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?

Thank you for the new thread Southeastdweller. My list so far;

1. Anything Is Possible: Elizabeth Strout.
2. The Beautiful Visit: Elizabeth Jane Howard.
3. The Crow Road: Iain Banks.
4. House Of Glass: Hadley Freeman.

I'm back reading Les Années by Annie Ernaux. I'm reading it in French and English because I wouldn't be able to appreciate it properly without the translation.

I'm also enjoying Anna Karenina and The Old Curiosity Shop.

Thanks for the new thread @Southeastdweller
3. A keeper - Graham Norton I really enjoyed this and enjoyed all the characters and storyline. I've bought a couple more of his books as enjoyed the writing so much.
4. Cat and Mouse - M.J. Aldridge not an author I recognise but picked up from a charity shop but blurb on the back sounds terrifying. Will report back once finished

Thank you southeast

Bringing across my list - a good start to the year as nothing that’s been a struggle yet:

1. Old Filth - Jane Garam
2. Sad Cypress - Agatha Christie

3. Three Hours - Rosamund Lupton

1. Light Perpetual - Francis Spufford

And adding my latest:

5. Trespasses - Louise Kennedy

Set in Belfast in the 1970s. Cushla is a 24 year old Catholic teacher who lives with her alcoholic mother and helps her brother run a pub patronised by Protestants. I don’t want to give any spoilers regarding the plot but I absolutely loved this. Highly recommended.

Thanks for the new thread. My very short least so far:

1. One for the Blackbird, One for the Crow, Olivia Hawker
2. Passing, Nella Larsen
3. Take My Hand, Dolen Perkins-Valdez

Currently have two on the go via Borrowbox. The Unheard by Nicci French, which isn't grabbing me and may be a DNF and Abide With Me by Elizabeth Strout which I've recently started.

Fuzzy I thought The Years was brilliant. Thanks to cassandre's inspiring reviews I am working my way through Annie Ernaux's books (although my French is, sadly, woefully inadequate so I am reading them in English).

Thanks for the new thread southeast.

My list so far:

1. Rewind by Catherine Ryan Howard
2. The World I Fell Out Of by Melanie Reid
3. The Running Man by Stephen King
4. A Hero’s Guide to Deadly Dragons by Cressida Cowell
5. The Ruin of All Witches by Malcolm Gaskill

1. A new adventure (The Magic Faraway Tree) by Jacqueline Wilson

2. The History of Love by Nicole Krauss

3. The Beautiful Visit by Elizabeth Jane Howard – read for the dated book club. This is the third EJH book I’ve read (the other two being Falling and Something in Disguise) and although this was my least favourite of those, I did also really enjoy reading this one so I’ll be searching out the Cazalet books.

Thanks for the new thread, Southeast.

My short list, so far, is:

1. Why Did You Stay? by Rebecca Humphries
2. It Ends At Midnight by Harriet Tyce
3. The Skeleton Key by Erin Kelly

Not counting Sad Cypress by Agatha Christie, as it was just a dramatised version (not the full novel) which was the only edition available from the library.

Current read is Troubled Blood by Robert Galbraith which I am enjoying very much, via audiobook. Heading for 5 stars unless it goes off the boil.

1. Hillsborough Voices. Kevin Sampson
2. The Iron Man. Ted Hughes

A short children’s book that I read on the train as my daughter didn’t want to. An giant iron man appears and starts eating all the metal in the area including farming equipment etc.

1. The Stepford Wives. Ira Levin

A family move to a new town but the wife starts to notice how perfectly turned out, vacant and obsessed with cleaning all the other wives are. although I knew the gist of the story I’ve never read it or watched the film, I made the mistake of reading the intro which told me what happened to the main character so it ruined it for me knowing how it would end. However I still enjoyed this.

1. In the Tall Grass. Stephen King

started it last year but couldn’t get into it, decided to finish it and was a lot shorter than I realised. A brother and sister are travelling past large farming long grass fields, they hear a boy shouting for help as he is lost in the long grass and go into help him, getting lost themselves. not one I found particularly enjoyable.

I have several books on the go depending on my mood. Finally got round to starting Chernobyl Prayer which was a recommendation on here a few years ago and enjoying it so far.

Thanks southeast for the new thread. It's moving fast!

My small list so far:

1 Halloween Party - Agatha Christie
2 Silver Bay - Jojo Moyes

Currently reading Troubled Blood also and agree @RainyReadingDay that it's a fantastic read so far. I'm listening to The Fellowship of the Ring on audio and also following the Anna Karenina and Old Curiosity Shop readalongs too.

For those of you who have read at least 10 books so far, how do you do it? Do you speedread? I need to know your secrets so I can get through my massive wishlist quicker!

Thanks for the new thread. My list so far:

1. The Snow Child, Eowyn Ivey
2. What Could Possibly Go Wrong, Jodi Taylor
3. Lamentation, CJ Sansom
4. City of Girls, Elizabeth Gilbert
5. Tombland, CJ Sansom

I started 10 minutes 38 seconds in this strange world last night and liking it so far.

Hi Boiledegg! Yes! I always enjoy reading cassandre's reviews too and I had Annie Ernaux bookmarked for a while.

The translation of Les Années is very good and I'm enjoying it. I can understand the gist of it, but some of it would go over my head.* * It's no livre de poche :)

Thanks southeast!

