50 Books Challenge 2026 Part Seven

@InTheCludgieI’ve listened to most of Stephen King’s more recent books. Some of them are read by Will Patton who I quite like as a narrator. I remember particularly liking Billy Summers in audio but I read all the older ones in paperback so can’t help you with those.

I am learning to listen to books on audio but have so far only done a few re-reads, mainly some Jane Austen. I'd like to try one that's really excellently narrated if anyone has recommendations?

Also loving the exciting bookshop news. I work in Bloomsbury so my go-to is book browsing if I get a lunch break. Sadly lunch breaks are a rare treat.

I‘ve been down with the lurgy for the last few days, thanks to DD who passed it on. I’ve been in no mood even for reading, just trying to sleep it off.

Catching up on the thread. A new Persephone bookshop! I must visit next time I’m up in town - a great opportunity to buy some Christmas presents (for me 😊). I’d be up for a 50B meet up some time - I was in France for the last one - especially if it involves browsing bookshops as well.

47… The House with the Golden Door - Elodie Harper

Second in The Wolf Den trilogy set in Pompeii AD75; I wish I’d read it sooner as I couldn’t remember who half the characters were or their backstory. Despite that it was quite readable, and made a change to see women’s lives in Ancient Rome with their few choices available. As with The Wolf Den, there was a lot of sex, but also love and friendship. A charming portrayal of a same-sex (female) couple as well. Must get round to reading the final book soon before I forget who’s who.

I discovered Sinead Gleeson through three short story anthologies she's edited - The Glass Shore (Northern Irish women), The Long Gaze Back (Irish women) and The Art of the Glimpse (Irish writers). Also her memoir-essay collection Constellations is great. And I've just bought a collection of essays on music off Vinted, along with a Guide to Event Management, because whether I stay co-chair of my borough wide libraries campaigning group or hand over to someone else and have time to start the local Friends group I've been meaning to for years, my current co-chair and I really need to think about organising events (she's trying to set up a group at our central library, which is the least attractive big library in the borough - all 3 are relatively accessible by public transport whereas some others including my own branch are hidden away - I am sure some people within walking distance who like reading don't really know where we are. I didn't when I lived in a shared flat about 3/4 of a mile from the library and similar from my current home in slightly different directions.

Re Kristin Hannah I’ve read The Nightingale (good), The Women (good first half, lost its way second half) and The Winter Garden (pretty good, historical bits were the best as it described something I knew little about). Agree that she falls just short of greatness. I have The Great Alone to read so good to see it’s getting some not-terrible reviews!

I’m not an audio fan but I have started incorporating them into my reading over the last two years. I’ve found some criteria that work for me, though I have to treat it as a book and can’t be doing other things other than very benign stirring dinner or washing up - I can’t clean and listen as I lose the thread. I also have to listen at normal speed. My rules for me are:

Agatha Christie (tend to be read by people like Stephanie Cole, the man who plays Hastings in Poirot, Richard E Grant which work for me)

Some non fiction read by the author. Works well for comedian memoirs and anyone who’s way of speaking I like (Janina Ramirez’s history books for me) or where their voice helps with context/placing (Jacinda Ardern’s memoir).

I did listen to Rivers of London as I think @ÚlldemoShúlrecommended the narrator and he was good.

@Pigtailsandall I listened to Sense and Sensibility read by Juliet Stevenson which was very good, although I notice that Rosamund Pike has narrated some Austen novels recently so might be worth a preview listen if you're able to do that.

Thanks for the Kristin Hannah recs, I've just realised I have actually read one of hers - Firefly Lane, forgot all about that 🙈 it was five years ago and I rated it 8 out of 10 (my memory isn't great so it's no reflection on the book that I couldn't recall it!)

@ÚlldemoShúl Billy Summers is one I already have on my shelf and I'm too tight to spend an Audible credit on it 😂

I listen to quite a lot of audio as It's a good way to get new books a bit more cheaply by using credits. I also find them a good way to read books that I'm not that into.

I listened to Project Hail Mary on Eine's recommendation recently and that was great. other recent ones I've enjoyed are John of John and London Falling. I also really liked Tom Lake which was narrated by Meryl Streep. And I loved Arundhati Roy's autobiography which was read by the author.

Books that are written in patois or accented speech also work really well. A few that I have liked are:
Fire Rush
The Mercy Step
Love After Love
The Love Songs of Boysie Singh

Quick klaxon for anyone (ie me) who’s been stalking Alba de Céspedes' Forbidden Notebook - it's down to 99p today.

Thank you, and thanks @AgualusasL0ver and @Stowickthevast good ideas. I don't think I considered the narrator as a contributing factor to the experience! I'm down with a cold so I might pick an Agatha Christie for today as a bit of a comfort-listen.

I've tried several times to get into audio books but I drift very quickly even at x 1.5. It seems such an obvious way to enjoy a book, particularly when driving or at the gym. @AgualusasL0ver The only ones I have managed were autobiographies read by the author.
I recently downloaded a few from Borrowbox but ended up going back to podcasts.
DH and I are also down with cold, no doubt picked during one of several trips to A&E this week after he injured himself.

