50 Book Challenge 2021 Part Eight

[southeastdweller]

Welcome to the eighth (and probably final) 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, it’s not too late to and please try to let us all know your thoughts on what you've read.The lurkers among you are also very welcome to come out of the woodwork and share with us what you've read!

The first thread of the year is here, the second one here, the third one here, the fourth one here, the fifth one here, the sixth one here and the seventh one here.

How have you got on this year?

All the Walsh sisters books by Marian Keyes are good. I think Helen's is the only one I haven't read.

48. Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman I was confident I wouldn't like this, being by a celebrity I ought to know of, but I was socially outmanoeuvred into borrowing it and reluctantly started it out of politeness. Well, I found it an absolute hoot. Our plucky band of underestimated nonagenarians investigate cold-cases until a new murder occurs for them to enjoy. The victim accepts justice with good grace; the gang stay ahead of the police but good-naturedly accept correction on addressing officers appropriately; the ringleader’s memories of an eventful career include babysitting chess-playing defectors in safe-houses. All great fun but alongside it there is also the weight of loss and the fear of losing partner or self to dementia.

After a couple of disappointing DNFs of books I’d been looking forward to, this was a joyous discovery. I managed to borrow the audiobook alongside the paperback and listened to rather than read some sections - the audio is excellent and enhanced the humour beautifully.

99: Tom Stoppard: A Life - Hermione Lee

Massive biography, weighing in at over 2,000 pages (luckily quite a lot of that was shaved off by notes, index, bibliography etc).

I'm not, in fact, a particular Stoppard devotee but his life story is interesting, as the son of Czech Jewish parents who escaped the Nazis by a hair's-breadth and arrived in England via India (his father never made it, dying tragically along the way). His Jewish roots were never mentioned again by his mother and it wasn't until he was in his late 50s that it hit him, with shattering force, that most of his family had died in concentration camps.

I like Lee's writing a lot and was engaged enough to persevere, enjoying the theatre talk and the details of Stoppard's increasingly glamorous life, although there were long stretches where my attention wandered during the extremely detailed descriptions of plots. Worth reading for anyone interested in theatre, but you do need to commit to this one, I feel.

116. The Chrysalids by John Wyndham (Audible)

As a child David Strorm befriends a little girl named Sophie and helps conceal the fact she has six toes. This small difference makes her a mutant in their society, and a blasphemy.

But David himself has a secret, and the time may come too, when he needs to run for his life.

I LOVED this. It was so ably read by Noah Reid from Schitts Creek, but also really well written, it was deep, dark and atmospheric and completely believable as a dystopian set up. I also really liked Wyndham's Day Of The Triffids which is the only other of his I've read, I will be definitely looking at more Wyndham in 2022

61. The Only Plane in the Sky by Garrett Graff
Thanks to Terpsichore, this cost me all of 99p. And it's a total barnstormer. A huge work of patchwork, piecing together vast arrays of oral history and new interviews. And as anyone who's ever made patchwork knows, it's incredibly skilled work. A heart-rending book and I loved it.

There's also some jawdropping moments of sourness. Karl Rove inserting a vast plug for Halliburton into an interview about President Bush's day. The journalist who interviewed Osama Bin Laden in 1998, when he had declared war on America, saying that he was frustrated he hadn't yet managed to get America to declare war back.

So glad to have helped so many of you discover The Only Plane In The Sky this year.

Haunting. Powerful. Essential.

37. The Bookshop - Penelope Fitzgerald

Typically sharp and funny, though short tale of a woman's attempt to open a bookshop in a coastal Suffolk village in 1959, not to the liking of all the residents. I particularly enjoyed the marshy setting as it's just down the road from where I live.

Thanks Eine! Definitely one of my top books this year.

Tiny bit depressed that I think all my bolded titles this year will be nonfiction. Well, there's still time...

