50 Books Challenge 2023 Part Nine

[Southeastdweller]

Welcome to the ninth 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, the sixth one here, the seventh one here and the eighth one here.

What are you reading?

Great shout thanks @Whosawake

@EineReiseDurchDieZeit I listen to lots of audiobooks, but often different things from what I would read in an actual book. I set a limit of about 8 hours and I listen sped up. And it has to be pretty pacey or I will zone out, or alternatively something where it doesn't matter if I zone out a bit, like a travel book or something I have read before. Also not too frightening or horrible because that's a million times worse in audio. And if kids might wander in when you are listening you have to think about sex etc.

My favourites are Agatha Christie, Georgette Heyer, Bill Bryson, Anne of Green Gables in the "doesn't matter if I zone out" category and things like Ann Cleeves, Elly Griffiths or children's books (Katherine Rundell!!) in the "unlikely to zone out " category

Heartburn by Nora Ephron was a GREAT audiobook. I think it was narrated by Meryl Streep although possibly I imagined this.

Had a quick look through the sale and got a Lisa Jewell for 99p but not much else jumped out.

I did see Power of Geography and Prisoner of Geography (I think I've got those titles right) which I have read and enjoyed and get good reviews from others on here.

I don't think I finished a book in October, so I won't look too hard for others!

Lots of Christmas books which I am assuming are rom com twaddle but I will likely pick up one to read in the run up anyway 😁

The Undiscovered Deaths Of Grace McGill is 99p today. I think some 50 Bookers have read it?

I don’t do audiobooks, but really enjoyed Heartburn as a kindle book.

The sale is dreadful. I bought one about K2 which I’m pretty sure I’ve read before, but I seem to be having a mountain peril phase again, so it should serve me well enough.

Deals :

Cuddy for £3.99

99p

Girl in Snow
Don't Think, Dear
Long Way To A Small Angry Planet

I've read Heartburn and yes, it was read by Meryl Streep but I didn't do it as audio

@EineReiseDurchDieZeit my favourite audible is The Beastie Boys Book if you haven't listened to that I really recommend it.

24 The Lonely Polygamist - Brady Udell
The tale of a fundamentalist Mormon, his 4 wives and 28 children in what seems to be 1970s Utah.

The polygamous protagonist (Golden) is struggling to maintain his lifestyle, too many wives & children, not enough money etc, and the church elders are pressing a further wife on him, with additional pressure to add a new woman to the household from the formidable Beverley (Wife #1). While working away from home (building a new Brothel of all things), Golden meets and falls in love with his Boss's wife and so adds more complications to his sorry existence.

This is quite a silly book, with some sad and touching moments added in here and there. Of the many children, we only really get to know Rusty, 11-year-old son of Rose (Wife #3) with his rebellious thoughts and increasingly dangerous behaviour. The wives are not really developed as characters in their own right, with the exception of Trish (Wife #4), who is much younger than the others and is beginning to dream of another life where she isn't so routinely swept along with the multitude. Tragedy brings the family together as a unit in the end, with a hopeful note for the future of the survivors.

There's very little in the sale to interest me but I've bought Excellent Women and The School That Escaped the Nazis that was recently recommended by @Piggywaspushed.

I bought Girl In Snow as well, and also Wayward from the daily deals.

I've already read but enjoyed:

American Wife
The Rachel Incident
Everything I Never Told You

I bought Excellent Women (after all the good reviews on here), How We Disappeared (as I’m loving historical fiction this year) and Sons of Darkness (a fantasy I’ve had my eye on.
I am now on a book buying ban. I’m going to try and keep it until the release of the Women’s Prize longlist (in feb or March?) apart from the 12 days of kindle.

Mrs Palfrey At The Claremont is in the deals - lots of us on the Rather Dated thread enjoyed this earlier in the year.

