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?

PepeLePew Thank you for reminding me that I need to read Winifred Holtby. Looking forward to your review of South Riding.

Maud, you are in for such a treat. I'm eking out the last few chapters because I don't want it to end. It's sat on my shelf for around 15 years - I cannot believe it's taken me this long to get round to reading it.

Thanks LaurelGrove. We all have those books, and I keep finding new ones.

Winifred Holtby and Vera Brittain were great friends weren't they?

Winifred Holtby and Vera Brittain were great friends weren't they?

Yes, I read that this morning and I had not made the connection.

And Shirley Williams (who wrote the preface to my edition) was Brittain's daughter. You can absolutely see their politics and values flow through into Holtby's writing.

Laurel That fact was buried in my memory, you're absolutely right. It's fascinating because it gives me a clear line to my own earliest memories of politics in the seventies.

22. Have his Carcase by Dorothy L Sayers
Very nearly my favourite Wimsey book (top is Murder must Advertise). A reread because feeling very fragile at the moment. And in fact although the first few chapters are still spectacularly good and there are flashes of brilliance throughout, it's very evident that Sayers lost interest by the end of this and it was a bit of a letdown. Anyway, that setup - mystery writer Harriet Vane is on a walking tour on the South Coast when she makes a macabre discovery. At first it seems simple to establish what happened but with every passing day, additional layers of complication arise. Luckily Lord Peter Winsey is on hand to share the task of untangling the solution.

Why Didn't they Ask Evans by Agatha Christie
This was in the Kindle deal a few days ago and I remembered that a few people on here had recently reviewed it.

I enjoyed it until the big reveal, which I thought was all a bit ridiculous. Liked the central characters, but overall the ending just didn't justify it all for me.

My list:

1. The Happy Couple - Samantha Hayes
2. Death and Papa Noel - Ian Moore
3. Raising Laughter: How The Sitcom Kept Britain Smiling In The ‘70s - Robert Sellers
4. 80s Kid: A Memoir Of Growing Up In The Last Decade Before Technology Took Over - Melanie Ashfield
5. Diddly Squat - Jeremy Clarkson
6. Lady Catherine’s Necklace - Joan Aiken
7. How To Read A Novel - John Sutherland
8. Back Trouble - Clare Chambers
9. Watching Neighbours Twice A Day: How 90s TV (Almost) Prepared Me For Life - Josh Widdicombe