1, The Dare Lesley Kara
2, Normal People Sally Rooney
3, Her sisters lie Debbie Howell
4, I know who you are Alice Feeny
5, Safe at home Lauren North
6, The Vow Debbie Howell
7, Life what you make it Phillip Scofield
8, The Holidsy TM Logan
9, it's a funny life Michael McIntyre
10, watching neighbour twice a day Josh Widdicombe
11, The Catch TM Logan
12, the lies we tell Jane Corey
13, The hunting party Lucy Foely
14, the butler DS
15, Lies TM Logan
16, the couple at N9 Claire Douglas
17, 29 seconds TM Logan
18, Where the crawdads sing Delia Owens
19, the man who died twice Richard Osman
20, apples never fall Lianne Moriarty
21, Complications ds
22, grown ups Marian Keyes
23, the night she disappeared Lisa Jewel
24, Bridgeton happily ever after. Julia Quinn
25, trust me TM Logan
26, The last thing he told me Laura Dave
27, come again Robert Webb
38, Just what kind of mother are you Paula Daly
39, both of you Adele Parks
40, the first mistake Sandie Shaw
42, the secret we are keeping Rebecca Done
43, the 5th letter Nicola Morriarty
44, the guilt trip Sandie Jones
45, what you did Claire McGowan
46, Rock Paper Scissors Alice feeny
47, people like her Elbert Lloyd
48, the therapist BA Paris
49, nine lives ds
49, the island CL Taylor
50, the death of Mrs westerway Ruth Ware
51, One by one Ruth Ware
52, Blood Orange Harriet Tyce
53, The lies we are told Harriet Tyce
54, the woman in cabin 10 Ruth ware
55, The play date Alex Dahl
56, The cabin fever Alex Dahl
57, the Thursday murder club
58, larger than life Adele parks
59, the last lie Alex Lake
60, the hieghts Louise Candlish
61, Someone we know Shari Lapena
62, The couple next door Shari lapena
63, the doctor Lisa Stone
64, the dinner guest BP Walters
65, two wrongs Mel Mcgrath
66, The guilty party Mel Mcgrath
67, in a dark dark wood Ruth ware
68, the evidence against you Gillian Mcallister
69, little fires every where Celeste ng
70, the text Claire Douglas
71, nine perfect strangers lianne moriarty
72, the chalet Catherine cooper
73, the lying game Ruth ware
74, the choice Alex lake
75, the bookshop on the shore Jenny colgan
76, his other lover Lucy Dawson
77, Shame Tom Allen
78, after Anna Alex lake
79, the passenger Louise Candlish
80, a stranger in the house Shari lapena
81, on the way to a wedding Julia Quin
82, behind closed doors BA Paris
83, playing nice jp Delaney
84, invisible girl Lisa jewel
85, gone fishing Bob Mortimer and Paul whitehouse
86, the retreat mark edwards
87, what my best friend did Lucy Dawson
88, it's in his kiss Julia Quinn
89, the other daughter Shari Boland
90, worst idea ever Jane fallon
91, the guest list Lucy foley
92, when he was wicked Julia Quinn
93, the promise Lucy diamond
94, pictures or it didn't happen Sophie Hannah
95, the dilemma ba Paris
96, to sir Phillip Julia Quinn
97, the whisper Heidi perks
98, the shelf Helly Acton
99, romancing mr Bridgeton Julia Quinn
100, all that glitters ds
101, the skylight Louise Candlish
102, don't ever tell Lucy Dawson
103, my husbands wife Jane Corry
104, an offer from a gentleman Julia Quinn
105, the pact Amy Henndrich
106, finding Ashley ds
107, the perfect child Lucinda Berty
108, the daughter Lucy Dawson
109, 500 miles from you Jenny Colgan
110, all that she can see Carrie Hope Fletcher
111, The book of everyone secrets Sophie Hannah
112, the viscount who loved me Julia Quinn
114, the duke and I Julia Quinn
115, the party Robin Harding
116, the perfect couple Jackie kabler
117, need you dead Peter James
118, watching you Lisa Jewell
119, city of friends Joanna Trollope
120, neighbour's ds
121, daddy's girl ds
122, the numbers game ds
123, the flip side James Bailey
124, the end of her Shari lapena
125, the affair ds
126, in the dark cara hunter
127, because she loves me mark edwards
128, fragile Stella O'Malley
129, Christmas for beginners Carole Mathews
130, here to stay mark edwards
131, in her shadow mark edwards
132, because of you Dawn French
133, one eye open Paul finch
134, now your back Jill Mansell
135, good girl bad blood holly Jackson
136, we need to talk about Kevin bridges
137, Christmas at the island hotel, Jenny Colgan
138, the baby group Caroline Corcoran
139, royal ds
140, the duchess ds
141, the widows club Amanda Brooke
142 just my luck Adele parks
143, lies lies lies Adele Parks

Currently reading Rob Beckets A class act 😊

New to the thread fab to meet some fellow reading addicts. I set my self a target of 150 books this year but unfortunately think I'm going to fall short.
Thanks for starting @southeastdweller

Oh and I've made a mistake (knew I should have checked!!) I jumped from 27-38 so should read 133 😂😂

@PermanentTemporary my favourites have all been non fiction too which has never happened before. Although I’m currently reading Miss Petigrew Lives for a Day which was strongly recommended on here and it’s a contender.

