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?

Thank you Southeast

@nowanearlyNicemum I planned to read all of the Rougon-Macquart series a couple of years ago. I'd read Germinal and Au Bonheur des Dames individually already. They couldn't be more different, since the first describes the hardship of scraping an existence in a grim mining town in northern France, and the second life behind the scenes of a Paris department store, but I loved them both, so I decided to start at the beginning and read the whole series.

I got as far as L'Argent feeling a bit bogged down and not fully engaged, so I've stopped for now. However L'Assomoir sounds excellent. I wonder if I should have another go?

I read L'Assomoire as an impressionable teenager. I loved it but I can't really remember why.....maybe I'll try again.

@nowanearlyNicemum Thanks for your note and telling me a bit more, I love books that transport you to different worlds. I didn't read this particular Zola's book but now I want to 🙂

I definitely want to read Zola now - one of the reasons I love this thread so much.

Hello all and thanks @Southeastdweller for the new thread!

70. The Guest by Emma Cline. Tense, thriller type book that follows Alex, an escort escaping a man she stole money from, through a week in the Hamptons. She's been taken in as 'girlfriend' of a wealthy older man, but he abruptly sends her away after a faux pas at a dinner party. Instead of going back to the city, she spends a week drifting through this very rich community, latching onto people and conning her way into their lives so she can access their homes to sleep in, food, and any money she finds lying around.

I thought this was well written and very tense, and captures well the contrast between the super rich and the hidden world of the staff and others who they are reliant on. You find out very little about Alex's past but she is presumably acting out of desperation, though she treats some of the people she comes across badly. There's some satisfaction in seeing her walking into exclusive beach clubs and the like and ordering expensive drinks on someone else's account.

It did end up feeling quite repetitive to me though with the looping narrative of her having nowhere to go, finding someone to go home with, over stepping in some way and having to leave again, over and over again.

@highlandcoo well done you for getting that far! L'Assommoir is really grim - I can't imagine reading several of Zola's books in a row!! If I try one per year of the Rougon-Macquart I've got another 19 years worth waiting for me 😂

List:

1 Shrines of Gaiety - Kate Atkinson
2 This Must be the Place - Maggie O'Farrell
3 The Porpoise - Mark Haddon
4 Human Croquet - Kate Atkinson
5 The Mirror and the Light - Hilary Mantel
6 The Death of Grass - John Christopher
7 Beyond Black - Hilary Mantel
8 Pachinko - Min Jin Lee
9 The Last Banquet - Jonathan Grimwood
10 Storyteller: the Life of Roald Dahl - Donald Sturrock
11 A Place of Greater Safety - Hilary Mantel
12 Lessons in Chemistry - Bonnie Garmus
13 The Anomaly - Herve Le Tellier
14 Unsettled Ground - Claire Fuller
15 The Leviathan - Rosie Andrews
16 Old Filth - Jane Gardam
17 Joan - Katherine Chen
18 Trespasses - Louise Kennedy
19 Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead - Olga Tokarczuk
20 Wakenhyrst - Michelle Paver
21 The Colour - Rose Tremain
22 The Man in the Wooden Hat - Jane Gardam

I love L'Assomoir - one of the best of the RM series IMHO. I remember first reading it at Uni and lending it to my best friend. She thought it hilariously melodramatic, especially the Lalie plot. I've never quite forgiven her. The RM series is really patchy in quality.

@GrannieMainland I think The Guest is reallly well written but I agree that the impact of the plot starts to dilute with the endless loop. The ending ( lack thereof) made me feel rage!

I am also an admirer of Zola and I think L'Assommoir is one of his best. I can't do much of it in one go, though. It's unremittingly grim.

I am still trying to catch up on reviews so am behind, but determined to catch up over the weekend.

97 Shiny and New by Dylan Jones
Subtitled “Ten moments of pop genius that defined the Eighties”, this series of essays walks through some of the most iconic tunes of the Eighties, exploring the cultural and political context in which tunes like Ghost Town by the Specials and Fight the Power by Public Enemy broke through. It leans heavily towards the alternative - there’s a slightly sneering epilogue that acknowledges the role of Stock, Aiken and Waterman - although Madonna gets a chapter to herself with Like A Virgin. It was fun to listen to the music while reading more about the artists. Prince really was so good and yet I never think "oh, must listen to Prince". So for that alone, I'd rate this highly.

This is Uncool: The 500 Greatest Singles since Punk and Disco - Gary Mulholland

I bought a second hand copy of this as a present for DS but couldn’t resist reading myself as we share a love for post-punk music though his tastes are a bit more extreme than mine.

It’s really a list with short paragraphs on the best songs between 1977 and 1999, beginning with Anarchy in the UK and Car Wash and ending up with Eminem and the Pet Shop Boys via The Specials, Dead Kennedies, The Smiths, Earth Wind and Fire, Radiohead and Pulp. Some more obscure stuff in there which he’ll love.

