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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 S authors I've read are:
- Salazar Noelle
- Salinger J D
- Samson Polly
- Sandy Claire
- Sansom C J
- Seeber Claire
- Sebold Alice
- Serle Rebecca
- Seton Anya
- Sewell Anna
- Shaffer Mary Ann
- Shemilt Jane
- Shortall Eithne
- Shriver Lionel
- Simms Gill
- Slaughter Karin
- Smith Dodie
- Sparks Nicholas
- Spyri Johanna
- Stanley Mary
- Stedman M L
- Danielle Steel
- Steeples Jill
- Steinbeck John
- Steiner Susie
- Stevenson Benjamin
- Stevenson Robert Louis
- Stockett Kathryn
- Stone Lisa
- Strout Elizabeth
- Summers Judith
- Swaby Rachel
- Swain Heidi
- Swan Karen
Unsurprisingly a crime writer - Karin Slaughter - is the most read S author on my list with 12 books read. Many of these are very dark and grisly in places. Not to everyone's taste.
There are a couple of children's classics on there, Black Beauty and Treasure Island but the only real adult classic is Catcher in the Rye by J D Salinger which I only gave 2 stars to.
This was a book I felt I should read rather than wanted to read. It's a classic - it made the BBC Good Read list but it had never made its way to the top of my TBR pile. It fitted a prompt for the 52 book club challenge tin 2025 so I decided it was time. Well, it was hard going. I can't say it's a book I enjoyed or liked. I was impressed by the way it was written. Salinger definitely seems to have managed to get inside the head of a 16 year old boy, filled with grief, but I just wasn't drawn into the story. Thankfully it was quite short at 220 pages but it took me 11 days to get through it. Never a good sign.
Danielle Steel features on the list although only for 6 books. I'm sure I've read more of hers but that must have been before I kept records of my reading. Unfortunately the one I read most recently, Trial by Fire, I only gave 2 stars. It needed a lot of editing. It was very repetitive and felt formulaic for me. Steel has written over 200 books but it feels to me that maybe she has reached her limit.
One of the 5 star books on this list is The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peal Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer. A much lighter read which I loved. I've watched the film twice.
Two other authors that stand out for me on this list are Elizabeth Strout and C J Sansom.
Strout just has a lovely way with prose. Her books are quite different from my usual reads and although they're not thrilling or even full of events they were just good to read.
C J Sansom is the author of an historical series revolving around Matthew Shardlake, a lawyer in the times of Henry VIII who gets involved in mysteries. Again not my typical read but I'm really enjoying the series. I've read 5 of the 7. Another set of tomes though. The first in the series was over 400 pages and they've got longer. The final instalment is over 800 pages!
Do you have a limit on a size of book that you will read?
If a book doesn't grab me in the first 50 pages I'm likely to ditch it especially if it's long and physically heavy. Last week my granddaughter lent me a heavy book, after 180 pages I gave up and bought and finished the eBook version that was comfortable for an old lady to read.
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