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?

Also thanks @Stokey . I wasn’t going to bother with DC but at £1.19 it’s worth a whirl. The sample seemed a bit twee, but it would be unfair to dismiss it on that basis as until you settle into a book sometimes the tone doesn’t grab you. I have never read the original as Dickens bores the arse off me, but I’ll get the gist, I’m sure.

@BaruFisher - In the House of Brede by Rumer Godden is another nunfiction book which I enjoyed. And years ago, I read Sacred Hearts by Sarah Dunant which I can’t really recall - but was definitely about nuns!

@Stokey

I really wouldn't choose it. There are pages and pages which are just quotes from books about St Cuthbert with citation and source.

Then there's sections of people throughout history whose lives have been touched by St Cuthbert. It washed over me as a listen but I wasn't always processing it.

Very marmite I would think

@BoldFearlessGirl

Are you the other person that's read it? I thought someone else had.,,

I am @EineReiseDurchDieZeit and I adored it. I can see it may be my NLMG, Boring Butler and This Thing Of Darkness all rolled into one glorious stream of consciousness, Marmite-y, 50 Booker divisive tome though

@BoldFearlessGirl

I quite liked the section with the pregnant woman but even then I was struggling to see how it fitted! It was a bit like a sound bath at times.

There was a lot of love for it on Bookstagram. It was one of those "why didn't this make the Booker" ones, which was partly why I was considering it. Also thought a bit of monk fic to counter the nun fic may be good.

@Stokey

It might well work for you even though it didn't me

I'm avoiding DC even in the deal.

Cuddy had been on my list but my tolerance for wanky religious stuff is very low, as regular readers will be well aware, so I'll spare you all from suffering any review I might create by staying well away from it.

@BaruFisher for nun fiction with a plot, I enjoyed the crime series by Alison Joseph, which has a nun doing the sleuthing. It will keep me going till I get that nun fic/Jack Reacher crossover I'm holding out for: "She whipped off her veil and deftly wiped the fingerprints from the AK47".

138. The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde

I picked this as I’d heard it had shades of The Chronicles of St Mary’s series, which I love. What I liked: the importance that the arts, in particular literature, has in this society, the idea that humans will always split off into groups no matter what they coalesce around, and the sections on Jane Eyre, which is one of my favourite books. What I didn’t like: the whole vampires / werewolves / demons thing felt a bit unnecessary, the main characters were a bit flat, the time travel was incidental. I won’t bother with the rest of the series.

139. Fall and Rise: The Story of 9/11 by Mitchell Zuckoff

Like many on the thread I thought The Only Plane in the Sky about the 9/11 attacks was amazing and harrowing in equal measure. This book is very much it’s equal, and while it doesn’t have the same level of immediacy that came from The Only Plane in the Sky being from the viewpoint of those who were there, this book is more rounded overall. Zuckoff does a fantastic job of weaving stories of survivors and those who were lost, with the more high level, factual elements of what happened. I know, for example, I’d not realised the extent to which disjointed communication meant opportunities to limit the scale of the attacks, and to aid in the recovery efforts, were lost. This book does not flinch from some of the most difficult details, but I feel like it really showed the human cost at an individual level. A brilliant but emotional read.

It's possible you might love it @RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie it was too experimental for me

That 9/11 book sounds good @MamaNewtNewt

I'm pretty certain that I wouldn't @EineReiseDurchDieZeit . St Cuthbert and I are destined to never be together.

We were discussing The Only Plane in the Sky at my last book club meeting after someone had just visited New York. I'll pass on this recommendation too MamaNewt and look for it myself. It sounds really interesting.

I'd also seen that Garrett M Graff has a new book out called UFO which is an investigation into the US government's search for alien life. I've seen the X-Files, I know the truth is out there, so I'll be looking forward to that one.

I meant to say @MamaNewtNewt if you want more books in that vein try The Looming Tower

@MamaNewtNewt I actually preferred his Nursery Crime series, the same tone and humour but set in a different world. IIRC The Big Over Easy is the first one, worth giving it a try if you're interested.

Am giving Cuddy a definite miss after the bile that was The Gallows Pole.

Sorry, that was re: Jasper Fforde.

Anyone else gutted to be missing out on Remus's hypothetical review of Cuddy?

YES!

I didn't understand enough of it to be funny!

😂😂😂

I’ve lost my reading mojo again. Have stalled with The Curious History of Sex and nothing else is currently tickling my fancy, as it were.

Oh my mojo is well and truly moribund, two more and I'm going on a break for Christmas

I would love a wintry read or two before Christmas, but can’t think of anything I haven’t read multiple times before.

I'd read that biblio - when are you starting writing?!

81 The Winter Spirits anthology of short stories, all with a seasonal spooky theme.
Thoroughly enjoyed all the tales (maybe the last two fell a bit short of the standard of the rest, but they weren’t terrible by any means). The one by Stuart Turton was surprisingly touching - in the short story form he doesn’t have chance to carry a ‘twist’ beyond the patience of me the reader as he does in his novels.
I spread these out over a week or so, couple of afternoons in front of the fire with candles lit, evenings tucked up by lamp light. Perfect winter diversions.

I am turning the other cheek to the Cuddy hate.

Just brushing up on my weaponry knowledge, noodle, so any day now....