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?

Children of Paradise by Camilla Grudova

I am clearly out of step with everyone else in this thread as I think it’s been universally liked until now but I thought this was terrible. I have no idea how it got nominated for a prize! It was just weird and I felt really dirty after reading it. However I’m not really a film fan so maybe there’s some deeper significance to it all that I just didn’t get. I would have given up but given how much everyone else has liked it I stuck with it as I thought it would get better. It got worse.

Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver

Someone upthread (I think cassandre) said they were admiring it rather than loving it and that’s exactly how I felt. I did enjoy looking for the David Copperfield parallels (although I was very disappointed that Demon’s grandmother didn’t run out of her house shouting ‘Janet! Donkeys!’) but otherwise I found this a bit of a slog. It was well written but I just didn’t get that engaged with the story or the characters.

@DuPainDuVinDuFromage this sounds great. Will add Femina to my wishlist.

On a sort of, but not really, similar note I listened to a podcast last night on which Kate Mosse was discussing her book - has anyone read it? It sounded quite interesting but she’s not a writer I’ve got on with much when it comes to fiction, so just wondered whether anyone could recommend/ not?

Good morning all, hope our poorly people are having a better day.

22 - House of Glass - Hadley Freeman
Beautiful book which I sobbed at in various places. Have bought a copy for my Mum for Mother's Day. Recommended, although I think I was late to the party with this one and everyone else on the thread has read it.

23 - Sea of Memories - Fiona Valpy
I've mentioned before that I love Fiona Valpy's writing. This book follows a familiar route. Granddaughter in the current day (2014) in Edinburgh finds out what her grandmother was up to in 1938 and 1939 in France and then at various points, flitting between Edinburgh, Argyll and France in the 1940s and 1970s. Granddaughter has problems off her own and works them out with the help of Granny's wisdom. Recommended.

I probably could have done with a break in between the two books, due to much sobbing at both. Feel the need to read some Chalet School nonsense before I tackle anything. Or something light and fluffy from my TBR kindle list.

You all read much more high brow books than me.
I'm just starting lying in wait liz nugent. it'scertainly different.* *

@ChessieFL I'm another one going against the grain to say I didn't like Demon Copperhead it was a DNF for me (loved The Poisonwood Bible)
@Tarragon123 a light read to palette cleanse is often needed. I've had Shuggie Bain on my TBR pile for ever but can't face it after Young Mungo also by John Boyne
On the subject of misery (and nudity),* I see that James Norton is currently in a stage version of A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara* which was a much debated book on this thread in the past. The play runs to 3 hours 40 minutes with a thankful interval after 2 hours (with many walk outs)! Some unsuspecting ticket buyers who thought it would be nice to get a butcher's of JN's bum got a shock at the content.
You couldn't pay me to go through watching the play (after plodding through the seemingly never ending misery porn in the book).
lithub.com/nudity-and-misery-reviews-of-a-little-life-on-stage-are-in/

Sorry for my mistake Shuggie Bain and Young Mungo are by Douglas Stuart of course, not John Boyne -Apologies, brain not good for smart making this morning.

I agree @SapatSea , not even for James Norton in the nude could I sit through that misery ridden play.

@Itsgottobeme I have a few Liz Nugent’s on my kindle but haven’t got around to them yet. Would love to hear how you get on. My mum is currently reading her new one and says it’s brilliant.

I've just started reading House of Glass this morning. Already fascinated after just a few pages. * *

@AliasGrape I’ve got the Kate Mosse book on its way from the library in a few weeks, so can’t tell you anything about it yet I’m afraid! I’ve given it to my mum for Mother’s Day, so fingers crossed it’s good…

Just finished Be Good, Love Brian, Craig Bromfield's extraordinary memoir of being taken in as a deprived, abused and neglected boy from Sunderland by Brian Clough after an almost chance meeting. It's one of those so bizarre you'd think it was made up if it wasn't true stories.

Not as well written as I'd hope, though, given its accolades. It jumps about a bit. I have literally no idea what the bike ride in the final chapter was for or about!

But what an incredible family the Cloughs were!

@AliasGrape, I have a lot of time for Kate Mosse as a person, especially having listened to her talk about giving up writing for a time to care for her eldderly parents and MIL. She also discusses other writers very well. Like you, I don't love her fiction though. Perhaps this new book will work better.

