Around the Year in 52 Books discussion

A book under 200 pages."

1. A book with an orange or yellow cover

2. A book set in a place with changing seasons

3. A book with a school-age character

4. A nonfiction book

5. A book that "haunts" you - however you define that

6 A book containing a mystery element

7. A book containing humour

8. A book under 200 pages

9. A book published in the last 12 months

10. A book set in a country other than your own

11. A book set before you were born

12. A book with more than one point of view

13. A book by an author who has published more than 5 books

14. A book with a title of more than 4 words

15. A book with a nature scene on the cover

A book containing a mystery element.

Based on a television series I haven't seen. I liked the premise and the setting, and on the whole, this worked quite well for me.

A book under 200 pages.

Disclosure - I know this author, but even if I didn't, these are beautiful, deceptively simple poems, which ring very true.

A book set in a country other than your own.

Having seen so much praise for this book online, I was delighted to find a copy. It did take me a little while to settle into, but then I was absorbed by the setting and story. I also liked the fact that the story was based on a real woman.

A book set before you were born.

A reissue by Pandora of a book written in 1930 and set in the late 1920s. It was a good examination of the class structure and raised the interesting question of whether two people from entirely different backgrounds can live together successfully. The other issue raised by the author, that people should be able to live together before embarking on marriage, to make sure it is not just physical attraction that is holding them together, is of course no longer an issue, at least generally in the UK where the book is set.

The book was on the whole well-written, with good characters, although there was quite a bit of tell not show regarding one of the minor characters.

An interesting read.

A book with a title of more than 4 words.

Beautifully written but strange. There are two story threads, and I didn't feel that they were successfully united. I really wanted them as two separate novellas or short stories. If it's possible to like a book but to be a bit disappointed in it, this fits the bill.

A book with a school-age character.

The life of a young teenager in 1970s rural England. Spot on (no pun intended) on teenage life then, and the atmosphere of the time rang true. Rather depressing, but hopeful towards the end.

A non-fiction book

A book with an orange or yellow cover

In terms of school dinners, this was more tapioca pudding than chocolate sponge. I liked the idea behind the series, cosy crime solved by a married couple of dinner ladies (surely lunch time supervisors?), but I found this difficult to get into.

It would have helped obviously not to have come a good way into a series, but I found the whole set up a bit odd. Are there still state schools where meals are cooked on the premises rather than being brought in? Perhaps there are in Wales. And I found the whole school rather unbelievable.

I liked the team of cooks and servers who helped the MCs, they were fun. However, the mystery itself was over complicated and I felt the resolution didn't really fit in the cosy crime genre.

A book by an author who has published over five books.