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 really liked The Mermaid Of Black Conch. A very different reading experience for me as I'm uncomfortably aware that I tend to go for books written in fairly 'standard' English and CBA reading dialect (one reason why I dislike DH Lawrence). But this was great: sad, cutting, vivid, true, original.

Thank you LittleDiaries for the link to the Agatha Christie challenge.

I am not keen on Tommy and Tuppence either.

I have also read both Such a Fun Age and Leave the World Behind. I thought Leave the World Behind was much better. For me Such a Fun Age seemed to be trying to tick boxes.

8. The Young Team - Graeme Armstrong
I'm pretty sure this will become one of my books of the year. On audible, narrated by the author. Disclaimer: I grew up very close to where the book is set and Graeme is from, so I knew a lot of the background and didn't have an issue with the dialect. Following the life of Azzy Williams from 14 -21, from being a cadet in the YTP to being an 'elder cunt' (not a book to read if you're squeamish about the c word), deals with gang violence, poverty, rave culture, drugs, suicide and redemption.
I thought this was really well written, moving and inspirational. I especially liked the focus on mental health. Young working class Scottish men aren't supposed to have emotions, much less talk about them, even now.

I did too @noodlezoodle, but i'm like you, too scared to mention it.......NLMG is a scary subject to broach as it's so divisive!

@weebarra that sounds interesting. and a good one for audible .. I don't often enjoy dialect written down.

Have you read Mayflies by Andrew O'Hagan? Also set in Scotland, it's quite rare in describing close friendship - love, really - between (straight) men. I listened to it on audible too.

8. Moon Over Soho - Ben Aaronovitch
Second book in the series of police procedurals with a supernatural twist. I’m really enjoying these so far, particularly the strong sense of place (though I’m borrowing them from DB, who doesn’t know London well). The two main characters are a little irritating: Peter Grant needs to think more with his head than his dick, and his boss, Thomas Nightingale, loves to withhold information even more than Dumbledore.

@ChannelLightVessel that's a brilliant description - dumblxore really hid a lot of useful info!

I read pretty much all Agatha Christie as a teenager and bought Death on the Nile and Murder on the Orient Express after christmas simply because I loved the looked of these special editions ... harpercollins.co.uk/products/death-on-the-nile-agatha-christie?variant=32553091792974

4. Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
It's not news that this is a wonderful book, but I've just finished it and I love it. I probably wouldn't have managed to read it if it hadn't been a book club choice, because I've tried before. But this time I read it fast so that the single London day in 1923 flowed without stopping. I've never read a description of a psychosis so elegant and accurate. So many awkward difficult disappointing damaged lives expressed with care and love. What a masterpiece.

I decided to post on the thread every five books or so while I'm reading through the Discworld series, so here they are so far.

1. The Colour of Magic

2. The Light Fantastic

I remember reading these when I was about 11 or 12 and finding them very hardgoing. Luckily it seems my reading skills have improved over the last 30 years and this time around they were very easy reads. Failed wizard Rincewind reluctantly becomes a tour guide to the Disc's first tourist. These books are parodies of fantasy, light and amusing but a bit flat.

3. Equal Rites

I think this is where Pratchett decided to take the Discworld a bit more seriously. The characters are more three dimensional and the world seems a little realer. The humour's still there, but whereas in the first two books the story served the humour here the humour serves the story. The storyline is a bit deeper too, about a girl destined to be a wizard in a world where women can't be wizards. I really enjoyed it.

4. Mort

Death (who has made cameo appearances in the previous books) takes on a hapless youth as his apprentice. It's a fun read, quite YA in feel as a sort of coming of age story.

5. Sourcery

I don't think I've read this one before.
After the last two books it felt like a bit of a backward step for Discworld. Rincewind is forced to go on adventures again after the eighth son of an eighth son of an eighth son arrives in Ankh Morpork. It's okay, but the humour is a bit overworked at times.

@Hushabyelullaby

I did too *@noodlezoodle*, but i'm like you, too scared to mention it.......NLMG is a scary subject to broach as it's so divisive!

