50 Books Challenge 2022 Part Seven

@ChessieFL thanks for flagging O Caledonia, which I missed when browsing 1000 pages of nonsense in the deals this morning!

@RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie Yes, it is the Russian folk tales but the book seems to go by a couple of different names.

@PermanentTemporary I thought it was just me that read books backwards to get through them - sometimes it's the only way.

The monthly deals are pretty rubbish, as per, though I did get Touch Not the Cat by Mary Stewart, Dr Zhivago, Ai Weiwei's book and The Will, which is allegedly "perfect for fans of Succession". I doubt anything can live up to that blurb but I will give it a go.

I loved Lessons in Chemistry especially the dog. But I also love your review @PermanentTemporary and agree with some of it.

‘random plot generator’ is exactly how I would describe Jodie Picoult’s writing.

also on Colleen Hover I read Verity probably because of the insta-hype. It was so bad. Like 50 Shades of Grey but sillier and more violent.

Thanks south

Bringing my list over. It feels like I’ve had a disappointing year really, but looking back over the list there were some I really enjoyed, just a higher than average amount of ‘meh’.

I don’t know about the bolds - I seem to bold different ones each time, which maybe means they’re not true standouts after all.

1. Hercule Poirot’s Christmas - Agatha Christie
2. Golden Hill - Francis Spufford
3. The Heart’s Invisible Furies - John Boyne
4. 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in this Strange World - Elif Shafak
5. Sorrow and Bliss - Meg Mason
6. And Away - Bob Mortimer
7. Excellent Women - Barbara Pym
8. Moonflower Murders - Anthony Horowitz
9. The Man In the Brown Suit - Agatha Christie

I picked up O Caledonia in the deals following recommendations on here.

One of the worst/most dross monthly deals I've seen in a long time...

There's a John Wyndham lurking on page 36 though

It's lovely to see some long lost names back in the chat. elkie, hope the sadness is at least abating somewhat.

I also disliked Lessons in Chemistry. The whole thing felt like a random plot generator had churned out some touch points which she then had to turn into a not great story. It felt so oddly patchwork and not at all what the blurb promised. I think my review at the time was quite generous. I am much crosser as time goes on.

47. Stasiland by Anna Funder

Think I am the only person on here who hadn't read this and it was as good as everyone else suggested. Nothing else to add!

Had a quick look at Kindle deals but can't see anything I fancy reading. I should probably read the books I got given last Christmas before this one comes round. I got really sidetracked by trying to finish my unread books on kindle (and failed, as I continued to buy 99p deals as I saw them!)

@PermanentTemporary i got about ten pages into Lessons In Chemistry before giving up, it just didn't ring true at all.

61 Full Circle - Michael Palin

I found this more fragmented than 80 Days and Pole To Pole, probably due to the unavoidable expediency of using aeroplane travel for some legs of the huge journey around the Pacific Rim. Still lots to enjoy, particularly the stretch through South America.

Good to hear from you, @magimedi, and it’s great that you feel so well settled in now. The conversation group sounds fun.

I'm not posting my list for now but here’s my latest:

87: A Summer Birdcage - Margaret Drabble

This is the current Rather Dated Bookclub choice, and was Drabble's first novel. Sarah, the narrator, just down from Oxford (or 'Ox', as she insists on calling it) with a brilliant First, returns home for the wedding of her elder sister, Louise, with whom she has a deeply tricky relationship.

After the wedding, Sarah moves to a flatshare in London ('vast and gracious' rooms in a Victorian house in Highbury, from where she commutes to a job with the BBC that 'seemed better than nothing') and….nothing much happens. She has conversations at parties with various uninteresting people but is basically obsessed with how much she hates Louise. I won’t give away the ending in case anyone's still reading it, but I didn’t find it especially satisfying.

A hard slog for me, I’m afraid. I did look up some reviews and they all raved about its sparkling freshness, wit and originality. I just found it rather dull and I didn’t care about any of the characters.

@magimedi good to see you! I had been in Italy for about 10 years before I dared answer the phone and still do that "turning my phone over because if I can't see it ringing they won't know I'm there" thing. .

