The A-Z home page can be found here.
My theme this year is authors that I've read. More about the books I've read than the authors themselves.
I'm an avid reader. I'm a member of 2 in person reading groups through my local library. I'm gradually working my way through an old BBC reading list of 100 books (I'm about half way through) and I'm taking part in the online 52 Book Club Challenge for the third time this year where the challenge is to read 52 books over the year based on 52 different prompts. You can also find me on Goodreads here.
The O authors I've read are:
- O’Brien James
- O’Farrell Maggie
- O’Flanagan Sheila
- O’Leary Beth
- O’Loughlin Ann
- Obama Barak
- Obama Michelle
- Oliver Jenny
- Orwell George
- Osman Richard
- Owens Delia
My lists seem to be shrinking - only 11 "O" authors with 15 books between them. They are mostly single choices with the exceptions of Sheila O'Flanagan, Ann O'Louglin, Jenny Oliver and George Orwell who have 2 each.
Only 1 5 star book too - Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens. I loved it but you can also find 1 star reviews on Goodreads from readers who hated it.
There aren't many stand out books on the list. Predictably the 2 George Orwell books I've read are Animal Farm and 1984 both of which feature on the BBC list. Of the Obama books, I found Michelle's autobiography a bit hard going and long. Barak's book (Dreams from my Father) gave an open and honest insight into his background and how he became the person he is.
The oddball in the list is probably James O'Brien's How not to be Wrong: The art of changing your mind.
O'Brien is a presenter on LBC radio and I find him quite opinionated. He often starts his show with a long monologue about a particular subject and he can be very unforgiving to people who don't present their arguments very well, especially if there are holes in them.
This book was refreshing as it presented a more balance image of O'Brien and showed that there have indeed been times when he's realised that he needed to look at something differently.
Finally I must mention Richard Osman. I have actually only read his first book The Thursday Murder Club. My review was as follows:
"Well I'm a bit torn on this one. It's a nice cosy read - think Midsomer Murders meets Miss Marple except Miss Marple has a gang of residents in a retirement village. The group meet once a meet to discuss cold cases but then they're presented with an actual murder.
It all gets a bit silly at times although in a funny sort of way. I just felt the author was trying to be too clever with the plot lines - there are lots of them to keep track of. And characters. It also switches between 1st and 3rd person POVs which didn't really add to the narrative.
I didn't hate the book - I got through it in two days - but I certainly didn't love it. Unfortunately I think some books by well known celebrities don't always get the rejections an unknown writer does."
Of course lots of people loved it. He's written 4 more and 2 in a new series (We solve murders) so he's obviously doing something right.
Are you a fan?
