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50 Book Challenge 2021 Part Four

999 replies

southeastdweller · 01/03/2021 10:59

Welcome to the fourth 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, the second one here and the third one here.

OP posts:
Terpsichore · 01/04/2021 16:55

34: I Am, I Am, I Am - Maggie O’Farrell

Many others have reviewed this so I’ll just say that I enjoyed (if that’s the right word) O’Farrell’s vignettes of her brushes with death - she was on Desert Island Discs recently and that filled in some of the background.

I’ll admit that after being seriously freaked out by so many of her hair-raising experiences I almost yelped out loud when, as a gravely-ill (and immobile) child in hospital, she was then visited by Jimmy Savile. I can’t help feeling she’s had far more than her share of traumatic life events and that seemed like the final indignity somehow.

noodlezoodle · 01/04/2021 17:36

I think the current book deals list is showing this month's AND last month's which are the expensive ones. I think I might just sort them from least to most expensive and look that way...

SOLINVICTUS · 01/04/2021 17:37

I think that is the list Remus, as ever there are some very definitely NOT 99p ones, but the ones I bought last month are no longer showing on THAT list at 99p (iyswim) so it's definitely a different list to March.

Geamhradh · 01/04/2021 17:37

@noodlezoodle

I think the current book deals list is showing this month's AND last month's which are the expensive ones. I think I might just sort them from least to most expensive and look that way...
There's a plan! Off I go!
Terpsichore · 01/04/2021 18:04

@RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie

I definitely don't think what I've looked at is a proper monthly sale. Eg: The Mermaid of Black Conch is showing, but at £6.99.
The Mermaid of Black Conch was 99p a few days ago but you had to be quick! It seems to have shot right back up to £6.99. Not sure what they're playing at with the pricing tbh.
RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie · 01/04/2021 18:08

I bought mermaid/Conch when it was 99p, but didn't get on with it.

Stokey · 01/04/2021 18:42

That's disappointing Remus as I've chosen in for our book club this month based on summer good reviews. I haven't started it yet as am going to the beach when we're allowed and thought it would be a good read for that week.

nowanearlyNicemum · 01/04/2021 18:47

Well, I think that's the worst monthly deals list I've seen for a while! For anyone who hasn't read it I would fully recommend The Sealwoman's Gift.
Have got a few samples though - The Book of Longings by Sue Monk Kidd and Less than Angels - Barbara Pym amongst others.

VikingNorthUtsire · 01/04/2021 18:49

I've spotted The Sealwoman's Gift on there - a thread favourite

VikingNorthUtsire · 01/04/2021 18:50

Ah you beat me to it NowanearlyNicemum

RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie · 01/04/2021 19:02

It might be really good, Stokey. I'm just increasingly hard to please and the 'poetry' in there annoyed me too much to continue.

Sadik · 01/04/2021 19:25
  1. The World For Sale - Money, Power and the Traders Who Barter the Earth’s Resources by Javier Blas & Jack Farchey

You'd think a book about the history of commodity trading post WW2 might be a dry read, but the traders, the deals they do and the politics behind it all is so dramatic that it hurtles along & I'd have been quite happy for it to have been twice as long.

The authors follow the commodity traders - mainly based out of Switzerland or other countries where they can stay in the shadows - who deal in oil, metals, grain & minerals. They deal with anyone who has access to raw materials, pariah states, dictators and nations under international sanction included.

Overall it's a fantastic read, totally gripping and also incredibly informative. My only very minor quibbles were that I'd have liked more in the final section about the rise of traders in China & likely future directions, but I guess its largely a question of watch this space. I listened to the book on Audible, & it was also really well read, which is always a nice extra. I reckon anyone who enjoyed Bad Blood and/or Prisoners of Geography would like this one.

I've got Putin's People on the go from the e-library, sadly not finding it anywhere near as gripping, but I think I'll persevere helped by the fact that there's quite a bit of crossover with the above book. On Audible I've moved on to Losing the Long Game: The False Promise of Regime Change in the Middle East - April is obviously my month for geopolitics Grin

noodlezoodle · 01/04/2021 19:43

nearly, I read The Book of Longings recently and really enjoyed it.

I've grabbed a few things in the monthly deals - I think they're still messing with it because when I started it was sixty-something pages and now it's up to 73!

I went for Outline by Rachel Cusk, The Camomile Lawn by Mary Wesley, This Too Shall Pass by Julia Samuel, Mayflies by Andrew O'Hagan, and Outlawed by Anna North.

I've never heard of the last one but one of the quoted reviews said "It's an absolute romp and contains basically everything I want in a book: witchy nuns, heists, a marriage of convenience, and a midwife trying to build a bomb out of horse dung". How could I resist?

SOLINVICTUS · 01/04/2021 20:15

I went for:
The Ravenmaster
The Romanovs
The Last Thing to Burn
Gone with the wind Grin
Somebody's mother, Somebody's daughter
And the PJ Tracy Nothing Stays Buried which I'm about to start now.

Tanaqui · 01/04/2021 20:22

I remember enjoying the book of The Camomile Lawn; but really enjoying the TV series they made of it- it must be very old now, but did anyone else enjoy it?!

Tanaqui · 01/04/2021 20:25
  1. Thursday Night Murder Club by Richard Osman. I know this has had mixed reviews here, but I really enjoyed this light murder mystery- along the lines of New Tricks and Death in Paradise, it feels like a Sunday night TV show! Totally implausible but intensely likeable and I am already looking forward to the sequel. (And the TV series!)
RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie · 01/04/2021 20:32

The Things they Carried is 99p. I seem to remember thinking the first half was incredible, but that it lost its way a bit later on. Worth a shot though.

Geamhradh · 01/04/2021 20:36

@Tanaqui

I remember enjoying the book of The Camomile Lawn; but really enjoying the TV series they made of it- it must be very old now, but did anyone else enjoy it?!
I remember it on TV. Around the same time as things like Brideshead and Mistral's Daughter. Early-mid 80s possibly?
SOLINVICTUS · 01/04/2021 20:36

Oops. That was me, Sol.

Stokey · 01/04/2021 20:50

@SOLINVICTUS @Tanaqui I remember loving it too, think it must have been more like late 80s, early 90s as I'd read a few of her books by then (& would have been too young to read them earlier). I wanted to call Dd2 Calypso but DH wasn't keen!

EineReiseDurchDieZeit · 01/04/2021 20:50

@RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie

The Things they Carried is 99p. I seem to remember thinking the first half was incredible, but that it lost its way a bit later on. Worth a shot though.
I adored The Things They Carried - I really can't buy but can someone still do me a link ? Grin
EineReiseDurchDieZeit · 01/04/2021 21:05

Fuck Me Are There Any Books On There That Aren't

Female Relative
Twee Ladies Book Covers
LOOK OUT HE'S BEHIND YOU

and utter embarrassments of titles

Todays winners :

The Kindness Club On Mapleberry Lane
Starry Skies Over The Chocolate Pot Cafe

TREES DIED FOR THIS SHIT Angry

bibliomania · 01/04/2021 21:41

Haven't bought anything (yet). The Ratline is on there, which I seem to remember got good reviews. Good to have a chance to tackle my tbr pile rather than add to it.

PepeLePew · 01/04/2021 22:47

I gave up ten pages in. That is a good sign. I’m going to focus this month on reading what I have (if I can resist the lure of the Waterstones on Piccadilly when I go into the West End to get my hair cut later this month, that is).

Matilda2013 · 01/04/2021 23:27

I've decided to stick to what is meant to be my rule all the time. If it's not on my wishlist at 99p I'm not buying it. Saves me wading through the books.

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