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.

I’m so sorry, magimedi. How are you doing?

@magimedi I am so so sorry, I lost my DH 18 months ago and although expected it is devestating, please take care of yourself

Thank you southeast for the new thread

Not so much cathedral but I love a church and a graveyard.

My list is very small, about to by a new Dick Francis as rediscovered him as a comfort read, thank you @TimeforaGandT

So sorry for your loss magi

Sorry to hear your sad news Magi

Trying this again as last year I failed miserably after lockdown started.
1.) Duke & I (Bridgerton book 1) by Julia Quinn
2.) American Moor by Keith Hamilton Cobb
3.) The Princess Game by Soman Chainani
4.) Hazel and Gray by Nic Stone
5.) The Prince and the Troll by Rainbow Rowell
6.) The Wickeds by Gayle Forman
7.) Black Like Me by John Howard Griffin this one I’m currently reading but should have finished by the end of today.

@magimedi I am so very sorry for your loss. Wishing you strength and hope.

No new reads from me yet. I reread About a Boy while waiting for my library books to arrive. Picked up Rodham by Curtis Sittenfeld and Airhead by Emily Maitlis yesterday and have started Rodham. It is a bit self-conscious so far (a couple of chapters in), which is perhaps not surprising as it's about (fictionalised) Clintons, but I suspect the writing will be good enough to overcome that. I am a massive fan of Curtis Sittenfeld's previous books.

As a newbie, I am finding it quite hard to keep up with the thread - but it's interesting, and I am adding books to my wishlist everyday. (I'm hoping one of the benefits I will get from being here is being more considered in my reading choices - I am something of a 'grab a couple from the half-price table at Waterstones' reader, which works out very well sometimes, but does mean I forget about books I want to read.

magimedi I am so, so sorry.

Oh, Magi, I'm so, so desperately sorry.

Not had chance to catch up on the whole thread yet. But here are some of my favourite comfort reads. A lot of them are children's books.

• The Secret Island - Enid Blyton
• Ballet Shoes
• Charlotte Sometimes *Tom's Midnight Garden The Little Women series Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day 84 Charing Cross Road Jane Austen Bill Bryson

Thanks for the new thread btw South. Just catching up on the cathedral love - I’m also a lover of visiting cathedrals, find them fascinating although I’m not particularly religious.

One of my best friends has recently been ordained as a vicar and seeing her journey through it and learning about the more arcane side of things has been fascinating. I have spent far too much time looking at vicar-wear on line with her.

Very sorry to hear that magimedi I hope you can draw some quiet and small distraction from this thread when you feel up to it.

mackerella Phil Rickman's next book has been delayed for a while due to his ill health. His Merrily Watkins series has improved greatly over the years. He started off with an unnecessary use of italics which was very annoying but the weaving of local folk legends with a Church that is trying to bring itself into the modern day is superb.

I'm so sorry to hear your news magimedi and send you all best wishes.

@magimedi so sorry to hear about your loss. Keep reading the comfort reads. I lost my mum suddenly this year and I stopped reading completely for about 6 weeks and it took a few nice easy rereads to get me back into it.

@AdaColeman I've just bought all the S J Parris books when they were on 99p deal. I hesitated for a while because they could be a blatant cash in on Shardlake , which was a series I loved so much I was bereft when I finished the last one.

magimedi so sorry for your loss

So far I've read
If I can't have you
Good girls lie
The girl she wanted by k.l Slater
The Secretary by Zoe Lea (loved it)

Currently reading Three perfect liars by Heidi Perks.

noodle, overwrought is the perfect description for I am an Island.

My comfort reads are Some Tame Gazelle and Crampton Hodnet, both by Barbara Pym.

Thanks for the new thread southeast

Here is my tiny list, if you can call it that!

1. Sweet Pea by C J Skuse

On the cathedral front, we’ll be planning a visit to our local cathedral when Covid allows.
DS2’s class is learning about cathedrals in RE this year.
His teacher normally takes the year group on a trip to the local cathedral, but for obvious reasons, she’s going to be showing them an online tour this year instead.
I’m sure DS2 will still learn a lot, but cathedrals are so much more imposing when they’re visited in person.

so sorry to hear about your DH magimedi. sending love.

I'm very sorry for your losses, magimedi and FiveGo May your DHs rest in peace.

I think its ok to list the last say 10 books, when its 50, 60, 70 it becomes unwieldy.

Anyway, my reading this year

*1. In the ditch by Buchi Emecheta

1. Who am I, again by Lenny Henry*

Just finished

3. GB84 by David Pearce
Epic novel about the miners strike of 1984. Each chapter is a week in the strike and told from the point of view of Terry, who is Chief Exec of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), and Neil, who is the general dogsbody to an individual who seems to be coordinating the anti strike measures on behalf of Mrs Thatcher. Every chapter is also preceded by a diary type entry from an actual miner who is on strike. The basic idea is good as we get to see the situation from different points of view and no-one comes out of it very well. But there are also some subplots involving a kidnap and murder which didn't add anything and I found confusing. 3 /5.

Harlan I'm so glad you like the Friendless Churches too!

@magimedi so sorry for your loss, do look after yourself. Comfort reading sounds like exactly what you need right now, for me it's Agatha Christie. Also fivegomadindorset must be hard still, so b sorry.

@Terpsichore re Susan Howatch, she wrote several family saga type books with a sort of historic theme, which always have multiple narrators and viewpoints. My favourite of those is The Wheel of Fortune which is loosely based on the Plantagenets and set on the Worm's Head peninsula in south Wales, I'd recommend it. But the church series is quite different with a much more spiritual angle, but also lots about different factions of the church of England. I think I read somewhere that she didn't want to be thought of as a popular writer and actually left her publisher because he sold too many of her books! They're not on Kindle as a result but you can pick them up secondhand.

boiledegg yes, the Twitter feed is especially good! I will have to come back to the reading recs when I have some more time. On power struggles in politics, which someone mentioned would Trollope fit the bill? Another author I have been meaning to read but have not got round to. There's also convents to consider - maybe something by Rumer Godden?

Sorry for jumping straight in and not reading earlier posts.

Magimedi I am so sorry for your loss and I'm glad you are able to find some solace in reading. Sending love and strength to you

@Saucery

Very sorry to hear that magimedi I hope you can draw some quiet and small distraction from this thread when you feel up to it.

mackerella Phil Rickman's next book has been delayed for a while due to his ill health. His Merrily Watkins series has improved greatly over the years. He started off with an unnecessary use of italics which was very annoying but the weaving of local folk legends with a Church that is trying to bring itself into the modern day is superb.

I'm a Merrily Watkins fan after discovering them some years ago on this thread I have had his new one on pre order for a very long time and I'm eagerly looking forward to it !