the wonderful world of reading 2020 reading challenge thread

[imposs1904]

1/26 Smart Moves by Stuart M. Kaminsky
2/26 Think Fast, Mr. Peters by Stuart M. Kaminsky
3/26 Buried Caesars by Stuart M. Kaminsky
4/26 Hunting Grounds: A Scottish Football Safari by Gary Sutherland
5/26 Poor Butterfly by Stuart M. Kaminsky
6/26 The Melting Clock by Stuart M. Kaminsky
7/26 The Devil Met a Lady by Stuart M. Kaminsky
8/26 Winter at the Bookshop: Politics and Poverty, St Anns in the 1960s by Sylvia Riley
9/26 The Quiet Assassin: The Davie Hay Story by Davie Hay with Alex Gordon
10/26 Roseanna by Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö (ReRead)

11/26 The Nation’s Favourite – The True Adventures of Radio 1 by Simon Garfield

 

[BoatieBird]

1/70 - Shirley Jackson - The Bird's Nest
2/70 - Annie Proulx - Accordion Crimes (re-read)
3/70 - Liz Nugent - Unravelling Oliver
4/70 - Elizabeth Strout - Anything is Possible
5/70 - Alice Sebold - The Lovely Bones
6/70 - Ruth Rendell - Make Death Love Me (re-read)
7/70 - Michael Farris Smith - Rivers
8/70 - Malcolm Pryce - Last Tango in Aberystwyth
9/70 - Stephen King - Elevation
10/70 - Liz Nugent - Lying in Wait
11/70 - Donald Ray Pollock - Knockemstiff
12/70 - John Irving - Avenue of Mysteries
13/70 - Liz Nugent - Skin Deep
14/70 - Annie Proulx - The Shipping News (re-read)
15/70 - Val McDermid - How The Dead Speak
16/70 - Patricia Highsmith - The Talented Mr Ripley
17/70 - Sally Rooney - Conversations With Friends
18/70 - John Green - An Abundance of Katherines
19/70 - Minette Walters - The Shape of Snakes
20/70 - Kazuo Ishiguro - Nocturnes
21/70 - Stephen King - Under The Dome (re-read)
22/70 - Denise Mina - Conviction
23/70 - William Boyd - Sweet Caress: The Many Lives of Amory Clay
24/70 - Richard Bachman (aka Stephen King) - The Long Walk (re-read)
25/70 - Michael Morpurgo - Born to Run
26/70 - Richard Bachman (aka Stephen King) - Roadwork
27/70 - William Boyd - The Vanishing Game
28/70 - Anthony Doerr - All The Light we Cannot See
29/70 - Stephen King - If It Bleeds
30/70 - Patricia Highsmith - Ripley Under Ground
31/70 - Richard Bachman (aka Stephen King) - The Running Man (re-read)
32/70 - Minette Walters - Acid Row
33/70 - Liz Nugent - Our Little Cruelties
34/70 - Anne Tyler - A Spool of Blue Thread
35/70 - Stephen King - Dreamcatcher
36/70 - Taylor Jenkins Reid - Daisy Jones and The Six
37/70 - Ruth Rendell - Adam and Eve and Pinch Me (re-read)
38/70 - Harlan Coben - Run Away
39/70 - Susan Hill - The Various Haunts of Men
40/70 - Julian Barnes - Arthur and George
41/70 - Stephen King - Cujo (re-read)
42/70 - Susan Hill - The Pure in Heart
43/70 - Patricia Highsmith - Ripley's Game
44/70 - Marina Lewycka - A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian
45/70 - P D James - The Part Time Job
46/70 - Marilynne Robinson - Gilead

47/70 - Wally Lamb - I Know This Much is True

 

[Winot]

1/19 Normal People - Sally Rooney
2/19 Prospero's America: John Winthrop, Jr., Alchemy, and the Creation of New England Culture, 1606-1676 - Walter Woodward
3/19 Colonial America (A Very Short Introduction) - Alan Taylor
4/19 Conversations with Friends - Sally Rooney
5/19 The Reformation (The Penguin History of the Church 3) - Owen Chadwick
6/19 The Countenance Divine - Michael Hughes
7/19 A Culture of Fact: England, 1550-1720 - Barbara J. Shapiro
8/19 Semicolon - Cecelia Watson
9/19 Paradise - A.L. Kennedy
10/19 Advocacy: A Practical Guide - Peter Lyons
11/19 Distilling Knowledge: Alchemy, Chemistry, and the Scientific Revolution - Bruce T. Moran
12/19 Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About Race - Reni Eddo-Lodge
13/19 Notes on 'Camp' - Susan Sontag
14/19 The Lathe of Heaven - Ursula Le Guin
15/19 Living at the End of the World - Marina Benjamin

