50 Book Challenge 2022 Part Two

[southeastdweller]

Welcome to the second 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, it’s not too late to join, 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 the 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.

The first thread of the year is here.

What are you reading?

That explains a lot. Maybe Sally has infused her pages with MSG!

TheTurn0fTheScrew I think it’s my favourite too, for the joy of seeing characters again and the sense of summer and light.

highland start with the first one, Autumn. I’ve borrowed them as I’ve gone along so don’t have them to hand to see what happened in each, but characters and ideas surface and resurface within each book and then through the series. I can’t remember what it was like starting the first one. I did note that I found the second (Winter) hard to get into, but I had various others on the go which didn’t help. Her writing is so playful and joyous and yet mercilessly exposes collective guilt, I’m definitely going to reread these and am looking forward to her follow up which is coming out soon.

@weebarra

That explains a lot. Maybe Sally has infused her pages with MSG!

Wouldn't put in past her

highland - that is, start the 4 seasons with Autumn. I’d love to know which of her other books others might recommend? As I’m now keen to go back to her earlier books though not the very early ones among which were the 2 I didn’t get on with.

1. A Little Life - Hanya Yangahara
2. Still Life - Val McDermid

3. The Thursday Murder Club - Richard Osman audiobook

It took me a little while to get in to this but once I sid, I really enjoyed it. I've seen this pop up a lot on here and has been reviewed before so I won't go into loads of details but I enjoyed getting to know the different characters and may get the next book later in the year.
I'm still reading The Book of Form and Emptiness and am getting into this now, have been a bit stuck with reading time this week.

10. The Guest List by Lucy Foley

I enjoyed this more than I was expecting to. It has plenty of Agatha Christie vibes - a group of very unlikeable posh people gather on a remote island off the coast of Ireland for a wedding. Many hidden secrets and grievances come to light and someone is murdered.

@Cornishblues and @TheTurn0fTheScrew I read Autumn a few years ago when it first came out and didn't feel that engaged by it. But on recommendations on last year's thread, tried Winter which I really liked. I'm going to do the other two but am waiting to do them seasonally.

I didn't love the others of hers I've read, The Accidental and How To Be Both. I can see how she's a clever author though.

1. Selective Memory by Katherine Whitehorn

Autobiography of the late journalist, probably best known for her column in the Observer. She also wrote for Picture Post and was an agony aunt for Saga magazine. Really interesting and fun to read with tales of Fleet Street and how she was treated as a woman in the newsroom. Also talks very honestly about the loss of her husband.

1. The secret adversary, Agatha Christie

Tommy and Tuppence's first adventure (I think). A girl went missing after the sinking of the Lusitania (sp?) in 1915 but it is thought she was given some secret documents that have become significant after the war. T&T are asked by someone at M15 to investigate. Lots of chasing around the countryside and following people across London. Nice easy read.

Currently half way through A Place of Execution which I see @Welshwabbit recommended upthread. Generally enjoy Val McDermid but tend to pick them up at charity shops, so not reading in any particular order.

1. Women of Troy by Pat Barker. A sequel to the Silence of the Girls, this follows Briseis, Hecuba, Andromache and Cassandra after the fall of Troy. As ever Pat Barker is very good on the brutality of war and makes her points about the casual violence and cruelties handed out to women very well. Compared to the first book though I found it a bit slow and meandering - it just didn't have the same dramatic tension as the run up to Achilles' death. Worth reading if you liked SOTG.

@LittleDiaries

10. The Guest List by Lucy Foley

I enjoyed this more than I was expecting to. It has plenty of Agatha Christie vibes - a group of very unlikeable posh people gather on a remote island off the coast of Ireland for a wedding. Many hidden secrets and grievances come to light and someone is murdered.

I enjoyed this too. She also did the hunting party which is similar but also good

1. Island of the Blue Dolphins - Scott O'Dell.

Comfort read, bought some years ago after remembering the name from childhood and buying on eBay.

Based on a true story, it tells the tale of a young American Indian girl abandoned on an island off the coast of California for many years after her tribe leaves without her. Beautifully written, packed with historical detail about daily life on the island.

Loved it as a child and again in rereading it, and am passing it onto DD in the hope that she will too.

26. Victoria Wood: Unseen On TV edited by Jasper Rees

This is a collection of unseen sketches, songs and speeches from Victoria Wood’s archive. Some were never filmed, some were but then cut for time or because they were too similar to other sketches. Inevitably some are weaker than the stuff that did make it to television, but there’s some real gems in here that I would have loved to have seen made. It’s a joy to read new (new to us!) material from her though and very sad to think this really could be the last new material we see. I suppose it’s possible there’s still more ‘new’ stuff in her archives but the best will have been used in this book.

@autienotnaughty I read The Hunting Party around the start of Lockdown 1 in 2020. I didn't enjoy it quite as much as this one. It was still good, though.

Next up is Death on the Nile, which I've started and am enjoying so far. It's February's book for the Read Agatha Christie challenge.

@LittleDiaries I read a lot of the Agatha Christie's in my teens I always preferred Miss Marple. I hope you enjoy it. I'm about to start a book called Dear wife by a new (to me) author Kimberley Belle . I work in a library so I'm a sucker for a good blurb.

27. Single by K. L. Slater

I usually quite like Slater’s books but this was a mess. It’s obvious right from the start who the bad guy is. However, there’s also lots of other people all acting in ridiculous ways for ridiculous reasons, and lots of things just don’t make any sense. The end is just a mess as all these ridiculous separate storylines all converge. Not recommended.

