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?

Hi Eine, I've not read Court Number One but looking at the blurb, the only crossover would seem to be the Christine Keeler trial. The time span for Jeremy Hutchinson is early 1960s to early 1980s, and only goes into detail on the trials which involved Hutchinson directly, all as defence if I remember correctly.

In the edition I read Hutchinson himself, at the age of 100, added a postscript with a withering assessment of the state of the law at the time (2015) which is quite interesting in itself.

It sounds good and Court was a good read also but stuck to cases heard in that particular venue I don't think I bolded it though

Happy birthday, Tattie - what a brilliant haul of books! I wish you many happy hours reading them all.

Biblio, I've just started re-reading all the Lindchester books in preparation for reading The Company of Heaven. Hoping that the Kindle price will have dropped by the time I've finished the fourth one.

I've got the hardback of Hags on my TBR pile, and will be looking out for that Chris Brookmyre, as I love his style (both as himself and as Ambrose Parry).

I have a big backlog of reviews, but will try to clear them ASAP! Currently finishing up The Bandit Queens and The Years, and need to get back to Doughnut Economics, which I've semi-abandoned, despite enjoying what I'd read so far. It's too hot to concentrate at the moment!

36. Highland Fling, by Nancy Mitford

Some time ago, I bought the Kindle version of the Penguin Complete Novels of Nancy Mitford, so I started working through them while on a half term camping holiday last month. This was delightful: a Wodehouse-esque romantic comedy about some young people joining a ghastly shooting party in the wilds of Scotland. I took particular joy in the descriptions of Albert's clothes: whether at a shoot (“Albert looked particularly alluring in an orange crepe-de-chine short open at the neck, and a pair of orange-and-brown tartan trousers, tight to the knees and very baggy round the ankles”), or ragging his house guests (“The general looked with some disapproval at his matelot clothes - a pair of baggy blue trousers worn with a blue-and-white sweater and a scarlet belt”), he is always impeccably and eye-openingly dressed. The flippancy with which all the young people treat one character’s pregnancy is also both delightful and startlingly modern: they jest about calling the child Morris or Minerva in the hope of getting some free sponsorship, and also plan to turn the cocktail chest into a cradle . This was froth of the most delicious and clever variety.

37. Christmas Pudding, by Nancy Mitford

More of the same: bright young things, cocktails, country houses, unfortunate romantic entanglements, grubby bohemian parties, wayward Etonian schoolboys, hunting, literary pastiches and satires on Merrie England.
The plot of this one - in which the serious-minded writer Paul is aghast to find that his tragic first novel has been hailed by critics as a comic masterpiece, and smuggles himself into a country house under false pretences so he can secretly transcribe an ancestor’s diary and make his literary name - is rather more convoluted than that of Highland Fling, and I can remember much less of it as a result.

51 Above Suspicion by Helen McInnes found this on Kindle unlimited. I first read her books about 30 years ago. Set in 1939 am Oxford professor and his wife normally spend the summer vacation climbing in Austria and Germany. They are asked by a friend to check out, very carefully, if a British spy is alive or dead. Not to get involved in anything. It's of its time very understated but none the worse for that. The tension is palpable. I enjoyed it and am going to read any more that are available, if I remember rightly most of the rest of her books are set during the cold war

42 The Fascination by Essie Fox

I’m going to go easy on this, because it has been very hot and perhaps not conducive to concentrating on twisty fiction plots. But then again, it’s not supposed to be a complicated book that needs a lot of thought, so I will say I was rather disappointed.
Keziah and Tilly are the daughters of a violent, abusive travelling salesman (some sort of laudanum mixture). Tilly is very small and never grows past child size.
Theo is the grandson of a violent, abusive rich man. As in Elijah’s Mermaid, his path crosses with Tilly and Keziah over the years.
All three of them bounce between the kindly Captain, the untrustworthy urchin Ulysses, medical meddler Dr Summerwell………..<yawn> sorry, must have drifted off there.
It’s set amongst the Freak Show/Circus milieu in Victorian England. There are some overlong fight scenes, dodgy sex awakenings by young girls based on Fanny Hill (being shaved to a standard that Mr Ruskin would approve of a particular low point) and some truly horrible descriptions of a woman with a cleft palate and how she speaks. The proof reader also seems to have lost the will to live by the end, with missing words etc. The final twist made me say “Well, durrrr!” out loud and I cannot fathom why the author thought it was worthy of a last line reveal.
It’s a novel that has been done better by others. It’s even been done better by the same author.
A 99p - er. Leave your incredulity at the door.