 

[billy_bob]

*1/40 Wilkie Collins - The Woman in White
2/40 Nathaniel Hawthorne - The Scarlet Letter
3/40 Hans Rosling - Factfulness
4/40 Alastair Bonnett - Off the Map
5/40 Anna Burns - The Milkman
6/40 Charles Fernyhough - Pieces of Light: The New Science of Memory
7/40 Julia Leigh - The Hunter
8/40 John Higgs - William Blake Now: Why He Matters More Than Ever
9/40 Ammon Shea - Bad English: A History of Linguistic Aggravation
10/40 Donald D. Cohen - Depression Folk: Grassroots Music and Left-Wing Politics in 1930s America
*11/40 Daniel Rachel - Walls Come Tumbling Down: The Music and Politics of Rock Against Racism, 2 Tone and Red Wedge
12/40 Shalom Auslander - Hope: A Tragedy
13/40 Reinhard Kleist - Nick Cave: Mercy on Me
* 14/40 James Joyce - Ulysses
15/40 Shirley Jackson - Dark Tales
16/40 Charles Fernyhough, ed. - Others
17/40 Sally Rooney - Conversations with Friends
18/40 Hannah Fry - Hello World: How to Be Human in the Age of the Machine
19/40 Sally Rooney - Conversations with Friends
20/40 Holly Muller - My Own Dear Brother
21/40 Sarah Perry - Melmoth
22/40 Samanta Schwebelin - Mouthful of Birds
23/40 Denis Johnson - The Largesse of the Sea Maiden
24/40 Eva Meijer - Animal Languages
25/40 George Saunders - Pastoralia
26/40 Zoe Turner - The Book of Newcastle
27/40 Pete Brown - The Story of Craft Beer
*28/40 Ernest Hemingway - For Whom the Bell Tolls
29/40 George Saunders - In Persuasion Nation
30/40 George Saunders - CivilWarLand in Bad Decline
31/40 Shirley Jackson - The Lottery and Other Stories
32/40 Catherine Bradley - Dogs: A Literary Anthology
33/40 Jon Wiederhorn - Ministry: The Lost Gospels according to Al Jourgensen
*34/40 Vikram Seth - Two Lives

35/40 Shirley Jackson - Just an Ordinary Day
36/40 Mark Kermode - It's Only a Movie
37/40 David Foenkinos - The Mystery of Henri Pick
38/40 Gretchen McCulloch - Because Internet: Understanding How Language is Changing

* 500+ pages (target this year was more long books)

 

[butchersapron]

35 - The Origins and Rise of Dissident Irish Republicanism: The Role and Impact of Organizational Splits - John F. Morrison
36 - Crimes of Loyalty: A History of the UDA - Ian S. Wood
37 - Failed Führers: A History of Britain’s Extreme Right - Graham Macklin
38 - Mad Dog: The Rise and Fall of Johnny Adair and 'C Company' Paperback – David Lister and Hugh Jordan (re-read)
39 - Inside the UDA Volunteers and Violence - Colin Crawford
40 - The Red Hand: Protestant Paramilitaries in Northern Ireland - Steve Bruce
41 - Fascism and the Masses: The Revolt against the Last Humans - Ishay Landa (astonishing - best book i've read since Tooze's Wages of Destruction 15 years ago, challenges most accounts of fascism across the board in the way Tooze did for WW2 and Nazi Germany, recommended for those enjoying Lusurdo, EMW etc - this review gives a flavour)

 

[Idris2002]

butchersapron - does this Landa person say anything about Ze'ev Sternhell's work on the alleged "left wing" origins of fascism?

 

[butchersapron]

butchersapron - does this Landa person say anything about Ze'ev Sternhell's work on the alleged "left wing" origins of fascism?

Yes, a lot, and he's not keen - he also deals with him in his earlier book (which i'm reading this second) The Apprentice's Sorcerer: Liberal Tradition and Fascism which is a full on attack on that idea and pins fascism partly - as a precondition - on classical liberalism. Another great book. I suspect they may have crossed swords quite a lot in the Israeli academic community.

