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?

18. A Helping Hand by Celia Dale. Thank you for the recommendation on this thread, I thoroughly enjoyed this. I vaguely remember reading it years ago, but I think I got lots more out of it in middle age than I did in my 20s! I don't entirely agree with Jenn Ashworth's taken on the relationships as she sets out in the Foreword - Cynthia appears to be a rather more pitiable character than a scheming one imo. I might be projecting my own experiences of dementia onto her, however. Love the shoutiest, seemingly unsympathetic character offering the help Graziella needs. Finished it with a cup of tea at 3am this morning (bloody cough keeping me.awake) and had to suppress a tiny cheer when comeuppances were had at the end . Maisie Evans is an understated monster and I actually knew someone very like her when I was a child, who did of course stop short of actual murder. I could see the falseness behind her smile but couldn't work out why until I was older.

I do wonder sometimes whether casting directors have actually read the book. Agreed that the Rivals casting does not accord with my recollections at all!

21. The Skylark’s Secret - Fiona Valpy

Read this following Tarragon’s review of another book by the same author reminding me that I had previously enjoyed The Dressmaker’s Gift. Like all this author’s books it’s set in the Second World War and and has a more current storyline too. The war storyline is set near Loch Ewe in Scotland which became a major naval base and was where arctic convoys set off from to provision Russia. Flora is the main character and daughter of the gamekeeper/steward of the local big house. She and her brother, Ruaridh, grew up with Alec, the son of the big house and when war breaks out Alec is a naval officer based at Loch Ewe. Ruaridh becomes a signalman and Flora joins the Wrens. The other storyline runs in the 1970s and follows Lexie, Flora’s daughter, when she returns to her family home on Loch Ewe after Flora’s death. This was an engaging story which moved easily between the two timelines. Also interesting to learn about the arctic convoys which I knew nothing about. I will read more by this author as I like her easy reading style.

If my whole county is on borrowbox what do I do?surely a library in next cities would not let someone with my address get a card?

Plus my library you gave to physically go in to get card

A lot will. I'm in London, and I've had 3 or 4 actual library cards for about 25 years - I hadn't actually renewed one when it expired years ago, but I use two of the 6 neighbour library services a lot, including going there regularly - though now that dp is returning to real life meetings and sometimes his actual office much more regularly, I get him to sort out my books - his office is actually in the central library building of one of the neighbouring boroughs (I first joined when I worked there myself and have maintained my card for most of the last 25 years - there have been times like maternity leave when I didn't borrow anything for a while).

But if you're saner than me and that's way too much hassle, you can just use a card for online borrowing. You would need to go in to a library to get a real plastic card, but many libraries will give you a virtual card, or a membership number that will allow you online borrowing access to e-audiobooks and ebooks.

I spend hours "managing" my library book borrowing but it is cheaper than buying Kindle books, even at 99p. For real life library visits my own local library branch is about 7 minutes walk from home, and I currently go to two real life groups meeting there - one meets weekly and the other monthly - but for others I try to plan things so I can combine sorting library books with other necessary errands. Sometimes I don't get out much! I think that after Easter I will try to get involved in doing something that means I do have to get out more.

@BoldFearlessGirl A Helping Hand by Celia Dale sounds right up my street. I've not come across Dale before. Added to the Kindle Wishlist. Thanks

7 The Death of Grass - John Christopher
A rice-killing virus sweeps Asia leaving famine and disorder in it's wake. When a new strain of the virus emerges with the ability to kill all types of grass chaos and anarchy take over in the UK. Our protagonist (John) has insider knowledge through a friend in high places (Roger) and together they make a break for it, fleeing with their families to John's brother's impregnable fortress of a farm in Cumbria.

I'm not sure how it came to be that I've never read this one before. Published in the 1950s there are some lamentable attitudes expressed towards women and foreigners. Law and order break down very quickly indeed, and the tale of the progression North with John's increasing savagery is quite compelling. It ended rather abruptly, and I guessed how it would end up quite early on.

I'm not sure if this was originally intended to be a longer book; the first chapters dwell on inconsequential details (eg. John's wife Ann can't stand Roger, this is repeatedly made very clear as though it would have some important bearing on the story to come, but this theme disappears once they escape London).

26. The Oxford Brotherhood, Guillermo Martinez
This is an odd little number - crime fiction set in Oxford is ten a penny, but this is written by an Argentinian author and I'm not sure he creates an entirely convincing picture of the time and place. It was set in the 1990s, although the rather stilted translation makes it sound older. A young woman is lying injured in hospital bed so her mother leaves behind her orchard in Guildford and sits by her bed, clutching a lace handkerchief and crossing herself. I don't think this is a very typical example of Guildford womanhood in the 1990s, although I could be wrong. The plot revolves around a society dedicated to the work of Lewis Carroll, complete with speculation about the missing pages of his diary (I've read about this before and it's based on a real scenario) and his photos of undressed young girls. I can't really recommend it but it was interesting in a way.

