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?

4 for me this year is Islands of Abandonment by Cal Flyn. A non-fiction book looking at what happens when humans leave an area and nature takes over. Basically humans make a mess then have to leave, nature slowly grows back. Occasionally the disaster is natural, like a volcano eruption in Montserrat, but usually itsmanmade.

I wanted to like this book a whole lot more than I did but I'm feeling that right now I'm just being beaten on all fronts by how bad humans are and this just piled on the guilt a bit more. Chernobyl was not my fault stop making me feel bad.

Next on my pile is The Overstory by Richard Powers, it's been there for a while. But I think it's along similar lines of 'humans ruin planet' so I might move in back to the bottom.

Snap tea - I'm reading Islands of Abandonment too, although it's not making me feel bad. If anything, it's giving me hope about the planet's powers of recovery. And we may all be eliminated by the next Yellowstone eruption anyway, so on the bright side it won't be All Our Own Fault. It's a well-written book, and I'm encouraged by the accounts of reforestation - large tract of former Soviet collective farmland are now under self-seeded forest, for example. Some sections are like extracts from post-apocalyptic fiction - the fascination of wandering through the ruins of civilization, the weeds growing in the halls.

1. Warlock Holmes - A Study in Brimstone G.S Denning A little less highbrow than some It was ok. I’ve read quite a lot of Holmesian offerings and I do like fantasy buuut I think this was a bit too try hard comedic for me. The author acknowledges Adams and Pratchett as influences which rather invites unfavourable comparisons.

@bibliomania you're right, it wasn't all hopeless, I'm being unfair. Nature usually triumphs in the end.

It was well written, I was quite creeped out by her descriptions of spending the night alone on Swona and hearing footsteps, I could imagine myself being there.

And I wasted way too much time last night looking at photos online of the abandoned buildings in Detroit, that sort of thing gives me the shivers. It's creepy and fascinating.

(His/her, I don't know if the author is a man or a woman. Don't know why I'm assuming woman)

Next on my pile is The Overstory by Richard Powers, it's been there for a while. But I think it's along similar lines of 'humans ruin planet' so I might move in back to the bottom.
It is a BIT 'humans ruin planet', but not only that. I'd say read it. Some of the characters/stories interested me more than others but I'm very glad to have read it. The story of the scientist who studies trees' communication is wonderful. And based on a real woman – Suzanne Simard – whose memoir Finding the Mother Tree is excellent.

4. Appointment With Death by Agatha Christie

Not one of her best novels, but she still managed to outwit me with who the murderer was . It's a Poirot novel, set partly in Jerusalem and expeditions from there. A murder takes place, as you'd expect, of a deeply unlikeable person and no-one feels remorse. Poirot goes through the motions, in the usual manner, and the culprit is revealed. The End.

Even though it wasn't her best imho, I found it oddly quite a comforting read. I'm taking part in the Read Christie challenge this year, so will be reading eleven more of her novels this year.

I can see that you need to be in the right mood for it, Tea! And I didn't envy her night on Swona.

Little, I have a Christie up next. Nothing else quite hits the spot.

4. On Hampstead Heath - Marika Cobbold
Reviewed upthread by Fortuna. I'm not sure this was a romance - not sure what it was, to be honest. I bought it on the strength of a review mentioning journalism and fake news which is also part of it. It has something to say about journalistic integrity, but it's also about how we sometimes project our idealised images onto somebody (in this case somebody who is comatose) and then those images turn out to be false. The strongest part of the book for me was the portrayal of Lottie, the elderly Holocaust survivor. This rang true for me, was not sentimentalised, and I liked the fact that Lottie's history was just part of the fabric of the story. One of my current bugbears, especially with US fiction, is that I feel books have to be "about" an issue. I DNF'd Such A Fun Age for that reason, because it felt to me like an issue book, rather than a book where the issue in question just happened to affect the characters. It's not that I don't want to read about race, gender or whatever, but I think you can tell when the issue comes first rather than the character. I noticed an upcoming book yesterday set in Antarctica in the 19th century which "explores gender". Sorry, but really, someone was exploring Antarctica in the 19th century and gender was what they were worrying about? By contrast I thought Leave the World Behind was a story where race was absolutely central to two of the characters, but it was integrated into the story. Sorry, rant over.

