50 Books Challenge 2023 Part Six

[Southeastdweller]

Welcome to the sixth 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, the fourth one here and the fifth one: https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/what_were_reading/4793238-50-books-challenge-2023-part-five?page=20&reply=126860721

What are you reading?

30. Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep by Philip K Dick

I found myself not eager to pick this up and in all honesty half wish I hadn't bothered.

It's set in the future when dust has covered the earth and killed a lot of life. There's also androids barely distinguishable from humans, and the main character Rick is a bounty hunter searching them. All the characters are two dimensional. I don't feel I get to know them at all. One of them abruptly declares love for someone he has spent approximately five minutes in their company.

The best bits are the extreme high regard for animals and how it's most humans main goal to to be able to own a real one. I found them quite funny but not sure that was the point. Rick purchases an animal with part of his bounty and picks a goat. Why a goat? I'd love to know about that thought process, goats aren't particularly appealing and how will he keep it from wandering off? I'll have to make up my own answers.

One book read, three books purchased....

Lots of Mike Gayle books are 99p today, I've just bought three. For some reason it's all pre order for 6th July but never mind. I won't rush to read them, I am intending them as palate cleansers. I loved My Legendary Girlfriend when it first came out, and although it didn't stand up well to a re-read and I don't feel as strongly about his other books I'll still enjoy the stories I think.

Also 99p today are the books in The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo trilogy. I might just buy these as well to be honest. I am sure I did own them in paperback but suspect they went to charity shop (I have a reasonably strict one in one out policy for real life books). Sod it, I will buy them. I do think I will read them again, and maybe watch the original films with subtitles.

Sad Cypress by Agatha Christie
A Poirot I hadn’t come across before. It was readable enough. Two totally unnecessary throwaway racist comments made me wince a bit, and Poirot wasn’t in it as much as I might have liked, but it was otherwise fine. Not one that might merit a re-read.

Birthday book haul with The Marriage Portrait to follow when it comes out in paperback next week. What to read first?

Happy Birthday @TattiePants enjoy your day! That's a lovely pile of books 📚

Excellent book haul @TattiePants - Happy birthday!!!
They are all on my TBR list but the only one I've actually read is Olive - massive Strout fan here.

Good haul Tattie -

Ah, lost the rest of my message! Happy birthday. I’ve read three of those (Kingsolver, Atkinson and the Mitfords) and they’re all good.

Happy birthday @TattiePants I enjoyed Demon but loved Olive- it’s definitely in my top 5 this year and maybe top 10 of all time! Will be interested to hear what you think of Shrines- I’ve loved any Kate Atkinson I’ve read.

Thanks for the birthday wishes. I think I’ll make a start on Olive today, not least ‘cause it’s short! I’m too hot to read anything too long or that I have to really concentrate on.

@nowanearlyNicemum I’ve loved the Lucy Barton books so hopefully Olive will be just as good. I’d also asked for the 4th Lucy book without realising it doesn’t come out till September so I have that to look forward to too.

@BaruFisher I’m looking forward to Shrines as I’ve been patiently waiting for it to come out in paperback. I’ve liked nearly all of her books but didn’t get on with Human Croquet or Not the End of the World (short stories). I see she’s got another book of short stories coming out in August.

Happy Birthday @TattiePants. Looks like a brilliant book haul - enjoy!

Happy birthday Tattie - I've only read South Riding and Demon from that pile, but both excellent books.

46. People Hacker by Jenny Radcliffe
    I'm always interested in books about social engineering (the people side of hacking, as per the title), cold reading etc. This is a good read from a Liverpudlian woman who has worked as a security penetration tester over many years focusing on physical breaking and entering. I listened to it on Audible read by the author, & liked it a lot.

47. Beyond the Wand by Tom Felton
    Celeb autobiography by the actor who played Draco Malfoy in the Potter films. Though I've only seen the first one I like books about film making, so was happy to pick this up in the library. Short but good, no dramatic revelations but lots of fun anecdotes about the famous names who worked alongside the child actors. I hadn't known that Rik Mayall had been filmed as Peeves, then cut out of the final film. (I also hadn't known that TF had addiction problems, which he talks about briefly towards the end of the book, but hopefully from his description he's recovered & has sorted his life out.)

