Elkiedee's last-minute list

It's a bit late for this year to start a proper thread so I'm not intending to make this one! But I want to list my reading for this year. If I ever catch up with myself I might even add the handful of reviews I've got round to writing.

READING 2024, PART 1

1. 01.01.24 Anne Enright, The Wren, The Wren 3.8
2. 03.01.24 Nancy Spain, Poison for Teacher 3.6
3. 07.01.24 Nicole Flattery, Nothing Special 3.8
4. 10.01.24 Richard Osman, The Last Devil to Die 4.1 - reviewed 17.01.24
5. 10.01.24 Elizabeth Wein, White Eagles 3.7 - reviewed 08.10.24
6. 13.01.24 Elizabeth McKenzie, The Dog of the North 3.9
7. 13.01.24 Jennifer O'Connell, Everything I Needed to Know About Being a Girl I Learned from Judy Blume 4.0
8. 13.01.24 Colm Toibin, The Shortest Day 3.9
9. 20.01.24 Rachael English, Whatever Happened to Birdy Troy? 4.1
10. 21.01.24 Walter Mosley, The Awkward Black Man 3.8
11. 22.01.24 Louisa Waugh, Meet Me in Gaza 4.8
12. 28.01.04 Alix E Harrow, The Six Deaths of the Saint - story 3.8
13. 30.01.04 Adelle Waldman, Help Wanted 4.0
14. 02.02.04 Daniel Rachel, Don't Look Back in Anger: The Rise and Fall of Cool Britannia 3.8
15. 04.02.04 Natasha Walter, Before the Light Fades: A Memoir of Grief and Resistance 4.2

READING 2024, PART 2

16. Emily Gunnis, The Girl in the Letter
17. Jo Thomas, Finding Love at the Christmas Market
18. Mourid Barghouti, I Saw Ramallah
19. Jean Kwok, The Leftover Woman
20. Henrietta McKervey, Violet Hill
21. Pip Williams, The Bookbinder of Jericho
22. Aingeala Flannery, The Amusements - reviewed 17.12.24
23. Jean Rhys, Wide Sargasso Sea
24. Margaret Kennedy, The Feast
25. Viv Groskop, Au Revoir, Tristesse: Lessons in Happiness from French Literature - reviewed 17.09.24
26. Alice Hoffman, The Bookstore Sisters - story
27. Kate Clayborn, The Other Side of Disappearing
28. Sarah Watling, Tomorrow Perhaps The Future: Following Writers and Rebels in the Spanish Civil War - reviewed 10.11.24
29. Simon Brett, An Amateur Corpse
30. Kirsty Gunn, My Katherine Mansfield Project - reviewed 21.12.24

READING 2024, PART 3

31. Val McDermid, Still Life
32. Joanna Wallace, The Dead Friend Project
33. Fannie Flagg, The All-Girl Filling Station's Last Reunion
34. K M Peyton, Flambards Divided
35. Martin Edwards (editor), Crime on the Move
36. Alice Hoffman, Everything My Mother Taught Me - story
37. Jane Gardam, The Queen of the Tambourine
38. Aube Rey Lescure, River East, River West
39. Tayari Jones, An American Marriage
40. Naomi Alderman, The Future
41. Otto Penzler (Editor), The Lineup: The World's Greatest Crime Writers Tell the Inside Story of Their Greatest Detectives
42. Luci Adams, It Must Be True Then
43. Isabel Allende, Lovers at the Museum - story
44. Peggy Frew, Hope Farm
45. Elena Ferrante, The Lying Life of Adults

