mediocre mystery and great novel

The Taking of Annie Thorne by C J Tudor, 2019. Not a likeable character in the book. Engaging plot, but that's about it. Dark and dreary mystery. Glad it's over.

Great novel by Australian writer, Trent Dalton, Boy Swallows Universe, 2019. Characters you love, story told from the heart. Really good book. Fallible people dealing with life in Brisbane as best they can. Told from the main character's perspective, Eli Bell, age 12 to start with.

2 non fiction books

Belonging: A German Reckons with History and Home, 2018, by Nora Krug. Interesting graphic novel, she investigates her family, tries to find out how guilty any of them may have been of being linked to Nazi activities. Interesting perspective, honest investigation. Worth reading.

Forgiveness, 2015, by Mark Sakamoto. Very interesting content, two families and how they were mistreated in the war, but badly written. Very patchy, much left out it feels like half a book.

excellent non fiction

Land of Lost Border: Out of Bound on the Silk Road, 2018, Kate Harris. Riding in snow and rain on awful roads, 11 months with one friend, an amazing journey. But the best parts of the book are her thoughts on the environment, on the meaning or lack of meaning in the borders we create. Very good book, deserved to win the award she won, The Taylor Award.

Stiff,by Mary Roach. 2004. Very interesting book about corpses, what people do with them, how they are used, historically where they came from. She's a witty writer and finds out interesting things.

Thick and other essays, 2019, by Tressie McMillan Cottom. Good writer, great essays, written by a scholar, author and sociologist with a decade-long track record of exceptional work. Amazon reviewer says these essays are "crammed full of striking observations about America’s current and historical racial/economic/class schisms," And they are.

Cara Hunter, In the Dark, 2019. Pretty good mystery. not much more to say

Peter May, I'll Keep you Safe, 2019. Not as good as his many other books, but very descriptive of the Hebrides, and weaving and textiles and the business behind it all. Interesting to read about looms and weavers. The murder not so interesting.

James Oswald, Cold as the Grave, 2019. #9 of his Inspector McLean series, very good mystery.

Elly Griffiths, The Stone Circle, 2019. Another very good mystery in her Ruth Galloway series, with DCI Nelson. Thoroughly enjoyable characters, great setting, good mystery.

A Place for Us by Fatima Farheen Mirza 2018. Very good novel. How a family deals with life in America. Good writer.

The wife Between Us, 2019 by Greer Hendricks (Author), Sarah Pekkanen . Irritating mystery. Women too flaky for me. inventive plot, and not badly written but not a single character I liked at all.

2 good non-fictions and many mysteries

Birdology: Adventures with Hip Hop Parrots, Cantankerous Cassowaries, Crabby Crows, Peripatetic Pigeons, Hens, Hawks, and Hummingbirds by Sy Montgomery, 2011. A great book. Half way through it and finding it very interesting. Good writer, good information.

Dreyer's English: An Utterly Correct Guide to Clarity and Style, 2019. Very interesting and funny too, he's very clear and fair. Good book.

Australian writer, Candice Fox, has written 3 mysteries so far in a series. Read the first two and am waiting for the third. Good books, with the added benefit of creatures; a family geese, 11 cats (from one pregnant cat) and added at the end of book 2 is Celine, the dog, who howls to Celine Dion. Who wouldn't like these characters who rescue creatures?
1.Crimson Lake 2017
2.Redemption Point: A Crimson Lake Novel, 2018
3. Gone by Midnight 2019

Hope she writes more about these eccentric characters.

Kingdom of the Blind: A Chief Inspector Gamache Novel by Louse Penny, 2019. More on the Three Pines with Armand Gamache, another good mystery. When his colleague was shot before, she writes:
"The old poet’s bony hands holding Isabelle’s. Her voice unwavering as she whispered to Isabelle over and over again the only thing that mattered.
That she was loved.
Isabelle would never remember that, and Armand would never forget it."

A Tiding of Magpies by Steve Burrows, 2018 The fifth birder mystery, set in Norfolk along with Elly Griffith's books. The protagonist is Canadian, working in the UK, which doesn't really make sense but doesn't really matter. Good mystery.