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?

Happy Christmas you lovely lot.
No books here, but DD has to use up her "culture bonus" by Feb. The Italian govt gives all 18 year olds 500€ to spend on "culture". Can be used to pay for extra-curricular courses, books, theatre and cinema tickets etc. Cannot be used for technology (huzzah!) She has about €200 left and probably won't use, so I said I'd buy it from her. So, tragically, I may be forced to buy 200€ of books for myself.

I have Nigella's Feast. I am a bit of a cookbook collector. Nigella to me, is a bit like Nigel. A food writer rather than a cook. And all the better for it I think.

I am under a blanket and we are about to watch Love Actually. Dp has fallen out with his family (no big tragedy, they're fuckwits one and all) so it's just the 3 of us. DD home from uni. I am lazily reading Remarkable Creatures. I think Tracey Chevalier is one of my certainties in a "wtf shall I read next" world. Interesting, well-written, quiet and understated, gentle. Always. Perfect.

@EineReiseDurchDieZeit enjoy your subscription. 😍 I got DD the book spa. (she's at Bath uni so Mr B is on her doorstep)

grannymaindland Winter Solstice is my favourite Christmas book, even though it is so far removed from normal life. Agree it's so difficult to place timewise...also if I really think about the storyline it gives me the rage (timeline of Oscar moving on) but I just roll with it and pretend that my Christmas will be exactly like that!

@noodlezoodle Thanks for that. Have popped in and bought it and will give it a go in today's bath! I didn't like If Nobody Speaks and DNF Reservoir 13 but it sure looks like my sort of setting!

@SolInvictus The 'Culture bonus' is such a brilliant idea.

Thanks for the heads up @noodlezoodle just snatched up Val Mcdermid 1989

Trying to catch up with my reviews (and others’ reviews!) before 2022 comes to an end. I became really exhausted during term-time and found it hard to focus on any reads that were remotely challenging.

First, two DNFs from the Booker shortlist:
Alan Garner, Treacle Walker. I read The Owl Service this year and was really taken with it, but Treacle Walker seemed to consist largely of old men making cryptic pronouncements to a young boy, and I ran out of patience.

NoViolet Buyawayo, Glory. Again, I found myself lacking in patience. If I knew more about the history of Zimbabwean politics, I’m sure I would have found the narrative more nuanced, but as it was, the satire seemed very heavy-handed and the characters extremely unpleasant.

Two French books I read on my summer hols (I told you I was behind with reviews!):
57. Les Fiancés de l’hiver (La Passe-miroir I), Christelle Dabos [A Winter’s Promise (The Mirror Visitor Book 1)] 4/5
YA fantasy lit and absolutely excellent. I’ve thought about this story a lot since I read it. A young archivist finds herself in a hostile land and engaged to be married to a grumpy, reticent court aristocrat there. The machinations of court and family members, as well as the mirror theme, reminded me somewhat of 17th c. Versailles. Looking forward to reading the other volumes in this series.

58. L’Amour des trois soeurs Piale, Richard Millet 2/5
    A very evocative, lyrical writing style that conjures up a bygone era of rural France. This book however was ruined for me by the author’s evident sexism. The sex scenes are recounted from a point of view so masculine that it’s almost comical (semen is described at one point as ‘liquid the colour of the stars’). And there is a really disturbing scene where a young man gropes his sister as she emerges from the shower, and her eyes are streaming with tears, but she lets him because she knows it’s part of his sexual education (or something like that). Seriously, WTF? Since this novel was published in 1997, Millet has come out with some really unpleasant political views as well. It’s a shame because he’s a gifted writer, but his vision of the world is very narrow in some ways.

59. Maps of Our Spectacular Bodies, Maddie Mortimer 4/5
    I think my brain was too tired to do justice to this book, as I admired it more than I liked it. Bits of it were amazing, but I found it a hard read, partly because the main character (a mother with terminal cancer) has a child the same age as I do. I enjoyed the straightforward narrative sections more than the experimental ones, narrated (I think) in the voice of the protagonist’s disease. Very original on all counts.

