50 Books Challenge 2023 Part Ten

This is the link for those that want to try it https://www.myyearinbooks.com/

Someone has created a Spotify Wrapped style thing for Goodreads.

85 Empireland by Sathnam Sanghera
Reviewed a few times on these threads so I will just say thank you to all those who recommended it. Often funny, without pulling any punches about the reality of Britain’s attitude to any part of the world they could strip wealth from.

I’m reading a very gritty novel I’m not sure I’ll finish before the end of the year. In fact, it’s the very definition of In The Bleak Midwinter

I hope that whatever you all want or need from Christmas comes to you. 🎄
If you find it a difficult time I hope it passes as quickly and uneventfully as you wish it to.

May the New Year bring us all new surprises and delights in literary form and the desire to share them with others. You’ve been fabulous, 50 Bookers, thank you! ❤️

I reckon I’ll finish one, maybe two more books before the end of the year, but I’m heading for a round number total….getting there with:

89: The Ship Beneath the Ice - Mensun Bound

Picked up as a recent Kindle deal. The author is a very experienced marine archaeologist who's located many 'lost' wrecks, and his quest here was for Shackleton's Endurance, famously trapped in ice in the Weddell Sea in 1915, and subsequently lost (the postscript is the epic story of the survival of all Shackleton’s expedition members after almost unimaginable feats of heroic effort). In 2019 Bound was part of an expedition to find the wreck, travelling on board a modern, fully-equipped ship with every technological aid - but the extreme temperatures, bad weather and malfunctioning hi-tech equipment meant they were defeated.
The post-script (and second part of the book) is that another trip was able to take place, on the same ship, in 2022 - and this time Endurance was found.

I enjoyed this a lot: the descriptions of the amazing landscape (seascape really, but so regularly frozen that the crew often headed off the ship onto the ice) and climate really captured my imagination. I also like to read about anyone doing incredibly specialised jobs, and there was plenty of this, with all the scientists and crew working at a dizzyingly high level of expertise to make the expedition a success - at the same time, Mensun Bound managed to make it all sound understandable to a lay-person, which is quite a feat. A nice blend of history and present-day expedition; in fact, a bit like a TV documentary in book form.

I have struggled with reading this year and have therefore read some absolute dross that doesn't require any thought or headspace haha!

1. As Good As Dead, Holly Jackson
2. A Great Reckoning, Louise Penny

1. Glass Houses, Louise Penny
2. Kingdom of the Blind, Louise Penny
3. Home Corner, Ruth Thomas
4. Murder Most Unladylike, Robin Stevens
5. Moonflower Murders, Antony Horowitz

149 The Wren The Wren by Anne Enright
I enjoyed this literary fiction telling the stories of the lives of a mother and daughter from both points of view (and one POV section from the grandfather). It explores love, family, motherhood and the ways that damage can pass down the generations. Surprisingly, I identified with the daughter more than the mother in this one (who was much closer to being from my generation). Not a bold, but a good read.

150 If we were Villains
A dark academia set in a private American college of the arts. Our POV character, Oliver is studying acting exclusively through the works of Shakespeare, and is fascinated by and admiring of his fellow students. This is basically The Secret History with Shakespeare instead of Ancient Greece, and if I was in my pretentious early 20s phase reading it, I’d have adored it as much as the former. As it is it was just okay. Diverting enough but too much angst.

151 Bleak House- Charles Dickens
I’ve made a conscious effort to read classics this year and am surprised by how many of them I’ve really enjoyed- none more so than this. My two previous attempts at Dickens (admittedly many years ago) resulted in DNFs and I fully expected this to be the same. Orphan Esther Summerson is brought to the home of her guardian Mr Jarndyce, along with two wards of court caught up in a long-running chancery dispute which also involves Jarndyce himself. Mysteries, murders, love stories etc ensue. I didn’t like the farcical bits like Mr Smallweed, but I loved the book itself. A definite bold.

152 The Republic- Plato
I don’t think philosophy is for me- I’m neither smart nor interested enough. I found this confusing and irritating at times. In fact I skimmed the last few sections. Maybe if I studied it in a course but I don’t think I’ll attempt any more ancient philosophy.

Have dropped off this thread this year but will hop on for next year and challenge myself to read more. Currently reading From West Yorkshire to East Berlin by Aisla Mellor and enjoying this so far. Will review once finished.

I got sent The Bear And The Nightingale by Mr B Remus I think it's meant to be wintry.

Sorry - forgot to say thank you.

I re-read the whole’Dark’ series last year and was a bit disappointed. I can’t think of/find anything that I haven’t already read.

Re-read of The Dark is Rising, Remus? Or Laurie Lee's A Village Christmas?

That's my plan too, I grabbed it recently in the deals. Although now I say that, I wonder if I intended to buy The Wolves of Willoughby Chase instead? Not sure why they are grouped together in my mind unless it's because of tv adapations?

68 Trustee From The Toolroom - Nevil Shute

A lovely little story to finish the year off - despite my reservations, this was much more enjoyable than A Town Like Alice, a proper old-fashioned, feelgood adventure tale.

