France's reading 2022

[France]

Print/Kobo

1. A Rising Man - Abir Mukherjee ++++1/2

2. Night Trains - Andrew Martin +++1/2

3. Find You First - Linwood Barclay ++++

4. Civilisations - Laurent Binet +++

5. The Strays of Paris - Jane Smiley ++++1/2

6. Don't Lets Go to the Dogs Tonight - Alexandra Fuller +++++

7. Pachinko - Min Jin Lee ++++1/2

    All The Brave Shall be Forgiven - Chris Cleave DNF

8. Inge's War - Svenja O'Donnell ++++

9. The Last Graduate - Naomi Novik ++++

10. Chances Are - Richard Russo ++++

11. A Comedy of Terrors - Lindsay Davis ++++

12. Birdcage Walk - Helen Dunmore ++++

13. Spring - Ali Smith +++1/2

14. The THursday Murder Club - Richard Osman (rr for Book Group) ++++1/2

15. Mission to Paris - Alan Furst ++++1/2

16. Elizabeth of the German Garden - Jennifer Walker +++

17. Doomsday Book - Connie Willis ++++1/2

18. Girl, Woman, Other - Bernardine Evaristo +++++

19. Outbound Train - Renea Winchester ++++

20. Course of Honour - LindsayDavies ++++

21. The Magician - Colm Toibin +++

22. Sorrow And Bliss - Meg Mason +++1/2

23. Saving Time - Jodi Taylor +++++

24. Let The Dead Speak - Jane Casey ++++1/2

25. Diamond and the Eye - Peter Lovesey +++

26. The Psychology of Time Travel - Kate Mascarenhas ++++1/2

27. Still Life - Sarah Winman +++++

28. Lost Dog - Kate Spicer +++

29; The Reading List - Sara Nisha Adams +++

30. Odd Boy Out - Gyles Brandreth +++1/2

31. Mr Loverman - Bernardine Evaristo ++++1/2

32. Astonish Me - Maggie Shipstead +++++

33.Redhead by the Side of the Road - Anne Tyler +++++

34. Malibu Rising - Taylor Jenkins Read ++++

35; All  My Mothers - Joanna Glen +++1/2

36. Stiletto ' Daniel Massey. ++++1/2

37. Homegoing - Yaa Gyasi ++++1/2

38. American Dirt - Jeanine Cummins+++++

39. A short History of the World According to Sheep -Sally Coulthard ++++1/2

40.Oh William! Elizabeth Strout ++++1/2

41. Mother's Boy - Patrick Gale +++++

      The House on the Cerulean Sea - T J Klune Abandoned

42. The Goblin Emperor - Katherine Addison +++++

43. Doing Time - Jodi Taylor ++++1/2

44. The ManWho Died Twice - Richard Osman ++++

45. Miss Buncle's Book - D E Stevenson +++++

46. The Dark - Sharon Bolton+++++

47. Cold Kill - P J Tracy ++++

48. The Travelling Cat Chronicles - Hiro Akiwira ++++

49. Good Riddance - Elinor Lipman +++1/2

50 The Talk of Pram Town - Joanna Nadin +++

51. The Lincoln Highway - Amor Towles

52 The Mystery of the Paper Bark Tree - Ovidia Yu ++++

53. The Unlikely Escape of Uriah Heap - H G Parry ++++

54. The Feast - Margaret Kennedy +++++

55. Tales From the Folly - Ben Aaronnvitch ++++(RR°

56. THe Half Life of Valery K - Natasha Pulley ++++1/2

57. Lake Silence - Anne Bishop ++++

58. The Island of Missing Trees - Elif Shafek +++++

59. The Vanishing Half - Brit Bennett +++++

60. The Last Party - Clare Macintosh +++

62. Nora goes off script - Annabel Monnahan ++

61. The Final Reunion of Opal and Nev - Dawnie Walton ++++1/2

62. The Stone Chamber - Kate Ellis +++

63. Wake - Shelley Burr +++1/2

64. Smoke and Ashes - Akbir Mukajee ++++

65. Murder Before Evensong - Rev Richard Coles ++

66. The Bog Child - Siobhan Dowd ++++

67. The Lady of Adderley - Robert Barnard ++++

68. Death Wore White - Jim Kelley +++

69. The Dead Will Tell - Linda Castillo ++++

70. My Word is My Bond - Roger Moore ++++

71. Blue Monday - Nicci French +++ (downgraded for the truly annoying ending)

72. Death in the East - Akbir Mukajee +++1/2

73. Dirt Town - Hayley Scrivinor +++

74. French Braid - Anne Tyler +++++

75. The Last to Disappear +++

76. Cloud Cuckoo Land - Anthony Doer +++/+++++ (Can't make up my mind whether it's          overblown or brilliant)

77. This Charming Man - CK McDonnell ++++1/2

78. O Caledonia - Elspeth Barker ++++

79. Shamed - Linda Castillo ++++1/2

80. Mrs Harris Goes to Paris - Paul Gallico +++1/2

81. Great Circle - Maggie Shipstead ++++1/2

82. The Angels of Venice - Phillip Wynne Jones ++++

83. Lessons in Chemistry - Bonnie Garmus +++1/2

84. Business As Usual - Jane Oliver +++++

85. Fresh Water for Flowers - Valerie Perrin ++++

86. The Golden Enclaves - Naomi Novik ++++1/2

87. Miss Buncle Married - D E Stevenson +++

