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?

3. Lean, Fall, Stand by Jon McGregor
For decades Robert has spent much of each year providing tech support to a research organisation in Antarctica, seemingly enjoying the splendid isolation. A freak storm hits. Robert is rescued but has had a stroke, the most serious consequence of which is aphasia. The rest of the book follows Robert's painstaking efforts to rehabilitate.

The minutiae of the daily grind for both Robert and his partner Anna are well detailed, and McGregor manages to make this captivating. I would however have liked to have had access to more of Robert's feelings and thoughts about his struggles to adapt. Still a good read though.

Going to share my DNF’s which will be a fair few when I listen to them. Silverweed Road by Simon Crook. This started as quite promising. It is about a quiet suburban street where nothing is quite as it seems. It had a detective interrupting between some of the chapters. It is a collection of creepy twisted tales set around each house. I listened to the first few stories but then became bored. They were odd , strange stories but this is not for me.

I found Lean Fall Stand a good read too, especially the first section that read like a tense thriller for me.
I would like to read Alan Rickman’s diaries but that’s a great review Terpsichore. It also makes me wonder if we can really know how happy someone is by reading their diary. I just have a five year - one line a day - style diary so it’s mainly a list of what I do each day! When I was going through a tough time at work I wrote down horrible things in a notebook but that was to help me get through it. Also I was happy in other aspects of my life but that wouldn’t be reflected in my writing.
I agree lots of good reviews on here. I have an awful habit - if someone tells me a book has won a prize or something I have to read it!

Too add it was a bit like tales of the unexpected but I really did not enjoy any of the stories.

Have just finished The Postman Always Rings Twice by James M Cain. Number 3 of the year for me.
This was a perfect palate cleanser after being forced to read a book for my book group that I hated.
Short, crime fiction with fantastic terse but evocative language and incisive psychological genius type characterisation. The dialogue is top tier too. This book has been made into film more than once.
It’s your typical ‘femme fatale’ plot. A drifter ends up working at a roadside cafe where he gets entangled with the owner’s wife Cora. They hatch a plot to murder her husband ‘The Greek’ and it goes on from there with plenty of twists and turns.
Absolutely brilliant and I don’t usually read crime but I loved it. You can picture every scene, the way the characters look. The portrayal of her poor husband as this hapless doofus who really doesn’t deserve to be murdered is particularly good. It’s visceral at times, shocking but I couldn’t put it down. The perfect short easy but intelligent read if you’ve lost your reading mojo.

4. The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry
much discussed on this thread a few years ago which is where I picked up the recommendation. Just got round to reading really enjoyed this slightly gothic tale set in the 19th century about Cora who moves to a village in Essex plagued by a monster. Tells the story of the village inhabitants and Cora's autistic son. Some really nice bits in this book but felt the characters weren't really developed fully. Overall though a good read.

Officially joining in the thread after lurking for much of last year. Just finished my first book of the year Marple, a collection of 12 short stories by various authors. Overall enjoyable although found the short stories didn’t give enough in terms of build up. My favourites were the Jade Empress and A deadly wedding day. I might actually look up a couple of the authors as although I had heard of most of them I don’t think I’ve read anything they’d written.

Yes, I get what you mean about the diaries @Nuffaluff. I’ve kept some myself, very intermittently, and found I was being more honest about my real (and darker) feelings there as opposed to being ‘on’ and upbeat in my everyday life with other people, but of course it totally depends on the person!

1. House of Glass: Hadley Freeman.

This has often been recommended here and I'm very glad I read it. It is the story of a Jewish family; the author's paternal grandmother and her three siblings who fled Poland after the pogroms following World War One and settled in France to face further persecution following Hitler's rise to power.

I found it very absorbing and raced through to the end to see what became of the family. I loved the photographs of the author's relatives dispersed throughout the book. It was a fascinating insight into that time. Each of their lives was amazing in its own way. A poignant and compelling book, well researched, well written with the perfect focus on this family's story in the historical context.

@FuzzyCaoraDhubh sounds interesting. I've just logged it into my Goodreads List. ❤️

Thicker Than Water by JD Kirk. Another sharp, well-paced thriller, downloaded because I needed something read on my Kindle. I’m going to resist buying any more for a while, so I don’t get Logan Fatigue.

A Curious History Of Sex by Kate Lister. I was a bit nonplussed by her apologising for using the word ‘whore’ and for not according transwomen the regard and study she seems to feel they are due in the Introduction but I suppose she felt the heavy hand of Cancellation reaching out for her so 🤷‍♀️. But then I’m not in the “sex work is work and TWAW” camp, so not the target audience for author apologies like that.
It’s a fairly comprehensive and entertaining romp, doing exactly what it says on the tin.

