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?

There's a recipe in Nigella's Christmas for a savoury bread and butter pudding (pics attached). I imagine any quiche-y recipe could be adapted.

Just catching up on the thread as I’ve been AWOL due to work. Some finishes over the past week or so were…

#10 A Terrible Kindness - a lot of you have already read this, so not much to add. I really enjoyed it, and whilst I was prepared for the sections on Aberfan I didn’t realise it dealt with family estrangement, so I found those parts tough to deal with.

#11 Real Tigers (Slough House #3) - I loved Slow Horses on Apple TV so I decided to read the next couple in the series ahead of Season 3 airing later this year. Excellent dialogue, great characters, good story.

#12 I am, I am, I am - Maggie O’Farrell’s memoir through 17 brushes with death. I loved this. Beautifully written and really thought provoking regarding how many ‘near misses' we have in a life time.

#13 Desert Star - The most recent Bosch offering and whilst I can’t see myself ever not reading a Bosch story when it's released, I do think he is getting a little long in the tooth.

#14 Ariadne (Audible) - A great re-telling very nicely narrated on Audible.

#15 The Terminal List - Superb if you like action coupled with political conspiracy/intrigue. They’ve made a TV series of this which is available on Prime but it is nowhere near as good as the book.

#16 The Wanted - Most recent Elvis Cole and Joe Pike book. I haven’t read a Cole/Pike story in quite a while and it was like pulling on an old cosy sweater.
Great dialogue, lots of action and the obligatory Hawaiian shirt 😀

#17 Still Life - I watched Three Pines recently and whilst a slow burn, I did enjoy it. I found the first of the Inspector Gamache series to be a real disappointment by comparison, as the characters seemed quite one dimensional. Whilst I would probably watch Season 2 of Three Pines if it was picked up for another season, I don't think I'd read another in the series of books.

Thanks both. I'll try the Nigella one. My brain can't compute the idea of bread and gravy together, sorry!

You've never stuck a buttered heel of a loaf into the sauce of a stew Remus ? You just aren't living!

The only other Stella Gibbons I’ve read is Nightingale Wood, and the Christmas at CCF one - I can’t remember huge amounts about either - I think the first has aged quite badly but I enjoyed it for what it was.

I’ve reserved Starlight from the library so look forward to that.

Im between books having finished my last (Rizzio) in one night. No idea what to try next - have just found myself scanning the kindle deals again despite having literally hundreds of unread books I already own to choose from.

Was trying to remember what the Nigella Christmas cheesy bread and butter pudding was and was about to get the book down but see @ClaphamSouth has got it!
(Nigella Christmas second only to Faffy Nige in my Christmas Cookbook top 10- though they are polar opposites obvs. Nige has never cooked for a teenager in his life, while, despite her tealight and Devon Stockholm poncery, Nigella is more likely to tip the saucepan up and glug the contents straight down instead of getting a bowl.)

CCF is another book that I’ve had on my shelves for years but never reached for it. I might give it a read this year to see if I love it or loath it. I’m not a dog lover or Coldplay fan, I did watch Friends in the 90s but not since and (whispers), I’ve never had a bread and butter pudding in my life!!

I’ve just climbed into the bath and need to choose my next read. Any recommendations from this lot?

Missed photo

Loved A Gentleman in Moscow!

Quite a range of choice there @TattiePants! I'm a huge Nancy Mitford fan so I'd go for that (although I think she can be a bit marmite).

@EineReiseDurchDieZeit I really haven't. I don't even dip bread in my soup!

Another recommendation for the Mitford!

I loved Carrie's War as a child. It's a story that has stayed with me. I'd pick that, if it was me.

@EineReiseDurchDieZeit re Stella G, I'm rather fond of Westwood, but then I like novels set in London in WW2 - if you don’t, you might not be so keen!

I’ve made a start on Love in a Cold Climate. I’ve read The Pursuit of Love Twice but never got round to this one. Is Don’t Tell Alfred worth a read? It doesn’t seem to be as well known as the other two.

