Workhouse 72. Emily Organ - The Gang of St Bride's 73. Emily Organ - Murder in Ratcliffe 74. Emily Organ - The Egyptian Mystery 75. Emily Organ - The Camden Spiritualist 76. Sarah Rossi - What's for dinner in one pot? 77. Emila Hart - Weyward 78. MRC Kasasian - The Montford Maniac 79. Various - Murder Under The Sun 80. Rachel Burton - The Mystery of Haverford House 81. Vanessa Len - Never a Hero 82. Clare Mackintosh - A Game of Lies 83. Orlando Murrin - Knife Skills for Beginners 84. Jane Steen - Lady Helena Investigates 85. Jane Steen - Lady Odelia's Secret 86. Anthony Horowitz - Close to Death 87. CL Miller - The Antique Hunter's Guide to Murder 88. Ann Treneman - Finding the Plot 89. Benedict Brown - The Castleton Affair 90. Jodi Taylor - Killing Time 91. Georgette Heyer - The Unfinished Clue 92. Susanna Gregory - Mystery in the Minster 93. Katy Watson - The Three Dahlias 94. Nathan Anthony - Bored of Lunch: Healthy Slow Cooker Even Easier 95. Sarah J Naughton - Your Time Is Up 96. Holly Hepburn - The Missing Maid 97. John Marrs - The Family Experiment 98. Stuart Turton - The Last Murder at the End of the World 99. Gillian McAllister - Just Another Missing Person 100. E Lockhart - Family of Liars 101. Rachel Burton - The Last Party at Silverton Hall 102. Daniel Kalla - Fit to Die 103. Richard Osman - The Bullet That Missed 104. Cara Devlin - Murder at the Seven Dials 105. Cara Devlin - Death at Fournier Downs 106. Sophie Irwin - A Lady's Guide to Fortune Hunting 107. Jonathan Stroud - The Notorious Scarlett & Browne 108. Fiona Leitch - The Cornish Wedding Murder 109. KJ Charles - Death in the Spires 110. Hannah Dolby - How To Solve Murders Like a Lady 111. Marie Browne - Narrow Minds 112. Marie Browne - Narrow Margins 113. Terry Pratchett - Carpe Jugulum 114. Wes Streeting - One Boy, Two Bills and a Fry Up 115. Stuart Maconie - Never Mind the Quantocks 116. LC North - Clickbait 117. Claire Evans - The Graves of Whitechapel 118. Rob Rinder - The Suspect 119. Suzanne Mulholland - The Batch Lady: Grab and Cook 120. Maureen Johnson - Nine Liars 121. Sally Smith - A Case of Mice and Murder 122. Maureen Johnson - Death at Morning House 123. Ruth Ware - One by One 124. Stephanie Garber - A Curse for True Love 125. Daniel Kalla - High Society 126. Lesley Cookman - Murder Repeated 127. Lesley Cookman - Murder on the Edge 128. Ruth Ware - In a Dark Dark Wood 129. Kristen Perrin - How to Solve Your Own Murder 130. Robin Stevens - The Body in the Blitz 131. Lucy Foley - The Midnight Feast 132. Katy Watson - A Very Lively Murder 133. Sophie Irwin - A Lady's Guide to Scandal 134. Jane Dunn - A Lady of Fortune 135. Jane Steen - Lady Ambition's Dilemma 136. Chris Brookmyre - The Cracked Mirror 137. Michael Innes - Appleby Talks 138. Jonathan Stroud - The Screaming Staircase 139. Jonathan Stroud - The Whispering Skull 140. Jonathan Stroud - The Hollow Boy 141. Jonathan Stroud - The Creeping Shadow 142. Jonathan Stroud - The Empty Grave 143. Tom Felton - Beyond the Wand 144. Catherine Coles - Murder at the Manor 145. Catherine Coles - Murder at the Village Fete 146. Tom Mead - Cabinet Macabre 147. Lesley Cookman - Murder by Mistake 148. Lesley Cookman - Murder in Autumn 149. Lesley Cookman - Murder by Christmas 150. Janice Hallett - The Examiner 151. Lesley Cookman - Murder at the Crooked Horse 152. Michael Crichton & James Patterson - Eruption 153. Helena Dixon - Murder in the Countryside 154. JL Blackhurst - Three Card Murder 155. JL Blackhurst - Smoke and Murders 156. Denzil Meyrick - The Christmas Stocking Murders 157. Katy Watson - A Lively Midwinter Murder 158. Enid Blyton - Five Go Off in a Caravan 159. Enid Blyton - Five on Kirrin Island Again 160. Enid Blyton - Five Get Into Trouble 161. Enid Blyton - Five Fall Into Adventure 162. Enid Blyton - Five on a Hike Together 163. Enid Blyton - Five Have a Wonderful Time 164. Jane Dunn - A Scandalous Match 165. Andrea Penrose - Murder on Black Swan Lane 166. Andrea Penrose - Murder at Half Moon Gate 167. Andrea Penrose - Murder at Kensington Palace 168. Andrea Penrose - Murder at Queen's Landing 169. Andrea Penrose - Murder at the Royal Botanic Gardens 170. Andrea Penrose - Murder at the Serpentine Bridge 171. Andrea Penrose - Murder at the Merton Library 172. Liz Hedgecock & Paula Harmon - Murder at Work 173. Jane Dunn - The Marriage Season 174. Pam Lecky - No Stone Unturned 175. Pam Lecky - Footprints in the Sand 176. Emma Melbourne - Miss Fleming Falls in Love 177. Emma Melbourne - The Mysterious Mr Oliver 178. Sofi Laporte - Lady Ludmilla's Accidental Letter 179. Liz Hedgecock & Paula Harmon - Death in a Dinner Jacket 180. Lana Williams - The Ravenkeeper's Daughter 181. Jennifer Lynn Barnes - The Naturals 182. Jennifer Lynn Barnes - Killer instinct 183. Jennifer Lynn Barnes - All In 184. Jennifer Lynn Barnes - Bad Blood 185. Ruth Ware - One Perfect Couple