10. And Away…. - Bob Mortimer 11. Set In Stone - Robert Goddard 12. Miss-Adventures: A Tale Of Ignoring Life Advice While Backpacking Around South America - Amy Baker 13. The Unusual Second Life of Thomas Weaver - Shawn Inmon 14. An Utterly Impartial History of Britain or 2000 Years of Upper Class Idiots In Charge - Jon O’Farrell 15. 46% Better Than Dave - Alastair Puddick 16. All The Lonely People - Mike Gayle 17. The Girl She Wanted - K L Slater 18. I Know You by Claire McGowan 19. The Couple At No. 9 by Claire Douglas 20. The Angry Chef: Bad Science And The Truth About Healthy Eating by Anthony Warner 21. Where The Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens 22. Crooked Heart - Lissa Evans 23. The Trapped Wife by Samantha Hayes 24. Rachel’s Holiday by Marian Keyes 25. Such A Fun Age by Kiley Reid 26. Victoria Wood: Unseen On TV edited by Jasper Rees 27. Single by K. L. Slater 28. Disgrace by J M Coetzee 29. The 86 Fix by Keith A Pearson 30. Beyond Broadhall by Keith A Pearson 31. Bedknobs and Broomsticks by Mary Norton 32. Eat, Drink, Run: How I Got Fit Without Going Too Mad by Bryony Gordon 33. A Girl Aboard The Titanic by Eva Hart 34. The Fallen Stones: Chasing Blue Butterflies, Mayan Secrets, and Happily Ever After In Belize by Diana Marcum 35. Death In The Sunshine by Steph Broadribb 36. Saving Time by Jodi Taylor 37. V for Victory by Lissa Evans 38. The Victorian Chaise Longue by Marghanita Laski 39. Did They Steal A Million Yet? by James Crookes 40. The Shadow At The Door: Four Stories. Four Cases. One Connection by Tim Weaver 41. Gone: A Girl, A Violin, A Life Unstrung by Min Kym 42. Rebuilding Coventry by Sue Townsend 43. A Life of Contrasts by Diana Mosley 44. Murder By The Book: Mysteries for Bibliophiles 45. Again, Rachel by Marian Keyes 46. The Twyford Code by Janice Hallett 47. The Redemption of Michael Hollister by Shawn Inmon 48. This Is Going To Hurt: Secret Diaries Of A Junior Doctor by Adam Kay 49. The Couple At The Table by Sophie Hannah 50. The Lost Child by Emily Gunnis 51. Tuned Out by Keith A Pearson 52. The Taxidermist’s Daughter by Kate Mosse 53. The Sound Of Laughter by Peter Kay 54. Bruno’s Challenge and Other Dordogne Tales by Martin Walker 55. A Talent To Annoy by Nancy Mitford 56. The Dartmoor Murders by Stephanie Austin 57. Delicacy: A Memoir About Cake and Death by Katy Wix 58. Take Your Breath Away by Linwood Barclay 59. Or Else by Joe Hart 60. No-one Round Here Reads Tolstoy by Mark Hodkinson 61. Old Baggage by Lissa Evans 62. The Killing Of Polly Carter by Robert Thorogood 63. The Poison Garden by Alex Marwood 64. The Key In The Lock by Beth Underdown 65. The Maid by Nita Prose 66. The Widow by K L Slater 67. Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams 68. The Last Landlady: An English Memoir by Laura Thompson 69. The Other Half of Augusta Hope by Joanna Glen 70. Verity by Colleen Hoover 71. Until It’s Over by Nicci French 72. Copycat by Alex Lake 73. The Red Monarch by Bella Ellis 74. Finders, Keepers by Sabine Durrant 75. The Herd by Emily Edwards 76. The Snow Spider by Jenny Nino 77. The Interview by C M Ewan 78. Scoop! by Evelyn Waugh 79. A Window Breaks by C M Ewan 80. Worzel Gummidge by Barbara Euphan Todd 81. Nomadland by Jessica Bruder 82. Class by Jilly Cooper 83. The Pursuit of Laughter: Essays, Reviews and Diary by Diana Mitford Mosley 84. The Holiday by T M Logan 85. A Page In Your Diary by Keith A Pearson 86. Zippy and Me: My Life Inside Britain’s Most Notorious Puppet by Ronnie Le Drew 87. Odd One Out by Lissa Evans 88. 56 Days by Catherine Ryan Howard

89. At The Quiet Edge by Victoria Helen Stone

My Amazon first reads freebie for April. Lily lives with her son on an isolated storage facility, hoping that her criminal ex doesn’t reappear. Things turn dark when strange people start hanging around. This was fine, not bad but not really anything special either.

Hungry by Grace Dent is in the Kindle Daily Deal today, if you haven’t read it. Lots on this thread have enjoyed it, including me!

Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid is also there so I’ve picked that up.

@ChessieFL Came to say that but you've beaten me to it! I've not read it, so have snapped it up.

Thanks Fortuna and Cassandre re the bolding and for explaining how the thread works. I will get to it and upload my list and have a go at some reviews.
I have really been enjoying reading all your reviews so far and adding books to my ever increasing list. I have just finished My Dark Vanessa based on a recent list posted here so I will put a few thoughts together on it.

23. Hungry by Grace Dent
Thank you @ChessieFL - I woke early with the cat yowling, saw your post and gulped Hungry down. I laughed a lot and welled up. I'm not as young as Grace Dent, or ever as cool, and have had a very different life but it's still so recognisable and heart-rending.

