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.

14 Where The Edge Is by Grainne Murphy

Well, this hit me right in the Feelz, as the youngsters don’t say!
A bus crashes through a badly maintained road surface. Some survive, some don’t. The main focus of the book is Loss. How it is experienced by the passengers on the bus, by the survivors, by the families and by rescuers and journalists covering the event.
It has a quiet and elegiac tone to it, with the odd splash of humour in the interactions amongst the living. I know we don’t go in for Content Warnings as such on here, but a large part of the book concerns Nina and Tim, whose daughter died as a toddler and it’s so very well written that it may be unbearable for anyone who has experienced that. Then again, the raw honesty of Nina’s feelings in particular is respectfully described and feels extremely real.
It is as ferociously pitiful as A Terrible Kindness and not a book I will forget in a hurry.

The thread is moving so quickly, I can barely keep up. The Strike review made me laugh - I love the stories but there are some shortcomings that a less famous author probably wouldn’t have got away with.

I seem to be in the minority in having liked Hamnet and The Marriage Portrait.

My kindle froze when I was trying to look at the March offers - I was about 200 books in and the only things which had tempted me were a John Boyne (can’t remember which one) and the Alison Weir on Elizabeth of York.

15. The Lamplighters - Emma Stonex

Already reviewed by others. Three lighthouse keepers disappear from a lighthouse in 1972. In 1992, an author decides to investigate and interviews the widows. It was quite an interesting insight into the solitude and routine of the lives of the keepers and how difficult it was for the wives left on the mainland. Quite well done - liked it but didn’t love it.

16. The Moving Finger - Agatha Christie

This month’s challenge book. Billed as a Miss Marple but she doesn’t appear until three quarters of the way through and, even then, her role is fairly limited. Jerry, an injured pilot, has rented a house to recuperate in Lymstone mainly because he knows nobody there. His sister has gone with him and they are soon sucked into village life - so much so that they receive an anonymous letter which long-term residents have been receiving for a while. Whilst annoying and distressing, the letters are taken much more seriously when a resident dies after receiving one. Who is writing the letters and is responsible for the death? Unusually for me, I quite enjoyed the lead investigator not being Marple or Poirot. Jerry did a good job!

I don’t think I’ve updated for weeks, because I haven’t finished anything in that time!

I’m having a ‘mare frankly. Can’t get into anything. Really enjoying The Etymologicon by Mark Forsyth on audible but I really don’t get much time for listening and it’s one I want to pay proper attention to (not because it’s difficult or anything, just because the whole point is the words and connections between them and so I don’t want to zone out and miss bits). On reflection would have been better in written form.

Everything I pick up I seem to be giving up on, not necessarily the fault of the books - I think it’s me.

@AliasGrape

I had a few days like that recently, my trick was not to even bother trying for 2 days and watch some TV

Then my advice is read the first page of a few different things and then stick with the one which you find yourself turning the next page for

6. The Lord of the Rings: The fellowship of the Ring J.R.R Tolkein.

This took me over a month to read mainly due to me finding the right style tricky to follow/having to reread bits but I did enjoy it. Did I skim read some of the songs? yes. Would I recommend it to everyone... no. I am looking forward to carrying on reading this series though and there's no denying Tolkein does a great job at world building however i can see why people struggle with this book and dont enjoy it.

Debating what to read next... might do the Feb read for the Christie challenge since I missed that.

Just finished Under the Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakaur I think this was recommended on here. Really interesting book I didn't know a lot about the history of Mormonism. I found it interesting how inadequate, narcissistic men are drawn to the fundamentalist arm of this religion. The idea of pluralist marriages and marrying their daughters off at 14 to old men as wife number 5 or 6 I found abhorrent. I think I learned quite a bit. I would definitely recommend this

Enjoyable World Book day for me - managed to sneak 30 minutes in the car outside swimming which I used to finish Wyrd Sisters by Terry Pratchett. This is the second Pratchett book I have read, with the first being Guards, Guards! and Lawks, how much I enjoyed it!

i listened to much of it and I loved the way the footnotes were done. I think that was so much more enjoyable than the way they are produced in the kindle itself.

anyway, I believe that this is the first witches book with Granny Weatherwax, Nanny Ogg and Magret, three witches of Lankre. I absolutely loved it - full of wit and humour, utter daftness and not without some touching moments. Utterly brilliant

Oh and I absolutely loved that review of the Strike books. I have read the first one cuckoos Calling and was underwhelmed. I think I might have reviewed it on here. I found strike unpleasant and I just didn’t care about the relationship between the main characters. I thought that the way people are described is unpleasant and often judgemental and sneering. I won’t read another.

I have read many Maggie Farrell books and enjoyed them very much. However, I do recall getting to the end of Hamnet and wondering what exactly I had just read. I enjoyed it in that I felt fulfilled when it was finished but I do think that the whole thing was, well, 🤷‍♀️

I have enjoyed almost everything I have read this year. I find it hard to get to the end of a book and not be a bit gushing about it. I so love reading the properly critical reviews on here (as in showing proper critique) and sometimes wonder if I am a bit shallow. I then think that maybe I just don’t read past a few pages if it doesn’t grab me so for me to stick with something I have then formed some sort of emotional attachment to it.

no idea at all what to go for next.

That’s a good plan!