96. Lethal White by Robert Galbraith (Audible)

Robin goes undercover. Strike hurts his stump a lot.

The incessant irrelevant Ibsen quotes

Her ability to write upper class is as bad as working, so at least the class prejudice is balanced.

Charlotte is not believable as a human

The fact that I actually fell asleep towards the end and it didn't affect the whodunnit aspect at all because I had figured it out ages previously

Lethal Shite

38. Shrines of Gaiety, by Kate Atkinson
I only realised, when I reached the author’s note at the end, that this tale of 1920s clubland had been based on the real-life nightclub owner Kate Meyrick! Intrepid ex-librarian Gwendolen Kelling comes down from Yorkshire to investigate the disappearance of some runaway girls and becomes enmeshed in a three-way battle between the police, the Coker family and various other gangsters who are trying to muscle in on matriarch Nellie Coker’s nightclubs. It’s a very Kate Atkinson novel - sly humour, outrageous coincidences, slightly tricksy plotting, a possible touch of the supernatural, no character without a very full backstory - so if you’ve enjoyed her other novels, you’ll probably enjoy this. I thought the 1920s setting was brilliantly evoked: she’d obviously done heaps of research, but it didn’t feel shoehorned in. I really enjoyed the final “what happened next” chapter too: you get the feeling that making up these stories is one of the most enjoyable aspects of being a novelist .

39. Wigs on the Green, by Nancy Mitford
Mitford wrote this as a satire on fascism - indeed, it so offended her sister Diana (Mosley) that it was not reprinted until 2010. Following an unexpected windfall, Noel (and his raffish hanger-on Jasper) stay in the country where they encounter two disguised young ladies who have fled an engagement with a Duke. Eugenia Malmains (the local teenaged fascist leader), her Union Jackshirt followers, a band of lovelorn artists, a village pageant and a home for dotty aristocratic uncles (styled to look like the House of Lords) are also involved. I don't think it's a great satire: PG Wodehouse did this far more effectively (and hilariously) with Roderick Spode and his Black Shorts. However, the character-based satire is invigorating, and you sense that this is where Mitford's heart really lay.

Incidentally, it has been odd to realise that (in a coincidence worthy of Kate Atkinson), I’d read several books in a row that were all set partly or wholly in the mid-1920s. Strange to think that Agatha Christie was going missing in the same year that Gwendolen Kelling was investigating the disappearances of Freda and Florence, or that Nancy Mitford’s bright young things could have popped into one of Nellie Coker’s nightclubs for a cocktail - possibly just missing a slightly older version of Jean Rhys' Anna Morgan .

I finished this yesterday too and am currently speechless.

Not in a good way obvs.

I did spend a fun half hour searching reviews of it on here (50 bookers threads and other reading threads)

Little to add to what I said when I was 10 chapters in and to what @EineReiseDurchDieZeit has said.

It's shit. Truly. Not one character seems like a real human being. It's like Jilly Cooper mated with Midsummer Murders but less realistic.

If just half the mentions of the 2 dimensional Strike's stump hurting had been edited out the book would only have been 300 pages long instead of 600. Her constant mentioning of it is starting to feel less like "here's another flawed detective let's make him disabled for inclusion" and more like some weird fetish. It's incessant.