Cote very interesting to hear that background about Elif Şafak. Writers obviously want to get published, but equally readers have a right to feel angry when they feel they are being manipulated and context matters in those cases.

I'm currently reading Vanity Fair and Hamnet, both of which I'm taking slowly because there is so much to enjoy in different ways.

Meanwhile I have a belated Christmas book pile to share, purchased with a very generous Waterstones voucher.

How funny, I bought a copy of Islands of Abandonment on Monday and added it to my ever-growing TBR pile. I'm determined to read read more non-fiction this year.

I have also now joined the Read Christie 2022 Challenge (thanks for mentioning it @LittleDiaries) and first up will be The Man in the Brown Suit which I reckon I last read when I was about 14 way back in 1983ish.

Maud I also found it hard to say what Hampstead Heath was, I just found all of the relationship stuff really annoying and in the way of what could have been a more interesting look at journalism. I thought it detracted from the overall point. Ok much preferred the start and think it lost it's way by the end.

10. Once There Were Wolves - Charlotte McConghy An Australian scientist moves to Scotland bringing her disabled twin. She's the lead on a project to reintroduce wolves to the Cairngorms which is hotly contested by the local community. When a body is found, though to have been a wolf attack, it could destroy the project. The victim was also a known violent domestic abuser leaving conjecture around what happened to him. I really liked this. Decent pace and good characters. She writes beautifully, exploring issues of domestic violence and the ongoing effect it has on victims, as well as looking at eco themes and rewilding. It's well written and I didn't see the twist. This is my second of hers and I would always see her out based on two books that have had me gripped.

Someone asked upthread about what genre her books are. I'd say mystery set along an environmental theme. She's a very decent writer who manages beautiful descriptive prose that is very evocative of place.

11. Perfume: The Story of a Murderer - Patrick Süskind
    Much discussed at the end of last year. I was completely caught up in it, but WTAF with the ending?

12. Ulysses - James Joyce
    Does this need an introduction? I think unless you are going to study this in depth, it holds little value to the casual reader and therefore isn't worth it. Some beautiful passages, but overall I wish I hadn't bothered. I went with the audiobook and don't think I'd have got to the end in print. A very marmite book requiring a lot of work.

MaudOfTheMarches, I just want to read EVERYTHING on your pile!

Someone asked upthread about what genre her books are
I think that was me, so thank you. They sound good. Your description made me think of Sarah Hall's The Wolf Border, although Hall isn't a mystery writer really; but the eco and wildlife themes obviously seem similar.

4. Islands of Abandonment by Cal Flyn
Finished this on my tea-break. As I said upthread, I appreciate that this struck a note of hope on environmental themes, without denying the threat that exists and the harm that has been done. I really enjoyed it and found some of the nuggets of information fascinating. Who knew that Genghis Khan was good for the environment? The depopulation he caused led to huge abandonment of farmed land on which forests regenerated, enough to cause a drop in atmospheric carbon. And the Nazis sponsored attempts to recreate the aurochs, the predecessor of modern cows - why did this not feature in an Indiana Jones film?

@IntermittentParps

Someone asked upthread about what genre her books are I think that was me, so thank you. They sound good. Your description made me think of Sarah Hall's The Wolf Border, although Hall isn't a mystery writer really; but the eco and wildlife themes obviously seem similar.

She's really hard to classify. They are not thrillers and could possibly edge into lit-fic lite. This appears to be a new direction for her and I don't think I'd bother with her back catalogue. I really rated Migrations which verges on dystopian, set in a near future after eco disaster. She picks a nature event/theme and then picks some element of human nature to go with it. I don't think her work will set the world on fire or win awards, but it's compent and thought provoking and a cut above a lot of the mindless pish out there at the moment.

Fortuna Agree, it should have stuck to being a satire on the state of the media, which it was doing quite well to begin with. I also thought I spotted a brilliant twist coming up, but it turned out not to be the case. (This is where we need that Goodreads-style spoiler alert redaction tool, because I'm dying to say what I think was going on.)

Parps Yes, me too! I can never find anything I want in Waterstones, so it's incredible I found so many books I want. The Dostoevsky book was in the half price bin, as well.

