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 had an interview there in 1994 and I'm sure I didn't dream it! 😂

So1invictus thank you for that review, really made me smile despite not having read the book in question - I have read something else by the author though, The Ice Cream Girls. It was years ago though so beyond the title I have zero recollection of anything about the book.

I just DNF’d The Reading List by Sara Nisha Adams. Gave it 50 pages or so (Borrowbox on iPad so no idea what that equates to in real life) but just knew I wasn’t going to get on with it. That’s 2 DNFs very close together (A Thousand Ships was the other one sorry So1).

Ive started The Thursday Murder Club on audible, it’s been sitting in my library for years now, as the lukewarm reviews here have always put me off. So far I’m enjoying it but not very far in, Celia Imrie’s narration is good.

Lessons In Chemistry has come up from my Borrowbox reserves so might give that a go, again something is putting me off but I’m not sure what.

@Owlbookend oh, it’s always a bit gutting when one of your nearest and dearest doesn’t really 'get' a book you love! I’ve only now discovered that there are two previous books featuring Charlotte and so there’s background I don’t know to Charlotte Sometimes. Off to the internet for more book-buying, I suppose!

@So1invictus Fabulous review. As an aside, it's taken me until I am today years old to realise that your name isn't SoLinvictus.

I read The Ice cream Girls - it was shite enough to make me never pick up another of hers.

Another Charlotte Sometimes fan here. I can't remember who it was that linked on here to a thing by Penelope Farmer about Robert Smith (Cure fans will get it) but here it is again, if anybody wants it https://thecuretc.wordpress.com/tag/penelope-farmer/

@RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie I was SoL before!

I think I read Charlotte Sometimes as a child as well.

I’ve just looked up the Charlotte Sometimes prequels and they’re over £100 on Amazon!

Ah. I haven't gone mad (yet!).

@So1invictus tgat review made my morning. I have never been to Lewisham but I looked it up and I’m pleased to say it is exactly where I thought it would be.

I absolutely love Charlotte Sometimes, I think it's the book that started my love of time travel books which continues to this day.

Haha loved your review @So1invictus. I read a Dorothy Koonsom book a good few years ago which I think was more chick-lit, something about looking after her best friend's child I think, which I enjoyed. Since then she seems to have moved more into the psychological thriller arena and I just don't think she's very good at it. I have a few books of hers in my TBR pile and no real motivation to read them. I'm still working through and clearing my TBR pile so I imagine a lot of them will get chucked at the 10 page point.

the questionnaire was ok - not convinced they will get it right every time (was gifted a year sub)

‘if you were going g on a train journey which book from your collection would you take?’
Well. That is a very difficult question (for me) to answer, because it depends where I am going, what I have recently read, how long the journey is etc. I basically ended up answering most of the questions like that, with several examples, just to cover all basis. I may have overthought it.

my 1st book that got completely right however O’Caledonia - Elspeth Barker absolutely brilliant post war story of a family living in a crumbling castle and the central character just not fitting in. Beautifully written.

So1invictus 🤣 The Brighton Mermaid* *is now firmly crossed off my TBR list!

The main character can drive all over the UK and is clearly a wordly wise well travelled independent woman, who, at one point when she hears someone lives in Lewisham, wonders if it's "even a real place"

As place names go, Lewisham isn’t one that stands out as odd. It’s hardly in the same league as Twatt, Pity Me, Wetwang and so on, where someone who’d never heard of them before might be forgiven for raising an eyebrow.

It asks you some detailed questions and for genres you like and ones you'd like to try.
You can also sign up for a teaser email where they tell you the author they will send you and you can decline and ask for something else!
They ask you for feedback on each book too.

Just out of interest, what happens if it's a book you've already read? I guess you return it & they swap?

Book 24 - Riders by Jilly Cooper. My first encounter with Jilly though this needs no introduction. 900 pages long of which at least 600 were describing the logistics and scoring systems of show jumping events. I knew this would be pretty dated but wasn't expecting to read about women being punched in the face or a gang rape. Not as fun as I'd been led to believe.

