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

Now we need @CoteDAzur in the other corner.

@EineReiseDurchDieZeit and @MegBusset
I got Square Haunting by Francesca Wade which looks fascinating!
I think it's about writers working in London between the Wars and the square is Mecklenburgh Square, Bloomsbury.
Looking forward to it!

I really liked Square Haunting @MegBusset I did lots of reading around it and looking things up, in a very pleasurable way.

Also Team Miéville!

Just read my first of the Booker Longlist. The more I look at the list, the more I think it's quite an odd selection. It's almost like they've deliberately tried not to select the books that everyone expected but may have chosen a weaker selection as a result.

I started with the apparently literary SF book In Ascension by Martin MacInnes. This is narrated by a Dutch marine biologist Leigh who has suffered an abusive childhood. Her escape is in the ocean near her house and algae and the origins of life. In the first part, she goes on a marine exploration mission to the middle of the Atlantic where a mysterious deep sea vent has suddenly appeared. The next part sees her research move to California, and later to space. I found the writing quite odd moving between describing processes in great detail and then vague and emotional at the points of action. The science was a bit much for me but according to other reviewers was not particularly credible. There are some pretty big ideas that are introduced but we never really discover exactly why or what the events mean. The last part switches to a 3rd person narrative and I think this was stronger. Probably a 3.5 for me. Would be interested to see what others think of it.

Also read Exciting Times by Naoise Dolan. This is about an Irish TEFL teacher living in Hong Kong and her two relationships, one with an English public school banker and one with a Hong Kong woman. I've spent a bit of time in Hong Kong and have taught TEFL so this was familiar ground in some ways, but I find the main character a bit annoying. I think I may have liked this better had I read it in my 20s.

Sorry, that should have been to @Gingerwarthog !

You've not really sold In Ascension to me, @Stokey . I don't think I'll bother going back to it.

Thanks @Terpsichore!
I can imagine some happy researching going on!

I almost bought In Ascension yesterday. Lucky escape.

You may prefer it to me Eine & Remus. It seems to be quite marmite - lots of 5 and lots of 2 reviews on Good Reads

Argh 5 star and 2 star

I reached the section where she arrived in California. Was finding it very dull at that point. The boat bit was 'okay' but nothing that made me understand why the reviewer in the Grauniad had loved it so much.

Re Booker Prize. I've now read 5 and I'm 20% into number 6. Largely unimpressed. None have been terrible, in fact all quite competent and generally interesting, but nothing is standing out as being particularly prizeworthy. Nothing amazingly quirky or groundbreaking in topic either.

I've been reading a decent chunk of the list since 2016, with nearly the full list every year since 2019. This feels like a really weak year so far.

Pearl - Sian Hughes I've liked this most so far.

If I Survive You - Jonathan Escoffrey Also quite good,

Chetna Maroo - Western Lane ok, but I wouldn't rush to read it.

I'm not enjoying This Other Eden - Paul Harding. Boring so far. Very long sentences and feels like a wall of words.

Stokey I enjoyed Exciting Times, but felt it was like a less annoying Sally Rooney. Agree that it would have been better received when I was in my 20s.

I made a start on Old God’s Time last night and gave up by the end of the first chapter! I might go back to it but I won’t be in any hurry.

On the subject of Naoise Dolan, I just read her newest book, The Happy Couple. It follows a young, unhappy couple as they get engaged and hurtle towards the wedding with perspectives from the bridesmaid and best man as well. They all seem to have slept together at one point or another. Parts of this were funny and sharp but ultimately it all felt a bit pointless and all the characters were pretty unpleasant. I enjoyed Exciting Times a lot more.

