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?

I very much liked Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line by Deepa Anappara. I assume you’ve already read The Jewel in the Crown quartet @Stokey.

Paul Scott's Raj Quartet is very good. As is Staying On, also by him.

@Gingerwarthog

Did you get your tracking email today?

Noooooo!!!
And no teaser email yet either although I emailed them and they said my chooser was running a bit late. 😱

@EineReiseDurchDieZeit
Any idea what yours is this month?

No. I never search before they come I only know I didn't recognise the author - which amazingly I haven't once so far

@Stokey have you read The Year of the Runaways by Sunjeev Sahota? You've probably already read The White Tiger?

@Stokey how about The Siège of Krishnapur by J G Farrell, or Sister of My Heart by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni?

@PepeLePew It's nice to see someone else enjoying the Joan Lingard series, my mum was Catholic and my dad protestant, I grew kind of knowing there was family tension but no one really talked about what it was or why - the books provided a really shocking context to what it was that everyone wasn't telling me.

If you’d consider non-fiction that reads like fiction, @Stokey, I was totally gripped by Katherine Boo's Behind the Beautiful Forevers. Tragic and terrifying but well-told.

Keep me posted!

15 Real Tigers by Mick Herron

Third in the Slough House series about washed up spies, presumably now known to everyone because of all the hype, Apple TV series (which I really want to watch, but can't because I don't have Apple TV) etc etc. More breakneck spy capers with everyone double crossing each other all over the place. The characters continue to be objectively unpleasant but strangely compelling and occasionally even endearing. Especially Catherine Standish, for whom Herron clearly has a soft spot.

51. Why Did You Stay? by Rebecca Humphries

I am a Strictly devotee and have been from the start. And from the start Strictly has always had its affairs which were, certainly in the Brucie era, always handled in a nudge nudge, wink wink way.
Therefore it seemed a bit unusual that Seannn* Walsh and Katya Jones were so pilloried, when Kristina, Flavia and Brendan (and partners) were let off so very lightly.

Potentially, the difference here is Rebecca Humphries, Seannnn's then girlfriend who outed him as a gaslighting, abusive bully in the aftermath.

This book is Rebecca's memoir of that time in which she questions why she stayed with him for 5 years, despite abuse, up until the scandal.

Strangely, I found the most quietly heartbreaking moment to be a message she received from a stranger after the news broke, asking if she was in Disney World in 2014, as he had seen a man matching Seannn's description berating a woman who was in tears. It was in fact her and a classic and depressing example of how so many people don't intervene at public displays of abuse.

I want to be kind to Rebecca here given the circumstance. I believe I got the wrong end of the stick about this. I thought it was going to be 25% about Rebecca and Seannn and then the stories of other women who stayed.

It turned out to be 40% Rebecca and Seannn and 60% memoir of London Elite, Friendship, Shags, childhood and family.

Most of which ( whispers) isn't that interesting

But as revenges go, this is a mightier pen than a sword one, so all power to her.

Seannn has moved on and seems very happy and I hope the same is true of Rebecca because she certainly deserves it more.

*Name deliberately misspelled (if you know, you know)

have you read about her life. who her brother and dad were and what they did! facinating.

the serial killers daughter.alice hunter.
had this on my tbr list for a while so here goes.

19 A Perilous Undertaking - Deanna Raybourn The second in the Veronica Speedwell series. Another detective story set in Victorian London, full of Americanisms and anachronisms. Lightweight fun.

@GrannieMainland Which other Eva I books would you most recommend?

Thanks for the India recommendations. I've read the Raj Quartet, Staying On and Siege of Krishnapur. I've also read Sunjeev Shota but will try the others.

23. Miller's Valley by Anna Quindlen. This is set in a small town in America, which has terrible flooding due to a dam built nearby. The government is planning on flooding the entire valley and relocating the residents to solve the problem. The main character Mimi Miller is the daughter of the farmer whose family have lived there for generations. The book followed Mimi through her childhood and early adulthood dealing with the changes that the community is facing. I liked this, it's a gentle read along the lines of Mary Lawson or Anne Tyler. She's writes very well about small towns where everyone knows everyone's business. It didn't quite hit 5 stars for me but would be a solid 4.

@EineReiseDurchDieZeit

Mr B's email came through and it's going to be something by Hannah Kent this month.
I've emailed back to say not Burial Rites as I have read and loved that - but anything else by her is fine.
They seem to have picked up on my interest in crime in far flung places.
A friend has loaned me Ladykillers by Martina Cole - anyone read it?

Read a few books this week, I need to prioritise sleep over reading late into the night!

35 The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry
I liked this, quite a different story.

36 Difficult Women- Helen Lewis
Loved this. It's a keeper to go back and dip into.

37 Small Pleasures -Clare Chambers
Excellent writing, original without trying to hard. The ending annoyed me but that's a personal thing!

I’m knee deep in way too many books, but just had my Saturday morning catch up and my input is.

• I’ve read 50 Shades, I mean it did what it promised, just a load of sex scenes. I didn’t even hate them, I wasn’t expected high brow literature.
• Eva Ibbottson however, I recently started The Glove Shop of Vienna which was short stories and DNF’d, maybe I would prefer her long form work, but whilst the Glove story was touching I was mostly bored.
• Greek Myths. I want to read all of them BUT I keep telling myself I must read the originals first so I can see the differences etc. of course, I never get around to it. I have though recently added Greek tragedy to my theatre going.

I am catching up with Anna Karenina; reading Cathrine Cookson for the first time in years and have a couple of non fiction on the go.

Hello can I join please? Have done this in the past under another name

Am trying for 50 books but have recently gone from P/T to F/T work and just don’t seem to have as much time to read, so hoping this thread will spur me on

I was also given a Mr B’s reading subscription as a birthday gift so will be reading each of those over the year.

My list so far:

1. The Trepasser Tana French
2. And Finally Henry Marsh
3. The Scapegoat Daphne du Maurier
4. Cloud Cuckoo Land Anthony Doerr
5. Dracula Bram Stoker
6. Wyrd Sisters Terry Pratchett
7. Just got real Jane Fallon
8. O Caledonia Elspeth Barker (Mr B’s)
9. The Girl with the louding voice Abi Daré

Welcome Tess!

@SweetSakura

The end of Small Pleasures absolutely infuriated me.

I don't have time to look at deals til later, has anyone seen anything worth having?