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?

Thanks for the new thread @Southeastdweller

Here's my list and a few short reviews.

1. The Ink Black Heart - Robert Galbraith

2. Lessons in Chemistry - Bonnie Garmus

1. Fieldwork - Bella Bathurst
2. Exit - Belinda Bauer (Audio)

5. Hell Bent - Leigh Bardugo

1. The Stranger Times - C. K. McDonnell (Audio)
2. The Whistler - John Grisham (DNF)

8. The Eight - Katherine Neville

1. This Charming Man - CK McDonnell (Audio)

10. Kolymsky Heights - Lionel Davidson 11. The Last Remains - Elly Griffiths (Audio) 12. Nine Tailors - Dorothy L Sayers 13. The Broken Afternoon - Simon Mason (Audio) 14. Death in 10 Minutes: The Forgotten Life of Radical Suffragette Kitty Marion - Dr Fern Riddell 15. The Electricity of Every Living Thing: A Woman’s Walk in the Wild to Find Her Way Home - Katherine May 16. The Fifth Risk - Michael Lewis 17. The Crocodile Hunter - Gerald Seymour (Audio) 18. The Reading List - Sara Nisha Adams 19. Death Comes to Marlow - Robert Thorogood 20. Strong Female Character - Fern Brady 21. Percy Jackson and the Lightening Thief - Rich Riorden 22. A Meditation on Murder - Robert Thorogood 23. The Wilderness Cure - Mo Wilde

The Electricity of Every Living Thing: A Woman’s Walk in the Wild to Find Her Way Home - Katherine May
If you like walking tales and are autism curious you might enjoy this. I did find the author more annoying than when I read Wintering (and loved it). I think some of the more brutal reviews on here peeled off my rose tinted specs!

The Fifth Risk - Michael Lewis
I found the huge machinery of the US government fascinating. The ability of a President to break it through willful neglect terrifying. Some of the individuals describer working within the Government are absolute unsung heroes, especially the story of Art Allen who developed a system to predict the drifting of different types of sea craft and so enabled far more effective search and rescue efforts saving countless lives. Would love to read something similar about the UK Government - am sure there are some unrecognized heroes there too. Is there a UK equivalent, does anyone know?

The Crocodile Hunter - Gerald Seymour (Audio)
A gentle paced thriller.

The Reading List - Sara Nisha Adams
A big warm bookish hug.

Death Comes to Marlow - Robert Thorogood
Fine - a good airplane read if you know what I mean.

Strong Female Character - Fern Brady
Brutally honest book from the Scottish comedian, Fern Brady, about living with autism, when neither you nor anyone else seems to have a clue that you have it. If I could give this 10 stars I would. Disclaimer - I’m wondering if I’m somewhere on the spectrum so possibly resonates more with me than it might do others.

Percy Jackson and the Lightening Thief - Rich Riorden
Loved this. Wish these books had been around when I was a kid.

A Meditation on Murder - Robert Thorogood
Fine - another good airplane read.

The Wilderness Cure - Mo Wilde
Loved this too. Mo, an experienced forager and herbalist, challenges herself to live on wild foraged food for a year. Very much my thing. Lots of talk about the reciprocity and intelligence of nature. No recipes as such but some hints on how to preserve certain herbs and plants. Will definitely have a go at the gorse syrup once we have some warmer sunshine. Refreshing to read something of this ilk set in Scotland's central belt.

Currently listening to Love will Tear us Apart - C K McDonnell and reading The Nine Hundred - Helen Dune Macadam, Anna Karenina and probably another Percy Jackson to lighten things up!

Thanks for the new thread, southeast

I'm making rather slow progress reading-wise, for some reason, but still going…my list so far:

1. The Secret Diary of Charles Dickens, Aged 13 3/4 - Lee Jackson
2. Boy in a China Shop: Life, Clay and Everything - Keith Brymer Jones
3. On Turpentine Lane - Elinor Lipman
4. Célestine: Voices from a French Village - Gillian Tindall
5. Desert Star - Michael Connelly
6. Madly, Deeply - The Alan Rickman Diaries
7. So Sweet a Changeling - Ruth Adam
8. Threads of Life - Clare Hunter
9. Someone at a Distance - Dorothy Whipple

10. The Pocket: A Hidden History of Women's Lives, 1660-1900 - Barbara Burman & Ariane Fennetaux 11. Blaming - Elizabeth Taylor 12. Contested Will - James Shapiro 13. May Day - F. Scott Fitzgerald 14. Killing Dragons: The Conquest of the Alps - Fergus Fleming 15. Other People's Worlds - William Trevor 16. Samuel Pepys: The Unequalled Self - Claire Tomalin * *17. Peace, Perfect Peace - Josephine Kamm 18. Corvus: A Life With Birds - Esther Woolfson 19. One Day I Shall Astonish the World - Nina Stibbe

Also reading The Old Curiosity Shop, and will be starting The Fortnight in September for the Rather Dated Bookclub.

