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've had A Place of Greater Safety on my shelf for what seems like forever. I actually really like Hilary Mantel's books even though I've never got more than about 20% of the way through Wolf Hall despite trying it several times and being reasonably well informed about that period of history. So I don't know why I've never attempted APOGS.

In a less worthy but nonetheless very entertaining addition to the list of books I have read, book 3 this year is Rachel's Holiday which was hotly debated here at the back end of last year. I loved Rachel's journey through addiction and rehab, and found this funny and moving in equal measure. I think I'm right in remembering that there are other books focusing on the other four siblings, and I'd be strongly inclined to read them as well. It's not overly demanding literature, but I think the themes around addiction, belonging and personal growth are well done and the style is engaging and fun.

It made a nice change from Homeland Elegies which I am working my way through very slowly. There's a lot going on, and it feels more like a series of essays than a coherent novel - I'm getting more from the non-fiction elements of it (the history, the context) than I am from the plot and characters. It's very well done, but not particularly something I am compelled to pick up and read consistently.

I've had a couple of runs at A Place of Greater Safety and finally finished it last year. I took the approach of admitting that I didn't know or really follow the 'History' capital H, and just enjoyed the characters, the humour and her incredible way of making long-ago people breathe and talk and be like people you might know now.

Pepe yes that’s right, there is a book for each Walsh sister. Watermelon is Claire, Angels is Maggie, Anybody Out There? is Anna and The Mystery of Mercy Close is Helen. Rachel’s Holiday is easily the best followed by Watermelon, but the others are good too. Then there’s the sequel to Rachel’s Holiday, Again, Rachel which is coming out in February.

2. Regeneration by Pat Barker

Had this unread on my bookshelf for a few years, then read The Silence of the Girls last year, loved it and realised I already had a book by her.

Anyway, it is set in 1917, when Siegfried Sassoon has been sent to a psychiatric hospital for soldiers because he believes the war is futile and should end. It is based on true events. We meet him, his psychiatrist and some if the other patients there, including Wilfried Owen. It includes some of their very moving poems but not many. I loved this book and reread several passages as I went. Beautifully written and evocative of the time, the trauma that the men have been through and there even some female characters, working at the local munitions factory.
Also, tied in nicely with my previous book, set in the interwar years.

Taswama I loved Regeneration and really want to read the rest of the trilogy. Definitely one to savour and take your time with.

1. Heresy - S.J. Parker

First in the Giordano Bruno series about a monk/ scientist on the run from the Inquisition. Taking refuge in Elizabethan England, he finds himself embroiled in a murder investigation at an Oxford college. This was ok, but I didn't love it. It wasn't helped by the audiobook narrator choosing a very hammed up pantomime villain style voice with a dodgy put on accent that really didn't work and sounded ridiculous. I'll try the next in print to see if it helps.

Just finished migrations by charlotte mcConaghy.

It has such rave reviews but I hated it.

Has anyone else read this?

Hi all, would love to join!
I read 64 books last year but lots were v short, not that that's a bad thing.
I set my goodreads target at 36 this year but will increase it to 50.
I just finished reading (listening to, it was 22 hours long!) He, She, and It by Marge Piercy, for book club. I love it, and have put more by her on my list.
Just joined a second book club so need to read The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie for that. I've never seen the film so no clue what it's about.
Over the weekend I started reading Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason, and I'm absolutely loving it! I saw it recommend on Twitter and I read about 3 hours in one go!
Looking forward to getting more recommendations on here, although I really need to work my way through the unread books on my shelves, with those and the 2 book clubs I defined don't need any more on my list!

@ChessieFL

Pepe yes that’s right, there is a book for each Walsh sister. Watermelon is Claire, Angels is Maggie, Anybody Out There? is Anna and The Mystery of Mercy Close is Helen. Rachel’s Holiday is easily the best followed by Watermelon, but the others are good too. Then there’s the sequel to Rachel’s Holiday, Again, Rachel which is coming out in February.

I didn't know there was a sequel coming out! That's great news. Rachel's Holiday is definitely my favourite out of the Walsh family books, I reread it last year and really enjoyed it.

I read No-one is Talking About This by Patricia Lockwood last year and loved it! I'm Very Online though so got 99% of the references, I think if you weren't on Twitter daily for the last 5 years it might have been completely confusing?

@Covetthee

Just finished migrations by charlotte mcConaghy.

It has such rave reviews but I hated it.

Has anyone else read this?

Yes, but I absolutely loved it. Interesting plot and beautiful writing. I'm halfway through her new one Once There Were Wolves and finding it just as good.

Ah, maybe i just wasnt in the right frame to read it, i just found it very depressing. I had just finished a very good book so it had a lot to live up to.

I agree her writing is beautiful, so will definitely try her other books, let me know how you find it at the end.

