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

45 The Bandit Queens - Parini Shroff Already plenty of reviews of this so I won’t add much, but will just say I thought it was fantastic - funny, sad, shocking and dark. It could easily have been horribly depressing, given the subject matter (and there are a lot of awful bits that will stay with me), but the humour and the positive elements kept it just cheerful enough to make it a pleasure to read.

32 Got You Back by Jane Fallon

Wife discovers that her husband has been having a double life and splits his time with his mistress/girlfriend who is unaware that he is still married. The women collude to get their revenge upon him, but their plan for them both to reveal his deception to his friends is derailed as the mistress takes more extreme measures and ruins his life. Both women discover that taking revenge has consequences and they are not completely comfortable with what they have done. I don't like the term "chick lit" but that is what this is OK chick lit. This could have been a good short story.

Completely agree with everything @MamaNewtNewt said in her review of The Testaments. Was very untypical Atwood and not a patch on The Handmaid's Tale.

56 Kala by Colin Walsh

This is a rock solid bold of the year. Moves liquidly from past to present, via three narrators (who all sound different, which a lot of authors fail to master ). 5 teenagers in rural Ireland pick their way through family secrets to the future they are sure awaits them, but it doesn’t await all of them. Kala disappears and entanglements with local crime family element changes things for everyone.
It does get nasty and violent towards the end, but I was ready for that, because the teenager pov is expertly crafted to be oblivious to most of the evils that lurk in Kinlough. When Helen, Mush and Joe grow up, only Joe retains his naïveté to some extent. Self esteem boosted by his father throughout his life, he remains self absorbed and selfish until forced to look at the reality.
Impressive as a first novel, it has an assured tone that reminded me of Iain Banks. I can’t wait to see what Walsh writes next.

Best gift ever! Happy birthday!

Have you read Mayflies yet? I think you’d like it.

I don’t know why some people think a book token is a boring/cop out present. I am always delighted when someone buys me a voucher that enables me to buy more books!

I ask for book tokens if anyone wants to know what I would like as a present. They are giving me the choice of between 2 - 12 hours of escapism, adventure and enjoyment. That is not boring!

@EineReiseDurchDieZeit that was next on my list. May move it down a bit.

The new Sebastian Barry which is on the Booker Longlist is 99p on Kindle if anyone is after it. I really liked Days Without End but reviews for this new one are a bit mixed.

Finished my third Booker longlist The House of Doors by Tan Twan Eng. It's a historical novel about Somerset Maugham choosing visiting Penang in 1921 with his lover Gerald. He stays with his old friend Robert and his wife Lesley. Lesley then tells him a story about events that happened 11 years before which she suspects Maugham will use in his own short stories. This was fine but I didn't love it. Positives are the descriptions of Penang, evocative of that time, and a bit of Chinese history of which I know very little. I also don't really know much about Somerset Maugham and haven't read any of his books. This didn't necessarily make me want to. On the whole I think it suffered from trying to weave too many themes in and not really having a very interesting story. So far the Booker list is rather disappointing.

I'm also halfway through Winter People by Grainne Murphy. It fitted in quite well when I was in a house in rainy Connemara, but it's not really gripping me.

Glad you enjoyed The Exorcist Remus- good to have something for the flight and it’s a decent page turner.

@EineReiseDurchDieZeit I’ve also just DNFed Chain-Gang All-Stars I made it to about 50% and thought life’s too short. It’s all telling rather than showing, and he really batters us over the head with his theme. The two main characters are basically exactly the same. Overall, I get the feeling the book was written as a polemic and the characters and plot, were an afterthought.

94 The Pariah- Anthony Ryan
It’s ages since I’ve read a good old-fashioned doorstopper epic fantasy, and this filled the gap nicely. Alwyn is brought up by a band of outlaws but fate has other plans for him. He finds a few different mentors throughout the book and begins to grow as a character. The focus is religion and political intrigue, which I like in my fantasy books. I’ll definitely read the next book in the series but not yet.
currently reading East of Eden and have 2 more of the Waterstones debut prize left to read- Close to Home and In Memoriam- both are high on my list as despite the Chain-gang nonsense, I’ve loved the other three so far (Wandering Souls, Fire Rush and Kala)

103. The Poison Tree by Erin Kelly

When Karen meets Biba she is fascinated by her bohemian approach to life and soon ends up living with her and her brother in a rambling house in London. At the start of the book we know that by the end of the summer two people will be dead and the story cuts between the present day and the summer of 1997. I'm never keen on books where there’s a character that everyone finds so interesting that they let them get away with behaving like a total twat, but I didn’t mind this book. It kept me guessing until near the end and was an easy read for a rainy day off work.

55 Demon Copperhead Barbara Kingsolver Probably unusually I haven't read any of her other books. Very well done issue (opioid epidemic/scandal Oxycontin Purdue Pharma and social care/racism/poverty) novel taking inspiration from Dickens' David Copperfield. Gut wrenching but not mawkish, well developed characters and depth to the story whilst being a page turner. I think this should have been a Booker shortlist.

