50 Books Challenge 2022 Part Seven

Okay, I'm DNFing The Extra Man by Jonathan Ames, which turns out to be a bit niche. The writing style is quite droll and the premise is interesting - a single man, Louis, leaves his teaching job at a private school in Princeton and takes a grotty room with a suave older man who survives on a mixture of teaching and escorting rich older ladies. Louis likes to think of himself as a "young gentleman", but quickly discovers that he may prefer to be a young lady. This in itself is fine and I was interested to read his journey of self-discovery - it is an unusual one to read about. However, his journey largely involves visiting prostitutes (for spanking) and transvestite bars, where he has his bits aggressively squeezed while discussing contouring. While repetitive, this is all fine with me. What I couldn't get past in the end was his fetishisation of the female, using real-life women as unwitting props for his fantasies. For example, after phoning a woman for work reasons he would imagine her showering and shaving her armpits (he has a thing for armpits). I can't tell whether the author thinks this is okay, or whether we're meant to judge the character for doing this - I suspect that the author thinks that's just the way it is, men fantasise about women, so what. It made me feel a bit queasy and I don't want to spend another five hours on it (thank you, kindle). Rant over.

34 Taste - Stanley Tucci
After spending 6 hours and 49 minutes listening to him talk to me about food, and tell me anecdotes from his life, I have fallen hopelessly in love with Stanley. Recommended to all foodies, although possibly not vegetarians...

Oh I get the 40% off specific wishlist titles quite a lot. I do always use them, even if the price is still above my "limit". But I think they pick books where I've put the physical version on my list and they offer the discount on the kindle version instead. Maybe that's the trick for those that don't get them if you're putting the kindle version on your list?

36. Murder at Teal's Pond: Hazel Drew and the Mystery that Inspired Twin Peaks by David Bushman and Mark T. Givens I've never watched Twin Peaks so I probably wasn't the target audience for this book but it was an Amazon first reads on a month where I didn't fancy anything else on the list. In July 1908 twenty year old Hazel Drew's decomposing body is found in a stagnant pond on a mountain in upstate New York. Despite an extensive investigation, her murderer(s) is never found. The police contend with two questions: who murdered Hazel Drew? And also who WAS Hazel Drew? Her life was full of mystery and unanswered questions that the police struggled to get to the bottom of. The two authors carry out an extensive investigation, not an easy feat on a cold case that's more than 100 years old with all the police records having been lost/destroyed. But they are confident they've solved the mystery of who murdered Hazel and why.

The book was well-written (the authors describe it as "creative non-fiction") and the research is thorough. The most fascinating aspect for me was the role the press paid in the original investigation. Whilst some aspects of the case were kept quiet, mostly the press knew absolutely everything the police did. They were even invited into the police station to physically examine the victim's clothing. There was certainly no concept of keeping details out of the press, either to aid the investigation or to preserve the privacy of involved parties

37. Fifty Shades of Royal Sex Scandals by T. S. Wiseman This is one of a series of four books covering royal sex scandals throughout history. Each book is short (takes less an hour to read). I suspect they were self-published and judging by the amount of incorrect words used I suspect there was no editor involved. Unfortunately Wiseman isn't as good an historian as they think they are and nor are they as good a writer as they think they are. But the book was extremely short and required minimal concentration so was perfect for the 3am feed last night

I really liked The Mermaid Of Black Conch! Surprised myself as I'm not big on magic realism and adjacent genres, and am usually lazy/impatient with books featuring non-standard English/dialect words etc. But I thought it was poetic and vivid, and at the same time earthy and very believable.

Thank you. I'll keep an eye out for those!

I've had 40% off a specific wishlist book a few times, but it never brings the price down to my £1.99 limit for kindle books. I don't seem to get notifications until the offer is about to expire. The other one that comes up is a £5 voucher when you spend £15 on kindle books in a month, which I manage even with my £1.99 limit.

I've had the 40% off voucher a few times, probably because I've not used it. I'm really stingy and wait until everything is 99p.

I’d also be thrilled if Amazon offered me 40% off any of the books on my ever-expanding wishlist, none of which ever go down to 99p these days, or seem likely to!

Finished the James H.
Was it lovely? Yes
Did it irritatingly contain a lot of stories featured in other books and therefore feel like a bit of a rip off? Also yes.

I got a vouchers for 40% off a kindle book (a specific one) that I'd put on the lost whe it was a £1 and I was browsing on my phone but definitely wouldn't buy for much more. Its now full price so wasn't fussed.