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Audio Books

The Husband's Secret - Liane Moriaty +++ for story, top notch narrating

Holidays on Ice - David Sedaris

Edited January 7, 2023 by France

[France]

A Rising Man by Abir Mukharjee got the year off to a cracking start. Sam Wyndham, ex Scotland yard arrives in Calcutta in 1919, and has to deal with the murder of a prominent member of the British community almost immediately. It looks like the work of Indian terrorists yet Wyndham, assisted by his sergeant Surrender-not Bannerjee and Digby, an old India hand who is resentful at not getting the top job, has his doubts.

It's a well written, fast moving story full of life and colour. I thoroughly enjoyed it and am looking forward to the next in the series.

[France]

I've already mentioned Night Trains by Andrew Martin in another thread. I love trains and I love sleepers and he's very knowledgeable but he just can't tell a story. It was worth reading because of the trains and I really want to go on the Nordstrom sleeper in Norway but it could have been so much better.

 

Find You First - Linwood Barclay was typical of him, fast moving, infinitely readable and it's only once you've finished it that you realise how ludicrous the plot is. Excellent for helping survive airport delays.

 

Civilisations - Laurent Binet (Civilizations spelt with a Z in the French original, not sure why it's been changed). Laurence Binet is best known for HHhH, his novel about the assassination of Rudolph Heydreich which won loads of literary prizes. . Binet teaches at the university of Paris and is highly regarded, this book also won loads of prizes too. It's what if alternative history where the Vikings reached America and introduced iron and horses to native north and south Americans and Colombus's expedition is overcome leading the Inca to learn about building ocean going ships and ultimately invading Europe. I was looking forward to reading it but  found it a real struggle, he pastiches various styles, so the first part about the Vikings is written rather like a Norse saga and the main section about the Inca invasion of Europe is in the style of a 16th century historian, it makes for dry reading with little charecterisation so I never properly engaged with what was going on.  Binet is undoubtedly very clever and I fear I'm not clever enough to appreciate his work. We read it for our book group and all those who read it in English had reservations, those who read it in French loved it, so it may just be a translation problem. He's known for his elegant style and the French readers all said his writing is fabulous and carries you along so the rest of us undoubtedly missed out on a lot.

[France]

The Strays of Paris - Jane Smiley Perastroika, or Paras as she's known to her friends, is a young, curious filly who breaks out of her stable after a race at Longchamp and makes her way into the centre of Paris where she meets up with an opinionated raven, a stray pointer called Frieda, two mallard ducks and Etienne an 8 year old boy living with and caring for his blind elderly grandmother. Oh and there's a black rat too. This could have so easily have degenerated into a sickly sweet schmaltz fest but stays on the right side of whimsical, partially because though the animals can talk to each other they always stay true to their species, Frieda is never more than a street wise clever dog, Paras more than a horse, Etienne more than a boy. It's absolutely delightful, a real raise your spirits job and just what I needed after a dreary read.

 

Don't Lets Go to the Dogs Tonight - Alexandra Fuller  This is Fuller's memoir of growing up in Rhodesia during the war of independence and several other African countries. Her parents were farmers, not altogether successful, very erratic and after a tragedy her mother became a raving alcoholic, mercifully it's not a misery memoir either, just an honest portrayal of her family, her upbringing and her surroundings. She doesn't try to pretend that racism wasn't ingrained in all the whites but it's also obvious that she loves Africa as did her parents. Absolutely fascinating, well written and well worth reading.

