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?

Sorry, not sure what happened to my paragraphs ....

I really liked Mermaid of the Black Conch, but I think that's because it was more like South American magic realism than I was expecting and for me that's a good thing. It was also a million times better than Love After Love which was the other Trinidadian novel that won a Costa award in 2020.

26. Other Women Emma Flint I reserved this months ago on borrowbox and it only became available this week. This suggests I had high expectations, as otherwise I wouldn't have bothered with such a long reserve time. I don't think it lived up to them. Not terrible by any means, but not exceptional either. This is a fictionalised account of a 1920s murder case (although I didn't realise this until i got to the afterword). It is told through alternating viewpoints of Bea and Kate. Bea is one of the other women of the title. Older, single and left without marriage prospects after men of her generation were decimated by the war Living a lonely life in London, she embarks on a relationship with married Ralph. Kate is Ralph's wife. Bea's infatuation with Ralph and the hopes she has for their relationship are heartbreaking. I found the early sections the best and some aspects of the eventual trial are compelling. However, Kate is faced with a moral dilemma in the closing sections that I found quite a clunky and unnecessary device . Reading the afterword and accounts of the real case this is entirely of the authors invention and rather key aspects of the real Ralph's background and motivations are obscured or left out. I guess it shouldn't matter because it is fiction, but while some aspects of the trial record are used almost verbatim other key aspects of the real case are totally ignored to develop a particular narrative. Not really a criticism, just something I mused on. As an aside, when researching the real case I accessed the contemporaneous newspaper reports - which certainly gave an interesting insight into 1920s society.

Ooh I was looking out for Trust so pleased it’s on the deals already. A good selection this month.

I loved The Mermaid @TattiePants it was a favourite with our book club, so much going on.

Thanks for all the flags on Kindle books. I was particularly chuffed to see Foster which I nearly bought in real life on Thursday but stopped as it was a tenner for something I suspected I'd read in an afternoon.

The only one I bought that hasn't already been mentioned was Winter People by Grainne Murphy, mainly because I'm going to the west coast of Ireland this summer.

Found it slightly ironic that the book that kept popping up on each page of the deals was called The Art of Saying No. I seemed to have mastered that!

I got:
The Dry
Walking the Great North Line
Hope to Die (DI Fawley series I buy if they're 99p)
Airport (lol- am getting on a plane in 2 hours and loved the film so..)
Stuart Maconie

I could have got more, definitely a better month than usual.

I’ve found just 1. Family Business by Jonathan Sims. I enjoyed his previous horror tale about the mysterious owner of an apartment complex.

Just DNFed one about a school murder, called The School House or something. It was so dreadful I cba to look what the title was exactly or who the author was. A Deaf library assistant does lots of dull, pedestrian things while being reminded of what happened at her Steiner-type school. Somebody died. A female police officer dully and pedestrianly investigates a modern day child abduction.
There’s a decent plot in there somewhere, but it needs the likes of Jenn Ashworth, Carys Bray, Andrew Michael Hurley or Tom Fletcher to dig it up and resuscitate it.

A Mouse Ran Up My Nightie, Edith Courtney

I happened to be on jury service a while back and picked this up from their shelves because it has a delightfully bonkers cover and title. Then I realised half the book was missing (it was falling apart) so had to buy another copy.

This Is Edith’s autobiography of her childhood - her parents and to be honest everyone is a real character. She wrote the book in 1974 about the late 1920s early 30s. It’s very funny, those who enjoyed A Provincial Woman .. might like this (it’s definitely better).

Happy to pass on to anyone who fancies a read.

Oh yes, aforementioned cover.

@StColumbofNavron
That looks great!

99. The Stepford Wives by Ira Levin

I feel like the expression "Stepford Wife" has become such a shorthand and cultural touchstone in the West that to actually read it, I didn't feel like I got anything extra from it. The ending is appropriately creepy but it's far too short overall.

100. The Family Chao by Lan Samantha Chang

Three American Born Chinese brothers, Dagou, Ming and James gather in Wisconsin for Christmas.

At first this seems to be solely dealing with themes such as :

Being an immigrant
Being first generation to immigrant parents
Fathers and Sons
Small town racism

And these themes feel well trod to me.

At <300 it definitely felt longer than it was.

BUT a book of 2 halves

At about the halfway point it becomes a different and far more interesting book and I felt like : Where has this come from? There is genuine suspense and real human interest.

It won't make bold because of the more pedestrian first half (and a character named Katherine whose behaviour is ludicrous) but I did enjoy it.

A Thelwell cover @StColumbofNavron That brings back lots of memories. James Herriot paperbacks, horsey little girls on ponies ❤️

I got to the end of The Schoolhouse @BoldFearlessGirl - it doesn't get any better.

@Gingerwarthog very happy to pass on 😁

Off to Google Thelwell.

Well done @EineReiseDurchDieZeit on reaching 100! 👏

Thanks but I'm not sure it's congrats but commiserations on what has become a bit unhealthy and out of control

As soon as I saw it I thought ‘Thelwell, James Herriot’.

One True Loves - Taylor Jenkins Reid

Emma is happily engaged to Sam, running a bookstore in her home town when news breaks that her first husband, believed to have been killed in a helicopter crash, has been found alive.
Not one of her best, I found it all a bit superficial and daft but an easy summer read.

On book 53 today. I'm trying to find Kindle Unlimited one off gems to fit in with my regular series reading.

Really enjoyed:
The Reading List Sara by Nisha Adams
The Keeper of Stories by Sally Page

Worth a read:
The Vanishing of Margaret Small by Neil Alexander
The Dressmakers Gift by Fiona Valpy

The last two, I wasn't in the mood for, you may enjoy. The second is about the French resistance and atrocities of WWII.

My back catalogue reading is:
Iain M Banks
Robert J Crane. Sanctuary series has 12 books and is complete. I'm waiting on Girl in the Box 55 to come out.

MurderBot 7 is out in November so I will re-read 1 to 6 before then.

Ah Thelwell! Happy memories of my parents’ pony books and Up the Garden Path 😊

And This Desirable Plot! Brilliant 😄

Nightie sounds great @StColumbofNavron Have fun discovering Thelwell - I loved his pony books back in the day

Another Thelwell fan here, with fond memories of the pony books. Have to say, though, as someone who had mice in the house for a couple of years, the title of that book brings me out in a cold sweat!

We saw a really interesting exhibition about Thelwell at Mottisfont in Hampshire a couple of months ago. I think it's finished now sadly.

I got A Terrible Kindness in the deals and a TJR who I am enjoying as lighter reading.

32. All Quiet On The Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque

Purchased on a 99p deal a while back, I wanted to read it before I watched the film. After racing through a good number of books in June I picked this up thinking it was a 20 hour blockbuster. I must have this confused with something else in my unread library as it was 4 hours!!

Anyway, this was much discussed on here a while back. For me it was a heartbreaking read. I have promised myself before to stop reading these war books, but I hadn't read anything from a German point of view before. I shall be reading a palate cleanser next. And then I might find the one that is 20 hours....