50 Books Challenge 2023 Part Seven

[Southeastdweller]

Welcome to the seventh 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, the fifth one here, and the sixth one here

@TattiePants thanks, I’ll look out for that one! I’m trying not to buy books at the moment and just get things out of the library, but I’ll add it to my list 😊

@cassandre and @Stokey yes I had read the same about Condé’s nomination (and cassandre your review helped me decide to give up on the book - it sounded like it wasn’t going to get much better!). Oh well, maybe I’ll read one of her others one day.

Just finishedMurder on the Links by Agatha Christie really enjoyed it, I hadn't read it before but had watched the TV version. It stuck very closely the book. Still slogging away at Berlin. Haven't had much chance to read anything in the last week as settling in our new dog. He is a rescue and is trying to entice the cats to play with him by barking at them

@Terpsichore thanks very much for the Back in the Day recommendation. I've ordered an old paperback copy on Wob and looking forward to reading it; it'll be interesting to see how much of his own childhood has filtered into the two novels. (There's a third I haven't read yet). I grew up not that far away, but on the other side of the border, so I know the area quite well.

This reminds me that I've been meaning to listen to more episodes of his podcast In Our Time - always interesting.

This reminds me that I've been meaning to listen to more episodes of his podcast In Our Time - always interesting.

highlandcoo If you're at all interested in biology, the (relatively) recent one on mitochondria was mind-blowing!

@Boiledeggandtoast I don't know much about biology but willing to give it a go!

36 Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr. I loved All the Light We Cannot See by the same author, which is how this one ended up on my list. (I just checked back and found that I read it back in 2016, which is hard to believe!) This is a book with several strands - 15th century Constantinople, 20th/21st century Idaho, and one set in the future on a deep space mission. They are bound together by an old, old story written in ancient Greek, so the translation of that forms another strand. The sense of place and the individual characters are so strong that there is no issue with getting confused between the strands or preferring one to the others as sometimes happens in this kind of book. Doerr writes beautifully, and I loved this even more than All the Light We Cannot See. It would definitely have made my mid-year top 5 if I'd read it a few weeks ago!

That's interesting @Tarahumara because I "false started" CCL recently. I'm full of cold and can't stick to ANYTHING

I false started CCL too. I loved All the Light until the ending, which I hated.

Struggling to find anything to settle to at the moment and could really do with some holiday reads.

I am the same getting nowhere, driving myself crazy

94. Nightmares and Dreamscapes by Stephen King

Continuing my reread of all Stephen King books. I'm not a fan of short stories, which might be why it’s taken me 6 months to make my way through this collection. For me King’s key skill is building worlds and characters I really care about, generally with rich backstories, and of course he does not have time to do this as effectively in a short story. A couple of the stories were good (Dolan’s Cadillac, The End of the Whole Mess, Suffer the Little Children) but most didn’t really grab me. I'm relieved to get this one out of the way but next up is Rose Madder which I seem to recall I didn't enjoy all that much the last time I read it.

Jane Fallon - False Friends Amy and Mel have been friends from childhood, except Mel is a jealous frenemy and stops at nothing to sabotage Amy's life in every respect. I found Mel to be completely unlikeable and if I were Amy, Mel would have been ditched way back. I could just imagine the responses if some of the scenarios were posted on AIBU. Kat was one of the more likeable characters. The ending was a bit too neatly tied up though.

Easy to read, 2.5/5 for me.

I wasn't a fan of Cloud Cuckoo Land. It had too many viewpoints and I was quite bored by a couple of them. I can see what he was trying to achieve but it really didn't do it for me.

I'm looking forward to seeing what's on the Booker Longlist this week, I think it's announced on Tuesday. There are lots of predictions kicking around Bookstagram at the moment but am hoping for a few random ones. There's also quite a few previous winners or longlisted authors that have new books out - Salman Rushdie, Deborah Levy, Zadie Smith, Eleanor Catton - who get automatically submitted, but none are really appealing to me at the moment.