@ClaraTheImpossibleGirl I did enjoy the Patrick Rothfuss books but was gutted to see that the third instalment is showing no sign of appearing. It looks like we have some similar tastes as I also loved the Extracted trilogy!

My final list of the year. There's been lots of books I've enjoyed but it's not been a great year for standout books.

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
37 Bosnian War, Hourly Histories
38 Killing Thatcher, Rory Carroll
39 The Visit, Chimamanda Nigozi Adiche
40 I Who Have Never Known Men, Jacqueline Harpman
41 The Hiding Place, Corrie Ten Boom
42 The Book of Negroes, Lawrence Hill
43 Iron Lake, William Kent Kruegar
44 The Little Liar, Mitch Albom
45 Soldier Sailor, Claire Kilroy
46 Windswept & Interesting: My Autobiography, Billy Connolly
47 Honor, Elif Shafak
48 Hello Beautiful, Ann Napolitano
49 Searching for Shindler, Thomas Keneally
50 The Spy and the Traitor, Ben Macintyre
51 Babycakes, Armistead Maupin
52 Water, John Boyne
53 Tales from the Folly, Ben Aaronovitch
54 Olive Again, Elizabeth Strout
55 Apple of my Eye, Helene Hanff
56 The Forester's Daughter, Claire Keegan
57 Stonemouth, Ian Banks
58 We Begin at the End, Chris Whitaker
59 The Japanese Lover, Isabel Allende
60 Amy & Isabelle, Elizabeth Strout
61 The Marriage Portrait, Maggie O'Farrell
62 Jamaica Inn, Daphne du Maurier
63 All the Colours of the Dark, Chris Whitaker
64 Heartburn, Nora Ephron
65 Earth, John Boyne
66 Signal Moon, Kate Quinn
67 My Evil Mother, Margaret Atwood
68 Lovers at the Museum, Isabel Allende
69 Dean Lions, Mick Herron
70 The Outsider, Jane Casey
71 Good Girls, Hadley Freeman
72 Real Tigers, Mick Herron

We're currently watching Real Tigers and it's really pissing me off how different they've made this to the book.

1. Anne Enright, The Wren, The Wren
2. Nancy Spain, Poison for Teacher
3. Nicole Flattery, Nothing Special
4. Richard Osman, The Last Devil to Die - reviewed 17.01.24
5. Elizabeth Wein, White Eagles - reviewed 08.10.24
6. Elizabeth McKenzie, The Dog of the North
7. Jennifer O'Connell, Everything I Needed to Know About Being a Girl I Learned from Judy Blume
8. Colm Toibin, The Shortest Day
9. Rachael English, Whatever Happened to Birdy Troy?

10. Walter Mosley, The Awkward Black Man 11. Louisa Waugh, Meet Me in Gaza 12. Alix E Harrow, The Six Deaths of the Saint 13. Adelle Waldman, Help Wanted 14. Daniel Rachel, Don't Look Back in Anger: The Rise and Fall of Cool Britannia 15. Natasha Walter, Before the Light Fades: A Memoir of Grief and Resistance

16. Emily Gunnis, The Girl in the Letter

17. Jo Thomas, Finding Love at the Christmas Market

18. Mourid Barghouti, I Saw Ramallah

19. Jean Kwok, The Leftover Woman

20. Henrietta McKervey, Violet Hill

21. Pip Williams, The Bookbinder of Jericho

22. Aingeala Flannery, The Amusements - reviewed 17.12.24

23. Jean Rhys, Wide Sargasso Sea

24. Margaret Kennedy, The Feast

25. Viv Groskop, Au Revoir, Tristesse: Lessons in Happiness from French Literature - reviewed 17.09.24

26. Alice Hoffman, The Bookstore Sisters - short story

27. Kate Clayborn, The Other Side of Disappearing

28. Sarah Watling, Tomorrow Perhaps The Future: Following Writers and Rebels in the Spanish Civil War - reviewed 10.11.24

