50 Books Challenge 2025 Part Three

The Lonely Londoners Sam Sevlon

Written in 1956, this is the story of Moses and an array of men who arrived in Britain from the West Indies (there is a wonderful Nigerian character too, Cap). It’s written in gentle patois and reads like Moses (as an omnipresent narrator) regaling us with the highs and lows of those he knows. It’s a wonderful, short read. I’m going to the theatre to see a staged version later this month so wanted to read it first.

Thanks @ShackletonSailingSouth I think I’ll be lost in that link for some time- so many interesting talks on there!

Thanks @ShackletonSailingSouth (love the name!)

@bibliomania @ÚlldemoShúl
I really enjoy Emily Wilson's translation of the Odyssey, i haven't read her Iliad though. I think the latter is in prose unlike her Odyssey. If anyone's interested, she was interviewed for the August 2024 Hay Book club and the recording of the event is still available - recommend.

www.hayfestival.com/book-club

20 The Other Times of Caroline Tangent by Ivan D Wainwright

I picked this up as the protagonists Caz and Jon did one of the things DH and I would do if we ever got hold of a Time Machine - attending classic concerts / gigs of history. Then things take a turn and Caz gets stranded in 1970s New York. This was an easy read, which was just what I was looking for, nothing earth shattering. It was free on kindle unlimited.

And this sounds like my worst nightmare, especially if in present tense with that irritating pronoun thing that she does in Wolf Hall.

She is dull as. She buys a dress. She plays the piano. She’s still dull. Etc.

Like Fanny Price, Mary would benefit from some jigs around the parquet with Henry Crawford.

Oh that’s great biblio thanks! I love The Iliad much more than The Odyssey but if I like the translation, I’ll definitely give the latter translation a go too.

ÚlldemoShúl, the Enchanted Islands book I read was very enthusiastic about the Emily Wilson translation of The Odyssey, and included quotations that made it sound very approachable.

@ShackletonSailingSouth Ive read the Rieu and Fagles translations before. This time I’m going to go for the Emily Wilson- it’s a two month buddy read but I’m doing at the same time as a book club read of Middlemarch so I’ll be doing well to keep going with both! I have the audio for both too so may flip between that and text.

Thank you @inaptonym very interesting.
I'll give it more time. If I like the humour, it will help a lot. It probably doesn't help that it's a four hundred page hardback :)

@bibliomania yep Mantel was in full-on RA RA REVISIONISTY STAN mode. I love WH but Cromwell does feel so modern - if it were't so brilliantly written that would have really annoyed me.

@FuzzyCaoraDhubh Creation Lake was a bold for me but I was into the voice immediately. Not sure I'd have had the stamina to go on if I hadn't been, but I probably DNF more readily than most people. I've since read her earlier novel The Mars Room which has made me more sympathetic to people who didn't rate CL - the pieces really didn't come together in that one for me, ended up less than the sum of its parts.

@ÚlldemoShúl which Iliad are you planning to read next month?
@bibliomania Mantel "overshot the reality" in her rehabilitation of Cromwell - that was exactly my feeling but you put it very well!

Thanks for the review of the Congo book - I really want to read this but fear it might be too distressing @RazorstormUnicorn

Bit late with my list -

1 None of This is True - Lisa Jewell
2 Daisy and the Six - Taylor Jenkins Read
3 The Vegetarian Han Kang trans Deborah Smith
4 And Then She Fell - Alicia Elliot
5 The Queen of Spades - Alexander Pushkin trans by Rosemary Edwards
6 Ali & Nino - Kurban Said trans unknown
7 The Venice Secret - Anita Chapman
8 Walking the Blue Fields - Claire Keegan
9 A Terrible Kindness - Jo Browning Roe
10 Rooftoppers - Katherine Rundell
11 Summerwater - Sarah Moss
12 A Gentleman in Moscow - Amor Townes

Currently listening to The Hike on audio but being indecisive about what to read next. Need to catch up with the Monte Cristo readalong first !

@RazorstormUnicorn I think Denis Mukwege is an inspiring man with important things to say. Great review.

