50 Books Challenge 2026 Part Five

Just watched the highlights! Great match

This is totally off topic but omg what a match!

Oh dear I said I was done but forgot to post a photo of my reading companion

OK, this is my last long post of the night (sorry!). I've fallen hard for a woman writer who is new to me: Dorothy Richardson. I do tend to get these 'coups de coeur' where I fall in love with an author and start reading them obsessively. (I think @AgualusasL0ver and I have this trait in common, as her username suggests 😂).

Anyway I've gone down a Richardson rabbit hole and here are my reviews of her first three books (they're part of the same long 13-volume saga). There is an online group reading her work this year, and I may join even though I'm six months late (typical of me).

37. Pointed Roofs, Dorothy Richardson 5/5
    Vol. 1 of Pilgrimage. I had never heard of this modernist author (a contemporary of Joyce and Woolf) until I saw a friend’s positive reviews of her on Goodreads. She writes a kind of autofiction; Pointed Roofs starts in 1893 when the heroine Miriam is 17 (but was published in 1915, so there is roughly a twenty-year age gap between the author who is writing and her fictional counterpart). The style is very distinctive; everything is filtered through Miriam’s thoughts and sensory impressions, and there are a lot of ellipses. It’s not always clear what’s going on in terms of plot, but I just let it wash over me (a bit like reading Proust) and am enjoying it hugely. (There’s also an extensive website with resources on the text - synopses, character lists and so on - and I've been referring to that for help.) This first volume is lovely. Teenage Miriam (whose family has recently suffered bankruptcy) goes to Germany to earn her own living as an English teacher. The experience of discovering a foreign country for the first time is beautifully conveyed: the sometimes surreal and alienating but exhilarating quality of it. Miriam is a skilled pianist, and the way the Germans play and sing music enthrals her. She dislikes religious preachers and their sermons (she thinks they’re hypocrites), and she also discovers rapidly that the kind of pedagogy used in the German girls’ school is not the sort that is intended to make young women learn to think. Richardson herself attended a progressive school influenced by the ideas of Ruskin.

38. Backwater, Dorothy Richardson 5/5
    Vol. 2 of Pilgrimage. Miriam is back in Britain, and is teaching at a girls’ school in North London, run by three ‘spinster’ sisters. As in Germany, she finds the way the school is run to be stifling and unimaginative. However, she is reading the ‘daring’ novels of the day (by women writers like Ouida, whom I’d never heard of before) and her sense of self is constantly evolving. Incidentally, she is highly sensitive to noise, and this detail along with others made me think that she is almost certainly neurodivergent by today’s standards (not that this label is necessary in order to understand her as a character, but it’s interesting).

39. Honeycomb, Dorothy Richardson, 5/5
    Vol. 3 of Pilgrimage. Miriam is a governess in an upper-class household in Surrey. As always with Richardson, there are loads of different themes, but I was struck in particular by the various reflections on marriage in this volume. Two of Miriam’s sisters get married (Miriam, like Richardson herself, was one of four sisters; in one of the earlier volumes she reflects ruefully that life is more difficult for her and her sisters than it was for Alcott’s Little Women). And Mrs Corrie, Miriam’s employer, invites various couples round whose marriages seem less than desirable. It’s clear that Miriam is sceptical of marriage as an institution. There are also a lot of tart observations (scathing observations, even) on the differences between men and women and their assigned social roles. The novel ends with Miriam’s mother’s suicide (again, an event that mirrors Richardson's own history), but this is described in such opaque terms that I wouldn’t have understood it without the help of the readers’ guide.

@AgualusasL0ver great review of Daniel Hahn's If This Be Magic! This sentence made me laugh: he was just a really nice man who really cares about commas and iambic pentameter. It sounds funny but it's entirely true! Speaking of magical, the day we went to that event together was one of the most enjoyable days I've had all year. I still haven't read his book yet, but I'll get to it soon!

