50 Books Challenge 2023 Part Two

[Southeastdweller]

Welcome to the second thread of the 50 Books 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, it’s not too late to join, and please try to let us all know your thoughts on what you've read.

The first thread of the year is here.

What are you reading?

I’m in that delicious in-between books stage. Oooh what shall I read next?
I’ve just got home from a lovely meeting with my book group friends. Delightful book chat. We’re reading ‘The Odyssey’ - the recent new translation by Emily Wilson - reading it slowly over a few months. After that we’re planning to tackle Ulysses. We’re thinking that’ll take about five years and see some of us out.

Yes, it's definitely one of the nicer 'problems' to have! I don't know whether to start with Tender by Belinda McKeon, or Manifesto by Bernardine Evaristo...

Thank you for the thread southeast

After struggling to read a book before July last year and then hardly able to find a bold for love nor money, I'm really pleased with my start to the year.

1.	Peace Is Every Step by Thich Nhat Hanh
2.	The Talented Mr Ripley by Patricia Highsmith
3.	Good Pop, Bad Pop by Jarvis Cocker
4.	Rosemary’s Baby by Ira Levin
5.	<strong>Nightcrawling</strong> by Leila Mottley
6.	Under Country by Jonathan Trigell
7.	The Crow Road by Iain Banks
8.	<strong>Take My Hand</strong> by Dolen Perkins-Valdez
9.	<strong>Build Your House Around My Body</strong> by Violet Kupersmith
10.	Spare by Prince Harry, Duke Of Sussex
11.	<strong>Pachinko</strong> by Min Jin Lee

Currently reading a Taylor/Burton biography

Hi! Just checking in. Have finished nothing yet this year. Gripped by Ink Black Heart but my kindle’s just packed up after 10 years of adventures 😟.

Thanks Southeast!

Tiny list:

1. Unmasking Autism: the power of embracing our hidden neurodiversity - Devon Price
2. Lolly Willowes - Sylvia Townsend Warner

Still plodding through Act of Oblivion. Whoever billed that as a ‘chase’ should be sued under Trades Descriptions.

Thanks for the new thread Southeast.

My list so far:

The Beautiful Visit by Elizabeth Jane Howard
Looking For The Durrells by Melanie Hewitt
Out Of The Corner by Jennifer Grey
The Last Mrs Parrish by Liv Constantine
The Treasure of Green Knowe by Lucy M Boston
The Atlas of Geographical Curiosities by Vitali Vitaliev
O Caledonia by Elspeth Barker
Diddly Squat ‘Til The Cows Come Home by Jeremy Clarkson
The Satsuma Complex by Bob Mortimer
No Free Parking: The Curious History of London’s Monopoly Streets by Nicholas Boys Smith
Number 11 by Jonathan Coe
The Provincial Lady In America by E M Delafield
A Terrible Kindness by Jo Browning Wroe
The Secret Diary of Charles Dickens Aged 13 3/4 by Lee Jackson
Icons of England by Various
Bonjour Tristesse by Françoise Sagan
The Zig Zag Girl by Elly Griffiths
The Sign Of Four by Arthur Conan Doyle
Tell No One by Harlan Coben
Six Years by Harlan Coben
Spare by Prince Harry
Ask A Historian: 50 Surprising Answers To Things You Always Wanted To Know by Greg Jenner
The Broken Mirror by Jonathan Coe

Thank you @Southeastdweller

@Nuffaluff I did an OU course (for pleasure) on the Odyssey and the Iliad. Loved it. Had done Andromaque for French A' level so interest in the Greeks was born then.

My little list:

1. The Murder Room by PD James

1. Vaxxers by Sarah Gilbert and Catherine Green

1. The Lighthouse Witches by SJ Cooke

1. Christmas Chronicles by Nigel Slater.

3 bolds out of 4 so far (not sure I should count Nige, as I bold him every year, but never mind!)

Currently reading The Ghost by Robert Harris and dipping in and out of both A Short History of London by Simon Jenkins and A Cook's Book by Nige.

I can’t believe how quickly this thread has moved!
My list so far:
1* *The Furies- John Connolly
2 What is Remembered - Alice Munro
3 The Woman in White- Wilkie Collins
4 A Crown of Swords- Robert Jordan
5 Elements of Style- Strunk and White (a style guide to writing which managed to be dull and humourless)
6 Exiles- Jane Harper (her new book which is by far the best since The Dry- I enjoyed this very much, particularly the interrelationships of the different characters)

Currently listening to The Iliad on audio and reading Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason.

