France

Print/Kindle 1. Begin Again - Ursula Orange **** 2. A Single Thread - Tracy Chevalier ****1/2 3. The Left Handed Booksellers - Garth Nix**** 4. The Sixteen Trees of the Somme - Lars Mitterling ***** 5. All The Ever Afters - Danielle Teller DNF 6 The Last Painting of Sara de Voss -Dominic Smith **** 7. The Burning Jane Casey **** 8. Olive Kitteridge - Elizabeth Strout ****1/2 9. Snow Song - Sally Gardner ***1/2 10. Trust -Chris Hammer ****1/2 11. On Chapel Sands - Laura Cummings ****1/2 12. The Thursday Murder Club - Richard Osman ***** 13. The Second Sleep - Robert Harris 14. Closed for Winter - Jorn Lier Horst *** 15. Eve in Hollywood - Amor Towles ***** 16; Olive Again - Elizabeth Strout ***** 17. A Deadly Education - Naomi Novik****1/2 18. Ayesha Again - Uzma Jaluddin ****1/2 19. The Unfinished Clue - Georgette Heyer ***1/2 20. Tales from the Folly - Ben Aaronovitch **** 21. The Mystery of Henri Pick ** 22. The Religious Body - Catherine Aird *** 23. A Madness of Sunshone - Nalini Singh **1/2 24.Ink & Sigil - Kevin Hearne **** 25. The Strings of Murder - Oscar de Muriel **** 26. The Queen of Bloody Everything - Joanna Nadin ****1/2 27. The Grove of the Caesars - Lindsay Davis ****1/2 28. I Am, I Am, I Am - Maggie O'Farrell ***** 29. Troubled Blood - Robert Galbraith ***** 30. Three Women and a Boat - Anna Youngsen ***1/2 31. Pulpit Rock - Kate Rhodes **** 32. After the Fire - Jo Spain **** 33. Writers and Lovers - Lily King ****1/2 34. The Giver of Stars - Jojo Moyes ****1/2 35. Normal People - Sally Rooney ****1/2 36. The Adventures of Maud West, Lady Detective - Susanna Stapelton **** 37. The Lost Future of Pepperharrow - Natasha Pulley ***** 38. MI5 and Me - Charlotte Bingham ****1/2 39. The Most Fun We Ever Had - Claire Lombardo ***1/2 40. The Penguin Lessons - Tom Mitchell ****1/2 41. Fanny Burney: Her Life - Kate Chisholm **** 42. Spies and Stars - Charlotte Bingham *** 43. The Tropic of Serpents - Marie Brennan **** 44. Abide With Me - Elizabeth Strout ***** 45. The Whole Truth - Cara Hunter **** 46. Jane Austen at Home - Lucy Worsley ****1/2 47 The Fire Court - Andrew Taylor **** 48. Euphoria - Lily King **** 49. A Country Road, A Tree - Jo Baker ****1/2 50. The Darkest Evening - Ann Cleeves ****1/2 51. She Lies in Wait - Gytha Lodge ** 52. The Killing Season - Mson Cross**** 53. The Midnight Queen - Sylvia Hunter ****1/2 54. The Fifth Season - N K Jemisin ***** 55. Close to Home - Cara Hunter ***** 56. Dog days - Ericka Waller ** 57. Bordeaux, Private Eye - Rorie Smith *** 58. The Miseducation of Evie Epworth ****1/2 59. The Great Alone - Kirsten Hannah *** (just) 60. The Kingdoms - Natasha Pulley +++++ 61. The Summer Book - Tove Jansson not sure. 62. The Water Clock - Jim Kelly ++++1/2 63. Wild Strawberries - Angela Thirkell ++ Behind Closed Doors - B A Paris - abandoned 64. Confusion - Elizabeth Jane Howard ++++ 65. Casting Off - Elizabeth Jane Howard ++++ - both r/r for book club 66. The Widows of Malabar Hill - Sujata Massey ++++1/2 67. Beach Read - Emelie Henry ++ 68. V2 - Robert Harris ++++1/2 69. Ask Again, Yes - Mary Beth Keane ++++ 70. The Perfect Lie - Jo Spain +++++ 71. The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms - N K Jemisin ++++1/2 72. The Bedlam Stacks - Natasha Pulley +++++ 73. Big Summer - Jennifer Weiner ++ 74. A Town Called Solace - Mary Lawson +++++ 75. Lady of Devices - Shelly Adina +++1/2 76. Lady of Magic - Sylvia Hunter ++++ 77. One More Croissant for the Road - Felicity Cloake +++ 78. The Night Raven - Sarah Painter +++ 79. The Dictionary of Lost Word - Pip Williams ++++ 80. Mother May I? - Joshilyn Jackson +++++for first 5/6, ++ for last 1/6 81. The Reckoning - Jane casey ++++1/2 82. The Samaritan - Mason Cross ++++1/2 83. Missing Pieces - Tim Weaver ++ 84. Writing Jane Austen - Elizabeth Aston +++ 85. 1971, Never A Dull Moment - David Hepworth ++++1/2 86. Kindred - Octavia E Butler 87. The Third Girl - Jane Casey ++++ 88. Ghosting - Jennie Erdal ++++1/2 89 The Stranger You Know - Jane Casey ++++ 90. The Kill - Jane Casey ++++ 91. Manhattan Beach - Jennifer Egan +++1/2 92. The Art of Dying - Ambrose Parry +++1/2 94. Small Spaces - Katherine Arden ++++ 95. Anything is Possible - Elizabeth Strout +++++ 96. The Firebird - Susanna Kearsley +++1/2 97. No Way Out - Cara Hunteer ++++ 98. The Last Thing He Told Me - Laura Dave ++++1/2 99. Anxious People - Frederick Backman ++++1/2 100. Early Morning Riser - Katherine Heiny ++++ 101. The Adventures of Miss Barbara Pym- Paula Byrne ++++1/2 102. Ninth House - Leigh Bardugo ++++1/2 103. Getting Rid of Bradley - Jennifer Crusie ++++ 104. Sorcery and Cecilia - Patricia Wrede & Caroline Steventon ++++1/2 105. A Master of Djinn - P Djeli Clark ++++ 106. Love After Love - Ingrid Persaud +++++ 107. Darkness Fall - Robert Bryndza ++++1/2 108. Devil's Table - Kate Rhodes ++++1/2 109. Property - Valerie Martin 110. Small Pleasures - Clare Chambers +++1/2 111. The Girl in the Ice - Robert Bryndza +++ Audio books The Rules of Magic - Alice Hoffman **** The Survivors - Jane Harper ****1/2 The Accusers - Lindsay Davies **** The Postscript Murders - Elly Griffiths retruned See Delphi And Die - Lindsay Davies **** A Room with a View - E M Forster (read by Emilia Fox) La Belle Sauvage _ Phillip Pullman***** Deep Secret - Diana Wynne Jones ***** The Invisible Life of Addie La Rue - V Swarb - returned due to infuriating historical inacuracies which really started to grate. Brazil - Michael Palin ****1/2 The Night Circus - Erin Morganstern ***** Birds, Beasts and Relatives - Gerald Durrell **** The Huntress - Kate Quinn ***** narrator, ** story Miss benson's Beetle - Rachel Joyce ++++ Erebus - Michael Palin The Seventh Sinner - Elizabeth Peters ++++ Unholy Harmonies - Elizabeth Aston ++++ The Enchanted April - Elizabeth von Arnim +++++ Cranford - Mrs Gaskell +++++ Die for Love - Elizabeth Peters ++++ Children of Chance - Elizabeth Aston ++++ The World, The Flesh and the Bishop - Elizabeth Aston ++++ Volcanic Airs - " " Unaccustomed Spirits " " Elizabeth and her German Garden - Elizabeth Von Armim +++++ Troubled Blood - Robert Galbraith +++++ Good Omens - Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman ++++1/2 The Subtle Knife - Philip Pullman +++++ The Telephone Box on the Edge of the World ++++ Miss Mapp -E H Benson ++++1/2 Poseidon's Gold - Lindsay Davis ++++ 1/2 Her Husband's Secret - Liane Moriaty

