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?

Yes, it does mean dead but it's not an Old Scots expression as so may reviews suggest. It's Glaswegian and fairly recent (ie 20th century).

We used to say 'he's away up he Crow Road'. Nothing symbolic - a literal reference to a very long road with a big cemetery at the end of it! Or so I was always told.

Of course, we meant we were going to school. Same difference...

Very good! I like it :)

6. Murder: The Biography - Kate Morgan
An account of the changing definition of murder/manslaughter from the 16th century to the present, through case law, legislation and public opinion. Interesting, but not earth-shattering in either content or style.

Somewhat ironically, I’ve never read The Crow Road on the possibly mistaken understanding that it includes animal cruelty, the one thing I’m really squeamish about.

I was a student in Glasgow so knew street but not the expression. Quick google tells me Uncle Rory was writing a book called The Crow Road but there's obviously thematic links to the expression as well.

Think you went to the same school as my cousins @Piggywaspushed

I probably did! There's one quite well known school on that road!

Susan Calman, me and janina's cousins all eagerly learning.

Thank you so much everyone for the recommendations. I’ve finished my first three books.

I‘ve just read It Ends At Midnight based on a recommendation on this thread. I really enjoyed it, but agreed with another poster that the ending was a bit flat.

Based on recommendations on this thread, next I’m going to read -

4.We Are All Liars - Cary’s Jones
5.The World I fell Out Of - Melanie Reid

@ChannelLightVessel

It's The Wasp Factory that has the animal cruelty

Book #4 operation Garbo Juan Pujol Garcia and Nigel West. Part biography part history of one of the greatest wartime double agent operations. It's no Ben Macintyre! The chapters are written partly by Garbo and partly by Nigel West. Now accepting its a major coup to find Garbo the book could have been so much better. Garbo himself didn't ring true to me and I didn't feel much sympathy for him. The Nigel West bits were better written and decently written. Overall felt like an opportunity lost as it could have been so much better

4. Desert Star - Michael Connelly

I'm afraid this was inhaled at high speed as I find Connelly’s Bosch (and now Ballard) books the novelistic equivalent of catnip. No plot description from me as I don’t want to risk any spoilers, but I enjoyed it, with some reservations.

I’m an idiot!

6. Little Sister by Gytha Lodge I'm now up to date on the DCI Jonah Sheens series and can have a break before the next one comes out in April

In this one, Jonah is sat in a pub garden when a teenage girl appears covered in blood. He quickly ascertains that she's one of a pair of sisters who went missing from the care system several days before. She refuses to tell Jonah where her sister is until he listens to her life story. Chapters alternate between Sheens and his team trying to find the other sister and the story being told by the sister they have. Warning that this book contains descriptions of child abuse. Probably my least favourite in the series so far. Not sure if that's due to the subject matter or if the book is less well-written. Several "clues" are planted in the story of the sister and I picked up on all of them immediately. To be honest, until one of the police team realised they were clues I thought it was shoddy writing

3. Three Hours - Rosamund Lupton

Much recommended and reviewed on here. I agree - very good. Thanks for the tip to avoid her other books otherwise I would have been tempted.

The Dancing Bear
Apologies, as I can’t remember who recommended this simply wonderful book about post-WW2 Berlin. Although I already knew a lot about the period, this book gives history a human face. I absolutely loved it.

Remus - I am fairly sure that I have never read Death of Grass but that does sound like the kind of debate I would have with a Pollyanna-loving optimist

"In my possible nativity, I thought he made people go crazily amoral too quickly. I read it before we actually had people fighting over toilet rolls in lockdown or some new drink in Aldi recently!"

Assuming you meant naiveté - I told you so

Finally finished my 1st book, The Last Chairlift by John Irving. I warmed up to it a bit by the end but can't say I'd recommend it.
Next comes The Whalebone Theatre

Just read The Paris Apartment by Lucy Foley. I wanted something easy after two heavier tomes so I shouldn't really complain that it was a bit obvious. Reasonable version of the genre, but I don't get much out of thrillers these days so am better off persevering with other books.

