50 Books Challenge 2026 Part Five

Will think of you out there @InTheCludgie. If you've bought a ticket you have a month to watch the Livestream, and I know very well that's not very long - it took me years to watch all 7 series of Mad Men for example. I wonder if my ticket includes Livestream access for a month, must check.

@Terpsichore that's a great idea! I am terrible at baking but maybe could do a tray bake or some very simple cake. Could enlist dc2 who is more proficient.

The only Edna O’Brien book I’ve read is Girl and that was brutal.

It’s about a Nigerian teenage schoolgirl who was one of a group of girls captured by Boko Haram, and it was very harrowing to read.
It was well written, but the subject matter did make this a difficult and frequently disturbing book to read.

Actually my RL book club is about to celebrate our 10th anniversary. Does anyone have any bookish ideas of what to do? I was thinking of trying to make a collage of all the books we've read but not sure what to do with it!

@Stowickthevast If you’re handy at baking you could have it printed onto an icing sheet and use it as a cake topper. I've done this before with photos. Lots of companies do it - you just send them the photo and they send it back in edible form! You choose the size and whether you want it round, square etc….

Do report back on The Women's Prize day @elkiedee. I've been tempted but am just finishing a contract so can't take a mid week day off.

I'm also an Eric fan @InTheCludgie and have joined his book club.

I've picked up The Country Girls trilogy which I've never read. I think the only book by her that I have read is The Little Red Chairs which was the first book my real life book club chose in 2016. It's about the Yugoslavia war. I don't think I loved it but may revisit it one day.

Actually my RL book club is about to celebrate our 10th anniversary. Does anyone have any bookish ideas of what to do? I was thinking of trying to make a collage of all the books we've read but not sure what to do with it!

Enjoy! I'll be trying to watch a live stream if I get the time. If you see Eric Karl Anderson say hello to him from me!

That's a tough but sensible question! If I can't persuade you to get everything at such a bargain price, I will come back with a narrowed down list later this morning or early a but at the moment I'm falling asleep again. Her autobiographical trilogy, the memoir of a similar name, maybe Girls and the Skin Chairs, haven't read, and her short story collection. Back for formatting later.

which one would you recommend if I have never read her. @elkiedee

Wow. There are 17 books by Edna O'Brien in the Kindle deals today. Well, it will save me some money in charity shops on what I can't find in my house, and some books I can find can be rehomed.

Thanks for reminding me about 'Land'.
I read the sample on my Kindle just now and I'm hooked!

I loved Family Romance too, have tried a couple of his others and never got very far.

The Feather Thief by Kirk Wallace Johnson - In 2009 a 20 year old broke into the Natural History museum in Tring and stole a huge number of rare bird specimens. This book is a real curiosity cabinet of stories and history - of the scientist Alfred Wallace who collected many of the specimens in the 1840s; of the craze for feathers in women’s fashions in the later 1800s and the catastrophic impact on bird populations; of the use of feathers in fly tying, originally for fishing hobbyists, but which has come to be an art-form in itself. There’s a whole community of people obsessed with getting hold of rare feathers to work with.

All this is the background to the heist itself, the scientific value of what was stolen, and the author’s own obsession with finding out more about the perpetrator and the market for what was stolen. I really enjoyed this and recommend.

I think I managed to see Translations a couple of times, one at West Yorkshire Playhouse when I lived in Leeds - that was a great place, as tickets could be very reasonably priced. Manchester had some very cheap theatre performances on the university campus, not just the local drama club though, some of it was repertory outreach, I think, and a theatre in the central Library, as well as the Royal Exchange.

@Terpsichore,
Perhaps when I finish at least 10 of the books I've started, more if I add more library books, that is the problem, I will add Family Romance to my Librarything List "Maybe This Year" - I've had books on this list though since at 2022 that I've still not read!

I'm going to the whole of the Women's Prize event again next Wednesday. It's extravagant, yes, but a lot cheaper than going to festivals outside London (for me/those of us in zones 2 and 3, say). No accommodation, lower transport costs. Official food is expensive but as in most festivals, it is possible and often sensible to take a break outside the grounds. I didn't find my bag stuffed as advertised with goodies - just 2 books but the tote bag is perfect - longer than average with a nice long handle, and it's black - nice white bags get so grubby and even washing doesn't deal with it - when my rucksack is full of library books or giveaway books. Only I seem to have lost it. I'm ordered a replacement via Vinted, and also some previous designs so I'm of sort hoping that the original will reappear, and I might end up with 5 or 6. Then I can lose them all.

@AgualusasL0ver
"Maybe I will have to hang up my feminist credentials here, but I am irrationally irritated by books (largely non fic) that start with ‘women stories are missing, I’m putting them back…’ Rationally I know we are still not where we need to be with equality and equity but I find it weirdly dumbing down - and I dislike that I feel that way."

Interesting I hadn't thought so much of this as a difference in how you do/write feminism but I am sympathetic to what you wrote.

Myself, I think that it's better to have your values inform the work you do than proclaim views you can't back up in any kind of practice. I'm also a bit cynical about the "identity" but also the theory. I prefer history, biography and fiction to some of the very abstract theory (and my degree options had huge amounts of all of those, so it was very tempting to stay in my comfort zone, reading wise).