@DBI78 you've still got time to get to 150! I'm on 43 and still hoping for a 50

Marian Keyes- I agree about the depth of some of them. Rachel's Holiday mainly, though some of the others have more going on than you think at first. I used to devour her books when they were first published, have Watermelon, Lucy Sullivan, Sushi for Beginners, Last Chance Saloon and Rachel in those semi hardback big paperback editions to prove it. (Do they have a real name I wonder?) I think when MK writes well, she writes very well indeed and taps into something that's very funny but very observant at the same time. Unfortunately, I think a combination of her own well documented MH issues and popularity have led her to churn out some chick-lit-by-numbers guff as well. (And I'd include the Walsh books not listed above in that- the one in the US and the other one - Helen and Anna possibly?) The above are the only ones I've reread, and turn to when in need of comfort food reading. And as we've said before, I don't believe she's read as many of the books she reviews as we're led to believe- or she'd be a Mumsnetter running a 34,000 books a year thread. I do like her though. Last Chance Saloon is probably my favourite.

Still ploughing through Elizabeth George. I may need to write to her and point out that people living in small Shropshire market towns are not called the utterly absurd names she thinks they are.

I usually do two lists of top five favourites at the end of the year, one fiction and one non fiction, to make sure that both genres have a chance!

PermanentTemporary Same. I seem to rate non-fic much higher. I feel a bit jaded by fiction now I read so much. I used to be so easily pleased when I only managed a few books a year.

I started this year without much of a plan so it's felt a bit aimless all year. I've started a hitlist for next year already to try and raise the bar. I've been swayed by too many random library picks this year.

Royal Witches: Witchcraft and the Nobility in Fifteenth-Century England - Gemma Hollman
A look at 4 powerful women at court and the politics of the time. All of them had a accusations of Witchcraft made against them in a bid to limit their influence or appropriate their property.

My knowledge of this period is mostly owed to Philippa Gregory. It is interesting to hear the events of the time as it related to the women rather than the men in most other history books.

The Other Einstein - Marie Benedict
A fictional exploration of the life of Mileva Maric, a brilliant mathematician and physicist. She met Einstein at university, but sadly failed her exams due to being pregnant by him at the time. She eventually went on to marry him. His early work is rumoured to have been very heavily influenced by her if not her idea. She was treated very shoddily by him.

This is very well researched and the author discusses which bits she took artistic license with. I found this really interesting but it made me really angry.

The Golden State - Lydia Kiesling
Mother on the verge of a breakdown walks out on her job in San Francisco and moves to her deceased grandparents trailer in the remote Altavista desert. While there she encounters people very different to herself. Her Turkish husband has had his green card removed while out of the country and she cannot resolve the paperwork.

Debut novel. This is meant to be an observation on class and culture, but mostly deals with the monotony of being a single mother to a toddler. It was a struggle to finish and should have been adandoned really.

The Extra Woman: How Marjorie Hillis Led a Generation of Women to Live Alone and Like It - Joanna Scutts
A look at the lives of women in the US from suffrage to the sixties, using the author and Vogue columnist Marjorie Hillis as a guide. Marjorie became a lifestyle guru and wrote a very successful series of self help books extolling the virtues of living a successful single life. Others followed the trend and self help became an industry in itself. It charts the cultural phenomenons of the period and how women's lives moved through different phases as a result.

I was a bit sceptical at first, but ultimately found this a really fascinating look at women's history in the US.

Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty - Patrick Radden Keefe
Portrait of three generations of the Sackler family that was behind various prescription drugs that shaped the course of the last century of drug use in the US, including Oxycontin, the much abused drug behind the opioid crisis.

This was incredibly engaging and very informative. His narrative non-fiction style draws you in and keeps you reading. I also really enjoyed Say Nothing by the same author which explored the Troubles in Northern Ireland. He's firmly made himself a must read author with fascinating and well researched exposés on various issues. This was brilliant.

Grand Union: Stories - Zadie Smith
Book club pick, a selection of short stories. I think she writes with insight on modern culture, but these felt a bit contrived. I've not read much by her and feel I should as I missed her being a thing at the time as I didn't live in the UK and missed a lot of cultural moments.

Still Life - Sarah Winman
Multi layered coming of age/ historical fiction that spans the lives of various characters in the type of family that you build for yourself over the years. A chance encounter with an art historian during the war, changes the course of life for an East End soldier when his return to London doesn't go to plan. Split between London and Florence this is beautifully written and very engaging with wonderful characters. I devoured it. If you like historical fiction then drop everything and read this. It is marvellous.

100: Over Sea, Under Stone - Susan Cooper

Glad to have hit the centenary with this one. I'm working my way up to The Dark is Rising with the first in the series. Jane, Simon and Barnaby Drew come on holiday to the Cornish village of Trewissick to stay with their Great-Uncle Merry. The discoveries they make in the old house where they're staying draw them into an exciting battle against the forces of evil, and lay the ground for the rest of the series. Can't say too much because of spoilers, but this is all good stuff, and I can't think how on earth I didn't read these as a child...

