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.

The YouTuber I watch, Jack Edwards gave it a rave review recently kate

21 Don’t Let’s Go To The Dogs Tonight by Alexandra Fuller. This is Fuller’s incredibly honest account of growing up in a dysfunctional family in 1970/80s Africa.

The Fullers are white settlers that lived in Rhodesia, Malawi and Zambia during the turbulent times of civil war and political / social unrest. Their lives are chaotic, they mostly live in poverty and you frequently feel that the children will come to harm either due to their surroundings or lax parenting.

Fuller doesn’t sugarcoat her experience and lets the reader draw their own conclusions about her deeply flawed parents. Despite their racism and down right dangerous parenting, you can’t help feeling compassion as the family suffer frequent tragedies. The only part I struggled with is the non linear timeline and I wasn’t always sure which year it was or how old Fuller was. There’s a follow up book that I’ll be seeking out.

No.12. The land where lemons grow - Helena Atlee
Helena Atlee shares her passion for Italy and citrus, two things very dear to my heart. Highly informative, this seems to have taken me forever to read as I preferred to ingest it like Limoncello, in small intense sips.

Recommended for fans of travel writing who also have an interest in the history, folklore and culinary idiosyncrasies surrounding citrus fruit... sprinkled with some juicy Mafia anecdotes.

Juicy Mafia anecdotes
I see what you did there 😂

40. Stay With Me by Ayobami Adebayo

I was actually planning an early night tonight, but I did that thing of reading the first few pages of several books looking for my next and got hooked. Then I told myself I'd go to bed at the midway point and that didn't happen either.

Yejide and Akin have been married for several years without children. They come under intense pressure from their extended family to produce a baby and particularly a son. Yejide's mental health begins to crack and Akin is willing to pay any price to fix it. But the price he pays will only bring them yet more grief.

This was absolutely gripping from the start, I had to finish it, it was so well written. If I could have slapped Akin multiple times through the screen I would have. I do think the book understates what an absolute piece of shit he is.

I cried at the end and it's been a very long time since I cried at a book.

A standout.

@EineReiseDurchDieZeit I think I was the one who recommended this 🙂 I'm really glad you enjoyed it!

Your review has actually made me want to read it again, so thank you for that ❤️

I couldn't remember who it was that discussed it so thank you @ICrunchCrispsNotNumbers a great recommendation

@EineReiseDurchDieZeit you're very welcome 🙂

I also bought Stay With Me on your recommendation @ICrunchCrispsNotNumbers and am now even more excited to read it!

12. Trespasses by Louise Kennedy

I don't have a lot to add to the reviews above. I did enjoy it, it's well written and kept me turning the pages. But I agree that the sub plots were better then the central idea.

I was annoyed at the lack of speech marks, second book this year that hasn't used them, this must be a thing now.

It's made me realise I know so little of the Troubles, and I want to understand better.
Anyone got any recommendations for my tbr list to get me started on this?

For the first time, I’m getting really into the whole idea of reading the Women’s Prize nominees - partly inspired by here and partly by Simon and Louise Savidge on booktube who have really interesting channels (they’re mother and son).
I have no intention of reading them all (and am no expert on literary fiction or reviewing) but I have a handful and may grab a couple of others if they come up on offer in the next while. In the last few days I’ve read two shorties.

27 I’m a Fan by Sheena Patel.
This short book took me a while to get through as the narrator is an unpleasant individual caught up in a toxic relationship with an older, more powerful man. She begins to stalk him, his wife and another woman he is involved with on social media. It delves into issues of race, power, wealth and celebrity. I almost DNFed at 50% because it is repetitive at times and it’s an unpleasant mind to be inside (it’s written in first person) but I read on and I’m glad I did as, despite my antipathy I’m still thinking about it- questioning my understanding of the book and my own life. An interesting read.

28 Children of the Paradise
In contrast, I read this one in a day and loved it. Atmospheric and darkly funny at times, it tells the story of Holly (also in first person) who takes up a new job in the Paradise cinema, an ageing building with a variety of quirky characters on the staff. It’s strange and horrific and we question Holly’s interpretation of events throughout. The Paradise itself is almost a character in its own right. I would never have read this without the nomination, but I’m so glad I did!

@RazorstormUnicorn I have a few non-fiction books about the troubles on my TBR.

Say Nothing by Patrick Radden Keefe
Making Sense of the Troubles by David McKittrick
The Good Friday Agreement by Siobhan Fenton

Yes, this was so good

Thanks @TattiePants Say Nothing is free for me with Prime so I will start with that. I added the other two to my wish list just in case I end up doing a deep dive into the subject.

I am going in, a propos of nothing, to Wolf Hall. I have tried soooo many times, and promised myself I would read it this year. Arguably, the fact I've never got beyond page 100 is a sign I shouldn't bother again, but something feels different this time round. I think I felt the need for an intelligent, interesting novel I can get absorbed in. I will report back; I am very sure the problem at all points in the past has been me, not Mantel. We shall see.

