What books did you read in 2022?

[Fitzcarraldo]

I'm very impressed by how many books you get through. I think I'll try and post in next year's thread to keep me honest and on track with my reading.

[Stopharage]

37. The Anomaly by Herve Le Tellier. A plane hits a storm and then lands in the US twice, three months apart. Duplicate passengers deal with this mysterious event and a group of investigators try to get to the bottom of this. It's intriguing, especially in the first half, but I found it underwhelming and didn't connect or care with any of the characters. Was glad when it finished. It was a weird blend of high concept sci-fi combined with a well written literary thriller. 

 

38. Stolen Focus by Johann Hari. Hari comes to terms with his own lack of focus by renting a property and divesting himself of any tech. He then discusses how our technology and social networks have stolen our focus. He interviews a range of people who were and are involved in the creation and explosion of various social networks. Lots of interesting content and some more contentious view on ADHD. Worth reading but don't expect to agree with everything he posits. 

 

39. The Twyford Code by Janice Hallett. This has had quite a lot of coverage in the media, as has her first novel, The Appeal. In no way is this anything to do with her previous career as a magazine editor and journalist. Obviously. Anyway, this is an extremely annoying, confusing and frustrating novel. Slightly illiterate ex-con tries to work out what happened to his primary school teacher, who disappeared after a school trip they were on. Hallett decides the best way of telling this story if through the use of a voice-to-text piece of software which translates his various voicemails, audio notes etc into the words in the book. It ends up as largely unintelligible and needlessly complex. The puzzles at the heart of it all are obtuse and in some parts, patently unbelievable. Avoid.

 

40. Who Are Ya by Kevin Day. BBC football everyman, Kevin Day, gives arguments as to why you shouldn't support each one of the 92 league teams. There's some really interesting content in there (when football first appeared on the radio, the commentators would have a blind person with them, to give them feedback on whether their descriptions were good enough) and it's a decent introductory insight into each of the teams. An easy and comforting read. 

 

That's the 40 for the year that I was aiming for, with a month left. Currently reading The Every by Dave Eggers.

Spoiler

1. How to Kill Your Family by Bella Mackie.

2. The Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi

3. Empireland: How Imperialism Has Shaped Modern Britain by Sathnam Sanghera

4. The Etymologicon by Mark Forsyth

5. The Last House on Needless Street by Catriona Ward

6. My Last Supper by Jay Rayner

7. How to be a RockStar by Shaun Ryder

8. Putin:Prisoner of Power by Misha Glenny

9. Adolf Hitler: My Part in His Downfall

10. Shadow State: Murder, Mayhem and Russia's Remaking of the West by Luke Harding

11. Manifesto: How a Maverick Entrepreneur Took on British Energy and Won by Dale Vince

12. Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson

13. The Collector by John Fowles

14. Redemption by Troy Deeney

15. Is This Anything? by Jerry Seinfeld

16. The Empress of Salt and Fortune by Nghi Vo

17. The Damned United by David Peace

18. Beautiful World, Where Are You? by Sally Rooney

19. How High We Go In the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu

20. When the Dust Settles by Lucy Easthope
21. The Hidden Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro

22. Notorious by Raphael Rowe

23. Theroux the Keyhole by Louis Theroux

24. Cultish by Amanda Montell

25. A Bit of a Stretch by Chris Atkins

26. Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead

27. The Nineties by Chuck Klosterman

28. Barca by Simon Kuper

29. The Premonition Bureau by Sam Hughes

30. Wilder Girls by Rory Power

31. Come Undone by Terri White

32. Kicking Back by Nedum Onouha

33. Metronome by Tom Watson. 

34. Journeys to Impossible Places by Simon Reeve

35. Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes

36. One of Them by Musa Okwonga

37. The Anomaly by Herve Le Tellier

38. Stolen Focus by Johannn Hari

39. The Twyford Code by Janice Hallett

40. Who Are Ya by Kevin Day

 

[Jamie John]

Amazing work, @Stopharage! Puts my efforts to shame. I'm sure I've asked you this before, but when do you manage to fit in all your reading? As a fellow English teacher, I feel like I should read more than I do, but really it's just 20 minutes or so in bed on weeknights before I pass out from exhaustion, unless it's something I'm really into.

