50 Books Challenge 2023 Part Three

[Southeastdweller]

Welcome to the third 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 and the second one here.

Checking in! 🙂

Thanks as always to southeast for the threads

1.	Peace Is Every Step by Thich Nhat Hanh
2.	The Talented Mr Ripley by Patricia Highsmith
3.	Good Pop, Bad Pop by Jarvis Cocker
4.	Rosemary’s Baby by Ira Levin
5.	<strong>Nightcrawling</strong> by Leila Mottley
6.	Under Country by Jonathan Trigell
7.	The Crow Road by Iain Banks
8.	<strong>Take My Hand</strong> by Dolen Perkins-Valdez
9.	<strong>Build Your House Around My Body</strong> by Violet Kupersmith
10.	Spare by Prince Harry, Duke Of Sussex
11.	<strong>Pachinko</strong> by Min Jin Lee
12.	Furious Love by Nancy Schoenburger and Sam Kashner
13.	<strong>Our Wives Under The Sea</strong> by Julia Armfield
14.	Maggie Cassidy by Jack Kerouac 
15.	To Paradise by Hanya Yanigahara 
16.	Friends, Lovers And The Big Terrible Thing by Matthew Perry
17.	Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons
18.	Our Missing Hearts by Celeste Ng
19.	My Life In Orange by Tim Guest
20.	You Made A Fool Of Death With Your Beauty by Akwaeke Emezi
21.	When The Dust Settles by Lucy Easthope
22.	French Braid by Anne Tyler
23.	The Paper Palace by Miranda Cowley-Heller
24.	Babel by R.F. Kuang

I have dared to DNF a few as well

The Covent Garden Ladies and Witch Bottle for being boring
The Satsuma Complex for being poorly written.

Searching for my next fix

Just finished the Last chairlift by John Irving, currently reading My Notorious Life by Madame X written by Kate Manning and I plan to read every single one of the Florida and Texas Banned books list.
I have already read many bookshop.org/lists/books-banned-in-florida-and-texas-in-2022?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI_OXN2YuR_QIV0-7tCh1XhAA9EAMYASAAEgLhifD_BwE and seems the perfect booklist for 2023

Thank you for the thread SED

1. Sovereign - CJ Samson

1. Murder before Evensong - Rev Richard Coles
2. Dry - Augusten Burroughs
3. Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
4. The Last Mile - David Baldacci

6. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen

1. The Word is Murder - Anthony Horowitz

Also had a DNF - The Keeper of Stories - Sally Page

How did we get to thread 3 already?! Thanks southeast, back later with a list!

Thanks south!

1. Unmasking Autism: the power of embracing our hidden neurodiversity - Devon Price
2. Lolly Willowes - Sylvia Townsend Warner
3. Act of Oblivion - Robert Harris
4. Asperger’s and Girls - Tony Attwood et al
5. And Finally - Henry Marsh
6. Ask A Historian - Greg Jenner
7. Riddley Walker - Russell Hoban

Thanks southeast.

1 Au Revoir, Tristesse by Viv Groskrop
2 Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan
3 The Witches by Stacy Schiff
4 The Death of Grass by John Christopher
5 Smoke by Dan Vyleta
6 East West Street by Philippe Sands
7 The Reading Cure: How Books Restored My Appetite by Laura Freeman
8 The Fell by Sarah Moss
9 Cover Her Face by PD James
10 Midnight In Chernobyl by Adam Higginbotham
11 Foster by Clare Keegan
12 Cryptocurrency: the Future of Money by Michael Casey
13 Crossroads by Jonathan Franzen
14 Kindred by Octavia Butler
15 Wintering by Katherine May
16 Pharmacopoeia by Derek Jarman
17 Bully Market by Jamie Fiore Higgins

Most recent and by far the most annoying so far, is Sunfall by Jim Al-Khalili. Earth's magnetic field is weakening and a cunning plot to fix it with beams of dark matter is hatched. He's a good physicist and a talented science communicator but no one told him the fundamental principle of fiction which is show don't tell. So much clunky expositional dialogue, much of it even as a character has just ten minutes to save the world but decides to spent three minutes mansplaining some fairly basic physics point (usually to the poor beleaguered heroine who doesn't do much apart from hang around and look pretty despite being an apparently talented scientist). As sci-do plots go it isn't a terrible one but the wanging on was awful. It's as if Jim has never heard a real person have a conversation before.