29. Simon Brett, An Amateur Corpse

30. Kirsty Gunn, My Katherine Mansfield Project - reviewed 21.12.24

31. Val McDermid, Still Life

32. Joanna Wallace, The Dead Friend Project

33. Fannie Flagg, The All-Girl Filling Station's Last Reunion

34. K M Peyton, Flambards Divided

35. Martin Edwards (editor), Crime on the Move

36. Alice Hoffman, Everything My Mother Taught Me - short story

37. Jane Gardam, The Queen of the Tambourine

38. Aube Rey Lescure, River East, River West

39. Tayari Jones, An American Marriage

40. Naomi Alderman, The Future

41. Otto Penzler (Editor), The Lineup: The World's Greatest Crime Writers Tell the Inside Story of Their Greatest Detectives

42. Luci Adams, It Must Be True Then

43. Isabel Allende, Lovers at the Museum - short story

44. Peggy Frew, Hope Farm

45. Elena Ferrante, The Lying Life of Adults

46. Richard Thompson, Beeswing: Fairport, Folk Rock and Finding My Voice, 1967-75

47. Lara Thompson, One Night, New York

48. Margaret Atwood, Cut & Thirst - short story

49. Patrice Lawrence, Splinters of Sunshine

50. Rachel Khong, Real Americans

51. Ruth Thomas, Super Girl

52. Monica Ali, Love Marriage

53. Diana Tutton, Mamma

54. Nina Stibbe, One Day I Shall Astonish the World

55. Frances Brody, A Mansion for Murder

56. Jane Cholmeley, A Bookshop of One's Own: How a Group of Women Set Out to Change the World

57. Heather Clark, Red Comet: The Short Life and Blazing Art of Sylvia Plath

58. Isabella Hammad, Enter Ghost

59. Jami Attenberg, I Came All This Way to Meet You: Writing Myself Home - reviewed 17.12.24

60. Laura Kay, Making It

61. Lindsey Davis, Time to Depart

62. Georgina Hammick, The Arizona Game

63. Hisham Matar, My Friends - reviewed 13.09.24

64. Francesca Hornak, Seven Days of Us

65. Daphne Du Maurier, My Cousin Rachel

66. Jennifer Weiner, Golden Hills - short story

67. Stef Penney, The Beasts of Paris

68. Elizabeth McCracken, The Giant's House

69. Molly Clavering, Because of Sam

70. Monique Roffey, The Mermaid of Black Conch

71. Naomi Klein, Doppelganger: A Trip into the Mirror World - reviewed 18.06.24

72. Robin Stevens, First Class Murder

73. Sally Franson, Big in Sweden

74. Xochitl Gonzalez, Anita De Monte Laughs Last

75. Suzannah Dunn, Levitation for Beginners

76. Lea Ypi, Free: Coming of Age at the End of History - reviewed 19.11.24

77. Sue Grafton & Otto Penzler (editors), The Best American Mystery Stories 1998

78. Elin Cullhed, Euphoria

79. Fredrik Backman, Britt-Marie Was Here

80. Mary Cadogan and Patricia Craig, You're a Brick, Angela: The Girls' Story 1839-1985

81. Lauren Farnsworth, The Lonely Hearts Quiz League

82. Rebecca K Reilly, Greta & Valdin - reviewed 10.06.24

83. Ian Rankin, The Rise - novella

84. Wilkie Collins, The Moonstone

85. Katy Watson, Seven Lively Suspects

86. Colm Toibin, Long Island - reviewed 18.06.24

87. Louise Welsh, The Second Cut

88. Francesca Reece, Glass Houses

89. Marina Warner, Inventory of a Life Mislaid: An Unreliable Memoir

90. Linda Newbery, The Key to Flambards

91. Niamh Mulvey, The Amendments

92. Ursula Owen, Single Journey Only: A Memoir - reviewed 08.10.24

93. Kate Atkinson, Normal Rules Don't Apply

94. Lynne Reid Banks, The L-Shaped Room

95. Emma Steele, The Echoes of Us

96. Andrew O'Hagan, Caledonian Road

97. C J Carey, Widowland

98. Tessa Hadley, Late in the Day

99. Liv Constantine, Everywhere You Look - short st ory

100. Penelope Mortimer, The Home

101. Charlotte Wood, Stone Yard Devotional - reviewed 13.10.24

102. Leila Mottley, Nightcrawling

103. Daisy Dunn, Not Far From Brideshead: Oxford Between the Wars

104. Nita Prose, Murder at the Royal Ruby - short story

105. Elizabeth Macneal, The Burial Plot

106. Sarah Moss, My Good Bright Wolf: A Memoir