I got Weyward by Emilia Hart and American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld which I’m sure someone reviewed well recently (and preferred to the Clinton one)

I bought a few things. Some thread favourites - Gaudy Night, Excellent Women and American Wife. I also got Windswept: Life, Nature and Deep Time in the Scottish Highlands by Annie Worsley (this one looks like it might be to this thread's taste, like a less annoying I Am An Island), The Fran Lebowitz Reader, Harlem After Midnight by Louise Hare and The Stirrings: A Memoir in Northern Time by Catherine Taylor.

Also today I learned that as you scroll through, if you already own the book it actually says 'You own this' which saved me quite a bit of time!

I've been following the thread but not updated as I got immersed in Covenant of Water, but here are my recent reads. I think I might just squeak 50 this year but not sure.

36. You Could Make This Place Beautiful, by Maggie Smith. I loved this. Not a traditional memoir, but a poet's memoir in prose poems. Smith wrote the poem 'You Could Make This Place Beautiful' which went viral; as her success grew, her husband became jealous and started an affair. He then moved 500 miles away from her and their children with his affair partner. Ultimately Smith ends up happier than before, and good for her. I'm sure he'd argue with the how he's characterised here but eh, fuck him. I know some people have found this too luvvie to bear, but I think if you read an autobiography from a poet you have a fair idea of what you're getting yourself into!

37. The Covenant of Water, by Abraham Verghese. Cheating by posting the blurb: "Spanning the years 1900 to 1977, The Covenant of Water is set in Kerala, on South India’s Malabar Coast, and follows three generations of a family that suffers a peculiar affliction: in every generation, at least one person dies by drowning—and in Kerala, water is everywhere. The family is part of a Christian community that traces itself to the time of the apostles, but times are shifting, and the matriarch of this family, known as Big Ammachi—literally “Big Mother”—will witness unthinkable changes at home and at large over the span of her extraordinary life." This was just absolute bliss. It's 700 pages long and I still didn't want it to end. I felt as though I know and love these characters, even though sometimes I've only known them for a few pages. Recommended to everyone who loves a family saga, although owing to size it's not a quick read.

38. Tom Lake, by Ann Patchett. As lockdown begins, three daughters return to their family cherry farm in Michigan. As they pick the cherries, their mother tells them the story of her earlier life as an actress, and her boyfriend who became an extremely famous actor. Very, very slow, not much happens, the writing is beautiful. Just lovely.

33 Trespasses by Louise Kennedy
Strongly recommended by many on here, or at least that was my impression, and I'm another who thought it was wonderful. Cushla drew me in, I feel I know her. The only thing I would have changed was the flash forward at the end - it either needed to be longer or not there at all, and I would have chosen the latter.

If I Survive You is in the daily deals. I haven't read it but am intrigued as it seems very marmite.

Thanks @Stokey

76 Ironopolis by Glen James Brown

I love how some books are found. In brief - a walk round Mickleton in Teesdale - Laithkirk Church - vicar who drowned - North East folklore - Peg Powler - oooh, there’s a book set in modern times with her in it! Peg is the NE equivalent of Jinny/Jenny Greenteeth, an evil water spirit.

This book is a solid bold this year. It’s set in Middlesbrough, mainly around the Burn estate, where the old, crumbling housing has a strong community who are gradually being dispersed by compulsory purchase, unwise life decisions, illness and death.
Una Cruikshank was a child whose parents were outcasts even among the lax parenting of the time. She ran away. The book opens with letters to an art collector from Una’s friend, Jean. Little is known about the adult artist Una, apart from her body of work which features Peg Powler.
Different voices narrate the book but to try and explain how it all fits together would be like me standing in the town where I live and trying to explain who lives with who, who hates who, who has been in prison, who has a gambling habit etc. In Brown’s prose these people truly come alive and all the voices are different, which is a difficult trick to pull off as a writer. All the while, Peg Powler creeps through cisterns, water courses and wells, like Pennywise the Clown. She says things to people that reflect their inner selves and this is the most powerful towards the end of the book, when a decades old mystery is solved.

