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?

@StitchesInTime I used to devour Robin Cook from the local library- so many mad medical stories, some more plausible than others. I remember one much more than others- about contaminated meat in fast food places- that one was quite harrowing.

Welcome @FuckoffeeBeforeCoffee (I've just had mine!) (coffee, not fuck- cba with any of that)

I've never read The Crimson Petal and the White but have an irrational hatred of it a) one of my students did a presentation on it for her teacher training b) I always want to go "white what? finish your sentence!" in manner of barking schoolma'am. I think I might have it on the Kindle.

I can't remember what my Daily Deals were yesterday, but they were different to @TattiePants as well. I don't think I like the idea we all get different ones either, as I'll have to start asking you all and BUYING EVERYTHING!

Re: decluttering, as the person with bus tickets from 1985 I'm not one to talk, though I did get into (apologies for batshit and woo alert) into space clearing briefly. (I know, I know) and used Karen Kingston's decluttering books. Confirmation bias tells me it worked as I got a new job at a time when I desperately wanted one, but that could be because I'm just fucking brilliant rather than because I cleaned my windows and sorted out the Drawer of Doom whilst dancing round wearing white and spraying essential oils into corners. At this time of year I always say I'm going to declutter- school here is finished, and I have two weeks until school there starts. Never happens obvs. The one useful (and I think valid) thing KK said about decluttering was start with one drawer or one metre of space. You'll already feel so much better you'll carry on.

@grannycake Do quote Melvyn on those tedious threads about Americanisms. I'm usually there under my more fuck the lot of you ignorant trolls username pouring scorn on the unbelievers.

@EineReiseDurchDieZeit I have a student who writes "due to the fact that" at least 10 times in every 250 word essay and I keep crossing it out.

I've just finished

24 Summerwater: Sarah Moss.

Nothing much to add to what I said earlier. Odd little thing. Glad it was short. Preferred The Fell but not much. She's playing with us, is Sarah.

I am hugely enjoying Frostquake though and it will be a bold unless something goes horribly wrong.

Going back to formulaic homicide now. Blix and Ramm 2 I think. Nice Scandi serial killers.

There were a couple of DNFs

• Written, D. A. Lee
• A Glove Shop in Vienna, by thread fave Eva Ibbotson

Ha! Thanks St Columbo. I'm halfway through The Morning Gift by Eva Ibbotson but not sure whether I have the will to continue as I'm afraid I'm finding it rather silly, particularly given the subject matter.

Thanks for the new(ish) thread @Southeastdweller 😀Haven't posted a review here for what seems like an age, but I did finish Life after Life recently, possibly the last person in the world to read etc etc. and have been thinking about it a lot since...

@FortunaMajor thank you, that's so helpful! I'll check out Decluttering at the Speed of Life. Also love the idea of actually decluttering whilst listening to the book on audio!! I don't really do audio books but might give that method a go to get me up and moving. I often find I read some of these books, feel super motivated, and then realise it's time to do the school run so I can't start right now and by the time I get home I get stuck in the snack/homework/dinner/bed routine from which there's no escape

I'm actually in Cassandra Aarssen's Facebook group, but having never read her book I don't really get a lot out of it. Also it's full of Americans who ask disingenuous questions like "why are British homes so small?" And "why is your washing machine in the kitchen?"

I'm embarrassingly fascinated by decluttering and organisational systems (although the only one that has ever worked for DH and me is The Organised Mum Method, which has a very supportive - and normal - FB group called Team TOMM). I'm afraid that American decluttering videos give me the rage, as I spend all the time thinking "if I had a house that massive, then I wouldn't need to declutter! Your pantry, which you claim is too small for your food storage needs, is the size of my entire kitchen!!!" etc etc.