I’m also on the hunt for good audiobooks, the Lisa Jewell ones are usually very well done but I know she’s not your thing @Stowickthevast

@ÚlldemoShúl I’m not really enjoying Will Patton reading Doctor Sleep I preferred The Shining narrator Campbell Scott

Oh interesting @EineReiseDurchDieZeitNarrators make such a difference to audio I think.
I find speeding it up helps my concentration for those who feel their concentration slip- it kind of forces you to pay attention. I usually read around 1.5 but sometimes up to 1.7 depending on how slowly the narrator reads. I had to give up on one recently that sounded like a good story - an Aussie thriller called Melaleuca but the narrator was so painfully slow with strange gaps in the middle of sentences that I just couldn’t continue.
Agree with Stowick re books written in dialect. Also good to start off any stream of consciousness. Which takes me to y latest read- not on audio but in paperback. To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf. I’m not going to write a full review because I’ve written one here before- this is a reread and I loved it even more this time. The sublime writing in part 2. The exploration of time and beauty and the role of women and motherhood. The enigma that is Mrs Ramsey. Bold again.

I enjoyed Shuggie Bain and Milkman on audio for similar reasons to Stoick. Also The Testament of Mary read by Meryl Streep. Other than that I am better with memoir or non-fiction rather than fiction as I can lose the thread of a story. Although I did enjoy a Lucy Clarke one with multiple narrators that reminded me a bit of the Lisa Jewell @EineReiseDurchDieZeit . I think it was called The Hike.

I’ve only got into Audiobooks in the last few years but I have to be doing something unlike AgualusasLover. Especially cleaning or cooking both of which I detest. Or drawing or painting or knitting or something mindless.
Politics and History actually work better for me as audio. I don’t tend to listen to fiction - apart from Dickens. I can’t read Dickens in book form.

Off Topic: Reeling that my Strictly thread got reported because I used the 24 hr clock AND put PM. Am I so wrong?!?

Gosh @EineReiseDurchDieZeit , shocking behaviour on your part. I hope you repent and see the error of your ways.

😂😂😂

Because I'm very nosey, I immediately looked at the thread in question, and I admire your use of the adjective tautologous! Not a term I see every day.

Outside of book Mumsnet it’s a very different beast isn’t it? I joined a Traitors thread then left as everyone was so snappy with each other (I see you surviving on there @EineReiseDurchDieZeit)

I have been trying to find a similar thread* for movies and TV, but they are often quite mean-spirited. I saw the new Sense and Sensibility and had some thoughts about it and wanted to see if anyone agreed. But some of those threads scare me 😅

*similar to this, edited to add

@Pigtailsandall as independently verified by a panel of judges, this is one of the best threads on MN 😊

All the Hilary Mantel chat reminds me I've never read Wolf Hall and I'm not sure why. I am a history grad, and my mum adored Wolf Hall and raved about it, but I think I looked at it and was immediately put off by something - is it perhaps written in the present tense? (Sounds rather unlikely). I think I should probably give it another go.

@NotWavingButReading, no book snobbery here! I have an ardent love for Jilly Cooper, including the 'name' novels which have aged terribly, but I read them at a tricky time when I was a teenager and they are my ultimate comfort reading. And yes I count them, despite the fact I've read them over and over!

@elkiedee I'm sorry you're struggling. It's nearly 7 years since my mum died which seems impossible. In my experience the saying 'you don't get over it, you just get used to it' has been very true.

I LOVE seeing how different everyone's comfort reads are. @MegBusset I love LOTR but the idea of reading it for comfort makes me feel faint!

@SheilaFentiman I love the opinionated guides, that's going on my Christmas list!

@NotWavingButReading, @BestIsWest and @ÚlldemoShúl, my favourite Juith Krantz is I'll Take Manhattan. Absolutely brilliant nonsense. I bought but haven't yet read Scruples in paperback last year. Not sure what I'm saving it for!

The only Kristin Hannah I've read was The Great Alone, and I really loved it, but I've decided life's too short for 600 page books of unpredictable quality, so I might be done, at least for now.

I'll be in England in December and the idea of being able to attend another IRL meetup is v exciting!

@AliasGrape, for consideration of your spookiness reading list, I nominate The Book of Love, by Kelly Link. Here's my review from a couple of years ago.

I don't even know how to describe this, so I'll cheat and start with the blurb: "Late one night, Laura, Daniel, and Mo find themselves beneath the fluorescent lights of a high school classroom, almost a year after disappearing from their hometown, the small seaside community of Lovesend, Massachusetts, having long been presumed dead. Which, in fact, they are. With them in the room is their previously unremarkable high school music teacher, who seems to know something about their disappearance—and what has brought them back again. Desperate to reclaim their lives, the three agree to the terms of the bargain their music teacher proposes. They will be given a series of magical tasks; while they undertake them, they may return to their families and friends, but they can tell no one where they’ve been. In the end, there will be winners and there will be losers." This was very long, quite slow and utterly bonkers, but I adored it. Some of the writing is exquisite and I cared so much about each of these characters. I returned it to the library and immediately bought my own copy. There are a lot of very angry people on Goodreads complaining that nothing happens, which is far from true, but it's definitely more character-driven than plot.

Perhaps we should start a What 50 Bookers are watching? in TV addicts or here and link to it, and try and scare off the snappy alligators by kindness. Just catching up on here after a strange weekend before looking in on the new thread, but I have a library book juggling trip today, as I will probably be back on the naughty step soon with one of my favourite library services, and my local library service fines at 40p a day plus opening days and hours complicate things.

Would love to meet you but I may not be able to wait until December! We may have to organise more than one meet up - I'm up for it, as I can get value for my Oyster top up fares really easily from Scala Street, as @AgualusasL0ver has suggested. For anyone who is not sure and wants to get an idea, Fitzrovia is north west of Holborn/Bloomsbury and west of Tottenham Court Road, and Scala Street is the next turning north of Goodge Street station, so not far by tube or bus or even foot for some of us! from most mainline and smaller commuter oriented stations and from many TFL tube lines.

See you all on the next thread.