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?

Thanks for the new thread!

Just seen The World for Sale is on kindle daily deal - it's the story of commodity trading from WW2 until the present day, some proper swashbuckling stuff, but also pretty eye-opening. One of my top reads last year.

Agreed - have put it on my wish list for a time when I'm less snowed under with other things and can therefore cope with upsetting content.

I keep meaning to say to @MaudOfTheMarches that I really like the sound of Threads of Life - it’s gone straight on my wishlist.

I'm trying to turf some books off my TBR, all familiar names that have been there too long to try and freshen up the titles for 2023.

62. The Girl With The Louding Voice by Abi Daré

Adunni wants an education, her father wants her to have a husband.

Possibly the last person to read this. I feel like I had overinflated expectations as a result. It is good, but I felt that thematically speaking, (village innocent in corrupt city) I had been there, done that many times. It also has a weird ending like she wrote a beginning and middle of a story which then just ends when there is plenty more scope for continuing.

63. Small Pleasures by Clare Chambers

A journalist investigates a woman's bold claim to have immaculately conceived.

I devoured this quite greedily. It's a great depiction of a certain type of person and era, sometimes you would be forgiven for thinking it wasn't written in the fifties. On Page 98 I pretty much figured out where it was going, and wasn't far wrong but it didn't spoil my enjoyment. The ending, or rather what the ending implies can fuck right off though.

35. The Summer House Party by Caro Fraser Typical book following a group of upper middle class friends and family from the last idyllic summer before war breaks out and continuing through the war charting the ways society and the characters change. This was slightly different in that most of these books cover the first World war whereas this one starts in the summer of 1936 and follows the characters through the second World war. The book was weirdly disjointed. There seemed to be a few threads of story that were never followed up/reached a conclusion. One specific one was in relation to a barn that was significant in the beginning and had a storyline that was left somewhat up in the air. The barn was frequently referenced throughout the rest of the book, as though the storyline would be "completed" but it never was. To be honest the whole book seemed to finish somewhat abruptly with many unresolved storylines. It almost felt like the author had a minimum word count and as soon as it was reached she stopped writing. Maybe there's a sequel

In fact, have just broken away from writing this to check and have found there is a sequel, although it looks from the blurb like it skips forward in time somewhat, but would hopefully resolve all the unfinished storylines. Not sure if I can be bothered to read it or not. I don't think I liked the characters enough to invest more time in them

Phew! Managed to finish a book without hurling it at the wall and swearing.
Oft reviewed on here, so I'll keep it brief:

The Fell Sarah Moss

I did start it with trepidation as I'm in Italy. People that were allowed to form bubbles and go for a walk don't really get to tell me and mine about what a lockdown is.

Ahem. Anyway, I liked it. I like her writing. I like the way she handled a book about Covid without once mentioning the word Covid. I thought for such a short book the characters were well-rounded and you could tell they were based on people's real individual characteristics, emotions and quirks. The whole Covid thing was handled intelligently and sensibly.

I probably won't read many fictional or otherwise books about Covid (and sweet Jesus there is so going to be a dross laden bandwagon of them) but this was good. Solid 4*

PS am also naughtily tittering to myself wondering if Katherine May is going to be wintering along at the helm of that bandwagon. Sadly (or possibly not) she jumped the shark with W-ing which was apparently released one month before lockdown. Dodged a bullet there guys!

@SolInvictus Laughing at your prediction of the dross-laden bandwagon - I've been reading this morning about Matt Hancock's The Pandemic Diaries. I'm sure it's going to be laden with something, for sure .

@Terpsichore It's well worth a read - there is so much in there. I think the reason it took me so long was that I wanted to do it justice. The tone is a bit portentous at times but the content is fascinating and important, I think. She has a separate book about Mary Queen of Scots' embroidery, subtitled "Embroidering her Truth", which was almost enough to put me off. The chapter about her in Threads of Life was one of the best, though, and needlework was so integral to Mary's life that I'm really interested in reading it.

Haha yes, Maud, I noticed Embroidering her Truth when I was looking up your recommendation, and it gave me unpleasant mental images of Meghan Markle plying needle and thread on a vast tapestry of her grievances against the Windsors. Despite that I do quite fancy it myself!

Meghan Markle plying needle and thread on a vast tapestry of her grievances against the Windsors Ha, yes!

Posted too soon ...
I think Mary sets the bar for royal grievances.

Hi I hope everyone is well. I haven't posted in a while and fell behind both with keeping up with this thread and my reading ambitions for this year. I had set a personal goal of 79 books but looks like it'll be around 60 or so this year, this will be the first time since I began following the challenge five years ago that I won't make my personal target. However, it's all good as I've been busy with life in general and productive in other ways!

