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?

When people make these requests I realise how few "nice" books I read. I'm going to suggest @AliasGrape The Invention Of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd or The Vintners Luck by Elizabeth Knox, in terms of none too hard work, or sad. It's a while since I read either and they may not fit the bill. They are not so much cosy cottage or nicey nicey as they are good absorbing reads to take you out of reality. Check out the samples if you have a Kindle.

After promising not to start anything new and focus on finishing everything I am part way through I did start and finish another book. I was in a rut and this was just what I needed.

Au Revoir, Tristesse, Viv Groskop
I enjoy Viv Groskop’s literally musings and had fun with The Anna Karenina Fix previously. I basically fell in love with Russian and Russian history/literature at uni and she had a similar obsession. I also, walked into my first French class aged 11 and fell totally in love - which is exactly what happened to her. This book is a set of essays about different French books that can help you be happy, even though the list includes L’Etranger, Les Miserables and others. This book just made me happy and hit four stars, but I think it’s because her feelings about French and France mirror mine so closely that I don’t quite believe it is possible.

@RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie I haven't read Tigerman or Gone-away World but I have read Angelmaker and enjoyed it - I think it's what they call steampunk. Did you know that Nick Harkaway is John le Carre's son?

Thank you so much for all the recommendations everyone - I’m going to download some samples when I get in bed later (not much later - I’m shattered!).

@EineReiseDurchDieZeit absorbing sounds ideal. Will check both of those out.

@RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie I have indeed read 84 Charing Cross Road but that is a very good shout for a reread.

@Sadik I don’t read much fantasy but I’m not against it, will see if I can get a sample.

Tigerman looks good too thank you @DuPainDuVinDuFromage

I was a bit mixed on A Gentleman in Moscow @Tarahumara though on balance I think it won me over overall. I do have Piranesi waiting on my kindle, I was just scared as I battled so much with her previous one earlier this year!

I’d never heard of him tonight so knew nothing about him. I quite like a bit of steam punk, so will give it a go.

I’ve opted for It Shouldn’t Happen to a Vet for tonight’s lovely book.

Thanks for the new thread Southeast. Here’s my list, I’m well behind on my reviews, and due to being crazy busy with work I’ve been sticking to easy reads.

1.	Needful Things by Stephen King
2.	Ramble by Adam Buxton
<strong>3.	Small Pleasures by Clare Chambers</strong>

4. Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones
5. A Rip in Heaven by Jeanine Cummins
6. Rachel's Holiday by Marian Keyes
7. A Good Enough Mother by Bev Thomas
8. Dark Tower V: Wolves of the Calla
9. Things We Left Unsaid by Emma Kennedy
10. 1979 by Val McDermid
11. The Dark Tower: Song of Susannah by Stephen King
12. Brass Ring by Diane Chamberlain
13. The Dark Tower VII: The Dark Tower by Stephen King
14. The Door into Summer by Robert A Heinlein
15. Shadow Man by Cody McFadyen
16. The Face of Death by Cody McFadyen
17. Postcards from the Edge by Carrie Fisher
18. Einstein’s Secret by Irving Belateche
19. Becoming Unbecoming by Una
20. Kill Me Again by Rachel Abbot
21. This Much is True by Miriam Margolyes
22. The Cold Moon by Jeffery Deaver
23. Anything is Possible by Elizabeth Strout
24. This Must be the Place by Maggie O’Farrell
25. She Said by Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey
26. The Dream Daughter by Diane Chamberlain
27. Eve by Una
28. The Last Lost Girl by Maria Hoey
29. My Sister Milly by Gemma Dowler
30. The Distant Echo by Val McDermid
31. A Darker Domain by Val McDermid
32. Consider Her Ways: And Others by John Wyndham
33. A Catalogue of Catastrophes by Jodi Taylor
34. Again, Rachel by Marian Keyes
35. The Editor's Wife by Clare Chambers
36. The Vision by Dean Koontz
37. The Waiting Rooms by Eve Smith
38. Girl A by Abigail Dean
39. Gerald’s Game by Stephen King
40. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
41. Cop Town by Karin Slaughter
42. An Artist of the Floating World by Kazuo Ishiguro
43. The Sixth Window by Rachel Abbot
44. Now We Shall Be Entirely Free by Andrew Miller
45. Lie With Me by Sabine Durrant
46. Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid
47. Odd Girl Out by Laura James
48. New Pompeii by Daniel Godfrey
49. The Bookshop by Penelope Fitzgerald
50. The Blackbird Season by Kate Moretti
51. The Oppenheimer Alternative by Robert J Sawyer
52. Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day by Winifred Watson
53. Dolores Claiborne by Stephen King
54. Empire of Time by Daniel Godfrey
55. Insomnia by Stephen King
56. Instructions for a Heatwave by Maggie O’Farrell
57. White Bones by Graham Masterson
58. The Premonitions Bureau: A True Story by Sam Knight
59. The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker
60. Behind Closed Doors by Susan Lewis
61. The Lamplighters by Emma Stonex
62. The Dark Queens by Shelly Puhak
63. Maybe in Another Life by Taylor Jenkins Reid
64. The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie
65. The Sealwoman’s Gift by Sally Magnusson
66. The Butterfly Garden by Dot Hutchison
67. Mrs England by Stacey Halls
68. The Problem With Men: When Is International Men's Day? By Richard Herring
69. Netherspace by Andrew Lane
70. Did You See Melody by Sophie Hannah
71. The Chrysalids by John Wyndham
72. Where She Lies by Michael Scanlon
73. The Rehearsals by Annette Christie
74. A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
75. The Cuckoo’s Calling by Robert Galbraith
76. The Silkworm by Robert Galbraith
77. Career of Evil by Robert Galbraith
78. About Time by Jodi Taylor
79. Lethal White by Robert Galbraith
80. Troubled Blood by Robert Galbraith
81. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button by F. Scott Fitzgerald
82. The Ink Black Heart by Robert Galbraith
83. Hungry by Grace Dent