@EineReiseDurchDieZeit - our similarities continue!

I love the Walsh sisters books and Rachel’s Holiday is my favourite I think. She should write one about Mammy Walsh!

Also The Chrysalids is one of my favourite books, I recently downloaded the audiobook as there were quite a few John Wyndham books included in my audible membership. I read Day of the Triffids and Chocky this year andthought they were great. Also enjoyed The Midwich Cuckoos.

@MamaNewtNewt there is a short ebook called Mammy Walsh’s A-Z of the Walsh Family but agree a full book would be good! I think she should write one about Kate, Claire’s eldest daughter, who would be about 20 ish now I think. Possibly even 25.

I am looking forward to the Rachel’s Holiday sequel, simply because more of Rachel and Luke and the rest of the Walshes can only be a good thing, but also very nervous that it won’t go in the direction I might want and might affect enjoyment of the original.

@MamaNewtNewt

Yeah I was very pleased by all of a sudden getting most of Wyndham for free with "name" narrators.

I find Audible Plus really hard to properly search though, any good finds your end?

Also, as a general shout out to all Girl A is 99p today.

I think Girl A is part of the monthly deals so will be 99p all month - it’s been appearing every day on the kindle deals page for the last week anyway.

[quote ChessieFL]@MamaNewtNewt there is a short ebook called Mammy Walsh’s A-Z of the Walsh Family but agree a full book would be good! I think she should write one about Kate, Claire’s eldest daughter, who would be about 20 ish now I think. Possibly even 25.

I am looking forward to the Rachel’s Holiday sequel, simply because more of Rachel and Luke and the rest of the Walshes can only be a good thing, but also very nervous that it won’t go in the direction I might want and might affect enjoyment of the original.[/quote]
Kate will be about 25-26 I think.
I read both Bridget Jones' Diary and Lucy Sullivan is Getting Married during a very long airport stopover in 1997. I think Watermelon was written before Lucy Sullivan, which had just come out (picked it up at Stansted in that big paperback new out format)
I'm not sure I'd read any more Walshes. Or MK for that matter. But if someone else wants to and tells me I'm wrong, I'll listen

@ChessieFL

Ah OK I get confused by the deals since they had the audacity to change the style 

@SOLINVICTUS

I went through a phase with my mental health were MK was all I could face. I read at least 10 and haven't read another since!
And sometimes I look at the blurb and genuinely don't know which ones I've read. I only started recording keeping last year, I now bitterly wish I had done it from childhood

[quote SOLINVICTUS]@DBI78 you've still got time to get to 150! I'm on 43 and still hoping for a 50

Marian Keyes- I agree about the depth of some of them. Rachel's Holiday mainly, though some of the others have more going on than you think at first. I used to devour her books when they were first published, have Watermelon, Lucy Sullivan, Sushi for Beginners, Last Chance Saloon and Rachel in those semi hardback big paperback editions to prove it. (Do they have a real name I wonder?) I think when MK writes well, she writes very well indeed and taps into something that's very funny but very observant at the same time. Unfortunately, I think a combination of her own well documented MH issues and popularity have led her to churn out some chick-lit-by-numbers guff as well. (And I'd include the Walsh books not listed above in that- the one in the US and the other one - Helen and Anna possibly?) The above are the only ones I've reread, and turn to when in need of comfort food reading. And as we've said before, I don't believe she's read as many of the books she reviews as we're led to believe- or she'd be a Mumsnetter running a 34,000 books a year thread. I do like her though. Last Chance Saloon is probably my favourite.

Still ploughing through Elizabeth George. I may need to write to her and point out that people living in small Shropshire market towns are not called the utterly absurd names she thinks they are. [/quote]
@SOLINVICTUS

Those big paperbacks are called trade paperbacks. I've no idea why 🙂

115. Three Twins at the Crater School by Chaz Brenchley

The Crater School girls are part of the furthest flung outpost of the British Empire (ruled by the Eternal Queen, Victoria). Their school sits within a crater, by a great lake (with a Sanatorium on the far bank), and near to the meeting of two of the great Martian canals.

The mysterious aquatic Martians, known as Merlins, brought the colonists to their planet, but live only in the depths, while the British rule on land (linked to the home planet by giant aether ships).

Meanwhile at the school we have eternally-in-a-scrape fourth form twins, new girls with secrets, a sulky new girl determined to be expelled, adventures on cliffs, and everything else you might reasonably expect from a 1920s school story.

Overall, this is absolutely delightful, it's written straight enough that I'm sure any 10 year old fan of the Chalet School would love it, but with enough knowing affection to be spot on as an adult reader. There's a sequel due to be published later this month, which I reckon will be perfect Christmas light reading :)