50 Book Challenge 2022 Part One

[southeastdweller]

Welcome to the first thread of the 50 Book Challenge for this year.

The challenge is to read fifty books (or more!) in 2022, 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.

If possible, please can you embolden your titles and maybe authors as well of books you've read or going to read? It makes it much easier to keep track, especially when the threads move quickly at this time of the year.

Who's in for this year?

I am a bit late to the party but would like to join please

I'm currently reading The Heart's Invisible Furies by John Boyne on the Kindle and Lady Chatterley's Lover by DH Lawrence in paper book form. Loving the former so far, unsure about the latter but I am only 3 chapters in!

Thank you @sadik for the farming conference link

I picked up The Seabirds Cry today by Adam Nicholson* so it might be a natural sciences kind of January.

2. The Artful Dickens, by John Mullan
This was loitering hopefully on my kindle for a while when Terp's enthusiastic review bumped it up. And I did enjoy it. I find Dickens a bit overwhelming - so much abundance and exuberance - but I feel readier to tackle him again after this account of what makes his style so distinctive. I enjoyed the chapters on his use of as if and how he delights in jumbling cliches and always pushing them that bit further.

Glad you enjoyed it, biblio! I’m going to try to keep it to hand for the Hard Times readalong.

These threads are so fast in January! Hello to all the new or delurking peeps!

2. Montalbano's First Case by Andrea Camilleri. Detective story with a maverick policeman hero- but this is translated from Italian and as the author was born in 1925 I am guessing it was written in the 50s or 60s though my copy just has the 2014 translation date. A friend recommended this and it is my sort of thing, but I am not sure if I will read others - something about the rhythm of the writing didn't flow for me. I might see if the sequels have the same translator, as obviously that makes a difference- and I certainly can't read it in Italian!!

@FiveGoMadInDorset Yes, perhaps starting sea swimming when it's not so close to freezing would be a good idea!

On holiday this week in a very Wild West Highlands so getting off to a good start - both in terms of reading but also in quality of the reads.

1. Songbirds by Christi Lefteri. I found this to be a really absorbing read. Beautifully written with powerful themes but never preachy.

2. The Glass Palace by Amitav Ghosh Wow. What a journey. I’ve read a few of Amitav Ghosh books and he is such a compelling storyteller. It’s set in Burma/India/Malaya and you get a tangible sense of the heat, vegetation, the noises. The characters and the emotions are so well articulated. One of these books where you slow down towards the end as you don’t want it to finish…

Moving on from exotic climes I’m now reading Come Hell or High Water by JD Kirk This one is set on the Ardnamurchan peninsula where we’re holidaying currently so looking forward to that one.

PS
@highlandcoo- I very much enjoyed The Lincoln Highway.

@OllyBJolly I read The Glass Palace years ago and loved it but never got around to reading anymore of Ghosh, though I buy them when I see them or they occasionally come up on Kindle deals. I have him on my TBR grid for this year. He is just an incredible storyteller.

@OllyBJolly that's great to know about The Lincoln Highway thank you! It is definitely on my list for this year.

I think we must have similar tastes as I very much enjoyed The Glass Palace too. For a while I was reading loads of books set in the Indian subcontinent but strangely since I was lucky enough to get my longed-for visit to India three years ago my obsession has slightly calmed down .. I still have The Hungry Tide on my tbr pile though.

I haven't read Songbirds yet but my book group really enjoyed The Beekeeper of Aleppo last year. A lot more thought-provoking than I'd expected from its rather cliched title - it felt very current and gave us a lot to discuss.

Have a great time in the West Highlands - I am jealous!

3. Space Boy Vol 6 and 4. Space Boy Vol 7 - by Stephen McCranie
DD (12) got these for Christmas: next instalments in a graphic novel series about a girl in the 33rd century (but at a very recognisably contemporary American high school) and a mysterious boy. A great read for this age group.

Mr Bowling Buys a Newspaper
Thanks for the rec @Terpsichore

Well, this was an odd one. I thought it was interesting enough to continue reading it, but wouldn't say I enjoyed it. All a bit silly and quite long winded and the ending was totally crackers! That said, it was a bit different and a few moments in it were quite funny. A curious period piece that I don't think is due for a revival any time soon, but I'm glad I stuck with it.

That was quick, Remus! Yes, a strange little book - I could see why people drew the Patrick Hamilton parallels, but it's not up to that level. I'm glad I read it too, though

AIBU to suggest smugly that I have the best reading view in the house this morning?

Still plodding through TTOD, with You’re Doing It Wrong (a history of bonkers advice given to women) as light relief.

Sorry only meant to post one pic there!

Oh lovely views LadybirdDaphne! Enjoy your break!

