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?

The Glass Key by Dashiel Hammet
Well, I read this to the bitter end but really disliked it. Not a single likeable character, including the lead, and I didn’t like the writing style. Not for me, which surprised me because I like a bit of hard boiled crime.

24 A Desperate Fortune - Susanna Kearsley A dual timeline novel set partly in present-day France, where the main character is trying to decipher a diary written in code by an 18th century Jacobite woman, who is the main character of the historical storyline. Lots of historical colour and clearly very well researched - I enjoyed the 18th century timeline and its main characters felt quite realistic. The present-day story was fine but a bit contrived - everything happened very conveniently in a way that just isn’t realistic. A nice bit of romance too (in both timelines but the historical one was much better). In summary: not amazing but a good read.

21. Beyond Possible 14 Peaks by Nims Purja

Nims is a mountaineer who starts late in life and discovers he has a talent for it. So much so that he isn't just beating records but absolutely destroying them. His goal to climb all 14 death zones in 7 months (previous record is seven years!) is audacious.

As an armchair mountaineer and sometime hiker, I enjoyed this book. I already knew about a lot of the mountains he climbed but I'd never read about anyone who could climb at his speed.

Which brings me to an uneasy topic, I'm not sure I like Nims. He is arrogant (ex SBS - so trained to be so) and he simplifies things. Everyone could do what he does if only they thought positively. I think that's total BS. The film of this covers something the book does not, he has done some medical testing and his high altitude ability is out of this world, even compared to other excellent climbers. He is a genetic freak. Who also does think positively.

He contradicts himself a few times in the book. For instance he tells us he isn't climbing for glory but laments the lack of fanfare about his accomplishments. I also couldn't get on with the constant partying at various base camps. It's great that he personally seems to function without sleep, but if I had paid £50k to climb a mountain and found myself trying to prepare mentally next to an impromptu disco I'd be pissed.

I can forgive all this though. His military training has created his confidence and his ability backs it up. Most sports people at the top of their games are genetic freaks. And whilst he is really boasty about it, he's rescued so many people whose teams left them to die and lives by his code of integrity. I respect that but he does my fail my 'would I want a beer with them' test.

18 Woman, Eating - Claire Kohda

I agree with everyone who’s already reviewed this positively - an outstanding read of the year so far. Lydia is a vampire with a vampire mother and human father, who is attempting to run from her maternal legacy by hiding her mum away in a nursing home and making a new life for herself as an artist in London. Longing for the human companionship symbolised by human food, she tries to starve the demon out of herself...

This works as a brilliant metaphor allowing the exploration of themes on so many levels: eating disorders; troubled mother-daughter relationships; the experience of being mixed race in a colonial context; and behind all that the unacceptability of naked female desire. Highly recommended.

24. The Lost Apothecary - Sarah Penner

In 18th century London a female apothecary sells poisons to women clients. In the present day a visiting aspiring historian, escaping her troubles in America, makes a discovery about a fatal event concerning the apothecary. This leads her to look further and explore the mystery, and doing so she makes decisions about her own life.

An interesting premise, and the subject was my kind of thing so I enjoyed the plot, but the author is American and the book could have benefited from a UK proof reader. A couple of historical errors, and American words or phrases coming out of the mouths of modern and (worse still) 18th century Londoners really grated.

25. The Marmalade Diaries - Ben Aitken

By the author of The Gran Tour which I read last year. Ben took a room in a house with a recently widowed octogenarian just before the second lockdown in Autumn 2020 and the book follows their lives together over the course of the next year.

I raced through this and found a it funny and in many places a moving account of grief, loss, ageing, family, intergenerational living, and the madness of this period of the pandemic. Recommended.

I seem to have read or finished a few books in quick succession.

26. Joan by Katharine J. Chen. Historical novel about Joan of Arc. It took a long time to get going and I almost gave up during the childhood of grinding poverty, but it picked up once she reached the French court and I knew almost nothing about her life so I learnt a lot. The author was quite clear in her note that her Joan wasn't motivated by religious fervour, and she wasn't miraculous in any way, but it was a bit lacking in an explanation of what Joan was trying to do as she achieved and then lost power.

