50 Books Challenge 2022 Part Seven

@bettbburg sending

Thank you @Southeastdweller for keeping us on track for the year! And thanks to everyone who has swelled my TBR list with recommendations. Enjoyed the book chat this year, even on books I haven't read (yet) - you guys are a truly lovely corner of MN :)

Definitely won't finish the next book before the end of the year so finally posting my list instead (as I'm at a laptop instead of on my phone for once). An "eclectic" mix, old shelf-blockers, hippy books from DM, others recommended on here or elsewhere. Relatively few stinkers, considering. Roughly 50/50 fiction/non-fiction, 31 of which were library books and I've got rid of 24 this year. Resolution next year to get rid of more, and use the library as first port of call for TBR list.

1. A Thousand Splendid Suns – Khaled Hosseini
2. Clairvoyancy: the Truth – Kris Sky
3. Just Ignore Him – Alan Davies 4. Out of This World – Ed. Michelle Abbott
4. London Orbital – Iain Sinclair
5. Island of the Blue Dolphins – Scott O’Dell
6. The Haunting of Alma Fielding – Kate Summerscale
7. The Last Fighting Tommy – Harry Patch & Richard van Emden
8. We Were the Lucky Ones – Georgina Hunter 10. The Secret Life of a Slummy Mummy – Fiona Neill
9. Positive Forces – Doris Collins
10. Folklore of Surrey – Matthew Alexander
11. The Forensic Records Society – Magnus Mills 14. Set my Heart to Five – Simon Stephenson
12. Giants: the Dwarfs of Auschwitz – Yehuda Koren & Eilat Negev
13. The Marlow Murder Club – Robert Thorogood
14. The Women of Troy – Pat Barker
15. The Diary of a Bookseller – Shaun Bythell
16. The Hoarder – Jess Kidd 20. Arthur & George – Julian Barnes
17. Humble Pi – Matt Parker
18. How to Walk Away – Katherine Center
19. Troy – Stephen Fry
20. Life after Life – Raymond Moody
21. Re-educated – Lucy Kellaway
22. Back in the Bag – Ed. Dot Boughton & Kayt Hawkins
23. My Family and Other Animals – Gerald Durrell
24. The Children of Jocasta – Natalie Haynes 29. QualityLand – Marc-Uwe Kling
25. Whatever Happened to Margo? – Margaret Durrell
26. The Gran Tour – Ben Aitken
27. Machines Like Me – Ian McEwan
28. More Fool Me – Stephen Fry
29. The Murders at Fleat House – Lucinda Riley
30. Cardiff and the Valleys in the Great War – Gary Dobbs
31. Murder, Mystery and My Family – Karen Farrington
32. The Thursday Murder Club – Richard Osman
33. The Authenticity Project – Clare Pooley 39. Zippy and Me – Ronnie Le Drew
34. The Choice – Claire Wade
35. Prospero’s Cell – Lawrence Durrell 42. Piranesi – Susannah Clarke
36. The Wolf Den – Elodie Harper 44. Ghost Hunting – Derek Acorah
37. Solve it Like Sherlock – Stewart Ross 46. The Durrells of Corfu – Michael Haag
38. All That Remains – Sue Black
39. The Kids – Hannah Lowe
40. The Etymologicon – Mark Forsyth 50. Mudlarking – Lara Maiklem
41. Pandora’s Jar - Natalie Haynes
42. The House on Half Moon Street – Alex Reeve 53. Four Mums in a Boat – Janette Benaddi, Helen Butters, Niki Doeg & Frances Davies
43. Yours Cheerfully – AJ Pearce
44. Operation Mincemeat – Ben MacIntyre
45. The Wild Silence – Raynor Winn
46. Once Upon a River – Diane Setterfield
47. The Anarchists’ Club – Alex Reeve
48. Toto Among the Murderers – Sally J Morgan
49. The Left-Handed Booksellers of London – Garth Nix
50. The House on Vesper Sands – Paraic O’Donnell
51. Blonde Roots – Bernardine Evaristo
52. Shepperton Studios: a Visual History – Morris Bright
53. Dead Famous – Greg Jenner

My last few books for this year;

62. Gay from China at the Chalet School: Elinor Brent-Dyer.
63. A Summer Bird-Cage: Margaret Drabble.
64. War and Peace: Leo Tolstoy.
65. Year of Wonder. Classical Music for Every Day: Clemency Burton-Hill.
66. Jane Eyre: Charlotte Brontë.
67. A Christmas Carol: Charles Dickens.
68. The Cricket on the Hearth: Charles Dickens.

