Active discussions

Please or to access all these features

Talk
What we're reading

Find your new favourite book or recommend one on our Book forum.

Original poster

50 Books Challenge 2022 Part Seven

782 replies

Southeastdweller · 30/11/2022 10:19

Welcome to the seventh and (and probably) final thread of the 50 Books Challenge for this year.

The challenge is to read fifty books (or more!) in 2022, though reading fifty isn't mandatory. Any type of book can count, and even though it's late in the year, it’s not too late to join. Please try to let us all know your thoughts on what you've read.

How have you got on this year?

OP posts:
Thread gallery
25
Welshwabbit · 24/12/2022 10:50

67 The Dark is Rising - Susan Cooper

Seasonal re-read. I don't think anyone needs another review of this! Loved it, as I do every year.

68 Christmas is Murder - Val McDermid

Seasonal and extremely silly set of short stories. Read quickly and largely enjoyed, but a proper load of tosh. I don't think I'm made for the short story generally.

Cherrypi · 24/12/2022 10:32

27. The sentence by Louise Erdrich
A native American owned bookstore is haunted by a former customer. This is set in 2020 and references black lives matter and the pandemic.

I really enjoyed this one and she packs a lot in. Love all the book references. Definitely going to try some of her other novels if anyone has any recommendations?

eitak22 · 24/12/2022 08:47

39. Midwinter Murders - Agatha Christie This is a US publication (on prime reading) which contains a story not published before in the US but has been published here. Includes a variety of stories with many of Christies most famous characters. I really enjoyed dipping in and out of this and as per usual Christie had me guessing whodunit and enjoying the mystery.

Currently reading the first kingdom - Max Adams A look at Britain in the age of Arthur.

JaninaDuszejko · 23/12/2022 23:30

The King and the Christmas Tree by AN Wilson

Curious little book about Norway during the war. It looks like a book aimed at children but can't imagine many children reading it, it's mostly relatively dry and, e.g. talks about alcoholism in the population after the war. An interesting if relatively superficial history and not as Christmassy as the styling suggests.

PermanentTemporary · 23/12/2022 20:21

55. Whip Hand by Dick Francis
Just thought I would read something gripping and that I know backwards to help ease the fiction angst. Just about one of his best i think. A sequel but it's better than the first one Odds Against and a lot better than the terrible sequel whose name I can't even remember.

LadybirdDaphne · 23/12/2022 19:30

I loved (and still love) the novella The Ladybird too...

countrygirl99 · 23/12/2022 17:58

I read Lady Chatterley's Lover 30 odd years ago. I gave my copy to DHs nan who had a flat in an elderly sheltered housing complex. Apparently it did the rounds😆

EineReiseDurchDieZeit · 23/12/2022 17:48

It's bad that I've read both and can't remember either, must be 20 years ago. They were on my third year reading list. I did love Sons And Lovers and Lady's Chatterley's Lover. I mostly enjoyed hating Paul.

SolInvictus · 23/12/2022 16:42

I loved both The Rainbow and Women In Love and have huge swathes of both highlighted with teenage angst. I remember my Mum watching Alan Bates writhing naked on the rug in a 70s ? TV adaptation too but I've not seen that.
Lady Chatterley is one of my favourite re-reads. As a child, there was an orange Penguin paperback copy of it in a cupboard at home, turned round so I wouldn't be contaminated with lust for the lower classes and learn words I shouldn't. 😂
I still like to tell people about DHL's arches and why they matter.

Piggywaspushed · 23/12/2022 15:00

Just rattled through Talking to my Daughter : A Brief History of Capitalism.Largely I was preoccupied by thinking 'blimey, Yanis' DD must be awfully clever because I still don't understand' but many of his points are interesting and analogies helpful.

MegBusset · 23/12/2022 13:36

65 Madly, Deeply - The Alan Rickman Diaries

Subject of some mixed reviews on here - I have to say I enjoyed it, though those after deep psychological insights should look elsewhere. Instead it's an occasionally peevish luvvie-fest which I found fun to dip into.

JaninaDuszejko · 23/12/2022 12:44

I read The Rainbow at 18, I suspect teenagers are best placed to enjoy DH Lawrence, having more tolerance for his more turgid sections than those of us who are older and have less time on our hands.

MamaNewtNewt · 23/12/2022 12:32

@LadybirdDaphne I really enjoyed A Christmas Cornucopia,** the knowing tone that irritated some worked for me and I found out lots of interesting facts. And all for 99p 😊

RazorstormUnicorn · 23/12/2022 09:11

Number 50! Hurrah!

50. Undoctored by Adam Kay

This is half about how he got into medicine and half about what he has done since. Much less funny anecdotes.