Ooh, I might squeeze that in, Chessie - I’ve got my (not-so) little hoard of kindle Fremlins from a splurge when they were cheap a few years ago, and I’m pretty sure this is one of them…

The Long Shadow by Celia Fremlin

Imogen’s husband died two months ago, when she suddenly receives a phone call in the middle of the night accusing her of murdering him. This is followed by assorted annoying relatives and hangers-on congregating for Christmas, and Imogen finds that they might not all be there just to keep her company.

I really enjoyed this. Fremlin does a great job of setting the scene and gradually cranking up the tension. It’s not massively Christmassy - Christmas does feature but only briefly, and most of the story actually takes place in January. I didn’t mind that though!

Any ideas for something lovely and wintry that I could buy now and read this evening?

The Christmas Appeal - reviewed up thread. Easy reading , entertaining and enjoyable - hit the spot as the Xmas madness is about to start. Parents literally incoming!

It is and I've just bought it! Thanks :)

Definitely worth checking out if it’s still on offer.

The Disappearance Boy sounds good Remus

I DNFed Really Good Actually, Stokey - also felt I'd have enjoyed it a lot more as a 20something.
My most recent two are both almost but not quite bolds.

96. The Buyer by Liam Thomas
    Autobiography by an ex undercover cop, read on audible by the author. As I say, this was almost a bold - Thomas has had a fascinating life, ending up as an actor after leaving the police for medical reasons, & he writes well. I felt that the latter part could have done with some serious editing. It was probably necessary to him to write it, but the length of this part detracted from the power of the books as a whole.

97. The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese
    I think this was a recommendation I picked up on here. Multigenerational family saga set in southern India. I absolutely loved the first part of this, set in the early 1900s & thought it might end up one of my top reads of the year.
    
    It was let down later on for me by some rather painful eye dialect (the most improbable Geordie accent imaginable), but mainly because I felt that slightly too many of the events happened in service of the author's message - over-egging the pudding just a bit too much.
    
    Despite that I zipped through the whole 700 pages, and I'd definitely recommend it as an enjoyable read.

I'm hanging on doing my top reads over on the other thread now because I'm part way through The Lost Rainforests of Britain by Guy Shrubsole, & I have a feeling it might be one of my favourites of the year. (I picked it up for 99p, but it's only £2.55 full price on Kindle if anyone wants a lovely nature read.)

Well, there's plenty of smut in Shakespeare.

The Disappearance Boy by Neil Bartlett - recommended by the wonderful Gay's the Word in Bloomsbury, but I got this cheap on Kindle. It's a low burner and low on plot, but I mostly liked it, especially because it's set in the world of variety theatres, with the focus being on a magician's act. Quite a nice, slow, gentle read.

I was wondering if you could combine Jacobean and smut? John Donne almost gets you there or Andrew Marvell but they're a tad later!

115. The Stranding - Kate Sawyer. This has been hanging around on my Kindle for couple of years and finally got round to it. It starts with an apocalyptic disaster (undefined but seems nuclear). Ruth is a Brit in New Zealand and knows that Europe has been destroyed. She's on a beach going to see a stranded whale where she meets Nik who is there to photograph the whale. Just after she meets Nik, the apocalypse arrives and they hide in the mouth of the whale which somehow saves them. This all happens in the first chapter. The rest of the book alternates between Ruth's final months in the UK leading to her trip to NZ including a troubled relationship and her friends and family, and the "after" of her and Nik's survival post apocalypse. I really liked this.

116. Really Good, Actually - Monica Heisey. My three words review would be "millennial naval-gazing". That's a bit harsh but I did find the self-pitying wallowing of this book which doesn't really have a plot a bit much. I don't think it helped that I read it while struggling with real physical pain! It's about Maggie who has just separated from her husband, who she's been in a relationship with her whole adult life, married to for just under 2 years. This is told in the first person and we see Maggie's life gradually fall apart as well as a lot of self destruction. It's billed as a comedy and there are funny parts, particularly the between chapters sections called things like Birthday Messages I Did Not Particularly Wish To Receive. For me, I felt like I've read similar a few times recently - Sorrow and Bliss ( which I much preferred), I'm a Fan ( cyber aspects with no plot), At The Table (millennial un self-aware breakdown). I think my 20 something self would have preferred this.

I’ve just been reminded that there is a production of The Duchess of Malfi somewhere on my radar. I also haven’t read any smut for a while.

Have hit 40!

The French Lieutenant’s Woman John Fowles
I really had no idea what to expect from this novel, but it wasn’t what I got. Set in 1867 but told by an omnipresent narrator from more modern times it’s a slightly mad, postmodern critique of Victorian mores. It touches on all the various issues of the time - hysteria, the Angel in the house, the fallen woman, the New Woman, new money and trade and much more. The narrator/writer intervenes in the text and it reminded me in style a little of Trollope with Vanity Fair. There are 3 endings and all are a little disappointing. Much like Vanity Fair, I didn’t love reading this, but I do think it will stay with me.