Ladybird - that's gorgeous, thanks for sharing. Is it the Bay of Islands by any chance?

For sea-swimming, now is NOT the time to start (unless you're in the Southern Hemisphere of cours!!). Best to start when the water is warm and then just keep going. You tell yourself that yes, it's cold, but you did it yesterday, or last weekend, and therefore you can do it again today. You won't be able to stay in as long but the endorphins from cold water swimming are amazing. I'm addicted!!

I loooooved The Glass Palace too.

Please can I join?

I often lurk on here for recommendations.

I managed 61 last year. My top 10 were;

1.	Daughters of night by Laura Shepherd Robinson 
2.	Still life by Sarah Winman
3.	Snow by John Banville  
4.	We begin at the end by Chris Whitaker
5.	Americanah by Chimimanda Ngozi Adichie 
6.	Piranesi by Susanna Clarke 
7.	The Fell by Sarah Moss
8.	A Line to Kill by Anthony Horowitz 
9.	Billy summers by Stephen King 
10.	Wilder and me by Jonathan Coe

So far in 2022 I have read

1. A corruption of blood by Ambrose Parry - 3rd in historical crime/medicine series set in 1800s in Edinburgh which I enjoyed.

Currently on Wintering by Katherine May- recommended on here
But so far seems a bit of a self indulgent memoir of a woman who goes on the sick so she can bake, pickle cucumbers and go on holiday to Iceland....does it get better? I did enjoy the sauna anecdote!

Late to join here as I have been trying to be on my phone less

And then as always when catching up I have added two books to my wish list Perfect Tense and Moth and the Mountain but only read one! I'll never get to the end at this rate!

1. The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper

I really wanted to love this but I only found it ok. The whole thing happens at a quick pace which is good in some ways but I found it a bit difficult to follow and parts were so magical I couldn't imagine what was actually happening!

Overall I am little disappointed but I think I put too much expectation on the book. It was my mum's favourite and I was hoping for some connection to her, but it's coming up to 19 years since she died so I don't think that was ever going to happen!

Picking up To Kill A Mockingbird

ontana re:Wintering. I guess it depends on your perspective. I did mention that there was a bit of Eat Pray Love about it (which would verge towards the self indulgent memoir) but I didn’t find it overpowering at all. Perhaps its about timing, I was a bit frazzled around Christmas, and it was the book I needed to read to remind me that I don’t have to work apace all the time, that I will be better for listening to my body when I am able to and take a break. I did have a bout of illness a few years ago which forced me to recognize that we actually have far less control over life than I had thought, and sometimes all you can do is give into things, to nature and to rest, listen to your body and wait until it is ready to recover. This book reminded me of that. I certainly didn’t get a ‘goes on the sick vibe’! Each to their own though.

I begrudged Piranesi for a few (thankful it was short!) wasted hours of my life I would never get back. 😉

Am parking sea swimming until spring after the counselling on here.

Am another one who absolutely loved Amitav Ghosh - haven’t read any in an age though.

Piranesi** is another book that I couldn't connect with until I started to listen to it on audible. Even then the first 15 minutes left me feeling adrift and almost uneasy as I felt that the writer was pulling a clever trick or playing a joke on me that I just didn't get. Then I started to let the narrator's voice wash the story over me and by the end I was rather moved by the effect. I probably missed some of the nuances, but overall the book has stayed with me.

I didn't really like Piranesi whilst reading it, I felt some of it possibly went over my head, but I have to say the imagery and setting have stuck with me and I like it more retrospectively. I'd love to see it made into a film that does the setting justice and makes more sense of the plot for my little brain.
I'm glad to see Billy Summers in your top ten ontana as I have that waiting for me in hardback and on Audible this year 🤗

First book of the year done, although this was 90% finished last year so I'm off to a slow start. Mainly because (once again) I'm getting obsessive about War & Peace over on the read along thread.

1. Marking Time by Elizabeth Jane Howard. The second of the Cazalet chronicles and it's been nice spending time with these familiar faces as they deal with the fall out from the Second World War. Food is getting scarce and life is not as comfortable as it once was but there's still time for extramarital exploits and adventure. I will return to the third and fourth in this series in due course, (I'm giving the fifth a wide berth as recommended) but for now I'm going on to something else.

nowanearlyNicemum - no I’m in Queenstown for a few days, it’s v beautiful (even if DP won’t stop harping on about how much better it was when he was a boy…)

1. Small Pleasures - Clare Chambers A recommendation from on here last year. I loved that I didn’t have the faintest idea where this was going. Set in 1950s Kent, a journalist on a local newspaper investigates claimed of a virgin birth. I thought it had a great sense of the period.

Now reading My Antonia - Willa Cather and wondering why I’ve never read it before.