50 Books Challenge 2023 Part Three

@RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie im sorry to hear you’re almost finished as your updates have been so entertaining!

23 Slouching towards Bethlehem Joan Didion
The first group of essays in this were fabulous - focused on US culture in the 1960s and the seedy underbelly of the counter-culture.
In the second part the writing continued to be beautiful but the topics were less interesting. I listened to this on audio and Diane Keaton’s excellent narration kept me listening until the end.

24 North and South Elizabeth Gaskell
I enjoyed this as another classic story of love and manners in a similar style to Jane Austen. It had a little more meat as it analysed the role of industry, unions and class conflict in a mill town. An interesting and enjoyable read though it dragged on a bit in the last 100 pages or so.

end, not need

I've nearly finished the bloody thing and if it doesn't need with a shag I'll be furious.

In other news, I absolutely refuse to accept that anybody in their right mind would put gravy on a baked potato.

I've hit 62% - (get me!) with skipping all the internet chat and totally agree with your review.

I want to slap Robin & tell her to shag Cormoran quick if she fancies him so much.

I've never had so many years of debate about whether to do the deed or not - usually took me less than a week.

(And sometimes less than an hour!).

Well not if it's already got beans on it, but otherwise 🤷

I actually lived that Peter Kay sketch when in a chippy down south. Had to stop myself saying "as tha nowt moist?"

We'll leave pey wet for another conversation.

Loving your updates Remus.

Oh dear, you are not going to be impressed with my meal plan this week!

28. Snowbound by Blake Crouch

A man whose wife has disappeared and a woman whose sister has disappeared team up to hunt for them. I’ve read a few books by this author, and assumed that this would be along the same lines as those mystery / science fiction books. My own fault for not checking but this was more of a crime book, and a boring, unimaginative, bit of a nasty one at that. But it was mercifully short.

So glad you’re enjoying it Remus

The Ink Black Heart update:
Who the flip has gravy with jacket potatoes?????????????????

The Silkworm by Robert Galbraith

Everyone else read this years ago so I’m way behind. I really enjoyed it though, not sure why I never got round to this series sooner.

Finished Children of Paradise. Pungent and hallucinatory. Its shortness was a virtue, concentrating the flavour.

My copy of Hags by Victoria Smith arrived yesterday so I'm reading that intermittently while carrying on with my other book. Only read the introduction so far but like it already.

This made me laugh 😅

I have a feeling that saying it's not a prize winner is going to come back and bite me. There's something about it. It's on my shortlist so far.

Of the latest 2 I've read, if this is the quality then it's going to be a good year.

Currently reading Children of Paradise and loving it. Fortuna's review is spot on.

Great to see your Women’s Prize reviews coming through @FortunaMajor. This sounds great - I only read a handful of pages last night but liked the atmosphere very much.

Rather surprised to find I have actually read some of the Women’s Long List: The Marriage Portrait, Trespasses and Stone Blind of which Trespasses would be my top tip. I also have Demon Copperhead on my Kindle.

Latest read was:

18. Faro’s Daughter - Georgette Heyer

Young Viscount Mablethorpe to the horror of his family has fallen madly in love with Deb, who runs the tables at the gaming house he frequents. His older cousin and trustee of Mablethorpe’s fortune, Mr Ravenscar, needs to stop the relationship before Mablethorpe turns 21 and no longer needs his trustee to consent to his marriage. Mr Ravenscar thinks he can buy Deb off but it doesn’t turn out to be that straightforward. An easy read but not as good as some of her others (in my view).

Latest Ink Black Heart update.
Have hit 50%.
Essentially, it’s like a butternut squash- a few tasty bits, but fucking hard work and occasionally painful to get to them.

19. Exiles by Jane Harper. Follow up to The Dry featuring detective Aaron Falk. A key witness in the fraud case he's investigating goes missing in the wilderness on a corporate retreat camping trip. This was ok, very pacey but not as good as the first one. It had a bit of a Blair Witch feel to it as the group ended up lost in the bush with limited food and no phones. I know nothing about Australian hiking programmes but I was unconvinced that a group of amateurs would be sent out on a multi-day trip with no means of calling for help or emergency services.

I will get started on some of the Women's Prize longlist now!

31. 'The Mother.' By TM Logan

This story centred on a woman who is trying to prove her innocence after being convicted of the murder of her husband. I really enjoyed this and would recommend this to anyone who loves a good thriller. Also, a small thing but I loved that the main character worked in HR (I'm a HR student)

Just started 'All My Love.' By Miranda Dickinson.**

37. My Body by Emily Ratajkowski

This was mentioned here and I picked it up in the deals. Read in one sitting. It is styled as an essay collection

Unlike the author, I do not and never have had the sort of body that invites suggestions I should go into modelling.

One of my sisters was what you might call uncommonly pretty and looking back I feel horrified by memories of her being objectified my adult men while still in her teens.

Still, I don't come from the same world as Emily Ratajkowski in any respect and I wondered what would resonate.

Her world seemed so absolutely suffocating. Her mother was obsessed with her beauty from a young age and it clearly became a message for Emily that her beauty defined her value.

Equally, by entering modelling her body became her commodity and again defined her value even sometimes to herself

The commercial modelling world being the seedy den that it is, Emily's "value" (in terms of people cashing in on images and basically using images of her body, sometimes with but mainly without her consent) is often defined by other people.

At the same time, her body is something she is inherently trapped in. It's hers, but due to other people's ideas of ownership doesn't always feel like hers.

Short but thought provoking

(These 99p deals are unhappily addictive)

Wandering Souls - Cecile Pin
Coming of age migrant experience. A large family escape Vietnam, but are put onto separate boats and only three survive the journey. They navigate life in refugee camps in Hong Kong. Sent on to Britain, the eldest, a 16 year old girl, must care for her two younger brothers against the backdrop of Thatcher's Britain and a hostile reception.
It weaves in folklore and the ghosts of home in a new place.
This is very short but packs a lot in. It's very sensitively done and you can't help but draw parallels with the current migrant experience. It's very thought provoking.

Having just finished it, I am now desperate to know if you had a similar experience 😃

Children of Paradise - Camilla Grodova

It's fairly short, a bit odd, strangely compelling and very atmospheric.
Woman joins the staff of a rundown cinema and takes a while to be accepted by the rest of the team. It's then taken over by a chain and everything changes for them all.
It explores the mundane, inane world of being a public facing minimum wage slave in a team of social misfits with an incompetent manager. It also looks at the modernisation of an iconic experience.
I don't think it's a prize winner, but it definitely kept my interest.
I wasn't convinced at first, but it soon grew on me. It's very vivid and won't be easily forgotten.

I can't really comment on the film title chapters and how they relate to the coming content as I'm not very into film, but there will be something there for film buffs.

@MamaNewtNewt I've brought 29 Seconds on
My kindle as I want to read all of TML's books. I've also brought his first book, Lies.

I felt the same as you on reading The Holiday, but I think he's one of those authors who gets better with every book. I like his writing style and the way he plots his novels out.