It’s time for the 1976 Club, the bi-annual event where Simon and Karen ask readers across the internet to join together to build up a picture of a particular year in books. Any book published in 1976 counts – in whatever format, language, place.

I’ve previously read and reviewed read just three books published in 1976:

• 

• 

• 

• Last Seen Wearing by Colin Dexter, the second book in the Inspector Morse books. Inspector Morse is perplexed when a letter of reassurance arrives from young Valerie Taylor, missing for more than two years and presumed dead, in a case that takes a bizarre turn when a mysterious body turns up.
• Sleeping Murder by Agatha Christie, Miss Marple’s last case, published posthumously in 1976, although Agatha Christie had written it during the Second World War. Miss Marple investigates a murder that had happened 18 years ago.
• A Quiet Life by Beryl Bainbridge, a semi-autobiographical novel, using her own childhood and background as source material. In an interview she said that her creative urge was fuelled by what happened to her and from the age of 9 or 10 she had started to write about her parents and her background. She described herself as a child as an ‘awkward little devil‘.

I have two other books published in 1976 to read in my TBRs:

The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins, described as ‘a classic exposition of evolutionary thought’. I did start to read this book years ago when I first bought it, but I never finished it. The link is to the 40th anniversary edition that includes a new epilogue from the author discussing the continuing relevance of these ideas in evolutionary biology today.

I’d still like to read it, but not right now. Although it is described on the front cover as ‘the sort of popular science writing that makes the reader fell like a genius’ I have a feeling I won’t feel like a genius and it will take me quite some time to read it, especially it is printed in a small font.

The other book is In the Frame by Dick Francis, a murder mystery. Charles Todd—a renowned painter of horses—is shocked when he turns up at his cousin Donald’s house for a weekend visit to find his cousin’s young wife dead on the floor—and Donald the police’s prime suspect. Determined to prove Donald’s innocence, Todd trails a set of clues from England to Australia to New Zealand, only to realize that someone is trailing him. Someone with every intention of taking him out of the picture for good… (Goodreads)

My problem with reading this book this week is that I can’t find my copy!!!