50 Books Challenge 2022 Part Four

[southeastdweller]

Welcome to the fourth thread of the 50 Books 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.

The first thread of the year is here, the second one here and the third one here.

What are you reading?

[MaudOfTheMarches]

26. Recovery - Gavin Francis

A short book consisting of a series of reflections on convalescence and recovery, by a GP.

He makes interesting points about how the resolution of a medical crisis, often the point at which someone is discharged from medical care, is not the same as recovery. Likewise, the success of modern medicine from antibiotics onwards has meant that other aspects of care have been sidelined and the end point of recovery has been redefined as the point where illness is cured. Recovery is much more subtle and may not even have an end point, in the sense of the patient returning completely to their pre-illness state.

I read this very quickly but I will keep some of these insights in my mental toolbox for later.

Bonus for those of a similar vintage to me - I was delighted to learn that Lily the Pink really existed and invented Vegetable Compound, a modified version of which is still available.

[LadybirdDaphne]

Well, that's my earworm set as Lily the Pink for the foreseeable, Maud! I suspect I'm a generation younger than you, as I used to get subjected to Lily the Pink on my dad's car journey mix tapes, which were at least better than the alternative of listening to Test Match Special.

[MaudOfTheMarches]

Sorry about that, LadybirdDaphne!

[satelliteheart]

Thanks for the new list!

My list so far

1. The House at Riverton by Kate Morton
   
2. The Murder in the Tower by Jean Plaidy
   
3. The Baby Group by Catherine Corcoran
   
4. An Invincible Summer by Mariah Stewart
   
5. The Bourne Identity by Robert Ludlum
   
6. One Small Mistake by Dandy Smith
   
7. All the Rage by Cara Hunter
   
8. After the Last Dance by Sarra Manning
   
9. Family Money by Chad Zunker
   
10. The Killings at Badger's Drift by Caroline Graham
    
11. Death of a Hollow Man by Caroline Graham
    
12. The Lost Tudor Princess: A Life of Margaret Douglas, Countess of Lennox by Alison Weir
    
13. Uneasy Lies the Head by Jean Plaidy
    
14. The Covent Garden Ladies: Pimp General Jack and the Extraordinary Story of Harris's List by Hallie Rubenhold
    
15. The Corpse Played Dead by Georgina Clarke
    
    In a bit a slump at the moment as been feeling really exhausted so going to bed early instead of reading after the kids are in bed

[virginqueen]

Hi, here's my list so far;

1. The Manningtree Witches - A.K. Blakemore
2. Girl A - Abigail Dean
3. Unsettled Ground - Claire Fuller
4. Once There Were Wolves - Charlotte McConnaghy
5. Migrations - Charlotte McConnaghy
6. Wolf Border - Sararh Hall
7. The Court of the Midnight King - Freda Warrington
8. A Single Thread - Tracey Chevalier
9. 10. & 11. Here Be Dragons, Falls the Shadow, The Reckoning - Sharon Kaye Penman

12. Prague Nights - Benjamin Black
13. Hawksmoor- Sarah Hall
14. Mrs England - Stacy Halls
15. Dangerous Women - Hope Adam's
16. The Cottingley Cuckoo - A.J. Elwood

These are not in the exact order. Not sure how many I'll do in the next few weeks, as I'm involved in amateur dramatics. I'll do my best !

[Waawo]

Thanks for the new thread @southeastdweller - I’m in a right reading slump at the moment, a combination of work being insanely busy and trying to make a new (old) house inhabitable at weekends!

[SOLINVICTUS]

Placemarking to catch up with you all tomorrow!
Thanks @southeastdweller

[highlandcoo]

DameHelena I detested the last Cazalet book, written almost twenty years after the others and for me the character development simply didn't convince .. to the extent that it's gone to the charity shop and in future rereads I am going to pretend it never existed. Sorry. I absolutely love the others though.

Maud that's so interesting about Lily the Pink being a real person .. I had no idea! We used to sing the song as young kids .. we loved it. I was similarly amazed when I found out that Penny Lane and Strawberry Fields existed in real life; they were magical places in my mind as a child.

I am really behind with my reviews. Real life and horrendous stuff on the news is getting in the way, as for so many of us I think. Will make an effort to catch up soon.

[Sadik]

30. Last Chance Saloon by Marian Keyes
    I can't remember who recommended this to me as one of their favourite MK books on a previous thread, but I really enjoyed it - definitely more than the other two of hers that I've read so far - so thank you!

[RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie]

Thanks South.

[RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie]

Heads up to bed, singing Lily the Pink.

[RazorstormUnicorn]

Thanks for the thread SouthEast

18. Into The Silence by Wade Davis

Previously reviewed on here by fellow armchair mountaineers. It's a really detailed look at the first three UK expeditions to Everest. There was loads of background into the war, and geopolitical connections between India, Tibet and England. There was also a lot of information about who walked to which village at which point, which could have been edited a little in my opinion!