Terpsichore I also like novels set in London in WW2 and don't feel I've read enough of them - what are your favourites or recommendations? I love that we have these very niche genres on this thread!

Sacrilege!

Terpsichore funnily enough the last book I have bought is set in London in WW2. London Belongs To Me by Norman Collins not started it yet though

I would say Don't Tell Alfred is definitely 'one for the fans' myself. Northey isn't a substitute for Linda.

Finished book 7 - The Dance Tree by Kiran Millwood Hargrave. Based on a true story about a sort of religious mania that spread around 16th century Strasbourg, as women started compulsively dancing in the street under the rule of a repressive religious council. The lives of various women are changed, mainly heavily pregnant Lisbet, as the dancing reaches a crisis point.

I had really high hopes for this after enjoying The Mercies but I did not like it at all. A great historical setting but nothing really happened, and when it did the plot was very repetitive. Mainly Lisbet tending to bees and feeling hot, sticky and confused. I had to really force myself through the last 100 pages.

Reading Written by D A Lee and at 36% but I’m really struggling. I feel a bit bad not liking it as it’s very worthy and there seems to be some autobiographical element, though fiction but told in the first person. It’s set within a Bangladeshi family in the UK around the 70s-80s (I think) and is about honour and religion and forced marriage. But I just cannot get on with it, -and seem to move about 1% at a time so have decided to DNF.

In other news

• was meh about CCF
• wouldn’t knowingly recognise Cold Play
• didn’t mind Friends at the time
• not a fan of B&B pudding
• never had a dog
• live in a 1960s flat
• @TattiePants bath prob over but for a bath I would go for Nancy and A Gentleman for all other times
• @nowanearlyNicemum L’Assomoir was my first Zola, I absolutely relished the whole experience in spite of the grim nature of it. The only other one I’ve read is Therese Raquin, which I liked but not as much.

I quite like The Sea, The Sea but the main character is (intentionally) awful. It has some very cringe worthy moments in it!

1. Transcendent Kingdom - Yaa Gyasi. This is about a neuroscientist who is experimenting on mice to understand how addiction works and what can be done to solve it. Her depressed mother is staying with her, and the story alternates between present day and her childhood growing up as a Ghanian family in Alabama with her brother and father. The book is so called as humans are the only animals that "transcend" animal behaviour and actively do things that are risky for pleasure. I thought this was good and brought out some interesting and difficult themes - othering, addiction, depression, loneliness. It made me think you don't often have quite scientific fiction books - or I don't often read them! I think I preferred her first book Homegoing but was glad to read this.

Am now deep in genteel London with Mrs Palfrey at The Claremont by Elizabeth Taylor - think this was recommended on here. I've never read anything by her before and am enjoying it.

8.The House in the Pines by Ana Reyes
Debut novel by Ana Reyes. This thriller was a quick read. A young woman witnessed her friends death and has been self medicating since but had always suspected there was more to what happened. She tries to piece together events from her past. Was one of those books that keep you reading to find out the ending and was enjoyable in that sense. Some of the writing was a bit messy though.

@EineReiseDurchDieZeit oh, I loved London Belongs to Me - it’s a proper doorstop of a saga with loads of characters and different strands of plot. There’s a B & W film of it too which is definitely worth seeing if you ever notice it popping up on TV.

@noodlezoodle I'll have a think about London wartime books, but one of my favourites is The Small Back Room by Nigel Balchin. It’s very clipped and tense and rather stiff upper lip, but it’s tremendously atmospheric, as is his Darkness Falls From the Air (really evocative about the Blitz). I also enjoyed Table Two by Marjorie Wilenski, which is the only contemporary novel Barbara Pym mentions reading in her wartime diaries.

I’m really enjoying the thread but haven’t been managing to post – it moves at a dizzying speed!