I recommend looking it up if you are interested in this historical period and if you like finding out about a family's past history (if you are anyway nosy like I am!) @ICrunchCrispsNotNumbers I found it personal but informative. I learned a lot about the politics of the time, but the interest in the various people featured is what drives it forward and really draws you in.

@FuzzyCaoraDhubh thank you. I love historical books so that sounds right up street ❤️

Great 😁

@FuzzyCaoraDhubh 🙂

6 The End of Mr Y - Scarlett Thomas A PHD student researching the language of thought experiments finds a copy of a supposedly cursed book and risks being cursed by reading it…then everything gets strange. I can’t remember who mentioned this as a DNF earlier in the thread? I can understand why, as it’s a pretty weird book, and there were lots of elements I didn’t like - the self-destructive nature of the main character, the undergraduate-style philosophising (it reminded me why I did the bare minimum philosophy modules at university - I end up wondering why I’m bothering to try to make sense of it all instead of just enjoying actual reality and going to the pub), and (not least) the ending. Overall I didn’t hate it and it was certainly interesting, but I didn’t love it either.

Gosh this thread moves fast, not sure I will be able to keep up with the chat, but I've picked up a few recommendations from the last few pages. I've now got A Terrible Kindness on my TBR list, picked up on Kindle when it was 99p. Also fancy the sound of The Secret Diary of Charles Dickens Aged 13 when I fancy a quick read. The Whalebone Theatre sounds likely too. I have finished three this week bringing me up to 5 for 2023 so far:

3. The Bullet That Missed by Richard Osman
   I’ve read all three in this series now. I love a crime whodunnit and I did like the first and second one. I listened on Audible and it was well narrated. However, I feel this third one was a bit weak. I like the characters but feel the storyline was a bit forgettable. This time Elizabeth gets kidnapped and is told to kill a gangster, lots of double crosses ensue, and there is also a subplot about a journalist who went missing. I finished a few days ago and I am now struggling to remember the details.
   I doubt I’ll read the next one, to be honest, but I would no doubt end up watching the cosy Sunday night series they will inevitably make one day.

4. Firefly Lane by Kristen Hannah
   This was my second one by Kristin Hannah, the other one I have read is The Great Alone, but I really enjoyed that one. This one was very different, about the friendship of two girls, starting in the 1970s in smalltown USA. Tully moves into the area with her deadbeat doped up mother, and soon becomes friends with her neighbour Kate, who has a much more traditional background. Kate and Tully have a joint ambition to become journalists, and the story follows them through life events, such as the death of Tully’s grandmother, the only stable influence on her life apart from Kate’s family, graduation from High School, first boyfriends etc. They become career journalists and this is when their lives begin to diverge. Kate marries and becomes a mother while Tully becomes famous and lives a jet set lifestyle.

They drift apart and then have a major fallout, but they are brought back together as Kate’s daughter becomes a troubled teenager and Kate receives a diagnosis that will change her life.

I did enjoy it, and will definitely read more Kristen Hannah, will probably read The Nightingale next. I know there is a Netflix series as well, looking at the description briefly, it doesn’t look that close to the book? Has anyone seen it?

5. Captain Corelli's Mandolin by Louis de Bernieres My daughter has been on at me to read this for years and I finally got it on Audible when it was in their 2-for-1 offer.

It is the story of a family on the Greek island of Kefalonia, primarily centred around the Doctor Iannis, who is writing a history of Kefalonia as a hobby, and his strong independant daughter, Pelagia. The story begins in the early part of WWII, just at the beginning of the Italian occupation of the island. Antonio Corelli, a mandolin playing Italian soldier is billeted with the doctor's family, and while Pelagia is fiercely resistant to liking him out of principle, it is obvious from the start they are drawn to each other and their story is central to the story, but it is not a slushy romance by any means. As the war progresses and the Italians are replaced by the Nazis, Pelagia and her father begin to suffer brutality and life is pretty grim. Pelagia waits for Antonio to come back for years after the war ends, and the book follows the family's fortunes through to the 1960s.

I shouldn't have waited so long to read it. It dipped a bit in the middle for me when I felt I was having to slog through it, but I got over the hump and really enjoyed the last third.

I also really enjoyed the political rambling of Mussolini - what a terrifying man, and the chapters ranting about the nonsensical politics of the time - those were really well written.

The Audio book is well narrated too.

I'm reading American Dirt at the moment, but finding it a bit of a slog, I can recognise it as a good story, but it isn't the real page turner all the reviews were promising.

