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

@TimeforaGandT both the films are great if you get the chance to see them. Everyone raves about The Third Man and rightly so; it’s a classic- but I’ve a very soft spot for Fallen Idol too. Ralph Richardson is marvellous as Baines.

58. Captive Prince by CS Pacat
    A re-read - I remember the first time I read this on here a fellow poster said it's the sort of book to keep on your bookshelves back to front Moving past the sex (much non-consensual, definitely deserves a TW label) it then becomes an excellent fast moving read about twisty court politics in a classic medieval-style fantasy world. Looking forwards to moving on to books 2 & 3 over my holiday which I remember as being better than book 1. Paired well with my latest Audible book:

59. Johnson at 10 by Anthony Seldon & Raymond Newell
    Gripping blow by blow trip through Johnson's rise to prime minister, landslide election victory and departure three years later. Some of the criticism in the early part of the book really is shooting fish in a barrel, but as it progresses I felt the analysis became more nuanced (though I can't imagine it's a spoiler to say that the authors' verdict overall is pretty negative). I found it a fascinating account, which is obviously based on a massive amount of research & interviews. As mentioned above, I had it on audio, & some of the reviews criticised the cut-glass accent of the reading, but I rather liked it & felt it paired well with the content.

Thanks @Terpsichore - definitely keen to see them now I have read the books but good to hear you recommend them.

I've just realised I hadn't reviewed my two previous books.

56. With The Land - a collection of poetry & writing put together for the 10th anniversary of the Landworkers' Alliance. Very pretty, more of a coffee table affair than anything else.

57. Sourdough by Robin Sloan
    Lois is a programmer for a robotics company in San Francisco, and subsists largely on Slurry, a liquid meal replacement formula. Then, through a sequence of events, she ends up being given a mysterious sourdough starter that transforms her life. Baking with the aid of a robot arm, she joins an equally mysterious market, all the members of which have products that fuses food & technology in unpredictable ways.
    I absolutely loved the first 3/4 or so of this and thought it was going to be a stand-out for the year. It read like Douglas Coupland sat down with Sandor Elix Katz to write a sequel to Microserfs, with input from Douglas Adams. Unfortunately I felt the ending really let it down - it felt like the author just hadn't quite figured out where the book was going & went with a cop-out finale that didn't resolve most of the interesting set-ups in the plot.

Decent monthly deals this month, well for me anyway. I've bought the following from my wish list:

The Left-Handed Booksellers of London
Kala
Pod
The Silence Project
The Miniaturist
Widowland
The latest Rebus
Disgrace
The Wall

And the TBR mountain grows ever larger. I'm off to peruse the list now!

I couldn't really make sense of the deals this month and my wish list didn't want to sort itself.

Much pfaffing later and I have purchased
These Days
Hagitude
Slow Road To Tehran

All of which were around £2 not 99p but all significant price drops.

I continue to buy books faster than I read them which is not ideal but given I spend £5 or £10 a month on books I am not going to stress about it. I am a bit of a completist though, so I do find it hard the idea I will need get to the end of my TBR list!

I’ve had a quick skim through the deals but didn’t find anything I wanted. Thanks @MamaNewtNewt as I’d missed Kala.

Is Mr Mercedes worth reading? It seems to get mixed reviews.

I thought Mr Mercedes was ok. It has a truly horrific beginning but doesn’t really deliver on that through the rest of the book. I am a bit biased as I find Holly Gibney the most irritating female character ever written, not only by King, but by anyone.
I’d be pleased to get it for 99p if I’d never read it before, but I’d feel a bit cheated if I spent any more on it.

Picked up Kala from my Wish List.

I seem to remember liking Mr Mercedes, but dp was unimpressed.

I haven't found a single thing. :(

I need to stop looking on here. My TBR list is now 40.

The Booker Longlist has been announced - a summary here. It's quite an interesting list, they haven't gone for a lot of the obvious books people were toting around. Ayobami Adebayo makes it which I think lots of folk on here liked, and The Bee Sting which someone reviewed favourably recently. Going to check if any of them are on offer on Amazon!

The article says that the judges read 163 books over 7 months - impressive! They are all busy people, how did they manage it (audiobooks?). The winner gets £50k and a lot of exposure and hopefully sales. Those on the shortlist get exposure/sales and a specially bound copy of their book and £2.5k. I presume the judges get paid - I wonder how much?

I read A Spell of Good Things at the start of the year and loved it, a stand out. I disliked Old God's Time but I've never really liked anything by Sebastian Barry. I also didn't like The House of Doors. I think Bee Sting looks interesting.

Wow, reading that many books in 7 months is seriously impressive. I’ve old read A Spell of Good Things and have The House of Doors on my wish list after loving The Garden of Evening Mists. I like the sound of The Bee Sting and How to Build a Boat.

Good list this year. Prophet Song caught my eye, but also good to see House of Doors and A Spell of Good Things on there. I have In Ascenscion already so I can at least read that one.