(No idea what’s happening to the spacing on here - lists are absolutely impossible to do properly since the site revamp and it won’t let me just copy and paste my nicely-numbered list from my notes as it used to do 🤬)

Thank you for the new thread! Just posting to get myself on it. I haven't posted any reviews for ages; I am reading, but somehow don't feel in the headspace to do reviews at the mo. Will get back to it at some point soon!

My list hasn't progressed, I've been reading The Mirror and the Light for a very long time. I'm on the vinegar strokes now (Henry has just met Anne of Cleves) so poor old Cromwell doesn't have long to enjoy his hat collection.* *

I mentioned Lucy Caldwell as a Northern Irish writer at the end of the last thread. These Days, her most recent novel,* *has been on offer at 99p a few times including just after publication last year, though it's not set during the Troubles but during WWII, when Belfast was subjected to heavy air raids because of its shipyards and docks. The main characters are two sisters, aged about 19 and 21, I think, and their mother (probably still only in her late 30s or early 40s!!) from a middle class Protestant family (though the mother was brought up Catholic.

A few days ago I added Lucy Worsley's newish biography of Agatha Christie to my huge Kindle TBR for 99p - it's still available at that price for anyone who doesn't mind Lucy Worsley's distinctive style (I have a real soft spot for it but I can't really argue with anyone who finds it irritating). This was a Radio 4 Book of the week so I've heard a taster (as this is normally 5 episodes of just under 15 minutes each it's obviously very abridged) and added it to my huge Amazon wishlist - I use this to stalk Kindle bargains and to remind me what to look for/place reservations on at the library.

Haven't posted in ages as still slogging my way through the terrible Fay Weldon trilogy. Haven't even read any for about 6 days as I just can't be bothered to find out what happens

But here's my list

1. What You Did - Claire McGowan
2. Me - Elton John
3. She Lies in Wait - Gytha Lodge
4. Watching From the Dark - Gytha Lodge
5. Lie Beside Me - Gytha Lodge
6. Little Sister - Gytha Lodge
7. Broken Summer - J. M. Lee
8. Secrets of the Sea House - Elisabeth Gifford
9. The Mysterious Affair at Styles - Agatha Christie
10. Gallows Court - Martin Edwards
11. Finding Freedom: Harry and Meghan and the Making of a Modern Royal Family - Omid Scoble & Carolyn Durand
12. Stealing the Crown - T. P. Fielden
13. City Dark - Roger A. Canaff
14. An Eye for an Eye - Carol Wyer
15. The Housewarming - S. E. Lynes
16. Return to Fourwinds - Elisabeth Gifford
17. The Duchess - Amanda Foreman
18. The Importance of Being Kennedy - Laurie Graham
19. Habits of the House - Fay Weldon

Devotion, Hannah Kent
This starts off as historical fiction focusing on a persecuted Christian denomination in 1830s Prussia. Hanne doesn't fit in well with the other teenage girls in their village, but develops a strong friendship with Thea a newcomer. As her feelings for Thea develop, the whole community decides to emigrate to Australia in search of religious freedom. The voyage is as hideous as you would imagine.
Up to this point, i was mildly enjoying it, but then there is a sudden, unexpected twist that takes things in a whole different direction. After that, I lost interest and it was struggle to finish. The section when they are building the settlement in Australia seemed jumbled and rather directionless. I didnt really know what we supposed to make of it all. There is a sex scene towards the end that rivals the absurdity of sex on a horse (newcomers - see previous thread for an interesting Jane Eyre spin off), but that didn't add much. The cover is nice. To me Burial Rites by the same author is much, much better.

I quite liked Devotion but it does require some suspension of disbelief. Burial Rites and The Good People were excellent (I do think Burial Rites, the first of her three novels, is the best).

Yes - I think you have to be willing to go with it. I'm just not the right audience for the direction it went in. I agree Burial Rites is excellent.

Thanks for the new thread, Southeast.

