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.

Oh, I'll check again, thanks So1invictus! Chinny reckon made me laugh 🤔

It seems pretty big so I hope it's a good one MaudOfTheMarches. I like to read cookbooks on the kindle app on my ipad rather than my kindle because of the pictures. I really dislike the Jamie Oliver books I've got on kindle though, his publishers always seem to do mad things with the formatting.

I just bought My Body by Emily Ratajkowski for 99p, as I think it has been reviewed favourably by a couple of people on this thread.

Thanks for the wish list tip @EineReiseDurchDieZeit . I picked up I'm Sorry You Feel That Way which the Guardian had been raving about "like Sorrow and Bliss", and Exciting Times which was a Woman's prize long list a couple of years back about an Irish girl teaching English in Hong Kong.

On the fence about Maggie Farrell. I didn't mind Hamnet but fellow members of my book club raved about it in a way I didn't really get.

Well I'm not sure what's going on with the deals because the number of pages went up as I was browsing, but I got some good stuff that was on my wishlist.

I also bought the Angela Hartnett, plus a book about conspiracy theories, Jude Roger's music/memoir The Sound of Being Human and Mim Skinner's book about communes.

For fiction I nabbed Book of Night by Holly Black, The Raptures by Jan Carson, and Anatomy: A Love Story by Dana Schwartz - the latter looks like it might be a good fit for people who like the Ambrose Parry Raven and Fisher books.

I had a look through this month's deals earlier and tbh all the decent ones were ones I'd already read. I'd recommend Miss Benson's Beetle by Rachel Joyce and Blacklands by Belinda Bauer.
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I had been half thinking about Mexican Gothic, but I shan't bother now, if it's not that good.

A couple of non-fiction books for my list:

15 PR for Humans by Mike Sergeant. Communication for business leaders - some nice tips for public speaking.

16 Ada's Algorithm by James Essinger. Ada Lovelace is an interesting character, but I don't think this biographer did her justice. I found this rather dull.

@GrannieMainland

I got for 99p :

My Year Of Rest And Relaxation by Otessa Moshfegh

Love Marriage by Monica Ali

A Brief History Of Seven Killings by Marlon James

My Fourth Time, We Drowned by Sally Hayden

It's Not About The Burqa by Mariam Khan

and for £1.99 Rabbit Hutch by Tess Gunty

I'm probably going to go back in for My Body - I didn't see it

I quite enjoyed Hamnet, although didn't think it was worth quite all the accolades.

I've just finished Slade House by David Mitchell. This is a short and incredibly creepy supernatural horror novel, based on weird twins who lure people to their hidden house via a portal in an alleyway, every nine years, to kill them. One of the best bit of this book is the time jump and the victims whose stories we hear of before each 'incident'. The author really manages to capture aspects of each age, the changing attitudes, the common themes etc.

unfortunately we are in the middle of some house chaos and I think the book is packed away so I have had to cheat and read how the book ends from a website.

19. The Marlow Murder Club by Robert Thorogood This was an audiobook I've been listening to for a couple of days.

If you like lightweight murder mystery books (and I do, increasingly, prefer mysteries to be less graphic and violent now) then this will tick the right boxes. If you like Richard Osman's Thursday Murder Club series then this may appeal too. It is a bit silly and improbable, but it was a fun read and there were some amusing bits along the way. I'm invested enough to read the next one in the series.

@EineReiseDurchDieZeit all good choices. I've read a few of those but shows there must be loads more deals hidden away!

13 Snap - Belinda Bauer I have whizzed through this in a day (and stayed up far too late to finish it). Another police procedural / murder mystery, like the other book by Bauer I read earlier this year, having heard good things about her on these threads. It’s getting a bold from me, and the other one (it was Exit) is getting bumped up to a bold too - it was borderline at the time and I think I should err on the generous side now that I’ve enjoyed the second one!

This one is about a pregnant mother who goes missing from the side of a motorway after her car breaks down, leaving her three young kids. The story follows the oldest kid who is effectively bringing up his siblings after their father has a breakdown, and the other main characters are a team of detectives. I really liked the characterisation and the plot was pretty good too - she writes really well.

I bought Mexican Gothic in a long-ago 99p deal so I'm trying to ignore the reviews

1. 1989, by Val McDermid. Second in the Allie Burns series, this is a follow up to 1979 which several people found very slow, but I adored it and posted this rave review: "Sigh, for me, absolutely perfect. This was authentic, well plotted, with great characters, and some really pleasing nods to real life titans of tartan noir and art. Brilliantly satisfying, and v excited to hear this is the first of a series. More please!"

Well this is the 'more please', but I didn't feel the same. Ten years on, Allie is still a journalist but on the verge of burnout. She covers stories including Lockerbie and the Aids crisis, and is then drawn in to investigating what happened to her boss, media tycoon Wallace 'Ace' Lockhart. Despite this packing in a lot of action, I found it strangely tedious at times and had to reread paragraphs several times because I'd stopped paying attention.

