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?

16 The Testaments by Margaret Atwood

Set 15 years after The Handmaid's Tale and, although a very different book, answers some of the questions about what happened next. Written from the perspective of three women: a young and privileged woman who had grown up in Gilead but whose life was far from rosy, a teenage girl from Toronto who discovers she has ties to Gilead and the incomparable Aunt Lydia (from THT). It's not as harsh as the first book, Atwood has knocked some of the edges off, or as good a read, but I enjoyed it especially Aunt Lydia's story.

40 Voices Of The Dead by Ambrose Parry. The 4th in the Raven and Fisher series, set in 1800s Edinburgh.
I thoroughly enjoyed this mystery story. This time our intrepid duo are picking their way through dismembered bodies, round spiky police surgeons and obstructive high heid yins of the medical world. To add to their confusion there are not one but three psychics/mesmerists/magicians making their task more difficult.
You can tell the the amount of research that goes into this series by the authors Dr Marisa Haetzman and Christopher Brookmyre and that always serves the plot well. There’s perhaps a touch too much exposition here and there if you’ve read the other books but it’s short, concerns only the backstory of the main characters and doesn’t throw me out of the story.
It’s a light, easy read with enough meat on its bones to satisfy.

Yes to They Both Die at the End for the 13 year old.

I always click on "daily deals" and there are usually about 6 books. Sometimes a few more on a Sunday. Directly under the 6 that show for "daily" there are "featured for you" and "featured". FFY tend to just be other books by authors I've bought, but aren't necessarily 99p. The "featured" are usually ones pulled out of the monthlies.

Having said that- I just opened my Kindle Daily Deal email. Then I opened Amazon and searched Daily Deals and the books are completely different 👀

Picking up on the Strike chat, I am currently reading Troubled Blood and agree it’s undemanding and I enjoy the Strike/Robin relationship and the agency stuff about their other minor investigations. The main investigation is almost incidental for me.

39. Whistleblower - Robert Peston

Set in the 1990s in the run up to Labour landslide election victory (but with fictional politicians). Gil is a journalist at the Financial Chronicle and his sister is a high flying civil servant at the Treasury. Can Gil uncover the corruption at the highest levels without ruining his sister’s reputation and his own career. Easy read, kept me turning the pages. Great if you are interested in politics perhaps less so if you’re not.

Finished The Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling last night. Wasn't sure what I expected from this book but certainly not to be sobbing at the end. The characters were all pretty unlikeable but you couldn't help feeling sympathy for most of them despite that.

😱😱😱😱

Back with another read.

42. Malibu Rising - Taylor Jenkins Reid

Succumbed to this when it was 99p. Nina, Jay, Hud and Kit are the 4 children of singing legend Mick Riva, who abandoned them (and their mother, June) on his way to superstardom. Now, in Malibu in the 80s, Nina is a surfing calendar girl married to errant tennis champ Brandon, living in their glass-and-steel mansion on the cliff after he skipped out on her to be with fellow megastar Carrie Soto. The siblings - bound together by their childhood of adversity - are about to host the annual party that has become a Malibu legend, and will end with the lives of several characters having been changed forever.

A hefty doorstop of a beach read which should ideally be consumed with lashings of cocktails, drizzled with Ambre Solaire and left by the pool a few times - sadly, I wasn’t able to achieve this! It’s fairly clunkily-written and humour isn’t really part of Reid's skillset apart from a few welcome flashes in the later party scenes, but the narrative powers along and you just keep reading. However, having satisfied my curiosity, I think this is probably enough TJR for me now.

I somehow missed Flowers in the Attic as a teenager. But me and my friends were obsessed with the Orphans series - branded Virgina Andrews though I don't think actually written by her - about 4 young girls who are orphaned, then placed in foster homes where they were all abused, then sent to some kind of group care home where they were all abused again, then they went on the run together. It was a bit much.

I actually do remember reading some historical fiction around that age that my mum passed on to me. Definitely Tulip Fever and Girl With A Pearl Earring. I think they'd be quite accessible and feature very young women, probably in their teens, as main characters.

I know it's horribly bad form to put my list on page 9 but in my defence, the thread has moved very quickly in the past week! Placemarking with the list, will go back and read later (very busy at work atm).

1. After Henry – Joan Didion
2. Year of Wonder – Clemency Burton-Hill
3. Motherwell – Deborah Orr

4. Just Kids – Patti Smith 5. Best of Friends – Kamila Shamsie 6. Macbeth – William Shakespeare 7. Wyrd Sisters – Terry Pratchett 8. War Gardens – Lalage Snow 9. Soul Music – Terry Pratchett 10. Daisy Jones and the Six – Taylor Jenkins Reid 11. The Eyre Affair – Jasper Fforde 12. How to Train Your Dragon 11: How to Betray a Dragon’s Hero – Cressida Connolly 13. Trespasses – Louise Kennedy 14. The Brexit Tapes – John Bull 15. Real Tigers – Mick Herron 16. The Sins of Our Fathers – Asa Larsson 17. Ordinary People – Diana Evans 18. My Pen is the Wing of a Bird: new fiction by Afghan women – various 19. A Room of One’s Own – Virginia Woolf 20. Malibu Rising – Taylor Jenkins Reid 21. How to Train Your Dragon 12: How to Fight a Dragon’s Fury – Cressida Cowell 22. Becoming – Michelle Obama 23. The It Girl – Ruth Ware 24. Lessons in Chemistry – Bonnie Garmus 25. The Map of Salt and Stars – Zeyn Joukhadar 26. Here Comes the Sun – Nicole Dennis-Benn

I'm glad it's not just me who ended up sobbing at The Casual Vacancy. Proper messy crying.