Great to hear you've axed the job and are managing to do some reading!

Btw, about Isabel Allende, I haven't read The Japanese Lover, but (based on my reading of years ago) I think early Allende is the best: House of the Spirits, Of Love and Shadows and Eva Luna. I don't think her later novels are anywhere near as good. Violeta is the most recent one I've read, and it was meh.

I have a flashback to my undergrad days because my best friend was studying Spanish and adored Allende. She came to our university to do a reading and we were thrilled; we went to hear her together. We were indignant because my friend's (male) professor said her work was not very good and derivative of Garcia Marquez. I should reread House of the Spirits to see what I think of it now, but I'm sure that professor WAS being sexist.

Much sympathy to those who are ailing in various ways: @EineReiseDurchDieZeit, @Owlbookend and @NotWavingButReading 💐

@VikingNorthUtsire this comment is quite late (sorry!), but I loved your review of Dream Hotel, which was also a bold for me. Like you I read it more as a human story than as sci fi; the dream parts were not as interesting to me as the rest. I thought it was a powerful indictment of all the people who are being arbitrarily detained (and/or deported) in the US at the moment, and of the ways that profit-making companies (like Serco in the UK and so on) exploit prisoners and asylum seekers. It was very similar to The Handmaid's Tale in that the dystopia depicted is more like actual historical reality than like fiction.

I also agree entirely with your review of Wild Dark Shore; I thought it was going to be a bold for me, because it was just so good, and then the last section went all crazy thriller. WTF!

@Piggywaspushed, another very late comment about your review of The Correspondent: you said, I do wonder if Americans actually have a different English usage that I can always spot and hear? I'm sure that's true. As someone who grew up in the US, American novels just hit me in a different way from other novels written in English (not always a better way, but a different way!). When I read Elizabeth Strout for example, I can 'hear' Americans from my past speaking, and I'm sure that's part of why I find her books so moving. I think this is happening partly on a conscious level, partly on an unconscious one.

I also failed to contribute to the whole discussion initiated by @MamaNewtNewt about reading authors who are repellent in some way in real life; it was a fascinating discussion.

Like others, I thought of Alice Munro straight away. I loved her short stories but I have no desire to read her any longer after the revelations about child abuse. I just feel quite viscerally put off (to borrow the term you used about Laurie Lee, @Terpsichore).

I thought We Need to Talk about Kevin raised some interesting issues (for instance, how the mother recognised dark elements of herself in her sociopathic child), but on the whole, it seemed to me an unsubtle book. Then I read some of Shriver's political statements and decided I was done with her. She was pro-Brexit and also vociferously anti-immigrant. These issues are ones that I personally care deeply about. Her anti-immigration stance seemed utterly hypocritical to me, because she herself immigrated from the US to the UK... but I guess that was OK, because she was the Right Kind of immigrant, with the right socio-economic class and the right language and the right skin colour. Last I heard, she decided that Britain's culture has been ruined by immigrants, so she's moved to Portugal instead. Good riddance, Lionel. I hadn't realised that she's also sceptical of people being diagnosed with neurodivergence, but I'm heartily unsurprised. The woman is a misanthrope. End rant.

I was also thinking of some famous French writers, like Celine, who were fascists. Perhaps that's not a reason not to read them, but I would say you have to take the fascist views into account when interpreting their work. Hannah Arendt famously read Mein Kampf in order to dissect and critique it.

Perhaps most troubling to me currently is the fact that a lot of 20th c. French intellectuals I admire, including Foucault and Beauvoir and Sartre, signed petitions trying to decriminalise sex with minors. Very disturbing. I'm not going to boycott their works because of this, but I think it's important to be aware of this huge blind spot on their parts.

I don't want to be dismissive or glib, but I'm reasonably sure that future generations will look back at us and see enormous blind spots in our thinking as well.