46. Richard Thompson, Beeswing: Fairport, Folk Rock and Finding My Voice, 1967-75
47. Lara Thompson, One Night, New York
48. Margaret Atwood, Cut & Thirst - story
49. Patrice Lawrence, Splinters of Sunshine
50. Rachel Khong, Real Americans
51. Ruth Thomas, Super Girl
52. Monica Ali, Love Marriage
53. Diana Tutton, Mamma
54. Nina Stibbe, One Day I Shall Astonish the World
55. Frances Brody, A Mansion for Murder
56. Jane Cholmeley, A Bookshop of One's Own: How a Group of Women Set Out to Change the World
57. Heather Clark, Red Comet: The Short Life and Blazing Art of Sylvia Plath
58. Isabella Hammad, Enter Ghost
59. Jami Attenberg, I Came All This Way to Meet You: Writing Myself Home - reviewed 17.12.24
60. Laura Kay, Making It

61. Lindsey Davis, Time to Depart
62. Georgina Hammick, The Arizona Game
63. Hisham Matar, My Friends - reviewed 13.09.24
64. Francesca Hornak, Seven Days of Us
65. Daphne Du Maurier, My Cousin Rachel
66. Jennifer Weiner, Golden Hills - story
67. Stef Penney, The Beasts of Paris
68. Elizabeth McCracken, The Giant's House
69. Molly Clavering, Because of Sam
70. Monique Roffey, The Mermaid of Black Conch
71. Naomi Klein, Doppelganger: A Trip into the Mirror World - reviewed 18.06.24
72. Robin Stevens, First Class Murder
73. Sally Franson, Big in Sweden
74. Xochitl Gonzalez, Anita De Monte Laughs Last
75. Suzannah Dunn, Levitation for Beginners

76. Lea Ypi, Free: Coming of Age at the End of History - reviewed 19.11.24
77. Sue Grafton & Otto Penzler (editors), The Best American Mystery Stories 1998
78. Elin Cullhed, Euphoria
79. Fredrik Backman, Britt-Marie Was Here
80. Mary Cadogan and Patricia Craig, You're a Brick, Angela: The Girls' Story 1839-1985
81. Lauren Farnsworth, The Lonely Hearts Quiz League
82. Rebecca K Reilly, Greta & Valdin - reviewed 10.06.24
83. Ian Rankin, The Rise - novella
84. Wilkie Collins, The Moonstone
85. Katy Watson, Seven Lively Suspects
86. Colm Toibin, Long Island - reviewed 18.06.24
87. Louise Welsh, The Second Cut
88. Francesca Reece, Glass Houses
89. Marina Warner, Inventory of a Life Mislaid: An Unreliable Memoir
90. Linda Newbery, The Key to Flambards

91. Niamh Mulvey, The Amendments
92. Ursula Owen, Single Journey Only: A Memoir - reviewed 08.10.24
93. Kate Atkinson, Normal Rules Don't Apply
94. Lynne Reid Banks, The L-Shaped Room
95. Emma Steele, The Echoes of Us
96. Andrew O'Hagan, Caledonian Road
97. C J Carey, Widowland
98. Tessa Hadley, Late in the Day
99. Liv Constantine, Everywhere You Look - story
100. Penelope Mortimer, The Home
101. Charlotte Wood, Stone Yard Devotional - reviewed 13.10.24
102. Leila Mottley, Nightcrawling
103. Daisy Dunn, Not Far From Brideshead: Oxford Between the Wars
104. Nita Prose, Murder at the Royal Ruby - story
105. Elizabeth Macneal, The Burial Plot

106. Sarah Moss, My Good Bright Wolf: A Memoir
107. Sara Wheeler, Glowing Still: A Woman's Life on the Road
108. Carol Birch, Shadow Girls
109. Lizzie Skurnick, Shelf Discovery: The Teen Classics We Never Stopped Reading
110. Evie Wyld, All the Birds, Singing
111. Marian Keyes, Again, Rachel
112. Daisy Buchanan, Pity Party
113. Robin Stevens, Jolly Foul Play
114. C J Sansom, Lamentation
115. Emily Usher, Wild Ground
116. Ed McBain & Otto Penzler (editors), The Best American Mystery Stories 1999
118. A S Byatt, The Virgin in the Garden
119. Kate Glanville, The Cherry Tree Summer
120. Avril Horner, Barbara Comyns: A Savage Innocence