Cal Flyn is a woman. Her book is Waterstone's BOTM this month which may explain all the people reading it. I grew up near Swona and would love to visit it and see the wild cattle, don't think it's creepy at all, melancholy maybe. There are lots of the smaller islands that are abandoned now but I think it's both sad and inevitable. I have friends who live on some of the smaller islands and although obviously these small islands are idyllic places to live being so far removed from modern conveniences would not suit me.

Thanks, FortunaMajor. Do you mean it's worth reading Once There Were Wolves but not anything she's written previously?

1. Handel in London by Jane Glover

This was a comprehensive 465-page tome about the life and times of the great George Frideric Handel in England, where he shaped London's entertainment scene for decades until his death, performing stellar Italian-style operas, then starting the trend of English-language oratorios, leaving behind over 70 dramatic works (operas and oratorios), not to mention numerous cantatas, sacred compositions, instrumental concertos and heart-breaking lyrics beautiful keyboard suites that are second only to those of J S Bach's, in yours truly' some humble opinion.

Much as I love reading about long-dead Baroque composers, the first half of this book took some getting into - I just didn't feel I needed to read quite so much about the individual singers in Handel's operas or the political atmosphere of the period. The author indeed talks about the politics and the performers nearly as much as it does about Handel's life and music. Slowly, I realized that this makes sense since Handel was very close to British royalty to whom his fortunes were inextricably linked, he often wrote in line with current affairs, and he also often wrote arias that would best capitalize on his soloists' best vocal features.

Then again, he wasn't free to compose and perform as he pleased. His artistic creativity was restricted at times by the whims of royals (such as the one who didn't like trumpets so Handel couldn't use them). This makes clear just how lucky Bach was to not be under the "protection" of a royal court for most of his life, although it probably didn't feel like it when he was a measly provincial kappelmeister in Leipzig in the latter decades of his life. Bach wrote profound, complex, mind-bending music until the end of his life, without a care for selling a single ticket to the public.

The need to sell tickets to the public changes a musician's output and this auto-restriction and dumbing down of his music to please royals as well as most of the public is best seen when comparing Handel's keyboard music (rich, complex, incredibly beautiful yet complicated) with his vocal work in his operas and oratorios which are relatively quite simple.

I loved the level of detail in this book. The author has gone to great lengths in researching documents of the period, and liberally used letters, newspapers, diary extracts, and other documents still in existence. One such interesting detail was that there is no record of King George II having attended Messiah's performances, let alone of his having stood up during Hallelujah, leading to the tradition that continues today of the audience standing up for the duration of this piece.

Highly recommended to anyone interested in Handel's era and his glorious music.

Parps I'd recommend both Migrations and Wolves, but her earlier work is YA SF/ fantasy which really doesn't appeal to me.

I have a few nitpicks with each but it doesn't detract from my overall enjoyment.

I enjoyed The Wolf Border a lot (and also the dystopian The Carhullan Army by the same author), and agree, the reviews of Once There Were Wolves reminded me of it.

I really hate that sort of middlebrow 'issues' fiction that feels like it's been written to appeal to a book club audience, just something about it that really grates.

If someone wants to write about what ever issue it is I'd much prefer they do it as genre fiction, IMO romance, fantasy and SF (and I expect thrillers too though I don't read so many of them) are all good carriers that can explore issues within the context of a decent plot to carry the whole thing.

Of course proper literary fiction of merit that happens to have gender / race / etc as part of its theme is a very different matter.

Finally get to post book number 1

*Mad girl - Bryony Gordon (audiobook)
*
I wanted to read this as I can relate to the mental health aspect. Found the authors voice really shouty and annoying. But it was a comforting listen as it's so true there are so many people suffering with the same mental health problems. It was emotional at the end and I would recommend if you are interested in this book to read it rather than listen.

@FortunaMajor

Parps I'd recommend both Migrations and Wolves, but her earlier work is YA SF/ fantasy which really doesn't appeal to me.

I have a few nitpicks with each but it doesn't detract from my overall enjoyment.

Thank you, I'm excited about trying her! along with the 100,000000 other books on my to-read pile

5. Raising the Barre - Lauren Kessler

Easy bedtime reading, so I was not expecting much from this and I was not disappointed.

