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?

Thank you for the new thread south!

I'm skimming through a few books at the moment so will update my list shortly, but have finally read Marie Kondo - The Life Changing Magic of Tidying (way behind the times on this one, I know!). I'm really trying to declutter/ simplify at the moment and thought this would be helpful, and to be fair it's full of good ideas, but seemed more practical for people who live on their own or at least don't have DC who seem to accumulate Lego from nowhere - glad I finally got round to reading it though, and I'll try to use the 'spark joy' principle when possible.

I liked some of Kondo’s ideas, but I knew I would never get on with her when she said she threw out all her books and just ripped her favourite pages out of her favourite books. Sacrilege!

9. Again, Rachel by Marian Keyes

I love Marian Keyes and she's about the only author I rush to download near release and pay full price. For three days I've immersed myself back into the Walsh family and I loved it. No spoilers as I know plenty here want to read it but it didn't disappoint.

What I really enjoyed is struggling to be able to put it down. I've spent a year or so wading my way through unread books on Kindle, and most of its been ok but very few books have really grabbed me. I wonder if I need to be a bit more discerning?

Next book is the first True Blood which a friend has leant me. But if I don't love the first one I won't be finishing the series just for the sake of it. My TBR list remains long!

I'm a bit late to the new thread because we lost power on Friday afternoon in the storm and only got it back late last night!

Here's my list:

1. The Bean Trees - Barbara Kingsolver
2. Notes on Grief - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
3. When Breath Becomes Air - Paul Kalanithi
4. Braised Pork - An Yu
5. The Weekend - Charlotte Wood
6. The Year of the End - Anne Theroux
7. This Much is True - Miriam Margolyes
8. Hungry - Grace Dent
9. Rough Magic: Riding the World's Wildest Horse Race - Lara Prior-Palmer

And one to add:
10. Mum & Dad - Joanna Trollope. After several non-fiction books in a row, I was ready for some escapism fiction and this did the trick. Trollope does write well about the nuances of family relationships, but this one isn't her best.

As someone to whom possessions can be very emotionally important, I don’t understand Marie Kondo either. The book thing just makes me shudder.

17: A Mudlark's Treasures: London in Fragments - Ted Sandling

Mudlarking is very popular at the moment and there are several twitter accounts of London mudlarkers I check out regularly. Ted Sandling was (is) on Instagram and I always enjoy his thoughtfully-written posts about the things he’s found - unlike some others who unearth spectacular objects, his 'treasures' are usually small, apparently insignificant....broken bits of pottery and so forth, hence 'fragments', but with a story to tell.

His Instagram posts work well in their small format but unfortunately I don’t think the longer length of a book does his style any favours. Although the photos are high-quality, it’s quite frustrating having to imagine how his tiny - sometimes very tiny - broken piece of plate or pot might have looked as part of a whole object, so you end up with a long succession of slightly random bits that blur into one after a while.

He does set the objects into the context of London's history, but it’s primarily a personal narrative so the history bits probably don’t say very much that's new for anyone who's got a reasonable awareness of the capital's past and development.

I feel I’ve been a bit mean, as he’s an engaging writer, but I suspect it’s a classic case of a publisher spotting a successful Instagram account and thinking it would make a much more interesting book than it proves to be.

I get so much pleasure out of just looking at my "things" I could never imagine being minimalist either. I'm the person with scrapbooks of bus tickets from 1987, a vintage collection of Avon soaps and another of perfume.
I've already told dd that when I shuffle off this mortal coil, she'll be needing Ikea for plenty of boxes.

RazorstormUnicorn I’ve had exactly the same - lots of uninspired reading due to trying to clear all the unread books from my kindle, most of which are just the 99p deals so nothing I would be willing to spend good money on! I’ve still got a lot so I suspect there will be lots more average reads this year but hopefully interspersed with some gems like Again, Rachel!

I went through my Kindle at the end of last year and made a list of all the books that I actually want to read, with a second column for ‘quite like to read’ and now pick from that. I only bought lots of things at the beginning when I first bought it really so a lot of other stuff are things I do want to read with the occasional thing that I can’t remember why I bought it.

I’m trying to be more discerning with my Bookbub purchases and only buy things I know I would buy anyway (usually in Oxfam, there aren’t many writers I buy new) because I know want to read them eventually and may as well buy whilst cheap or something that sounds totally compelling. I discovered Joanne Harris this way, Gentleman and Players is not something I would have picked up but I really loved it and am now waiting around for the others in the series to go on offer.

@Terpsichore thanks for the review. That's exactly the sort of book I would have added to the TBR list (I've got Laura Maiklem's on there already) so I might give it a miss.

@RomanMum I did read Lara Maiklem's book a couple of years ago and it works better, I think - it also explains much more about the nuts and bolts of what mudlarking actually entails. The frustrating thing with that was the total absence of any photos in the kindle book, so I had to keep breaking off to look them up on Lara's Twitter (she puts very good photos of her finds on her feed). It did seem a weird omission from the book.

