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?

2, Kindred - Octavia E Butler - found this one a bit strange. Kept on with it because I have a few dnf and wanted to stick with one! Found the writing quite bad and the reactions unlikely. Would be interested in what others thought about it.

Firstly, I must say I’m quite over excited about my reading rate so far this year. Be warned I may soon be getting ideas above my station and try heading for more than 50 this year. I know, I know… calm down, nowanearly!

So about the book, 5. Beautiful world, where are you? by Sally Rooney
I have found this so irritating on many levels, some parts are positively cringe-worthy and yet in others I’m in total admiration of Rooney’s ability to get under the reader’s skin. I flipping loved the part where the two female characters wrote emails to each other discussing beauty and aesthetics when in other circumstances I could well have found it poncey in the extreme. I’m not in the same age range as her protagonists and I can't say I loved this book but I did like it and am very keen to see what she does next.

@ICrunchCrispsNotNumbers you have my sympathies! I'm loving The Sentence is Death - endearingly, given how nice previous posters say Anthony H is, he says at one point that if he comes across as rude at book signings it's just because he's nervous.

@MaudOfTheMarches thank you! ❤️ I've only just recovered from the flu, and still feeling a bit fragile 😖

I love the Hawthorne series- found all of them really gripping and readable.

He is lovely. I've watched interviews of QA's with him and also other signings that he's done, and he's never come across rude at all. 🙂

Aw, that's nice to hear!

@nowanearlyNicemum
Sally Rooney simultaneously deeply irritates me with her narrow focus and blows me away with her writing.
@cassandre I thought Esther's Notebooks felt quite feminist and realistic on the sexual harrassment girls experience even at 'naice' schools. It chimed with what my daughters tell me. I wonder if there is a difference in the original and translation.
@Wolfcub My favourite in the trilogy is Bring Up the Bodies, there's an urgent brilliance to it that makes it probably the best modern novel I've ever read. I loved it so much. Read it now!
Adds Transcendental Kingdom to reading list, I enjoyed her first novel but slightly wary about reading a novel about a scientist, I may get annoyed at the portrayal.

I bloody love pockets @Terpsichore and may add that to my wishlist. It would tickle DD no end as she already shakes her head and tells people I've read books about lighthouses, pigeons, sheep, and Icelandic museums on the recommendation of the people in my computer.

I feel so goddamn elegant when my trousers have pockets. 😂

Also on the back of this thread I've dusted off Wolf Hall. I attempted it on holiday about 6 years ago but a hot beach didn't lend itself to all those people called Thomas. I got about a third of the way through. I'm almost scared to start again in case I hate it (iirc there's a lot of present tense narration going on) But A Place of Greater Safety is in my all time Top 10 so I might pluck up courage.

@TheGoodEnoughWife I am nearly done with Kindred. I love the story but am finding the dialogue a little clunky.

My DH has just decided to read the Wolf Hall trilogy back to back and it's awakened my competitive instincts, so I may start as well.

@Terpsichore Forgot to say - great recommendation, thank you. I'm currently wearing brand new joggers which have no pockets and I keep thinking, who TF designed these things?!

@SolInvictus @MaudOfTheMarches Yep, it’s niche all right 😂 but it’s a lovely book and really interesting

@PepeLePew Totally agree.

5/50 The Best of Friends - Lucinda Berry this was my in-between serious books palate cleanser and it wasn't too bad, I didn't have issues finishing it but it certainly wasn't my favourite in the genre. It was a bit too obvious, no massive twists and I struggled to keep track of the many characters!

My dad dropped his very battered copy of The Bachman Books over today so I'm going to get started on that! I don't think I've read it since I was 14/15.
Now does the whole book count as a book, or each individual story hmmmmm.

I finished a murder mystery set in Devon somewhere. I can't even remember the title it was that unremarkable to me but it was a new genre to me that I was just trying out. Took me a while to get through and I kept falling asleep.

Then started The Midnight Library by Matt Haig which I flew through in less than 48 hrs. Fast paced and really heartwarming. Loved it. That brings me back on track for my reading goal this year. I was worried I was lagging behind the pace it was taking to get through that murder in Devon story.

I'm also listening to Spare audiobook but only about half way through. Don't really get the media hype tbh but I suppose that is Harry's message, the press is all bollocks.

@AliasGrape

I'm a bit obsessive about The Mitfords, and I don't like Nancy's books at all. They are much better in their own words eg Letters Between Six Sisters Nancy was a right bitch in real life.