@TattiePants I felt that way about Old God's Time too

40 Friendaholic by Elizabeth Day

I'm not particularly a fan of Elizabeth Day's fiction, but I enjoyed this very personal analysis of friendship a great deal. Day is almost exactly the same age as me and, like me, has close friends of a different generation as well as friends of the same age. I don't think I'm a friendaholic as Day defines herself, but I definitely recognised aspects of myself in Day's deconstruction of her own relationships. It is a big thing, to trust someone other than your partner (and, if you are lucky and so inclined, your family) with your flaws and failures, as well as your successes, and it is interesting how little we as a society seem to analyse it. This got me thinking about how I chose my closest friends (I mainly didn't; most came to me through happenstance) but also how lucky I am that they just turned up for me.

Thank you both for this reminder - I read this when I was a student and loved it, but I suspect I'd get a lot more out of it now.

See also: Miss Smilla's Feeling For Snow. I have no idea if these books have anything in common beyond having snow in the title, but it's another that I loved at the time, but am not sure I fully understood all the nuances.

42 Percy Jackson and the Titan’s Curse - Rick Riordan Next in the series, and more of the same - kids battle monsters to win out in the end. A nice bit of light relief.

Oh also forgot

41 Wings of Fire 2: The Lost Heir by Tui T. Sutherland

• *Second in this series of dragon fantasy books, which I'm reading to my kids. Still not a patch on How to train your Dragon, although this instalment, focusing on the SeaWing Tsunami as she finds her homeland and family aren't all they were cracked up to be, is a bit better than the first volume.

Another vote for The City & the City here, one I've read several times. None of Mieville's other books live up to it sadly IMO. (Though I'm tempted to revisit Perdido Street Station on audio.)

I feel like I'm interupting discussion of proper books to say I've read book 39 Love Your Life by Sophie Kinsella

Its entirely predictable. Slightly eccentric and possibly not that bright woman meets uptight bloke, comedy ensues. Light reading, no issues, no requirement to learn about new topics.

I think she uses the word beleaguered about 15 times which is quite a lot for a short book and makes me wonder if it's a new favourite word or something!

Anyway, recommended for those needing a break between heavy books and if you like her others this is more of the same. Worked for me. I now have two non fiction I want to finish before the end of the month but have a lot of train time today and left them at home. So I guess I'll start another book and keep reading several at once.

The Woman Who Lied by Claire Douglas

Crime writer Emilia is shocked when things that she’s written in her books start happening to her. This was ok but I guessed early on who was doing it, and I hardly ever guess right so it must have been really obvious!

I loved Snow Falling on Cedars and reread it a couple of years ago- it was just as good.

89 Life after Life- Kate Atkinson
The story of Ursula Todd, this story is a bit like the movie Sliding Doors, we see Ursula die repeatedly, then see her life start again and continue past the point she died the last time. Atkinson, as always, writes beautifully and some parts of this were extremely moving- around the end of the First World War in particular. I loved some of the characters like Hugh and Teddy. Strangely, despite all the time we spent with Ursula, I didn’t feel I got to know her very well at all. The Second World War is so well trodden in fiction now that I found some of these sections a drag. Not as good as I expected as it’s so loved (and I’ve loved some of her other books) but a good read all the same.

90 Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow- Gabrielle Zevin
I saw a lot of hype about this earlier in the year but it really didn’t appeal to me- I think the gaming aspect put me off- then I saw how many people’s top fives it was on here so I decided to give it a go. Sadie and Sam first build a friendship through gaming as kids. Later on they reconnect and start a gaming company with their friend Marx. The book focuses on their lives and the ups and downs of their friendship. I enjoyed this for the most part and could relate to both Sadie and Sam at different times though both were very flawed which I liked as it was realistic. I loved Marx. The part in Pioneers I found really dragged. Overall an enjoyable read.

Chaingang Allstars is on the kindle daily deal- it’s on the Waterstones debut shortlist and I see it getting a lot of love on booktube so have snapped it up for 99p.

I have the Women's Press editions of the Alberta books. Sadly the Women's Press went out of business some time ago, maybe 20 years, but I still have quite a lot of their output on my shelves.