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 Sorry you're not feeling well, there is some horrible stuff out there at the moment. Free Love was one of mine, glad you liked it. It was a bold for me, too.

Hope you feel better soon, @TimeforaGandT!

Willy Fog! Loved that cartoon. And now you've reminded me that I fell down an internet rabbit hole a couple of days ago, searching for Phileas Fogg snacks (anyone remember those?) I am still mourning the demise of their mignons morceaux and Shanghai nuts, which made 15yo me feel tres sophisticated.

Thanks for the sad girl lit article, @Stokey! I think that has expressed well what I found frustrating about Amy Liptrot's The Instant recently. Eliza Clark comes across really well in the article, and it's actually made me consider investigating one of her books.

53. Girl Meets Boy by Ali Smith
God, I love Ali Smith's writing so much! This book isn't perfect - the flights of fancy veer perilously close to whimsy at times and the "non-woke" characters are voiced rather heavy-handedly - but there is so much to enjoy in this retelling of a story from Ovid's Metamorphoses.

In the original, the pregnant Telethusa prays to deliver a boy as her husband has sworn to put any daughters to death, to avoid paying a dowry when they marry. Her prayers are answered by the goddess Isis, who advises her to raise her (female) baby as a boy, and to give him the unisex name Iphis. When Iphis is 13, she is betrothed to her classmate Ianthe, and they conveniently fall in love with each other. As the wedding approaches, Iphis desperately prays to the gods that she can avoid discovery, as she fears that such an unnatural union (woman with woman) will not be able to satisfy her bride. Her prayers are answered: she becomes taller and broader, her hair shortens, she takes on a more vigorous manner. She has been miraculously transformed into a man, and she and Ianthe can live happily ever after!

In many hands, this rather homophobic and misogynistic tale would become a tedious allegory for gender reassignment. Luckily, Smith has turned it into a joyous celebration of same sex attraction, while also allowing for fluidity of gender expression. (One of the things that I admire most about Ali Smith is her ability to portray relationships, both gay and straight, in a way that is both tender and, often, really hot!) This is a very short book but it packs a lot in: feminism and the long and varied histories of women's oppression, corporate greed, environmental activism, myths, magic and transformation.

'Made in Medomsley Road, Consett!' Yes, I remember them well, @mackerella!

55 A Tidy Ending by Joanna Cannon.
Enjoyed this one. Unreliable narrator from the off, with some genuinely funny musings on friendships as an ‘outsider’ and fancy department store shopping. Not sure the twist worked entirely neatly, but it was a diverting and amusing read. Linda is a middle aged woman who has never completely recovered from an Awful Thing her father may or may not have done when she was a child (there are no details given, for those who avoid CSA narratives). She is lonely, awkward and knows it. I found the descriptions of her Dad encouraging her to be whatever she wanted to be quite touching, in contrast to her Mum’s relentless put downs and her husband’s indifference. Her obsession with Rebecca, the previous owner of her house, gives her an outlet for her attempts to expand her life, but the motivations for this are only gradually revealed.
I also liked the author’s Three Things About Elsie a while ago. Haven’t read The Trouble With Goats And Sheep yet, but like how each book deals with a different age of female and how they see the world.

Hello all.

Been sulkingly occupying myself these last few days determinedly finishing Dreiser's An American Tragedy. Written around the same time as The Great Gatsby, I guess this one has lost its American Classic status owing to its extraordinary length. My, is it a hard slog at times. I read it because I adored Sister Carrie when I was about 19.

As the introduction points out , there are some astonishing passages and the themes of wealth, envy, seduction, guilt are really well done. But every bit of the story takes 399, 043,678 paragraphs ( approx). The big event happens about 500 pages in! And occasional whole chapters of psalm reciting.

This would have been a good readalong, had I known! It definitely will stick in my memory as it has a strong, if bloated, plot. And the protagonist has the same name as my cat.

Fuck. On holiday. Managed to lock myself out of Amazon on my phone and can’t get my Kindle to access the hotel WiFi. Looks like I will have to talk to dp for a few days!

"Fogg, I'm the one who made the bet, and I know I'll be exactly right on tii-eeme"

Really want some mignon morceaux now.

@RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie sounds like a major disaster 😝 worth trying to download kindle app on your phone?

42 Mother Tongue: the surprising history of women's words by Dr Jenni Nuttall

Disclaimer to start - I know the author of this book, although I've not seen her for many years (these days we only communicate via Twitter!). An interesting and entertaining look at the development of English words relating to women, ranging from childbirth, menstruation and sex through to the world of work. Taking the different words used through the ages as a starting point, Nuttall gives us an insight into social history and how things have changed for women over the centuries. This is very much for the general reader, so there's no need to know any old English (the nearest I came was Chaucer for A-level and I found some interesting new insights on his work). Whilst I enjoyed the little snippets of information (including a Tudor gardening book that informed readers that if a menstruating woman walked around a garden, pests would die off automatically - I wish!), the most interesting part of this book for me was the discovery of the breadth of activities undertaken by women in society pre-19th century. I particularly liked learning that the suffix "ster" in relation to an occupation once indicated this was a role that was or had previously been regarded as female. As a barrister, that makes me want to do some further research!

