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?

So easily swayed by this thread - I’ve just bought Breathless - it’s 99p on Kindle. That’s three books in two days plus a few more in the wish list.

I’ll get Breathless now.

autiebooklover - I am also reading The Skeleton Key at the moment (and it’s also book 74 for me!). Not quite sure what to make of it so far. I don’t hate it but certainly not finding it unputdownable.

My last read was:

73. The Day That Never Comes - Ciamh McDonnell

Paul and Brigit who were unwittingly involved in the first book in the series are no key players and have set up an investigation agency with Bunny McGarry who is newly retired from the police force but Bunny has gone missing.

This book moved between two timelines and, as I have been distracted by family matters, I perhaps didn’t focus as much as I should have done. But basically, it was all about revenge from earlier events.

Irreverent and entertaining mixed with some violence and police procedural.

I have 3 hours of Taylor Swift concert at the cinema this afternoon with DD and her friend to look forward to. I’ve booked the back row corner seat so if it all gets too much my Kindle’s coming out to save me!

It will be great, Tattie. I'm taking three small girls from the neighbourhood tomorrow. DD would have come in a shot but she's at university, so this was a good way of justifying going in her absence. I just bumped into my next door neighbour (big folk and punk fan, not at all your typical Swiftie) who took his daughter last night and said it was the best thing he'd ever seen in the cinema!

That's how I would be thinking as well TattiePants!

I went to see A Haunting In Venice yesterday afternoon (good daft fun). It was just me and DH and one other couple in the whole cinema so it was a shock to come out and see the foyer heaving with Swifties.

DD made me a playlist so I’ve been listening to her songs all week - two weeks ago I could only have named ‘Shake it off’! It should be good but I figured I can listen and read at the same time. The girls have had their outfits picked for at least 3 weeks and apparently must wear red lipstick!

Ha! I’m taking DD to watch Taylor tomorrow morning! As it’s an early showing the cinema isn’t very busy so I may also resort to my kindle if it goes on too long.

Doing a review catch up!
116 Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks
Set in the village of Eyam in Derbyshire, which closed itself off during the plague to prevent spreading it. The POV character is Anna, the widowed housekeeper to the vicar who makes the decision to close off the village. This was beautifully written and I cried on several occasions. The ending was a little melodramatic and twisty for me but the rest was so good it’s definitely still a bold for me. Have added more Geraldine Brooks to my tbr.

117 The Running Grave by Robert Galbraith/ J K Rowling
Much reviewed here. I listened on audio and thoroughly enjoyed it- great pace and tension and good development of our usual cast of characters along the way.

118 Wuthering Heights
I have tried to read this twice before and this time was determined to finish it. Juliet Stevenson’s reading on audio helped push me through (especially Joseph’s impenetrable dialect) but while I’m glad I finally read it, it definitely won’t be a favourite. It’s one of those books I think you need to read first in your teens to appreciate the melodrama and ignore how obvious Bronte’s lack of life experience is.

119 For thy GreatbPain have Mercy on my Little Pain by Victoria MacKenzie
Much reviewed and much loved on here. I went into this blind, knowing nothing about either woman. I found Julian’s sections fascinating but was irritated by Margery’s need to be the centre of attention. I am interested in reading more about both so am looking at some possible non-fics if anyone has any recommendations.

120 The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gillman
An excellent short story told in diary format by a woman confined by her husband for a resting cure after giving birth, who begins to fear the wallpaper in her room. This is chilling and manages to explore a range of feminist issues in its short word count. Way ahead of its time written in the late 19th century.

121 So Late in the Day- Claire Keegan
Another short- I wonder should I count both as one read. This was another terrific read from Keegan. Cathal leaves work on Friday and over the course of his journey home and his evening thinks over recent events. The slow reveal of Cathal’s character is masterful.

A huge Swiftie here but waiting for the LIVE in June. Leave that Kindle alone Tattie !

Which show, Eine? We are going to Wembley on the 24th (I think). I debated spoilers but DD has shown me so much on TikTok that I concluded you can't have too much of a good thing and I can enjoy a view I certainly won't be getting from our really very affordable seats next year!

A Town Like Alice is in the daily deal today. I would highly recommend it, if you haven't read it before, or even if you have.

