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?

Cote I don't care enough about On the Beach to fight, but if you come for A Town Like Alice I'll be waiting for you, with sleeves rolled up and somebody to hold my coat.

Attached is a picture of my book haul yesterday, very pleased! Should keep me busy next year. DD also wanted me to share a picture of her books. I struggled a bit this year as she’s just turned 12 but isn’t really interested in YA yet so most things I found felt either too young or too old for her, but she seems pleased with what she’s got!

Cote I like the sound of your book club where you read what you want within a particular category. I would like a book club like that. Although I love reading I’ve never joined a book club because I don’t like the idea of feeling forced to read something I’m not interested in, but your set up would be ideal!

54 A Maigret Christmas and Other Stories by Georges Simenon. Translated by David Coward

Never read any Simenon before but enjoyed this trio of Christmas-set tales, only one of which featured Maigret but all were in his Paris and featured characters from the Maigret books.

I've attached a photo of my Christmas book haul, my family love a wish list so all books I want to read, I've started the Vaxxers book which I'm whizzing through. I'm a senior scientist in pharma so already familiar with a lot of it and I worked with people from the Jenner Institute when I was a postdoc decades ago. Enjoying reading about some of the background I didn't know. No idea how non-biochemists will cope with the talk of codon optimisation etc though, I was trying to explain it last week to my Mum and she was completely confused.

@Stokey, thanks for the compliment on my reading choices this year.

Good hauls, Chessie and Janina. Janina I loved The Doomsday Book - one of my highlights this year.

And ditto re the bookclub where you choose your read within a set genre. I'm immediately reluctant when I have to read a specific book as an obligation. Like Mel Gibson, I demand Freedom!

biblomania your review may have been influential in my requesting it for Christmas . I really enjoyed reading To Say Nothing of the Dog earlier this year (which I read while messing about on boats in Oxford which no doubt helped!) so looking forward to it.

Ooh, pressure - hope you like it!

No big book haul here but not bothered as I did get Unwell Women by Elinor Cleghorn which was a triple 20 right on target. Really looking forward to it.

I like genre fiction and love that it's on this thread along with lots of other stuff. I wouldn't read a genre-fiction-only thread.

49. Christmas at Cold Comfort Farm

Disappointed to find this collection of short stories was not all about Christmas! But I did enjoy reading something from a different era as I usually focus on modern stuff.

50. Christmas In Austin

Been on my wishlist since someone on here read it last December. I quite enjoyed it. Just dipping into a usual family life for a few days at Christmas which included all the mind-numbing detail of daily routine in among the small bits of drama. It was ok.

Really pleased to have made 50 books in a year, I wasn't sure I would. Next year I am not going to worry so much about the number but I will stay on this thread and keep reading. I would like to get back on my Stephen King re-read but his books are so long it's a hindrance to getting to 50! So next year is going to be less about the number.

I also love that idea for a Book Club Cote. We have been looking at new ways of doing things for next year and I think that could be the answer. This year we've had a rogue faction reading a 2nd decent book each month because the main pick is invariably a crowd pleaser that is crap.

Also no book haul as I don't need any encouragement. We opted to have a no 'stuff' Christmas and did a Secret Santa with vouchers for family favours (all adults now, no kids). Some lovely things promised. My elderly mum has a year of lawn mowing from one of her grandsons and my engineering BIL has pledged to help me with the new electrical wiring in my campervan. I'm teaching a niece to knit. Everyone is thrilled and as long as everything offered comes off, I think this could be a great way forward.

On a reading front I've finished the 3rd Strike and am half way through The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey.

And just like that, revolution starts across UK book clubs

@bibliomania

I live amongst barbarians, noodle. Barbarians.

you do!

Matilda I adored The Paper Palace, in fact I took it back to the library and then immediately bought myself a copy for a reread. It's a strong contender for my book of the year.

Sorry you had a rough day Tanaqui

Some absolute crackers in the 12 days of kindle, plus Miriam Margolyes's memoir in the daily deal.

Chessie and Janina those are quite some hauls!

I got a couple of books for Christmas, including Angela Harding's A Year Unfolding, which is a thing of great beauty.

Agreed the genre-read bookclub sounds like a great idea.

"she’s just turned 12 but isn’t really interested in YA yet"
Chessie, has your dd read any of Frances Hardinge's books? Her earlier novels, particularly Fly by Night, Twilight Robbery & A Face Like Glass, I'd say are absolutely ideal for that inbetween stage. I feel like with her later books she's been pushed to simplify her language and make them easier to read for younger audiences, whereas I think the joy of her books is that they have the plot complexity & language appropriate for young teens, without the YA focus on relationships/sex/etc.

I only got one book this year but it's a cracker - stunning photos of Paris in the 19th c by the photographer Charles Marville.

Thanks Sadik - she hasn’t so I’ll look those out.

@Terpsichore

I only got one book this year but it's a cracker - stunning photos of Paris in the 19th c by the photographer Charles Marville.

Terpsichore Someone must love you very much - that looks a terrific book!

@JaninaDuszejko I love Doomsday Book have you read the two WWII books in the same series?

At the in-laws and have two more books to add to my haul. Off to check out the kindle deals now as you can never have too many books

Seconding Cote's recommendation for Born to Run - the inspiration for my username

Janina I have Vaxxers waiting for me on Audible, glad to hear you are enjoying it.

Fortuna what a fab idea for secret Santa!

Chessie my 12yo recently enjoyed The Giver by Lois Lowry and my old Judy Blume books!

Tanaqui

@ChessieFL
You must join us on the Nigel Slater readalong for Christmas Chronicles. I'm hidden in plain sight on there. It will run until Feb when the book's diary ends (and I'm still at the first week of December anyway)
I had just two books for Christmas
Winter by Karl Ove Knausgard
La Casa Senza Ricordi Donato Carisi. (told dp I need to read more in Italian )

I’ve been looking at the readalong thread Sol but I might wait and read it on the appropriate dates next year.

@PermanentTemporary

No big book haul here but not bothered as I did get Unwell Women by Elinor Cleghorn which was a triple 20 right on target. Really looking forward to it.

I like genre fiction and love that it's on this thread along with lots of other stuff. I wouldn't read a genre-fiction-only thread.

I'm reading that at the moment permanent. Most of the time with my legs crossed... It's very interesting. The bit that keeps making me chuckle and think about you guys is when we keep being told doctors told women to refrain from reading as this led to hysteria and could even make them orgasm.

"doctors told women to refrain from reading as this led to hysteria and could even make them orgasm"

Our secret is out

Tarahumara - I remember when you got this name

"doctors told women to refrain from reading as this led to hysteria and could even make them orgasm" Imagine how big this group would be