50 Books Challenge 2023 Part One

[Southeastdweller]

Welcome to the first thread of the 50 Book Challenge for this year.

The challenge is to read fifty books (or more!) in 2023, though reading fifty isn't mandatory. Any type of book can count, and please try to let us all know your thoughts on what you've read.

If possible, please can you embolden your titles and maybe authors as well of books you've read or going to read? It makes it much easier to keep track, especially when the threads move quickly at this time of the year.

Who's in for this year?

I don’t have the tough carapace I used to have for graphic violence etc in fiction. The Wasp Factory is one of my all time favourites but a recent re-read was quite tough and I don’t remember being so shocked by some of the description when I was 15. I still find it quite outstanding in the themes it tackles and beautifully written. It’s just a thousand times more sad.

I would like to read The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson again, but I’m a bit scared I wouldn’t find it half so mesmerising as the first time, so perhaps better it stays in my memory as that Wow! book.

I agree with @HiccupHorrendousHaddock (love the name, our favourite audible series) on Ishiguro. I think he is very interested in what being human means and wonder how much of it is due to his background, Japanese reservation Vs Western informality and sentimentality. There was an interesting www.theguardian.com/books/2021/feb/20/kazuo-ishiguro-klara-and-the-sun-interview?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other interview in The Guardian when Klara came out with him.

Have finished Glory by NoViolet Bulawayo. I found this a real struggle to start with but ended up being astounded by the sheer scope and weight of it. It's been billed as a Zimbabwean Animal Farm, set in the last days of Mugabe's dictatorship and the aftermath. I found the animal part the least successful, maybe I didn't know enough about Zimbabwe's politicians (other than Mugabe and Grace) to appreciate the satire. Stylistically you'll either love it or hate it. Some of it is written in the first person plural, the word "Tholukthi" meaning "it is discovered" appears in most sentences, and there are long lists accentuating the suffering or corruption. There are also a few instances where a phrase or word is repeated for pages like "I can't breathe". The main story part kicks off about a quarter of the way in following returned Destiny and her mother, and those were the strongest parts to my mind. I feel this could well be a future set text and it deserves to be. It shines a light on a part of the world and conflict that I knew very little about. I think Fortuna on one previous threads described it as a book she admired rather than loved, which I agree with, but would recommend it if you feel at all interested. Just bear with it as the second half does flow better than the first. Think it will stay with me for a long time.

2/50 - Rizzio - Denise Mina

Thank you so much for the recommendation, was it you @Passmethecrisps? I really enjoyed this. Its one day in the life of Mary, Queen of Scots which encompasses the brutal murder of one of her closest advisors, David Rizzio. Its the perfect short story for this time of year. It felt very claustrophobic and frightening. Excellent.

3/50 - Murder Before Evensong - The Rev Richard Coles

Just started this one. I wonder if I'll concur with @AConvivialHost? I'm expecting it to be similiar to Richard Osmans series. A gentle type of book. We'll see. On the topic of Richard Osman, I've been looking for his latest book in the supermarkets for a gift (I dont live near a bookshop). The supermarkets do not seem to have been restocked since Christmas and there is no sign of his books!

I agree with you about Glory but I don’t think I liked it as much as you did by the sounds of it. The ‘animals’ didn’t work for me - not like they do in ‘Animal Farm’. I understand why she used the device in order to muffle the identities of the real-life figures.
I did not like the repetition, although I ‘get it’ - I understand why she used it. I just get bored of that. When faced with pages and pages of a repeated phrase what do you do? Do you read them all like a good little reader or think ‘yeah, yeah, boooring’ and skip it? Ashamed to say I do the second.
It was a book to admire, rather than to enjoy for me too.

Sorry, that was to @Stokey

@Stokey - thanks, our favourite audiobooks too, and we have them all in hardbacks. Even in adulthood my lot request them for long car journeys (as an alternative to Cabin Pressure on endless loop). Have you heard her newer series, The Wizards Of Once?

NB - Eldest told me off for not including The Third in my user name

@Owlbookend, Ishiguro says he writes the same book over and over again. I can see that - it's like he approaches it from a new angle and frames it afresh but it's still about being human.

2/50 Herd

I read the reviews first, and certainly didn't think it was unputdownable, but it waseasy to read, a good story and ending. Both main characters wound me up a little, I did think about my own views on vaccines, and wondered why I had chosen to vaccinate my kids. The clever part of the book is that it takes no sides, I do agree that it was very well written.

@HiccupHorrendousHaddock I decided I needed to declutter my bookshelves, and got thinking about what I read... and I ended up buying 6 more books. This made me laugh!

@highlandcoo I totally agree with you about the UEA creative writing course connection. I always think it's indisputable that McEwan and Ishiguro are technically great at writing but I always find something lacking in their novels for me, a lack of connection tot he characters. They create books, that I find are more to be admired than loved or tug on my emotions. I've never kept or re read any of their stuff. I read the recent McEwan Lessons as an ARC, many hours I'll never get back!

I looked at the notable alumni form the MA course. I never knew that Rose Tremain, Tracy Chevalier and John Boyne were alumni. It certainly churns out award winners. How scary and competitive must it be to be on that course!
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UEA_Creative_Writing_Course

@SapatSea - I need to be stopped. Last year I read 81 books, and 40 were new purchases.

We have bookshelves everwhere and double stacked, and I just can't squeeze them all in. But I re-read so often that it's hard to be sure I won't want to pick it up again...

Just caught with the thread...and have Never let me go on my TBR may need to bump it up to understand the discourse I've just read!

