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?

The Lost Wife by Susanna Moore The only thing I liked about this was the cover. It has an interesting premise- a young woman escapes her abusive husband who her mother pimped her out to and ends up living amongst a First Nation tribe in American as massacres are happening. Could have been good but suffers from the stinkiest, worst prose I have suffered in a long time. So dull and expository.

Alchemy - SJ Parris A new Giordano Bruno mystery ( out in July I think). Walsingham has sent Bruno to Prague to search for Dr.Dee but when a renowned Alchemist is murdered, the Holy Roman Emperor tasks Bruno with tracking down the murderer. This was enjoyable but the pacing was slower than the earlier stories.

Nothing ruined Eine 🙂- I just think Some Tame Gazelle was just a step too far into the world of Pym for me. Excellent Women still remains a thumbs up though.
@SapatSea - I have to admit that when I started I wondered what on earth the title was about & how gazelles could have anything to do with things 😳. It was later revealed to be a line of poetry. I have to admit that a lot of the literary references were lost on me.

Started Transcendent Kingdom now, so rather a different mood. * *

Ps - wish there was an edit button. I seem incapable of posting without at least 3 typos.

Deals:

99p

The Escape Artist
Either/Or
We Had To Remove This Post

2.59

A Swim In The Pond In The Rain
Brother Of The More Famous Jack

Thanks, I’ve bought The escape artist.

I really loved Transcendent Kingdom @Owlbookend, I hope you enjoy it.

That reminds me that I bought Transcendent Kingdom in hardback as I loved Homegoing. The green and pink cover matches my bedroom decor perfectly so it’s sat there ever since and I’ve forgotten about actually reading it!

@PepeLePew I think I would have felt the same about Are You There God if I'd read it at that age, and I think it does still have relevance to girls today. Puberty and anxiety about developing bodies are still the same, even if the world's a bit different now.
I hope you and your daughter enjoy the film!

@Stokey That Judy Blume documentary sounds good, will have to look into it. Thanks for mentioning it!

FINALLY finished book 23 after about three weeks.

Colour of Magic by Terry Pratchett.

I went into this well armed as not being the best writing. This was true. I loved every concept. I love the magic and the world building and the creativity. It makes me feel warm and fuzzy and cosy inside that people exist (or who have existed) who are as clever and creative as this. But it was a plot mess. I had no idea what was happening for huge sections. Frustrating that it took so long as frankly I got distracted by other stuff rather than read as there simply was no plot. It was like a draft of lots of amazing concepts.

anyway. I have thrown caution to the wind and gone right into yet another Troy/Greek Myth with Madeline Miller’s song of Achilles. I knew I would. It was utterly inevitable and I didn’t even fight it when the advert popped up. I know I am going to love this if only because frankly I have read so many variations of the same story I now essentially tell it in my own head. Onwards and upwards and off to catch up on roughly 12 pages of thread.

14.Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks

This is a fictious account based on the true story of 'the plague village' Eyem in the Peak District during the Great Plague from Spring 1666 and told from the perspective of a maid (Anna Frith) who works for the rector and his wife. When the plague is brought to the village in a box of cloth from London the rector asks the villagers to strictly quarantine within a boundary line to stop the spread of the disease, which they agree to do. The author details the claustrophobic atmosphere of fear and hysteria but also sacrifice and love and sometimes the plain mundanity of life at this time. It also shows how it brings out different aspects of people's character good and bad. However, bit of an odd ending.

@Mothership4two I loved Year of Wonders but the ending was a complete WTF!

@SapatSea I'm a big Giordano Bruno fan so thanks for the heads up about the new book. Will add it to the list!

I read Year of Wonders years ago and really liked it. I can’t remember the ending though!

Just read the plot summary on Wiki. It makes the whole novel sound utterly bonkers!

Book #26 Heresey SJ Paris an excommunicated monk goes to Oxford with a secret mission to spy on Catholics in the rein of Elizabeth I. Stumbles on, and is asked to investigate, a series of seemingly religiously motivated murders. Brother Cadfael meets Wolf Hall.

Morning all! Been awol with end of school year and very little reading but am going to treat myself to catching up with you all today AND going through the monthly deals.

Will quickly add the only 3 books I've managed to complete in my absence.

20 The Full English - Stuart Maconie

Not much to say other than another lovely lovely book by my favourite non-fiction, non-heavy writer. King Bryson gives way to King Maconie. Love him.

21 Queen of our Times Robert Hardman

Biography of the late QE2. I enjoyed this quite a lot. Well written and I learnt a lot about the RF in general. I'm never going to sit on a deckchair on the Mall, but nor do I think it's cool to hate people because of their undoubted privilege. He's clearly a royalist (probably an authorised biographer?)

22 The Long Road from Jarrow Stuart Maconie

A re-read and the only one of his I'd not previously re-read. Not my favourite to be honest, despite the subject matter (socialist and social history etc) being right up my street. I don't think he engages with it and makes the connections that he does in his less overtly "political" meanderings strangely. He's a writer who associates places with events and people, past and present, and he just didn't seem to manage it as well with this one. I think mainly because although he retraced the marchers' steps, he hardly found anyone on the way who knew anything about it or related in any way to it, and he didn't seem particularly sympathetic himself to them, beyond a "they were terribly poor and starving and treated badly and Red Ellen kept leaving them to go off to conferences" That said, my love for him remains unabated.

