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?

5.25/50 - Rage - Stephen King/Richard Bachman - I think I read this as a teen as parts were familiar, it was good in the typical early Stephen King way, he really does write a disturbed character well.

DH insists I cannot count it as a full book and need to read all 4 parts of the Bachman Books to count this as book 6, so I am now reading The Long Walk.

@Panda89 That's ludicrous! When the Bachman books first came out (in paperback) they were separate books. I've got a complete works of Jane Austen in one volume on the shelf - have I got to read them all to count as one book? 😉

Seriously though: I re-read Rage and Roadwork earlier this month for the first time in years. They're both as good as I remembered

@Panda89 I counted them as separate books as that was how they were published. That was my justification anyway.

My first crushes were John Craven, Magnum PI and Kenny Everett. I've always been a bit odd, it seems.

The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro

Much reviewed here, and divides opinion. The Unconsoled was the only Ishiguro I'd read, chat on here earlier in January made me want to read more and this came up first on Libby. Just brilliant actually. I'm definitely #teamishiguro. The implication of what Stevens says, and the stories he tells, it creeps up on you. Schrödinger's butler indeed

@TattiePants I probably wasn't the only one, but I really liked and recommended The Garden of Evening Mists last year. Glad you enjoyed it!

God, I can't get anything going, just false starts and DNFs

11. Blaming - Elizabeth Taylor

A short novel that packs a real punch. Middle-aged Amy and her husband Nick are on holiday abroad following his recovery from serious illness. They strike up a holiday companionship with American novelist Martha, whose childishly fey manner secretly irritates Amy. But after Nick dies suddenly on board their cruise ship and Martha helps Amy get home, an uneasy relationship grows up between them. Amy starts to negotiate a new life at home in London as a widow while trying to avoid being drawn into Martha’s orbit, but guilt and blame seem to be unavoidable.

This was Elizabeth Taylor’s last book and in an afterword, her daughter explains that she knew she was terminally ill and was determined to finish it. This would explain the uncompromising, even unflinching honesty of the writing, but it’s also very funny - Amy has two young grand-daughters whose sayings and doings are hilariously true to life. Not a book to cheer yourself up with, perhaps, but an outstanding novel and a real gem.

I’m with you all on Sean Bean (was rooting for him in the cinema when I first saw Patriot Games notwithstanding he was meant to be the baddie), Judd Nelson and Rob Lowe…..

3. My pen is the wing of a bird: new fiction by Afghan women

Short stories entered into a competition by Afghan women writers overcoming appalling complications and barriers to do so. They are all translated into English.

Some extraordinary slices of life from people living lives that feel both very different from mine and also sometimes recognisable. I will be honest, some just didn't appeal, and there were a few that were a bit 'she opened the fridge, closed the fridge again, walked to the table and picked up a lemon' - not so much kitchen sink drama as cellular description. I really liked the surreal, horrific The Most Beautiful Lips in the World' by Elahe Hosseini. Also 'The Late Shift' by Sharifa Pasun - I often try to imagine how I would live my life if a war broke out here and we were being shelled.

Despite staying with Sean Bean and Melanie Hill, DH’s bigger claim to fame was there’d been an accident (an actual punch rather than a movie punch) on the set of Patriot Games which they’d been filming and Harrison Ford called SB’s house while DH was there to check he was ok (and wasn’t going to sue).
Totally outs self to anyone that knows us!

My first crush was Terry Wogan. I can't explain myself.

@YolandiFuckinVisser go on admit it, it was this that got you hot under the collar…..

I was 16 when Sean Bean was on telly as Mellors. Other teenage crushes were the young Paul Newman in Somebody Up There Likes Me, John Travolta in Grease, and Patrick Swayze in Dirty Dancing.

I agree with @MamaNewtNewt - if the books were published individually, I would count them seperately too.

I have tried to find The Bachman Books second hand or in the Libraries but it is really rare

Patrick Swayze was my first crush and a tiny piece of my heart will always belong to him.

Me and my sister still watch Dirty Dancing all the time (in fact we are going to an open air viewing in July!).

PS was very lovely MamaNewtNewt. I remember him being called Swizzle by one of the teen magazines

@TattiePants 😳

Finally, finally finished some things!

1. Spare, by Prince Harry. There's nothing to say that hasn't already been said! It bears no resemblance whatsoever to the press about it, and is far better written than I expected, although I know the ghost is highly acclaimed. He is utterly furious with the tabloids - and who can blame him - and the news that Piers Morgan was recently lunching with Camilla adds credence to what he says about them. The most interesting part is what he doesn't say. The book itself is such a huge overshare - but it doesn't mention much about the Queen, hardly anything about Philip, Andrew, Anne or Edward. It's too long, but I found it very interesting and am glad to have read it, not just read about it.

2. The Cloisters, by Katy Hays. Utterly infuriating. You'd have thought I would have learned by now that when a book is presented as being Secret History-esque that it will fall far short of that promise. Set in The Cloisters in New York, modern day curators study medieval divination and tarot and commit dastardly deeds. The characters are horribly under-developed, there are incredibly boring information dumps about medieval courts, and the 'shock' ending has a detail that makes absolutely no sense. There are passages of lovely writing, particularly about NYC in summer, and The Cloister gardens, but in all other respects this was deeply disappointing.

3. Confessions of a bookseller, by Shaun Bythell. I'm possibly the last to read this, but another volume of diaries from the grumpy bookseller. Loved it, perfect comfort reading.

9 Empire Of Pain - Patrick Radden Keene

Much reviewed on here, so won’t add too much other than it’s an excellent piece of non fiction that covers the devastating impact of the Sackler family’s pharmaceutical company which sparked the US opioid epidemic. The family themselves came across as utterly chilling.

yes spare was nothing like the media said it was. poor lad you wonder why he hates them!

onto malibu rising now. ive seen a few mixed reviews so we shall see.

I feel obliged to tell people Cold Comfort Farm is in the kindle deals this month...

All the talk of Cold Comfort Farm made me check if I can get it in the library but I cannot, though perhaps through a request for a loan from outside the library system but I'm not sure its worth that effort...

My first DNF of the year. The Tin Nose Shop, by Don J Snyder (hope I’m correct in not bolding a DNF?).
I thought I would like this but the writing was flowery, too full of portents and its own cleverness. If I’d paid more than 99p for it I would have returned it to Amazon for a refund. Bit of a shame, as the subject deserves a better writer than this imo.