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 can’t remember whether you've read any of Rose George's books, Sadik? I absolutely loved Nine Pints, which is about blood. A fascinating read. Otherwise, Hadley Freeman's Heart of Glass is also great, if painful (about her family history in WW2). On a similar theme, East West Street by Philippe Sands.

Sorry if you’ve read all these, I can’t remember.

Whoops, meant to @Sadik you!

Once upon a time looks like my kind of thing, so thanks Sadik!

tome. Sod off, autocorrect.

The Toll Gate is one of my favourite Heyers. I love John!

Some of the best non-fiction I've read, though I suspect you'll have read them all @Sadik -
The Worst Journey in the World - Apsley Cherry-Garrard - about the doomed Scott polar expedition. It's its 100th birthday this year.

Into the Silence - Wade Davis - about Mallory & Irving's quest for Everest, amidst the backdrop of World War One.

Fanny and Stella - about cross dressing young men in the Victorian era

Latest read - Blood on the Tracks - British Library Crime Classics
A collection of crime stories set on trains. Old fashioned and rather lovely. A could of duffs, but I mostly really enjoyed this.

@Sadik

I did Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow on Audible, that was good and so was Team Of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin, both historic American politics.

My best non fiction this year is Say Nothing by Patrick Radden Keefe about the Irish Troubles, and other people have said it was a good audio, I read it though

@Sadik
Have you read Invisible Women by Caroline Criado Perez?

John and The Toll Gate cheered me up no end after my slog through The Jewel in the Crown!

For any Barbara Pym fans, *Cramton

Crampton Hodnet is in the monthly kindle deals, featuring the world's least romantic elopement, with the parties secretly feeling they would much rather a nice cup of tea.

And speaking of Pym, I'm reading a book which calls her to mind, The Snow and the Works on the Northern Line, by Ruth Thomas - a young woman works in a learned institute (she's even indexing) and mourns a lost love. It's not just the set-up that's like Pym, but the appealing wryness and always the incongruous detail.

It makes a change from my previous book, Lost Realms, by Thomas Williams, a non-fiction account of Britain after the Romans and before the Vikings. It's normally told as a story of Anglo-Saxon rule, although he explains why this is an over-simplification. He makes an obscure period even more obscure by steering away from the better known characters, apart from passing references ("The Mercian king was an Offa you couldn't refuse"). It means a lot of it is "A kingdom of this name might have been ruled by a king of this name and might have been located here or there or a bit further this way or may never have existed at all", which gets a bit wearying.

To compensate, he has fun with a few purple patches summoning lost moments, firelight glinting on sword hilts, which I thoroughly enjoyed. He's also good on the complexities of identity. So overall, parts to treasure amid stretches of pointlessness. A bit like life, really.

48. The Giver of Stars by Jojo Moyes
I started this in a critical mood, picking at various issues, but soon gave in to the characters and the story. It was lovely to be taken over by a romance again.
This is the story of Alice, an English girl of the 1930s who marries the glamorous Bennett van Cleeve and is whisked away to Kentucky to live happily ever after. Or will they?
Based on the true story of the Packhorse Libraries of that time. Made me want to visit Kentucky.

I dropped off the thread briefly and think I've got pages to catch up on! Whoops!

Anyway, am one step closer to 50 books....

45. Bear Head by Adrian Tchaikovsky

This is second in the series and I didn't love it as much as the first but it's still great with different character view points all sounding different and believable. Also some fairly scary sounding scifi and bad guys whose lust for power can be more damaging than ever in this imagined future.

I think I only think this one isn't as good because I loved Dogs of War so much, it's stayed with me and it will be hard for anything to live up to that.

It's first of the month so I'm going to hunt down more deals I don't have time to read!

56. The Night Visitor by Lucy Atkins. I read this very quickly over the weekend as I wanted something spooky. It's similar to her most recent Magpie Lane in that it hints at ghostly happenings but is actually a quite straightforward psychological thriller. Olivia, a popular historian, gets drawn into working with Vivian, a slightly sinister older woman, to research her new book. She slowly realises things aren't what they seem as the relationship between the two women deepens. I thought this was a good fast read, very tense and unpredictable. Though it ended a bit abruptly and didn't fully explain one major plot point. Definite shades of Notes on a Scandal as well (that's praise from me)

In the kindle deals I've bought People Person, Mother's Boy and Winter Solstice.

I got The Wonder and gave up after 20 pages

As in 20 pages of the deals, not the book

I bought nothing in the deals and also gave up looking after 20 pages.

I did spot The House On The Strand by Daphne du Maurier which I recommend if you haven’t read it.

Deals were rubbish this month, I've not had a daily one for a while either. Just got The Accomplice - Steve Cavanagh as I've enjoyed his other Eddie Flynn novels.

47. Burial Rites by Hannah Kent

A family of high standing in the rural Icelandic community, has to take in a convicted murderess in the run up to her execution.

Soon, they, and the vicar appointed to counsel her begin to wonder who is Agnes Magnusdottir? And did she do it?

This was good, absorbing, and based on historical fact, there was a good sense of time and place. I was not, however, blown away.

This is my second consecutive book of "someone tells their story to a listener" and I'm kind of bored of the device.

It reminded me a lot of The Mercies but I thought this was better.

I'd go for Sleeping Beauties and Unwell Women.

I also loved One Day in the Death of America . Depressing.

Economics wise , DS liked 23 Things they don't tell you about Capitalism . That author has also got a new book out about the economics of food! Also Talking to my daughter : A Brief History of Capitalism is good.

Thanks all for recommendations - unhelpfully I've read most of them. Rose George is a good shout, the only one I've read of hers is Deep Sea & Foreign Going, & I liked that.
Piggy One day in the death of America exactly the sort of thing I like. I think I might have recommended Ha Joon Chang for your DS ages ago, I've thought about getting his new book but I've read a lot of his stuff over the years & wasn't so taken with the later ones (Bad Samaritans very well worth reading if your DS hasn't read it)

Oh, ha! Yes, I do think it was you!

Have you read Sarah Churchwell?

Has anyone read Walter Isaacson's Leonardo da Vinci ? I really enjoyed The Code Breaker & currently reading Steve Jobs in print.