50 Books Challenge 2023 Part Five

[Southeastdweller]

Welcome to the fifth 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, the third one here here and the fourth one here.

What are you reading?

Not the fashion designer.

32 Notes From An Island - Tove Jansson and Tuulikki Pietila

An absolutely beautiful little book, sharing vignettes and magical illustrations from the tiny island in the Gulf of Finland where the Moomins author and her artist partner spent summers for decades. If this doesn’t make you want to go off and build your own cabin to live in the middle of the sea then nothing will.

28. Breaking Dawn by Stephanie Meyer Not much to say except I've finished the series. This was too long and hugely anti-climactic

@MegBusset @Gingerwarthog

My Mr B was Free by Lea Ypi

Lucky you, it's a great book!

Ooooo

Getting Better by Michael Rosen MR writes about various tragedies from his life and family, and explores the lessons he has taken from them to help face life again. The book was only published this year so it includes his recent debilitating experience of Covid. I like Michael Rosen and he writes with a very accessible style, although I did sometimes find this a little too "chatty".

Innocence by Penelope Fitzgerald Another Good Read from Penelope Fitzgerald. Set in 1950s Florence, the novel centres on the Ridolfi family and in particular the young daughter, Chiara. This had elements that reminded me of The Leopard and an eccentric first chapter giving the history of the family that had echoes of one of the stories in Chrome Yellow. I love PF's writing, which combines insightful social commentary with witty (and sometimes bizarre) asides.

Penguin Modern Classics Book by Henry Eliot This is the most fabulous book for anyone who loves Penguin Modern Classics! It lists every title that has been published in the series (1,800) with a brief synopsis and wonderful pictures of the covers - some current and some from previous editions. One for dipping into but very dangerous for spiralling wishlists!

The Gift of a Radio Thanks to boiledegg and others who recommended this memoir of childhood by the broadcaster Justin Webb. Webb grew up with his mother and, for most of his childhood, a stepfather who had paranoid delusions. The book is effortless to read and really interesting. His mother and the mother/son relationship are vividly drawn - his mother really was an incorrigible snob which was particularly fascinating to read about as we have a few in our extended family, though in a lower stratum - Webb’s mother enjoyed her superiority over the sort of people who, like my mother, would insist on ‘pardon’ rather than ‘what’. I particularly enjoyed the first half or so of the book about their home life, less so when it moved on to his brutal experience of boarding school (not in the sense of abuse by adults but horrific bullying was rife between the boys and totally unchecked by the adults). Really interesting about the experience of the 1970s, and how Webb relates his own self-belief and success to having been ‘the apple of [his mother’s] eye’ even when their circumstances were otherwise very difficult.

26 A Hat Full of Sky - Terry Pratchett (read to the DDs) Another fantastic YA Discworld book in the Tiffany Aching sub-series. I love these books, and my DDs loved this one too, despite the fact that our reading of it was very bitty as we had long breaks where we watched Doctor Who instead of having a bedtime story. It follows the now 11-year-old Tiffany as she develops her skills as a witch, with all the wit and folk wisdom that is a hallmark of Pratchett’s books. I think the Tiffany books are a good a place as any to start dipping into Discworld; I’m going to read Equal Rites to the DDs next in the hope that I can get them fully hooked.

And now for Eurovision semifinal 1…😄

Half way through My Father’s House and still very bored.

72. Swan Dive by Georgina Pazcoguin

This is a memoir of a New York City Ballet veteran

I'm a bit of a shoulda/woulda/coulda dancer and expected to like this a lot. It wasn't to be. Another world and not a particularly nice one. There's a lot of toxicity in ballet and I felt some of this was not rebelled against as the "rogue ballerina" tagline suggests but internalised toxicity, eg like part of her agrees the culture should be this way because she stays; because she's a size 6 and getting lipo.

I didn't really get much from this other than distaste.

33 Killers Of The Flower Moon - David Grann

Bit disappointed in this, which is currently being made into a Scorsese film. There’s a fascinating and harrowing story in there - the murder of dozens of Osage native Americans in the 1920s and 30s for the oil headrights they owned on their land. But somehow this book didn’t have much emotional weight for me - or the level of detail I was expecting about the “birth of the FBI” which is promised in its subtitle.

@EineReiseDurchDieZeit
That looks great.
I've asked them to include some non- fiction next time for me (inspired by your selections).