2 What is Remembered? Alice Munro
This is a short story- around 8k words- does that count? Anyway it was an enjoyable read, lots of understated emotion done very well. I’m not usually a big reader of short stories (or poetry) so am aiming to read more of both this year (I’m reading the book A Poem a Day with DH daily)

3 The Woman in White Wilkie Collins
This is the first classic I’ve read in about ten years. I enjoyed the different narrators a lot and the sensationalism of it all, though it did drag a bit at the end.

Next up is Exiles by Jane Harper- her third and final Aaron Falk detective book.

My third is a book that a lot of people loved and I didn't, so I'm interested in views if anyone else has read:

3 - We All Want Impossible Things by Catherine Newman

I know a lot of people who loved this, but I was more divided. It's an account of a woman nursing her best friend who is in a hospice dying of cancer. As a result, it is obviously very sad, and has some deeply moving moments. But it was one of those where I found the voice deeply irritating. Part of the point of the book is those moments of humour that occur even in the darkest times, but I found it too flippant and implausible, and the dialogue just... dishonest somehow. But this seems to be a minority reaction.

8. Leave the World Behind - Rumaan Alam.

A family are on vacation in a holiday rental, when the house owners turn up. There has been a black out in NYC and they want to 'wait it out' in their holiday home. Without any TV, internet or phone signal they struggle to know what is going on in the outside world.

I thought this was a nicely written thriller with lots of tension and menace, and a sense of claustrophobia despite being set in a rural area. The chapters are short, so it's very easy to think 'oh, I'll just read another one' and before you know it you are done and it's 3am in the morning. Solid 4 star from me.

Google tells me that this will be Netflix series later this year staring Julia Roberts, Ethan Hawke and Mahershala Ali, so look forward to watching it to see how it compares.

7. Broken Summer by J. M. Lee, translated by An Seon Jae Amazon first reads freebie. I don't read a lot of translated books and I'm not sure how good the translation was here, or if the original writing was poor. A few words that don't even remotely fit the context which I presume is down to translation errors

This book follow Hanjo, a renowned artist, who wakes up one morning to find his wife has left in the night. She leaves behind a manuscript for a novel she's written which seems very much to be about Hanjo although with many incorrect facts which cast Hanjo in a bad light. The novel is published and it doesn't take long for people to associate Hanjo with the main character of the novel. The novel revolves around an event in the past when Hanjo's neighbour, a teenage girl, went missing. Does Hanjo know more about that night than he admitted at the time? And why has his wife tried to destroy his reputation? And how much of the novel actually is lies?

I hated this book right up until the last 2 chapters. I very nearly DNF. I definitely don't love it but I started to find it slightly less awful.

The beginning made me ANGRY! It reads exactly like a mn aibu useless husband thread who delegates absolutely everything to his wife who ends up completing giving up her life and personality to run his and I think it took most of the book for me to get over my anger

Another issue is that one VERY important plot point doesn't fit with the ending and is never addressed. So the solution doesn't actually work with this detail left hanging

Overall, would not recommend

21st Birthday James Patterson
Just finished this, its about a woman and her baby daughter who go missing and the husband is strongly suspected from the outset.

It started off well, but the last few chapters were rushed and vague and I found the ending disappointing.

I'm sure there's a recent film with the same premise. Different title though. It would be quite odd if there was a film and TV series from the same book. Might be tempted to watch the series for Mahershala Ali, who I think is terrific.

I've just finished 5. Jo of the Chalet School, the 2nd book in the series by Elinor M Brent-Dyer. Moved onto Hex by Jenni Fagan as recommended on here.

Two books, both much reviewed previously so I won't describe them but just give my brief impressions.

When Breath becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi PK was obviously a remarkable man and deserving of huge sympathy but I'm afraid I found it difficult to engage emotionally with this.

House of Glass by Hadley Freeman As terrific as everyone says. I'm very much looking forward to the publication of her new book - Good Girls - in April.

5 House of Glass - Hadley Freeman I would say it’s a coincidence that I’ve finished this just at the same time as @Boiledeggandtoast but as I got it from the library on the basis of the great reviews on last year’s thread, perhaps it’s not so coincidental! Thank you to everyone who recommended it - it was fantastic, and my first bold of the year. Freeman’s family were incredibly fascinating, but even if they had been more average her writing style was so compelling, and I learned a huge amount while at the same time being entertained.