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?

Complete

And utter

Fucking nonsense

You didn’t like it Remus?

Tell us what you really think Remus

Finally got my hands on a copy of Black Butterflies - Priscilla Morris. This would have easily been in my top 3 for the Women's Prize. I thought it was excellent. It's one that will stay with me.

@ABookWyrm Oh, I loved The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane. I loved learning about the people, the customs, I loved learning about the tea, I thought it was very well written. I can’t remember exactly but I think I read it as her telling the story in some future so the western references didn’t bother me. I think this book made it to my 5 star list too.

it’s becoming very apparent my 5 stars are a bit off piste 😂

Although I haven’t rushed to read her other books, so …

Guessing that Remus didn’t enjoy that last book then.

But I did!! I decided to go for Christopher Brookmyre’s Cliff House as it is 99p and I don’t think I have ever disliked anything he has written.

this is a classic tension building Who Dunnit. 7 successful women take off to a luxury villa accessible only by sea or air for a hen do. Gradually tensions build, too many pornstar martinis are had and there is murder and intrigue.

I honestly can’t think of the last book I properly just enjoyed on a page turning, gasp out loud at the end of chapters kind of way. My children have been wholeheartedly ignored all day but I don’t think I have read a book in a single day since before they were born so I feel like I have made a wee small win.

highly recommended for lots of page turning, plot twisting gasping with the odd bit of Scottish slang chucked in. 99p on kindle - highly recommended!

Has anybody read the Dibdin? I can't give any more of a review without spoilers, except to keep repeating how moronic it was. The most frustrating thing is that the man can write - he just chose to write ridiculous shite.

@RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie yes I've also read Mr Whicher and agree the Robins one is a better read. I do find books about the early police investigations fascinating

Not read the Dibdin and unlikely to based on your review Remus!

I thought Black Butterflies was very good too @FortunaMajor . It reminded me of a modern Woman in Berlin. Particularly poignant given the current war in Europe.

@Passmethecrisps I've also been glued to the Cliff House for the last day. Not quite finished but enjoying the twists and Scottish slang. I lived in Edinburgh for a few years but there are still bits I had to look up.

Antarctica a short story collection by Claire Keegan is on the Kindle deals today.

102. Face It by Debbie Harry

Her memoir. Very namedroppy (sometimes of names, lists of them, you have never heard of) reads like a conversation with a silent interviewer. Loads of pictures, particularly Fan Art, some of it shit. Not in the same league as Patti Smith's Just Kids or Viv Albertine's Clothes Music Boys.

One for the fans.

Like many on here I've been a bookworm since I learnt to read. I certainly read a load of "tosh" as a teen - Jeffrey Archer, Sidney Sheldon, Flowers in the Attic, Danielle Steele etc etc etc

My children are not avid readers (so sad!!) but recently the youngest has started reading Colleen Hoover and Nicholas Sparks and I'm embracing it! I think the eldest will come round to reading as she gets older. She genuinely enjoyed most of the books she studied for English Lit and loved The Handmaid's Tale so much I've just bought her The Testaments for holiday reading.

Not getting much reading done right now, just keeping up with this thread!! Piggy, I'm still plodding on with TOCS but missed the end of the month deadline for this instalment. I have a week off soon so am hopeful for a bit of reading time then!

Totally agree that it doesn't matter what kids read, so long as they're reading something. (Although it's fine also to go through phases of not reading.) I think reading trash can be part of teenage rebellion for big readers. I worked my way through Jilly Cooper, Barbara Cartland and many Mills & Boons before doing a hard pivot into the Virago catalogue at about 15 or 16. Also, does anyone remember the imprint with the black and white diagonal lines on the spine? It may be still going but I can't for the life of me remember what it's called.

Also, does anyone remember the imprint with the black and white diagonal lines on the spine?

The Women's Press. It had a little iron logo too.

@Boiledeggandtoast That's it, thank you! I'd forgotten about the iron. So much quality writing between that and Virago.

Maud There really was, I read quite a lot of their books back in the 1980s. I particularly loved the Alberta trilogy by the Norwegian writer Cora Sandel, although I can't remember much about it now (it's probably due a reread after 40 years!).

I haven't heard of that one, I will look it up. I remember reading The Color Purple, which led me on to Toni Morrison, and I also read something by Andrea Dworkin which would have been Women's Press.

Ooh, that sounds good (I just googled it).

I hope it is, I was about 20 when I read it!

I'm 62 now.....

If when I work my way through my to-read list and onto it, I'll let you know!

35 Idol - Louise O’Neill
Celebrity influencer and well-being/faux-spirituality guru Samantha publishes an essay on her life-changing teenage sexual experience with her friend Lisa, but her life spirals out of control when it turns out that Lisa’s memory is of a less consensual encounter. This had interesting themes around the reliability of memory and the construction of a commercially lucrative life story, but Sam was a totally unappealing character and so it was hard to be drawn into the narrative.

That said, I read this while jet-lagged, staying at my parents and being compelled to watch antique-vintage period dramas while trying to read, so may not have had the best reading experience. (I’d previously rated Only Ever Yours by the same author quite highly.)

I've still got lots of the Women's press books on my shelves :) They had a great sci-fi list back in the day

I recall being 15 and earning the grand sum on £120
for childminding for several
weeks. I took my hard earned cash and went straight to the second hand bookshop where I bought a pile of Virago books. I recall my boyfriend, an English student (now husband) seeing the bookshelf and suggesting I might have a strong preference of theme.

I stopped reading Marian Keyes with the Walsh sister who went to America's story which I thought was tosh.

Lucy Sullivan is Getting Married was the first I read, and still possibly my favourite. I read it the same week as Bridget Jones' Diary in 1997 and was "wow, these women are getting pissed and shagging undesirables, just like me!"

Then Watermelon, Rachel's Holiday, for the Walshes. I think I read the one about the sister who sold drugs but can't remember because I thought that was shit as well.

Last Chance Saloon and Sushi for Beginners as non Walshes were both great.

I used to like Freya North as well. Some Lisa Jewell. Vince and Joy was great.

I bloody loved the Da Vinci code. I just like books where I learn random bits of information.