My list so far, this year:-

1. Why Did You Stay? - Rebecca Humphries
2. It Ends At Midnight - Harriet Tyce
3. The Skeleton Key - Erin Kelly
4. Sad Cypress - Agatha Christie
5. Troubled Blood - Robert Galbraith
6. Until It's Over - Nicci French
7. The Stubborn Light of Things - Melissa Harrison
8. Days Like These - Brian Bilston
9. Snowblind - Ragnar Jónasson

10. One of The Girls - Lucy Clarke 11. These Precious Days - Ann Patchett 12. I Found You - Lisa Jewell 13. The Tidal Zone - Sarah Moss 14. Mrs Harris Goes To Paris - Paul Gallico 15. Shrines of Gaiety - Kate Atkinson 16. A Lady's Guide To Fortune-Hunting - Sophie Irwin 17. Northern Lights - Philip Pullman 18. The Subtle Knife - Philip Pullman 19. The Marlow Murder Club - Robert Thorogood 20. The Whalebone Theatre - Joanna Quinn 21. Snow- John Banville 22. Unsettled Ground - Claire Fuller

Currently reading The It Girl by Ruth Ware which I'm enjoying very much.

I bought the Lucy Worsley biography of Agatha Christie too. I enjoyed the extracts on BBC Sounds and had also been watching it for a price reduction. DH is wanting to read it too.

I enjoyed the Lucy Worsley TV series about Agatha Christie although there are plot reveals for some of the books (admittedly with spoiler warnings).

1 Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay by Elena Ferrante. Translated by Ann Goldstein
2 The Story of the Lost Child by Elena Ferrante. Translated by Ann Goldstein
3 Black Narcissus by Rumer Godden
4 The Godmother by Hannelore Cayre. Translated by Stephanie Smee
5 Excellent Women by Barbara Pym
6 Tomb of Sand by Geetanjali Shree. Translated by Daisy Rockwell

Just started Kristin Lavransdatter II: The Wife by Sigrid Undset. Translated by Tiina Nunnally which is the second in the Kristin Lavransdatter trilogy, read the first last year and loved it so been looking forward to this for a while.

I think most of Lucy Worsley's non fiction books are linked to a programme or series of programmes. I like watching BBC Four late at night, or just having it on in the background sometimes, so have seen a fair number.

I read all of Agatha Christie's 76 crime novels/collections between the ages of 11-15. Even then I found I forgot most of the endings/whodunit straight away - the only ones I remember normally are the ones with slightly unusual reveals. I'm not going to name those to avoid revealing anything. Personally I don't normally care much, because for a very keen crime reader for 40 years or so, I'm often not bothered - I sometimes skip to the end when I'm worried a favourite series character is putting her/his life in danger yet again by haring off to meet someone in some weirdly quiet place, etc.

Thanks Southeast.

My list:

1. The Born to Travel collection, by Jules Brown
2. Flights, Olga Tokarczuk
3. At Bertram's Hotel, Agatha Christie
4. The Dark Queens, Shelley Puhak
5. A House in the Country, Ruth Adam
6. Good Taste, Caroline Scott
7. A Chelsea Concerto, Frances Favell
8. A Time to Die, Hazel Holt
9. Come Away, Death, Gladys Mitchell
10. Tolstoy and the Purple Chair, Nina Sankovitch
11. The Electricity of Every Living Thing, Katherine May
12. The Road: A Story of Romans and Ways to the Past, Christopher Hadley
13. Three Men on the Bummel, Jerome K Jerome
14. Maybe You Should Talk to Someone, Lori Gottlieb
15. A Spoonful of Murder, J M Hall
16. The Ink-Black Heart, Robert Galbraith
17. A Hunter-Gatherer's Guide to the 21st Century, Heather Heying and Bret Weinstein
18. Murder on the Christmas Express, Alexandra Benedict
19. What Hetty Did, J L Carr
20. Fleishman is in Trouble, Taffy Brodeseser-Akner
21. Treasured, Christina Riggs
22. Goodbye Christopher Robin, Ann Thwaite
23. The Life of E F Benson, Brian Masters
24. Children of Paradise, Camilla Grudowa

I've been sparing with the bolds but I've enjoyed most of it.

And 25. Grounded, by James Canton. Another non-fiction where the author wanders round historical sights and thinks Thoughts about our connection with the past. He goes to old churches and stone age gathering points - he was quite interesting on the transition from the Mesolithic to the Neolithic. Some of it is lockdown and he lights the fire at home and has Thoughts about that. I love this kind of thing so read with pleasure, although he's not quite as profound and knowledgeable as he seems to think.

Thanks for the new thread Southeast

I'm about 20% into I'm A Fan and enjoying it so far, but it's been interesting to see the comments above.