The rereading cpversation hit me last year I reread the ladies detective agency and although I enjoyed all of them it was not the same love I had before when I read them at uni having bought them from the £1 second hand book stall in the market.

Oh yeah love this, the idea that as well as the perhaps more statistically likely differences in opinion that age may bring - see lots of comments earlier about differences in response to CitR - seemingly random things also feed into how you feel about any specific reading event. Whether you have just come out of a relationship. If you're having the time of your life at Uni and finding peachy second hand book stalls. If the sun is shining or if it's raining as you get to the conclusion maybe!

First book of 2023 finished - The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. This is a Brontë I'd never read, so thank you to everyone who recommended it on last year's thread. I really enjoyed it. But - on the subject of reading things at different times in our lives - I can imagine I might have found this boring if I'd read it at the same time as Jane Eyre or Wuthering Heights. Less drama!

Book 2 - The Hike by Susi Holliday

This was one from my pile of Kindle books to get through, I don't actually remember even buying this one! Most likely a browse after a glass of wine I suspect! It was about two sisters and their husbands going on a hike, with only two returning from it (this is in the blurb so not a spoiler!) It goes through the story of what happened on the hike etc. Few twists and turns there, wasn't the worst book I have ever read, but it wasn't necessarily one I would normally have read really.

Book 3 - Three Hours by Rosamund Lupton

Well, despite my previous vow being to challenge myself to get through previously purchased books, I noticed this one was given a few good reviews through a Facebook group and on sale for 99p on Kindle yesterday, so I bought it 😂oops! I must say, this one I did like! TW though, it is about a school under seige (though fictional) and the point of view of several different people throughout. I actually got glued to this yesterday and finished it before bed. I honestly felt like I was in the book. I would recommend this one!

Book 4 to be chosen tonight, I am determined to start well for the year before I return to uni later this month, as I've very little time during uni to read anything other than textbooks, so I will slow down drastically for a while after returning sadly!

@SapatSea that's interesting about Rose Tremain, John Boyne and Tracy Chevalier all having studied there too; Rose Tremain in the very early days. And I see Jane Harris was also a student. I really rate her as the author of The Observations and Gillespie and I.
These are all writers whose work I enjoy much more than that of IM and KI. Evidently it's not just the course ..

1. Nightcrawling by Leila Mottley

This is a book which I have seen recommended in a few places and it is definitely well written; however I actually could have finished this yesterday and I didn't, I took a break because it just isn't a good headspace to put yourself in for too long.

Kiara is 17, one parent dead and the other serving time. One brother who she used to be able to rely on chasing rapper pipe dreams and drug deals. With no rent and no food Kiara sleepwalks into prostitution.

It's just grim, all of it and from the outset, the seedy, sleaziness of the world, the bonecrushing poverty, the sheer hopelessness. The tragedy of these young people with no one, it makes you feel complicit and dirty.

Obviously I have read books with difficult subject matter before but I felt this one, especially how alone Kiara is in the world (and Trevor too) and this visual of her walking alone down a street touting for custom not knowing if they will hurt her or even pay her but needing to take that risk anyway.

A bit like reading a season of The Wire

I'm not sure if this will prove to be "a bold" mainly because it's such an unhealthy mood that you end up in reading it, but the thing is I know it will probably haunt me a bit.

Need a palate cleanser next

I only started reading more regularly in September and only managed three books last year one of which was The Appeal by Janice Hallett which I loved, so on the lookout for more of that kind of thing

I should add that I also read
The Twyford Code - Janice Hallett
Where the Crawdads Sing Delia Owens
10 Minutes 38 seconds in this strange world - Elif Shafak

all pretty decent and worth reading

This is fascinating @BoldFearlessGirl. I think I've gone in the opposite direction to you - I read The Wasp Factory when I was 18 and found it utterly traumatising. It made me feel physically sick and I rushed through the second half because I just wanted it over and done with. I've never revisited it and I wonder what I would think now, 30ish years on and with a much tougher carapace!

Iain Banks is one of my favourite authors, but given how much I hated TWF I'm not really sure what inspired me to pick up another one of his. Very glad I did though.

@SashaLily the appeal is on my TBR. Heard interesting things about it.

@highlandcoo That's really interesting, and I totally agree about the similarities, although I hadn't picked up on it before. I've often accused Ian M on here of delighting in his own cleverness. I didn't feel that about That bloody boring butler or Why will the writer never let us all die and put us out of our misery let me go but agree that both have an emotional distance from their characters and stories. It's all a bit as flies to wanton boys are we to the gods - there's a cynicism and clinical observation-ness to it all that leaves me cold.

Eine Nightcrawling was one of my books of the year. Intensely traumatic but so vividly written and an unheard voice telling their story. It's definitely stayed with me.

I had never read anything like it, @noodlezoodle , it was amorally exhilarating. Now I can see it’s shot through with abuse and trauma. He was an incredibly talented writer.

So I like authors that are pessimistic about human nature.

Have you read Beryl Bainbridge? She's brilliant but her novels are all very dark. Prefer her to Ishiguru (Loved TROTD and NLMG but The Unconsoled almost broke me) and McEwan (just about threw Atonement across the room because of the ending then got annoyed at myself for getting annoyed at it. And it's got by far the best of his writing in it, the two middle sections are brilliant, but agree his books are cold).

I’ve added Nightcrawling to my list but sounds like it’s definitely not one for me right now. Likewise The Wasp Factory, I read my first Iain Banks last year (The Crow Road) which I loved but I think I need gentle right now! I do have Espedair Street to read, has anyone read that?