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?

Definitely recommend Deep Sea and Foreign Going, it’s excellent. Rose George writes such interesting books on such a range of great topics that nobody else would think of.

@EineReiseDurchDieZeit @RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie Is the novel you’re discussing about Bella Guinness? I read a non-fiction account of her by the prolific US true-crime writer Harold Schechter which was quite good.

Thanks again, everyone. Some I've read and some (shipping containers) aren't really the vibe I want, but I'll get samples of the others.

@ChannelLightVessel Yes re Belle. The novel begins pretty well but then it gets very samey - could've done with being half the length.

@bibliomania You are correct about my feelings on Provinicial Lady. I hate it - am I still allowed on these threads?

[Ostentatiously turns back on Remus ]

Ah Remus, you know I love you really.

I'm 30 minutes into the audible version of The Devil in the Kitchen - Marco Pierre White's autobiography - and this may be my first DNF in a long time. I do not need to hear about a bully terrorising staff and wasting food by throwing massive quantities of cheese at the wall. I'm a very keen foodie, and would love to hear about his culinary art but cannot cope with this type of behaviour. Has anyone else read it? Does it get any more palatable?

I also hated Provincial Lady 👀

@nowanearlyNicemum I've read it and no, it doesn't get better. I finished it but I thought it just showed MPW up as arrogant and insecure (being charitable). I seem to remember him repeatedly saying that when he cuts someone out of his life, they're out for good, and I thought those people were probably best off without him. Maybe he's a nice person in real life, maybe he's matured, who knows, but he doesn't come off well in the book.

[Writes EineReise'ss name on list]

Solidarity @EineReiseDurchDieZeit

Adds @bibliomania to the, 'To be feared for ever more'' list...

Many thanks Maud for saving me from listening to another 9 hours or so of his arrogance.

A little annoyed that I just tried to return it to Audible (something I NEVER do) and have discovered that I'm not allowed to 😦

This was my review of Provincial Lady :

This seems very popular on Mumsnet in general and has some similarities to Diary Of A Nobody but I'm afraid I just found this deeply irritating and not particularly funny.

A shame as I got the full collection on Kindle and really can't see myself going any further.

This was Remus' response

Eine - I only managed a few pages of The Diary Of A Provincial Lady before deciding I'd rather eat it than read any more of it.

@EineReiseDurchDieZeit 😂So we both loved it then.

"I'd rather eat it than read any more of it" 😂

56 The Terror - Dan Simmons

I loved the TV series of this last winter so thought I'd give the novel a go. Based on Franklin's doomed expedition to find the North West Passage - but adding a supernatural twist with a monster hunting the stranded crew of Terror and Erebus - it's a gripping tale and perfect for dark nights drawing in. The ending is different from the TV series in some quite profound ways, and I'm not sure which I prefer.

Anyone read and recommend (or otherwise) his Hyperion?

I’m relieved to see this! Provincial Lady was a DNF for me the first time I tried, though I eventually went back to it last year because I felt vaguely uneasy, perhaps worried my mumsnet account would be revoked. It really should have been right up my street. Although I say that about a lot of books these days, I think I’ve moved street somewhere along the line.

@MegBusset

No but I have read Drood which I really liked. I am planning on reading The Terror myself but I'm waiting til I've hit 50, hopefully by end of November and then devote December to the meaty tomes. I have about 4 doorstops.

@AliasGrape

Yeah, for me it was very much, what am I not getting if everyone on MN raves about it? Will I have to apologise?

Meg, I've read Hyperion. According to my spreadsheet it was seven years ago and I don't remember it very well, but I know I enjoyed it.

Just finished 44. How to Kill Your Family - Bella Mackie One of those Amazon kept throwing at me as ‘recommended for you’. Was quite intrigued at first but lost interest by the second family member murder and sort of forced myself to the end wondering if it would redeem itself. It didn’t really.

I thought Drood had a lot of early promise but got increasingly silly. I liked The Terror but seem to remember a long and boring bit about some sort of Inuit girl or similar which drove me a bit bonkers.

Somebody really should get the editing scissors out on him.