Here's my list. Have enjoyed all of these for very different reasons!!

1. The Christmas Bookshop – Jenny Colgan
2. Les Cahiers d’Esther : Histoires de mes 10 ans – Riad Sattouf
3. The Pants of Perspective – Anna McNuff

Currently reading L'Assomoir - Emile Zola and listening to This book could save your life - Graham Lawton (spoiler alert: it probably won't 😏)

Also need to sort myself and actually start Anna Karenina and The Old Curiosity Shop but that's unlikely to happen before the weekend. Work is nuts.

Bringing over my little list, which is even smaller than it looks, as the first two books were hangovers from last year (almost all of the second one!).

1. After Henry – Joan Didion 2. Year of Wonder – Clemency Burton-Hill
2. Motherwell – Deborah Orr 4. Just Kids – Patti Smith

I am enjoying the usual fast pace of the January threads! Current read is Best of Friends by Kamila Shamsie, which I am loving so far (although according to the reviews, the second part, which I'm about to start, is less good).

No idea what happened to the formatting there!

Me so far...

1.Queenie- Candice Carty-Williams

2. Small Things Like These- Claire Keegan

I loved this- thank you to everyone on these threads who recommended it as I doubt I'd have picked it up otherwise. I don't know if there'll ever be a sequel but would happily read one as while the ending was perfect there's definitely more of the story to run.

Thanks for the new thread SouthEast My reading aim for this year is to read fewer but better books & pleased with my choices so far.

1 Hervé Le Tellier The Anomaly
2 Trezza Azzopardi The Tip of My Tongue
3 Peter Cardwell The Secret Life of Special Advisers
4 Ada Palmer Perhaps The Stars

I was inspired by a review on here (apologies but can't remember from who) to go back to and finish no. 5 from before Christmas

Taste by Stanley Tucci
This was from my Dad's kindle library. Slightly embarrassingly I'd never head of Tucci as an actor (and I've not heard of an awful lot of the names that he drops). I loved this food based memoir though, he writes delightfully about the relationship between food, family & place.

@YolandiFuckinVisser I've also got a list of just one so far so I'll keep you company. I have several long books I intend to read this year so am not counting. Quality over quantity is the hopeful aim.

@Boiledeggandtoast never apologise for reading books in translation. There are over 7000 languages in the world. Even in the UK there is English, Scots, Gaelic, Welsh, Irish and Cornish. There is no way you can know every language and restricting yourself to those you can read fluently is cutting yourself off from the majority of literature. We are lucky that English is

is spoken so widely and we have a good choice of translated works.

Finished

1. The Ghost Robert Harris.

Bits of this were good, bits of this were irritating (a secondary character called Rycart and a secondary character called Rhinehart- any need? Just to keep me on my toes?) Bits were bad (the unnamed narrator at times came across like he was Humphrey Bogart in a long mac leaning on a lamppost and wearing a trilby in 1958) The ending, the ta-da moment was excellent, but felt very rushed and as though RH had written the rest and then had a good idea, but hadn't really got time to go back and make the ending fit with the rest.

I do wonder if Cherie has read it though!

Am going, as usual many years after everyone else, into the Labyrinth next. I read KateM's first ever book (no idea what it was called) picked up in one of those remainder shops for about 50p way back in the 90s and haven't read any since.

Thanks Janina, that's a good way to look at it; we are indeed very fortunate to have such a huge range of literature from around the world available in English (although I'm still rather envious of those who can appreciate the subtle nuances of the original language!).

Thanks for the new thread Southeast. I'm temporarily abandoning my Kate Atkinson book for my bookclub book which is The History of Bees by Maja Lunde.

Also, thanks to a previous poster who mentioned a sequel to Travellers in the Third Reich. I really loved that book and will put the sequel on my TBR list. Speaking of which, does anyone use an app for keeping track of books they want to read? I probably have about 20 already just from thread one and two.

A few posters at the end of the last thread mentioned Pachinko by Min Jin Lee. I wasn't so keen on it - I didn't feel any connection to the characters. I thought they were very one dimensional. That said, I learnt a lot from the book about the history of Korea and the fate of those who moved to Japan and the difficulties they encountered there. If you liked Pachinko I'd really recommend *The Island of Sea Women' by Lisa See.

Interesting @Taytocrisps The Island Of Sea Women has been on my TBR longer than Pachinko was, I'm not going to bump it though because if they are similar they might need some space between them, maybe?

Only a small list for me so far, this is my normal reading speed though and if I can get into the habit of reading books rather than MN or various newsfeeds I'll be very pleased and should hit 50 if not more.

1. The Secret of Chimneys, Agatha Christie
2. Moon Tiger, Penelope Lively
3. Stories For Christmas And The Festive Season, Various

I'm currently reading Momenticon by Andrew Caldecott, which is good, adventurous fun.

I've not lurked on this thread before, although I've had it in my watching list for a few years. I've really enjoyed the book chat, the recommendations and seeing what everyone else is reading (my TBR has grown which was not my intention!), so thank you all for contributing to that 

@Sadik I absolutely loved Taste by Stanley Tucci so it might have been my recommendation from the end of last year that encouraged you to pick it up. If so, I'm glad!