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?

@RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie

The Luminaries isn't a terrible read but I didn't think reaching the end made the journey feel worthwhile.

That's pretty much how I felt about it too.

5. Dragonwyck by Anya Seton

Gothic romance set in 1840’s America. Miranda is bored of life on her father’s Connecticut farm. So when a wealthy distant relative invites her to join his household as a companion to his daughter, Miranda jumps at the chance to experience a different way of life.
It’s quite dark in places and the cousin becomes increasingly sinister throughout, but it was a good read.

[quote JaninaDuszejko]**@AliasGrape* isn't the first chapter of The Luminaries* half the book? It's on my TBR (I like a Victorian pastiche) so can't say if it's worth reading the rest, but I think it has mixed reviews from readers.[/quote]
Yes it looks that way, I clearly thought I’d read more than I have. I had another good go at it last night and kindle tells me I’m still
only on 7% I will persevere again tonight and then see whether I want to finish.

Thanks all for the comments!

The Dark Tower - books 1-7 by Stephen King
Done. I climbed to the room at the top and saw what I saw and it was fine, do ya. Now I have to ignore the compulsion to turn right back to the start and do it again.

The Put em Rights by Enid Blyton
I was so pleased to finally find a copy of this in a charity shop. Read it when I was about 8 and had never seen it again but always remembered shy little Yolande very fondly. Verdict - it's very Blyton, but it whiled away an hour or so very pleasantly.

@Hoolahoophop

9. The Persuit of Love by Nancy Mitford and read by Emilia Fox. A reread which I loved to bits. I'll probably fall down a Mitford rabbit hole now. I love the carefree self loving confidence of this awful bunch. The glamour, the ease of life and laziness of style. Brilliant.

Book banter I was really pleased to hear your recommendation for Louis Theroux as it's my next audiobook and I'll be starting in on the walk home from work tonight. Definitely looking forward to it now.

I'm still thinking about it days later, @Hoolahoophop! Just brilliant. So clever, funny and interesting. One I'll probably re-read in a few years.

14. Rosemary's Baby - Ira Levin
Rosemary and her husband move into the Bramford, an old New York apartment building with a sinister background. After making friends with their neighbours the Castavets, Rosemary's struggling actor husband, Guy, is suddenly going places. Rosemary becomes pregnant and the neighbours, and Rosemary's doctor, start taking a special interest in her welfare.

I'm guessing most people know what this is about so hopefully not a spoiler when I say that the horror wasn't in the Devil aspect but rather the control that Rosemary's husband, the neighbours and the doctor have over Rosemary.

15. My Monticello - Jocelyn Nicole Johnson
During blackouts 1st Street, in Charlottesvile, is attacked by violent white supremacists. A group of mostly Black friends and strangers flee for their lives to Monticello, Thomas Jefferson's plantation in the hills above the town. The story is told by Da'Naisha, a young descendant of Sally Hemmings (his slave, who was also the half-sister of his wife) and Jefferson.

My first 5* read of the year. I've been reading the reviews on Goodreads and it looks like this was part of a larger book in America with 6 stories in total. I love the writing so am going to try to get the American version.

Breasts and Eggs by Mieko Kawakami. Translated by Sam Bett and David Boyd

This is split into two parts eight years apart. In the first part Natsuko is visited by her sister Makiko who is considering getting breast implants and her teenage niece Midoriko who is not speaking to her mother. In the second part Natsuko is now a writer with a successful novel who is thinking about having a child. There are lots of ideas in this book about womanhood and parenthood. It was much grittier than any other Japanese novel I've read, the characters are working class, they eat, get drunk, sweat, bleed, get ill, age and die while the city around them is alive with the changes of the seasons and each street corner has a different smell of whatever happens in that neighbourhood. Sometimes during Natsuko's endless discussions about having a child it did feel like her friends and family were just there to present the different types of parent child relationship but overall I found this readable and an interesting description of modern Japanese life and culture.

1. The Lamplighters by Emma Stonex. This had been on my list for a while. Inspired by a true story, 3 lighthouse keepers disappear without a trace from their offshore station. 20 years later, an author tries to find out the truth about what happened through interviewing their friends and family. The book cuts between the days on the lighthouse leading up to the disappearance and the present day experiences of the wives left behind.

I liked the later timeline better although the detail about life in the lighthouse was very evocative. I carried on reading to find out what happened but there were some supernatural elements which I felt muddled things a bit. And definitely some unexplained events. Overall, this didn't quite hang together for me.

1. Ancient Rhetoric - from Aristotle to Philostratus translated and edited by Thomas Habinek

My classical singing teacher told me about the ancient teachings of rhetoric and declamation as the basis of Baroque performance, and this compilation felt like a better use of my time than reading Aristotle, Cicero, and Quintilian separately.

It was the right choice. The editor has grouped their writings according to subject matter and distilled them to their essentials. It was interesting to read their individual thoughts on how delivery makes a speech effective and folds the audience captive.

Recommended.

Grannie I'm still annoyed about The Lamplighters! I loved it as I was reading it but agree the supernatural elements were just plain confusing and if they'd been done better it might have been amazing.