@Tarragon123 I am jealous of you reading more of the Perveen Mistry series as my library only has the first three and I am a strictly library reader. I have put in a request for the rest of the series so fingers crossed. From your review it seems number 4 is just as good as the previous instalments.

@Tarragon123
I've read the first 2 or 3 of Sujata Massey's first series about a Japanese American woman living in Tokyo, and really enjoyed them, but I'm not sure how many of the series I have in readable format. I have the first Perveen Mistry book, alongside lots of other crime fiction series books set in 1920s India (it's an interesting setting), and you've reminded me that I must look into these. So many crime series books as well as everything else I want to read!

Just caught up with the thread. Thanks for your good wishes and @EineReiseDurchDieZeit fingers crossed for you getting the right news soon.

I've had an horrendous week and next week is not shaoing much better but getting some reading done.

27. The Salt Path by Raynor Wynn
    Very late to the party on this as while I have known of this book, I have never actually read it but I knew about the author now having been exposed as a fraud. My sister has recommended The Walkers podcast on it so thought I had better read it first so I have listened to it on audible today while cleaning the house and doing the garden.
    Not sure how I would have felt if I was reading it and believing it to be a true story. I usually enjoy a travel memoire. But knowing what I know, it was a slog.

28. Our London Lives by Christine Dwyer Hickey
    This ended up on my TBR list thanks to this thread, therefore much reviewed on here. This was the story of Milly and Pip, told over several timelines which go back and forth. Milly and Pip meet in a London pub in 1979 where MIlly has just got a job as a barmaid and become friends and then lovers over the years and they come in and out of each others lives over the years, as their individual circumstances change. It looks at so many different life experiences, unplanned pregancies, adoption, alcoholism, homelessness, and family.

The story covers a lot of years, and you get the impression you are just getting small snapshots of their lives. You get the impression of how London has changed since the 1970s as well, in the present day timeline Pip is a recovering alcoholic and Milly is recently out of a relationship with a developer who has gone bankrupt.
A good read which I would never have picked up if not for the 50 Bookers!

Sorry to hear you’re still unwell @EineReiseDurchDieZeit and in frustrating medical limbo.

Sorry, too, for your breakage @Owlbookend . It took ages for me to be able to hold a book after breaking my wrist, but I was okay with the Kindle.

Nothing to report here. I’m reading an Agatha Christie that I haven’t come across before, but I keep falling asleep over it. It narrowly avoided drowning in the bath yesterday.

@Owlbookend – get well soon 💐

Oh dear @MaterMoribund – we really have opposite tastes, but thats good to know! 😂

@EineReiseDurchDieZeit – I really hope that you get the answers. I reckon £250 max to see a consultant.

I’m another one who hasn’t heard of Yesteryear, but then I’ve not really been anyway for the past month.

@elkiedee – I love Mary Portas and that sounds like a great book!

78 The Mistress of Bhatia House - Sujata Massey - Book 4 in the Perveen Mistry series. I wasted no time delving into the next book in the series. Bombay, 1922. Perveen is attending a fundraiser for a new maternal hospital. There is a terrible accident involving candles and one of the children of the house catches fire. His young ayah (Nanny) saves him, but ends up having badly burnt herself. A few days later, Perveen learns that the ayah has been arrested on trumped up charges, accused by a man who doesn’t appear to exist.

Another excellent book. Sadly, the themes from 1922 are just as relevant today. Maternal and infant health, racism, classism, relationships between different religions. I cant wait to get my hands on the next book. My only complaint is that there is a rather large loose end regarding Gulnaz, Perveen’s beloved friend and sister in law. I’m very hopeful for a satisfactory outcome for Gulnaz.

79 The House of Silk – Anthony Horowitz. AH was authorised by the ACH estate to write a new Sherlock Holmes. As you would expect, the script writer responsible for Midsummer Murders, Foyle’s War, Poirot adaptations and many more doesn’t disappoint. Its so atmospheric. I was transported back London in 1890. As usual, I had no idea where the plot was going or what was happening. But I enjoyed it. I actually bought Moriarty, book 2 in the series, and read it first. It doesn’t matter. The books aren’t connected.

