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?

I have to say that, yes, I don't know how Ink is going to work considering what I've heard.

Another one bored stupid by MBF. So many friends raved about it. Nothing happened and I couldn't have cared less about the characters. I had no desire to read any more by her.

@MamaNewtNewt did you watch the Chernobyl series? Well worth getting Now TV for a month for if you haven't seen it. It was so good.

Lethal Shite made be chuckle. As someone who found Harry P overwritten, I don't think you've sold Strike to me.

Just read The Madness of Crowds by Louise Penny, the latest Three Pines book. I think this series which started off strongly is delivering diminishing returns. I've become a bit bored by all the clichéd characters, although would still quite like croissants and hot chocolate at the Bistro.

@Stokey I did see it, I thought it was one of the best things I've ever seen on TV. I might have to rewatch after reading the book.

79. The Madness of Grief by Richard Coles

I follow Richard Coles on twitter and, through him, I also began to follow his partner David and I remember being so shocked when he died. David died at the very young age of 43 and this book is Richard’s tribute to David and to their love and life together. I found this honest, poignant and beautiful.

Hi,

I’ve not posted in a while. We seem to be going very fast this year (or perhaps I’m just much slower!)

some easy reads

• The Vanishing of Class 3B by Jackie Kabler. Very, very silly thriller about a missing school bus of children. Never have the police been so inept or motives been so tenuous.
• The It Girl By Ruth Ware. Succumbed to the hype - I enjoyed this thriller a lot.
• Friendaholic by Elizabeth Day. A book about what to do if you are a celebrity who travels the world and has too many friends / hangers on. Not sure I’ll ever find myself in that position. I like Day a lot, but I heard her being interviewed and she described how this book came about as she had a deadline to pick a topic for a new non fiction - it just felt a little unnecessary and she writes quite unkindly about some people. However, I found her writing about her friendship with Clemency Burton-Hill (the author of the Year of Wonder Book who suffered a brain haemorrhage) very moving and some points about friendship being about thinking kindly about people very true. The tapes from other perspectives were mostly tokenistic.
• The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin. 4 children visit a fortune teller to be told the date of their death. How does knowing the date (early or late) impact how you chose to live your life? I loved this. The writing was fast paced and the 50 year time line was really enjoyable.

@BestIsWest I read your review of Lethal Shite yesterday 🤣 and was going to sit you down and say now, young lady, what's all this then? But then you changed your mind.

Is the next one the one that caused all the trans hoohah? I don't think I'll be reading that for a while.

On the back of another book thread last week I've started Kane and Abel by Jeffrey bloody Archer. Read it in the 80s before his legal problems 🤣 oily little man, but it's a good old 80s style blockbuster and not a stump in sight.

I've quite enjoyed the Strike TV series in a mindless sort of way - I'd considered reading the books off the back of it but somehow I think I might give them a miss

Just started Johnson at 10 by Seldon & Newell on audio, largely on the strength of the wonderfully plummy narration. A lot of the reviews grumble about it, but I think it's fabulous and a pleasing distraction from the car crash being recounted.

@So1invictus

I've gone straight in as it's a mammoth 30+ hour plus job.

The series makes me laugh at how easily it's stripped back and made concise.

I’ve quite enjoyed the Strike books on audio- though the last one was a tough listen with all the forum stuff.

74 The Great Believers- Rebecca Makkai
This was a bold for me. Set in dual timelines in 1985 and 2015 in Chicago and Paris, it focuses on the AIDS crisis.
Yale Tishman is the POV character in the 1985 section, a young gay man in a serious relationship with his partner Charlie. This section opens at the memorial of Nico- the first of his close friends to die from AIDS. Yale is a likeable character and the themes of art, friendship and the impact of AIDS on his generation is compelling and tragic.
Nico’s sister Fiona is the protagonist in the 2015 section where she is trying to track down her daughter in Paris after she has joined a cult and disappeared.
The Yale sections were more interesting to me than the Fiona ones but they dovetailed together nicely at the end. This is a tough read but does have some hope. It is what A Little Life wanted and (in my opinion) failed to be (by taking things too far).

25. The God of That Summer Ralf Rothmann * * This is a coming of age novel set at the end of World War 2. 12-year-old Luisa has left the city to escape the bombing with her family. They rely on the support of her half sisters SS officer husband to survive. This is an unflinching account of the impact of war on Luisa. In the beginning, I found it hard to keep track of who the different relatives were and struggled to follow things. There is also a story set 100s of years earlier interspersed with the main narrative. Being honest I've been reading it on and off for a while and perhaps would have got more out of it, if I'd given it a bit more focused attention.

@MegBusset @Gingerwarthog

Have either of you had your teasers? I haven't

Yes!
Jonathan Freedland?

Oh I know what you're getting! I have it and it looks good.

A belated happy birthday @TattiePants !
Looks like a good haul of books.

31. Too Late to Turn Back by Barbara Green

I absolutely loved this. Favourite book of the year so far.

It's the 1930s. Graham Greene has published a few books and wants to write a travel book, he has an advance and at a family wedding is asking anyone and everyone to go to Liberia with him.