107. Sara Wheeler, Glowing Still: A Woman's Life on the Road

108. Carol Birch, Shadow Girls

109. Lizzie Skurnick, Shelf Discovery: The Teen Classics We Never Stopped Reading

110. Evie Wyld, All the Birds, Singing

111. Marian Keyes, Again, Rachel

112. Daisy Buchanan, Pity Party

113. Robin Stevens, Jolly Foul Play

114. C J Sansom, Lamentation

115. Emily Usher, Wild Ground

116. Ed McBain & Otto Penzler (editors), The Best American Mystery Stories 1999

117. A S Byatt, The Virgin in the Garden

118. Kate Glanville, The Cherry Tree Summer

119. Avril Horner, Barbara Comyns: A Savage Innocence

120. Jessica Anthony, The Most

121. Jo Thomas, The Honey Farm on the Hill

122. Monisha Rajesh, Around the World in 80 Trains, A 45,000 Mile Adventure - reviewed 23.12.24

123. Alice Hoffman, The Bookstore Wedding - short story

124. Carol Atherton, Reading Lessons: The Books We Read at School, the Conversations They Spark and Why They Matter

125. Elizabeth Hay, Late Nights on Air

126. Tracy Chevalier, The Glassmaker

127. Kristin Hannah, The Women

128. Catherine Carswell, Open the Door!

129. Elly Griffiths, The Man in Black & Other Stories

130. Peter May, The Black Loch

131. Silvia Moreno-Garcia, The Lover - short story

132. David Nicholls, You Are Here - reviewed 30.09.24

133. V V Ganeshanathan, Brotherless Night

134. Olga Wojtas, Miss Blaine's Prefect and the Weird Sisters

135. Caryn Rose, Why Patti Smith Matters - reviewed 18.10.24

136. Caitlin Davies, The Ghost of Lily Painter - reread, previously reviewed 22.06.11

137. Sinéad Gleeson, Constellations: Reflections from Life

138. Mai Senaar, They Dream in Gold

139. A J Pearce, Mrs Porter Calling

140. Della Cai, Central Places

141. Lissa Evans, Small Bomb at Dimperley - reviewed 05.11.24

142. Mark Hodkinson, No One Round Here Reads Tolstoy: Memoirs of a Working Class Reader

143. Michelle Magorian, A Little Love Song

144. Cheryl Strayed, Two Women Walk Into a Bar

145. Barbara Nadel, Belshazzar's Daughter

146. Kate Glanville, The Peacock House

147. Clare Chambers, Shy Creatures

148. Lorrie Moore, I Am Homeless If This is Not My Home - reviewed 01.10.24

149. Eva Dolan, Tell No Tales

150. Attica Locke, Guide Me Home

151. Elaine Farrell and Leanne McCormick, Bad Bridget: Crime, Mayhem and the Lives of Irish Emigrant Women

152. Rory Cellan-Jones, Sylvia, Me and the BBC

153. Orlaine McDonald, No Small Thing

154. Jim Kelly, At Death's Window

155. Pete Brown, Clubland: How the Working Men's Club Shaped Britain

156. Lisa Kleinholz, Exiles on Main Street

157. Helen Taylor, Why Women Read Fiction: The Stories of Our Lives

158. Jane Thynne, Midnight in Vienna

159. Kate Johnson, Hex Appeal

160. Elizabeth Harrower, The Watch Tower

161. Maggie Shipstead, The June Paintings - short story

162. Alan Hollinghurst, Our Evenings

163. Tsitsi Dangarembga, Black and Female

164. Lauren Elkin, Scaffolding

165. Nelson De Mille & Otto Penzler (editors), The Best American Mystery Stories 2004

166. Jenny Colgan, Class

167. Diana Anyakwo, My Life As a Chameleon

168. Harriet Baker, Rural Hours: The Country Lives of Virginia Woolf, Sylvia Townsend Warner and Rosamond Lehmann

169. Rachel Kushner, Creation Lake

170. Phoebe MacLeod, The Do-Over

171. Robert Harris, Imperium

172. Robin Stevens, Mistletoe and Murder

173. David Lodge, Quite a Good Time to be Born: A Memoir 1935-1975
     175. Buchi Emecheta, Second Class Citizen

174. Cheryl Strayed, This Telling - story

175. Charlotte Betts, The Italian Garden

176. Sally Rooney, Intermezzo

177. Kate Atkinson, Death at the Sign of the Rook

178. Antonia Fraser & Victoria Gray (editors), The Pleasure of Reading: 43 Writers on the Discovery of Reading and the Books That Inspired Them

