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?

96. The Red Garden by Alice Hoffman
    A history of a fictional American town from its creation by desperate pioneers in the 1700s to modern times.
    Each chapter could work as a self-contained short story, though there are some references back. There are ghosts and bears and magic realism and it feels very typically Alice Hoffman.

97. The Candid Life of Meena Dave by Namrata Patel
    Meena was raised by her white adoptive parents knowing nothing of her biological family or ethnicity. When a stranger leaves her a Boston apartment in her will in a building occupied entirely by people of Indian descent she takes time out of her globetrotting life to find out more about her roots and her identity.
    Nice, easy to read book about finding yourself, with a dash of romance.

98. This Lie Will Kill You by Chelsea Pitcher
    Five highschool students, all with secrets, are invited to a murder mystery evening with the promise of a college scholarship for the winner but when they arrive they find that it's a lot stranger and darker than they expected.
    Creepy YA thriller that I think suffers from trying too hard to be both twisty and profound and ends up feeling a bit pretentious.

@RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie it's interesting that you recall it that way. The Inuit girl is key to the whole plot and theme of the book- or that's how I read it.

@MaudOfTheMarches thanks for the Wolf Hall tip. I'm sure the free kindle books used to be a paid for extra, not included in prime? Has this changed? I definitely remember using a 3 month free trial a couple of years ago and then cancelling. Don't want to suddenly find myself charged an additional subscription every month!

Not a book, but I watched the 100 years of Agatha Christie documentary on Netflix yesterday (late to the show, I know it came out in 2020) and I realised despite my life-long love of the David Suchet series I've hardly read any of the books. I read The Mysterious Affair at Styles many years ago and wasn't hugely impressed. Also read And Then There Were None and enjoyed it. The documentary has definitely inspired me to read more of her books. I was interested to learn that The Murder of Roger Ackroyd has a brilliant twist that isn't used in the TV series so may start with that one

@satelliteheart Kindle Unlimited is the paid one, Prime is the "free" one, although obviously you have to pay for Prime first. I think I pay £9 a month but that covers Prime TV as well. I very rarely see books Im interested in on either Kindle Unlimited or Prime, to be honest, but Wolf Hall came up on the front page of my Kindle app.

I have only managed two books in October because I followed up the Exasperated History with the even more lengthy Alwyn Turner book on the 1990s , A Classless Society. This has less random stuff about popular culture in it (and no Doctor Who!) than his earlier books . It is detailed and fascinating to read with hindsight, especially the sections on the Tory infighting which led directly to where we find ourselves today. He is enlightening on Blair and the way he shaped and controlled New Labour. No one comes particularly well out of this decade, it has to be said. Possibly Major comes across as the better person at least . The way Turner traces through changing social attitudes to homosexuality is fascinating and the way he foreshadows problems in Labout heartlands is telling. As I believe I said about his earlier books, I'd like more on non English politics (although it does appear Blair kept calling the Welsh 'fucking wankers'...), and more on other inequalities, such as racial disparities. Stephen Lawrence merits a couple of paragraphs and Dunblane fleeting mention..

Very long so a bit of a slog but still worthwhile.

Thanks @MaudOfTheMarches I didn't realise there were two different plans. I already have prime so will definitely check out the free books included in that

@MegBusset How funny! I think I thought all that section was a load of rubbish, so if it was key to everything I clearly missed something!

45. The Camomile Lawn by Mary Wesley

Days before the outbreak of World War 2, a group of young cousins come to stay at their Uncle Richards. The novel follows their fortunes in the war, and flashes forward to their reunion at a funeral many years in the future.

I can't decide at all what I made of this. At first it's all very much "Tally Ho, Jolly Hockey Sticks, What What" and when it comes to that sort of thing I am either utterly in love (see Mitfords) or find it a bit try hard. Here, I was ambivalent.

For at least the first third, it seems to be a highly superficial book, making light of everything, and caricatures over characters.

And then you realise that there is an ugly, dark side to most of the characters, and high dysfunction in terms of both their own behaviour and how they treat each other. One character is outed as a paedophile and it is treated as if it's an entirely normal fact of life. A woman hates a young girl and is miserable to her for no reason. Everyone, like, everyone, is massively incestuous, getting it on with basically everyone else regardless of them being actual blood relations.

The ending, the way it was a surface happy ever after with a dark twist underneath really suited the overall effect of the book, which is quite a strange and unexpected one.

This either came recommended by the thread or because of the thread through deals. I don't know if I recommend it or not, it's really weird, everyone in it is terrible, but it's somehow affecting.

