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?

@PermanentTemporary - I read What Does Jeremy Think? last year and bolded it. Don’t recall anyone else on the thread reading it but may have missed it. I found it fascinating but I am a former politics student so a bit nerdy about the inner workings of government. If you’re not that interested in politics then I think it might be a bit tedious?

@MegBusset I'm not well enough to get up to london at the minute but will look it up for when I am better!

@cassandre oh I didn't even think that just ordering from amazon.fr was an option!

And thank you to highlandcoo too

Although now I will have to think of a new reason to tell DH we have to go to France

Thanks @RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie !

I realise I actually said something totally wrong in my review, I said Medusa was raped in Poseidon's temple, whereas actually she was raped by Poseidon in Athena's temple. Big oops there!

I think I've kind of gone off the novelistic retellings of classical myths as well. I just don't think anyone has done it with as much imagination as Madeline Miller. The rest are kind of wanna bes.

Cixous' Medusa article is so brilliant. Not that I necessarily agree with everything she says, but I love her ending: You only have to look at the Medusa straight on to see her. And she's not deadly. She's beautiful and she's laughing.

Such a great idea to imply that what makes Medusa monstrous is male fear and fantasy, not Medusa herself. Haynes touches on the idea that monstrosity is in the eye of the beholder, but her Medusa is ultimately very much a victim of male violence, not Cixous' laughing Medusa.

@SweetSakura I hope I haven't opened up a nest of vipers for you by mentioning amazon.fr 😁

49. A Terrible Kindness by Jo Browning Wroe

A junior undertaker develops PTSD after assisting in the aftermath of the Aberfan disaster whilst carrying some burdens of his own.

What a real, good, proper novel this is. I cried twice at the start and once at the end. I know others have felt the same.

I seem to be on quite a role having liked my last three novels.

Nein by Paddy Ashdown
Comprehensive and meticulous examination of resistance to Hitler, which was largely really interesting. Obviously very depressing in places, and I found some of the spy stuff a bit dull.

@EineReiseDurchDieZeit totally agree re A Terrible Kindness. It's the best fiction I have read so far this year. I found it very emotional without being mawkish.

On a roll, obviously, fucking iPhones

@MamaNewtNewt

Yes, it's so well handled so that Aberfan whilst it plays an important role, doesn't sacrifice or stop you caring about the characters or the rest of the plot

I keep saying I'm all Greeked out, but still borrow them like a sucker. I'm on my fifth already this year with another 2 on hold. This is especially bad as I only read 6 in total all of last year.

Ithaca - Claire North
Pandora - Susan Stokes-Chapman
Athena's Child - Hannah Lynn
Queens of Themiscyra - Hannah Lynn

All fairly meh and they all run into one after a while. I really need to be stronger and "just say no".

Currently on The Shadow of Perseus - Claire Heywood. I wouldn't rush.

I agree on Madeline Miller capturing something at the time. Any books I now read set in Troy take place on the beach Madeline Miller made for me.

I have opinions on Natalie Haynes' repeated nominations, but none of them are kind

14 I’m A Fan - Sheena Patel
Well, I’m not.

200 plotless pages inside the ranting and unhinged mind of a 30 year old who’s under the misguided impression that her (self-initiated, self-inflicted) relationship with an unavailable, privileged but emotionally illiterate white man is some sort of profound metaphor for colonialism.

15 Exercised - Daniel Lieberman
Fascinating exploration by an evolutionary anthropologist of why exercise doesn’t come naturally to us, but how our bodies are ‘designed’ to work optimally when we are physically active. For most of our human past as hunter gatherers, we needed to run, dig and carry to get enough food to live, but otherwise saved energy whenever we could in an environment of calorific uncertainty. The urge to sit on our arses has unfortunately clung on, and that’s why it’s so difficult to do ‘unnecessary’ exercise.

Also learned that I have the same vital statistics as a typical Neanderthal woman. I think humans are meant to be taller and thinner - never mind 🤷🏻‍♀️

Daphne I've also just finished I'm A Fan and would agree. Started this ages ago as an e-book, but found it hard work, so waited for the audiobook instead.

It's trying to be a commentary on modern society, the Insta Influencer scene, race and colonialism. It's a very thin veiled polemic that doesn't have the plot to carry it. The lack of names also gets tedious as she instead uses "the man I want to be with" and "the woman I am obsessed with" in what feels like every other sentence.

If you haven't already bought it, I really wouldn't bother with this one. If you have, it's mercifully short.

That's really interesting @LadybirdDaphne. I enjoy sport when I'm doing it but it's still difficult to make myself start. I didn't realise I was fighting my Neanderthal brain!

Fallen off the thread again, and apologies for the bad form in posting my list halfway through. Had a very difficult few weeks looking after a family member who has been very ill, so not much reading done. Looking forward to catching up.

