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

@EineReiseDurchDieZeit I agree about Remarkable Creatures very flat.

The Vaster Wilds - Lauren Groff this is my third Lauren Groff book and the third one I haven't liked. I guess she just isn't the writer for me. It's the early 1600's in Virginia and a teenage servant girl is on the run from famine, disease and some dark event she was involved in, in the settlement she lives in. The story is just about this unamed girl as she runs about finding shelter and foraging for food and feeling frightened of men who might be pursuing her and the native people she may meet. It just goes on and on in boring detail about her days in the wilds FOREVER! This would have worked as a novella or long form short story but as a big tome the longevity just totally dilutes the tension.

I quite like Tracey Chevalier's blandness. Fairly interesting. Fairly well-written, fairly easy to read. Like a tin of Heinz tomato soup in a world of wanky designer broths.

Speaking of which, I bet you cannot wait to hear what I think about When God Was A Fucking Designer Broth Rabbit. I'm still too ragingly angry to say what I think. But it'll come. In a year when I've read some pretentious shite I didn't think anything would come along that was worse. 😳

@SoIinvictus

I've read that and can't remember a thing about it - I can tell you that A Year Of Marvellous Ways by the same author is worse. - vomit in book form

C'mon Sol have a rant !

I've only got 8% battery.
That would only barely get me started. 😁

Charge your phone immediately. We're all here for the rage (and dog pics).

@Solinvictus I can't remember anything about When God was a Rabbit apart from that it made me want to throw things so please, please do post your review.

I'm also declaring for Team Chevalier. Inoffensive and easy reading sometimes fits the bill.

I'm 75% into The Rachel Incident - Caroline O'Donoghue and really enjoying it. A student on Cork has a messy relationship with her lecturer while working for his wife as an intern. It does a good job of flawed characters and an interesting plot. It's a very messed up coming of age. IT HAD A VERY SHOUTY BLURB ON LIBBY WHICH NEARLY PUT ME OFF. It manages to convey the young Irish experience in a significantly less wanky way than Sally Rooney.
I've also got the new Naoise Dolan lined up too as I liked her last one. I do find myself drawn to Irish writers.

I too hated When God was a Rabbit @SoIinvictus so would thoroughly enjoy a rant.
I think The Rachel Incident should have @FortunaMajor ’s review on the back to encourage people to read it ‘less wanky than Sally Rooney’ - love it!

GrannieMainland - The early part of DC is the most brutal. The nastiest incident (involving not DC but another child, who subsequently grows up alongside DC) and then the abusive stepparent figure are by far the worst in terms of violence. After that there is exploitation and neglect but Id somehow managed to put those early episodes out of my mind so would say they aren’t representative.

Someone chose that for our book club once, @SoIinvictus, and it was so unmemorable that I can’t remember one single thing about it except that DH always witheringly calls it 'When God Was a Bloody Rabbit'.

Read a couple of recent releases-

Alice Feeney- Good Bad Girl
Usually love Alice Feeney but her last couple have been sub par. This one was compelling but required a lot of coincidences to work.

Lisa Jewel - None of this is true.
Again not quite up to her usual standards. Unlikable characters and a strange build up.

Neither of these are a favourite read.
Book 56 and 57.

Childhood, Youth, Dependency by Tove Ditlevsen. Translated by Tiina Nunnally and Michael Favala Goldman

Fourth, fifth and sixth books of Women in Translation month.

This autobiographical trilogy by one of Denmark's most celebrated 20th century writers is immediate and compulsive despite being written decades after the events it describes. The third book that describes her marriages and drug addiction is heart-rending. Brilliant.

84 Going Zero by Anthony McCarten
Like a much better smarter version of The Circle though after a week or so the details are already fading. A large tech company is on the verge of a massive deal with the US government to access and use everyone’s personal data.

85 Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 by Cho Nam-Joe
Highly unusual narrative; although this is a fictional account of a young mother’s life and experiences it has academic references throughout, as it’s structured as an account written by her therapist of her mental health problems. That alone makes for an interesting read but more than that, the juxtaposition of things that are highly specific to South Korea with general themes of sexism and misogyny that any woman would recognise makes for an engrossing if depressing read.