 

[D'wards]

1/36 - Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang
2/36 - Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons (reread)
3/36 - The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow
4/36 - Me by Elton John
5/36 - Angels and Demons by Dan Brown
6/36 - Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch
7/36 - Amazon Adventure by Willard Price
8/36 - Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane
9/36 - Gotta get Theroux This: My Life and Strange Times in Television by Louis Theroux
10/36 - South Sea Adventure by Willard Price (reread)
11/36 - Atomised by Michel Houellebecq
12/36 - Chernobyl: History of a Tragedy by Serhii Plokhy
13/36 - When the Green Woods Laugh by H.E. Bates
14/36 - The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty
15/36 - Tales of the City by Armistead Maupin
16/36 - HMS Ulysses by Alistair Maclean
17/36 - Enduring Love by Ian McEwan
18/36 - Handling the Undead by John Ajvide Lindqvist
19/36 - Adolf Hitler- My Part in his Downfall by Spike Milligan
20/36 - The Gathering by Anne Enright
21/36 - Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy (rererereread)
22/36 - The Hellbound Heart by Clive Barker (reread)
23/36 - The Trench by Steve Alten (reread)

 

[MsHopper]

1/50 Bloody Brilliant Women - Cathy Newman
2/50 A Perfectly Good Man - Patrick Gale
3/50 All the Light We Cannot See - Anthony Doerr
4/50 I Invited her in - Adele Parks
5/50 Wakenhyrst - Michelle Pave
6/50 NW - Zadie Smith
7/50 Conversations with friends - Sally Rooney
8/50 Digging to America - Anne Tyler
9/50 Priestdaddy - Patricia Lockwood
10/50 The Bloody Chamber - Angela Carter
11/50 Moon over Soho - Ben Aaronovitch
12/50 Whispers under Ground - Ben Aaronovitch
13/50 Homefires - Elizabeth Day
14/50 Let the great world spin - Colum Mcann
15/50 Broken Homes - Ben Aaronovitch
16/50 Ordinary Grace - William Kent Krueger
17/50 king Leopalds ghost -Adam Hochschild
18/50 The Truth About Celia - Kevin Brockmeier
19/50 The end of the affair - Graham Greene
20/50 Butterfly summer - Harriet evans
21/50 The Sunshine sisters - Jane Green
22/50 Fox Glove summer - Ben Aaronovitch
23/50 Throw away unopened - Viv Albertine
24/50 A Possible Life - Sebastian Faulks
25/50 The Hanging Tree - Ben Aaronovitch
26/50 Uncommon Type - Tom Hanks

27/50 Journey to the South - Annie Hawes
28/50 Lies Sleeping Ben Aaronovitch
29/50 Half a World Away - Mike Gayle
30/50 The Hunting Party - Lucy Foley
31/50 It started with a Secret - Jane Green
32/50 The Winner - David Baldacci
33/50 The Muse - Jessie Burton
34/50 The Guilty Party - Melanie McGrath
35/50 Falling: A love story - Jane Green
36/50 The Hope family calendar - Mike Gayle

 

[QueenOfGoths]

1."Tombland" - C. J. Sansom
2. Exit Wounds" - compilation
3. "Murder in the Crooked House" - Soji Shimada
4."Into the Woods" - Tana French
5. "The Chalk Man" - CJ Tudor
6. "The Institute" - Stephen King
7. "The White Road" - Sarah Lotz
8. "Black Widow" - Christopher Brookmyre
9. "No One Home" - Tim Weaver
10. "Orphan X" - Gregg Hurwitz
11. "Nomad" - James Swallow
12. "Horns" - Joe Hill
13. "Dark Places" - Gillian Flynn

14. "The Wych Elm" - Tana French. Very interesting, excellent writing. I suppose it's a psychological thriller but it's more than that.

 

[pabkennedy@yaho]

2 books a week? jesus mary and joseph, my wife wont let me sit still long enough for that kind of immobility.

 

[marty21]