Also hate how I can buy through the kindle app anymore but my purse doesn't seem to mind lol

I’ve never had a ‘money off wish list’ voucher from Amazon. Occasionally I’ve had an email offering money off a book by a specific author but it’s always been authors whose books I’ve already got so the offer is no use! I would love money off my wish list, I’ve got a couple of expensive hardback son there that have been hanging around for ages as I wait to see if they drop in price.

I'm trying walk 10k steps a day in December and thought I'd listen to audible while I do it.

48. The Secret History of Christmas by Bill Bryson
**
This is only available on audible (I think, it's not that clear) and it's a short 3.5 hour listen and I managed the whole thing in two walks and one puzzle session which leads me to realise I might have more spare time in my life than I think....

Anyway, it's typical Bryson, interesting and wry humour. He looks at how Christmas has changed over the thousands of years it's been celebrated and when various traditions started and how they morphed into what we do now. It was really fascinating and just what I needed today to offset a frustrating day at work.

98 Rogues by Patrick Radden Keefe
A collection of the author's long pieces for the New Yorker. Although the subtitle is "True Stories of Grifters, Killers, Rebels and Crooks" it's quite a mixed bag including as well as forgers & arms dealers a US death-penalty defense lawyer and Anthony Bourdain. Inevitably with this sort of collection some were more interesting than others, but a good read all the same.

99 The Atlas Six by Olivie Blake
Fantasy novels based in or around the Great Library of Alexandria seem to be the latest thing. In this variation, once every ten years six exceptionally talented 20-30 something magicians are offered the opportunity to compete for five places in the Alexandrian Society, offering untold knowledge, wealth and power. After recruitment, they spend a year cloistered in the Society's London headquarters, before one is eliminated.

The first 80% of this was excellent - the magic was largely a hook to hang a story about the six protagonists & their relationships (thankfully no romance, though a fair amount of - off-page - sex) & it's the first book for ages where I've stayed up late for 'just one more chapter'. Unfortunately it became a rather more conventional fantasy-thriller type plot towards the end, setting up for a sequel. I'll no doubt read the next one, but I'll wait for it to come up in the library.
This was a recommendation from the Mr B's (free) online book matching service & it was a good shout I think. I got this one from the library, but I'll probably order some of the others they suggested for me.

100 Masters in this Hall by KJ Charles
Fun Christmas themed novella. John Garland is a disgraced hotel detective determined to catch the thief who tricked him & led to his dismissal. Barnaby - the thief - is employed by John's uncle to organise Christmas festivities in his country house. Theft, attempted murder and a lot of christmas carols follow.

Remus

It didn't improve. I'm getting more and more distrustful of prize winners and nominees

Alias I looked through my list from this year for ideas and wondered if Jackie Kay’s Red Dust Road would suit - memoir rather than fiction but a thoroughly resilient, humane book.

@EineReiseDurchDieZeit I'm impressed you made it to the end of Mermaid. I thought it was dire and gave up in disgust.

I once had credit given to my Amazon account (£5 I think) for no reason but that was years ago and never since. 40% off wish list would be lush nothings changed in price for ages

More Late To The Party TBR Turfings :

64. The Mermaid Of Black Conch by Monique Roffey

Man falls in love with mermaid. This wasn't for me. It was mercifully short or it wouldn't have been finished. Surprised at awards attention. Emperor's New Clothes vibes.

65. The Sealwoman's Gift by Sally Magnusson

Based on a true story of a piratical raid on Iceland in the 1600s, numerous Icelandic nationals are captured as slaves and taken to North Africa. With one or two minor quibbles notwithstanding, I actually really loved this, not quite a bold, but one of my best fictions this year, a lovely read, absorbing too, if you are still looking AliasGrape.

@noodlezoodle

First one, for me

@DameHelena

Amazon yes, it just came as an email, We Are Offering You 40% Off An Item On Your Wishlist

James Herriot definitely perfect for 'lovely'. This is a re-read, but not for a very long time. Just become reacquainted with Nugent the pig.

Both 84 Charing Cross Road and It Shouldn't Happen to a Vet are just perfectly 'lovely' reads in my humble opinion. Enjoy!

@AliasGrape what about I Capture The Castle? <happy sigh>

Eine, I sometimes get an Amazon email offering 40% off items on my wishlist - is that what you mean? They seem to appear very randomly.

No; how/where do you get those? You mean Amazon, yes?

Did anyone else get a Wish List voucher today? Nice surprise