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?

Keefe's next book is about Chinese criminal gangs and it's already on my list.

Fortuna that doesn't sound conducive to reading - hope your books survived (priorities).

I bought ankle wellies especially for the trip. The water was nearly up to my knees! Thankfully everyone ok and I got off very lightly compared to those on the other side of the field.

I did take 2 print books, but I did not have it in me to sit reading them. I feel like I need a digital detox just to get some basic concentration skills back. Thankfully the books were in the car.

Few to catch up on

44. A Town Called Solace - Mary Lawson. Mentioned a few pages back and on last year's Booker longlist. I really enjoyed this book about a young girl who's sister goes missing and her friendship with the old lady next door. The chapters alternate between the girl and the lady (who is in hospital) PoVs. The setting in northern Canada is beautifully evoked and the whole story is just lovely. Not plot driven but very good. @elkiedee let me know what you make of her other stuff as would definitely read more by her.

45. How To Kill Your Family - Bella Mackie. This seems to be the summer thriller, the person sitting next to me on the plane was reading it to. The narrator is in jail and is looking back on how she killed her family and how she got there. Didn't see the twist coming.

46. Moon Tiger - Penelope Lively. Inspired by the Booker talk, I remembered that I had this unread on my Kindle for years, it won the Booker in 1987. I absolutely loved it and have devoured it in a day. Claudia Hampton, a brilliant heroine - intelligent, beautiful, cold and slightly mean - is dying in hospital and looks back on her life, entwined with history. The bits during the war in Egypt are particularly great but the whole thing is genius. One I'll be pressing on everyone I know!

@Stokey, will let you know re Mary Lawson's books, but it could be months/years/decades! In the meantime, one of them is a Kindle deal this month at 99p, if you've not already found it. The Other Side of the Bridge (2012). Very behind on this thread so thanks for tagging me so I knew to come and answer.

Hope to come back and read the threads later but am off on a library outing to Kentish Town to pick up reservations - Maggie Shipstead's new short story collection an Irish writer's debut book that is a short story collection and something else. Short story collections and anthologies are harder to buy cheap or borrow from libraries than novels.

Showing off about my attention seeking on Twitter. Penguin asked about people's favourite thrillers, I named Joan Aiken's Wolves/Dido Twite/Simon series. JA's daughter @ LizzaAiken (no space) responded. She's also followed and retweeted me (several posts), and posted about the adult novels. So @RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie I am going to tell her that we are talking about these when I have a moment, but if you use Twitter she would love to hear I think that her mum's books are being read and talked about (perhaps the ones you enjoyed of course!)

43. The Wolf Den - Elodie Harper

This had slightly mixed reviews on an earlier 50 Books thread. I quite enjoyed it. Having visited Pompeii I recognised some of the descriptions of houses etc and found it engaging and empathetic to the women involved in the Roman sex trade. Set up as the first of a trilogy, and I will probably add the next, The House with the Golden Door, to my TBR.

My go-to historical fiction of this period is Lindsey Davis so the fruity language came as s bit of a surprise! Definitely not one for the easily offended.

Oh I loved The Wolves of Willoughby Chase as a child and it was a book I read to DD1 and she read ahead of me (always a good sign). Never read any more in the series though.

I really loved Wolves of Willoughby Chase & the sequels. I've just discovered that there's lots more in the series that I've not read (written much later when I'd have been too old for them).

I definitely read one Chase sequel. The cousin ends up in a workhouse?

The film wasn't bad either

1. The Final Revival Of Opal and Nev by Dawnie Walton

Shortlived 70's musical duo Opal Jewel and Nev Charles decide to do a reunion appearance at a festival. In the run up to this journalist Sunny develops a biography on them, but, Sunny has some "skin in the game" can she give a fair account?

Sigh.

Expected far more of this than it delivered. I only felt a surface level engagement to it in the sense that I never felt immersed in it or that I even half believed in the world or the characters.