179. Georgina Clarke, Death and the Harlot

180. Christine Dwyer Hickey, The House on Parkgate and Other Dublin Stories - reviewed 29.10.24

181. Amor Towles, Table for Two

182. Tracy Farr, The Life and Loves of Lena Gaunt

183. Angela Carter, Nights at the Circus

184. Roxane Gay, Graceful Burdens - short story

185. Christy McKellen, About Last Night
     188. Christine Dwyer Hickey, Our London Lives

186. Xiaolu Guo, A Lover's Discourse

187. Craig Cabell, Ian Rankin and Inspector Rebus

188. Stephanie Butland, Lost for Words

189. Diane Abbott, A Woman Like Me: A Memoir

190. Katy Watson, A Lively Midwinter Murder

191. Pat Barker, The Voyage Home

192. Sally Bayley, The Green Lady: A Spirit, A Story, A Place

193. Rowan Coleman, River Deep

194. J Courtney Sullivan, The Cliffs

195. Caoilinn Hughes, The Alternatives
     199. Emma Smith, Portable Magic: A History of Books and Their Readers

196. Lindsey Davis, A Dying Light in Corduba

197. Langston Hughes, Not Without Laughter

198. Sefi Atta, The Bead Collector

199. Beth O'Leary, Swept Away

200. Elif Shafak, There Are Rivers in the Sky

201. Jocelyn Playfair, A House in the Country
     206. Michelle Magorian, Impossible!

202. Tony Travers, London's Boroughs at 50

203. Maxine Morrey, Reach for the Stars

204. Scott Turow & Otto Penzler (editors), The Best American Mystery Stories 2006

205. Meron Hadero, A Down Home Meal for These Difficult Times

206. Sarra Manning, The Rise and Fall of Becky Sharp

207. Richard Osman, We Solve Murders

208. David M Barnett, The Little Christmas Library

209. Elvis Costello, Unfaithful Music and Disappearing Ink

Best of 2024

Non Fiction
Louisa Waugh, Meet Me in Gaza (reread)
Natasha Walter, Before the Light Fades: A Memoir of Grief and Resistance
Sarah Watling, Tomorrow Perhaps The Future: Following Writers and Rebels in the Spanish Civil War
Kirsty Gunn, My Katherine Mansfield Project
Heather Clark, Red Comet: The Short Life and Blazing Art of Sylvia Plath
Naomi Klein, Doppelganger: A Trip into the Mirror World
Lea Ypi, Free: Coming of Age at the End of History
Carol Atherton, Reading Lessons: The Books We Read at School, the Conversations They Spark and Why They Matter
Emma Smith, Portable Magic: A History of Books and Their Readers

Fiction
Pip Williams, The Bookbinder of Jericho
Aingeala Flannery, The Amusements
Jean Rhys, Wide Sargasso Sea
Aube Rey Lescure, River East, River West
Tayari Jones, An American Marriage
Ruth Thomas, Super Girl
Monica Ali, Love Marriage
Isabella Hammad, Enter Ghost
Georgina Hammick, The Arizona Game
Elizabeth McCracken, The Giant's House
Fredrik Backman, Britt-Marie Was Here
Rebecca K Reilly, Greta & Valdin
Lynne Reid Banks, The L-Shaped Room
Charlotte Wood, Stone Yard Devotional
Leila Mottley, Nightcrawling
Emily Usher, Wild Ground
Kate Glanville, The Cherry Tree Summer
Elizabeth Hay, Late Nights on Air
V V Ganeshanathan, Brotherless Night
Michelle Magorian, A Little Love Song
Clare Chambers, Shy Creatures
Alan Hollinghurst, Our Evenings
Buchi Emecheta, Second Class Citizen
Sally Rooney, Intermezzo
Christine Dwyer Hickey, Our London Lives
Michelle Magorian, Impossible!

Final list! One more bold and one more dud from my last 8 books. 117 in all, I will redo the percentages when back on laptop. Non fiction books are underlined.

Bolds:
The Great Post Office Scandal - Nick Wallis
The Crossing Places - Elly Griffiths
Bringing Columbia Home - Mike Leibenhart
A Memoir of my Former Self - Hilary Mantel
The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Nifenegger
Empire of Pain - Patrick Radden Keefe
The Strawberry Thief - Joanne Harris
Scoops - Sam McAllister
Royal Road to Fotheringhay - Jean Plaidy
Act of Oblivion - Robert Harris
After that Night - Karin Slaughter
Blindsighted - Karin Slaughter
Sisterland - Curtis Sittenfield
Meet Me at the Museum - Anne Youngson
Medea - Rosie Hewlett
Girl A - Abigail Dean
All Fours - Miranda July
Just Another Missing Person - Gillian McAllister
Vanishing Acts - Jodi Picoult
The Summer of Lies - Louise Douglas
Sister in Law - Harriet Wistrich
None of This is True - Lisa Jewell
Wifedom: Mrs Orwell’s Invisible Life - Anna Funder
An Officer and a Spy - Robert Harris
Rodham - Curtis Sittenfield
My Favourite Mistake - Marian Keyes
A Colossal Failure of Common Sense: The Incredible Inside Story of the Collapse of Lehman Brothers - Larry McDonald and Patrick Robinson
Failed State - Sam Freedman
The Hand That First Held Mine - Maggie O’Farrell
Fallen - Karin Slaughter
Criminal - Karin Slaughter
The Kept Woman - Karin Slaughter

