50 Books Challenge 2022 Part six

[Southeastdweller]

Welcome to the sixth 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.

What are you reading?

Hi pinkpixie. It's great here. No rules - everyone has their own way of doing things, no one really minds what your way is. Just tell us what you enjoyed reading and what you didn't.

63. The Couple at the Table - Sophie Hannah

Jane Brinkwood is an evil husband-stealer who's literally been stabbed in the back on her honeymoon. Police officers Simon Waterhouse and Charlie Zailer make everyone who was there go round and round in circles talking about it for almost 400 pages, until you find out that the murderer was who you thought all along it must be, but for a reason that makes little to no sense.

The problem is, I'm a big fan of the reading experience of Sophie Hannah books. You just have to know you're going on a stylistically smooth, page-turning ride, the last 20 pages of which will be bonkers, disappointing, and reveal the murderer's motive to be something that has never ever motivated any human being to do anything at all. (Very rarely the ending is surprisingly satisfying, but sadly this isn't one of those ones.)

@EineReiseDurchDieZeit Of those two I prefer Ghostwritten. I'm not sure which comes first chronologically but I'm not sure it matters. I'd recommend you give it a go if you enjoy the Mitchell universe!

I'm not a Mitchell fan, I hated Cloud Atlas a lot and thought it was hideously derivative of Italo Calvino's If On a Winter's Night a Traveller. However, I thought Ghostwritten was OK (OK enough to then go on and make the mistake of reading Cloud Atlas). Not sure if that helps or not 😁.

Cant remember if ive posted this here or on Goodreads so will post just in case.

828. Power of Geography - Tim Marshall. Another interesting introductory to political history and geography of various countries and Space. Would say this time time the focus was more on history but still made me understand world politics a little more.

Currently reading The Bullet that missed and enjoying it so far but think its definitely a series you can't jump into as lots if references to past books so far.

@JaninaDuszejko

I was really not a fan of Cloud Atlas I really hated the Sloosha's Crossing section and found it all a bit pretentious. I then read Slade House which piqued my interest and was then given a copy of Bone Clocks which I loved.

So out of his 8, I've read 6 and liked 2. Not great odds.

Hi @pinkpixie83

Cloud Atlas was a rare DNF. I just couldn't get into it.

Cloud Atlas entirely unreadable imho.

I enjoyed Cloud Atlas, only made it part way through The Bone Clocks.

I'm a David Mitchell fan. Loved Cloud Atlas, The Bone Clocks and Black Swan Green. Haven't read any others.

If this comment doesn't summon Cote nothing will

Slade House, Bone Clocks and Black Swan Green were all very good, I thought. I read about 80% of Cloud Atlas, put it down and forgot about it. Never finished it.
It feels like Candyman. How many times do we say Cloud Atlas before Cote appears?

You lot are amateurs.

@CoteDAzur someone said Never Let Me Go is your favourite book as you particularly admire it's scientific accuracy. Care to tell us how much you love it?

I had a good charity shop haul today: Measuring The World which I think was a Cote recommendation from a previous year. Plus Penelope Fitzgerald The Blue Flower, and Simon Sebag Montefiore's biography of Stalin for a bit of light reading.

@MegBusset The Stalin one was hard work - I think it took me around two years to finish the blasted thing!

I'm mixed in David Mitchell. Loved Black Swan Green and Thousand Autumns, enjoyed Cloud Atlas and Slade House, underwhelmed by Bone Clocks. Ghostwritten and No 9 Dream I read so long ago that I can't remember what I thought of them. Utopia Avenue sounds crap so I've not gone there.

Hi everyone. I got an email from Mumsnet saying my name is being taken in vain on this thread

Thank you for thinking of me. I did have a health scare that has been going on for several months which made reading inconvenient, but I am getting better now.

Remus - Cloud Atlas is a work of infinite wisdom and understated brilliance whose scope spans the birth and death of human civilisation. I know you do not appreciate it, but that is to be expected from someone who reads children's books for pleasure I missed you, too, by the way <wipes a tear>

Meg - I was indeed the one who recommended Measuring The World and it truly is a terrific read. You will love it!