Funny, I had just posted about Taylor Jenkins Reid upthread, stylistically and occasionally tonally this felt jarringly similar to Daisy Jones And The Six

There is also a main point with echoes to The Seven Husbands Of Evelyn Hugo

Whilst, like I said Reid's books have a "junk food" quality, it did feel as if this was an attempt to do something more literary or substantive, but I don't think it succeeded

And the end was crap.

11) The Distant Echo by Val McDermid
I have read about this author on one of these threads somewhere. I spotted this in a charity shop a good few months ago and thought I recognise that author so picked this book up. It is about four drunken students who stumble across a body in a ancient Pictish cemetery in Fife. The body is a young girl called Rosie who works in the local bar called the Lammas bar. She has been brutally raped and knifed.

The finger is immediately pointed at the four students who have discovered her body.

The case is unsolved and twenty-five years later is re-opened as a cold case. Two of the four students are bumped off in suspicious circumstances. The race is on to find who killed Rosie.

I enjoyed this but thought the ending was excellent. I did not guess but saying no more about that. I did find it a bit lengthy and slow going but having come to the end you need all the detail to make the ending great. A recommended read and will read more of this author.

The Wolves of Willoughby Chase and Black Hearts in Battersea were childhood favourites of mine too.

23 Star of the Sea - Joseph O'Connor
Set on The Star of the Sea, a passenger vessel voyaging from Liverpool to New York with a large number of steerage passengers, all of whom are Irish immigrants escaping the potato famine in 1847. Told from a variety of viewpoints, including detail from the Captain's log and newspaper articles written by one of the First Class passengers, the histories, ambitions and characters of various people on board are revealed over the course of the month-long voyage.

I loved this, lots of fictional detail that reads like it could be actual history. The characters and their lives are well drawn, as is the suffering of the Irish poor driven to migrate or die in the aftermath of preventable poverty in their home country.

Piggy, that's interesting about the Jess Phillips book. I also noticed in the talk she gave that she stayed very on-message with regard to Labour being a great political party.

Fortuna, I also think it's a shame that the Booker was widened to included US entries. The US has book prizes of their own, like the Pulitzer. Elizabeth Strout has already won a Pulitzer, for example, so as much as I like her, I hope the prize goes to someone else.

I also agree about the widening of the Booker - it used to have a very strong identity as a prize for Commonwealth writers, and whatever you think of the Commonwealth as a concept, it made for a very diverse group of writers. The shortlist also includes more established writers these days, I think, whereas previously there was room for newcomers.

Thought I would add in two DNF

The first is The Phone Box at the Edge of the World by Laura Imai Messina. Could not get into the writing at all and found it quite boring. If a book does not grab me after the first 50 to 100 pages I usually call it quits. There are far more interesting books out there.

The next DNF is Any Dream Will Do by Debbie Macomber. Truthfully it was not what I was expecting as wanted a nice summer read but I just could not gel with the two main characters Shay and Drew and if they get together or not.

Just finished 21. War Doctor - David Nott - amazing memoir of a surgeon working in major war zones. It's a strong 5 star read, I absolutely loved it, he is a truly amazing person.

It's 99p on Kindle atm if anyone wants to grab it.

Yes, War Doctor is a compelling read, and a humbling one. David Nott's Desert Island Discs is well worth a listen too.

My latest - 57: March to the Gallows - Mary Kelly

Another of these hard-to-categorise (and to find) 60s novels by the rather forgotten Kelly, a fascinating writer imho…I’ve amassed a decent haul of her books now by fair means or foul (this one is an ancient, battered copy from Keighley Public Libraries).

After the sudden death of her fiancé, librarian Hester Callard has reluctantly moved back to her childhood home, with the overbearing aunt who raised her, in a suburb on the extreme fringes of London. Next door live the Leyburns, richer and more socially exalted. Gradually Hester begins to realise that something odd is happening, centred around Tony Leyburn - idol of her childhood - and his friend, wealthy local property developer Hamo Law. Unfolding exactly what the mystery is constitutes the intricate puzzle of the book, whose title refers to local landmarks - 'the March' and 'the Gallows' are areas of heathland - but also to a movement of Berlioz's Symphonie fantastique, which Hester keeps overhearing, being played next door.

