50 Book Challenge 2021 Part Two

[southeastdweller]

Welcome to the second thread of the 50 Book Challenge for this year.

The challenge is to read fifty books (or more!) in 2021, though reading fifty isn't mandatory. Any type of book can count, and please try to let us all know your thoughts on what you've read. Could everyone embolden their titles and/or authors as well, please, as it makes the books talked about easier to track?

The first thread of the year is here.

Thank you for the lovely new thread @southeastdweller, the first one moved so fast!

Here's my very short list:

1. Execution ~ S. J. Parris It's the latest in her Giordano Bruno Elizabethan spy series. This one features the Babington Plot, it's crammed with plot twists and turns, double dealing characters, disguises, dark cellars and much rushing from one side of London to the other. In short, a really good fun read!

CoteDAzur's mention of Clara Schumann reminded me of Clara by Janice Galloway a heart-stoppingly wonderful book.

Thanks for the new thread SouthEast

I’m on my phone so hard to see who has said what... but thanks for the reminder of Catherine Fox books. I read the first two a couple of years ago but also have the third one unread on my kindle.

TimeforaGandT - you have inspired me to start a re-read of DF throughout this year (years 😀)

De- lurking to say that if any of you go to Salisbury Cathedral do try to book the Tower & Spire/Roof tour. You are eventually guided up to the outside base of the spire - about 70 M above ground. You see all the internal design of the spire & it is amazing.

An advance apolgy that I am only going to be a lurker again this year. Sadly my DH didn't survive his broken hip & associated problems that came with it. I am mainly re-re-re reading all my comfort books & am not in a place to comment or critique upon my reading.

But I just love this thread & keep up with it on a regular basis & it's the best place on Mumsnet, if not the whole internet, for me.

Many thanks to all of you who contribute & special thanks to southeast for all her/his work for keeping this amazing thread going.

Magimedi I'm so sorry

@magimedi

Oh magimedi I just felt devastated for you reading that. I am so so sorry.

When you can and are up to it, don't feel afraid to share what books are comforting you...

We will all be here

Take care xx

magimedi I am so very sorry. This is awful news

Eine

The first books I went to were Little Women , Anne Of green Gables & What Katy Did - read all of the series of all of them. Felt like being wrapped in a warm blanket.

magimedi I am so sorry to hear about your husband. Much love to you.

Thank you very much for the tip about the tower tour, that sounds amazing.

Anne Of Green Gables is a HUGE comfort to me to.

May I suggest one of my favourites in that vein A Little Princess ?

Oh Magimedi, I'm so sorry to hear that - you're always welcome here, whether it's as a lurker or as a more active poster

Terpsichore thanks for two brilliant suggestions! I haven't read any CP Snow apart from The Two Cultures, but I'm not bothered by old-fashioned, so I'll investigate his fiction. And I've already read The Gaudy, which I've just found out is the first book in the A Staircase in Surrey quintet, so I'll have to hunt down the others. I was a bit obsessed with Michael Innes about 10 years ago (JIM Stewart's crime-writing pseudonym) so I tracked down about 25 of his books under that name - they're enjoyably urbane (and even better, they're all really short and punchy, albeit rather bizarre in places). I was planning to move on to his non-crime books (hence The Gaudy ) but, as usual, got distracted by something else

Just when you thought it was safe to come onto the thread, Meg and Remus, I'm belatedly posting my list:

1. Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams
2. Christmas at the Island Hotel by Jenny Colgan
3. The History of Mr Polly by HG Wells
4. The Word is Murder by Anthony Horowitz
5. The Sentence is Death by Anthony Horowitz

I owe you reviews of books 3-5 but I'm not going to post them now, as I'm about 15 pages from the end of Lady in Waiting and I'm desperate to go to bed so I can get back to it

magi

3. The Men Who Stare At Goats by Jon Ronson
(Underlining instead of bolding due to Mac issues)
An extraordinary book about how mind control, psychic and psychedelic ideas were part of American Army and CIA 'research' for some years.

This was published in 2004 soon after the Iraq War was supposed to have been 'won'. I came away from it feeling deeply admiring of Jon Ronson's writing. He's taken something very bitty and which in other hands might not have hung together, and using his deadpan approach, faux (or is it real?) naivety and then occasional flashes of genuine anger, he pulls it into a narrative without ever laughing at the pretty strange individuals involved. It's a deeply humane book. The chapter on Frank Olson near the end is the most passionate and written quite differently, but it took the rest of the book to give it the walloping impact it had on me. Less deeply, it's also interesting to read it now, given a) that all the psychic predictions were made for times that are now in the past and b) it's become fashionable to say 'I miss George W Bush'. I've thought it myself occasionally. This reminds you very clearly why you might not, in fact.

