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?

Hello everyone,
Happy New Year :)
I dipped in and out of 2021's thread but wasn't logged in to Mumsnet so never contributed.

I've just finished Still Life by Sarah Winman which I loved, especially the dialogue between the main characters. You just wanted to be there among them, drinking chianti under the Florentine sky.

Emgee I picked Still Life as one of my top 5 last year. I loved it and agree she swept you along with it all and really made the characters come to life. I've recently finished one of her earlier books Tin Man. Not quite as good, but still definitely worth a read.

Happy New Year @southeastdweller and all. From looking at a past thread, I think 2022 might be the 10th anniversary of these threads - could that be right??

Aiming for a solid 50 this year with the emphasis on quality. Who knows what the reality will be??

1. A Woman of No Importance by Sonia Purnell
Popular on these threads when it first came out, this was a purchase at the Imperial War Museum on New Year's Day. What a cracker. The barely believable life of Virginia Hall, the first woman agent of SOE and one of its greatest. Nothing in her life fits any kind of assumption or pattern. A beautifully engineered story by Purnell too, though you might or might not find her take on wider events persuasive.

PermanentTemporary there was another book about Virginia Hall released last by year called The Invisible Woman by Erika Roebuck. It's a novel based on her life. I'm not sure if I can bring myself to read it as I thought A Woman of No Importance was simply brilliant and I don't want to ruin that feeling. It's got rave reviews and a high rating on Goodreads though.

Fortuna and Highlandcoo I am a huge fan of Claire Keegan. Her short stories are great but a bit uneven, but Foster is absolutely brilliant. I have read it many, many times and every time find something new in it. (My husband's family are Irish and he loves it too.)

Thanks Boiledegg I've just downloaded it.

PermanentTemporary I think the first thread was in 2013 (I was on it with a different username), but maybe there was one the year before that I wasn't on?

I loved A Woman of no Importance. I got First Lady by the same author for Xmas - about the life of Clementine Churchill. Will get around to picking it up soon

@bibliomania

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).

I hovered over this but didn't click. Thanks for the review Bib, I'm going back to click now!

I adored Tin Man. Its on my must re read list

Happy New Year, everyone! (Here I have DD with indeterminate unwellness, and flea-ridden cat who presented me with the corpse of a still-warm squirrel yesterday. I’m quite impressed he got it through the cat flap.)
I managed to fall off the thread last year, and the year before, so third time lucky. I’m also going to join in the W & P read along.
I feel that the month ahead will be busy - I need to get a job, have driving theory test, and get possible ASD assessment rolling for DD - but I also need to stop the mindless scrolling, like many others.
Have finished my first book:
1. Religio Medici, and Urne-Buriall - by Sir Thomas Browne
Bit of an odd choice, I know, but I just fancied it. The two most famous essays by 17th-century doctor and writer, meditations on religion, death, human nature, which makes them sound less entertaining than they actually are. Took a while to get into the language, even with notes, but then really enjoyed the Byzantine style and range of references and insights. Browne was a real polymath, and it’s fascinating to watch an erudite and ingenious mind at work.
Now reading Lost Children Archive by Valeria Luiselli.

Thanks from me too Boiledegg it's a subject that resonates with me so will be very interested to read.

@PermanentTemporary I have Woman of No Importance on my kindle so must pull that out at some point!

Thanks southeast for the thread and happy new year everyone.

I am currently reading Mrs Death Misses Death plus (very slowly) War and Peace for the readalong.

My top books of 2022 we're all non-fiction:
My Rock 'n' Roll Friend by Tracey Thorn
Findings by Kathleen Jamie
Nomadland by Jessica Bruder

My favourite Penelope Lively is Moon Tiger. I do often get her mixed up with Penelope Fitzgerald.

PS I'm relieved to see that we don't seem to have any new years name-changers this time - I was so confused by all the new shipping forecast names that I had to make myself a crib sheet!

Pleased to have finished my first!

1. The Start-up Wife by Tahmina Aman. I read a review on the last thread that caught my interest, and I enjoyed this, partly a story of a relationship, partly about tech and social media, partly about feminism, and mostly, I think, about growing up. I would be interested to know if she added the covid pandemic to an existing story, or if it was written super recently.