Razorstorm, Say Nothing is excellent - it focuses on a particular aspect of the Troubles but pulls a much broader narrative together very well. Radden Keefe is an excellent writer. I also really liked Milkman though I know it wasn't everyone's cup of tea. And I keep meaning to go back to read the Kevin and Sadie series by Joan Lingard, which were written during the Troubles and were - from what I remember - a really good story about what it was like to grow up in Northern Ireland. And from a social history perspective, I'd have to say Derry Girls. Not a book, but so so good. I learned a lot, even as a I laughed.

Eine, I think you'll enjoy the premise of I Am Bellingcat. I think we have similar tastes in non fiction.

MamaNewt, Just Kids is one of my favourite books. And the Viv Albertine books are also very good. I would love any recommendations for other music memoirs, particularly by women. I didn't love Girl In A Band as much as I hoped, given my deep fondness for Sonic Youth.

May the Lord in His mercy be kind to Belfast is old now but still worth reading

Sorry, got cut off half way through. It's a series of interviews with a whole range of Belfast residents in the early 1990s.

@TattiePants Don't Let's go to the Dogs Tonight is one of my favourite memoirs. Her potrayal of both her own and families attitudes is unflinching. I cant put my finger on why I found it so compelling. It does raise a lot of questions about memoirs & perspectives and how they are used.

She has written a some others. To me they aren't as good, but they do offer a perspective on how her writing has impacted on her family relationships, particularly the most recent one. Rainbows End by Lauren St John is another memoir that covers the same period in Zimbabwe from an adolescent/child's perspective.

@Owlbookend I'll add Rainbow's End to my list thanks. The one thing that Fuller never explained, they were a poor family and at times lived in extreme poverty so how did they fund the (I assume expensive) boarding schools? Is that mentioned in later books?

@RazorstormUnicorn I never use a Kindle so had no idea there was a free Kindle app and I could read loads of titles for free via Prime. Just downloaded the app and added Say Nothing and Jews Don't Count.

On Northern Ireland, I also loved the Kevin and Sadie books. Although Milkman was quite challenging to read due to style, in the end I liked it very much.

I've grown up with quite strong Republican and nationalist sympathies but I've really liked the Lucy Caldwell books I've read very much - her first novel years ago, which I think is about a girl growing up at around the same time Derry Girls is set - the last few years before the Good Friday Agreement. Last year's These Days is set during WWII and this is a reading obsession for me, but it's good to read some books set in different places. As a city of shipyards and docks, Belfast was heavily bombed. The characters are mostly Protestant, but the mother of the family of four at the centre of the story actually comes from a Catholic background. And Intimacies, her second short story collection, is about women in Northern Ireland and Northern Irish women in London now, and includes stories about abortion and (wanted) childbirth as well as other aspects of relationships. I still have two novels and her first story collection TBR.

I also recommend two anthologies edited by Sinead Gleeson - one is of short stories by women in Northern Ireland and in the Republic as well as the diaspora, and one is short stories by Northern Irish women. They include old and new stories of women from various different backgrounds - and they explore differences of class, of urban and rural women etc as well as the various religious and political backgrounds - in all their complexity. These have made me want to read more by a number of writers included - off the top of my head, Jan Carson - I have her (second?) novel The Raptures TBR (it's been on offer a few times), and I read another book by her which is presented as a short story collection, but all the stories are linked - about a group of people living on a camp site.

You're welcome @Razors ❤️ it's a incredible book. I'm so glad that others on here love it as much as I do 😀

@BaruFisher Have you watched Jen Campbell's vlog where she reads the Women's Prize longlist? It's over an hour long, so I've been putting it off, but her reviews are generally thorough and well thought through.

Leena Norms is also going to be reading and reviewing the longlist, which should also be worth a watch when available.

I stopped watching Simon Savidge a few years ago because he seemed to be acquiring books at an alarming rate and never reading or reviewing them properly. Never watched his mother's channel, though, so don't know if she's any better.

Thanks @RainyReadingDay I’ll have a look for Jen Campbell and Leena Norms. I’ve only just started down the Booktube path so it’s good to get some recommendations.

I know what you mean about Simon - he spends a bit too much time showing his train journeys, rearranging his shelves and filming the cats for my liking (though a recent video made me decide I must go to Lucca on holiday sometime!). His mother is much better, sits in front of some shelves and talks about books in depth.

@BaruFisher if you've never been to Lucca then it's well worth a visit. I have some family living there and it's a gorgeous place and really well situated to explore the rest of Tuscany.

@ICrunchCrispsNotNumbers

Two books on Northern Ireland that I would recommend are:

A Place Apart Dervla Murphy
Ireland - a History Robert Kee this one accompanied a BBC series back in the 70s/80s

I would recommend all Dervla Murphy's books - she was incredible

@ICrunchCrispsNotNumbers sorry that post should have been for @RazorstormUnicorn