50 Books Challenge 2023 Part Ten

Also, @DuPainDuVinDuFromage , I'm so sorry to hear about your cellar! Good luck sorting it.

Ah @bibliomania that's shocking about the historical accuracy of Small Things Like These. That's a shame! It did occur to me when I read it that I hadn't known the Magdalene laundries were still operating so late, but I didn't think to question the author's depiction. And it's not as though the laundries constitute a minor detail in the book either; they're at the core of the plot.

I agree with Fuzzy that the author should have set the book in an earlier decade. I mean, one doesn't expect historical fiction to be entirely accurate, but if the author has taken big liberties with the facts, they should mention it in an afterword or something. yes I am a pedant

Raising a virtual glass to the other Anglophone readers of books in French! I try to read in French when I can, but it's definitely more effortful and not as relaxing as reading in English. Plus, as I teach French, it reminds me of work. 😂That said, I fell in love with the French language through books many years ago, and so I have a weird relationship with France and the Francophone world in that I feel more at home reading French books than actually being in France. When I go to France it's a bit like walking into a Harry Potter world that has come to life; I get to hear people using expressions that I've previously only come across on the page. Maybe one day I will be rich enough to buy a holiday home in France and I can start spending longer periods of time there. It's unlikely though!

@DuPainDuVinDuFromage

I loved that Jane Harper.

I have made myself read in French as I have only been here 2 years, am retired & my French is far from fluent so I need as much exposure as possible.

84 Strange Sally Diamond by Liz Nugent

Well written, but it largely grated on me throughout. It seemed a cynical mash-up of Room, Misery Memoir and every oh look, an autistic person talking about getting a Heart from the Wizard… book ever written. Probably won’t seek out books by the author in future, it was all a bit trite.

@magimedi you’re very good, reading so much in French - I’ve pretty much given up on it these days, since starting back at work at the beginning of the year, as I just want to relax and enjoy what I’m reading when I’m not working. We’ve had loads of rain here too, and our cellar is flooded this evening - knee-deep and lots of things damaged. It’s horrible trying to deal with it, DH is still trying to sort it out as much as possible and I’m trying and failing to sleep so I can deal with tomorrow…only 4 hours until I need to get DD1 up for school 😴

Anyway, I’ve just finished a good one, and ironically given our meteorological situation it’s set in the Australian outback in roasting hot summer:

60 The Lost Man - Jane Harper I read a book by Harper earlier this year and liked it enough to seek out more by her. This one involves the death of a man in the remote outback, and the gradual uncovering of how and why he died and what was going on in the lives of the very few people who lived anywhere near him. We see things from the viewpoint of the dead man’s brother, and there are only about 7 or 8 other characters that are actually involved in the story. It really made me feel I could imagine what it’s like to live out there in the middle of nowhere, with only a few people for hundreds of miles around. Really quite creepy! It’s a good book - recommended.

85: Among Others: Friendships and Encounters - Michael Frayn

I always enjoy Michael Frayn's writing and this short book was no exception - it's a collection of reminiscences of people he’s known as friends, colleagues or lovers over the course of a long life (he’s 90 now). All his sketches are characteristically funny, self-deprecating and full of curiosity and intelligence….but also, inevitably, melancholy, as so many of his good friends have died. So not necessarily what you’d call a cheery read, but one that radiates humanity and wit.

@RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie

I was fed up today. It was wet (very wet). I decided to treat myself to a book in English, having been good & having stuck to reading French stuff for months.

I downloaded Trustee from the Toolroom, lay back on the sofa at 2pm (avec patisserie) and emerged at dusk after a wonderful afternoon of reading. Such a good yarn, well written and it did what I wanted it to do - took me away from life.

Merci mille fois.

What's that Eine, didn't quite catch it.

(Where does one acquire such a tiny voice/font please?)

<small whisper>

I didn't like Trustee

What was that Eine?

Who dear? Me dear? No dear

<mutterings>

Empireland is 99p on Kindle today, for those, like me, who haven’t read it but liked the 50 Booker reviews.

Empireland is 99p on Kindle today, for those, like me, who haven’t read it but liked the 50 Booker reviews.

Another long-time Betty MacDonald stalwart here. You’ve made me want to read The Plague and I again. Also Anybody Can Do Anything. So funny.

Ha, yes, Fuzzy, I remember the InterCert 1989 discussion! I agree that I would have found it more plausible if it was set in the 1950s or 1960s.

42 Notes to self - Emilie Pine
I think it probably did Pine a whole lot of good to write this book. I don't regret reading it at all but I was glad to finish it. Extremely raw writing.

