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 did finish Emotionally Weird but thought it was a huge disappointment after reading Behind the Scenes….

Just caught up after a few days in absentia.

I am delighted to see Ambrose Parry being picked up by others and also Hear No Evil.

I have read the Greek Myth trend with interest as I have also fallen right into it. I started with Pat Barker and ADORED that. Since then I have read many others but liked A Thousand Ships least. I am not properly familiar with the myths in any other sense so I take them as I find them but any Troy plot will always be compared against Silence of the Girls

I started I Am Fan a week ago and am half way through. Which given its length is not impressive. It has been a super busy week so I will get that finished tomorrow and start my Easter holiday reading.

I saw mention of James Herriot before and that made me smile. It always reminds me of being 11 and faking being a poor reader at secondary school as I hoped a dishy senior boy would be part of the paired reading programme. Clearly he wasn’t but a rather lovely girl who had applied for vet med was and she and I fired through many James heriot books together. She twigged by about session 3 that there was clearly nothing wrong with my reading but it was out illicit secret for about 6 months

I’d been off school as a young teen with glandular fever followed by shingles and was quite poorly and my DF had a conference on the Isle of Man so he took DM and me with him and parked me in the hotel room with the first James Herriot book. By the end of the conference I’d read the first four books.

@BaruFisher
Old Filth is a find!

It was recent discussion here that led me to choose it Ginger. I’m looking forward to it!

Like a sheep I have bought Before The Coffee Gets Cold and added A Terrible Kindness to my wishlist. I don't like to miss out!

16. Terry Pratchett: A Life With Footnotes

I've just finished this book, crying and snotting into my breakfast smoothie bowl. Crying for someone I didn't know but did know a little through their books. Stupidly crying, as his death wasn't a shock. The book is so well written by Rob who not only had one of the best jobs in the world, but also sounds like a lovely, caring man. I think I was crying for his loss.

Two random points - neither Rob not Sir Terry come across like saints. In fact, Terry was by all accounts a bit of a grump and I like that. I like real life and flaws.

Secondly his coffin was lowered to Meatloaf 'Bat Of Hell' which is the song we played at my Dad's funeral as the coffin went behind the curtains. It was my church going Dad's favourite song. I didn't know he shared it with his favourite author.

Ok. I've wiped the tears and written my review. Time to charge my kindle for the next book and go for a walk I think.

Book #15 Peter May Chessmen it's amazing how this retired detective keeps ending up investigating real police cases while the police do nothing. He also has a really unfortunate group of friends and family. For a small island it's got a very Midsommer Murders vibe, I certainly wouldn't move there! A decent read, not setting the world on fire

Book #16 A waiter in Paris Edward Chisholm memoir of a struggling wannabe writers time as a waiter in Paris. Entertaining but a bit try-hard and certainly doesn't have the charm and wit say of Anthony Bourdain's insights into restaurant life

12. Catch and Kill by Ronan Farrow
A few years behind everyone else - this was on my Wanted books list for a very long time. I'm supporting an online one-woman business rather than a bookshop these days, no idea if that's a positive or not but enjoying getting books through the post.

A story about reporting; Farrow's pursuit of the story about Harvey Weinstein's sexual predation. I liked the Byzantine detail about meetings and sources and spies, and women in a meat grinder industry. The descriptions of what Weinstein did are deliberately detailed and horrible, and designed to dig into the rape culture myths you might have in your own head. Interesting stuff about how a culture like this can develop too. It does get a bit fragmented towards the end but in general I'd recommend it - not at bold level, quite, but I'm getting very picky about my bolds.

I've bought quite a lot in the monthly deals when they eventually came through - it took until Saturday morning/afternoon. I wonder if whoever's doing it is doing several different countries' offers and setting them all to come through after midnight on the US west coast - that would be about 8 am here. I think there are some quite good books that I've acquired in previous offers too.

Historical fiction drawing on real life stories about female criminal gangs and women involved in organised crime, If you enjoyed Kate Atkinson's Shrines of Gaiety (not yet featured in a sale as far as I know), Georgina Clarke's The Dazzle of the Light (set in 1920) is an interesting read, featuring two very young women. Ruby is an ambitious working class teenager and part of the Forty Thieves, but she's chafing against the rules and restrictions imposed by her aunts who are the gang bosses, and doesn't want to pass on everything she acquires to them - she wants to keep some of the glitz and glamour for herself. There's also a woman from a rather conservative middle class family, engaged to be married, working on a local newspaper but very frustrated by sexism at work and rather stifled by her family at home. I read it a few months ago via Netgalley. That's 99p

I also bought Horse by Geraldine Brooks, as some of my American friends on LibraryThing have been talking about it for a while.