I really enjoyed the first two (both reading and listening to them) but have got stuck on this one. I think it's partially because it's so long, too long, I think she's being rather self indulgent, and also because I know what happened to Cromwell and don't really want to have to live through it by reading it.

Hi Meg and Madeleine, I'm Viccie on BGO (can't remember why I've got two different names!)

I do look at Amazon reviews - I check the 1 star reviews first, no matter how any 5 stars there are. If they're full of 'damaged copy' or something fautous or unhelpful like 'worst book I ever read/boring etc' without saying why I ignore them. i do pay attention to the 'badly written/huge plot holes/goes to pieces near the end/ needs cutting by a third.' Then I look at the 3 star reviews as they're generally the most balanced since they won't be written by the wuthor's friends or those who have a bone to pick.

in no particular order: Kate Atkinson Anne Tyler Georgette Heyer Jasper fforde E H Benson Sharon Bolton Anne Bishop Jane Austen Jennifer Crusie Colm Toibin

I gave up on this book; I overlooked the often poor writing, the stereotyped charecters, incongrous modern attitudes and a rape scene that read if it came out of a 70's men's magazine and I tried really hard not to be a historical pedant. So I made myself ignore a gently bought up girl going around with no shoes and slopping around with her father's men but when it got to the hut in the woods that had a little library of books (OK only 3, but 3 more than the average aristocratic household would have had) I had to say 'Enough!' I love historical novels and there are many, many better ones out there.

I found this book so disturbing that I couldn't read another Margret Atwood for about eight years, it reminded me too much of things from my own childhood. I'm interested to read thaat it's semi auto-biographical and on reflection it doesn't surprise me.

