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.

@ClaphamSouth Thank you. I've read that one, but it was a long time ago.
@MegBusset I'm too damaged by the Bardo to trust anything else by him!

@RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie what was wrong with Bardo? I've had that on my TBR pile for a while.

I liked Lincoln In The Bardo @dontlookgottalook. I can see why someone people wouldn't, but definitely worth giving it a go. It's pretty out there but also really well done IMO.

15. Cleopatra and Frankenstein - Coco Mellors. I don't think anyone has reviewed this yet which I'm quite surprised about as it's all over Waterstones. It's being feted as for Sally Rooney fans - which could well raise red flags to start with. I can see it but think it's a bit of a disservice to Rooney. So this starts with young English artist Cleo (beautiful, golden, mentally damaged) meeting 40 something US ad director Frank (reckless, rich, drinker) on New Year's Eve. By the end of the first chapter, they're madly in love and are getting married to help Cleo stay in New York. It then follows their lives and their friends for the next year or so. The plot is thin and predictable. They have various stereotypical best friends who we get POV chapters from - Cleo's gay druggie best friend, Frank's drop dead gorgeous womaniser art director and stunning epileptic sister, oh and a random one about his other best friend who barely features otherwise. There are some amusing scenes but the characters are just so clichéd, particularly Cleo. They're also all ridiculously good looking - a bit like in A Little Life. The bit that was more successful for me were 2 long sections that are written in the first person by a copywriter who joins Frank's firm. These parts actually ring true and made me think there may have been a better book in here somewhere. Interesting to hear what others think of it.

I loved Lincoln in the Bardo. It took me a couple of goes to get into it, but I was so glad I persevered. It's definitely a book that's stayed with me.

Re Lincoln in the Bardo, I read the first few pages a few years ago then put it down and haven’t picked it up again. I noticed it’s available on Borrowbox so would it be better to listen as an audiobook?

@TattiePants

I was kind of envious after I read it about the audio as it has a very strong cast

@Stokey

I have C&F on TBR

Wow, I’ve just looked at the cast and reserved it for a couple of weeks time.

8. Bomber by Len Deighton

I'm sure @MegBusset and others have written about this fictionalised account of a 24 hour period covering a WWII RAF bombing raid on a German town so I won't go on at length. It has immense strengths but I personally found it a bit dry. It was really hard to get to know and keep track of the characters. It had a lot of interest though in its detail about the technology and mechanical impact of war.

16 Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver
I've not read David Copperfield, so I'm sure I missed a lot of what was intended here. Despite (or maybe because of?) that, I thought it was fantastic. I read the first 3/4 or so a chapter or two each day, & it worked really well for me taking it more slowly & paying attention, though I lost willpower & finished the rest off this evening. Maybe I'll read David Copperfield some time, then go back & read this again to see the parallels.

It's working well for me so far this year making the effort to reserve fiction through the physical library rather than going for the easy option of an e-book. I feel like I'm getting much more from novels by reading on paper & slowing down.

DNF The Pale Blue Eye by Louis Bayard. Read 25% of arch, boring waffle, realised I couldn’t care less about Landor, Poe or West Point, let alone the walking cliches that are the supporting characters. Maybe there will be some big reveal later on but I just don’t care enough to find out.

2 DNFs in a row are worrying, but I’ve started Where The Edge Is by Grainne Murphy and it’s great. So, sorry Landor, it’s not me, it’s you.

Bardo
I thought the idea was great and there were some brilliant passages in it, but for me the multiple voices and some repeated imagery/language usage just got wearisome and annoying. I felt it was trying to be a bit Waiting for Godot esque, but just got a bit stupid.

Tries and fails in not mentioning the enormous member.

The enormous member appealed to my schoolgirl humour @Remus!

@Stokey Cleopatra and Frankenstein is on my list (by which I mean my currently non-moving library reservations list). It's definitely had a lot of hype on social media. I don't actually use tik tok but I seem very susceptible to reading books that are big over there.

Interesting discussion on Demon Copperhead. I've liked lots of Barbara Kingsolver in the past but found her latest book, I think Unsheltered, pretty tiresome and too obvious in its political analogies. Eg a house that is literally falling down because of climate change induced storms while the grandfather inside watches Fox News. And in the past it belonged to a teacher who was driven out of his job for teaching evolution. But I might give DC a go as it's got such good reviews.

I’m behind on the thread after a week’s holiday with no internet.
But being unable to go online did wonders for my reading rate 😁

11. Foundryside by Robert Jackson Bennett

I thoroughly enjoyed this.
Fantasy book.
The city of Tevanne runs on an unusual magic system - magical inscriptions called scrivings can change the properties of inanimate items.
Sancia, a thief with a scrived plate in her head, has taken on a job to steal a box from a warehouse. A box that contains an invaluable, powerful sentient scrived key, and now Sancia’s got a massive target on her back.

12. The Book of Angst by Gwendoline Smith

Discusses various forms of anxiety with tips for managing anxiety.

13. Insomnia by Sarah Pinborough

Emma has a great husband, 2 lovely children, great job, everything in her life looks perfect.
But it’s not long until her 30th birthday, and she’s stopped sleeping.
Her mother also stopped sleeping shortly before her 30th birthday, and did something terrible that still haunts Emma.
And now things are starting to disintegrate for Emma…

Lots of tension and a gripping read.

