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?

Piggy No, it wasn't All Points North but I can't remember what it was called. The thing I remember particularly was that he talked about how people can find poetry difficult as they think there is one definitive interpretation which they don't understand, but that actually you can interpret poems in your own way, even if that wasn't what the poet originally had in mind. It was a very helpful and resassuring lesson for an adolescent!

Sorry, no I meant was the thing about lesbians in Hebden Bridge in All Points North!

Sorry Piggy, I'm a little the worse for wear this morning!

Recent reads:

121. Edgelands, Sasha Swire
Very different to her last book Diary of an MP's Wife, this book is based on the walks she has taken on the South-West Coast path over the last few years. It's a mix of nature writing, reflections on local history and modern life in the region. This was okay, but not particularly memorable.

122. Wavewalker, Suzanne Heywood
Account of the author's childhood sailing around the South Seas. Her experience was notably less idyllic than it might look - fear of the dangers of the sea, frustration about lack of access to friends and education, tension with her parents. Reminded me of Educated, by Tara Westover.

123. In Her Nature, Rachel Hewitt.
The author throws herself into fell-running in the wake of family losses and looks back at the history of women being active outdoors. It was a bit of a mishmash - I enjoyed a lot of it, but it didn't feel like a completely cohesive whole. The sections on obstacles to female participation feel like they were dropped in from someone's thesis - surveys say this and statistics say that and it was all a bit lumpy. In the afterword, she talks about a terrible personal tragedy just as the book was being finished, when her husband died by suicide age 38, after a media pile-on instigated by Michael Rosen, who accused him of publishing an anti-semitic image. Given he was himself a campaigner against anti-semitism, it all seems extraordinary. It does seem to me that the circumstances may have resulted in less editing that the book perhaps needed.

I have failed with the lesbians in Hebden Bridge.

Great statement @RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie !

@bibliomania I read In Her Nature recently too and found bits of it fascinating but agree about the mishmash. Very sad ending and I hope she's managing to gain some comfort from running.

99. The Rachel Incident - Caroline O'Donoghue. I think someone on here recommended this in the Kindle deals this month. It's told by Rachel and is about her life as a final year student in Cork in 2009-10. She moves into a house share with her in the closet best friend James Devlin, and it's about their relationship, as well as her professor, her boyfriend and the bookshop they work in. I thought this was a great look at being young, a bit silly, poor and stressed. It starts off very lightly and gets darker as the book progresses but generally an enjoyable read. Maybe be a good one for those stuck in a reading rut @PepeLePew @EineReiseDurchDieZeit

@Stokey , totally agree that I hope she finds comfort and healing.

Thanks @Stokey

To all who offered advice on a feel good book, thank you. I feebly picked the least worst looking option from DD's kindle list which was a TikTok Made Me Buy It type affair called The Unhoneymooners by Christina Lauren. It was entirely predictable but rather charming and not at all badly written with a premise (bride and groom get food poisoning so bride's twin and groom's brother take their place on the honeymoon as it was free and have to pretend to be married...chaos ensues but all is well in the end) so daft it was impossible to not love it. Cheered me up and was a better option than The Brothers Karamazov which in my fevered state I actually had briefly considered. My choice won't be on any 100 Best Novels of All Time lists but Dostoyevsky never had two hot looking but ill-matched people falling nakedly on top of each other in a bathroom on a boat while trying to get out of scuba suits, so I know who the real winner is.

@PepeLePew you couldn’t be more wrong about The Brothers Karamazov. I’ve not long finished it. They were forever trying to get out of scuba suits and bump uglies 🤣 You definitely made a better choice by the sounds of things- I think it knocked me into my current reading slump.

Love that Pepe!

50 Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert. Read for the readalong on here. For me, this is one of those classics that you're glad to have read but didn't really feel the love for.

51 Fire Rush by Jacqueline Crooks. Lots of you read this earlier in the year when it was shortlisted for the 2023 Women's Prize for Fiction. It takes place in the late 70s / early 80s and is in three parts set in Norwood (south London), Bristol and Jamaica. The protagonist Yamaye is a young Black woman, born in the UK to Jamaican parents, and I found her to be a strong, inspiring voice. I listened to it on Audible, read by Leonie Elliott - full credit to the narrator, who has a lovely clear voice and does the Jamaican accents very well. I thought this was excellent.

Excellent review @PepeLePew

@Stokey I’m hoping in might inspire some of you to poetry:

I have failed with the lesbians in Hebden Bridge
Wasted wistful words with wrong women in Hathersage
Wept vodka tears on Violet and spewed martini over Midge
spouted bad poetry over Penny in Ironbridge
And inked painful prose to Posy when pissed in Dorridge
and I’ve failed with the lesbians in Hebden Bridge

You’ve almost sold that book to me with that review @PepeLePew

If there’s a sudden influx of Armitagesque pomes on here I might have to zzzzzzzzzzzzz

Fantastic @RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie. I am moved to tears or something 😂.

