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?

What deals are people buying? I had a scroll this morning and couldn't see anything.

15. Tea Time for the Traditionally Built Alexander Mcall Smith. Another entry in the ladies detective agency. If you like previous books you'll like this one. I always enjoy how easy to read and like the unusual resolutions to cases.

Am still reading Fabled Coast Legends and traditions from around the shores of Britain and Ireland Its a really interesting book and have enjoyed diving in and out of it.

I have tried to post this 5 times now.... anyone else having issues posting? It just kept typing enter without me doing anything!

I got:

• Shadowlands - reviewed upthread by @bibliomania


• Jess Phillips' Life of an MP


• 
  Miss Aldridge Regrets which sounds like an absolute cracker


• Magpie, by Elizabeth Day


• 
  In the Shadow of the Mountain - which I would never have been interested in until you lot got me hooked on Into Thin Air

And sundry others including a Val McDermid that I haven't read and Clanlands (don't judge me!)

Ones I would have bought if I hadn't already read include Malibu Rising, How to Kill Your Family, a Michael Connolly Ballard & Bosch, an Elly Griffiths and a few others.

It looks to me as though they've designed a 'beach read' collection this month and done a pretty good job.

Oh, and also The Lonely Londoners from today's daily deal, which looks really interesting.

I thought there was some good stuff on the daily deals but nothing I hadn't read. Haven't had a chance to update for a while as life has been intense so here's my latest reads:

35. I Capture the Castle - Dodie Smith - I love Cassandra, such a brilliant character. Am trying to get my 12 year-old into it but she may be a bit young. I did think this time that the second half is quite a bit weaker than the first, but it's still a great read.

36. Train Dreams - Denis Johnson. This was an odd book that I would never have chosen myself. It's set in the 1920s and 30s mainly in the northwest frontier of America where they're building railways and bridges. Life is tough, death comes easily but there is a fantastical element to it all although it is written in very matter of fact prose. Interesting.

37. Wild Fire - Ann Cleeves. The last in her Shetland series. Not her best, Jimmy was quite annoying and the plot was a bit convoluted.

38. The Virgin Suicides - Jeffrey Eugenides. Very late to the table with this, I remember the film being a big deal years ago but never saw it. I actually stopped reading this about a quarter through as the first person plural narrative was really annoying me but went back. I didn't love it but it was an interesting experiment fictionally.

39. Nine Lives - Peter Swanson. Nine people get a list with their names on and then someone starts killing them. Namechecks And Then There Were None. Nothing particularly special but an easy read.

If anyone hasn’t read Hadley Freeman's House of Glass, I'd really recommend that from the deals this time round.

I bought Miss Aldridge Regrets too, I liked the author's first book. Nothing else for me this month, which is fine as my kindle is well stocked already!

Haven’t been keeping up very well as I’ve got a job after 11 years as a SAHM. It’s a bit of a shock to the system, and, sadly, it’s not in a library, like @FortunaMajor.

However, I have managed to do some reading:

61. Innocence - Penelope Fitzgerald
A young woman from a decaying aristocratic family pursues a doctor from peasant stock in 1950s Italy; as ever, Fitzgerald writes with subtlety, perceptiveness and humour about her cast of innocent (naive/unworldly/ignorant/idealistic/solitary) characters. Also a nice change from the guilt that inevitably weighs down most writing about mid-20th century Europe.

62. Bullies: A Friendship - Alex Abramovitch
An unusual approach to the issue of urban decay and gentrification in the US, focusing on a motorcycle gang in Oakland led by the author’s childhood frenemy. Also looks at how some forms of violence are sanctioned by the state while others are outlawed. A bit meandering at times, but lots of interesting material.

63. Awfully Ambrose - Lisa Henry and Sarah Honey
Lightweight but fluffy M/M fake boyfriend romance set in Australia.

64. The Break - Katherena Vermette
The effects of a shocking sexual assault on a mainly female cast of First Nations Canadians: four generations of an extended family, their close friends and a métis cop. Not quite as grim as it sounds, and an impressive first novel.