Thanks, good steer, @Stowickthevast, that is intriguing. Will we have more or less Classics influenced books? She might want to steer away from Greece and Rome with the lists so she can't be accused of favouring her own (especially if they are former students). Maybe other awards, Women's Prize and debut prizes, and more parochial British awards, can make up for this, if so.

I missed Mary Beard's response to the Rhodes Must Fall campaign, which is very disappointing. I do think she's a small l liberal who may well be a floating anti-Tory voter, I don't think she's a racist.

I think there has been a lot of change in what comes up, but I did find a letter from 2019 that lots of famous writers/broadcasters etc signed:

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/nov/14/concerns-about-antisemitism-mean-we-cannot-vote-labour\

John le Carré (David Cornwell), Fay Weldon, Joanna Lumley, William Boyd, Simon Callow, Antony Beevor, Sathnam Sanghera, Janina Ramirez, Trevor Phillips, Jimmy Wales, Suzannah Lipscomb, Tom Holland, Frederick Forsyth, Peter Frankopan, Ghanem Nuseibeh, Dan Snow, Fiyaz Mughal, Tony Parsons, Dan Jones, Maajid Nawaz, Oz Katerji, Nick Hewer, Ed Husain, Terry Jervis

Some have never voted Labour, at least one has been outspoken for UKIP, others supported Blair and/or Brown, some were mavericks, but I'm really disappointed that Ramirez and others whose work I Iove would have joined these people to give htem some cover in their views.

Interesting chat about Mary Beard who I like and Ramirez who I don't know.

To bring it back to books, Mary Beard is head of the Booker judges this year so it'll be interesting to see what the longlist looks like.

It's fine! And do get round to Family Romance when you can - it’s very good. Due a re-read for me, actually.

(ETA correct title…)

Apologies @Terpsichore and @Cassandre - I read the posts and by the time I'm responding I forget who said what, and I obviously failed to check that one. I'm very embarrassed. All I can say is that you both post interesting comments about books that I want to discuss if I've read them, and the two of you and others keep sending me to add more library reservations than I can handle.

I am going to take a break to look at other stuff and then try to make myself read some more of the Sylvia Pankhurst book. I'm hoping I get my own copy soon, as I do need to finish this before I can relinquish it otherwise.

Thank you, that's the one that I've wanted to read since I saw my mum with it - how long ago was it published. I do have it TBR. I love extraordinary memoirs. I'm currently reading a book on MI5 files and that's quite jaw dropping.

Sorry, but you asked, @Terpsichore!

Er, I didn’t, @elkiedee - 'twas not me!

By the way, in case anyone thinks I'm on something, I never drink, and I don't do drugs, though I don't mind if anyone else does so long as they're not mean drunks or vicious when stoned.

@AgualusasL0ver Grumpy and irrational - no, that's me, you sound entirely reasonable compared to my rant.

Off-topic now and rather controversial - perhaps after this if it's better, we can take this offlist if needs be to continue. Also I'm just tired at the moment, not of the debate or of sincere questions, but IRL is getting in the way of reading. Online is getting in the way of reading.

I don't think Janina Ramirez is conservative. I do think she has been influenced at times by smear campaigns against former Labour left politicians, and she signed some letter saying she couldn't consider voting Labour because of antisemitism. My problem is I think there is antisemitism in all parties including the Labour Party, but I disagree about where the problem is coming from.

For example, an actress who claimed to have resigned twice from Labour over this issue before Jeremy Corbyn, against a Jewish Labour leader, Ed Miliband. And a really nasty article about Ed Miliband, which presumably applied to his brother David before the election 2015, written by another celeb historian, Dominic Sandbrook, described EM's father Ralph as "the man who hated Britain" - we're still hearing the echoes over 10 years later.

Then from 2015 a lot of writers, many with advanced qualifications in reading between the lines, started claim to believe all sorts of stories and claims, including lots of letters from female Labour MPs about sexist treatment. Letters, twitter posts. That's where Ramirez came in. Mary Beard may never have voted Labour, but I've not seen her slagging anyone off on Twitter. It upsets me when writers whose work I loved do this stuff, and I can't give up reading all the books they've written. The stories about bricks through MPs constituency office windows - investigation results never made it to the news. Everything was brought in to the mix. Books have been written from various viewpoints, pro and anti JC, pro Starmer, pro Tory - I may have bought one or two, for me or DP, but to be honest, I can't imagine wanting to read a whole book - articles I can handle and then mock afterwards, but a book.... no, even I'm not that masochistic.

So I agree that Mary Beard is a more traditional academic and sometimes she takes a neutral stance on political matters. It's not really about place on the political spectrum, but she hasn't said as many things which upset me. She hasn't claimed a need to support people with mental issues then denounced the Labour left as completely mad. Like some of the others are sane?

Ok, rant over, I'm moving the laptop away from my fingers briefly. Back later, possibly to delete this if someone hasn't reported it already.

Sorry, but you asked, @Terpsichore!