Bringing my list across now

1. What You Did; Claire McGowan
2. Me; Elton John
3. She Lies in Wait; Gytha Lodge
4. Watching From the Dark; Gytha Lodge
5. Lie Beside Me; Gytha Lodge
6. Little Sister; Gytha Lodge
7. Broken Summer; J. M. Lee
8. Secrets of the Sea House; Elisabeth Gifford
9. The Mysterious Affair at Styles; Agatha Christie
10. Gallows Court; Martin Edwards
11. Finding Freedom: Harry and Meghan and the Making of a Modern Royal Family; Omid Scobie & Carolyn Durand
12. Stealing the Crown; T. P. Fielden
13. City Dark; Roger A. Canaff
14. An Eye for an Eye; Carol Wyer
15. The Housewarming; S. E. Lynes
16. Return to Fourwinds; Elisabeth Gifford
17. The Duchess; Amanda Foreman
18. The Importance of Being Kennedy; Laurie Graham
19. ^Habits of the House; Fay Weldon
20. Long Live the King; Fay Weldon
21. The New Countess; Fay Weldon^
22. Her Last Holiday; C. L. Taylor
23. No Home for Killers; E. A. Aymar
24. Twilight; Stephanie Meyer
25. Midnight Sun; Stephanie Meyer
26. New Moon; Stephanie Meyer
27. Eclipse; Stephanie Meyer
28. Breaking Dawn; Stephanie Meyer
29. Mortmain Hall; Martin Edwards
30. The Stroke of Winter; Wendy Webb
31. The Wheel of Fortune; Susan Howatch
32. Take Six Girls: The Lives of the Mitford Sisters; Laura Thompson

Thank you @Southeastdweller for keeping house. My too short list is:

1. In a Good Light by Claire Chambers
2. Elizabeth Finch by Julian Barnes

3. Lean, Fall, Stand by Jon McGregor

1. The Juniper Tree by Barbara Comyns

5. The End of Innocence: Britain in the Time of AIDS by Simon Garfield

1. The Paper Palace by Miranda Cowley Heller
2. Children of Paradise by Camilla Grudova

8. Riceyman Steps by Arnold Bennett

1. Reputation by Sarah Vaughan

10. Men Who Hate Women by Laura Bates

And I've just finished 11. This Must be the Place by Maggie O'Farrell. Claudette Wells is an acclaimed actor and screenwriter who one day disappears, never to be seen in public again. Her withdrawal from view, its precursors and aftermath is told from the point of view of lots of people in her life, most often her husband Daniel, and we hear of the personal struggles of each of these interconnect individuals. Very enjoyable; very readable but not superficial, although a little implausible.

A bit disappointed too that Demon Copperhead won the Woman's prize. It is an impressive book and very readable but just seems like a safe choice given the debut authors that were on the long and shortlists. Hopefully some of them will have had their sales boosted anyway.

I think I'd like to read ducks. Was considering the audible but Eine has put me off!

I may be in a slightly minority on here about Demon Copperhead but I think it's something of a masterpiece. I'm pleased it's won. The only others from the long-list I've so far read are The Marriage Portrait and Trespasses, but I think it's a better novel than either.

There must be something in the air as I'm in the process of decluttering my kitchen, I do either a cupboard/drawer a day or a task a day (e.g. pots and pans, food etc) takes longer but by the end of a fortnight its done. I come from a family of hoarders though so I'm quite strict about it.

I've fallen off the thread (again) but here are some more recent reads;

The Paper Palace by Miranda Cowley Heller

Very readable and easy to get caught up in it and finish. Not sure what to make of it now though.

The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim

I’m in a minority but I wasn’t all that charmed by it. I liked the part where the characters were still in London as this part delved more into their circumstances. I lost interest soon after they arrived in Italy.

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid

This was a deal in somewhere like The Works so I picked it up and I’m glad I did. Hugely enjoyable and got me out of a reading slump.

Out by Natsuo Kirino

This one involves a group of women who work the night shift in a local factory. The women all have different problems in their life as no one works at the factory unless they are desperate for money. When one of the women kills her abusive husband the other women (for their own reasons) step in to help get rid of the body.

This was great for the most part, I thought I knew where a story like this would head but it didn’t go down that route at all. There are also a lot of interesting side characters including a pimp/club owner and one of the Brazilian employees also working the night shift at the factory which took the story down several other avenues. This was very nearly a bold for me until the ending which was WTAF. Looking at the goodreads reviews, I’m not the only person who had an issue with this, so recommended up to a point.

