The New Fifty Books A Year Thread 2020

4. The Rotters’ Club, Jonathan Coe
I really enjoyed this, and can’t wait to read the rest of the trilogy, which follows the same group of people (here at grammar school in the 70s) and their families through the Blair years, then brings them up to date with the Brexit vote and its consequences.

5. Listening In, Jenny Eclair
Another easy read, short stories this time, some really good, others not quite up to the same standard but still readable. I like Jenny Eclair’s writing style.

I’ve a couple of reading group books to start now. Then I think I’ll have to read The Salt Path, following all the reviews on here.

Juno56, I was lucky enough to have afternoon tea with M C Beaton and her agent last year at the Bloody Scotland crime writing event in Stirling, and to attend An Evening With event with her and her Agatha Raisin star, Ashley Jensen, all courtesy of a Gransnet competition. M C Beaton was fascinating and it was a privilege to meet her. I was saddened to hear that she’d died.

Jeanlizzie love all of Erskine books, she's a wonderful author who can scare the wits out of you at times.

Had to change my order of books to read, now reading How to Treat Your Back Problems by a New Zealand guy. It was recommended to me by my Physio who is treating my slipped disc.

1 - The Honey Bus / Meredith May / NF

2 - The Salt Path / Raynor Winn / NF

3 - The Velveteen Rabbit / Margery Williams / F

4 - Maid / Stephanie Land / NF

5 - On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous / Ocean Vuong / F

I've just finished a fourth book, The Mitford Murders - Bright Young Dead by Jessica Fellowes, which I really enjoyed, followed by a fifth book, Thin Air - a ghost story by Michelle Paver, which I also enjoyed and finished in a couple of days.
I'm still dipping in and out of Mary Berry's autobiography, which is a gentle read, and I'm about to start another book by Michelle Paver Dark Matter - a ghost story and will report back when I've finished it, then I really do hope to start the Trevor Macdonald autobiography, which I've put on the back burner whilst I read the others!

The last time I posted I said that "Rivers of London" would be my 4th book. That didn't happen because I had to have an eye operation and so have been listening to audio books. So 4, 5 and 6 were: a collection of short stories called "The Long and Short of It" by Jodi Taylor - very good, "The Quiet Gentleman" by Georgette Heyer - reminded me of my DM who was a big fan of the author and "To Heaven By Water" by Justin Cartwright - tedious very tedious.
Maggiemaybe I'm sorry I haven't acknowledged your post of 25 Jan 19.27 I haven't been able to be online. How interesting that must have been! Thank you for sharing. X

Book 5 - Five steps to Happy - Ella Dove - enjoyed this
Book 6 - Meet me on the Beach - Hilary Boyd - was okay, nothing that will stay with me

Ist book was The Moon Sister by Lucinda Riley. This is the 5th book in the Seven Sisters series. Really enjoyed it.

2nd book was Perfect People by Peter James. A rather chilling tale but well written and enjoyable. I love all his Roy Grace thrillers set in the Brighton area.

3rd book is Another Day by David Levithan. Halfway through and feel it might be aimed at teens but will carry on with it. Slightly odd storyline.

Finished my fourth book - ‘The Help’, which I didn’t think would be a goer but couldn’t put it down. A really powerful story. I didn’t realise until this week that they had made it into a film, but I can’t imagine it having the same claustrophobic intensity as the book.
Now re-reading Pat Barker’s ‘Silence of the Girls’, which was on a library waiting list when I had it last, but DD bought me a copy for Christmas so I will now have time to savour it.

This year so far: Jane Eyre & Wide Sargasso Sea, (study) The Gathering By Anne Enright (Book Group) and The Stone Circle, Ellie Griffiths, light relief.

I've been re-reading some of the Miss Read books in The Further Chronicles of Fairacre (I think that's the title of the omnibus, but it's in the other room and I can't be bothered to get up (sorry)) which are lovely stories about rural England. Also a couple of Sam Bourne books - To Kill the President and To Kill the Truth, both thrillers and pretty exciting. They are likened on the cover to Dan Brown books, but I think they are better written. Sam Bourne is actually Jonathan Freedland, who writes for the Guardian.

Now I've gone back to Mary Renault, whom I haven't read since I was young, and am finding the story of Theseus in The King Must Die much more gripping than I did then. Maybe I've grown up a bit...

I've finished Dark Matter by Michelle Paver ( my sixth book). I really enjoyed it. Another ghost story. I didn't find it spine tinglingly creepy, but it had me hooked, and there were moments of suspense. (I won't say anymore in case anyone wants to read it). I think it would adapt to a very creepy film!

I love the Miss Read stories too, Wheniwasyourage and often go back to them.

I will try and finish Mary Berry's autobiography now before starting something else. (It will probably be the Trevor Macdonald book I mentioned earlier).

No 5. Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens. Following on from my last book, this is equally as good. It’s a story set around a young girl who grows up alone on the N Carolina coast - Marsh Girl. Nature, love and murder all feature, I was entranced.

I also enjoyed Crawdads ..

No 6 The Letter by Kathryn Hughes. It’s a love story with a mystery in it. Very easy to read (and forget), full of ridiculous coincidences and one sided-characters.