In other news I have started The Fell so I think may not be treating you to another Sol-hates review. Phew! Was starting to think it was me but it's just my Kindle random number generator. I went through it last night and picked out 10 books I know I'd have picked up in a shop /library rather than going "oooh 99p and Marian Keyes loves it" and slinging it in my virtual pile.

@PermanentTemporary oh yes! Do the list again if you can. That was great and I added lots to my wishlist from it. Thank you!

Thanks for the new thread @Southeastdweller ! I’ll post my list at the end of the year,

Glad you are well-settled @magimedi , your English conversation group sounds great! I hate having to deal with phone calls in French, it’s so much easier face-to-face when you can incorporate body language!

Oops, that was The Raven's Head that should have been labelled malodorous, not The Black Death. Although I don't imagine the Black Death was too fragrant.

Thanks for the new thread southeast!

Here's my list:

1.	Writing the Bible: Origins of the Old Testament - Martien Halvorson-Taylor
2.	Brain Storm: Detective Stories from the World of Neurology - Suzanne O'Sullivan
3.	<strong>Breaking Free of Child Anxiety and OCD</strong> - Eli R. Lebowitz 
4.	Fantastically Great Women Scientists and Their Stories - Kate Pankhurst
5.	This Thing of Darkness - Harry Thompson
6.	Language and the Mind - Spencer Kelly
7.	Nine Nasty Words - John McWhorter
8.	You&rsquo;re Doing It Wrong - Kaz Cooke
9.	<strong>Luster</strong> - Raven Leilani 
10.	Before the Coffee Gets Cold - Toshikazu Kawaguchi 
11.	The Poems of T.S. Eliot 
12.	Vinegar Girl - Anne Tyler
13.	Kindred: Neanderthal Life, Love, Death and Art - Rebecca Wragg Sykes
14.	Beautiful World, Where Are You - Sally Rooney 
15.	<strong>I</strong><strong>nvisible Women</strong> - Caroline Criado Perez
16.	Material Girls - Kathleen Stock
17.	Hag-Seed - Margaret Atwood
18.	The Women of Troy - Pat Barker
19.	The Explosive Child - Ross W Greene
20.	Wordslut - Amanda Montell
21.	Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are? - Frans de Waal 
22.	<strong>God: an anatomy</strong> - Francesca Stavrakopoulou 
23.	The Starting School Book - Sarah Ockwell-Smith
24.	Can I tell you about Pathological Demand Avoidance syndrome? - Ruth Fidler and Phil Christie
25.	Wild Magic - Tamora Pierce
26.	Temporary - Hilary Leichter 
27.	Put a Wet Paper Towel On It - Lee Parkinson and Adam Parkinson
28.	Bitch: a revolutionary guide to sex, evolution and the female animal - Lucy Cooke
29.	Permission to Feel - Marc Brackett
30.	<strong>Lolita</strong> - Vladimir Nabokov 
31.	<strong>Putting the Rabbit in the Hat</strong> - Brian Cox
32.	The Family Experience of PDA - Eliza Fricker
33.	In Control: dangerous relationships and how they end in murder - Jane Monckton Smith
34.	The Intoxicating Mr Lavelle - Neil Blackmore
35.	Hard Times - Charles Dickens
36.	The Animals in That Country - Laura Jean McKay
37.	Hidden Valley Road - Robert Kolker
38.	Wolf Speaker -Tamora Pierce
39.	What Lies Buried - Kerry Daynes
40.	The Out-of-Sync Child - Carol Stock Kranowitz
41.	Emperor Mage - Tamora Pierce
42.	Trans - Helen Joyce
43.	Toast: autism in the early years - Alice Boardman
44.	The Seven Ages of Death - Richard Shepherd 
45.	Some Assembly Required - Neil Shubin
46.	<strong>I</strong><strong>mmune</strong> - Philipp Dettmer
47.	<strong>No One is Talking About This</strong> - Patricia Lockwood
48.	Realms of the Gods - Tamora Pierce
49.	<strong>T</strong><strong>he Diary of a Bookseller</strong> - Shaun Bythell
50.	The Tempest - William Shakespeare
51.	Woke Racism - John McWhorter
52.	<strong>M</strong><strong>r Loverman</strong> - Bernardine Evaristo
53.	Autism: how to raise a happy autistic child - Jessie Hewitson 
54.	The Sleeping Beauties - Suzanne O&rsquo;Sullivan
55.	Medieval Myths and Mysteries - Dorsey Armstrong
56.	This is Your Own Time You&rsquo;re Wasting - Lee Parkinson and Adam Parkinson 
57.	The Raven&rsquo;s Head - Karen Maitland
58.	The Black Death - Dorsey Armstrong** <span class="italic">- not quite a stinker but fairly malodorous</span> 
59.	The Restraint of Beasts - Magnus Mills
60.	Bird by Bird - Anne Lamott
61.	King Arthur: History and Legend - Dorsey Armstrong
62.	<strong>The Wordhord: Daily Life in Old English</strong> - Hana Videen
63.	The Couple at the Table - Sophie Hannah
64.	Language A-Z - John McWhorter
65.	Play - Stuart Brown 
66.	Autism and Asperger Syndrome in Children - Luke Beardon 
67.	Talking With Your Child About Their Autism Diagnosis - Raelene Dundon 
68.	How to be Autistic - Charlotte Amelia Poe
69.	<strong>U</strong><strong>ndoctored</strong> - Adam Kay
70.	The Hotel Where We Met - Belinda Jones
71.	Powerful Women of the Medieval World - Dorsey Armstrong
72.	Food Isn&rsquo;t Medicine - Joshua Wolrich
73.	<strong>D</strong><strong>runk</strong> - Edward Slingerland
74.	I Am Autistic - Chanelle Moriah 
75.	<strong>T</strong><strong>he Woman in White</strong> - Wilkie Collins

