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

I'm sorry you are struggling @EineReiseDurchDieZeit I read Robert Webb's novel Come Again a couple of weeks ago and it might suit. It's humorous and fun but also about grief so poignant but in no way depressing, but silly. And requires no effort to read.

Thinking of you Eine, may your pages soon turn freely once more.

I hope things start to lift for you soon Eine

I’m sorry things are tough Eine - hope the new book helps.

46 Death in the Spotlight - Robin Stevens Another in the Murder Most Unladylike series, and just as much fun as the others. Set in a theatre this time, with plenty of flamboyant personalities but all fitting well into the 1930s setting. The denouement was a bit outlandish but no more than the average Agatha Christie, and overall it was a great story. Both my DDs loved it too.

Sending gentle good vibes your way @EineReiseDurchDieZeit .

Just started Say Nothing on Audible thanks to this thread. Gripping so far.

Thank you guys.

Patrick Radden Keefe is brilliant and just to let Empire Of Pain readers now, the new Netflix series Painkiller is about the Sacklers.

I, in breaking news, managed to finish two tonight. Both very short.

116. Night Boat To Tangier by Kevin Barry

Two ex cons sit watchfully at a Spanish port, searching for a long lost daughter.

The layout meant this was a quick read. It was engaging but I felt it was quite vague on the main characters pasts. The small twist was an interesting choice but perhaps more could have been made of the story had it gone another way. Instead it gives a sense of bathos and pathos both.

117. Mayflies by Andrew O'Hagan

Jimmy's childhood friendship with Tully leads to difficult adult choices.

This was a struggle. I didn't vibe with the first half : The Manchester Weekend, I found J had to drag myself through it. The second half is very good and the ending plays well but it didn't resonate with me like I'd hoped.

Will probably watch the TV series now.

Glad you got through them! Sorry you didn't love Mayflies. It might have helped that I read the Manchester piss up stuff whilst in Manchester!

Trying to distract myself by reading but it’s not working. DS gets his AS Level results at 12 and I don’t think they’re going to be great. He doesn’t really want to go back for yr 13 and I’m worried poor results might push him over the edge.

The South American trilogy is next on my list to read. I loved Birds without wings, I couldn't settle to another book for a while afterwards as I kept thinking about all the characters and what had happened to them. I think of the Daniel Pitt trilogy I liked the first book best, the Autumn of the Ace was very sad as all the characters died off one by one, although Daniels end was very fitting for an old aviator

Oh that sounds stressful. Best of Luck.

Good luck to your son TattiePants!

The Miracle Pill by Peter Walker Interesting look at the massive health benefits of moving more and how to achieve this. It gives ideas on lifestyle changes, but also goes wider, for example exploring design ideas from the large-scale reshaping of cities to smaller changes in offices and public spaces to encourage more activity. I was particularly impressed that he considers the importance of consulting women since, as he points out, "... the built world, has tended to be shaped, almost by default, for the needs of men" thereby ignoring not just women but also children.

La Vie, A Year in Rural France by John Lewis-Stempel I was seduced by a review in one of the Sunday papers which described this as so much more than your bog-standard English man moves to rural France and writes about his life there. Reader, learn from my mistake. I was particularly disappointed as I believe JL-S is a well-known nature writer; if so, this is unforgivably lazy writing. For example, he writes about fire salamanders as if they are reptiles (they are amphibians); I lost count of the number of times he describes the sky as being "impossibly blue"; and his adjectives often seemed ill-fitted (does a cuckoo really make a hill boom?).

Gulag, A History by Anne Applebaum By contrast, this is an absolutely extraordinary book by a superb writer. I was aware of the gulag system (I remember reading Solzhenitsyn back in the 1970s) but the sheer scale and horror of the camps is laid bare: from 1929, when the Gulag began its major expansion, until Stalin's death in 1953, it is estimated that 18 million people passed through its system (and it didn't end in 1953). I can't begin to describe this book further as every page recounts terrible details, not just for those incarcerated but for their wider circle of friends and family, and particularly the children left behind. A really important and outstanding read, I can't recommend this highly enough for anyone interested in 20th century history or Russia today.