16. This is Going to Hurt: Secret Diaries of a Junior Doctor by Adam Kay This was a re-read having just watched the BBC series, I felt like going back over the original. I know many mumsnetters think Kay is misogynistic but I actually disagree with this. I think his attitude to his patients would be the same regardless of sex but as an obs and gynae doctor all of his patients are female so it possibly comes across as misogyny. His clear disgust at the arbitrary rules surrounding who is eligible for nhs ivf treatment is a clear argument against him being a misogynist.

Overall I think it's a depressingly accurate insight into the realities of nhs maternity care and the insane pressure junior doctors are under.

Thank you for the new thread @southeastdweller, and good luck with your Masters. What’s the subject, if you don’t mind me asking?

Here’s my list. I seem to have lost the numbers again. Trying to be a bit more generous with the bolding this time:
Religio Medici, and Urne-Buriall - Sir Thomas Browne
Lost Children Archive - Valeria Luiselli
Space Boy Vol. 6 - Stephen McCranie
Space Boy Vol. 7 - Stephen McCranie
Three Twins at the Crater School - Chaz Brenchley
A Bit of a Stretch - Chris Atkins
The Etymologicon - Mark Forsyth
Moon Over Soho - Ben Aaronovitch
East West Street - Philippe Sands
Uncommon Danger - Eric Ambler
The Man Without Qualities - Robert Musil
Space Boy Vol. 8 - Stephen McCranie
Space Boy Vol. 9 - Stephen McCranie
Space Boy Vol. 10 - Stephen McCranie
Space Boy Vol. 11 - Stephen McCranie
Austria Hungary - G.E. Mitton
The Only Plane in the Sky - Garrett M. Graff
Maniac: the Bath School Disaster and the Birth of the Modern Mass Killer - Harold Schechter
Something Fabulous - Alexis Hall
Lean Fall Stand - John McGregor
The Fateful Year - Mark Bostridge
Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
Journey into the Past - Stefan Zweig
The Word Hord: Daily Life in Old English - Hana Videen
The Dance of the Happy Shades - Alice Munro
The Haunting of Alma Fielding - Kate Summerscale
The Wicked Boy - Kate Summerscale
The Passenger - Ulrich Alexander Boschwitz
Apeirogon - Colum McCann
Fall: The Mystery of Robert Maxwell - John Preston
Whispers Under Ground - Ben Aaronovitch
Broken Homes - Ben Aaronovitch
The Foxglove Summer - Ben Aaronovitch
Becoming Unbecoming - Una
Dinosaurs in a Haystack - Stephen Jay Gould
Candide - Voltaire
Alive, Alive Oh! - Diana Athill
The Seventh Raven - Peter Dickinson

I’m terribly behind with reviews, I’m afraid.
49. The Beat Goes On - Ian Rankin
The complete Rebus short stories. Glad to have read them, but the full-length stories are more satisfying.