Quick update before catching up.

book 35
Mort - Terry Pratchett
having dipped in with the usual suspects like Guards, Guards and Small Gods j have decided to start from the beginning. This is the first of the early books I have really, really enjoyed. Mort accidentally finds himself as Death’s apprentice when Death decides he fancies a change of scene. Brilliantly clever and very funny. This is the book I can imagine people reading and getting hooked on the whole series

Book 36
Autumn - Ali Smith
like reading some sort of fever dream.
Elisabeth is in her early thirties. Daniel is 101. Their friendship and lives are told through a series of flash backs, dreams and bizarre interactions with a range of staff of local amenities. At points very touching, often very funny and always absolutely potty. I have no idea if I will read the rest of the series. I am glad I read this one though.

Oh gawd, it's been ages since I updated. I thought I'd done at least some of these! I can't actually remember what happened in a couple of them...anyway here goes.

58 The Selfless Act of Breathing by JJ Bola

Shelterbox book club pick, a novel about a young teacher who, struggling with depression, moves to the US with the intention of suicide once his money runs out. I didn't enjoy this. It felt laboured, I couldn't identify with the main character and there was a truly cringeworthy sex scene. I also found the writing stilted although from the reviews others differed.

59 Ruth and Pen by Emilie Pine

Interlinked stories of a psychologist going through a marriage breakdown and a neurodivergent teenager trying to embark on her first relationship with her best friend. Some lovely writing and relatable parts, but I felt this was trying a bit too hard to cover a lot of bases and also that I've perhaps read a few too many of these introspective kind of novels recently.

60 All My Mothers by Joanna Glen

This on the other hand I did like, although I found the ending a bit too sad and cloying at the same time. A young girl believes from a young age that her mother isn't her mother; as we find out more about her, we meet a succession of women who fill maternal roles in her life. I loved the way this was written; arch and sprightly but for me, it stayed on the right side of twee. Some great insights into female relationships, maternal and otherwise.

61 On The Red Hill by Mike Parker

This is a non-fiction account of the author's life with his male partner in a remote Welsh farmhouse. It weaves in the story of Reg and George, the elderly couple from whom they inherited the house. My interest was piqued by the fact that the house is very close to the area where I grew up and much of the description of the landscape and the culture was comforting familiar. Reg and George are brought to life beautifully and I was touched by their story and by the author's obvious huge affection and respect for them.

I can't remember if I've actually updated or just thought about it and wandered off.

Finally got round to Prophet Song - Paul Lynch which was my last of the Booker long list. This has by far been the standout for me of all of them. I though it portrayed the slow creep of an authoritarian government eroding societies freedoms incredibly well. It was really atmospheric. The winner by a long way for me in what has been a largely strange and weak list.

I've also been on a bit of a North Korea trip with While Time Remains: A North Korean Defector's Search for Freedom in America - Yeonmi Park and The Sister: The Extraordinary Story of Kim Yo Jong, The Most Powerful Woman in North Korea - Sung-Yoon Lee. The first being the better of the two, but a really interesting look at such a strange country. Some parts are horrifying.

Since then I've been mad busy with a community project so I've only had the energy for pure entertainment so I've binged the first 5 of the Chronicles of St Mary's series. I've never thought it would be my thing, but they've ticked every box for light entertainment.

Still here and lurking. Need to update my list but life has been a bit , well Lifey!!

Forgot to mention I'd also read Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 - Cho Nam-joo
The story of a woman who is sent by her husband to a psychiatrist because she is "losing it". In reality she's just fed up of putting up with everyone else's bullshit and everyday sexism as she comes to realise modern life for women is rubbish and you can't have it all. It's written in a really detached way which is a little unusual, but it works.

Finally got round to A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian - Marina Lewycka too which I loved. Two feuding sisters join forces against their father's new gold digging girlfriend. Light-hearted and comical.

I'm now on Julia - Sandra Newman which is a retelling of 1984 from Julia's perspective. I don't love it and it lacks the brilliance of the original. I could be being grumpy, but while it fleshes out a lot of the story, it doesn't really have the same atmosphere. It's over long. An interesting idea, but it's not that well executed.

@Passmethecrisps I'm so pleased you liked Mort! My first TP was Sourcery which I read when I was 10, and it was like NOTHING I had ever read before - I remember someone was "jumpy as a long-tailed cat in a rocking chair factory" or words to that effect and it blew my mind - I had never really seen language used so cleverly!

Does writing one count? 😂

143. If I Should Survive You by Jonathan Escoffery

Jamaican immigrant Trelawny struggles with issues on race and identity in Miami

As @Stokey has noted previously this is less of a novel than it is a interconnected short story collection and as such is an odd choice for the Booker.

I enjoyed some of them particularly one about a cousin, but overall it was disjointed and a bit depressing, I looked forward to it ending.

Silly me there's no Should in the title!

@PersisFord Mort was my first Discworld book - I read it overnight at a sleepover and ignored my friends 😄 It’s good, but they just get better from there!

55 Percy Jackson and the Last Olympian - Rick Riordan Last in the series - Percy and friends fight a huge battle with the Titans to save Olympus, the Greek gods, and humanity. I enjoyed this as much as the others and the ending was good - a nice easy read for my frazzled brain!