I’ve never read CCF but I did read another Stella Gibbons novel that I would rate very highly, Here Be Dragons, about a young woman who moves from the countryside to London. And Starlight has been on my TBR list for ages due to 50-bookers threads, though I haven’t actually read it yet. I suspect Gibbons has been done an injustice, as others have said, by having her output reduced to CCF.

Fuzzy, I’m very glad you enjoyed The Years. I’m a huge fan! It’s true it’s very dense, and it’s really not like Ernaux’ other books in that regard – everything else I’ve read by her has been easier and more accessible. But I think it’s worth the effort. I read it in French but I read the English translation by Alison Strayer alongside, and I thought Strayer’s translation was brilliant. There were just so many words in it I didn’t know, brand names and so on, and I really appreciated having the English translation at hand. I love the idea of writing an autobiography in the 1st person plural, with ‘we’ instead of ‘I’.

I entirely agree with Janina that reading books in translation is a wonderful thing. My long-ago uni degree was in Comp Lit, and I loved that course due to the way it just encouraged reading lots of books, regardless of whether you could read them in the original language or not. It’s a problem with Oxbridge I think that comp lit isn’t really offered, certainly not at an undergrad level.

I’m really gutted that since Waterstones took over my local Blackwells, the foreign language book section has pretty much disappeared. I used to go there and browse books in French. Now there is maybe half a shelf of books in French to browse. (weeps) Even the basic French literature on the local uni reading list doesn’t seem to be stocked any more! On the other hand, there is now a big section on the ground floor labelled ‘Translated Fiction’ which is organised according to country. I’m all in favour of that.

Kudos to you, NowanearlyNicemum, for reading the Zola. I read a couple of novels when I was young and haven’t had the courage to return to them since; he’s just so bleak!

A few more random comments:
Vanishing Half: yes, loved it.
The Power: hated it. So bloody violent, and to what end?
Foster: my book group just read it and unanimously loved it. We’re meeting up again to see the film.
Matt Haig: totally in agreement with the consensus on the thread. Seems like a lovely guy and I really appreciate his efforts to destigmatise mental health troubles, but his books leave me cold.
Fortuna, I’ve reserved Trespasses at the library on the strength of your rec.

I’m so tired and overworked (violins) that I’ve only been reading ‘easy’ books so far this year, but I hope to do a couple of reviews shortly.

4. The Grey King, Susan Cooper, 4/5
   Still reading The Dark is Rising saga. Cooper’s descriptions of place and landscape are brilliant. This book was a particularly male-dominated one though, which I thought was a shame, though I enjoyed it nonetheless.

5. Spare, Prince Harry, 4/5
   I finally succumbed and bought this! It was far more insightful and well-written than I would have expected, based on the tabloid headlines I had seen; the ghost writer has done a brilliant job. And the narrative has the ring of authenticity when it comes to plausibly conveying Harry’s views. Shining light on the institution of monarchy – enshrouded in secrecy as it is – can only be a good thing in my opinion, and I admire Harry for doing it. Yes, he has blind spots, but all of us have blind spots as a result of our upbringing… He’s still very close to the world he has left behind, and the rawness and anger are palpable. As he ages, his views will probably change and become more nuanced. But ffs we don’t need a monarchy any more. It’s toxic on both a political and a personal level. If even part of what Harry recounts is true, the codependent relationship between monarchy and tabloid press is much more toxic than I could have imagined.

6. Les Cahiers d’Esther, Tome 1 [Esther’s Notebooks], Riad Sattouf, 4/5
   I discovered this due to the 50 Bookers threads. It’s remarkably fresh and original. I must also say it taught me loads of contemporary French slang, that you don’t get from reading highbrow French novels. On the other hand, there’s a lot of sexism, and I couldn’t always make up my mind whether Sattouf was just portraying French society and school playgrounds as they are, or whether the story itself is told via the male gaze, in a slightly problematic way. I suspect it’s a bit of both. I’m hooked regardless, and I’ve already ordered volume 2. I’ve also ordered vol. 1 for my kids in English; I’m curious to see what they make of it.