One of the Anfield shows Pepe

Having someone who saw her twice last time apparently the choreography doesn't really change show to show so avoiding seeing it beforehand

I don't have spectacular seats either, the ones I got were expensive enough. I was offered hospitality and laughed at the price. It's still the most expensive concert I've paid for and it's a bit of a bad omen for the future in that regard

We tried for tickets for Edinburgh but could only get £700 VIP ones so had to pass. Then tried for Olivia Rodrigo in Manchester but didn’t even get wait listed so we’re making do with this!

I nearly made a costly mistake. Our local cinema is in an area called Boldon and I nearly booked Bolton by mistake! Wouldn’t have fancied a 5 hour round trip, even for Taylor Swift!

@TattiePants

Oh the whole thing was a stress filled nightmare, I'm sorry you lost out! I think the current system is crap.

It is an outrage. I understand that artists need to make money from touring as revenues from streaming are so small but the system isn't working and it's becoming increasingly unaffordable.

Our tickets for Taylor were only £76 each which - although a lot - is actually not much more than I paid to see Peter Bloody Hook this evening. I'm a huge New Order fan and have a lot of affection for Hooky but he's no Taylor Swift. And I'm sure he'd agree with that...

@TattiePants i know Boldon cinema well! We won’t talk about the time I didn’t make it to the showing because I was in a car accident on the way there…

Eine and Pepe I'm now very jealous of your tickets. It was excellent and I may be a convert Swifty.

@DuPainDuVinDuFromage that doesn't sound good! Does that mean you're local? The cinema that was a 20 minute walk from home closed a couple of months ago so it's either Boldon or Durham for us.

@TattiePants I was local (Durham) nearly all my life until a couple of years ago - now in France!

@BaruFisher Femina by Janina Ramirez has a chapter focusing largely on Margery (touches on Julian too). It also covers a large range of medieval women from early Anglo-Saxon princesses up to Margery’s time, and is a very engaging read/listen. I’ve also read Margery’s own Book recently, but that’s 300 pages of self-centred…

Oh @TattiePants I'm glad the kindle remained untroubled.

She's an outstanding performer; I understand she isn't the best singer/dancer/whatever of her generation but I think her songwriting (perhaps to bring it back to something close to a Fifty Books theme) is unmatched and her ability to write clever meaningful lyrics puts her in a different space to any of her peers. If "you kept me like a secret but I kept you like an oath" is not close to genius then I don't know what is.

There's an entertaining article in today's New York Times by Taffy Brodesser-Akner (of Fleischman is in Trouble fame) that gets to the heart of the current love for Taylor Swift nicely. I can't share it as I read it via a share token which I now can't find but it essentially talked about how we all have eras and part of growing up is making our peace with the fact they end in ways we can't control but part of growing up is making our peace with that.

I hope anyone going to the movie as a reluctant chaperone has a great time. Even if you slope off for a wee and a drink during Evermore there's a lot to entertain you.

I nearly bought Femina in the EH shop on Lindisfarne @LadybirdDaphne, I might buy it now (from somewhere more local than Holy Island).

I have the great misfortune to be reading A Haunting In The Arctic by C J Cooke. I must have preordered it in a fit of………well, I’m not sure. Perhaps I was laughing so much at the ludicrousness of The Ghost Woods that my finger slipped and I pressed Buy in error.
I thought I’d give it a go. A third of the way in we have:

[May involve spoilers. This may be a blessing that I have read it so you don’t have to]

A female character born in the late 1800s called ‘Nicky’.
The word ‘teeming’ spelled ‘teaming’.
Some modern day UrbExers finding a handy piece of equipment on a wreck. Then finding it again the next day.
A very unsavoury plot turn where a young woman appears to have been kidnapped to be used as a sex slave on a whaling ship. Attempts to gloss over this as mustache-twirling baddies following ‘selkie wife’ folklore doesn’t mitigate the prurient and unpleasant descriptions of rape.
The skipfull of adjectives tipped onto every page and swooshed around the verbs a bit.

I’ll probably skim read to the end as it cost me £5.99, but not before I go through my Kindle pre-orders to make sure I haven’t fugue-ordered any more badly written, purple-prosed shite.

Oh dear @BoldFearlessGirl , that sounds awful! I read one book by CJ Cooke which I really enjoyed, and got several more out of the library (including The Ghost Woods, but not A Haunting in the Arctic) of the back of it - they were all pretty shite. I think I’m going to have to give up on that particular author…