Little Red Death by A K Benedict

This was …strange. Not at all what I expected. I’ve never read this author before, and from the blurb I was expecting a fairly standard thriller/police procedural about a detective investigating a run of fairytale themed murders. It did start off that way, but then took a very odd turn and went a bit meta, with stories within stories, and it wasn’t at all clear after that what was meant to be ‘real’ and what wasn’t. I’m still not really any the wiser after finishing it. I think if you’re into the paranormal genre and know that’s what you’re going to get (and possibly if you’re cleverer than me to understand what the author is trying to achieve) then you might enjoy this more than I did, but if you are looking for a standard thriller this is not it.

My List,

1. Marking Time by Elizabeth Jane Howard
2. Doreen by Barbara Noble
3. The things they carried by Tim O’Brien
4. Jill by Philip Larkin
5. The Twyford Code by Janice Hallett

I enjoyed Creation Lake quite a lot but I think that’s because I listened to the audio book so it was easier to get the tone and the humour.

Have been occupied with moving and consequent anti-book feelings - bastards constantly conspiring with gravity to ATTACK 😭

I've enjoyed catching up with the discussion around popular books. Nothing to add but it's made me reflect on similar shorthand I've used on here before: commercial vs literary, Dan Brown-y, wanky, swirly pastel covers etc. I hope in this context (of bookish people chatting books) they would be read as descriptive rather than judgemental - 'this is this kind of book, for this kind of mood' rather than 'this kind of book sucks and so do you if you like it'. Apologies if my comments have made anyone feel shamed or belittled. I wish MN allowed us to pin our lists to profiles so anyone could see at a click that I read all sorts! Will try to do better in future anyway.

List

1. Eleanor Farjeon - Miss Granby’s Secret: or, The Bastard of Pinsk
2. Joe Abercrombie - The Trouble With Peace A
3. Carys Davies - Clear
4. Sara Lodge - The Mysterious Case of the Victorian Female Detective
5. Norah Lofts - Lady Living Alone
6. Lucy Easthope - When the Dust Settles
7. Jane Casey - The Reckoning
8. Rachel Kushner - The Mars Room
9. Uketsu - Strange Pictures (tr. Jim Rion)
10. C.J. Skuse - Sweetpea A
11. Philip Larkin - Jill
12. Stories for Winter and Nights by the Fire (ed. Simon Thomas)
13. Hiromi Kawakami - Under the Eye of the Big Bird (tr. Asa Yoneda)
14. Friða Ísberg - The Mark (tr. Larissa Kyzer)
15. Han Suyin - Winter Love
16. Virginie Despentes - Dear Dickhead (tr. Frank Wynne)
17. Layla Martínez - Woodworm (tr. Sophie Hughes, Annie McDermott)
18. Robert Harris - Conclave
19. Noel Streatfeild - Judith
20. Kim Ryeo-ryeong - The Trunk (tr. The KoLab)
21. Han Kang - We Do Not Part (tr. e. yaewon and Paige Aniyah Morris)
22. Barbara Pym - Some Tame Gazelle R
23. Mary Fitt - The Banquet Ceases
24. Claudia Piñeiro - Time of the Flies (tr. Frances Riddle)
25. Jonathan Smith - Wilfred and Eileen

More of these might get upgraded to a bold later; I've had a really good run so far and am being quite miserly.

Currently:
The Wisdom of Crowds - Joe Abercrombie (audio): 10th and final book of a brilliantly entertaining political fantasy series. Fellow genre readers: what could follow it?!

Linden Rise - Richmal Crompton: maid's eye view of a dysfunctional genteel family from 1890s onwards. Written for adults and much more serious than the Just William books but v involving despite (or because of?) being quite tropey.

She Played and Sang - Gillian Dooley: nonfic about Austen and music. Super nerdy, ofc, has added a number of Regency bangers to my shower repertoire. Current fave (mine, not DP's) 'Nobody coming to marry meeee nobody coming to woooooo'

and Agent Zo - Clare Mulley: ok so far, some fascinating things but all a bit breathless. I'm only 1/4 in but it seems unlikely to knock A Woman of No Importance off its perch.

Anyone else reading the WP NF list? I'd already read 2 (called Private Revolutions last year!) and own 4 others, so have fallen into it despite the Intl Booker list coming out next week 😅

I’ve never read the Other Bennett Sister but the Mary Bennett book Hilary Mantel was apparently working on before she died is the book I’d most have liked to read.

