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?

1. The It Girl, Ruth Ware 4/5

Already reviewed here loads I know! An enjoyable thriller set in Oxford and Edinburgh. The Oxford college setting is very convincingly done.

1. L’Évangile du nouveau monde [Gospel According to the New World], Maryse Condé 3/5

This is a gently whimsical novel, a parody of the story of Christ in the gospels; it is full of Bible verses I remember from childhood, recycled in unexpected and sometimes outrageous contexts. The joyful irreverence reminded me a little of Rabelais’ Pantagruel, and (to a lesser extent) Voltaire’s Candide. The narrative is full of warmth and colour, but it meanders a lot, and eventually I got a little bored of the hero travelling from place to place in search of spiritual enlightenment, sleeping with various women along the way and having different women cook for him. !!!

1. Open Water, Caleb Azumah Nelson 4/5

I usually find novels written in the second person hard going, but this love story, narrated in fragmentary chapters by a young black man, won me over. Lyrical, tender and thought-provoking.

1. August Blue, Deborah Levy 5/5

Weird and wonderful, like all of Levy’s novels. A famous classical pianist gets stage fright and can’t finish a concert, so she embarks on a sort of quest to find herself; this quest involves an uncanny woman doppleganger, the heroine’s ailing adoptive father, and her unknown biological mother. It’s a pleasure to watch the different threads come together.

Oops, that wasn't the numbering I wanted, but never mind!

33. The Life and Soul Of The Party by Mike Gayle

3 out 5. It's fine. There are far, far too many characters and the view points change so quick I don't especially get to know any of them. And in an effort to show we are all flawed, they all do hurt the ones they love. A lot.

There was also so much talk of 'pulling fit birds' I had to check the timing. It was set in 2005/2006. Google tells me that The Streets song 'Fit But You Know It' was released in 2004. So I guess I'll allow it for being of its time.

Kind of wish I didn't buy 5 others of his at the same time, but also I did read it in about 24 hours (it's pretty short) so it can't be that bad.

In case anyone is interested, For Thy Great Pain Have Mercy On My Little Pain is in the Kindle daily deals today. I haven't read it but it is a short novel about Margery Kempe and Julian of Norwich, much discussed on here last year.

Thank you, Terpsichore. I suppose if (like me) you don't know the geography and don't feel disposed to look at a map it doesn't matter... but then again yes, an academic should be more concerned with accuracy.
I can't decide now whether the colour reproductions are OK or not; I didn't think they were a problem until I read your comment, but yes, some to look a bit faded.
I agree on how modern some of them are. There's a flowers-and-stripes motif that I've been seeing on clothes from Oasis to Whistles and everywhere else recently.

The nuns!
Off to buy!

I have a little (and pleasing) bookish anecdote from yesterday. I'm in London, so obviously I am in Waterstones on Trafalgar Square. I am also trying to save money so I'm taking photos of books to add to my wishlist to cross reference with Kindle. At some point I must have dropped my bank card (in my pocket, I know I know) Cue panic and stress, though I'd only been in Waterstones after coming out of Charing Cross. Lovely lovely member of staff helping me search, and there it was on the floor in front of the books about Charles III and the Queen 🤣

I now feel indebted to both the Royal Family and Waterstones. I'd been chuntering about the performance parenting going on in there and thinking how much I'd like to be the lady buying 10 paperbacks, now I'm just relieved it was Waterstones and not somewhere else, because I'm not sure I'd have got it back back. The lady on the desk said "if someone in here finds it, it will definitely be handed in. It won't be taken" 🤣

Thanks @MaudOfTheMarches - I loved Margery last year despite the endless screaming. On holiday at the moment with exhausted post A-level students and it's clear I need more books than I brought due to the endless sleeping they are doing, so this is terrific.

@PepeLePew Make the most of the bonus reading time. I'm back to a semi-regular commute and it's great being able to count on six hours' reading time a week.

@So1invictus God, the perfomance parenting in Waterstones. The children's section in my local branch is right next to the fiction section, and while I love the fact that kids are being encouraged to read, I could do without the commentary!

@So1invictus - yay to honest booksellers and buyers.
I once lost my diary in the Waterstones near Clapham Junction (though didn't realise that was where I'd lost it). Was despairing as it not only had all my appointments but also a book token and gift card tucked in the front. Two days later I got a message on LinkedIn - they had found my name at the front and tracked me down that way - to ask me to come and collect it. Was so impressed (and relieved).

Thanks. Not a book I’d heard of but just AS the reviews and it sounds v good.

Thanks for that Maud it was Wish List

@So1invictus dont be coy we all know you must crush on Charles

101. Either/Or by Elif Batuman

Selin is an American student with a Turkish background. She's at Harvard studying literature. The book follows her throughout her second year. It seems that in her first year she had a challenging relationship with a man named Ivan she can't get over.
This is very academically imbued and I couldn't decide if I found it pseudo-intellectual or not. Lots of navel gazing, opinionated characters and pretentiousness, with a tedious visit to Turkish roots at the end. Selin is irritating company and clearly needs psychiatric help.

Meh.

I’ve also been in London this weekend and have visited Daunt, Foyles, and the big Waterstones at Piccadilly Circus. I have spent FAR too much money and might have to hide some of my purchases from DH when I get home.

11 pages in!!!

place marking to get caught up.

