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?

First book of the year!

1. Good Vibes Good Life - Vex King

This actually grew on me. I started it and absolutely hated it. Felt the writing style and words of wisdom were just juvenile meme fodder. But actually, I quite liked the second half and found it quite uplifting. A quick and easy read. Not expensive on Kindle either. Think it was £1-2

Also finished my first book of the year after a quiet day catching up on laundry and housework with plenty of time squeezed in for reading!

1. Hungry by Grace Dent
I completely see why so many people had this memoir in their top reads for last year. It was a book with several layers. The first half in particular was chock full of the late 20th century nostalgia I was hoping for. I loved that the commentary on how social and cultural trends have shaped our relationship with food and so it’s effect on our lives (and waistlines) was subtlety woven in, rather than explicitly dwelt upon. And the second half of the book about the health struggles facing her family was poignant and moving. Highly recommend, even if you are not a particular fan of Grace Dent, as her story is universally touching.

@LittleDiaries we had the soundtrack too, so I could probably recite it with you That was a really enjoyable Backlisted, wasn't it? I really want to re-read all my E. Nesbits now.

I just had a look at the Kindle deals. The Olga Tokarczuk book Drive your plow over the bones of the dead is on there for £2.50. We read this a couple of years ago in book club and really liked it, it's a good one to read in winter as she has great descriptions of snow and being cut off. Very original.

Just came on here looking for this thread - I have got so many book recommendations from reading these threads over the years, but never joined in - I am going to this year! I've never really kept track of what/how much I'm reading, so will be interesting.

2. Brain Storm: Detective Stories from the World of Neurology - Suzanne O'Sullivan

Fascinating series of case histories based on epilepsy patients Dr O'Sullivan has treated over the course of her career. This was a quick, easy read, based mainly on her consultations with patients and their stories, with just enough technical information about the brain to keep it interesting. I had always thought of epilepsy as involving convulsions and collapse, so the broad range of seizure symptoms presented here really broadened my perspective: hallucinations of the seven dwarfs marching across the room; swearing and spitting; frantic running episodes; sitting up in bed multiple times a night and pointing at someone who's not there. Dr O'Sullivan's humility in admitting how little she can do for some patients and how little we actually know of how to cure brain diseases was very refreshing (but then I have recently been reading Stephen Westaby's memoirs...)

Hi, just decided this morning to do this (52 books actually - a book a week) after reading an article in the Sunday Times by someone who did it last year.

I am a notoriously slow reader with the attention span of a gnat as I am far too easily distracted by the internet, so I don't fancy my chances but I am going to give it a bash.

I have a book I need to finish, which I should manage today, so I am going to start week 1 with something short and not too challenging as I am already a couple of days behind.

If I pick a mix of short and longer books I should be able to start some of the longer ones when the short ones are finished before the week is up - that's my plan anyway.

book 1: American Housewife by Helen Ellis.

Described thus:

Vicious, fresh and darkly hilarious, American Housewife is a collection of stories for anyone who has ever wondered what really goes on behind the façades of the housewives of America…

‘Surreal tales of American weirdness, with details that ring all too true. Ouch, I say at times. At other times, yikes’ Margaret Atwood, Guardian Best Books of the Year

‘I tore through it. It’s MAD. Utterly mad but brilliant’ Louise O’Neill

‘Each perfect little story is a fine chocolate, laced with arsenic. Wickedly funny, painfully truthful’ Erin Kelly

‘After reading American Housewife, I'm convinced Dorothy Parker faked her death and is alive and writing under the pen name “Helen Ellis”. Witty, lacerating, and sometimes touching, this book is a salty assortment of surprises, each more delicious than the last. Savor it with a dry martini’ Deanna Raybourn

1. The Pursuit of Love - Nancy Mitford

I've had this ready to read for over 12 months, but after it reached the top 9 of last year, I decided not to put it off any longer. I can see why it's been a firm favourite over the years on the thread. I was a little sceptical at first but it turned out to be good fun, telling of the strange lifestyles of an upper class family between the wars and the love affairs of one particular sister who led an unconventional life. I can see why so many on the here have then gone on to read about the real sisters. It's fascinating and bonkers, funny and tragic all at once.

I've had it for a few years too @Fortuna I started it once, at a time when I couldn't really concentrate on a book, so didn't get past a couple of chapters but it's on my list as one of my definites for 2022.

I’d love to join in please, and hope to do better than I did last year, which was a bit of a flop!
I’ve just started reading Letters to Camondo by Edmund de Waal which I chose because I enjoyed The Hare with Amber Eyes so much.

I see that Robert Harris is being promoted on Kindle today, with his books at 99pence each. I like his writing, interesting characters and good plots, An Officer and a Spy is a particular favourite of mine.

First book of 22 has been Entangled Lives by Merlin Sheldrake. A non-fiction book about fungi that was literally jaw dropping in parts. Who knew fungi were so interesting and so clever?

@dementedma

First book of 22 has been Entangled Lives by Merlin Sheldrake. A non-fiction book about fungi that was literally jaw dropping in parts. Who knew fungi were so interesting and so clever?

Omg i am reading this now! It's my second book of 2022. About halfway through. It's all a bit over my head in parts, but other parts surprisingly engaging!

Signing in. I read 60 books last year. My last one was

Doing Good Better by William Macaskill .

This year I am planning on only reading female authors.