Hushabye

@ABookWyrm I adore the majority of Terry Pratchett, but have never been able to get on with the wizarding books, I much prefer the witches and the Watch.

I have zero patience with Rincewind.

The Colour of Magic was the first TP I read, and it almost prevented me from ever reading another. The second was The Hogfather, which grabbed me. Mort and Reaper Man are my favourites, plus the Watch ones.

I think I might fancy Mrs Dalloway...I've not read any Woolf.

4. How to Kill Your Family by Bella Mackie
Grace is the daughter of single mother Marie, and has never been acknowledged by her billionaire father. Following Marie's death, she seeks revenge on her father by bumping off his relatives one by one, her father being the last.

The plot was silly(in a good way) and fun. However it would have worked been better if Grace had the slightest kernel of likeability or vulnerability, or even just good old-fashioned charm; but this didn't come through, so I wasn't especially invested in whether or not she got away with her crimes. If Mackie was aiming for full-on psychopathy then Grace's motive didn't really fit. Also the banging on about how awful the nouveau riche and their taste in interiors are got a bit grating.

First book finished 🍾

1. Chavs: The Demonisation of the Working Class

I was pleasantly surprised by it. I thought it would be Tory bashing but it bashes all the political parties equally and shows how the working class has essentially been destroyed and vilified as an underclass (traditional working class doesn’t exist anymore) and anyone who doesn’t aspire to be middle class is ridiculed. I read the new edition, which was updated after Brexit and the pandemic. It was very eye opening. The author wonders if the pandemic will level the playing food, as it was mainly working classes who had to go to work or else we’re furloughed (which makes sense) whilst the middle class got the luxury of working from home. I doubt it but it’s interesting to think about.

Would highly recommend that everyone read it I regardless of class or political allegiances.

Now to start book 2 - The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett

In The Country of Women - Susan Straight
A memoir charting the history of the women of her family and their very diverse origins. It didn't quite live up to the promise of the blurb and reads more as a very personal discussion between family members and not really of that much interest for public consumption, but a wonderful resource for her daughters once they are adults.

Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
I read this blind and now I am quite undone. Marvellous. A thousand times better than Tess.

What about the too menny bit @Fortuna? I've never been able to reread it to be honest.

Paging @CoteDAzur and other David Mitchell fans. I'm about 1/3 through The Bone Clocks and finding it a bit dull. The author narrator is really tedious. Worth persisting?

@highlandcoo

What about the too menny bit *@Fortuna*? I've never been able to reread it to be honest.

Knocked me sideways. Wasn't expecting it. Very tragic.

It's odd to have never come across a spoiler for such a famous book, but I went into it completely blind. I felt emotionally battered by the end.

@MegBusset I found the Bone Clocks really gripping but sometimes it just needs to be the right moment? I wouldxsay the payoff of the last chapter is worth it but the supposed plot climax is not. But it didn't matter.

I'm just not sure if the narrators (apart from Holly) are supposed to all be clichés of shitty annoying blokes or if there is some clever literary sleight of hand coming up. I loved Thousand Autumns and Black Swan Green, this just seems to lack any of their subtlety.

Jude - Susan is at the top of my 'heroines who need a good shake' list.

@RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie

Jude - Susan is at the top of my 'heroines who need a good shake' list.

I'd agree with that, but Tess was such a drip, that I have no love for her either.

I had to read too much Thomas Hardy for CSYS English (old Scottish qualification a-level equivalent). I remember describing it to my teacher as wallpaper. However, Jude broke my heart, but Angel Clare needed a lunch.

I did Hardy for CSYS too! I have to say he turned me into a reader for life, and is why I did an English degree. I liked Mayor of Casterbridge best then. Kids still respond to Tess , despite most classics turning them off these days.

I was just reading Time Traveller's Guide and there is a section on wife sales. They were surprisingly common!

@Teaandakitkat

I've never read an Agatha Christie in my life, not a single one. Which one should I read? It might be the only one I ever read so recommend me a good one

'Five Little Pigs' really stood out for me. As well as the more famous 'Murder on the Orient Express'.