Esther's Notebooks 3. Tales from my twelve-year-old life by Riad Sattouf. Translated by Sam Taylor

One of my daughters is 12 so this one was particularly enjoyable. I've also discovered the animated series based on this is on youtube (with subtitles) so that's exciting.

@MamaNewtNewt - classic Heinlein, in short!

Leaping on board the thread before it careers away without me.

On phone so can't do full list, but latest read was:
17. Death on the Nile, Agatha Christie
I watched the Ustinov version at Christmas so knew whodunnit, which tends to take away the fun of a Christie. Still reading What to Read Next at a leisurely pace and have also started Hidden Hands, by Mary Wellesley, an account of medieval manuscripts, which is a delight. Particularly recommend to anyone who enjoyed Meetings with Remarkable Manuscripts, by Christopher de Hemel.

DNF Astonish Me - Maggie Shipstead read Full Circle and Seating Arrangements and loved them both, but just didnt gel with this at all, was like it was written by a different person. Humourless and none of the clever writing I loved about the previous two. Im also trying to be more discerning, have loads of books on my Kindle so I'm trying to avoid any more 99p deals unless I know I'll really enjoy. Part of a general plan to simplify life this year and go for quality rather than quantity.

Interesting to see a few mentions of Maggie Shipstead recently! I’ve finally finished Great Circle which is the first of hers I’ve read and here’s my review.

I enjoyed but didn’t love this whopper of a book. Its main thread is about the life of a fictional early female pilot, Marian; her story is interspersed with that of her twin brother Jamie and, in the modern day, with a movie star who is playing Marian. I started a library copy of this back in October and liked it enough to buy a copy when it had to be returned, but then kept putting it aside for other books so didn’t fully immerse myself in it. I was always interested but never completely involved - you watch the characters but never inhabit them and perhaps I didn’t have the imagination to understand them as fully as I’d have liked. The various romantic relationships didn’t come alive for me either and there were just a few moments that seemed anachronistic and broke the spell (did people really say things like ‘I hope he’s famous one day. No, I shouldn’t frame it that way. I hope he’s fulfilled’ in the 1930s even in Seattle?). Having said that it was always very readable and interesting, both on the level of relationship dynamics and the experiences of early pilots - a subject I haven’t interested myself in since Flambards. Lovely feminist touches like that Spit(fire)s were - among female pilots - considered a woman’s plane as the cockpits were petite and the controls responsive to the softest touch. The experiences and locations are varied and vividly drawn, including on board ships and planes; Montana; Alaska; wartime England and the poles. I’d love to see the film of this if there is one but am glad to have read it first.

Troubled Blood by Robert Galbraith

The latest in JKR’s ‘Strike* series, much anticipated by me and it didn’t disappoint. A cold case is revisited by the agency, involving unraveling decades of confusing leads. Lots of twists and turns and an extensive cast of good characters. One of those books where I miss having the characters around now I’ve finished it.

The Midnight Library by Matt Haig

Audiobook while on multiple train journeys this week. Had this on TBR pile for ages and I enjoyed it. The book explores the idea of parallel universes, where each decision and consequence might lead to a different life. Each book taken from the midnight library, which hovers at the junction of those universes, is a book of Nora Seed’s own potential future. There was a point somewhere about two thirds of the way through when I wondered where it was going and it might have flagged a bit. But picked up again at the end.

11. Ariadne - Jennifer Saint

This is the last Greek mythology based novel I'm going to read for a while, (except for Stephen Fry's Mythos, which I'm listening to on Audible ATM).

This was quite good. It follows Ariadne who was a princess of Crete in Greek mythology. Her father was King Minos and her half brother was the Minotaur.

I struggled with this a little bit and felt that I was forcing myself to read it when I wasn't especially engaged with it. I think the characterisation wasn't speaking to me all that much and I didn't care very much about the characters. I found it interesting that the author changed Phaedra's story a bit and made her more sympathetic than she is in the myths. I definitely see why she did that and I had been wondering how she was going to handle that part with her falsely accusing Hyppolitus.

I also think this and A Thousand Ships which I read recently, don't seem all that great, because I read them both shortly after Song of Achilles, which I absolutely loved.

On to a non fiction now.

Terpsichore I’ve read a few mudlarking books including Lara Maiklem and the images are important I think.

I love a trudge along the Thames foreshore and find the little bits of treasure fascinating. But just reading about them in words only would be hard going I reckon.

7. Smile: The Story of a Face, by Sarah Ruhl. The day after playwright Sarah Ruhl gives birth to twins, she experiences Bell's Palsy. For 90% of patients this resolves within a few weeks, but Sarah is one of the unlucky 10% for whom it did not. This is a beautiful memoir touching on how we communicate with our faces, families, medical support both good and bad, and what it's like to not recognise your own face. Lyrical, thoughtful and very touching.