I normally read a mix of male and female and fiction and non fiction. I also read some books in French and German as I'm trilingual.

I loved The Pursuit of Love fortuna . I read it in the spring of 2020 one weekend and it was perfect escapism.

1. The Wisdom of the Ancients, by Neil Oliver

Loved this. The title and ostensible premise are a bit hokey - life lessons from the past - but the real focus is on those moments when we feel a connection to individuals who were here and are now long gone. He writes quite tenderly about long-lost children. He speculates that one reason for humans settling down to farming is that hunter-gatherer women were sick of losing babies to infanticide - you can't have multiple babies and toddlers when you're on the move. They stopped moving to keep their babies. It's unprovable of course, but an interesting new perspective. And other random comments - if crocodile tastes like chicken, it's because they both taste like their ancestor, dinosaur. He doesn't pretend to be scientific, but I enjoyed his thoughts. (And it's in the kindle monthly deal, if anyone is tempted).

1. The Dutch House - Ann Patchett

Thrown out of the family home by his stepmother after his father's death, Danny & his older sister maintain a routine of sitting in the car outside the house recalling their lives and relationships there for 40 years afterwards.

I enjoyed reading this, the descriptions of the house itself are beautifully rendered and the sense of helpless ignorance of detail about his own life is well-drawn. A good start to 2022 for me.

@TheAnswerIsCake That was my last book of 2021. Read in under 48 hours. Absolutely loved it.

I've already added 3 books to my wishlist from this thread. Managed 37 books last year, a mix of audio, kindle and books. Have set my target on Goodreads for 50 again, not managed that many for the last 2 years.

My first read for this year is The seven husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid

@Taswama

I love that book and always drag it into conversations about charitable donations, but I don't know anyone else who has read it!

My first finish of 2022 is:

1. Action Park - Andy Mulvihill & Jake Rossen

Andy Mulvihill grew up in the eponymous amusement park in New Jersey in the 70s and 80s, which had been set up by his father. Mulvihill Senior firmly believed that people are capable of assessing and managing risk for themselves, and set up rides including a wave pool, mountain slides, go-karts and motor boats. As the target market had a high percentage of drunk or just plain overexcited teenagers, and health and safety as we know it was nonexistent, the results were grimly predictable. Amazingly, the park was able to operate without insurance for nearly 20 years and it only closed when the owner could no longer meet successful personal injury claims and went bankrupt.

It's a wild tale and while the author tries to put his father in the best light possible, there is no escaping the fact that while he went right to the edge of what was legal at that time and place, there was a shirking of moral responsibility.

@VittysCardigan I am eagerly waiting for my DD to finish The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo so I can nab it to read next. Have heard some good reviews from Instagram about it.

1. The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver. My first finished book of 2022. This was Kingsolver's first book, written a decade before The Poisonwood Bible that made her famous. It's a much shorter and less complex novel, but I think it shows the promise of what is to come in her later novels. The protagonist is a young woman called Taylor Greer, who leaves her home state of Kentucky and travels through Oklahoma to Arizona and unexpectedly finds herself looking after an abused young child. I loved it but then I am a huge Kingsolver fan!

1. The Happy Couple by Samantha Hayes

Rubbish psychological thriller, not recommended. Jo’s husband disappeared a year ago and no trace since. She then spots photos of him in a house on a house sitters website, so goes to stay there to see what she could find out. Plot sounded intriguing but everyone acts in such ridiculous ways it really wasn’t credible.

1. Small Things Like These - Claire Keegan

A coal man makes a grim discovery on his delivery to a local convent in a small Irish town, that will bring consequences to his own family if he reveals it.
Very short but full of impact. Wonderfully atmospheric and very evocative of time and place, capturing the poverty and uncertainty of a working class community in the early 80s. It gives a good sense of the social morals of the time and the reach and influence of the church. It's a very quick read but one what won't leave me in a hurry. It touches on, but does not reveal the full horrors of the Magdalen laundries, saying more with what it doesn't cover, rather than what it does.

Yolandi I loved the Dutch House and am a great fan of Ann Patchett in general. Her new memoir These Precious Days is wonderful.

@FortunaMajor I read Small Things Like These only last week. It was a Christmas present, recommended to my husband by the owner of our local independent bookshop, who's very good at knowing what i like.

A short read but very powerful and atmospheric. I thought it was great, and the quandary the main character was placed in was cleverly explored.

Trivial in comparison to the subject matter, but it also has the most beautiful cover.

I am definitely going to search out more books by this author.

Highlandcoo I thought it had some really interesting themes and the Christmas setting worked really well. I've had a good run of Irish books in the past few years and agree she's an author to seek out more from.

Happy New Year, 50 bookers old and new! Thank you also to @southeastdweller for starting this year's first thread .

I posted quite frequently on last year's threads but then dropped off in the summer and was put off returning by my huge backlog of reviews (some of which I'd actually written but never got round to posting ). For me, writing a review is one of the most enjoyable things about being in these threads, as it gives me a chance to sit down and sort out my thoughts about a book when I've finished it, rather than just racing on to the next one. But my resolution for this year is not to let that get in the way of actually posting on these threads, as I love all the book chat very deeply as well. So I hope I'll stick around for the whole year this time (and will try to write pithier reviews, too)!

I'm currently halfway through Hungry by Grace Dent and agree with everything in the great review by @TheAnswerIsCake .