Religio Medici, and Urne-Buriall - Sir Thomas Browne
Lost Children Archive - Valeria Luiselli
Space Boy Vol. 6 - Stephen McCranie
Space Boy Vol. 7 - Stephen McCranie
Three Twins at the Crater School - Chaz Brenchley
A Bit of a Stretch - Chris Atkins
The Etymologicon - Mark Forsyth
Moon Over Soho - Ben Aaronovitch
East West Street - Philippe Sands
Uncommon Danger - Eric Ambler
The Man Without Qualities - Robert Musil
Space Boy Vol. 8 - Stephen McCranie
Space Boy Vol. 9 - Stephen McCranie
Space Boy Vol. 10 - Stephen McCranie
Space Boy Vol. 11 - Stephen McCranie
Austria Hungary - G.E. Mitton
The Only Plane in the Sky - Garrett M. Graff
Maniac: the Bath School Disaster and the Birth of the Modern Mass Killer - Harold Schechter
Something Fabulous - Alexis Hall
Lean Fall Stand - John McGregor
The Fateful Year - Mark Bostridge
Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
Journey into the Past - Stefan Zweig
The Word Hord: Daily Life in Old English - Hana Videen
The Dance of the Happy Shades - Alice Munro
The Haunting of Alma Fielding - Kate Summerscale
The Wicked Boy - Kate Summerscale
The Passenger - Ulrich Alexander Boschwitz
Apeirogon - Colum McCann
Fall: The Mystery of Robert Maxwell - John Preston
Whispers Under Ground - Ben Aaronovitch
Broken Homes - Ben Aaronovitch
The Foxglove Summer - Ben Aaronovitch
Becoming Unbecoming - Una
Dinosaurs in a Haystack - Stephen Jay Gould
Candide - Voltaire
Alive, Alive Oh! - Diana Athill
The Seventh Raven - Peter Dickinson
The Beat Goes On - Ian Rankin
The Complaints - Ian Rankin
Meetings with Remarkable Manuscripts - Christopher de Hamel
Jeffry, The Poet’s Cat - Oliver Soden
Out of Character - Annabeth Albert
A Book of Book Lists - Alex Johnson
The Inverts - Crystal Jeans
Thy Will Be Done: The 2021 Lent Book - Stephen Cherry

Religio Medici, and Urne-Buriall - Sir Thomas Browne
Lost Children Archive - Valeria Luiselli
Space Boy Vol. 6 - Stephen McCranie
Space Boy Vol. 7 - Stephen McCranie
Three Twins at the Crater School - Chaz Brenchley
A Bit of a Stretch - Chris Atkins
The Etymologicon - Mark Forsyth
Moon Over Soho - Ben Aaronovitch
East West Street - Philippe Sands
Uncommon Danger - Eric Ambler
The Man Without Qualities - Robert Musil
Space Boy Vol. 8 - Stephen McCranie
Space Boy Vol. 9 - Stephen McCranie
Space Boy Vol. 10 - Stephen McCranie
Space Boy Vol. 11 - Stephen McCranie
Austria Hungary - G.E. Mitton
The Only Plane in the Sky - Garrett M. Graff
Maniac: the Bath School Disaster and the Birth of the Modern Mass Killer - Harold Schechter
Something Fabulous - Alexis Hall
Lean Fall Stand - John McGregor
The Fateful Year - Mark Bostridge
Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
Journey into the Past - Stefan Zweig
The Word Hord: Daily Life in Old English - Hana Videen
The Dance of the Happy Shades - Alice Munro
The Haunting of Alma Fielding - Kate Summerscale
The Wicked Boy - Kate Summerscale
The Passenger - Ulrich Alexander Boschwitz
Apeirogon - Colum McCann
Fall: The Mystery of Robert Maxwell - John Preston
Whispers Under Ground - Ben Aaronovitch
Broken Homes - Ben Aaronovitch
The Foxglove Summer - Ben Aaronovitch
Becoming Unbecoming - Una
Dinosaurs in a Haystack - Stephen Jay Gould
Candide - Voltaire
Alive, Alive Oh! - Diana Athill
The Seventh Raven - Peter Dickinson

