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?

@Terpsichore
Have just ordered Tunnel 29. Thanks for the recommendation!

Following on from the recent Steinbeck chat, Cannery Row and East of Eden are both £1.56 on Kindle at the minute.

Thanks @TattiePants I have just bought both of them! I only read Grapes Of Wrath in the last year or so and really loved it (though also wrenching) so hoping I'll love these two as much.

I was supposed to be reading Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep next, but after a week, I haven't picked it up to even finish the intro which makes me think I don't want to read it after all.

I’ve got The Grapes of Wrath sitting in front of me. I was just about to start it then got distracted on Amazon and don’t know which of the 3 to read first!

Oh tough choice. They’re all good but different.

Tunnel 29 is really good.

And I started East Of Eden tonight.

Piggy I'm reading this at the moment and also think I have the outcome pegged - another 200 pages to go before I found out if I'm right though!

33. The Lies We Tell by Meg Carter Well this was a pile of shite. Absolutely should not have finished it, but it's a short book and I wanted it off my list so kept going. It's dual timeline, in 2013 Katy is professionally successful, in a seemingly happy relationship with her perfect fiance and pregnant with her first child. Her life seems absolutely perfect...until childhood friend Jude gets in touch. Katy last saw Jude in the summer of 1989 and that's our second timeline. On a school trip to the Devil's Punch Bowl something went very wrong, Katy and Jude got split up, Katy ended up in an accident and when she was discharged from hospital Jude and her family had moved away and she never saw her again. Now Katy must face the truth of that summer and the secrets she's been keeping not just from those around her but from herself all these years. The premise isn't terrible and is based around the statement "the lies we tell [others] are nothing compared to the lies we tell ourselves" and the human ability to block out and change unpleasant events to cast ourselves in a more positive light

But fuck me this could not have been more badly written. Does a proof reader or editor exist for this book?! I believe they must because they have LEFT NOTES throughout the text for the author to make amendments and the notes have been printed without amendments!!!

Some other glaring issues (and these are just a few examples):
Part of the book is based in Guildford but apparently a quick look at Google maps is beyond Carter's abilities as EVERY landmark and road name she mentions doesn't exist in Guildford (I'm from Guildford so this annoyed me more than it probably should have done). Don't base your book in a real place and then invent all the details of that place

Frequent terrible grammar ("the sprawling south coast town where she grew up in"). This happens all the time!

Constant changes of tense mid sentence ("when he pulled out his hand his fingers are dripping") again, this happens at least once per page. The next sentence will go back to the past tense again

Carter believes the 20 week anomaly scan during pregnancy is only for high risk pregnancies, seriously, Google exists!

This truly terrible piece of writing "Both were facing each other. He behind her, his arm locked around her neck, pulling her backwards. She in front...her hands tearing blindly at the figure behind her"
Well they clearly can't be both facing each other and he behind her back

Half a chapter where Carter forgets which characters perspective she's writing from so completely confuses the story by talking about Katy when it later becomes clear she meant Jude. Makes the whole chapter senseless until you work out that half the references to Katy should be Jude

I actually can't believe this book made it to print in such a state. I especially can't believe how many people were thanked in the acknowledgement for their proof reading and editing support, truly beggars belief that no one picked up on the constant changes in tense and grammatical mistakes

@satelliteheart Blimey! If it’s any consolation, I enjoyed your review more than I’m enjoying my current novel, which is almost certainly going to be a DNF.

I also enjoyed your review satelliteheart, so much so that I googled Meg Carter. Apparently she "worked as a journalist for 20 years before turning her hand to fiction"!

Oh, let me know!!

I'm on a run of DNFs. Partly my mood, but I'm currently failing to read Legends & Lattes, which I'd seen recommended a fair amount. The premise is an orc giving up fighting & opening a coffee shop. I was expecting humour & romance - I'm at 33%, and really, nothing has happened apart from renting a building, renovating it, realising that she needs to advertise to get customers etc. I can only imagine it improves but I just can't get up the enthusiasm to find out.

TBF, I got the sample & wasn't hooked, but then I saw it on 99p deal & figured it was worth a try. I definitely need to find something either light & amusing or quality but gripping though to get me out of a reading slump. I might have to actually cough up for the second Left-handed booksellers novel, unless anyone has suggestions.

I need to read this just to write a review!
Blimeyheck. 🤣

Great review @satelliteheart - was this you on Amazon?

there’s a sentence about someone putting their work uniform on and it says “She was wearing her staff uniform FOR WHERE?” - it’s laughable really

😂😂

@So1invictus if you're really feeling so truly masochistic I'm sure I picked it up in the works in their 3 for £5 deal and it's definitely the sort of shoddy crime thriller which is frequently 99p on kindle. Typical dark house silhouette with yellow title cover

@Terpsichore that wasn't my review but that is one of the (I presume) editor's notes left in the text. The truly laughable thing about that particular note is that on the previous page it states she works at co-op, so clearly the editor is also unable to retain information for more than the 30 seconds it would take to read the one page separating these two pieces of information

@Sadik I’m trying to imagine your state of mind when you bought that. An orc opens a coffee shop, you say, bookseller? That sounds exactly the kind of niche world I wish to inhabit right now. No need to wrap it. I’ll read it immediately.

You might like it @RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie - lots of people obviously do! I was expecting spoof 'Little Cornish Coffee shop' but instead I think it's more of a rather heavy handed 'let's talk about discrimination & stereotypes' type of affair. Kind of the opposite of House by the Cerulean Sea which veered that way but carried it off with ladles of charm.

I love this thread! First we had dinosaur porn, now it’s orcs opening coffee shops…what’s next I wonder?!

70 (I think) A Visit from the Goon Squad- Jennifer Egan
This Pulitzer winning collection of linked short stories was highly recommended by two friends whose opinions I usually trust but I found it ultimately disappointing. The stories are all linked to Bennie, a music producer, and Sasha, his PA. They move back and forward in time- and time is the main theme. While some stories were moving, most took too long to engage me and there was a lot of mucking about with format and structure (1 story in second person, 1 in PowerPoint) which to me pulled me out of the story.

71 A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
I loved the first two sections of this interesting coming of age tale set in early 20th century Ireland. The protagonist Stephen Dedalus is based on Joyce himself. I was beginning to think that one day I might be able to tackle Ulysses. Then I hit section 3 which was a fire and brimstone sermon essentially and by part 5 I had lost all sympathy for and engagement in Stephen’s life. Maybe Ulysses is not for me after all.

This is shaping up into a bit of a disappointing reading month for me.

I'm very taken with the idea of an Orc opening a coffee shop, I have to say.

I'm nearly finished Frenchman's Creek (shout out to StColomb!) and am enjoying* *this romantic, swashbuckling tale very much.

I'm reading Ulysses, book and audiobook. Slowly. I like it though. Sometimes I feel baffled by references and allusions, but the writing is vivid and it gives insight into the lives of people and their way of life and I like the humour in it.

My 19 year old is a good reader but not literary. Some of these suggestions are possibly a bit much, and a bit dated. That's why Banks is a good call.

19 year old likes Agatha Christie, and Horowitz crime novels. Generally he avoids fiction but loved Of Mice and Men and Animal Farm. He did obediently read The Mayor of Casterbridge but didn't warm to it. Apparently even English undergraduates steer clear of the Victorians, sadly.

If he likes race issues, Small Island , Beloved and The Underground Railroad are fabulous for that age group.

Bollocks wrong thread.

@Piggywaspushed
Thanks Piggy. May be wrong thread but useful for DD (17)