121. Jessica Anthony, The Most
122. Jo Thomas, The Honey Farm on the Hill
123. Monisha Rajesh, Around the World in 80 Trains, A 45,000 Mile Adventure - reviewed 23.12.24
124. Alice Hoffman, The Bookstore Wedding - story
125. Carol Atherton, Reading Lessons: The Books We Read at School, the Conversations They Spark and Why They Matter
126. Elizabeth Hay, Late Nights on Air
127. Tracy Chevalier, The Glassmaker
128. Kristin Hannah, The Women
129. Catherine Carswell, Open the Door!
130. Elly Griffiths, The Man in Black & Other Stories
131. Peter May, The Black Loch
132. Silvia Moreno-Garcia, The Lover - story
133. David Nicholls, You Are Here - reviewed 30.09.24
134. V V Ganeshanathan, Brotherless Night
135. Olga Wojtas, Miss Blaine's Prefect and the Weird Sisters

136. Caryn Rose, Why Patti Smith Matters - reviewed 18.10.24
137. Caitlin Davies, The Ghost of Lily Painter - reread, previously reviewed 22.06.11
138. Sinéad Gleeson, Constellations: Reflections from Life
139. Mai Senaar, They Dream in Gold
140. A J Pearce, Mrs Porter Calling
141. Della Cai, Central Places
142. Lissa Evans, Small Bomb at Dimperley - reviewed 05.11.24
143. Mark Hodkinson, No One Round Here Reads Tolstoy: Memoirs of a Working Class Reader
144. Michelle Magorian, A Little Love Song
145. Cheryl Strayed, Two Women Walk Into a Bar
146. Barbara Nadel, Belshazzar's Daughter
147. Kate Glanville, The Peacock House
148. Clare Chambers, Shy Creatures
149. Lorrie Moore, I Am Homeless If This is Not My Home - reviewed 01.10.24
150. Eva Dolan, Tell No Tales

151. Attica Locke, Guide Me Home
152. Elaine Farrell and Leanne McCormick, Bad Bridget: Crime, Mayhem and the Lives of Irish Emigrant Women
153. Rory Cellan-Jones, Sylvia, Me and the BBC
154. Orlaine McDonald, No Small Thing
155. Jim Kelly, At Death's Window
156. Pete Brown, Clubland: How the Working Men's Club Shaped Britain
157. Lisa Kleinholz, Exiles on Main Street
158. Helen Taylor, Why Women Read Fiction: The Stories of Our Lives
159. Jane Thynne, Midnight in Vienna
160. Kate Johnson, Hex Appeal
161. Elizabeth Harrower, The Watch Tower
162. Maggie Shipstead, The June Paintings - story
163. Alan Hollinghurst, Our Evenings
164. Tsitsi Dangarembga, Black and Female
165. Lauren Elkin, Scaffolding

166. Nelson De Mille & Otto Penzler (editors), The Best American Mystery Stories 2004
167. Jenny Colgan, Class
168. Diana Anyakwo, My Life As a Chameleon
169. Harriet Baker, Rural Hours: The Country Lives of Virginia Woolf, Sylvia Townsend Warner and Rosamond Lehmann
170. Rachel Kushner, Creation Lake
171. Phoebe MacLeod, The Do-Over
172. Robert Harris, Imperium
173. Robin Stevens, Mistletoe and Murder
174. David Lodge, Quite a Good Time to be Born: A Memoir 1935-1975
175. Buchi Emecheta, Second Class Citizen
176. Cheryl Strayed, This Telling - story
177. Charlotte Betts, The Italian Garden
178. Sally Rooney, Intermezzo
179. Kate Atkinson, Death at the Sign of the Rook
180. Antonia Fraser & Victoria Gray (editors), The Pleasure of Reading: 43 Writers on the Discovery of Reading and the Books That Inspired Them