I’m terribly behind with my reviews, I’m afraid.
49. Religio Medici, and Urne-Buriall - Sir Thomas Browne
Lost Children Archive - Valeria Luiselli
Space Boy Vol. 6 - Stephen McCranie
Space Boy Vol. 7 - Stephen McCranie
Three Twins at the Crater School - Chaz Brenchley
A Bit of a Stretch - Chris Atkins
The Etymologicon - Mark Forsyth
Moon Over Soho - Ben Aaronovitch
East West Street - Philippe Sands
Uncommon Danger - Eric Ambler
The Man Without Qualities - Robert Musil
Space Boy Vol. 8 - Stephen McCranie
Space Boy Vol. 9 - Stephen McCranie
Space Boy Vol. 10 - Stephen McCranie
Space Boy Vol. 11 - Stephen McCranie
Austria Hungary - G.E. Mitton
The Only Plane in the Sky - Garrett M. Graff
Maniac: the Bath School Disaster and the Birth of the Modern Mass Killer - Harold Schechter
Something Fabulous - Alexis Hall
Lean Fall Stand - John McGregor
The Fateful Year - Mark Bostridge
Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
Journey into the Past - Stefan Zweig
The Word Hord: Daily Life in Old English - Hana Videen
The Dance of the Happy Shades - Alice Munro
The Haunting of Alma Fielding - Kate Summerscale
The Wicked Boy - Kate Summerscale
The Passenger - Ulrich Alexander Boschwitz
Apeirogon - Colum McCann
Fall: The Mystery of Robert Maxwell - John Preston
Whispers Under Ground - Ben Aaronovitch
Broken Homes - Ben Aaronovitch
The Foxglove Summer - Ben Aaronovitch
Becoming Unbecoming - Una
Dinosaurs in a Haystack - Stephen Jay Gould
Candide - Voltaire
Alive, Alive Oh! - Diana Athill
The Seventh Raven - Peter Dickinson

I’m terribly behind with my reviews, I’m afraid.
49. The Beat Goes On - Ian Rankin
The complete Rebus short stories, as the subtitle says. Glad to have read them, but I prefer the full-length novels.

50. The Complaints - Ian Rankin
The first post-Rebus novel, staring Malcolm Fox, part of a team that investigates police corruption. OK, but not brilliant. Fox is a sort of reformed Rebus (has given up drinking and lost weight), and is a little dull; his actions, given his police role, seemed implausible; rather old-fashioned attitude to DV.

51. Meetings with Remarkable Manuscripts - Christopher de Hamel
I know some people may have found this a little too detailed, but I loved it, particularly as I went to Canterbury while I was reading it (the first MS is a book of Gospels probably owned by St Augustine of Canterbury). Was sad when I finished it.

52. Jeffry, The Poet’s Cat - Oliver Soden
An entertaining and at times poignant jeu d’esprit, the imaginary biography of Jeffry, the cat immortalised in Christopher Smart’s Jubilate agno (‘For I will consider my cat Jeffry…’), giving a cat’s eye view of eighteenth-century London, including the lunatic asylum in which Smart was incarcerated. D*gs only get a fleeting mention.

53. Out of Character - Annabeth Albert
Sweet US M/M romance, where former best friends reluctantly team up to help each other out in a (low-key) crisis, relating to a fictitious and nerdy card game, and fall in love.

54.A Book of Book Lists - Alex Johnson
Very much a stocking-filler type book. The most interesting lists are the more historical, eg Napoleon’s travelling library, or more whimsical, eg the titles Dickens made up for trompe l’oeil books to conceal a secret door in his study.

55. The Inverts - Crystal Jeans
An LGBT historical novel, in a similar vein to, but less accomplished than, Sarah Waters. Neighbours and childhood best friends, Bright Young Things Bart and Bettina decide to enter into a lavender marriage, while searching for lasting love. There’s a framing murder plot that doesn’t go anywhere, and I’m afraid the endless drinking, smoking, drug-taking and partying brought out my inner Puritan.

56. Thy Will Be Done: The 2021 Lent Book - Stephen Cherry
My inner Puritan might explain why, despite being an agnostic, I am reading two Lent books, and have given up chocolate/sweets/cake/biscuits/ puddings (I also have two stone to lose). Anyway, this book, by a liberal Anglican, is an interesting and compassionate look at the frequently-said, but mostly-unexamined, words of the Lord’s Prayer.

Still reading the other Lent book, War and Peace, and about to start the catalogue of the current ‘World of Stonehenge’ exhibition at the British Museum.