Now reading Circe (a few years after everyone else) and really enjoying it. Didn't like Song of Achilles as they didn't match my conception of Achilles and Patroclus at all.

Hi, posting to bookmark this thread, though sorry not to have posted for ages etc. I had a short reading crisis in the autumn - I think I was a bit overwhelmed by sadness. I've picked myself up a bit now, and hoping that I'll get off to a good start (at least) for December by finishing a few books in the next few days - I would say that I started quite a lot of rather long books in November (and even finished some of them - some I'm still reading).

Thank you Southeast. It freaks me out that the year is almost over. If people don't mind, I might work out the 50 Bookers Book of the Year again like I did last year.

My list:
1. A woman of no importance by Sonia Purnell

1. In Order to Live: A North Korean Girl's Journey to Freedom by Yeonmi Park
2. Court Number One The Old Bailey: The Trials and Scandals that Shaped Modern Britain by Thomas Grant

1. Ruined City by Nevile Shute
2. Pied Piper by Nevile Shute
3. Bath Tangle by Georgette Heyer

1. Trustee from the Toolroom by Nevil Shute

52. Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus
I feel bad writing this review, because I see that a lot of people have loved this book and their view is absolutely valid. You only have to look at my list to see that my viewpoint on life and literature is very limited. If you enjoyed it, good for you and look away now.

Having said that... this is tosh. Weapons-grade nonsense. Nothing works like this. Women don't work like this, science doesn't work like this, men don't work like this, children don't work like this, dogs don't work like this, ROWING doesn't work like this. Even the food this alleged great cook makes sounds appalling. My mother was a scientist in the 50s, and a trained cook, and nothing in this book connects even slightly with her reality, her personhood, her colleagues or her experiences. The author has taken a woman from 2022 (well, sort of, though more like a wooden doll than a real character) and dropped her into a cardboard 50s environment from the movies, and some well-paid authors have produced gushing puff lines for the cover, and it's all a big waste of time.

I had to finish this (book club) and I did so firstly by just reading it as a fantasy, and secondly by reading it backwards 2 pages at a time, which is what I do whrn otherwise I'd just give up.