<strong>84.	The Skeleton Road by Val McDermid</strong>
<strong>85.	Out of Bounds by Val McDermid</strong>
<strong>86.	Broken Ground by Val McDermid</strong>
<strong>87.	Still Life by Val McDermid</strong>

The Karen Pirie cold case series. I love a cold case book, but these were all a bit too recent for me. My own fault for reading a few in a row, but I was heartily sick of Karen Pirie and her sincere belief that she is the only member of the police who cares about solving crimes by the time I hit the last book. Still they were easy reads and kept me interested.

<strong>88.	Hillsborough Voices: The Real Story Told by the People Themselves by Kevin Sampson</strong>

This was a bit of a funny one. I was expecting something along the lines of The Last Plane in the Sky and given subject matter it was obviously very emotional, and enraging, but for some reason it felt a bit lightweight. I don’t know if he struggled to get people to contribute (and I could understand that), but the voices he mentions are fairly limited in number and didn’t really add much to what I already knew.

<strong>89.	2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C Clarke</strong>

I listened to this on audiobook and it really brought home to me what a visual film 2001 is and parts definitely didn’t lend themselves well to a book format.

<strong>90.	The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni</strong>

This was a management bollocks book I had to read for work, which I actually ending up kind of enjoying. It helped that it was structured as a story, and was short, and worked pretty well as an audiobook. I mean I wouldn’t read it for fun, but if you have to read kinda thing there are definitely worse books out there.

<strong>91.	Before They Are Hanged by Joe Abercrombie</strong>
<strong>92.	Last Argument of Kings by Joe Abercrombie</strong>

The second and third books in the First Law series. Fantasy books, which didn’t go the way I expected at all. No one turned out to be who I thought they were and their fates were somewhat unexpected too. I really enjoyed these after a slow start with the first book in the trilogy.

<strong>93.	Marking Time by April White</strong>
<strong>94.	Tempting Fate by April White</strong>
<strong>95.	Changing Nature by April White</strong>
<strong>96.	Waging War by April White</strong>
<strong>97.	Cheating Death by April White</strong>

YA time travel series where the descendants of Immortals have gifts depending on their ancestry. There’s clockers, shifters, seers, mongers and the descendants of Death. If you can see past the not great writing, the inordinate amount of smirking, and the slightly irritating heroine, these are a fun and easy read which I didn’t mind at all.

Did anyone else get a Wish List voucher today? Nice surprise

No; how/where do you get those? You mean Amazon, yes?

@AliasGrape what about I Capture The Castle? <happy sigh>

Eine, I sometimes get an Amazon email offering 40% off items on my wishlist - is that what you mean? They seem to appear very randomly.

Both 84 Charing Cross Road and It Shouldn't Happen to a Vet are just perfectly 'lovely' reads in my humble opinion. Enjoy!

