One of my Top Ten films (in my Top Five actually), which never fails to raise my spirits however low I'm feeling, is The Commitments. It's a wonderful adaptation of Roddy Doyle's novel and I love everything about it, even all that effing and blinding, but especially the "Dublin Soul" soundtrack. I might just have to make space for another viewing over the weekend. So, what do you load into the DVD player to cheer yourself up?
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Book at bedtime
Books read in 2024
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
(****)Davies, Carys: Clear: Carys Davies
ALL THE STARS! BOOK CLUB READ (*****)Madsen, Jenny Lund: Thirty Days of Darkness
So promising. So bad. DNF (*)Nolan, Megan: Ordinary Human Failings: Longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction 2024
(****)Slater, Alice: Death of a Bookseller
ALL THE STARS! (*****)Catton, Eleanor: Birnam Wood
(****)Logan, T.M.: The Curfew
(***)Cavanagh, Steve: Kill For Me Kill For You
ALL THE STARS! (*****)
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
Books read in 2015
Books read in 2014
Books read in 2013
Books read in 2012
Books read in 2011
2010 books
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