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?

@StColumbofNavron good to hear ❤️

I loved Frenchman's Creek - daft brilliance

Oh @RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie the pressure 😂

Frenchman’s Creek is really good fun. I also enjoyed My Cousin Rachel and in other du Maurier news, the film of The Scapegoat, available on Netflix, is very entertaining. If you like a Poirot film, it’s that sort of vibe. Great for a wet afternoon’s viewing.

Finished two books today (the silver lining of being hit with Covid!)...

31. The Japanese Lover -Isabel Allende
    A rather lovely book, thoughtful and different. I hadn't read anything by Isabel Allende before but I definitely would like to read more of her books

32. The Secret Barrister -stories of the law and how it's broken.
    A brilliant book. Everyone should read it. Such an important book but also very well written and with a smattering of humour. An expose of the criminal justice system and it's failings. I'm a solicitor but in a different field, and and had heard chatter from friends and family of the mess of the criminal justice system and it's chronic underfunding but this was still eye opening.

24 - Rivals at the Chalet School

A new school, St Scholastika, opens up near the Chalet School, causing lots of capers.

Joey, as usual, ends up in a scrape, saves one of the 'Saints' who was ice skating where she shouldnt have been. Joey nearly dies and is only saved by The Robin singing that Russian peasant song that they all love, FIVE TIMES!

Also nonsense about apple pie beds, sewing stuff up, corn flour in hair.

Its also the first book that I have picked up that the pupils refer to Miss Wilson as Bill, but I cant see any reason for it.

Utter nonsense, but a lovely trip down memory lane for me and the easy fluff that I needed after the past two fairly harrowing reads. Onto Eustacia Goes to the Chalet School because I am a gluton for punishment!

Frenchman's Creek is huge fun. I think Rebecca and My Cousin Rachel are more accomplished novels but they don't have the same élan.

@Tarragon123 Rivals for me is peak Chalet School. All the tropes, blessedly free of Mary-fucking-Lou and not quite at the point of jumping the shark.

Oh - also thanks to everyone who has shared their appreciation of Wolf Hall with me. I see all of what you all describe in it, for sure. It isn't a "can't wait to hoover up more" read for me but it is very very good nonetheless.

@Tarragon123 I spent ages, inspired by the chalet school books, trying to work out how to make apple pie beds for my siblings

17 Hags by Victoria Smith. Much reviewed and discussed so I’ll just say I thought it was a valuable addition to modern feminist writing. My only tiny criticism is there was a bit too much Caitlin Moran and Mumsnet - some wider ‘fun feminist’ references and online sources of discussion would have been nice. But that’s a teeny criticism and I’ve a few people waiting to read the book so I’d best get lending it out.

18 The Satsuma Project by Bob Mortimer.
A few pages in and I nearly DNF’d it but I pressed on and was glad I did. Not keen on the wackier elements of Vic And Bob’s comedy and there’s a few scattered about, but the rest is a gentle murder (or is it?) mystery. Amusing, just enough tension to keep me reading and the supporting characters vary from menacing (police officers, baddies) annoying (TOMMY) to the good side of quirky (Grace).
Mortimer’s a decent writer when not being self-consciously “I’m mad, me!” and this delivered an undemanding read with enough twists and observations on human nature to keep me interested.

Just finished number 20, The Guest House by Robin Morgan-Bentley and it was all kinds of ridiculous. Ridiculous premise, then a twist that was even more ridiculous and also made some earlier parts not make sense. But the kind of book you just have to keep reading to see what happens in the end even as you get more and more annoyed by it.

14. The Germans Do It Better by John Kampfner

I added to this my wishlist ages ago after the landlord of my local brewpub posted it on Instagram. I decided in my head it was satirical. It's not.

It's a deep dive into German politics and culture and how they have re-invented themselves and moved forward after the war. It's part fascinating and a good follow up to all the fiction and non fiction I've read on the world wars, and part jumble of topics and history with really long chapters that don't hang together well.

I've said all this before, but I really must draw a line under Germany and read something else, and also get better at looking at reviews for a book before I download it. Even if it is only 99p...

22. Her Last Holiday by C. L. Taylor Almost definitely a Kindle 99p. Split timeline. We move between Jenna, a troubled young woman on a self-help retreat off the coast of Malta trying to work through some family issues whilst dealing with an unhealthy attraction to the retreat leader. In the second timeline, three years later, Jenna's much older sister Kate is trying to get to the bottom of what happened to Jenna, who never returned from the retreat. In the modern timeline we also hear from Kate, the wife of the retreat leader who is desperately trying to rehabilitate their lives after Tom's release from prison for the deaths of two other guests of the retreat. They all go on a new retreat, along with three survivors from the Malta retreat and some new characters.