[Miner Willy]

5 hours ago, Fitzcarraldo said:

I'm very impressed by how many books you get through. I think I'll try and post in next year's thread to keep me honest and on track with my reading.

 

Audible helps for me: around half of mine are audiobooks. 

 

My reading output transformed about five years ago when I started doing the Goodreads challenge each year.

[Fitzcarraldo]

Ah, that makes me feel a bit better, then, as I don't use audiobooks for first time reads.

[Vimster]

19 - Paperbacks From Hell: A History Of Horror Fiction From The 70s and 80s by Grady Hendrix - Nostalgic look back at the boom in horror fiction that came from a fad for pulpy gothic romance in the 60s, fizzled out in the early 90s. The author manages to make everything sound like an essential read, getting to the lurid nitty-gritty of each book. Some asides about the publishers and cover artists, plenty of illustrations of covers too. They don't look great on the B&W Kindle screen but I'm sure a hard copy would be great to have. It does feel more like a primer for their Paperbacks From Hell imprint but there's enough nostalgia here if you remember that period. It's slightly depressing how this era is made to sound like ancient history even though I remember very well when it was current. 

 

Spoiler

01 - Fever Of The Bone by Val McDermid

02 - Join The Future: Bleep Techno and the Birth of British Bass Music by Matt Anniss

03 - And Away by Bob Mortimer

04 - Die Trying by Lee Child

05 - A Fabulous Creation: How The LP Saved Our Lives by David Hepworth

06 - Energy Flash: A Journey Through Rave Music and Dance Culture by Simon Reynolds

07 - Who Owns England by Guy Shrubsole

08 - The Van by Roddy Doyle

09 - If Chins Could Kill: Confessions Of A B-Movie Actor by Bruce Campbell

10 - Rendezvous With Rama by Arthur C Clarke

11 - Fallout: Disaster, Lies and the Legacy of the Nuclear Age by Fred Pearce

12 - The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins 

13 - Future Days: Krautrock and the Building of Modern Germany by David Stubbs

14 - The Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein 

15 - The Anomaly by Hervé le Tellier

16 - I Wanna Be Yours by John Cooper Clarke

17 - 45 by Bill Drummond

18 - Toast On Toast by Steven Toast

19 - Paperbacks From Hell: A History Of Horror Fiction From The 70s and 80s by Grady Hendrix

 

[Vimster]

20 - Garth Marenghi's Terrortome by Garth Marenghi - hugely entertaining and a must-read if you ever enjoyed Darkplace. Audio book is of course read by Garth and if you're able to it's the best way to enjoy it. I particularly enjoyed how he makes a meal of the credits at the end. 

 

 

Spoiler

01 - Fever Of The Bone by Val McDermid

02 - Join The Future: Bleep Techno and the Birth of British Bass Music by Matt Anniss

03 - And Away by Bob Mortimer

04 - Die Trying by Lee Child

05 - A Fabulous Creation: How The LP Saved Our Lives by David Hepworth

06 - Energy Flash: A Journey Through Rave Music and Dance Culture by Simon Reynolds

07 - Who Owns England by Guy Shrubsole

08 - The Van by Roddy Doyle

09 - If Chins Could Kill: Confessions Of A B-Movie Actor by Bruce Campbell

10 - Rendezvous With Rama by Arthur C Clarke

11 - Fallout: Disaster, Lies and the Legacy of the Nuclear Age by Fred Pearce

12 - The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins 

13 - Future Days: Krautrock and the Building of Modern Germany by David Stubbs

14 - The Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein 

15 - The Anomaly by Hervé le Tellier

16 - I Wanna Be Yours by John Cooper Clarke

17 - 45 by Bill Drummond

18 - Toast On Toast by Steven Toast

19 - Paperbacks From Hell: A History Of Horror Fiction From The 70s and 80s by Grady Hendrix