That she also fills probably a fifth of the book telling us about how Strike (who let us not forget is built like Shrek, eats crap, drinks heavily in manner of all pretend detectives, sleeps in his clothes on the sofa in the office and chainsmokes- all of which we are told eleventy billion times) there is no way he is such a catch that all these madly named posh women want to have sex with him and go loop da loop when he finishes with them. They'd cross the road if he ever approached them because he sounds like a stinky tramp.

Robin's Hagrid pronunciation is tiresome but typical of lazy "northerners speak like" shit. Nobody, least of all stinky Strike, seems to have noticed that far from being "the best he's ever worked with" she's actually crap at her job . Never follows instructions, tells people things she shouldn't, keeps things from people she should tell, and it wouldn't be a Strike book if she didn't almost get killed by some axe wielding cartoon cutout loon. (Spoiler: she lives- but I expect the next book is 300 pages longer than it needs to be as we'll have all her PTSD over this one to deal with as well)

Matthew is a boring fucker who reminds me of every other boring fucker in books when the author needs a stroppy boring fucker partner for a main character.

The plot was embarrassingly ridiculous and like Eine, I neither cared nor really kept track on it beyond wanting it to end.

The posh stereotypes I agree are almost as offensive as the Dawn-the-working class-hairdresser ones. Do posh people really refer to themselves as Pringle, Plopsy and Fizzy? Do they have a posho Marauder's Map tracing their posho whereabouts?

Read it quickly. Skimmed bits. Will keep reading them just for the fun of reviewing them.

Forgot!!!
The endless descriptions of carpets in rooms. Every single time somebody is in a room of any kind (which is, let's face it, frequent) we have to have a description of curtains, furnishings and, mainly, carpet. But it doesn't even set a scene. It's just more words. They're all the same. Dark red. Dark green. Swirly.

I have PCDD. Post carpet description disorder.

I always look forward to a Strike review on here [Grin] and @EineReiseDurchDieZeit and @So1invictus you did not disappoint!

I liked Troubled Blood as I’ve said before but I can’t wait for the reviews of the latest one - although I can’t imagine how it translates to audio.

@So1invictus

Yes the smoking! But this we are reminded is London 2012, Tegan smokes whilst Strike interviews, unfortunately smoking in pubs had been banned for 5 years.

35 The Death of Mrs Westaway - Ruth Ware I loved this - a proper gothic thriller. I think it has had some mixed reviews on these threads but it’s a bold for me, and Ware is very much on my list of authors to look out for in the future. There was quite a bit of contrived withholding of information in order to make the plot work but that didn’t spoil it for me.

I do enjoy the Strike reviews even though I’m never going to read one 😁

@EineReiseDurchDieZeit I’ve read both those Thomas Grant books, admittedly quite a while ago, and afaicr, there’s not a great deal of crossover between them - a bit, but not so much that you’d be paging impatiently through great chunks of book.

48 The Light Years by Elizabeth Jane Howard
The first book in the Cazalet Chronicles series and much reviewed on these threads. Set in the late 1930 with WWII looming, this family saga follows the lives of the upper middle class Cazalet family as the three grown up sons, their families and servants head to Home Place, their family estate in Sussex, for the annual summer holiday. There are a huge number of characters to get to grips with and the story alternates between the different view points. It did take me a while to figure out who is who and I had to keep referring back to the (very useful) family tree at the beginning to keep track.

I loved Howard's writing and will look out for the next books in the series. It was the perfect comfort read (with the exception of one shocking event that happens to one of the granddaughters that felt like it was left hanging) and I can imagine rereading it in the future when I'm after a cosy read.

49 Strange Sally Diamond by Liz Nugent
I've been wanting to read this since it was reviewed on Between the Covers so snapped it up when it was 99p. Reclusive Sally's dad dies and she does exactly what he said to do, puts him out with the rubbish. She's completely baffled when she becomes the centre of a huge news story and this gradually uncovers a horrific childhood that she had previously forgotten. Despite her childhood trauma, Sally slowly begins to build a new life for herself making friends, getting a job and finally becoming independent at the age of forty four. You can't help routing for her and being hopeful for her future. However, her new life is threatened when she is contacted by a stranger from her past.