It's a very strange book in many ways, extremely hard work to grasp what’s happening at the start, and then demanding absolute attention to piece the clues together, to a level that I didn’t always manage (plus, the central mystery involves much discussion of black characters in terms that simply wouldn’t be acceptable now) - but, that said, Kelly is such a literate, intelligent voice, and creates an air of incredible menace. I don’t think I’ve ever read anyone else quite like her, and modern mystery novels simply aren’t a patch on this level of elegant, highly sophisticated writing.

35 Good Habits, Bad Habits: The Science of Making Positive Changes that Stick by Wendy Wood. This is a good example of a non-fiction book that is evidence-based and research-focused, while also written in a clear, pragmatic style which was easy for the layperson to follow. I thought it was very good, but the jury's out on how well the techniques will work for me! (I am hoping to address my 'mindless snacking' habit.)

36 Ready Player One by Ernest Cline. Sci fi written in 2011, set in the 2040s, and with lots of pop culture references to the 1980s. This is great fun, and I was reading late last night to find out how it ended for the protagonist Wade and his geeky group of friends pitting their wits against the mighty IOI corporation!

Books 174 - 179 are the remaining books in the Nick Dixon series by Damien Boyd:
Heads or Tails
Dead Lock
Beyond The Point
Down Among The Dead
Dying Inside
Carnival Blues

I’ve enjoyed this series and will definitely read the next when it comes out.

180 Wind In The Willows by Kenneth Grahame

Listened to this childhood favourite on Audible, read by Michael Hordern, as I felt the need for a comforting voice to listen to!

181 Did Not Finish by George Mahood

The seventh book in his series featuring all the various triathlons, marathons etc that he and his wife do. I have no interest in doing these events myself but I like reading about them particularly as many of the events are in the south west fairly near where I live.

Just finished Kiran Millwood Hargraves' second non YA novel , The Dance Tree. This was good . Perhaps held together better then The Mercies, although, like the Mercies has a potentially overly dramatic ending. The novel is well written and is very interesting in theme - being about the hot weather and associated dancing mania that spread amongst women in Strasbourg in the early 16th century.

The book, however. is mainly not about the dancers, rather it is about a family who live on a farm where they keep bees. It is also about miscarriage, grief and loss and Hargraves' afterword explains this in a very affecting way. The central love stories are well described- not sure they are totally believable and to some might seem a bit tick boxy but, again, I think KMH accounts for this very passionately in her final words. She also recommends a book about the Strasbourg dancers which I may well look up.

This novel is an excellent fictional accompaniment to The Sleeping Beauties, I think, for those who have enjoyed that recently.

I need you all to stop recommending books I can't resist. I just bought War Doctor. I will need to live to 120 and do nothing but read to get through them all

Just updating with my latest reads:

53. The Appeal - Janice Hallett

I think quite a few of you have read this. The story is told via emails between the various characters. This really drew me in initially but I began to find it a little tedious as I got further through the book. The backdrop to the story is an amateur theatre group and their latest production and the emails are, in the main, between the members of this group. The theatre group is dominated by a local family and when their grand-daughter/daughter is diagnosed with cancer, the theatre group start fundraising too. Ultimately, one of the theatre group is murdered. The emails are overlaid by texts between the legal team looking at the email evidence. This aspect of the book was what let it down for me as it wasn’t credible (to me) that the legal team would be asked to approach the evidence in the way the book depicted. Lots of potential but lost its way.