65. Coastlines - Patrick Barkham
Barkham explores parts of the British (though not Scottish) coast in a series of themed chapters, musing on the past, present and future of our shores. Thought-provoking, but less comprehensive than I’d expected.

66. Gentleman Jim - Raymond Briggs
Pleased to pick up a secondhand copy of this. Jim and Hilda, better known from the anti-nuclear sequel When the Wind Blows , are bewildered by modern (1980) life, as Jim, a toilet attendant, contemplates a career change and falls foul of heartless bureaucracy (as it happens, my new job is as a heartless bureaucrat).

67. Go Went Gone - Jenny Erpenbeck
Brilliant novel by acclaimed German author; the translation reads very smoothly. Richard, a widower, East Berliner, and recently retired Classics professor, finds himself drawn to and befriending a group of African refugees campaigning for the right to work and settle in Germany (they arrived by boat from Libya in Italy, so are supposed to stay there). Wise and compassionate writing; Erpenbeck never hits the reader over the head with her views.

Thought I might read a nice light tome of the history of the Balkans next…

Good luck with the new job @ChannelLightVessel! I've just bought It's All in Your Head: Stories from the Frontline of Psychosomatic Illness for 99p.

I bought the Celts by Alice Roberts, it's always summer somewhere by felix white, Goshawk Summer by James Alfred, The Amur River by Colin Thubron.

Two which are a change for me as I've listened to them as audio books. I think that falling into podcasts over the last year has trained me in listening to books, as previously I've always lost focus straight away. I've now signed up to Audible.

34. How to kill your family by Bella Mackie
A mildly gripping update on Kind Hearts and Coronets without any of the latter's style or wit. I already can't remember much about it. But I finished it.

35. The Escape Artist by Jonathan Freedman
A standout for me. I've quite enjoyed a thriller or two by JF and he's quite a visual writer. That works brilliantly here with this outstanding material, the story of one of the few men ever to escape a concentration camp in the sense of actually getting away. The relentless piling on of detail left me a little sick and breathless. I guess it's good that we never get used to accounts of concentration camps, however familiar in some ways.

I fell asleep last night before looking at the deals, which may have been just as well, because I think they were just being uploaded early this morning, as in early daytime not during the night. Maybe they've moved this work to another time zone and that's why there's a delay between the end of one month's deals and the start of the next. Anyway, books were being added as I looked, and I've just found a few more silly things I missed.

My purchases included a few books I've read from the library or from Netgalley, but I quite like having a virtual copy that doesn't take up much space. I bought a lot as I've just had some birthday money, and there were probably as many again that I've already bought as previous deals.

Bought - far too many to list - a handful of examples
Taylor Jenkins Reid, Malibu Rising (read 2021, library loan)
Anna Mazzola, The Clockwork Girl (read June 2022 via Netgalley, but formatting can be a bit wonky)
Sara Paretsky, Overboard - latest in one of my favourite crime series
Jan Carson, The Raptures - have read a couple of her short stories in anthologies of work by Irish women writers, and heard some of her work on the radio
Dorothy Sayers, Murder Must Advertise I have a lot of the books featuring Lord Peter Wimsey (and Harriet Vane) but have been hoping this one would come up for a long time, rather than at least half the other books in the series that I already own.

Already owned - some recent books in favourite crime series series - by Ian Rankin, Elly Griffiths (sadly last but one and not the latest which I'm looking out for), David Downing

Already owned but want to recommend Louisa Waugh's Meet Me in Gaza, an account of a Scottish journalist's year living in Gaza, seeing the difficulties that Palestinians living there face day by day, working at a legal centre in Gaza City and talking to a range of different people about their everyday lives. I noticed it's been praised by a range of writers whose work I like, or whose books I want to read.