Thanks so much for all of your recommendations for my 13 year old. Appreciate it very much 🌟

Well, I was half right! I did NOT get the main outcome but I did get the secondary storyline outcome.

This was #20 for me, and my first Jane Harper. I enjoyed it and I'd like to read some more of hers, but sounds like they are of differing quality?

I'm so far behind on my reviews!

45 The Bandit Queens by Parini Shroff
Set in a rural Indian village, Geeta's husband disappeared five years ago and her fellow villagers assume she bumped him off, a misconception that Geeta is happy with as it means she's left alone. Problems arise when other unhappy wives want her help to get rid of their no-good husbands.

I loved this and whilst it deals with some harrowing topics - domestic abuse, women's place in Indian society, the caste system - it does so with the right blend of seriousness and dark humour. Having read, and equally loved, A Fine Balance earlier this year, The Bandit Queens deals with similar issues but it's definitely a lighter read!

46 The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles
Set in Nebraska in the mid-1950s, 18 year old Emmett is released early from juvenile detention after his father's death so he can take care of his younger brother. The family farm is to be sold to pay off his father's debts so Emmett and his brother plan to follow the Lincoln Highway west to start a new life in California. Things don't go according to plan when he discovers two of his fellow inmates have escaped and hitched a ride to the farm and they have a completely different plan, to travel east to New York city.

I liked this rather than loved it. The story is told by multiple narrators and at times it felt like there were too many characters' viewpoints and some of the minor characters were given too much focus. The book is less of the road trip that I was expecting and more a journey of self discovery for the main characters. The characters are all deeply flawed but memorable and you can't help rooting for them. I did like Towles' writing which is a good job as I have two more of his books on my shelves!

Chocolat, Joanne Harris

I am sure most have read this or watched the film, but I am just very late as usual.

This is the story of Viane Rocher and her daughter and the havoc their chocolate shop wreaks in a small French town, tempting all the town's people away from the church much to the chagrin of the local priest. I quite liked this, enjoyed the descriptions of chocolate and France and the larger than life characters.

I've only read her thrillers before - well only Gentlemen and Players which I really liked so I will go back for more of both series I think. I'm having an operation (nothing serious, broke a bone that needs fixing) and I think these will do nicely for recovery maybe.

Oh, I got it all and really early. Same thing happens when I read Christie, Horowitz, Osman.

Maybe I should write detective thrillers...

You should!

@JaninaDuszejko sounds like our DDs have similar tastes. 13 year old tried The Secret History at Easter but I think it was a bit too heavy for her, she liked it at first but got a bit bogged down about a third of the way through. I think the long chapters were off putting, things have much shorter chapters these days.

The new series of Heartstopper is on Netflix very soon, DDs super excited!

I've been reading French international Booker short listed The Birthday Party recently. It's quite hard to get into, sentences go on for pages through peoples' inner monologues, but it seems to be becoming something of a thriller now. Like nothing else I've ever read.

47 Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield
This is a rather strange, relatively short book but I loved it and thanks to Remus for the recommendation. Bizarrely it was categorised as horror on Amazon (it's not) so I would have otherwise ignored it.

Leah goes on a deep-sea mission that is supposed to last for three weeks but she's gone for months, leaving her wife Miri in limbo not knowing if she'll return. The story is told in alternating points of view between Miri who dreams of the life, and wife, she had before and the traumatised Leah. It explores themes of love and loss and is so well researched. It's beautifully written and the tension slowly builds to the inevitable conclusion.

Glad you liked it @TattiePants It’s still a strong contender for one of my standouts of the year on current evidence.

45. One Good Turn by Kate Atkinson Finally finished a book. I'm way behind everyone on the Jackson Brodie series, but this hit the spot for me right now. I've just got the next one out of the library, but I suspect they'd perhaps benefit from a bit of a gap in between.

@RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie quite timely given the missing Titanic sub. The people on board must be terrified - hopefully it’s located in time.

Although I can't help but be irritated by the fact that after all the angst about his daughter in book 1, JB has now cheerfully skipped off to France with his new girlfriend.

93. East Of Eden by John Steinbeck

Set in Salinas, California (which was Steinbeck's hometown) the novel focuses on a respectable family called The Hamiltons, dysfunctional brothers Adam and Charles Trask and a woman of malignant nature named Cathy Ames.

The Hamiltons turn out to be a representation of Steinbecks own maternal line.

This is very much a character driven not plot driven piece and serves almost as a biography of the Adam character.

There is, frequently, beautiful writing and as is I think to be expected insights in to human nature.

Sadly, I cannot make this a bold. Though it's of its time and could be termed "outdated cultural depictions" the racism towards Lee, who is Chinese is appalling, genuinely jaw dropping and at one point I questioned whether to carry on.

I am proud though that I dug my heels in and did a long book and a classic. I am not put off Steinbeck either as he certainly is a master of prose.