Viking I look to seeing your thoughts on Mrs Death I thought it was very unusual and had a rare quality to it.

Mack that was really hard work last year. I needed a crib sheet too. Some people will always be their old names to me. I'm missing some old faces too.

Another fairly short one. I've spent today doing nothing but read (actual books, no audio) and drink tea.

1. My Phantoms - Gwendoline Riley

In this a woman explores her realtionships with her parents after their difficult divorce and the toxicity of feeling required to have some form of contact despite no real desire to do so.
I have never read anything that captures this so well. I had a visceral reaction to her description of enforced contact with a narcissistic father and being stuck with a man so impressed by his own brilliance, hilarity and (non-existent) popularity, being forced to passively endure it or face all hell breaking loose. She nailed it.
It then goes on to look at the strained relationship with her mother and feeling more forced to be involved as her mother ages, with nothing in common, or any idea of what to say to each other. I can see real parallels with a friend coping with elderly parents from a distance. This is outstanding and a really insightful study of difficult family ties.

I'm now onto some medieval murder mystery trash to give my brain a break. Cracking start to the year with some outstanding reads.

1. The Power of Geography - Tim Marshall

In which the author gives a whistlestop tour of ten regions of the planet where geography has had a significant impact on history, politics and economic development. Written in an informal, chatty style - and somewhat heavy-handed with metaphors - it's an interesting read, although in places out of date (it was published while Trump was still in power). I also found the inevitable lack of detail frustrating in parts - nobody could summarise the geopolitics of Africa in one chapter in anything like satisfactory detail. I enjoyed the chapters more which took a closer focus on the relationship between two countries, like India/Pakistan.

Ooh @FortunaMajor I have My Phantoms on my TBR, am looking forward to it having read your review.

Just read my first book of the year. Flesh and blood by Andrew Shanahan

Its a post apocalyptic follow up to Before and After. Best to read both - they are available on Kindle unlimited. Thrilling, funny and a great story.

1. The Camomile Lawn by Mary Wesley
Not sure if I would say i enjoyed this. Couldn't warm to any of the characters and got confused with how they were all linked .
Plot jumps between present day (written early 80s) and ww2 focusing on a group of cousins and their friends and family.
It kept me interested enough to read it quite quickly but I didn't love it and there were some pretty horrible storylines making light of grooming, domestic violence and paedophiles which were quite shocking to read.

2. Mr. Bowling Buys a Newspaper - Donald Henderson

This became a minor viral read last year when Andy Miller of Backlisted fame mentioned it in one of the podcasts and subsequently tweeted about it. It was first published in 1943 and Raymond Chandler, no less, praised it as one of his favourite whodunnits.

It's a funny kind of book, very original - we know at the outset that the titular Mr Bowling is a killer. But can he manage to get himself caught? Henderson's writing reminds me very much of Patrick Hamilton, as does the wartime setting, and it's blackly funny (and often surprisingly graphic in terms of the killings) but the ending seems to come from an entirely different kind of book.
Overall, an interesting curiosity.

@Terpsichore

2. Mr. Bowling Buys a Newspaper - Donald Henderson

This became a minor viral read last year when Andy Miller of Backlisted fame mentioned it in one of the podcasts and subsequently tweeted about it. It was first published in 1943 and Raymond Chandler, no less, praised it as one of his favourite whodunnits.

It's a funny kind of book, very original - we know at the outset that the titular Mr Bowling is a killer. But can he manage to get himself caught? Henderson's writing reminds me very much of Patrick Hamilton, as does the wartime setting, and it's blackly funny (and often surprisingly graphic in terms of the killings) but the ending seems to come from an entirely different kind of book.
Overall, an interesting curiosity.

This sounds good - I'm all about interesting curiosities (I like to think I'm one myself). Bought.

I'm braced for your review, Remus!

2. In Order to Live: A North Korean Girl's Journey to Freedom by Yeonmi Park
The extraordinary story of a defector from North Korea. A harsh, terrifying, gripping story. I can't wait for the trash dictatorship in North Korea that feeds on the misery of its people to collapse in ruins, though the aftermath is also a little unimaginable.