There are Spotify playlists to go with it which are the sound of my teenage years and I have them on a loop at the moment.

@BestIsWest - there's a lot of overlap in our latest reviews. I'm going to seek out your recommendation as I really enjoy reading about music while listening to it!

@PepeLePew I’ve literally just downloaded L’Assommoir (in English)! Have read a couple of the Zola’s and loved them.

I like the sound of the Dylan Jones. Have you read Stewart Maconie’s The People’s Song?

Thanks for the new thread south

Here's my list

1. What You Did; Claire McGowan
2. Me; Elton John
3. She Lies in Wait; Gytha Lodge
4. Watching From the Dark; Gytha Lodge
5. Lie Beside Me; Gytha Lodge
6. Little Sister; Gytha Lodge
7. Broken Summer; J. M. Lee
8. Secrets of the Sea House; Elisabeth Gifford
9. The Mysterious Affair at Styles; Agatha Christie
10. Gallows Court; Martin Edwards
11. Finding Freedom: Harry and Meghan and the Making of a Modern Royal Family; Omid Scobie & Carolyn Durand
12. Stealing the Crown; T. P. Fielden
13. City Dark; Roger A. Canaff
14. An Eye for an Eye; Carol Wyer
15. The Housewarming; S. E. Lynes
16. Return to Fourwinds; Elisabeth Gifford
17. The Duchess; Amanda Foreman
18. The Importance of Being Kennedy; Laurie Graham
19. Habits of the House; Fay Weldon
20. Long Live the King; Fay Weldon
21. The New Countess; Fay Weldon
22. Her Last Holiday; C. L. Taylor
23. No Home for Killers; E. A. Aymar
24. Twilight; Stephanie Meyer
25. Midnight Sun; Stephanie Meyer
26. New Moon; Stephanie Meyer
27. Eclipse; Stephanie Meyer
28. Breaking Dawn; Stephanie Meyer
29. Mortmain Hall; Martin Edwards
30. The Stroke of Winter; Wendy Webb
31. The Wheel of Fortune; Susan Howatch
32. Take Six Girls: The Lives of the Mitford Sisters; Laura Thompson
33. The Lies We Tell; Meg Carter
34. The Magnificent Spilsbury and the Case of the Brides in the Bath; Jane Robins
35. The Memory of Lost Senses; Judith Kinghorn
36. Fatal Throne; Candace Fleming, Stephanie Hemphill, Deborah Hopkinson, M. T. Anderson, Linda Sue Park, Jennifer Donnelly, Lisa Ann Sandell
37. The Last Summer; Karen Swan
38. The Emerald Affair; Janet Macleod Trotter
39. The IT Girl; Ruth Ware
40. Perfectly Impossible; Elizabeth Topp
41. The Dinner Guest; B. P. Walter
42. The Hunting Party; Lucy Foley
43. Divine Lola: A True Story of Scandal and Celebrity; Cristina Morato
44. Taming Mr. Walker; Rosa Lucas
45. Resisting Mr. Kane; Rosa Lucas
46. Fighting Mr. Knight; Rosa Lucas
47. Silent Vows; Jill Ramsowner
48. The Princes in the Tower; Alison Writ
49. Harriet; Jilly Cooper
50. Savage Collision; Gwyn McNamee
51. Tortured Skye; Gwyn McNamee
52. The Appeal; Janice Hallett

No but it's on the list now! I do like Stuart Maconie a lot.

83 A Town Called Solace by Mary Lawson
Set in 1970s Solace, a small town in rural Canada, the story is told via three alternating viewpoints. Clara, a 7 year old girl whose teenage sister has ran away from home, Elizabeth, her elderly next door neighbour who's currently in hospital and Liam, newly divorced and moved into Elizabeth's house. The three stories gradually converge and we discover a history of grief, loneliness, loss and guilt spanning the last thirty years. An easy but pretty average read.

84 The Beauty of Your Face by Sahar Mustafah
Afaf Rahman is the daughter of Palestinian immigrants and the headteacher of a Muslim school for girls in the Chicago suburbs. A radicalised gunman enters the school and whilst Afaf hides in the prayer room listening to him move around the school, we are transported back through her life. We witness the racism she regularly received as a child, the desire by her mother to return to Palestine and the devastation caused by the disappearance of Afaf's sister that tore her secular family apart. Afaf finally finds her identity in Islam and becomes part of a wider community where she finds love and support.

This felt like two separate books crammed in one and the story of Afaf's life is the strongest and most interesting. The book would have been all the better without the shoehorning of the school shooting.

