The New Fifty Books A Year Thread 2020

I started reading Bill Bryson’s book, The Body but put it to one side when I went away as it’s a big, heavy tome.

Instead, my No 6 is The Dutch House by Ann Patchett.

I have only just found this group.
Everyone seems to be reading books that are so different to my choices.
Books this year have included - Here come the girls by Milly Johnson.
The winter wedding by Abby Clements and Christmas cakes and mistletoe nights.
All Rom coms.
The next ones in my pile are both by Mitch Alvin. These are Tuesdays with Morrie and The five people you meet in heaven.
I will look at other people's choices and perhaps broaden my horizons.

I did start posting on this thread last year but to my shame did not keep it up so will try again for this year. I only read about a book every 2 weeks as I also spend a lot of my leisure time on craft projects. However I do love reading but these days I only read for pleasure so my choice of literature is mainly ‘easy reads’. To date this year I have read the following:
The Night Raid by Clare Harvey, a book set at the time of the Second World War, an easy, enjoyable book.
The New Rector by Rebecca Shaw. The first in the Turnham Malpas series. These books just have ‘a feel good touch’ to them. I like know I have a series of books I can carry on with and to ‘feel comfortable ‘ reading like a comfy pair of slippers.
The Lying Room by Nicci French. I always like books by this pair of authors. This was a good mystery and well written as usual but I did not think it was up to quite the same standard as their Freida Klein series.
The Love Child by Rachel Hore. I have enjoyed most of Rachel Hore’s books but this one was really good. My most enjoyable read for quite a while so really recommend it if you like a family story with some mystery.

Laineynanna

‘Grandmothers’ is on my pile to read, I’m really looking forward to it.

Still haven't embarked on The Salt Path Instead on recommendation of DD3
nos 3 and 4 were Philippa Gregory The Lady of the rivers and The White Queen. Enjoyed them both very much, but Oh boy the 2nd one needed a genealogical table
no.5 The Fell Murder by E.C. Lorac, a 1940s British Crime Classic, still enjoying it, but Oh boy does it need a map...

Hello , my first post on this wonderful site, thank you to all!
One of my ‘undoings ‘ is Radio 4 ‘Book of the Week’ & I've just finished Michelle Paver’s Dark Matter ( which Greyduster above , would love ! It’s brilliant.
Also the absolutely exquisitely bound & presented ‘Grandmothers‘ by Sally Vickers ( a signed copy too thanks to another dear Grandma friend)
Oh how I cherished slowly every wise, experienced , sometimes suffering word in this all too short delightful story of essentially three increasingly intertwined contrasting grandmothers (but many more in the peripheries.)

Three more audio books:
7. "The Battersea Barricades" enjoyed it very much. Jodi Taylor's St Mary Chronicles are becoming favourites.
8 "White Silence" also by Jodi Taylor but not St Mary's. Enjoyed it.
9 "Troll Mountain" by Matthew Reilly. I think it is actually intended for teens but it passed a few hours.
I am currently reading "Hannah Green And Her Unfeasibly Mundane Existence" by Michael Marshall Smith -weird very weird but very readable.

Finished reading The Secret Hours by Sandra Montefiore, a follow on from The Deverills triology. Then Blackberry and Wild Rose by Sonia Velton. The joy of love, the beauty of silk and the cruelty of betrayal it had all these things enjoyed it. Then two audio books by Karen Swan, one set in Madrid Spain the other in Paris liked both of them with their descriptions of life with unlimited money but still human beings.currently reading Jasmine Nights by Julia Gregson for the book club and have American Dirt to read next.

So far this year The Shelly Bay Ladies Swimming Club by Sophie Green, good, The Dutch House by Ann Patchett, good, The Sparkle Pages by Meg Bignell not so good prob too young for me, Reflections by Marcia Willett, good, Magpie by Sophie Draper, didn't enjoy this one skipped a lot of it, and The Weekend by Charlotte Wood very good.

7. A Mercy, Toni Morrison

I didn’t think I was going to like this one at first, but ended up really enjoying it. Set in 16th century America, a tale of slavery, deprivation and love. It’s very powerful.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

I also enjoyed Crawdads ..

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'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).

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...