56 The Furrows Namwalli Serpell This was strange, it seemed to pivot to a different book in the middle and the second half I hated. It is a novel dealing with grief. In the first half a boy drowns while with his older sister and his body is never recovered (perhaps this is not what happened) and in the second half the narrator and story changes but there are supposed connections to the narrator of the first half and for me this did not work and if the book had been longer it would have been a DNF but for the sake of completion I persevered. I'd be interested to know if anyone else has read this and enjoyed it. I read reviews of it afterwards and they seem very positive, but don't sway my feelings.

57 Mad Toy Roberto Alt This is an Argentinian novella originally published in 1926 an avant garde/modernist bildungsroman I read it in translation and think it probably lost the power of the original. The narrator is a teenage boy, he is a school drop out and poor in a city which is entering the modern age. He starts a club with some mates with a manifesto to commit crimes, works in a bookshop and selling paper and is unsuccessful in arson and suicide.

49 The Ghost Theatre - Mat Osman

I love, love, loved this. It’s so rare that a fiction book grabs me into its world and won’t let go, but this did so completely. It’s based around the Elizabethan “children’s theatres”, which were a real thing, but with a dark fantasy twist. Shades of Neil Gaiman / Angela Carter, brilliant world-building, but avoiding purple prose. And a male author who can write a female protagonist without cringe. Hard recommend if you like this kind of thing.

@BaruFisher Yes, I was quite pleasantly surprised.

@MegBusset That's been on my wish list since I read a gushing review in the Guardian.

@MegBusset I like the sound of that too

I've just finished one of the Booker list which a couple of people have given the thumbs down to In Ascension Martin Macinnes I though this was an OK read but rather fell short of my nomination for a prize. As science fiction, which I'm not an expert in, it was rather light and the main character Leigh was unlikely to have ended up in the role she had. The ending seemed like a classic wrap this up and unsatisfactory which was disappointing after the longish early build up. There were a few sections which I really enjoyed but I suffered from finding it lacking credibility and what happened to poor Stefan, nobody seemed to care. There didn't seem to be enough of a political context or enough intensity in the character development. I would be shocked if this won the Booker. Some of the dialogue between scientists meant to be leading in their fields was ridiculous.

Diary of A Young Girl - Anne Frank - a re-read. I think bits have been added since I was a teenager when I last read it. Such promise and hope lost.

Anne Frank Remembered - Miep Gies
Miep Gies was one of the people who supplied the Franks with food and essentials during their time in the attic. She rescued Anne’s diary and returned it to Otto Frank after the war, giving him a home when he returned from Auscheitz. I admit I cried my way through this. Such bravery.

@BaruFisher

You did well I only made it 100 pages- dross and very give me a TV deal

@MamaNewtNewt

I read Poison Tree many years ago and whilst it is fundamentally a big daft, Biba resonated with me in that we had a very charismatic person in uni who the set did revolve around and it was a bit toxic and so I identified with that dynamic

@RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie
Will start Mayflies tonight

@EineReiseDurchDieZeit Enjoy isn't the right word, but I hope you find it interesting and satisfying.

@snowspider Impressed that you managed to reach the end!

40. Bag of Bones by Stephen King

Mike loses his wife to a tragic event and only after her death starts to ask questions about what exactly she was up to in the months before she died.

I was drawn in by liking Mike and the realistic grief he was going through. In true King style things soon get creepy but for once there are no awkward sex scenes (unless you count dreams but I wouldn't in this instance) and there is an actual proper ending. This is up there as one of my favourite King books and I'm excited for what else I have coming up next.

Better writer than his brother then?!

@Piggywaspushed I think I read somewhere his mother preferred Mat's first book to Richard's. His first one has been on my wishlist for ages but don't think it's on Kindle any more.

@snowspider I read Namwali Serpell's first book The Old Drift last year and was quite bored by it. It was marketed as African Sci-fi but was really just a meandering story of 3 generations of a Zambian family which finished in the future. It had a bit of magic realism but I just found it really long and dull.

@Stokey exactly seemed to be a bit of magical realism in The Furrows but not as I think of it and bored yes, I never skip read but that is how I reached the end ultra fast word scanning

I really liked Mat Osman's first. My 2021 review was:

The Ruins, by Mat Osman. You definitely have to suspend disbelief, but if you're OK with that then this is a wildly entertaining thriller that romps through the 90s music scene, luxury hotels, US West Coast excesses, twin rivalry and all sorts in between. Reminded me of Iain Banks (which is high praise). I knew that Mat Osman was in Suede but I hadn't realised that he is also Richard Osman's brother. Wonder how the dinner table conversation goes at Osman family occasions!

Looking forward to reading his next.

Old God’s Time is 99p on Kindle today.

Finders Keepers by Stephen King
Thought I'd continue the Bill Hodges trilogy, having re-read Mr Mercedes. I really enjoyed this, probably even more than my first read of it. I'll move straight onto the third, and there's a new book, Holly out in September. I know some people on here don't like Holly, but I don't mind her.