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

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.

Maud What a remarkable life she must have led. It's very sobering to think of people - especially when you know them personally - having lived through such terrible and terrifying experiences.

Just to add my best wishes to all those going through a stressful day.

I've got 3 Anne Applebaum books (including Gulag) on my wish list but they never seem to come down in price.

@TattiePants I hope your son is able to see how well he's done is such difficult circumstances and finds the best way forward for him.

104. Lost Light by Michael Connelly

Next in the Det Bosch series. Bosch is now retired but gets drawn into the investigation of a murder he previously investigated. It’s all tied up with a money heist and the investigation was ok, but the final shoot out was just ridiculous.

105. Desperation by Stephen King

A group of people come together / are brought together to fight an ancient evil in a mining town in the desert. This feels very much like a ‘by the numbers’ version of a Stephen King book, it’s got all of the usual ingredients, but it’s got no soul. One of my least favourite King books but I am enjoying picking up my Stephen King reread again after getting stuck on Nightmares and Dreamscapes for so long.

Anne Applebaum is a fabulous historian. I used her a lot in an essay I once wrote about 'truth' in Gulag memoir.

@StColumbofNavron That sounds fascinating!

@TattiePants Sorry your son has had such a hard time - school can be so crap, and it's hard to see the bigger picture when you're in the midst of it. Sounds like he has plenty going for him.

Love and unmumsnetty hugs to those have difficult days/ times.

I finally finished something, my 29th - A Change of Climate - Hilary Mantel - family story that moves back and forth between Ralph and Anna Eldred, and their children/ immediate families lives in 80s Norfolk, and their experience as missionaries in Africa first just outside Pretoria in South Africa and then a much more remote posting in what is now Botswana.

This took me a long time to get into, then I was gripped for a huge section before finding the ending a little flat/ disjointed somehow. The African part of the story was far more compelling although once it became clear what Ralph and Anna had experienced, and what the horrifying event was, it did become more interesting to see how that had impacted their lives and their story going forward. Also a really interesting look at what happens when ‘doing good’ comes at the expense of your own family: nearest and dearest.

Not my favourite Mantel, and I doubt I’d reread, but this is possibly a bold for me all the same.

My heart goes out to everyone with disappointed teens today because it is harrowing. We know they will be ok in the long run, but they aren't today and today is what matters. We've had an odd kind of day because DD did brilliantly but her cousin, who lives with us in an on/off kind of way because of a complicated family situation, had very disappointing results so we've been trying to balance the two and support her through clearing. It really highlights the extent to which this year have been affected - DD's school was magnificent throughout and while she did a good job of online learning on her own, there was a huge amount of help and her education was essentially unaffected, even down to the school running what amounted to full GCSEs for her year with grade boundaries aligned to 2019. Whereas her poor cousin was left to more or less get on with teaching herself. She did well all things considered, but I think it's caught up with her as she lacked some of the skills that I think would have helped her at A level.

It does highlight the insanity of the system. My best friend lives in Boston, and her daughter was here for a couple of weeks earlier in the summer. She's been clear since the end of her junior year what a realistic university choice would look like, was able to apply to lots and have her acceptance in the bag during her senior year. I know it's competitive, and eye wateringly expensive, but the US system doesn't seem to fall apart by accepting kids on the basis of performance during their school career rather than one off high pressure assessments over six crazy weeks in May and June. She was horrified by our system - "it's cruel and inhuman" was her view, which I kind of agree with.

The good news is she's had an offer through clearing, so they are both happily heading out to celebrate together.

I am going to get off my soap box, pour myself a large glass of wine, and go to bed early with The Family From One End Street (thanks @ChessieFL !).

That sounds like a roller coaster of a day @PepeLePew - enjoy your well deserved glass of wine and visit to the Ruggles family!

Wishing well to all going through stressful times.

DNF Hangover Square - I quite liked the beginning, but it was getting very repetitive. DP finished and loathed it, so I'm not going to bother.

Best wishes for all of you dealing with results.

Someone on another thread said along the lines of “One day the results won’t matter at all, but today is not that day” and I completely agree, for anyone who is finding their next steps not as clear as they hoped.

65 East West Street by Phillipe Sands
This book is part family memoir and part history of WWII and modern day human rights laws. Sands is a human rights lawyer that accepted a lecturing engagement in modern day Lviv and that set him on a course of researching Hersch Lauterpacht who introduced the term 'crimes against humanity' and Raphael Lemkin who introduced the term 'genocide'. Both men were lawyers, born and raised in Lemberg / Lwow / Lviv and their ideas influenced the Nuremberg trials and are still the basis of modern day human rights laws. Both men were Jewish and most of their families were murdered by the Nazis.

Sands also skilfully weaves in the story of his Jewish family that also lived in Lemberg around the same time on East West Street. His grandparents and his mother (then a baby) were virtually the only members of his family to escape the Nazis. Also included is the history of Hans Frank, Governor-General of Nazi-occupied Poland and the man responsible for sending millions of Jews and Poles to their death, including the families of Sands, Lauterpacht and Lemkin. He stood trial at Nuremberg and was sentenced to death.

It's meticulously researched and beautifully written. I found the history of the development of international law fascinating and the personal stories of the three families devastating. Sands also met with Hans Frank's son and other descendants of high-ranking Nazis and their views make for a very interesting read. I've got The Ratline on Kindle so looking forward to reading that.

Sorry your having a hard time at the moment @EineReiseDurchDieZeit Sometimes when I'm stressed I can find solace in an easy read or an old favourite, but other times I just can't manage anything.
Hope everyone with kids getting results finds a place or next step that is right for them.

@cassandre I agree that Bodie isn't likeable.

@GrannieMainland you are definetely in the majority loving I Have Some Questions For You. It's got loads of great reviews.

