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?

@RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie

Stick it on a Wish list and hope it drops in price? It's about 10 years since I read it and I gave it 5 stars at the time I haven't read any other of hers. You also might get lucky in a charity shop. I don't have it or I'd send it.

Thanks. Yes, I'll keep it on my wish list and keep an eye on it. Will also check the library. I really enjoyed the opening.

I also read the (incredibly long) sample of We, the Drowned. It reminded me of a mash up of Captain Correlli and Lincoln in the Bloody Bardo. I didn't hate it but not sure I liked it enough to read more. I'll keep it in the wish list and see how desperate I get!

Thanks. Is it the Russian folk tales? I suspect I've read them in some version or other.

Thanks for the new thread @Southeastdweller ! I'll save my list for the end of the year.

I saw some chat at the end of the last thread about the RSC Hamnet adaptation with sounds fab!

The Colleen Hoover phenomenon fascinated me. I'd never heard of her until a few months ago the Instagram algorithm started aggressively promoting posts about her books to me. I think it's very interesting the way her books (as I understand it) got big on tik tok, then filtered through to older social media, then finally got picked up by the traditional media.

Anyway latest read for me:

63. The Paris Apartment by Lucy Foley. Jess turns up to visit her brother Ben in Paris only to find he's disappeared and his apartment block is full of strange characters, all of whom have something to hide. A pretty decent read if you want a very quick, easy thriller.

Remus

I loved both Corelli and Lincoln In The Bloody Bardo, We, The Drowned might finally get off TBR next year

Thanks @Southeastdweller.
Recent reads...
48. 168 Hours by Laura Vanderkam
Time management/productivity non-fiction - 168 is the number of hours in a week and this book has the subtitle 'You Have More Hours Than You Think'. I really like Laura Vanderkam's work, but some parts of this book were more interesting than others and as an overall experience it was just fine. I will stay completely loyal to her blog/podcast and thinking about how I can apply her ideas to my life, but don't really recommend this book.
49. The Winners by Fredrik Backman
Recent release, third in the Beartown trilogy that I have loved reading this year. Set in rural Sweden, we are back in the ice hockey obsessed communities of Beartown and Hed as Backman catches us up on the lives of key characters from the previous books and points us towards the destinies that he has been planning for each individual since first introduced them to us in the first book, Beartown. It's clear that he didn't want to leave any thread hanging loose, he had a vision that he wanted to turn in to reality, so where the previous two books were fairly average length novels, this was 670 pages long. It never dragged but it did take me weeks to read. I loved it, as I did the earlier two books, and would count all three up there with the best fiction that I have read this year.
50. The Ride of Her Life by Elizabeth Letts
Gentle, fascinating non-fiction telling the story of Annie Wilkins who, as a 60-something farmer living with illness and poverty in 1950s Maine, decided to set out on horseback with her dog Depeche Toi to ride to California to see the Pacific Ocean. Letts fills us in on Annie's background and that of her family, and then takes us through the ups and downs of Annie's journey across the USA at a time of considerable change (enormous increases in car use, for example, and the changes to landscapes, communities and lifestyles that came with that). I thought this was a really good read - it has a gentle pace and is not intended to be hard-hitting but I think a lot of it will stay with me and I enjoyed the journey.
51. Invisible Child by Andrea Elliott
Also non-fiction - in this case I didn't always enjoy the experience of reading the book but also think this will stay with me and influence my understanding of the world in really important ways. As a New York Times journalist, the author was interested in the experiences of homeless families living in New York and began to spend time with the family of Desani, a young girl living in a homeless shelter in Brooklyn. She followed Desani's life for over a decade as she grew up in poverty, struggled to stay in school, and supported her mother and step-father as they strived to care for Desani and her seven siblings. While I thought I knew a bit about the challenges faced by children in low income families, looking after siblings, this also opened my eyes in lots of different ways. An important book.

In December I'm hoping to read a few short Christmassy books and to clear a few titles off my TBR pile so that I'm not going into the new year with the same stack sitting beside my bed. And as always, I'm probably intending to read twice as many as I will actually have time for! Might make it to 60 by 31st Dec...maybe!