64 The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo - Taylor Jenkins Reid I don’t see what all the hype was about…this was a very average, Danielle Steel-type race through a Hollywood star’s life, with an unnecessary and unconvincing present-day wrapper. Not bad enough to get the italics treatment in my list, but nowhere near good.

Remus, I thought Lady Silence (the Inuit girl) was key to showing that knowledge of how to survive in that environment was readily available, if only the explorers had thought to consult the local people. She was also key in helping Crozier understand his own shamanic vocation (although I do agree this whole aspect was much more problematic).

17.. Judas 22 by Charles Cumming

This was a pretty decent espionage story. It feels like the author is finally coming to his own.

A British spy is surprised to find his alias from decades ago in a Russian state hit list. We are then treated to a flashback about the back story: How, as a young and inexperienced agent, he infiltrated Soviet Russia and snuck out one of their top weapons specialist. Coming back to today, he plots to neutralize the threat and get back at the person responsible for the suffering of people he left behind all those years ago.

I gave Charles Cumming another chance after several disappointing books because his stories take place in our current reality of an interconnected world with WhatsApp, social media, facial recognition, etc. Many] spy books are still being written as if we are in the time of Smiley & Co, with drop sites, notes being passed etc and I just do not find them credible.

"Anyone read and recommend (or otherwise) his Hyperion?"

Dan Simmons' Hyperion is brilliant. I absolutely loved it. There is no resolution at the end, though, and you have to continue with the sequel which is also very good.

46. My Life In Orange by Tim Guest
I think I read about this when it was published in 2004 and had wanted to read it ever since. Eventually I got cross that I'd waited so long and just bought it. I wasn't disappointed.

Since it was published, there have been several memoirs about growing up in extreme cults and sects - for example Educated by Tara Westover and In the Days of Rain by Rebecca Stott. I find them all fascinating and they help me reflect on what is normal and abnormal about my own parenting and the 'standard' parenting of the current time. Tim Guest writes in a very spare, neutral way about a storm of emotional decisions when he was a child that led to him and his mother going to live in communes and eventually to the Ashram and the Ranch made by followers of the Bhagwan Rajneesh. The media always presented this particular sect as more of a lighthearted joke than other cults it looked at. But the promotion of detachment, free love and personal enrichment (for him) that the Bhagwan went for made an environment of complete instability and lack of present love. There were also huge trends of violence and paranoia in the organisation. Guest slowly and carefully makes it clear that he was simply neglected, his mother's issues magnified by the teachings of Bhagwan and her good qualities muted and cut off from him. His longing for her rings through every chapter. He writes heartbreakingly well on loneliness.

Reading articles about his life after he write the book (warning: they are sad) suggest that he did find it cathartic, and there are comforting moments towards the end. And he is careful to give the good strands in a life aiming for freedom and togetherness a proper airing. It's certainly true that there no guarantee that in an alternative life as a family of three living in a Leeds suburb they'd all have been super happy, that's clear.

Cote thank you for the reminder that I've been meaning to read Hyperion. Also very happy for the recommendation for a contemporary spy novel.

It's non-fiction, but have you read The New Spymasters which is follows the changes in espionage from the start of the 20th C through to the present day (well, up to 5 yrs ago when it was written, I'm sure things have changed further since then)?

15) Happiness is a thing with wings by Susi Osborne
I read this pretty quickly for me in the past week. This is about a lady called Joanna who is approaching her 49th birthday. She is stuck in a loveless marriage which has been like this for the past thirty years and has empty nest syndrome with her son Jack. She is stuck in a rut.
Joanna has a funny, embarrassing chance encounter in her supermarket which is the catalyst for changing her life.
I found this on the whole an easy reading book. I did not warm to Joanna’s character to begin with but she grew on me. I enjoyed this , not a four or five star but an average read and will forget what it was about in a few years but worthy of a read. Will read more of this author if I happen to come across her books.

Reflecting on stand out books I have read this year I really have not come across any worthy of that yet. I am hopeful for the rest of the year.

My next book borrowed from the library is a spooky one for this time of year.

The Lighthouse Witches by C. J Cooke

Just catching up.

@satelliteheart The murder of Roger Ackroyd was my first Christie book and I was hooked. Really recommend.

31 The colours of Cattle and 32 To the land of long lost friends booms 19 and 20 in the ladies detective agency series by Alexander Mccall Smith. Its more of the same but like most series the books do get weaker over time but it's light escapism and easy reading which is perfect for me. Books 15 onwards I hadn't read so it's been new stories to me and I suppose nostalgia isn't there either so may be why I think these are weaker.