Currently on book 74. The Skeleton Key by Erin Kelly, have to say I'm not really enjoying it

85 The Mermaid of Black Conch by Monique Roffey
Discussed on a previous thread, some people loved it, others hated it, I'm somewhere in the middle. Fisherman David is fishing off the coast of the island of Black Conch and discovers Aycayia, a mermaid who was a pretty young woman cursed by jealous wives centuries ago. When Aycayia is caught by American tourists, David rescues her and tries to gain her trust. Slowly she transforms back into a woman but as their feelings for one another grow, they discover they can't escape her curse. I liked the structure of the book - it's told in part by a third person but mixed with excerpts from David's diary and the poetic dialect of Aycayia. Based on Taino legends, it deals with themes of colonialism, the treatment of women, race, class and love but it didn't quite hit the mark for me.

That's a shame @TattiePants, I was in the love (The Mermaid of Black Conch) camp although it wasn't what I was expecting

Someone a while back in a Scandi Noir chat recommended Yrsa Sigurdardottir, I think.

So I read Why Did You Lie?. Not gonna lie (see what I did there??) it's a shit title...

I quite enjoyed the book. It rattled along. All a bit silly at the end, and predictable but a juicily high body count. I did spot some poor transaction (I don't know Icelandic obviously! But there was 'policeman' for a woman and a wrong name used for a character).

I got diverted into looking up the Icelandic murder rate and they got very alarmed the year they had three murders! Why do Icelandic authors and TV programmes focus so much on a thing that never happens? Is it their form of escapism?

I've finished my run of flimsy stuff. What the heck can I read now? I'm exhausted and angsty and need something intelligent but soothing.

I'm firmly in Camp Zola. L'Assomoir was my first and I just felt totally absorbed and taken along with Gervaise. I have read Therese Raquin as well which is standalone and at the time I didn't think I liked it, but I think about it often so I think it did hit the spot. I would also like to read the whole lot, but I think 1-2 a year is probably enough, especially as I am working my way through Thomas Hardy as well!

1. My Year of Rest and Relaxation, Ottessa Moshfegh
2. Before the Coffee Gets Cold, ToshiKazu Kawaguchi trans. by Geoffrey Trousselot
3. The Remains of the Day, Kazuo Ishiguro
4. Ask a Historian, Greg Jenner
5. The Marriage Portrait, Maggie O'Farrell
6. The Joy Luck CLub, Amy Tan
7. Quite, Claudia Winkleman
8. Malibu Rising, Taylor Jenkins Reid
9. The Pear Field, Nana Ekvtimishvili trans. by Elizabeth Heighway

10. My Cousin Rachel, Daphne du Maurier 11. Through the Language Glass: Why the World Looks Different in Other Languages, Guy Deutscher 12. A Year of Living Simply, Kate Humble 13. The Tide of Life, Catherine Cookson 14. The Secret Diary of an Arranged Marriage, Halima Khatun 15. Bonjour Tristesse, Francoise Sagan trans. by Heather Lloyd 16. The Reading List, Sara Nisha Adams 17. Amitabh Bachchan, Sunny Singh 18. The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida, Shehan Karunatilaka 19. A Little Life, Hanya Yanagihara 20. Jamilia, Chingiz Aitmatov trans. by James Riordan 21. Chocolat, Joanne Harris 22. A Mouse Ran Up My Nightie, Edith Courtney 23. Serenade for Nadia, Zulfu Livaneli 24. Bella Figura, Kamin Mohammadi 25. An Italian Island Summer, Sue Moorcroft 26. The Butcher, the Baker, the Candlestick Maker, Suzanne Portnoy 27. The Hotel on the Riviera, Carol Kirkwood 28. Mrs England, Stacey Halls 29. Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy 30. Some Tame Gazelle, Barbara Pym 31. What's in a Name?, Sheela Banerjee 32. Jude the Obscure, Thomas Hardy 33. Sankofa, Chibundu Onuzo

46 Breathless by Amy McCulloch. @RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie do your mountain peril books have to be true stories, or is fiction okay? This is a thriller set on the slopes of Manaslu during a summit expedition. It's not bad.

47 The It Girl by Ruth Ware. Set in an Oxford college, where Hannah's friend April was murdered 10 years ago. The convicted killer has just died in prison, and unsettling doubts have been raised in Hannah's mind as to whether he really did it. This was pretty good if you're in the mood for this kind of thing.

48 The Institute by Stephen King. 12-year-old Luke Ellis is snatched from his bed and taken to the Institute, a secret facility run by a shadowy group of people who gather together children with psychic talents for an unknown purpose. This is only my third King novel (after The Stand and 11.22.63) and it's the first time for ages that I've gone to sleep later than I should for several nights in a row because I was reading something I couldn't put down! What a storyteller he is. This was a bold for me.

@Tarahumara @remus I've just read Midnight by Amy McCulloch and quite enjoyed it - in the same vein as her first, but peril in Antarctica. All a bit daft - someone is bumping off art-dealers on a luxury cruise, passengers get stranded on the ice, etc etc.

@TattiePants I liked A Town Called Solace, however Crow Lake by the same author really is excellent.

Thanks for the recommendation. Added to my ever increasing wish list.