Continuation of my list from last thread;

48. Bel Canto: Ann Patchett
49. Wuthering Heights: Emily Brontë
50. Wolf Hall: Hilary Mantel
51. A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking: T. Kingfisher
52. Black Narcissus: Rumer Godden
53. All the Light We Cannot See: Anthony Doerr
54. Oh William!: Elizabeth Strout
55. A Gentleman in Moscow: Amor Towles
56. Left For Dead: Jane Casey
57. A Start in Life: Anita Brookner
58. Je Suis Là: Clélie Avit
59. The Queen of Dirt Island: Donal Ryan
60. The Woman in White: Wilkie Collins

• *This was a good and enjoyable installment. I highlighted the ones that really grabbed me and the ones I might read again.

Thanks for the new thread Southeastdweller.

@EineReiseDurchDieZeit It's okay. Just not okay enough to lure me in right now. Not sure where it will go.

Just de-lurking to say thank you to Southeastdweller for these threads. I read them regularly.

I've now been in La Belle France nearly a year & have read very little as have spent my time trying to improve my French by watching crap TV & listening to the radio. Am trying to expose myself to as little English as possible!

I can now (mostly) cope with the telephone and can even answer unexpected calls. (v. proud of that).

There are several Boite a livres near me - they look like a telephone box & people dump their unwanted books there. I've been using them to read in French: The Lion, The Witch & the Wardrobe was my first attempt and I knew the story well enough to cope. Murder of Roger Ackroyd is what I am currently struggling through enjoying in French.

I run an English Conversation class once a week as a volunteer for the local branch of Accueil des Villes Françaises, which is a national organisation to help people settle in new locations. It has been a great experience & I have learnt as much French from my students as they have learnt English from me.

I love this thread - it is honestly the nicest place I know on the internet.

Thank you to all of you who contribute regularly - you are much appreciated.

Hi magimedi, good to hear from you! I think if you can answer the phone in French, you're doing very well! Reading is easier by comparison!

I've learned loads from this thread too and love the recommendations and the company.

Lovely to see you @magimedi - sounds like an idyllic pace of life. I'm imagining suppers spreading hot Camembert onto Pain avec beurre et un Chocolat Chaud

I have now run out of schoolgirl French

<drools all over new thread>

Thanks for the new thread @Southeastdweller .

Also thanks for the Colleen Hoover opinions and The Times article at the end of the last thread Boiled eggs. I do have a sub so read it and it confirmed what I suspected. DD1 has now finished it and we've had a chat about how a rapist may not really be the best husband material even if he has had a sad childhood and has anger issues 🙄

I understand re Sebastian Barry, Remus. Think I read another one of his that I hated (The Scripture?) but did like Days Without End.

Anyone read Seven Moons of Maali Almeida yet? Have just started it and it's got a touch of Lincoln In the Bardo about it, I'd say.

List since the previous thread, generally more mediocre than my previous lot:

57. The Secret Intensity of Every Day Life - William Nicholson
58. Small Things Like These - Claire Keegan
59. You Made A Fool of Death With Your Beauty - Akwaeke Emezi
60. The Girl's Guide to Hunting and Fishing - Melissa Banks
61. A Will to Kill - R V Raman
62. The Road to Lichfield - Penelope Lively
63. Keeper Of Enchanted Rooms - Charlie Holmberg
64. Nightcrawling - Leila Mottley
65. Black Narcissus - Rumer Godden
66. Death of a Snob - M.C. Beaton
67. A Start in Life - Anita Brookner
68. Hyperion - Dan Simmons
69. The Fall of Hyperion - Dan Simmons
70. Truly, Madly, Guilty - Liane Moriarty

59. The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes

Kirby Mazrechi considers herself a murder victim, having very barely survived, convinced she is one of many, potentially a survivor of a serial killer she inveigles her way onto the staff of a newspaper in order to do research.

Harper Curtis is the killer, but the fact that he can move through time, deliberately meeting his victims as children, suggests he will never be caught.

I really enjoyed this in terms of the writing, I was really engaged. I don't often read crime. I did however get a bit frustrated when I saw the end approaching and still no real explanation of why these girls were "shining" and nothing as to the how, who and why they were assigned to be victims, and how the time travel worked. It all just gets left unresolved.