 

 

[Marie H]

On 24/01/2022 at 5:00 PM, France said:

The Strays of Paris - Jane Smiley Perastroika, or Paras as she's known to her friends, is a young, curious filly who breaks out of her stable after a race at Longchamp and makes her way into the centre of Paris where she meets up with an opinionated raven, a stray pointer called Frieda, two mallard ducks and Etienne an 8 year old boy living with and caring for his blind elderly grandmother. Oh and there's a black rat too. This could have so easily have degenerated into a sickly sweet schmaltz fest but stays on the right side of whimsical, partially because though the animals can talk to each other they always stay true to their species, Frieda is never more than a street wise clever dog, Paras more than a horse, Etienne more than a boy. It's absolutely delightful, a real raise your spirits job and just what I needed after a dreary read.

I’ve just started reading The Strays of Paris, and it’s great! 
 

[France]

Lot's of catching up to do!

Pachinko - Min Jin Lee  is a multi generational saga about a Korean family in Japan from the 1930s onwards, after the Japanes e invasion of Korea, up to the 60s. I was put off reading it for ages because it kept on being praised by people who like Lucinda Riley and Kirsten Hannah (most definitely not my cups of tea) but once I started I was completely enthralled. It's moving and cast a completely believable light on a period I knew very little about. Recommended.

 

Everyone Brave is Forgiven - Chris Cleave DNF I have no idea how this got in my bookcase and oh goodness it was a load of tosh! I should have given up at page 2 when a girl at finishing school in Switzerland managed to ski to a telephone the day war was declared, ring the war office and sign up (on the phone!). She is then assigned as a teacher, not a teaching assistant mind you, to a whole class.However I wasted more hours of my life by struggling on to about page 75 before consigning it to the charity pile.

.

A Comedy of Terrors - Lindsay Davis The latest in her Roman detective series about Flavia Albia, the adopted daughter of the inimitable Falco, who is also a private informer. Albia isn't as funny or cynical as her adopted pa but these books are still hugely enjoyable, and this was no disappointment.

 

The Falco audiobooks read by Christian Rodska are sheer delight to listen to, the ones read by Gordon Griffen less so as he has an annoying whine.

 

 Birdcage Walk - Helen Dunmore This was the last novel Helen Dunmore wrote. It's set in the early 1790's in Bristol and Lizzie Fawkes, daughter of a radical feminist, is newly married to the possesive Diner, a speculative builder who is trying to make his fortune with a elegant row of houses in Clifton overlooking the gorge. Parts of it are brilliant, she was a wonderful writer and there's a looming sense of tension that grows and grows and the correlation of Lizzie's increasingly fraught home life with events happening in Revolutionary Paris are terrific.The beginning left me puzzled as it doesn't seem to have a lot of relevance but all in all I enjoyed it a lot.

 

[willoyd]

I've only tried Chris Cleave once myself, reading Gold as a book group read. I didn't finish it either: an equal 'load of tosh'. I put those experiences down as 'at least I know not to bother with that author'!

Interested to see you gave The Doomsday Book a good rating. I really enjoy those historian time travel novels of hers, even though some of her research can be a bit wobbly. I don't think that manifested so much here, but elsewhere there are 1 or 2 entertaining howlers!

[France]

20 hours ago, willoyd said:

 

Interested to see you gave The Doomsday Book a good rating. I really enjoy those historian time travel novels of hers, even though some of her research can be a bit wobbly. I don't think that manifested so much here, but elsewhere there are 1 or 2 entertaining howlers!

I seem to have read a fair amount about the 13th and 15th centuries but I don't know much about the 14th but her descriptions just feel right. I really like her time travel books too though I agree about the howlers, however she's such a good story teller that I'm able to tell my pedantic side to shut up.

[France]

 Mission to Paris by Alan Furst was a book group choice and not one I was particularly looking forward to as I got tired of spy novels quite a long time ago. I was surprised at how good it was. It's 1938 Actor Frederic Stahl, originally Viennese now living in America, is making a film Paris where the Nazis are organising a sophisticated propaganda campaing to persuade the French that at all costs they must avoid another war. The background detail is fascinating and totally convincing, there are no wham bam heroics and it's reingited my taste for this sort of book. And according to the reviews this isn't one of his best either.