20 - Garth Marenghi's Terrortome by Garth Marenghi

 

 

[Stopharage]

On 30/11/2022 at 20:47, Jamie John said:

Amazing work, @Stopharage! Puts my efforts to shame. I'm sure I've asked you this before, but when do you manage to fit in all your reading? As a fellow English teacher, I feel like I should read more than I do, but really it's just 20 minutes or so in bed on weeknights before I pass out from exhaustion, unless it's something I'm really into.

Mixture of pre-sleep reading, post-waking reading, holiday reading and the occasional post-work 'fuck this I need a coffee' cafe hour. I've persevered with a few books this year that I should really have left when I started to dislike them - How to Kill Your Family, the Twyford Code and the Jerry Seinfeld book come to mind. Started reading Crime and Punishment and it all seems a bit too dense for me (not academically just the level of detail and exposition). 

 

I've got a huge backlog on my Kindle including a lot of titles I wanted on release but haven't touched yet, so think I'm going to create a reading list for next year and stick to it, ignoring any new books or Kindle deals that pop up in the meantime. 

[Miner Willy]

Setting a reading list and sticking to it is a great idea - it's never even occurred to me before. 

[ZOK]

4 hours ago, Stopharage said:

Started reading Crime and Punishment and it all seems a bit too dense for me (not academically just the level of detail and exposition). 

 

That's just the Russians for you, they revel in the minutiae of everything...but that's why they are so good. DH Lawrence hated all that, mind you - if you can find a copy of his essay 'Surgery for the Novel - or a Bomb?' anywhere he really digs into them for it in that. But then he regarded the English novel as vastly superior.

 

But Crime and Punishment is fabulous.

[little che]

Just finished Psalms for the end of the world by Cole Haddon.

An excellent, long journey through time with multiple protagonists exploring the nature of reality. Each chapter is quite small which keeps things moving along nicely and whilst some of the questions aren't answered and some of the strings not particularly well tied off , I enjoyed all 500 pages immensely. 

 

[Boothjan]

Spoiler

1. Emperor: The Death of Kings by Conn Iggulden - 8/10

2. Back From The Brink by Paul McGrath - 9.5/10

3. Nemesis Games by James S A Corey - 9/10

4. Love as Always, Mum by Mae West

5. I, Partridge by Alan Partridge - 9/10

6. One by Peter Schmeichel - 7/10

7. Diddly Squat: A Year on the Farm by Jeremy Clarkson - 7.5/10

8. Shackleton's Boat Journey by Frank Worsley - 9/10

9. Redemption by Troy Deeney - 8/10

10. The White Ship by Charles Spencer - 8.5/10

11. Lonely Boy: Tales from a Sex Pistol by Steve Jones - 7/10

12. Being Elvis by Ray Connolly - 7/10

13. 438 Days: An Extraordinary True Story of Survival at Sea by Jonathan Franklin - 8.5/10

14. Star Wars: Dark Disciple by Christie Golden - 9/10

15. The Auschwitz Photographer: The powerful true story of Wilhelm Brasse by Luca Crippa and Maurizio Onnis - 8/10

16. Star Wars: Darth Bane: Path of Destruction by Drew Karpyshyn - 8.5/10

17. Sea of Thieves: Heart of Fire by Chris Allcock - 8/10

18. Star Wars: Darth Bane: Rule of Two by Drew Karpyshyn - 9/10

19. Jews Don't Count by David Baddiel - 8/10

20. Emperor: The Field of Swords by Conn Iggulden - 7/10

21. Journeys to Impossible Places by Simon Reeve - 8/10

22. This Much Is True by Miriam Margolyes - 8/10

 

23. A Game of Thrones by George R R Martin

 

Only the 2nd time I've read this, and it's SO much better the 2nd time around, nods to future plotlines and characters improve the experience, and knowing a bit more about the history and the key protagonists helps.

