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?

Thanks so much, elkie. Will definitely check out the ice cream! And now, I'm not linked to your aunt although now I very much want to be

Thanks @IsFuzzyBeagMise

60: This Is Not About Me - Janice Galloway

Funny, sad, beautifully written memoir of growing up in Scotland in the 1960s. Janice was an unexpected late baby, born to a mother approaching 40 and a father who was an abusive alcoholic. Eventually mother and small daughter escaped, but with nothing and to a cramped bedsit over a doctors' surgery, to where, in time, Janice's much older sister Cora, 16 years her senior, turns up out of the blue, having left her own husband and baby.

The terrifying Cora - violent and vengeful, hurling abuse and administering black eyes and bloody noses - becomes part of this odd little family, and haunts the book like an unpredictable demon. Shy, inhibited, lonely Janice is left to navigate the difficult business of growing up, often uncomprehendingly and with varying degrees of success.

I'm already impatient to read the follow-up, All Made Up, not least to see what becomes of Cora (and hope that she stops tormenting Janice).

70. Lingo: A Language Spotter's Guide to Europe by Gaston Dorren
    An exploration of European languages, how they developed and spread, and some interesting facts and words from different languages.
    The tone of the book varies quite a bit; some chapters are very jokey and superficial but others are more complex and in depth. I'm not sure if someone already knowledgeable about linguistics would get much out of this book, but I found it interesting.

71. The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa Trans. Stephen Snyder
    Things are disappearing from the island and when they go they vanish from people's memories too. The narrator, a novelist, discovers that her editor is one of the few who don't forget and she helps him to hide from the memory police who take people who remember away.
    I really liked this. It's the kind of novel that makes you think. So much is left unexplained and there are no easy answers.

72. A Burning by Megha Majumdar
    When a train in India is set on fire, killing many people, a young Muslim woman, Jivan, is arrested. In prison she tells a reporter the story of her life growing up in poverty. There are two other main characters, one of Jivan's school teachers, PT Sir, who is getting involved in politics, and Lovely, a hijra Jivan was teaching English to, and who is an aspiring actor. Though their stories are important to the plot I think I would have preferred the focus to stay on Jivan, who just seems to have more depth.
    In some ways this book is quite brutal, the writer seems to want to show the worst people can be. It's good but I wouldn't exactly say I enjoyed it.

Checking in after a period of absence. Enjoying the book chat. "Pyle of shyte"! Perfect shorthand for cod historical speak.

Talking of steaming dungheaps, a couple of fluffy summer readers:

44. Ghost Hunting - Derek Acorah

DM's last woo book donation (I hope). A bit about how to communicate with ghosts and then the usual anecdotes classified by type of setting. A one-time only read if you're into the subject, if you're not, a load of fetid dingoes kidneys.

45. Solve it Like Sherlock - Stewart Ross

Speaking of a one-off read: 25 different chapters of mystery setup, in theory providing the reader with all the clues to solve each case, with solutions at the back of the book. Part book, part game, a pleasant diversion but nothing to speak of. Wasn't convinced by the "Victorian" settings and there was a lot of backstory in the solutions which wasn't evident in reading the chapters.

46. The Durrells of Corfu - Michael Haag

A much better read. Accompanying my Durrell literary trilogy, it tells the story of the Durrell family (and other ancillary characters in My Family and Other Animals) both before, during and after their stay on Corfu, all the way to the ends of their lives. A fascinating read, giving an insight into the family dynamics and island life on the cusp of the Second World War. Recommended.

@RomanMum Solve It Like Sherlock reminds of the children's books that were around in the 70s - the title was something to do with logic problems, I think? Each chapter gave you a mystery scenario and the clues to solve it. I used to love those and was convinced I would grow up to be some kind of detective or forensic scientist.

51 Woke Racism - John McWhorter
John McWhorter is a Black American academic and public intellectual, whose core expertise is in linguistics. I'm usually as much in love with his cleverness as he clearly is himself. But while I agree with much of his line of argument here - that woke ideology does very little to help those it purports to serve - he's not going heal the culture wars with this self-satisfied polemic.