Favourite books this year;

A Place Of Execution: Val McDermid.
Death And The Penguin: Andrey Kurkov trans. George Bird.
The Bread The Devil Knead: Lisa Allen Agostini.
The Book Of Form And Emptiness: Ruth Ozeki.
Small Things Like These: Clare Keegan.
Bleak House: Charles Dickens.
Black Narcissus: Rumer Godden.
A Gentleman In Moscow: Amor Towles.
The Woman In White: Wilkie Collins.

Wishing everyone on this thread a happy 2023 and sending best wishes to Bett🌷

Final book of the year is The Christmas Chronicles by Nigel Slater which I intended to read as a read along type thing day by day but life got in the way because unlike Nigel I have people around me who need attention and I can't spend all day dicking around with pomegranate molasses and wafer thin slices of pear that has ripened to the perfect softness. People need feeding, transporting and yelling at. Nigel never yells - it would shatter the fragile Japanese porcelain he sips his morning tea from while contemplating his velvet slippers sewn by fifteen virgins on the slopes of Mount Fuji.

So anyway, I didn't get further than 5 December. We didn't eat cobnut salad or pickled rhubarb and salmon and I didn't wrap Christmas gifts in soft aged cloths, or buy solid beeswax candles to burn on Christmas Eve. But then Christmas came and went and we coped just fine with a Waitrose turkey and some Lidl red cabbage which I zapped in the microwave and I found time to pick this up again and all my grumpy cynicism went out of the window and I couldn't put it down. Properly lovely, my scoffing aside, and just what I needed. Realistically, I'm not going to make a festive generous convivial terrine on Christmas Eve next year - my guests can have beans on toast if they are hungry between meals - but it was nice to indulge in a fantasy life where I have a rambling house in north London that is filled with well seasoned cast iron skillets and the perfect porridge spurtle.

I have so much catching up to do on this thread.

110. The Thief on theWinged Horse
     by Kate Mascarenhas
     An extended family of magic doll makers live on an Eyot in Oxford. When a man turns up claiming to be a long lost relative the cracks in the family begin to show and a shocking theft threatens to tear them apart.
     I really like the idea of the dollmakers on the eyot but the story doesn't really take off and despite being set in the modern day it has a very old fashioned feel which makes it jarring when characters start checking their phones.

111. No Time to Spare by Ursula K. LeGuin
     A collection of personal essays on subjects including literature, soft boiled eggs, politics and cats. She was an amazing writer and a wonderful personality shines through these essays.

112. Lost Acre by Andrew Caldecott
     The final book in the Rotherweird trilogy set in a strange closed town. It's okay, the writing style started to annoy me a bit though. You definitely need to have read the previous books before reading this.

113. Still Life by Sarah Winman
     In
     Tuscany in 1944
     sixty four year old art historian and young British soldier Ulysses Temper meet and leave a lasting impression on each other. I quite enjoyed it, though struggling to think of anything to say about it.

114. Inverted World by Christopher Priest
     Helward lives in a moving city and measures his age in
     miles. As his work takes him outside the city he discovers more about the strangeness of the world he is living in.
     Really good science fiction, very well written, believable but strange and unexpected.

115. Femlandia by Christina Dalcher
     As society collapses Miranda and her daughter have no choice but to try to take refuge in one of the female only communities established by her estranged mother.
     It's okay though there aren't many likeable characters.

116. The Christmas Pig by J.K. Rowling
     Children's story about a boy who enters the land of the lost to search for his missing beloved soft toy.
     Nice story, though quite sad in some ways, about loss and change.

117. Spoilt Rotten: The Toxic Cult of Sentimentality by Theodore Dalrymple
     Quite interesting look at how
     western culture has grown more sentimental. I agree with some of what Dalrymple says, about people like the McCanns or Joanne Lees being unfairly judged by the public because they didn't display their emotions enough, but I think he is harsh in judging people who are emotional and is victim blaming of women in abusive relationships.