27. Wahala, by Nikki May
A group of female friends is joined by a new member, and things start getting complicated. This is a mixture of chicklit and psychological thriller, but done with humour and genuine warmth, and what makes it distinctive is the fact that the friends are all happily bicultural, with Nigerian fathers and English mothers. I loved the entirely positive portrayal of having access to two cultures - characters aren't torn between them, they take pleasure in having both. Decent genre fiction with an enjoyable portrait of Nigerian London.

28. Culture, by Martin Puchner
Reminded me a bit of Sapiens, by Yuval Harari in its determination to cover a huge swathe of human history in a series of short chapters, although here the focus is on the moments when cultures come into contact with each other and how they borrow from each other. Some parts were familiar - Egypt/Greece/Rome, Cortes and the Aztecs, but a lot was new to me - India/China/Japan and Nigeria, for example. When cultural appropriation is so often frowned on, it was really refreshing to have this reminder of how cultures constantly learn from each other.

As a result of the Taming the TBR thread, I also ended up reading quite a bit section of The Diaries of Nella Last, who kept a diary from 1939 onwards as part of the Mass Observation project. I'm not giving it a number as I did skip a lot, but given that the editors were only including some of her lengthy output, I felt it was fine to read a sample. She writes a bit about world events and a lot about what meals she provided and, in the last few years, about her husband. She says pretty bluntly that she was more of a mother than a wife to him in his later years.

23. No Home for Killers by E. A. Aymar Amazon first reads freebie. Famous musician Markus Pena has been murdered. His estranged sisters Emily and Melinda hunt for his killer. Ridiculous nonsense. Emily is an actual psycopath and Melinda is a wet blanket. The amount of violence a tiny Hispanic woman is able to mete out to professional gangsters twice her size without getting a scratch on her is patently ridiculous. Mostly I'm frustrated I wasted 5 hours of my life reading this drivel

I bought the second in the Cyrus Haven series by Michael Robotham, called When she was good.
This is the story of Cyrus, a forensic psychologist, working with a brilliant but troubled young woman, Evie. Book one was more Cyrus's story while in this, Evie's character is more developed.
These are addictive. I said in a previous review that they are like The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo books - if you liked then you'll like these.

Oh OK.thankyou so much.i need to dedicate a chunk of time and get on this then.wpuld you recommend doing it to neighboring library libby services or would say libby in a London library ,likely have better choice?
Because our county foesnt have libby but borrowbox is shocking choice.

faith hogan the ladies midnight swimming club. reallyenjoying this. Love a good friendship book. Allthough sadness features it's also Cody somehow. And looking her up I think I've found a new author. Yay more tbrs added haha.

@Itsgottobeme
No library service has everything. London is broken up into 32 boroughs and that means that means that actually some of our library services are actually smaller than those outside London. Several London services are in one of two networks across the south east - but only one of those networks gives borrowers access to ebooks and audiobooks across the network. Try Hackney Libraries - my local borough service has joined the Consortium but the websites involved are still at an annoyingly glitchy stage. Hackney says you don't need to live there and "anyone" can join, and that seems to be true.

However, the Consortium has a lot of different ebooks on offer but often only one copy across a very wide number of active members, and queues can be long. Outside London, I'd recommend Kirklees and York for big selections of both audio and ebooks available via Libby/Overdrive and they don't seem to mind that I live 200+ miles away. I love ebooks when I listen to them but I also have the radio on in the day and evening and a bit of very late night TV. Last year I got through 4 or 5 audiobooks but I've only listened to a chapter of one this year, and I've got several that I expect are very good if I ever get to them!

47. Woman, Eating by Claire Kohda

A young artist makes her first strides toward independence in a postgraduate world. The trouble is, she's a vampire and she's never had to fend for herself.

I read this in one sitting and I thought it was really great. It's one of those short, contained, novels that doesn't really develop past its initial concept - there's an argument for keeping it that way as much as there is for taking it to new levels.

Definitely original. Definitely recommended.

this is such a great help thankyou. im noting down. and going to try this. i love my ebooks.and since our library was closed they becmae so essential for me.
what books and reading does for people is so underated.

Oh I never knew libraries could have both Libby and BorrowBox - just signed up to Libby and it’s got magazines / newspapers which means I can cancel my Readly subscription. First time this thread has saved me money not cost me.

My local library service has Borrowbox and Libby too.

They have ebooks / audiobooks on Borrowbox, and magazines / comic books on Libby.

