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?

And then have a nice lie down, with some tea and a bun.

I am very behind with reviews, so here is a massive pile of them, which I have been writing in alternation with essay marking. Apologies for the loooong post!

58. The First Woman, Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi 5/5
    Recommended on the 50 books threads a couple of years ago, and winner of the 2021 Jhalak Prize. A rich, multi-layered coming-of-age novel set in Uganda. At times I found it a bit hard to remember which family characters were which (despite the character list in the back of the book), but eventually I was fully immersed in the narrative world. Feminism is explored through a Ugandan lens, in a concrete way that shows many complex female-female and male-female relationships unfolding across different generations. Even if the women characters are not always sympathetic, they are gripping. Myth and storytelling also play an important role. Highly recommended!

59. Madame Bovary, Gustave Flaubert, read in French with the help of the translation by Lydia Davis 5/5
    I read this book when I was young. Rereading it when I was older (and better able to appreciate the irony and social satire) proved to be more harrowing, not less! Flaubert is a wonderful writer, and Emma is a very modern and convincing character, but gosh this novel is bleak. I’m very glad to have reread this and benefited from all the insights of the MN read-along, but won’t be returning to it any time soon.

60. In a Summer Season, Elizabeth Taylor 4/5
    Set in a family house in a village in Buckinghamshire, this story has the cast of compelling and convincing characters I’ve come to expect of Taylor. A middle-aged widow is newly married to a charming but jobless younger man with a fondness for drink. I appreciate the way Taylor gives us the perspectives of so many different characters, including the cook for example. Yet her novels are never quite as relaxing and escapist as I somehow expect them to be, because the undercurrents are dark, and really awful events sometimes occur. This novel is no exception.

61. Western Lane, Chetna Maroo 4/5
    Booker Prize shortlist. A short, beautiful novel about the experience of a young British Asian girl whose mother has died. She finds consolation in playing squash, improving her squash techniques as she feels her way through her grief (and that of her sisters and father). The prose is perceptive and gentle.

62. Study for Obedience, Sarah Bernstein 3/5
    Booker Prize shortlist. As much as I admired the originality of this book, and the perspectives it offered on Judaism and anti-Semitism, I found it quite hard going. As someone who grew up in a (Christian) religious tradition which taught that women were to be obedient, I was intrigued by the idea of obedience being weaponised against authority. But it felt like a very intellectual exercise, maybe because the woman narrator chooses to be obedient. A lot of women don’t have that choice (or don’t perceive themselves as having it).

63. Prophet Song, Paul Lynch 4/5
    Booker Prize shortlist. Extremely well-written, this probably deserves 5 stars for its frightening portrait of everyday life destroyed by a totalitarian regime. I could hardly bear to finish it though, because it was so harrowing.

Finally, three books which were all enjoyable as light reads (especially as a break from the bleakness of Flaubert and the Booker shortlist!), but which were all ultimately a little disappointing:

64. Hello Beautiful, Ann Napolitano 3/5
    I enjoyed this family saga because it was set in Chicago’s Pilsen neighbourhood, close to where I used to work. The four sisters seemed a little too cardboard-cutout, however (they are fans of Little Women, to which the novel self-consciously refers), and some of the plot developments are quite unbelievable, in terms of coincidence and timing. Still, an engaging read.

65. Tom Lake, Ann Patchett 3/5
    I’m normally a big fan of Patchett, but I found this story of a mother and her three adult daughters remarkably bland. I might have appreciated it more if I knew Thornton Wilder’s classic American play Our Town, since much of the narrative revolves around performances of that play. The mother-child relationships just didn’t seem very convincing to me. However, it’s possible that I’m too cynical to enjoy stories about happy families.

66. The Seventh Son, Sebastian Faulks 2/5
    Read for my book group. This story of genetic experimentation seems like a good concept, badly executed. Big themes like ‘what it means to be human’ are introduced with all the subtlety of a sledgehammer. There is one of the cringiest sex scenes I’ve ever read, honestly. And the ending! How I hated the ending. This is clearly destined to be made into a Hollywood film.

@Terpsichore thanks, I'll have a look. Sound like it's a bit old for her, she's just 14, though it's normally explicit/kinky sex I worry about more than swearing!

Nice set of reviews @cassandre . Western Lane is one of the Bookers I haven't got round to yet but people seem to love it. I didn't get on with Study for Obedience, but agree about Prophet Song. I think it is probably my choice for the win even though it is relentlessly depressing.

Good plan, @Stokey, though actually I’d say the overall message of the book (if indeed there is a message) is ultimately quite a redemptive one and there’s something really rather disarmingly sweet about it despite the salty language. It still might be a bit too much on the adult side for your 14-year-old though.