Thanks. Still can’t remember my account details though, so wouldn’t be able to get in. I’m such an idiot!

That sounds fab @Welshwabbit ! I remember reading that ‘Brewster’ was one of the surnames that came from that etymology and was more commonly applied to women. I’ve just bought a book about conservation around Haweswater, but maybe I can stretch the Book Budget a bit further this month…..ignores upcoming visit to Barter Books

I’ve just started Kala instead of putting a pile of washing away. Gripped already.

Are you in a place that has bookshops, @RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie ? Because if ever Real Books were needed, this is the time.

Oh no @RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie that's my worst nightmare. Not talking to DH but being stuck somewhere without access to kindle books! I agree that a trip to a bookshop might be needed!

100. The Green Mile by Stephen King

Book 100 is a definite bold. I always loved The Green Mile and really enjoyed this reread. Stephen King can bring characters to life like no other, I mean the man has just had me in tears over the fate of not one, but two men convicted of rape and murder. And this book doesn’t suffer from King’s legendary difficulty in coming up with a good ending either. It's just near perfect. One thing I’m finding from my reread of all of his books is that I have moved from my favourites being his horror books like It to his non-horror books (including those that have more of a supernatural / fantasy feel). That might be an age thing (not that the horror is for younger people, more that my tastes have changed as I've got older), but I have definitely seen a lot of movement in the ranking of my fave King books so far.

All my sympathy Remus - I couldn’t access the hotel wifi with my kindle when away last week and only then realised how many books on my kindle weren’t downloaded. I tried doing a hotspot from my phone but that didn’t work either. Meant my reading choices were limited to re-reads.

Thank you for good wishes, Maud for the Free Love recommendation and highlandcoo for the Chris Brookmyre recommendation.

Oh no Remus, I think I'd have to pack up and come home!

Welcome back bett hope you're doing well.
Good luck Remus with getting hold of some books to read, sounds a bit of a nightmare to lose out on some quality reading time.

And:

58. The Echo Chamber - John Boyne

This is all about the perils and evils of social media set against the backdrop of the wealthy Cleverley family: George (a TV interviewer - Parkinson type, showing my age there), his author wife Beverley and their three children - Nelson (a teacher), Elizabeth (an unemployed graduate who aspires to be an influencer) and Achilles (a 6th former). As a family and with the exception of Nelson, they are incredibly vacuous and self-centred. Nelson has issues and is in therapy and his mistakes are very much driven by his social anxiety, lack of confidence etc. The rest of the family bring about their own downfalls through their own greed and arrogance. I would like to think that no-one could be as shallow and self-obsessed as this in real life but expect I am sadly mistaken. This is probably a marmite book and you need to be in the right frame of mind to read it - not for those looking for a read of literary substance but it was entertaining and suited my mood. I like the fact that, unlike some authors, Boyne’s books are very different from one another.

No joy with the technology. And no bookshop. 😥

I can’t even open potential re-reads because it says I need WiFi to open them. I’m restricted to a biography of James Herriot that was already open and some Japanese thing that dp has brought with him in paperback (in translation). Neither are particularly calling to me!

no bookshop

Where is this fresh hell?

Remus, that’s awful.

You will have to stalk people by the pool who look like they’re about to finish a book and see if they take pity on you! Could involve some random reads….

Lots to catch up on! Huge sympathies for your kindle @RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie , welcome back @bettbburg and I hope you can get to Norway again soon @Piggywaspushed

@TimeforaGandT I really like Tessa Hadley and if you haven't read her other books, there are a lot to get through. I particularly liked Clever Girl and The Past.

55. The Survivors by Jane Harper. This one isn't a police procedural in the same way as the Aaron Falkes books. Set in a seaside town in Tasmania, the murder of a young woman stirs up memories of a girl who went missing during a storm 15 years earlier, and the young people whose lives were affected, now grown up, try to work out what happened. I think Jane Harper writes really solid thrillers and this was no different. I liked the watery setting and the close community, which she does particularly well. I'm pretty sure there were a few loose ends though and she falls into the trap of making lots of innocuous characters seem very sinister to confuse the reader. @DuPainDuVinDuFromage I'm glad to see you've recently read one of hers too!

56. The Late Americans by Brandon Taylor. A very loose novel, almost linked short stories, following a group of young people studying different arts degrees at a fictional college in Iowa. The different chapters all draw on the gap between students who have wealthy families and those who don't, and what this means for their ability to pursue poetry or dance. They also have a lot of quite angry and destructive sex with each other. This is beautifully written but to be honest I struggled to distinguish the different characters and the lack of a plot drawing them together made it not very compelling for me.

You can't rely on technology. This is why I take physical books away. (My husband hates the use of baggage allowance)

@EineReiseDurchDieZeit is there a café/bar with WiFi you can connect to and download there?

Download kindle app to phone, set up a new Amazon account to a different email address & treat yourself to something new?

Or trawl Project Gutenberg? They read quite well in a phone browser. It would be just like the old days of reading really random forgotten 1930s novels from the shelves of a holiday cottage on a rainy Sunday... (can you tell I was an only child