Children of Paradise by Camilla Grudova. I loved this. My first Women’s Prize read and I can’t see anything beating it. Gross, eerie and exaggerated. I’m probably biased as I spent my late teens working in cinemas, studying film and dating a projectionist. All we did for a while is watch and talk about film. These days I watch hardly any I’ve not seen before and I’m nostalgic for that time.

Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell. A favourite when it came out I didn’t love this the second time around. I remember being in awe of the structure but this just felt like none of the stories were good enough to stand alone and there were a few too many grumpy old men for me. I still loved the escape from the old peoples home and have thought of that often since first read.

The Switch by Beth O’Leary. Cute story about a grandma and her granddaughter who swap lives. Very tame but I loved the octogenarian running round London navigating room mates, sex and dating apps. More of that please. The audio was narrated in part by the perfect Alison Steadman.

30 Joe Country - Mick Herron. The 6th Slough House/ Slow Horses book. This one had a more convoluted plot than the previous episodes in the series but was just as witty and full of character. I’m sure Mick Herron delights in writing the Roddy Ho sections, I certainly love reading them. I’ve been trying to eke these out so am going to hold off reading the next one until at least June.

31 Memphis Tara Stringfellow. Another Women’s Prize nominee, my 5th so far. This one tells the story of three generations of the women of the North family in Memphis. Parts of it are very upsetting but the support amongst the family and the sense of community with their neighbours keeps some hope alive. Issues of domestic and sexual violence and racism are explored. I thought this book was excellent- my favourite to read of the nominees so far, but I don’t think it will be shortlisted as it doesn’t really cover any new ground and the three main women’s personalities are very similar. Also the author has been quite cutting to people who have been critical of her story. That doesn’t impact my view on the book- to me they’re separate entities, but I think it will impact on the judge’s decision.
I only have 1 more of the nominees which is Demon Copperhead and I think I’m going to take a break before I read it.

Has anyone read Pod on the long list?
If so, any good?

Murder in Mesopotamia by Agatha Christie
Bought for light relief from the non-fiction Hitler thing I’m still hauling myself through.

The narrator is a rather unlikeable nurse and it’s horribly racist at times. Also two characters had names beginning with C and I kept getting them mixed up.

It was just okay.

@RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie
What non fiction Hitler thing? I understand the idea of needing light relief. I am trying to work my way through non fiction books that I've had TBR for 5/10 years - some of them are very good but I definitely need to break them up with fiction to make them feel less daunting.

Has anyone been following the Brandon Sanderson wired article on Twitter? I don’t know the author but it’s such a nastily written piece and Sanderson wrote a very measured reply that made me want to give his books a try:

https://www.wired.com/story/brandon-sanderson-is-your-god/?utm_source=twitter&utm_brand=wired&utm_medium=social&utm_social-type=owned&mbid=social_twitter

Women's Prize longlist

I read Wandering Souls by Cecile Pin, which I somehow managed to borrow as a library ebook just before the longlist announcement. I was interested in the description as I like stories about migration and people moving between countries, adjusting or not etc. When the longlist came up I placed reservations at other libraries so swapped my borrowing around a little bit to make sure I had time to read the book.

It's about a family who leave Vietnam in small boats after the Vietnam War and Communist victory in the 1970s hoping to join dad's brother's family in the USA. Anh, the main character, leaves with her two younger brothers - mum, dad and their other siblings are going to join them. Only Anh and her brothers make it to (relative) safety but the rest of the family don't. After months in a refugee camp they are offered the chance to come to London, where they share a 1 bedroom council flat. Anh is old enough to work while her brothers study, and it follows their lives over years to the present day.

There are also short narrative sections from a ghost child sibling who knows they are dead which some people could find irritating. I think you could skip these and just read about the living characters. I don't have a problem with ghost narrators though, and it is a novel in which everyone wonders what might have been had they/their parents made different decisions at various points.

I liked this novel though not as much as Demon Copperhead. But I had some niggles over details of the characters' lives which bug me - Cecile Pin lives in the UK now but she mostly grew up in the US and there are references to one of Anh's brothers, probably about my age, not getting the grades to get "financial aid" for higher education. If you were able to get a polytechnic or university place then, your local authority would give you a grant to cover the fees and assess your need for a maintenance grant - I think all LAs worked on the same system, so financial aid at undergraduate level wasn't grade dependent, it was just a question of whether you had a place to study somewhere.

@Gingerwarthog yes I just read it. I liked it more than I was expecting to, actually found it quite a page turner. It hasn't been my favourite of the ones I've read from the longlist, and there are a couple of story lines that are less successful but it's really original and made me think about the sea and environment.