I know Mumsnet is a bit divided on Adam Kay, if you like him, this is worth a read. If you think he's a twat, this won't change your mind.
**

Welshwabbit · 23/12/2022 08:35

@LadybirdDaphne The Rainbow was also one of my favourite books aged 16. I was a strange 16 year old.

MaudOfTheMarches · 23/12/2022 08:12

@LadybirdDaphne I liked Cornucopia, I just should have dipped into it instead of reading it straight through. Parts of it are very funny.

LadybirdDaphne · 23/12/2022 07:08

Glad to hear Act of Oblivion is good, I bought it for my mum for Christmas and asked for it for myself too.

Apologies to everyone who didn't enjoy The Christmas Cornucopia as much as me Xmas Blush

Have recently discovered the Backlisted podcast and now 1) I'm not listening to any audiobooks because all my earphone time is spent on Backlisted, 2) my want-to-read list now includes Riddley Walker, North and South, The Inheritors, Seamus Heaney's translation of Beowulf... and I want to re-read The Rainbow, which was one of my favourite novels aged 16 (which says a lot about 16-year-old me).

78. Women and Girls with Autism Spectrum Disorder - Sarah Hendrickx

Exploration of the lived experiences of women on the spectrum. I'm reading a lot in this area at the moment because of my daughter's recent diagnosis - and increasingly seeing that I've got an awful lot of traits myself (my parents and brother too).

RomanMum · 23/12/2022 00:09

@eitak22 me too!

EineReiseDurchDieZeit · 22/12/2022 22:49

My 2022 Roundup

Standout Fiction :

The People In The Trees by Hanya Yanagihara

A man becomes highly esteemed as a scientist, anthropologist, and researcher, but is he everything he claims?

The Dutch House by Ann Patchett

Two young people become obsessed with their childhood home, having been cheated out of their inheritance.

Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams

A woman self destructs following the end of a toxic relationship

Standout Non Fiction

Natives : Race And Class In The Ruins Of Empire by Akala

An important voice in ongoing debates around discriminatory behaviour and institutional prejudice

Say Nothing by Patrick Radden Keefe

A compelling deep dive into what it was to be a member of the IRA at the height of tensions in Northern Ireland

Madhouse At The End Of The Earth by Julian Sancton

A Belgian expedition to the South Pole goes badly awry

House Of Glass by Hadley Freeman

A journalist follows the journey of her Jewish family from pogroms in Poland to the advent of Nazism in Europe and all that implies.

Action Park by Andy Mulvihill with Jake Rossen

A family owns and runs a theme park, operating it in a completely preposterous fashion

Biggest Failures :

The Twyford Code by Janice Hallett

Annoying prose suffered through to be only made worse by the size of the twists. Bollocks to it.

Fleishman Is In Trouble by Taffy Brodesser-Akner

Enough has been said Grin

And that's a wrap! 8 out of 80 bolds is not great though.

eitak22 · 22/12/2022 22:31

@RomanMum the Dead Famous book is on my TBR as picked it up for £1 from the works.

RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie · 22/12/2022 22:27

I liked Goodbye to Berlin and Mr Norris Changes Trains but found the other Isherwoods that I’ve tried completely unreadable. I did go on a little pilgrimage to find his house in Berlin though.

EineReiseDurchDieZeit · 22/12/2022 22:23

@Tarahumara

Letters Between Two Sisters is one of my all time favourite books

  1. Goodbye To Berlin by Christopher Isherwood

I got this because it was 99p and I'm hoping to see Cabaret sometime. I didn't know beforehand that Isherwood actively disliked Cabaret, mainly due to its depictions of lavish lifestyles impossible during the dying days of the Weimar Republic.
It's a semi-fiction in which he appears as a character. People he met and places he went are renamed in what is basically a selection of short sketches of Berlin as Nazi sentiment begins to rise. I preferred the first half and found it a bit dull after Sally Bowles leaves the scene.

  1. The Kraken Wakes by John Wyndham

The title is probably a spoiler. Like most Wyndham novels it's a dystopia/apocalypse scenario. Phyllis and Mike Watson notice fireballs in the sky whilst on honeymoon, in the coming years it becomes evident that extra terrestrial life has landed in the oceans and lurks in the deep.
Absolutely not a patch on The Day Of The Triffids or The Chrysalids both of which are amazing. Earlier in the year I had numerous reservations over the turn the plot took in The Trouble With Lichen but it was still engaging. This just drags so much and doesn't really have characters you can invest in. A damp squib, pun intended. Sad really, as it's my first Wyndham to have been a total letdown.

And With That :

Stick A Fork In Me For I Am Done For 2022. I wanted to end on a nice round number, and I want to spend the rest of 2022 watching shite and eating cheese.

