50 Book Challenge 2022 Part Three

[southeastdweller]

Welcome to the third 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 and the second one here.

What are you reading?

Thanks for the warning Stokey. I might not be find it so bad in isolation after a break, but with the others is was bombardment with one after the other.

I should have said above, that I only know the numbers due to Goodreads and I've toyed with not doing the challenge and therefore not getting a count. It is handy to have books chunked together if I need to go back and find one I can't remember the title of, as I remember roughly which year I read it.

10. Open Water - Caleb Azumah Nelson

London-based love story between a dancer and a photographer, dealing with race and identity. The narrator is British-Ghanaian, as is the author. I believe this won a price for debut novel. Some of the prose relating to young love is stunning. A short novel that I'm sure I'll still be thinking about for a while to come.

@nowanearlyNicemum I liked Open Water a lot. I believe he has another book out this year or maybe next.

21. Friends and Strangers by J. Courtney Sullivan. Elisabeth is a wealthy journalist and new mother struggling to adapt to life in an upstate New York small town where she's moved to bring up her family. She hires Sam, a middle class student, as a babysitter and the two women become close friends and blur the boundaries of their professional relationship. At the same time, Sam becomes politicised and tries, clumsily, to help the poorly paid women who work in her college canteen.

I've read some of Sullivan's books before and they are light but readable. This was pretty average. The core relationship between Elisabeth and Sam was well written and insightful but the themes about different degrees of privilege were heavy handed and overall it was too long with far too many characters and sub-plots that never went anywhere.

I'm not usually that bothered by geographical inaccuracies but I was raising my eyebrows at a section set in London - people getting married at 'London's City Hall', Jack the Ripper tours in Leicester Square, and a 35 year old named 'Clive' who orders 'spotted dick' in a restaurant...!

Just marking my place as I’ve fallen off the thread and we’re due a new one soon. Been re-reading the Ruth Galloway books as comfort reads so nothing to add.

The Book of Not by Tsitsi Dangarembga

This is the sequel to Nervous Conditions. This book opens with our narrator Tambu describing her sister's leg being blown off by a landmine during the Zimbabwean wars of independence. Tambu soon returns to her exclusive girl's boarding school where there are strict quotas for the number of black students, there are 6 in total who all share a 4 person dormitory. The black students, despite all having been through a competitive scholarship competition never seem to get on the honours roll and can't compete in the sports competitions with other local schools because of their colour. They each struggle with how to deal with their situation as a minority in school. And the impact of the war is never far away, despite the beauty and apparent serenity of the school's location. Tambu continually has her hopes and achievements taken away from her and this continues into the post colonial period.

This was a harder read than the first where I was rooting for Tamba more. The move from her village to her uncle's mission school felt positive and she still had family around her whereas here she gets increasingly isolated by not being accepted by the white students and failing to develop close relationships with the other black students. It's heartbreaking watch Tambu get more and more damaged by her experiences.

That sounds stressful Janina.

On the international Booker, have you read The Book of Jacob? I'm tempted as I loved your namesake's book - also love the covers- but the size is slightly off-putting!

Fortuna I would like to listen to more audiobooks but unfortunately I don’t do the sort of job where I’m able to listen to anything I would need to concentrate on and I don’t live alone so I’m restricted to the odd bit of listening when doing some housework or out on my own for a walk. If I could fit in more audiobooks my numbers would be higher - although I do prefer physical books as I find my mind can wander when listening so I tend to listen to rereads on audio as it doesn’t matter too much if I drift off slightly!!

Stokey no, I've not read The Book of Jacob yet, like you the size is offputting and I think it'll be a more challenging read than Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead.

8. Hidden figures by Margot Lee Shetterly
Read for bookclub. Really interesting story about black women working as mathematicians for NASA in the fifties and sixties. Unfortunately the writing was terrible. It's written as fiction about real events so it makes you doubt the authenticity of what happened. The women were interchangeable and had no discernible character traits. The film and the children's picture book were better.

9. Anything is possible by Elizabeth Strout
Excellent writing from Strout as usual. This is the sequel to My name is Lucy Barton which I enjoyed more. Each chapter is a perfect short story about small town America but they are all related. I feel I needed a spider diagram of the connections to refer to.

