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.

@grannycake. That's okay. 😀

Small Things Like These - Claire Keegan

Much reviewed on here already. Brief, tender. I cried.

Am reading Wintering as a friend recommended it but feel I should have taken notice of a review I read on here (might have been Welshwabbit). Poncetastic.

15 The Ghost Woods by CJ Cooke

I tried really hard to like this and bits of it were very well done. The spookiness quotient was high in places.However, her crashing anachronisms (“BBQ….chonk…..fuck this” amongst others) grated, but not as much as the Afterword where she ties herself in knots trying to avoid saying the word “lesbian”. Lesbians dear, lesbians…..you are writing about lesbians, see, it’s not difficult to type. 🙄
As I said previously, it’s not the best novel featuring Cordyceps. It’s not even the 20th best novel featuring Cordyceps and numbers 2-20 probably haven’t even been written yet.
Cover elegant and swirly, contents sub-Purcell and tedious. Did an actual LOL at one of the final plot twists.

13 Just kids – Patti Smith
I’m going to start by admitting I didn’t LOVE this the way many of you seem to but I’m thankful that you shared your love for it because otherwise I would never have picked this up – and I’m glad I did!
I listened to this gritty and touching autobiography on audible and it’s read by Patti herself. It’s a coming-of-age story set in 1960s and 1970s New York and these guys really suffered for their art. Constantly struggling to make ends meet but never compromising on what they felt to be the most important things.
Smith writes a very honest and heartfelt memoir. I believe there are more instalments, is that right?

Children of Paradise is currently 99p on kindle.

bought, thank you!

I viewed their lack of money as relative to the other white families who were, more established, but they still retained a privileged position within the larger society - particularly before majority rule. Alcoholism, her mothers mental health issues and the war I think were the stronger influences on her and Vanessa's experiences.
I assumed that the schools she attended -at least in the earlier stages - were highly subsidised? but I dont know for sure. I guess they were considered a priority if they didn't feel they were credible alternatives. The other books expand on the parents' later life and their family background but don't give much more detail on their financial situation.

Actually, I'm not fully remembering. This happens to me a lot these days. It does in fact hint they had family money originally. Overview of most recent book 👇www.google.com/amp/s/www.timeslive.co.za/amp/sunday-times/books/news/2019-10-13-nothing-breaks-like-a-heart/

I'm looking for a psychological really disturbing book right now.ive tried to escape via chic lit.but nope. So I'm going total opposite and want something horrific( god I sound awful!) But not gore horror.more mental horror?

Have you read anything by the late Mo Hayder @kateandme ?

Or The Last House On Needless Street, by Catriona Ward?

21 Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams

I’d heard this described as a black Bridget Jones which put me off and I probably wouldn’t have read it if I hadn’t stumbled across it on BBC Sounds. I then quickly switched to the full audiobook (my first!) and I’m really glad I did.

Queenie Jenkins is a British Jamaican women living in London who’s trying to balance both cultures and not always succeeding. Early in the book her relationship falls apart and this starts her on a path of self destruction. She joins the modern dating scene which made me so glad that I’m old but makes me very worried for my DD. As her life spirals out of control, she makes more and more questionable decisions and the book goes to some really dark places dealing with abuse, racism and mental health. Bridget Jones it is not (thankfully)! The only, slight, downside is the ending felt a bit rushed.

I think this is a new kindle sale lots of good books listed, including thread favourites Never Let Me Go and The Remains of the Day #TeamIshiguru😊

Ooh thanks @MamaNewtNewt I've only logged in and already seen something from my Wishlist

Circling the Sun- Paula McLain

I think she's a really solidly good writer but this lagged for me in the middle. It's also less about Beryl's record-breaking flight than her on/off relationship with a giant dickhead called Denys. Really interesting subject matter and setting though.

book 16 - A Corruption of Blood - Ambrose Parry

another Raven and Fisher book set in Victorian Edinburgh. In this book Raven happens upon a baby dragged from the water who appears to have been strangled before being wrapped in parcel paper and tossed in. Raven and Fisher become embroiled in a scandal of baby farming and family secrets.

I wish I could write very eloquent reviews as this deserves one. It was BRILLIANT. A proper, old fashioned page turner which had me gasping and chuckling out loud at my own eagerness to uncover the mystery. I have mostly listened to this on my commute and arrived home with 7 minutes left - I have rarely been so tempted to go for a wee burl round town

I have had so many wonderful book reviews - both on here and from elsewhere that I now have no idea where to go. I was recommended hear no evil which I believe is another based in Victorian Edinburgh and is based on real events. I also have Children of Paradise and women Talking as well as The Lost Girls. Any opinions?

41. Women Talking by Miriam Toews

Got for 99p.

This is a short but very difficult book with very challenging subject matter about a group of Mennonite women trying to decide what to do in the wake of a series of horrific sex attacks within their community. Not for the faint hearted.

I also felt, quite strongly that a story about a group of subjugated, previously submissive women empowering themselves and finding their voices, should not have been told through the lens of a male narrator and one of the teenage girls should have had that reflective, observer role. August Epps doesn't add anything and he does not need to be there.

It's dark @Passmethecrisps I wouldn't be in a rush. I was uncomfortable with the content at times.

If anyone else wants to read 'stay with me' it's now £3.49 on kindle: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Stay-Me-Ayobami-Adebayo-ebook/dp/B01LDANWZK/ref=mpssa112?crid=3QY5SQIN0ELWT&keywords=stay+with+me&qid=1678832517&sprefix=stay+with+me%2Caps%2C96&sr=8-2

That’s really good to know @EineReiseDurchDieZeit, thank you. I probably don’t need that before heading into work. I will park that for now

Paging @Southeastdweller

I have just discovered that I have caught up on the Ambrose Parry books and there isn’t another one until June. Gutted!

Thanks @EineReiseDurchDieZeit! Life's been really busy but I've been reading and will review my latest reads in the next thread.

www.mumsnet.com/talk/what_were_reading/4763573-50-books-challenge-2023-part-four