Despite the huge amount of detail, it was a fascinating book and what Mallory and the others accomplished with their layers of tweed and silk and lack of equipment was absolutely astounding!

That was one long book. I'm going to find a short fiction next I think!

[Janedownourlane]

Hi, I'm currently aiming to do the 50 book challenge and I have my list on paper at the moment.
Can I ask what the books listed in bold signify? I'm guessing books that the reader has especially enjoyed? I feel like I should already know this.
Hopefully I'll get my list added...lots of my 'books to read' have been inspired by these threads, thank you!

[FortunaMajor]

Hi Jane, any books in bold in a list are ones that poster has particularly enjoyed. Any in italics are stinkers. We tend to post lists at the start of a new thread so posters know where they are up to, but not everyone does. Up to you.

When chatting in general about books outside of lists, we bold any book titles, authors, or the name of the poster you are responding to as sometimes there are several chats happening at the same time and it makes it easier to see what is going on.

You'll soon pick it up. It you can't be bothered typing your list up at this point, you could always take a photo and upload it if you want to, or wait until another time/thread.

We're always interested in book chat and hearing about what you're reading and what you think about it.

[cassandre]

Thank you southeast for the new thread! I need to catch up with it already but am just doing a list and review dump first.

1. The Dark Is Rising, Susan Cooper
   
2. The Red Parts, Maggie Nelson
   
3. The Waning of the Middle Ages, Johann Huizinga, trans. by F. Hopman
   
4. Are We Having Fun Yet?, Lucy Mangan
   
5. Giovanni’s Room, James Baldwin
   
6. The Matrix, Lauren Groff
   
7. Some Tame Gazelle, Barbara Pym
   
8. Translations, Brian Friel
   
9. The Paper Palace, Miranda Cowley Heller
   

10. Remote Sympathy, Catherine Chidgey
11. The Final Revival of Opal and Nev, Dawnie Walton
12. The Wreath, Sigrid Undset, trans. by Tina Nunnally
13. Tales from Earthsea, Ursula Le Guin
14. Small Things Like These, Claire Keegan
15. The Fell, Sarah Moss
16. Le Pays des autres [The Country of Others], Leila Slimani

17. Elif Shafak, The Island of Missing Trees 3/5
Women’s Prize longlist. This is the first Shafak novel I’ve read, and I appreciated what I learnt from it about the Cyprus conflict. However, the writing style just wasn’t for me; I found it too saccharine and over the top. I also felt unconvinced by the sections that were narrated by a tree, inventive as they were.

18. Flamingo, Rachel Elliott 4/5
Women’s Prize longlist. The blurbs on the back of this novel were rather offputting – ‘this is a book that you will want to hug and cuddle’ or something to that effect, ha! In fact the novel had much more substance than the blurbs implied. The characters were quirky and distinctive, and I enjoyed watching the dynamics of two warm but dysfunctional families play out as the novel moved back and forth from childhood to adulthood.

19. Death and the Penguin, Andrey Kurkov 5/5
Viking posted an excellent review of this novel on the last thread. It is one that will stay with me, its plot and voice are so distinctive. I’m not sure I’ve really worked out what it’s about, but it’s a heady mix of the dark, the endearing and the downright surreal. I loved the protagonist’s career as obituary writer – a career which takes some unexpected turns.

20. The Exhibitionist, Charlotte Mendelson 2/5
Women’s Prize longlist. I expected to like this book, because I never seem to tire of novels about unhappy families, but I came close to not finishing it. The patriarch of the family is so awful, and the other characters are so deeply in his thrall – why do so many intelligent people, especially women, persist in pandering to his whims? The fact that he’s supposedly a great artist isn’t really enough to account for it. This was actually quite a relentlessly painful read. Fortuna described this book as ‘drivel’ and I do think my two-star rating is generous.

21. Build Your House Around My Body, Violet Kupersmith 3/5
Women’s Prize longlist. Kupersmith is clearly a talented writer, and the plot of this book is hugely imaginative and original. That said, this story of a young Vietnamese-American woman who moves to Vietnam was just too weird (and in places, too violent) to appeal to me, although I can imagine other readers with different taste liking it more. I couldn’t identify with the characters enough to care about what happened to them. The book does give an impressively detailed, viscerally vivid portrait of Vietnam: landscape, human and animal bodies, food.

[cassandre]

Ah, Stokey, thanks for the great review of Build Your House Around My Body. You liked it more than I did but I agree with everything you say. Lucky you, being in Vietnam!

[cassandre]

About bolding, my own system is to bold the books I've rated 5/5 (I'm also on Goodreads where they have a 5 star rating system). I'm usually quite generous with my 5-star ratings but this year I seem to have bolded fewer titles than usual. And for the Women's Prize longlist so far, I haven't had any 5-star ones, although there were some good 4/5 ones. In my head, 5 stars = truly excellent / I loved it; 4 = very good / I liked it a lot; 3 = good/I liked it; 2 = I didn't like it much; 1 = no redeeming features whatsoever, I hated it. Yes, those ratings are very personal and subjective

[Taswama]

Thanks for the new thread @southeastdweller.