The deals took ages to come through properly this month, not for the first time. As someone else has said, I found some of the offers through checking my wishlists, and I also looked through "recent price drops on ereaderiq.uk

One excellent book which I read years ago in paperback for those who like reading history books on dark subjects is 99p for Kindle though, this month (I think it's a monthly deal). If This is a Woman by Sarah Helm is about the women's concentration camp Ravensbruck. It's every bit as dark as anyone can imagine, but it is very well written.

I also bought a few other heavy duty non fiction books and some chicklit.

Finished a collection of Poirot short stories. Didn’t like it much. All narrated by that Captain Whatshisname. I don’t like him much!

I slowed down a bit because I’ve been reading a very long book!

16. Samuel Pepys: The Unequalled Self - Claire Tomalin

At the beginning of January the online Pepys diary started up again for its third full cycle - it’s been going since 2003 and posts an entry a day which you can receive as a daily email. People from all over the world join in with their own debates and annotations on the text, and it’s a great, endlessly fascinating thing to read. I wanted to refresh my memory about Pepys’s life and there’s no better way to do it than with this great biography of one of history’s most memorable and intensely human figures. I honestly feel I know him myself by now.

17. Peace, Perfect Peace - Josephine Kamm

A novel set in the immediate post-war period and ostensibly focussing on Clare, a single woman having an affair with a married man and hoping to write a novel. But the attention soon shifts to her older friend Joanna, who lives by the sea and has looked after her two grandchildren while her son and daughter-in-law Frances are busy with war-work. Kamm explores the toll war has taken on all of them, and especially the silent but fierce power-struggle between Joanna and Frances over one of the children, Giles - Joanna has schemed to try and keep him with her by making him emotionally dependent on her.
This is a qualified thumbs up, as it’s not totally successful in terms of plot, but I was drawn in by its appealingly direct style and unusually honest viewpoint for a book of its time. I’d really like to read more of Kamm’s adult novels (she wrote primarily for girls/young adults) if I can track any down.

Thank you Terpsichore for the online Pepys recommendation, off to find that. I loved the Unequalled Self but I did think it had a major bum note in that Tomalin suddenly seemed to say that sex wasn't enjoyable in the past as everybody smelled. Obviously I don't agree, I don't remember her backing it up, and I didn't think it had much to do with Pepys' emotions about sex.

this month my online book club are reading Wrong Place, Wrong Time by Gillian McAllister

Childish heh heh at the use of "bum note" in that context Perm.. I do rather fancy the daily Pepys email - might take a look.

Haha, I can’t remember it striking me that way, Permanent! I just recall her comment about everything and everyone having an odour , and families sharing the same odour - which sounds about right, really, as the standards of hygiene just weren’t the same as ours. The heartbreaking thing in the diary is his poor wife suffering horribly from what we’d now know as Bartholin's cysts, and not being able to get proper treatment for them ☹️

The online diary is a marvel and the annotations (lots of Americans, it’s been a big hit there although the project is UK based, set up by the heroic Phil Gyford). There’s more info here, and the link to sign up to the daily email is down at the bottom of the page: www.pepysdiary.com/about/

The Pepys biography is great. Really enjoyed it but DNF Tomalin’s Austen book a few years back. Might revisit.

I read that last year, and really enjoyed it. It's a very different format, going backwards from the crime, and it kept me on my toes looking out for the clues in reverse. A proper page turner. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

I read that Pepys biography years ago! I’ve forgotten most of it, but remember the part about him witnessing the execution of Charles I. I think it’s with my uni books somewhere in the loft (got lumped in with them as I did history) - might dig it out and read again!

Another two finished, 15. Percy Jackson and the Titan's Curse by Rick Riordan which was as fun as the other Percy Jacksons.

And Pachinko by Min Jin Lee. Can't remember who it was who recommended this one to me but thank you, I really enjoyed it, even if I got rather angry with Noa later on and very upset at many points.

I just discovered today that all the English books in my local library aren't on the shelves. I went to get a book that I saw online was in the library but couldn't find it on the shelves and they told me it was in their storeroom and got it for me. Who knows what other books they might have in their storeroom, waiting to be read by me??!

Checking in after being absent from thread.

Mexican Gothic was a big thumbs down for me. I read Gods Of Jade & Shadow from the same author from my book club, and thought it was okay, but not brilliant.

I do enjoy the Strike novels. An old friend introduced me to them and I do like the stories and the way they are written. I need to get back on track with them though as I think I need to reread the last few.

Currently reading The House With The Golden Door by Elodie Harper (The second book in the Wolf Den trilogy) and The Cerfew by TM Logan 🙂

@kateandme I'm reading The Cerfew right now and really enjoying it. I've brought 'The Holliday.' as well, as I want to give it another bash.

I've just brought a copy of his new book 'The Mother,' but haven't had chance to pick it up yet. Will definitely post on here when I've read it!

Finished 'Trust Me.' yesterday and thought it was excellent! ❤️

Excellent Women by Barbara Pym

Apparently the title phrase was first used by Jane Austen in Sanditon. Witty but with an undertow of sadness as well. Just perfect. Can't believe she went out of fashion in the 60 and 70s.

Trespasses is 99p on Kindle today. I think this has got really positive reviews from folk on here so was glad to pick it up.