Pepe - Bone Clocks is a pathetic imitation and a lesser copy of Cloud Atlas, with exactly the same themes and even the same literary structure. I can only imagine that David Mitchell may have written it after Cloud Atlas because he was under pressure from his publisher to come up with another novel.

Fortuna - Everybody, knows Never Let Me Know is rubbish. AQA completely agreed with me when I told them so

Have I missed anyone?

I did read a few books before the health thing hit, so let me see if I can find my Kindle and remember what they were so I can write their reviews here.....

@CoteDAzur So sorry to hear about the health thing and very glad to hear you're getting better.

It's so good to 'see' you - and very good to see that you're letting out your tender side. Passes the tissues. Any conversations about female narrators written entirely in the present tense are all the duller without you.

I'm trying to remember if I liked Measuring the World or not - I'm not sure if I dare check!

I checked - it wasn't pretty.

"Oh dear. Oh dear. I did not like this. It is about a natural Scientist and a mathematician (who for the purposes of convenience shall be lumped together as scientists for the purpose of this review, since they are pretty much interchangeable). One likes sex, the other is pretty much asexual but other than that they are essentially the same person, except one likes running around measuring hills and stuff, and the other one does sums. Neither of them has any clue at all about the world, or people or any self-awareness.

I have no idea what this book was TRYING to be, but what it IS is trite, uninspiring, pretty damn boring nonsense. I think it’s supposed to be a bit amusing, in a Teutonic sort of way, but it didn’t make me laugh at all. I knew quite a lot about Humboldt already, and had previously been interested, but this novel has positively murdered any previous interest I had in him.

Sorry Cote but I hated it. The only reason I finished it was to try to find out what on earth you saw in it, but, if anything, I thought it got even worse in the second half. It reminded me of something along the lines of, 'The Thousand Year Old Man who Jumped out of a Window and Wandered about for a Bit' or 'A Short History of Combine Harvesters whilst Salmon Fishing in the Yemen' or other ridiculously 'whimsical' novels of that ilk."

Sorry, Cote!

WE HAVE MANIFESTED COTE

Lovely to see you we've been missing you - I read a book recently in which a young woman talked endlessly about her feelings, and wondered if you'd rubbed off on me.

Lovely to see you Cote.

I'm sorry to hear that you've been ill. Wishing you well.

Eine

14.. In The Name of the Father by A. J. Quinnell

I loved this book by the author of Man On Fire, although I am sorry to say that the details are hazy so many months after I read it. International conspiracy involving the Vatican, one man sent to Soviet Russia in the company of a nun to prevent an assassination, all told with a solid story line around actual historical events.

Recommended.

Sorry to hear you've been unwell, Cote , your reviews have been missed.

80 & 81 Desdaemona & sequel Pandaemonium by Ben Macallan
Urban fantasy by the same author as the Crater School books, under a different pen name. Sadly pastiche definitely seems to suit him better, these had a reasonable plot, but the world building was very thin. It's a shame, because I liked the protagonists, and I hoped that the sequel would pick up the scene setting in book 1 & develop it much more.

82 The Lost Family : How DNA Testing Is Upending Who We Are, by Libby Copeland
Explores the ethical, practical and emotional consequences of widespread recreational & genealogical research DNA testing. I thought this was really well done & interesting even as someone who's never taken much interest in genetics or geneaology (I picked it up at random from the audible free list).

83 The Golden Enclaves by Naomi Novik
Third in the Deadly Education series, following El and her friends outside the Scholomance. I know others weren't impressed, but I loved the two previous books, and enjoyed this one just as much. Unlike the books above, the world building is spot on, & unlike some other SFF (looking at you, Becky Chambers) there's plenty of plot to carry the story, & it moved along at a decent pace. The ending was a bit fudged, but forgiveable for me in the context of a YA series.