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?

Here is a link for the 2023 Dickensalong

for those interested.

2023 is The Old Curiosity Shop.

All welcome!

I'm Jane Eyre neutral but I really hated Wide Sargasso Sea.

Am also team Gavin and Stacey. Pam and Mick are my favourites by a mile.

@Sadik , Far From the Madding Crowd is my favourite Hardy, although I haven't read Mayor of Casterbridge to compare.

While I won't make my 50, I'm still reading and may complete a couple more, as I have reborrowed several halfway or almost finished books that had to go back to the library first time round. Shrines of Gaiety by Kate Atkinson was my #33 and I absolutely loved it. Everything was so vividly drawn and I feel a bit bereft now I've finished it. I know some people found it ended a bit abruptly, and I see why, but I thought the plotting was so good that when things drew to an end I just gave a happy sigh of satisfaction.

On the topic of Gavin And Stacey @PepeLePew love it. It gets better with subsequent viewings and yes the supporting characters trump the main. Highlights:

Pam and Take That on the radio
The line dancing
Bryn on the lads night out and also the James Blunt singalong

The special two years or so back was a bit of disappointment though

Hardy

Technically, Tess was my first Hardy, and while I still think it's beautifully written Far From The Madding Crowd is my favourite. I actually saw it first as a teenager on ITV an actress called Paloma Baeza played Bathsheba and I remember being quite taken with it. Also read Return Of The Native, Jude, and Mayor Of Casterbridge but none of the "minor" ones. Someone laughed at me when I reviewed Native and said I'd made it sound like a Sally Rooney, but it is just a bunch of people who all want who they don't have. Jude is miserable and everyone in it is an arsehole. Mayor is a bit heavily "moral of the story" though a great concept.

Agreed, Remus that Ruth Wilson was a good Jane Eyre, Toby Stephens wasn't a bad Rochester either.

Tess was the book that most shaped me as a reader. I read it at 14 and it was my first proper classic. I do love Mayor, too.

Interesting to read all the Jane Eyre debate. Would love to contribute, but I have never got past the Lowood section. In fact, with the exception of The Moonstone (that i read for GCSE), I don't think I have ever finished a novel published before 1900. Maybe this thread will inspire me to complete one in 2023.

Have spent the best part of the whole afternoon catching up.

I like the Timothy Dalton/Zelah Clarke Jane Eyre in spite of the staging. I do also like Jane Eyre and have read it 3/4 times, all as an adult. I find Rochester amusing in his flirtation with Jane and 100% agree about the sexy ending. I didn't love Wide Sargasso Sea, but appreciated what it did. St John was indeed, to paraphrase Remus, a dick - except when played by Rupert Penry-Jones.

I've only read Tess and Return of the Native and really loved them both.

I won't reach 50 but the ride has been fun.

1. Vanity Fair, W M Thackeray
2. This Much is True, Miriam Margoyles
3. A Theatre for Dreamers, Polly Samson
4. The Adventures of China Iron, Gabriela Cabezón Cámara
5. Shadowghast, Thomas Taylor
6. Lady Macbeth of Mtensk and Other Stories, Nikolai Leskov
7. Madonna in a Fur Coat, Sabahattin Ali
8. Who Is Maud Dixon?, Alexandra Andrews
9. Riders, Jilly Cooper
10. My Family and Other Animals, Gerald Durrell
11. The Age of Innocence, Edith Wharton
12. O Caledonia, Elspeth Barker
13. The Island Home, Libby Page
14. Bollywood: a History, Mihir Bose
15. The Unexpected Tale of Bastien Bon Livre, Claire Povey
16. Memed, My Hawk, Yaşar Kemal
17. A Family Affair, Mary Campisi
18. Love in a Cold Climate, Nancy Mitford
19. My Sister, the Serial Killer, Oyinkan Braithwaite
20. Three Apples Fell from the Sky, Narine Abgaryan
21. Keeping the House, Tice Cin
22. The Dangers of Smoking in Bed, Mariana Enriquez
23. Three Bags Full, Leonie Swann
24. Ten Cities that Led the World, Paul Strathern (such turgid shit Italics aren't enough)
25. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Junot Diaz
26. The Road to Lichfield, Penelope Lively
27. The Midnight Library, Matt Haig
28. The Woman in White, Wilkie Collins
29. Au Revoir, Tristesse, Viv Groskop
30. War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy
31. Madame Burova, Ruth Hogan

I'm just finishing up Born a Crime by Trevor Noah which I am finding very readable and interesting, should be done tomorrow.

