Reading Record 2022
OK, I'm going to cheat and include the book I just finished when it isn't quite 2022 yet, but you know, arbitrary.
30 December 2021 The Man Who Died Twice - Richard Osman
I've enjoyed the two Thursday Murder Club books Osman has written. It's "cosy" detective fiction, which hits the right spot for me, with a lacing of the humour you'd expect from the author. His elderly foursome are charming in their different ways and the other recurring characters are also engaging.
It was interesting reading the book after seeing a recent article about Osman's struggles with disordered eating. The character, Chris, is a middle-aged man, who struggles with diet, and a lot happens around food & drink in the story. I don't usually read interviews with authors or find out much about them, as I guess I'm not interested and also I want to enjoy the work on its own merits, but I guess that made me pick up on this more than I would have.
I look forward to his next one and excited for what lies ahead for the characters, especially Donna and Bogdan.
03 January 2022 The Lying Room - Nicci French
A crime novel to start the year, one of my Christmas presents (like the Richard Osman). It was what you'd expect from the Nicci French stable, very readable and kicks along in good pace.
I struggled a bit with some of the protagonist's actions and motivations. I feel like if protecting her daughter's fragile mental health was the driver, perhaps it would have worked better to have been shown that more, maybe in flashback, rather than being asked to take it as read, because the critical action Neve takes in the beginning of the book is such a leap. It required a bit of suspension of disbelief, but once I was along the ride, it was a fun one.
I usually enjoy Nicci French books, and this was no exception.
14 January 2022 House of Correction - Nicci French
Another crime novel. It was an easy read and I liked the premise. The protagonist was quite difficult to like, but I guess that was part of the point. Again my willingness to suspend disbelief got pushed quite hard and I did consider abandoning the novel because of it ,at one point. I'm glad I did persist with it overall, but the denouement was a bit unsatisfactory and tacked on, I felt. Not their best, but I did enjoy.
17 January 2022 Day of the Dead - Nicci French
Yes, I'm reading all the Nicci French at the moment! This one was a Frieda Klein one which, as I'm not reading in order and it's been a while since I read any featuring her meant I was seeing quite why she is so beloved by the other characters. I enjoyed it tho, although I saw where the twist was coming, and I don't know, spoilers: I wasn't that convinced by why the character Lola betrayed Frieda - her parents were in Malaga, so I'm not sure why she thought Dean Reeve could get to them. But anyway, it was a good read and kept me hooked throughout.
22 January 2022 Hostage - Clare Mackintosh
I really enjoyed this. And just when you think the end of the story is coming, you get a bit more, and then a bit more. Loved it.
24 January 2022 Redshirts - John Scalzi
I've listened to the audiobook of this before, but all I remembered about it was I enjoyed it. I did listen to audiobooks quite a bit in the past, but I'm not sure a lot of it sticks with me, which seems borne out here. As an actual physical book, I feel like I probably got more out of it this time.
It's an amusing read, playing on the trope that the red shirts on the away teams are always the ones to die.
13 February 2022 Rubberneckers - Belinda Bauer
I have (hopefully temporarily) stalled out on Anno Dracula by Kim Newman, so changed books to this by Belinda Bauer, a new author to me.
It features an autistic protagonist, struggling to understand his own father's death, and deaths in a coma-patient ward. I found it a compelling read and it had some surprises and twists.
Looking forward to reading the other book I bought by her, Exit.
19 February 2022 Exit - Belinda Bauer
OK, I'm going to buy all the Belinda Bauer books and that's that. Absolutely loved Exit - the protagonist, Felix Pink, was charming and I really enjoyed the characterisation generally. It was a murder-mystery set in Bideford, a town I know a bit, so that was nice. The storyline was interesting and there were lots of twists and turns. It managed to be laugh out loud funny at some points while not losing the poignant moments nor the seriousness of murder and the themes of assisted dying.
All the books, I say!
26 February 2022 Snap - Belinda Bauer
The author has a knack for creating characters that are very likeable, even adorable.
Jack and his sisters falling through the net following their mother's murder as completely as they do, seems a stretch and there are definitely some faults in the plotting, but not enough to throw me out of the story completely.
I quite like the fact that the awful Marvel is quite successful in what he does. He's a bit of a Gene Hunt.
12 March 2022 Darkside - Belinda Bauer
Oh no! Gutted by who the murderer turned out to be.
And not sure how to feel about what happened to the awful Marvel.
Some great twists and turns in this one.
19 March 2022 The Facts of Life & Death - Belinda Bauer
I don't think I liked this one as much. Maybe too much of the same sort of thing: I have binged and now feel bad? I think the misogyny of the killer was a bit too much for me with other stuff going on and it's tiresome to have young women murdered.
