50 Books Challenge 2022 Part Five

[Southeastdweller]

Welcome to the fifth 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, the third one here and the fourth one here.

What are you reading?

@Terpsichore I nearly picked up sleeping beauty in a charity shop wish I had. Will add this book to my list too!

Just picked up Sleeping Beauties on Borrowbox without a wait - evidently no other 50bookers in my county!

Glad you enjoyed it, @Sadik . I can't remember who recommended them on here.

34 Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart. This is the story of Shuggie, growing up in working class Glasgow with his older brother and sister and their alcoholic mother. An exceptional book about addiction, love, hope and despair, resignation and acceptance, identity and humanity. A well deserved winner of the Booker.

As a little aside, I was thinking about my top 10 favourite books that have won or been shortlisted for the Booker and I settled on (in no particular order):
Shuggie Bain
Possession
Milkman
The Handmaid's Tale
Atonement
Cloud Atlas
Ducks, Newburyport
Moon Tiger
Wolf Hall
Midnight's Children

Anyone else want to list theirs?

I thought It's All In Your Head was very interesting and agree there's an interesting story to be told about current social contagions.

34. A Florence Diary - Diana Athill

A slip of a book consisting of Athill's diary of a trip to Florence by train in 1947. I must admit on reading it I got the impression she was very young, but in fact she was thirty. Athill and a cousin travelled by train from Victoria to Florence and spent two weeks looking at frescoes and gorgeous views. Unfortunately there's not much more to it than that - as she says herself, she was not really equipped to do justice to the art, and she didn't know enough Italian to get to know the people.

Still, it was a nice way to pass an hour or so and brought back memories of interrailing along the same route in the 80s.

1. Passing by Nella Larsen (Audible)

Irene Redfield is left perturbed when old school friend Clare Kendry reappears in her life and becomes intensely demanding of her attention.

Both women are black, but Clare has being "passing for white" for years and has not just a white husband but a highly racist one.

I don't feel qualified as a white person to speak too much about issues of "colourism" within the black community save to say I understand the concept. I thought this book would make an interesting companion to Brit Bennets The Vanishing Half, which many of us have read. The book was reprinted as part of the Harlem Renaissance of forgotten black voices, and was made into a film quite recently.

It was ably read by Tessa Thompson, but I felt that I knew where it was going and it was surprisingly brief.

That's a great question, tara. I'd have to go back through the list to come up with my top ten. No question that Ducks, Newburyport would be on there, though. Such a great book and an incredible work of literature.

Eine, glad to see you back but sorry about the circumstances that kept you away. Life has been getting in the way of posting much and I'm very behind on my reviews but I have just finished Frenchman's Creek which like all du Mauriers is both a great yarn and a really well written book. I also loved The Sentence by Louise Erdrich and think that's one you might enjoy too.

I have form for not liking Booker winners.

I liked Midnight's Children, love the Mantels, and think Atonement is great. I was pondering the other day whether the bit with Lola is very crass. Plot function only sends my feminist hackles rising along with the Lolita vibes. But it's still a great read.

I haven’t read enough to list 10, but my favourites are Milkman and The Siege of Krishnapur. I also like the Mantels and Moon Tiger.

I have read Moon Tiger. Can't recall anything about it , and it was only last year !

I love it Piggy! I've read it loads of times.

I think I am guilty of speed reading and, thus, forgetting things...

I’ve just looked at the Wikipedia page listing all the books ever shortlisted for the Booker and I’ve read a total of…6. Need to improve that count I think! My favourites of those are Possession and The Blind Assassin, closely followed by The Handmaid’s Tale; I hardliners remember Atonement but am sure I enjoyed it; Wolf Hall was good but a bit of a chore; and The Testaments was ok but too much like fanfic…

That should say I hardly remember Atonement 😂 that’ll teach me to post while a child is talking at me!

I can't even comment on the Booker, I went through a phase of trying to read the longlist but have rarely been overly enthused I think.

Yes to the Mantels and Atwoods, but so many "hard going/what am I missing?"

@PepeLePew Loved Frenchmans Creek last year, such nonsense but so enjoyable.

Walking the Americas by Levison Wood
Having enjoyed the Himalayas one, I bought a few more. Enjoyed this one too. Recommended for anybody who likes travel writing.

Remus I can also recommend Levison Wood's Eastern Horizons, which might have been his first book, about hitch-hiking the Silk Road.

Thank you. Will add it to my list.

Looking at the Booker shortlists I'm surprised how many I have read, but it's still only a dozen or so. They're so diverse it's hard to give a favourite. I was very surprised to see The Battle of Pollock's Crossing on there which I like a great deal, but I wouldn't have imagined as a Booker-type novel. Handmaid's Tale is probably the most memorable of those that I've read.

I've read 31. What surprised me was how many of them I'd never even heard of.

Rather surprised to find I have read 22 of the Booker shortlisted books. Unsurprisingly, some I have enjoyed more than others and some I can’t remember enough to have a view on!

Shuggie Bain was excellent if harrowing. I am a big fan of Hilary Mantel so rate Wolf Hall and Bring up the Bodies both of which I have read multiple times. Agree that A Handmaid’s Tale is one of the most memorable and that The Testaments nowhere near as strong.

I have recently read and enjoyed The Bookshop and

Disliked The Sellout and not keen on Burnt Sugar.

Surprised to find I've read about twenty, although the ones I've really enjoyed were the two Peter Carey books, the Siege of Krishnapur, Milkman and Wolf Hall. I've got lessskeen on the shortlistin recent times.

I’ve read 19 which is more than I expected. There’s loads there I’ve never even heard of. Maybe next year I’ll set myself a goal to read all the winners that I haven’t already read.

Of the winners I've read 19.

The standout amongst them is Lincoln In The Bardo which I loved, and I was the most "so what?" about The Inheritance Of Loss I think

I think I have read 11. Just remembered God of Small Things is on there which I absolutely adore.

I do like Shuggie Bain, Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha and rated The Narrow Road to the Deep North . Found White Tiger very meh.