Stats as follows: -

19 women
12 men

3 non fiction (though 10 Cities doesn't count because, it was so friggin woeful and crap): Au Revoir, Tristesse was my favourite here.

Top Fiction:
A Theatre for Dreamers, Polly Samson: surprised myself here as I didn't initially think much of it but I keep coming back to it.

The Dangers of Smoking in Bed, Mariana Enriquez: I tell people I didn't like this, but I think about it so often and find myself talking about it a lot so this was really a stand out for me.

7 translated

Last post, the War & Peace readlong has morphed into the Anna Karenina readalong for 2023 for anyone who would like to join us.

Off to mark my place for The Old Curiosity Shop.

23 84 Charing Cross Road - Helene Hanff

A book about books, in the form of a 20-year correspondence between a New Yorker and the staff of a London secondhand bookshop. I picked this up secondhand myself a while ago based on recommendations from this thread and whilst I enjoyed it, I didn't love it.

Interestingly, a newspaper clipping from the '80s fell out of the pages about how real life at 84 Charing Cross Road was quite different to the books portrayal. The son, Leo Marks, of one of the bookshop owners tells some home truths which rather took the shine off for me.

Newspaper clipping, from The Times, I think

Really glad you enjoyed Manchester Fourteen Miles, @Midnightstar76. If you can bear to hear how Hilda's promising beginning pans out, do read the others. I’m longing to know what happened to Margaret Penn, especially after the end of the final book, and I just can’t find anything at all online - I’ve discovered where her papers are held (in a university archive) and I'm so desperate for closure that I seriously contemplated applying for access to the collection!

He's also written The Posthumous Papers of the Manuscripts Club

Loving the Jane Eyre chat. I read it as a child and can't remember much about it apart being quite terrified in parts. Who keeps a woman in the attic, FGS?

35. Purple Hibiscus – Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Most likely my final read of 2022 unless I get a decent amount of reading time over the next couple of days! It took me a LONG time to fall for this one, having loved Americanah and Half of a Yellow Sun. I appear to have read these in the reverse order of publication which is maybe why Purple Hibiscus seemed less polished but as always with Adichie's work, it packs a punch. In my book there's an essay at the end which is her personal reflections on a return visit to Nsukka and I found it a great way to end the novel.

Love that clipping @Zireael.
My main memory of the film is not of the film itself but of Anne Bancroft on Wogan.

Can someone remind me what the clever site is that works out your reading percentages? It's like Good Reads but you can transfer in your good reads list.

Storygraph?

I don't have strong feelings on Jane Eyre, can I still play? I think I vaguely liked it, but I read it in my twenties when the Mr Rochester type had much more emotional traction for me, both on the page and IRL.

This year I've read 79 books - was hoping to get to a round 80 but not likely now.
Authors: 32 male, 47 female
Format: 27 hard copy, 27 kindle and 25 audio (makes sense as I usually have one of each on the go at a time)
24 fiction, 53 non-fiction, 1 play and 1 poetry collection

Stand-outs were:
Fiction
Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov (more accomplished than anything else I read by a country mile. Anyone wanting to do an unreliable narrator should read this, and probably weep)
Luster - Raven Leilani
No One is Talking About This - Patricia Lockwood
The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
Circe - Madeleine Miller
Just outside top 5: Mr Loverman - Bernardine Evaristo

Non-fiction
God: an anatomy - Francesca Stavrakopoulou (top NF read of the year)
The Word Hord - Hana Videen (close second)
Invisible Women - Caroline Criado Perez
Putting the Rabbit in the Hat - Brian Cox
Immune - Philipp Dettmer
Also special mention to Drunk (Edward Slingerland) and The Rise and Reign of the Mammals (Steve Brusatte)

Definite New Year's resolution to read more fiction next year!

