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?

Posted too soon. It had ridiculous sentences that spelt things out constantly like this.

'Once in her room, she took out her phone and flopped on the bed to call her friend Zia in Umbria, central Italy, who was almost obscenely happy with her handsome Italian husband Piero.'

The thing is we had already met Zia and already knew she lived in Umbria, though I think Umbria being in central Italy was omitted previously.

42 In Tearing Haste - Letters Between Deborah Devonshire and Patrick Leigh Fermor

This collection of correspondence over the six decades of their friendship couldn’t help but be utterly charming and entertaining. I’m still pretty allergic to the Mitfords in general and there are certainly aspects of the letters that bring out the class warrior in me. But setting aside the immense privilege of their world, most touching is their continued bond into old age and the griefs and infirmities that go with it.

@EineReiseDurchDieZeit @Gingerwarthog mine is Black Sunset by Clancy Sigal. Looks like a non-fiction, and if I do renew my subscription it’ll be NF all the way - I’m just incredibly hard to please when it comes to fiction.

I did Google Clancy Sigal @MegBusset
and he looks like a fascinating character.
Yours looks interesting too @EineReiseDurchDieZeit. May order that one (or request it from Mr B?).

Yes agreed, if I renew it will be non fiction definitely I'm clearly difficult to read fiction taste wise

Well that's three of us. Going through a non- fiction phase here too - although Demon Copperfield is incredible.

86. Planet of the Apes by Pierre Boulle

I don’t think this needs any introduction, as most people will be familiar with the film, if not the book it is based on. Some aspects of the novel, which was written in the 1960s have definitely not aged well, I was particularly uncomfortable with the sexual ‘relationship’ between the main character and the woman who he mostly saw as being on a level with animals, albeit a beautiful one. A lot of the science felt dodgy too, particularly in the scene where some knowledge on how ‘The Planet of the Apes’ came to be is shared. The book has some interesting points to make, but suffers in comparison to the film in my opinion. I did enjoy listening to this, but by the end of was firmly convinced that the filmmakers managed to turn a pretty average book into a brilliant film (the original and not the Tim Burton sacrilege of course!).

Oh @EineReiseDurchDieZeit I got The Memory Stones in a Mr B subscription a few years ago. Must be one of their standards! I'll look forward to seeing what you think.

Some good kindle deals today including Again Rachel, which I've just bought.

@bibliomania I’m glad you are enjoying Steeple Chasing

46 Family Business by Jonathan Sims
This was just OK, with some thought provoking themes that were never explored as fully as I would have liked.
Diya is taken on by the Slough family, who for over 100 years have cleaned the scenes of violent crime, accident, murder and suicide. She is still mourning the death of her best friend since childhood.
In a nutshell, there are forces at work that are the exact opposite of the saying “a man never dies whose name is still spoken”. Some early scenes of the ‘monster’ are genuinely creepy, but it all gets a bit overwrought and silly by the end.

DNFed Mother Thing by Ainslie Hogarth. It annoyed me from the start, just couldn’t get on with the tone of it.

I've just posted on the wrong thread

@GrannieMainland

Must be as I had already declined twice - it must be a real bombproof selection

Was it any good?

Saw this on Twitter and thought of this thread!

https://twitter.com/davidmbarnett/status/1678494408436510730?t=ZNbEdIMf3E9bo1WJwfad5w&s=19

32 Nine Perfect Strangers by Liane Moriarty

Bought as I finished my book whilst back in my home town and wanted to buy something in the second hand bookshop I frequented in my childhood (bought all the Agatha Christies there - I had a rule I would only buy them at £1.50 or less!). Enjoyable tosh. Nowhere near as good as Big Little Lies.

That's hilarious.

My book club have banned anything that falls into
Quirky Business Venture By The Sea
Unusual Profession of War Torn Place
Strange Profession's Female Relative
THREE WORD TITLE (in yellow writing)

We also have an embargo on authors who live within a 10 mile radius.
We have one guy spamming us about his books every time we discuss the potential next book and another where we read the book and he was supposed to come and speak to us about it, but COVID hit. It was literally the worst book I have ever read and I would have had to excuse myself as there wasn't a single polite thing I could say about it. It was literally the plot of a Scooby Doo episode, fairground included.

I would read that, in all honesty. Sounds like a hoot!

I sent that to my sister as she has recently discovered “cosy Murder novels” which feature a goat called Petunia.

I find the whole idea of “cosy Murder” a bit weird anyway

The New Wife - JP Delaney I had forgotten that the woeful The Girl Before drama series was based on a book by this author as I would have swerved it. This latest novel, Delaney's modern take on Du Maurier's, My Cousin Rachel ( Oh the hubris!) involving illegal immigration and toxic masculinity is utter bilge.

Petunia the goat is oddly enticing. I looked it up and it's American, and I tend to prefer English cosy crime. Oh, I agree it's an odd genre really, but it's the satisfaction of unraveling the crime contrasted with the niceness of the life the characters lead, like cold butter melting on hot crumpets.

Old Gods Time by Sebastian Barry is 99p today

Well I don't want to prejudice your opinion @EineReiseDurchDieZeit! I thought it was basically fine, not a remarkable novel, though I learnt a lot about that period of Argentinian history. It has some pretty distressing scenes in the military prisons as well.

@bibliomania some of the quotes she has sent me are hilarious. Lots of handwringing then cups of lemonade and a slice of something nice. The victims are always essentially deserving of getting offed.

I only ever read one of the Thursday Murder Club but I think that might fall
into the Cosy Crime category. I totally get it - gentle and undemanding but something to wrap your brain around.

Interesting

Memory Stones is also Argentina

I know about Eva Peron, Polo and Tango and that's about it.

Damnit, @Passmethecrisps I'm going in. (Bought the cheapest one in the series, so no reproaches if petunia disappoints).

I am sure they will not disappoint! She has read three in three days and is limbering up for the others by the author 🤣

87. Utopia Avenue by David Mitchell

I liked a lot of things about this story of the rise of a British band formed in the late 1960s, the sense of time and place were perfect, but I think it was the band, both as individuals and as a group that really drew me in. I loved the sub plot involving Jasper, and the link to The Bone Clocks which I really enjoyed reading last year. There was just one thing that had me rolling my eyes occasionally and that was the incessant name dropping. I get that a band on the rise in London and the US would come across a fair number of famous people, but this was done with a bit of a heavy hand. Overall though I really liked this.

Yes I found it heavy handed also and disliked class depictions particularly around the lead singer I don't think it's a patch on Bone Clocks