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?

Book number 2 finished, The Silkworm by Robert Galbraith

A novelist goes missing and his exasperated wife hires Strike to track him down and bring him home. But we find out that the circumstances of his disappearance is tightly woven into the outrageous story in his latest, highly controversial manuscript.

Cormoran and Robin unpick the strange novel’s hidden meaning to unlock the mystery.

Happily wolfed this down and thoroughly enjoyed it! This is my third Strike thriller but I’m reading them out of order, as I’ve managed to pick them up or borrow them randomly. Looking forward to the next one.

I took a hiatus of 8 years after reading Tess because I was totally blind to what was coming. Angel needed a good kick in the balls. I loved it but was just totally thrown. I read The Return of the Native last year and really enjoyed that too.

Meg - I thought The Bone Clocks was an inferior copy of the author's masterpiece Cloud Atlas. Here is my review from 2014:

49. The Bone Clocks - David Mitchell

I liked it and was definitely gripped by it, but I am not in awe of this book like I was of Mitchell's Cloud Atlas. Yet, there are many similarities between these two books, to the point that this one feels like an imitation of Cloud Atlas:

• 6 stories
• ... all of which are first-person accounts
• ... spanning decades
• ... starting in the past (1984) and extending far in the future (2043)
• ... and ending on a roll rather than winding down, as if they were cut prematurely

The themes are similar, too:

• Man's selfishness & cruelty, especially towards each other
• The yearning for safeguarding our knowledge/self/experiences for posterity
• Growing old
• Dystopian future

Cloud Atlas was original, gripping, and well... perfect First halves of the stories marched towards an inevitable conclusion, with the dystopian and post-apocalyptic two feeling incredibly real. Then came the second halves, and the reader is locked into the epic ensemble, with no escape from the author's logic as shown over and over in a variety of ways across continents and centuries. People are cruel and exploitive, we kill and enslave when we can; we have not changed, will never change, and this will be our downfall. Our technology will disappear in a single generation, just like our experiences and memories do as we grow old and die. It is a powerful blow to the gut, made all the more painful because of the hopeful note it ends with (1st story, so 1850s... but the reader already knows how the human story will end because the last story was laid out in full in the middle of the book).

A similar theme plays out in The Bone Clocks in a similar format, but in a less effective way imho and for it I blame its fantastical/supernatural subplot of warring immortals. I'm not quite sure why the author has felt the need for this subplot, especially since it takes up almost 25% of the book and doesn't add much to it while the other 5 narratives take up between 14%-17%. I will think a bit more about this and post my thoughts on here. If you read this book, please do the same. It would be interesting to see what you think.

There is a lot I want to say but I don't want to give any spoilers. Suffice it to say that David Mitchell is a brilliant author and he knows it. He is a master storyteller who (1) manages to change his 'voice' with every character he is voicing the inner thoughts of and make the personal accounts feel truly individual, (2) keeps you hanging on every word (I hear this book is 600+ pages - seriously didn't feel like it), and (3) succeed at every level, be it the feelings and perceptions of a child or sweeping predictions about life half a century in the future.

I'd love to join - like others I want to keep myself accountable and read more rather than mindless scrolling since my DD arrived last year!

Books so far this year are:

Rizzio by Denise Mina - a short novella written like a crime thriller about an attempted coup against Mary Queen of Scots. I liked this though struggled a bit to keep track of all the different characters' motivations and allegiances.

Rachel's Holiday by Marian Keyes - I'd never read this before so snapped it up when it was in the kindle deals. I really enjoyed it.

Magpie by Elizabeth Day - hard to say much about this without giving away the twists! A completely wild premise but very readable.

@MegBusset I read The Bone Clocks last year and it was one of my favourite reads of the year. Someone else read it last year too (Eine I think) and absolutely loved it. Here is my review in case it helps, but I guess it just might not be for you, or as someone else said not the right time.

The Bone Clocks is an epic, sprawling book, both in terms of the time line and the geography, which tells of the war between Horologists and Anchorites - two groups with very different approaches to keeping death at bay. Although the story is told the from the viewpoint of a number of characters, the central thread of the story is the life of Holly Sykes who we follow from a 1980s teen to an old woman, living in a world with limited resources and technology. 