88. The Good, the Bad and the History, Jodi Taylor
Agree with pp who said that this feels like the right place to end the St Mary's books, although I'll be pleased to see Max and co for cameos in the Time Police books

89. Trustee from the Toolroom, by Nevil Shute
The author was also an engineer - can't think of many other engineer/authors - and dwells on his interests at some length here. The unassuming hero writes articles on building mechanical models and has built up a following around the world, which comes in handy when he has to cross the globe to try to retrieve his orphaned niece's inheritance. With a classic quest narrative, a modest man finally receiving recognition, and an entire novel of people behaving honorably, it won me over, although not as much as The Pied Piper, which I read earlier in the year.

90. The Bandit Queens, by Parini Shroff. Geera's husband disappeared several years ago, and village gossip says she murdered him. Some of the other women decide that this is a very good idea....Loved this. There's an underlying seriousness about violence against women and girls and lower castes, but the author has a lot of fun with the plot and dialogue. If anyone is interested and missed it previously, it's 99p in the monthly deals.

I didn't pick up anything in this month's deals - anything I was interested in seems to have been in a previous deal.

That puts me on 90 books in 7 months, so 163 seems a lot, especially when they're not of your choosing and you can't just zone out with something mindless.

@bibliomania i loved Trustee from the Toolroom but agree with you, The Pied Piper is my absolute favourite. I’d also recommend Requiem for a Wren as one of his lessor known books. He writes ordinary man / woman turned hero so well. I’ve got On the Beach to read but I know it’s rather divisive!

38. The Emerald Affair by Janet Macleod Trotter Historical fiction set in 1919-1921 following four Scottish friends after the First World War. Esmie is a nurse who was stationed overseas during the war and has returned to Scotland with a passion to help the more disadvantaged of the world. Her best friend, Lydia, is a pampered heiress who is desperate to make an impressive marriage. They meet best friends Tom and Harold. Tom is a widowed former soldier who was based in India before he retired his commission. Harold is a Dr who also works in India, based at a Christian mission. Lydia immediately sets her sights on Tom, the handsome, wealthy former army captain. When Tom announces his plan to buy a hotel in India, Lydia enthusiastically supports him. Esmie and Harold end up marrying to facilitate Esmie being able to work as a nurse at the mission. With both couples now based in India, can Esmie hide her true feelings for Tom. And will Tom and Harold's secrets come out and shatter their idyllic lives

This was an Amazon first reads and it was pretty good. The characters were well drawn, although I felt Esmie was a bit too perfect to be realistic. But the other three were more realistically nuanced

I have read more than 163 books in 7 months, but lots of those are rubbish 99p psychological thrillers, not Booker worthy tomes! I think I would struggle to read that many Booker worthy books in that timescale, unless I was doing it as my actual job instead of reading on top of my actual job!

163 books on top of a job is some ask- and all serious, heavy reads too. The Booker Prize is usually the prize the least appeals to my tastes- I do have two of the list on my kindle- A Spell of Good Things and the Sebastian Barry Old Gods Time I think. Haven’t got around to either and not sure I will before the shortlisting. I like the sound of Prophet Son so have added it to my wish list.
I bought a handful on the offers today- I had already read a lot of the good ones but bought The Wall, The Five (due to the recommendations on here) The Island of Sea Women, Disgrace and Goodbye to Berlin.
I am making September a no spend on books month (apart from the 99p monthly deals 😜) as my tbr is out of hand despite a clear out earlier this year. I’m actually considering doing a no buy for 6 months or a year or something.

15.. Ada's Algorithm: How Lord Byron's Daughter Ada Lovelace Launched the Digital Age by James Essinger

This was well-researched, well-written, and fascinating with its insights into not only Ada Lovelace but also Lord Byron, Charles Babbage, and England during their time. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

My only disappointment was that Ada hasn't actually done anything other than corresponding with Babbage and translating a paper on his proposed machine and adding to it her comments. From a few things she says in her letters, it is quite clear that she grasped that Babbage's analytical machine could be programmed with punch cards to solve any problem (like a computer) and not just arithmetic calculations, which surprisingly Babbage himself couldn't imagine. However, that is the extent of her "contribution", if it can be called that.

If she were a man, her ideas would be listened to. If Babbage wasn't such a conceited dork, he would be able to get British government's support and manage to build his engines. If Babbage accepted Ada's offer to promote his engines and find support for him in political circles, he would get the recognition and financial/technological support necessary to build his machines. If Ada didn't die at the age of 36 after a long illness, she could have done so much more. It is mind boggling to think that if any of the above had happened, Britain and then the world would have entered the Information Age about 150 years earlier, in the 19th Century!

It seems that Babbage has written an autobiography. I will be reading it soon.

"I’ve got On the Beach to read"

Oh please do. I can't wait

Yes, @ChessieFL you would have to set aside a lot of time to give them proper attention. I wonder if all 163 are sent to the judges at once - daunting looking at the huge pile but exciting at the same time.

I've got through a third of In Ascension and not sure I'll ever go back to it. It began well enough but then got more and more dull. You'd think that adventures at sea and in space would be exciting, but it really isn't.