60. Hidden Depths, Ann Cleeves 4/5
    I always find Cleeves’ detective novels gripping and soothing in equal measure, and this one was no exception.

61. The Marriage Portrait, Maggie O’Farrell 5/5
    Much reviewed on here already. I loved it. In some ways it feels like a fairytale narrative, especially the ending, but it’s so well done: a surprisingly refreshing read for my weary term-time brain. I felt transported to 16th c. Italy. The idea of hidden layers (of paint, of identity, of emotions) constitutes a powerful motif throughout the novel. I read a library copy but will buy and reread it when it comes out in paperback.

Had an excellent book haul this year. My Amazon wish list is heavily influenced by you lot as can be seen from this little pile.

Hope you all had a good Christmas. And who else is considering moving to Italy so their children can get a culture bonus, what a brilliant idea!

@JaninaDuszejko

I know it's a doorstop but I have to scream PLACE OF GREATER SAFETY as your first! It's really good. Had a bit of a quibble with the ending, but I loved reading it.

Oh @JaninaDuszejko A Place of Greater Safety is in my top 10 of all time. And The End of the Affair my favourite GG.

The Culture Bonus is great, but was introduced as an attempt to get young Italians reading as their parents don't. Which is a sad state of affairs. I can't count the houses I've been in without a single book and often tell the tale of my niece being given a storybook for her 4th or 5th birthday and my SIL being very very offended. What the fuck am I supposed to do with a book! Etc.

I'm pleased to say lots more of my students are to be seen with books than when I first came here almost 30 years ago though.

Rumour has it the bonus may become means tested under the new govt.

Happy Boxing Day 50 Bookers. Good to see everyone's Christmas selection. Just a couple for me this year from lovely MIL, but I'm about to upload an Amazon voucher to buy Lean, Fall, Stand and Another Year of Wonder - hopefully one or two of you will keep me company with the latter.

My reading ground to a halt this year, only managing 20-odd, but I really hope to get back in the groove tomorrow - two more days' leave before going back to work.

I tried it, but it's not for me so have returned it.

Instead, I re-re-re-read 84 Charing Cross Road which was just beautiful - obviously.

Happy belated Christmas to all you lovely people on this thread.

I didn't get any books this year but am tempted to treat myself in the waterstones hardback sale.

@cassandre I'm reading Glory at the moment and finding it quite hard going. It's just too much polemic and lecturing so far and not enough plot. I'm only about 20% through bit have read another book in the meantime which is never a good sign.

A Belated Merry Christmas to one and all!
As you can see, my requests were also very influenced by these threads.

Bugger! I saw "When an Antarctic expedition goes wrong..." and thought ah, I think Remus might like that 😀

84 Charing Cross Road is always a good call.

Love the culture bonus! Was wondering what to give DD for her birthday- perhaps a culture bonus voucher.
Will check back in later - didn't get any books but did get a book token and am in North Yorkshire in a town with an independent bookshop so am going to go for a mosey later on. And will update, obviously!

Happy belated Christmas 50 Bookers.

I didn’t get any books this year - which is maybe a good thing as I’m still sleeping in with a toddler which is making it hard to have a lamp on/ read actual physical books - but I’m still a bit disappointed. Loving seeing everyone else’s haul!

@noodlezoodle It ought to have been perfect, but most of it is actually about after it’s gone wrong and is dicking around with language in a way that is maybe trying to be Eliot or Becket-esque. I can cope with that in plays or poetry but not when I just want a good story.