7. All the Rage by Cara Hunter A teenager is abducted on the streets of Oxford but manages to escape. However she refuses to talk to the police about her ordeal and insists it was an April Fool's joke that got out of hand. A few days later another girl doesn't make it home from a night out with friends and the crimes have similarities to an historical case, the perpetrator of which is still in prison

My mother in law bought me this for my birthday last year, she thought it was the first in the DI Adam Fawley series but it's actually the fourth. I struggled to keep track of everyone which was likely because I jumped into the middle of the series. A fairly standard police procedural

Some things that annoyed me

• Author repeatedly uses "could of" instead of "could have", do they not have proof readers?!
• In 1998 a British person gives their weight in lbs. Simply no. This kind of lazy "I hope to be published in America" writing really winds me up
• On a map of Oxford showing the route the victim took, the different areas of Oxford are shown (Headington, Jericho, Summertown), all fine. Then a location is listed as "University of Oxford". Anyone that has spent any time in Oxford at all will know the University is not a single location, colleges are located all over town. This just seemed like another sop to her potential American audience

I found the format a bit difficult, no actual chapters but regular page breaks to change perspective. The sections were all very short (3-4 paragraphs) and they almost all ended in a cliff-hanger or some information being withheld from the reader. This made it a bit difficult to get into each aspect of the storyline as it jumped around a bit too much

I found by the end I didn't like Adam Fawley. The historical case certainly doesn't paint him in a positive light. I presume by this point in the series you're supposed to be so on his side that you forgive his previous misdemeanors but I didn't have that goodwill built up

Overall I don't have any desire to go back and read the previous books in the series or to read the next one

8.The Finkler Question by Howard Jacobson
The story of middle aged or older men living in an exclusive part of north London. Libor is a widowed journalist, Sam (Finkler) a popular philosopher, and Julian a professional lookalike. Libor and Sam and Jewish; Julian is fascinated with Jewishness. Julian’s outsider view of the perils and pitfalls of being Jewish is the main theme of the book.

This was bobbins. There were some funny lines. But it was just so unlikable. The few women characters have no personalities, only degrees of Jewishness or otherwise, and exist only to make the men feel good. The men are unpleasant and self obsessed. No-one has a job that earns enough to pay for the bijou apartment overlooking Regents Park or in Hampstead that they supposedly live in.

There’s very little plot to speak of. Julian sleeps with Sam’s wife, but then is disappointed to find out she’s not ethnically Jewish but a convert, and then ditches her for woman who’s ethnic roots he fetishises, and about whose personality or motivation we hear almost nothing, although there’s lots about how her tits looks in and out of her clothing.

I can’t believe this won the Booker, and I can’t believe I gave it house space for so long before discovering its crapness.

Finished:
Holy Orders, Benjamin Black
Not the best Quirke mystery IMO. Somewhat thin plot and odd strands that don't go anywhere (maybe they're picked up in the next book?). This series is always a pleasure, though, at least on the level of the writing, and the main characters (although here the incidental characters are somewhat sketchy).
Can't massively recommend, but would say read it if you're reading the whole series.

Still on the Index book (a bit of a slog) and fiction-wise, have started another piece of nun-fiction: The Corner that Held Them, Sylvia Townsend Warner
Covers several decades of the 13th century and is all about the lives of the inhabitants of a nunnery in remote rural Norfolk. It's a bit of a slow burner so far, but is establishing the characters and the mileu.

12. Folklore of Surrey - Matthew Alexander

The author was curator of Guildford Museum for many years and there is an emphasis on putting the folklore in its historical context. Well researched as you'd expect with many oral accounts as well as documentary evidence. A rundown of folklore tropes and calendar customs across the historic county of Surrey (therefore including some modern London boroughs) - surprising how many customs persisted well into the twentieth century.

13. Nine Coaches Waiting - Mary Stewart

I discovered Mary Stewart last year and I have absolutely loved the two books of hers I have read, this one and Madam, Will You Talk? (Love a good punctuation mark in a title.)

Nine Coaches Waiting tells the story of Linda Martin, born in France but raised in a London orphanage, who takes a job as governess to Phillipe, young heir to the de Valmy fortune. She makes her way to the de Valmy chateau in the Haute Savoie, where we meet Phillipe's guardians, who may or may not be plotting to kill him to get their hands on the family fortune. Along the way she falls in love with the dashing Raoul de Valmy. But wait! Is Raoul involved in the plot? It's pure escapism but very nicely written. The book has a wonderful sense of place and is very much situated in its time, the late 50s. There is much driving at speed along mountain roads while smoking a cigarette, and the heroine being roughly kissed (followed by "and then we didn't say anything for a very long time", which I think means they were parked up and doing some more kissing). It's all very lovely and I can't wait to read the rest of Mary Stewart's romances, though I think the genre is more adventure with a bit of romance on the side.

I LOVED Madam Will You Talk.