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?

@BestIsWest I'm struggling to find anything I even want to start at the moment, let alone finish.

I have also been DNFing all over the place.

Cotillion - Georgette Heyer. I would like to be a Heyer fan but I'm just not. I lose patience before the end of some of her sentences, let alone the book.
Homegrown Hero - Khurrum Rahman. Loved his first book but this was too violent and a big disappointment.
In Extremis - Lindsey Hilsum. Biography of Marie Colvin. Her self-destructiveness makes for bleak reading before she even gets near a warzone.

I have finished:
35.Forever Geek - Holly Smale. Final instalment in the Geek Girl YA series. I think I have got the easy reads out of my system now and am craving meatier, more involving reads. Currently reading Empire of Pain, which is excellent, and Black Diamonds by Catherine Bailey, a history of the Fitzwilliam coal dynasty, further evidence that the super-rich are, indeed, not very nice (not all of them, obvs - apologies to any super-rich 50 Bookers).

I really enjoyed Pilgrims. I’ll be giving To Calais in Ordinary Time a swerve; thanks for the warnings 😂

Some of us are lovely, Maud [tosses head]

Has anyone else noticed that Amazons recommendations "similar books for you" is now just pages of self pub and genre type dross, with no bearing on past purchases?

I used to find loads of books that way.

Biblio present company excepted😆

Oh gods, yes. Awful.

Just checking in mid read and have picked up several books to add to my wish list, I think I need to read some Claire Keegan.

Hope everyone is doing ok, sounds like some tough times.
**

Helen Dunmore is one of my favourite authors - I still have a few of her books TBR including Exposure and a short story collection, and I want to reread quite a few of her books, especially Zennor in Darkness, which I first read 25 years ago - I wouldn't normally remember so specifically but I can remember reading a flatmate's copy which means it was between January and August 1997. I liked The Siege and The Betrayal, and anyone who likes those for the setting should probably also read House of Orphans, set in Finland in 1905, about a less well known place and time in history. I also enjoyed another of her historicals, set in England, Birdcage Walk. I remember her contemporary novel Mourning Ruby as good but sad, and possibly not the best choice for anyone struggling right now - if that sounds vague, it is, but if I can't remember details at least I can't give spoilers.

I really don't need more Amazon recommendations, too many ideas about what to read anyway. Someone has started a thread about exciting new books coming out and I think we share quite a lot of favourite authors, in historical, crime and literary fiction and books which fall into more than one of those categories.

Also, I came back from Deal on Friday with a huge pile of new charity shop acquisitions, and it's taking me ages to log them on LibraryThing and Goodreads. I dislike the way Goodreads is run, the dodgy cataloguing and the rules which prevent me correcting my records properly, but don't want to lose touch with interesting people who post there more than they do elsewhere.

Elkiedee have you tried Storygraph? Similar to Goodreads, but better. You can import your data from Goodreads so you don't have to start from scratch.

Also has an excellent recommendations section that does throw out some good ideas.

I loved To Calais in Ordinary Time and missed it when I finished! * *

I've looked at Storygraph but I prefer Librarything. LT had free and paid for rates when I first used it but payment was a lifetime subscription when I was working, not an annual sub. That was nearly 13 years ago now, at the end of 2009. My subscription allowed me to catalogue any amount of books over 200, and all subs have now been dropped. There is part ownership by Amazon as part of the funding model but without the inconsistent control freakery of Goodreads which is what I hate about it.

Also LT probably goes back as long ago as Mumsnet and many of the people I talk to there started as long ago as me and more. I have nothing against Storygraph but you just can't build up the results of every user putting time and energy into it that quickly and LT has built it up over time.

Wondrous Journeys in Strange Lands by Sonia Nimr. Translated by Marcia Lynx Qualey

This Palestinian YA novel is a historical fable about a girl called Qamar who leaves her isolated village to explore the world. She treks across the desert on camels, through forests on elephants and sails across the sea. She meets Royalty, bandits, scholars and pirates. She is enslaved, disguises herself as a man and becomes rich. She experiences love and grief. As is always the case in fairytales there is always someone to help her when she needs it and she helps many along the way with her knowledge of herbal medicine. The plot is episodic with some characters we are left wanting more of and while her adventures are inspired by the travels of Ibn Battuta they also reminded me of parts of Herodotus. This is a joyful book. Bliss.

@Cornishblues Night Waking was my first Sarah Moss - for me it was a great starting point. It depends very much on the reader, I suspect. I need to go back and read her first novel still though as NW is #2.

I'm glad you enjoyed it :) We all can't like the same things.

Oh, elkie, I'm off to Deal tomorrow for a few days. Where do you suggest I go? (Or did you clean out the book sections of every charity shop in town? )

53. Dolores Claiborne by Stephen King

Continuing my read / re-read of all Stephen King books in order. When Dolores Claiborne is arrested for the murder of her employer she confesses to a crime, but not the one that the police have charged her with. I really enjoyed this, particularly the complicated relationship between Dolores and her children, as well as her employer Vera.

54. Empire of Time by Daniel Godfrey

The second book in the New Pompeii series. The first book wasn’t great but I was intrigued enough by the concept of the rescue the citizens of Pompeii just before the eruption and their installation in a replica town to give this a go. It was not good. The storyline was confusing and nonsensical and the main character was a miserable, mansplaining, humourless joy sponge. The ending was so abrupt that I assume there is / is going to be a third book but I can’t even be bothered to check.