21. Emma Watson by Joan Aiken
I enjoy completions and extensions of Austen. Aiken wasn't the first but she was one of the earlier authors to do this. It took a few pages to get into, unlike a proper Austen - nobody starts a novel like her - but it was a perfectly pleasant light read.

20..Yellowface by R F Kuang. 2 authors one successful and one struggling to get noticed meet for drinks. The successful one accidentally dies and her friend steals her latest manuscript to pass off as her own. This was super pacey but not a single character to like which I always find a bit distancing.

Gwendy’s Magic Feather by Richard somebody whose name I don’t remember and can’t be bothered to look up

The first of these was written in partnership with Stephen King from an idea by King. It was just okay. This one was total tripe. Embarrassingly badly written.

Rose Madder was terrifying and brilliant until it was stupid and boring. Which unfortunately happened much much earlier in the book than usual for a King novel.

I am a bit ambivalent about Rose Madder. I loved the character of Rose but it was just a bit too strange and for no good reason.

I've got Bag of Bones next and then The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon which I remember inhaling in one go some years back. I am planning to re-read in an evening possibly with a glass of two of something chilled. I'd better on get with Bones I suppose!

@EineReiseDurchDieZeit @RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie I am in a bit of a slump at the moment and really just indulging in back to back life crashes, move to hot country on the continent and fall in love books.

You’re in for two treats!

@RazorstormUnicorn The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon is one of the few King books I've never read (apart from the more recent ones which I've been saving until I reach them) so I'm looking forward to that one.

I had a real reading slump/rut a week or so ago where I couldn’t settle to anything - very frustrating. However, over it now. Not sure whether my latest read counts as one or two as in one physical book and both pretty short (but if it’s two it gets me to 50):
49. The Third Man - Graham Greene
The Fallen Idol - Graham Greene

I haven’t seen the film version of either.

The Third Man is set in post-war Vienna which, like Berlin, was divided into four sectors under the respective control of the British, French, Americans and Russians. Rollo arrives in Vienna to visit his friend, Harry, who he discovers has just died after being hit by a car. But was it an accident and why does on witness say there was an additional person present at the scene? Who was the third man? I imagine this is an excellent film and it’s a satisfying read although I found the switch of narrators a little confusing at times.

In The Fallen Idol, Philip, a young boy is left at home in the care of the butler and housekeeper (an unhappily married couple) whilst his parents are away. Philip idolises Baines but is scared of Mrs Baines and it’s only a short time before Philip discovers his idol has feet of clay. Short but powerful.

Now reading Demon Copperhead which I false-started on during my reading rut.

53. Again, Rachel by Marian Keyes. Read very quickly over the weekend, tucked up in bed with a particularly nasty cold. We pick up with Rachel Walsh 20 years after Rachel's Holiday - she's no longer with Luke and is back in Ireland working at the same rehab centre. Then Luke walks back into her life.

Sweet and funny as you'd expect from MK, though it covers some really heartbreaking ground when we learn what happened to Rachel and Luke's relationship. It did drag a bit in the middle looping group counselling sessions/Walsh family dramas/encounters with Luke. She obviously had a lot of fun imagining an older Claire, but less so the other sisters. Though I don't think I read the Anna or Helen books so don't really have a grip on who they are anyway. I remain unconvinced by some of the tougher methods employed by The Cloisters, but what do I know about addiction counselling.

I have just finished Sally Magnusson's latest- Music In The Dark which is a rather beautiful and touching book. The love affair between a woman in her 50s and a slightly younger but still middle aged man is so untouched in so much literature and is described with great respect for the idea of finding love after grief and loss. The book is about healing, tenderness, memory (and loss of it) and grief. But it is also uplifting.

It concerns the Highland Clearance. I know about these as a person of Scots upbringing - but had no idea how brutal they were. No idea why this isn't taught more.

The afterword is interesting - it's lovely how Sally weaves her own great grandmother's story into the plot.

Economically told and rather lovely. I didn't enjoy her middle book all that much but think this is a return to form.

Just bought Frenchman's Creek for my holiday reading. Have also got Looking Glass Sound. Hopefully tomorrow's sale might produce a few more.