118. The Sealwoman's Gift by Sally Magnusson
     In the seventeenth century Asta and her family are among four hundred Icelanders taken by pirates to be sold into slavery in North Africa.
     Well written story that is also about the power of stories, the Icelandic sagas that Asta tells her children and the stories of Scheherazade that she learns in Algeria.

119. The Couple at the Table by Sophie Hannah
     A woman is murdered in a holiday resort after receiving a mysterious warning to beware the couple at the table nearest hers. All the guests and staff have alibis and no one has entered from outside.
     I always get drawn into Sophie Hannah novels by the set up only to be disappointed by the reveal. It wasn't bad to read though, the writing carried me along well enough.

So glad so many enjoyed Woman In White!

Thanks Remus - will add to my wishlist - which it’s only just occurred to me to sort by price to see quickly what’s been reduced. D’oh!

1 The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
2 Kirstin Lavransdatter I: The Wreath by Sigrid Undset. Translated by Tiina Nunnally
3 Esther's Notebooks 1. Tales from my ten-year-old life by Riad Sattouf. Translated by Sam Taylor
4 Breasts and Eggs by Mieko Kawakami. Translated by Sam Bett and David Boyd
5 Esther's Notebooks 2. Tales from my eleven-year-old life by Riad Sattouf. Translated by Sam Taylor
6 Esther's Notebooks 3. Tales from my twelve-year-old life by Riad Sattouf. Translated by Sam Taylor
7 Oldladyvoice by Elisa Victoria. Translated by Charlotte Whittle
8 Crooked Heart by Lissa Evans
9 Death and the Penguin by Andrey Kurkov. Translated by George Bird
10 The Instant by Amy Liptrot
11 The Book of Not by Tsitsi Dangarembga
12 Nick and Charlie by Alice Oseman
13 The Clothes They Stood Up In by Alan Bennett
14 The House with the Stained Glass Window by Żanna Słoniowska. Translated by Antonia Lloyd-Jones
15 Elena Knows by Claudia Piñeiro. Translated by Frances Riddle
16 Letters written in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark by Mary Wollstonecraft
17 The Pear Field by Nana Ekvtimishvili. Translated by Elizabeth Heighway
18 Love after Love by Ingrid Persaud
19 Alexa, what is there to know about love? by Brian Bilston
20 Grey Bees by Andrey Kurkov. Translated by Boris Dralyuk
21 The Owl Service by Alan Garner
22 The Embassy of Cambodia by Zadie Smith
23 My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante. Translated by Ann Goldstein
24 Morvern Callar by Alan Warner
25 The Story of a New Name by Elena Ferrante. Translated by Ann Goldstein.
26 Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 by Cho Nam-Joo. Translated by Jamie Chang
27 Wondrous Journeys in Strange Lands by Sonia Nimr. Translated by Marcia Lynx Qualey
28 Our Lady of the Nile by Scholastique Mukasonga. Translated by Melanie Mauthner
29 Hilo Book 8: Gina and the Big Secret by Judd Winick
30 The Road to Lichfield by Penelope Lively
31 Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
32 V for Victory by Lissa Evans
33 The House of Ulloa by Emilia Pardo Bazán. Translated by Paul O'Prey and Lucia Graves
34 Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
35 The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins
36 The Box of Delights by John Masefield
37 A Child's Christmas in Wales by Dylan Thomas
38 The King and the Christmas Tree by AN Wilson

Male:Female 39%:61%
Translated 45%
Europe 71%
Asia 10.5%
Africa 10.5%
Americas 8%

Standouts:
Grey Bees by Andrey Kurkov
My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante
The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins
Kirstin Lavransdatter I: The Wreath by Sigrid Undset

💐bettbburg Thinking of you and sending hugs.

My last for the year was wonderful, wise and humane:

A Fortunate Woman by Polly Morland A non-fiction about the work of a country doctor who has been practicing as a GP in a rural surgery for 20 years. Sadly it feels almost like a period piece as her way of working, based on her knowledge of her patients and the relationships she has built with them over that time, bears no resemblance to my local GP practice, though the book was started during the pandemic and published this year. The writer happened upon a copy of 'A Fortunate Man' by John Berger, a study of a doctor in the same practice published in 1967, and realised she lived in the area where it was written and approached the current doctor there with a view to doing a similar study. This book is the result of their conversations over a year and is about the doctor's working life, how she relates to her patients, and what it is to be a country doctor. I loved this, you get a real sense of the community she works in and of some of the sorts of cases and people, as well as a powerful sense of the doctor's approach to and love of her work. At first I thought the writer's own presence was going to be an annoyance, but this wasn't the case once the book got going.

