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

@MamaNewtNewt

I did that as an audio and it was very interesting as it was voiced by Ann Dowd, the Aunt Lydia actress, Mae Whitman as Nicole and Bryce Dallas Howard as Hannah. I agree that the Lydia bits were the best and that the girls frequently seemed redundant

Oh that's interesting - Packing for Mars is irreverent, I would say, and has a healthy scepticism towards NASA bureacracy and focuses on the fact that space travel, one of the most sublime human experiences, involves a catalogue of indignities.

WANKING. The monkey was WANKING.

Remus are you sure? 😆

I have actually seen same at London Zoo - felt so sorry for the poor thing, it was obviously stressed.

The one I saw looked very pleased with himself tbh.

@RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie I misread what you wrote the first time as wanking monkey and was about to say me too! It was at the side of the road in South Africa and we saw two monkeys close together. The first one was wanking and the second was eating a bag of Walkers crisps! The both looked pretty pleased with themselves. Obviously I made DH pull over for photo evidence.

@TattiePants Now I'm wondering which is more pleasing - wanking or Walkers. I suppose it depends on the flavour.

@TattiePants That's quite an image!

37 Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Piccoult. I haven't read a book by Piccoult for years, but this is exactly what I would expect from her. A serious subject (in this case a US school shooting) but written in quite a superficial, easy-read manner. A page-turner.

38 Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir. I enjoyed The Martian and this is more of the same. Good fun sci fi with an engaging protagonist, this time in deep space rather than on Mars.

Just in case anyone’s struggling to imagine….. Turns out the Walkers eating monkey was Gibraltar, it was a monkey (ape?) drinking from a can in South Africa.

Now this is the chat I come to this thread for.

Excellent monkey evidence.

The Exorcist
Well, I came to this knowing both other than it contains priests and head spinning.

It wasn’t as shocking/scary as expected and was also better written than I’d expected. I liked the central priest and regular readers will know I have a very low tolerance for priests. This one didn’t wank or screw around, both of which were points in his favour. I liked the detective too.

I also quite liked the ending.

I thought it was too long and that a couple of characters were superfluous or at least too much developed and it was (obviously) not very credible, but all in all, I found it kept my interest and I quite enjoyed the journey.

64 A Long Petal of the Sea by Isabel Allende
Beginning part way through the Spanish Civil War, Victor Dalmau is an army doctor and his brother is killed while fighting for the republic. Franco overthrows the government and Victor, his brother's pregnant fiancé Roser and hundreds of thousands of fellow Spaniards flee over the border to France. After living in horrific conditions in a concentration style camp, two thousand refugees are offered passage on the SS Winnipeg and the chance for a new life in Chile. With a European war looming, Victor and Roser embark on the journey and begin a new life in exile, longing for the day they can return to Spain. They carve out a successful life with Victor practising medicine and Roser teaching music but history repeats itself as General Pinochet seizes power after a successful coup and they are once again forced to flee their home and live as exiles in Venezuela.

This is historical fiction that combines real events with characters real (Allende's politician uncle Salvador Allende and poet Pablo Neruda) and imaginary. At the heart is a family saga with themes of love, loyalty, loss and hope for a better future. It's my first Allende book and looking forward to reading more.

'Knowing both' should say 'Knowing nothing' - my phone is stupid.

Many Happy Returns to @StColumbofNavron hope you got some nice books at least xx

Thank you @EineReiseDurchDieZeit I got a £100 Amazon voucher, which will translate into many I suspect.

Oh amazing a £100 is like a Supermarket Sweep situation!

I have few things on my list that never seem
to go into the deals so might splurge, but I’m going to wait a bit because otherwise I get click happy and poof it’s all gone.

That's a fantastic birthday gift!!!

By the way StColomb, I forgot to thank you for your comment about Thomas Dixon, the history of emotions scholar. I also saw on Twitter that he was leaving academia to become a primary school teacher. How intriguing! I hope he's doing it just because he fancies a change and not because he's completely fed up with UK academia.

102. The Shipping News by Annie Proulx

I found this a bit dull to begin with, but I’m glad I persevered as I enjoyed it once I'd warmed to the characters. As @highlandcoo said, the sense of place is fantastic, I feel like I really got a sense of life in Newfoundland. This one is free on Kindle unlimited btw.

Happy Birthday @StColumbofNavron I hope you have fun spending your gift!

I just DNFd Chain Gang All Stars was expecting literary dystopia and got supermarket thriller

Why can't I find anything? (Sob)

@EineReiseDurchDieZeit did you buy East West Street recently when it was 99p? I’ve just read it and thought it was v good.

Yes I did but I wasn't in the headspace for it at the time. Will take another squizz