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?

So many of us have read I'm A Fan these last couple of weeks that iy may as well have been our Book Club pick.

Hope things are on a more even keel now, @Welshwabbit

23: Journeys to Impossible Places - Simon Reeve

A look behind the scenes at some of his TV travels from the likeable Reeve, who strikes me as a decent bloke. I read his first book a few years ago and was full of admiration for the way he overcame his very challenged start in life and teenage depression. He’s also very honest here about personal issues in adulthood including his infertility. There’s maybe a point where you'd slightly like him to stop being so damn nice but that’s a very minor quibble…

28 Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders

I’m going to be lazy and just agree with everything @Tarahumara wrote! I loved this but I did need to space it out and read (listen) to it in small chunks over a few weeks. As I said on my review of The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida, I should have spaced these two books out as the ‘Bardo’ and the ‘In Between’ are the same concept which did get confusing. I think it was @EineReiseDurchDieZeit who recommended the audiobook as I’d previously tried, and failed, to read the book. The cast was excellent and I did start off listening and reading along at the same time until I got into the flow.

”the beach Madeleine Miller made for me” - love that. I don’t think I’ve as wholeheartedly loved anything as much since I read Circe and immediately after it The Song of Achilles, though suspect it was a combination of right book(s) for the right time, and a newly rediscovered interest in the Greek myths was born in me.

I really liked Pandora’s Jar by Haynes when I listened to it last year, and have listened to quite a few of the Stand Up for the Classics podcasts since then which have been enjoyable. But just started A Thousand Ships and really not loving it so far. I’m listening on audible narrated by Haynes herself which I don’t think is helping somehow. There’s something about either the writing itself, or her narration, or the combination that is making me cringe very hard and I’m unsure whether to power through or not.

Alias I thought A Thousand Ships was an absolute mess and nothing Pat Barker hadn't already done better.

I like NH on her podcast, but some of her lit fest appearances come across as really chaotic. Pandora's Jar and Stone Blind are both much better. I don't know if it's down to a different editor or something else.

My only regret in all of the Greek frenzy is that I wish I'd read Pat Barker before Madeline Miller. I read them both around the same time and I think the Barker is better than I gave it credit for at the time because the Miller was so vividly written in comparison.

I'll keep reading more of them as they appear, but I think it's completely played out now as a concept, especially the "feminist" retelling.

To be perfectly honest I just don't think Haynes writes very well 😕

Yes I agree it’s probably played out now Fortuna - I will probably still read them though too! Just returned A Thousand Ships on audible and used the credit to get The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker which I haven’t read yet. But then yes, I might give the myths a rest for a while.

Last night finished 13. A Net for Small Fishes - Lucy Jago
I heard about this on this thread, I think @EineReiseDurchDieZeit had received it from her Mr B’s subscription.
According to the Guardian Review - “This gloriously immersive reimagining of a scandalous Jacobean murder trial traces a dangerous friendship between two women.”
I liked, but didn’t love, this. I thought it was a bit uneven and the narrative voice didn’t always ring true for me, it felt a bit like imposing modern sensibilities onto characters from the past.

my first update in a while I can see you've all been getting on well.

I don't really have a list worked out

so far this year I've read
the strike books 1 - 6 by Robert Gilbraith (which I hadn't read before)
The Cuckoo's Calling
The Silkworm
Career of Evil
Lethal White
Troubled Blood
The Ink Black Heart

I think the series is excellent, Troubled Blood is probably the strongest stand alone.

the name of the wind
the wise man's fear (which I had both read many times before)

I have commented on these previously so I'll keep it brief but yes they're as good as a remember and I'm pleased I read them again.

the mistborn trilogy by Brandon Sanderson (which I hadn't read before)
The Final Empire
The Well of Ascension
The Hero of Ages
then books 1 & 2 of the second mistborn trilogy
Alloy of Law
Bands of Mourning (currently reading)
then Shadows of Self

I find Brandon Sanderson hard to read when you're fending off constant interruptions and reading for just a few minutes at a time, now the kids are a bit older I had another go and genuinely enjoyed these, given that we already have many of the books in the house I'm sure they'll be more Sanderson in the books to come.

But short term after I finish book 6 (and possibly 7) I have 6 Enola Holmes books waiting for me that look like fun.

I was aiming for 13 books by the end of March so I think I'm on track

Interestingly I've never got on with Madeleine Miller, because my ancient Greek myth retelling beach was definitively built by Mary Renault in my twenties (as well as her more directly historical novels of course)

24. Twilight by Stephanie Meyer

Last read these books when I was a young adult myself and had no real desire to ever really return to them. But my nieces have recently started reading them so I thought I'd give them a quick re-read so I can talk to them about them. Even worse than I remembered, the dialogue is painful to read and Bella is really just a sullen, sulky teen rather than the amazingly unique and interesting old soul she thinks she is. Will keep reading though

Twilight! I remember taking DD and friends to a bookstore at 3am to join the queue for a Stephanie Meyer book signing.