@Booklover23

Yes there really is no gripe too small

@Wolfcub

Do it

@nowanearlyNicemum

You could not pay me to read another Sally Rooney

@TheGoodEnoughWife

Oh! Kindred is on my TBR. Graham Norton recommended it on Between The Covers. That's disappointing

1. Burial Rites- Hannah Kent

This was a bit of a disappointment- I'd expected to like it much more than I did. Incredibly atmospheric but the style of writing just wasn't for me- I found it irritatingly overwritten at points and just so, SO bleak. The ending wasn't exactly a barrel of laughs either. Think I'm going to be looking for books with a few more jokes for my next choices...

Reading along but haven't posted much since joining the first thread so I'll do a list dump:

1. The Arbella Stuart Conspiracy - Alexandra Walsh
Had this half read on my Kindle for more than a year as go so confused by all the historical characters I gave it up in frustration. I do enjoy how Walsh comes up with her alternate history ideas, very clever, but so complex they can become frustrating to read.

2. Foster - Claire Keegan
Much reviewed so won't repeat...I really enjoyed this short novel and am interested to see the film The Quiet Girl now.

3. The Last Thing to Burn - Will Dean
Disturbing story about human trafficking and modern day slavery. A young woman is trapped in a remote farm and when she discovers she's pregnant decides she must escape.

4. Boys Don't Cry - Fiona Scarlett
Two brothers living in a Dublin tower block trying to get out from underneath the shadow of their abusive father who works for the local gang leader. Heart wrenching.

5. The Midnight Library - Matt Haig
Interesting concept about a woman who, on the brink of death, is given the chance to experience multiple other possible lives to see if she can overcome her regrets and disappointments from her original life. It was okay but felt lightweight.

6. Ghost Wall - Sarah Moss
As a result of her controlling and abusive father's obsessive hobby, Silvie and her mother are living as ancient Britons as part of reenactment for university students. But then the line between past and present stars to blur. Powerful book that explores issues such as racial purity and male dominance.

7. Luster - Raven Leilani
Edie is a black woman in her early twenties dealing with a dead-end job, who doesn't seem to value herself at all (lots of bad hook-ups) and failing to make any effort with her true passion - her art. She then starts dating a white guy whose wife has reluctantly agreed to an open marriage. It turns out he has an adopted black daughter with no black role models in her life and Edie ends up moving into the family home. All a bit weird and unbelievable to be honest and I found the main character heard to like/relate to. Despite this I did enjoy the book.

8. The Whalebone Theatre - Joanna Quinn
Listed to the audiobook. As others have mentioned this feels like a book of two halves, with the story of the Seagrave children growing up pretty much unsupervised at their family's Dorset estate in the 1930s, and then their experiences during the Second World War. Okay, but a little overlong.

9. The Great Mistake - Jonathan Lee
A story about the real life and murder of Andrew Haswell Green in New York City at the turn of the 20th century. AHG by all accounts was a remarkable man, without him there would be no Central Park, American Museum of National History, Metropolitan Museum of Art or New York Public Library. I really enjoyed the way this was written, with plenty of humour and emotion.

I have just started my next book (Homegoing) but have Cold Comfort Farm and Love in a Cold Climate lined up next on my TBR list, so interested to see where I fall with them. I didn't really get the fuss about The Pursuit of Love, so not sure I'm a Nancy Mitford fan, and re: CFF, I used to love Friends, Coldplay and B&BP, but haven't partaken in any of them for a long time, but I do have a dog!

Finished number 7 The Bullet That Missed by Richard Osman. Very much enjoyed it, as I did the previous ones. Not sure what to read now as next reservation should arrive in the library soon so perhaps something quick to tide me over

I am another who would not read another Sally Rooney if you paid me. I loathed normal people I thought it was awful and irritatingly written

I read an interview with Sally R when her first book came out, and it was enough to tell me that I would never, ever read anything by her.

Owlbookend: It is an old hardback from the 'Boots Book Lovers Library' - whatever that once was. The 1945 film Brief Encounter will reveal all and is also wonderful.

Thanks @Boiledeggandtoast Intriguing- I'll investigate.

They sometimes show it on (I think) Talking Pictures in the afternoon; it's very British, stiff-upper-lip. Celia Johnson's character is particularly keen on Kate O'Brien's novels (this is very incidental to the plot!) and we had a discussion about them on this thread a couple of years ago. If you're interested, I'd particularly recommend The Land of Spices and Mary Lavelle.

I detested Conversations With Friends so much that I doubt I'll ever read another Sally Rooney book either. I do have Normal People on my kindle TBR pile but I just can't bring myself to read it.

@MamaNewtNewt i have the opposite- I read Normal People and hated it. I got Conversations with Friends on a 2 for 1 Audible deal but haven’t been able to bring myself to read it.

Maybe we should accept we are never reading them and delete - we can do it together 😊