11. Alias Grace - Margaret Atwood This is based on a true story about a woman convicted of murder in 19th century Canada, but with limited confirmed facts and a lot of contradictory accounts, giving Atwood lots of scope for invention. It’s a really good read as I would expect from this author, but it was a bit too heavy on the shitty life Grace had and the shitty way men think of, and act towards, women (even the ones who are supposed to be the good guys) - all this was perfectly realistic but not particularly enjoyable. Having finished the book, I’m finding myself thinking about how we are meant to take Grace and her life story - how much are we supposed to believe, and how much should we question? It’s an intriguing book which has more to it than simply being a fictionalised account of real-life events, and it’s one that I think will stay with me.

Definitely worth reading (and infinitely better than the last book I read!) but my favourite Atwood is still the Blind Assassin.

Just checking in to say Last Chance Saloon is also my favourite non-Walsh MK (and my second favourite MK of all)

I've finished 221163 and the fucker is now haunting me (I could probably write 800 pages that feel like 8000 about it!) as I started teaching review writing yesterday morning and the model answers came from someone writing about bloody Jake and his bloody 39 pages of actual relevance to the actual bloody title of the bloody book.

Romping through A Place of Execution now and while I can remember the end, an awful lot of the middle I'd forgotten.

@noodlezoodle glad it wasn't just me! The reviews were glowing. I just couldn't make sense of the mystery visitor.

11. Behind the scenes at the Museum - Kate Atkinson

I am probably the last person to read this! Tells the story of various descendants of Alice Barker with a particular focus on Ruby Lennox who grows up in York in the 1950s/60s. I loved Life after Life but found A God in Ruins disappointing by comparison. I didn’t know what this book was about before I started - a museum? I wanted to love it but didn’t - I felt there were too many family members across the generations so when we skipped to another generation’s story in the random footnotes (not sure what that was all about…) it took me ages to place people - I could have definitely done with a family tree. Having said that it was very readable and entertaining and sad in equal measures. Maybe, I would enjoy it more a second time.

For any devotees of the Viveca Sten Sandhamn Books, the latest one (no. 10 in the series) is down to 99p on Kindle today.

I enjoyed The Luminaries but felt it was longer than it needed to be. I loved Hamnet though!

I’m really struggling with The Luminaries still. I don’t know if it’s not suiting the kindle format or something I just keep having the feeling I’m battling or wading through really dense text but not actually getting anywhere. To be fair I’ve been absolutely shattered this last week and by the time I get in bed and start reading my eyes are already closing, perhaps it deserves a try in daylight hours sometime I’m not so busy.

@TimeforaGandT I bought Behind the Scenes at the Museum as it was 99p on kindle, I thought I would give it a reread as no idea where my paperback copy ended up - it’s been quite a few years and several house/ country moves since I read it. I remember loving it very much, and indeed Kate Atkinson remains a writer that I try to read everything she does still, but I wonder how I’ll feel about it now.

@DuPainDuVinDuFromage - Alias Grace is my favourite Atwood, bleak though it was in places. I felt like her voice stayed with me a long time after reading, and again on rereads. There’s a Netflix series but I haven’t dared yet in case it is bad!

@AliasGrape I guessed from your username that you would be a fan of the book! What do you feel about the conclusion and whether Grace was guilty in Atwood’s view (and in real life)? Or do you think it doesn’t matter and that’s not the point of the book? And I’m not sure what to feel about Jeremiah either…it’s definitely kept me thinking, maybe I’ll go back and re-read the ending after finishing it in a rush late last night!

I might check out the Netflix series but I agree it’s sometimes better to leave well alone!

1. Slow Horses – Mick Herron – 4/5

I enjoyed the slow pace and the cast of characters; I’m looking forward to reading the next one.

1. The Girl from the Sea – Shalini Boland – 3/5

Okay thriller, trying hard to be the next Gone Girl, not succeeding.

1. Aurora Rising - Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff – 4/5

Fun audiobook, if you like YA/SciFi you might like this. I didn’t like the insta-love in one of the plot lines, but I’m interested in seeing where this series goes.

Remus I'm a big dark tower fan, have read the series 4 times so far. I'm so tempted to read it again now but need to try and resist as have so many on my TBR

Am I the only person who has never read any Terry Pratchett? It's never really appealed to me

Really struggling with reading at the moment, went about a week not reading at all which is something I never do. Trying to get back into it now

satellite, I think I read one many years ago but don't remember anything about it, beyond wondering why everyone else found it so funny. Shame, as I do enjoy a funny book and they aren't that easy to come by.

SOLINVICTUS - I found the 39 pages that related to the title the least interesting bit of that book, having been quite enthusiastic up to that point. I just had a massive "oh who cares, just go back to time travelling" moment. It does go on a bit. That is the Stephen King way, though, once he became too famous to edit - his earlier books are so much tighter. The Long Walk is one of the most compelling edge of the seat novellas I've read.

satellite, like Pepe I think I’ve read one Pratchett, also many years ago. It was OK but didn’t grab me and didn’t persuade me to read more. I could see it was funny but I didn’t actually find it funny, if that makes sense!

That’s exactly what I felt Terpischore, I could see why others might find it funny.

My DH loves Pratchett. He has a huge collection of books; science fiction and fantasy.
I read one or two of them years ago. I can see why people like them, but I didn't feel like reading more.

I’ve never read any Pratchett. Like you satellite they’ve just never appealed to me. I do feel I should give one a try though to see if I’m missing out!

I love Kate Atkinson and Museum is my favourite of her non-Jackson Brodie books. I can see why some people wouldn’t get on with her writing style though.