Thanks for the new thread Southeast.

I'm on 41, but nothing of note to report.

Cheers to @Southeast for the new thread

My list so far;

1. 'The Perfect Naighbourhood.' Liz Alterman
2. 'Follow Me.'- Angela Clarke

3. 'The Christmas Bookshop- Jenny Colgan

1. 'The Broken Air.-Lucinda Hart

*5. 'An Innocent Baby.'- Cathy Glass

1. 'A Kind Worth Killing'- Peter Swanson
2. 'Jason Steed: Fledgling by Mark A Cooper

8 'Britt- Marie Was Here- Fredrik Backman

1. Jason Steed: Revenge.'- Mark A Cooper

10. 'Unwanted.'- Cathy Glass 11. 'The Reading List.' Sara Nisha Adams 12. 'The Catch- TM Logan 13. 'River Sing Me Home.'- Eleanor Shearer 14. 'Raven's Gate.'- Anthony Horowitz 15.'Evil Star.'- Anthony Horowitz 16. 'Before You Go.' - Clare Swatman 17. 'This Book Kills- Ravena Guron 18. 'Disgusting Bliss: The Brass Eye of Chris Morris.' By Lucian Randall 19. 'You'- Caroline Kepnes 20. 'Stay With Me.' -Ayobami Adebayo 21. 'Rosie Loves Jack.' By Mel Darbon * DNF's 22. ' London With Love.' - Sarra Manning 23. 'The Girl with a Clock for a heart.'- Peter Swanson 24. 'The Keeper of Lost Things.' Ruth Hogan 25. 'Hidden Bodies.'- Caroline Kepnes 26. 'You Love Me.'- Caroline Kepnes

Sorry, my bold font isn't working at the moment

Thanks @Southeastdweller . Iml
add my full list later

8. Dear Ijeawele by Chimamanda Ngozi

It’s a short book that arose out of her friend asking her how to raise her daughter a feminist. It’s a reminder of how things are still
very different in many places when it comes to feminism.

I agreed with most of what she said but not all, which is what I would expect.

I’ve taken screenshots of some sections (about teaching girls not to fall for the girls should be sweet, likeable, kind, etc at the detriment of their own safety ) and send them to my tween. We’ll discuss these later.

Checking in. Will add list later!

Thanks for the new thread South East.
1 The Furies - John Connolly
2 What is Remembered - Alice Munro
3 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
4 A Crown of Swords - Robert Jordan
5 The Elements of Style - Strunk and White
6 Exiles - Jane Harper
7 Sorrow and Blood - Meg Mason
8 The Field of Blood - Denise Mina
9 The Mist - Ragnar Jonasson
10 The Iliad - Homer
11 An American Marriage - Tayari Jones
12 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
13 Unfettered - various- edited by Shawn Speakman
14 Olive Kitteridge - Elizabeth Strout
15 Breakfast at Tiffany’s - Truman Capote

The only new ones are:
Olive Kitteridge - I’m sure this has been reviewed a million times. A set of linked short stories tell us about retired Olive, her family and community in a small town in Maine. I enjoyed this very much. While Olive is not the most likeable character she does change and has a positive impact on several peoples lives. I will read everything Elizabeth Strout has on offer from here on in. (Although not together- they’re too heavy and thought-provoking for that)

Breakfast at Tiffany’s - I thought I was opting for something light and fluffy after Olive, but this had a lot more depth and sadness than I anticipated. Very evocative of New York at the time and Holly Golightly is something of a tragic character. There were some more short stories in the edition I read but none of them grabbed me in the same way.

Adding number 27 to my list.

'About A Boy.'-Nick Hornby

Really enjoyed this. A good read about mental health, family bonds and the power of them. I've had a bad night tonight, so I'm currently watching the film on Amazon Prime ❤️

Thanks for the new thread Southeast!

Placemarking to catch up later.

Thanks @Southeastdweller

Thanks for the new thread @Southeastdweller !

