Something for everyone! by Catriona

This isn’t so much a blog of book recommendations as it is a list. It’s everything I read from knocking off work for Christmas last year to what I’m reading right now, plus some atttempt to identify favourites. 

As in 2021, I’ve made my life a bit easier by choosing a book of the month every month, rather than trying to choose books of the year. Some months were a nightmare. June was a nightmare after eating a wheel of ripe Brie before bedtime. 

Two more things: I enjoyed all of these books. I’ll give any book fifty pages but if I’m not enjoying it on page fifty-one I stop reading and keep quiet about it. Also, the monthly pick is whatever book made me excited, or happy, or heartbroken all over again when I reviewed the year. There’s no method to it. I was surprised not to see any memoir in the pick after a year when I read wonderful memoirs. I think I must be a story-junkie to my marrow.

Colour decoder: Crime fiction Other fiction Memoir  Other non-fiction Horror

XMAS HOLS 21-22

MAKING IT, Jay Blades

RACHEL'S HOLIDAY, Marian Keyes

JUST LIKE YOU, Nick Hornby

BIG LITTLE LIES, Liane Moriarty

EXIT, Belinda Bauer

I'm a huge fan of Belinda Bauer and EXIT is her best yet. It's the story of elderly Felix Pink, an assisted suicide assister who gets himself into a hell of scrape when he and a debut "exiteer" as they're called, accidentally assist the wrong person. It's warm and funny as well as plotted like a pretzel.

CURIOUS, Rebecca Front

FIND YOU FIRST, Linwood Barclay

THE DIVING BELL AND THE BUTTERFLY, Jean-Dominique Bauby

THE BOOKSHOP OF SECOND CHANCES, Jackie Fraser

THE HERON'S CRY, Ann Cleeves

CARDS ON THE TABLE, Agatha Christie

BILLY SUMMERS, Stephen King

 

 

Jan 2022

ENDLESS NIGHT, Agatha Christie

SWORN TO SILENCE, Linda Castillo

A TRUTH UNIVERSALLY ACKNOWLEDGED: 35 great writers on why we read Jane Austen, Susannah Carson (ed)

IF I DISAPPEAR, Eliza Jane Brazier

THE PERSONAL LIBRARIAN, Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray

L A WEATHER, Maria Amparo Escandon

NEW YORK, MY VILLAGE, Uwem Akpan

MEN WHO HATE WOMEN, Laura Bates

WHERE THE WILD LADIES ARE, Matsuda Aoko

This is an anthology of modern, feminist-inflected retellings of traditional Japanase ghost stories, separate but thematically linked, so that by the end they build a world. I loved it but I wasn't sure I understood it, so when I was invited to choose a book for a guest spot at a book club, this was the only choice. No one else understood it either. 

THE GIRLS OF SLENDER MEANS, Muriel Spark

 

Feb 2022

Hillary Rodham Clinton and Louise Penny, STATE OF TERROR

I mean, what else, right? It's a cracking thriller and you've got to believe the political stuff is spot-on, but also it was sort of like eavesdropping on someone I know while they were hanging out with someone so stratospherically famous I was gobsmacked. I'm still sorry Hillary had time to do this, but what lemonade to have made with those lemons!

Mary Higgins Clark, YOU BELONG TO ME

E J Copperman, JUDGEMENT AT SANTA MONICA

MURDER AT WEDGEFIELD MANOR, Erica Ruth Bauer

VILLAINY IN VIENNA, Kelly Oliver

HER PERFECT LIFE, Hank Phillipi Ryan

IN THE DARK WE FORGET, Sandra Wong

MAGIC, LIES AND DEADLY PIES, Misha Popp

I WANNA BE YOURS, John Cooper Clarke

 

Mar 2022

MR LOVERMAN, Bernardine Evaristo

THE SENTENCE, Louise Erdrich

THE LAST THING HE WANTED, Joan Didion

OUTLINE, Rachel Cusk

ONE WOMAN'S YEAR, Stella Martin Currey

ON CHAPEL SANDS, Laura Cummings

SLOW HORSES, Mick Herron

Talk about late to the party! I don't suppose many readers of this blog will need an introduction to Jackson Lamb, shambolic and flatulent spy boss and his band of MI6 rejects, but let me assure you - there is no over-hype going on here; it's exactly as clever, funny and thrilling as everyone says.

NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEED, E J Copperman

THE FAMILY PLOT, Megan Collins

MR WILDER AND MEA, Jonathan Coe

WE WERE EIGHT YEARS IN POWER, Ta-Nehisi Coates

 

Apr 2022

BEFORE SHE DISAPPEARED, Lisa Gardner

WHAT HAPPENED TO THE BENNETTS, Lisa Scottoline

THE TRESPASSER, Tana French

CROSSROADS, Jonathan Franzen

CLARK AND DIVISION, Naomi Hirahara

THE LOCKED ROOM, Elly Griffiths

THE HOME-MAKER, Dorothy Canfield Fisher

Trust me. I know it seems unlikely but this 1924 story of a bored housewife and struggling mother, who takes a job in a department store after her husband becomes disabled in an accident, is breathtaking. Sharply insightful about every member of the ill-fated Knapp family, with endless compassion for them all, and fascinating detail about the small-town New England of the time - if I had been asked to another book club, I'd have made them read this so we could all marvel together. In fact, Susan Shea, of this parish, also read it (she loves Persephone books too) and we clutched each other's arms and exclaimed in wonder when we met up afterwards. HOW is this a "forgotten" novel? (Hint: sexism.)

 

May 2022

WARN ME WHEN IT'S TIME, Cheryl Head

DEAD MEN DON'T DECORATE, Cordy Abbott

BURY ME IN SHADOWS, Greg Herren

A SLOW FIRE BURNING, Paula Hawkins

THE SHAPELESS UNEASE, Samantha Harvey

THE DRY, Jane Harper

THE STRANGER BEHND YOU, Carol Goodman

OLGA DIES DREAMING, Xochitl Gonzalez

(This, and some more below, looked truly hideous against my tomato-red kitchen surface.) This book is the sort of debut that makes you want to give up in disgust. It's extraordinarily accomplished, sweeping in its range, and perfect in its detail. It's set partly in New York and partly in Puerto Rico at the time of Irma, it's a . . . family saga, I suppose. But with so many secrets we could almost claim it for the genre.

HANDSTANDS IN THE DARK, Janey Godley

 

 June 2022

MURDER BEFORE EVENSONG, Richard Coles

FRENCH BRAID, Anne Tyler

SYMPHONY ROAD, Gabriel Valjan

TEN STEPS TO NANETTE, Hannah Gadsby

I PLAY ONE ON TV, Alan Orloff

FINDING ME, Viola Davis

ALL HER LITTLE SECRETS, Wanda Morris

NOTES TO SELF, Emilie Pine

WALKING THROUGH NEEDLES, Heather Levy

THE HANDSHAKE Ella Al-Shamahi

THE MOTHER NEXT DOOR,  Tara Laskowski

HER NAME IS KNIGHT, Yasmin Angoe

Another debut, another family, but this time there's no quesition that this is a crime novel. It's about an assassin and her parents and sister, her childhood in Ghana and how its tentacles threaten to choke her adult life in the US, and it's got a twist on one of my favourite crime-fiction tropes: "one last job". Utter delight. 

 

July 2022

YOURS CHEERFULLY, A J Pearce

WHAT THEY KNEW, Marion Todd

LIES TO TELL, Marion Todd

THE LIBRARIAN, Sally Vickers

JUSTICE IS SERVED, Leslie Karst (Nov 22)

QUITE, Claudia Winkelman

THE LIFE AND TIMES OF MICHAEL K, JM Coetzee

THE COUPLE AT NUMBER NINE, Claire Douglas

AN ISLAND WEDDING,  Jenny Colgan

AND AWAY, Bob Mortimer

IN PLAIN SIGHT, Marion Todd

SEE THEM RUN, Marion Todd

It had to be this book. My mother-in-law gave it to me and I read all six in the series over the ensuing few weeks. At one point, my mum, my dad and I were all reading Marion Todd in the same house. Why? Well, it's a police procedural set in rural Scotland, fair play plot, clean as a whistle prose, believable, relatable characters, and perfect pacing. I'm now champing for book seven. 

