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?

Particularly like the sound. of A Place Apart and A Time of Gifts. Thanks, everyone!

I love Eric Newby's travel books. Love and War in the Apennines is one of my favourites, about his escape from an Italian POW camp.

Glad to see you, Cote.

The Bullet That Missed by Richard Osman This series is a happy place for me, and I thoroughly enjoyed this instalment.

My hopes of making 50 are fading fast!

29. Nona the Ninth, by Tamsyn Muir. Third in the Locked Tomb series, this was supposed to be the final part of the trilogy, but it grew into its own book. It is as confounding as the second book, Harrow the Ninth, and despite my best efforts I still came away with lots of questions. I really, really hope the next and final book can answer them. I'm torn between having enjoyed being fully immersed in this book, and being unconvinced that it needed to be an entire standalone.

Restless by William Boyd
Don't want to say much about the set-up as it's kind of spoilery, although I know it's a fairly old novel and has been a TV series too. I'll just say it flips between 'present-day' (70s) Oxford and WW2 (various locations) and has dual timelines, one for a woman recruited as a British spy in WW2 and one for her daughter in the present day.
I didn't really enjoy this, surprisingly, as I have liked the Boyds I've read before. I found it didn't really come off the page; read too much like descriptions/recaps rather than actions or characters' thoughts and inner lives.
I finished it though, and I did enjoy the settings. Just can't honestly positively recommend it.

@HilaryThorpe Thanks for that. If I haven't read it (will check) I've always meant to read it!

Love and War in the Apennines - is that the same book?

I didn't enjoy Restless either Dame, didn't seem believable and was quite bland.

I don't think I could bring myself to read Things Can Only Get Better again. Agree it was very good but it would make me too sad.
I pulled a random book off my shelf as part of a recent weeding out and found myself
hooked. It's Supping with Devils which is a collection of political journalism and comment by Hugo Young, starting with a piece about Thatcher and South Africa. I'm reminded with each piece of how much the political landscape has changed for the worse. Even when one disagreed with politics it was reasonable to believe that decisions were taken by credible and serious minded people who stood for something. Finding it hard to put down even though it's depressing reading given where we are now.

30 The Hundred and One Dalmations - Dodie Smith
A lovely comforting re-read! * *

@Owlbookend i felt the same about Mrs England - it could have been really good but just felt a bit insubstantial.

@YolandiFuckinVisser i love 101 dalmatians - so much better than the film! I might try to get a copy to read to my DDs (one of whom is obsessed with dogs 😄)

I am having a nightmare. My ancient kindle was old, a little cracked and getting very clunky so as it was my birthday yesterday my DH bought me a new paper white.

I somehow imagined I’d connect it to my account and there would be all my books in collections just as they were before - much like when I download the app it’s all there.

Nope. Had to go through and send all 300+ through manually from my Amazon account. Everything came through as unread. Nothing in collections. Found a way to download the collections but they were all empty - so went through adding books manually - accidentally clicked ‘remove download’ on a few of them with fat fingers, doesn’t seem to be any way to get them back from the kindle itself. If I search the book and find it on the store and attempt to redownload it tells me there’s been an error -

literally everything I Google merrily tells me to find the ‘all’ tab on my library - this does not exist on this kindle.

Only option seems to be to go to my content page on my Amazon account and then manually search each one on the kindle to check it’s there - seems to be at least 50 or so missing - then click to send that to the device. But frankly getting this far took me 3 hours last night and 2 this morning and I’m at the point of sending the bloody thing back.

In other news, there are a staggering number of books on there that I’ve supposedly read that I remember not one single solitary thing about.

Oh no, Alias😱I hope you get it sorted soon. I've no advice, unfortunately. I have an old Kindle.

@DuPainDuVinDuFromage I used to have a lovely old hardback of 101 Dalmations with the original illustrations, which I loved poring over as a child. My favourite was the one with all the puppies at Hell Hall, some clustered around the TV with the Baddun brothers and some curled up by the fire. Unfortunately the only copy I have now is one I bought for DD a few years ago with charmless updated illustrations depicting modern-looking humans and vehicles.

Glad it's not just me!

Hi fellow 50 bookers, hope you're all well. I fell off the thread a while ago as school holidays, uni and unsuccessful house selling have got in the way. I only recently started counting my books and have now finished my number 50, The Silent Companions by Laura Purcell which was a suitability spooky gothic horror for this time of year, though I did find the ending a bit disturbing! Now reading The Ghost Stories of M R James which was recommended to me by my local librarian.

