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

@Stokey That's an amazing list, I don't think I would speak to anyone for a week if I had those to get through.

@Sonnet Welcome (and also the other new people)! Don't count if you feel it adds extra pressure, but looking forward to seeing what you end up reading.

@RazorstormUnicorn I also have These Days on my Kindle - thank you for the review, looks like I should move it up the queue.

Thank you MaudOfTheMarches 😀
I started to get my reading Mojo back slightly three weeks ago when in desperation for a comfort read I restarted the Ellie Griffiths series set in Norfolk, combining archaeology and detective work. I’d only ever read the first two despite my DH devouring the whole series and eagerly awaiting the latest (and last). I wasn’t a particular fan previously as they were all quite”samey” but I enjoyed the first so much it I read the first four back to back before moving on to *Shrines of Gaiety on Sunday.
Interestingly, I’m feeling in a more positive place since that time, too, so fingers crossed that I found my comfort blanket again

Welcome back @Sonnet. The Ruth Galloway books are excellent as a comfort read I found.

I’m overinvested in the Ruth/Nelson/Kate saga BestIsWest 😂

Name To A Face by Robert Goddard

Continuing my reread of Goddard’s books, although I have skipped a couple to read this one as I am on holiday in Penzance and this one is set partly in Penzance and the Scilly Isles. The ending of this one is slightly preposterous but I still really enjoyed it.

Up With The Larks by Tessa Hainsworth

I found this in the bookshelf where I’m staying. The author used to be head of marketing or something for The Body Shop before she packed it all in and moved to Cornwall and became a postwoman. This is the story of her first year living there. Nice enough read although some of her expectations were rather unrealistic!

I started to get my reading Mojo back slightly

@Sonnet I just misread that as 'reading mojito' and had agreeable mental images of lounging in a beach recliner, cocktail in hand….

Not Light Perpetual if you're not feeling strong. It's so, so boring. Although the first few pages are stunning iirc.

What works for me in a reading slump and when I’m need of distraction, is something plotty- so I’d advise against Open Water at this time if you’re the same. I know loads of people got on with it better than me, but it’s a bit slow and ‘no plot, all feels’ as the youngsters say.

Try again :

Charity Shop Haul

@BaruFisher oh I was hoping that would be a quicky

£7.50 btw for all those !

Gosh, Eine, that is a nice haul!

Thanks to all who offered good wishes about results day (and commiserations to others also experiencing the stress of it, whether with their own DC or vicariously!).

My household has calmed down a lot today after the initial shock of DS not making his grades. He was really bloody unlucky as two of his grades were just short of a higher grade boundary (in one case short by less than a point). So his school has advised us to get two of his exam papers re-marked. But in any case he applied to a new uni through clearing and they accepted him straight away. So that's a big relief. The main issue now is how hard it will be to find him accommodation at short notice in what is quite an expensive city.

I'm American-born, naturalised British, and I prefer living in the UK in about a billion different ways, but undergrad admissions (as I have learned!) seem to be one rare instance where the US does things more humanely. I suspect Ireland is better than the UK in this regard as well!

I would like to read something escapist to calm down, but I still have so much adrenaline going through my system that I feel incapable of reading.

I wish 😁

super haul @EineReiseDurchDieZeit 😀😀

@cassandre

Casting back to family members in the Irish system it's actually pretty tough. Its multiple subjects for the cert and the entire cert can be failed very easily. Fail maths, Irish or English and you're toast.
Uni Admissions point based.

The US system is the fairest though clearly it can be corrupt when it comes to prestige colleges

Thanks Eine, I'm clearly wrong about Ireland then!

The US system is dreadful when it comes to Ivy League colleges and children of (wealthy) alumni, yes. It's shockingly unfair. But I had a wonderful experience of California's state university system (opportunities vary a lot from state to state). I started at a rural, open-entry two-year college (which are quite modest places focused primarily on vocational degrees) and then transferred to a University of California campus on a scholarship to finish my undergraduate degree. That changed my life and I will always be grateful for it.

Given the awful Lucy Letby case in the press, maybe you should start with Lullaby from your pile, if you're up for something fast-moving but disturbing. 😥

Of those, I loved The Hours. Did you enjoy Mrs Dalloway?

@cassandre pleased to hear that your DS has a place. What a relief!