Also, I'm reading them out of order and seeing Calvin's break-up with Shirley, you realise he's far more of a jerk than he seems in later books. I'm not sure whether to start the next Bauer I have in the TBR pile or wait for the John Scalzi that's due to arrive tomorrow.
20 March 2022 Blacklands - Belinda Bauer
OK, back to enjoyment. Pretty dark subject matter tho, with serial child killer Avery and the family devastated by the loss of a child and its effects on the next generation.
26 March 2022 The Kaiju Preservation Society - John Scalzi
Ahhh, this was so much fun. Scalzi describes it as a pop song of a novel and it is. A loveletter to monster movies, with a billionaire baddy. I read it in one sitting, first thing this morning, and I feel all cheerful and like I want to tell people to read it. So read it!
18 April 2022 Head On - John Scalzi
The follow-up to Lock In where protagonist, Chris, continues in their FBI career, this time investigating a suspicious death in Hilketa, a Haden sport.
Both books are set in a world where Haden's syndrome has put a proportion of the population into a locked-in state in their biological bodies. Sufferers use android bodies (threeps) to interact with meat-space as well as having their own virtual world, the Agora. Hilketa is an almost gladiatorial sport where threeps are pitted against each other and tear each other's limbs and heads off, but of course the actual human players are safe. Except when they're not.
I enjoyed it a lot, the main characters are likeable and it was well-paced. I think it had something interesting things to say about difference and disability, and the potential for harm as well as acceptance with encroachment of the mainstream into marginalised people's spaces.
Always a plus, it had a cat in it.
A couple of false starts with Scorpica: the 5 Queendoms by G R Macallister and Postcards from the Edge by Carrie Fisher. I'm just not in the mood for fantasy at the moment, I think, and I got to a bit in Postcards where I didn't like where it was going, and haven't picked it back up yet.
15/05/2022 After the End - Clare Mackintosh
Well, bloody hell. I cried a couple of times. I have nothing further to say at this time.
29/05/2022 The Couple at No 9 - Claire Douglas
This was a bit of a slow burner, but had me gripped after a few chapters. I quite liked the device of different narrative voices, although tbh I don't think I'd have differentiated between them without the chapter titles. I enjoyed it.
25/06/2022 The Dark Hours - Michael Connelly
Another decent crime novel from Connelly. Harry Bosch takes a bit of a backseat to Ballard here - it's the first of the series I've read with her as the lead (I am not up to date with his books and I don't think I've read them in sequence, so it was nice to "meet" her.)
In between I've read some of Margaret Atwood's Burning Questions essays and some of Susie Dent's Word Perfect, which are more dip in and out-able. If I finish them I may write about them in more detail.
25/06.2022 The Whole Truth - Cara Hunter
Read this one today. I quite liked the inclusion of texts and interview formats etc.
03/07/2022 Amongst our weapons - Ben Aaronovitch
The next in the Rivers of London series. I feel like I'm missing something from the Abigail side, not having read the novella featuring her? Maybe. I'm against buying novellas as they seem the same price for less book. But nothing that detracted from the story.
Good fun.
05/07/2022 Finders Keepers - Belinda Bauer
Another enjoyable read from Bauer. A bit of a bizarre storyline, getting on the water-skis and lining up with the shark, as it were, but very readable.
06/07/2022 Made to Kill - Adam Christopher
A Chandler-esque detective noir featuring a robot and his mysterious handler, an AI called Ada. I might read the others as it says it's a trilogy, if only to find out more about what's going on with Ada. It was amusing.
13/07/2022 Just Ignore him - Alan Davies
I didn't read the back of this book or know anything about it, when I started reading - I just assumed it would be a humorous look at Davies' youth. It really was not. I had no idea about Davies' childhood and the loss of his mother, the abuse and trauma he went through. This memoir is a well-written and heart-breaking account of it all. Huge respect to him.
Have to be honest, I wouldn't have read it if I'd known the subject matter. I did consider stopping reading at some points, but I felt like I owed it to Davies to hear him out once I'd started. I'm angry that he was kind of cheated of holding his father to account by the way the justice system works and the illnesses of age.
Worth reading.
07/08/2022 Shrill - Lindy West
Amusing, poignant at times, book about being a fat feminist voice in public.
I may add more later.
20/08/2022 All my mother's lovers - Hana Masad
"A queer tour de force" it says on the back. Well, I'm pretty uncomfortable with the word queer, being of a certain age, and dubious about the success of reclaiming words, but anyhooo.
I enjoyed this novel quite a lot, following Maggie as she comes to terms with her mother's sudden death, discovering letters to men she didn't know existed and working out what went on in her mother's life. I didn't really like the protagonist, but it was a good read.
31/12/2022 The Bullet that missed - Richard Osman
Finishing the year like I started it, with a Richard Osman. It was good fun and some new characters introduced. I like them all and a couple of the lines were laugh out loud funny.
