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?

Morning all!

After some interest on another thread I've started a read along for Charles Dickens Yeultide classic A Christmas Carol.

Please come and read with us; we start with Stave 1 today.

266 Friends, Lovers, And The Big Terrible Thing by Matthew Perry

Agree with everything Razorstorm said!

105. On Hampstead Heath by Marika Cobbold
     Journalist Thorn makes a professional error that spirals out of control.
     The story's told with humour and Thorn is a likeable, if spiky, character. I think it's the relationships in the novel that make it, Thorn's friendships with her ex husband and her neighbour, her difficult relationship with her mother.

106. We Are All Birds of Uganda by Hafsa Zayyan
     There are two threads to this novel. The main story is about high flying London lawyer Sameer who is the son of Asian immigrants from east Africa. He and his friends experience racism ranging from little comments to violence. On a whim he books a holiday to Uganda to find out more about his family's past. The other is the story of Hasan in Uganda, starting in the 1940s and spanning several decades.
     I found Hasan's story to be the more compelling of the two, made up of letters he is writing to his late wife as he goes through times if political turmoil.
     Sameer for most of the book seemed a bit lacking in personality, really just someone placed in the book for things to happen to. He did start to come alive eventually and I think the book as a whole turned out to be much better than I expected from the first few chapters. Overall it's a thoughtful novel about racism, immigration and belonging.

107. I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman trans. Roz Schwartz
     A strange, sad book about a girl raised in an underground bunker with thirty nine women.
     It's very compellingly written and I'm torn between liking the mystery of it and wondering what the point of it is.

108 If Cats Disappeared From the World by Genki Kawamura trans. Eric Selland
The terminally ill narrator is visited by the devil in a Hawaiian shirt offering him an extra day's life in exchange for removing one thing from the world, and so the days go by with various things disappearing.
Nice easy to read book but a bit forgettable.

109. The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell by Robert Dugoni Sam was born in the 1950s with ocular albinism giving him red eyes. The novel is about him growing up, a frequent target for bullies, and his life in the 1980s as an opthalmologist when he encounters a patient he suspects is being abused. It's a story about the love of family and friends, about faith and is a very absorbing, uplifting read.

Yeah @ABookWyrm I was very 50/50 on I Who Have Never Known Men it was haunting and has stayed with me, but the final third ran out of steam and was something of an odd anticlimax, when, as a reader, I would have preferred at least some explanation for some of the mysteries.

I also have We Are All Birds Of Uganda on TBR

Thanks for that, Terpsichore. I can appreciate that sentiment; she excels in women we can all imagine becoming if our lives took a different turn. So I can understand how you feel. It's not something I dwell on; if I did, I'd probably never read another Brookner again!

31 Half-baked idea - Olivia Potts. Olivia was in her mid twenties when her mother died suddenly and this delves into how she grieves and the major changes she makes in her life. Food and feelings. My sweet spot 😉

68 Cloud Cuckoo Land - Anthony Doerr It’s difficult to describe this book without giving spoilers - it’s quite complex, with several different storylines set in different times and places, and an overarching theme of an Ancient Greek text. I had no idea what it was about when I started reading it and I think that is the best way to approach it, so that’s all I’ll say about the plot!

I initially found it difficult to enjoy and follow all the different plot lines, especially as it seemed, from an early point, that there was going to be some pretty depressing stuff happening. But after about 40 pages I started to care more about the characters, the different threads started to come together, and it became clear that there wasn’t going to be death and destruction just for the sake of it (similar to All The Light We Cannot See, actually). From that point onwards it was really engaging and I wanted to know what was going to happen in all the plot lines. I thought the threads were tied up really well by the end, and I really liked the ending.

Definitely a bold for me - I’ll be recommending this.

I seem to remember being underwhelmed by I Who Have Never Known Men. A decent idea, but increasingly unsatisfying in its execution.

Haven't updated in ages, I've finally admitted defeat with Gregory, it all gets a bit too samey so I need a break

29. The Taming of the Queen by Philippa Gregory this one follows Henry VIII's sixth wife, Catherine Parr. I find the more recent books are so long they just drag too much and also get a bit "this happened and then this happened". Catherine Parr is an incredibly interesting woman and I think is one of the lesser known wives who is simply dismissed under the heading of "survived". However I think it's not widely known just how close she came to being another of Henry's victims and Gregory tells this story well. However, having studied the period a lot I already knew a lot about Parr so this book didn't really add anything and was just a bit too long

DNF The Queen's Fool by Philippa Gregory this was the point at which I gave up on this series. I will definitely finish it but I just need a break to read something different