 

I raced through this, and I'm looking forward to reading through the rest of the series.  I might take it slowly though, as Winds of Winter isn't going to arrive any time soon....

 

9.5/10

 

[lolly]

The Crossing- Cormac McCarthy

 

late 1930s -early 1940s  New Mexico and Mexico set  story whereby a 16 year old boy  brings a trapped she -wolf back to Mexico to release  and it climbs ever upwards  upwards into an outpouring of joy and a Disney ending.

 

Does it fuck. It's the 2nd part of the Border trilogy and again it's the usual McCarthy- musings on the nature of the world , the depravity/brutality of man etc and almost a coming of age story . For me this is his best work, that I've read  and I loved Blood Meridian but this is sombre , tragic and reflective  whereas  that book almost seems to revel in the sheer savagery  and heartbreak   of human nature.  Both are superior to All the Pretty Horses. Probably going to leave it a few weeks before I read Cities of the Plain

[ZOK]

Hmm, I would rank all the Border Trilogy above Blood Meridian - of course they are all superlative works, but those three really captured me.

[Miner Willy]

Me too - I loved all three. 

[Vimster]

21 - Blackshirts And Reds by Chris Parenti - Was recommended on a socialism-related subreddit. Thought-provoking analysis of why the Russian-style communism failed and how capital-led governments have done their best to stop the rise of any sort of socialism and worker power.

 

Spoiler

01 - Fever Of The Bone by Val McDermid

02 - Join The Future: Bleep Techno and the Birth of British Bass Music by Matt Anniss

03 - And Away by Bob Mortimer

04 - Die Trying by Lee Child

05 - A Fabulous Creation: How The LP Saved Our Lives by David Hepworth

06 - Energy Flash: A Journey Through Rave Music and Dance Culture by Simon Reynolds

07 - Who Owns England by Guy Shrubsole

08 - The Van by Roddy Doyle

09 - If Chins Could Kill: Confessions Of A B-Movie Actor by Bruce Campbell

10 - Rendezvous With Rama by Arthur C Clarke

11 - Fallout: Disaster, Lies and the Legacy of the Nuclear Age by Fred Pearce

12 - The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins 

13 - Future Days: Krautrock and the Building of Modern Germany by David Stubbs

14 - The Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein 

15 - The Anomaly by Hervé le Tellier

16 - I Wanna Be Yours by John Cooper Clarke

17 - 45 by Bill Drummond

18 - Toast On Toast by Steven Toast

19 - Paperbacks From Hell: A History Of Horror Fiction From The 70s and 80s by Grady Hendrix

20 - Garth Marenghi's Terrortome by Garth Marenghi

21 - Blackshirts And Reds by Chris Parenti

 

[Boothjan]

Spoiler

1. Emperor: The Death of Kings by Conn Iggulden - 8/10

2. Back From The Brink by Paul McGrath - 9.5/10

3. Nemesis Games by James S A Corey - 9/10

4. Love as Always, Mum by Mae West

5. I, Partridge by Alan Partridge - 9/10

6. One by Peter Schmeichel - 7/10

7. Diddly Squat: A Year on the Farm by Jeremy Clarkson - 7.5/10

8. Shackleton's Boat Journey by Frank Worsley - 9/10

9. Redemption by Troy Deeney - 8/10

10. The White Ship by Charles Spencer - 8.5/10

11. Lonely Boy: Tales from a Sex Pistol by Steve Jones - 7/10

12. Being Elvis by Ray Connolly - 7/10

13. 438 Days: An Extraordinary True Story of Survival at Sea by Jonathan Franklin - 8.5/10

