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?

[RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie]

Hungry by Grace Dent
Loved it. If you haven't read it, do so immediately.

[chilimartini]

Wow!!! Following!

[satelliteheart]

I have DNF two books now
The Last of the Stanfields by Marc Levy
The Woman on the Orient Express by Lindsay Jayne Ashford
Just can't get into either of them. I'm in a big reading slump and really struggling to find something I can commit to

[MaudOfTheMarches]

For anyone interested, the Jhalak Prize shortlist has been announced:

Consumed - Arifa Akbar
Somebody Loves You - Mona Arshi
Like a Tree, Walking - Vahni Capildeo
Keeping the House - Tice Cin
The Roles We Play - Sabba Khan
Things I Have Withheld - Kei Miller

Not read any yet, but I'm interested in Keeping the House, about a Turkish family in London set against the background of the international heroin trade, and Consumed, which is a memoir written by a theatre critic whose sister died of tuberculosis. (I may not be selling this very well - apologies, it's early!)

It's a really varied list - The Roles We Play is a graphic novel, Like a Tree, Walking is poetry (I think) and Things I Have Withheld is a collection of essays. I think the mixture of genres on the shortlist works really well and I'd be happy to read all of them.

[StColumbofNavron]

Oh Keeping the House sounds like one for me. I'd been doing research around this until recently. Thanks @MaudOfTheMarches

[LadybirdDaphne]

26. Temporary - Hilary Leichter

Surreal satire on the nature of contemporary work, set in a world where being a temp is an existential state one can only escape by being rewarded with the steadiness. The unnamed narrator moves from one bizarre pointless job to the next, frequently doing and undoing tasks with no rhyme or reason while desperately trying to impersonate the person she's filling in for. Captivating at first but just an oddity by the end - the sort of book that has one interesting idea but doesn't really know what to do with it.

[MaudOfTheMarches]

@StColumbofNavron that sounds very interesting research - I'd love to see what you think of it, if you read it.

[AliasGrape]

Thank you for that @MaudOfTheMarches, that looks an interesting list, I’m going to add some of those to my own list for ideas to maybe get me out of this reading slump.

Speaking of which … I fell off the thread again. Another few weeks where all I managed was a couple of Georgette Heyers which I’d not previously read.

16 A Civil Contract and 17. Sprig Muslin - the first of which I enjoyed and the second I didn’t particularly, though as always some fun characters in both.

DH and I both tested positive for Covid on Sunday. We seem to be taking it in turns to feel ok-ish then dreadful. In my ‘need to be lying down but can’t sleep’ phases yesterday I managed to get through book 18.

18. Summerwater by Sarah Moss This came up as a recommendation on the borrowbox library app for me, and I remembered that I’d seen much discussion of the author and recommendations for some of her work on this thread. I found this an unsettling read. I knew she’d written a pandemic novel and thought for a time that this was it, although doesn’t make sense with the holiday setting, but something about the book made me think of lockdown and that constant sense of unease/ dread. The constant use of a different POV/ narrator grated on me a bit at first, and at least in the first chapter the stream of consciousness style made me not want to continue. Once I got a bit more of a sense of what was going on though I started to appreciate it more. The nature vignettes were interesting, I wasn’t always sure how much of a link I was supposed to be making to the narrative, and the temptation was almost to skip them as I wanted to get whatever terrible thing I knew was bound to happen over with. Will definitely look out for Moss’ other work.

[ChannelLightVessel]

Hi all, I’d like to buy DM a belated Easter gift, and I was wondering if you would recommend any of the Women’s Prize longlist? I’ve already got her the Ruth Ozeki one, on the grounds that I loved A Tale for the Time Being so much. I know I’m being a bit cheeky not going back through all your excellent reviews.

[Palegreenstars]

@MaudOfTheMarches thanks for the flag I’ve enjoyed the Jhalak prize - Afropean by Johnny Pitts was a highlight of recent years (it won in 2020). I bought Consumed vet cheaply on Kindle.

[StColumbofNavron]

I bought Consumed today for £3.99 on Kindle. I almost bought the hard copy, but I lost a sibling a few years ago and I don’t actually think I could own the book and have it on my shelf.

[MaudOfTheMarches]

@StColumbofNavron I'm so sorry

[FortunaMajor]

ChannelLightVessel I wouldn't recommend many to be honest and it would depend very much on what she likes to read. It's a very strange selection this year.

StColumbo


I've been stuck in the deepest darkest recesses of the Lake District for the past few days with no signal, so I feel very disconnected and I'm struggling to remember where I'm up to.

The Historian - Elizabeth Kostova
Vampire hunting as a young woman finds a mysterious book amongst her historian father's papers that leads her to follow in his footsteps on the trail of the truth behind the myth of Dracula and Vlad the Impaler.

This started really well, but is at least twice as long as it needs to be and became very tedious by the end.

Born Lippy: How to do Female - Jo Brand
Jo's advice for life based on her own experiences. A frank and honest discussion of the way women are compelled to be and behave and why it's a load of crap with advice for doing it your own way.

I liked this very much and she doesn't shy away from the harder conversations.