My first books of the year

1 The Crime Writer - Jill Dawson
2 After the Peace - Fay Weldon (audio) loved this one, mainly due to Julian Clary's brilliant, very tongue in cheek narration, I wonder whether I'd have liked it so much if I'd just read it, not sure. The subject matter, test tube baby, sperm donor father, an Earl, who as a student on his uppers needing some quick cash donates said sperm which has been frozen and is then used some years later by a couple who are having trouble conceiving. The anonymous donor turns out not to be so anonymous.
3 Number 11 - Jonathan Coe
4 Machines Like Me - Ian McEwan - Excellent! The writer has rewritten recent history and changed the political landscape to a what might have been setting, a Britain crushed by a recent defeat in the Falklands War. Margaret Thatcher loses a subsequent GE to a Labour led by Tony Benn. Although arch remainer, Ian McEwan, who I can't imagine was ever a Tory, did a least write into the book, as in real life, it is Tony Benn's desire to take Britain out of the EU. Although the narrative has gone back in time, it becomes apparent from the robot, Adam, at the heart of the story we are in a world that is technologically more advanced than it is now and right away at the beginning the reader is aware that social media is in existence, which it wouldn't have been 40 years ago. Alan Turing is still alive and plays a pivotal role in the plot.......oh and the Beatles get back together.
5 Woman in Blue - Elly Griffiths - good as always.
6 Lost Girls - D J Taylor (non fiction) Love, War and Literature 1939 - 1951

Book 5

The Hunting Party-Lucy Foley
This was a good book, but not quite worthy of all the hype.
A group of loathsome, entitled thirty somethings, go to a remote part of Scotland for New Years Eve.
Someone has been murdered, but we don’t know who, or by whom, although they are all so vile, you don’t really care if they’ve all been murdered!
Definitely a page turner, and to be fair, I didn’t guess the ending, was just somehow expecting more from it.

Book 6

The Clockmakers Daughter-Kate Morton
This book is like a massive jig saw puzzle which you very gradually put together.
It starts a bit slowly, but there are so many threads to this tale, that you need to concentrate to remember who is connected to who, and how.
It’s a story of a house,and it’s inhabitants over the years, largely narrated by a ghost. The more I read, the more I was drawn in. I recommend it.

Hello fellow readers . I’m a bit late joining but would like to take up the challenge again this year. Last year I got to 97 books but had posted my fifty when I had read them instead of waiting to the end of the year! I did carry on posting my books after that though.
Here are my first books of this year
1 A summer at sea by Katie Fforde - quick easy read
2 The Spanish promise by Karen Swan- enjoyed this one
3 The most fun we ever had by Claire Lombardo
4 The cliff house by Raeanne Thayne
5 Home Truths by Susan Lewis enjoyed this
6The Greek escape by Karen Swan 2nd of hers I have read this year
7 The Museum of things left behind by seni Glaister an unusual concept to this book but enjoyed it.
8 The peacock summer by Hannah Richell enjoyed this
9 A slice of magic by A.G. Mayes didn’t really enjoy this as I felt it was a bit on the silly side and slow.
10 Heart of the Grass Tree by Molly Murn really enjoyed this . It was set in the time of Australian settlers and interaction with aborigines.
11 Wilde about the girl by Louise Pentland easy read.
12 The baby plan by Kate Rorick another quick easy read.
Born into the Children of God by Natacha Tormey . A biography of a child brought up in a cult and her life after leaving . Interesting read.

Sarah65 - I loved The Clockmaker's Daughter, in fact all Kate Morton's books, bar one, have been wonderful imo.

Terribull

I agree, I thought the characters were wonderfully written, I found it a bit slow to start, and then I couldn’t put it down.

Coincidentally, I’ve just this minute finished:

6. The Clockmaker’s Daughter, Kate Morton

It was my reading group choice and they’ll be here tomorrow to discuss it (must check the wine stocks ). I enjoyed it, but got a bit bogged down in the middle by all the characters and time shifts, and I’m still not sure I quite got it all. I may have nodded off over it occasionally or skipped a bit . I’ll be interested to hear what the rest of the group think. A sort of family tree at the front showing all the relationships and residents of the house would have been useful. Next time I read a Kate Morton I think I’ll draw one up myself from the start.

Juno56, I wasn’t expecting a reply, don’t worry! I do hope your recovery’s going well and that you’re back to normal reading soon.

Maggie

I thought exactly the same, I suppose had she put in a family tree it would have spoiled the story, but I wished I’d written one as I went along, to remind me who was who.

Ah, true enough, Sara, a printed family tree would have given a few secrets away! I’ll certainly be drawing one up next time though.

1 - The Honey Bus / Meredith May / NF

2 - The Salt Path / Raynor Winn / NF

3 - The Velveteen Rabbit / Margery Williams / F

4 - Maid / Stephanie Land / NF

5 - On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous / Ocean Vuong / F

6 - In Pieces / Sally Field / NF

My first book of the year was The Rumour, I couldn't put it down as I wanted to know if I had guessed correctly (I had!). It is very similar to the real life child murderer in the sixties Mary Bell, who was given a new identity.