His cousin Barbara has had a couple of glasses of champagne and recklessly agrees. The book is her point of view, but I believe Graham's book was published too.

A lot of things have changed in 100 years but I am delighted that agreeing to adventures while pissed has not gone out of fashion!

Barbara is self deprecating and witty. Back in London she had maids to run her baths and lay out her clothes, and then she finds herself in the forests of Liberia in dank huts with rats and insects. She remarkably doesn't complain about this abrupt change but does acknowledge her privilege, and long after smoked salmon.

There are phrases in the book that we wouldn't use now, and she does make a lot of judgements of character from a person's appearance. However that doesn't take away from this wonderful description of a really long walk through unmapped Liberia.

It's definitely my thing, female written adventure travel with the added feminist angle of it happening in an age where it was really unusual for women to go off and do that sort of trek, and I highly recommend to anyone who also enjoys this category of book.

That sounds ace

Just to let people know that the Alice Morrison Morocco book is 99p

@Terpsichore just seen you replied to me on Thomas Grant, will probably seek it out, thanks

Ooooh, razorstorm, that sounds fab.

Barbara Green sounds wonderful, thanks for your review Razorstorm.

The Morning Gift by Eva Ibbotson I'm not really sure why I kept going with this except that I read it in bed at night and it required little concentration and sent me to sleep. Whimsical and extremely silly. It's off to the charity shop.

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley Classic Gothic tale, which is more complex and philosophical than I had imagined. This was definitely a Good Read, but the relentless dramatic tension was sometimes a bit wearing.

80. The IT Girl by Ruth Ware

I think pretty much everyone has read this. I liked it but I don’t think it was anything special. Also I found Hannah a bit wet and annoying.

I’ve seen the Barbara Greene book mentioned before and it does sound great; I’ll look out for it too. There’s a good group biog of the whole family on my tbr list called Shades of Greene should anyone be tempted to explore further into this very interesting family ☺️

@EineReiseDurchDieZeit yes had mine, Clancy Sigal?

Currently reading June’s Mr B’s book Walking The Woods And The Water which is excellent. So one hit and one miss so far. Tension’s on for July’s book, if it’s a hit I’ll probably renew my subscription, if it’s not I won’t bother!

Really enjoying all the Strike reviews, especially @EineReiseDurchDieZeit and @So1invictus I've never read any of them (despite having both hard copies and e-copies!), think I'll stick to the TV shows...

Neither have I read a John Steinbeck book since being forced to dissect Of Mice and Men and The Red Pony at school a very long time ago - I can honestly say I have no wish to read any more of his books!

@bibliomania I also race through Kindle Unlimited books when I get an offer; couldn't believe it when I clicked on it recently and it was £9.49 per month for now I just keep a list of books on there I'd like to read, when I get a more reasonable offer I'll take advantage of it.

Looking forward to some puppy photos @LadybirdDaphne !

Thank you for the Alice Morrison review @BestIsWest (and thank you to whoever reviewed it previously!), I've just bought the Morocco book for 99p, love travel writing.

Have you read Bill Bryson - One Summer @mackerella? It's the same sort of theme that you mentioned, all the notable things which happened in a particular summer (1927 in this case).

Happy belated birthday @TattiePants!

My updated list:

1: EC Bateman - Death at the Auction
2: Sophie Irwin - A Lady's Guide to Fortune-Hunting
3: Deanna Raybourn - Night of a Thousand Stars
4: Lynn Messina - A Brazen Curiosity
5: Lynn Messina - A Scandalous Deception
6: Lynn Messina - An Infamous Betrayal
7: Lynn Messina - A Nefarious Engagement
8: Richard Armitage - Geneva (audiobook)
9: Hazel Holt - Death of a Dean
10: Richard Osman - The Bullet That Missed
11: Anthony Horowitz - Stormbreaker
12: Rosie Talbot - Sixteen Souls
13: Jonathan Stroud - The Notorious Scarlett & Browne
14: Rory Clements - Corpus
15: Rory Clements - Nucleus
16: Sophie Hannah - Closed Casket
17: Karen M McManus - Nothing More to Tell
18: M C Beaton - Devil's Delight
19: Alexandra Benedict - Murder on the Christmas Express
20: M A Bennett - S.T.A.G.S.
21: M A Bennett - D.O.G.S.
22: M A Bennett - F.O.X.E.S.
23: M A Bennett - T.I.G.E.R.S.
24: M A Bennett - H.A.W.K.S.
25: Sophie Hannah - The Monogram Murders
26: Sophie Hannah - The Mystery of Three Quarters
27: Joanna Lowell - Artfully Yours
28: Joanna Lowell - The Runaway Duchess
29: Caroline O'Donoghue - All Our Hidden Gifts
30: Caroline O'Donoghue - The Gifts That Bind Us
31: Emily Brightwell - Mrs Jeffries weeds the plot
32: Rhys Bowen - The Last Mrs Summers
33: Rhys Bowen - God Rest Ye, Royal Gentlemen
34: Rhys Bowen - Four funerals & maybe a wedding
35: Michelle Salter - Death at Crookham Hall
36: Deanna Raybourn - Killers of a Certain Age
37: Lesley Cookman - Murder on the Run
38: Lesley Cookman - Murder at Mallowan Manor
39: Scott Allan - Do the Hard Things First
40: Helena Dixon - Murder at the Country Club
41: Helena Dixon - Murder on Board
42: Helena Dixon - Murder at the Charity Ball
43: Beverley Watts - Grace
44: Beverley Watts - Temperance
45: Beverley Watts - Faith
46: Rachel McLean - The Blue Pool Murders
47: Lynn Messina - A Treacherous Performance
48: Lynn Messina - A Sinister Establishment
49: Maureen Johnson - The Box in the Woods
50. Robert Muchamore - The Recruit
51. Hazel Holt - Murder on Campus
52. Lesley Cookman - Murder at the Manor
53. Jodi Taylor - About Time
54. Linda Davidsson - The Ikigai Book
55. JM Hall - A Pen Dipped in Poison
56. Hannah Dolby - No Life for a Lady
57. Hannah Beckerman - The Forgetting
58. Rachel McLean - The Lochside Murder
59. Rachel McLean - The Lighthouse Murder
60. Helena Dixon - Murder at the Beauty Pageant
61. John Marrs - The Good Samaritan
62. Lesley Cookman - Murder out of Tune
63. Enid Blyton - The Enchanted Wood
64. Enid Blyton - The Magic Faraway Tree
65. Enid Blyton - The Folk of the Faraway Tree
66. Enid Blyton - The Adventures of the Wishing Chair
67. Enid Blyton - The Wishing Chair again
68. JM Hall - A Spoonful of Murder (audiobook)
69. Maureen Johnson - Nine Liars
70. Tracy Whitwell - The Accidental Medium
71. Caroline O'Donoghue - Every Gift a Curse
72. Charlotte Leonard - Afterwards
73. Shalini Boland - The Silent Bride
74. CK McDonnell - Love Will Tear Us Apart
75. SG MacLean - Seeker
76. Various authors - Marple
77. Mary Stewart - Madam, Will You Talk?
78. Terry Pratchett - Guards! Guards!
79. Charlotte Plain - Happy planning - plan your way through anything
80. Ashley Poston - The Dead Romantics
81. Jodi Taylor - Saving Time

82. Hazel Holt - The Cruellest Month

Who doesn't love Mrs Malory?! Crime fighting through the method of a nice cup of tea and some cake. My kind of sleuthing! Having said that this wasn't my favourite book of hers, but very pleasant to read it again after quite a while. However, I've always thought that Mrs M was considerably older than me (47) - in this book (the second in the series) she's a widow of two years with a son of around 20 - I imagine she's actually supposed to be around my age

83. MRC Kasasian - The Horror of Haglin House

I really wanted to like this, having enjoyed the Gower St detectives series and (to a lesser extent) the Betty Church series, but frankly it was just bloody irritating having the main character constantly converse with her imaginary creations and distracted from the actual plot. Such a shame as the other books are quirky and fun!

84. Tracy Rees - The Elopement

I did however enjoy this much more than anticipated - spoiled rich girl elopes with poor artist in the late 1800s - she's subsequently helped by her former servants. I particularly liked the way that the female characters weren't 'saved' by males (as so often happens!) but try to forge their own paths to happiness/ fulfilment.

85. Alison Uttley - A Traveller in Time

No idea how I missed this when I was young, as I'd have loved it, but I still enjoyed it now! Much reviewed on here so I won't go into it, but I was also interested to read that she lived in Beaconsfield (not far from us) at the same time as Enid Blyton, and Uttley, ‘Spinner of Tales’, creator of Little Grey Rabbit | People | Beaconsfield Historical Society (beaconsfieldhistory.org.uk) hated her

Alison Uttley, ‘Spinner of Tales’, creator of Little Grey Rabbit

It is sad to note that our town has few, if any, reminders of Alison Uttley, one of Beaconsfield’s many famous a...

Alison Uttley and one of the Little Grey Rabbit books was one of my first ever books from the local library. I only ever wanted to take home one book at a time, which meant that my Gran had to take me virtually every day 🤣. Hilary the ever so typical 1970s librarian would always try and persuade me to have 3 but I always refused. Who knew I'd end up with over 1000 tbr on the Kindle.
I wanted to be a librarian and riffle through those little cards and thwunk thwunk with the big date stamp. And the sound of plastic sleeved hardback books going onto the trolley.
Proustian. ❤️

@So1invictus Little Grey Rabbit was one of my first library books too, along with Mary Plain and Thomas the Tank. We were only allowed 2 books. My auntie took me every Saturday and those books would have to last me all week.

I really wanted to be a librarian too until the careers teacher at school persuaded me out of it (no idea why) and I still regret not being one.

The Blue Train by Agatha Christie
Typucal Christie. I quite enjoyed most of it and thought there were some genuinely funny moments too, but was disappointed by the ending. Not only was it a twist that I absolutely hadn’t seen coming, it felt rather contrived and silly too.