27. The Snakes by Sadie Jones. Decent domestic type thriller set in a remote French hotel - Bea is from a super rich family but shuns their money and lives a frugal life with her husband Dan. A family tragedy throws them all together with lots of menace and heat fuelled unease. This was pretty good on the corrupting power of money and a compelling read, though a completely wild ending.

28. If I Never Met You by Mhairi McFarlane. Fun 'fake dating' rom com. Silly plot twists but great chemistry between the main characters. I inhaled this over a short plane journey.

29. The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin. In 70s New York, the four Gold children visit a fortune teller who gives each of them the date they will die. The book follows each one as they grapple with the prophecy over the decades to come. I liked the sweep of history but some of the siblings' stories were a lot more convincing than others. The story raises but doesn't really answer questions about whether they cause their own deaths through knowing what their fortune says. Interesting but ultimately not completely successful.

I'm reading Memphis now and may finish it before the Women's Prize longlist announcement...

@RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie

Yes I thought it was you!

Every chapter, every word beyond "I want to go to school" is flogging a dead horse

My bold is in doubt to be fair

34 Jews Don’t Count by David Baddiel

I read this earlier this week but it’s very timely given Diane Abbott’s letter today. It’s Baddiel’s account of how anti-semitism is seen as less than or not quite as bad as racism against a person who is black or Asian and the affect that has on Jews. He argues that Jews are one of the only groups that are accused of being low (vermin like) whilst also being high (rich, pulling the strings of the worlds’ governments). I found this a very clearly written and persuasive argument.

I'm hovering over these books that are currently reduced on Kindle . Anyone read them and would recommend?

My Fourth Time, We Drowned
Roots: The Saga of an American Family
A Village in the Third Reich

@TattiePants

My Fourth Time... yes I would recommend but with the caveat that it's genuinely harrowing and far from easy reading

I think Village In The Third Reich is a sequel so I'd read the first one Travellers before it, it was a massive hit on here but I wasn't that fussed.

@TattiePants I thought Roots was really good. It was a 4/5 for me.

I’ll leave Village for now and buy the other two. Travellers is also on my wish list but it’s double the price so I’ll hang fire for now.

29 Shadowlands - Matthew Green

Reviewed already by a few posters so I’ll just add that I really enjoyed this fascinating account of Britain’s lost villages - particularly the Stanta in Norfolk which has a local interest for me.

20 Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Highly enjoyable tale of an epic party thrown by the Malibu Riva siblings, in which several complicated family issues are brought to a head. TJR interweaves the family's story in flashback chapters that feel less contrived than this device often does. I didn't think this was as original (or as good) as either Evelyn Hugo or Daisy Jones but I sped through it and very much enjoyed the ride. I liked the appearance from Carrie Soto and am looking forward to completing the quartet.

27 Taken Over By Something Evil From The TV Set: the history of Britain's video nasties controversy and other historical horror journalism, interviews, essays and articles by *Jason Arnopp.

A run screaming through my early teens, with some old Video Nasty friends
God, we gobbled most of these up round at a friend’s house, sometimes in our lunch breaks from school (she lived really close), serial style. I don’t think it did me any harm <zombie twitch> I do remember getting a rare teacher bollocking for putting my coat on backwards and pretending to be Regan from The Exorcist
I’m not really into gore these days and CGI has taken a lot of the magic out of “Wow, how did they DO that?!”
Of course nowadays you get just about anything you want on the internet, ‘suitable’ or not, but nothing beats taking Driller Killer up to the counter of your local video store and being allowed to have it if you said it was for your older brother.
Arnopp’s style is a bit scattergun and gonzo, but it’s a short and entertaining collection of interviews and journalism, particularly with affects maestro Tom Savini. I’m sure there are more scholarly overviews of the WW2 and Vietnam generations’ impact on film making, but it’s interesting enough.

A Villsge In The 3rd Reich can easily be before without/before or after Traveller. Same period but different perspectives.

Just popping up to echo countrygirl. Travellers in the 3rd Reich came first but A Village isn’t a sequel, it can be read independently. I really rated it. Fascinating (and terrifying).

I found Village really terrifying because you can understand so easily how it happened. With Traveller I kept thinking what blockheads some of the travellers where and how they couldn't see past their own noses. Which is, of course, easy with hindsight. But I could imagine some of the stuff in Village happening here and could even guess which roles some of the people in my own village would take.

