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.

I finished my last book at the weekend and I've really struggled to pick my next read. I must have read the first few pages of at least 8 books and nothing has grabbed my attention. I think I've finally settled on Pompei by Robert Harris which is the only fiction book of his I haven't read (apart from his latest which I'm waiting for in paperback).

10 Angelmaker - Nick Harkaway This was a re-read - I absolutely loved it the first time I read it and still think it’s great after a second read, although perhaps not quite as fantastic as I originally thought. It’s weird and funny and has some good characters (and some which were a bit disappointing this time round, but those were in the minority).

The main character is a 30-something clockmaker, following in his grandad’s shoes and resolutely avoiding becoming anything like his dad, who was a gangster. And then he gets mixed up in something strange courtesy of an old friend and an elderly woman who is great at spycraft and dealing with assassins… Any more description of the plot would get a bit spoilery but it’s a lot of fun.

i think this will be a marmite sort of book but would recommend anyway. Oh, and it’s in 3rd person present tense narrative - just a warning for those who don’t like it!

@TattiePants ToY is probably my favourite autobiographical book of all time. So beautiful, so raw.

I'm pleased that DD was never into Dahl and too old for Walliams. I find both very ambiguous people and can't quite separate that from the art.

Have gone back into Cormoran Strike after the Silkworm finished me off two years ago and had me saying I wouldn't be going back. This one is better (n3) but jeez Louise get that woman an editor. Love JK as I do the "more is more" school of description wears thin at times. And I notice she likes the word "whom". A lot. Like 6 times in 6 lines a lot. Then uses a really informal phrase in the same sentence which jars. But hey ho. It's still rolling along nicely.

What nearly finished me off was in The Ink Black Heart where one of them goes into a mansion block to visit someone and we got a whole paragraph about the carpet in the entrance hall. So entirely irrelevant to the plot - I kept expecting the carpet to make a reappearance later (they trip over it, spill something...) but no, poor blue carpet never mentioned again.

@
@TattiePants Pompeii is a terrific book. It rattles along at a great pace and makes you want to keep reading.

@MrsDanversGlidesAgain thanks for the fact about the execution! I think I would have taken the drink!

After my little reading slump I definitely need something fast paced so sounds like I’ve chosen well.

I'd be interested in reading what you think about Pompeii. I found it unbearably dull and remarkable only in the way it managed to make one of the worst natural disasters in human history so boring.

I didn’t think much of Pompei either, if I remember correctly. In fact, the only one of his I’ve really enjoyed was Fatherland and even that lost itself a bit at the end.

1. Reading in Bed - Sue Gee. I read this after seeing it mentioned on this thread. It was an easy read with some interesting themes. I did want to know what happened even though I was irritated by several of the characters

Conclave That's the only one I've loved of his.
I think he's filed under the "potentially good story and plot, not a very good writer" category. But two dimensional but alright when you don't want to have to think too much. Enigma bored me senseless I do remember that.

I don't think it's her best @grannycake. I did enjoy Earth and Heaven and The Mysteries of Glass though, and Thin Air is a touching account of falling in love late in life. I think she's an under-rated writer.

@highlandcoo Thanks. Î'm not put off reading her other work and will see what my local library can offer

@DuPainDuVinDuFromage

I've had Angelmaker a very very long time on TBR have never got past the early stages, I mean giving up after a few pages

@TattiePants

I keep meaning to "do" Testament Of Youth and still haven't got round to it

@So1invictus etc I gave up the Galbraiths after A Cuckoo's Calling but @Owlbookend has made me think they might be perfect for Audible.

I have only read Fatherland of Robert Harris and I didn't rate it at all, waste of an excellent premise.

Actually not sure if it was you @Owlbookend talking about Strike on Audible but can't see who it was!

I've only listened to the first few Harry Potter books on audio, though the boys devoured the print versions. I've read The Casual Vacancy and the first Cormoran Strike book but I suspect she got into a habit of overwriting and going on too long in the HP days.

I think at the end of reading to DS2 at all I found myself trying to read from a David Walliams book to him and I so hated having to read that drivel aloud. Dahl's prejudice was of its time. I'm not really motivated enough to compare original and revised versions of his work - and am not sure how far the process can go with writers like Dahl - so wouldn't sign a petition either way about it because I feel it would need to be better informed. I do understand though that this is an initiative from his estate/family members, which puts it in a different light. I did enjoy some of his earlier books as a child and some later ones as an adult - I'm too old to have read Matilda as a kid!

I loved Dahl as a child and am not sure the edits they are making are the best ones but feel maybe the estate are trying their best to not get 'cancelled'. Considering how old some of Dahls stories are it makes sense they are of their time and feel we should explain and discuss this with children rather than changing them.

Walliams very much wants to be Dahl but his stereotypes don't fly for me so much as he should know better. They feel very little Britain for me. However so many reluctant readers I have worked with have devoured his books and then read other authors that I can't completely hate them.