I should perhaps add that although Gulag is about the camps, AA sets it in context with external events at the time, in particular the history of the Soviet Union and continental Europe in the twentieth century (including the Nazi concentration camps). As she points out "In certain periods, life in the Soviet Union was also horrible, unbearable and inhuman, and death rates were as high outside the camps as they were within them."

Unmumsnetty hugs to you Eine, depression is a nasty beast. My go-to strategies are self-compassion (yes, the warm and fuzzy self-help stuff!) and self care. But I know that's easier said than done.

Fingers crossed for your DS Tattiepants!

My DS missed out on his uni offers. Even though his A Level results weren't bad, they were a disappointment. So we're kind of in crisis mode here. He and DH have gone off to the clearing advice clinic offered by his very lovely state school. He didn't want me to come along; he was feeling overwhelmed and he hates parental attention. Sigh. So here I am twiddling my thumbs and trying to remain sane and calm and grownup about the whole thing.

I feel really bad for him though. He's a lovely kid, bursting with intellectual curiosity, and it just didn't quite show up enough in his exam results.

I'm worried he'll end up doing a uni course he doesn't really want to do because UCAS offered it to him and it's the easiest way out. cries

Just to be clear, UCAS rejected him for his chosen courses but offered him one he didn't apply for 🙄

But to get back to book stuff, Owlbookend, I'm reading the Makkai book I Have Some Questions for You, on the recommendation of a New York friend (I think she knows the author?) and I'm really not gripped by it either. I don't like the narrator enough.

@EineReiseDurchDieZeit
Sorry to hear this - just read thread.
My all time comfort book is Rupert Everett's autobiographies - Red Carpets/ banana skins and the follow up, Vanished Years. Both life affirming and funny - e.g a scene in a club in Berlin - and very 'human'.
He's got me through a few rocky times, has Rupert.

Sorry - dreadful grammar - are Rupert's autobiographies, not 'is'. 😱

Oh God cassandre plenty of opportunities in clearing though - fingers crossed for him

Thanks Ginge

@cassandre sorry to hear your son didn’t get his place at uni. Fingers crossed he finds something he really wants to do through clearing. DS has gone into school with his friends and I’m sitting in the car trying not to look like a nervous wreck!

Oh god @cassandre and @TattiePants - throwbacks to DD not getting her grades 12 years ago, long story but she got in through clearing and was really happy there. I was in a hospital bed after an accident and could do nothing but wait to hear. Good luck to you all.

I'm on the other side of the fence - doing a stint on the clearing hotline! Good luck to your son @TattiePants and @cassandre I hope yours finds something he really wants to do.

So sorry that you are having a hard time @EineReiseDurchDieZeit

Sending good wishes to all getting exam results today, what a stressful period of life that is for teenagers.

@Owlbookend I think it was me raving about I Have Some Questions For You! I loved it, but think your criticisms are all very valid. It's certainly imperfect with too much going on.

@cassandre and others with A level results. My son was affected by the covid predicted grades and his results dropped 2 grades from his mocks. He had to go through clearing and a special application to get his university place - it was all very stressful at the time.

He graduated this year with a 2.1. His A levels being disappointing were a real wake up call for him and he ended up doing really well.

I hope that things work out well for all of you in this situation.

Stressful times for lots of us on here. Good wishes to all and tightly crossed fingers where appropriate.

Good luck to everyone going through clearing today - I see it from the other side (manning a clearing hotline) and I feel for you and your DCs. It does all work out in the end, in the vast majority of cases, though for young people going through it I can imagine it must feel incredibly stressful.

Eine sorry you've been feeling down, best wishes. Glad you've got started on some reading again and hope that gives you a bit of an escape.

@Boiledeggandtoast Gulag is an incredible book - I've mentioned before on here that I have a relative who went through what Anne Applebaum describes, and I think the book does justice to her experience.

Well DS did much better than he thought in Business Studies, didn't pass Geography and there wasn't an AS Level for Environmental Science. He's disappointed for Geography as that used to be his favourite subject but he's really not enjoyed the human geography modules this year. We'll have a chat with his teacher when he's back in September and see what they think. There's always he option to drop geography as he knows he doesn't want to go to uni.

He has SEN and really struggled with anxiety and panic attacks this year plus he was badly assaulted in sixth form at Christmas so he's done really well just getting up and going to school every day.