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?

1. A Woman In Berlin. Anon
2. The Guest Cat. Takashi Hiraide
3. All The Broken Places John Boyne
4. The Thirteenth Juror Steve Kavanagh
5. The Undiscovered Deathe Of Grace McGill

CS Robertson

1. Case Histories Kate Atkinson
2. The Satsuma Complex Bob Mortimer
3. Men Without Women Huraki Murakam

9.The Love Of My Life Rosie Walsh
A bit formulaic, written in two alternating voices. I think I'm just bored with this format.

10.Goodbe To Berlin. Christopher Isherwood
Revisiting this after 50 years. It is really a collection of notes intended to become a novel. Full of sharp observations about the people he meets and the dark threat of Nazism becoming visible.

11. Collected Stories Lorrie Moore 46 short stories by a master. A real master. What else is there to be said about Moore? She is technically brilliant, has an incredible range of moods and tones and is entertaining. Ask Santa.

12.In The Garden Of Beasts
.An account of the new American Ambassador's appointment to Berlin in the 1930s. There is a hint that the wrong man was appointed. That would explain a lot. Brown shirts were attacking foreign nationals,including Americans, in the street, but went unchallenged. The Ambassador's daughter had an affair with a high ranking Nazi and another with a Russian attache. Day to day details of life in Berlin are colourful and plentiful and utterly fascinating.

In The Garden Of Beasts Lars Erikson

@SammyScrounge Looks like I’ve found somebody who shares my Berlin obsession. I’ve had to ban myself for a while.

New bedtime read.

Loved that book @RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie . Fascinating.

The Liz Truss biography is in the Kindle deals today. Still not remotely tempted at 99p!

101. Kindred - Octavia E Butler. I was not very well yesterday and inhaled this in a day instead of the book club book I was meant to be reading. It's about Dana, a mid 20s Black woman in the 1970s, who suddenly travels back in time to 1819 where she saves the life of a young white boy Rufus, who turns out to be one of her ancestors. Rufus' family are slave owners in Maryland. Dana travels back and forth randomly throughout the book into increasingly stressful situations that she has little or no control over. I hadn't read any of Butler's work before and thought this was very good. It must have been hard for her to get published writing this kind of story in the 70s as a POC so grateful that it exists.

I haven't yet read Kindred @Stokey but really enjoyed the Parable of the Sower series - she's just a blooming good writer.

Not tempted by the Liz Truss book either even if it was 9p!

I'll look out for that @Mothership4two. She's brilliant.

@RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie I love how very bored the woman on the cover looks.

I bet you'll unban yourself for this if you haven't read this yet:
Coffee With Hitler by Charles Spicer
This is from the book blurb:
The story of amateur British agents and businessmen who befriended prominent Nazis. I should say no more as I have only read a quarter of the book but it is intelligent and scholarly and packed full of detail of eating out with Himmler et al. I will discuss properly when I have finished the book.

132. Dark Light by Jodi Taylor
134. Long Shadows by Jodi Taylor

The next two in the Elizabeth Cage series. They are a bit silly, and I find them somewhat unfocused, but they were easy listens. I’m in a bit of a reading slump at the moment and can’t seem to find much to hold my interest so have only managed very short books or very easy reads.

133. Our Song by Dani Atkins

Two men fight for their lives in hospital and their wives wait for news. But this is not the first time the two women have met, Charlotte’s husband, was the first love of Ally. Secrets are revealed and old resentments are faced. Way, way too many coincidences but I found this book quite emotional. I might read more by the author.

135. Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan

Much reviewed so I’ll just add that I really liked it.

Anyone know where the Kindle daily deals have gone

Try this link

Sad to hear about the death of AS Byatt. I loved Possession and The Children's Book.

I LOVED The Children's Book what a shame! Sorry to hear it

Oh that’s sad. I liked both Possession and The Children’s book. Skipped the poetry in Possession though.

@SammyScrounge I'll add it to my wishlist, for when I lift the ban.

@JaninaDuszejko She's not impressed, is she?

AS Byatt awarded me my degree. Apparently she and Margaret Drabble hated each other. Sadly, AS's speech was dull dull dull.

That's a claim to fame @Piggywaspushed. Aren't Byatt and Drabble sisters? I liked some of her stuff, it was a bit uneven but always ambitious.

102. The Other Side of Mrs Wood - Lucy Barker. Set in the 1870s, Mrs Wood is a celebrated medium but is worried she is losing popularity. She brings a young woman Emmie Finch under her wing and begins training her, but Finch becomes increasingly difficult to control. This is quite fun with lots of descriptions of ridiculous seances, but the plot between the two mediums was quite predictable. It has made me want to revisit the Mantel book about a medium which I have somewhere but don't remember very well.

Beyond Black? I really disliked it, but now you've got me trying to remember another book I once read with a very silly medium moment in it. I'm wondering if it might be in one of the Sally Lockhart books.

Yes ,sisters!

I have The Other Side Of Mrs Wood on my Wishlist @Stokey . Saw it in Waterstones earlier this week. Fully expect it to be a pale imitation of Beyond Black but as long as it’s relatively well written I will give it a go.

Was it Arthur & George Remus?

I think that had some medium bits in it IIRC.

@BoldFearlessGirl it is well written. I think it's based on a true story so may be lacking a bit of bite because if that.

It wasn’t. Bloody brilliant book though!

I’m almost certain it was one of the Philip Pullman ones.