50 Books Challenge 2023 Part Four

[Southeastdweller]

Welcome to the fourth 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, the second one here and the third one here.

What are you reading?

Hi southeast - thanks for the new thread.

Getting my list out before going to bed.

1.	Peace Is Every Step by Thich Nhat Hanh
2.	The Talented Mr Ripley by Patricia Highsmith
3.	Good Pop, Bad Pop by Jarvis Cocker
4.	Rosemary’s Baby by Ira Levin
5.	<strong>Nightcrawling</strong> by Leila Mottley
6.	Under Country by Jonathan Trigell
7.	The Crow Road by Iain Banks
8.	<strong>Take My Hand</strong> by Dolen Perkins-Valdez
9.	<strong>Build Your House Around My Body</strong> by Violet Kupersmith
10.	Spare by Prince Harry, Duke Of Sussex
11.	<strong>Pachinko</strong> by Min Jin Lee
12.	Furious Love by Nancy Schoenburger and Sam Kashner
13.	<strong>Our Wives Under The Sea</strong> by Julia Armfield
14.	Maggie Cassidy by Jack Kerouac 
15.	To Paradise by Hanya Yanigahara 
16.	Friends, Lovers And The Big Terrible Thing by Matthew Perry
17.	Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons
18.	Our Missing Hearts by Celeste Ng
19.	My Life In Orange by Tim Guest
20.	You Made A Fool Of Death With Your Beauty by Akwaeke Emezi
21.	When The Dust Settles by Lucy Easthope
22.	French Braid by Anne Tyler
23.	The Paper Palace by Miranda Cowley-Heller
24.	Babel by R.F. Kuang
25.	Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
26.	The Lonely Londoners by Samuel Selvon
27.	War Doctor by David Nott
28.	A Net For Small Fishes by Lucy Jago
29.	<strong>Hazards Of Time Travel</strong>* by Joyce Carol Oates
30.	Tin Man by Sarah Winman
31.	Human Croquet by Kate Atkinson
32.	Wool by Hugh Howey
33.	Shift by Hugh Howey
34.	Dust by Hugh Howey
35.	Under The Dome by Stephen King
36.	The Snakehead by Patrick Radden Keefe
37.	My Body by Emily Ratajkowski
38.	Greenwood by Michael Christie
39.	Trespasses by Louise Kennedy
40.	<strong>Stay With Me</strong> by Ayobami Adebayo
41.	Women Talking by Miriam Toews

* I gave Hazards Of Time Travel a "good" review, but it haunted me a bit afterwards because when thinking about it I thought there might actually be a dark twist in the ending that I didn't first think of, so that elevated it for me.

Both of my Mr B's A Net For Small Fishes and Greenwood are solid 4 star but did not make bold.

Checking in. Thanks for the new thread @Southeastdweller!

Reading 'The Water Dancer.' By Ta- Nehisi Coates for my book club ❤️

CrunchCrisps

Looking forward to your review. It was an Oprah pick and I've had it ages.

@EineReiseDurchDieZeit watch this space 🙂

Just finished the outstanding but emotionally draining Giovanni’s Room. I’ll bring my list across and review in the morning.

@TattiePants that was David Morrissey's pick on 'Between The Covers.' I remember that he really rated it 👍

Adding my list

1 The Furies - John Connolly
2 What is Remembered - Alice Munro
3 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
4 A Crown of Swords - Robert Jordan
5 Elements of Style - Strunk and White
6 Exiles - Jane Harper
7 Sorrow and Bliss - Meg Mason
8 The Field of Blood - Denise Mina
9 The Mist - Ragnar Jonasson
10 The Iliad - Homer
11 An American Marriage - Tayari Jones
12 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
13 Unfettered - anthology
14 Olive Kitteridge - Elizabeth Strout
15 Breakfast at Tiffany’s - Truman Capote
16 House of Ashes - Stuart Neville
17 Desire - Haruki Murikami
18 The Odyssey - Homer
19 Widowland - C J Carey
20 Desert Star - Michael Connelly
21 A Streetcar Named Desire - Tennessee Williams
22 Empire of the Vampire - Jay Kristoff
23 Slouching towards Bethlehem- Joan Didion
24 North and South - Elizabeth Gaskell
25 Trespasses - Louise Kennedy
26 Mrs Dalloway - Virginia Woolf
27 I’m a Fan - Sheena Patel
28 Children of Paradise - Camilla Grudova

DNFs - A Deadly Influence - Mike Omer
and The Girls - Lisa Jewell (mainly because of the horrendous narrator on audio)

Thanks Southeast. We're still speeding along aren't we!

