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?

Welcome back Fortuna. It is lovely to see you; I missed your reviews. May things continue to improve.

Any doubts I had about whether to read Spare dispelled by this thread. I already feel as if I know all the stories and your reviews can fill any gaps. Life is too short. I feel sorry for Harry but not a few days of my reading life worth of sorry.

Hi @FortunaMajor. Sorry to hear of your struggles, glad you are joining us again.

im another that got sent an unrequested PDF of Spare and am flicking through it for the drama. Mainly enjoying comparing what he says to how the dailymail interprets it.

enjoying 8 books at once at the moment in various formats and for various clubs. A record for me but it definitely works for my current mood.

I was interested in the discussion about time and place impacting your views. I read Cloud Atlas when it came out and thought it was the bees knees. Now relistening on audio and not gelling with it at all. Quite blokey and the connections between the stories are so clunky. I’ve often thought this was a favourite read and it’s making me question others I assume I would still like.

Have not caught up with the thread at all but have got to the discussion about The Lighthouse Witches. I really enjoyed this last year and it was my standout book of the year but the books I picked were so meh that anything half decent would have risen up in my ranks. Interesting error about Costa very out of time, Costa would certainly not have been around back then. I have her next book which I hope I get on with.

I remembered another clanger in The Lighthouse Witches. One of the girls is described as wearing “a swimsuit over jeans”. No, no, no. Hideously uncomfortable and even the quirkiest child wouldn’t wear them that way round

@GrannieMainland

Yes, everything is someone else's fault, at all times, and that's what makes him seem so whiney.

There is though something a bit heartwrenching about an almost 40 year old talking wistfully about Mummy

@RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie

My apologies! I agree though that the forum is overrun and I've read several OPs where I felt the poster was in need of support with their mental health themselves. It will die down soon.

Thanks again for more lovely messages. You lot really are the nicest corner of the internet.

A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
Clocking up 1474 pages or 68hrs45mins on audio, this one is not for the faint hearted.

This is a sweeping epic that follows 4 extended families of differing socio-economic class/caste and religious faiths during the early 1950s, a time of great political upheaval in India. At the heart of it all is one young woman with aspirations and her mother determined to find her a suitable boy to marry whether the daughter wants to or not.

This covers full gamut of Indian society and is a fascinating insight into the politics of the time, but it is a lot of commitment to get through it. It isn't too hard to follow who is who, but I would say you need a particular interest in the region to warrant picking it up. It's not a casual encounter. I'm glad I've read it, but wouldn't rush to recommend it.

All The Broken Places - John Boyne
The sequel to The Boy In The Striped Pajamas
This picks up shortly after the end of the war and follows Bruno's sister Gretel and her life after. Gretel was the daughter of the Auschwitz Commandant. It explores the what she goes through to escape her past and come to terms with what went on in her youth. This is aimed at adults and not children this time.

I can't decide how I feel about this one. I think Catherine Chidgey in Remote Sympathy explored the themes of being in a concentration camp Commandant's family much more eloquently and with more depth. This felt like a much more casual and almost blasé attempt in comparison. That said it's very readable, and I did like it despite it being full of flaws. It's chewing gum compared to the steak on offer with Chidgey though.

Reviews of two very different books:

3 Weather by Jenny Offill. This is a short, quirky book about Lizzie, a librarian going about her everyday life. Not much happens plot-wise but it explores her relationships with her husband, son, brother and SIL, boss, mum, neighbours etc. Nice to read - not too demanding, but not fluff either.

4 Do Not Say We Have Nothing by Madeleine Thien. This, on the other hand, is a long, complex family saga, set in China in the second half of the 20th century, (with an additional, much briefer strand set in modern day Canada). It includes many of the famous developments of the period (Chinese land reforms, the Cultural Revolution, the Tiananmen Square massacre), but told from an intensely personal viewpoint rather than a broad historical perspective. There are various protagonists over the course of the book, all members of one of two families. Running through the book is a continual musical thread or motif, as it is the passion of nearly all the important characters. It is not an easy read - both emotionally, due to the devastating events (yes, I cried several times), and also because the narrative is quite rambling and it can be hard to keep track of all the characters - but it is worth the effort. This is quite something. A clear bold for me.

@FortunaMajor thanks for the Remote Sympathy recommended, I’ve added it to my TBR list. I read and enjoyed All the Broken Places last year but agree it has flaws. I really didn’t like the ending in relation to both sets of Gretel’s neighbours (trying not to give anything away) and also wish it hadn’t picked up after the war had ended. I wanted to know about what happened immediately after Bruno went missing.

@cassandre I definitely did recommend The Beginning of Spring although I think others did as well. I loved it, so glad you enjoyed it too.

Thanks Welshwabbit!

