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

40 additional years, that is.

Not bringing my list, I think there have only been two additions and they weren’t all that interesting, will save it for the next thread.

p.s. Cloud Atlas is 99p

@FuzzyCaoraDhubh glad you enjoyed Once Upon a River. It’s such a well written and atmospheric book.

Place marking.

Currently re-reading The Trouble with Peace - Joe Abercrombie

13.. The Midwich Cuckoos by John Wyndham

I have had this on my Kindle for quite a while and would have read it sooner if it's cover wasn't so stupid - badly drawn head of a man lying on the ground, with a bird perched on it I am glad that I finally read it.

This is an interesting story of a small town where women of childbearing age all get pregnant on the same day and the kids all look alike with some strange characteristics and abilities. It is well told, with some profound discussion on evolution, sociology, and strategy in the face of an existential threat.

John Wyndham is another author whose books I have started reading in recent years and invariably enjoyed.

Recommended.

@CoteDAzur I LOVE John Wyndham. Not sure if you have audible but if so most of his books are free in the plus catalogue. I've been working my way through and I know @EineReiseDurchDieZeit has too. If you haven't got to The Chrysalids yet that's his best (of the ones I have read so far). In fact I think it was you who recommended his short stories (can't remember the name) but really enjoyed that too.

Just popping in DNF Where The Crawdads sing by Delia Owens just not for me and could not get on with it. Think I have less patience for books these days and if it does not grab me I give up. Although I know this one is a big hit with many.

Next up The Apartment upstairs by Lesley Kara

Mama - I did not know that. Thank you. I will see if I can download some of his books on Audible.

@MamaNewtNewt @CoteDAzur

Yes, The Chrysalids is also my best one, then Triffids, Chocky and The Trouble With Lichen were particularly poor.

I haven't "done" Midwich yet as I have found Stephen Fry too jovial as a narrator. Noah Reid for Chrysalids is impeccable

@Midnightstar76

Not just you.

I regularly see it raved about on Mumsnet on recommendations and I'm very nonplussed. A thoroughly unbelievable and tedious book.

Only just spotted the new thread - thanks Southeast

I also loved the first two One End Street books as a child, and was delighted to discover Holiday at the Dewdrop Inn when dd was small.

1. The Anomaly by Hervé Le Tellier
2. The Tip of My Tongue by Trezza Azzopardi
3. The Secret Life of Special Advisers by Peter Cardwell
4. Perhaps The Stars by Ada Palmer
5. Taste by Stanley Tucci
6. The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune
7. Escape from Model Land by Erica Thompson
8. The Last Days of New Paris by China Mieville
9. Shelter by Dave Hutchinson

10. Dear Reader by Cathy Rentzenbrink 11. Beautiful World, Where Are You by Sally Rooney 12. Bad Data by Georgina Sturge 13. The Woman in the Middle by Milly Johnson 14. Sonic Youth Slept On My Floor by Dave Haslam 15. Unraveller by Frances Hardinge 16. Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver 17. Where Did It All Go Right? by Andrew Collins 18. Sisterland by Curtis Sittenfeld 19. The Secret Lives of Country Gentlemen by KJ Charles 20. The Unknown Ajax by Georgette Heyer 21. A Face Like Glass by Frances Hardinge 22. In Extremis by Lindsey Hilsum 23. Manifesto On Never Giving Up by Bernardine Evaristo 24. The Wilderness Cure by Mo Wilde 25. American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld 26. Exit Strategy by Martha Wells 27. Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin 28. Arrows of the Queen by Mercedes Lackey 29. Arrow's Flight by Mercedes Lackey 30. Case Histories by Kate Atkinson 31. Crashing Heaven by Al Robertson 32. Together Again by Milly Johnson 33. Get Rich or Lie Trying by Symeon Brown 34. A Civil Contract by Georgette Heyer 35. Beach Read by Emily Henry 36. Ogres by Adrian Tchaikovsky 37. The Magnificent Mrs Mayhew by Milly Johnson 38. With the End in Mind by Kathryn Mannix 39. The Left-handed Booksellers of London by Garth Nix 40. Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett 41. Follow the Money by Paul Johnson 42. Grown Ups by Marian Keyes 43. Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver 44. Wavewalker by Suzanne Heywood 45. One Good Turn by Kate Atkinson 46. People Hacker by Jenny Radcliffe 47. Beyond the Wand by Tom Felton 48. The Cliff House by Chris Brookmyre 49. When Will There Be Good News? by Kate Atkinson 50. Butter, Sugar, Magic by Jessica Rosenberg 51. Bread, Coffee, Magic by Jessica Rosenberg 52. Bitter, Sweet, Magic by Jessica Rosenberg 53. Sweet and Sour Spells by Jessica Rosenberg 54. Being Mortal by Atul Gawande 55. Last Dance at the Discotheque for Deviants by Paul David Gould

