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?

@Natsku - what a pain about Amazon!!

I've just realised @ChessieFL that I DNF Tidelands as well, and thought it was very dull. This may explain why I didn't get Dawnlands either

I read a lot more on the Kindle too @AliasGrape, just find it much easier than carting a book around, plus I still read in the dark often whilst trying to get DTS1 to sleep!

I am very jealous of you meeting Anthony Horowitz @ICrunchCrispsNotNumbers - he used to be very active on Twitter (although sadly not at the moment) and seems like a thoroughly nice chap! I've read the Power of Five books but can remember virtually nothing, it was during my 'who needs sleep anyway' phase when the DTs were small... Moriarty is a brilliant book too. Would you believe our library don't stock the Jason Steed books though?! I can't reserve it anywhere in the county and only the later ones are free on Kindle Unlimited, annoyingly!

Realised I may have to re-read some of my favourite books - Jonathan Stroud's Lockwood & Co series - the has got me excited already! I may be about thirty a few years older than the target audience, but I'll definitely be watching on Friday

Thank you @Tattie. I hadn't read it, but just looked it up and it sounds right up my street ❤️

@Clara I met him when he did a signing for 'A Twist of a Knife.' last year and I thought he was brilliant. He gave a really interesting talk and he had a great sense of humour. He's bringing out a new Alex Rider novel this year, so I hope he does another signing near me as I really want to see him again. 🙂

The third series of Alex Rider has been confirmed on Amazon Freevee too. 'Scorpia' is going to be adapted for it, so I'm going to reread it nearer the time as a refresher. 😁

'Jason Steed' is published by an Amazon imprint. MC self published it,) so I think it's only available online. (I could be mistaken though.) I would recommend getting physical copies of them, because the third book is unavailable on kindle for some reason. 😳

I think I'm due rereads of both of his Holmes books. Haven't read them in a while 🙂

6 - Rewild Yourself: 23 Spellbinding Ways to Make Nature More Visible

This wasn't quite what I was expecting - I thought it was going to be more about immersion in nature and how to make your environment more 'wild'. I suppose it was still along these lines, but it was more focused on observing/experiencing nature, rather than becoming more 'wild' in your own ways - I hope that makes sense. Lots of ideas, recommendations and bits of knowledge - very readable and a nice antidote after reading something horrible! Makes you realise too, how much nature we have around us in the UK and how the world is not as human centric as we think it is (thank goodness).

Sorry! The author is Simon Barnes.

I've just finished 6. The Whalebone Theatre by Joanne Quinn. This has been a bit of a marmite book on these threads, I think I fall somewhere in the middle.

I quite enjoyed the first half of Christabel and get siblings running around the Dorset coast with their hopeless adults, and the pre-war atmosphere. As others have said, it is very much a book of two halves and we then get the second world war section which does pretty much conform to every cliche going - land girl, spy, French resistance.

I also found it a bit annoying how some of the characters that seemed quite central - particularly Christabel's Uncle Willoughby, Russian painter Taras and even Maudie to an extent, just fade away. Being generous, I'd say this reflects real life when people are important to you at different times, but in a book it felt like she just forgot some characters.

Still I did enjoy it on the whole and will recommend to DM who I think will love it.

Just popping in to say I read more on Kindle but I read better on paper. I just do. It's still the feel of a book, and the smell of paper that makes me treat it with more reverence.
I think we discussed on previous threads (possibly even a couple of years ago now) about how the reading in digital form experience is something that our brains aren't quite yet hardwired into doing properly (someone may have referenced some neurological research) especially if we are old buggers like me, whereas our children will find the experience easier as it's been part of their neurological development all along.

Trespasses - Louise Kennedy
Set in 1970s Ireland in a small town outside Belfast, a young Catholic primary school teacher falls for an older married Protestant barrister who she meets in her family's bar. They embark on a semi secret affair.

This is a no holds barred look at the realities of The Troubles on ordinary people. The prose is written in intense short sentences and the characterisation is excellent. It invokes time and place perfectly. It is in short excellent.

Don't quote me, but I would be very surprised if this doesn't appear on all of the prize lists this year.

I've got The Whalebone Theatre on my TBR pile as well, @Stokey 🙂

@FortunaMajor Trespasses is on my TBR pile, so it’s good to see such a positive review.

@FortunaMajor - I have also read Trespasses this year and loved it too.

My book of the year so far (out of 7 admittedly) but it may take some beating….

TimeForAGandT I agree. It's definitely a stand out. It's very skillfully done.

@FortunaMajor I'm keen to read that too, I've heard good things.

I did feel pretty sorry for the writer of the Guardian article, who presumably thought she was filing a fairly lighthearted piece and did not expect to end up having WORKING CLASS PEOPLE READ BOOKS TOO at her on twitter.

I do prefer paper books and I love owning books. But have had to accept my kindle is very practical, and I have a daughter now who is rapidly filling up the house with her own books and assorted other stuff. Plus I'm using the library more so I don't have to buy hardbacks. So I'm having to be quite strict about what to hold on to. I still dream about a Beauty and the Beast style library one day though.