The Power of Women by Denis Mukwege

Purchased ages ago based on a recommendation on here and picked up as part of read what you own 😀I hesitated, worried it would be another basically interesting but repetitive non fiction that could have been an article. I decided to go for it as I am so irritated by the headlines from the USA right now, that I wanted to hear from a man who is promoting women's right. So yes, I have just read a book about rape to help me relax and de-stress from current world issues.

Denis Mukwege works in a hospital in the Congo trying to provide maternity care and operating on women who have been raped. Trigger warning here - he includes details of sexual violence that are horrifying. Its so we understand what it is going on, it's not for the sake of it.

I knew the Congo wasn't a safe place but I hadn't understood the half of it. I visited Rwanda in 2019 and went to the genocide museum and missed the fact that many militant groups cross the border and plunder minerals and women.

This man has dedicated his life to healing and raising awareness in return he has had his life and family threatened. He has round the clock UN guards now and rarely leaves his hospital compound. He travels to speak to the UN and conferences on sexual violence in conflicts and he points the finger at governments when it's all talk and no action.

To join this to the chat this thread - this is why I read and I think others 'should' read. So many times books have opened my eyes to what is going on in other parts of the world, it gives me insight to other perspectives, challenges my assumptions and informs me. And sometimes makes me an activist. He writes that emotion without action is useless, and I am reflecting on this. I believe in working in local community/charity/giving back or whatever you want to call it. I am not doing much of it right now and will rectify that at some point.

Feeling quite emotional about the end of this book, the stories in it and the power of words on a page. Going to retreat in embarrassment now! 5 stars and a bold in case anyone is wondering.

London Rules by Mick Heron
I gobbled this one up in a long lie in and a train ride. Another very good one and I’ve already bought the next one.

Mary falling screaming to a very messy death would certainly have improved things.

@RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie That's a hilarious and very accurate review :) It was when it got to the Wordsworth section that I sped up the audiobook to super fast chipmunk speed, just to get through it, and even then it was too slow. I felt cheated by the climb- at one point that was the only reason I stuck with it- there was so much foreboding about how high the cliff was and how difficult the walk was (particularly for 'ladies') that I was really looking forward to one of the characters meeting a gristly end. Disappointing.

Withholding stars for now - might change in retrospective depending on what books stick with me. But I enjoyed them all.

I might give Simon Mason a go, ÚlldemoShúl. I'm on the library waiting list for Creation Lake, as musings on Neanderthals sound like my kind of thing.

I'm clearing out my painstakingly-acquired mini-library of books assembled for my PhD (the dust!) and am disconcerted to realize its value on the book-buying websites amounts to under a fiver in total. Having failed to monetize it in any way, it has slightly cheered me up that academics I respect aren't producing money-spinners either.

My books so far:

1. A Walk to the Western Isles, After Boswell and Johnson, Frank Delaney
2. Long Story Short, Jodi Taylor
3. The Haunted Wood: A History of Childhood Reading, Sam Leith
4. The Dark Wives, Anne Cleeves
5. Slow Trains to Istanbul, Tom Chesshyre
6. Sweetpea, C J Kuse
7. The Bookseller's Tale, Ann Swinfen
8. Sandwich, Catherine Newman
9. You are Here, David Nicholls
10. Swan Song, Edmund Crispin
11. More Dashing: Further Letters of Patrick Leigh Fermor
12. The Most Wonderful Time of the Year, Jodi Taylor
13. Holy Disorders, Edmund Crispin
14. The Travel Writing Tribe: Journeys in Search of a Genre, Tim Hannigan
15. The Dictionary People, Sarah Ogilvie
16. Enchanted Islands, Laura Coffey

And most recently:
17. Anne Boleyn and Elizabeth I, Tracy Borman
I skimmed a bit as I don't care very much which courtier was in and out of royal favour, but I'm here for the family psychodrama, and the Tudors Bring It. Surprised at feeling sympathy for (Bloody) Mary and also that Hilary Mantel did an amazing job at rehabilitating Thomas Cromwell and possibly overshot the reality.