Just jumping on to say one of my favourite books of the year, The Whalebone Theatre, is in the 99p deals today!

29. The souvenir museum by Elizabeth McCracken
Quirky well written short stories. Really enjoyed these and she has a great turn of phrase, quite witty. Definitely going to try one of her novels next year.
**

30. A year unfolding: A printmaker's view by Angela Harding
Lots of illustrations of the artist's prints with some commentary. Could have done with more words. Beautiful pictures though definitely one to read in colour not on my black and white Kindle.

Nice to end on a round number 😁

In 6th form, we had to do a film study thingy for General Studies and we did:
Tess (the Polanski one)
Psycho
Planet of the Apes
Apocalypse Now.

Looking back (and my school did many many things wrong) that was a really really good module and despite not being a filmy person (see cinema 7 times post etc) I still talk about it. Probably too often! It definitely made Tess (the book) one of my favourite classics, despite the whole Polanski (shudder) and Kinski thing.

Thanks @ChessieFL that's the one. And thanks for The Whalebone Theatre recommendation @GrannieMainland

I was just looking at The Whalebone Theatre and wondering if it might be my sort of thing. Off to read the sample now!

Thanks GrannieMainland. That sounds good. I've reserved it on Borrowbox.

Hope it's okay to join in, even though the year is almost over? I was part of the 26-Books thread, but as I ended up reading over 80 books I felt I had to stop posting on there!

I've been reading along with this thread all year, but haven't got round to posting. My aim is to join in more next year, so thought I'd start by sharing my 2022 list:

1. The Heart’s Invisible Furies - John Boyne

1. The Pull of the Stars - Emma Donoghue
2. Winter - Ali Smith
3. Watching Neighbours Twice a Day - Josh Widdicombe
4. Rules of Civility - Amor Towles

6. The Underground Railroad - Colson Whitehead

1. Fifty Fifty - Steve Cavanagh
2. The Dutch House - Ann Patchett
3. Mythos (AB) - Stephen Fry

10. A Little Life - Hanya Yangihara 11. The Pursuit of Love - Nancy Mitford 12. The Only Plane in the Sky - Garrett M. Graff 13. The End of Men - Christina Sweeney-Baird 14. The Searcher - Tana French 15. Educated (AB) - Tara Westover 16. Girl A - Abigail Dean 17. The Final Revival of Opal & Nev - Dawnie Walton 18. Mortimer & Whitehouse Gone Fishing (AB) - Bob Mortimer & Paul Whitehouse 19. To Kill A Mockingbird (Paperback) - Harper Lee 20. Bring Up The Bodies - Hilary Mantel 21. The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo (AB) - Taylor Jenkins Reid 22. A Thousand Ships - Natalie Haynes 23. Spring - Ali Smith 24. A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute 25. Life After Life - Kate Atkinson 26. Rodham - Curtis Sittenfeld 27. The Other Bennett Sister (AB) - Janice Hadlow 28. The Nightingale - Kristin Hannah 29. Bel Canto - Ann Patchett 30. All The Light We Cannot See (AB) - Anthony Doerr 31. A Terrible Kindness - Jo Browning Wore 32. The Fell - Sarah Moss 33. The Thursday Murder Club - Richard Osman 34. House of Glass (AB) - Hadley Freeman 35. When Will There Be Good News? - Kate Atkinson 36. Control - Jane Monckton-Smith 37. Tin Man - Sarah Winman 38. My Friend Anna - Rachel DeLoache Williams 39. Still Life - Sarah Winman 40. And Away (AB) - Bob Mortimer 41. The Man Who Died Twice - Richard Osman 42. The High House (AB) - Jessie Greengrass 43. Cloud Cuckoo Land - Anthony Doerr 44. Shakespeare (AB) - Bill Bryson 45. The Women of Troy - Pat Barker 46. The Lincoln Highway - Amor Towles 47. The Exhibitionist (AB) - Charlotte Mendelson 48. The Mercies - Kiran Millwood Hargrave 49. The Song of Achilles - Madeline Miller 50. The Mirror and the Light - Hilary Mantel 51. The Ramble Book (AB) - Adam Buxton 52. The Diary of a Young Girl - Anne Frank 53. Matrix (AB) - Lauren Groff 54. The Book of Form and Emptiness - Ruth Ozeki 55. A God in Ruins - Kate Atkinson 56. The Fortune Men - Nadifa Mohamed 57. Blood & Sugar (AB) - Laura Shepherd-Robinson 58. The Bread the Devil Knead - Lisa Allen Agostini 59. Snow Country - Sebastian Faulks 60. The Golden Couple (AB) - Greer Hendricks 61. The Rose Code - Kate Quinn 62. Summer - Ali Smith 63. The Silkworm - Robert Galbraith 64. Gentleman Jack (AB) - Anne Choma 65. Career of Evil - Robert Galbraith 66. Lethal White - Robert Galbraith 67. Golden Hill - Francis Spufford 68. The Girl with all the Gifts - M. R. Carey 69. The Promise (AB) - Damon Galgut 70. When God Was A Rabbit - Sarah Winman 71. Summerwater - Sarah Moss 72. An American Marriage - Tayari Jones 73. Pachinko - Min Jin Lee 74. The Miniaturist (AB) - Jessie Burton 75. Sorrow and Bliss - Meg Mason 76. The Push - Ashley Audrain 77. Great Circle - Maggie Shipstead 78. My Name Is Lucy Barton (AB) - Elisabeth Strout 79. Oh William! (AB) - Elisabeth Strout 80. Small Things Like These - Claire Keegan 81. Jamaica Inn - Daphne Du Maurier 82. The Tidal Zone (AB) - Sarah Moss