The bulk of this book was good (as far as 99p thrillers go) but the ending was just ridiculous. Too unbelievable and way too neat. Frustrating

I have that book kicking around on my Kindle somewhere, @RazorstormUnicorn . I have never got beyond the first couple of pages, but perhaps it is worth another go.

22. The Light of Day - Graham Swift

This was Swift's follow-up to the Booker Prize-winning Last Orders. All the narrative takes place over the course of a single day, although it skips back over the lifetime of its protagonist and narrator, private investigator George Webb. We learn - very gradually and in a series of revelations - that George is about to visit an ex-client, that she’s in prison, and that he’s in love with her. I won’t reveal any more about the (quite simple) plot in case anyone wants to read it, but I have to say that I started out feeling quite enthusiastic about this book, loved the writing and the imagery, but felt it went on just a bit too long with diminishing returns - and it’s not a very long book to start with. My first Graham Swift, and a bit underwhelmed by it tbh.

Hi, I have started the 50 books challenge a bit later.
My books list will mostly be autobiographies. I have only read 2 this year.

1. This is Me- Mrs Hinch
2. Animal- Sara Pascoe.

I am going to buy Strong Female Character by Fern Brady in a few weeks.

@CM283648 someone is lending me the Fern Brady soon, looking forward to it.

@PepeLePew – ha ha! So true!

@SweetSakura – yes! I was obsessed by apple pie beds and how to make them. I still cant work them out.

25 - Eustacia goes to The Chalet School - Elinor M Brent-Dyer

Another CS book, another repeat of mischief. The girls end up in a snow storm and have to stay in a manky hut on the mountain for what feels like a week. The Robin is so distressed at Joey being on the mountain, she ends up ill and missing school for a couple of years. Eustacia runs away, being the cause of the mountain malarky and ends up stuck in a crevice. Poor Eustacia ends up in the San on her back for months to unravel her spine.

Checking in. Was doing really well but have hit a slump due to work/job application busyness.

Still reading The two towers by JRR Tolkein. Hoping to find my mojo this weekend.

24. House of Glass by Hadley Freeman I really enjoyed this account of Hadley Freeman's history of her family and their journey from poverty in rural Poland, in the early 1900s, to Paris and America. It was, in turns both sad, and fascinating, seeing the changes in fortune of the various family members. Very much my kind of book.

23 Panda-monium: How Not To Run A Record Label - Simon Williams

In common with Ted Kessler’s Paper Cuts, this is a book for a niche audience: people who read and/or worked at NME in the 90s/00s and spent all their time at gigs in the back of Camden pubs. Fortunately I’m bang in that demographic so found this a touching tale that brought back some fun memories, tempered by the honest account of Williams’ mental health struggles.

My eyes are still playing up, but at least it gave me the chance to listen to another library audiobook:

26. Hag-Seed - Margaret Atwood
I expect I’m a bit behind people on reading this, but it’s part of a series engaging with Shakespeare to create a contemporary story. This one is based on ‘The Tempest’. An ousted theatre festival director plots his revenge against those responsible when chance brings them to watch a production of ‘The Tempest’ he’s putting on with a group of prisoners. You can tell Atwood was enjoying herself when she wrote it, and it was a very enjoyable listen. I suppose the prisoners’ voices aren’t desperately realistic, although I like the way they are only allowed to use curses from the play they’re working on. And despite its title, Caliban is a peripheral character in the book, but these are small issues.

Please avoid if you would be triggered by death in childbirth, or the death (from infectious disease) of a young child.

46. Wild by Cheryl Strayed

This autobiography was made more famous by being made into a Reese Witherspoon film which I haven't seen so I am taking it on its own merits. It was 99p at some point.

Cheryl's life spirals out of control after the premature death of her mother. After endless acts of self sabotage she challenges herself to hike the Pacific Coast Trail solo hoping to "find herself" in the process.

This wouldn't normally be my sort of thing but I found that I empathised strongly with Cheryl, I also somewhat envied her the physical freedom to do what she did. I thought it was well written particularly for its genre and have no qualms recommending it.

Just re-read the review I posted yesterday and realise I labelled both the sister and wife as Kate. The sister is called Fran

Just snapped up Maggie Shipstead's Great Circle which is in today's kindle deals and then received a message to say that I own audible narration for this book. So I thought whoops, do I already have it on audible? Quick check before I returned the kindle version and I don't have it on audible at all. Very confused. Can any kindle/audible users enlighten me?