 

Elizabeth of the German Garden by Jennifer Walker We're reading Elizabeth and her German Garden for my book group next month and as I'm presenting the book I got this for background detail. It's interesting up to a point, Mary  von Arnim, "Elizabeth" 's real name was a fascinating charecter and wrote some very good books but as I've already said elsewhere this is far too long with far too much extraneous detail. For a really good example of a literary biography try The Adventures of Miss Barbara Pym by Paula Byrne, or give yourself a treat and read Elizabeth and her German Garden. it's short, pithy and very funny, and free both from the Gutenberg Project and on Audible Plus.

 

Doomsday Book by Connie Willis I first read this when it came out nearly 30 years ago and was prompted to reread it by a blog post by Kate MacDonald.  I enjoyed it just as much this time and in many ways it was far more aposite after two years of Covid. Kivrin, a young historian traveling in time from Oxford 2052 to observe England in 1320 - or that's where she's supposed to go. it gradually dawns on her that she isn't when she is supposed to be but by that time she is so involved in the lives of the family at the local manor who have taken her in she could not leave even if she knew how to find the place where she could travel back in time. Back in modern Oxford people are falling ill and the whole area is placed in quarantine, while her tutor realises that something has gone wrong and is desperately trying to retrieve her. The medieval sections of the book are terrific, you can feel the cold, smell the many smells, hear the curch bels and get drawn into the rhythym of daily life, the bits in Oxford aren't so good and border on farce sometime but it's still an excellent, if not cheery, read.

[France]

It's nearly a week since I finished Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo and I still can't settle down properly to reading another novel as whatever I pick up just seems flat. I was amazed by this book, by the energy, the playfullness in parts, the flow and the absolutely exquisite writing. It's a perfect example of how those who know to do something very, very well can break all the rules with impunity. The novel is four chapters, each broken into three sub sections following a different, usually black, character who is loosely linked to those who come before. Each subsection is (I think, I've lent the book so can't check) just one sentence with practically no punctuation and often with very short lines. In lesser hands it would be a mess, ths book is lyrical and compelling and it's very easy to get used to the layout (several reviews I read found it daunting, I didn't).

 

I'm often wary of Booker prize winners, they seem to be selected sometimes because they tick boxes that are deemed important for that year which doesn't necessarily include being a good read, or readable at all, but this book deserves every one of the plaudits it's received. It is absolutely brilliant.

[willoyd]

On 12/03/2022 at 5:04 PM, France said:

ths book is lyrical and compelling and it's very easy to get used to the layout (several reviews I read found it daunting, I didn't).

 

I picked this up in a bookshop just after it won the Booker, and started browsing. I certainly found the layout slightly unsettling to start with, but within a page I was settled in, and after two pages I decided I had to buy the book.....

 

On 12/03/2022 at 5:04 PM, France said:

I'm often wary of Booker prize winners, they seem to be selected sometimes because they tick boxes that are deemed important for that year which doesn't necessarily include being a good read, or readable at all, but this book deserves every one of the plaudits it's received. It is absolutely brilliant.

Same here on both wariness and on it deserving the plaudits.  This was my personal book of the year in 2019, and well up there amongst my all-timers.  I've gone on to read a couple of her other books.  Not quite as good perhaps, but that's only because this was one was so outstanding - she's a superb writer.

[France]

Outbound Tain by Renée Winchester is a book I'd never have come across, let alone read, if it wasn't for a French member of one of my book groups. Well, thank you Danielle. I gather from her bio that Renée Winchester normally writes feel good-stories about little towns, in particular her home town of Bryson City in the Appalachians which has become a major tourist hub. For this book, as she says in the intro, she went back 50 years or so when parts of Bryson City were deperately poor and employment prospects for most people were limited to one clothing factory. If you were just poor you could rent a house off the factory, if you were really poor and couldn't even afford the rent you lived in a trailor park. Barbara's main ambition was to leave town but she became pregnant and how works her butt off trying to support her mother who has early dementia and her 17 year old daughter  Carole Anne. Carole Anne wants to leave too but has already been classed as a "reject" by the teachers at school though she's really bright, there's no money for college and the underclass from Bryson City doesn't seem to manage away from the city, they always come back. The story is interesting, the charecters are not overdrawn, there is a feel-good ending but it's not sickly sweet and overall it's a very good picture of just how hard life was then.  I enjoyed it though I don't think I'll be in a hurry to read another of her books.

