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?

I'm so sorry to hear that @PermanentTemporary. I also love William Boyd but am going to be cross with him on your behalf! Sending an unmumsnetty hug.

Posting to officially DNF :

The Favourite by Ophelia Field
The Good Fairies Of New York by Martin Millar

and

Ducks, Newburyport by Lucy Ellman

In all cases I knew I wasn't going back but in the case of Ducks as an audio, I was tied to only playing it on my TV which was a bind as the Echo couldn't cope with the size. And I knew I couldn't hear her say "the fact that" one more time.

"The fact that" is used 19,000 times apparently.

In general.y Struggling to get going with any fiction since Utopia Avenue weirdly.

💐sorry to hear that Perm.

just finished catching up with the thread. @PermanentTemporary I'm so sorry for the loss of your husband, and for Boyd being a bit of an arse.

Sorry for your loss @PermanentTemporary

PermanentTemporary I'm so sorry to hear about your husband and send you my heartfelt sympathies.

Adding my sympathies @PermanentTemporary.

And mine too PermanentTemporary 💐
I'm sorry for your loss.

Sorry too, Perm.

Ah bless you all. I should have known the lovely 50 Bookers would be condolent (?is that a word). It's 4.5 years now and my life is really ok, though of course it has changed ds and me forever. Just wanted to explain my complex relationship with William Boyd.

Adding my sympathies too PermanentTemporary x

@PermanentTemporary I am so very, terribly sorry for your loss.

Giving a review after reading that feels a bit crass, so I'll leave it at I read Pole to Pole and liked it.

Darn it. Please don't stop posting. I'm sorry if I've upset anyone - losing someone in that way is a sadly common event.

Drawing a line
__

Sadly common indeed Permanent. Devastating.

You haven't upset anyone PT - your feelings are completely normal xx

PermanentTemporary Words are inadequate, really, but very sorry for your loss.

I find William Boyd rather uneven. I loved Restless and Any Human Heart but Sweet Caress and Love is Blind felt like he was just trying to replicate Any Human Heart but not as well. I haven't read Waiting for Sunrise but it sounds similar. I tried to send you flowers PT but have somehow managed a mushroom instead that I can't delete ...🍄

Just read The Road to Lichfield by Penelope Lively for the very dated book club thread. Not as good as Moon Tiger but would still recommend it.

39. Natives : Race And Class In The Ruins Of Empire by Akala

I thought this was an excellent book, and a good companion to Why I'm Not Talking To White People About Race

Some of the racism he describes receiving in the school system is gutwrenching to read.

But what I mostly thought was that sadly those people who most need to read a book like this, are people who never will.

I'm so very sorry as well @PermanentTemporary

Any Human Heart is the only Boyd I've really got on with, but I liked it a lot.

I reached book 50! The Accidental Tourist, a classic Anne Tyler that was lurking on my kindle. Very familiar ground here: eccentric families, Baltimore, finding love after tragedy. I know she's often thought of as cosy but there's a surprisingly violent act at the heart of this. I suspect this will blend together with all the others of her books I've read in my memory but I did enjoy it!

And some bookish news, I was very excited to see a new novel by Curtis Sittenfeld coming in April next year.

@GrannieMainland

Curtis Sittenfeld has been really up and down for me. Loved American Wife found Prep hard work and Rodham somewhere in between; I will definitely look out for it though so thanks

@EineReiseDurchDieZeit American Wife is definitely her masterpiece, but I really do love Prep as well - I had a very strong emotional reaction to it, a kind of imagined nostalgia for a youth I didn't actually have?! I'm never sure how to explain it! I think her short stories are great too.

The Skeleton Key - Erin Kelly

Loosely inspired by Kit Williams Masquerade, the 70s picture book filled with clues to the location of a golden hare, obsessive treasure hunters search for The Golden Bones with far reaching consequences for the author’s family. Although the hopping about in time did get a bit confusing and it was a bit tricky to keep tabs on all the characters, it’s a very enjoyable read.

Sympathies, PermanentTemporary.

I got American Wife as a Kindle daily deal recently but have yet to read it.

77: Bond Street Story - Norman Collins

A big, sprawling, humorous, old-fashioned portmanteau of a novel from the author of London Belongs to Me. All the action revolves around Rammell's of Bond Street, a high-class department store presided over by owner Eric Rammell, permanently-racked by indigestion and beset by a manically social wife, an interfering octogenarian father, and a useless son.

Further down the social scale are floorwalker Mr Bloot, seized by middle-aged passion for tobacconist Hetty Florence; Mr Bloot's old friend Mr Privett, and Privett's daughter Irene, who wants to go On The Stage but finds that her destiny is to become a Rammell's employee just like her father and mother.

Other characters weave around these main protagonists as various dramas beset them. Collins doesn’t take anything too seriously (despite touching on divorce, adultery and even domestic violence) and keeps the tone light and whimsical. Very much of its late 50s era but a gentle, comforting read.

Terpsichore thank you for that review - I haven't heard of that and it sounds right up my Aunt Sally (sorry, that sounds rude 😊).