I haven't quite made 50 this year but have got better at DNFing books I'm not enjoying. I've read much more fiction than non-, but the nonfiction is overrepresented in the bolds, resolution for next year is to read more non-fiction and not to read so much newly published fiction, new fiction has probably accounted for most of my DNFs.

My bolds this year, these imho beat War and Peace:

Non-fiction

A Fortunate Woman by Polly Morland
Michel The Giant by Tété-Michel Kpomassie
Original Sins by Matt Rowland Hill
Names for the Sea by Sarah Moss
Red Dust Road by Jackie Kay

Fiction

Ink Black Heart by Robert Galbraith
The Man Who Died Twice and The Bullet That Missed by Richard Osman
Bad Actors by Mick Herron
Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan
The Fell and Summerwater by Sarah Moss
Shrines of Gaiety by Kate Atkinson

Also enjoyed the 3 books in Susie Steiner's Manon Bradshaw series.

Thanks everyone for all the reviews and chat, I've got so many recommendations and a lot of joy from these threads. Thanks for organising us SouthEast. Happy New Year all!

It sounds like so many of the things I love - wish it was in past tense!

It took me ages to understand that this meant writing style, I also meant to write treat yourself on my last post to Remus I may in general be festively liquidised

@bettbburg echoing everyone else.

32.Born a Crime, Trevor Noah
I’ve had this for absolutely ages from when it was 99p. Finally got to it as a book club friend at work was raving about it. It didn’t disappoint. In my head I thought I knew about apartheid, about South Africa but I did not. Suspect most will be familiar with this book and Noah more generally, but this is a bio of his childhood and almost a tribute to his mother. I would definitely recommend and it’s only 300 pages.

Bits of it are...

I realise that doesn't improve matters...

Oh @bettbburg [hugs]
I hope there's music and peace and whatever you like at the moment.

It sounds like so many of the things I love - wish it was in past tense!

lol

Maybe check out Sex and Punishment: Four Thousand Years of Judging Desire by Eric Berkowitz - a really interesting read.

@bettbburg I can only echo 'no words' but plenty of emotion as I type this.

Oh @bettbburg very best wishes.

Clearly mixed views on the Whalebone Theatre. It's definitely flawed but has so many features - a crumbling family house, children running around unsupervised, bohemian Russian visitors, then segueing into a wartime epic - that are literary catnip to me that I didn't care.

Betts

I've finished off 3 books that I've had on the go for a while:

110 War & Peace by Leo Tolstoy
I first tried to read this 35 years ago after finishing A levels, and thanks to the MN readalong (helped also by e-books & larger print) I've finally got there. I won't be adding it to my list of favourite classics, but I'm glad to have read it and have already bought a copy of Anna Karenina in preparation for the readalong in 2023.

My final two happily bring me up to the same total as last year, and pleasingly were both real standouts.

111 The Islander by Chris Blackwell
Memoir by the founder of Island Records. This is subtitled 'my life in music', and apart from his early life in Jamaica it is really all about the music and the musicians. It's read on audio by Bill Nighy, who is as excellent as you might expect, and I absolutely loved the whole thing. Blackwell's enthusiasm for such a wide range of music really shines through. It's taken me a long time to listen to because I kept pausing the book to go over to spotify & listen to tracks and/or whole albums, and I still have a whole lot more queued up. A highlight of the year for me, I've bought my Dad the kindle version as he doesn't do audio, and I'll be revisiting in the future for sure for more listening inspiration.

112 A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles
Reviewed many times on here, & I don't have much to add beyond the fact that I also loved this, my standout fiction of the year. It's not at all something I'd have picked up without this thread and a great example of how fantastic all your recommendations are.

It’s so good @RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie although I admit to blushing a little and angling my book away from Christmas guests as there are a lot of illustrations 😬

I've had a field day today! I won't lie, absolutely spoilt

A Curious History of Sex has been on my wish list forever.