READING 2024, PART 13

181. Georgina Clarke, Death and the Harlot
182. Christine Dwyer Hickey, The House on Parkgate and Other Dublin Stories - reviewed 29.10.24
183. Amor Towles, Table for Two
184. Tracy Farr, The Life and Loves of Lena Gaunt
185. Angela Carter, Nights at the Circus
186. Roxane Gay, Graceful Burdens - story
187. Christy McKellen, About Last Night
188. Christine Dwyer Hickey, Our London Lives
189. Xiaolu Guo, A Lover's Discourse
190. Craig Cabell, Ian Rankin and Inspector Rebus
191. Stephanie Butland, Lost for Words
192. Diane Abbott, A Woman Like Me: A Memoir
193. Katy Watson, A Lively Midwinter Murder
194. Pat Barker, The Voyage Home
195. Sally Bayley, The Green Lady: A Spirit, A Story, A Place

Hey, Luci! It looks like you have had some excellent - and interesting - reads this year.

READING 2024, PART 14

196. Rowan Coleman, River Deep
197. J Courtney Sullivan, The Cliffs
198. Caoilinn Hughes, The Alternatives
199. Emma Smith, Portable Magic: A History of Books and Their Readers
200. Lindsey Davis, A Dying Light in Corduba
201. Langston Hughes, Not Without Laughter
202. Sefi Atta, The Bead Collector
203. Beth O'Leary, Swept Away
204. Elif Shafak, There Are Rivers in the Sky
205. Jocelyn Playfair, A House in the Country
206. Michelle Magorian, Impossible!
207. Tony Travers, London's Boroughs at 50
208. Maxine Morrey, Reach for the Stars
209. Scott Turow & Otto Penzler (editors), The Best American Mystery Stories 2006
210. Meron Hadero, A Down Home Meal for These Difficult Times

Better late than never, Luci. Lovely to see you starting a thread, dear lady.

>17 PaulCranswick: Thank you, Paul.

It's mainly just to pull a list together, Paul.

I have indicated the books within the list that I've managed to get round to reviewing so far - about 17, I think. These reviews should be on the LT book page somewhere. I've written 26 reviews this year, but errrrm, some of them were books that I read in 2023. There is also one reread that I reviewed previously, some years ago now.

News this morning - John Prescott has died aged 86. He was a Labour peer, former MP and Deputy Prime Minister, once sponsored by the RMT, one of Britain's main transport unions. As government minister and DPM he made some decisions I was quite critical of, especially on a form of housing privatisation. But unlike Tony Blair and most of Blair's government ministers, not to mention most of the current Cabinet, Prescott publicly backed Jeremy Corbyn's leadership of the Labour Party, campaigning with him in the elections of 2017 and 2019 and posting on social media about "Jezza and Prezza"!

He wrote a memoir which I haven't read but I want to mention two of his appearances in Britain's cultural history.

I am being lazy and quoting Wikipedia on the band Chumbawamba's criticisms of Prescott and New Labour at the Brit Awards:

"A few weeks later, provoked by the Labour government's refusal to support the Liverpool Dockworkers' Strike, the band performed "Tubthumping" at the 1998 BRIT Awards with the lyric changed to include "New Labour sold out the dockers, just like they'll sell out the rest of us", and vocalist Danbert Nobacon later poured a jug of water over UK Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott, who was in the audience."

10 years or so later, in the sitcom Gavin and Stacey, (it takes me a long time to catch up with TV series and I didn't watch it until more than a decade after most episodes were shown), Stacey's friend Nessa talks about John Prescott as an old flame, and I rather liked his cameo appearance as a wedding guest in one of the later episodes.

>19 elkiedee: Saddened to see that actually Luci. He was Old Labour in many ways but stayed loyal to Blair even though they morphed into something completely unlike my old party.

READING 2024, PART 15

211. Sarra Manning, The Rise and Fall of Becky Sharp
212. Richard Osman, We Solve Murders