50 Books Challenge 2022 Part Seven

[Southeastdweller]

Welcome to the seventh and (and probably) final 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, and even though it's late in the year, it’s not too late to join. Please try to let us all know your thoughts on what you've read.

How have you got on this year?

I read Lady Chatterley's Lover 30 odd years ago. I gave my copy to DHs nan who had a flat in an elderly sheltered housing complex. Apparently it did the rounds😆

I loved (and still love) the novella The Ladybird too...

55. Whip Hand by Dick Francis
Just thought I would read something gripping and that I know backwards to help ease the fiction angst. Just about one of his best i think. A sequel but it's better than the first one Odds Against and a lot better than the terrible sequel whose name I can't even remember.

The King and the Christmas Tree by AN Wilson

Curious little book about Norway during the war. It looks like a book aimed at children but can't imagine many children reading it, it's mostly relatively dry and, e.g. talks about alcoholism in the population after the war. An interesting if relatively superficial history and not as Christmassy as the styling suggests.

39. Midwinter Murders - Agatha Christie This is a US publication (on prime reading) which contains a story not published before in the US but has been published here. Includes a variety of stories with many of Christies most famous characters. I really enjoyed dipping in and out of this and as per usual Christie had me guessing whodunit and enjoying the mystery.

Currently reading the first kingdom - Max Adams A look at Britain in the age of Arthur.

27. The sentence by Louise Erdrich
A native American owned bookstore is haunted by a former customer. This is set in 2020 and references black lives matter and the pandemic.

I really enjoyed this one and she packs a lot in. Love all the book references. Definitely going to try some of her other novels if anyone has any recommendations?

67 The Dark is Rising - Susan Cooper

Seasonal re-read. I don't think anyone needs another review of this! Loved it, as I do every year.

68 Christmas is Murder - Val McDermid

Seasonal and extremely silly set of short stories. Read quickly and largely enjoyed, but a proper load of tosh. I don't think I'm made for the short story generally.

Janina, I studied The Rainbow for A-level and can confirm I had no time for the turgid dullness then. I always thought it could be one to go back to, but maybe not! I may put Sons and Lovers on my 2023 reading goals list, though. I like Lawrence's short stories but the interminable navel gazing of those tedious people (Ursula?) deterred me somewhat from exploring the novels in more depth.

I read The Rainbow at around age 16 or 17, I don't remember loving it though.

Re-reading (for about the tenth time) Red Carpets and other banana skins by Rupert Everett.
This is my 'comfort book' - I have no idea why I can identify with Rupert Everett as I am not upper class or in the acting profession but there you go. You can't choose the books you love.
As always I get totally immersed in Rupert's world of acting, living in France, disastrous house conversions near St Tropez and many, many love affairs - to the extent that I am now hiding from my family and reading it again.
Shame on me.
Brilliant and very human.

@LadybirdDaphne
Please can I recommend books by Uta Frith and Simon Barron- Cohen on autism?
The latest from Simon Baron- Cohen is Pattern Seekers.

Like every CS book ever written then

Bett

I'm going to repost this every time I read one. As I have access to an illicit Dropbox folder with all of them, you will be seeing this again.

Even if I do nothing but read between now and the 31st, I'm definitely not going to make 50, so I've stopped worrying about it!

31. Imogen, by Jilly Cooper. Another comfort re-read. I love it dearly, but as with her others from that time, it hasn't aged well. I'm afraid I find it so comforting that I just suspend judgement for the couple of hours it takes to read!

32. A Christmas Cornucopia, by Mark Forsyth. Nabbed in the 99p deal and I had low expectations but this was very enjoyable - short, irreverent and very funny. I could have done with a bit less Santa Claus, but otherwise I'm a fan and it was an excellent seasonal choice. @LadybirdDaphne you are not alone!

@Gingerwarthog I have always been a little bit in love with Rupert Everett. I think it's the cheekbones.

Oh, I forgot - for those who like Alan Bennett, his 2022 diaries are available in the LRB: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v45/n01/alan-bennett/diary

@noodlezoodle
If you haven't read his books - do....

Merry Christmas from New Zealand 50-bookers! Santa visits us first! 

@Gingerwarthog thanks for the autism book recommendations, I'll look those up.

101. Blacklands by Belinda Bauer
102. Darkside by Belinda Bauer
103. Finders Keepers by Belinda Bauer

I enjoyed this trilogy of crime novels set in a small village in Exmoor, although the fact that so many serial killers could target one small village stretches credibility somewhat. I’m still getting over COVID so needed something easy but that would keep me interested and this hit the mark.

104. A Christmas Cornucopia by Mark Forsyth

I picked this up after being intrigued by the opening paragraph from @LadybirdDaphne and really enjoyed it. A nice short read with lots of interesting, myth-busting, Christmas-related facts.

105. Rubbernecker by Belinda Bauer
106. The Facts of Life and Death by Belinda Bauer

I was planning on working my way through the rest of Belinda Bauer’s books but really didn’t enjoy this tale of a student with Asperger’s who thinks he has identified a suspicious death when dissecting a body as part of an anatomy course. I also disliked her next book, another serial killer book, where a child is way too involved in trying to catch said serial killer.

107. Nine Elms by Robert Bryndza

15 years after catching the Nine Elms serial killer, Kate Marshall has left the Met and is working as a Criminology lecturer. When a copy cat killer begins to replicate the Nine Elms crimes Kate suddenly decides that she is going to be a PI and ropes her assistant into her nonsense. Not good.

108. A Spark of Life by Jodi Picoult

Centred around a shooting at a female health centre in the US. The examination of views on abortion from both sides was a bit clumsy. I thought I had a sense of how bad the situation was in the US but I learned some horrifying facts, the worst of which for me was that Drs were legally required to make a woman seeking an abortion aware of certain medical facts, I say facts but they are flat out falsehoods that the Dr’s are forced to trot out. And this was in the days when Roe vs Wade was still in place. Horrifying.

Happy Xmas 🙂

Merry Christmas everyone!
Thank you for all the great recommendations during the year!

I started Jane Eyre ten days ago or so and it has turned out to be a bit of a slog.

Merry Christmas all! Hope Santa brings you lots of books.

Happy Christmas 50 bookers!

Happy Christmas all and some moments to read properly to everyone xx

Happy Xmas 50 bookers! This thread has really helped me rekindle my reading this year🙂 Thanks for all the great reviews.

Happy Christmas all! Hoping you get some moments of peace and quiet for reading over the holidays and thank-you all for excellent book-related company over the year.