This was a mixed bag. The story is upsetting and deals with the very dark themes of child abuse, violence, mental illness and trauma well. Sally is clearly neurodiverse and the author does show that Sally is the way she is due to her trauma rather than just using her quirky character for laughs. However I couldn't help feeling there was a touch of Eleanor Oliphant about her character. I did race through it in two sittings but it just didn't quite live up to the hype.

50 Cannery Row by John Steinbeck
Cannery Row in Monterey, California is a place for down and outs; prostitutes, the homeless, people with no where else to go. Based on the real inhabitants of Monterey, Steinbeck brings to life their day to day struggles, treating them with dignity and warmth. There's no real plot, it's purely character driven, interweaving the story with anecdotes that give you glimpses into the well-rounded characters.

@TattiePants an interesting companion read to the Cazalet Chronicles is EJH’s autobiography Slipstream. A lot of the Cazalets is autobiographical. The shocking event that I think you’re referring to actually happened to EJH in real life (she is basically Louise).

51 A Spell of Good Things by Ayobami Adebayo
I think it was Eine that said the title is VERY misleading as there are no 'good things' happening to these characters! That aside, this was a beautiful book. Set in an unnamed Nigerian city full of poverty, violence and political corruption, adebayo tells the seemingly unconnected stories of the two main characters, Eniola and Wuraola.

Eniola's family are living in abject poverty since his father lost his job, forced to beg and never having money for school fees, rent or food. He's desperate for an education so he can have a better life but when this is denied, things spiral out of control with horrific consequences. Meanwhile, Wuraola is the golden daughter from an affluent family, training to become a doctor. On the surface her life looks perfect with a career she loves and engaged to a family friend. However there are problems with her relationship that she refuses to acknowledge. The two stories finally converge with a shocking ending that I didn't see coming. A heart-breaking book that I'll remember for a long time.

52 Travellers in the Third Reich by Julia Boyd
I haven't quite finished this (one chapter to go) but I'm getting caught up with my reviews. This charts the rise of Hitler and National Socialism in the inter-war years as seen through the eyes of journalists, tourists, politicians, students, athletes, artists and many other visitors to Germany. The book asks the questions How easy was it to truly understand the aims of National Socialism, to see through the propaganda and to predict the subsequent events of WWII? For many visitors, just like many German citizens, they were completely taken in.

The is a very well researched book and the reader gets a first-hand account through spoken testimony, letters and diary entries of what life was like in 1930s Germany. I found some chapters more interesting than others and did find myself skimming a few accounts. I read Village earlier this year and Travellers didn't quite live up to it for me. I also think I might have benefited from spacing them out a bit more.

@ChessieFL I didn't realise it was autobiographical, and yes that was the event which makes it even more shocking. Thanks for the recommendation, I'll look out for her autobiography.

@TattiePants

Yes, was me.

And you are quite lucky that you still have Stay With Me to go, which I thought was better.

That's good. I usually get it the other way round, read the best book first then get disappointed by the follow ups.

I'm enjoying the Lethal White reviews. It really was dreadful. I just re-read my review and subsequent comments, none of which were pretty. However, the end of my review said, "I'm out" and I've still read the next ones, so she must be doing something right.

I like the sound of Above Suspicion and have grabbed the sample.

@RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie sweating now

I’ve just looked up my review of Lethal White and I complained a bit then said I loved it. I can only apologise because that’s not my recollection.

@BestIsWest

No sweat. I've read back a few of my own reviews and been perplexed

It really really doesn't translate into audio. So. much. in. game. chat.
Which was largely incomprehensible so by the end I had no idea who the killer was going to be or (when I found out) why. I'm only there for Robin and Strike and if someone wants to do an abridged version that strips out all the awful detecting and just has them not having sex, I'd be delighted.