I’m so sorry, magimedi

Magimedi I posted that before catching up on the thread - I'm so sorry for your loss and hope that re-reading comfort books is helping a little.

Magimedi

Thank you for the new thread Southeastdweller.

Here's my list for the year so far. At the speed I'm getting through my current read it might not change by the next thread...

1. The Hollow Ones - Chuck Hogan & Guillermo del Toro

2. Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont - Elizabeth Taylor

1. The Sisterhood - Penelope Friday
2. The Rules of Seeing - Joe Heap

5. Catch and Kill - Ronan Farrow

1. Look at Me - Anita Brookner
2. Tell Me How You Really Feel - Aminah Mae Safi
3. Soon I Will Be Invincible - Austin Grossman
4. The Year of the Witching - Alexis Henderson

Currently reading Ducks, Newburyport - Lucy Ellmann and am a whole 5% of the way through. I'll be pleased if I finish it this month but I'm really enjoying it so far.

This thread and the Books Unbound podcast I'm listening to are making my virtual TBR pile more of a TBR mountain...can't complain about not having anything to read I suppose!

magimedi I am very sorry

So sorry for your loss magimedi, come back to us when you're ready 💐

Oh magimedi, how awful. Hope you find some comfort here among your fellow 50 bookers My failsafe comfort reads are 84, Charing Cross Road, and I Capture The Castle.

Thank you southeast for the new thread. The first moved so fast that I didn't manage to finish any books! Have just finished these two in tandem.

1. I am an Island, by Tamsin Calidas. Englishwoman moves to Hebridean island, suffers a series of unfortunate events. Oof, what to say. Absolutely gorgeous nature writing and a fascinating story but it's very... overwrought? She's clearly been through the mill with a serious accident, an abusive relationship, infertility and a very difficult time with the islanders, but some of her behaviour is fairly extraordinary - moving out to live in the woods for a while, or all the business with the dead ram. I really enjoyed most of this, but there it also made me boggle a bit.

biblio I looked back and realised you'd read it too - completely agree that I would love to hear other people's versions of events.

2. Emma's Island, by Honor Arundel. I loved these books as a teenager and re-read the first last year. I grabbed this one to leaven the previous book, as in this Emma and her aunt and step-uncle move to a remote Scottish island, love living there, are welcomed by the locals, and no one has a breakdown.

Another cathedral suggestion: The Cleaner of Chartres by Salley Vickers.

I spent a magical summer evening watching a son et lumière display against the beautiful walls of Chartres Cathedral. I'm so looking forward to being able to do these things again one day.

I hope you keep finding comfort from the thread @magimedi, it really is one of the best places to come to.

Just checking in.

1. Treachery - SJ Parris
2. Wintering - Katherine May
3. Away with the Penguins - Hazel Prior

Currently on A Confederate of Dunces by John Kennedy Tool. Haven't really progressed that much as I keep falling asleep. A friend recommended it to me though so trust that I am going to enjoy it once I get stuck into it.

magimedi so sorry to hear your news.

Thanks for the new thread southeast, can’t believe we’re on thread 2 already!

I’m not bringing my list over because it’s a pain to do on the phone.

14. White Silence by Jodi Taylor

This is by the same author as St Mary’s, but this is more supernatural. It’s a bit disjointed and the plot didn’t really hang together very well, but I find Taylor’s writing style engaging so it kept me interested and I’m now reading the second in the series. Not as good as the St Mary’s books though so if you’re not a fan of those you probably shouldn’t bother with this!

@magimedi so very sorry. Hope you find strength in your books and yourself.

@noodlezoodle. I sent I am an island back for a whopping 99p refund late last year. I got about a quarter of the way in, loved the nature, as you say, hated the evident overthinking of the writer as she tried to decide which overblown word to use next, metaphorically threw it at the wall and sent it back.

magimedi so very sorry to hear your news. Your comfort reads are the same as mine - and having read 84 Charing Cross Road last year I would definitely add that to the list. Take care of yourself.

Thanks for the new thread southeast. I love the lists but have only finished one book so far so no list from me!!

Many thanks to whoever posted the list about translated books on the previous thread. That blog is fascinating.