Here's my list since the last thread (quite short, as there's a couple of long ones in there):

45 Mrs Everything by Jennifer Weiner
46 The Paper Palace by Miranda Cowley Heller
47 The Code Breaker by Walter Isaacson
48 Into the Silence: the Great War, Mallory and the Conquest of Everest by Wade Davies
49 Empire of Pain by Patrick Radden Keefe

59. The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes

Kirby Mazrechi considers herself a murder victim, having very barely survived, convinced she is one of many, potentially a survivor of a serial killer she inveigles her way onto the staff of a newspaper in order to do research.

Harper Curtis is the killer, but the fact that he can move through time, deliberately meeting his victims as children, suggests he will never be caught.

I really enjoyed this in terms of the writing, I was really engaged. I don't often read crime. I did however get a bit frustrated when I saw the end approaching and still no real explanation of why these girls were "shining" and nothing as to the how, who and why they were assigned to be victims, and how the time travel worked. It all just gets left unresolved.

I saw the trailer for the series and by the looks of it they have deviated so I don't know whether to give it a miss or go in search of a better ending.

I would recommend it to those whose bread and butter reading is crime and thriller, because I did enjoy her prose style.

List since the previous thread, generally more mediocre than my previous lot:

57. The Secret Intensity of Every Day Life - William Nicholson
58. Small Things Like These - Claire Keegan
59. You Made A Fool of Death With Your Beauty - Akwaeke Emezi
60. The Girl's Guide to Hunting and Fishing - Melissa Banks
61. A Will to Kill - R V Raman
62. The Road to Lichfield - Penelope Lively
63. Keeper Of Enchanted Rooms - Charlie Holmberg
64. Nightcrawling - Leila Mottley
65. Black Narcissus - Rumer Godden
66. Death of a Snob - M.C. Beaton
67. A Start in Life - Anita Brookner
68. Hyperion - Dan Simmons
69. The Fall of Hyperion - Dan Simmons
70. Truly, Madly, Guilty - Liane Moriarty

Thanks for the new thread @Southeastdweller .

Also thanks for the Colleen Hoover opinions and The Times article at the end of the last thread Boiled eggs. I do have a sub so read it and it confirmed what I suspected. DD1 has now finished it and we've had a chat about how a rapist may not really be the best husband material even if he has had a sad childhood and has anger issues 🙄

I understand re Sebastian Barry, Remus. Think I read another one of his that I hated (The Scripture?) but did like Days Without End.

Anyone read Seven Moons of Maali Almeida yet? Have just started it and it's got a touch of Lincoln In the Bardo about it, I'd say.

<drools all over new thread>

Lovely to see you @magimedi - sounds like an idyllic pace of life. I'm imagining suppers spreading hot Camembert onto Pain avec beurre et un Chocolat Chaud

I have now run out of schoolgirl French

Hi magimedi, good to hear from you! I think if you can answer the phone in French, you're doing very well! Reading is easier by comparison!

I've learned loads from this thread too and love the recommendations and the company.

Just de-lurking to say thank you to Southeastdweller for these threads. I read them regularly.

I've now been in La Belle France nearly a year & have read very little as have spent my time trying to improve my French by watching crap TV & listening to the radio. Am trying to expose myself to as little English as possible!

I can now (mostly) cope with the telephone and can even answer unexpected calls. (v. proud of that).

There are several Boite a livres near me - they look like a telephone box & people dump their unwanted books there. I've been using them to read in French: The Lion, The Witch & the Wardrobe was my first attempt and I knew the story well enough to cope. Murder of Roger Ackroyd is what I am currently struggling through enjoying in French.

I run an English Conversation class once a week as a volunteer for the local branch of Accueil des Villes Françaises, which is a national organisation to help people settle in new locations. It has been a great experience & I have learnt as much French from my students as they have learnt English from me.

I love this thread - it is honestly the nicest place I know on the internet.

Thank you to all of you who contribute regularly - you are much appreciated.

@EineReiseDurchDieZeit It's okay. Just not okay enough to lure me in right now. Not sure where it will go.