50 Book Challenge 2021 Part Four

[southeastdweller]

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.

My number is 32

List includes about 20 books on my current TBR

At least 5 I have DNFd

Friend of mine has strongly recommended the Rabbits

I had an omnibus of them but I think I donated it because it was too thick to be comfortably read

I made it to 51 on that list, but it's a very odd, random selection. I've read one Rabbit though I can't remember which one

Remus and other exploration fans, are you watching The Terror? It's the best thing I've watched in ages.

Agree with you Tanaqui as High Stakes is one of my favourite Dick Francis books.

I’ve read 61, including all four Rabbits. Updike is a brilliant writer, but, and it’s a big but, he can only write from a straight, white, male perspective, which means that his other characters just don’t work.

Strange list. Does it say who compiled it?

I've only read 20 and 4 of them were in French for my degree.

It reads to me like a list compiled by someone who has shoved 60 odd "classics" onto a list, 20 or so "clever arty farty this will make a girl want to have sex with me if she sees it in my student bedrooms" 15 "shit! Think of a famous book by a non white persons" and 5 "wtf is that doing theres".I

I've only read about 15 of those , but one of them is Middlemarch which should surely count as at least two...

16. You Let Me In - Camilla Bruce
Elderly writer Cassandra Tipp has disappeared, leaving a strange manuscript for her heirs outlining a tale of dark faeries, violent death and family trauma. Highly recommended for fans of folklore, ambiguity and unreliable narrators - although be aware this is very dark and uncomfortable at times (can't say much more without spoilers). The initial section on Cassandra's childhood and induction into the faerie mound was more engaging and I felt that it lost tension as the emphasis moved to family dramas in her later life, but I would definitely read anything else by this author I came across.

I managed about 20 on that list with no Rabbits.
Weird list, but probably the only one I've seen that doesn't have Harry Potter on it.

Thanks Biblio , it WAS The Essex Serpent

@LadybirdDaphne Middlemarch is on my list for this year, as part of my "randomly select a book from all those I already own but never re-read" challenge.

I must admit, I'm not looking forward to it, and yet I couldn't tell you why. I just remember it being am effort when I first read it years ago. On the other hand, I'm nearing the end of Jane Eyre and wondering why I left it 20+ years for a re-read. Definitely one of my favourite books.

The Last Protector by *Andrew Taylor"
Another in the Ashes of London series. It was fine; I enjoyed it. It's not great writing and it could do with tighter editing, but I like the two central characters and found it all diverting enough.

@BookShark I've got Middlemarch on my to read list this year as well. I am trying to do one or two big classics each year. Last year I read Anna Karenina and David Copperfield

Some fantastic lists here.
Reading The Sellout which is a bit challenging. On the plus side I am more likely to do some of the unappealing chores I have lined up for today.

Love the idea of a 50 bookers list! We could each nominate 3? 5? 10? books, add up all the votes and pick the top 100 overall. Fab!

De lurking to say that I've read about 30 on that list & am also in the no rabbit camp.

Still doing a lot of re-reads & easy stuff. My concentration is shot.

Tarahumara I also think a 50 bookers list would be fantastic & love your idea for doing it.

A 50 bookers list sounds great, if anybody wants to collate one!
Here's my tuppence worth:
This Thing of Darkness
Into Thin Air
The Worst Journey in the World
All Quiet on the Western Front
Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day

Also if anybody can recommend anything as frothy, lovely but also as knowing and sharp as Miss Pettigrew, then I need to know about it!

Bringing over my latest list:

1. All at Sea - Decca Aitkenhead
2. The Black Flamingo - Dean Atta
3. The Move - Felicity Everett
4. Apple of My Eye - Helene Hanff
5. Walking with Ghosts - Gabriel Byrne
6. My Therapist Says
7. Dear Reader - Cathy Rentzenbrink

Almost finished Expectation by Anna Hope.

JKs first strike book A Cuckoo's Calling is 99p on the Daily Deal today.

My top five must-read would be:
Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
A Spell of Winter - Helen Dunmore
Small Island - Andrea Levy
The Persian Boy - Mary Renault

@SOLINVICTUS that analysis is spot on .
LadybirdDaphne Exposure for me would edge it over A Spell of Winter.
A 50 bookers list would be great, although I would struggle to know what my top five would be. How old does a book need to be before it becomes a classic?
One of the books I've really loved recently is The Fifth Season by NK Jemisin, very original and non white female author. I think we'd want to redress the balance of dead white men in an ideal world. Also would add The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas.
And I just finished 22. The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath which was beautiful and sad, and deserves a place on any list.

I read Middlemarch last year as I also try to read some classics each year which I have not previously read. It was fine but didn’t blow me away. Infinitely preferred A Woman in White which was another classic I read for the first time last year. However, they are completely different types of books. I have Trollope (currently reading The Warden) and Cranford in my sights for this year.

1. Casting off - Elizabeth Jane Howard

4th instalment in the series of 5 novels that trace the lives of (many!) members of the Cazalet family from the late 1930s to the 1950s. Still loving these. I imagine I shall feel quite bereft when I finish the final book.

Just started The Shipping News by Annie Proulx as recent recommendations on here reminded me it's been on my mental TBR list for ages!

@RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie

A 50 bookers list sounds great, if anybody wants to collate one! Here's my tuppence worth: This Thing of Darkness Into Thin Air The Worst Journey in the World All Quiet on the Western Front Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day

Eleanor and Park A Woman Of No Importance

Ok I will collate the list! Everyone give me your 5 favourite books of all time.

Strictly no more than 5 each. I know what you lot are like!