*The Grace Year - Kim Liggett
From the blurb No one speaks of the grace year. It’s forbidden. In Garner County, girls are told they have the power to lure grown men from their beds, to drive women mad with jealousy. They believe their very skin emits a powerful aphrodisiac, the potent essence of youth, of a girl on the edge of womanhood. That’s why they’re banished for their sixteenth year, to release their magic into the wild so they can return purified and ready for marriage. But not all of them will make it home alive.

YA. This is trying to be a female Lord of the Flies with elements of *The Handmaid's Tale. It's interesting in the way it deals with the different ages and stages of women as they mature and their attitudes change and attitudes towards them changes. It sadly lacks the quality of writing of the aforementioned titles, but is ok if you don't mind a bit of teen angst.

Careless - Kirsty Capes
Fifteen year old Bess, in a long term foster placement is struggling with life when she becomes pregnant to a 19 year old. She can't tell her foster parents and decides to figure it out with her best friend, who has problems of her own with an impending arranged marriage.

This is a strange one. I liked it very much. It does however have a very YA feel to it. It's full of "issues" dealing with the care system, child abuse, teen pregnancy, young single mothers, the poverty trap, rape, racism and arranged marriage.
The voice of Bess feels very authentic, the author is a care leaver herself. Some of the other characters are very well drawn, but the foster parents lack nuance and the ending is far too neat and convenient for me. It's a compelling read, but would suit a much younger audience, despite having the above mentioned themes and a lot of swearing.


One more from the list to go.

[DuPainDuVinDuFromage]

@FortunaMajor I read The Historian many years ago and really liked it, so much so that last year I got the urge to read it again and bought a copy…on re-reading I was disappointed to find it wasn’t actually that great! I think my memory had turned it into the book it should have been…

32 The Potter’s House - Rosie Thomas This is about the lives of two women and what happens when their paths cross - Cary, who goes on holiday to the Turkish coast after her husband leaves her for a younger woman, and Olivia, who is happily married into a local family with children on a tiny and beautiful Greek island. So far so chick-lit…but it was a very different story from what I was expecting: intriguing, thought-provoking and creepy. Lovely descriptions of the Greek island too. I absolutely loved this and couldn’t put it down last night until I finished it at 1am! Highly recommended and I’ll be looking for other books by Rosie Thomas.

[ChannelLightVessel]

Thank you @FortunaMajor DM reads a lot of literary fiction, though she’ll do genres apart from fantasy/SF. I might try the ‘Jubilee Read’ list instead; our local bookshop is likely to have at least some of them.

[FortunaMajor]

In which case, she may enjoy Louise Erdrich - The Sentence or Lulu Allison - Salt Lick the rest are a bit blah.

[FortunaMajor]

Also Remote Sympathy is good of she likes historical fiction.

[Stokey]

@ChannelLightVessel I liked Great Circle from the Woman's Prize longlist, it was also on the Booker shortlist, but has had mixed reviews on here.

I've also recently read Matrix which I'd recommend.

[DameHelena]

Finished Dissolution, C. J. Sansom. Started slowly but was worth it for the atmosphere and world created. Satisfying plotting and good characters, and I felt convinced we were in the 16th century. Will read the rest of the trilogy, but need a genre break for a little while.
Also Fortune's Rocks, Anita Shreve. Never read her before and didn't know what her books were like, but this was a pleasant surprise (picked up on a whim in a charity shop). A romance, essentially (historical setting, 'spirited' young heroine, seemingly doomed unsuitable love, dastardly minor characters, rich descriptions of landscape and weather). Some beautiful writing though, and interesting situations and characters.
Again, I'll need a break before thinking of reading another one; in parts I felt it was a bit 'light' and almost gave up. Glad I read it though.
Currently on Foster, Claire Keegan, after rave reviews on here. It's nicely slight/simple/astringent after a couple of more rich novels; wonderful economical writing and vivid characters in a setting that's both alien to me (rural Catholic Ireland) and nostalgically familiar (lemonade, sandwich spread...).

[Sadik]

33 Death and the Penguin by Andrey Kurkov, trans George Bird
Reviewed by a number of posters already, I enjoyed this (and felt rather sorry for Misha-penguin). Has anyone read the sequel?

[MegBusset]

Yes @Sadik I have read Penguin Lost. I can't recall that much about it tbh (which is telling in itself) but I know it didn't grab me in the same way.

[Sadik]

I had a feeling it might not live up to the first book - will give it a miss.

[Lemondrop2]

I read Grace Dent, as recommended further up the thread. I enjoyed it, and it didn’t take long to read.

MN do give such great tips on books. I will read further up to find my next one.

[RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie]

Portrait of the Artist as a Young Girl by Grayson Perry
This was okay, but nowhere near as interesting as the 2 others of his I've read. It's essentially his biography up to his late 20s, told to a writer. It's all quite stream of consciousness and disjointed. I enjoyed learning about his early work and about his fashion choices, but wasn't so interested in his sex life tbh.

[ChessieFL]

DameHelena there are now 7 books in the Shardlake series.