1/75 The Girl Who Lived Twice - David Lagercrantz
2/75 Sweet Sorrow - David Nicholls
3/75 Mortal Prey - John Sandford
4/75 The Night Fire - Michael Connelly
5/75 Borderlands - L J Ross
6/75 Three Weeks to say goodbye - C J Box
7/75 Blue Heaven - C J Box
8/75 Hard Shot - J B Turner
9/75 Surviving The Evacuation: There We Stood - Frank Tayell
10/75 Back of Beyond - C J Box
11/75 The Secret War : Spies,Codes & Guerrillas 1939-45 . Max Hastings
12/75 Sunset Express - Robert Crais
13/75 Requiem - J B Turner
14/75 Reckoning - J B Turner
15/75 Zone One - Colson Whitehead
16/75 Long Range - C J Box
17/75 The Wanted - Robert Crais
18/75 Night Prey - John Sandford
19/75 Dark of the moon - John Sandford
20/75 No One Home - Tim Weaver
21/75 Lockdown - Peter May
22/75 Rough Country - John Sandford
23/75 Life Moves Pretty Fast : The Lessons We Learned From 80s Movies - Hadley Freeman
24/75 Fast Times And Excellent Adventures: The Surprising History of The 80s Teen Movie. - James King
25/75 In A House Of Lies - Ian Rankin
26/75 The Shrine - LJ Ross


******

27/75 Rogue - James Swallow.

 

[ringo]

1/30 The Subtle Art Of Not Giving A Fuck - Mark Manson
2/30 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
3/30 Coketown - Barney Farmer
4/30 Before The Coffee Gets Cold - Toshikazu Kawaguchi
5/30 The Taxidermist’s Daughter - Kate Mosse
6/30 The Crying Of Lot 49 - Thomas Pynchon
7/30 The Bird Man And The Lap Dancer: Close Encounters With Strangers - Eric Hansen
8/30 The Man In The High Castle - Philip K Dick
9/30 What You Want is in the Limo: On the road with Led Zeppelin, Alice Cooper, and The Who in 1973. the year the sixties died and the modern rock star was born - Michael Walker
10/30 Night Boat To Tangier - Kevin Barry
11/30 Tenth Of December - George Saunders
12/30 The Winter Ghosts - Kate Mosse
13/30 Original Rockers - Richard King
14/30 Labyrinth - Kate Moss
15/30 Dog Walker - Arthur Bradford
16/30 City Of Bohane - Kevin Barry

 

[BoatieBird]

1/70 - Shirley Jackson - The Bird's Nest
2/70 - Annie Proulx - Accordion Crimes (re-read)
3/70 - Liz Nugent - Unravelling Oliver
4/70 - Elizabeth Strout - Anything is Possible
5/70 - Alice Sebold - The Lovely Bones
6/70 - Ruth Rendell - Make Death Love Me (re-read)
7/70 - Michael Farris Smith - Rivers
8/70 - Malcolm Pryce - Last Tango in Aberystwyth
9/70 - Stephen King - Elevation
10/70 - Liz Nugent - Lying in Wait
11/70 - Donald Ray Pollock - Knockemstiff
12/70 - John Irving - Avenue of Mysteries
13/70 - Liz Nugent - Skin Deep
14/70 - Annie Proulx - The Shipping News (re-read)
15/70 - Val McDermid - How The Dead Speak
16/70 - Patricia Highsmith - The Talented Mr Ripley
17/70 - Sally Rooney - Conversations With Friends
18/70 - John Green - An Abundance of Katherines
19/70 - Minette Walters - The Shape of Snakes
20/70 - Kazuo Ishiguro - Nocturnes
21/70 - Stephen King - Under The Dome (re-read)
22/70 - Denise Mina - Conviction
23/70 - William Boyd - Sweet Caress: The Many Lives of Amory Clay
24/70 - Richard Bachman (aka Stephen King) - The Long Walk (re-read)
25/70 - Michael Morpurgo - Born to Run
26/70 - Richard Bachman (aka Stephen King) - Roadwork
27/70 - William Boyd - The Vanishing Game
28/70 - Anthony Doerr - All The Light we Cannot See
29/70 - Stephen King - If It Bleeds
30/70 - Patricia Highsmith - Ripley Under Ground
31/70 - Richard Bachman (aka Stephen King) - The Running Man (re-read)
32/70 - Minette Walters - Acid Row
33/70 - Liz Nugent - Our Little Cruelties
34/70 - Anne Tyler - A Spool of Blue Thread
35/70 - Stephen King - Dreamcatcher
36/70 - Taylor Jenkins Reid - Daisy Jones and The Six
37/70 - Ruth Rendell - Adam and Eve and Pinch Me (re-read)
38/70 - Harlan Coben - Run Away
39/70 - Susan Hill - The Various Haunts of Men
40/70 - Julian Barnes - Arthur and George
41/70 - Stephen King - Cujo (re-read)
42/70 - Susan Hill - The Pure in Heart
43/70 - Patricia Highsmith - Ripley's Game
44/70 - Marina Lewycka - A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian
45/70 - P D James - The Part Time Job
46/70 - Marilynne Robinson - Gilead
47/70 - Wally Lamb - I Know This Much is True