Prophet Song is my top pick for winner too. It's a bit too close for comfort and one of those books I think will go on to be talked about for a long time. A sort of 1984 for our time.

Lilith - Nikki Marmery
A retelling of the biblical tale of Lilith, first woman, expelled from Eden for being disobedient. Angered by the creation of Eve and the subservience of women, she seeks revenge through intervention in various other biblical events.

I thought this sounded like a great idea for a plot, but I'm not sure it worked that well. I'm not that familiar with biblical tales beyond primary school assemblies, so I might be lacking in appreciation due to that.

Places by Setouchi Jakuchō. Translated by Liza Dalby

A memoir by the Japanese author. She revisits places that were significant in her life and recounts significant events that happened there. A really interesting journey through the mid 20th century in Japan. She referred so much to areas being destroyed or not by American firebombing I googled it and discovered more people died in the firebombing (using napalm) of Tokyo than in the nuclear attack on Nagasaki. The memoir ends in 1973 when she took Buddhist orders. However she continued writing and this memoir was published in 2001 when she was in her late 70s and she lived till she was 99.

The Seventh Son had mixed reviews on Between the Covers @cassandre and that sex scene was mentioned!

Eine that's on my list too, the author was on the radio talking about it some time back and it sounded intriguing.

A quick Friday catch up:

59. Act of God - Graham Phillips

I have a pile of these alternative history/pseudoarchaeology/whatever books which I read twenty years ago and not since. If I get the enthusiasm I'll go through them next year.

Though readable, the book demanded quite a few leaps of faith to piece the puzzle together which I'm less willing to take nowadays. It starts with the discovery of the mysterious Tomb 55 in the Valley of the Kings, looking at the role of its inhabitant in the 22nd dynasty and that period of Egyptian history as a whole. Along the way the aftermath of the eruption of Thera is linked to the plagues of Egypt and parting of the Red Sea.

Published in 1998, it would be interesting to see if subsequent archaeological discoveries have substantiated this theory.

60. Landlines - Raynor Winn

Read by a couple of people upthread, this is the third instalment of long distance walking starting with The Salt Path. More of the same as Raynor and Moth tackle a series of named walking trails on their way from Scotland to Cornwall, this was a return to the familiar after the excursion to Iceland in The Wild Silence. Injury, illness, midges and tent trouble, evocative nature writing and the love that they have for each other in the face of personal difficulties makes it a soothing read.

There's whisky........

Thanks @RomanMum. I was unaware of Landlines. I've read the other two.

I saw an enthusiastic review of Several People are Typing when it came out, and thought it sounded right up my street. I was seriously underwhelmed by the kindle sample though, so didn't bother with any more.

79: La Grande Thérèse - Hilary Spurling

The incredible tale of a true story, told in a slim volume which Hilary Spurling wrote as an offshoot to her biography of Henri Matisse. I encountered it there and then discovered she'd written this separate book, which doesn’t really add very much more, but presents it all in one place instead of interwoven into somebody else’s story.

Thérèse Humbert was one of the great movers and shakers of late 19thc French society, fabulously wealthy and connected. With her husband Frédéric (who was also her cousin, though not many people knew that) she lived in luxury in a Parisian mansion, with two grand country chateaux at her disposal. Working for her as her right-hand man and woman were the Parayres, Armand and Catherine, both devoted to her. Thérèse was an heiress, expecting to inherit millions of francs from a deceased American rumoured to be her natural father, but problems with the will meant the settlement was held up, so she had to borrow, and borrow she did, on a lavish scale, from creditors eager to help in expectation of her massive windfall.

To cut to the chase, the whole thing was a con on an epic scale - there was no American, no will, no money. Thérèse and her husband - her whole family - were all in on the scam, and thousands of people lost their life savings. Suicides followed. The Parayres, however, had known nothing, and the person who had to step in to help as their lives collapsed was their daughter’s new husband…Henri Matisse. In fact this was one reason he continued to live in utter poverty for much longer than he might have done otherwise - he had to put his career aside to take charge.