Suffering a bit of a 'what next' following my last two books.

I am famous in book club for my Crawdads rant. The only good thing that came of it was that it prompted me to reread To Kill a Mockingbird.

The Hotel on the Riviera, Carol Kirkwood

Books like this make me think I could probably write a book and make money. Harper Collins actually have published this.

It is very easy reading, boy meets girl, they hate each other, they fall in love, with some subsidiary things going on around them, very much missing the show not tell lesson. That said, at the moment I am enjoying books set around Italy and France with all the necessary stereotypes and I love imagining myself in Cannes - luckily I am able to do this regardless of how well a writer can conjure a place.

This one is the story of Ariana, a Greek heiress who inherits a failing hotel in Cannes. The son of the family who thinks they own it is a flash entrepreneur and there is a secret. There is a subplot with a Hollywood couple and a dancer called Esmee, but to be honest it would have achieved what it needed to with just Ariana and Gabriel.

I would read another Carol Kirkwood to while a way a weekend on a beach, but I will have forgotten this in a week.

Read a Poirot but it was rubbish and I can't even be bothered to check its title. Something to do with playing cards, I think.

My favourite Norwegian books are probably the Aurora and Socrates series by Anne-Cath Vestly, or those 4 books from the series, translated to English, that I was able to find as a kid (apparently there are more). My dad gave me Aurora and the Little Blue Car and I found the first, both published in Puffin, and I borrowed and later acquired two more books from library discard sales. Aurora is a child in 1960s Oslo - dad is a postgrad philosophy student and mum goes out to work as a lawyer, which everyone else finds very strange. They went on to be a hit in my family as mum and stepdad read them to my brother and sister. I discovered that after I'd left home with my collection of children's books (minus the ones that my baby sister snaffled, but she only lives a couple of miles from me in London now!) our mum missed these so much she bought copies of 3 of them online.

Written for adults and probably much easier to get hold of, in paperback and Kindle, are Karin Fossum's police detective series.

Helga Flatland is another (modern) Norwegian author that look good.

92. Sometime I Lie by Alice Feeny

My name is Amber Reynolds. There are three things you should know about me.
1. I'm in a coma
2. My husband doesn't love me any more
3. Sometimes I lie

I absolutely hated this, so much so that I wish I could do an epic style put down, but I don’t want to spend even another minute thinking about it.

Brace Yourselves For A Bunfight!

110. The Ink Black Heart by Robert Galbraith (Audible)

Contrary to @CoteDAzur and the recent rave review I hated this and thought it was absolutely shit. Easily the worst Strike novel and not a good novel period. Overblown and silly with an unbelievable evil genius at its centre, I will however allow that most but not all of my issues were with the Audible

Normally I appreciate Robert Glenister and will probably miss him until Running Grave turns up, the worst of this was the chat rooms, the games and the tweets which were just so flat and boring. Unfortunately when he did try and liven it up the voices were enough to pause listening for a break from the horrendousness

The shrieking MUKLUKWAAAH for the Drek cartoon

The absurd Dutch accent

The toe curling Scouse accent

Northern Accents generally

And most offensively the approximation of "what a disabled person sounds like"

Aside from this, I solved the mystery VERY early doors, perhaps due to reading 5 in proximity - I checked I was right and I had hours and hours to go, maybe more than 20.

I'm aware that this is based not just on JKR's Twitter experience but also I reckoned from her experiences under cover on Pottermore mentioned in conversation with Meghan Phelps. There's a lot of references to ableism but I ended up feeling like the depictions of Kaya and Inigo (one a tyrant the other an attention seeker) were somewhat ableist themselves making a sneery comment about "Spoonies" whose lives are lived online, that was my take.