 

I ended up reading two fictionalised biographies at the same time, I started one, lost it, started another, found the first so kept one to read upstairs, the other downstairs. As you do.

 

Course of Honour by Lindsay Davies is the story of Caenis, a freedwoman and secretary to Mark Antony's daughter and Vespasian, the minor aristocrat who rose to become Emperor. It's one of Davies' first books and is rather more serious in tone than the Falco stories she became so well known for, though she still writes with considerable lightness of touch. Though it is based on real events, Caenis was Vespasian's lover and much respected by his eldest son, because there aren't many details about her Lindsay Davies had a pretty free hand to weave her story. Who knows if it hadn't been ilegal for a senator to marry a freedwoman if Vespasian would have married her? If Caenis was as deliciously waspish as Davies makes her out to be? It was a thoroughly enjoyable book, as always Davies is brilliant in making you feel as if you're in Rome, tasting the food (some of it sounds horrible), warily making sure you don't annoy the Emperor (Nero for much of the story) and being immersed in a different time.

 

The Magician by Colm Toibin, about Thomas Mann's life is an entirely differnt matter. Apparently Colm Toibin has been researching and writing this book for 15 years and it seems as if he was never quite sure whether he was writing a biography or a novel. The narrative seems to sink at times under the weight of everything Toibin knows as if he's not able to let his imagination have free rein, Mann's actions are descried, his emotions often aren't. The one element that is fictionalised is Mann's homoerotic feelings towards boys, and they become rather intrusive as his reaction to a tragedy is wirtten off in a few sentences whereas seeing a young man at the swimming pool merits a page or two.  How strong his feelings about young men were is unknown, though Death in Venice would imply he took a keen interest in looking to say the very least. In fact he had a long lasting marriage and six children, Katia, his strong willed wife is one of the few charecters who really comes alive. There are parts of this book that are wonderful, and it definitely improves in the second half but compared to Brooklyn or The Blackwater Lighthouse this is a sad disappointment. I know an awful lot more about Thomas Mann now, was I made to care about him? The answer is no.

 

[France]

I'm in two minds about Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason.  I read it at the request of a friend who wanted to know what I thought about it otherwise I'd never have gone near it, books about mental illness really are not my thing. It is fantastically well written and deserves all the praise that's been heaped on it but I couldn't warm to Martha the narrator at all, even though I could understand it was her problems that made her behave as she did she was still profoundly irritating. The real trouble is that the author obviously doesn't know what the matter with Martha was and as a result the ending felt like a huge cop out.

 

I used to love Peter Lovesey's Diamond detective books, sadly the 20th Diamond and the Eye shows the series has run its course; Managed to finish it, but only just.

 

Saving Time by Jody Taylor, the third in her Time Police series was a hoot, a real lift to the spirits.

[France]

 

I thoroughly enjoyed The Psychology of Time Travel by Kate Mascarenhas though I know it's not everyone's cup of tea, I've always liked time travel stories even when i really don't understand the science involved.

 

Likewise I know a lot of people didn't like Still Life by Sarah Winman finding it altogether too whimsical, but I loved it. It is very whimsical in places but those are counterbalanced by more serious parts and her writing is wonderful. Ulysses Temper, a young soldier, meets an elderly art historian in 1944 as the Allies are taking back Italy and they form an instant rapport. The story takes us to 50's London then back to Florence through to the 70's. It's about family, friendship, making a community and appreciating the beauty in life. A terrific read.

 

The Reading List by Sara Nisha Adams  was readable, sickly sweet and utterly unmemorable. Two weeks later I don't even know what the characters were called.

 

Odd Boy Out by Gyles Brandreth was a Kobo special and had terrific reviews, it's just like Brandreth himself, fun for a while then all gets a bit too much.

 

Mr Loverman by Bernardine Evaristo, no, this doesn't match up to Girl Woman Other but all the same this story of the septuagenarian Barry from Antigua who is finally deciding whether he is going to come out after 50 years of marriage and 2 daughters has got to be one of the best books I've read this year.

 

Edited April 27, 2022 by France

[willoyd]

On 27/04/2022 at 2:21 PM, France said:

 

Mr Loverman by Bernardine Evaristo, no, this doesn't match up to Girl Woman Other but all the same this story of the septuagenarian Barry from Antigua who is finally deciding whether he is going to come out after 50 years of marriage and 2 daughters has got to be one of the best books I've read this year.

