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?

Ooh I’ve been waiting for the Rooney to be discounted thanks @southeastdweller - your posts don’t come up green anymore which is an odd change.

12 .. The Devil's Alternative by Frederick Forsyth

This was absolutely fantastic, easily one of the author's best. A convoluted set of events all of which are plausible lead to a hijacker's oil tanker, the threat of ecological disaster on European shores, and a standoff between Russia and the US.

As with most Forsyth's books, the story was a bit slow in the beginning while the characters and the background were being developed but it picked up soon enough and I was staying up nights to finish it.

Recommended.

13 .. Consider Her Ways* by John Wyndham

The stupid drawing of a woman in a baby pen is absolutely the reason why this book languished on my Kindle for ages, and I regret that now. This was a surprisingly brilliant book of SF short stories, mostly about accidental time travel. It is hard to believe that it was published back in 1961, over 60 years ago

Recommended.

@FortunaMajor thanks for the reminder re Lindsay Davis. Added to my birthday list but I'm a couple of FA books behind so need to get up to date.

Having problems with the site too. Reinstalled the app so hopefully that fixed it.

I'm another one who read The Historian, loved the first half but thought the second half was overlong. On the plus side I think it led me to read Dracula, which is much snappier.

Quick warning for name-changers. You can now change your name by typing one of your previous usernames into the "Your Username" box (above the "Message" box), but it doesn't save - for the next message it defaults straight back to the username you used before you name-changed, if that makes sense.

I think this didn't come up in green because it starts with a capital S - I still see @southeastdweller's posts with a small s user name in green.

@DameHelena if you go to Settings > Talk Settings you can choose to see all posts on one page - is that what you meant?

I like some bits of the new site - bold/italic/link much easier for this thread - but I don't think I've ever seen such a glitchy upgrade with such little communication.

I don’t think that’s a new feature, Maud - hasn’t it always done that?

I'm finding it very frustrating that I carefully bookmark the last post at the end of the thread, so when I come back to it I’ll be in the right place…..but it no longer takes me there, it keeps reverting to a random point way up the thread. It’s so glitchy in lots of small but frustrating ways.

Chessie - I type my book summary posts off Mumsnet (normally in a draft email on my phone) as I have lost too many messages in the past. Then I just copy and paste into the message box and it brought my numbering across too.

Huh, maybe - I've always gone into my account to name-change but maybe I didn't have to.

noodle, ''if you go to Settings > Talk Settings you can choose to see all posts on one page - is that what you meant?'
Yes! Thank you.

I used to do that as well on some threads and then one day someone on a thread mentioned you could just type in another username, and I thought….WHAT?! Tried it and it worked, so I think it’s always been the case. Annoying as I must have wasted hours laboriously changing my name in settings

They by Kay Dick. I picked this up on a whim at Waterstones and then read the history. Despite winning awards at publication it was lost for 40 years and not reprinted. A publisher discovered a copy in a charity shop in 2020 and it’s been described as a rediscovered dystopian masterpiece.

It’s a series of dream like scenes in which an unnamed, ungendered narrator (it’s not always clear it’s even the same person) experiences the aftermath of ‘Them’ taking over England and subtly and at times violently attempting to destroy individual thought and creative arts. The impact of passive protest and private acts of rebellion is shown.

This was outstanding. An odd recent comparison for me was Richard Coles The Madness of Grief I suppose because in that the author tours Britain after becoming a widow and the balance of such all encompassing grief and beautiful scenery is something I felt in both. For similar reasons I was reminded of The Children of Men, although if your one of the many here who didn’t like that I wouldn’t let that put you off. I think it sometimes (although not in my edition) has a subtitle ‘a sequence of unease’ and that’s a perfect description.

Annoying as I must have wasted hours laboriously changing my name in settings

Yes, me too!

