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

Ancestry- Simon Mawer

DNF. This sounded interesting- it's Mawer taking his own family records from censuses and constructing a narrative around them. The story of his first male relative was fine, but I got as far as his first female relative and gave up, felt very unconvincing and badly researched. The final straw was when she has a baby and the midwife advises her afterwards to 'watch out for bleeding, that's a danger sign'. WOMEN BLEED FOR FECKING AGES AFTER CHILDBIRTH, THAT'S COMPLETELY NORMAL. Maybe it's petty, but when he's getting such a basic thing wrong it made me doubt the rest of his research. It irritated me more because the research into his first (male, sailor) relative felt very extensive- I waded through fucking pages about boats.

I was surprised by the scale of backbiting, greed, competitiveness and bitching between the scientists,

Academics are horrendous for this, during my PhD groups in labs next door to each other wouldn't lend each other reagents. It was unbelievable. Never mind the bullying and sexual harassment. And there's a lot of snobbery about working in industry and 'selling out' (that would having a permanent job with good terms and conditions and doing quality science on modern equipment with nice people). I moved to the pharmaceutical industry after my first post doc and don't regret it at all.

Ah, Piggy, all my sympathy!

Chiming in late to say that I didn't like Leila Slimani's Lullaby / Chanson douce very much either, but I thought it raised a lot of interesting issues. I enjoyed The Country of Others / Le Pays des autres a lot more (although I still had some reservations), and I'm looking forward to reading the rest of the trilogy eventually. She based it on the real-life story of her grandmother, a French woman who married a Moroccan and moved to Morocco.

I'm on holidays in Brittany now, and I've been seeing the Cahiers d'Esther books everywhere, because Riad Sattouf lived in Rennes when he moved to France as a teenager. My 12 year old DS is quite taken with the books, which he's been reading in English translation, although he thinks Esther's ideas about boys are all wrong. 😃It seems only the first three books in the series have been translated into English, which is a shame! In French the book in the series has just come out that deals with 17 year old Esther, but in English so far the books only go up to Esther at age 12.

For holiday reading I brought along Alice Zeniter, The Art of Losing / L'Art de perdre, which is a family saga about the Algerian War. Zeniter apparently lives in Brittany as well. I like the novel so far but keep putting it down for lighter stuff, as the Algerian War doesn't exactly make for happy reading.

I am behind on reviews and hope to catch up soon. What is it with all these annoying people on holiday with me who want to go out and DO STUFF all the time when they could be sitting still and reading books instead? I mean honestly🙄😜

Gosh that's too bad, Janina! Bloody academic egos.

Hope you feel better soon Piggy.

@MamaNewtNewt I think the reason for centring the book on Doudna is that Isaacson's genre is biographies. Maybe he felt more at home choosing one major player and making it a biography of her, rather than covering all angles equally?

@JaninaDuszejko

41. The Cartographer Tries to Map A Way to Zion, Kei Miller, 5/5
    A collection of poems structured loosely into a narrative. I discovered this because my DS studied it last year for A-Level. It’s fantastic. Miller (a deservedly famous Jamaican writer) does amazing things with language. I came away with a feeling of hope: with the affirmation that everyone finds their own way to truth, but also that truth emerges primarily not in solitude but through dialogue. The mix of traditional English and Creole terms adds depth to the collection.

42. Les Cahiers d’Esther, Tome 2, Histoires de mes 11 ans [Esther’s Notebooks 2], Riad Sattouf, 4/5
    I enjoyed this more than Vol. 1 of Esther; I thought the main character seemed more nuanced here. It’s depressing to think that gender roles for children are so binary (so boys and girls don’t really interact as friends), but my DC (who read this in English translation) tell me that this is indeed often the case in their schools as well. I still think my DC’s state primary school in the UK was a lot gentler and more enlightened than the school Esther described.

43. The History of Emotions: A Very Short Introduction, Thomas Dixon, 5/5
    I kind of read this for work because I’m dipping my toe into affect theory, but I was impressed by the accessibility of this witty, wide-ranging history of emotions, which does what it says on the tin in a very invigorating way. The examples are chosen boldly across the centuries and extend to the present day (I particularly liked the section on emojis!). A main idea is that emotions are always embedded in particular historical contexts, so how we define anger or love depends on which society we find ourselves in. And emotions are highly political rather than only personal: some emotions are welcomed as socially and politically acceptable, some not. However, there has also been a big shift away from judging/condemning emotions to accepting/learning how to manage emotions. As a medievalist I was a bit disappointed that Dixon didn’t say anything about the emergence of so-called ‘courtly love’ in the Middle Ages, but that’s a minor gripe. After all, the book is very short. On the whole, I was utterly charmed.

44. A Spell of Good Things, Ayobami Adebayo, 4/5
    The only book I’ve read so far from the Booker longlist. This is very well done but utterly heart-wrenching. I couldn’t quite handle how dark it was. I recall having similar reservations about Adebayo’s first novel.

I'm having a great run of books with 5 bolds in a row.