Ah, I'm also a little disappointed about DemonCopperhead! (Sorry Mark.) It's a very good book; it has a great concept and a lot of heart; it's just that I thought the concept in the end was better than the realisation of it (for example, parts of the book felt more preachy than subtle). And Kingsolver has already been so lauded since publishing it. But yeah, it's a perfectly respectable choice.

@EineReiseDurchDieZeit , I find 'the fact that' in Ducks, Newburyport really annoying as well. I don't think anyone in real life actually structures their thoughts like that. But I read one review that said the term worked something like a full stop, and thinking of it in that way helped me a bit. Now, some 700 pages into the book, I've got used to it and barely notice it 😁I do think the novel is more like a virtuosic game with literary language than a realistic account of how the human brain works. I mean, all those lists and all that data! Anyone who can retain all that info in their head has a more impressive mind than I do.

Also, sometimes I will be reading a few pages, and then I'll discover that the narrator's kids have been around the whole time, and that doesn't seem believable to me either, because when my kids are around (and this was even more true when they were small), SO MUCH of my thinking revolves around them, and they are just constantly interrupting me. So I don't quite grasp how the mother can have such a long, non-child-related monologue in her head at times when her four kids are present! Never mind...

There is a lot of pleasure in the small recognitions though, little bits of American life and language that I haven't thought of for years, because I've lived in the UK for so long. And lots of small recognitions that aren't specifically American, but just part of Western cultural baggage I suppose. I've also grown to genuinely like the heroine, with her shyness and her mourning for her mother.

@cassandre

I was on Audio and if memory serves I got to the bit were she thinks about the film Julie and Julia and then sings the French National Anthem and I tapped out at that point with JUST WHYYYY

Is anyone else constitutionally unable to read in this heat? I'm melting like the Wicked Witch Of The West

LOL Eine I can see why you decided to DNF.

Yes, I'm miserable in the heat, I have literally one day of my teaching term left and I just can't make myself do anything that involves any mental effort whatsoever 😥

I’m also hopeless in the heat. It’s a good excuse to do nothing. I’m just reading about running marathons in the Sahara. Crazy.

41. The Adversary - Emmanuel Carrère (trans. Linda Coverdale)

I can’t remember who it was towards the end of the previous thread who'd read Carrère's biography of Philip K. Dick - well, he'd just finished working on that book when a horrific crime was reported in France: the murder, by an eminent medical researcher, of his wife, two small children, and his parents. The murderer was called Jean-Claude Romand and there was wild speculation that he was involved in various illicit activities, perhaps arms or drugs trafficking or even possible spying.

Carrère became fascinated by the story when it transpired that Romand was involved in none of these things. But neither was he a medical researcher working for the WHO. He'd never qualified as a doctor. None of the things his friends or closest family believed were true. His deception was on a truly epic scale and had gone on for some twenty years; everyone he knew had been totally duped.

I heard about this book on Radio 4 recently and whoever recommended it said it was totally gripping. I’d agree that it’s very compelling but I’d stop short of saying it was unputdownable, though it's quite short and easily read in a couple of sessions. As true crime goes, it’s a cut above, being très French and elegant, if that makes sense….!

Oh! I read this in French last summer @Terpsichore I thought it was very chilling.

I have to say that as I'm still doing my Strike by Audible thing though not otherwise reading and I've been watching the show as I go. Silkworm which is 17 hours long... is a 2 parter. This says much

Eva Ibbotson- Magic FlutesI got this in my ten minute free trial of Kindle Unlimited. You can pretty much insert my previous review here.

The same hero and heroine in pretty much the same order, using pretty much the same descriptions but this time with added opera.

I quite enjoyed it but a reasonably well trained monkey who’d read a couple of her others could have written it.

39 Fatal Passage - Ken McGoogan

Excellent biography of Arctic explorer John Rae, who discovered the fate of the doomed Franklin expedition to find the North West Passage and himself identified the missing link in the Passage, but never got the recognition he deserved during his life - mostly because the establishment and Lady Franklin didn’t want to accept his report of cannibalism among the shipwrecked crew of Erebus and Terror. He was very forward thinking for the time in his respect for native people, adopting their practices for Arctic survival. Oh, and I didn’t realise that Charles Dickens was a terrible racist. Anyway this is recommended for those with an interest in polar / Arctic history.