Had fallen into a bit of a reading slump recently, but have just finished two more.
11. Ghost Wall Sarah Moss
After reading lots of positive reviews of Sarah Moss, I was a bit underwhelmed by The Fell. However, i thought this was a little gem of a novella. * *Teenage Silvie & her parents join a small iron age reenactment. The story explores Silvie's relationships both with her parents and the other participants whilst living in the mock iron age camp. From the dramatic prologue you have a fair idea of where this is going, but this didn't bother me at all. I loved the writing - it really brought the setting and relationships alive. The story touches on class, male domination and how we 'know' and use history for our own purposes. This makes it sounds preachy, but everything arises as an integral part of the narrative. I imagine it would probably be a bit marmite & some people would hate it, but I loved it.
12. The Silence, Susan Allott
Got this as a 99p kindle deal and read it in two sittings. Isla is an Australian expat living in London in the 90s. Her dad rings & tells her that he is a suspect in the case of a women who disappeared 30 years ago. Isla returns to Australia to support him. We then learn what has happened switching between two alternating narratives one in the 60s and one on the 90s. Although the subject matter is heavy, the style is easy to read and I was gripped by the central mystery. Characters are flawed and revealed slowly in the early chapters. Central to the story is the tragedy of the forced removal of aboriginal and Torres Strait islanders from the families by the authorities. However, their voices are not really heard within the story.

232 The Other Daughter by Shalini Boland

Rachel’s three year old daughter was snatched about 10 years ago and never found. Now she’s made a new life for herself and makes a new friend, but is shocked when she meets her new friend’s daughter - she’s convinced it’s her daughter. How can she find out the truth? This was good with a twist I really didn’t see coming.

233 Abominations: Selected Essays from a Career of Courting Self-Destruction by Lionel Shriver

Collection of journalism. Bit of a mixed bag - I enjoyed the lockdown diary and the grammar ones, but didn’t agree with some of her points in the more political essays.

234 Love Untold by Ruth Jones

I really liked this story of four generations of Welsh women. The older generations were a bit too active to really be plausible but if you can put that aside it’s a nice story.

235 Bonkers by Jennifer Saunders

I never really watched French & Saunders but I did like Absolutely Fabulous so thought this would be worth a read when I saw it for 20p in the library. And it was!

236 This Is Your Own Time You’re Wasting by Lee and Adam Parkinson

Collection of stories about funny and horrible things that happen in schools. Quite funny but nothing you wouldn’t expect. Not quite sure who this is aimed at - the commentary in between stories sometimes seems to be aimed at teachers and sometimes it’s more general.

237 The Bullet That Missed by Richard Osman

Latest in the Thursday Murder Club series and this is more of the same - all rather silly but good fun.

60. Mrs Mohr Goes Missing by Maryla Szymiczkowa

Enjoyable murder mystery set in 19th century Krakow. The amateur detective, Zofia, is the bored wife of a university professor who has done everything she can to advance her husband in Polish society, and needs a diversion. She finds it when a woman (the titular Mrs Mohr) disappears from the charitable institution where her cook Franciszka's grandmother lives. Zofia is determined to solve the mystery and, together with the help of the redoubtable Franciszka, she does - but not before a few deaths have ensued and general confusion has been sown amongst the forces of law and order. This rattled along, helped by some witty asides, and I enjoyed the vignettes of Krakow society. Very well translated.

61. Typhoon by Qaisra Shahraz

This month's Shelterbox book club pick. A Pakistani village is engulfed by a scandalous love triangle, which changes the lives not only of two women but of the other villagers forever. Meanwhile, the widowed "haughty" local landowner lives alone with her son, rebuffing all who might seek to court her. The various threads are unravelled in a lengthy flashback to 1982, and then we come back to the present (2002) to see how those events have continued to cast a shadow. Lots of interest here (I've never read a book in a similar setting), but it felt overwritten to me, and I didn't like the ending.

Yes I agree about Drood Remus it does go off the boil, but I really enjoyed it.

44. Girl A by Abigail Dean

I know a lot of people on the thread have already read this or heard of it, so no need for a long review.
I was most reminded of a touch of The West Family vs the more recent Turpin family in the US.
Even though the novel is broken into a chapter per sibling, I felt that it did not seem to have a clear or sharp focus. I know it's good for a debut but it had muddled and inexperienced all over it.
I don't by any means look to read torture porn or misery porn (I know those books have their fans) but I felt it lacked any significant detail beyond some repetitive descriptions of being hungry, trapped in bedrooms.
Surprisingly, there is a hint of quite a dark subplot in the past, but it is only briefly mentioned, pages before the end.
The last page states she has another coming out next year called Day One - and I may or may not read it, bit undecided.