This is a bit after the fact, but on the Cabaret thing, yes, the original novella is Goodbye to Berlin by Christopher Isherwood; it was turned into a play called I Am A Camera, which is what the stage show Cabaret is based on.
Isherwood and Truman Capote were friends and he had a relationship with Tennessee Williams in the 40s, after he'd moved to the US.

@EineReiseDurchDieZeit Passion by Jude Morgan (2004)is a fictionalised (based on history) story about the Romantic poets Shelley and Byron and Mary Shelley features heavily. More recently William Boyd's The Romantic also features Mary Shelley (and Byron and Shelley). There are probably loads more fiction books that feature her. I'll look out for the Elle Fanning Film, might fill an evening!

23 Tenement Kid by Bobby Gillespie
I really do enjoy a good rock memoir, though actually this was more about what happens before you become a huge star, as it ends on the day Screamadelica was released. Which was the same day Nevermind came out. I remember the indie dance kids and the rock kids heading down together to Our Price in town after school to pick up their respective records. I was much more of an indie dance kid and Screamadelica was a huge part of my formative musical experience. So I was really looking forward to this.

There’s obviously some drug taking (though less than you’d expect), a massive amount of chat about Gillespie’s musical influences (which could get a little dull if that’s not your thing – I remember some of his NME interviews around that time where he’d always talk passionately about musicians and bands I’d never heard of, which is how I develop a love of some bands I still love today such as Big Star. So I didn’t mind that) and obviously he’s at pains to remind us how trailblazing he was at all times (I mean, you didn’t expect Gillespie’s memoir to be self-effacing and humble did you?). And I really really loved the Jesus and Mary Chain though was too young to have attended their gigs while Gillespie was their drummer (probably no bad thing, they sound like they were mostly just pitched battles between the audience and the band) so I really that part of the story.

What was really interesting to me was his account of his childhood – it’s a really good account of growing up under Thatcher in a socialist household, and his admiration and love for his parents comes through really strongly. And some of it is very moving indeed, particularly when he stops trying to convince us he’s the coolest person ever and is a bit more honest about his relationships.

This got lots of really positive reviews from people when it came out, and I can see why - if it wasn’t ghost written then Gillespie is a very talented writer indeed, because the story flowed and the way it was written was extremely good.

It's pretty much all I can remember about the book now.

It’s been ages since I’ve updated but I haven’t been reading anything particularly exciting (except some Robert Goddard rereads - he’s one of my favourite authors) so here are my latest two reads.

A Helping Hand by Celia Dale

This is described as horror but I’m not sure it is really - more domestic suspense. It’s set in the 1960s. Maisie and Josh are a middle aged couple who are on holiday in Italy after being left some money by ‘Auntie’ Flo, an elderly lady who
lived with them and they looked after. On holiday they befriend Mrs Fingal, who lives with her niece but the niece isn’t very happy about it. Maisie and Josh suggest Mrs F moves in with them - but is that really in Mrs F’s interests? This did get a bit repetitive in the middle (the daily routine of a bed bound old lady is not that interesting) but the subtle creeping feeling of dread is very well done (especially as you can’t really put your finger on exactly what’s wrong) and there’s a good twist at the end.

The Fifth Doll by Charlie N Holmberg

This isn’t the sort of thing I would usually pick up, but I like Russian dolls and this was free on kindle unlimited so why not? Matrona lives in an idyllic village. We’re not told where or in what time period, but the occasional Russian word leads you to think it’s in Russia, and there’s no mention of anything modern (all the villagers do jobs like dairymaid, potter, blacksmith etc.) so appears to be set a couple of hundred years ago at least. There’s never any adverse weather and nobody except Slavs the Tradesman ever leaves the village. One day Matrona visits Slava’s house and discovers a room full of Russian dolls decorated to look like each villager. She opens her father’s doll but when he starts acting strangely she realises there’s more to the dolls than meets the eye. Can she work out the dolls’ secret? At first I was frustrated that there’s no explanation of where and when this is set but that is explained later. I thought the ending was a bit weak and confused, but I enjoyed the rest of the book.

It's not those @SapatSea definitely don't know those, the film is decent but not special

Bardo

If all Remus remembers is the big cock, why do I have zero recollection of it at all ? 🤔

I can't recall who else just read it, but I too just finished Greg Jenner's Ask A Historian. I tend to agree that it's a bit too whistle stop and eclectic - with perhaps also a rather giggly school boy focus on sex and willies.

I think I learn a few new things, though, which is always good. I was interested in his section on why we are so fixated on The Tudors. I think perhaps he should also have thought about who 'we' are. I barely touched this period in Scottish schooldays and , when we did, the framing of QE1 and MQOS was entirely different!

@EineReiseDurchDieZeit I can remember the gigantic dick quite enough for both of us.

I have just opened my signed copy of Paterson Joseph's book and look what he's done with his smudge!

The Big Four by Agatha Christie
A Hercule P that I hadn't read before. It was okay. I don't love the narration of Captain Whatshisname and it was shockingly racist in places - more than I've ever noticed in a Christie before. Here, the racism was directed against the Chinese, since one man in China has become the brains behind 'The Big Four' who basically seem to be nihilists who want to destroy the world, whilst making lots of money in the process. No, I couldn't quite work that out either. The whole plot lasts about 9 months, which made it feel a bit convoluted, but did allow for Captain Whatshisname to be in mortal peril several times and needing to be saved by Poirot. Poirot is his usual loveably arrogant and patronising self. Would I read it again? No, but there were a few twists and little touches of humour and even tenderness that I did enjoy.