@Terpsichore that was me - this sounds great so will definitely put on the TBR pile!

I’m annoyed even by reading a description of Ducks, Newburyport. No way I’m reading 1000 pages of the actual book

31 Pod - Laline Paull

This ecological novel tells the stories of Ea, a spinner dolphin, and the cetaceans and other creatures that share her ocean habitat. The focus is on anthropogenic damage and exploitation: overfishing, plastic and chemical waste, noise pollution, and even military use of cetaceans. I found this a gripping and genuinely moving page turner (I think I’ve retained my readiness to accept narratives told from the POV of animal characters), using the immediacy of the novel format to show that these horrors are happening to real and distinct individuals, with emotions, complex social lives and intricate communication.

It was stylistically awkward at times and I’m not sure of the point of the subplot with the gender-bending wrasse, but it’ll be a bold from me. In terms of the Women’s Prize rankings, Trespasses and Fire Rush outclassed this. I haven’t read Demon Copperhead yet though.

I too was slightly disappointed to see Demon Copperhead win, but if it was genuinely the unanimous choice then I guess it was the right decision. To me, it was a good story but needed a good edit as it was too meandering. As with others I was hoping for Fire Rush.

I seem to have ended up reading two of the most depressing books known to man this week!

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath.
Esther Greenwood is on an internship at a NY fashion magazine during her summer break from university. She is seeing Buddy Willard, a student of medicine. It seems like she has it all worked out but we see her spiral into depression, attempting suicide and eventually institutionalised. Esther is not always a likeable character- she is judgemental, racist and self-absorbed, but it’s impossible not to sympathise with her. There is some hope in this bleak book but it certainly gave me a window into Plath’s mental health before her own suicide and I’m sure many people can identify. I listened to this on audio and it was read beautifully by Maggie Gyllenhall.

Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton

This short novel- a novella really- is narrated by an engineer visiting the remote town of Starkfield in the middle of winter. There he becomes curious about local man Ethan Frome- a taciturn man who at some stage in the past suffered a serious accident. The novel then moves to tell the story of Frome’s accident, 20 years before when his wife’s cousin arrived to take care of his ailing wife and Ethan’s desire for her. This was beautifully written, drawing me in immediately. All three of the main players- Ethan, his wife Zeena and her cousin Mattie- are sympathetic but very flawed characters. It has quite a melodramatic ending but despite that I loved it and just ordered the complete works of Edith Wharton on kindle (160 reading hours supposedly) for 99p- what a bargain.

planning to read something a bit more cheery next!

30 A Fatal Inversion by Barbara Vine. 10 years ago, Adam unexpectedly inherited his uncle's massive country house, and spent a summer holiday from university there with friends before selling the place. Adam is now married with a child, but the events of that summer have continued to haunt him. Then the current owners discover the bones of a young woman and a baby, dating back around 10 years. The story of what happened is uncovered with glacial slowness in a constant drip drip of new information. This really didn't work for me - the characters are okay, but it moves so slowly and the ending is underwhelming.

31 Rod by Rod Stewart. These days, most autobiographies seem to be written in a quirky way - using themes, or jumping between past and present - but this is a good old traditional autobiography written in chronological order and covering everything you'd expect to be in there - his childhood, his musical career, his relationships and children (eight of them!) and his feelings about all of the above. Rod is a complete tart, cheating on almost all of his wives and girlfriends including when they are pregnant, but if you leave that aside this is honest and funny and, for someone who has been a massive global superstar for so many decades, he does seem quite down to earth.

92. Career Of Evil by Robert Galbraith (Audible)

Book 3

Wasn't fussed on the investigation.

Matthew and Robin are not believable either as current or former partners. The type of bloke Matthew is depicted as is the type of bloke who would have chucked her when she quit uni.

Blue Oyster Cult can Fuck Off

Don't like her depictions of the working classes (also a problem in Casual Vacancy)

Stayed for Robin and Strike and overall setup