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?

Ahhh glad it's not just me
@EineReiseDurchDieZeit ! I'd stayed up till 1am finishing it as well!!

I thought she wrote superbly so would still be tempted to try more of her books I think.

@RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie I definitely read some of her children's books growing up but don't remember them very well. As an adult I've read her older books (probably considered YA now) - I like The Secret Countess, The Morning Gift and A Song For Summer.

@SweetSakura @EineReiseDurchDieZeit I just pretend the final page of Small Pleasures doesn't exist.

Contacts by *Mark Watson is in the deals. Read a review copy of that, it is quite sweet, probably worth 99p.

@RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie I'm not GrannieM (obvs) but try The Morning Gift. It's lovely without being saccharine.

I am finding the deals impossible to find or navigate anyone able to give me a link?

22 The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O’Farrell
Much reviewed, so I won’t go over the plot again, but I found this captivating and it will be one of my stand out reads of the year. I saw the twist coming early on, or rather I nearly did, because it didn’t quite happen the way I thought it would.. Just page after page of luscious description, the subjugation of women infuriating, yet still a smidgen of sympathy sneaking in for Alfonso briefly (and easily quashed, what a bastard he was). Metaphor-heavy for sure, but not overdone for my taste.

It’s been sat in my TBR pile for months. I bought it with birthday vouchers then regretted it a bit because I hated Hamnet with a passion. So I ignored it, nearly sent it round the Family Library without reading it, but thought I’d give it a go in case it was ok. 🤦‍♀️ It will be lent out, but I will ask for it back and I’m sure I will read it again,

Deals update :

For some reason they are really hiding them this month, but I did manage to find a handful of pages, like last time I had several from my Wishlist show up as 99p as well, so as a general public service all the following are currently 99p

I Contain Multitudes by Ed Yong
Memphis by Tara Stringfellow
Free Love by Tessa Hadley
The One by John Marrs
The Truth About The Harry Quebert Affair by Joel Dicker
The Sellout by Paul Beatty
Yellow Crocus by Laila Ibrahim
Horse by Geraldine Brooks

Just in case anyone is interested in any of these

I read A Song for Summer by Eva Ibbotson a couple of years ago and bolded it at the time.

I've found it easier to see the deals on the Kindle app, rather than the website. I've had a scroll through the first few pages and bought an interesting sounding thriller, Local Gone Missing by Fiona Barton, and may go back in later to see what else there is.

The Killer in the Kremlin is in the book deals

Thanks for the Eva I recs. I've added them all to my wish list.

I've scrolled through all of the deals. Bought a James Herriot. Everything looked bloody awful.

I bought Jerry White's massive tome on London in the 18thc - £25 reduced to 99p!

Totally agree about the end of Small Pleasures. So unnecessary. I also enjoyed In a Good Light -although SP was better - and have A Dry Spell waiting to read.

GrannieMainland I do the same with the final volume of The Cazalet Chronicles. Ignore it completely. Should never have been published.

I have one Eva Ibbotson on my tbr pile - The Morning Gift - I think it was a recommendation from this thread.

Oh, I will pop in for Jerry White’s book. He interviewed me for my research degree. I have his Mansions of Misery which I’ve only dipped into, but he is wonderful.

10 Journey to The River Sea Eva Ibbotson read this today on Remus’s recommendation ( This Thing of Darkness & HHHH being 2 stand out reads that I wouldn’t necessarily found previously …)
loved this - plucky orphan, lush Amazonian setting & everything ending just as it should.

Hat trick

21. A Terrible Kindness - Jo Browning Wroe

Much read and reviewed here, I think most recently by Eine? Adding my love for this book; one of the standout fiction books of the year so far.

22. Howards End is on the Landing - Susan Hill

This was mentioned in last year's 50 books thread. I think my least favourite of the 'books about books' read this year (after Dear Reader and Bibliomaniac). I didn't add to my TBR list from reading it, which is probably a good thing. She discussed a wide range of books from her home collection, and the writing was clear and easy to read as you'd expect, but as a whole it didn't do much for me.

The ending of Small Pleasures (and the very start) was like she'd shoehorned a different story into her book. I think that was what she started with but would have feel much stronger without it.
Thanks for pointing out the deals @EineReiseDurchDieZeit, am going to buy Horse too.

I hated Howard's Bleeding End is on the Landing.

There are some Eva Ibbotson books included in kindle unlimited, I got A Song for Summer a while ago but haven't read it yet.

I got quite a few in the deals this month (I think we can see why my TBR pile is so out of control!):

• A Tidy Ending by Joanna Cannon
• The Family Upstairs by Lisa Jewell
• Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi
• The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett
• China Room by Sunjeev Sahota
• Free Love by Tessa Hadley
• French Braid by Anne Tyler
• Old Filth by Jane Gardam
• Here Be Dragons by Sharon Penman
• The Dance Tree by Karen Millwood Hargrave
• Memphis by Tara M Stringfellow
• The Couple at Number 9 by Claire Douglas
• Circle of Friends by Maeve Binchy
• If I Never Met You by Mhairi McFarlane (this one was in the Daily Deals)

I haven’t read A Terrible Kindness - not sure I can bear to - but I notice that one of the surviving teachers, who broke a window to help the children trapped with him to escape, has just died….Howell Williams.

Spring - Ali Smith is 99p today …was my favourite of the Seasonal Quartet

I wasn’t very excited about the deals this month, which saved my wallet and my TBR (which I am still working diligently on cutting down thanks to biblio)
I got
Before the Coffee Gets Cold
French Braid
The Penguin Book of Short Stories
And Old Filth.

@RomanMum

I have a feeling A Terrible Kindness will be this years Small Pleasures in terms of unanimous agreement

I have just DNF'd Emotionally Weird 40 pages in and couldn't have cared less