I was never a huge fan of Roald Dahl as a child. His style seemed a bit patronising and bleak. Reading his biographical info later I can see why he was like that and I appreciate that his child characters are battling against uncaring and cruel adults. Enid Blyton does imperiously preachy much better imo. However, the books should stay as written and readership move on if necessary.

Loathe David Walliams. Fortunately didn’t have a child of an age to want to read them.

I think some of the Dahl edits seem a bit silly and unnecessary but I don't have a problem with the principle, given we've been doing the same with Enid Blyton books for years. I'd like to keep David Walliams out of my house as my toddler grows up though.

14. Bad Relations by Cressida Connolly. A novel in three parts. It starts in the Crimean War, where returning soldier William Gale finds his relationship with his wife changed, and carries out a terrible act which splits the family. The second part jumps to the 70s, where the two branches of the family, one now based in Australia, find each other again. Stephen travels to the U.K. and stays with his relatives at their farm in Devon, prompting another tragedy. The final third revisits the characters in 2015 when the family unites for a final time.

Although just sounds like a lot of content this was actually quite a short and thin book, it definitely could have delved a bit deeper. The strongest section was the one set in the 70s, with the Crimean War bit being pretty dull. It also slightly annoyingly hinged on huge numbers of family heirlooms, letters and diaries being passed down through centuries.

That said, the main theme of a tragedy rippling through the generations and repeating itself was powerful and well done. I enjoyed it even if it's unlikely to stay with me.

I think a fair few older childrens books have been edited in this way. Not just Blyton - if you run into original versions of the Dr Doolittle books for example they're appallingly racist.

I only really liked Danny the Champion of the World as a child (too old for Matilda / Twits etc), but reading them as an adult, RD has a real tendency to equate being physically unattractive (and, by implication at least, having a disability) with being an unpleasant person.

I guess the question in all these cases is whether it would better for them to quietly fade away & be replaced by newer books. The idea of explaining & discussing with children is good in principle, but in many cases they'll be picking up the books & reading them independently. And tbh, if you are already feeling unattractive or otherwise different, I'm not sure any amount of context is going to make it pleasanter to read a story where it's implied that makes you a bad person.

I have had to DNF number9dream by David Mitchell. I wanted to complete on David Mitchell but I got to page 210 and went to pick it up and just thought I can't do it...I hate DNFing too

A 20 year old tries to track down his father in Tokyo but there are so many fantasy eg dream sequences that the character indulges in it's hard if not impossible to follow. He threw some Beatles lyrics into the prose which was cute, but it was just draining me.

18. Northern Lights by Philip Pullman No need for a summary - everyone knows this book. I think it improved a lot on re-reading and I enjoyed it much more.

DS is a huge Harry Potter fan and I think, now he's a teenager, the time is right to introduce him to His Dark Materials.

We were not fans of Roald Dahl in our house. I didn't read him as a child (just don't recall him being that popular when I was at school), and my DC didn't enjoy any of his books when we read them together. David Walliams was swiftly abandoned too.

Thanks for your review @StitchesInTime I was having a crappy day when I read it and I chuckled at the sex on the horse scene.
No - not me discussing strike on audible @EineReiseDurchDieZeit . I haven't read/listened to them. I'm always thinking of giving them a try despite not liking the Harry Potter books. I know not a popular opinion, but although easy to read aloud I found them boring when I read the early ones to DD. Fantasy isn't usually my thing though.
8. Tall Bones Anna Bailey
Psychological mystery/thriller set in small town Colarado. A teenage girl goes missing and the circumstances that lead to her disappearance are slowly uncovered. The town is very grim - corrupt and riddled with racism & misogyny. Not much is revealed for a very long time and there seemed to me a few plot holes along the way. There are frequent changes of pov and switches to the distant or recent past. I didnt really enjoy it, although it has had some good reviews.

I think it was actually OldCrone but anyway it's a good idea as I thought Cuckoo's Calling was very lightweight but that's exactly what I need from my Audible

I loved and devoured Robert Harris’ Cicero trilogy, but that’s probably because I have a classics degree and am very familiar and comfortable in that bit of history. Act of Oblivion nearly bored me to tears - when I saw that Piggy found it pacy, I wondered if I’d possibly been reading a different version. I can see that he was aiming for moral ambiguity in the characters from the two sides (Royalist/Parliamentarian), but it just resulted in me not being engaged with any of them. Cromwellian general Ned was briefly interesting when he started to self-reflect, but that was quite a limited element. I was left feeling like what they actually did in the Civil War would have made a much more interesting story than how they chased each other around at interminable length 20 years later.

@MrsDanversGlidesAgain yes I agree, she definitely seemed divisive. To be honest I think I agree with you, the way she kept making the same mistakes over and over with regards her debts and gambling was intensely frustrating. But she was clearly still a remarkable woman who held a lot of power in a time when women had no official power and many people at the time seemed to truly adore her. She must have been very charismatic