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?

@Piggywaspushed Oh that's interesting!

@LadybirdDaphne do you listen to Greg Jenner's podcast You're Dead to Me. It's fabulous.

@kateandme few novels with older characters for you.

Old Baggage by Lissa Evans about an old suffragette. Love this.
Three Apples Fell from the Sky by Narine Abgaryan about the elderly residents of an isolated village in Armenia with touches of magic realism.

I'm not going to recommend the 'old man looks back on his life' books so beloved of the Booker judges in the past, although Moon Tiger by Penelope Lively is a (female) variation on that theme.

I bet there are quite a few books about older people on the 'slightly dated' thread. And there's always Miss Marple!

@CluelessMama I read Northern Spy a couple of years ago and would agree with your review. I felt it conveyed the idea of divided loyalties and not knowing who to trust well but lacked the authenticity that an author with first hand experience of the troubles may have been able to convey. Haven't read Trespasses but will look it up as sounds interesting

@kateandme Rachel Joyce has written quite a few books about older people.

Miss Benson's Beetle and The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry are two that I've looked by her.

@kateandme try the Idea of Perfection by Kate Grenville and Thin Air by Sue Gee.

Both describe finding love later in life but they're much more than love stories. I rate both authors for their subtle depiction of human relationships.

@kateandme The Dark Flood Rises by Margaret Drabble features an elderly woman as the protagonist.

1. I'm Not Complaining Ruth Adam * *

Following on from finishing So Sweet A Changeling, I searched out Adam's earlier novel published in 1938. No doubt based on her own time spent teaching before marriage, the novel follows Madge Brigson teaching in a primary school during the interwar years. The school is in a very deprived area and the community is plagued by unemployment and poverty. We encounter prostitution, abuse and destitution. This is much harder edged than So Sweet a Changeling. I'm not really sure how I feel about it to be honest. In some ways it was a really interesting insight into the world of education at that time. There is no sentimentality in the potrayal of the exclusively female staff or the children. Although in many ways the educational world of nearly a century ago is very different, it is also strikingly similar to today. The girls forced to attend Madge's night school class (in order to acess welfare payments) display challenging attitudes and behaviour not disimilar to disillusioned teenagers today, children in the primary classes not so innocently ask the meaning of potentially rude words in the bible and the inspector's visit provokes anxiety and suspicion among the staff. Teaching is one of the few options that enable women to support themselves and it is clear that for most it is a necessity not an active choice. They are not an idealistic bunch. In lots of ways it was refreshing to read such an unsentimental account of women's lives, but it was also frustrating. Madge herself is rather enigmatic and inscrutable & I felt I was struggling to get to know her. Her closest friend/acquaintance is Jenny a working class girl who has escaped poverty to become a teacher. In many ways she is remarkably similar to Cherry who appeared in the other Adam novel I read. In addition to similarities in their backgrounds they are both portrayed as being very interested in men and clothes and having a rather detached attitude to relationships. Madge's paternalistic and high-handed actions towards Jenny in the early chapters made me seethe with rage, but Jenny seemed largely unperturbed. I think I struggled with the distance from the working class characters who are often viewed as either pitiable, contemptible or both. I guess they are just seen through the lens of Adam's background or maybe that is just my view of it. Overall, more interesting than enjoyable. Congratulations (or commiserations) to anyone who got to the end of that rather rambling & incoherent post. I fancy something a bit lighter and fast paced next.

1)This is Not a Pity Memoir by Abi Morgan
2) A Summer Bird Cage by Margaret Drabble
3) Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont by Elizabeth Taylor
4) How to Own the Room by Viv Groskop
5) Still Life by Sarah Winman

I saw this recommended on here but, although I enjoyed it, I found the characters a little too nice and not enough happened. Could have done with some baddies being centre-stage rather than off at a distance.

6. Someone at a Distance by Dorothy Whipple ** I really enjoyed this - comments on the Rather Dated thread.

Thanks for the link to Cat-brushing Janina. From reading the first paragraph I think Stokey's warning was apposite; shame, I'll just have to keep the copy I've ordered for myself!

Owl I enjoyed your review and have added I'm not Complaining to my wishlist. I have just retired from working in a primary school in a very deprived area of South-East London and would be really interested to compare and contrast.

Has anybody read The Moth and the Mountain yet? I fell asleep over it yesterday, but not sure if it was my fault or the book's.

16. The Quantum Curators and the Shattered Timeline by Eva St John

This is the fourth in the series and my favourite so far. Much more focus on time travelling, rather than Gods and coups. Only one more in the series currently and I’m going to jump right into it.

No but I have it on my TBR pile, which it might be slipping down after this comment 😊

1. Becoming Dinah by Kit de Waal

This is a YA retelling of Moby Dick where the whale is a campervan. An interesting idea but not that good a read. I read this for work. Not a big fan of YA but then again I'm definitely not Y.

Next up is Once upon a tome by Oliver Darkshire about working in an antiquarian bookshop.
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I've finished Book No. 4 - Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus. There's been a lot of hype about this book and I'm sure it's been reviewed many times here, so I'll keep it short. The book is set in the early '60s. At the start of the book, the main character Elizabeth is working as a TV chef, having failed to pursue her chosen career as a chemist. The author describes the sexual discrimination, misogyny and powerlessness Elizabeth faces on a daily basis in the workplace. I saw the first few episodes of Mad Men (was too depressed to go any further) and it reminded me of that TV series. I liked Elizabeth and most of the main characters (except for her odious male colleagues). It's a quick and easy read - I pretty much read it in 24 hours. It's not the most amazing book I've ever read (there are too many co-incidences) but I think Elizabeth and her struggles will stay in my mind longer than your average main character. The dog was really annoying though.

@RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie and @MamaNewtNewt I read TMATM early in 2022 and really liked it.

@CluelessMama Don't let me put you off. I'm tired this week, so it might well be my problem, rather than the writing.

@MaudOfTheMarches I'll give it another try over the weekend when I've had a bit of a rest!

13. Mrs Harris Goes To Paris by Paul Gallico

This was not quite the book I thought it was going to be. I enjoyed it, but it wasn't as "feel good" as I had imagined. Mrs Harris has a hard time of it all the way through, with many setbacks befalling her along the way to getting her prized Dior dress, with a rather sad/bittersweet ending that I felt poor lovely Mrs Harris didn't deserve.

My copy has Mrs Harris Goes to New York as well, but I'm* not reading that *one just yet, although I am curious as to her next adventure.

@Owlbookend it's interesting to read another take on I'm Not Complaining - it was the one I read after A House in the Country and I found it interesting and slightly strange too. I dug up my review from 2021:

I've got quite interested in this slightly forgotten writer since chancing on one of her books ( A House in the Country ) published by Furrowed Middlebrow, then managed to score a rare novel off eBay, Set to Partners, of which there appear to be no other copies around. I then sent off for this, which Virago republished in the 80s but which first appeared in 1938.

The narrator is 30-year-old teacher Madge Brigson, who labours away in a deprived Nottinghamshire school with a variety of other female colleagues. Madge is single, wryly humorous, and has no illusions about her pupils, regarding most children as savages - but she takes unsentimental pride in her work and her calling as a teacher.

Much of the pleasure of the narrative is in her observations of her colleagues, including her beautiful, sexually-free friend Jenny - it's unusual (I think) to read a novel of the 30s that's so frank about a single woman getting pregnant and having an abortion - communist Miss Simpson and gentle, spinsterish Miss Jones, who unexpectedly reveals herself to have a 'man-friend'.
Admittedly, the plot overall isn't superbly crafted but I was happy to follow in Madge's footsteps through the privations of the Depression in fictional Lower Bronton (even if her characterisation of the feckless 'lower orders' is sometimes very much of its era), and I liked her 'voice' very much indeed. It reminded me a lot of Winifred Holtby, though perhaps a bit livelier and more subversive. A fascinating curiosity, and I've already got a later Ruth Adam novel on order, this time about adoption

@Boiledeggandtoast I think you’d be interested, yes!

6. Diary of a Provincial Lady/The Provincial Lady Goes Further by EM Delafield

Much discussed on here. I started reading my mother's battered old omnibus edition as I'm clearing out my attic. Pros: if you like this sort of thing, it's really, really funny and it gets funnier as the catchphrases and style become more familiar. I found myself thinking in the same style after reading it for a couple of days. I'm really struck by how obviously Helen Fielding copied the style for Bridget Jones, but she updated it very skilfully so fair enough. Cons: it speaks from a world and worldview that seems as distant as the last ice age. There's nothing about it that connects with the world now imo. I also felt there were diminishing returns as I kept reading, and I decided to stop after these two titles (about half the book).

Thanks for reposting your review @Terpsichore I always enjoy seeing what others thought.
@Boiledeggandtoast it is definetely interesting from the perspective of comparing then & now. There is a lot that seems familiar, but then suddenly as terp notes you are taken aback by the attitudes of the era.

@Taytocrisps I hated that dog too :)

@Boiledeggandtoast I think you’d be interested, yes!

Thanks Terpsichore. I'm now wondering why I didn't pick up on it from your review in 2021! I've ordered the Virago edition from AbeBooks as it doesn't look as if it's still in print. By the way, I've just started and am very much enjoying Celestine which I think was a recent recommendation from you too, for which many thanks.

10 The Road To Oxiana - Robert Byron

Compelling, if occasionally grumpy account of a journey through what was then Persia and Afghanistan in the 1930s, on horseback and various dodgy motor vehicles, in search of Islamic architecture. Sad that it’s a journey that would be impossible for a Westerner to make today, and I was also sad to read that Byron was killed in 1941 at only 35 when the ship he was sailing on was attacked by U boats. Will definitely look up more of his writing.

15. The Housewarming by S. E. Lynes Early one morning Ava comes downstairs to find her 2 year old daughter, Abi, has vanished from her pushchair in the hallway. A year later, Abi has never been found and Ava and her husband, Matt, are struggling to come to terms with the realisation that Abi is likely dead and they'll never know what really happened. Then their neighbours throw a party for the whole street to show off their recently finished house renovation. With all the neighbours in the same place for the first time since Abi's disappearance and everyone getting drunk, a few comments are made which stick in Ava's mind and cast doubt on the accepted events of the day of Abi's disappearance

I'm not sure this book was a good idea as I have young children myself so I found the subject matter very distressing. The idea that it only takes a couple of minutes of inattention and your whole world can change forever is definitely upsetting. Having said that, this book was excellently written. It's not your typical 99p kindle thriller and I think it will stay with me for a while. Lynes writes so eloquently about Ava's grief and the way she runs through the events of the day over and over again in her head is so believable. A much better book than I was expecting

11. Last Night by Mhairi McFarlane. Fun rom-com as recommended by others on here. I'd read more of hers in future if they're in the deals. Though agree with the previous poster who complained about the characters constantly guffawing and honking.

I've been reading this interspersed with Crossroads by Jonathan Franzen which is very long and slow going. Im not not enjoying it but think it'll be a chapter a day alongside something else. Also the sex scenes are reminding me why I rarely read books by Great Male Novelists nowadays.