1. After Henry – Joan Didion
2. Year of Wonder – Clemency Burton-Hill
3. Motherwell – Deborah Orr

4. Just Kids – Patti Smith 5. Best of Friends – Kamila Shamsie 6. Macbeth – William Shakespeare 7. Wyrd Sisters – Terry Pratchett 8. War Gardens – Lalage Snow 9. Soul Music – Terry Pratchett 10. Daisy Jones and the Six – Taylor Jenkins Reid 11. The Eyre Affair – Jasper Fforde

12. How to Train Your Dragon 11: How to Betray a Dragon’s Hero by Cressida Connolly

Read to the children, but I do thoroughly enjoy this series. It's all a bit dark in books 11 and 12 though! Hiccup the hero spends almost all his time in mortal danger. My favourite part is that I get to do a Welsh accent when reading Camicazi, as David Tennant does in the audiobooks.

13. Trespasses by Louise Kennedy

Thought this was great, as everyone else seems to have done. It held my attention whilst I had a lot of family stuff going on, which is impressive. I thought Cushla was a great character; I liked her spirit and her exchanges with Michael. I thought Michael himself was very well done, as was Gina. I'm still not quite sure how I feel about the end (and I don't think I really liked the epilogue). But the writing was wonderful; so evocative it was almost tactile.

Now reading Real Tigers by Mick Herron to give myself a bit of a boost.

31. The Last Remains, Elly Griffiths
A reasonably satisfying end to the series - hits all the usual notes, admittedly in a somewhat perfunctory way: skeleton discovered, police interview suspects, a bit of woo-woo, main characters trapped by baddie, rescue, revelations, tug-of-love etc. I think it was the right time to end things and feel a little nostalgic for past adventures.

Sorry you've been having a tough time, Welsh.

Hi Welshwabbit, good to hear from you and I hope you can take time to rest and recover (and read!)

I just finished Trespasses as well. I liked it. I thought the characters* *were credible and I liked Cushla and her independent spirit. The writing was very good. It was a difficult read, very gritty. I thought it gave a good insight into the complexities of the two communities living side by side during those dark times. (I'm not from the North, but I'm old enough to remember news reports). I liked the epilogue. It gave closure. Times had changed and people had made a life for themselves.

Finished number 21, part 2 of Väinö Linna's Under The North Star: The Uprising covering the uprising (obviously) of the tenant farmers and workers against the landlords and bosses and the civil war that followed, and finished with so much death. I cried so much as character after character died, mostly by summary execution. The sheer horror of the aftermath of the war, even the women were executed (and when I looked it up afterwards I found out even children were executed).
I'm going to have to take a break and read something very light-hearted next before I tackle the final part and the inevitable heartbreaking deaths.

Needing some lightness so I'm on a chiclit session with Cathy Lake

18 A Spoonful of Murder - Robin Stevens Another Wells and Wong Murder mystery, this time set in Hazel’s family home in Hong Kong, a very different setting from their usual 1930s British boarding school. This was just as good as the previous books in the series, plus it had lots of historical and local colour - I don’t know much about Hong Kong but it seemed well-researched. I love these books and don’t care that I’m about 30 years older than the target readership! Now I’ve got to wait until both DDs have finished the next in the series before I can get my hands on it…

I have just finished Partition Voices probably years after everyone else. I did enjoy it it was quite an easy read but not an easy subject. I would like to learn more about this subject.
Half way through Feminism for Women by Julie Bindel again interesting reading. I can't seem to settle down to read fiction at the moment unless it's rereading books I have read before.

I struggled through to around a third of I'm A Fan and decided it just wasn't worth the effort. I DNF'd it.

Tbh not much is calling to me from this year's Women's Prize longlist. I will try Trespasses but think that's probably it. I like Barbara Kingsolver, but don't* fancy Demon Copperhead and I am undecided about the Maggie O'Farrell. I might read it at some point. *

Another DNF for I'm a Fan.

Having finished the Nazis and having had a tough couple of work days, I’m very much in need of something ‘nice’ again.

@TimeforaGandT – oooh that’s a new Fiona Valpy one for me! I’ll defo add that to the list.

@Passmethecrisps – Hear No Evil sounds excellent! Shortlisted for the Bloody Scotland Debut Award 2022 and also the HWA Debut Crown 2022. And a 99p special on Kindle at the moment, hurrah!

@Tarahumara – thank you! I’ve got Lincoln in the Bardo on Audio, but had no idea what bardo was either!

I have been battering through the Chalet School books. I definitely had The Chalet School and the Lintons, I remember parts of that and also The Chalet School and Jo. That’s the one where she passes out because of the Oberammergau. The Chalet Girls in Camp was pointless. I’m currently reading Jo Returns to the Chalet School and then I will return to grown up reading. I think I'll be reading Celtic Cross by Sara Sheridan. Its the latest in her Mirabelle Evans series, which I completely missed when it was released last year.

Inspired by the DNF thread, I have culled my Kindle. Anything unread before 2014 has gone. A few others that I'm not going to read have also gone. I think I have about 40 unread books on my kindle.

#24 Rivals at the Chalet School - Elinor M Brent-Dyer
#25 Eustacia goes to The Chalet - Elinor M Brent-Dyer
#26 The Chalet School and Jo - Elinor M Brent-Dyer
#27 The Chalet Girls in Camp - Elinor M Brent-Dyer
#28 Exploits of the Chalet Girls - Elinor M Brent-Dyer
#29 The Chalet School and the Lintons - Elinor M Brent-Dyer
#30 The New House at the Chalet School - Elinor M Brent-Dyer

Hope all the poorly people are really better.