Not bothering with my list but here's number 7. Trespasses, by Louise Kennedy. Oh, oh, oh. Just finished this today and I am bereft. Beautifully spare prose, quietly menacing, and endlessly quotable. Half my family is from NI and this struck a number of chords. She writes incredibly well on what NI was like in the 70s and is equally as good on living with an alcoholic. I could tell that one of the characters was going to bring a great deal of trouble, but as Eine said, I didn't expect the last third of the book to go the way it went. I gave an audible gasp at one point. I know it's early but I think this may be my book of the year.

Thanks for the new thread @Southeastdweller!

1. Unmasking Autism: the power of embracing our hidden neurodiversity - Devon Price
2. Lolly Willowes - Sylvia Townsend Warner
3. Act of Oblivion - Robert Harris
4. Asperger’s and Girls - Tony Attwood et al
5. And Finally - Henry Marsh
6. Ask A Historian - Greg Jenner
7. Riddley Walker - Russell Hoban
8. An Immense World - Ed Yong
9. Head First: a psychiatrist’s stories of mind and body - Alastair Santhouse

10. A Million Years in a Day - Greg Jenner 11. The Dangerous Kingdom of Love - Neil Blackmore (Might be a bold but too early in the year to call) 12. Side Hustle - Chris Guillebeau

Now reading Fairy Tale, my first Stephen King, and Feminism for Women by Julie Bindel, which I don’t necessarily disagree with on the whole, but is mostly fixated on how all other feminists are Doing It Wrong - the negativity might yet make it a DNF.

Thanks for the new thread southeast. Not doing a list but will be back later with a couple of reviews.

Thank you for the new thread @Southeastdweller ! Here’s my list:

1 Exit - Belinda Bauer
2 Watching Neighbours twice a day… - Josh Widdicombe
3 The Bastard of Istanbul - Elif Shafak
4 The Plant Hunter - T L Mogford
5 House of Glass: The Story and Secrets of a Twentieth-Century Jewish Family - Hadley Freeman
6 The End of Mr Y - Scarlett Thomas
7 The Suspicions of Mr Whicher - Kate Summerscale
8 Apples Never Fall - Liane Moriarty
9 Great Circle - Maggie Shipstead
10 Angelmaker - Nick Harkaway
11 Hiding from the light - Barbara Erskine
12 A Curious Beginning - Deanna Raybourn
13 Snap - Belinda Bauer
14 Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow - Gabrielle Zevin

Thanks @Southeastdweller - a new thread already!

Here's my list:

1. The Christmas Bookshop – Jenny Colgan
2. Les Cahiers d’Esther : Histoires de mes 10 ans – Riad Sattouf
3. The Pants of Perspective – Anna McNuff
4. L’Assommoir – Emile Zola
5. Beautiful world, where are you? – Sally Rooney
6. This book could save your life – Graham Lawton
7. Lessons in Chemistry – Bonnie Garmus
8. The Foundling – Stacey Halls
9. The Paper Palace – Miranda Cowley Heller
10. Les Cahiers d’Esther : Histoires de mes 11 ans – Riad Sattouf
11. How to be famous – Caitlin Moran
12. The land where lemons grow – Helena Atlee
13. Just Kids – Patti Smith

Currently reading Trespasses by Louise Kennedy, The Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens and Sheltering Rain by Jojo Moyes.

Thanks @Southeastdweller

No list from me. No update either as I’m reading a relatively heavy non-fiction book and may be some time. It doesn’t help that the only reading time I’ve got is before bed, and I keep falling asleep. Not the fault of the book, which is really interesting.

New thread! Thanks southeast.

Can't remember who was talking about Lucy Caldwell recently but one of her books is in the kindle daily deals today. I read All the beggars riding a while back and would recommend.

Thank you southeast. Bringing across my list:

1. Old Filth - Jane Garam
2. Sad Cypress - Agatha Christie

3. Three Hours - Rosamund Lupton

1. Light Perpetual - Francis Spufford

5. Trespasses - Louise Kennedy

1. Crossfire - Felix Francis
2. Long Story Short - Jodi Taylor
3. A Storm of Swords - George RR Martin
4. Partners in Crime - Agatha Christie

10. Back Trouble - Clare Chambers 11. The Man in the Queue - Josephine Tey 12. Joe Country - Mick Herron 13. To Live - Yu Hua 14. Gamble - Felix Francis 15. The Lamplighters - Emma Stonex 16. The Moving Finger - Agatha Christie 17. Stone Blind - Natalie Haynes 18. Faro’s Daughter - Georgette Heyer

My list so far ..