Gritty Warning for domestic and animal abuse. It’s a beautiful tribute to a much maligned and neglected area. Brown has a cracking ear for dialogue and a real affection for his characters, notable in the female ones, which some male authors just make miserable drudges. Mrs Terry is a delight, he said he enjoyed writing her.

I’ve read nothing set during Covid then by chance 3 out of 4 of my next books set during the pandemic.

87 Lucy by the Sea by Elizabeth Strout
This is the fourth book in the Lucy Barton series. It’s March 2020 and Lucy’s friend and ex-husband William convinced her they need to get out of New York and move to a house he’s rented on the rural Maine coast. Not understanding the fuss but thinking it’ll only be for a few weeks before everything returns to normal, Lucy agrees. Weeks turn into month and Lucy is forced to confront her complicated relationship with William, her grief following her recent bereavement, her worries for her adult daughters and to reassess her life in New York.

The character of Lucy with her no nonsense approach, complicated relationships and desire to be a better parent than her own mother is very relatable. I just love Strout’s writing and there are a few cameos from characters in her other books. I hope she writes more in this series.

88 Bourneville by Jonathon Coe
I’d had this on kindle for a while but bumped it up following a couple of recent reviews on these threads. We follow Mary and three generations of her family living in and around Bourneville through seventy five years of social change from VE Day, the coronation, the World Cup final, royal weddings, funerals, Brexit and Covid.

It manages to be funny, poignant and the perfect portrayal of post WWll Britain. His social commentary is always spot on and I love the sense of nostalgia in his books. If you liked The Rotters’ Club trilogy then you should like this.

89 Fingersmith by Sarah Waters
I don’t know why it took me 2+ weeks to get through this as I enjoyed it but it never gripped me to the point I was desperate to pick it up.

Orphan Sue Trinder was left in the care of Mrs Sucksby, a baby farmer, who raised her as her own alongside a gang of petty thieves and criminals in Victorian London. Now a young adult, Sue agrees to be part of a con to swindle Maud, a naïve gentlewoman, out of her inheritance by becoming her maid. However Sue’s feelings begin to change as she starts to care for Maud. The plot is full of twists and turns, some quite preposterous but it’s entertaining and I’m glad I finally got through it!

I'm now obsessing over Kiss of Evil by Richard Montanari!

Letting @bettbburg know we are here

34 Tough Crowd by Graham Linehan
This is an extraordinary story told with a raw swagger. I love reading professional writers on the craft of writing, as someone who can't and doesn't write but can occasionally glimpse the level of slog involved. It's also, of course the story of fame turning into a reviled notoriety, with a big shove from some of the worst people imaginable, alongside many weak ones. As to where I sit, well, I read the book with fascination but I also took the jacket off before taking it out in public. So that shows exactly the kind of cowardice described and excoriated here. I can hope that somehow things will change, and remembering exactly how much I loved Father Ted might be a step towards that.

A Bookshop in Algiers by Kaouther Adimi. Translated by Chris Andrews

This was picked up in my local Waterstones on a whim. It tells the fictionalised story of a real bookshop in Algiers that was owned by Edmond Charlot. He had the vision of a bookshop and publishing house that celebrated the literature of the Mediterranean and was the first person to publish Albert Camus. The novel follows a young intern who is clearing the bookshop in 2017, a 'diary' of Charlot's that covers the 1930s to the 1960s (based on Charlot's own writings) and the voices of the people of Algeria who fill in the dramatic history of Algeria during the 20th century. It's a very slim novel (140 pages) and so you get fleeting impressions rather than a detailed history which is a shame since it's such an interesting story. I'm glad I picked it though.

The World Beneath their Feet by Scott Ellsworth
This looks at the race to summit the Himalayan peaks, from the 1930s onwards. I wasn’t sure if I’d read it before or not, certainly I knew a lot of the contents already, but I really enjoyed it.

The writer has a bit of an irritating tic whereby he writes a paragraph which he then follows with a short and punchy single sentence paragraph before the next full paragraph.

It is quite annoying.

Despite this, I would say this is a great starting point for anybody who’s interested in the history of mountain peril and it references various other excellent books along the way.