In terms of Robin's longevity undercover I found it hard to believe that her IP address wouldn't have been doxxed and exposed her early doors....

All in all a weak offering. Will I still hang in in hopes of a Strike Robin relationship? Yes, but just watch her do a Sirius and kill one of them off before the end of the 10th and last just to piss every fucker off.

WAAAAH.

Managed to get to this thread in time to share my list... at 15 so far hoping to hit 30 by end of the year.

1. The First Kingdom: Britain in the Age of Arthur - Max Adams
2. The Cat who Saved Books - Sosuke Natsukawa

3.Sad Cypress - Agatha Christie

1. Bizarre England: Discover the Country's Secrets and Surprises
2. The History of the World in Bitesize Chunks - Emma Marriott
3. The fellowship of the Ring- JRR Tolkein
4. Partners in Crime - Agatha Christie
5. The Two Towers - JRR Tolkein
6. The Moving Finger - Agatha Christie

10. A Good Girl's Guide to Murder - Holly Jackson 11. The Return of the King - JRR Tolkein 12. World Mythology in Bite Size Chunks - Mark Daniels 13. The Marlow Murder Club- Ribert Thorogood 14. Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome 15. Dead Famous: An Unexpected History of Celebrity from Bronze Age to the Silver Screen.

Currently reading Storyland - Amy Jeffs which is a retelling of British myths and really interesting and Ask a Historian - Greg Jenner which I'm enjoying dipping in and out of.

Thank you for the new thread @Southeastdweller!

I’m a bit late with my list but here it is anyway:

1 Exit - Belinda Bauer
2 Watching Neighbours twice a day… - Josh Widdicombe
3 The Bastard of Istanbul - Elif Shafak
4 The Plant Hunter - T L Mogford
5 House of Glass: The Story and Secrets of a Twentieth-Century Jewish Family - Hadley Freeman
6 The End of Mr Y - Scarlett Thomas
7 The Suspicions of Mr Whicher - Kate Summerscale
8 Apples Never Fall - Liane Moriarty
9 Great Circle - Maggie Shipstead
10 Angelmaker - Nick Harkaway
11 Hiding from the light - Barbara Erskine
12 A Curious Beginning - Deanna Raybourn
13 Snap - Belinda Bauer
14 Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow - Gabrielle Zevin
15 Femina - Janina Ramirez
16 Insomnia - Sarah Pinborough
17 Les Années - Annie Ernaux (in French)
18 A Spoonful of Murder - Robin Stevens
19 A Perilous Undertaking - Deanna Raybourn
20 The Murder of Roger Ackroyd - Agatha Christie
21 The Holiday - T M Logan
22 Melmoth - Sarah Perry
23 Le Chapeau de Mitterand - Antoine Laurain (in French)
24 A Desperate Fortune - Susanna Kearsley
25 Wrong Place, Wrong Time - Gillian McAllister
26 A Hat Full of Sky - Terry Pratchett (read to the DDs)
27 Ne lâche pas ma main - Michel Bussi (in French)
28 The Atlas Six - Olivie Blake
29 Beach Read - Emily Henry
30 The It Girl - Ruth Ware
31 Babel: or the Necessity of Violence - R F Kuang
32 Bonjour Tristesse - Françoise Sagan (in French)
33 Percy Jackson and the lightning thief - Rick Riordan
34 Warrior Queens and Quiet Revolutionaries - Kate Mosse
35 The Death of Mrs Westaway - Ruth Ware
36 Stupeur et Tremblements - Amélie Nothomb (in French)
37 Percy Jackson and the Sea of Monsters - Rick Riordan
38 That Night - Gillian McAllister
39 Les Cahiers d’Esther: Histoires de mes 12 ans - Riad Sattouf

I have de-italicised Babel after reading some reviews and articles - I think I “get” it more now and can see some of its good points (although I still have major issues with it in some respects).

@EineReiseDurchDieZeit This is me trying to act surprised...

@RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie

Can I assume you are beside me in the trenches with the buns?

I'm beside you, but I'll eat the buns and throw mud and dead rats instead.

Remus how even tempered and somehow Shakespearean!

I'm seeing myself as a mix of Henry 5th and Baldrick.