14. Star Wars: Dark Disciple by Christie Golden - 9/10

15. The Auschwitz Photographer: The powerful true story of Wilhelm Brasse by Luca Crippa and Maurizio Onnis - 8/10

16. Star Wars: Darth Bane: Path of Destruction by Drew Karpyshyn - 8.5/10

17. Sea of Thieves: Heart of Fire by Chris Allcock - 8/10

18. Star Wars: Darth Bane: Rule of Two by Drew Karpyshyn - 9/10

19. Jews Don't Count by David Baddiel - 8/10

20. Emperor: The Field of Swords by Conn Iggulden - 7/10

21. Journeys to Impossible Places by Simon Reeve - 8/10

22. This Much Is True by Miriam Margolyes - 8/10

23. A Game of Thrones by George R R Martin - 9.5/10

 

24. James Acaster's Guide to Quitting Social Media by James Acaster

 

I quite like James Acaster's standup - a friend recommended this to me when we were talking about him, saying I'd find it really funny.

 

I really didn't.  In fact, I'd go as far as to say this is the worst book I have ever read.  It's just utter nonsense from start to finish, akin to the sort of diatribe you'd find from a drunk down the pub who won't shut up and doesn't make any sense.

 

For a start, it's not a 'whimsical self help book' at all.  It's an endless spiel of made up, inane nonsense that never once raised even a smile.

 

Managed to skim through it pretty quickly - I don't like abandoning books, but I'd have been no worse off if I'd have given up after the first chapter.

 

There is absolutely nothing to recommend here.  I don't even understand how it was ever published - it really is that bad.

 

The only reason I'm not awarding it 0 is because it only cost me 99p on Kindle.

 

1/10

[Jamie John]

17/24: The Underground Railroad, Colson Whitehead

 

 

I didn't like this as much as I was hoping to. It has the makings of a really engaging thriller, but I felt like the narrative petered out by the end and lost a lot of its momentum. It's also pretty liberal with the magic realism (the underground railroad is a literal railway underground, for example, apparently built by slaves and abolitionists to ferry people from the south to the north, but the feasibility of this is never scrutinised), which I'm always a bit wary of in contemporary fiction, as it can often dilute a novel's authenticity, and this is the case here: the entire novel has this sort of dreaminess to it that made it difficult for me to believe that what was being described was antebellum America, and that, in turn, lessened some of its impact. I suppose there's an argument that it's only through the lens of magic realism that modern readers can countenance the horror of what went on at this time, but I would have preferred something that was a bit more unadorned. 

 

It won the Pulitzer, however, so what do I know?

 

18/24: Dissolution, C J Sansom

 

 

This was a lot less literary but a lot more fun. It's the first in a series of murder mysteries set in the 16th century, during the dissolution of the monasteries (hence the title), and follows the mission of one of Cromwell's reformer commissioners who has been sent to a monastery in Kent to investigate the murder of his predecessor. I figured out whodunnit before I got to the end, and it's full of annoying comma splices, but I still thought it was an intriguing page-turner. It was also interesting reading it after having read Wolf Hall earlier this year, as that paints Cromwell in a far more sympathetic light than this does.

 

---

 

And that's probably me done for the year now. 18/24 books read. Not great, really, although I've not bought that many more books this year, so at least my pile hasn't grown by too much. As ever, I'm hoping to read more next year.

[lolly]

Red badge of courage.

 

Short , classic story set during the American civil war of a soldier's 1st experiences of combat.  I bounced off this when I was a teenager but 30 or so years later it's an interesting insight  into the mindset of the day. What doesn't change if you've read more contemporary accounts of war is the emotions and nature  of the experience. Seemed shit then, seems shit now.

[lolly]

Read a couple a while back that I  don't think I  added

 

Cibola Burn

 

4# in the expanse series, you know what you're getting here, reliable space opera with a fairly likeable cast of characters,  this one correlates to the same season on the telly  unsurprisingly  but that either drops or adds things from other seasons  as necessary to widen the focus a bit .It's a bit slower paced than the previous installments and I think that was a criticism  leveled at the season as well, still solid stuff though.No ginormous plot holes you could fly an Ark ship through in this one though(that I noticed).