Italics:
Whatever it Takes - Adele Parks
Under Her Roof - A A Chaudhuri
Alison Wonderland - Helen Smith
Conversations with Friends - Sally Rooney
Dear Coca-Cola: The Timewaster Letters - Terry Ravenscroft

Only one DNF: The Bat - Jo Nesbo

Here's my final list for the year. No additions to my list of bolds up thread, but one final read in Riders by Jilly Cooper. No italics as I DNF if I'm not enjoying.

Formatting looks good in preview, let's see if it works for real!

1 - *The Vanishing Half - *Brit Bennett
2 - Proust and the Squid - Maryanne Wolf
3 - Anything is Possible - Elizabeth Strout
4 - Birnham Wood - Eleanor Catton
5 - Good Pop, Bad Pop - Jarvis Cocker
6 - Legends and Lattes - Travis Baldree
7 - Fabulosa - Paul Baker
8 - A Wizards Guide to Defensive Baking - T Kingfisher
9 - *For Thy Great Pain Have Mercy on my Little Pain - *Victoria McKenzie
10 - *A Suitable Boy - *Vikram Seth
11 - *Before We Were Trans - *Kit Heyam
12 - The Disappearance Boy - Neil Bartlett
13 - *Doppelganger - *Naomi Klein
14 - Werecockroach - Polenth Blake
15 - Emily Wilde's Map of the Otherlands - Heather Fawcett
16 - Power Trip - Damian McBride
17 - *Julia - *Sandra Newman
18 - Sunstruck - Polenth Blake
19 - Edible Economics - Ha Joon Chang
20 - A Nobleman's Guide to Seducing a Scoundrel - KJ Charles
21 - Red Side Story - Jasper Fforde
22 - *Doors of Eden - *Adrian Tchaikovsky
23 - Winter's Gifts - Ben Aaronovich
24 - The Living Soil Handbook - Jesse Frost
25 - Fire Weather - John Vaillant
26 - Hot Water - Christopher Fowler
27 - Role Playing - Cathy Yardley
28 - The 13th Witch - Mark Hayden
29 - *Eleanor Rigby - *Douglas Coupland
30 - *Sophia - *Anita Anand
31 - People Like Us - Caroline Slocock
32 - A Marvellous Light - Freya Marske
33 - *Natives - *Akala
34 - Why We Remember - Charan Ranganath
35 - *Shadows at Noon - *Joya Chatterji
36 - A Psalm for the Wild - built - Becky Chambers
37 - *Tubes - *Andrew Blum
38 - A Prayer for the Crown - Shy - Becky Chambers
39 - The House Witch and the Enchanting of the Hearth - Emilie Nikota
40 - The House Witch and the Charming of Austice - Emilie Nikota
41 - The House Witch and When the Cat Spells War - Emilie Nikota
42 - Infomocracy - Malka Older
43 - The Princess of Potential - Emilie Nikota
44 - Death in the Spires - KJ Charles
45 - Ruth - Elizabeth Gaskell
46 - Do You Dream of Terra - Two? - Temi Oh
47 - *Living With Robots: What Every Anxious Human Needs to Know - *Patricia Vargas & Ruth Aylett
48 - The Burning Witch 1 - Emilie Nikota
49 - In The Days of Rain - Rebecca Stott
50 - *Tir - *Carwyn Graves
51 - The Mimicking of Known Successes - Malka Older
52 - Cloistered - Catherine Coldstream
53 - *Prophet Song - *Paul Lynch
54 - The Trading Game - Gary Stevenson
55 - A Bookshop of One's Own - Jane Cholmely
56 - Faro's Daughter - Georgette Heyer
57 - The black moth - Georgette Heyer
58 - The Burning Witch 2 - Emilie Nikota
59 - Braiding Sweetgrass - Robin Wall Kimmerer
60 - Scattered Showers - Rainbow Rowell
61 - Quiver - Julia Watts
62 - The Murder of Roger Ackroyd - Agatha Christie
63 - Generation A - Douglas Coupland
64 - The Mysterious Affair at Styles - Agatha Christie
65 - The October Man - Ben Aaronovich
66 - Want You Gone - Chris Brookmyre
67 - *Private Revolutions - *Yuan Yang
68 - *Thirty Two Words for Field - *Manchan Magan
69 - Full Tilt - Dervla Murphy
70 - *Meetings With Remarkable Manuscripts - *Christopher de Hamel
71 - Spells & Spice & Everything Nice - Jessica Rosenberg
72 - *Ordinary Human Failings - *Megan Nolan
73 - The Duke at Hazard - KJ Charles
74 - Code Dependent - Madhumita Murgia
75 - *The Mountain in the Sea - *Ray Nayler
76 - The Windsor Knot - SJ Bennett
77 - The Prodigal Tongue - Lynne Murphy
78 - *A Restless Truth - *Freya Marske
79 - Other Minds - Peter Godfrey - Smith
80 - *The Creativity Code - *Marcus du Sautoy
81 - A Power Unbound - Freya Marske
82 - Mona of the Manor - Armistead Maupin
83 - *Failed State - *Sam Freedman
84 - *A Little Luck - *Claudia Piñeiro
85 - In Ascension - Martin McInnes
86 - Deaf Utopia - Nyle Dimarco
87 - A Three Dog Problem - SJ Bennett
88 - Bluebird - Ciel Perlot
89 - Murder Most Royal - SJ Bennett
90 - A Death in Diamonds - SJ Bennett
91 - Who's Afraid of Gender - Judith Butler
92 - Mary Ellen, Craterean! - Chaz Brenchley
93 - Slow Dance - Rainbow Rowell
94 - The Cracked Mirror - Chris Brookmyre
95 - Exam Nation - Sammy Wright
96 - Their Finest Hour and a Half - Lissa Evans
97 - The Last Devil to Die - Richard Osman
98 - Medieval Woman - Ann Baer
99 - Small Bomb at Dimperley - Lissa Evans
100 - The Pairing - Casey McQuiston
101 - Help Wanted - Adelle Waterman
102 - *Network Effect - *Martha Wells
103 - Fugitive Telemetry - Martha Wells
104 - Zero Risk - Simon Hayes
105 - *Service Model - *Adrian Tchaikovsky
106 - Stuffed - Pen Vogler
107 - The Accidental Seed Heroes - Adam Alexander
108 - *A Woman Like Me - *Diane Abbot
109 - *Elena Knows - *Claudia Piñeiro
110 - *The Christmas Chronicles - *Nigel Slater
111 - Riders - Jilly Cooper