48: Moonwalking with Einstein - Joshua Foer

Basically a popular science-type book, but a very enjoyable and interesting one. Joshua Foer, journalist brother of Jonathan Safran Foer, stumbled across an internet piece about the British world memory champion Ben Pridmore, and became fascinated by how and why people perform prodigious feats of memory - mostly centred around the ancient technique of the 'memory palace', created in ancient times before written cultures existed, and still perfectly usable today.

He went on to meet Pridmore and many of the (often deeply eccentric) people in this esoteric world, including Brit Ed Cooke, a grand master memory champion, who persuaded him to train and compete in the American memory championships. Foer did, and won.

Good fun, engagingly told, and also quite handy if you fancy picking up a few techniques to improve your own memory.

Ooh thanks @elkiedee - I'm a huge Sara Paretsky fan but I didn't even know this book was released, let alone for 99p. Either I missed it yesterday or it got added later. Thank you!

Red Dust Road by Jackie Kay This was a choice on the Good Read podcast recently and I really enjoyed it. It’s a memoir about the writer Kay’s life with her adoptive parents - wonderful, joyous people who led active social lives in the communist party - as well as her experiences of growing up mixed race in Scotland and of her encounters with her birth parents. These experiences are often difficult, but Kay’s account makes for fascinating reading and her wells of love and resilience, developed from such a loving upbringing, make it an inspiring and humane read.

@ChannelLightVessel all the best for the new job. If it's any consolation, working in a library isn't half as much fun as it sounds.

China Room - Sunjeev Sahota
Lit fic. Two timelines. 1929, early stages of Indian independence, 3 women are married in a joint ceremony to 3 brothers. A domineering MIL keeps the identity of each husband from the women, only allowing them to meet intimately in the dark. One wife is determined to discover which is her husband. 1999 a young British man returns to his parent's birthplace in Punjab to recover from a drug addiction and uncovers his family history.

Interesting, worth a read, but I wouldn't rave about it.

Project Hail Mary - Andy Weir
Sci-Fi lite for book club. Very enjoyable journey into outer space. A school science teacher wakes from a coma as the only survivor on a spaceship. He slowly pieces together what is going on while meeting another lifeform and they work together to save the universe.
Not too sciency and great characters.

Guards! Guards! - Terry Pratchett
Enjoyable introduction to the Night Watch. Idealistic young man joins the city watch and discovers corruption is rife. Magicians summons dragons to gain control of the story and it's up to the Night Watch to sort it out.
Sharply observed human nature.

The Time Machine - HG Wells
A time traveller recounts his journeys in his time machine to a sceptical audience.
Very much of it's time.

Fix the System Not the Women - Laura Bates
Bates looks at 5 institutions, education, politics, media, policing and criminal justice and looks at anecdotal evidence from her everyday sexism project to show how they don't work in women's best interests. She looks at how they need to change to stop women being blamed when the system is the problem.
Excellent analysis, but she bends herself over backwards to include men which undermines her credibility in my view.

You Made A Fool of Death With Your Beauty - Akwaeke Emezi
Artist reenters the dating scene 5 years after her husband was killed in a car accident. She explores grief while trying to move forward and gets caught up in the family drama of her new boyfriend.
Lit fic collides with the romance genre. I'm not entirely convinced it works. Emezi writes beautifully as standard (my 3rd of hers this year) but I think this was almost trying too hard to appeal to a wider audience.

The Compendium of (Not Quite) Everything: All the Facts You Didn't Know You Wanted to Know - John Elledge*
Wide ranging fact book that manages to be quite interesting with an injection of humour to make it less dry. Fascinating listen while I'm having a major clear out and need something that doesn't require too much brainpower. Author admits when explaining difficult mathematical concepts that he's got an English degree and has lost himself, never mind the reader.

My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante. Translated by Ann Goldstein

I'm rather late to the game with this one. Best selling bildungsroman which deserves its unputdownable reputation. The first half was OK and then it just gripped me and I stayed up late last night reading it. I need to go to the bookshop tomorrow morning and buy book two in the quartet. And probably three and four as well. Not quite sure what to follow it with.