It's an incredible tale, told elegantly in this very short book of just over 100 pages. Apparently there’s a film, which I’m now itching to see…

Three almost but not quite 5 star reads for me...
52. The Postcard by Anne Berest (translated by Tina Kover)
Translated from French, this is a novel based on the author's family history. One day in 2003, Anne's mother receives a postcard. On the front is an old image of a Paris landmark. On the back are four words - the names of four members of her family who were killed in Auschwitz. Anne grows curious about her family background and sets out to discover the origins of the mysterious postcard.
I am really fascinated by this micro genre of books written by authors discovering their Jewish family history - I've read three or four now and still stand by House of Glass as the best I've read, although they have all been good. I found it interesting that the author chose to write this as fiction and I often found myself trying to work out what was fact. Sections where Anne is asking her mum about family history and they are researching together or reflecting on experiences of anti-Semitism in France today felt like non-fiction/memoir to me, but I don't know if they were actual factual accounts or just presented that way. When the author put herself in the shoes of her ancestors who lived and died in the war, I'm sure these sections were written as fiction (imagined conversations and emotions etc) but based on historical records. Not quite a bold for me but not far away, and definitely an interesting read.
53. So Late In The Day by Claire Keegan
Her newest novella. Our main character is Cathal who we meet on a seemingly ordinary day at the office. We then flashback to when Cathal met Sabine as he remembers their relationship and what happened between them. To me, the writing was as strong in this as it was in Small Things Like These and Foster, but this had a different mood - I'm not sure I was rooting for the main characters as I was in the previous books. I also kept mulling over the fact that this was previously released in France with the title Misogynie. Where the other Claire Keegan books I've read spoke of cruelty in the world but also cosiness and comfort, this was thought-provoking but not cosy.
54. Warrior Girl Unearthed by Angeline Boulley
Follow up to Firekeeper's Daughter, this YA novel is set in 2014 and follows 16-year old Perry Firekeeper-Birch on a summer internship programme in her lakeside community in Northern Michigan. Working in the local community museum, Perry finds out about the efforts of Ojibwe and other native American tribal communities to get large museums and universities to release human remains and other significant items back to the communities from which they were taken. Taking matters into her own hands, she is determined to bring these items home.
As this novel went on I found I increasingly needed to suspend my disbelief regarding some of the behaviour of the main characters, but overall I was along for the ride as I returned to the setting I loved in Firekeeper's Daughter and l liked this almost as much as the first book.

Think I am about to DNF A Country Road, A Tree by Jo Baker. It's the second time I've tried it, have given it fifty pages and I'm finding myself picking up almost anything else instead of returning to it. Has anyone else read it?

I’ve got that Jo Baker book but I’ve never started it, @CluelessMama - you’re not making me want to start!

On the Jewish family history topic - I can’t remember whether you’ve read any of Philippe Sands’ books? I was really gripped by them.

@Sadik @RomanMum

It's a very quick read 90 minutes and done and it's quirky but there are believability issues and a subplot that doesn't come off and is left I think unresolved

Ha, Mothership, the scene was squicky on multiple levels! Both in terms of the parties involved, and in terms of how it unfolded. Some members of my book group really enjoyed the book though.

@Stokey and @FortunaMajor , thanks for your comments on Prophet Song. It would be a deserving winner of the Booker and should definitely take its place in the pantheon of great dystopian novels. I just don't like dystopian novels very much as a genre; I have enough trouble keeping myself cheerful as it is 😄

@CluelessMama , I've read A Country Road, A Tree. Funnily enough, it took me absolutely ages to finish. The pace doesn't speed up! It's well written but very serious and yes, slow. Beckett's own works are full of dark humour, and I'm not sure he himself would have liked Baker's take on his life; there's none of that humour in her book. I also found the character of Suzanne undeveloped.

Like many others, I don't feel like I'm making much headway with reading at the moment, but here are the most recent:

124. Blotto, Twinks and the Stars of the Silver Screen, Simon Bett
I've vaguely noticed this author on the library shelves - he's published over 90 books, it appears - so I thought I'd give it a bash. English brother and sister, 1920s, getting mixed up in comedy crime capers while speaking to another in sub-Wodehousian dialogue. What ho, old bean! It wasn't awful, just a bit pointless and not as amusing as it was striving to be.

125. Aisling Ever After, Emer McLysaght and Sarah Breen
This has been described as an Irish Bridget Jones, and as with Bridget, it stands or falls on how recognisable and sympathetic you find the main character. It's the fifth in the series, so subject to diminishing returns, but at least the authors bring her back to her home town. What does work is the affectionate picture of small town Irish life in the twenty-first century.

126. The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires, Grady Hendrix.
Can't remember who mentioned this as being cheap on kindle, but thank you, I bought it and enjoyed it. The author describes it as "my mom versus Dracula". It's the nineties, there's a new neighbour in town. The menfolk like him but the women are less sure...I don't normally read horror, but I thought this was an interesting take on the Dracula story and it made some pertinent points on race and gender.

Currently working my way through Clanlands, by Sam Heughan and Graham McTavish. Two actors from Outlanders travel around Scotland talking about whisky and fighting. I had decided against buying it for myself when I was given it as a present. It's not bad, by turns laddish and luvvie.

I think there may be some Kindle books in the Black Friday sale. I picked up Lanny by Max Porter for £2.29 which said it was a Black Friday deal but I only knew as it was on my wishlist.