THE MIDNIGHT LIBRARY, Matt Haig

RED DUST ROAD, Jackie Kay

 

August 2022

THE IT GIRL, Ruth Ware

THE AUTHENTICITY PROJECT, Clare Pooley

SNAP, Belinda Bauer

A MATTER OF TIME, Claire Askew

COVER YOUR TRACKS, Claire Askew

THE LAST PARTY, Clare MacKintosh

HOW TO STOP TIME, Matt Haig

THE APPEAL, Janice Hallett

If Marion Todd's series is old-school in the best possible way this is a great example of a crime novel from the far end of the spectrum of technique. Through emails and texts, it tells the story of an amateur dramatic company's staging of their latest show and the eponymous charity appeal for one of the players' children, who is desperately ill. I wondered if emails would allow characterisation and texture? Shows what I know.

THE SECRET LIVES OF CHURCH LADIES, Deesha Philyaw

OLD BONES LIE, Marion Todd

THE HONJIN MURDERS, Seishi Yokomizo

THE PEOPLE ON PLATFORM 5, Claire Pooley

THE TWYFORD CODE, Janice Hallett

NEXT IN LINE, Marion Todd

 

September 2022

THE DEVIL TAKES YOU HOME, Gabino Iglesias

Is this horror or crime? I'd call it crirror if that didn't sound like a new and unnecessary kind of pastry.  There's a bit of "one last job" going on here too - yay! - as well as family tragedy, a take-down of US healthcare, a window into the murky world of drug cartels, a love-hate letter to the southern border region and - I have to say - the most extreme and distressing violence of any book I read this year. Extreme, but never gratuitous. Might be my book of the year, if I was doing that.

BONES UNDER THE ICE (Apr 2023), Mary Ann Miller

THE PRIVATE MEMOIRS AND CONFESSIONS OF A JUSTIFIED SINNER, James Hogg

ICED IN PARADISE, Naomi Hirahara

QUARRY GIRLS, Jess Lourey

THE SECRETS WE SHARE, Edwin Hill

DEAD LIONS, Mick Herron

 

October 22022

ROADWORK, Stephen King

BRAIDING SWEETGRASS, Robin Wall Kimmerer

SMALL THINGS LIKE THESE, Claire Keegan

A BAD DAY FOR SUNSHINE, Darynda Jones

THE TRUTH ABOUT MELODY BROWNE, Lisa Jewell

THE SUMMER BOOK, Tove Jansson

Variety would certainly ppear to be the spice of my life. After Gabino Iglesias comes Tove Jansson's quiet little biographical novel about a small girl and her grandmother spending summers together on an island in the Gulf of Finland. Nothing happens, except love. I've never read a book about love and innocence that manages so completely not to be too sweet. A jewel of a novel.

THE DARLINGS, Angela Jackson

 

November 2022

THE INTERRUPTION OF EVERYTHING, Terry MacMillan

AMONGST WOMEN, John McGahern

ONE OF US IS NEXT, Karen McManus

BOOKED FOR MURDER, Val McDermid

APPLES NEVER FALL, Liane Moriarty

THE PURSUIT OF ALICE THRIFT, Elinor Lipman

If all you want for Christmas is a quirky tale about a junior surgical resident in a Boston hospital being wooed by a travelling fudge salesman, your search is over. I'd never heard of Elinor Lipman (she's written six other novels) but I'm glad I picked this up. A fabulously dysfunctional family adds to the fun but it's Alice's hopelessness at work that made this irresistible. How often do we read about people trying and kind of failing to do their dream job, outside of Hallmark movies where they pack it in to go and grow lavendar on a farm next door to a widowed architect? 

GHOST MONTH,  Ed Lin

BIRD BY BIRD, Anne Lamott

 

December

HOMICIDE AND HALO-HALO, Mia Manansala

THE BAD MUSLIM DISCOUNT, Syed M. Masood

I've only read 53 pages of The Bad Muslim Discount as of today, so Mia Manansala is my December pick! But she might well still be my December pick as the year turns. Homicide and Halo-Halo is the perfect cozy - sweet, cool, peppery and delicious. I didn't know anything about beauty pageants before I read it, and now they terrify me.

There you have it: my year in books. At the end of next week I will finish the one I'm writing and curate another pile of treats for the Christmas holiday. Definitely Ellie Griffiths, Ann Cleeves and Stephen King . . . And Yasmin Angoe's new one . . . and a Christmas mystery . . . and a celebrity memoir . . . 

Cx