21. Case Histories by Kate Atkinson

This is quite old now, published in 2004 and in starting on the Jackson Brodie novels it feels like I've finally caught up with something everyone else knew about. An ideal read for a week when I'm really struggling to concentrate and quite unwell - a completely gripping story, written with passion. Interleaving mysteries building to a sad but satisfying ending.

Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason At first I thought this was going to be something really special. It’s about a woman with mental health problems whose marriage has ended, her family relationships and her own often terrible behaviour. There is wit and humour, and breadth as we see her life from childhood until around her 40th birthday. I am glad I read it overall because there are a couple of powerful moments about living in the abyss that really resonated with me. However I found the effect was diminished because the (barely functional, but nevertheless in an enviable media job) main character was given generic mental health difficulties where specificity was called for, and the effect became scattergun. I was more than ready for the book to end, but found the ending contrived and inappropriate. Also, perhaps picky but the book is set in London and Oxford but published in Australia and there are a few vocabulary issues that jar to a UK reader.

Putin's People by Catherine Belton I'm not generally given to swearing but my first reaction to this book is "bloody hell!". It is a jaw-dropping account of the corruption, criminality and violence that has allowed Putin and his KGB men to take control of the country's economy and transform the entire law-enforcement system to remove any political rivals. Furthermore, in the West financial interests have outweighed concerns about the Putin regime's abuses and, despite increasing awareness of Russian intelligence activity, allowed him to extend his influence. Indeed, she quotes one Russian tycoon as saying: "In London, money rules everthing. Anyone and anything can be bought. The Russians came to London to corrupt the UK political elite."

Putin's People was written in 2020, so before the recent war in Ukraine, but she gives plenty of background to the current situation, including the annexations in 2014. It is a hugely important book and shows how much was already known about the dangers Putin and his KGB cronies posed to the world. I would really recommend it to anyone interested in modern Russia and Putin's rise to power; it requires some commitment as it is necessarily long and complex, but it is compellingly written and Catherine Belton is very good at reminding you who people are when they reappear in the narrative. I am in awe of her superb writing and meticulous research. Depressing and terrifying in equal measure.

25. Breathless- Amy McCulloch

Thriller set on Manaslu. As I've mentioned before, the author has experience of high-altitude expeditions, including Acongagua and Manaslu, so the mountaineering aspects have the ring of truth. To quote one of the characters, where better for a killer to hide than somewhere already known as the Death Zone? I thought this was quite pacy and well-written, though it gets increasingly bonkers/operatic towards the end. All good fun and recommended for fans of mountaineering books (I think there are several on here).

CornishBlues I finished Sorrow and Bliss a few weeks ago and struggle to remember anything about it. I agree with your points and think it could and should have been a much better book.

Another Women's Prize book for me.
Flamingo - Rachel Elliott
Moving between the 80s and 2018.
A young mother and her son move in next door to another family with two girls who instantly take them under their wing and they have an intense relationship. After a falling out, they move on, but things will never be the same for either family. As adults, the children of the two families struggle to fit in and have unusual lives. The boy ends up homeless and returns to the other family for help.

It was all going so well until a sheep ornament started talking!

I have mixed feelings on this one. The opening felt a bit overworked and pretentious, trying to be something it wasn't. It did settle and then swung the other way and felt a bit chick-lit~ish. The story is compelling, the characters likeable. I can easily see it being made into a TV series. I enjoyed it more than many others on the list, but I'm not convinced it's prize worthy.

I think the Women's Prize has lost it's way a little and doesn't know what it wants to be. It was set up in response to the Booker not listing any women one year, but now they insist they are not a literary prize, but a storytelling one. I refuse to believe this list is the best output from women this year. I look forward to getting it over and done with and then hopefully finding all of the decent books elsewhere.

I’ve got Putin’s People in waiting, boiledegg - I feel similarly, slightly dreading it but I know it’ll be an important book to read.

Thanks to @ChessieFL and @Fortuna for the insight into how you read so much. I think I have to accept that I may never finish my tbr.

13. In Cold Blood Truman Capote. Capote’s 4 year investigation into a Kansas farm massacre is fact written as fiction. This was the best book I’ve read in a long time - very well written and gripping . I’ve not read much true crime but I thought the style and story was excellent. I was petrified at one point expecting killers to burst into my house. I loved the description of a midwestern farming community and the back story of the suspects.

