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?

35. The Memory of Lost Senses by Judith Kinghorn In 1911 Cora, an elegant and mysterious widow, has moved to the sleepy village of Bramley with her recently orphaned grandson Jack. Cora has lived in Europe for most of her life for mysterious reasons. Her oldest friend, Sylvia, a novelist, comes to stay for the summer to write Cora's memoirs but Cora struggles to open up about her early life, before she moved to the continent

When I started reading this I realised I'd read it before but thought it was probably a previous dnf as I had no memory of the ending. Having finished the book, the ending did seem a bit familiar so maybe I read the whole thing before! Honestly, no idea how much of this I previously read, none of it had stuck in my mind until I was reading again. So with that in mind I don't think I'd recommend as it obviously made very little impression

Just finished Booth , which I really enjoyed. It was very different from what I expected . I decided to buy it a while back because Nicola Sturgeon, a voracious reader, recommended it! This seems now an interesting choice ...a book so full of rivalries and internecine disputes . I found the Shakespearean allusions worked well. I also like that she didn't centre the assassin. It's really a book about family, about history, about memories and what we do with them, about acting, the stage - and of American mythology.

I also enjoyed reading her afterwords . I didn't enjoy We Are All Completely... at all, but I found this a rewarding read.

Oh, I got the first of the trilogy for my birthday, planning to read it quite soon. Good to know you enjoyed it.

Janina I'd be really interested to know what you think of it and whether you think it would withstand a reread with the added maturity of 40 years.

Hey Piggy I don't know about Nicola Sturgeon but I loved Booth, I think Cornish was unimpressed though!

I enjoyed this when I listened to the audio version a couple of years ago. I gave it a 7/10 but I am a stingy scorer! I was not aware of the Akha people so it was interesting to read such a detailed account of them and their culture and also to hear from the perspective of Chinese girls adopted out of their country - not something I had really thought about. I remember thinking that the ending was quite abrupt, especially after a long meandering tale, and would have liked a bit more detail tying up the characters lives.

I can see some people might not get on with it, to be fair!

@Piggywaspushed

Did it remind you of Hamnet by any chance?

38. Under Another Sky: Journeys in Roman Britain - Charlotte Higgins

The jist is that the author and her boyfriend travel England and Scotland in a battered camper van looking at Roman sites.

I didn't quite know what to make of this book; it's a strange mix. There's not as much travel writing as I thought there'd be, though what there was beautifully evokes the countryside and heritage. Plenty of Roman sites, both familiar and new, ordered by region. However, the book assumes a basic knowledge of the history of Roman Britain, so not ideal for a complete newcomer. What it does give in spades (or trowels) are tangents into the life histories of the archaeologists and other experts involved in the sites, the history of the sites' discoveries, major finds, or their influence on art and music and vice versa. Another chapter took a turn to an interesting discussion about what Romanisation meant in the past and present. A surprising, meandering treatment of the subject but an enjoyable read because of it.

As an aside, the book was adapted into a play at the Pitlochry Festival Theatre - I don't know how, but I think it would have been a production worth seeing.

She mentions Hamnet in her afterword, funnily enough. It did a bit, I guess -in voice and themes. I liked the American history too as someone who is half American.

I didn't read the afterwords! Heathen here

I read lots of Marian Keyes as a teenager though I can't distinguish between them very well. I've returned to Watermelon and Rachel's Holiday as an adult and have been surprised by how sharp and funny they are. I liked her latest one as well.

On the subject of books about which people always say 'it looks like chick lit but it's not!' - book 47 was The Girls' Guide To Hunting And Fishing by Melissa Bank. Another one I think I read a long time ago. It's pretty much a set of linked short stories following Jane and her family as she moves between relationships. Really enjoyable, with a Nora Ephron feel to it in that everyone works in publishing, drinks a lot of martinis, and speaks exclusively in witty comebacks. I'm glad I picked it up again.

That sounds interesting @RomanMum , I’ll look out for that. It’s fascinating to look at where the Roman army came from in the world and to stand on a hill in the middle of nowhere wondering what they made of a bleak Northumbrian winter, for instance.

45 Death Of A Bookseller by Alice Slater
Thank you to the people who reviewed this. It’s not something I would have picked up as it doesn’t stand out as something I’d like at first glance. It was great, however! Reminded me of CJ Skuse’s Sweet Pea serial killer crime novels in places and the main characters of Roach and Laura are written very well, I thought. The author resists the urge to tell us everything about everyone, all at once and that extends to the peripheral characters. Eli, for instance, was eminently slappable by the end.
I started off Team Roach, but ended up Team Laura
The ending seemed slightly rushed, but the skipping over the years of Covid made sense.
It has some valid things to say about how serial killers are viewed, their popularity and the perception of their victims, without being preachy. I read very little True Crime, so I’m skewed towards Laura’s pov, but despite Roach’s creepy grimness, there was quite a lot of sympathy towards her, too.

Forgot to say, loved the cameo by The Mother Black Cap pub. Whether it was intentional or not, I love a nod to Withnail And I

Crazy at work so have not posted for a while.
@EineReiseDurchDieZeit - my Mr B this month was Jonathan Freedland's The Escape Artist which looks good.