13 non fiction, 69 fiction
26% by men, 74% by women
1 paperback, 21 audio books, 60 ebooks

LadyBird, DD loved God: An Anatomy, I may try to retrieve it from her as it is - strictly speaking - my book.

Top reads for me this year are:

Empire of Pain by Patrick Radden Keefe
The Book of Margery Kempe by Margery Kempe
Red Famine by Anne Applebaum
South Riding by Winifred Holtby
Schindler's Ark by Thomas Keneally
Faith, Hope and Carnage by Nick Cave and Seán O'Hagan
The Escape Artist by Jonathan Freedland
The Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson

I also loved, though am not sure it qualifies as a "top read", the first of the Crater School books so thank you to whoever recommended that.

92 books this year, 35 non fiction although the success rate was much higher with those than my fiction choices and 52 by women. I would like more non fiction next year.

A few final reviews for the year...

86 Modern Romance by Aziz Ansari
An analysis of modern dating habits. Some funny bits and a few cute anecdotes but instantly forgettable.

87 A Christmas Cornucopia by Mark Forsyth
Thanks for the recommendation - I can't remember who made it - as this was a fun easy pre-Christmas read.

88 Forever Home by Graham Norton
Darker than I expected. Carol's partner has dementia and she is forced to leave her much loved home by his children. Her parents buy it for her and they make a sinister discovery in the cellar. I thought this was very good on family dynamics and it was an entertaining if slightly far-fetched plot.

89 Rubbernecker by Belinda Bauer
I think I will stop reading any more of these as they really are no sooner finished than forgotten. I didn't care about the plot or the characters and only persisted because I had started. One of my reading resolutions for next year is to stop doing that.

90 Breakfast at Tiffany’s by Truman Capote
Delightful, as always. Hard to believe it's the same person who wrote In Cold Blood. This is just charming if much darker than I recalled. I read it years ago and remembered Holly Golightly as a sort of manic pixie dream girl (which she is) but completely forgot the rest of it.

91 A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
Not sure anyone needs my review of this so will just say a) it is very very readable and b) very faithful to the Mupppet version.

92 The Paris Apartment by Lucy Foley
I enjoyed this. A slightly preposterous twisty turny plot with some unbelievable characters but as these things go it was good fun.