@Cornishblues Red Dust Road has been on my TBR pile for a while, glad to see you enjoyed it. My sister raved about it as well.

43. Cousin Kate - Georgette Heyer

This was a bit different from the usual Georgette Heyer which tend to be lighthearted with misalliances, thwarted lovers, misunderstandings and confusion. This was quite dark in comparison and not what I was expecting. Kate is 24. Her father was the black sheep of a good family because he eloped with a pretty but penniless girl. Kate had a happy but itinerant childhood following her military father’s career around Spain and Portugal. With both parents dead and no money, Kate has worked as a governess. Having been dismissed because the young gentleman of the household had become too keen on her, she is staying with her former nurse/nanny, Sarah. Sarah is keen to secure Kate’s future and contacts Kate’s father’s estranged family who appear to welcome her with open arms … but all is not what it seems.

Avoiding spoilers.

Best wishes for the new job from me too, ChannelLightVessel! And Fortuna, I also thought your library job sounded enviable.

Janina, I’m glad you’ve been won over by Ferrante. I thought her tetralogy became even more gripping as it went along. I find it amazing you haven’t read Ferrante already, given that I think of you as the resident expert on women writers in translation.

That last sentence to Janina was meant half-humorously, but my smiley emoticon somehow disappeared!

I’ve just finished 27. Still Life - Sarah Winman - I know that it has been reviewed on these threads previously but annoyingly the search function is not allowing me to find those posts. I’d be interested because I can’t quite make out what I think about this one. I was thinking mostly ‘yeah good story but I don’t believe it at all’. Precocious children in books tend to make me eye roll a bit these days, as indeed do precocious parrots, and it was all just a bit much somehow. But then at one point I found myself crying my eyes out so I must have believed it a bit.

I've just bought about 6 books on this month's deals! I can't remember them all (whoops!) but I got Nims boom about 14 peaks, Giver of stars and How to kill your family.

30. From Dead to worse by Charlene Harris

I think this is book 8. Still not great literature, but still diverting. Work is currently quite tough, so I need easy ready.
**

I still follow the thread closely but haven’t posted for a month. Finding it much trickier to post from my phone now so have to make an effort to get on to the computer. Anyhow, recent reads have been…

24. Rooftoppers by Katherine Rundell
Middle grade fiction, picked up as I’ve had a bit of a France/Paris season of reading going on. Following the wrecking of a ship in the English Channel, Sophie is the only recorded female survivor, found floating in a cello case. She lives in London with a fabulously eccentric guardian until the child welfare agency threatens their life together and Sophie travels to go to Paris in search of her mother, convinced that she survived the shipwreck too.
An interesting plot, vividly drawn settings and fantastic characters, there was a lot to enjoy in this. I just felt it dragged a little bit at times, not sure if it would have the pace to hold the interest of my 9 year old DS.

25. The Paris Library by Janet Skeslien Charles
Historical fiction based on a true story. Odile gets a job in the American Library in Paris in the late 1930s, and we follow her life in Paris as he family, friends and colleagues face the outbreak of war and their lives are transformed by the Nazi occupation. Alternating with this storyline, we meet teenager Lily in 1983 small town Montana as he family struggles to cope with her Mum’s illness and turns to their elderly neighbour (Odile) for help.
Very much my kind of book. I wasn’t blown away by it, the pacing felt a bit uneven at times, but it was a good read.

26. Bad Blood by John Carreyrou
Non-fiction, previously reviewed on here so I won’t go into details other than to agree wholeheartedly with the review of MegBusset who found this “a fascinating insight into a completely different world, although it doesn’t leave you with much regard for the critical thinking skills of some of the world’s wealthiest and most influential people”.