88 books in total (same as last year)
9 non-fiction
79 fiction
47 authors
31 female authors
16 male authors

Quite a few re-reads (Jilly Cooper, Felix Francis, Mick Herron and Agatha Christie)

Full list on 2024 thread but highlights were:

1. Hamnet - Maggie O'Farrell
2. The Golden Mole - Katherine Rundell
3. The Bandit Queens - Parini Shroff
4. Politics on the Edge - Rory Stewart
5. False Colours - Georgette Heyer
6. The Scapegoat - Daphne du Maurier
7. And Then There Were None - Agatha Christie
8. In Memoriam - Alice Winn
9. Consequences - Penelope Lively
10. Poor - Katriona O'Sullivan
11. The Enchanted April - Elizabeth von Arnim
12. Water - John Boyne
13. Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont - Elizabeth Taylor
14. The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox - Maggie O'Farrell
15. Earth - John Boyne
16. When the Dust Settles - Lucy Easthope
17. Conclave - Robert Harris
18. The Ballad of Smallhope and Pennyroyal - Jodi Taylor

One real stinker : The Secret Adversary - Agatha Christie

And two which stood out as particularly disappointing were:

1. The Midnight Feast - Lucy Foley
2. Men without Women - Ernest Hemingway

Here’s my full list, with (very brief) comments for each book.

Stats:

• 52 fiction; 12 non-fiction
• 11 by male authors (one of which was translated by a woman); 52 by female authors; 1 by a male/female pair of authors
• Only 2 in French (one of which was a graphic novel, and the other was Gardening for Dummies - so not exactly great literature! Work is busy enough that I don’t feel like making my brain work hard when I have downtime, so I have pretty much given up on reading in French!).