Yes I got Mick Herron’s latest reduced to 99p today too- The Secret Hours

90. The Prime Ministers We Never Had by Steve Richards
    Recommended by @Piggywaspushed upthread. This was much more a book about why people rise or not to the top of their party / win elections, rather than a 'what if' alternate history theorising. (As noted above, he excluded John Smith on grounds that he would almost certainly have become prime minister had he lived.)
    
    I found it really interesting - in many ways my take-away was that many of the not-PMs achieved an awful lot in their careers as successful ministers, indeed considerably more than some PMs.
    
    As a side note, I know Piggy that you said that it made you re-evaluate Corbyn, and I wonder whether it made you feel more or less favourably about him?

91. A Waiter in Paris by Edward Chisholm
    
    Memoir of the author's time working as first a runner, and then a waiter, in a Parisian restaurant during his 20s. Lots of stories about underpaid & ill treated staff, almost all immigrants, lack of sleep & food, poor living conditions etc etc.
    This suffered from the obvious comparisons with Orwell. It's an interesting memoir, and perfectly well written, but too long and hits you over the head with the messages too often. Having said that, it's Chisholm's first book, & I'd definitely give future ones a go, I think he does have promise.

Not about him as such. I think he presents other facets and qualities to him that the media hid from view.

@Terpsichore I have East West Street on my Kindle TBR 'pile', have only heard good things about it. Sorry for putting you off A Country Road, A Tree!
@cassandre Thank you so much for sharing your insight into A Country Road, A Tree. It sounds like it continues much the way I have found it so far. I am not good at DNFing but I feel like knowing how you found it has set me free! So many other books that I am excited to get to :)

I'm very behind indeed with reviews! Thank you to someone who mentioned a new Hernan Diaz a few days ago - I didn't fully get on with Trust but would definitely read others.

77. Girl in Snow by Danya Kukfka. Novel following a police officer and two teenagers in the wake of a third student being found murdered in a small town. Well written and grimy, if a bit slow. I was surprised, given her more recent books, that so little attention was paid to the life of the girl who was killed, who stayed an enigma all the way through. Notes on an Execution is better.

78. In Memorium by Alice Winn. As good as everyone says. Beautiful, heart breaking, complicated. Did teenager boys ever write each other such florid letters though? Maybe the very rich ones did in the past. Anyway, I really loved this.

79. Recipe for a Perfect Wife by Karma Brown. Split narrative between a 50s housewife in a bad marriage, Nellie, and Alice who has recently moved into her old house with her husband. Alice finds Nellie's recipe books and diaries in the basement and starts to doubt her own relationship. I think it was going for Lessons in Chemistry style kitsch but lacked the sparkle, the 50s bit was all jelly salads and pink casserole dishes over any real insight. An annoying conclusion that relies on Nellie just writing down the plot twist then leaving it to be found in the future.

80. The Centre by Ayesha Manazir Siddiqi. A young British-Pakistani woman finds out about a secretive language centre where, for a very high fee, participants become fluent in another language in a few days. She starts investigating how it works, and I won't say any more but the reveal goes to a pretty wild place. Some interesting ideas but a rushed and flat ending.

81. Between Us by Mhairi Mcfarlane. Roisin starts to query her ten year relationship and draws closer to another member of their friendship group in the process. My least favourite of hers so far - the plot was very odd and featured an undercover Hollywood actress, a Jed Mercurio style police drama littered with clues, and a reality tv star getting married in Lake Como. Plus I found the dialogue just too fast and laden with other references to be believable.

@Boiledeggandtoast I’ll stick to the tea, thanks!

I also DNF A Country Road, A Tree. Having finished and hated the boring travesty that was Longbourn, I refused to accept her ruining Beckett too.

So sorry, it has been ages since I posted. Life has been throwing a few curve balls.
Will try and catch up on the thread today

The winter spirits - collection of ghost stories by various authors including Imogen Hermes Gower and Natasha Pulley. Second of its kind. Some great, some ok but overall I enjoyed it.

North Woods - Daniel Mason I loved this! This is the story of a house and plot in the USA right from the time of the earlier settlers through to the present day. Each chapter is its own story. Beautifully written and so evocative. One of my books of the year.

The Rambling Man - Billy Connolly - listened to this on audio. Not as good
as his recent autobiography but still so entertaining. But then I think he could read a shopping list and have me howling.

Normal rules don't apply - Kate Atkinson - collection of short stories. Again patchy - some great some feel not fully thought through. I love her humour and sense of playfulness though.

Go as a river - Shelley Read
Lots of people have been raving about this on Twitter but I just found it ok. Had Crawdad vibes and I found it a bit thin in places and frequently unbelievable.