1. Hungry - Grace Dent. Much read on here. Inevitably, it reminded me of Nigel Slayer's Toast as she reminisces about the importance of food as a child, alongside memories and reflections on her family relationships.

Grace's journey from hanging round the chippie with her pals in Carlisle to eating in the smartest places in the world in her job as a restaurant critic was well-written and entertaining. And the touching account of her father's decline with dementia was sadly familiar to me. I've been reading the Guardian online for years but have never read her restaurant column. I will now.

10. The Bridal Wreath - Sigrid Undset.

I'm sorry I can't remember who recommended this upthread, but I know there were a few of us who enjoyed the review and planned to read it.
It was one of the most original books I've read for some time, largely because of the language used. Set in medieval Norway, the best way I can describe the writing style is a mixture of Shakespeare (rather than Chaucer) and the King James Bible. For example:
And is't not of miracles that you preach late and early - believe you not that a miracle can happen with my child?

Lots of use of 'Twas ,fain ,thither etc. It takes a little getting used to but once you get into the swing of it It's not as difficult as it sounds, and is strangely successful at placing the reader back in that fourteenth century world.
I have no idea if there are other translations into more modern English and would be interested to know.
It's a love story with lots of thwarted passion, secret assignations, feasting, family feuds, peril on the highway and even two escaped pards .. which I was too thick to realise was the name for leopards long ago.
I also found it intriguing how anyone would climb into pretty much whichever random warm bed was handy but I guess it was chilly in medieval Norway in winter
I have the next two in the series and looking forward to them too.

@highlandcoo I really enjoyed Hungry too. Have you tried her podcast Comfort Eating? I've listened to all of them and they are very good. She talks to a different guest each week about their favourite food, and there's lots of other chat too.

@LittleDiaries, I hadn't heard of Comfort Eating but it sounds great - thank you!

I’d reserved Hungry from the library which wasn’t due till end of Feb but just had a notification it’s ready now, looking forward to it. (Although I didn’t really like Toast )

1. Special Topics In Calamity Physics - Marisha Pessl.

I picked up this book from one of those best books you've never read lists. It's a bit Secret History, a bit Catcher In The Rye and a bit of a murder mystery. The narrator is Blue Van De Meer, the only child of a itinerant professor who has been educated to within an inch of her life. After her mother died, they have criss-crossed America, never staying for more than a few months in any place. Her father, who is portrayed as a kind of charismatic, arrogant Robert Redford, has a succession of girlfriends that Blue calls June Bugs as they never last very long. The story starts with Blue finding her teacher dead, and then moves back to how they got there. Stylistically you'll either love it or hate it. Pessl takes writing as an over-educated 17 year old seriously. Each chapter is called after a famous work - Paradise Lost, A Hundred Years of Solitude, Moby Dick etc - and she uses constant similes, metaphors and references to literary work. A typical sentence: "I actually felt sorry for [the June Bugs], because even though Dad made no attempt to hide the fact that they were as temporary as Scotch tape, most were blind to his indifference (see "Basset Hound", , vol. 1)." I found it a bit annoying at first and then got more into it. In terms of the elite characters at a school, the "bluebloods" are a bit cardboard to be honest. You don't get much of a sense of why they or the teacher are particularly special. For me the first of the book was too long, but the pace picks up in the second half, when the murder part kicks in. On the whole I liked the experimental nature of it although don't to she totally pulled it off.

@highlandcoo this a good review to start with Dent. Love how she describes herself as Fenella The Kettle Witch
amp.theguardian.com/food/2021/jun/18/bar-des-pres-london-w1-the-8-vanilla-flavoured-mash-reawakened-my-inner-witch-restaurant-review

Haven’t posted for a while but have been reading and have made a note of many interesting books based on all your recommendations and discussions. Thank you!

On Neal Stephenson - I absolutely LOVED Cryptonomicon. Have read 2 of the 3 Baroque Cycle, but can’t quite bring myself to settle down to the last. Haven’t been sure which to approach next as they have very mixed reviews but will go for either Snow Crash and Anathem as recommended above.

I have finished Katherine Arden’s Winternight Trilogy. Enjoyed this as a midwinter read, an enchanting coming of age fairytale, with magic horses! Pure escapism - a great to curl up with in front of a fire. A solid 3. I would recommend it but I don’t think I’d actually buy as a gift it for anyone except maybe a teenage girl.

Also finished Nigel Slater’s The Christmas Chronicles. Lovely and will reread each year, if only to try and appreciate how Christmas and winter feel to someone who revels in them!

Listening to Michelle Obama’s Becoming and Robert Goddard’s The Fine Art of Invisible Detection. Both recommended here. They are both good but I'm taking a while to get through them as I’ve been in the mood for podcasts as well.

Reading W&P and enjoying it - which I didn’t really expecting! Also just started Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi I am delaying starting the big pile of non-fiction that I need to get through. Can’t quite face it yet.

8. Dark Tower V: Wolves of the Calla

The fifth book in the Dark Tower series and my favourite so far. I loved the call backs to one of King's earlier books (I won't say which as I don't want to ruin it for future readers) and other pop culture references. I absolutely loved this book and I'm already dreading finishing this series.

12. Because of you by Dawn French. Two women give birth at the same time, in the same hospital, but only one goes home with a baby. I enjoyed it, but found some of the characters rather unsympathetic or even annoying, though most did grow on me by the end and there was a plot point that I didn't see coming at all which sped up the reading for me near the end.