27. Sea of Memories by Fiona Valpy
More historical fiction, this was a gift from my Mum that I read in June as it tied in with my season of fiction set in France. In 1937, 17 year old Ella’s life is changed when she travels from Edinburgh to spend the summer with family friends on the Ile de Re. She forms close friendships that summer, but the outbreak of war transforms these friendships and shifts the path of Ella’s life. Now living out her final days in a nursing home, Ella has asked her granddaughter Kendra to write down the story she tells of the people and places that have meant so much to her before it’s too late.
I had low expectations of this – my Mum’s recommendations aren’t always hits for me – but it was better than I expected! It was not a long read, I liked the settings and I could never really tell where the plot was going.

At this point I decided to take a break from France and travel elsewhere in my summer reading…

*28. 28 Summers by Elin Hilderbrand
Absolutely loved this! Jake and Malloy meet in their early twenties, enjoy Labor Day together on Nantucket, then meet up again for one weekend every year. 28 summers later, can they possibly keep their Same Time Next Year affair going?
There’s a resemblance to One Day in the way we catch up with the characters each year as they grow up and their lives change over decades. The author includes lots of pop culture references to help to place readers in the 1990s, 2000s etc as the years pass.
Undoubtedly a case of right book at the right time for the right mood, this was a light summery read with a fabulous setting and characters that I enjoyed spending time with. A novel that moved along quickly and writing that went down easily, it made me smile and felt like a perfect read for the start of the summer 😊

I've been really busy at work so not had chance to post any reviews for ages.

39. Gerald’s Game by Stephen King

Continuing my read / re-read of all Stephen King books in order. Jessie and Gerald go to their remote cabin for some, ahem, quality time, which ends with Gerald incapacitated and Jessie handcuffed to the bed. I hated this book the first time I read it, and after this reread it remains one of my least favourite King books. That said I actually kinda liked the ending.

40. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

I loved this book. It had just the right amount of whimsy and magic to inspire a sense of wonder in me. I know I liked a book if I find myself really wishing places in the book were real. If the Circus of Dreams were real I think I’d grab myself a red scarf and hit the road.

41. Cop Town by Karin Slaughter

I’m a sucker for a crime book set in the 1970s but this book was just awful. One dimensional characters whose only personality trait is being an utter twat. The discrimination towards anyone who was not a straight white man was obviously bad in the 70s, but it was laid on way too thick in my opinion. Coupled with a lacklustre storyline this did nothing for me.

42. An Artist of the Floating World by Kazuo Ishiguro

Set in post-war Japan, artist Masuji Ono looks back on his work and his role in the propaganda that was part of the tide of Japanese nationalism in the pre war era. I found the insights into the post-war inter-generational relationships really interesting. There is definite resentment from the younger generation for the price they paid after being encouraged to go to war by the older generation. In a way this reminded me of The Remains of the Day, which is one of my favourite books. A man looking back on his life and his role in events. I didn’t love it, but I did like it, and it has definitely stayed with me.

43. The Sixth Window by Rachel Abbot

This is part of the DCI Tom Douglas series which I really enjoy. This book wasn’t one of my favourites but was ok.

146 The Push by Ashley Audrain

Everyone thinks Blythe’s daughter Violet is wonderful, and only Blythe can see the truth that she’s a monster. But is she, or is it all in Blythe’s head? An interesting look at how your own upbringing can affect what sort of mother you are, but I would have preferred some things to be more conclusive rather than just implied. One I want to reread sometime to see if I interpret things differently knowing the ending.

147 Yestertime by Andrew Cunningham

Time travel story. Journalist Ray finds a trunk apparently left there by a man who travelled back in time to 1870. Ray becomes intrigued and starts to look more into the story. This was good fun - not particularly well written but a good story.

148 London’s Underground:The Story Of The Tube by Oliver Green

History of the development of the underground. Some of this was a bit too technical for me but interesting to read about all the different companies involved and how it eventually merged together.

149 The Yestertime Effect by Andrew Cunningham

Sequel to Yestertime, but this one wasn’t as good. The writing was weaker than the first one, and it felt like the author wasn’t sure where to go with the plot and what to do with some of the new characters introduced.