I saw the trailer for the series and by the looks of it they have deviated so I don't know whether to give it a miss or go in search of a better ending.

I would recommend it to those whose bread and butter reading is crime and thriller, because I did enjoy her prose style.

Here's my list since the last thread (quite short, as there's a couple of long ones in there):

45 Mrs Everything by Jennifer Weiner
46 The Paper Palace by Miranda Cowley Heller
47 The Code Breaker by Walter Isaacson
48 Into the Silence: the Great War, Mallory and the Conquest of Everest by Wade Davies
49 Empire of Pain by Patrick Radden Keefe

Thank you Southeast. It freaks me out that the year is almost over. If people don't mind, I might work out the 50 Bookers Book of the Year again like I did last year.

My list:
1. A woman of no importance by Sonia Purnell

1. In Order to Live: A North Korean Girl's Journey to Freedom by Yeonmi Park
2. Court Number One The Old Bailey: The Trials and Scandals that Shaped Modern Britain by Thomas Grant

4. Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf

1. Ruined City by Nevile Shute
2. Pied Piper by Nevile Shute
3. Bath Tangle by Georgette Heyer

8. Into the Silence by Wade Davis

1. Trustee from the Toolroom by Nevil Shute

10. The Chequerboard by Nevil Shute 11. Nine Lessons by Nicola Upson 12. The Paper Palace by Miranda Cowley Heller 13. The Pursuit of Love by Nancy Mitford 14. The Transgender Issue: an argument for justice by Shon Faye 15. Dc Confidential by Christopher Meyer 16. Municipal Dreams by John Boughton 17. The Tollgate by Georgette Heyer 18. Flying Finish by Dick Francis 19. Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie 20. Life in the Garden by Penelope Lively 21. Case Histories by Kate Atkinson 22. Have his Carcase by Dorothy L Sayers 23. Hungry by Grace Dent 24. One Good Turn by Kate Atkinson 25. Empire of Pain by Patrick Radden Keefe 26. Sue Barton: Neighbourhood Nurse by Helen Dore Boylston 27. Carol on Tour by Helen Dore Boylston 28. Operation Mincemeat by Ben Macintyre 29. The Nonesuch by Georgette Heyer 30. Unwell Women by Elinor Cleghorn 31. Lonely Boy by Steve Jones 32. Anger is an Energy by John Lydon 33. I was a Teenage Sex Pistol by Glen Matlock 34. How to kill your family by Bella Mackie 35. The Escape Artist by Jonathan Freedman 36. The storyteller by dave grohl 37. Gazza: My Story by Paul Gascoigne and Hunter Davies 38. Dominicana by Annie Cruz 39. British Traitors by Gordon Kerr 40. Irrepressible: the life and times of Jessica Mitford 41. The long way to a small angry planet by Becky Chambers 42. Charlotte by Helen Moffatt 43. Pegasus Bridge by Stephen E Ambrose 44. Affinity by Sarah Waters 45. Waiting for Sunrise by William Boyd 46. My Life In Orange by Tim Guest 47. A Spy Among Friends; Kim Philby and the Great Betrayal by Ben Macintyre 48. The Giver of Stars by Jojo Moyes 49. In Plain Sight: the life and lies of Jimmy Savile by Dan Davies 50. Le Freak by Nile Rodgers 51. My Father and Other Working Class Football Heroes by Gary Imlach

52. Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus
I feel bad writing this review, because I see that a lot of people have loved this book and their view is absolutely valid. You only have to look at my list to see that my viewpoint on life and literature is very limited. If you enjoyed it, good for you and look away now.

Having said that... this is tosh. Weapons-grade nonsense. Nothing works like this. Women don't work like this, science doesn't work like this, men don't work like this, children don't work like this, dogs don't work like this, ROWING doesn't work like this. Even the food this alleged great cook makes sounds appalling. My mother was a scientist in the 50s, and a trained cook, and nothing in this book connects even slightly with her reality, her personhood, her colleagues or her experiences. The author has taken a woman from 2022 (well, sort of, though more like a wooden doll than a real character) and dropped her into a cardboard 50s environment from the movies, and some well-paid authors have produced gushing puff lines for the cover, and it's all a big waste of time.