Having studied ballet until the age of twelve, Kessler decided at 55 that she wanted to perform in a production of The Nutcracker. She is accepted to train alongside the Eugene Ballet and is given a small role, on condition she puts in certain extra training as well as the company classes.

I enjoyed reading about the nitty gritty of ballet training and taking a production on tour, which involved long hours travelling by bus around the Pacific North West. However, at least half of the book veered into personal journey territory - what can ballet teach us about perfectionism, can you be too old to try new things, what are you really prepared to sacrifice to achieve what you say you want to achieve? All valid questions but they could have been covered in far fewer pages, and just not what I was looking for in this book.

She also has a couple of really irritating tics - according to my Kindle search she says "midlife" 54 times in this book, and midway through the book she drops the word "leotard" in favour of "leo", and then proceeds to mention her new leo, her unflattering leo, Tori's azure leo with the asymmetric cutouts, etc at least once per page. We get it, you used to call it a leotard but now you're one of the gang and you call it a leo. I have to remind myself to give authors the benefit of the doubt and put at least some of the blame on the editor or the marketing department.

1. Bonjour Tristesse by Françoise Sagan

I read this in French with the English translation alongside, to pick up what I missed or didn't get.

This is a short book, a novella, only twelve chapters long, published in 1954. It's an absorbing read, however. It's set in the sunny South of France. Cécile is seventeen; young, pampered and indulged by her father, who lives a carefree existence. This easy way of life is threatened when an old friend of her father's enters the scene and Cécile is torn between her admiration of this woman and her determination to keep her personal freedom at any cost.

I liked this book, in spite of the characters being completely unlikeable. An air of sadness permeates the book as the protagonist reflects back on her actions during that summer. It's a good psychological study as we're not quite sure if Cécile will follow through with her plan or not until it becomes evident. (Four stars).

Been struggling already to keep up with all the recommendations!

2. The Shift: How I lost (and found) myself after 40 - and you can too by Sam Baker

I wasn’t a massive fan of this. I picked it up on a Kindle deal for a couple of reasons. The author was the editor of Cosmopolitan UK at the time that I used to read it in my early 20s, and it was touted as being about perimenopause, which I’ve been well and truly in for several years (despite not yet being 42). However I think it may have been jumping on the bandwagon as perimenopause is definitely an “in” topic at the moment (nowt wrong with this, we need to improve the conversations around it) but despite her fairly graphic descriptions of her own symptoms and how her (private) gynaecologist was able to help her, it wasn’t hugely relatable or useful. There are, after all, as many different experiences of perimenopause as women in the world! But mots of the issues raised are not really related to menopause - or age - at all. For example a hatred of the need to wear heels came up several times - that’s nothing to do with menopause, I ditched wearing them before I was even reading Cosmo!! Trying to set menopause up as some sort of turning point in our lives feels faintly ridiculous when most of the issues we should be tackling long before we reach that point. The parts that were most relevant and relatable felt marred by a kind of faux outrage. Overall, I can’t help but feel this book was churned out partly to help address the author’s financial issues, but perhaps I’m cynical (not a symptom of perimenopause... I’ve always been that way!)

3. The Vaccine: Inside the Race to Conquer the Covid-19 Pandemic by Joe Miller

This was a really interesting read about the development of the BioNTech/Pfizer Covid vaccine. I also have Vaxxers on my bookshelf, which I think at least a couple here have read recently, but I chose to read this one first as I was interested in the entrepreneurial elements of the story, plus all 3 doses I have received have been of this vaccine. I do have a science background, and a reasonable if rusty knowledge of basic immunology, butIthink the book would be very readable without it, and deals equally with the business and political elements of development as well as the science. If you’ve ever had questions about how The vaccine came to be and how it works, this is definitely a recommended read.

4. The Stranding by Kate Sawyer

This is a dual timeline pre and post-apocalyptic story. It’s one of those books that I disliked for a variety of reasons but yet still found compelling, and so I read it quite quickly as I kept turning the pages to see what would happen or to find explanations. In the end though I just found it a bit unsatisfying in all senses. It wasn’t a proper apocalyptic or dystopian story, it didn’t hit the mark for the “strong powerful women” narrative that I think it was going for and it just left me feeling a bit “meh”. I wouldn’t not recommend though, but won’t be raving about it.