I'm following this post up with a "roundup" post in a minute

Gingerwarthog · 22/12/2022 22:01

Have just finished Act of Oblivion by Robert Harris.
This was brilliant. Set in the 1660s at the time of the Restoration when Charles the Second is on the throne and has pardoned everyone except the 'regicides' who signed his father's death warrant.
These regicides are ruthlessly hunted down - two escape to the Puritan colonies in New England and become fugitives for years, constantly on the run.
I also enjoyed the descriptions of the colonies and the people who lived there.

Welshwabbit · 22/12/2022 18:31

Totally fallen off the thread so posting my list here to bookmark (sorry to those who hate lists!)

1. Slouching Towards Bethlehem - Joan Didion

  1. Diary of an MP’s Wife – Sasha Swire
  2. Fake Law – The Secret Barrister
  3. Buried in Secret – Viveca Sten
  4. Truth And Beauty – Ann Patchett
  5. Material Girls – Kathleen Stock
  6. 1979 – Val McDermid
  7. Mrs Hemingway – Naomi Wood
  8. Mort – Terry Pratchett
10. Scrublands – Chris Hammer 11. The Other Americans – Laila Lalami 12. The Magician’s Assistant – Ann Patchett 13. Equal Rites – Terry Pratchett 14. Thief of Time – Terry Pratchett 15. The Greengage Summer – Rumer Godden 16. The Pull of the Stars – Emma Donoghue 17. Mrs Dalloway – Virginia Woolf 18. Square Haunting – Francesca Wade 19. Strange Hotel – Eimear McBride 20. Don’t Ask Me Why – Tania Kindersley 21. The White Album – Joan Didion 22. The Long Call – Ann Cleeves 23. The Heron’s Cry – Ann Cleeves 24. The Women in Black – Madeleine St John 25. South Riding - Winifred Holtby 26. A Narrow Door – Joanne Harris 27. An Unsuitable Match – Joanna Trollope 28. Taft – Ann Patchett 29. Again, Rachel – Marian Keyes 30. Slow Horses - Mick Herron 31. The Decagon House Murders – Yukito Ayatsuji 32. The Searcher – Tana French 33. The Patron Saint of Liars – Ann Patchett 34. Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café – Fannie Flagg 35. Two Heads – Uta, Chris and Alex Frith and Daniel Locke 36. Here We Are – Graham Swift 37. On Connection – Kae Tempest 38. Remain Silent – Susie Steiner 39. Dead Lions – Mick Herron 40. Exposure – Helen Dunmore 41. Just for One Day – Louise Wener 42. The Mercies – Kiran Millwood Hargrave 43. Summerwater – Sarah Moss 44. Offshore – Penelope Fitzgerald 45. Old Filth – Jane Gardam 46. The Man in the Wooden Hat – Jane Gardam 47. Last Friends – Jane Gardam 48. The Most Fun We Ever Had – Claire Lombardo 49. Still Life – Sarah Winman 50. The Mountains Sing – Nguyen Phan Que Mai 51. Augustown – Kei Miller 52. A Change of Circumstance – Susan Hill 53. Anthills of the Savannah – Chinua Achebe 54. Things Fall Apart – Chinua Achebe 55. The Rising Tide - Ann Cleeves 56. Sweet Bean Paste - Durian Sukegawa 57. A Change of Climate - Hilary Mantel 58. The Ink Black Heart - Robert Galbraith 59. The Garden of Evening Mists - Tan Twan Eng 60. Mrs Mohr Goes Missing - Maryla Szymiczkowa 61. Typhoon - Qaisra Shahraz 62 The Quaker - Liam McIlvanney 63 The Godmother - Hannelore Cayre 64 Invisible City - Julia Dahl

And the pathetically small number of additions:

65 The Complete Yes Minister - Jonathan Lynn and Anthony Jay

A very enjoyable re-read, not looked at this for about 20 years. So much of it is still true today. The chapter about equal opportunities still stands up, which is a bit terrifying.

66 A People's History of Heaven - Mathangi Subramanian

Latest Shelter book club pick, a novel about a group of girls living in a Bangalore slum known as Heaven. I enjoyed this. It felt a bit YA in places and the girls did seem to be picked to embody a level of diversity that you might not expect to find in a small friendship group. So it was a little contrived, but the writing was good and it was overall a hopeful, joyful book without feeling entirely without realism.

I'm going to go back and read the thread now. Hope everyone's OK. It feels as though it's been a particularly brutal run up to Christmas.

RomanMum · 22/12/2022 17:01

64, Dead Famous - Greg Jenner

A history of celebrity, looking at what makes one and the different aspects of what it means to be one. Many well-researched examples from across history but mostly from the 18th century onwards when the concept of celebrity really hit its stride. Nice tone; I could see it working as an audiobook (perhaps it is one already?).

Swipe left for the next trending thread