I had to finish this (book club) and I did so firstly by just reading it as a fantasy, and secondly by reading it backwards 2 pages at a time, which is what I do whrn otherwise I'd just give up.

Hi, posting to bookmark this thread, though sorry not to have posted for ages etc. I had a short reading crisis in the autumn - I think I was a bit overwhelmed by sadness. I've picked myself up a bit now, and hoping that I'll get off to a good start (at least) for December by finishing a few books in the next few days - I would say that I started quite a lot of rather long books in November (and even finished some of them - some I'm still reading).

Thanks for the new thread southeast!

Here's my list:

1.	Writing the Bible: Origins of the Old Testament - Martien Halvorson-Taylor
2.	Brain Storm: Detective Stories from the World of Neurology - Suzanne O'Sullivan
3.	<strong>Breaking Free of Child Anxiety and OCD</strong> - Eli R. Lebowitz 
4.	Fantastically Great Women Scientists and Their Stories - Kate Pankhurst
5.	This Thing of Darkness - Harry Thompson
6.	Language and the Mind - Spencer Kelly
7.	Nine Nasty Words - John McWhorter
8.	You&rsquo;re Doing It Wrong - Kaz Cooke
9.	<strong>Luster</strong> - Raven Leilani 
10.	Before the Coffee Gets Cold - Toshikazu Kawaguchi 
11.	The Poems of T.S. Eliot 
12.	Vinegar Girl - Anne Tyler
13.	Kindred: Neanderthal Life, Love, Death and Art - Rebecca Wragg Sykes
14.	Beautiful World, Where Are You - Sally Rooney 
15.	<strong>I</strong><strong>nvisible Women</strong> - Caroline Criado Perez
16.	Material Girls - Kathleen Stock
17.	Hag-Seed - Margaret Atwood
18.	The Women of Troy - Pat Barker
19.	The Explosive Child - Ross W Greene
20.	Wordslut - Amanda Montell
21.	Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are? - Frans de Waal 
22.	<strong>God: an anatomy</strong> - Francesca Stavrakopoulou 
23.	The Starting School Book - Sarah Ockwell-Smith
24.	Can I tell you about Pathological Demand Avoidance syndrome? - Ruth Fidler and Phil Christie
25.	Wild Magic - Tamora Pierce
26.	Temporary - Hilary Leichter 
27.	Put a Wet Paper Towel On It - Lee Parkinson and Adam Parkinson
28.	Bitch: a revolutionary guide to sex, evolution and the female animal - Lucy Cooke
29.	Permission to Feel - Marc Brackett
30.	<strong>Lolita</strong> - Vladimir Nabokov 
31.	<strong>Putting the Rabbit in the Hat</strong> - Brian Cox
32.	The Family Experience of PDA - Eliza Fricker
33.	In Control: dangerous relationships and how they end in murder - Jane Monckton Smith
34.	The Intoxicating Mr Lavelle - Neil Blackmore
35.	Hard Times - Charles Dickens
36.	The Animals in That Country - Laura Jean McKay
37.	Hidden Valley Road - Robert Kolker
38.	Wolf Speaker -Tamora Pierce
39.	What Lies Buried - Kerry Daynes
40.	The Out-of-Sync Child - Carol Stock Kranowitz
41.	Emperor Mage - Tamora Pierce
42.	Trans - Helen Joyce
43.	Toast: autism in the early years - Alice Boardman
44.	The Seven Ages of Death - Richard Shepherd 
45.	Some Assembly Required - Neil Shubin
46.	<strong>I</strong><strong>mmune</strong> - Philipp Dettmer
47.	<strong>No One is Talking About This</strong> - Patricia Lockwood
48.	Realms of the Gods - Tamora Pierce
49.	<strong>T</strong><strong>he Diary of a Bookseller</strong> - Shaun Bythell
50.	The Tempest - William Shakespeare
51.	Woke Racism - John McWhorter
52.	<strong>M</strong><strong>r Loverman</strong> - Bernardine Evaristo
53.	Autism: how to raise a happy autistic child - Jessie Hewitson 
54.	The Sleeping Beauties - Suzanne O&rsquo;Sullivan
55.	Medieval Myths and Mysteries - Dorsey Armstrong
56.	This is Your Own Time You&rsquo;re Wasting - Lee Parkinson and Adam Parkinson 
57.	The Raven&rsquo;s Head - Karen Maitland
58.	The Black Death - Dorsey Armstrong** <span class="italic">- not quite a stinker but fairly malodorous</span> 
59.	The Restraint of Beasts - Magnus Mills
60.	Bird by Bird - Anne Lamott
61.	King Arthur: History and Legend - Dorsey Armstrong
62.	<strong>The Wordhord: Daily Life in Old English</strong> - Hana Videen
63.	The Couple at the Table - Sophie Hannah
64.	Language A-Z - John McWhorter
65.	Play - Stuart Brown 
66.	Autism and Asperger Syndrome in Children - Luke Beardon 
67.	Talking With Your Child About Their Autism Diagnosis - Raelene Dundon 
68.	How to be Autistic - Charlotte Amelia Poe
69.	<strong>U</strong><strong>ndoctored</strong> - Adam Kay
70.	The Hotel Where We Met - Belinda Jones
71.	Powerful Women of the Medieval World - Dorsey Armstrong
72.	Food Isn&rsquo;t Medicine - Joshua Wolrich
73.	<strong>D</strong><strong>runk</strong> - Edward Slingerland
74.	I Am Autistic - Chanelle Moriah 
75.	<strong>T</strong><strong>he Woman in White</strong> - Wilkie Collins