James Herriot definitely perfect for 'lovely'. This is a re-read, but not for a very long time. Just become reacquainted with Nugent the pig.

@DameHelena

Amazon yes, it just came as an email, We Are Offering You 40% Off An Item On Your Wishlist

@noodlezoodle

First one, for me

More Late To The Party TBR Turfings :

64. The Mermaid Of Black Conch by Monique Roffey

Man falls in love with mermaid. This wasn't for me. It was mercifully short or it wouldn't have been finished. Surprised at awards attention. Emperor's New Clothes vibes.

65. The Sealwoman's Gift by Sally Magnusson

Based on a true story of a piratical raid on Iceland in the 1600s, numerous Icelandic nationals are captured as slaves and taken to North Africa. With one or two minor quibbles notwithstanding, I actually really loved this, not quite a bold, but one of my best fictions this year, a lovely read, absorbing too, if you are still looking AliasGrape.

I once had credit given to my Amazon account (£5 I think) for no reason but that was years ago and never since. 40% off wish list would be lush nothings changed in price for ages

@EineReiseDurchDieZeit I'm impressed you made it to the end of Mermaid. I thought it was dire and gave up in disgust.

Alias I looked through my list from this year for ideas and wondered if Jackie Kay’s Red Dust Road would suit - memoir rather than fiction but a thoroughly resilient, humane book.

Remus

It didn't improve. I'm getting more and more distrustful of prize winners and nominees

98 Rogues by Patrick Radden Keefe
A collection of the author's long pieces for the New Yorker. Although the subtitle is "True Stories of Grifters, Killers, Rebels and Crooks" it's quite a mixed bag including as well as forgers & arms dealers a US death-penalty defense lawyer and Anthony Bourdain. Inevitably with this sort of collection some were more interesting than others, but a good read all the same.

99 The Atlas Six by Olivie Blake
Fantasy novels based in or around the Great Library of Alexandria seem to be the latest thing. In this variation, once every ten years six exceptionally talented 20-30 something magicians are offered the opportunity to compete for five places in the Alexandrian Society, offering untold knowledge, wealth and power. After recruitment, they spend a year cloistered in the Society's London headquarters, before one is eliminated.

The first 80% of this was excellent - the magic was largely a hook to hang a story about the six protagonists & their relationships (thankfully no romance, though a fair amount of - off-page - sex) & it's the first book for ages where I've stayed up late for 'just one more chapter'. Unfortunately it became a rather more conventional fantasy-thriller type plot towards the end, setting up for a sequel. I'll no doubt read the next one, but I'll wait for it to come up in the library.
This was a recommendation from the Mr B's (free) online book matching service & it was a good shout I think. I got this one from the library, but I'll probably order some of the others they suggested for me.

100 Masters in this Hall by KJ Charles
Fun Christmas themed novella. John Garland is a disgraced hotel detective determined to catch the thief who tricked him & led to his dismissal. Barnaby - the thief - is employed by John's uncle to organise Christmas festivities in his country house. Theft, attempted murder and a lot of christmas carols follow.

I'm trying walk 10k steps a day in December and thought I'd listen to audible while I do it.

48. The Secret History of Christmas by Bill Bryson
**
This is only available on audible (I think, it's not that clear) and it's a short 3.5 hour listen and I managed the whole thing in two walks and one puzzle session which leads me to realise I might have more spare time in my life than I think....

Anyway, it's typical Bryson, interesting and wry humour. He looks at how Christmas has changed over the thousands of years it's been celebrated and when various traditions started and how they morphed into what we do now. It was really fascinating and just what I needed today to offset a frustrating day at work.

I’ve never had a ‘money off wish list’ voucher from Amazon. Occasionally I’ve had an email offering money off a book by a specific author but it’s always been authors whose books I’ve already got so the offer is no use! I would love money off my wish list, I’ve got a couple of expensive hardback son there that have been hanging around for ages as I wait to see if they drop in price.

I got a vouchers for 40% off a kindle book (a specific one) that I'd put on the lost whe it was a £1 and I was browsing on my phone but definitely wouldn't buy for much more. Its now full price so wasn't fussed.

Also hate how I can buy through the kindle app anymore but my purse doesn't seem to mind lol

Finished the James H.
Was it lovely? Yes
Did it irritatingly contain a lot of stories featured in other books and therefore feel like a bit of a rip off? Also yes.

I’d also be thrilled if Amazon offered me 40% off any of the books on my ever-expanding wishlist, none of which ever go down to 99p these days, or seem likely to!