1.One for the Blackbird, One for the Crow, Olivia Hawker

1. Passing, Nella Larsen
2. Take My Hand, Dolen Perkins-Valdez
3. Abide With Me, Elizabdth Strout
4. So Sweet A Changeling, Ruth Adam
5. Im Not Complaining, Ruth Adam
6. The Four Winds, Kristin Hannah
7. Human Kind, Rutger Bregman
8. Talk Bones, Anna Bailey

10. Watching Neighbours Twice a Day, Josh Widdicombe 11. The Game, Micah Richards 12 Devotion, Hannah Kent

I'm not doing too well ith either quantity or quality. There are no bolds yet and only a few I've really enjoyed. Will post a review of Devotion later (spoiler - I didn't like it). I think I need to be a bit more thoughtful in my choices. I've * ordered a second hand copy of Stay With Me so hoping I enjoy that as much as everyone else. *

Thanks for the new thread @Southeastdweller
@TattiePants @ICrunchCrispsNotNumbers Douglas Stuart also chose Giovanni's Room on a podcast I listened to last year about books that shaped your life. I've only read Go Tell It To The Mountain but think I may prefer Giovanni's Room.

My list so far:

1. Glory - NoViolet Bulawayo 4/5
2. The Sentence - Louise Erdrich 5/5
3. The Paris Apartment - Lucy Foley 3/5
4. Crossroads - Jonathan Franzen 4/5
5. Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow Gabrielle Zevin 5/5
6. The Whalebone Theatre - Joanne Quinn 4/5
7. Transcendent Kingdom - Yaa Gyasi 4/5
8. Mrs Palfrey at The Claremont - Elizabeth Taylor 4/5
9. Americanah - Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche 5/5

10. State of Terror - Louise Penny & Hilary Clinton 3/5 11. Cat Brushing - Jane Campbell 5/5 12. The Colony - Audrey Magee 5/5 13. Cloud Cuckoo Land - Anthony Doerr 3/5 14. The Book Of Form And Emptiness - Ruth Ozeki 4/5 15. Cleopatra and Frankenstein - Coco Mellors 3/5 16. Love Marriage - Monica Ali 3.5/5 17. I'm Sorry You Feel That Way - Rebecca Wait 4/5 18. Trespasses -Louise Kennedy 4/5

Haven't reviewed Trespasses yet but it has been much reviewed here. I thought it was very good, also have NI family and remember Belfast in the 80s well. The pub and characters as well as the child's family and her relationship with her mother were all done brilliantly. For me, I think it just misses being a bold as it didn't feel quite as original and immediate as something like Milkman where I could literally hear my Gran and aunts voices telling the story.

I'm nearly done on my third Woman's List book I'm A Fan. So far it's another original voice but think will be quite marmite. The characters have no names (a bit like Milkman) but instead are labelled "the man I want to be with" and "the woman I'm obsessed by". Short chapters make it feel very stream of consciousness.

Thank you. Am only on about book 7.

Thanks SouthEast, here's my current list:

1. Jamaica Inn by Daphne du Maurier

1. The Quantum Curators and the Faberge Egg by Eva St John
2. Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton
3. Breakfast at Tiffany’s by Truman Capote

5. A Terrible Kindness by Jo Browning Wroe 6. Good Pop, Bad Pop by Jarvis Cocker

1. In a Good Light by Clare Chambers

8. Ballad For Sophie by Filipe Mello and Juan Cavia

1. The Quantum Curator and the Enemy Within by Eva St John

10. The Whalebone Theatre by Joanna Quinn 11. The Quantum Curators and the Missing Codex by Eva St John 12. The Trouble With Lichen by John Wyndham 13. Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin 14. The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka 15. Last Night by Mhairi McFarlane 16. The Quantum Curators and the Shattered Timeline by Eva St John 17. The Quantum Curators and the Great Deceiver by Eva St John 18. Fingersmith by Sarah Waters 19. Who’s That Girl? by Mhairi McFarlane 20. You Had Me At Hello by Mhairi McFarlane 21. Notes On An Execution by Danya Kukafka 22. Killers of the Flower Moon: Oil, Money, Murder and the Birth of the FBI by David Grann 23. The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O. By Neal Stephenson and Nicole Galland 24. Mad About You by Mhairi McFarlane 25. 29 Seconds by TM Logan 26. Don’t You Forget About Me by Mhairi McFarlane 27. Sleepyhead by Mark Bellingham 28. Snowbound by Blake Crouch

Hello. Checking in. No one needs my list - maybe on the next thread! When I will probably still be reading Wolf Hall. Although on page 76 I think that is further than I have ever got before. Helps that all my other books are under plastic sheeting as the room they are in is being painted!