20. Arthur & George - Julian Barnes

Well, this was a pleasant surprise.

A fictionalised biography of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle told concurrently with a mixed race rural Staffordshire lawyer, George Edalji, whose lives come together when Edalji was falsely imprisoned on a charge of animal cruelty after a protracted hate campaign against (mostly) his family in the village. Conan Doyle championed his cause after his early release from prison in an attempt to reverse the verdict, restore Edalji's reputation, and claim compensation for wrongful imprisonment.

Even though this was shortlisted for the Man Booker in 2005 and turned into an ITV miniseries, I had not read it and didn't know what to expect. I found it thoroughly engrossing, a real page turner with detailed, believable characters, both the main protagonists and the supporting cast. It walked through the investigation step by step and showed a sense of disbelief in the incompetence of rural policing at that time. Well researched, well written, definitely a keeper.

1922: Scenes from a Turbulent Year, by Nick Rennison

A month-by-month account of the big news stories from a century ago. Some of it seems familiar, while some comes from a very different world. There are grim warnings of horrors to come in anti-semitic attacks in Germany and lynchings in the US. There is civil war in Ireland and unrest in India. The way it's told gets away from a more conventional historical narrative where you're told a, b and c caused d - you see things as they unfold, with people not able to foresee the consequences.

It's more a book to dip into than one to read straight through - I've been reading it in instalments during my work lunch-break, which worked quite well.

GrannieMainland I know a Clive in his 30s!

RomanMum I do like a bit of Julian Barnes and Arthur and George is fascinating.

I’m currently two-thirds of the way through The One Hundred Years of Lenni and Margot by Marianne Cronin.

I think I’m dragging it out because I don’t want my protagonists to die, I suspect I’ll cry and look daft on the bus. It’s tender and moving, with a subtle humour running through it… oh, bugger, best get the ending over with

@Tarahumara perhaps I'm being unfair then!

@RomanMum I remember enjoying Arthur and George but felt like the ending was hinting at some kind of twist that I couldn't quite understand... does that sound familiar at all?

@JaninaDuszejko it's my first Julian Barnes and if I had any space left on my TBR list I'd be adding more of his books to it!

@GrannieMainland I know what you mean. Can't figure it out though.

Thanks Fortuna and that’s interesting about the Women’s prize having started as a reaction to an all-male Booker shortlist. If - and of course it’s a big if - women are equally represented in other lists and judging panels, it’s hard to see the value in a women’s prize, especially the longlist stage.

I’m really enjoying your Women’s Prize reviews Fortuna. I’ve read a few more on the list myself and will update as soon as I get a chance. I agree with you on loads of points, including the disappointing quality of this year’s longlist overall. It does seem that the prize committee is trying to move beyond litfic, which is fine, but it's unclear to me what exactly they're moving toward... The titles they've chosen are certainly more obscure than usual. Most years when I reserve the longlist at the library, some titles have dozens of reservations already, so I have to wait ages to get the books, but this year a lot of the titles had no other reservations at all. Which seems to indicate that they're not in high demand.

Some other very belated comments:
@SOLINVICTUS I’m also a big Barbara Vine fan! In fact I prefer the Vine novels to the ones Rendell wrote under her own name. They are just so satisfyingly dark and psychologically complex.

@VikingNorthUtsire I’m another person who loved your Death and the Penguin review; I’ve just read it myself and it’s definitely a book that will stay with me.

@PermanentTemporary Understood Betsy by Dorothy Canfield Fisher was one of my favourite childhood books as well. I also remember reading her book The Home-Maker which must have been quite radical for its day – it’s the story of parents who switch roles so that the mother goes out to work and the father becomes a house-husband. It made a big impression on me as a child because I was brought up with quite rigid views about gender roles, but that was a feminist novel that somehow made its way into our house.

@PepeLePew I share your love of Priestdaddy and especially of the Deborah Levy trilogy! I would also like to buy the whole set (I borrowed them from the library too). They are just so readable and full of joie de vivre. I identified strongly with Levy’s narrative voice. I keep suggesting them to my book group to read but they haven’t taken me up on the idea yet! I think The Cost of Living was my favourite of the three, but they're all brilliant.