86 Further Adventures of the Family from One End Street by Eve Garnett
Total comfort read after a high stress few weeks. This was always my favourite in the series and I had forgotten how beautifully precise the writing was. Within a couple of paragraphs I was transported back to Orwell and the Dew Drop Inn. My favourite of all the stories - fond though I am of Kate - is the wedding and Lily Rose’s bridesmaid’s dress. Thanks to Chessie for reminding me of this.

87 If We Were Villains by ML Rio
Of all the books that have pretensions to being the new Secret History, this is both the closest (six smart quirky friends! small private college in New England! death! Interminable quoting at length from their studies!) and the best.

88 Little Disasters by Sarah Vaughan
Thanks to Welshwabbit, whose review prompted me to check this out of the library. I thought this story of postnatal depression, ageing parents, professional angst and complex female friendships was very well done (though I am probably the ideal reader, given all that, so perhaps it’s not surprising it spoke to me!). It wasn’t a conventional thriller although the slow unfolding of the central plot had a lot in common with a standard thriller but was much more nuanced than that.

When God was a rabbit left me astounded at just how many of my friends had recommended it to me and how very disappointed in it I was. This was probably 10 years ago and I now remember nothing at all about the book - just that feeling of total bewilderment.

Just finished
29 The Island of Sea Women - Lisa See
Absolutely fascinating portrayal of the matriarchal society of haenyeo (female divers) on the island of Jeju in Korea. Such a violent and tragic history and so much strength to be found within this community. I particularly enjoyed all the diving folklore and practicalities. It's a bold from me.

@nowanearlyNicemum have you read Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by the same author? I recommend it. You do need a strong stomach for the foot binding scenes though.

38. A Town Called Solace Mary Lawson I loved Lawson's first novel Crow Lake when I read it years ago. This, much more recent novel, is also set in northern Canada. 7-year-old Clara is traumatised by the disappearance of her older sister Rose. Mrs Orchard, her elderly neighbour, has gone into hospital. When a stranger, Liam, moves into the empty house their lives intertwine and Liam's connection with Mrs Orchard is revealed. I read this quickly in a couple of sessions after a bit of a recent reading drought. Clara is a believable young child and I did connect to the emotion in some of the storylines. However despite it being booker longisted, I don't think it had the complexity or sense of place of Crow Lake, which I enjoyed more. If I was being mean, I might say it was bordering on the twee.

@nowanearlyNicemum and @highlandcoo I loved Lisa See’s Teagirl
of Hummingbird Lane so much that I’ve put off reading her other books because I don’t want to be disappointed (and I’ve been waiting for 99p deals). My birthday vouchers are burning a hole in my pocket though and what are they for, if not to splurge a little?

@StColumbofNavron and @highlandcoo this is my first book by Lisa See. Fabulous to see so much love for her other novels. I will look forward to those!! I got The Island of Sea Women for 99p quite recently StColumbo - sorry you missed it!

Just checked and it still is 99p so I have bought it (also purchased Snow Flower and the Secret Fan).

@CornishLizard and @EineReiseDurchDieZeit thanks for the DC advice - definitely not expecting a fun read but I was struggling with the increasingly baroque abuse of women and children. It has moved on a bit already which is good.

@Owlbookend I really liked Crow Lake as well, generally underrated I think, the conclusion floored me.

@FortunaMajor I loved The Rachel Incident! Am also a huge fan of SR though...

Some Tame Gazelle Barbara Pym

Timley given recent discussions around Pym. Whilst this is of its time, lots of references to ‘natives’ the story is just quite pleasant. Spinster sisters feed cake to various clergymen in small village is the overall plot, but plot isn’t really the point here. I really enjoyed Harriet, the more gregarious sister and would like to be her when I grow up. She collects pictures of curates and takes huge pleasure in inviting them to supper. I particularly enjoyed the descriptions of Harriet who has an Italian count rather infatuated with her, a passing academic proposes marriage and she is constantly described as big, large, heavy but it all adds to her attractiveness because Harriet loves life. I could very much imagine this on Sunday night TV.

Any of you care to help me out?

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/what_were_reading/4882648-i-need-to-decide-what-to-read-next-the-phantom-of-the-opera-or-jude-the-obscure?reply=128768747

Jude is definitely bleak.
They're both a bit annoying though in a way that Tess and Bathsheba etc weren't.

Thanks @StColumbofNavron, I’ve bought The island of Sea Women.

I have read When God was a Rabbit and can literally remember nothing about it - it was over 5 years ago. My brief review was "it was just OK" so I must have found it nothing special and probably why it has had such minimal impact on me