I had a Mr B's subscription a couple of years ago and liked all the books they sent, but didn't love any of them. The real joy is in getting a surprise beautifully packaged book through the post so I didn't mind. I felt they captured my taste pretty well.

With the teaser system you are told the authors name and then that's your opportunity to tell them if you've read any.

I haven't recognised an author yet which is surprising

I’ve got a three-month Mr B’s subscription to try - will report back!

Meanwhile:

26 The Gold - Neil Forsyth and Thomas Turner
Not yet seen the TV series but thought I’d listen to this first on Audible. It’s a well-researched and narrated account of the Brinks-Mat robbery and its aftermath, with a local interest to me as I grew up in the south-east London patch where most of the villains involved lived. I found it really interesting and gobsmacking how easy it was to pay hundreds of thousands in cash in a bank in the 80s without anyone batting an eyelid.

Ouch at those prices. It's very frustrating the number of series where only a selection of books was published in Puffin/Armada or other paperback imprints, and the rest of the books are really hard to get hold of. In the case of The Summer Birds and Emma in Winter, which I haven't got round to reading - think Emma is Charlotte's sister, I have copies upstairs which I haven't read - perhaps I was worried about being disappointed - in the 1980s when I was (mostly) a teenager, Leeds City Libraries used to have really huge library sales where they sold off lots of stock and I acquired some interesting things, plus there was an Oxfam with a large book section (I think it's now become an Oxfam bookshop) on the way home from school.

My other timeslip favourites included A Traveller in Time by Alison Uttley and Come Back Lucy by Pamela Sykes. The Uttley has been reprinted and I think I have a Puffin copy and a more recent reprint. The latter book was published in Puffin here, and published in the US under a different title, but I don't think it's been reprinted so it's not cheap to find. Also, though I have a copy, there was a sequel - it's possible I had my own copy that disappeared but it's also very likely that I just read it from the library, and that is totally impossible to find listed at a sane price.

I'm never sure whether the Amazon secondhand prices have any resemblance to prices which books could be sold for, and whether I have books that I'd be willing to part with (for example, some which I actually have nicer reissued classics editions of). I don't want to deal with Ebay/Paypal/packing and posting books and then have something go wrong.

Another Charlotte Sometimes fan here, I enjoyed rereading it a couple of years ago.

Alias - I also DNF The Reading List, it really didn't appeal past the prologue, though enjoying A Thousand Ships.

The Beginning of Spring by Penelope Fitzgerald Being able to report on this feels rather a milestone - I’ve long wanted to read a Fitzgerald novel but just haven’t been able to get through enough of her sentences. I’ve attempted The Blue Flower and, more recently after the discussion here, The Bookshop, and didn’t get very far with either. This one I found more readable, yet the depressing sense of just not being clever enough remains. It’s set in Moscow in 1913 where the wife and mother of a resident English family has suddenly walked out. The father runs a printing business; we meet his young children, his household and his workforce. It’s an atmospheric evocation of the time and place, with the seasonal thawing in progress and a growing climate of suspicion and conflict, but the tone is a kind of wry defeatism throughout where ‘less unpromising than expected’ is the main character’s most positive judgment. I feel I’ve missed the point but not feeling motivated enough to read it again.

I am way, way behind on the thread but just jumping on to say that The Bandit Queens is 99p on Kindle, for Women's Prize followers.

It's Lesley Manville who reads the Thursday Murder Club, unless there's a new version out there?

@mum2jakie it is indeed? Where did I get Celia from? I must have heard or seen her name just before I was posting and it was in my head.

Lesley is doing a good job, though several of the character ‘voices’ are blending a bit now.

Is it just me or have the Amazon Kindle deals not updated from yesterday?

@MarkWithaC They have updated but only if you look further down the page. There seems to be some kind of sale, as well - I've had a few price drops on my wishlist.

I wasn't clear – I meant specifically the daily deals. They're still got yesterday's; I remember looking at The Holy Thief.
Thanks for the nudge about the wishlist; I always forget to check that for deals!