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?

[RazorstormUnicorn]

19. Appointment with death by Agatha Christie

I read this as it's set in Jordan and I'm going in May, and I've seen a lot of reviews of others here reading Christie and I wondered if I was missing out

I quite enjoyed it, liked the characters and we got a bit of a sense of place. I don't read whodunnits really, so I was pleased I figured out it wasn't the obvious suspect. But I thought the actual culprit was rather a leap. Anyway, a fun short read. I would read another if they come up in daily deal/available on my prime thing.

[Stokey]

I too picked up Hungry on the deals so thanks @ChessieFL.

Just finished The Bread The Devil Knead by Lisa Allen-Agostini, another woman's list longlist. This was reviewed by @FortunaMajor
on the last thread. I thought this was really strong and well written. It's written in the first person in patois by Alethea or Allie or Girlie. Its set in Trinidad. Allie is being beaten by her man Leo, and has been abused by most men she's met as well as beaten by her mother. The story skips between present day, with Allie's co-workers, old best friend who turns up after many years and her adopted brother who she bumps into after 23 years, and when she was 5 when her uncle brought her brother to live with her. I expected to find this a harder read than I did, given all the abuse, but the voice of Allie is so strong that I just wanted to keep reading. Recommended.

[nowanearlyNicemum]

Thanks for keeping us all in line in spite of everything else you have going on southeast.

Here's my little list:

1. Unorthodox – Deborah Feldman
   
2. Me - Elton John
   
3. Pies and prejudice – Stuart Maconie
   
4. Winter – Ali Smith
   
5. The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood
   
6. How to build a girl – Caitlin Moran
   
7. My name is why – Lemn Sissay
   
8. Life after Life – Kate Atkinson
   
9. Toast – Nigel Slater
   
10. Open Water – Caleb Azumah Nelson
    
    Currently reading about citrus fruit on my kindle, decluttering my life on audible and WW1 as a physical book and enjoying them all.

[Sadik]

@DesdamonasHandkerchief just a thought, but I've discovered that when much-reviewed / popular things come up on daily deal, very often now they're also available with no or minimal wait on Borrowbox. (I guess it's because they've reached the point where everyone who is going to buy them at full price has done so, & they're cheaper for the library system too?) It's reduced my Kindle purchases loads!

32. First Class Murder by Robin Stevens
Another of the Murder most Unladylike series. Hazel and Daisy are on holiday on the Orient Express with Hazel's father, and perhaps unsurprisingly one of their fellow passengers is murdered. Fun pastiche, but I think three in succession is enough for me for now.

[StColumbofNavron]

The Age of Innocence, Edith Wharton

Set in turn of the century New York amongst the upper class we follow Newland and May as they are about to get married like NY royalty, but May’s cousin the Countess Olenska arrives from Europe and doesn’t conform the society standards and Newland falls in love with her.

As a piece of writing I thought this was very good. As a piece of literature that makes the setting a character in its own right I loved it. I didn’t much care for any of the characters but that was fine and actually I found I had a lot of respect for May and the way she ‘handled’ things.

I’m going to make a cup of tea and settle down to watch the Michelle Pfeiffer and Daniel Day Lewis adaptation now.

[mumto2teenagers]

9)Verity - Colleen Hoover

I'd never read anything by this author before. Really loved it, read it in 2 days. Will be reading more of her novels in the future.

[bibliomania]

38. The Button Box, by Lynn Knight
Enjoyed this. While I'm not that enthralled by fashion, I am interested in women's lives, and this was a pleasing insight, from Victorian mourning to flappers, through WWII uniforms and on to the 70s.

[nowanearlyNicemum]

11. The Lie - Helen Dunmore
    This is only the second novel I've read by Dunmore and I'm definitely a fan. Here, the action takes place in Cornwall following WW1, with flashbacks to the main protagonist's experiences during the war. Beautifully written.