Very sorry about the repeated sections above! 😽

I was looking forward to The Dictionary of Lost Words but then when I read the blurb I saw Katie Fforde (once sat next to her at a table in a hotel - that was an auditory experience!) and Elizabeth Macneal recommended it and I cannot get on with either of those writers. Then I saw it compared with The Binding - which I know lots of 50 Bookers have liked, but I didn't and its fate could have been sealed. However, I actually really liked this book. It's interesting, well written and absorbing. A bit heavy handed on social conscience at times but it's an interesting fictionalisation of the true arduous journey to getting the first Oxford Dictionary into print. It's also a lot of social history , particularly women's history in the period running up to and including WW1. I did think some characters were a bit idealised but the book as a whole got away with this.

A good read, thankfully!

31. Red Flags Why Xi's China Is in Jeopardy by George Magnus An examination of the current economic situation in China, focusing on four potential 'traps' that could cause problems - the well known debt issues, currency issues, demographics (I hadn't realised how fast China is ageing relative to other countries), and the 'middle income trap', or challenges of raising productivity and making the transition to a high income country. Solid if rather pedestrian writing (I listened to it on audio while working which helped I think, not sure I'd have stuck with it on paper), and interesting content - overall I definitely felt better informed by the end of the book.

I think I last posted at the end of February but finally caught up and added a few to my want to read list and some ideas for our village book club.

Only managed two since then as lost my way for a bit and struggling to get back into it, I need a good section of time to start a book and get in which I have been lacking so far.

American Dirt which was our read for book club. The story of Lydia and het son who are illegally travelling to the states to escape the cartel that murdered 16 members of her family. While their story was central it was the peripheral characters on the way who I found more interesting, their reasons for going to the states, the people who help them on the way by providing food and shelter and ultimately the person who helps with their crossing. Good but not a stand out.

Rachels Holiday listened on audible and enjoyed the catch up.

@LadybirdDaphne good luck with your daughters new school, my eldest is also ASD, had to fight to get her diagnosed as I had a crap paediatrician who was having none of it. She is now 16, doing well in a small secondary and going on to college to do A’levels, it took her to about year 9 to find her tribe

I just read French Braids by Anne Tyler. I have a baby so was reading it in the early hours while breastfeeding, and Anne Tyler is fantastic for that - great writer, and nothing much happens. You are in a safe pair of hands and you know that you are going to enjoy the read. That is it!

I don’t know if it counts, but Miriam Margolyes’ This Much is True saw me through a bout of Covid. She’s insane, isn’t she? And I wasn’t sure how much of it was actually true, but I enjoyed it - she is so much fun to listen to.

Bringing over my list. My bolds are book I have quite liked and would recommend for different reasons, rather than my 5 star reads (which are few and far between).

Vanity Fair, W M Thackeray
This Much is True, Miriam Margoyles
A Theatre for Dreamers, Polly Samson
The Adventures of China Iron, Gabriela Cabezón Cámara
Shadowghast, Thomas Taylor
Lady Macbeth of Mtensk & Other Stories, Nikolai Leskov
Madonna in a Fur Cat, Sabahattin Ali
Who is Maud Dixon?, Alexandra Andrews
Riders, Jilly Cooper
My Family and Other Animals, Gerald Durrell

Putin is massively disrupting my reading but popping back to say I'm pissed off to have missed Hungry, AGAIN on the 99p deal
Thankfully I've read a library copy but I'd like my own for a reread some time.

17. The Night Burns Bright by Ross Barkan Lucien is a young boy who lives in the mountains of New York State with his mother. He attends House of Earth, an alternative school where children are taught about the threat to the earth from climate change and how they must live a more sustainable life. After 9/11 House of Earth takes a more sinister turn, and descends into a cult. All the families now live on site and must follow a strict timetable. Lucien notices that people start to disappear with no explanation and those remaining are forbidden to speak their names again. Lucien has a friend from the local town, Gabrielle, who informs him that the outside world is not how House of Earth have portrayed it to be. Will Lucien be able to discover what's happening to his missing friends before he himself goes missing?

This was an Amazon first reads freebie. It's really quite dark and not my usual type of book at all but it's well-written and I stayed up till 1am desperate to finish and find out what happened to Lucien. Possible trigger warning it does contain several instances of child abuse which I found very difficult to read