Am now relaxing for a bit with mindless crime. 😂

I could do with some mindless crime. I tried the Australian one, but thought it was badly written.

Just picked up My Dark Vanessa for 99p. I'm a year or so behind everyone else but I'm looking forward to reading it at some point, am sure this one had great reviews.

Travelling today so lots of airport and plane time and hoping to make headway into Nervous Conditions and Becoming A Productivity Ninja both of which I am reading right now.

Hello all! Catching up on the thread and admiring the very cute puppy and kitten photos 😍😍

Recent reads were The Secret Countess by Eva Ibbotson and The Feast by Margaret Kennedy.

I really enjoyed both. Countess was a lovely, gentle and engaging read set in the years following world war one, where the heroine, Anna Grazinsky, a former Russian aristocrat, works as a servant in a big house and falls in love with her employer, the Earl of Westerholme. It's almost a reworking of Cinderella where the heroine goes through hard times but everything works out for the best and you can't help but feel satisfied when people get their just rewards. I also found it an excellent portrayal of the post war era.

In a similar way, The Feast is a kind of morality tale. It is known at the beginning that seven guests perish in a hotel in Cornwall when the building is submerged under a falling cliff. It becomes clear in the course of the story which of the guests' lives may be saved as seven of them represent the seven deadly sins, although one or two lives hang in the balance and it's not entirely clear until the end. I thought there was a wonderful air of menace in this book which reminded me of the writing of Agatha Christie. Excellent characterisation made it a very satisfying read.

Caught up!

@eitak22 and @ICrunchCrispsNotNumbers Congrats!
@TattiePants I was given The English Patient when it came out and have paragraphs highlighted and copied into notebooks of beautiful words. I bloody hated it. Yawn yawny yawnio. Weird isn't it? Beautiful words, bad storytelling? Dunno. I know I'd never read it again and have no desire to watch the film.
@LadybirdDaphne Your Sharon Penman is my absolute favourite of hers, love it.
@EineReiseDurchDieZeit Love your rant about Pym. and @RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie on Sayers. I know I'd hate both so have never tried not to. You two do tend to be my "what would Keanu Reeves do" benchmark on whether I'd like a book or not. That said, I DNF "Into the Wild" as I couldn't be done with reading about such an irresponsible idiot (on the face of it) and the whole thing read like some sort of "reporter standing by the wayside with sadface looking at the spot where CM disappeared" sort of Channel 5 shockdoc. @MarkWithaC the cold chickens and legs of lamb with rosemary and new potatoes and desserts invariably involving raspberries are my favourite bits of Rosamund Pilcher too! I don't feel Pym would be the same tbh.
@Midnightstar76 Loving the puppy pics! @Sadik and the kitten!
@MathsNervous welcome! I abandoned 1979 as I think Val M has really gone off the boil since her earlier stuff and I was humphing about how badly written and crime by numbers meets Red Riding (wannabe) meets Ashes to Ashes meets Tennison. I have enjoyed all Tracey Chevalier's books that I've read. Interesting women, doing interesting, gentle things.
@ABookWyrm I started the HPs on Audible but had to stop because of Stephen Fry's bizarrely placed pauses and dreadful (and a tad stereotypical I thought) voicing of Hermione.

Phew, that's me caught up. Am going into the deals now!

and the whole thing read like some sort of "reporter standing by the wayside with sadface

Well, now you put it like that Solly

You will have missed the very tedious section where he recounts his own irresponsible feats and therefore relates.

Are they remotely the same?

Nope

Oh, The English Patient is a GLORIOUS film.

I hated the book,too, but have liked other Ondaatjes.

The English Patient is one of those rare examples of better film than book.

I remember enjoying Year of Wonders and was curious about the comments above. Looking at the plot summary on Wiki, I think someone is having a laugh. It's very different from the novel I read!

Would someone else who's read it be prepared to have a look and see if I'm imagining things?

Funnily enough, I've just started reading The English Patient as it's my book group discussion book this month. I saw and enjoyed the film years ago but my memory's very hazy. I've only read a few pages and it's low down a big pile of books (discussion is towards the end of the month). So far I don't hate it. Previously I've read a book by Michael Ondaatje set on board a ship.

21. Transcendent Kingdom Yaa Gyasi Third and final holiday read and another hit. @Tarahumara - I enjoyed it too. * *Gifty, a neuroscientist, tells the story of her life as the daughter of a Ghanaian mother who emigrated to Alabama. The story of her childhood is intertwined with her thoughts on her research. Her brother became an opioid addict and her thesis is examining the neural basis of addiction. She reflects on the nature of addiction and how much science and religion can answer our questions. I am not at all religious and mine and Gifty's views were not always aligned, but this didn't in any way detract from my enjoyment. The mundane and incremental nature of science was well portrayed and is an integral part of the novel. I liked the inner monologue and Gifty grappling with her thoughts. The subject matter and structure really drew me into her world.