55. Insomnia by Stephen King

Ralph can’t sleep, and the longer he goes without any decent sleep the stranger things become, until he is seeing strange colours and beings that aren’t really there… or are they? I thought this book was just ok the first time I read it, and this re-read didn’t really change my opinion. It was interesting reading from the perspective of older characters now I'm a bit older myself, but I found the character of ‘our Lois’ so very irritating. There were lots of links to the Dark Tower series, which I enjoyed having missed them last time as I hadn’t read the series at that point. In fact this could almost have been part of that series.

56. Instructions for a Heatwave by Maggie O’Farrell

During the 1976 heatwave Robert Riordan goes to the shop one morning and vanishes. I love Maggie O’Farrell’s writing and there were lots of things I liked about this book - I love a big loud Irish family and books set in the 1970s for a start. I feel like more could have been made of the oppressive heat, and some of the characters felt a bit under developed to me. Not my favourite by Maggie O’Farrell but still better than anything else I have read recently.

57. White Bones by Graham Masterson

The first book in the Katie Maguire crime series. The bodies of 11 women are discovered on an Irish farm, dating from 80 years ago. This is followed by the discovery of altogether more recent bones. I liked the exploration of Irish mythology but I found the characters and their actions / reactions pretty unbelievable. I’m not sure if I’m just in a bit of a grump, or a reading slump, but this was another book I didn’t really enjoy and I won't be reading any more of this series.

I liked To Calais In Ordinary Time too but can see why it's a bit marmite. It took me a while to get into but I enjoyed it in the end. We did it as a book club read and found all the sexy language quite amusing. And there's old Queen... Is that meant to be Eleanor? I was wondering whilst I was reading Matrix.

Isabella, I think, Stokey.

67 The Saturday Night Sauvignon Sisterhood by Gill Sims
I enjoyed the Why Mummy Drinks series by the same author, which were both funny & spot on about a lot of aspects of parenting/relationships. Sadly this didn't live up to them at all - lots of cliches about PTA mums, evening classes etc. Just about readable enough to finish, but I wouldn't rush to read anything else by her now.

68 In Other Lands by Sarah Rees Brennan
13 year old Elliot (very smart, very obnoxious, very snarky) goes on a school trip & when he can see a wall no-one else can see, he's offered the opportunity to go to school in the magical Borderlands. These are inhabited by a range of species as well as humans - elves, dwarves, harpies, mermaids amongst others, and the role of the teenagers is to learn to become the border fighting force.

This is badged as YA, and I'm sure teens would enjoy it, but it's also a very funny parody of lots of magic school & fantasy tropes. I'm pretty sure this was recommended to me on here ages ago, maybe by @tanaqui (I know you recently recommended Striking Distance by SRB). Very many thanks if it was you, this hit the perfect spot for a light but engaging read. Sadly it's a stand alone, I'd love to read a sequel if SRB ever writes one.

elkie - very true. For me, as I read them I wondered how I’d feel about them if I’d come to them first - I’d certainly have loved Night Waking, but I’m not sure I’d have had that love-at-first-page experience that I had with Summerwater when I knew immediately that I’d read everything she writes.

14. Standard Deviation by Katherine Heiny

I know a lot of people have liked this book, and, I definitely want to flag up as a positive the fact that lots of reviews concur and so do I that this book does an excellent job of conveying the internal struggles faced by parents of neurodiverse children.

That aside, my god I found this so boring and so mundane, and not even slightly engaging and at certain points I nearly DNFd

Best summed up as

Wives eh? Who'd have 'em!

Kids eh?! Isn't it all hard work?

Hated Graham. Hated him and specifically the Jasper/Elspeth retaliation thing

And also THIS CORKER, where to paraphrase, he basically thinks, my wife talks too much and has no filter so its her fault our son has Asperger's

Graham is a massive prick, so he should at least have the decency to be an interesting prick, but no, The End.

The reaction reminds me a bit of Leonard And Hungry Paul were some people loved its ordinariness and I thought it was deathly dull. Takes all sorts, would be boring if we all liked the same.

15. Matrix by Lauren Groff

Joining the throng of 50 Bookers to read this. Was it only last year we all were talking about books about nuns?

Aristocrat Marie de France is banished to a nunnery, but over time, comes into her own.

This is definitely a slow burn, the growth of the character is the best part, how she starts as a lost teenager and has become someone that could be defined as sinister or polarising at the end.

This had a quiet atmosphere, and a bit of tension, though it could be called slightly repetitive, there is not exactly loads to go on about her real life and I thought it was a good job. Quiet and boring are really different. That said, I wouldn't reread, and outside of 50 Bookers, can't think of anyone I'd rush to recommend it to.

16. Watching Neighbours Twice A Day by Josh Widdecombe (Audible)

90's TV Nostalgia

No offence to Josh, but I basically picked this because I wanted something mindless that I didn't really have to think about. It delivered

Lots of enthusiasm and wit, nothing much in the way of original or particularly insightful observation.

@PepeLePew There are still lots of good books in the charity shops in Deal, I think I didn't even get to a couple as they tend to close quite early. I would prioritise the Oxfam Bookshop - 4.30 most days - the British Heart Foundation (might be 5 pm) and one opposite in that order. I didn't buy anything in Barnardos this time but it's definitely worth a look, plus it's on the way to the pier and the beach. I also recommend the kiosk at the entrance to the pier for very delicious ice cream.

You're not related or connected to my aunt in some way, are you? She opens up invites to come and stay for a few days to her extended family, including my stepsisters and my mum's husband (my mum was my aunt's sister and sadly died a few years ago) and a few friends or relatives of good friends. Her house is within 15 minutes walk of town, Sainsburys and Aldi, the station, the beach, the pier and the sports centre, and a pub showing Sky Sports on a big screen (the last two are my sister's kids' and her husband's favourite places respectively I think).