Among today's Kindle deals at 99p is Tom Crewe, A New Life, a first novel set in 1890s London, against the background of Oscar Wilde's trial and some people exploring unconventional lifestyles and sexuality etc. I just read it from the library and was really happy to be able to buy my own copy at that price, as I think this is a really interesting part of late Victorian social history. It does include some gay sex scenes etc, but what I remember from the book is people finding their way through difficulties and very real anxieties

@Itsgottobeme I haven't read anything about Eva Ibbotson's father and brother. Her mother was also a writer - Persephone have reprinted a book called Manja by her, though I now can't remember the details but some of it is available via the Persephone Books website which is a treasure trove for anyone interested in women's social/literary history and who likes background reading about author lives etc.

Demon Copperhead this is a strange one in that it felt a bit of a slog when I was in it, but I feel a bit lost now that its finished. I've not read David Copperfield so didnt know the story, which is mainly unrelenting misery, but I loved the last third, and the writing is outstanding. Working my way through the Womens Prize list and so far all good, Memphis, Tresspass were both 5 stars too. Trespass my standout so far.

Eine I agree!

Ooof, can't believe I've been so awol I've missed half a thread!

I'm placemarking now, and will come back later to catch up!

Thanks @Southeastdweller

@PermanentTemporary

Are you happy to link to the business?

I really admired Catch And Kill

Just bought The New Life, which I'd been waiting to price drop for months - thanks @elkiedee And Hugh Bonneville's memoir, Playing Under the Piano.

52. The Raptures by Jan Carson

In early 90s Northern Ireland, prior to the Peace Process, a young girl named Hannah grows up in an unusually (even for NI) religious household. Her faith is tested when a strange outbreak occurs killing her classmates one by one. As each child dies, they visit Hannah from the afterlife.

This is a really weird little novel, it won't be a bold, but I will remember it. It has that quality were it really feels like it is from the child's POV when it's meant to.

Original but most bizarre.

9 This Time Tomorrow- Emma Straub

I really enjoyed this- sweet and sad but hopeful at the same time. Think I'm just the right age to appreciate the 90s nostalgia. Not quite a bold as I thought the time-travelling theories felt shoe-horned in, but very close.

book 19. I’m a Fan - Sheena Patel
it has taken me a full week to read this and I deeply resent it. The author has a really interesting style and has a great deal of interest to say on sex, art and race. Unfortunately she tries to say it all at once and all of the time. And her voice is through a character who is so utterly devoid of credibility that some brilliant messages are completely lost. I can’t think of a book I have had to work so hard not to ditch for a very long time.

Yes, happy to say I'm ordering from Fox Lane Books mostly now. Bad timing to post this as she's on holiday until 14 April! Other online booksellers are available etc. I'm wondering whether to preorder Wavewalker but really I should wait until the paperback...

Thanks for sharing Permanent - lovely website. I’ve ordered the new Kate Morton as there’s a lovely indie bookshop version with sprayed edges! I’m a sucker for a pretty book with sprayed edges.

@Gingerwarthog

My Mr B came today - it's How High We Go In The Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu. Blurb very random - essentially a dystopia. Interested but last months also had dystopia elements and I don't remember listing a lot of dystopias in my survey. Nevertheless it does sound "strange but good"

@EineReiseDurchDieZeit
Never heard of that one!
Waiting for mine - hoping it's Hannah Kent's Devotion.
Currently reading Martina Cole's The Ladykillers which is probably best described as a rattling good yarn and a bit of escapism as work has been full on.

The Fox Lane website is a joy to browse! Not like the higgledy-piggledy Amazon mess or the BUY THIS SLEB TRASH!!!!!!!! of Waterstones.

1. The Tortoise and the Hare by Elizabeth Jenkins

This would be a good candidate for the outdated bookclub. This involves Imogen an incredibly passive wife who observes while her husband becomes involved with a neighbour, a rather frumpy older women who is the opposite to Imogen. The neighbour makes things happen and is very capable and involved in the local community unlike Imogen. It’s a slow burner but as the book progresses, Imogen’s self esteem and confidence whittles slowly away although I think overall she will be better off. I found this fascinating.

1. Unsheltered by Barbara Kingsolver

This has dual timelines, one set at the turn of the century involving scientists grappling with Darwins recently published the origin of species, and the other storyline is set in the modern day just before Trump is elected. I thought this was fine and readable enough but when I finished I didn’t really feel I got the overall point of it and aside from being set within the same house (sort of) I cant see how the two timelines are related either.

1. Red Famine by Anne Applebaum

Non-fiction about the Ukraine famine during the 1930s. Recommended if you are interested in the subject and also provided a good historical background on the Ukraine’s relationship with Russia.

Spella! Where've you been?