 

Absolutely loved this too. I agree it wasn't as good as GWO, but that's a very tough act to match - one of the best books I've read for a good while.  I tried Mr Loverman out as I'd read GWO and wanted to read more Evaristo, and was not disappointed.  Need to explore the rest of her writing now!

[France]

Astonish Me by Maggie Shipstead is set in the world of ballet, starting in the 1970s with Joan who knows she'll never make it to the top. She helps a Russian ballet star defect (shades of Mikhail Baryshnikov's escape), then after he dumps her retires from the ballet world to marry her high school sweetheart and the focus moves to her son and his best friend who are both highly talented. I wasn't expecting to like this book much, I wasn't overly impressed by Maggie Shipstead's first book Seating Arrangements, but I absolutely loved this. It didn't matter that I don't know a lot about ballet, the world drew me in and kept me totally engrossed. The ending was a bit flat but still can't spoil the effect of the book. It's beautifully written too.

 

Redhead by the Side of the Road by Anne Tyler. If you don't like Anne Tyler you'll think this is more of the same, if you do, and I automatically read everything of hers that comes my way, this is one of the best and most beguiling that she's written for ages.

 

Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi.  Two sisters in 18th century Ghana, one marries a slave trader, the other becomes a slave. There are two threads following the descendants of both sisters, in Ghana and in various parts of America until they intertwine a little at the end of the book. I'm a little torn in my reactions, it's an incredibly vivid book, there are scenes and events I won't forget but I found the structure, alternating chapters from each side of the family, a little bitty, particularly as we moved into more modern times there didn't seem to be time to get to know the characters and it detracted from the emotional effect of what happened to them. I don't often want books to be longer, I did here. It's still a really good book though.

 

American Dirt by Jeanine Cummings . Lets not go into whether this book should have been written by a Mexican etc, I honestly don't know enough about the migrants, who they are and the real difficulties they face to have a knowledgeable opinion, all I can say is that as a page turner this works brilliantly. It's fast paced, the tension hardly ever lets up and if one or two bits are not very credible Jack Reacher isn't either and no-one gives that as a reason for not reading Lee Child.

 

[muggle not]

On 2/20/2022 at 12:24 PM, France said:

Lot's of catching up to do!

Pachinko - Min Jin Lee  is a multi generational saga about a Korean family in Japan from the 1930s onwards, after the Japanes e invasion of Korea, up to the 60s. I was put off reading it for ages because it kept on being praised by people who like Lucinda Riley and Kirsten Hannah (most definitely not my cups of tea) but once I started I was completely enthralled. It's moving and cast a completely believable light on a period I knew very little about. Recommended.

 

 

 

I really enjoyed Pachinko. I can't believe I have lived all these years and knew so little about the relationship between Japan and Korea. Well written and a good storyline.

[France]

A Short History of the World According to Sheep - Sally Coultard

One of those niche books covering how sheep and their use by humans has altered history. It's written in a bright breezy style and is full of the sort of facts that make you say, 'Did you know this?' Such the oldest woolen garment yet discovered is over 6000 years old, Viking sails were made from wool and they are actually rather intelligent and sociable.

Really good fun, recommended.

[France]

Oh William! - Elizabeth Strout

I have liked pretty everything Elizabeth Strout has written (with the exception of Amy and Isabelle which just didn't gell for some reason). Her style tends to the episodic, many of her novels are loosely linked short stories, some of them hardly mentioning the main protagonist. She writes beautifully, has the knack of making even her tiresome characters appealing and making you feel that you truly understand them and why they behave as they do. 

 

This is the third of her books about Lucy Barton, the second in the series, Anything is Possible was one of the best books I read last year. Lucy is a widow in her 60s and is asked by her first husband William who she has remained on distant but friendly terms with to go on a road trip with him as he attempts to discover more about the family he is beginning to realise he doesn't know much about. it's not a long book and is written in a conversational style as if Lucy is talking to you. I enjoyed it a lot, not as much as the first two books, but still something I can wholeheartedly recommend.

 

This could be read as a standalone but you'll get far more out of it if you've already read the first two books.

[France]

I read two absolutely brilliant, quite different books back to back this week.