[ChessieFL]

90. Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day by Winifred Watson
    
    I read this a few years ago and it’s a fantastic story. For those who haven’t read it, it’s set in the 1930s and features spinster Miss Pettigrew who goes for an interview as a governess and gets caught up in the glamorous life of Miss LaFosse, a night club singer, and ends up going to parties and meeting men. As I said, it’s a wonderful story. However, I listened to this on Audible this time and struggled a bit with it. It’s read by Frances McDormand, who does a fine job but is American which grates when she’s reading a book clearly set in England about English people. I found this rather disconcerting and kept having to remind myself when I was listening that this was lol happening in London, not an American city.
    
    
91. A Study In Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle
    
    The first Sherlock Holmes book/story. Somehow I have never read these before and intend to rectify this. This was a great start. I sort of knew the outcome as I’ve watched the modern TV version with Benedict Cumberbatch, but obviously there were a lot of differences! Definitely going to read the rest of the series as I really enjoyed this.
    
    
92. This Is The Night They Come For You by Robert Goddard
    
    Goddard is one of my favourite authors, but this wasn’t one of his best. However it did tell me a lot about Algerian history that I didn’t know about so I’m glad I read it just for that. It’s still a good book, as he’s a fantastic writer, but I prefer others of his.

[RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie]

Miss P is glorious. It being read in an American accent would make me very cross.

I detested The Age of Innocence - I hated everybody and was bored out of my skull by it all.

[nowanearlyNicemum]

12. Banish clutter forever: How the toothbrush principle will change your life – Sheila Chandra
    Finally a 'sort-your-shit-out' book that speaks to me (well, most of it anyway!). I'm fired up and ready to make my home a calmer, more organised space to live in.

[Terpsichore]

31: Ice Cold in Alex - Christopher Landon

I absolutely love the film Ice Cold in Alex and must have seen it a dozen times, but somehow never gave much thought to the original book….if I’d been asked to guess who wrote it, I might have said Nevil Shute. Turns out Christopher Landon was a former army medic who became a fairly successful writer but died young. This book was such a hit when it appeared in 1957 that the film appeared shortly afterwards, with John Mills as the wiry, indomitable hero, Anson, who guides his little band of escapees from the German advance in North Africa in WW2 through the scorching, perilous desert back to Alexandria, and the promised glass of deliciously chilled lager.

Well, this turned out to be a cracker - full of suspense and peril, even though I knew the story. It’s also quite different to the film, with Anson a far more complex, tortured character - an actual alcoholic, anguished by the knowledge of his own terror in the face of war. The trusty driver Tom Pugh, played by Harry Andrews in the film, is also sensitively-drawn, a widower who's developed a strong bond with the younger Anson that’s akin to a father-son relationship - but it’s Pugh who falls in love with the nurse, Diana (the impossibly beautiful Sylvia Syms in the film), rather than Anson.

A ripping yarn, very much genre fiction, but genuinely a great read.

[StColumbofNavron]

Remus I definitely disliked everyone, but that’s part of the appeal for me.

[YolandiFuckinVisser]

1. The Dutch House - Ann Patchett

2.Cloud Cuckoo Land - Anthony Doerr

1. Life at the Top - John Braine
2. The Mermaid of Black Conch - Monique Raffey

5.Ducks, Newburyport- Lucy Ellmann

1. A God in Ruins - Kate Atkinson
2. The Watchers on the Shore - Stan Barstow
3. A Fraction of the Whole- Steve Toltz
4. Bridget Jones's Diary- Helen Fielding

10. 1984 - George Orwell
11. Mr Foreigner- Matthew Kneale
12. A Short History of Tractors in Ukranian- Marina Lewycka
13. My Mate Shofiq- Jan Needle
14. Red Shift - Alan Garner
15. Dogs of War- Adrian Tchaikovsky
16. To Calais, in Ordinary Time - James Meek
17. Never Let Me Go - Kazuo Ishiguro

[ChannelLightVessel]

I found The Age of Innocence rather dull as well, but I think it was a mistake to have seen the film first.