48/70 - Mick Herron - Slow Horses

This has been on my list for ages and May Kasahara's post upthread prompted me to read it.
I thoroughly enjoyed it and I'm looking forward to working my way though the rest of the series.
Cheers May

 

[Poot]

1/23 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
2/23 The Magus - John Fowles
3/23 Shakespeare - Bill Bryson
4/23 No and Me - Delphine De Vigan
5/23 Orphan Boys - Phil Mews
6/23 The Man who Mistook his Wife for a Hat - Oliver Sacks
7/23 The Girl on the Train - Paula Hawkins
8/23 Them: Adventures with Extremists - Jon Ronson
9/23 The Doll Factory - Elizabeth MacNeal
10/23 The Neighbour - Fiona Cummins
11/23 The World According to Garp (re-read) - John Irving
12/23 How to Build a Girl - Caitlin Moran
13/23 Half a World Away - Mike Gayle
14/23 A Classless Society: Britain in the 1990s - Alwyn W Turner

 

[D'wards]

1/36 - Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang
2/36 - Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons (reread)
3/36 - The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow
4/36 - Me by Elton John
5/36 - Angels and Demons by Dan Brown
6/36 - Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch
7/36 - Amazon Adventure by Willard Price
8/36 - Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane
9/36 - Gotta get Theroux This: My Life and Strange Times in Television by Louis Theroux
10/36 - South Sea Adventure by Willard Price (reread)
11/36 - Atomised by Michel Houellebecq
12/36 - Chernobyl: History of a Tragedy by Serhii Plokhy
13/36 - When the Green Woods Laugh by H.E. Bates
14/36 - The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty
15/36 - Tales of the City by Armistead Maupin
16/36 - HMS Ulysses by Alistair Maclean
17/36 - Enduring Love by Ian McEwan
18/36 - Handling the Undead by John Ajvide Lindqvist
19/36 - Adolf Hitler- My Part in his Downfall by Spike Milligan
20/36 - The Gathering by Anne Enright
21/36 - Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy (rererereread)
22/36 - The Hellbound Heart by Clive Barker (reread)
23/36 - The Trench by Steve Alten (reread)
24/36 - The Tiger in the Smoke by Margery Allingham

 

[billy_bob]

16/30 City Of Bohane - Kevin Barry

Coming up very soon in my own reading pile. I love his short stories more than almost anything else I've read in the last few years.

 

[imposs1904]

1/26 Smart Moves by Stuart M. Kaminsky
2/26 Think Fast, Mr. Peters by Stuart M. Kaminsky
3/26 Buried Caesars by Stuart M. Kaminsky
4/26 Hunting Grounds: A Scottish Football Safari by Gary Sutherland
5/26 Poor Butterfly by Stuart M. Kaminsky
6/26 The Melting Clock by Stuart M. Kaminsky
7/26 The Devil Met a Lady by Stuart M. Kaminsky
8/26 Winter at the Bookshop: Politics and Poverty, St Anns in the 1960s by Sylvia Riley
9/26 The Quiet Assassin: The Davie Hay Story by Davie Hay with Alex Gordon
10/26 Roseanna by Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö (ReRead)
11/26 The Nation’s Favourite – The True Adventures of Radio 1 by Simon Garfield

12/26 The Greatest Living Englishman by Martin Newell

 

[marty21]

1/75 The Girl Who Lived Twice - David Lagercrantz
2/75 Sweet Sorrow - David Nicholls
3/75 Mortal Prey - John Sandford
4/75 The Night Fire - Michael Connelly
5/75 Borderlands - L J Ross
6/75 Three Weeks to say goodbye - C J Box
7/75 Blue Heaven - C J Box
8/75 Hard Shot - J B Turner
9/75 Surviving The Evacuation: There We Stood - Frank Tayell
10/75 Back of Beyond - C J Box
11/75 The Secret War : Spies,Codes & Guerrillas 1939-45 . Max Hastings
12/75 Sunset Express - Robert Crais
13/75 Requiem - J B Turner
14/75 Reckoning - J B Turner
15/75 Zone One - Colson Whitehead
16/75 Long Range - C J Box
17/75 The Wanted - Robert Crais
18/75 Night Prey - John Sandford
19/75 Dark of the moon - John Sandford
20/75 No One Home - Tim Weaver
21/75 Lockdown - Peter May
22/75 Rough Country - John Sandford
23/75 Life Moves Pretty Fast : The Lessons We Learned From 80s Movies - Hadley Freeman
24/75 Fast Times And Excellent Adventures: The Surprising History of The 80s Teen Movie. - James King
25/75 In A House Of Lies - Ian Rankin
26/75 The Shrine - LJ Ross
27/75 Rogue - James Swallow.