I am just on track having finished book 26 which was Stone Blind by Natalie Hayes. I read this immediately off the back of Circe by Madeline Miller as it would
appear I am in my “feminist retelling of Greek mythology” era.

I loved Circe. I remember being told on here that it was divisive amongst 50 bookers but I very much enjoyed it.

Stone Blind was different again. Overall I really enjoyed it finding it both amusing and moving. I was listening to it in the car but having struggled hugely to the Graiai section I reverted back to reading which was a massive improvement. I am comfortable with a bit of humour in the stories but the pages of bickering and nonsense just went on interminably and was hugely annoying - a bit like a poor pastiche of a Monty Python. When reading the second half of the book I felt that there were other bits I was glad I was reading rather than listening to.

the summer holidays are now upon me and I intend to use them well by making some greater headroom on the 50 book goal

next book options based on what is in my kindle unread are:
Fire Rush
Autumn

I am tempted by the fourth Ambrose Parry book, however.

I have some physical books in a pile
which I rarely give any attention to. Perhaps the summer is the time to pick them up? Anyway, I will go back and read all 11 pages and see if I am inspired

27. Foster Clare Keegan When her mother is due a new baby, a young girl is sent to live with distant relatives in rural Ireland. This short novella has been much reviewed on these threads and it didn't disappoint. I loved it - a little chink of light.

I’m just going to say ditto to this for book 55. I read it in about an hour last night and loved it. It’s rare that I wish a book was actually longer than it is but I could have read much more of this.

A couple of vintage crime books (I came away with armfuls of them from a charity shop in Scarborough. Somewhere in Scarborough resides (or used to reside) a twin soul.

73. Love Lies Bleeding, Edmund Crispin
Light-hearted murder mystery from 1948. It begins amusingly, as a headmaster of a boys' school and headmistress of a girls' school have a very delicate discussion about why one of the girls had returned home upset, and whether something of an erotic nature may have occurred. It gets a bit silly, with invisible ink and lost Shakespearean letters and all sorts, but it was reasonably amusing.

74. An Imperfect Spy, Amanda Cross
A female professor takes up a temporary role in a New York law school and introduces feminist ideas, to the dissatisfaction of most of the faculty. Hard to believe it was written in 1995 - feels longer ago. As crime fiction this was a damp squib. I think there are better books in this series, but can't really recommend this one.

75. Exercised, Daniel Liberman
Popular science book about why we all need to move our bodies. The author describes his research amongst hunter-gatherer groups. I find it interesting but also ethically dubious. The poor old Hadza could do without being poked and prodded for a while. I'm sure they consent but given their relative lack of power/wealth, there's something a bit icky about it.

76. A Pen Dipped in Poison, J M Hall
Second in series. Three retired teachers in N Yorks investigate poison pen letters in a primary school. The author is a headteacher himself and the school environment is lovingly evoked, along with his distaste for academisation. It goes on a bit too long, but I liked the setting.

77. Greenery Street, Denis Mackail
Written by Angela Thirkell's brother and published in 1925, this is an affectionate portrayal of a young couple's first year of marriage, and their efforts to adjust to their domestic responsibilities. It's a really sweet-natured book about two people who are fundamentally happy together, despite the minor vicissitudes of life.

I love the Piccadilly Waterstones. I used to work around the corner and spent many happy lunch hours either in the 5th floor restaurant or basement cafe after browsing their selection. I hated the job but the position almost made up for it - my other lunch time haunt was the perfume section at Liberty's!

Wait, Elif Batuman has a new book! I LOVED The Idiot. I will look out for this (in spite of you not liking it much 😂)

@StColumbofNavron

Basically imagine a Sixth Former getting over excited about their experience at an Oxbridge Literature taster and boring you with it (plus them telling you about some excruciatingly bad sex at a later point ) it's that basically

I do also have The Idiot which just shot down my TBR

To be fair @EineReiseDurchDieZeit thats sort of how I feel so she sort of speaks to me in that way. The Idiot is basically Selin’s first year. It made it onto my 5 star list. Her first book Possessed was about how she came to love Russian literature because of her crush on her Russian lit lecturer - I may have had a similar path. I love her unfiltered, not much happens, stream of consciousness style.

There are only 17 books on my five star list. I don’t claim this makes them quality, but those places are hard to achieve.

I READ A SEQUEL UNKNOWINGLY??!?

<Makes sign of the cross>

Can I cope with more Selin though?

I'm very late to the party with Rachel's Holiday - Marian Keyes. I DNF one of her more recent books as I found it tedious, taking too long to introduce far too many characters. This had me hooked straight away.
After an accidental overdose, Rachel's family book her into rehab. Expecting something akin to The Priory, Rachel is shocked to find it's not quite what she had in mind and it's not like she really needs to be there anyway.
A brilliant unreliable narrator has you rooting for her straight away.
I wouldn't normally pick up MK, but I was surprised by this. Any others of hers worth a punt?

Also recently finished "Our Wives Under The Sea* which I much enjoyed. I'm not sure I'd have picked it up if it weren't for the recs on here.

Old God's Time - Sebastian Barry
A retired detective gets called back in to help with the investigation into historic sexual abuse in the church.
It's a meandering through the mind of the detective, while he mulls over what happened against the backdrop of his current and former life.
SB is one of those authors I'd pick up without reading the blurb. The writing is always excellent and the content thought provoking.