Finished number 6 Scream by Nigel McCrery, disturbing thriller. Going to start The bullet that missed now to cleanse my brain before bed

Finished book six earlier: Galatea, by Madeline Miller. A very short book apparently written as a response to the Pygmalion story. I've loved everything I've read by this author, and I hope she is writing something at the moment because it's been too long!

8 Apples Never Fall - Liane Moriarty I like this author so much! I think part of it is the Australian element, which feels both exotic and (due to growing up watching Neighbours) very familiar. I always read her books in an Australian accent in my head 😂 I liked the TV adaptation of Big Little Lies but it just wasn’t the same as if it had been set in Sydney…

This must be one of her latest books, as it mentions Covid (although very much not as a key element of the plot). I think I have read (on 50 books threads?) that some of her recent novels have been less good, but I really enjoyed this one. It was full of realistic human interactions and realistically complicated people - it felt like there was a real understanding of how families function, for all that the family in question was pretty unusual. As things stand, I’ve got it down as a bold despite not being properly great literature, because it had so many elements that I could relate to, it made me cry a couple of times, and I wanted to keep reading even though I really needed to get to sleep…

I’m trying a ‘read or unhaul’ this year as I’ve seen booktubers call it. I have 366 books on my kindle that I’ve bought in various 99p deals and I can’t remember what they’re about- therefore I’m randomly picking some to either read, or start and delete if they’re not doing it for me.
This month I did it for 3 thrillers. The first book (I gave them all numbers and got DH to pick a number) was
A Deadly Education by Mike Omer. This sounded right up my alley- murder mystery being investigated by a cult survivor (I’m fascinated by cults). After 5 chapters I wasn’t feeling it, so for the first time ever I permanently deleted a book from my kindle. It felt weirdly wrong but also a relief!
The second book (which became book 8 of my books read this year) was The Field of Blood by Denise Mina. I usually love Scottish crime and I enjoyed the 1980s Glasgow setting of this one. Mina’s descriptions are very vivid and some of the the journalist characters were really well drawn. I didn’t like the sub-plot she kept returning to but overall, not a bad read.
The third (and book 9 on my read books) was The Mist by Ragnar Johannson- a quick and suspenseful read.
I would read more by both Mina and Johannson but not this year when I’m trying to cut down my tbr. I plan to do another read or unhaul next month- probably with fantasy/ sci-fi/ dystopia this time.
I’m still listening to The Iliad on audible (hoping to finish this month so I can read the Odyssey next month) and just started An American Marriage by Tayari Jones. I’m sure they will be my last January reads.

@DuPainDuVinDuFromage i've read AMM. It's really good 👍

@ICrunchCrispsNotNumbers I wonder if Anthony Horowitz will do any more events soon? I'd love to meet him!

@GrannieMainland I mainly buy Kindle books now, also for practicality reasons - we have a tiny house and most of my books are still boxed up in the loft from when we moved in 9 years ago! - but a library of my own would be amazing. Or failing that a few decent bookcases would do

1: EC Bateman - Death at the Auction
2: Sophie Irwin - A Lady's Guide to Fortune-Hunting
3: Deanna Raybourn - Night of a Thousand Stars
4: Lynn Messina - A Brazen Curiosity
5: Lynn Messina - A Scandalous Deception
6: Lynn Messina - An Infamous Betrayal
7: Lynn Messina - A Nefarious Engagement
8: Richard Armitage - Geneva (audiobook)
9: Hazel Holt - Death of a Dean

10: Richard Osman - The Bullet That Missed

I enjoyed this one more than the previous two although can't say I found it any more memorable! There were a couple of loose ends that I didn't think were resolved - I could be wrong but couldn't be bothered to re-read to check - but in general it was very pleasant, strange as that may sound for a murder mystery. Joyce is definitely still my favourite!

Re-reading Stormbreaker now @Natsku

I hope so, @Clara! 🤞

I've nearly finished the first part of 'River Sing me home.' It's not an easy read, due to the subject, but is so richly written and told, and you can really feel the emotions that the characters are feeling ❤️

Thanks to all the lovely people on this thread, I've added all the Lisa See books onto my Goodreads page, and also noted @Tattie's recommendation of 84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff ❤️

@DuPainDuVinDuFromage *AAM rather!

8 A Sliver Of Darkness by CJ Tudor
The author didn’t publish a novel at the end of last year as Covid, bereavement etc affected her writing to the extent that she felt the finished draft was rubbish. Admirable, considering some of the substandard tut even decent authors sometimes end up publishing when they’re off their game.
What she did deliver was this book of short stories that are full of satisfying bite (often literally). There’s a bit of introduction to each of them, answering the age old question “where do you get your ideas?”, which is a nice touch (although some info repeats itself so suspect it’s there as filler as much as anything else).
If you like vaguely unsettling stories set largely in urban or dystopian landscapes, then you’ll probably like this. Reminded me of Books Of Blood era Barker.

I have the novel she published earlier this year waiting on my Kindle. Not a rehash of the rubbish one - that was whittled back down to a short story in the above book.

5. Trespasses by Louise Kennedy
As reviewed on this page by Fortuna and praised by a number of other readers on these threads.
Loved it. Compelling. Well written. Fantastic.

@ClaraTheImpossibleGirl I also have boxes of books in the loft and have lived here for 10 years. Have finally commissioned some book shelves and am far too excited at the prospect of having a wall of books in the study!