Yeah I probably shouldn't have used the word sequel but I did think it would be beneficial to read Travellers first, I haven't read Village and I am unlikely to do so so it's just my take.

Just back from a week away where, despite shepherding DD along to a seemingly endless round of toddler-friendly activities, I actually managed to do a fair bit of reading. Admittedly it was all pretty lightweight but I enjoyed it all very much:

17 Book Lovers - Emily Henry Thanks to @GrannieMainland for the recommendation. A chick-lit / rom-com (for want of a better descriptor!) and great fun it was too. I love this kind of thing, I just need it to be good, and this was. Of course it was implausible and driven by ridiculous coincidences, but it was sharp and well written and there was great chemistry between the main characters. As I think Grannie pointed out in her original review, it's very knowing about the standard romance novel tropes and does a good job of engaging with/ skewering them - at least some of them.

18 Mad About You - Mhairi McFarlane Sticking with the rom-coms. I've read all of McFarlane's now, and have recommended her on here. This is similar to her others in that it's romantic and 'light' but with darker/ sadder themes. I think the darker topic here (won't say what as might be a slight spoiler) was a bit lacking in subtlety - with a textbook villain and all a bit neatly wrapped up in a way that would definitely never happen in real life. But as always, a really likeable main character and a good story with a satisfying resolution to the love interest.

19 The Thursday Murder Club - Richard Osman I've definitely read a lot of lukewarm if not outright negative reviews of this, so was in two minds before going in. I enjoyed it a lot actually. I think listening on audible helped somehow, it just suited the format and I enjoyed the narrator's performance. I know the plot doesn't bear too much scrutiny and I don't think I ever really cared whodunnit (any of the 'its' that got done really), I just liked the characters and thought it was pleasant, distracting fun.

I'm also quite a way into Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow - not and never was a gamer (though did have the original Nintendo at a similar age to when the characters in the book first met/ played Duck Hunt - never really got the hang of it and it was passed to a cousin fairly quickly) so I suspect much of the cleverness is going over my head. I'm kind of enjoying the story even so.

@AliasGrape oh I am glad you enjoyed it! Emily Henry has a new book out very soon too. I also just read If I Never Met You by Mhairi McF on a work trip and really enjoyed it, I'll keep working through her back catalogue.

Just finished Pathogenesis: A History of the World in Eight Plagues - Jonathan Kennedy. It's an incredibly interesting and engaging look at how plagues/pandemics have shaped global politics. It's incredibly insightful into how health has been weaponised in history and the impact it has on major shifts in global power. I've found it quite eye opening, in that things I thought I knew the history behind were driven by completely different factors. It's a really fascinating look at events past and present.

I’m trying to make my way through the many books I feel I should have read and have been on my bookshelves for years. Book 35 fell into this category, The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald. No idea why it’s taken me so long to read it but really glad I read it. A short book full of beautiful prose that captures the decadence and superficiality of the era, with themes of love, loss, tragedy, self deception and death.

36 Five Chimneys by Olga Lengyel

This is the true story of Lengyel’s survival after spending the final seven month of WWII in Birkenau. This is a harrowing and unflinching day to day account of life in the camp and she doesn’t shy away from detailing the unimaginable horrors that she and her fellow prisoners endured. I don’t think the chapters about the gas chambers / crematoria, pregnant women and Mengele’s experiments will ever leave me. Olga was the only surviving member of her family as her children and parents were murdered on arrival at the camp and her husband died shortly before liberation. It’s not the best written book (not a patch on Primo Levi) and her views on homosexuality are hard to read but this will stay with me for a long time.

I really need to read something completely different after this so moving onto The Picture of Dorian Gray for some light relief, another book I’ve owned for 20+ years and never read.

65. The Last Thing He Told Me by Laura Dave

Hannah plays detective when her husband Owen disappears leaving her with his stroppy teen Bailey.

I've been watching this on Apple, and it came up as a pick on Libby.

The series has made good viewing by contrast I thought this was VERY poor, flimsy, not believable, chick litty, and I don't believe that the most important aspect of both the setup and the outcome was satisfactorily explained.

Becoming increasingly distrustful of Reese Witherspoon's taste though I have enjoyed several of her prior picks

Smiling at the idea of Dorian G as light relief.