Thanks for the new thread @Southeastdweller

I have fallen behind with the thread, but have been powering through my reading. I read about 30 books last year and I have just finished book 21. Very pleased with my progress. My list:

1. The Beautiful Visit - Elizabeth Jane Howard
2. Rizzio - Denise Mina
3. The School at the Chalet School - Elinor M Brent-Dyer
4. Murder Before Evensong - The Rev Richard Coles
5. Jo of the Chalet School - EMB-D
6. Hex - Jenni Fagan
7. The Princess at the Chalet School - EMB-D
8. The Phoenix - Cynthia Harrod-Eagles
9. The Head Girl of the Chalet School - EMB-D
10. I’ll Think It, You Say It – Curtis Sittenfeld
11. Need You Dead – Peter James
12. Dead Horses – Mick Heron
13. In Dark Water – Lynne McEwan
14. Kindred – Olivia E Butler
15. Dead Man Deep – Lynne McEwan
16. The Whalebone Theatre – Joanna Quinn
17. This Must Be The Place – Maggie O’Farrell
18. The Girl At The Window – Rowan Coleman
19. The Storyteller of Casablanca – Fiona Valpy
20. Some Tame Gazelle – Barbara Pym
21. A Heartful of Headstones – Ian Rankin

I havent seen anyone else reading Fiona Valpy and I would absolutely recomment. The Storyteller of Casablanca is set in both in the present day and in the 1940s. Its similar to a previous book of FVs, set in Paris in the two timeframes and she wrote it after it was suggested to her by a reader. I didnt know about the Jewish refugees in Casablanca trying to escape the Nazis. What I liked about this book was the coming together of the women, both in the past and in the present. Defo 5 stars for me.

Currently reading Hadley Freeman House of Glass.

1 The Snow Child, Eowyn Ivey
2 What Could Possibly Go Wrong, Jodi Taylor
3 Lamentation, CJ Sansom
4 City of Girls, Elizabeth Gilbert
5 Tombland, CJ Sansom
6 House of Glass, Hadley Freeman
7 Sorrow & Bliss, Meg Mason
8 A Terrible Kindness, Jo Browning Wroe
9 10 Minutes, 30 Seconds in This Strange World, Elif Shafak
10 The Garden of Evening Mists, Tan Twan Eng
11 Lies, Damned Lies and History, Jodi Taylor
12 Love in a Cold Climate, Nancy Mitford
13 Carrie's War, Nina Bawden
14 Things Fall Apart, Chinus Achebe
15 Human Croquet, Kate Atkinson
16 The Railway Man, Eric Lomax
17 Testament of Youth, Vera Brittain
18 Stay Where You Are And Then Leave, John Boyne
19 Queenie, Candice Carty-Williams
20 Pompeii, Robert Harris
21 Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight, Alexandra Fuller
22 Beartown, Fredrik Backman
23 Giovanni's Room, James Baldwin

Currently reading Say Nothing by Patricken Radden Keefe and listening to Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders.

1. The Last Chairlift by John Irving
2. The Whalebone Theatre by Joanna Quinn
3. Alex Rider: Secret Weapon by Anthony Horowitz
4. Once Upon A Crime by Robin Stevens
5. Leave The World Behind by Rumaan Alam
6. Scream by Nigel McCrery
7. The Bullet That Missed by Richard Osman
8. The Prophet by Khalil Gibran
9. The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan
10. The Island Of Sea Women by Lisa See
11. Fall From Grace by Tim Weaver
12. Picture You Dead by Peter James
13. Before The Coffee Gets Cold by Tochikazu Kawaguchi
14. The Sea of Monsters by Rick Riordan
15. The Titan's Curse by Rick Riordan
16. Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
17. The Battle of the Labyrinth by Rick Riordan

Still reading book 1 of Under The North Star but I expect I'll finish it tonight. I had forgotten about the tailor Halme getting into weird spiritualism and woo, so weird when he's talking about socialism and then suddenly starts talking about astral beings (which the rest of the village views as his talk of a higher socialism)

My list:

1. The Secret of Chimneys, Agatha Christie
2. Moon Tiger, Penelope Lively
3. Stories For Christmas And The Festive Season, Various
4. Jane and Prudence, Barbara Pym
5. Momenticon, Andrew Caldecott
6. Galatea, Madeline Miller
7. Murder in Mesopotamia, Agatha Christie
8. My Son the Fanatic, Hanif Kureishi
9. Frenchman’s Creek, Daphne Du Maurier

10. Magpie Murders, Anthony Horowitz 11. Time to Think, Hannah Barnes

A good sprinkling of bolds, but I could do with reading the internet less and reading books more! I'm currently listening to Pandora's Jar by Natalie Haynes on Audible and reading What Not by Rose Macauley. I'm enjoying both and hope to have them finished shortly.