I've also finished The Bandit Queens, will come back to review properly later. I liked it, but didn't love it.

I’m afraid I’m in the Lucy W is a very irritating writer camp.

In other news, I have Trespasses and Mayflies waiting for me to read.

Thanks for the new thread south.

Added Grounded to my TBR @bibliomania

I thought you might be!

I don't know if anyone's linked the international Booker longlist? I haven't heard of any of these, so would welcome any recommendations.

I've just started to read Wandering Souls from the WPfF longlist. It's an elibrary loan - I think I might have placed a reservation before the longlist announcement as I was browsing an elibrary new books list that included books due to be published in the next few weeks/months - the publication date is 2 March. The opening pages seem oddly topical despite the 1970s setting, as a Vietnamese family pack to leave their home country in small boats after paying people smugglers.

Thanks for the new thread Southeast and thank you everyone as always for the interesting reviews

@agnesmartin I've just gone for The Wilderness Cure as my next Audible book - been struggling to find the right thing since finishing A Face Like Glass.

Last year I read John Lewis Stempel's The Wild Life in which he does the same thing, and was disappointed by it. Normally I love his books, and the topic really appealed, but I think he was having a life crisis, & it really came through in the book. He also mostly just lived off rabbit. (Actually, I mainly felt sorry for his wife & kids as he sounded like very hard work to be living with.) So I'm looking forward to what sounds like a more upbeat take on the same subject :)

I've just picked up Trespasses and American Wife from the library, and I've still got Orlando and Bernadine Evaristo's memoir Never Giving Up from my last visit, so I'm spoilt for choice on paper books right now. I feel like I ought to read Trespasses first, as I expect there's others waiting in the queue, but might go for Evaristo as I'm in a bit of a memoir mood (& it's short).

CBA to wrestle my list into a form that the new site will deal with, but I've just finished:
22 In Extremis The Life of War Correspondent Marie Colvin, by Lindsey Hillum
This was fascinating & hair-raising in equal part. I imagine most will have read at least some of Colvin's reportage from war ravaged places across the world. I hadn't before realised that she was one of the first to really focus on telling the stories of individuals caught up in war, rather than the politics / big picture. I also hadn't known that she had a troubled personal life (though perhaps well balanced, teetotal war correspondents are the exception rather than the norm?). Hillum does a good job of balancing Colvin's drive to tell the world what was happening to ordinary people on the ground with her more chaotic side.

Hope you like it @Sadik!

I've realized I can get a bit carried away with my readings/reviews when I'm in the moment - but I do think this was great, but also very much aligns with my thinking on nature so could just be a comfortable echo chamber! Will be interesting to hear what you think.

The only thing that niggles me is that she did 3 monthy microbiome tests but only shares the briefest of comments on the results - she does seem to be working on a follow up experiment with other foragers so hopefully she'll publish results once she has more data.

Now's a good time to read the book I think, as everything should start greening up soon (hopefully!) and I will be adding a few unusual plants to my food prep and hopefully making some herbal teas as well.

I've just started reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver to keep up some momentum and hopefully propel me into slightly more seasonal eating.

Hi again to all my fellow Horowitz fans! I can't wait until the next AL book comes out. I remember being at my nan's house while reading Nightshade, and telling her that I simply couldn't sit down to dinner without knowing how it ended. 🤣🤣

Here's my recent reads:

30. 'Lies'- TM Logan

This is Logan's first novel, released in 2017. It centres on Joe Lynch, a teacher who lives with his wife and young son. A chance encounter with an old friend sees his world spinning out of control, and is his wife as devoted as she seems?

I enjoyed this and read it quite quickly. A lot of twists and turns that is typical of Logan. Fans of his should enjoy it.

31. 'All My Love.'- Miranda Dickinson

I read this as part of an online book club that I'm part of. (Tea Leaves and Reads)
By day Archie works tirelessly as an editors assistant on a local newspaper in Manchester.
Esther is the office cleaner. By night she makes sure that The Herald is spic and span, alongside her trusty sidekick, Fred the trolley.
Archie and Esther have never met, but they have something in common. Both of them are in love with other people, and when Archie needs help to write a letter to the woman that he's been in love with for years, Esther reaches out to him. Before long, they are forced to confront the fact that they may have fallen for the wrong people....

I loved this. An absolutely lovely read that has you rooting for the characters all the way though. I've been going though some I'll health recently, and this was just what I needed to take my mind of it.
❤️
Currently reading: still on 'The Water Dancer.' By Ta-Nehisi Coates.