Currently reading Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver and am gripped by it - although reading is slow progress (due to work).

Read her explanation of why she wrote it in this way - she was staying at the house in Kent where Dickens wrote and at the time she was grappling with how to write about opioid addiction in the US. She was up late, thinking and wandering around the room where Dickens wrote and she heard a voice say 'Look to the child'.

That made her write from a child's perspective and she says she felt Dickens' presence in the Broadstairs house.

I found this deeply moving/ comforting.

Phew, genuinely thought a whole thread was going to pass without me finishing a single book for a while there. But finally finished something

25 Kiss Myself Goodbye: The Many Lives of Aunt Munca - Ferdinand Mount
This was a 50 bookers recommendation either from this year’s thread or last year maybe. Whoever recommended it thank you, it was great. What a story, the surprises just kept on coming. It’s an extraordinary memoir, I won’t say much else in case I spoil anything.

Can’t believe I’m only on 25 - don’t think I’ll make 50 this year, although I have high hopes for a 10 day holiday coming up at the end of September. Perhaps being very optimistic there as will have a 3 year old with us, but there are enough extended family members coming with us for me to hope I might get the odd hour to myself to read by the pool.

I read Booth last year and really enjoyed it. I can see why it might be divisive though.

I know We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by the same author was hated by a lot of people, I absolutely loved it! It’s the reason I picked up Booth on the strength of the author’s name - very different book but I do enjoy her style/ voice.

I just read Death of a Bookseller too @BoldFearlessGirl

I started off quite liking it. It's set where I live and there was that nice feeling of knowing where all the places are. All the places she mentions except for the Mother's Black Cap are real. And also started off Team Roach. But as it progressed, I felt it was a bit slow paced with very little actually happening, just the same stuff being regurgitated. And as it progressed, I didn't feel much sympathy for either character. I was expecting a murder mystery which this wasn't so that might have been part of the issue.

The characters read a bit YA to me, but then I'm not sure how much my teen would actually enjoy it. She wants to read it so will update when she has.

Yes, I see what you mean about the YA tone, @Stokey . I do like that style of writing when it’s well done (Frances Hardinge, for example). It was a bit of light relief after Beastings
Apparently CJ Skuse has two more Sweet Pea books in the pipeline, one for ‘this summer’. They are very violent and the protagonist’s moral code almost nonexistent, but I do love them.

A bit late to the party, but enjoying the chat about Da Vinci Code & other light / mass-market reads. I'm always a bit about the 'at least it gets them reading' line, as it implies that only some books are really worth reading & other books are somehow only valuable in as far as they lead to 'better' choices.

It's a bit as if watching Bake-off or Sewing Bee was only worth doing because it might lead to you then watching French art-house movies, as opposed to something that you enjoy of itself & for relaxation (whether or not you enjoy art-house movies as well at other times).

On which note:
50. Butter, Sugar, Magic
51. Bread, Coffee, Magic
52. Bitter, Sweet, Magic
53. Sweet & Sour Spells all by Jessica Rosenberg.
I picked up the first of these in the free 'stuff your Kindle' deal & then bought all the rest of the series on the strength of it (which I guess is absolutely the point!). Cassie is a newly divorced single mother with no job & no money. She takes a trip to New England on the promise of a mysterious inheritance from a great-aunt that she'd never met, and ends up with a magical bakery.

They're billed as 'cosy women's paranormal fiction' and indeed do what they say on the tin. They're very much like childrens' books for adults - in that there's a little mild peril, as the film ratings say, but nothing more, and it's always clear that things will work out well. They're adult only in that the problems faced by the characters are financial / parenting / work related. Although they were listed in a romance section, there's actually no romance until the last book & even there it was a bit half-hearted, they're much more about building a new life post divorce in a new town.

I'm now reading 'Last Dance at the Discotheque for Deviants' partly on the strength of good reviews, but mostly because of the title. Much less cosy, but very good so far.

books are really worth reading & other books are somehow only valuable in as far as they lead to 'better' choices.

This wasn't quite what I meant - a lot of 50 Shades readers moved on to Sylvia Day and that's valid too

When I worked in a charity shop the most donated book by far was Sharon Osbournes autobiography - the sales must have been huge. I read it myself and saw why it was so popular.

I'm not against popular at all.

I'm against shit titles and twee marketing though!

Sorry Eine - that wasn't aimed at you, just at the tendency generally to value light reading only to the extent it leads to something more worthy. (My personal bugbear is the book-club type of novel full of ishoos )

Is it awful that “questions for book clubs” at the end of a book REALLY puts me off? It is almost like ending the book with “here is what you should think and here are some questions to help direct you towards these thoughts”

That's exactly what I think too, hate it very patronising

Amazon are driving me nuts yoday. Ordered 2 books for my kindle this morning and I keep getting a message saying there is an issue with the payment on the first one. 2nd has gone through fine. I've tried adding another card in case there's a problem at the bank and get exactly the same problem. Clearly the IT has it's knickers in a twist on that transaction but can I find a way to communicate and resolve it? No only a poxy auto chat bot that doesn't have the option to ask about the actual problem only a predefined set of questions.
I can't even cancel the order and re-try as the payment problem stops that happening too.