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?

@BoldFearlessGirl thanks, good to know, I'll stick with him then. I've got The Perfect Golden Circle on my list. I just found this one hard work and too masculine for my taste. Happy to try something new but also glad to say goodbye. Found in a NT bookshop down south, I guess whoever donated it couldn't see the appeal of sweary Yorkshiremen either.

@EineReiseDurchDieZeit I'm also on Lessons in Chemistry, underwhelmed so far.

34: Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont - Elizabeth Taylor

More thoughts over on the Rather Dated Bookclub thread but this novel of loneliness, old age and bravery was superb, hilarious and desperately sad. Definitely a bold.

26. New Moon by Stephanie Meyer Second book in the Twilight series, honestly my nieces had better appreciate the effort I'm putting in here because these books are painful reading as an adult. In this book Edward leaves Bella, who falls into a deep depression until Jacob manages to pull her out of her funk. Bella discovers that when she's in a dangerous situation she hears Edward's voice which drives her into more and more dangerous experiences. Meanwhile Jacob turns into a werewolf. Eventually Bella jumps off a cliff and nearly drowns, Alice sees this in a vision but is unable to "see" werewolves so doesn't see Jacob rescuing her. Edward believes Bella is dead so heads off to Italy to end his own existence

This is based on Romeo and Juliet if R & I had a happy ending. It's absolutely fine to base a book on a classic but I feel the effect is lost slightly when the author tells you the book is based on Romeo and Juliet on every 10th page. Meyer really needs to work on show don't tell and stop ramming the same point home again and again. The references have zero subtlety and are incredibly repetitive

Heads up for Kingsolver fans - the kindle daily deals is all about her today. Sadly, not Demon Copperhead though!

@RomanMum - I have only read The Offing by Benjamin Myers but loved it.

28. The It Girl - Ruth Ware

Previously reviewed by others. Beautiful, wealthy April is found murdered in her rooms at Pelham College, Oxford. Story follows her roommate, Hannah, during their first year together at the university and then ten years later moving between the “Before” and “After” the death. This was a page-turner but I found the group of friends unlikely - they just seemed too disparate.

Thanks @nowanearlyNicemum I picked up The Bean Trees and The Lacuna

I've trawled through the monthly deals and didn't find much at all. I think I was blinded by the likes of:

The
Smuggler’s / Taxidermist's / Bookbinder’s / Lobotomists’s (I kid you not!)
Daughter / Wife / Great Aunt Mildred

A short story, so I won’t add it to my list, but The Spendthrift And The Swallow by Ambrose Parry is new and free for Kindle, ahead of the next novel in the series. A pleasant little diversion.

Along with the Barbara Kingsolver’s I picked up:
Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie
The Histories Herodotus
An Ian Rankin
Devotion by Hannah Kent (I’m currently reading and enjoying Burial Rites)
The Feminist Mystique by Betty Friedman and We are the Dead by Mike Shackle.

I’m also considering Katherine by Anya Seton and The Journey of Humanity by Oded Galor. Would anyone have any advice on either?

I’ve bought:

Travellers in the Third Reich, Julia Boyd
Take my Hand, Dolen Perkins-Valdez
People Person, Candice Carty-Williams
The Whalebone Theatre, Joanna Quinn
The Echo Chamber, John Boyne

I’ll probably buy a couple of Barbara Kingsolvers but need to check which ones I already own.

I also spotted these which I’ve enjoyed:

Hons & Rebels, Jessica Mitford
Beneath a Scarlet Sky, Mark Sullivan
All the Young Men, Ruth Coker Burks
The Only Plane in the Sky, Garrett Graff
V for Victory, Lissa Evans
Trustee from the Toolroom, Nevil Shute

@BaruFisher I was also tempted by Devotion.

The only plane in the sky is excellent

I didn't see Devotion. Will go back in at some point!!

I won't look at the deals yet after the debacle of previous months recently when they didn't seem to get them all sorted until about the 2nd/3rd of the month. Unless you can all confirm they've done it properly this time in which case I'll go and buy loads more books to add to the TBR pile.

@EineReiseDurchDieZeit Excellent ranty review. My favourite kind!

Have added Melvyn Bragg to my wishlist.

Still savouring Stuart Maconie and trying to ration myself to an area a day. Have realised that a book I'm about a third through on the Kindle (Footprints or sth- that's how memorable it is folks!) is treading more or less the same route but is one of the most boring "then I went here and got a train there" ploddathons I've read. And I like geographical meanderings and wry observations a lot.

I've just bought Animal, Vegetable, Miracle Our year of seasonal rating by kingsolver. Non fiction, her family eating only seasonal food from their local area for a great, so very different from her novels but I enjoyed it a lot when I read it a few years back. Ironically I tried to buy a copy for a reread a month or so back & couldn't find it on Kindle at all then, so very happy to have it for 99p

Seasonal eating ffs

For a year
I either need not to post from my phone or to wear my reading glasses...

I have the same problem! My mum always used to say too much reading would damage my eyesight

I have just pretty much devoured trespasses which was highly readable and very good. I agree with all previous review. I don't like Michael much though - is that just me? I loved Davey, though.

I did notice several typos in my edition though! Ironically, I am good at spotting them...

Piggy I didn’t like Michael much either in Trespasses. I found it hard to believe in their relationship or that he gave a shit at all beyond having a girl young enough to be his daughter in his bed. I did really enjoy the Davey sun-plot though.

@Owlbookend I went to one of the launches that van Es did in London and he was incredibly impressive. I still haven’t got to the book though.

@BaruFisher - Katherine by Anya Seton is a long-standing favourite of mine having first read it when I was 15. If you like historical fiction then I would say go for it. Katherine led a fascinating life (her sister was married to Chaucer, she survived the Black Death and married the most powerful man in England).

I’m never actually convinced that I find the ‘right’ deals, but I’m going in

Thanks @TimeforaGandT that sounds great. I think I’ll go for it.

I think the deals have been loaded properly this time - they come out in the right order if you sort by price, unlike in previous months. I have gone a bit mad and bought tons:

number9dream, which I missed the first time round
Flaneuse, "women walking in Paris, New York, Tokyo, Venice and London
Big Red, "a novel starring Rita Hayworth and Orson Welles"
She Speaks, a book of women's speeches edited by Yvette Cooper
Emergency by Daisy Hildyard - no idea really, but it's published by Fitzcarraldo Editions so it should be interesting
Languages of Truth, essays by Salman Rushdie

@BoldFearlessGirl Thank you for the heads up on the Ambrose Parry short story. I need to read the earlier books first (I think I have read one and two so far) but I love this series.