Betts.. No words.

@bettbburg best wishes

1 Ramble Book -Adam Buxton
2 Enigma - Robert Harris
3 Christmas Chronicles Nigel Slater
4 221163 - Stephen King
5 A Place of Execution -Val McDermid
6 Howards End is on the Landing -Susan Hill
7 Hidden Killers- Lynda La Plante
8 The Wreath- Sigrid Undset
9 Fatal Isles- Maria Adolfson
10 The Great Circle- Maggie Shipstead
11 The Whole Truth- Cara Huntley
12 A Dark Adapted Eye- Barbara Vine
13 The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher- Kate Summerscale
14 British Summer Time Begins- Ysenda Graham
15 The Haunting of Alma Fielding Kate Summerscale
16 The Day of the Jackal- Frederick Forsyth
17 How Iceland Changed the World Egill Bjarnasson
18 A Single Thread- Tracey Chevalier
19 The Essex Serpent- Sarah Perry
20 The Lost Continent- Bill Bryson
21 The Wimbledon Poisoner- Nigel Williams
22 Magpie Lane- Lucy Atkins
23 Slow Trains Around Spain- Tom Chessyre
24 Daughters of Spain- Jean Plaidy
25 Blood Orange- Harriet Tyce
26 Written in Blood Caroline Graham
27 September Rosamund Pilcher
28 The Family Upstairs- Lisa Jewell
29 Once Upon a River- Diane Setterfield
30 I know you- Clare McGowan
31 The Night Visitor- Lucy Atkins
32 Watching Neighbours Twice A Day- Josh Widdecomb
33 It Ends at Midnight- Harriet Tyce
34 The Bone Bed Patricia Cornwell
35 The Museum of Whales You Will Not See D Kendra Greene
36 The Secret History Donna Tartt
37 The Way through the woods- Bill Bryson
38 The Chestnut Man - Soren Sveistrup
39 The Magdalene Deception- Gary McAvoy
40 Hostage Clare Macintosh
41 Wintering Katherine May (DNF but got over halfway)
42 Let Me Lie- Clare Macintosh
43 I see you- Clare Macintosh
44 The Maidens Alex Michaelides
45 The Fell Sarah Moss
46 The Changeling Philippa Gregory
47 Remarkable Creatures Tracey Chevalier
48 The Little Book of Hygge- Meik Wiking

Soooo, 48 in total.
5 standouts, of which The Secret History is probably my read of the year.
5 bollocking toshfests, of which Wintering is, without a doubt not only the worst book I read (even though I DNF) this year, but in all my 57 years. My hatred for it will be mentioned often in years to come.
15 men
33 women
12 non-fiction (but almost all dippy-in-and-outy nothing heavy books)
36 fiction
6 re-reads

bett, enormous sympathy and very best wishes. Thinking of you.

Best wishes Bett.

My number 60: A Curious History of Sex by Kate Lister. This was a great final read of the year for me. An absolutely fascinating read from the creator of the Twitter account ‘whores of yore’ (she has more impressive claims to fame but that’s where I’d seen her.)

From the history of the word cunt to some of the terrible ways women’s pleasure has been denied over the years - it covers a lot of territory. The style is quite colloquial, with slang terms littered throughout. One of the most interesting history books I’ve ever read.

I’ve had a lovely bookish day visiting the book shop Much Ado About Books in sussex which I would recommend if you are ever near by. The bookseller was so keen to recommend me a book she gave it to me for free and the rooms was so charming.

My numbers below

59 books:

• 19 non fiction / 40 fiction (pretty happy with this I love non fiction and have started to always have one on the go which has boosted my number dramatic)
• 29 female, 1 unknown, 29 male (Even stevens!)

Highlights:
Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus and Her Majesty’s Royal Coven by Juno Dawson for sheer joy.

Top of the pops was definitely Jamaica Inn by Daphne Du Maurier.

A few duds but with some sickness and stress this year I think I went for some easy reads that I’ve subsequently judged but they were useful at the time.

Looking forward to 2023, my tbr is HUGE so keen to buy no books til April. We will see. I’ve been hanging out in this corner of the internet for enough years to doubt myself on this.