More strangely, the media tycoon is very clearly based on Robert Maxwell and his daughter Genevieve on Ghislaine Maxwell, which is certainly… a choice. She doesn't explain why in the acknowledgements so I'm not really sure of the purpose and I found it distracting and frankly off-putting. I'm assuming there will be a follow up, likely 1999? Not sure if I will read it or not.

Well my kindle deals list finally updated! I bought another Mhairi McFarlane and The Weekend by Charlotte Wood.

I also spotted Seating Arrangements by Maggie Shipstead, nothing at all like Great Circle which I know wasn't everyone's cup of tea, more like a family comedy of manners set around a wedding. It's one I love recommending to people.

The thing that was most annoying for me in Mexican Gothic was the utterly wasted setting - it felt like it started in Mexico and then very quickly became an English haunted house story (still apparently set in Mexico, but you'd never know). I also thought it became too far fetched and was therefore not scary at all. Although my dh has recently read Merlin Shedrake's Entangled Life and I wonder whether reading that and getting a greater sense of the power and importance of mushrooms might help. Or maybe not 😂. I DNF The Beautiful Ones, written by the same author (irritating characters), so I think maybe she is just not for me.

Mhairi McFarlane is becoming one of my faves i think

loving the curfew right now. deff makes me think what would i do. and shouting for them not to do what rhey are haha!

Not browsing the deals this month! The library is collecting my wish list books way faster than I can read them so I'm just ignoring Amazon. I've bought only one book - a crochet one - this year which is unheard of. Good for my bank balance, at least.

Eine, My Fourth Time, We Drowned is very good.

I just couldn’t suspend belief enough to be terrified of mushrooms to enjoy Mexican Gothic.

I agree the Mhairi McFarlane’s books are enjoyable. She’s the closest to Marian Keyes in her heyday that I’ve found.

The deals finally updated for me too and I bought a few from my wish list including The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison, Walk the Blue Fields by Claire Keegan and A Canticle for Liebowitz. Also I just couldn’t resist Lincoln in the Bardo after all the talk! I have read a book of George Saunder’s short stories before which were odd but enjoyable. @GrannieMainland I got The Weekend too, I seem to remember it getting a good write up in the papers.

I also finished book 22 Empire of the Vampire by Jay Kristoff - a fantasy novel of a priesthood of half-vampires whose job is too kill the real thing. It’s narrated by the main character Gabriel, who is telling his story to a vampire who has captured him. It’s campy and over the top and has a similar stylised prose as Nevernight, his previous trilogy, and it’s enjoyable enough if you take it at face value.
I’m now listening to Joan Didion’s Slouching towards Bethlehem on audio and reading Elizabeth Gaskell’s North and South.

And that is the end of my essay!

I swear the deals changed as yesterday progressed, they seemed to get better. I got woman, eating by Claire Koda which I’ve seen reviewed well.

I enjoyed Mexican Gothic, was very silly but I remember it being very distracting when they were announcing a winter lockdown.

8. Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker

I know I'm several years behind on this as someone who is not a good sleeper I've been a bit scared to hear how badly this might affect my health. Spoiler alert - sleep has a huge (beneficial) affect on our heart, pain tolerance, decision making, immunity and well everything.

The information in this is interesting and useful and easily accessible for non scientist but I still struggled to want to pick it up. I've been reading this for months and months. I think I need a break from non fiction where I am trying to learn something and get stuck into some really good stories.

9/50 - Nineteen Minutes - Jodi Picoult
I've been slow this month due to Hogwarts Legacy taking up most of my free time!
I really enjoyed this book, although I saw the twist coming, the plot itself was still very thought provoking (about a bullied teenager involved in a school shooting).

Now I will finally move on to Name of the Wind - Patrick Rothfuss

The Moomin books are so good*, I was gutted my DD wouldn't let me read them to her when she was little but I hope my DS will let me.

*quite a big fan of the cartoons too

I enjoyed 19 Minutes if it's possible to say that given the subject matter. Not as good as Kevin, but I agree, thought provoking. Have you ever seen the Silent Witness episodes about a school shooting? @Panda89 SW is pretty formulaic and has gone off rapidly recently but I remember the school shooting one being absolutely mesmerising. I keep meaning to rewatch it. There was one of the tensest moments of TV ever.

I hated Full Circle (well, the couple of chapters I read before consigning it to the DNF pile) It's the Queen's Reading Room choice at the moment and I was going to say "blearghhhhhhhh" but then realised I was in the Queen's Reading Room 😂 and people only ever make positive comments.

I've also only read one TM Logan which was The Holiday and was a bit shit, but I might give him another bash.

I remember being utterly fucking terrified as a child by both A Comet in Moominland and the Starlight Barking (both reading books from primary school) 😂