As the new football season is about to kick off, I made 40 teeny cupcakes for a Boro fan's birthday. They were a mixture of vanilla and chocolate with strawberry and raspberry flavour buttercream. Hopefully, the team's performance (I live with an avid supporter so it matters!) will be as sparkling as these little treats.
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Book at bedtime
- Patricia Cornwell: Identity Unknown
Books read in 2025
Books read in 2024
- David Williams: Murder In Advent
(***) - Jon McGregor: Lean Fall Stand
(****) - Denzil Meyrick: Murder At Holly House
(****) - Jacqueline Harpman: I Who Have Never Known Men
BOOK CLUB READ. ALL THE STARS! (*****) - Anthony Horowitz: Close To Death
(****) - Jo Nesbo: Blood Ties
ALL THE STARS! (*****) - Bea Setton: Berlin
(****) Harvey, Samantha: Orbital: Winner of the Booker Prize 2024
ALL THE STARS! ONE OF MY FAVOURITE EVER READS. (*****)Bjork, Samuel: The Wolf
(****)Hoover, Colleen: It Ends With Us
Book club read. Absolute trash. (*)Walsh, Colin: Kala'
ALLTHE STARS! (*****)Jones, Sadie: Amy and Lan
(****)Sansom, C. J.: Dark Fire
ALL THE STARS! (*****)Miller, Kirsten: The Change
BOOK CLUB READ (***)O'Farrell, Maggie: Hamnet: Winner of the Women's Prize for Fiction 2020
(****)Michaelides, Alex: The Fury
(****)Yuzuki, Asako: Butter
DNF (*)O'Farrell, Maggie: The Marriage Portrait
ALL THE STARS! (*****)The Bell Jar (50th Anniversary Edition) by Plath, Sylvia
(****)Gilmartin, Sarah: Service
ALL THE STARS! BOOK CLUB READ (*****)Moss, Sarah: Summerwater
(****)
Books read in 2023
Tartt, Donna: The Secret History
ALL THE STARS! (*****)King, Stephen: Holly
ALL THE STARS! (*****)Zevin, Gabrielle: Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow
(****)Clark, Eliza: Penance
(***)Diaz, Hernan: Trust: Winner of the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction
(****)Matsumoto, Seicho: Tokyo Express (Penguin Modern Classics)
(****)Percival Everett: The Trees: Shortlisted for the 2022 Booker Prize
(****)Sancton, Julian: Madhouse at the End of the Earth: The Belgica’s Journey into the Dark Antarctic Night
ALL THE STARS! (*****)Kuang, Rebecca F: Yellowface
(****)Durrant, Sabine: Sun Damage
(****)Durrant, Sabine: Under Your Skin
ALL THE STARS! (*****)Hart, Emilia: Weyward:
(****)Day, Elizabeth: Magpie
(***)Kepler, Lars: The Mirror Man
(****)Slaughter, Karin: Girl, Forgotten
ALL THE STARS! (*****)Hannah, Sophie: The Mystery of Three Quarters: The New Hercule Poirot Mystery
(****)Dean, Will: First Born
ALL THE STARS***** (*****)
Books read in 2022
Nesbo, Jo: The Jealousy Man
ALL THE STARS ! (*****)Cavanagh, Steve: Twisted
(****)Cavanagh, Steve: The Accomplice
ALL THE STARS! (*****)Caro Ramsay: Dark Water
(****)French, Tana: The Searcher
ALL THE STARS! (*****)Powers, Richard: The Overstory
DNF as book accidentally ended up in the washing machine.Cox, Sara: Thrown
(****)Coetzee, J.M.: Disgrace
ALL THE STARS! (*****)Bolton, Sharon: The Pact
(****)Cavanagh, Steve: The Liar
(****)Kukafka, Danya: Notes on an Execution
ALL THE STARS! (*****)Williams, Lara: Supper Club
(****)Cavanagh, Steve: The Plea
(****)Waters, Sarah: Fingersmith
ALL THE STARS! (*****)
Books read in 2021
Shaw, Jane: Susan Pulls The Strings
Childhood Christmas favouriteBanville, John: Snow
(****)Cummins, Jeanine: American Dirt
ALL THE STARS***** (*****)Penny: All the Devils Are Here (Chief Inspector Gamache)
ALL THE STARS! (*****)Jackson, Holly: A Good Girl's Guide to Murder: Book 1