*****

28/75 Zone War - John Conroe

 

[Winot]

1/19 Normal People - Sally Rooney
2/19 Prospero's America: John Winthrop, Jr., Alchemy, and the Creation of New England Culture, 1606-1676 - Walter Woodward
3/19 Colonial America (A Very Short Introduction) - Alan Taylor
4/19 Conversations with Friends - Sally Rooney
5/19 The Reformation (The Penguin History of the Church 3) - Owen Chadwick
6/19 The Countenance Divine - Michael Hughes
7/19 A Culture of Fact: England, 1550-1720 - Barbara J. Shapiro
8/19 Semicolon - Cecelia Watson
9/19 Paradise - A.L. Kennedy
10/19 Advocacy: A Practical Guide - Peter Lyons
11/19 Distilling Knowledge: Alchemy, Chemistry, and the Scientific Revolution - Bruce T. Moran
12/19 Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About Race - Reni Eddo-Lodge
13/19 Notes on 'Camp' - Susan Sontag
14/19 The Lathe of Heaven - Ursula Le Guin
15/19 Living at the End of the World - Marina Benjamin
16/19 Stoner - John Williams

 

[kropotkin]

I liked stoner, did you?

 

[DaveCinzano]

• 1/52: Fast Times And Excellent Adventures by James King
• 2/52: Life Moves Pretty Fast by Hadley Freeman
• 3/52: You Couldn't Ignore Me If You Tried by Susannah Gora
• 4/52: Irregular Army by Matt Kennard
• 5/52: Operation Ajax by Mike de Seve and Daniel Burwen
• 6/52: Judgment On Gotham by John Wagner, Alan Grant and Simon Bisley
• 7/52: The Jungle Is Neutral by F Spencer Chapman
• 8/52: The Films Of Danny Dyer by Jonathan Sothcott and James Mullinger
• 9/52: Judge Dredd Vs The Fatties by John Wagner, Alan Grant, Ron Smith, Carlos Ezquerra, Cam Kennedy & Tom Frame
• 10/52: Judge Dredd Vs Otto Sump by John Wagner, Alan Grant, Ron Smith & Tom Frame
• 11/52: The Judge Child Quest by John Howard (John Wagner & Alan Grant), Brian Bolland, Mike McMahon, Ron Smith & Tom Frame
• 12/52: Dirty War, Clean Hands: ETA, The GAL And Spanish Democracy by Paddy Woodworth
• 13/52: Frontline UK by William Corderoy, Ian Kennedy and Clemente Rezzonico (additional material by Steve Holland)
• 14/52: The Million Pound Bus Fare by David Weldon
• 15/52: The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler
• 16/52: Fantastic Adventures by David McDonald (plus additional material by Alan Clarke)

17/52: Batman: Year One by Frank Miller, David Mazzucchelli & Richmond Lewis
Superb legend-building retro-fit of the Dark Knight's origins, which really fleshes out corrupt old Gotham and adds depth to Jim Gordon. A classic even after all these years with beautiful artwork.

18/52: The Killing Of Idi Amin by Leslie Watkins
I didn't have high hopes for this pulpy alternative reality/revenge fantasy thriller by a Daily Mail hack (I remember it being on my parents' bookshelves from early childhood), but despite moments of promise, it is tonally very flat and there is a real lack of any twists or turns or sense of jeopardy. Apparently Idi Amin was not a nice person.

19/52: Trust in Me: Allegiance Choices in a Post Split Terrorist Movement by John Morrison
Interesting piece on how personal allegiances can play a more important part than ideology when choosing sides in Irish republican splits, based on solid research with participants. Frustrating in that it discounts the relevance of specific points of divergent opinion on strategy, yet also doesn't follow up on whether the words matched the actions.

20/52: Superman: Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow? by Alan Moore, Curt Swan, George Pérez, Kurt Schaffenberger, Todd Klein & Gene D'Angelo with Julius Schwartz
A curtain-closer on the old school Superman before DC cleared the decks and tidied up continuity with Crisis On Infinite Earths. It's by no means the best comic in the world, but it is an affectionate, crowd-pleasing two-parter bringing together many familiar faces, which is written with more warmth for the genre than you might expect from Old Man Moore. The ending is well hokey, but it hits the beats and fits the bill.