I've just read this and, although I quite liked it, I know what you mean. There's something faintly... dull and dour? about it.
I enjoyed the scenes set in the choir rehearsals; that was the most human element, I think. I liked some of the characters too, more so as it went on and they grew on me/became more defined.

Thanks. I'm going to put it aside for a few days. I'm half way through and very little has actually happened. It's all back story - boring backstory! I'm not warming to the character of the priest either. I just don't think the writer is bringing him to life other than in the early scene where he visited the camp.

38. The Reason I Jump by Naoki Higashida translated by KA Yoshida & David Mitchell

This book was written when the author was just 13 years old. He’s autistic and non- verbal, and talks in the book about his experiences of being autistic. It’s a short book and very readable.

My Mr B’s has arrived :) Viper’s Dream by Jake Lamar. (Totally outing if any Mr B’s staff peruse this thread!)

Looks like a nice slice of neo noir which I’m looking forward to reading. Just started Hemlock And After (thanks, Backlisted) and had a notification that Cuddy is in for me at the library.

@MegBusset
That looks good too.
Will let you know about Less shortly.

36. Ogres by Adrian Tchaikovsky
    Short novella / long short story by the #teamspider chap, (currently on 99p offer - I've been waiting for it to be on for cheap). Ogres are bigger & stronger than people, and they rule the world. It's always been that way, & villagers have no choice but to accept it. Except that one villager, Torquell, does fight back - hitting the landlord's son. A whole series of consequences follow on from his moment of rebellion. Good read, though not as developed as Dogs of War et al.

37. The Magnificant Mrs Mayhew by Milly Johnson
    Sophie Mayhew is the wife of a wandering politician, expected to play the loyal and understanding spouse for the cameras. Except that when it comes to the doorstep scene with reporters, she can't go through with it. Escaping her less than sympathetic family, she finds a new life back in Yorkshire where she spent her boarding school days.
    
    I like MJ's books - they're fluffy romances, but they're written (thank the lord) in the 3rd person, generally feature older protagonists than the standard chicklit 20-something, and they're easy pleasant reads when I want something undemanding.

25. Giver of Stars by JoJo Moyes

I bought this after a mumsnet thread of books you were sad had to end and it didn't disappoint.

It took me a while to pick it up as I don't like period books as a rule (we've talked about it loads on here before my English GCSE texts ruined me for anything not modern). I am slowly but surely proving to myself I can read books in a historical setting, they just have to be good!

I'm sure this has been widely read, but it's about a travelling library in Kentucky where ladies go out on horseback to deliver and collect the books. There's also a huge dose of feminism as the women push against the boundaries imposed on them. I loved it and might need a pause before I move on as I am sure whatever I read next is not going to be such a good story.

17. Excellent Women , Barbara Pym Thanks to @JaninaDuszejko and @TimeforaGandT for their reviews of this. I'd never heard of Pym before reading these threads, but i enjoyed this glimpse into the postwar world of an unmarried women. It's very easy to read and I finished it in a couple of days. Told in the first person, Mildred reveals the everyday details of her life in a nondescript London suburb. Capable and self-sufficient Mildred's life revolves around the local church, but expands (ever so slightly) when a new couple move into the neighbouring flat. Not much happens, but I enjoyed Mildred's voice and observations on her friends & acquaintances. There is gentle humour and also sadness.

73. Booth by Karen Joy Fowler

This book isn't so much about John Wilkes Booth, the killer of Abraham Lincoln as it is a portrait of the family and time he came from. The characters are his brother Edwin, a celebrated actor and sisters Rosalie and Asia with "Johnny" appearing as a side character who moves in and out of their lives.

I binged this, I absolutely wolfed it down. Yes, a lot of licence has been taken and the author admits it, but it was right up my street.

Regulars to the thread will know that I am firmly in the naysayers came when it came to Maggie O'Farrell's Hamnet, yet strangely Booth really reminded me of it in the way it was written, and yet I loved this it's definite bold. I read it almost too quickly to properly enjoy it.

I'll leave it up to the Hamnet lovers and haters to decide where they stand and whether they agree.

I know someone else or maybe 2 people have read it, Remus if you haven't read it try a sample.

That’s interesting @EineReiseDurchDieZeit - I liked Booth (had some reservations but it was definitely one of the better things I read last year) but have been put off Hamnet for some reason. Perhaps I’ll give it a go.

Thanks @EineReiseDurchDieZeit Getting the sample now.

Are the tenses (which appear to be all over the place) going to be bearable?