Sorry I'm not really suggesting books for others but having a reread year this year I guess.

@PermanentTemporary it's good to hear someone else rated My Life in Orange - I read it years ago and was compelled by it. What a sad, strange and lonely childhood Tim Guest had to undergo - and yes, as you say, his later life was tragic and too short.

(I was coming on originally to say that if anyone fancies the latest Anne Tyler, French Braid, it’s in the Daily Deals today)

@DuPainDuVinDuFromage totally agree they were my thoughts exactly and really did not get the hype about The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo. This was DNF for me and I gave up quickly. I wanted to like it as DD recommended but no.

Thanks for this. I clearly have zero patience for shamanistic rituals!

This thread and my bank balance!

Just got :

French Braid
Empire Of Pain
Hyperion
and
My Life In Orange

@PermanentTemporary

Have you read Unfollow by Megan Phelps-Roper? I felt she was still very much in denial, and believed her parents were loving and wanted the best for her despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary.

54. Amy and Lan by Sadie Jones. I've read some of her historical fiction before and thought it was nothing special, but I really enjoyed this. Amy and Lan are about 7 when the book starts, growing up in a kind of communal living experiment on a farm in the Welsh borders. As they get older, they come to understand more about the tensions between their parents and between their farm and the local community.

There's some beautiful nature writing and the sense of wonder they all feel about things like a cow giving birth are evoked very well. Writing from the perspective of children is tricky and there's perhaps a bit too much of the 'the grown ups are talking about boring things like mortgages so we go to see the sheep' kind of thing.

It would have been easy to make the premise - middle class friends buying up land with a dream of learning to farm and become self sufficient - satirical and mocking, but actually it felt like a generous book about good, if naive, people genuinely trying to live the best life they could.

55. V for Victory by Lissa Evans. Third part in a loose trilogy with Crooked Heart and Old Baggage. The story picks up with Noel and Vee during the final months of the war where for reasons I couldn't quite remember from the earlier books, Vee is living under an assumed identity and fighting to keep from being found out. This was ok, a light read but too many plots that didn't really go anywhere. Old Baggage is the strongest by far I think.

@EineReiseDurchDieZeit no not yet, but I'd read about it. I'll try it. I often wish that the authors would update. They often seem to write almost as a first pass in understanding their past and in time they must gain other perspectives. Not Tim Guest of course but I think of Karen Armstrong who wrote a second more considered version of the book she initially wrote almost in shock at leaving her convent.

Megan PR may in due time, she's just had her second child, and as her children grow, it may affect her more, I have heard other adults traumatised as children say this. I think there are things left unsaid with her beyond just the leaving too, she left with younger sister Grace and some time ago I took the impression they were now NC

57. Once Upon a River - Diane Setterfield

In the 1800s a strange young girl, supposedly drowned, is brought into a Thames-side pub. She returns to life and two families lay claim to her, with other peripheral characters affected by the circumstances of her discovery.

A long read, started in the summer and left for a while, for me it was one of those books you had to be in the right frame of mind to pick up. Read by other 50 bookers (as I recall Sol wasn't overly impressed). It was ok, I quite liked it (good characterisations) but it needed an edit. Wrapped up nicely at the end, and took enough time to do so, which was a relief.

Pure by Andrew Miller.
This was a recommendation from the amazing team at Mr B's emporium in Bath.
Quite why a book about clearing a cemetery in (just) pre- revolution Paris should be so completely absorbing I don't know - but it is.

Jean- Baptiste Barrat is a young engineer from Normandy who, in the Autumn of 1765, finds himself summoned to Versailles and given the job by the mysterious'Minister' of clearing the cemetery of les Innocents (which is starting to smell and is overcrowded).

The next year of his life is one where he experiences love, loss, grief, friendship and life in Paris (where things are clearly about to change and there is a sense of unrest).

Miller's descriptions - of the mechanics of how you would clear a graveyard- are detailed and thoroughly researched and interesting. The book is based on real events ( the cemetery was cleared and is now where the underground les Halles shopping centre is situated today) and the bones of those originally interred were taken to the catacombs-along with, a few years later, the bones of victims of the Terror.

Even the minor characters in this book intrigue you - Jeanne, the sexton's daughter; Armand, a musician and revolutionary; Jan Block, a miner who works to dig up the bones.

Highly recommended and I would love to read a sequel to this as I wanted to know what happened to the characters during the Revolution.