I tried to reread twilight a few years ago and found it unreadable

I confess to having read both the Twilight series and the 50 Shades which of course famously began as open Twilight plagerism

Both absolute shite but at the time I felt utterly compelled to complete, something drug like about both.

My Dds have been reading Twilight too. 13 year old read the series last year and was pretty bored by the end of it. Then they watched the movies together in the summer and now 11 year old has just finished the first and is begging me for the second one. I'm not tempted to join in after the reviews on here!

I never read Twilight or watched the films. Thankfully dd has shown no interest either.

I visited the library in the other town (my town is two towns joined together) today. They have a nice system where you can get in even when its unstaffed by scanning your library card at the door so open more hours than the library in my town. Nice to have a different selection of English books and got a small pile out. Now I can have a lighthearted read for a break from misery!

Don't know if there are any other fans on here, but my absolute favourite Scandinavian crime writer, Asa Larsson, has a new Rebecka Martinsson novel out in translation on Kindle tomorrow. I have just pre-ordered and am very excited - a niche heads up, if anyone else might be interested.

@howdoesatoastermaketoast I'm quite jealous of you reading all the Strike books for the first time. I love that series. I listen to them on Audible and I actually listened to Troubled Blood twice, even though I could remember who did it, as an easy listen when I was having a tough time.

I've fallen off the thread too, my apologies.

I've been listening to some Bill Bryson as comfort reads, really rough time at the moment so mot much reading going on, but I did manage Hags- The Demonisation of Middle Aged Women by Victoria Smith. It reads pretty much as a feminist history with the focus on post-menopausal women and how they are perceived and ultimately silenced. Lots of references to Mumsnet, and how women getting together to talk are ridiculed and trivialised ("It's all about baby food and school catchment areas") but also seen as threatening so there are attempts to silence them (By saying MN is a transphobic hotbed of witches). As a 52 year old, recently divorced, menopausal woman, with three daughters in their 20s, one of which is a lesbian, it resonated a lot.

50. Exciting Times by Naoise Dolan

A young Irish woman goes to work as a TEFL teacher in Hong Kong and crosses paths with an Old Etonian and a young female lawyer. Relationship politics ensue.

This was a short and fairly light novel, but felt completely insubstantial and inconsequential. Like, OK, That's it? So what?

I don't think I've mentioned on the thread before that I come from an Irish background, and this book really confirmed for me that a new genre has opened up in Irish Literature and it is :

"Toxic Young Irish Woman Who Can't Articulate Her Feelings Makes Poor Sexual Decisions"

We seem to be inundated.

And we live in this world now where Abortion Rights and Same Sex Marriage have happened in Ireland and children outside of marriage are rising in number

And it seems to me that a lot of these tales think they are being modern about embracing female sexuality but in fact seem to serve more as modern morality plays or cautionary tales.

Not necessarily this one, which has a "nice" ending but in general, and unfortunately the nice ending here just adds to the books overall "instantly forgettable" feel.

And that's 50. I do need to give more time in the evening to other things from here but I will be slowing down not stopping.

Wow @EineReiseDurchDieZeit 50 books in 3 months is very impressive. Do you usually read that many? I’m aiming for 30 by the end of the month which is a significant increase for me.

@OldCrone22 hags sounds like an interesting read. I do like to mix a bit of quality non fiction in with my reading

So it used to be that the most I could expect to read in a year was 100

Then Covid happened and I was CEV and couldn't leave the house so my first year on the thread 2020 I did 200

It went down to 120 in 2021

Then in 2022 I was seriously ill and only managed 80

I have no idea why I have got to 50 so fast this year, I suspect there's quite a few with low page numbers

Forgot to reply to you @AliasGrape but yes A Net For Small Fishes was good but not great

Just had a re-read of Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day to cleanse myself from Hitler. For anybody who hasn’t read it, it’s just the most perfect, moving, clever, gorgeous froth of a book. I can’t think of anything to better it if you’re feeling a bit down - like drinking Champagne on a rainbow.

Totally agree re Miss Pettigrew, I read it the first time last year and absolutely loved it. Like drinking champagne on a rainbow is a perfect description!

24: Death Among the Sunbathers - E. R. Punshon

Classic green Penguin of a whodunnit first published in 1934. Punshon wrote over 30 books, most featuring his detective, Bobby Owen, who starts out as a constable then rises gradually through the ranks. He does feature in this book, but in slightly unusual guise, as he and his fellow policemen investigate the mysterious death of journalist Jo Frankland, whose speeding car crashes and bursts into flames….but tests prove that Miss Frankland was already dead.

Suspicion falls on Leadane Grange, an establishment set up for the purpose of 'sunbathing' - which, the reader gradually realises, means naked sunbathing - by its sandal and shorts-wearing proprietor, Esmy Bryan. It’s moderately engaging as a period piece and has some amusing turns of phrase but I get the impression that this wasn’t Punshon's best whodunnit. I’ve got a few more of his so I might go back for another at some point.