1. The Pursuit of William Abbey by Claire North

I think I'm done now with the authors books. They are all clever thought experiments, this one about a man who is followed by a vengeful spirit. The closer the spirit is, the more truths William knows about all the people around him. He's found by a government agency and used to further Britain's imperial interests. Her other books are the same but different - a man who lives the same life over and over, remembering all of them. A woman no one remembers. A person who jumps from body to body. They are all clever, but not very emotionally driven.

1. Around the World in 80 Days by Michael Palin.

includedon audible's member library, so doesn't use a credit. Palin followed Phileas Fogg's journey on 80s TV and this book chronicles th journey. Quite fun but a bit dated. And these sort of things do make me question the point. He doesn't see that much on the way as he's at see or stuck on a train for so much of the time.

Such a bonkers book! I think I liked it, but can't be entirely sure - there were some really interesting bits, but I do like philosophy. I think Scarlett Thomas is just a slightly bonkers writer - the only other one of hers that I have read is The Seed Collectors, which is also very strange.

It's more than 10 years since I read The End Of Mr Y but I loved it at the time. Maybe I am due a re-read, but so many books.....

@Purpleavocado

I felt the same about Clare North after William Abbey which I disliked for a fair few reasons. I still have 84k unread though and I did love Harry August but I increasingly think she might be a one hit wonder.

11. Pachinko by Min Jin Lee

This had fallen further and further down my TBR til it was bumped back up by my getting 3 months free on Apple TV and seeing that they've done a mini series.

It's a 4 generation family saga, beginning in Korea in 1910 and then Japan through to the late 1980s.
It's starts with Sunja, pregnant by a married man, she feels her prayers have been answered when a religious man pities her and decides to make her honest. They travel to Osaka to live with his brother snd live poor but honest and happy lives.

There's a lot of socio-political/historic background here that affects the story and I had to play catchup. Japan, to this day, is a country that doesn't welcome foreigners except as tourists and they make life in Japan very hard for non Japanese in terms of integration into national life. Additionally, at the time this begins Japan were occupying Korea as a colony. Koreans were able to travel to Japan for work but lived in cramped slum like ghettos for low pay. Even as the years go by racism against Koreans institutionally and directly does not cease. As the family grows even new young lives cannot consider themselves Japanese. The book also takes us through the war and the division of Korea.

I don't know what to say about it really, as a family saga it's about nothing, it's about everything. Relationships, dynamics, life. I have been superglued to it most of today, but..
There's a section about a policeman and his wife that doesn't need to be there and drifts away into pointlessness.
The novel ends nowhere, not even in a nicely well crafted way. You can see it coming towards you and think surely it's not ending here?

Despite my misgivings at the ending, (this was a constant problem for me last year) I haven't put it down all day, so it's a definite bold.

@EineReiseDurchDieZeit interesting. I read Pachinko years ago and loved it. I'm watching the tv adaptation on Apple TV at the moment ❤️

I DNFed The End of Mr Y - it's the sort of book I often enjoy, but it just didn't quite tick the boxes for me.

1. The Secret Life of Special Advisers by Peter Cardwell

Cardwell worked as a media SpAD in the May government and then for a few months under Johnson until he was sacked in one of Dominic Cummings' purges. There's not much in the way of juicy gossip here (I guess now back in the world of political journalism he doesn't want to bite the hand that feeds), but it's an interesting book all the same about the experience of being in government & the role of SpADs.

1. Perhaps The Stars by Ada Palmer

This is the fourth and final novel in Palmer's Terra Ignota series. Like the first three books it's set in a future 400 years from now, & is a complex, dense novel of high politics told by unreliable narrator/s.

I always appreciate when far future SFF doesn't simply put modern humans in spacesuits, in the same way that I appreciate a historical novel which thinks hard about the fundamental differences in belief system and understanding of the world between us and, say, a medieval peasant. Palmer's characters live in a world where transport is almost instantaneous between all points on earth, nation states are largely irrelevant for most people, and instead identity, legal status and other basics of everyday life are linked to self-chosen 'hives' that don't have a geographic basis. The novel takes this setting, and explores questions about religion, philosophy and ethics through the political machinations of a cast of characters involved in the government of this world.

It's hard to review this final instalment without major spoilers for the earlier books, but I think it speaks well for it that despite being 800 pages long, & densely written to the point that it's hard to read more than a chapter or so at a time, I'm sure that this will be one of my standout reads of the year.
(Having said that, and as a warning to anyone interested in the series, I raved about the first book Too Like the Lightning when I first read it. I know at least a couple of people on here got copies, but I think then all DNFed it.)

(& a quick shout out to @JennieTheZebra who asked my opinion on the series back at the start of the thread if they're still here)

Pachinko was one of my stand out books from last year.