I'm a bit down numbers wise this year and doubt I'll make my Goodreads target but it's all good, I'm happy with the mix of books I've read so far. Still following the WIW and W&P readalongs (although I'm now about a month behind with my chapters on the latter!).

@AliasGrape That's so annoying re the Kindle disaster.

Mrs England - I thought it began pretty well, but sweet Jesus how I loathed the ending. Utter farce.

@AliasGrape - I upgraded to a paperwhite recently from the original kindle, everything transferred over,, dont think I did anything to make it happen. Have you registered new kindle to your account and email address? Amazon chat is very helpful, I'd give them a ring and see if they can assist?

Hey Cludgie! A good time of year for M R James, with the evenings drawing in.

No advice, Alias, just a technophobic shudder of solidarity.

@RoseHarper Thsts interesting - I really assumed that’s how it would be!

Oh well, even with a few missing theres about 100 in the unread collection (added manually!!) and at least the same number I assume I’ve read (hard to tell now!) but since forgotten entirely so it’s not like I’m going to be stuck for anything to read any time soon.

Just need to stop faffing and get on with reading now then!

45. Waiting for Sunrise by William Boyd
Well, now. I love William Boyd, mostly. I really enjoyed Reckless, I liked its broad spread, and absolutely loved Any Human Heart. Then Ordinary Thunderstorms absolutely blew me away. All good... and then came Sweet Caress [spoiler] with its strong implication that suicide is a clean, painless logical resolution to a life that has become a problem. A few months after we both read it, my dh took his own life. Totally illogical but I felt angry with Boyd for his characterisation of suicide.

Waiting for Sunrise begins in pre WWI Vienna with an anonymous person observing a man walking with purpose to an appointment. In terms of plot summary I don't really want to say any more - it's a classic Boyd that takes you firmly by the arm and propels you through a gripping story without ever losing momentum. I sometimes wondered what it was all for, but I never stopped being interested.

Afterwards I am left still wondering what exactly it was for. Suicide appeared again, still without much impact on anyone around the character; I'm getting a bit worried that Boyd is depressed and playing with the idea himself. But I've also got my head full of fascinating scenes and characters. He's an extraordinary writer. But the passion and warmth that seemed to underlie Any Human Heart and Ordinary Thunderstorms are missing. It's still a standout for me.

@DuPainDuVinDuFromage @RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie glad it wasn't just me with Mrs England. I had loads of issues with the ending. I was enjoying it before the confrontation, but everything from then on I was thinking 'but ...', 'what?', 'how?'

@PermanentTemporary

I hope you are coping and recovering ok, especially since we last chatted

there you all are.

I fell off the last thread due to ongoing multiple work dramas. I've been working late, and then when I do finish I'm only good for mindless telly. I am going to sneak a mid-thread list in, but it is so ridiculously short this year I'm sure people will barely notice:

1. No One is Talking About This by Patricia Lockwood
2. Merivel by Rose Tremain

1. The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper
2. How to Kill Your Family by Bella Mackie
3. The Only Plane in the Sky: The Oral History of 9/11 by Garrett M. Graff

6. Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

1. When Will There be Good News by Kate Atkinson
2. The Finkler Question by Howard Jacobson
3. Travels with My Aunt by Graham Greene

10. Pompeii by Robert Harris 11. Started Early, Took My Dog by Kate Atkinson 12.Big Sky by Kate Atkinson 13 The World According to Colour: A Cultural History by James Fox 14 The Fell by Sarah Moss 15. The Foundling by Stacey Halls 16. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie 17. Tomb of Sand by Geetanjali Shree 18. A Change of Circumstance by Susan Hill 19. Ordinary People by Diana Evans 20. Unsettled Ground by Claire Fuller

I've just finished 21. Hons and Rebels by Jessica Mitford. A memoir of growing up in an eccentric English aristocratic family. Decca (Jessica) takes an outsider's perspective on her family. Sisters Unity and Diana become embedded in the fascist movement while Decca embraces socialisms and elopes with a cousin to fight the fascists in Spain.

Despite the bleakness of some of the material this remained funny and incisive as well as poignant. Recommended.

@TheTurn0fTheScrew

Hi! Nice to see you. I love anything Mitford and you've just given me another opportunity to mention Letters Between Six Sisters as the ultimate bible for any fellow fan.