I'll post my final tally at the end of the month along with everyone else.

Hi @InTheCludgie

@SolInvictus

I did start it with trepidation as I'm in Italy. People that were allowed to form bubbles and go for a walk don't really get to tell me and mine about what a lockdown is

I was/am CEV and barely left the house so I hear this totally. Other people just really didn't understand why I couldn't just come over and some acting like I was spoiling things purposely

50 A View of the Harbour - Elizabeth Taylor
There's not been much I've loved this year, and my last two reads were O Caledonia and Good Behaviour both of which were of the supposedly 'darkly comic' mould, and whilst I admired them I couldn't love them really. I said when I posted about them that I was ready for something with sympathetic characters who had, at least some, good things happening to them.

Well this was not that!

It's a rather bleak, although expertly drawn, portrait of a down at heel seaside town still recovering from WW2, and of the characters that populate this closed and insular little community. Most of the characters are varying degrees of sad, indeed tragic. Few were particularly sympathetic (although my heart ached for poor old Lily Wilson), and Bertram with this white knight complex actually made my skin crawl.

This is really really good, I can't deny that, and I was drawn in despite myself. It just wasn't particularly what I was after, although having read 2 more of Taylor's books previously I did know what I was getting into really.

So that brings me to a plea really - I have a TBR list as long as my arm, physical and kindle shelves groaning with stuff I've not opened, but I am feeling low and decidedly unfestive and I just need something 'lovely'. Can anyone recommend a 'lovely' book please? I don't mean 'cosy' as in 'Wizard's niece learns life lessons from eccentric locals whilst selling cupcakes by the sea before falling in love with local landowner who previously appeared rather aloof' type. I don't really have a preference for genre other than not that - I just want something that's maybe a bit warmer and not too cynical or sad, something with a really satisfying resolution. I'm probably not describing it well at all but does anyone know what I mean?

Alias, a slightly strange one sprang to mind when I read your post; in that it's not straightforwardly 'lovely', but does have wonderful characters and, although difficult things do happen, it is overall not sad or cynical. And IMO it has a perfect ending. It's The Household Spirit by Tod Wodicka.
Or how about Patrick Gale? Not 'cosy' really, but quite domestic, about the details of people's lives. Wryly funny and sort of gentle but very perceptive too. I especially like Rough Music and Notes from an Exhibition.
And, mentioned on these threads, Pure by Andrew Miller, about a young engineer tasked with removing the Les Innocents cemetery from Les Halles, Paris in 1786. I found this very witty, very good on period detail, immersive and gripping.

Thanks DameHelena for all those recs, I will look them up now. The Household Spirit looks promising. I thought I'd read some Patrick Gayle but don't recognise those titles. I HAVE read Pure - it was a mixed bag for me though I did love the period detail!

Do you read fantasy? The Goblin Emperor by Katharine Addison is a strangely lovely book, though you wouldn't expect it to be so from the description. I don't usually read high fantasy these days (all those orcs & elves) but I found it delightful.

I loved Notes On An Exhibition and its (sort of) follow up A Perfectly Good Man

I must admit that with Patrick G his books all tend to blur into one; I'm pretty sure Iv've read most if not all of them, but struggle to remember the details (barring the two I mention upthread, because I liked them a lot, and Mother's Boy, which I read recently).

@AliasGrape how about Tigerman by Nick Harkaway? Quite unusual, but in a good way, and I think it meets your criteria in terms of the right kind of cosy…

69 Creepy Stories: A Classic Collection - various authors This is one of DH’s books, which he probably got to improve his English (I don’t think he’s ever read it - he’s more of a graphic novel kind of guy). It’s rare for me to pick one of his books off the shelf as they’re mostly French classics, but after many years of it staring me in the face I decided around Halloween that this could be fun.

Well, it wasn’t particularly fun, but overall was ok. The stories are all pretty old - the most recent were written about 80 years ago - and there is a lot of colonialism, misogyny, classism and racism. Looking past that, some of the stories are quite interesting, some are almost creepy, but nothing was really memorable. It helped that most of them were short, so I could always move on to the next in hope! Probably the best thing was that I went down plenty of rabbit holes googling the authors I didn’t recognise - I’ve learned a lot!

@AliasGrape I assume you've read 84 Charing Cross Road? One of the very loveliest books ever.

@AliasGrape the ones that occurred to me were A Gentleman in Moscow and Piranesi.

63 Slow Horses - Mick Herron

Silly but readable modern spy thriller, not really inspiring me to say much about it but an easy read.

@MegBusset
I loved Slow Horses.
Jackson Lamb is a work of genius.

Tigerman sounds good. Also, has anybody read The Gone-away World because that sounds up my street too.