54. Lethal White - Robert Galbraith

The fourth in the Strike series. Jasper Chiswell, government minister, has instructed Strike to find out who is blackmailing him. Chiswell has a complicated private life: two serving adult children from his first marriage (and one who died); a son (who has just come out of prison) from another relationship and a current younger wife who dislikes all his children. He also has financial problems. Strike’s partner, Robin, goes undercover in Chiswell’s House of Commons office masquerading as his god-daughter. Strike is also worried by a visitor to his office, Billy, who swears he saw a child murdered as a child. Billy has disappeared and Strike is concerned for his well-being and are the coincidence that Billy grew up on the Chiswell family estate. I did see the television adaptation of this but couldn’t entirely remember the plot and found it to be a real page-turner. I enjoy the narrative of Strike and Robin’s relationships with others and each other in between the sleuthing.

55. Destination Unknown - Agatha Christie

This month’s Christie Challenge book. Not a regular Christie as no Poirot or Marple. Scientists are disappearing and the suspicion is that they are defecting. Tom Betterton disappears and his wife, Olive, appears to know nothing about it but can she lead the authorities to him? Hilary has lost her child and husband and has nothing left to live for - is she prepared to take on a mission which she may not survive? Where are the scientists, what are they doing and who they working for? I like traditional Christie books and this was not from the usual mould - it reminded me a little of a James Bond plot. Very readable but not one I would re-read.

The Story of a New Name by Elena Ferrante. Translated by Ann Goldstein.

Second in the Neopolitan series. Leñu contines her education while Lila deals with the knowledge that her new husband is working with the hated Solara family. Absolutely compulsive.

44 Diary of a Rock n Roll Star - Ian Hunter

A classic and hilarious rock biog which was written on Mott the Hoople's 1972 US tour and features all the humdrum detail of life on the road, from annoying fans and hangovers to worrying about fitting in your stage trousers. Real life Spinal Tap stuff.

A couple of reviews from me.

49. The Blackbird Season by Kate Moretti

Loads of birds fall out of the sky - it’s symbolism innit. Idiot teacher think he can be the “cool friend” to his students. ‘Uptight’ wife surprisingly has an issue with this. Cardboard cutout autistic son shoehorned in to make the parents more relatable. Female teacher acting as a modern day Miss Marple. Enigmatic, beautiful, damaged teenage girl goes missing. Did the “cool” teacher do it? I didn’t care. I hated this book and all of the cliched, one dimensional characters in it.

50. The Oppenheimer Alternative by Robert J Sawyer

This is a alternate history book following the Manhattan Project scientists and what they do when they discover that the sun will eject part of its surface and destroy the earth in 80 years, so round about now! I enjoyed reading about the scientists but would have liked a little more detail on the actual science. This book was definitely more about the personalities and egos, particularly the clashes between Oppenheimer and Edward Teller, and the consequences for both men. The lack of female scientists was jarring, but given the times, understandable I guess, although perhaps not as the novel moves into more modern and fictional times. The ending felt rushed, as though the author got to the end and realised it all needed to tie up, and I feel a bit cheated not to have had more insight into the science behind the invention.

51. Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day by Winifred Watson

Miss Pettigrew is a gentlewoman who is down on her luck. Seeking a post as a governess to save her from having to enter a workhouse, she goes to an interview at the home of Miss LaFosse and enters a whole other world. As the title suggests the story takes place over a single day and follows the adventures of Miss Pettigrew as she comes to the aid of Miss LaFosse and seizes every opportunity to experience everything that comes her way. I listened to this on audible and at first found Frances McDormand’s narration a little jarring as the book is meant to be set in London and she maintains her a American accent, but once I got used to that I loved her delivery.

I can’t remember who recommended this recently, and of course can’t find it with the rubbish search function but THANK YOU! I adored this book and it’s not only my favourite book of this year so far, I think it has gone straight into my top ten of all time. That would be a definite if not for the causal bit of anti-semitism and the idea that women need to be ‘corrected’. However it was written in the 1930s and overall did not spoil my enjoyment. I’m not an emotional woman but I definitely shed a tear at the end.