21/52: A Brief History of Crisps by Steve Berry and Phil Norman
Solid overview of the cultural importance of crisps in Britain from a pair better known for their biscuit review website. It's not exactly going to win them any doctoral research grants, but it is very readable in a way that goes a step or two beyond hey d'yer remember...?-style nostalgia.

 

[Winot]

I liked stoner, did you?

I thought it was fantastic. It reminded me a bit of William Maxwell, but that might just be the setting. I thought it was extraordinary that a book could be so interesting and moving about a protagonist who was on paper nothing special. I found the scenes when he lost intimacy with his daughter quite heartbreaking.

 

[Me76]

L - library
Ld - my sister's library

1/50 The Gallows Pole, Benjamin Myers - Ld
2/50 You, Caroline Kepnes - Ld
3/50 Women Within, Anne Leigh Parrish
4/50 Life After Life, Kate Atkinson - Ld
5/50 Creed, Celina Grace
6/50 The Dilemma, B A Paris
7/50 Drive, James Sallis - L
8/50 Waking Lions, Ayelet Gundar-Goshen - Ld
9/50 The Surrogate, Louise Jensen
10/50 The Note, Zoe Folbigg
11/50 Divergent, Veronica Roth - L
12/50 In a Dark, Dark Wood, Ruth Ware - ld
13/50 Our Stop, Laura Jane Williams
14/50 Dangerous Lady, Martina Cole
15/50 The Babysitter, Sheyl Browne
16/50 Nutshell, Ian McEwan - Ld
17/50 The Killer You Know, SR Masters
18/50 Insurgent, Veronica Roth
19/50 Allegiant, Veronica Roth
20/50 Such a Fun Age, Kiley Reid - Ld
21/50 My Dark Vanessa, Kate Elizabeth Russell - Ld
22/50 The Night Circus, Erin Morgenstern
23/50 The Cat and the City, Nick Bradley
24/50 Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov
25/50 Cornerstone, Misty Provencher

26/50 A Man Called Ove, Fredrik Backman - this is such a beautiful book. Really loved it.

 

[Biddlybee]

1/20 - The Good Immigrant - ed Nikesh Shukla
2/20 - The Secret Commonwealth - Philip Pullman
3/20 - Exit West - Mohsin Hamid
4/20 - The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse - Charlie Mackesy
5/20 - Grief is the Thing with Feathers - Max Porter
6/20 - The Salt Path - Raynor Winn
7/20 - All That Remains - Sue Black
8/20 - Space: 10 Things You Should Know - Becky Smethurst
8.5/20 The Yellow Wallpaper - Charlotte Perkins (more an essay tbh so not really counting it, but want it on my list )
9/20 - The Explorer - Katherine Rundell
10/20 - Broken Homes - Ben Aaronovitch
11/20 - Lyra's Oxford - Philip Pullman
12/20 - Why I’m No Longer Talking To White People About Race - Reni Eddo-Lodge
13/20 - Ghost Boys - Jewell Parker Rhodes
14/20 - Astrophysics for People in a Hurry - Neil deGrasse Tyson

 

[chilango]

68/100: The Year of the Flood - Margaret Atwood

 

[ringo]

Coming up very soon in my own reading pile. I love his short stories more than almost anything else I've read in the last few years.

It's really good. Currently reading The Master And The Margarita, have a feeling he partially lifted one character from it. Will be reading all of his stuff.

 

[MsHopper]

1/50 Bloody Brilliant Women - Cathy Newman
2/50 A Perfectly Good Man - Patrick Gale
3/50 All the Light We Cannot See - Anthony Doerr
4/50 I Invited her in - Adele Parks
5/50 Wakenhyrst - Michelle Pave
6/50 NW - Zadie Smith
7/50 Conversations with friends - Sally Rooney
8/50 Digging to America - Anne Tyler
9/50 Priestdaddy - Patricia Lockwood
10/50 The Bloody Chamber - Angela Carter
11/50 Moon over Soho - Ben Aaronovitch
12/50 Whispers under Ground - Ben Aaronovitch
13/50 Homefires - Elizabeth Day
14/50 Let the great world spin - Colum Mcann
15/50 Broken Homes - Ben Aaronovitch
16/50 Ordinary Grace - William Kent Krueger
17/50 king Leopalds ghost -Adam Hochschild
18/50 The Truth About Celia - Kevin Brockmeier
19/50 The end of the affair - Graham Greene
20/50 Butterfly summer - Harriet evans
21/50 The Sunshine sisters - Jane Green
22/50 Fox Glove summer - Ben Aaronovitch
23/50 Throw away unopened - Viv Albertine
24/50 A Possible Life - Sebastian Faulks
25/50 The Hanging Tree - Ben Aaronovitch
26/50 Uncommon Type - Tom Hanks
27/50 Journey to the South - Annie Hawes
28/50 Lies Sleeping Ben Aaronovitch
29/50 Half a World Away - Mike Gayle
30/50 The Hunting Party - Lucy Foley
31/50 It started with a Secret - Jane Green
32/50 The Winner - David Baldacci
33/50 The Muse - Jessie Burton
34/50 The Guilty Party - Melanie McGrath
35/50 Falling: A love story - Jane Green
36/50 The Hope family calendar - Mike Gayle