47. The Spider’s Web - Joseph Roth
Roth’s first book, a novella really, published days before the Munich putsch in 1923, tells the story of Theodor Lohse, a young, embittered, ambitious army veteran, who blames Jews and Socialists for his predicament, and is drawn into a world of shadowy Far Right organisations. Gives a stark and vivid picture of the misery and violence in the immediate post-WW1 years, and the extent to which right-wing violence was condoned by large sections of society, including supposedly-neutral government employees. Ironically, Lohse, while a rising public figure, is very much manipulated by others. An impressive debut.

Happy Easter everyone!

[BadSpellaSpellaSpella]

I've completely fallen off the thread but here are my updates - quite a few I found because of this thread!

1. I who have never know men by Jacqueline Harpman
   
2. The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper
   
3. Bad Blood by Lorna Sage
   
4. The best catholics in the world by Derek Scally
   
5. All that man is by David Szalay
   
6. Deep Water by Patricia Highsmith
   
7. Eileen by Ottessa Moshfegh
   
8. Frenchmans Creek by Daphne du Maurier
   
9. Gillespie and I by Joanne Harris
   
10. Crow Country by Mark Cocker
    
11. Why we eat too much by Andrew Jenkinson (thanks to the poster that reviewed this – I found this fascinating
    
12. Hot Milk by Deborah Levy
    
13. The Need by Helen Phillips
    
14. A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
    
15. My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell
    
16. Madonna in a Fur Coat by Sabahattin Ali
    
17. The Worst Hard Time: The untold story of those who survived the great American dust bowl by Timothy Egan
    
18. Jasper Jones by Craig Silvey
    
19. Light Perpetual by Francia Spufford
    
20. Heartburn by Nora Ephron
    
21. The dangers of smoking in bed by Mariana Enriquez
    
22. Becoming Unbecoming by Una
    
23. The Makioka Sisters by Jun’ichiro Tanizaki
    
24. Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami
    
25. A very great profession by Nicola Beauman
    
26. Orphans of the Storm by Celia Imrie

[Stokey]

For any Kate Atkinson fans, the Beeb adaption of Life After Life starts on Tuesday. Have heard its very well done.

[MaudOfTheMarches]

I really liked The Age of Innocence.

27. Things I Don't Want to Know - Deborah Levy
Wrong book, wrong time, perhaps, but I really didn't enjoy this. My head tells me it's a good book but I was impatient with all the introspection and was glad it was short.

[TheTurn0fTheScrew]

12. Big Sky by Kate Atkinson
    This time Jackson Brodie's up on the North Yorkshire coast, hired to investigate a cheating husband. Along the way he becomes embroiled in a human trafficking investigation.
    
    This one had a slower start than usual, taking a while before the crimes unfolded, although you can see them coming. The wry humour lightens the experience without seeming flippant in the face of some dark themes.

[TheTurn0fTheScrew]

@Stokey

For any Kate Atkinson fans, the Beeb adaption of Life After Life starts on Tuesday. Have heard its very well done.

thank you Stokey - will look out for that.

[benfoldsfivefan]

Carrying on the Kate Atkinson theme, I see that she has a new book out in the autumn.

[DuPainDuVinDuFromage]

31. The Lady and the Unicorn - Tracy Chevalier This is based around the creation of a series of tapestries in the late 15th century - very little is known about the makers so Chevalier has invented an origin story told from numerous different points of view. I didn’t really get into this and found it hard to care about most of the characters. It was perfectly readable but nothing special.

[Midnightstar76]

Just popping in as dropped off. Lost my reading mojo … this book has taken me about three months to get to a DNF. Only got to 57 pages but just not for me and it is a book most people seem to rave about The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid swiftly returning this loan back to DD. I was putting this book down more than picking up. No idea what to read next. Will randomly pick a book from my book shelves tomorrow

[Piggywaspushed]

Just rattled through Songbirds by Christy Lefteri. She bases tis book in her ancestral homeland of Cyprus but it is a book about migrant domestic workers and deals with sensitive issues. Through a dual narrator mode, she builds flesh around a domestic maid called Nisha who has really been flat, ignored and characterless to Petra, her employer. We also hear about Nisha's life in Sri Lanka , about her lover Yiannis (the songbirds are a slightly heavy handed metaphor) and about the lives of other voiceless domestic workers.