There were times when I was reading this book that I thought it was one of the best books I'd ever read, it hooked me from the moment Holly meets a woman fishing and asks her for a drink, but there were times when it all felt that bit too epic and there were definitely a few things that either weren't explained or that I just missed. That said I couldn't stop reading it and although my initial reaction, that it was going to be one of the best books I'd ever read, wasn't quite on the mark, it was definitely one of the best books I have read this year.

I who have never known men is on kindle daily deals today.

@GrannieMainland I'm reading Rachel's Holiday at the moment. I read it when it first came out, and am really enjoying it again. Looking forward to the sequel out next month.

I've started two other books this week as well - Motherwell by Deborah Orr, which has been sitting on my kindle for a while waiting for the right moment, and The Unheard by Nicci French (audiobook). It seems I don't like to make things easy for myself

@highlandcoo

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

Are we talking about In The Country of Women here? (I'm intrigued!)

Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy

3. Sorrow and Bliss, Meg Mason

Much-praised UK novel about a young woman dealing with the fall-out of her mental illness. I know that there was a stage when everything got compared to Fleabag but this is very Fleabag-y: Martha is posh, pretty and drily and sometimes inappropriately very funny, but desperately unhappy.

My emotions reading this went from irritation and mild dislike ("Oh great, another book about an unhappy and excruciatingly self-aware young woman, I thought I had managed to avoid these since I gave up on Sally Rooney"), to growing admiration ("This is actually genuinely very funny, and I do really like the portrayal of nearly all of the characters, apart from the protagonist"), through dislike verging on hatred ("Argh, I really really really dislike the protagonist. Do young writers really think that unhappiness is enough of a reason to behave like a complete dick to everyone else?") and finally to acceptance (it turns out that the answer to my last question is actually no, they don't, so that is one positive point).

I dunno, I really admired bits of it. I think I've just confirmed that I don't like books about painfully self-aware unhappy young women behaving like dicks.

I saw that Alias Grape is reading this at the moment, looking forward to hearing what you thought!

Ooooh @Teaandakitkat and @Taytocrisps you’ve reminded me I have an old copy of Agatha Christie’s Murder in Mesopotamia.

I’ve never actually read any Christie either so might give it a go.

1. Rules of Civility by Amor Towles

This was a curate's egg of a novel. Some parts I would have given 5 stars and other parts only a 2. I really warmed to Katey Kontent's modern, forward thinking outlook in 1930s USA. She was sharp, intelligent and just this side of hedonistic. The other characters I could mostly take or leave. There was some cracking writing but in the end I found the plot/narrative drive just a little lacking. It was nowhere near as good as A Gentleman in Moscow.

1. Genghis Khan and the Making of a Modern World by Jack Weatherfield

An audible listen and a pretty epic one too. I knew nothing about Mongolian history before this and now I know a few snippets. I actually felt this was overly epic and tried to cover too much ground, leaving the reader overwhelmed with information. As ever I found myself less interested in the political landscape and more attracted to the social history, of which this book only gave tantalising hints and fair enough because this was not its author's aim. Overall I would recommend as a starting point, but personally I will be looking out for more targeted books in future.

@IntermittentParps - yes Jude the Obscure .. I was trying not to be too spoilery hence the obscure (see what i did there ) reference

[quote highlandcoo]**@IntermittentParps* - yes Jude the Obscure* .. I was trying not to be too spoilery hence the obscure (see what i did there ) reference[/quote]
Thank you. Iv'e not read it since my teens and have honestly forgotten everything about it although I remember loving it at the time even though I knew it was famously grim and one is kind of expected not to like it!

I haven’t read any Hardy for years. I’ve only read two of his anyway - read Tess at school and then read The Mayor of Casterbridge about twenty years ago. I did like both (well, as much as you can ‘like’ such depressing stories) so not sure why I haven’t got round to reading more. I did buy a posh copy of Tess last year so I do have a vague ambition to reread that soon but I must try some others of his too.

1. the mask falling by Samantha Shannon

I've quite enjoyed these. This was the 4th of what is hopefully 7 books.