List with comments:

1. Nicholas Nickleby - Charles Dickens (fascinating characters eventually get their just deserts)
2. The Five-minute Garden - Laetitia Maklouf (oh, gardening is sooo easy!)
3. A Symphony of Echoes - Jodi Taylor (more time-travelling historians)
4. Agent Sonya - Ben Macintyre (excellent true spy story)
5. A Second Chance - Jodi Taylor (Troy etc this time)
6. The Hunting Party - Lucy Foley (Highland Hogmanay murder)
7. Homecoming - Kate Morton (long Australian tragedy)
8. Le Jardinage pour les Nuls - Michael MacCaskey (in French; tr. Valérie Martin-Rolland) (gardening is hard work)
9. Once Upon a Crime - Robin Stevens (transitional short stories)
10. Heresy - SJ Parris (Tudor murder mystery)
11. The Ministry of Unladylike Activity - Robin Stevens (wartime child detectives)
12. Politics on the Edge - Rory Stewart (political autobiography)
13. The Appeal - Janice Hallett (modern epistolary murder)
14. The Ferryman - Justin Cronin (thought-provoking sci-fi)
15. The Twyford Code - Janice Hallett (silly, trying to be clever)
16. The Mitford Girls - Mary S Lovell (fascinating but biased biography)
17. Country Secrets - Fiona Walker (next-gen Jilly Cooper)
18. A Stitch in Time - Penelope Lively (70s seaside)
19. The Wager - David Grann (harrowing shipwreck and mutiny)
20. The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels - Janice Hallett (hack investigates deaths)
21. The Hike - Lucy Clarke (Norwegian mountain murder)
22. Seeing a Large Cat - Elizabeth Peters (murder and intrigue in Edwardian Egypt)
23. The Ski Trip - Sarah Clarke (snowy thriller with silly plot twists)
24. The Scarlet Dress - Louise Douglas (character-driven cold case)
25. The Lost Bookshop - Evie Woods (mediocre magical realism)
26. The Lost Notebook - Louise Douglas (summer in Brittany with incongruous murders)
27. The Last Devil to Die - Richard Osman (lots of murders, lots of sadness)
28. The Future of Geography - Tim Marshall (geopolitics: the final frontier)
29. The Secret of Villa Alba - Louise Douglas (Sicilian mystery)
30. The House by the Sea - Louise Douglas (Sicilian mystery…again)
31. One of the Girls - Lucy Clarke (hen do shenanigans)
32. The Summer of Lies - Louise Douglas (better Brittany sequel)
33. The Room in the Attic - Louise Douglas (gothic time-slip)
34. Bess of Hardwick - Mary S. Lovell (comprehensive Elizabethan biography)
35. The Body in the Blitz - Robin Stevens (murder, spying and bombs)
36. The Pact - Sharon Bolton (unlikeable Oxford teens)
37. The Lost City of Z - David Grann (Amazon exploration)
38. Small Pleasures - Clare Chambers (50s love story)
39. The Invisible Library - Genevieve Cogman (fantasy book-retrievers)
40. The Masked City - Genevieve Cogman (fairies in Venice)
41. Les Cahiers d’Esther: Histoires de mes 13 ans - Riad Sattouf (in French) (Esther in 5ème)
42. The Burning Page - Genevieve Cogman (more Library, more worlds)
43. The Lost Plot - Genevieve Cogman (dragons in 1920s New York)
44. The Mortal Word - Genevieve Cogman (diplomacy and murder in Paris)
45. The Secret Chapter - Genevieve Cogman (Bond baddies and heists)
46. The Dark Archive - Genevieve Cogman (evil mastermind returns)
47. The Untold Story - Genevieve Cogman (all is revealed)
48. The Searcher - Tana French (ex-cop in rural Ireland)
49. Has anyone seen Charlotte Salter? - Nicci French (average family drama / murder)
50. The Dictionary of Lost Words - Pip Williams (women and the OED)
51. Scarlet - Genevieve Cogman (French revolution…with vampires)
52. The Bookbinder of Jericho - Pip Williams (book lovers in wartime Oxford)
53. Borrower of the Night - Elizabeth Peters (70s characters in a gothic adventure)
54. The Reluctant Widow - Georgette Heyer (lively Regency romance)
55. Death and Croissants - Ian Moore (cosy crime in the Loire valley)
56. A Very British Murder - Lucy Worsley (overview of crime literature)
57. The Quiet Gentleman - Georgette Heyer (attempted murder with a happy ending)
58. Just Like the Other Girls - Claire Douglas (blonde girls; red herrings)
59. The Wrong Sister - Claire Douglas (siblings and murder)
60. The Hunter - Tana French (village intrigue in a heatwave)
61. False Colours - Georgette Heyer (twin-swapping fun)
62. The Art of Murder - Fiona Walker (Jilly Cooperesque whodunnit)
63. The Dictionary People - Sarah Ogilvie (fascinating history of crowd-sourcing project)
64. Women Living Deliciously - Florence Given (how to be nicer to yourself)

And an honourable mention to New Scientist magazine - a year’s worth of those makes a pretty big non-fiction book overall, and I’ve learned a lot (even if I still can’t even begin to understand quantum physics 😄)

My top 5 non-fictions (in no particular order):

Agent Sonya
The Wager
Bess of Hardwick
The Lost City of Z
The Dictionary People

And my top 5 fictions:

The Ferryman
The Searcher
The Hunter
The Bookbinder of Jericho
The Dictionary of Lost Words