Thanks Tarahumura, it's a massive relief! 😀He was so stressed yesterday, I don't think he's feeling much elation yet, but I think it will come; these changes take time to digest. And like his mother he's a bit of a high-strung soul 😂

Good news @cassandre !
I love a pile of physical books @EineReiseDurchDieZeit

57 Attend by West Camel
This was a quirky dark fairy tale of a book, not without its flaws, but I was interested to see where it went.
Anne and Sam, at different times, meet a tiny enigmatic old woman called Deborah. Not many people seem to be able to see Deborah, carrying around her bag full of scrap fabric, always sewing, sewing, sewing. She tells them tales that would put her at around 100 years old and gradually she reveals a special recurring embroidery pattern once found on an ancient piece of material, that she has been trying to replicate since she was 7.
Anne is a recovering heroin addict, still terrified of her ex husband and regarded with suspicion by her daughter. Sam is a young man tiring of empty hook-ups on Grindr and searching for a connection with Derek, whose propensity towards violence threatens to drive him away.
I loved the dream-like quality of some of the writing and the way that whatever the spell is that Deborah stitches isn’t explained too much. Some good passages about the Thames and Deptford and the descriptions of the Blitz are heartbreakingly realistic.
Minus points were that some of the dialogue was a bit clunky and unbelievable, particularly hard man Derek. For any Python fans here, it veered towards Piranha Brothers territory. I would have liked to read more about Sam and Anne, but they were a little too lightly drawn, especially Sam.
Overall, it was a captivating read and resisted an attack of the Swirly Cover.

Great book haul eine. After I only reading kindle books for the last month or two I’m forcing myself to read a few physical books as I must have 200+ books sitting on the shelf and I need to make some space!

Yes! Will it help?

@cassandre

That sounds like an amazing experience - I also like how easy it seems to grow in America and that a 2 year degree is also celebrated as an achievement

Your son will hopefully still have an amazing experience too

Yes!

Glad to hear your son has a place sorted Cassandre and thoughts to all those others who have struggling DC. Thankfully in retrospect things fell apart earlier for my DD, & she didn't apply to uni. There was a lot of pressure from 6th form to apply (on the grounds that 'you can always defer'), but she resisted it & I'm really glad. She took two years off in the end, working and then live-in volunteering, and went off to uni last year so much better prepared.

I've still got Bandit Queens & AJ Fikely from my un-read holiday pile, but in the meantime I've finished a couple of others.

64. The Cruel Prince by Holly Black
    Jude & her twin sister are fully mortal, but her elder sister Vivi is half faerie. Following their human parents' murder, the three sisters end up living in the faerie courts, with Vivi's father. In traditional fashion the fey are dangerous and unpredictable, but Jude as a mortal has one big advantage - unlike them, she can lie. As a result, she becomes a player in court politics as princes battle their way to the throne.
    I think @Tarahumara suggested HB to me. Apologies if it was someone else, but it was a spot on recommendation. The only disadvantage is that there aren't many of her books in the library system, & I'm out of the habit of actually buying fantasy novels I'm unlikely to re-read. I probably will shell out for the others in this series though.

65. Killing Thatcher by Rory Carroll
    This follows the long and winding path by which the IRA came very, very close to killing the British prime minister in 1984. The author traces the story back through the history of the Troubles, including the murder of Mountbatten, the hunger strikes, and the activities of the England branch. He also looks at the personal story of Patrick Magee, who placed the bomb, and how he became radicalised & joined the IRA.
    
    I thought the whole book was really well done. The author does an excellent job of showing the motivations of the IRA bombers, without minimising the horrific things that they did. I really appreciated the time that he spent on the personal stories of those caught up in the Brighton bomb, and those who lost loved ones. I listened to it on audio, & it was also very well read.

There's a lot to be said for the Scottish system as I experienced in in the 80s (the SNP have destroyed it) where I did 5 subjects at age 17 then had a final year of school with unconditional offers coming in by Christmas and doing a couple of subjects at a higher level and also picking up a couple of new subjects and just growing up a bit (I did a lot of young farmer activities, organised some trips round Scotland for myself and friends to see the Universities, passed my driving test, did a PT job etc etc). Bit like a gap year really. Then at university being admitted to a faculty rather than a degree so being able to study a variety of subjects for 2 years before deciding on my final degree subject. England will never move to that system though because the Universities would have to lengthen their degrees.