62 Tears of Amber by Sofia Segovia
Set immediately before, during and after WWII, two East Prussian families are relatively sheltered from the war and are quietly sceptical about Hitler. Being farmers they're not immediately called up to fight and there's plenty of food and Polish labour to go round. As the war looms closer and the soviet invasion is imminent, both families must join the exodus and are forced to flee the safety of their farms.

Ilse's family, together with their polish labourer, travel from farm to farm desperate for food, warmth and safety. Meanwhile Arno and his mum hide out in a Königsberg mansion, desperate for the war to end and their scattered family to be reunited. It's a story of hope and resilience in the most testing of circumstances and I absolutely loved it.

63 Kala by Colin Walsh
Much reviewed already and thank you to whoever recommended it. I raced through this in a couple of sittings staying up waaay too late as I was desperate to find out what happens.

@Tarahumara yeah a fair point, it just didn't work that well for me centring Doudna over the others. She was undoubtedly a major player but others made significant contributions too. The author did make efforts to maintain his impartiality, but the very fact his book has Jennifer Doudna in the subtitle implies that his judgment leans towards her where discoveries are disputed. It's a small thing in one way, but I feel it was unnecessary and it really irritated me.

Interesting article in the Guardian today on "sad girl lit" today https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/aug/08/a-smorgasbord-of-unlikability-the-authors-helping-sad-girl-lit-grow-up?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

@cassandre Thomas Dixon was a wonderful academic and real power house in the history of emotions. He has retrained to be a primary school maths teacher, which according to Twitter he is loving.

22. Betty Tiffany McDaniels. Oof I loved this. An Appalachian coming of age story about a mixed Cherokee family growing up with poverty and neglect but also vivid imaginations and stories. Betty is a fantastic character and I rooted for her from page 1.

The trauma here is incredibly graphic, even more so when you learn that the story is based on the true lives of the author’s mother and family. There is a moment of animal cruelty that is so horrific I find it hard to believe the person responsible really agreed to be portrayed in that way. but I absolutely loved the ending, felt like a could forgive the language veering into too flowery territory and I think this one will stay with me.

Looking Glass Sound by Catriona Ward
By the writer of The Last House on Needless Street which I enjoyed.

This one was more ambitious, but, for me, not as successful. I enjoyed the first 30% or so which was about the friendship between three teens, with the backdrop of a murder mystery. However, that’s wrapped up before half way in and then it just goes on and on getting stranger and stranger and correspondingly more silly, deliberately confusing and ultimately irritating and stupid. It increasingly just didn’t work for me.

Has anybody else read it? I don’t remember seeing it discussed.

115. Fire Rush by Jacqueline Crooks

Yamaya likes to go dancing and has met a new man, but when catastrophe befalls her, she must strike out alone.

A lot of people have reviewed this so I'll be brief.

It's an original story and an original voice of which there are too few, and I'm not sorry I read it. However, unlike others it didn't really resonate deeply for me or do anything magical. I felt that I was not the intended audience for this novel, and that's really fine, I don't have to be. A shame though as I expected to love it based on other reviews.

For The Great Pain Have Mercy on My Little Pain by Victoria MacKenzie, I really loved this, I found it strangely soothing. It was well written and I think took me back to my childhood, I was raised Catholic. I have been advised to read the original works of both so will try to do that.

Foster by Claire Keegan a great book when it ended I had a lump in my throat, she conveys so much in such a short tale.

@RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie I’ve read Looking Glass Sound. I enjoyed it but was waiting for the ‘twist’ a bit too much iirc. When the narrative shifted I thought “oh yes, there it is!” while not liking that part of the story as much. It had a similar effect to Life After Life by Kate Atkinson for me. Clever for clever sake. Agree it isn’t a patch on Last House.

@BoldFearlessGirl Yes, self consciously clever and a bit awkward. I get that it was supposed to be disorientating, but I just found it annoying and sort of stopped caring about what was real or not.

Hi not posted for ages (def not in 2023) . I set a challenge to read 100 books this year. Just finished book 54 so according to good reads I'm 6 books behind target

Some of my favourites this year have been;

The Last Flight Julie Clark
Final Call Alex Lake
Keep Her Secret MarkEdwards
The only suspect Louise Candlish
Mad Honey Jodi Picoult

Wonder if any of you lovely people can help with recommendations?
DD (17) and I (51) read The Southern Book-Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix and loved it (for different reasons). Also enjoyed discussing it and talking about the characters.
DD now wants to read another book together - I can't think what. We'll read anything ( but not more vampire stuff for a while).

The Secret History? Very trendy with the teens at the moment.

@Gingerwarthog what about Demon Copperhead?

@PermanentTemporary
@JaninaDuszejko
Thanks for both of these!
Great suggestions which I think she'd like.
(It was so brilliant to see her engaged in a book and not looking at a screen, I know screens have an important place but you know what I mean).

@Gingerwarthog

There's a buzz around Chain Gang All Stars as a new Hunger Games vibe but older

@EineReiseDurchDieZeit
Just googled that one! Looks like one she'd love.