The New Fifty Books A Year Thread 2020

Yes! Maid is a fantastic journey of a read! Her perseverance !!!

Maid by Stephanie Land is my 11th book. It was one of Barack Obama’s summer read recommendations. It’s the memoir of an American single mother who survives by cleaning houses and getting food stamps. I think I held my breath all the way through because she was always teetering on the edge of disaster.

9 - Inside Out / Demi Moore (NF)

Currently rereading The Tipping Point by Gladwell and The Gene by Mukherjee -

Finished ‘The Irish Princess’. Not one of Elizabeth Chadwick’s best ‘Henry’ novels, but pacy.
Book 8: ‘Dark Matter’ by Michelle Paver - a recommendation on here.

No 10. The Things I know by Amanda Prowse. Very sweet and undemanding.

Just started on The Salt Path, looking forward to this one!

No 9
The testaments-Margaret Atwood

I pre ordered this book, but have only just felt like reading it, now all the hype has died down.

Maybe I was expecting too much, but it certainly didn’t WOW me like it appears to have wowed the rest of the world, I’m left wondering if I’ve missed something, or whether all this fervent acclaim is a bit over the top. I found it quite boring at times.

Book 10
The secret keeper- Susan Lewis

I’ve read a lot of Susan Lewis books over the years, I’ve never thought her to be a good writer, but she’s a good storyteller, and has touched on a lot of important subjects.
This book though, it really awful. Thin plot, stereotyped characters, completely predictable.
I think if Susan Lewis wasn’t an established writer, this book would never have got published.

Number 7 "Gotta Get Theroux This" by Louis Theroux - very boring really, hard pressed to actually finish it, had high hopes that it would be good but didn't enjoy.

No 8 "Sisters" by Gabrielle Lord, quite enjoyed although some of the characters were rather annoying.

No 9 "The Assisant" by S.K. Tremayne very good thriller.

Mopsx4

I read Leaving Time years ago. I think it’s my favourite Jodi Picoult novel.

Here are my next 5 books I have read
14- leaving time by Jodi Picoult liked it being set in an elephant sanctuary and the unexpected twist at the end.

15- nine folds make a paper swan by Ruth Gillian

16- The travellers daughter by Michelle Virnal. On her mother’s death she finds out about the first 19 years of her mother’s life and sets about tracing any relatives.

17- A year of new adventures by Maddie Please easy quick read.

18 Girls burn brighter by Shobha Rao . The story of 2 poor Indian girls as they become friends separate and get back together and all the trials and determinations along the way.

No 8 A Country Doctor's Commonplace Book by Philip Rhys Evans.

No 9 Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brook. This was for my book group and very topical as it is about the village of Eyam during the plague of 1666. The ending is a bit unlikely but the story is beautifully told.

Just reserved ‘Dark Matter’ from our library service.

Amendment! The book is called The Quality Street Girls not the Rowntree girls. An easy read, but not one I would choose myself, but as it was loaned, I felt I should read it.

Book 10 was "Hannah Green And Her Unfeasibly Mundane Existence" Michael Marshall Smith, a bit strange but I enjoyed it.
Book 11 was "Dark Light" Jodi Taylor, another audiobook, enjoyed it too.
Next book will be "Masquerade" by Joanna Taylor.

8 - Olive, Again / Elizabeth Strout (F)

I’ve just read American Dirt which was the GN February book club choice, and found it a very good read.
I’ve been given The Rowntree girls to read. It looks as if it’s going to be an easy read. I’m not sure that it is one I would have chosen myself, but I’ll give it a go.
Greyduster, I think you will enjoy Dark Matter if you can get hold of a copy.

Finished John Boyne’s ‘Ladder to the Sky’, in spite of myself! Now on number 7, ‘The Irish Princess’ by Elizabeth Chadwick; get on well with her books.

I had just started
book 7
Broken Souls by Patricia Gibney when I last posted. Since then

Book 8
The God of Small Things - Arundatah Roy - a struggle!

9) Islands - GB Gwyn - Easy reading

10) So Much Owed - Jean Grainger - good story

11) All By Myself, Alone - Mary Higgins-Clarke - just started.

No 7. Your Life In My Hands by Rachel Clark. She’s an NHS doctor and was writing at the time of the junior doctors dispute.

8. The Couple Next Door, Shari Lapena
A couple leave their baby at home while they go to dinner next door. When they get back, she’s gone.... I liked this. It makes a change these days to read a book without constant flashbacks.

9. French Exchange with Rubies, Stephanie McCarthy
A kind donation from the author, a fellow Gransnetter. The thread offering the book was taken down shortly after I got the link , and I can’t remember your GN name, Stephanie. But thank you, I enjoyed your book.

7 - Talking to Strangers / Malcolm Gladwell (NF)

whenIwasyourage I adore Mary Renault. I have read and re-read just about everything she wrote including the Alexander trilogy and her non-fiction biography of him “The Nature of Alexander”. Her research is impeccable. The only book I didn’t get on with was The Charioteer, but maybe, like you, I should read it again with a fresh eye.
Currently on John Boyne’s ‘A Ladder to the Sky’. I like John Boyne but this book has only one likeable character in it and she’s now dead. The others are thoroughly odious. Why am I still reading it??
Laineynanna I will put ‘Dark Matter’ on my list. Thank you.

Also read The Pale Horse by Agatha Christie, but abandoned it three quarters through as I found it a bit tedious towards the end. Borrowed from library after reading about Graham Young the poisoner who, it was said, had some of his ideas, about thallium poisoning, from that book!!

Since last post I have read Us by David Nicolls, which I really enjoyed.

Then Force of Nature by Jane Harper.

Jamaica Inn which I picked up in Wilko charity stall and had just seen the film on Talking Pictures with Valerie Hobson (later Mrs Profumo) starring. A good read, with shades of the later Poldark novels in it.

Bookseller of Kabul.

Henry and Zoe by Andy Jones a bitter-sweet romance.

The End of the Affair by Grahame Greene, Read it before but saw the film recently with Deborah Kerr in it.

And the best of all, just finished, is Those we have Loved by Victoria Hislop. Set in Athens during the war and to the present day, it tells you so much about Greece in the war and what an awful time they had. We were in Athens two years ago and I was trying to picture all the areas she talked of. A good long read although there are some bits which get long winded.

Also picked up Vogel by LLoyd Jones which I realised I had borrowed before so did not finish as it was not gripping me this time.

Last two books quite short

Book 7 Swimming Home -Deborah Levy
A poet and his war correspondent wife, their daughter and two friends, rent a villa for the summer, they discover a young woman, a botanist swimming naked in their pool, and invite her to stay.

It’s pretty predictable after that, I thought I was going to enjoy it, but it wasn’t that gripping.

Book 8 Wide Sargasso Sea-Jean Rhys
This book gives a voice and a name to the first Mrs Rochester, we learn how she came to be the mad woman in the attic.

The book is full of atmosphere, you sense the menace in the country, it’s very claustrophobic, with some very unsettling characters.

It’s hard to have any sympathy for young Mr Rochester, his poor young wife deserves much more.