I got my daughter an appointment with a private gynaecologist a few years ago and it was in the region of £180.

I risk derailing the thread but the GP has already played their part. I have a GP appointment upcoming but I have to wait just under 2 weeks!

@EineReiseDurchDieZeit I've found that my GP usually has more luck getting blood from a stone a positive response from my consultant. Is it worth asking them to help you to push for an urgent appointment? I have to say mine have been really helpful.

💐really hope you can get your appointment soon.

Sorry to hear eine and owl - very best wishes. I hope you can get help soon eine.

Let the Dead Speak by Jane Casey I didn’t rate this as highly as the previous few Maeve Kerrigans, though this might have been affected by me having to put it aside for other books part way through. Still readable though and I’m still invested in the characters and series.

Helpful but I’ve already spoken to her, it was her told me there was no availability

@Arran2024 it’s worth looking into but I don’t know if I could afford it. I wonder what it costs!?

Does he also see patients privately? I know that's not cheap but it might not be too expensive to have a one off consultation x

@EineReiseDurchDieZeit I don't know whether this is helpful and you may have done it but could you ring the secretary and outline your problem? I'm under rheumatology and they are seldom available but the secretary will sometimes pass on a message and come back with advice.

I’m under a consultant @NotWavingButReading for something that keeps coming and going. I need to see him urgently and I’ve been told he has no availability - what I’m supposed to do I’m not sure

@Owlbookend Hope you manage to find a way to read and enjoy your holiday despite the injury.
@EineReiseDurchDieZeit commiserations. I hope you are not too ill while you await diagnosis. I too am waiting to see a specialist. The NHS wait is about ten months and while it's not life threatening it's been ongoing since Feb and is a bit rubbish plus I have had to cancel my holidays. Again.

I had a run of DNFs so moved on to an easy re-read.
Fall of Giants by Ken Follett.
Welsh miners embrace communism during the Russian revolution.
First of the trilogy covering the 20th century from around 1912 to the 1960s.
Told from perspectives in Wales, London, Germany, Russia and USA. Well developed characters who have a minor role in history or a connection to real historical figures. A bit like Cynthia Harrod Eagles approach.

I get a weekly email from Bookbub and I've just downloaded 12 books because I didn't already have 65 on my kindle TBR.

Oh no @Owlbookend. Hope you still manage to enjoy the holiday. I once broke 3 bones 3 days into a two week holiday and spent the rest of the holiday lying on the bed. It was my first holiday with a Kindle and I remember being so grateful for it.

Thanks @EineReiseDurchDieZeit.

Hope the recovery goes well @Owlbookend , and @EineReiseDurchDieZeit I hope you get some news soon, and that it’s good.

@SheilaFentiman yes a couple of books would have been fine for the overarching storyline, it was at the end of the second one that I started to get irritated!

Sending hugs to both @EineReiseDurchDieZeit and @Owlbookend, hope the tough times get better soon x

Sorry to hear @EineReiseDurchDieZeit and @Owlbookend that you're having tough times - hope things improve for both of you soon.

@Terpsichore - you're welcome to share my rock since I too had failed to clock Yesteryear

Whilst I enjoyed A Place of Greater Safety, it didn't suck me in the same way as the Wolf Hall trilogy and I found the characters/politics/parties more difficult to keep track of (even though I did the French Revolution at A level....). Still an excellent read.

Oh gosh, lots of misfortune on the thread! Sending to all who are in the wars.

I've been missing from the thread for ages with various things keeping me occupied but I have been reading. Apologies for the mammoth post, I've tried to be brief.