33 Mrs England - Stacey Halls Set in 1905:* *a young Norland nanny goes to a remote part of Yorkshire to look after a family of four children; there’s something odd about their mother, Mrs England, and as the story unfolds we also learn about something terrible that happened in the nanny’s past. I thought this was well-written (although with a few anachronisms) and the characters were mostly realistic and relatable. There was a decent amount of jeopardy and I whizzed through the last half (stayed up reading until 1am again…) but I’m not quite sure how I feel about the ending - I sort of feel like I want more of a resolution but that’s probably because I rushed through it - thinking objectively, it probably is a good ending after all! I wasn’t totally blown away by this but I did like it and would recommend.

I'm never very keen on technical updates. Left to myself, I'd be cheerfully pecking away on clay tablets.

40. Grown Ups, by Marian Keyes
Set in a series of family get-togethers in Ireland, and I read it during a family get-together in Ireland, so rather appropriate reading. Three brothers are married to three women, one of whom likes to arrange (and pay for) frequent lavish family occasions. The story focuses on the three wives - careers, relationships, and in one case an eating disorder. In-law relationships can be knotty and make for a good subject. This was like a conversation with a gossipy but fundamentally kind friend - good holiday reading.

By way of contrast, I'm currently on Operation Mincemeat, by Ben McKintyre. The film trailers reminded me I was meaning to read the book. It's an extraordinary true-life story, well told. I'm enjoying the cameos of extraordinary characters - one minor character developed the rules of table tennis, discovered a unknown species of vole, scandalised his rich family by marrying a single mother and moving to a terraced house in Brixton, and was also a Communist spy.

I'm never very keen on technical updates. Left to myself, I'd be cheerfully pecking away on clay tablets.

I loved Operation Mincemeat @bibliomania Wondered about seeing the film, but the Guardian totally slated it!

I've been wondering if it was worth seeing the film, Remus. In any case, I'll look out for the author's other books - have you tried any others and would you recommend them?

I mangled the author's name - should be Ben Macintyre.

I've read Agent Zigzag and A Spy Amongst Friends - both interesting but not as good as Mincemeat imo.

Thirding (or maybe fourthing) the recommendations for South Riding - plus Testament of Friendship , Vera Brittan's account of her close friendship with Winifred Holtby.
I'm finding the update works much better if I use the adblockplus browser on my phone (with the side benefit of no ads & less data scraping).

There’s an older film about Operation Mincemeat, The Man Who Never Was. Nigel Balchin wrote the screenplay and it’s in lovely 1950s colour. It pops up on the film channels fairly often, worth looking out for. It’s actually really good.

I read The Spy and the Traitor by Ben Macintyre last year and thought it was good. I haven’t read Operation Mincemeat but plan to do having seen the film this week. I think the film review was a little unfair as the film was fine - not outstanding but not a stinker either.

29 A Very English Scandal - John Preston

Spoilers ahead if you're not familiar with the history (I wasn't!)

A fairly unedifying account of the scandal around Jeremy Thorpe, the Liberal Party leader in the late 70s who tried to cover up a gay affair (which took place at a time when homosexuality was still illegal) by trying to have his former lover killed. Nobody in the 'establishment' comes out of this looking particularly good, and it's shocking and saddening how homosexuality was viewed at the time within Parliament, the legal system and the press.

A well researched and very detailed book but my only gripe (and here comes the spoiler) is that it doesn't make clear how, given that Thorpe was acquitted of any involvement in a murder plot, all this detail was come by and verified. Given that Thorpe died an innocent man (in the eyes of the law at least - though doubtless there was a stitch up), but this book presents the plot as an accepted fact, there seems a bit of a disconnect which would give me more confidence in the book's claims if it was explored more.

I have read Operation Mincemeat and watched the film last week. It's a perfectly decent film, I can't remember enough from the book to be sure how much of the plot was tacked on (I'm guessing the romance subplot at least) but I enjoyed it as a period drama rather than strictly accurate historical account. It helps that Colin Firth is ageing rather nicely imo 😉