I couldn't agree with you more, my daughters who also loved these books in the beginning have also given up on them. Others I've got very bored of are; Patricia Cornwall - I got really fed up of reading about autopsies Katie fforde - her first books were brilliant and then they got very samey with a tendancy to have heroines who were pathetic and let people walk over them. Fiona Walker - forgot to use the editing pen so her books got longer and longer. The Agatha Raisin series Minette Walters - don't know why, her books are birilliant but I have no desire to read them any longer.

I dislike this book intensely, the first and least important is that Jane Green doesn't write very well, the second is that as the mother of three daughters I find the message - that if you're overweight you won't get anywhere even if you're better than the blonde who has the desk next door to you or get the boy of your dreams, any boy in fact, and that being thin equals success and happiness - absolutely repellant. Let's not go into the fantasy that you can stuff your face with bacon butties then magically lose - what was it seven stone - in practically no time at all without loose skin hanging down to your knees etc etc.

Yup, I've read Clarissa - I agree it isn't a fast read, neither was Pamela, also by Richardson which is about a serving maid's determined resistance to her employer's attempts to seduce her. It was written as an encouragement to sevants to keep chaste which must mean that it was quite common for maids to be literate as Pamela isn't short, about 1000 pags as far as I can remember.

I used to adore Marion Zimmer Bradley's Darkover series but never really got along with her other books. I read Twilight and wasn't impressed, neither were my daughters who usually lap things like that up. Not sure why but I don't think any of us were impressed by the charecterisation. A vampi-ish book I'd really reccomend is Sunshine by Robin McKinley, I think it's her first adult novel and I hope she writes lots more. It can be a bit wordy in places but is very well written so well worth the longer passages.

I never doubted the historical accuracy of the book, don't know why as I usually note everything that doesn't feel right. True, Darwin is portrayed in a very unflattering light but I accepted that as being Harry Thompson's opinion. Yes, I agree that the pace slows right down once the voyage of the Beagle is finished and I wonder if Harry Thompson didn't set out origninally to write a biography of Robert Ftzroy and was persuaded to turn it into a novel. It is slow in places and I got a bit fed up of some of the religeous discussions but it's still a fantastic book and one I remember very clearly even though I read it two years ago. I reccomend it highly too.

Thanks for that review Sue, I've been wondering about The Alchemist's Secret, will definitely get it now. I couldn't get on with Labyrinth either, it was so badly written that I got completely bogged down. And written by a woman who judges book prizes too.

Pile? Who can fit their TBR books into a measely pile? I've got a bookcase. When we moved recently I packed all my TBR books in separate packing cases. Four of them.

It seems to be one of those books where you don't have moderaate feelings: my husband loathed it, my daughter and I loved it.

We read this for my Book Club and opinion was neatly divided into two: a) those who thought it was deeply meaningful those who thought it was complete and utter pretentious tosh. I was in the second group.

I used to love the Frost books then I read one (can't remember the title) which had so much rape, beatings up, murder and general unpleasantness in it that I realised thaat not only wasn't I enjoying all this but that most of the Frost books had more than their fair shaare of human beastliness. Haven't read one since.

Not great literature but it was a terrific read. Just what the doctor ordered when there's a hurricane blowing, the power's out for two days and so all you can do is read by candlight.

I'm with Chesilbeach here - I was really disappointed in this book, it was curiously flat and seemed to lack a proper sense of place. Also being a historical pedant I foound that the main charecters simply didn't behave as women brought up then would have done. Sorry can't go into more detail as I got rid of the book almost immediately. I loved A Suitable Boy, that's a book that paints such a vivid picture you can practically smell the surroundings. Anita Desai is another writer who writes fine books about India, I'd particularly reccomend Fire On The Mountain and for a wonderfully lush, rollercoaster of a read there's Sister Of My Heart by Chitra Banderavi Something or the other which everyone I've lent it to has adored. And if you want a really good historical novel about India let's not forget The Far Pavillions.

Fraaid I didn't enjoy this very much. yes the subject was harrowing but I thought he doesn't write well enough to overcome the simplistic charecterisation and predictable plot.

I picked this up in a charity shop not knowing anything about Barbara Kingsolver - what a marvellous surprise it was. I adored this book, I thought the theme got its point over without being at all preachy and I was completely blown away by the clarity and energy of her writing. Reccomended without reservation.

Frankly I don't like any of them very much. Of the "softer" type of chick lit I suppose Jill Mansell is my favourite but I tend to go for writers who write romances but with a bit more bite to them like Jennifer Crusie.

Loved the beginning, adored the end, thought it sagged a little in the middle though. Well worth reading.

Sophie's Choice which I read when I was pregnant and gave me nightmares for weeks. Any parent who knows what the choice Sophie had to make was will know why. (Sorry don't know how to do spoilers.)