37/50 Invisible Women - Caroline Criado-Perez
38/50 Homo Deus - Yuval Noah Harari

 

[PursuedByBears]

1/50 Hilary Hinds - A Cultural History of Twin Beds
2/50 Alan Garner - Boneland
3/50 James Herriot - All Things Bright and Beautiful
4/50 Philip Pullman - The Secret Commonwealth
5/50 Edgar Allan Poe - Tales of Mystery and Terror
6/50 China Mieville - Kraken
7/50 Terry Pratchett - Pyramids
8/50 Terry Pratchett - Guards! Guards!
9/50 Adam Kay - This is Going to Hurt: Secret Diaries of a Junior Doctor
10/50 Alastair Reynolds - Revenger
11/50 Brett Anderson - Afternoons With the Blinds Drawn
12/50 Andrzej Sapkowski - The Last Wish
13/50 James Herriot - All Things Wise and Wonderful
14/50 Anna Sewell - Black Beauty
15/50 Dodie Smith - The Hundred and One Dalmatians
16/50 Frances Hardinge - Twilight Robbery
17/50 Terry Pratchett - Eric
18/50 Kenneth Grahame - The Wind in the Willows
19/50 Frances Hardinge - Deeplight
20/50 Robert Jordan - The Fires of Heaven
21/50 Douglas Adams - The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy
22/50 John Masouri - Rebel Frequency: Jamaica's Reggae Revival
23/50 Douglas Adams - The Restaurant at the End of the Universe
24/50 Bill Bryson - Notes from a Small Island
25/50 Sue Black - All That Remains
26/50 Alastair Reynolds - Shadow Captain
27/50 Douglas Adams - Life, the Universe and Everything
28/50 Bill Bryson - Neither Here Nor There
29/50 Douglas Adams - So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish
30/50 Mary Beard - SPQR: a History of Ancient Rome
31/50 Bill Bryson - The Lost Continent: Travels in Small Town America
32/50 Terry Pratchett - Moving Pictures
33/50 Linton Kwesi Johnson - From Mento to Lovers' Rock: the evolution of Jamaican popular music
34/50 Terry Pratchett - Reaper Man
35/50 Dashiell Hammett - The Maltese Falcon
36/50 Philip Pullman - The Firework-maker's Daughter

37/50 Robert Jordan - Lord of Chaos

 

[D'wards]

1/36 - Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang
2/36 - Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons (reread)
3/36 - The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow
4/36 - Me by Elton John
5/36 - Angels and Demons by Dan Brown
6/36 - Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch
7/36 - Amazon Adventure by Willard Price
8/36 - Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane
9/36 - Gotta get Theroux This: My Life and Strange Times in Television by Louis Theroux
10/36 - South Sea Adventure by Willard Price (reread)
11/36 - Atomised by Michel Houellebecq
12/36 - Chernobyl: History of a Tragedy by Serhii Plokhy
13/36 - When the Green Woods Laugh by H.E. Bates
14/36 - The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty
15/36 - Tales of the City by Armistead Maupin
16/36 - HMS Ulysses by Alistair Maclean
17/36 - Enduring Love by Ian McEwan
18/36 - Handling the Undead by John Ajvide Lindqvist
19/36 - Adolf Hitler- My Part in his Downfall by Spike Milligan
20/36 - The Gathering by Anne Enright
21/36 - Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy (rererereread)
22/36 - The Hellbound Heart by Clive Barker (reread)
23/36 - The Trench by Steve Alten (reread)
24/36 - The Tiger in the Smoke by Margery Allingham
25/36 - Haunted by James Herbert