I like the Irish culture and language references in them, and this one also had lots of French and a note by the author on how she had tried to make French less sexist, which seemed pretty well-researched and an interesting thing to do.

@ChessieFL

I haven’t read any Hardy for years. I’ve only read two of his anyway - read Tess at school and then read The Mayor of Casterbridge about twenty years ago. I did like both (well, as much as you can ‘like’ such depressing stories) so not sure why I haven’t got round to reading more. I did buy a posh copy of Tess last year so I do have a vague ambition to reread that soon but I must try some others of his too.

I really like Hardy's poetry actually.

Viking, re Sorrow and Bliss, while I liked the sparky conversations, I hated the way the protagonist treated her H. I thought it was flat-out abuse, and it's not excusable based on her mental health issues and angst. She managed not to dole out the same treatment to her sister, so she clearly had some control. It was an apologia for abuse as far as I'm concerned - "Oh, but look at how bad the abuser was feeling!"

5. Five Little Pigs, by Agatha Christie
Coincidentally mentioned by Tayto yesterday. Poirot investigates a cold case. Sixteen years ago a woman poisoned her husband - or did she? I guessed part of the solution but not all.

And Then There Were None is a very good one too by Agatha Christie.
It completely spooked me when I read it first, as a teenager.

Intermittentparps: I really like Hardy's poetry actually.

Radio 4's In Our Time discussed Hardy's poetry yesterday. Link here if you'd like to listen: www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m00139nw

@VikingNorthUtsire

I’m about halfway through Sorrow and Bliss and honestly, your review is probably pretty much word for word how I’m feeling about it at the moment.

I definitely feel the irritation and can feel myself sarcastically wanting to shout at Martha that it must be so terribly difficult for her being thin and beautiful with wealthy relatives and a loving husband and charming friends that offer you apartments in Paris and an uncanny ability to walk into jobs that don’t seem to require any actual work from you.

Which I know isn’t how mental illness works and so then I reproach myself for that, but do not feel any less irritated.

I do like many of the other characters though and the dialogue is funny (and Fleabaggy) in parts.

I will post when I’ve finished it but honestly I don’t see how I’ll be able to add anything to what you’ve said, you’ve summed it up really well.

Also agree with @bibliomania her behaviour is abusive. Drives me mad when people post the old ‘double standards’ crap on mumsnet but in this case it definitely feels like it, I wonder how a novel about a man who throws things at his wife because he’s just so sad would be received.

4. Close Your Eyes - Rachel Abbott

I really tried, but I just couldn't get into this book. I will definitely try again at some stage

5. Holy Island - LJ Ross

I wanted to really like this book, and whilst I did like it and found it an enjoyable read, I found it hard to concentrate on the murders and the whodunnit, because of the relationship building between the 2 main characters. It was trying to be a subplot, but encroached too much into the main plot.

The whole sexy, brooding, detective, and the female civilian expert he unofficially needs the expertise of, and of course falls in love with, is a cliche, although you still want something to develop there. I think this part of the book needed toning down so that the main story could flourish more.

I will read more L J Ross though as I liked the story and its end, I just feel it could have been more well rounded.

I've just finished Sorrow and Bliss. Martha is exceptionally irritating but that was, I think, at least part of the point. I agree her behaviour is terrible and abusive, and that is never really analysed or addressed directly. I also agree that the other characters - particularly Ingrid and Winsome - are rather wonderful and it was the kind of novel I really enjoy, with lots of detail, great dialogue, and some fantastically well done characters. I found her decision to not name Martha's illness frustrating. Or perhaps the way she chose not to name it, rather than the decision itself - it would have been easy enough not to name it without using that device and it just repeatedly drew attention to the choice in a way that detracted from the narrative each time.

I plan on hunkering down this weekend and doing a lot of reading. I'm loving The Crater School - thanks sadik for that one. I adored the Chalet School books as a child and they are still my comfort read, so this is really good fun. And then, was it terpsichore who recommended The Corner That Held Them? It turned up on my library reserve list, and I have no recollection of ordering it, or where I came across it, but a bit of searching suggests that you are a fan. That's on the list this weekend too.

My Book 1 is American Gods - I used to read so much, and want to waste less time on social media this year, so would love to join this challenge!