9. RWYO. Anne's House of Dreams, by LM Montgomery. Delightful as always.

10. Don't Stop: Why We (Still) Love Fleetwood Mac's Rumours, by Alan Light. This felt like it could have been a long article rather than a short book. It's a strange structure as well - the first part is a potted history of Fleetwood Mac, the second part a chapter for each song on the album, and then the third part more of an analysis - but much of this had already been done in part two so it felt quite messy.

11. The Gods of New York: Egotists, Idealists, Opportunists, and the Birth of the Modern City, 1986-1990, by Jonathan Mahler. The blurb says it more succinctly than I could: "A sweeping chronicle of four years in 1980s New York, a crucible that would transform the city and leave it more divided than ever—a rollicking, real-life Bonfire of the Vanities featuring larger-than-life personalities of Donald Trump, Spike Lee, Ed Koch, Al Sharpton, Rudy Giuliani, and countless others." Hoo boy. This was extremely dense so it took me weeks to read, but it was very well done. It's interesting to find out that Trump has always been the same - there's a part where he tells the local Republican party he isn't going to run for president, then gives a rambling speech with talking points including "We should have these countries that are ripping us off pay off the $200 million deficit", proposes invading Iran - "a horrible, horrible country" to seize their oil fields, then says "If the right man doesn't get into office, you're going to see a catastrophe in this country…like you're never going to believe". Not quite a bold but very good.

12. The Poisoned King (Impossible Creatures), by Katherine Rundell. Follow up to the first Impossible Creatures, this is fabulous.

13. RWYO. Plain Bad Heroines, by Emily M. Danforth. I've had this for ages and there were a flurry of positive reviews earlier in the thread so I bumped it up my list and I'm glad I did. Very funny, clever and interesting, although goodness me it was long.

14. The Death of Us, by Abigail Dean. A couple in their thirties suffer a home invasion by a serial offender. Decades later, he is finally caught, and we learn about the fallout from the crime. This is told through two timelines, and multiple points of view. It's very disturbing and absolutely brilliant.

15. The Storm, by Rachel Hawkins. Very entertaining gothic thriller set on the Alabama Gulf Coast. As per the blurb, "St. Medard’s Bay, Alabama is famous for three things: the deadly hurricanes that regularly sweep into town, the Rosalie Inn, a century-old hotel that’s survived every one of those storms, and Lo Bailey, the local girl infamously accused of the murder of her lover, political scion Landon Fitzroy, during Hurricane Marie in 1984." Another dual timeline and multi-POV story. There are two big twists, which I did figure out, but I think that's because the breadcrumbs were very carefully laid.

16. RWYO. Project Hail Mary, by Andy Weir. Stellar (pun intended). My kindle says the average reading time for this book was 10 hours, but it took me twice that because I read all of the science bits - I'm assuming not everyone did. But it's funny, lovely, and slightly too involved, hence not a bold.

17. RWYO. Bella, by Jilly Cooper. Comfort read that hasn't aged well and is wildly unrealistic, and yet I love it so.

18. So Old, So Young, by Grant Ginder. Yet another story told from multiple points of view, this follows 6 friends over 20 years, and is framed around 5 parties that they all attend. This won't be for everyone because it's quite rambling and much more character driven than plot driven, but I loved it.

19. RWYO. Want You Gone, by Chris Brookmyre. A brilliantly tightly plotted Jack Parlabane thriller.

20. London Falling, by Patrick Radden Keefe. No introduction needed! Brilliant. I almost DNF after the first two chapters, when I was thinking 'this kid is appalling and this is some very lax parenting'. I'm very glad I didn't.

21. Perfection, by Vincenzo Latronico. A satirical novel following Anna and Tom who are 'digital natives' living in Berlin. Somehow Latronico manages to give an enormous amount of detail while at the same time telling us very little. This was cleverly done and he paints a very vivid picture, but I was left being unsure who he was so angry with. Anna and Tom, social media, Europe, late stage capitalism… who knows?! However I've upgraded it to a bold because it's really stayed with me.