 

Miss Buncle's Book - D E Stevenson was written in 1934 and is the story of Barbara Buncle, an impoverished spinster who writes a book when her dividends start to dry up in an attempt to make money. Rather to her surprise her story of the goings on in a small village like the one she lives in becomes a best seller . The increasingly furious villagers realise that the annonymous aothor has been using them for copy and set about trying to discover who this "John Smith" is. The book is an absolute delight, very funny in places, acute and very satisfying. It's one of those you finish knowing you'll read it again and probably again and I'll probably get the beautiful Persephone reprint version because I'd like to have it in paper as well as on my Kobo.

 

The Dark by Sharon Bolton couldn't be more different. After a couple of slightly disappointing standalones Sharon Bolton is back on nail-biting top form with this welcome return of Lacey Flint. Lacey is still workingfor the Marine Unit ont he Thames and trying to keep a low profile when a man snatches a baby from a passing pram and another throws a pram with a baby inside into the river. That's just the beginning of an increasingly sinister threat involving the dark web aimed at women, nearly all women and a race against time to stop a proposed 'event' whch the police fear could be catestrophic. When Sharon Bolton is good she's unbeatable, I got so tense reading this on the train I had to put it down to catch my breath, and the pace doesn't let up.

 

Both of them are really highly recommended.

[Hayley]

2 hours ago, France said:

Miss Buncle's Book -

I love the idea of this and of Miss Buncle as a character! Added to my ‘to read’ list  

[France]

Two very different but thoroughly enjoyable books read back to back (this seems to be  becoming a habit).

 

The Feast - Margaret Kennedy. First published in 1950 The Feast opens with a priest preparing a eulogy at the funeral service for those who died when a Cornish seaside hotel collapsed into the sea, everyone inside perished. Then he says some of the guests survived. The narrative goes back a week and each chapter is one day leading up to the collapse, going into the lives of the owners, the guests and the people who work there. It's wonderfully written and very evocative and very enjoyable. In the reprint edition there's an introduction which is well worth reading after you've finished, it makes you see how very clever it is but I'm glad that I read the whole book first.

 

The Half Life of Valery K - Natasha Pulley This is a departure for Natasha Pulley whose previous books have all been  alternative reality, this is far more closely grounded in real life and has its origins in a true story. It's 1963 and the Cold War, Valery is a physicist who was sent to the gulag and suddenly finds himself seconded to a top secret project studying the effects of radiation on flora and fauna - or so he is told. He soon realises that there's something else going on. While I miss the fantastical elements of her previous books I really enjoyed this, Natasha Pulley tells a very good story and can even make a believably sympathetic KGB officer. The storyline, including the parts she said she made up, also seem disturbingly credible.

 

Sadly The Talk of Pram Town - Joanna Nadin didn't match up to the two above, I absolutely loved her first book The Queen of Bloody Everything which was both very funny and moving, for me this one fell flat on both counts, partially because the main characters, a suddenly orphaned 11 year old and her tightly repressed grandmother just didn't ring true.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[France]

On 1/5/2022 at 6:02 PM, France said:

Print/Kobo

1. A Rising Man - Abir Mukherjee ++++1/2

2. Night Trains - Andrew Martin +++1/2

3. Find You First - Linwood Barclay ++++

4. Civilisations - Laurent Binet +++

5. The Strays of Paris - Jane Smiley ++++1/2

6. Don't Lets Go to the Dogs Tonight - Alexandra Fuller +++++

7. Pachinko - Min Jin Lee ++++1/2

    All The Brave Shall be Forgiven - Chris Cleave DNF

8. Inge's War - Svenja O'Donnell ++++

9. The Last Graduate - Naomi Novik ++++

10. Chances Are - Richard Russo ++++

11. A Comedy of Terrors - Lindsay Davis ++++

12. Birdcage Walk - Helen Dunmore ++++

13. Spring - Ali Smith +++1/2

14. The THursday Murder Club - Richard Osman (rr for Book Group) ++++1/2

15. Mission to Paris - Alan Furst ++++1/2

16. Elizabeth of the German Garden - Jennifer Walker +++

17. Doomsday Book - Connie Willis ++++1/2

18. Girl, Woman, Other - Bernardine Evaristo +++++

19. Outbound Train - Renea Winchester ++++

20. Course of Honour - LindsayDavies ++++

21. The Magician - Colm Toibin +++

22. Sorrow And Bliss - Meg Mason +++1/2

23. Saving Time - Jodi Taylor +++++

24. Let The Dead Speak - Jane Casey ++++1/2

25. Diamond and the Eye - Peter Lovesey +++

26. The Psychology of Time Travel - Kate Mascarenhas ++++1/2

27. Still Life - Sarah Winman +++++

28. Lost Dog - Kate Spicer +++

29; The Reading List - Sara Nisha Adams +++

30. Odd Boy Out - Gyles Brandreth +++1/2

31. Mr Loverman - Bernardine Evaristo ++++1/2

32. Astonish Me - Maggie Shipstead +++++

33.Redhead by the Side of the Road - Anne Tyler +++++

34. Malibu Rising - Taylor Jenkins Read ++++

35; All  My Mothers - Joanna Glen +++1/2

36. Stiletto ' Daniel Massey. ++++1/2

37. Homegoing - Yaa Gyasi ++++1/2

38. American Dirt - Jeanine Cummins+++++

39. A short History of the World According to Sheep -Sally Coulthard ++++1/2

40.Oh William! Elizabeth Strout ++++1/2

41. Mother's Boy - Patrick Gale +++++

      The House on the Cerulean Sea - T J Klune Abandoned

42. The Goblin Emperor - Katherine Addison +++++

43. Doing Time - Jodi Taylor ++++1/2

44. The ManWho Died Twice - Richard Osman ++++

45. Miss Buncle's Book - D E Stevenson +++++

46. The Dark - Sharon Bolton+++++

47. Cold Kill - P J Tracy ++++

48. The Travelling Cat Chronicles - Hiro Akiwira ++++

49. Good Riddance - Elinor Lipman +++1/2

50 The Talk of Pram Town - Joanna Nadin +++

51. The Lincoln Highway - Amor Towles

52 The Mystery of the Paper Bark Tree - Ovidia Yu ++++

53. The Unlikely Escape of Uriah Heap - H G Parry ++++

54. The Feast - Margaret Kennedy +++++

55. Tales From the Folly - Ben Aaronnvitch ++++(RR°

56. THe Half Life of Valery K - Natasha Pulley ++++1/2

57. Lake Silence - Anne Bishop ++++

58. The Island of Missing Trees - Elif Shafek

59. The Vanishing Half - Brit Bennett +++++

60. The Last Party - Clare Macintosh +++

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Audio Books

The Husband's Secret - Liane Moriaty +++ for story, top notch narrating

Holidays on Ice - David Sedaris

 

[France]

Whoops, didn't mean to copy my list again.

 

The Vanishing Half - Britt Bennet, this book about twins who take very different paths, one choses to pass herself off as white, the other although "light" embraces her blackness, was a chance pick up and absolutely blew me away. The storyline is good, so is the writing and it really makes you think. (I read an article earlier this week slamming books like this for pandering to middle class white readers and making them feel better for being slightly more aware of the myriad of obstacles non-whites face. My jury is still out on that, but I will unashamedly say that I loved this book.)

 

After The Party by Clare Macintosh - a failing singer is found dead in a lake on New Year's day and there are a lot of people who had reason to want him dead. I got this as a Kobo cheapie because I needed something to read while I knit even though I had a feeling that I'd read Clare Macintosh once and wasn't impressed.  How right I was. This is really slow and parts of the storyline are just plain silly, I got so bored that after half way through I started really skimming just to be able to get to the end of the blessed thing. I won't try her again.

 

Edited August 19, 2022 by France

[France]

 Nora goes off script - Annabel Monaghan. A lesson not to be drawn into buying a Kobo cheaper by excessive praise. This was simply dire, a romantic comedy it was not. The main characters  had no chemistry, they were both profoundly uninteresting, the setting did not feel authentic and "event" keeping them apart turned out to be ridiculous. Avoid!

 

The Final Reunion of Opal and Nev - Dawnie Walton This I feel is unashamedly following the format of Daisy Jones and the Six (which I read a couple of years ago and enjoyed though it wasn't brilliant),it's the story of a pop duo, feisty Opal who can sing quite well but holds the stage even better and nerdy New, songwriter and musician told through interviews with them and those who know them. It is so much better than Daisy Jones though and a lot more powerful. It is a little slow to start but when it gets going it's really good.

 

The Stone Chamber - Kate Ellis I'm not sure why I don't like Kate Ellis better, this is a perfectly well written detective novel featuring Wesley Peterson but I found it just a bit unexciting. (I'm afraid I feel the same about Elly Griffiths and I know loads of people love her books).

 

Wake - Shelley Burr Australian noir. OK but doesn't come close to Chris Hammer or Jane Harper.