52 Mr Loverman - Bernardine Evaristo
74-year-old Barrington has been living a secret life since his teens, in love with his best friend Morris who he followed from Antigua to London. I found this much more engaging than Girl, Woman, Other, although it is all wrapped up a bit too neatly in the end. I liked the way Barry's long-suffering wife Carmel turned out to have secrets and strength of her own.

53 Autism: how to raise a happy autistic child - Jessie Hewitson
Very UK-centric, but lots of very useful ideas. The author is neurotypical, and I liked the way she was careful to include perspectives from autistic children and adults.

54 The Sleeping Beauties - Suzanne O'Sullivan
Somehow I didn't enjoy this exploration of culture-bound syndromes and incidents of mass hysteria as much as O'Sullivan's previous books, perhaps because these weren't case histories but explorations of worldwide incidents outside her direct clinical experience.

@MaudOfTheMarches I love Black Diamonds, I've read it about 6 times. I find it such a fascinating history

25. The King's Curse by Philippa Gregory
    This one follows Lady Margaret Pole, daughter of George, Duke of Clarence and cousin of Elizabeth of York. She spent most of her life trying to live in obscurity as a potential rival claimant to Henry VII's throne, until the end of her life when ambition finally got the better of her. This was a really interesting installment in the series. I didn't know much about Margaret so it was fascinating, although Gregory admits in her author's note that much of the story is conjecture as there is little contemporary evidence for Margaret's life. I found her a difficult character to like. Her treatment of her widowed daughter in law was especially shocking, she certainly puts some of the anti-mil threads on here to shame.

26. Three Sisters, Three Queens by Philippa Gregory
    This story is told from the point of view of Margaret Tudor, Henry VIII's older sister, and follows her life and the way it intertwines with her sister-in-law Katherine of Aragon and her younger sister Mary. Margaret was another Tudor I knew very little about and what I found truly fascinating was the parallels between her life and that of Mary Queen of Scots! They both married monarchs, were widowed young, made a hasty second marriage for love/lust which they promptly regretted so had to rid themselves of their husbands (although they chose different methods) and then made a 3rd less than ideal marriage. The parallels between Margaret's efforts to divorce her second husband and her brother Henry's attempts to divorce Katherine of Aragon were also interesting. Whilst I've read most of this series before I hadn't read this book and overall I enjoyed it

My mission to read all of this series has really slowed my reading down and I'm doubting my ability to reach 50 books which is a shame, but I'm determined to continue

@satelliteheart That's good to hear! I have a funny history with this book. I picked it up and put it down numerous times in Waterstones when it first came out and only got around to buying it when I noticed it on a Kindle deal. I'm not very far into it yet but it's fascinating that such a wealthy family could try to erase a whole section of its history. (I haven't got to the explanation of why, yet.) It's making me rediscover my love of biographies.

@ABookWyrm The Memory police was one of the first books I read this year. I really enjoyed it.

Thank you all for so many interesting reviews - I’ve added loads to my TBR list!

i have made it to 50! With probably the least literary book ever reviewed on here…

50 Lonely Planet: Explorer la région Alpes - various authors (in French) I wasn’t sure if this should count, but I really have read it from cover to cover, and in French too! (It doesn’t seem to be available in English). Having lived in the area for the last year, and expecting to stay for the foreseeable future, I wanted to learn more about my new home and the surrounding area. I’ve always been a bit of a geek when it comes to travelling and usually finish the Lonely Planet / Rough Guide before arriving at my destination (I remember helping the coach driver find the hostel on a university trip, thanks to my trusty Lonely Planet for Norway 😂), so it was no hardship to read this book without actually visiting most of the locations at the same time. I have done a bit of touristing over the last year but this has given me plenty of ideas for the future!