(****)Parsons, Tony: Die Last
(****)Phillips, Gin: Fierce
(****)Haruf, Kent: Plainsong
ALL THE STARS! (*****)Nesbo, Jo: The Kingdom
ALL THE STARS! (*****)Fuller, Claire: Unsettled Ground: Shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction 2021
ALL THE STARS! (*****)Bailey, Anna: Tall Bones
ALL THE STARS! (*****)Slaughter, Karin: The Silent Wife (Book 10 The Will Trent Series)
(****)Thomas, Russ: Firewatching
(****)Hunter, Megan: The Harpy
(****)Greene, Graham: The End of the Affair (Vintage Classics)
(***)McDermid, Val: Still Life
(****)Wait, Rebecca: Our Fathers
ALL THE STARS! (*****)Dean, Will: The Last Thing to Burn
ALL THE STARS! (*****)Chambers, Clare: Small Pleasures: Longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction 2021
(****)Jónasson, Ragnar: The Island
(****)
Books read in 2020
Shaw, Jane: Susan Pulls the Strings
ALL THE STARS! (*****)McDermid, Val: Christmas is Murder: A chilling short story collection
(****)Slater, Nigel: The Christmas Chronicles: Notes, stories & 100 essential recipes for midwinter
ALL THE STARS! (*****)Winterson, Jeanette: Christmas Days: 12 Stories and 12 Feasts for 12 Days
ALL THE STARS! (*****)Dan Simmons: The Terror
(****)Whitaker, Chris: Tall Oaks
(****)Joan Lindsay: Picnic At Hanging Rock
ALL THE STARS! (*****)Whitaker, Chris: We Begin at the End
ALL THE STARS! (*****)Cavanagh, Steve: Fifty-Fifty
ALL THE STARS! (*****)Sullivan, Matthew: Midnight at the Bright Ideas Bookstore
ALL THE STARS! (*****)Louise Penny: A Great Reckoning (Chief Inspector Gamache Book 12)
(****)Hans Fallada: Alone in Berlin (Penguin Modern Classics)
All the stars! (*****)Cavanagh, Steve: Thirteen
(****)Evaristo, Bernardine: Girl, Woman, Other
ALL THE STARS! (*****)Jackson, Shirley: The Haunting of Hill House (Penguin Modern Classics)
(****)Thomas, Angie: The Hate U Give
ALL THE STARS! (*****)Nesbo, Jo: Knife: (Harry Hole 12)
All the stars! (*****)Weaver, Tim: No One Home
ALL THE STARS! (*****)Rubenhold, Hallie: The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper
ALL THE STARS! (*****)Sansom, C. J.: Dissolution
(****)Anita Shreve: The Stars are Fire
ALL THE STARS! (*****)Cleeves, Ann: The Long Call
(****)Andrew Martin: The Winker
(****)Chris Mooney: The Snow Girls
ALL THE STARS! (*****)Erin Kelly: He Said/She Said
(*****)Stephen King: The Outsider
(****)Stacey Halls: The Familiars
4/5 (****)
Books read in 2019
Val McDermid: The Distant Echo (Detective Karen Pirie, Book 1)
Margaret Atwood: The Testaments: WINNER OF THE BOOKER PRIZE 2019
Tayari Jones: An American Marriage: WINNER OF THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION, 2019
Martin Edwards: The Serpent Pool (Lake District Mysteries Book 4)
Jane Housham: The Apprentice of Split Crow Lane: The Story of the Carr's Hill Murder
Stuart Turton: The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle: Winner of the Costa First Novel Award 2018
Mons Kallentoft: Midwinter Sacrifice (Malin Fors series Book 1)
Books read in 2018
Books read in 2017
Books read in 2016
Sharon Bolton: A Dark and Twisted Tide: Lacey Flint Series, Book 4
Sharon Bolton: Like This, For Ever: Lacey Flint Series, Book 3
Charles Palliser: The Quincunx: The Inheritance of John Huffam
Cathy Rentzenbrink: The Last Act of Love: The Story of My Brother and His Sister
Alexander McCall Smith: The Comfort Of Saturdays (Isabel Dalhousie Novels)
Dr Rajendra Sharma: Live Longer, Live Younger: Design Your Personal Plan For A Long And Healthy Life