Fortuna, I was also a fan of Remote Sympathy. I've been very sceptical of John Boyne ever since the Auschwitz memorial museum issued a public statement distancing themselves from him.

www.theguardian.com/books/2020/jan/07/john-boyne-defends-work-from-criticism-by-auschwitz-memorial

Tarahumara, I also loved Do Not Say We Have Nothing and gave it five stars.
Here's my old review:

Harrowing but very, very good. This was a slow burner for me as I couldn't keep all the characters straight at the start and even went back and reread the first couple of hundred pages to get the connections between characters clear in my head. But by the end I was utterly engrossed and stayed up late at night finishing it. The accounts of the Chinese cultural revolution and the Tiananmen Square protests are unforgettable. The theme of music that runs through and connects the whole narrative is also beautifully done. Much of the story is about the cruel use of propaganda (people being forced to write and say words they don't actually mean), so music comes to embody freedom. In the words of Sparrow the composer: "...sound was alive and disturbing and outside of any individual's control. Sound had a freedom that no thought could equal because a sound made no absolute claim on meaning. Any word, on the other hand, could be forced to signify its opposite."

@noodlezoodle
Whispers back...
I agree!

@FortunaMajor welcome back. I'm so glad this thread is providing you with solace and comfort.

Here goes for 2/50

Less by Andrew Sean Greer.

A middle-aged gay American writer decides to travel the world to avoid his problems at home. I found this book poignant, sad, wise and at times hysterically funny. Arthur Less, the author in the throes of mid-life crisis, seems to have no control over his life and no ability to see who he really is. He bobs along the current of life just about staying afloat. It's a really lovely affecting book and I heartily recommend it. It won the Pulitzer Prize in 2018.

Glad to see the love for Less. I really enjoyed it too.

Love that review @cassandre.

Have added Less and Do Not Say we have Nothing to my tbr. I was hoping to focus on my tbr this year without buying new books but it’s getting tempting…

6. Madly, Deeply - The Alan Rickman Diaries

Succumbed to this when it was in the deals. I should probably say I was a big admirer of Rickman, saw him in several of his early-ish stage hits, even worked on the very distant fringes of a related field when he was at the RSC, though never met him. So I speak as a fan. But goodness, this book was so over-hyped and so atrociously edited.

I don’t normally enjoy wading through pages half-taken up by footnotes, but that would actually be preferable to the grudging one-liners that get dropped in with extreme reluctance here, and offer little real help in untangling the endless lists of names and his often-gnomic references to…..well, who knows what. I spent a lot of time on Wikipedia working out which film he was making, what project he was talking about, as there were few/no notes to explain. Really maddening.

Otherwise, advance claims of how explosively 'indiscreet', 'witty', 'gossipy' etc this was seem a bit of an over-reach. Yes, he can be fitfully amusing but more often he’s depressed, hungover, worrying about eating too much, and preoccupied with his health - understandably, given the shadow hanging over him after prostate cancer. I was most moved by the passages about his mum and her illness and death. He didn’t seem like a very happy man, and for that I’m sorry.

7. In a Good Light by Clare Chambers

I’m not quite sure what I think about this one. I was enjoying the story of the childhood of Esther Fairchild, her brother Christian, their parents and the various visitors to the family’s ramshackle but always welcoming home. Then I got towards the end and it suddenly seemed to become a different book with a ‘chick-lit’ romance vibe (I like a romance as much as the next girl, it just didn’t seem to fit here) and a wholly unnecessary twist.

A late joiner please. I need somewhere to record my progress.

1. withering heights (needs no review
2. Let Joy Arise* - Taylor works through getting over a life-changing injury, her new marriage and new business.
3. Récitatif - Toni Morrison Two girls first meet in an orphanage and we see how their life changes and merges from time to time.

I’ll hopefully get better with reviews after I’ve had a proper read through comments .

Sorry my ‘bolds’ didn’t work :(

Secret Indiscretions by Trice Hickman

i just chanced upon this on my borrow box app but really enjoyed it.
Two married people decide to have an affair. The consequences are very interesting as they lead their respective spouses on their own next adventures

i’m choosing books that I’m finding easy to read to start off the year

Bonjour Tristesse by Françoise Sagan

This is a very short book (didn’t take me long to get through) and the story itself isn’t anything particularly special (17 year old girl doesn’t want her father to remarry so plots to stop him). What’s astonishing about this is how mature the writing is given the author was only 18 when she wrote it.

@ChessieFL I read this years ago and really liked it 🙂

I really enjoyed Less. There is a sequel out now too!

@GrannieMainland love the name! My children have a grannyfromthetrain.
Ill definitely put the sequel on my tbr list.

Really enjoying this thread and have bought quite a few books because of it!

4 - Explaining Humans: What Science Can Teach Us About Life, Love and Relationships by Dr Camilla Pang.

Lots of non-fiction for me so far this year! The author is autistic and also has ADHD - she has taken scientific concepts and applied them to people in order to help her understand the world. This was very erudite and interesting but hard going and a bit intense at times - my sister described it as exhausting!