Stringcat3's 2022 50-Book Challenge

1. Leviathan Falls - James S.A. Corey

The ninth and final book in The Expanse series. Less compelling than the earlier books, mainly because of the chapters focused on Elvi's experiments, which were tedious, being written in a New-Agey style. But the ending was satisfying - hope there are TV or film adaptations of the final three books coming.

2. Taste: My Life Through Food - Stanley Tucci
A charming memoir with recipes.
3. Lord Halifax's Complete Ghost Book - Charles Wood, 2nd Viscount Halifax
4. The Invisible Man - H.G. Wells
Disappointing. The first half of the book is just chase scenes and slapstick brawls. The obvious solution of throwing paint on the guy never occurred to anyone?

5. The Domino Men - Jonathan Barnes
Started out a bit slow, then got promising, but ultimately dragged and then
fizzled.

6. Passing - Nella Larsen

A bit surprising. I was expecting more focus on the racial passing, but Larsen threw in a jealousy theme that was a distraction.

7. Days Without End - Sebastian Barry
Beautiful language and a gripping tale of Thomas McNulty and John Cole, two Irish boys who fled the famine in Ireland and eventually joined the US Army to fight first Native Americans and then Southern rebels.

8. A Thousand Moons - Sebastian Barry
The sequel to Days Without End, told from the viewpoint of Winona, the Lakota Sioux child adopted by Thomas and John. Not as lyrical as DWE, but a gripping story, nonetheless. It did seem to end rather abruptly.

9. No One Goes Alone - Eric Larsson

Hugely disappointing. Not a ghost story. Kept changing gears: murder mystery, sci-fi, Lovecraftian horror. And WAY too much yakking. A mess.

10. The Country Girls - Edna O'Brien

A quick read. Can't say I think it deserves "classic" status.

11. Literary Feuds -
Amusing enough

12. Eight Months on Ghazzah Street - Hilary Mantel
Too slow, then when things get interesting at the end, it just stops. Harrumph.

13. Jane and the Year Without a Summer - Stephanie Barron

Coming to the end of this excellent series. Maybe one more possible.

14. London Bridge is Falling Down - Christopher Fowler

The brilliant Bryant & May series comes to an end. I didn't quite grasp why the item that everyone was after was so critical, but it was a good ride nonetheless.

15. Classic Locked-Room Mysteries - David Stuart Davies, Ed.

16. Tedious Brief Tales of Granta and Gramarye - Gray, Arthur (Ingulphus)

17. London After Midnight: A Tour of Its Criminal Haunts - Peter Haining, ed.

A reasonably entertaining of London-based mystery stories, most from Golden Age authors.

18. A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle

19. The Lonely Girl Girls in Their Married Bliss - Edna O'Brien

Parts 2 and 3 of The Country Girls Trilogy. Painfully real.

20. The Murder of Mr. Wickham - Claudia Gray

Amusing enough, if overly long. The idea of having some of Austen's characters from various books be related or otherwise connected was a good one.

21. Amongst Our Weapons - Ben Aaronovitch.

Latest Rivers of London entry is back on form. The previous few felt as though BA were just phoning it in.

22. The Wreath - Sigrid Undset

The first book of the Kristin Lavransdatter trilogy.

23. Another Time, Another Place - Jodi Taylor

#12 in The Chronicles of St. Mary's

24. The Eustace Diamonds - Anthony Trollope
A re-read for the Trollope Society's Online Conversazione.

25. Yellow Glass - F. K. Young
Meh ghost stories. No real menace.

26. Defenders of the Faith - James Reston, Jr.
Excellent history of Christianity versus the Ottomans, 1520 - 1536

27. The Sign of Four - Arthur Conan Doyle

28. The English Ghost: Spectres Through Time - Peter Ackroyd

A compilation. Middling.

29. Master and Commander - Patrick O'Brian

Time to revisit old friends for a circumnavigation.

30. Post-Captain
31. H.M.S. Surprise
32. The Mauritius Command
33. Desolation Island
34. The Fortune of War
35. The Surgeon's Mate

36. The Ionian Mission

37. Treason's Harbour
38. The Far Side of the World
39. The Reverse of the Medal
40. The Letter of Marque
41. Brighton Rock - Grahame Greene

42. The Thirteen-Gun Salute - Patrick O'Brian

43. The Nutmeg of Consolation - Patrick O'Brian

44. Matrix - Lauren Groff

I had listened in the spring to this excellent work but neglected to list it. Fine historical fiction based on the life of the nun and medieval poet Marie de France.

45. The Truelove
46. The Wine-Dark Sea
47. The Commodore
48. The Yellow Admiral
49. The Hundred Days
50. Blue at the Mizzen
51. 21: The Final, Unfinished Voyage of Jack Aubrey
52. A Moveable Feast - Revised Edition - Ernest Hemingway
53. Blue Angel - Francine Prose
An engaging but ultimately unsatisfying dark comedy set in academia. For a smart guy, the protagonist sure is stupid (which is much of the point Prose makes).

54. High Rising - Angella Thirkell

Back to Barsetshire.