I think if the story had been set in the 50s or 60s @bibliomania it would have been more consistent with Irish lived experience. I grew up in the 80s (I think we're a similar age; Inter Cert 1989!)

I remember my father's disapproving attitude towards an aunt of mine who was living with her boyfriend; he was a staunch catholic. Also, there was an elderly aunt of my mother's who was living in an institution that she had entered into as a young girl. My grandmother used to say that she was visiting a friend, but she confided once to one of her daughters that it was in fact her sister. We don't know the circumstances of how it came about that she was there, only that their own father was a very strict man.

You would wonder why Keegan didn't set the story in a previous decade. Also the nuns were often cruel when my mother was a child during the 50s and 60s but I remember them as cantankerous old biddies with an occasionally jolly one when I was in school. Slapping etc had been done away with by then.

Thanks Fuzzy, I did wonder what the other Irish readers on the thread thought (if they remember the 1980s).

@bibliomania agreed. The background to the story suggests an earlier era, not Ireland of the 1980s. As far as I recall, it's set in that time. It was still the dark ages then but not as bleak as all that.

@RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie hope you feel better soon! 📚🍵

That's my personal view, Best, and I accept that other people may remember things differently. But I lived in a similar town to the one she describes, and the equivalent laundry was closed in the 1950s.

I've had a flurry of reads, with a vague hope of catching up to my last year's total of 144 books.

130. Mistletoe Malice, by Kathleen Farrell
Completed agree with chessie's recent review and I think we were lured in by the same review, which likened it to Barbara Pym. It was published in 1951, and I can slightly see a resemblance if I squint, mainly down to the scepticism about marriage as a happy ever after. A grown-up group of cousins get together to squabble and upset each other over Christmas. An elopement is considered, with both parties getting cold feet (I did like this part). Not bad, but could have done with a bit more sparkle.

131. Camp Austen, by Ted Scheinman
Non-fiction - a young male grad student observes Jane Austen conventions, complete with Regency costumes and balls. It's mildly likeable, although it was originally written as an article and doesn't quite justify book-length treatment.

132. Ultra-Processed People, Chris van Tulleken
Read by quite a few already. I thought this was sensible and balanced, and it will make me scrutinise labels that bit more carefully.

133. A Christmas Cornucopia, Mark Forsyth
Unpacks the historical background to Christmas traditions. Slight but pleasant enough as a seasonal read.

134. Went to London, Took My Dog, Nina Stibbe
I understand what she's aiming to do - well, she tells us outright that she's doing an Alan Bennett, using the terrible bathos of everyday life in an attempt to create something poignant and resonant. For my money, she doesn't pull it off and it felt a bit pointless for the reader. I was also distracted by the notable discrepancy between her reticence about her marriage and her willingness to reveal all about her friends' menopause woes, incontinence in particular. I hope she had permission from all the women she named.

135. Towards Zero, Agatha Christie
136. Death in the Clouds, Agatha Christie
You know what you're getting - not her best work but reliable entertainment.

That is such an interesting viewpoint @bibliomania and one I’ll take on board when I have a reread (planning to before Christmas).I hadn’t realised that historically it was out of sync and just took it on face value.

I have the Betty McDonald book on my shelf so will give it a go over Christmas.

I enjoyed the Backlisted episode about Trustee from the Toolroom too, although I enjoyed Pied Piper more.

I think I'm the only person who didn't like Small Things Like These. I've thought about whether I'm somehow failing to accept a painful truth about the past, because I'm the age of the elder daughter in the story. But it's not right - the Magdalene laundries weren't like that during that era, they had closed or else dwindled to accommodation to older women who were institutionalised and had no place else to go. Unmarried pregnancy was still a bit shameful, but not to that extent. Christmas was The Late Late Toy Show and tinsel, not just home-made mince pies. I don't recognise her description of the time and I resent her falsification of it to turn it into a dark background to her fairy-tale.

Hope you feel much better soon, @RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie

I’m giving The Trustee From The Toolshed a go based on yours and the Backlisted recommendations. I hated A Town Like Alice’s casual racism so hoping for a better experience here.

@Welshwabbit , that's a lovely review of The Burgess Boys. I agree with your thoughts about Strout.

Foster by Claire Keegan was a hit with my book group this year, but Stokey is right about Small Things Like These being more Christmassy. My Cousin Rachel was also a success and provoked a really good discussion -- it's not particularly short, but it's very readable.

@PermanentTemporary I also love Betty McDonald. Onions in the Stew about life on an island on the Puget Sound is one of my all time favourites