@AliasGrape Glad you enjoyed A Change Of Climate. It was a bold for me last year. I agree the final section was the weakest. If I has one criticism, it was that single mother and daughter just seemed less strongly written and less believable than the other characters.

I'm also a fan of old favourites - Agatha Christie is my go-to comfort read.

to all those with A-level kids. It sounds like today was very tricky.

I'm halfway through Chain-gang All Stars and finding the violence hard to stomach. I'll probably doggedly persevere but am quite amazed by the rave reviews this has got.

@AliasGrape coincidentally I have just got A Change of Climate out on BorrowBox - I’ve got a couple of other books to read before I get to it. Good to hear you enjoyed it!

Congratulations on all the a-level results, and for those with disappointing results I hope your DCs find a good way forward.

I would also like to send my best wishes to everyone who has had a stressful day or is going through difficult times, Eine 🌻

It's our DD's results day on Friday. Fingers crossed it will go well for her. She has been very unsettled in herself and the gaps during the Covid years didn't help at all. I think she is feeling alright about her course choices finally. She had been talking about going away to study but is now talking about studying in our own city which would be easier for her and for us, quite frankly. It's all new for us as she's our eldest.

Thanks so much everyone!

@Stokey You are allowed to quit, it's TERRIBLE

We've not heard anything about my nephews results which I suspect means it didn't go as well as expected, we'll see them on Saturday so we'll no doubt hear then (sent a message yesterday saying good luck so don't want to hassle them now if they are going through clearing). It's such a hard system.

Sending good wishes to all those with children struggling with a level results. My brother in law went through clearing and ended up feeling the course he did was a much better fit for him than the one he'd originally chosen but it's a very stressful time getting it sorted

42. The Hunting Party by Lucy Foley I read The Guest List by the same author last year so picked up this one, which I think was her first novel, with a Kindle credit I had

A group of friends who met at Oxford go away for their annual new Year's Eve holiday. They've picked a remote estate in the Scottish highlands, where they are promptly cut off from the outside world by heavy snowfall. Then one of the guests goes missing.

The book jumped backwards and forwards between before the disappearance and afterwards. The name of the missing guest isn't revealed until the end and I found this made it hard for me to care about what happened. Also all of the characters are awful people with no redeeming qualities so I felt whoever it was that had vanished had probably deserved it. I don't mind if book characters are unlikeable but I prefer more nuanced personalities, where people are flawed but have some good qualities, like most actual people. I felt the characters in this book went too far and were all horrible which wasn't particularly believable

to all those going through a difficult time st the moment. Hoping whether DCs get the results they needed or not they find the right next steps.

Hitting a bit of a wall with reading as spent so much time st the hospital. Hopefully DM will be home today as the operation has gone smoothly.

Well I skimmed through the rest of Chain-gang All-Stars. I agree with @BaruFisher that there was way too much telling and not enough showing. It's billed as a cross between the Hunger Games and Gladiator. In the near future, murderers can have their life sentence reduced to 3 years by taking part in fights to the death, which are televised on reality TV. The main characters are two women on a successful Chain gang who are getting near to freedom. But the book is unable to concentrate on their story and alternates chapters with stories of various other people - like two fans of the games, protestors against the games, someone being tortured in jail and members of the board who organise the games. This, along with extensive footnotes telling us how the world relates to current news, makes a very fractured read. And the violence is relentless. Margaret Atwood showed how to create a world from current affairs without making it so blatant - this doesn't come close.

Have also just treated myself to the following for my holiday next week, despite having a ridiculous number of unread books on my Kindle:
Birnam Wood
Yellow face
Time Shelter
A Spell of Good Things
The Enchanted April
And a MW Craven crime read.

After a very sociable holiday in Ireland, I'm planning on lying in the sun and reading as much as possible!

The quote above 'one day the results won't matter but today is not that day' is so true. Sending good vibes to all those getting results and moving onto the next stage. Especially tough this time round as linked to the COVID years. The poor teens had it so hard.

41. These Days by Lucy Chambers

I don't know why this was on my wishlist but it dropped to 99p and I bought it! I wonder if it was a rec on here after I read Trespass and realised I knew very little about Ireland and The Troubles?

I wasn't taken to begin with. There are no speech marks which I hate and each chapter was centred on a character but it often took me a few pages to figure out.

Then halfway through I got it, the characters started to mean something and I just read the final 20% in a rush this morning before I finished work, unable to put it down, lost in the book and not caring if I logged onto work 5 minutes late and with tears brimming in my eyes at the how harrowing it was to live through the bombings in WW2.

So now to pick myself up and try and get on with a day at work where the worse things that happen are that my spreadsheet might not balance. Very grateful there is no chance at all that an air raid siren might go off.

Hello everyone, I’ve just spent a very pleasurable couple of hours catching up with this latest thread. The best reading I’ve had all year 😀

I have been on the 50 Books challengeyears ago, but not recently, although latterly I’ve started off and dropped out.

Over the last two years I’ve really lost my reading Mojo. I used to devour anything and everything, but I’ve become highly critical and difficult to please, with DNF’s featuring highly!

I don’t know if it’s the menopause brain fog…

I’ve also been suffering with mild depression since November and instead of Reading being my solace for difficult times, I just haven’t been able to concentrate .

Will you have me back again?
I’m hoping to join you all and start counting from this month as I can’t remember what I’ve read so far since January, although I know nothing is a stand out for me!

I’m currently reading Shrines of Gaiety by Kate Atkinson and quite enjoying it

I have just done a count of my physical TR pile, and I have a staggering 49 books !!! That is not including anything on the kindle. So I’m not buying anything else unless it’s a second hand bookshop find 😀

I’d like to aim for 30 between now and the 31st of December .