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?

@BoldFearlessGirl @ClaraTheImpossibleGirl I was about to recommend Wingspan too. DMIL is a keen twitcher and we got it for her a couple of Christmases back. It's really lovely and my girls enjoy playing it too. The pieces are so pretty. The birds are all American though.

@ClaraTheImpossibleGirl I haven't read many bird books, but i absolutely loved As Kingfishers Catch Fire, by Paul Preston. it's about birds in literature rather than the wild, with gorgeous illustrations.

Rebirding by Benedict MacDonald?

Please Mr Postman - Alan Johnson
Part two of the former Home Secretary’s autobiography which covers his twenties and thirties, his marriage and his political awakening.

There is a lot of detail about his involvement with the Postal Workers trade union and various conferences and meetings - it was interesting to me because my DF played a very similar role in a different trade union and was always off to meetings, conferences, campaigns etc across the country throughout my childhood and teenage years - but I’m not sure whether it would make for interesting reading otherwise.

The book is at its best when he writes about family and friends, especially his sister and one particular passage made me cry. Very evocative of the times too.

98. If I Survive You - Jonathan Escoffery. Shortlisted for the Booker, and slightly controversial as to whether it is in fact a novel or a short story collection. This is written in 8 chapters using a range of point of views and techniques. We get 2 second-person narratives from Trelawney - a young man living in Miami of Jamaica descent - which are at each end of the book, 3 first person narratives from him too, a second person narratives from Topper his dad, and 3rd person narratives from his brother Delano and more tenuously his cousin Cukie. The stories are about belonging - Trelawney is too white for the Black kids, doesn't speak Spanish so can't hang with the Hispanic kids, and too Black for the white kids. It's also about poverty, financial insecurity and environmental insecurity. I felt it read quite like a first novel and seemed quite autobiographical. It was fine but I don't think it was one of the 6 best books written this year!

60 Politics On The Edge - Rory Stewart

This was so good. Rory stood out as not your average Tory in the 2019 leadership contest, and this fascinating account of his nine years in Parliament confirms this - he displays an uncommon amount of curiosity, lack of cynicism and desire to get things done - even though I don’t agree with all his politics. Johnson, Truss and Gove come across every bit as self-serving as I expected and the whole thing is a bit depressing at the state of British politics, but really interesting and funny with it. Recommend.

Rory Stewart's book about Afghanistan, The Places in Between is in the Kindle sale. Has anybody read it?

Nothing bird-ish to recommend, sorry, but have good friends and dp who love a good bird spot, so definitely here for the recs!

I'm back to mindless crime (Miss Silver) btw, unless anybody wants to hit me with more mountain peril or snowy disasters or peril at sea or fear and dismay in the dessert etc.

Ooh, thanks @RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie - I’ve just bought that :)

Many a dessert has left me dismayed I can tell you!

I could write that book Fear And Dismay At The Dessert Cart by Eine Zeit

It would feature Sinister Apple Pie and Melancholy Black Forest and be some kind of pisstake of the cosy cafe genre.

@MegBusset I'm about 3/4 of the way through Politics on the Edge on audio and agree it is really 'very good' even though Rory's impressions and accents are terrible! I don't share his politics either although he does appear among the more moderate of that lot. He seems to talk a lot of sense about the prison system.

You're missing Death by Chocolate there @EineReiseDurchDieZeit.

I'll stick it on the cart with Icky Toffee Pudding Best

Haven't seen a dessert trolley for years

Oh god. What a stupid typo. Not sure I can ever show my face on here again.

I'll get my coat.

I went to a place in Yorkshire recently with a proper dessert trolley - it even had sherry trifle. I think these things need a proper revival.

Completely distracted now by thoughts of sherry trifle. I'm off to the freezer for a Cornetto.

It was a typo that tickled me so you can hang your coat back up ! I needed the laugh

@Stokey ive had wingspan on my games wish list for years and it’s never reduced in price. One day ….

@RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie have you read The Day the Rope broke

Dessert dismay is what just happened - going to the freezer and finding the teens ate the last magnum. I've got some horrible virus and am feeling very sorry for myself. On which note, I need a fun and easy to read book that isn't depressing or challenging. Nothing - despite my mountainous TBR pile - appeals. I think I need something by Marian Keyes or similar.

@RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie I haven’t read Rory Stewart’s Afghanistan book, but I really enjoyed his book about Iraq and would like to read his other books. Not audio though - I listened to a couple of minutes of an extract of Politics On The Edge and couldn’t stand the way he read it - strange because he’s perfectly fine to listen to on his podcast!

Have you read Odd One Out by Lissa Evans, @PepeLePew ? It’s quite light and funny. Or for something even more undemanding, her latest book for children, Wished is an absolute hoot.

I found Really Good Actually a really funny read. It's about someone losing it after a break up.

@minsmum Thanks. I don't think I've read that, but it doesn't seem to exist on Kindle.

@PepeLePew I'm so sorry to hear about your dessert dismay and disaster. Can I recommend something like Little Women or Daddy Long Legs as comfort reads perhaps? Hope you feel better quickly.

@DuPainDuVinDuFromage I've bought it. I can't cope with audiobooks.