@ChannelLightVessel Looking forward to seeing what you make of TTOD

Well in laws did buy me some books. Philip Larkin's poems from my wish list then some rogue choices!
The companion book to the Crown tv series, a massive coffee table hardback but I am interested in reading it. And a chick lit book Wedding Bells at Villa Limencello. I don't generally read chick lit so this is a very unusual choice but I'll give it a go at some point

Also finally finished a book!
40) The Borgias: History's Most Notorious Dynasty by Mary Hollingsworth
God this was terribly written. It's actually a previous dnf and I really had to force myself to finish it this time so I can clear it off my list. My own stubbornness in insisting on reading everything on my Kindle often ruins my own reading experience. This is just a list of things that happened. Absolutely no analysis or discussion or original thought. Literally just a list of facts that don't even join up. Sometimes she'll just throw in a completely unrelated thing that happened. "A local farmer lost seven cows to an unpleasant disease" just randomly added in when the previous paragraph was about how much certain cardinals paid for their promotion. I honestly don't know how this was ever published but this woman should not write books. I'm actually angry at how bad this was

I didn't get any books this year but I love seeing what everyone else has got. My Kindle seems to be unwell and keeps rebooting itself, so I may have to buy a new one soon.

58. A German Christmas - Festive Tales from Berlin to Bavaria
Lovely collection of Christmas stories, ranging from the charming (boy gets lost in the woods and is rescued by the much-feared Moss Lady) to the more challenging (the aunt who screams non-stop when the tree is taken down). Definitely found a few stories to revisit in future.

59. My Body - Emily Ratajkowski
A series of essays/articles by model Emily Ratajkowski, who is known partly for her appearance in the Blurred Lines video. Insightful and surprisingly compelling. Ratajkowski has clearly grappled since her early teens with the issues thrown up by being beautiful and having a body of a certain type. It allows her to earn money, but does that give her real economic power, if it is entirely dependent on the approval of men? Does she ever own her own image? While she puts herself at one end of the spectrum of "compromise" - there are lines she would never cross - she nevertheless acknowledges that she is still on that spectrum. She is clearly still working through these issues and she writes eloquently, so this was a surprise hit for me.

I will probably finish one more book this year to take me to a round 60.

I now fully intend to scream non-stop when OH insists on taking the tree down before New Year's Day.

Have managed to break through my reading block finishing a book today after a gap of several weeks. Dont know if I'll squeeze another in before new year - will have to see.

17. Black Sunday,Tola Rotimi Abraham

This is a portrait of twin sisters who after living a relatively comfortable life in Lagos are flung into poverty. Abandoned by their parents they are left in the care of their grandmother along with their two younger brothers. Their diverging lives are followed in episodic narratives that alternate between the viewpoints of the different siblings. After intially struggling to get into the opening chapters, I found the episodic structure effective. In some ways the gaps between the chapters and the disappearance of characters viewpoints
tell the story. I was unsure about it when I started, but it drew me in. The emotional reactions of the siblings to their abandoment are incredibly well drawn and the focus on the impoverished choices the girls have struggling to survive in a patriarchal and explotative society is unflinching. It isn't a comfortable read, but I'm very glad I stuck with it. Would recommend.

Merry Christmas to all the 50 bookers! No new books for me but that's fine, I've not yet read a single one of the books I got for my birthday back in January 🙈

@RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie😆

More full of cold than festive cheer, alas, but it's a chance to lounge around with a book:

136. Remainders of the Day, Shaun Bythell
If you've read his previous diaries of a bookseller, there's nothing new, but it's soothing stuff.

137. The Quantum Curators and the Enemy Within, Eva St John and 138. The Quantum Curators and the Missing Codex, Eva St John
Escapist adventures in a parallel universe, where curators working for the Great Library of Alexandria struggle with treachery.

139. Travellers in the Third Reich, Julia Boyd
On my Kindle for years so pleased to have read it at least. Intriguing account of visitors to Germany in the 1930s, not just the usual Mitfords, but Chinese students and African-American scholars and others.

140. The Moving Finger, by Agatha Christie
Miss Marple flits in and unravels mysterious poison pen letters leading to murder.

I wasn't given books but treated myself to a few kindle titles I'd been eyeing for a while.