1. Among the mad, Jacqueline Winspear
   
2. Regeneration, Pat Barker
   
3. Quand sort la recluse, Fred Vargas
   
4. Coming to England, Floella Benjamin
   
5. Selective memory, Katherine Whitehorn
   
6. The secret adversary, Agatha Christie
   
7. A place of execution, Val McDermid
   
8. My sister, the serial killer. Oyinkan Braithwaite
   
9. The bean trees. Barbara Kingsolver
   

10. Die Kanzlerin. Porträt einer Epoche. Ursula Weidenfeld
11. Dallmayr. Der Traum vom schönen Leben. Lisa Graf
12. When in Rome, Ngaio Marsh
13. The Death and Life of American Cities by Jane Jacobs
14. Under a pole star, Steff Penney
15. De chair et d’os, Dolores Redondo (translated from Spanish)

16. SPQR by Mary Beard (audible)
17. Let it go. Dame Stephanie Shirley
18. Everywoman, Jess Philips
19. Still Life, Val McDermid

SPQR I have been listening to since the beginning of the year on solitary runs and walks. Interesting enough with occasional 'aha' moments as I understand the source of common sayings, but I don't think I'd have stuck with it as an actual book.

Let It go autobiography of an amazing entrepreneur and philanthropist who founded a software company staffed by women freelancers who could no longer work due to being married or having children.

Everywoman . I was expecting an autobiography, but is actually more of a personal manifesto by the Labour MP for women to get involved in politics and why its important and what the challenges are and what she has faced*

Still Life . A body fished out of the sea turns out to be related to a cold case recently investigated by Karen, so she takes over the investigation. She's also trying to work out whose skeleton it is inside a camper van in a house that is being cleared. Set in Feb 2020 but only very limited references to the pandemic, mostly added later I suspect. Tense and well written as ever with this author.

[FortunaMajor]

Cassandre I've been waiting for these and thankful we are broadly in agreement. I was starting to wonder if I'd gone beyond grumpy into curmudgeonly this year. [Grin] Those two stars for The Exhibitionist were generous indeed.

I really want to read Death and the Penguin after so many great reviews and am desperately trying to shoehorn it into book club.

[ChessieFL]

Aargh, just spent ages doing my list and lost the whole thing. Will have to come back later.

Thanks for new thread southeast

[PepeLePew]

Hi everyone. Found you!
Not sure I can post my list without some formatting effort, but just checking in.
Currently reading South Riding by Winifred Holtby which is the best book about local government you'll ever read. Will be back with a review soon.

[GrannieMainland]

Thanks @southeastdweller for the new thread!

My list...

1. Rizzio by Denise Mina
2. Rachel’s Holiday by Marian Keyes
3. Magpie by Elizabeth Day
4. Why Breastfeeding Grief and Trauma Matter by Amy Brown
5. Luster by Raven Leilani
6. The Sanatorium by Sarah Pearse
7. The Women of Troy by Pat Barker
8. Matrix by Lauren Groff
9. The Lamplighters by Emma Stonex
10. Watch Her Fall by Erin Kelly
11. The Turnout by Megan Abbott
12. Still Life by Sarah Winman
13. Intimacies by Katie Kitamura
14. Long Bright River by Liz Moore
15. The Cutting Season by Atticka Locke
16. Unsettled Ground by Clare Fuller
17. Open Water by Caleb Azumah Nelson
18. Brown Girls by Daphne Palasi Andreades
19. True Crime Story by Joseph Knox
20. Learning to Swim by Clare Chambers
21. Friends and Strangers by J. Courtney Sullivan

Currently making slow progress through Transcendent Kingdom, not been much in a reading mood the last few days.

[Stokey]

@cassandre I didn't really relate to any of the characters either, and found Winnie particularly insipid. I really admired the scope though and the atmosphere.

[DameHelena]

@highlandcoo

DameHelena I detested the last Cazalet book, written almost twenty years after the others and for me the character development simply didn't convince .. to the extent that it's gone to the charity shop and in future rereads I am going to pretend it never existed. Sorry. I absolutely love the others though.

Maud that's so interesting about Lily the Pink being a real person .. I had no idea! We used to sing the song as young kids .. we loved it. I was similarly amazed when I found out that Penny Lane and Strawberry Fields existed in real life; they were magical places in my mind as a child.

I am really behind with my reviews. Real life and horrendous stuff on the news is getting in the way, as for so many of us I think. Will make an effort to catch up soon.

Oh no! It has crossed my mind that the last Cazalet book might not be as good as the others as perhaps it was written due to reader/publisher pressure.
I feel I have to give it a go, though, for completeness.

[DameHelena]

A heads-up on the Kindle daily deal: The Heart's Invisible Furies, John Boyne and Such a Fun Age, Kiley Reid are both featured today.
I just bought both.
I'm a bit addicted to the daily deal…