Now reading Circe (a few years after everyone else) and really enjoying it. Didn't like Song of Achilles as they didn't match my conception of Achilles and Patroclus at all.

Oops, that was The Raven's Head that should have been labelled malodorous, not The Black Death. Although I don't imagine the Black Death was too fragrant.

Thanks for the new thread @Southeastdweller ! I’ll post my list at the end of the year,

Glad you are well-settled @magimedi , your English conversation group sounds great! I hate having to deal with phone calls in French, it’s so much easier face-to-face when you can incorporate body language!

@magimedi good to see you! I had been in Italy for about 10 years before I dared answer the phone and still do that "turning my phone over because if I can't see it ringing they won't know I'm there" thing. .

In other news I have started The Fell so I think may not be treating you to another Sol-hates review. Phew! Was starting to think it was me but it's just my Kindle random number generator. I went through it last night and picked out 10 books I know I'd have picked up in a shop /library rather than going "oooh 99p and Marian Keyes loves it" and slinging it in my virtual pile.

@PermanentTemporary oh yes! Do the list again if you can. That was great and I added lots to my wishlist from it. Thank you!

Good to hear from you, @magimedi, and it’s great that you feel so well settled in now. The conversation group sounds fun.

I'm not posting my list for now but here’s my latest:

87: A Summer Birdcage - Margaret Drabble

This is the current Rather Dated Bookclub choice, and was Drabble's first novel. Sarah, the narrator, just down from Oxford (or 'Ox', as she insists on calling it) with a brilliant First, returns home for the wedding of her elder sister, Louise, with whom she has a deeply tricky relationship.

After the wedding, Sarah moves to a flatshare in London ('vast and gracious' rooms in a Victorian house in Highbury, from where she commutes to a job with the BBC that 'seemed better than nothing') and….nothing much happens. She has conversations at parties with various uninteresting people but is basically obsessed with how much she hates Louise. I won’t give away the ending in case anyone's still reading it, but I didn’t find it especially satisfying.

A hard slog for me, I’m afraid. I did look up some reviews and they all raved about its sparkling freshness, wit and originality. I just found it rather dull and I didn’t care about any of the characters.

@PermanentTemporary i got about ten pages into Lessons In Chemistry before giving up, it just didn't ring true at all.

61 Full Circle - Michael Palin

I found this more fragmented than 80 Days and Pole To Pole, probably due to the unavoidable expediency of using aeroplane travel for some legs of the huge journey around the Pacific Rim. Still lots to enjoy, particularly the stretch through South America.

47. Stasiland by Anna Funder

Think I am the only person on here who hadn't read this and it was as good as everyone else suggested. Nothing else to add!

Had a quick look at Kindle deals but can't see anything I fancy reading. I should probably read the books I got given last Christmas before this one comes round. I got really sidetracked by trying to finish my unread books on kindle (and failed, as I continued to buy 99p deals as I saw them!)