Those of you who did Ducks, Newburyport as Audible :

Did you experience problems with playback, due to the file size? Its only set out as 5 chapters so the entire main bulk of the novel is one chapter, 45 hours long, Echo Dot just freaks and starts apologising and the Firestick isn't caring much for it either

61: This Way Out - Sheila Radley

I've been carefully eking out my little stash of these enjoyable 1980s Suffolk-set detective novels, but this is finally the last of them.

Derek Cartwright adores his wife Christine and, after 20 years of happy marriage and a family tragedy, wants nothing more than to devote himself to her. So when her mother comes to stay and shows no intention of leaving, he starts to despair.
A chance meeting with the unpleasant and calculating Hugh Packer opens with a thoughtless remark and soon spirals into a nightmare that Derek can't escape, with the added and very unwelcome involvement of Chief Inspector Quantrill.

Tbh this isn’t Radley's best - the debt to Strangers on a Train is openly acknowledged, but it doesn’t totally convince; it’s a bit outside her usual rural comfort-zone. All the same, she writes so well, and the idiotic Derek's mounting panic is so convincingly evoked, that it felt genuinely panic-inducing at times.

Hannah's Dress by Pascale Hughes
A book about one particular street in Berlin and the people and events it has been home to. Although this is very much, 'My thing' it actually wasn't as good as I'd hoped it would be. I found the writer quite annoying and intrusive and the structure rather piece-meal.

Posted too soon -

Having said the below, some of the individual stories were, obviously, very moving, and the photographs were interesting too.

I finished a novel!!!!

38. Dominicana by Angie Cruz
I absolutely loved this. Ana is 15 and lives in the Dominican Republic with her Mama, Papa and large family. Her Mama has a plan for her; to marry and go to New York to lift the whole family out of poverty. Ana loves her life though not the intense poverty, and sees her siblings taking different paths. Will she follow the path set out for her and how will it turn out?

From the acknowledgements, this book is well researched and an authentic story. Mainly though, it's a glorious chewy pageturner full of atmosphere and character.

I haven't posted for ages but have kept up with the thread.
to all those who are going through tough times.
Love reading everyone's reviews, but special mention for @PepeLePew - what a lot of interesting books you have read recently! I wrote a whole list of books you reviewed that sounded fascinating and that I hadn't heard of before.
Will briefly rattle through titles that I've completed since my last post.

31. Book Lovers by Emily Henry
Ideal summer holiday read. Quite light, with humour, a little predictable - it fit my July mood perfectly.
32. My Family And Other Animals by Gerald Durrell
Much reviewed by 50 bookers, I listened to this on audio and it was also well suited to being a summer read. Having watched the TV series I pictured all the 'characters' as they were portrayed on screen. The introduction was brilliant and there were fantastic descriptions of hilarious incidents, interspersed with beautiful nature writing that I enjoyed while retaining zero details.
33. Us Against You by Fredrik Backman
Follow up the Beartown which I loved earlier in the year. I'm 100% invested, looking forward to the third in the series, The Winners, which is due out in the autumn.
34. Why We Kneel, How We Rise by Michael Holding with Ed Hawkins
Randomly picked this up in the library where it was part of a display of books that had been winners at the Sports Book Awards. Social justice non-fiction that was much broader in it's scope than I expected, moving away from sport to cover aspects of history that I knew nothing/very little about. Key theme is the ongoing need for education about history, prejudice, discrimination and the experiences of black people everywhere.
35. My Sister, The Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite
A short, humorous novel set in Nigeria, looking at the relationship between two sisters and the choices they make when one can't seem to stop herself from bumping off her boyfriends. I liked it.
36. The Girl With The Louding Voice by Abi Dare
Also set in Nigeria, we meet Adunni as a fourteen year old who dreams of continuing her education but must help her family as she grieves for her mother. Adunni's life changes when her father arranges her marriage as the third wife of a much older man in order to bring in money to support the family. Adunni is a fantastic fictional character and, once I had met her, I knew that I was in this book to the end as I had to find out where her story went.