 

Picnic at Hanging Rock.

 

Fictional account of the disappearance of a number of girls and their teacher at Hanging Rock in Victoria, Australia in 1900 while on a school outing. Very much of it's time and considered an Australian classic , some of the descriptions are , unkind , to put it diplomatically. I found it difficult to get in to initially but  it picks up quite quickly  and really enjoyed it by the end. There were a few moments of  skin crawling disquiet , it's a low key slow burn psychological horror and there's a creeping dread about it.Recommended.

 

[Vimster]

22 - The Third Policeman by Flann O'Brien - this'll be the last book of the year for me. I don't re-read books as a rule but this one is one of my favourites, have read it 5 times now, just so full of invention, the comedy is spot on, great dialogue. Have loved this since I heard Les Dennis talking about it on Radio 2 in the 90s, apparently its one of his favourite books too. 

 

Spoiler

01 - Fever Of The Bone by Val McDermid

02 - Join The Future: Bleep Techno and the Birth of British Bass Music by Matt Anniss

03 - And Away by Bob Mortimer

04 - Die Trying by Lee Child

05 - A Fabulous Creation: How The LP Saved Our Lives by David Hepworth

06 - Energy Flash: A Journey Through Rave Music and Dance Culture by Simon Reynolds

07 - Who Owns England by Guy Shrubsole

08 - The Van by Roddy Doyle

09 - If Chins Could Kill: Confessions Of A B-Movie Actor by Bruce Campbell

10 - Rendezvous With Rama by Arthur C Clarke

11 - Fallout: Disaster, Lies and the Legacy of the Nuclear Age by Fred Pearce

12 - The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins 

13 - Future Days: Krautrock and the Building of Modern Germany by David Stubbs

14 - The Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein 

15 - The Anomaly by Hervé le Tellier

16 - I Wanna Be Yours by John Cooper Clarke

17 - 45 by Bill Drummond

18 - Toast On Toast by Steven Toast

19 - Paperbacks From Hell: A History Of Horror Fiction From The 70s and 80s by Grady Hendrix

20 - Garth Marenghi's Terrortome by Garth Marenghi

21 - Blackshirts And Reds by Chris Parenti

22 - The Third Policeman by Flann O'Brien

 

[smac]

I didn't get into it; I must try it again.

[Stopharage]

Final one for the year - 41. Year Book by Seth Rogen. 

 

Not sure what possessed me to get this, I’m neither a big fan of his work or as an individual. Had heard that it was an interesting enough account of his life as a comedic slacker. Entertaining set of vignettes though and he’s pretty open about his upbringing and enjoyment of recreational drugs.
 

Best section - and most prescient - was his lambasting of Twitter and Jack’s allowance of hate speech and antisemitism. Highlights how deeply flawed the platform was prior to Musk making things worse. 

 