Lefteri feels passionately about migrants and people's understanding of them, and police treatment of potential crimes committed against domestic servants - her letter at the end is quite moving and shocking This is a stirring and sensitive book, albeit very accessible and easy to read. It's also about motherhood and loss.

The themes work well together. It's not going to win any Bookers and its magical realism bits don't quite do it for me, but I liked it and certainly found it gripping, reading with more enthusiasm than most books lately.

[SOLINVICTUS]

Finally sitting down to catch up- hectic couple of weeks, including a flying visit to the UK for dd to attend university offer day. (Some of you on here may therefore recognise me under a different name on the O/C "rejects" thread.

What was wonderful about that, and I feel relevant to here, was the opportunity to browse in bookshops, and look, and touch, and come across books you wouldn't usually have looked at. I buy things anyway, recommended on here, or Kindle deals, but the experience of actually wandering round Waterstones was sublime.

Adding my tuppence ha'penny to the general chat: Vera Brittain Testament of Youth is one of my most read books. I may take a photo of my copy and show you just how read it has been over the last 20-30 years. It makes me angry, sad, uplifted, jealous of the beautiful writing and convinced (of my own political beliefs) all at the same time.

My latest:

11. A Dark Adapted Eye Barbara Vine- absolutely excellent. Writers of "psychological thrillers with covers of women/children going upstairs in the dark" etc should be sat down and made to read BV. As I said on the other thread mid-read, this is an everyday tale of dreadful things ordinary people end up doing because of the relatively ordinary situation they find themselves in. It struck me too, that (unlike the current psycho nutjob genre) these things could happen to any of us. I'm not intending to go round murdering people, but who can say how the mind is capable of pushing us to react.

12. The Suspicions of Mr Whicher Kate Summerscale. Late to the party, and haven't watched the series (probably won't) Loved this too- as I am clearly the only person on the planet left who didn't know it was about Constance Kent. I remember being haunted and vaguely obsessed as a child (need to look up when exactly- early teens probably) with a series on BBC2 on true crime adaptations. One was the story of Constance Kent, and the other was called Malice Aforethought (splendid title) with a young Hywel Bennett in it.

I'm now dipping in and out of British Summer Time Begins (a Waterstones random pick up) about how Brits have historically spent the school holidays. It's nice, it's easy reading, it's not quite a cross-section of society as the premise says, for every working class anecdote of 3-4 lines or a paragraph, there are Susan Hill style pages of reminiscences from Rachel Johnson, Dianna Wynn-Jones's son etc etc. (and the "posh rich people also went frugal on holidays" (as the writer insists on telling us each chapter becomes rather tedious at times as we hear how they decamped to the family farm on Exmoor and had to live on jugged hare and what they'd shot that morning)
It's nevertheless entertaining enough.

Also just started The Haunting of Alma Fielding

Still dipping in and out of Seashaken Houses on the Kindle but my Waterstone's haul is taking over somewhat.

My list so far:

1. Ramble Book Adam Buxton
   
2. Enigma- Robert Harris
   
3. Christmas Chronicles -Nigel Slater (as ever in January!)
   
4. 112263 Stephen King
   
5. A Place of Execution Val Mc
   
6. Howard's End is on the Landing- Susan Hill.
   
7. Hidden Killers- Lynda La Plante
   
8. The Wreath- Sigrid Undset
   
9. Fatal Isles-Maria Adolfson
   

DNF The Great Circle
10. The Whole Truth- Cara Huntley
11. A Dark Adapted Eye Barbara Vine
12. The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher Kate Summerscale.