30. The Secret Rooms by Catherine Bailey having just recommended this one on here I decided to revisit it myself. This is a fascinating book that delves into the history of John Manners, 9th Duke of Rutland. He collated one of the most comprehensive family archives in the country and Bailey obtained access to it in order to write a book about soldiers from the estates in WWI. Unfortunately, she found some glaring gaps in the archive which led her down a different path - to discover why this man, who dedicated his life to record keeping, would have removed evidence from three key periods in his life. What was John trying to cover up? A fantastic book and one I never get tired of revisiting

31. False Step by Victoria Helen Stone this was an Amazon first reads freebie. I feel like too many months I choose these American family thrillers and I don't love them. This one follows Veronica, unhappily married to Johnny and staying in the marriage purely for the benefit of her 10 year old daughter Sydney. Veronica has some secrets, the main one being how unhappy she is in her marriage and her long term plan to leave once Sydney is slightly older. Unfortunately, her husband suddenly finds himself a local hero when he finds a missing three year old whilst out hiking. The interest in her "perfect" family from the local press and community threatens to reveal Veronica's secrets.
    I worked out whodunnit incredibly early in this book, it was really very glaringly obvious. Honestly, I wouldn't recommend, I didn't feel I could get behind a single character, they were all awful, and the plot was just too transparent

Dc3 was born a week ago, so my reading pace has picked up as I need something to sustain me through the night feeds, but it does mean I can only read kindle books so I can read in the dark. So my lovely bookshelves of physical books are taunting me

Congratulations on your new baby Satelliteheart, I'm very impressed that you can write such lucid reviews after giving birth only a week ago!

And from me too satelliteheart. Congratulations on the birth of your baby boy!

Congratulations @satelliteheart!

Yes, congrats, Satelliteheart, and I agree I'm impressed and amazed!

Congratulations satellite, another future reader!! I would have loved a kindle when DD was born but I didn’t get one until she was 3 (and even then it didn’t have a backlight, only got one of those a couple of years ago). Would have made the nights so much more bearable!

Congratulations @satelliteheart

Respect, satelliteheart, that sounds admirably organised! And congratulations on the new arrival.

Huge congratulations @satelliteheart

Has anybody got a lovely cosy read to recommend? The weather is awful and I'm in that stage of the year where I almost never see the light of day. I need something lovely to curl up with, in the absence of a new baby to snuggle!

Congratulations @satelliteheart , night reads with a new born are a special time. I remember doing Wolf Hall when my 13 year old was a baby - not Kindle - I may have used her as a book rest.

Have you read Wolf Winter by Cecilia Eckback, Remus? Not exactly cosy but evocative wintery read. Am also trying to persuade said 13 yo yo read The Dark Is Rising, feel like we're nearing Christmas reads.

Recent reads:
66. Death of a Snob - M C Beaton. Stormy country house murder mystery on a Scottish island. Short but not particularly gripping.

67. A Start in life - Anita Brookner. Recently reviewed. I found this quite sad and a bit depressing with her utterly awful parents. I preferred the other two "dated" book club books.

68. Hyperion - Dan Simmons. Someone mentioned up thread and I remembered I had them both. The first book is a kind of Sci-Fi Canterbury tales, with 7 pilgrims journeying to the time tombs which are about to open on the planet Hyperion, and a monster that dwells within. There's a priest, a poet, a detective, a scholar, a colonel and a diplomat who each take it in turns to tell their story as they travel to the tombs. Each of them has a connection with the tombs and the monster, and a reason for travelling there. There's a whole John Keats side story as well as a background of AI versus humanity. It's good but it ends ridiculously abruptly so am now reading the sequel which I'm finding is dragging a bit.

59 Nomadland - Jessica Bruder

Reviewed lots on here, so will just say that I really enjoyed it - though I had watched the film first, which I think carried more of an emotional punch. Has given me a strong case of wanderlust.

Thanks @Stokey I'll get the sample.

I've got a couple of Christmas reads lined up but won't start them until mid-December - mostly British Library Crime Classics ones.

@RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie

I've just had a little look through my Kindle to see what I would describe as "cosy" Surprisingly few. I offer up Coming Home by Rosamund Pilcher.

Less cosy, but a good period piece : The Children's Book by As Byatt

Congrats on your new arrival @satelliteheart

17)A Slow Fire Burning by Paula Hawkins

I enjoyed this but I thought the ending was drawn out and it was an average for me. However if I happen to come across her other book The Girl on the Train I will read it as I think it will be far better than this one from reviews I have read.

Congratulations @satelliteheart