@Piggywaspushed, I'm old enough to remember Brian Clough and his amazing success with Nottingham Forest. I always found him entertaining, with an arrogant attitude comparable to Jose Mourinho but - I always suspected - more tongue-in-cheek. It was sad to see him losing his sharpness when alcohol got a grip on his life. So great to hear about what he and his family did for those two boys. I think I need to read this book.
Another lovely story, dramatised beautifully a few years ago, is that of Lou Macari and Neil Baldwin in Marvellous. Neil, who had a learning disability, became the mascot and kit man for Stoke City when Macari was manager, having waited outside alone in pouring rain to welcome the new manager on his first day in the job. They stayed good friends and Neil was an important part of the club for many years. Lovely heartwarming drama; I recommend it.

@ChessieFL I started Children of Paradise and hated it, so it was a DNF. The first person narration just wasn't working for me.

I'll hunt that one down highlandcoo!

Do you have a https://go.skimresources.com/?id=470X756&isjs=1&jv=15.3.0-stackpath&sref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.mumsnet.com%2Ftalk%2Fwhat_were_reading%2F4763573-50-books-challenge-2023-part-four%3Fpage%3D2%26reply%3D124717930&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.globaleducationaltrust.org%2F&xs=1&xtz=0&xuuid=ca8e19ad417ab1669fc8e1c179a06211&xjsf=other_click__touchstart%20%5B%5D&cci=cb233fd74b9b2a4e1400a4458cff66d8 GET free books bookshop nearby? Might be a way of building your own home library.

Not sure what happened with that link sorry. GET free books

You definitely made the right choice Remus.

@Piggywaspushed

Interested to read that. I thought The Damned United by David Peace was brilliant

Yes, which of course the Cloughs hated. They tried to sue, if I remember right.

Oooi didn't know that

21 The Ship Beneath The Ice - Mensun Bound

A potentially interesting story (the search for the wreck of the Endurance) rather let down by a lot of fairly tedious detail about the modern voyages. It was more successful in bringing to life the voices and experiences of those who sailed with Shackleton. One for polar completists only.

My husband is a Lees fan so I bought him The Damned United a few years ago, might have to purloin that for a read. MOT ALAW 😉

Leeds not Lees!

Thanks @DuPainDuVinDuFromage you prompted me to check Borrowbox and it’s actually there - not sure why I assumed otherwise, so have reserved it.

Yes @highlandcoo she spoke really well on the podcast I listened to (was a History Extra one). I remember finishing Labrynth and didn’t dislike it - was ages ago so don’t remember much, but didn’t finish at least one of her others, maybe two.

Hope your mum enjoys it!

I just realised I didn’t actually mention which book I was referring to so thank you both for following my tangent 😀Warrior Queens & Quiet Revolutionaries: How Women (Also) Built the World

[Arrives very late, panting] Thank you for the 'new' thread @Southeastdweller and I hope you're ok.

10. The Premonitions Bureau by Sam Knight
My first bold of the year, I thought this was cracking good stuff. I'm almost reluctant to write much about it as it was a book club choice and I'd forgotten the brief discussion about it when we chose it - I think being plunged into its weird aspects without a clue what it was helped me love it. I'm a woman born in the 60s with a love of stories of that era, and an interest in medical history too. There, that's all I'm going to give it! Recommended.

Ah @SapatSea I have tickets to A Little Life, spurred by the people I am going with as I have not read the book yet, though I do know enough to know what I am letting myself in for. I usually go to the theatre alone so this is an accommodation for me, though I am interested to see what they do with it, given the content 😁

The Pear Field, by Nana Ekvtimishvili and trans by Elizabeth Heighway
I'm increasingly interested in literature from or set in Southern Europe through to Central Asia. I cannot remember how I own this, but suspect it was a 99p deal and was also nominated for the International Booker last year. I couldn't enjoy this since it is bleak but I admire it and it was a really good read. It is set in Tbilisi some time after the fall of the Soviet Union, in a 'School for Idiots' and the surrounding area. Not a great deal happens, but we follow Lela and the book slowly and in a rather banal way takes us through some horrific things - violence, child abuse, western 'saviourism' and much besides. The opening chapter was astounding in my opinion and knocked me a little, where I had to take a break and just stare at the wall. There is no sentimentalism, no sensationalism. The things that Lela does or are done to her she takes very much in her stride, they are a means to an end, and just part of her day to day existence.

I'd really love any recommendations if you have them of books either set around this region (I know SE to Central Asia is vast) or better books in translation. Has anyone engaged with Periene Press (who published this), they publish 3 translated novellas a year and off the back of this I am thinking of subscribing.