Thanks @Southeastdweller

Thanks for the new thread @Southeastdweller . Was that the fastest we've finished a thread so far?

@Nuffaluff new translation of The Odyssey sounds interesting. I did some ancient Greek at school and uni. I still always think of Homer's "Rosy-fingered dawn" whenever I see a sunrise.

@PepelePew I bet Crossroads is good on audible. Do they have different voices for the different narrators?

List so far:

1. Glory - NoViolet Bulawayo 4/5
2. The Sentence - Louise Erdrich 5/5
3. The Paris Apartment - Lucy Foley 3/5
4. Crossroads - Jonathan Franzen 4/5

Very happy with my start to the year, some great books particularly The Sentence which I absolutely loved.

Thanks for the new thread South

The Odyssey and The Iliad are on my TBR list but I vaguely remember someone saying there are some particularly good translations - can any one remind me?

Thanks for the thread @Southeastdweller :)

I've got two books on the go and really enjoying both. Fingers Crossed by Miki Berenyi on Audible, and Werner Herzog: A Guide For The Perplexed.

One narrator for Crossroads, though he does slightly different voices for dialogue.
Just enough to not be annoying.

@Zireael
From what I’ve read the Lattimore is the best translation for The Iliad and the Fagles for The Odyssey (I have both on my TBR too). I’ve heard positive things about the new Wilson translation @Nuffaluff mentioned too.

Thanks for the new thread @Southeastdweller ! Here’s my list so far:

1. Exit - Belinda Bauer
2. Watching Neighbours twice a day… - Josh Widdicombe
3. The Bastard of Istanbul - Elif Shafak
4. The Plant Hunter - T L Mogford
5. House of Glass: The Story and Secrets of a Twentieth-Century Jewish Family - Hadley Freeman
6. The End of Mr Y - Scarlett Thomas

I’ve been racing along so far! But I started a new job on Monday after a gap of over a year, so I suddenly have a lot less free time! Trying to keep reading a bit every day though.

I really liked the Emily Wilson translation of The Odyssey and I believe she has one of The Iliad forthcoming.

My lovely friend gave me a copy of the Emily Wilson Odyssey several years ago but I haven't actually read it yet - I think I'm still too close (20 years later!) to slogging through it at uni...maybe I'll pick it up one day and read it a bit at a time...

Thanks for the new thread. Am on my usual January go slow so only on book two thus far!

Thanks for the thread @Southeastdweller. I'm having a good run so far this year and have really enjoyed all of the books I've read so far. Here's my current list:

1. Jamaica Inn by Daphne du Maurier

1. The Quantum Curators and the Faberge Egg by Eva St John
2. Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton
3. Breakfast at Tiffany’s by Truman Capote

5. A Terrible Kindness by Jo Browning Wroe 6. Good Pop, Bad Pop by Jarvis Cocker

1. In a Good Light by Clare Chambers

8. Ballad For Sophie by Filipe Mello and Juan Cavia

1. On Chesil Beach by Ian Mcewan

1. The Match by Harlan Coben

1. An Almond for a Parrot by Wray Delaney

1. The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry

My list so far.
I really enjoyed reading The Odyssey as a teen but don't think I got round to reading Iliad, maybe I'll look at adding to my list this year.

RIP to @Palegreenstars 's kindle

My list so far:
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte
Foster by Claire Keegan
Weather by Jenny Offill
Do Not Say We Have Nothing by Madeleine Thien

@Zireael the Lattimore translations were the ones we used at the OU, but I did the course in 1993 so they've probably been superceded.

A new thread already! Thanks, southeast.

Mine so far:

1. The Secret Diary of Charles Dickens, Aged 13 3/4 - Lee Jackson
2. Boy in a China Shop: Life, Clay and Everything - Keith Brymer Jones
3. On Turpentine Lane - Elinor Lipman
4. Célestine: Voices from a French Village - Gillian Tindall
5. Desert Star - Michael Connelly
6. Madly, Deeply - The Alan Rickman Diaries
7. So Sweet a Changeling - Ruth Adam

(No idea what’s happened with the numbering/paragraphs suddenly, it’s all gone weird)

Morning all, thanks for the new thread Southeast I’m still up in the Himalayas with Wade Davis - Into The Silence. I may be some time yet.

My single read so far this year:
1 Shrines of Gaiety - Kate Atkinson