At the weekend I finished The Heart's Invisible Furies and I absolutely loved it. It's 5 stars from me.

My rating system goes:
5 stars - I loved it, fell in love with at least one of the characters and/or had an emotional reaction
4 stars - loved/liked a lot but wasn't obsessed
3 stars - a good solid book
2 stars - bad, but not awful
1 star - laughably terrible

I have started reading Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi on my kindle, and still reading Lady Chatterley's Lover in real book form

Covetthee frame of mind can have a huge effect on your enjoyment of a book, but it's equally valid to simply not enjoy something and find it's not for you. This thread would be pretty crap if we all agreed all the time.

There are authors I can recognise as good writers, but I simply don't get on with their work. I'm thinking of Evie Wyld in particular, I can't stand her books, but everyone else seems to love them. I also don't get on with Ali Smith, while still thinking she's probably one of the most important authors of our time.
.I tend to give authors two chances, if I don't like them after two then I tend not to bother. Others I love to hate eg Barbara Kingsolver, Elizabeth Strout, Robert Macfarlane. I know I don't like them, but I still punish myself by reading more.

The second book in the Regeneration trilogy is vastly inferior, imo. I thought it was dreadful. Things pick up again towards the end of the third, if I remember correctly.

Thanks for the warning Remus. What a shame as the first was outstanding. I was hoping she'd kept it up over the three.

With the whole stars thing, has anyone ever read a book that is so good that it’s broken through the five stars barrier?
I loved Wolf Hall so much that I give it six stars out of five.

The third one is The Ghost Road which I liked. I may even have read that first. The middle one is really, I agree, not very good.

@Nuffaluff

With the whole stars thing, has anyone ever read a book that is so good that it’s broken through the five stars barrier? I loved Wolf Hall so much that I give it six stars out of five.

Are you basically asking us to name the best/favourite ever - one title?

I simply cannot do it.

Most of limited 5 stars I would not read again because they are special because of the moment. The only exception is Frenchman’s Creek that I potentially could read weekly.

I read and enjoyed A Place of Greater Safety (I studied the period at A Level and to a lesser extent at university but it’s astonishing how little information I’d retained really). I far preferred her Cromwell novels but still enjoyed this one.

Star rating is weird for me. I don’t update goodreads any more but when I did most things tended to get 3 or 4 stars - something I absolutely loved might get 5 but it was rare, likewise it’s very rare for me to read something I hate enough to give it a 1 - any 1s would probably be abandoned. A 2* would have to be pretty bad but with something redeeming to keep me reading.

BUT - I think the issue is I don’t trust my judgement very much! One of my issues is that I generally read (fiction anyway, but some non-fiction too) primarily to find out what happens. I have opinions of course on what makes writing good/ bad/ indifferent but more often than not if I’m at least halfway interested in the plot then I’m going to read to the end and usually enjoy the process. If the plot isn’t that engrossing then even the most poetically beautiful language can be lost on me, if the story is great but the writing below par the chances are I will still enjoy the book. Often - as in the case of the Shafak - I’ll rush to review something and feel I really liked it but then on reflection realise all the things I didn’t like, and start to change my opinion - particularly when issues are pointed out that I hadn’t noticed. Likewise there are some books that I have always faithfully listed in my ‘top favourites ever’ for years and would have sworn were five stars that when I’ve returned to more recently have been saddened that I didn’t think they were all that good anymore (The House of Spirits I’m looking at you). That doesn’t mean they weren’t 5* and hugely important to me at the time. I’m gradually getting a tiny bit more discerning, but not by much.

@highlandcoo I just let it sweep over me and after a while the voices become recognisable.

Thanks for the warning Remus and Piggy . Could you just skip the middle one or are they too interlinked?

I'm currently watching Deutschland 89 having enjoyed Deutschland 83 and started but not finished Deutschland 86 as it was so convoluted (and didn't even take place in Germany). But they keep referencing events from the previous series and I'm wondering if I should go back and watch it just so I know what is going on / the backstory.

I loved the audio version of this. So thought provoking.

Sorry, this was in reference to the Patricia Lockwood book!

I gave up on 86, after loving 83. I've been wondering if I could just skip to 89.

I think you probably could miss 2 out. It's basically about some guy called Billy (iirc) shagging women and getting pissed. It's diabolical.

@Taswama

Thanks for the warning Remus and Piggy . Could you just skip the middle one or are they too interlinked?

I'm currently watching Deutschland 89 having enjoyed Deutschland 83 and started but not finished Deutschland 86 as it was so convoluted (and didn't even take place in Germany). But they keep referencing events from the previous series and I'm wondering if I should go back and watch it just so I know what is going on / the backstory.

I couldn't warm to the other Deutschlands at all

You can definitely read the Barkers as standalones. The Ghost Road is often set as an A Level text.