My progress has slowed a lot now that I am back at work - here’s my list so far:

1 Exit - Belinda Bauer
2 Watching Neighbours twice a day… - Josh Widdicombe
3 The Bastard of Istanbul - Elif Shafak
4 The Plant Hunter - T L Mogford
5 House of Glass: The Story and Secrets of a Twentieth-Century Jewish Family - Hadley Freeman
6 The End of Mr Y - Scarlett Thomas
7 The Suspicions of Mr Whicher - Kate Summerscale
8 Apples Never Fall - Liane Moriarty
9 Great Circle - Maggie Shipstead

Cheers @Southeastdweller

@ICrunchCrispsNotNumbers I really love the film version of About A Boy and have seen it many times. Perfectly cast imo.

Thank you!

Thanks for the new thread south. The last one filled up quickly! Loving the book chat as always. I'll give my list at the end of the year, but in the meantime a weekly catchup:

10. The Dictionary of Lost Words - Pip Williams

Esme is a motherless child brought up in the scriptorium in Oxford where her father is working on the latest edition of the Oxford English Dictionary. This being the late nineteenth century, it is literally a life's work. Esme is a curious child who is fascinated by words; this will guide her future work and relationships. The book traces Esme's life through an important period of history, touching on the womens' suffrage movement and the First World War. It was an engrossing read, giving a real feel of the Oxford of the time and the blocks to women who chose to dedicate their life to their career in academia. Recommended.

Thanks for the new thread @Southeastdweller

My list so far:

1. Glory - NoViolet Bulawayo 4/5
2. The Sentence - Louise Erdrich 5/5
3. The Paris Apartment - Lucy Foley 3/5
4. Crossroads - Jonathan Franzen 4/5
5. Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow - Gabrielle Zevin 5/5
6. The Whalebone Theatre - Joanne Quinn 4/5
7. Transcendent Kingdom - Yaa Gyasi 4/5
8. Americanah - Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche
9. State of Terror - Louise Penny & Hilary Clinton 3/5

10. Cat Brushing - Jane Campbell 5/5

A good start to the year with several bolds and 4/5

11. The Colony - Audrey Magee. This is set on a tiny island off Ireland in 1979. Two men come to spend the summer on the island, one is an English artist who wants to paint the cliffs and one is a French linguist who has been studying the language on the island for the last 5 years and how it is being lost. The book is about how they interact with the islanders, particularly the young widow Mairead, whose husband, father and brother all died in a fishing accident, and her teenage son James who definitely doesn't want to become a fisherman. Interspersed with this are reports of the murders going on the mainland of both protestants and catholics by the IRA and UDF. This was very good, showing the effects of colonisation. I liked the contrasting language used between the artist in short, visual descriptions and the linguist where we get long expositions of the history of Irish. There's a back story to the linguist that I found a little heavy handed, but other than that, I thought this a great book.

Here is my list:

1. On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan
2. The Match by Harlan Coben
3. An Almond for a Parrot by Wray Delaney
4. The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry
5. Spare by Prince Harry
6. Beyond the Wand by Tom Felton
7. Welsh Monsters and Mythical Beasts by CCJ Ellis
8. The House in the Pines by Ana Reyes
9. Lady Chatterley's Lover by DH Lawrence

10. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley 11. Who We Were Before by Leah Mercer

And my latest read is The Running Girls by Matt Brolly, my amazon monthly freebie. A mystery/ thriller a man is released from prison after murdering his wife when a body is found in the same circumstances, prompting some to question the original arrest. Wasn't very gripping or well written in my opinion, started strong ish then lost momentum.

Checking into the new thread

1. The Last Chairlift by John Irving
2. The Whalebone Theatre by Joanna Quinn
3. Alex Rider: Secret Weapon by Anthony Horowitz
4. Once Upon A Crime by Robin Stevens
5. Leave The World Behind by Rumaan Alam
6. Scream by Nigel McCrery
7. The Bullet That Missed by Richard Osman
8. The Prophet by Khalil Gibran
9. The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan
10. The Island Of Sea Women by Lisa See
11. Fall From Grace by Tim Weaver

Now reading Picture You Dead by Peter James