(no subject)

[slemslempike]

I have just finished reading Danny Baker's autobiographies, and thought "oh, I haven't done a book post in months, I should start again", and it turns out that it is a literal year since I last posted the books I read. So here is a year's worth of my reading - in alphabetical order rather than order of reading.



James Acaster's Classic Scrapes - Acaster, James
Deception - Aiken, Joan
the Five-Minute Marriage - Aiken, Joan
The Girl from Paris - Aiken, Joan
The Smile of the Stranger - Aiken, Joan
Everything I Know About Love - Alderton, Dolly
Margaret Finds a Future - Allan, Mabel Esther
Going Off Alarming - Baker, Danny
Going on the Turn - Baker, Danny
Going to Sea in A Sieve - Baker, Danny
Piglettes - Beauvais, Clemetine
The Painted Lady - Bloom, Ursula
Three Sisters - Bloom, Ursula
Wonder Cruise - Bloom, Ursula
Be My Enemy - Brookmyre, Christopher
Ma'am Darling - Brown, Craig
Miss Wrong and Mr Right - Bryndza, Robert
The Flowers of Vashnoi - Bujold, Lois McMaster
Royal Wedding - Cabot, Meg
Mollie Marches On - Carey, Anna
Midnight Line - Child, Lee
Too Much Time - Child, Lee
Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend - Colgan, Jenny
Summer at Little Beach Street Bakery - Colgan, Jenny
The Endless Beach - Colgan, Jenny
Spandex and the City - Colgan, Jenny T
Kitty at St Clare's - Cox, Pamela
Felicity Stands By - Crompton, Richmal
Leadon Hill - Crompton, Richmal
The Party - Day, Elizabeth
Gay Life - Delafield, EM
Late and Soon - Delafield, EM
The Provincial Lady Goes Further - Delafield, EM
The Provincial Lady in America - Delafield, EM
The Provincial Lady in Russia - Delafield, EM
The Provincial lady in Wartime - Delafield, EM
The Provincial Lady's Diary - Delafield, EM
What Does This Button Do - Dickinson, Bruce
Whatever Happened to Margo? - Durrell, Margaret
Untrodden Peaks and Unfrequented Valleys - Edwards, Amelia
Unqualified - Faris, Anna
The Bird in the Tree - Goudge, Elizabeth
Turtles All the Way Down - Green, John
Betty Lee, Freshman - Grove, Harriet Pyne
Betty Lee, Sophmore - Grove, Harriet Pyne
The Wedding Date - Guillory, Jasmine
The Last Black Unicorn - Haddish, Tiffany
Between Friends - Hanscombe, Gillian
Unconventional - Harcourt, Maggie
April Lady - Heyer, Georgette
The Foundling - Heyer, Georgette
The Nonesuch - Heyer, Georgette
The Reluctant Widow - Heyer, Georgette
The Talisman Ring - Heyer, Georgette
The Toll Gate - Heyer, Georgette
The Sparsholt Affair - Hollinghurst, Alan
After Julius - Howard, Elizabeth Jane
This is Going to Hurt - Kay, Adam
The Transition - Kennard, Luke
So a Comedian Walks Into a Church - Kerensa, Paul
The Break - Keyes, Marian
Nina is Not OK - Khorsandi, Shappi
Spark Joy - Kondo, Marie
Something Nasty in the Slushpile - Looker, Sammy
The Willoughbys - Lowry, Lois
The Egg and I - MacDonald, Betty Bard
Killing It - Mackay, Asia
Perfect Fifths - McCafferty, Megan
Oh My God, What a Complete Aisling - McLysaght, Emer & Breen, Sarah
Murder in the English Department - Miner, Valerie
The Last Romeo - Myers, Justin
Bunkle Began It - Pardoe, M
Wild Mountain Thyme - Pilcher, Rosamunde
Less Than Angels - Pym, Barbara
Match Up story - Reichs, Kathy & Child, Lee
Stiff Upper Lip - Renton, Alex
The Misinterpretation of Tara Jupp - Rice, Eva
Just the Funny Parts - Scovell, Nell
Chalked Up - Sey, Jennifer
The Innocents - Sharp, Margery
Get me the Urgent Biscuits - Slight, Sweetpea
The Abbess of Crewe - Spark, Muriel
At Last - St Aubyn, Edward
Bad News - St Aubyn, Edward
Mother's Milk - St Aubyn, Edward
Never Mind - St Aubyn, Edward
Some Home - St Aubyn, Edward
A Spoonful of Murder - Stevens, Robin
An Almost Perfect Christmas - Stibbe, Nina
Valley of the Dolls - Susann, Jacqueline
The Actual One - Suttie, Issy
An Argumentation of Historians - Taylor, Jodi
The Something Girl - Taylor, Jodi
August Folly - Thirkell, Angela
Christmas at High Rising - Thirkell, Angela
Close Quarters - Thirkell, Angela
County Chronicle - Thirkell, Angela
Happy Returns - Thirkell, Angela
High Rising - Thirkell, Angela
Jutland Cottage - Thirkell, Angela
Love Among the Ruins - Thirkell, Angela
Love at All Ages - Thirkell, Angela
Pomfret Towers - Thirkell, Angela
Summer Half - Thirkell, Angela
The Brandons - Thirkell, Angela
The Demon in the House - Thirkell, Angela
The Duke's Daughter - Thirkell, Angela
The Old Bank House - Thirkell, Angela
Three Score and Ten - Thirkell, Angela
What Did It Mean? - Thirkell, Angela
Wild Strawberries - Thirkell, Angela
Rebuilding Coventry - Townsend, Sue
The Woman Who Went to Bed for a Year - Townsend, Sue
An Unsuitable Match - Trollope, Joanna
Getting Stoned with Savages - Troost, J. Maarten
The Gatecrasher - Wickham, Madeleine
Love/War - Witt-Brattstrom, Ebba, trans Lambert, Kate
Mike - Wodehouse, PG
The Wife - Wolitzer, Meg

To start - Danny Baker is someone I knew from the telly during what he calls his "ubiquitous period", and that he was generally thought to do smashing radio, that I had never heard. I started with the latest book, about his experience of and recovery from mouth cancer, and enjoyed the writing so very much - in staying up way past when I should be sleeping for just one more chapter - I bought the other two immediately. I understand that Amazon kindle deals aren't great for literary economies, but their 99p books have been very kind to me for getting books I otherwise would not have thought of (see also Bruce Dickinson's autobiography).

I bought a collected edition of all EM Delafield's writing, but found Gay Life rather stodgy going, so defected in the middle to read "just a bit" of the Provincial Lady and whizzed through them all. It was a struggle not to go straight back to the beginning when I finished Wartime.

I enjoyed Unconventional, which is a young adult romance(ish) set in the world of sci fi convention planning, mostly for teh details of what goes into planning and running a con.

I now only have one (I think) Barsetshire novel remaining to read. I enjoyed them all! I think because I was prewarned by spiralsheep that they suffered in both writing and morals, I was able to keep at it and just enjoy immersing into the world of the characters.

Comments

[callmemadam]

Hurrah, another Thirkell convert!
Your list interested me strangely.

[slemslempike]

I am quite proud of how eclectic the list is, though it is not very intellekshual, perhaps.

Thirkell was the perfect non-challenging read for me for a while.