Spoiler

1. How to Kill Your Family by Bella Mackie.

2. The Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi

3. Empireland: How Imperialism Has Shaped Modern Britain by Sathnam Sanghera

4. The Etymologicon by Mark Forsyth

5. The Last House on Needless Street by Catriona Ward

6. My Last Supper by Jay Rayner

7. How to be a RockStar by Shaun Ryder

8. Putin:Prisoner of Power by Misha Glenny

9. Adolf Hitler: My Part in His Downfall

10. Shadow State: Murder, Mayhem and Russia's Remaking of the West by Luke Harding

11. Manifesto: How a Maverick Entrepreneur Took on British Energy and Won by Dale Vince

12. Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson

13. The Collector by John Fowles

14. Redemption by Troy Deeney

15. Is This Anything? by Jerry Seinfeld

16. The Empress of Salt and Fortune by Nghi Vo

17. The Damned United by David Peace

18. Beautiful World, Where Are You? by Sally Rooney

19. How High We Go In the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu

20. When the Dust Settles by Lucy Easthope
21. The Hidden Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro

22. Notorious by Raphael Rowe

23. Theroux the Keyhole by Louis Theroux

24. Cultish by Amanda Montell

25. A Bit of a Stretch by Chris Atkins

26. Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead

27. The Nineties by Chuck Klosterman

28. Barca by Simon Kuper

29. The Premonition Bureau by Sam Hughes

30. Wilder Girls by Rory Power

31. Come Undone by Terri White

32. Kicking Back by Nedum Onouha

33. Metronome by Tom Watson. 

34. Journeys to Impossible Places by Simon Reeve

35. Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes

36. One of Them by Musa Okwonga

37. The Anomaly by Herve Le Tellier

38. Stolen Focus by Johannn Hari

39. The Twyford Code by Janice Hallett

40. Who Are Ya by Kevin Day

41. Year Book by Seth Rogen

 

[lolly]

Hollywood Hills Joseph Wambaugh

 

By the numbers crime thing by Wambaugh, though the numbers never go very high. There's a bit of a plot about a robbery of high end paintings but a lot of the interesting stuff is the outlandish beat cop stories and they are amusing in their own right, there's one dust up that's very good . The end of the "plot"  so to speak is decent but the journey to get there may not be worth it. Unless you really like Wambaugh and believe all cops are good guys I'd give this a miss.

[Miner Willy]

I'm finishing the year on 54. Final update:

 

52: Under the Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakauer. Recommended and previously discussed on here. I thought this was excellent. 

 

53: 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in this Strange World by Elif Shafak. Recommended to me by a work colleague I really like and respect, but afraid this did little for me. There were some aspects I liked, and it has an interesting premise, but it felt a bit laboured in trying to build an entire book around that.

 

54: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot. Been meaning to read this for about 10 years. Fortunately it was worth the wait - this was an excellent read.

 

Previously:

 

Spoiler

51. The Sirens of Titan

50. The Lottery and Other Stories

49. Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee

48. Post Office

47. Doomsday Book

46. Islands of Abandonment

45. Them: Adventures with Extremists

44. The Summer Book

43. You Don't Understand Me

42. The Mercies

41. Small Island

40. A Fire Upon the Deep

39. The Storm is Upon Us: How QAnon Became a Movement, Cult, and a Conspiracy Theory of Everything

38. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

37. The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared
36. Brave New World
35. Sea of Tranquility
34. How High We Go in the Dark
33. Pachinko
32. When the Dust Settles: Stories of Love, Loss and Hope from an Expert in Disaster
31. Eight Months on Ghazzah Street

30.Earth Abides

29. Featherhood

28. Great Circle

27. The Secret Commonwealth

26. La Belle Sauvage

25. The Future we Choose

24. The Amber Spyglass

23. Lonely Castle in the Mirror

22. The Subtle Knife

21. Northern Lights

20. Notes from the Burning Age

19. Spike

18. The New Jim Crow

17. Empire of Pain

16. The Brave Athlete

15. Ball Lightning

14. Sandworm: A New Era of Cyberwarfare

13. The Chysalids

12. The Border

11. Inverted World

10. The Mirror & the Light

9. To Kill a Mockingbird

8. Ghost Wall

7. The Cartel

6. Bring Up the Bodies

5. The New Climate War

4. Death's End

3. The Children of Men

2. Neuromancer

1. The Sleeping Beauties

 

[little che]

Just finished my 57th of the year (The Whites by Richard Price who wrote Clockers , recommended)

My top five of the year which I would recommend without reservation:

Cloud cuckoo land…just brilliant…a time hopping marvel

Sea of tranquility..everyone knows this 

Book of sand (by Theo Clare)…there is such a change of direction halfway through this very large book that it literally took my breath away.
Notes on an execution ..devastating

Psalms for the end of the world…for anyone who liked Cloud atlas