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?

Thanks for new thread @Southeastdweller :)

Feels like I haven't posted in ages - currently reading Testament of Youth by Vera Brittain which I can't take in over-large chunks.

@MegBusset re: no book buying yet this year - same! Really getting through some of my tbr books that I'd already bought and visiting the library a lot more often!

I'm also trying very hard to not buy books. I have made a couple of exceptions - one or two 99p deals on things I've wanted for ages, and a new crochet book. But mostly, I am succeeding by relying heavily on the library and books I already own. I do have a book token from Christmas, but I'm telling myself it won't go anywhere!

I thought I was being equally abstemious wrt book-buying but checked my Amazon account and apparently I've bought 16 books this year, not counting one for DD and one I returned for a refund. I also bought at least one more in a charity shop. It comes in at under £25 in total though, so not too damaging to the wallet.

I can’t justify buying new books anymore. Like everything else, the cost of them has risen, especially non-fiction paperbacks.

Any books I buy these days are either 99p Kindle deals, or second hand from a charity shop or second hand bookstore. But majority of my books are from the library these days.

@TimeforaGandT I really enjoyed The Dressmaker's Gift. The Storyteller of Casablanca is similar, so I think you would enjoy that too.

Funnily enough, Excellent Women is on my TBR pile. I picked it up at a charity shop along with Some Tame Gazelle after hearing about Barbara Pym on this forum :)

Starting reading House of Glass after recommedations here. Was only going to read the first chapter, but of course, have now read about half of it! So good. I'm thinking I might buy it for my Mum for Mothers Day. (My copy is from the library)

Thanks @Tarragon123 - I don’t think I have The Storyteller of Casablanca but I do have some others on my Kindle so will try one of those first in an effort to clear my backlog and avoid further expenditure.

Impressed by those of you who have managed not to buy any books. Whilst I try to read books I have already or limit myself to 99p deals on Kindle it doesn’t always work as I am doing the Agatha Christie challenge so often end up buying that book and buying whatever my book club is reading each month.

Just bought House of Glass (second hand copy on eBay). If I recall correctly, everyone who’s commented about it here over the past few years has really enjoyed it.

I'm on book number 22 so far this year, most of which are by @jdkirk. Funny, gritty and edge of your seat stuff with some great endings! Totally recommend.

So, I think I definitely need to refrain from book buying more and that there's something addictive about it for me.

It's just really hard not to justify £7.92 for 8 books because so many books on my Wishlist start at £7:99 it just feels like a steal.

Also books are my sole luxury really but it's an addiction no question though at the same time I would love to completely clear my TBR like I think Piggy did, it just seems unlikely, I dare not state how large my TBR is

@RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie

Starve Acre by Andrew Michael Hurley
I'm Sorry You Feel That Way by Rebecca Wait
Woman, Eating by Claire Kohda
Anatomy : A Love Story by Dana Schwartz
The Raptures by Jan Carson
Men Who Hate Women by Laura Bates
Joan by Katherine J. Chen
Difficult Women by Helen Lewis

I feel like Waterstones needs a 'mumsnet made me buy it table' (yep I also have House of Glass on my bookshelf)

1. The History of Love by Nicole Krauss
2. The Beautiful Visit by Elizabeth Jane Howard
3. The Promise by Damon Galgut
4. At Home by Bill Bryson
5. Less by Andrew Sean Greer
6. Lolly Willowes by Sylvia Townsend Warner
7. Someone at a distance by Dorothy Whipple
8. The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
9. Boy Parts by Eliza Clark
10. A touch of darkness by Scarlett St.Clair
11. The Ice Palace by Tarjei Vesaas
12. Empire of Pain by Patrick Radden Keefe
13. A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry
14. The Yellow Wallpaper and other selected writings by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

15 If I had your face by Frances Cha

Set in Korea this follows four women struggling to get by in Seoul. This is not the glossy Kdrama kind of thing, a couple of the women work in 'Room Salons' and the obsession with plastic surgery and appearance seems to rule their lives. Despite the sometimes grim subject matter this reads very quickly and feels almost 'light' I liked the insight into the glossy look of this particular society while under these women struggled to keep up with expectations and shame.

Thanks for the thread southeast! Bringing over my list although I feel it's embarrassingly short compared to some...

Queenie- Candice Carty-Williams
Small Things Like These- Claire Keegan
Burial Rites- Hannah Kent
The Marriage Portrait- Maggie O'Farrell
Mrs England- Stacey Halls
The Night Ship- Jess Kidd
Circling the Sun- Paula McLain

Currently reading This Time Tomorrow by Emma Straub and Mary Jane by Jessica Anya Blau (audiobook).

I'll be interested to see what you think about Anatomy and Starve Acre in particular. I haven't read the latter, but do wonder if it might be worth a read.

Please could I join? I never thought I would manage to read 50 books a year, but am ill and spend a lot of time in bed. Currently read 29 books so far this year. Feel very grateful as a lot of people with my condition get double vision but I have been spared that !

Very grateful to someone local who set up a free book exchange on Facebook so I pick up (and give away) a lot of books that way.

Please could I join? I never thought I would manage to read 50 books a year, but am ill and spend a lot of time in bed. Currently read 29 books so far this year. Feel very grateful as a lot of people with my condition get double vision but I have been spared that !

Very grateful to someone local who set up a free book exchange on Facebook so I pick up (and give away) a lot of books that way.

Snap, @SweetSakura. I spend a lot of time bedridden too. I'm so sorry. ❤️ I know how horrible it is 💋

Welcome SweetSakura! Looking forward to the book chat :)
I hope you feel better soon CrunchCrisps.

Welcome @SweetSakura

Any highlights so far?

Thanks, this made me laugh

42. Burntcoat by Sarah Hall

A couple of people recommended this last year. I'm sorry I can't remember who. Read this last night.

Following a more exaggerated, scarier pandemic than our own, artist Edith reflects back upon her life.

This is short but absorbing and beautifully written. A bold.

Welcome @SweetSakura I hope that reading at least brings you and @ICrunchCrispsNotNumbers a distraction when you are feeling poorly.

On the question of buying books I'm similar to Eine I find it hard to resist when a book I want is only 99p, and there are a lot as I have a specific wish list for Mumsnet recommendations, along with my other lists! And again similar to Eine books are my one vice, and as I only really buy kindle books, and 99p ones at that I'm not going to feel too bad about it. That said my TBR is in the high hundreds (the vast majority on kindle but building up a bit of an audible backlog too) and might actually have hit 4 figures, it never goes down because I buy so many and also revisit old favourites too.

@MamaNewtNewt

I feel less bad now. TBR is still in low hundreds, even with paperback and audio. They say if you have a thousand you have a library though, so there's that to boast about.

@JaninaDuszejko Those are the only two authors on the International Booker list I've heard of as well! I really enjoyed Death and the Penguin last year.

And Maryse Condé is someone I rate highly; her 1989 novel Traversée de la Mangrove (Crossing the Mangrove) was added to the 1st year French syllabus at my uni last year, so I teach it now (although I fear a bit ineptly!). That novel has a big cast of characters whose stories are told in short chapters that intersect with one another (like the crisscrossing roots of the mangrove swamp). I'm kind of amazed that she has a new novel out; she's 86! And she has been married since 1982 to the English translator of her novels, Richard Philcox, which I find really sweet.

I differ from lots of you on here, I think. My 'To read' pile is never more than around ten, and often quite a few less. Currently I'm reading one non-fiction; have got 2 novels waiting for me on Kindle and three non-fiction real books.