48. The Cliff House by Chris Brookmyre
    So, here's the summary:
    "Jen's hen party is going to be out of control... She's rented a luxury getaway on its own private island. The helicopter won't be back for seventy-two hours. They are alone. They think. As well as Jen, there's the pop diva and the estranged ex-bandmate, the tennis pro and the fashion guru, the embittered ex-sister-in-law and the mouthy future sister-in-law. It's a combustible cocktail, one that takes little time to ignite, and in the midst of the drunken chaos, one of them disappears. Then a message tells them that unless someone confesses her terrible secret to the others, their missing friend will be killed.Problem is, everybody has a secret. And nobody wants to tell."

Obviously, there's a certain similarity here to Lucy Foley's set-ups. I like to think that CB read her books, got irritated by the rather shit endings, and wrote this out of grumpiness to show how it should be done.

Adding my happy birthday wishes, @TattiePants

Happy birthday @TattiePants - what a very pleasing pile of books!

I've read and very much enjoyed Demon Shrines South Riding and Olive and heard good things about the other two so lots of great reading ahead.

Btw was it you who commented earlier about not loving My Brilliant Friend? I read it years ago and felt it wasn't as good as everyone seemed to be saying. I should have loved it - Italy, female friendship, a family saga - and I was so sure I'd enjoy it I'd bought the first three in the series. I spent the whole of MBF waiting to care about the characters but ended up giving books 2 and 3 away as I just couldn't be bothered. I realise I'm in a tiny minority here ..

Now my book group is reading it and I'm having another go and still not loving it. I suspect it's the translation that I'm finding clunky. Will press on ..

@Sadik I'm a big Chris Brookmyre fan; also when he writes as Ambrose Parry alongside his wife. I didn't realise he had a new book out so thanks for the heads-up.

@highlandcoo yes I felt exactly the same as you about My Brilliant Friend. On paper it’s exactly my kind of book but I just couldn’t warm to it. I may read it again in the future so I can read the second book but I’m in no hurry. I tried watching the TV series but that didn’t grab me either.

I’m with you on MBF highland. In fact I think if I remember rightly I didn’t even finish it because I was bored.

Happy birthday Tattie Excellent Haul, couple of top choices there!

I DNFd MBF recently but I did intend to go back as I just wasn't in the mood

Happy birthday @TattiePants

I didn't get on with MBF at all. Dull as.

Book 50 Big Little Lies by Loans Moriarty, just what I needed this weekend, sitting in the garden too hot to concentrate on anything too heavy. This was a real page turner that I got to years after everyone else has already read it.

happy birthday @TattiePants

Happy Birthday Tattie glad to see you got what any right minded person wants on their birthday - lots of books!

78. Midnight in Chernobyl by Adam Higginbottom

An examination of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. I found this fascinating and absolutely terrifying. The historical context, and how the set up and stagnation of the USSR contributed to the disaster, was really interesting. I preferred the first section on the accident itself, and felt that the clean up section dragged a little. Definitely recommended, but buckle up for a ride through rivers of laziness, incompetence, stupidity, paranoia, lies, and breathtaking arrogance that cost the lives of 1000s of people (well 31 if you listen to the Soviets).

Happy birthday @TattiePants - a good haul and I love the statue too!

36. A Room with a View - EM Forster

A classic which I had never read before, so a pleasant surprise that it was so readable. I watched the film some years ago and as far as I recall it mirrors the book in many respects. Just the right thing to read on a hot summer day imagining I'm in Edwardian Florence, sadly the truth is slightly more suburban.

37. Jeremy Hutchinson's Case Histories - Thomas Grant

Jeremy Hutchinson came from a well-to-do family on the fringes of the Bloomsbury set. After serving in the navy during the Second World War he followed his father into the law and was involved in some of the major cases in mid-century British legal history; cases from George Blake and Christine Keeler, to Lady Chatterley and Last Tango in Paris. The cases are grouped by theme throughout the book, going into spying, culture, and foreign affairs amongst other topics. The writing style is reminiscent of Ben MacIntyre; if you're interested in modern British history or the workings of the law, this would definitely be worth a read.

Hi @RomanMum

With the Thomas Grant, do you know if there's a lot of overlap with hi book Court No. 1 or is it largely different cases?

Another one who DNF’d MBF about half way through. Again, it ticks all my boxes but just didn’t work for me