Aliscotia Reflecting....

...on the last year and the books I have enjoyed the most. As is traditional now, here is my book list. Hopefully there might be something here you will enjoy and if there is do let me know.

The Joe Pickett series by C J Box. The first book is Open Season


I’ve read 14 books of this 24 book series this year. I have lived and breathed Wyoming and the life of this appealing character, Joe Pickett. Joe is a Game Warden in Wyoming, lives with his wife and daughters in a State owned house and spends his days in the wilds checking that people have their fishing and hunting licenses amongst other jobs. That doesn’t sound very exciting but these books have kept me gripped and entertained all year. I would have read more than 14 but I make myself space them out! The books are all about the tensions between the sheriff, the game wardens, the FBI, the ranchers and the evironmentalists. In every book there is a serious crime and Joe gets involved in solving it. Somehow, every book is more exciting than the last, even when I think that’s not possible C J Box comes up with something new.  I won’t say more than that but I am so grateful to my friend Tania in New Zealand for recommending them.
Unfortunately for those of you in the UK they are only available as a series on the kindle. Only the first book is available in paperback.  I think that will change in the future as there is a serialization of the books on Amazon TV. They have been New York Times best sellers so I imagine they are all available in paperback in the US and possibly other countries.


The Ruth Galloway series by Elly Griffiths The first book is “The Crossing Places”


Ruth Galloway is a forensic archaeologist. Whenever old bones are dug up the police call on her skills. I read the full 13 book series this year and absolutely loved them. Ruth is a great character and you get to know the police officers that she works with really well too. I particularly found the forensic side of the books fascinating as well as all the history and myth around the area of Norfolk. The first book was probably my least favourite because of the subject matter, but there was enough to hook me for the series and subsequent books had me gripped.


Britt-Marie was here by Fredrik Backman


Britt-Marie is an unusual lady, pedantic, awkward, socially inept. She lands in the remote town of Borg and it changes her while she also changes it. I don’t want to say more than that but if you enjoyed “A Man called Ove” by the same author…or “Anxious People” you will enjoy this one.

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir


Tom gave me this book last Christmas and so it was the first book I read in the New Year. Andy Weir wrote “The Martian” which I love and so I was pretty sure I would enjoy this book…whatever it was (I had a feeling it was sci fi). A man wakes up, does not know who he is or where he is and has to start solving the problem by looking around him. Slowly you and he realise the situation he is in and in a series of memories/flashbacks you come to understand why he is there. This kept me so gripped that Rob was intrigued and then got the audio book for the car and we listened to it together. That’s when we discovered Ray Parker the reader of the story. He is an absolute maestro when it comes to an audio book. We then googled other books read by Ray Parker and have since listened to “14” by Peter Clines and “And then she vanished” by Nick Jones (set in Cheltenham). The authors and Ray’s reading helped to pass long car journeys this year in a highly entertaining way.


The Maid by Nita Prose


Molly Gray is a maid at the Regency Grand Hotel. She does her job diligently and then one day discovers a guest dead in his bed. Suddenly all the attention is on Molly. I’ve had feedback from two friends on this one and we all loved it.


Wool Trilogy, Silo, Shift and Dust by Huw Howey


Ten years ago I read “Silo” and loved it (thank you Rick for recommending) so was delighted when it came on Apple TV last year. Having watched it I decided to read books 2 and 3, both of which were excellent. Silo is a dystopia. People live in the Silo, underground. There are many rules and regulations and the main one is …never ask to go outside. Sometimes someone asks to go outside and once those words are said they have to go, you cannot take those words back. And once outside they have to clean the windows that show everyone the outside world. And then they die. What is the silo, why is it there, why is going outside forbidden?


The People on Platform 5 by Clare Pooley


Iona is big in PR and a big personality too and she boards the same train to work every day seeing the same people and never talking to them or interacting with them. Then one day something happens that gets everyone to interact. As they find out that their initial assumptions about each other were not correct will they continue to interact or will they go back to their old silent ways. You will have to read it to find out. Thanks to Lauren for sending me this book.


No More Games by Gordon J Brown


The author, Gordon,  was a kid in the 70s and so is the main character in this book. 12 year old Ginger Bannerman is playing in the woods in the Southside of Glasgow in 1974 when he, and his friend Milky, stumble across something they shouldn’t have. I loved reading references to my childhood growing up in Scotland and it was fascinating to see that world through the eyes of a 12 year old boy. Ginger was much braver that I would ever have been as he gets caught up in a seedy underworld of gangs and edge of your seat violence that Gordon describes so well in this crime thriller.


The Running Grave by Robert Galbraith, Cormoran Strike book 7


I’ve loved all the Cormoran Strike Books. I saw that book 7 was out and then realised I hadn’t read book 6…wow…so I had two to read this year.
Book 6 was all about an on-line game which had been spawned from a cartoon and one of the originators of the cartoon is murdered. Book 7 was about a cult in Norfolk.
These are mighty tomes and took me a while to read but I enjoyed them both. At times, as always, there are many suspects and the plot is quite complex and I end up wondering how on earth they will manage to televise it. Somehow they always manage it though and it is one of these series where I enjoy the TV version as much as the book. And I now picture the actors when I read the books.