Currently reading Malibu Rising and still listening to Don't Stop Me Now by Vassos Alexander on the odd occasions that I make it out for a run!

I have just finished Emily Noble's Disgrace by Mary Paulson-Ellis. I enjoyed The Other Mrs Walker a few years gao, and had bought this to read another by the author. I didn't realise, in fact, that she is writing a loose series of novels and that this has the same setting (Edinburgh) and some shared characters. I also didn't realise this was the third book! It doesn't affect the reading of this one, though, but I will now go back and read the middle book as I enjoyed this.

Paulson-Ellis's cast of characters are lonely misfits, with a focus on lost souls. Largely female, too, which is good. Her style is redolent of Kate Atkinson, somewhat.

She does have a bit of a habit of leaving too many ellipses, riddles, and gaps so things can appear a bit disjointed as narrative and time threads pull together. Also, sometimes sentences incomplete. Occasionally annoying. (this is rarer and less bad than I just made it sound!)

The book was atmospheric and engaging. I hope there is another to come.

Also, I wish to ceremonially announce that my TBR pile is empty!!

For the first time in years, I need to construct a new one...

I wrote a longer post then but it ‘s disappeared.
Malibu Rising Daft Judith Krantz beach type read.

Empty TBR pile! It's the stuff of legends Piggy! Enjoy creating a new one

@PermanentTemporary , it’s very good to hear you’re reading again! And @bettbburg , I’m so sorry about your health; much sympathy.

Piggy, I didn’t know it was possible to finish a TBR pile. 😁Gosh and kudos to you; that's downright inspirational!

38. The Colony, Audrey Magee 5/5
    Loved this. An English painter and a French academic specialising in Irish come to stay on a remote Irish island. The Frenchman is the son of an Algerian woman, so the theme of colonialism is evoked not only in terms of England and Ireland, but also in terms of France and Algeria. Very thought-provoking in terms of how outsiders cannot interact with a culture without changing it. Although those changes may not necessarily be positive, they aren’t completely negative either: to keep a culture sheltered from change is neither desirable nor possible.

39. Meetings with Remarkable Manuscripts, Christopher de Hamel 5/5
    Warmly recommended by 50-bookers in the past (though I can’t for the life of me remember whom, given MN’s now-useless search facility). This book successfully mingles technical expertise about manuscripts with info accessible to laypeople. As a card-carrying medievalist but one who has actually not done a lot of work with manuscripts, I felt a bit of envy and regret at how huge the gap is between Hamel’s expertise and my own. Hamel is truly extraordinary though in that he is so familiar with paleography across so many centuries. His chatty tone is great, even though the quantity of facts thrown out in each chapter can be daunting. I enjoyed the second half of the book most, simply because he was talking about centuries I knew more about. The book shows how complicated the journey of a single manuscript can be (its provenance) before it finally ends up in some posh library. I now have a renewed desire to look at the real live manuscripts of the texts I work on, rather than just comparing mss variants in critical editions. I’ve worked on mss in two of the libraries he describes, but just two!

40. Ali Smith, Companion Piece 4/5
    I agree with @GrannieMainland’s review; this is very good but I wasn’t blown away by it to the same degree as I was by the Seasonal Quartet. At times for me the wordplay crowded out or diminished the effect of the story, whereas with all four quartet novels, I never felt that. Still, I will happily read anything by Ali Smith, and this novel is worth reading especially for its autofictional quality – both of the main female protagonists, an artist who paints with words and a medieval girl blacksmith, seem to be doubles of Smith herself.

Piggy I will never achieve this and feel a weird envy

Perm Dominicana has been on my TBR ages, I must push it up.

As a general public service announcement

Jon Krakauer's Under The Banner Of Heaven and David Nott's War Doctor are 99p on Kindle today.

I’m reading this series at the moment but I’m enjoying it. I am on The White Princess (book 5 I think). I read the Kingmakers Daughter then tried to read something else. Anything else. But couldn’t settle to anything so gave up and let myself read it.

On that note how do others read series? All in one go or just as and when?