50 Books Challenge 2023 Part Ten

[Southeastdweller]

Welcome to the tenth and final thread of the 50 Books Challenge for this year.

The challenge was to read fifty books (or more!) in 2023, though reading fifty wasn'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, eighth one here and the ninth one here

How have you got on this year?

Happy Christmas lovely book people.

I'm another one that people are too scared to buy books for but I got a bookmark from DD1. I also gifted lots of YA books to the DDs who were very pleased with their haul. I may have to join them.

@Sadik I thought Burntcoat was excellent. She fits so much into a short book.

It might have been your review that prompted me to get round to ordering it from the library Stokey - definitely someone on here.

I don't feel particularly ill. Like getting over a cold with a weird but mild sense of being a bit wonky - it's happened each time I've had COVID so that's what made me do a test. Nothing like the great horror that was March 2020, though.

No one really buys me books either. I have a Celia Fremlin I put in my stocking and a book called Rules by Lorraine Dalston which DP gave me because as he said, I like rules. I have no books currently on the go so am trying to decide which to pick up next while I mourn the end of The Secret River.

I also put Burntcoat in my bolds this year

@EineReiseDurchDieZeit i seem to remember all the time turners get destroyed in the battle at the office of mysteries 😬

Merry Christmas everyone! I did very well this year. No influence from you lot at all on my wishlist.

Really?! I'm so overdue a reread - it's 5, 6, and 7 I can't face!

What a haul! @JaninaDuszejko

Yeah, DH didn't know what to buy me so went with the safe option of books from my wishlist so he's responsible for most of these.

I have We, The Drowned but it's sat unread for years!

I’ve finished four books over the last few days- most of which were novellas/ short stories- but I’m going to count them to try and make 160. I’ve also read one of my best reads of the year.
153 The Lover Silvia Moreno-Garcia
A short tale by the author of Mexican Gothic (which I didn’t like). This is a dark fairy tale about a dissatisfied girl living with her overbearing sister at the edge of the woods. Short and atmospheric. I enjoyed it.

154 North Woods by Daniel Mason
A series of vignettes all set in the same place and covering themes of time, change, man’s impact on the world and American history. Each tale has a different tone and style and they intersect in different ways. The writing (especially the nature writing) is sublime. There’s a hefty dose of magic realism (which I normally hate) and some parts are shocking, others moving and others outright hilarious. All of it made me think. I’ve read a lot of good books this year but this one could be best of all. Highly recommended.

155 Standing by the Wall- Mick Herron
A short Slough House story, this one partly centred around Rodney Ho, but ultimately on Lamb, as they all are in some way. It was fine, no great shakes.

156 Small Things like These by Claire Keegan
Much reviewed so not a lot to add. The writing is beautiful. The story has plenty to recommend it. I too am one of those who did my inter cert in 1989, so think the historical era is slightly off. I think Foster is her best book so far.

Nice work @JaninaDuszejko ’s DH! Hope you enjoy reading them.

A colleague gifted me Betty and Cleopatra and Frankenstein which I have on Kindle already but appreciate. She also included A General Theory of Oblivion which I don’t have and wasn’t on my radar, but the blurb says ‘the light detachment and readability of Louis de Bernieres…’

As you can see I am a LdB fan, my DC for the first time ever bought me a gift without input from DH, though I did tell them that my favourite living writer has a new book out in hardback, so I am excited to read LdB again.

DH was less courageous in trying to buy me a book, but delivered a substantial Waterstones voucher so I will find myself a day to potter around Gower Street or Piccadilly I think.

Two books for me, both of which I asked for, but I also had generous Amazon vouchers and a book token, so some further whittling of the ever-growing wishlist can take place.

I'm hoping the 12 Days of Kindle will happen this year although frankly who knows what the hell's going on with kindle deals these days.

@PepeLePew I enjoyed The Secret River too and generally like Kate Grenville as a writer. You know there's a sequel? Called Sarah Thornhill. It's the daughter's story.

Oh, and Christmas greetings everyone!

Happy with my lot. Some heavily hinted for and some a surprise. MN influence is apparent!

Night Side Of The River by Jeanette Winterson is 99p on Kindle today. I find her writing a bit patchy and clever-clever at times so was waiting for a Deal on this.

Happy Boxing Day, and thanks for sympathy. I wasn't proper unwell but Christmas festivities were nearly ruined by insomnia the night before followed by nausea. Better now but up silly early so just rattled through Brian Bilston's diverting poetry collection And So This Is Christmas. A clever set of poems, especially the Prufrock reworking. Mainly silly and dry with punchlines but there is, in the middle, a surprisingly moving poem about loss.

This was one of my haul - I had the sense to give DH my Amazon list. I think he was probably drawn to the cheaper books ! But I got Demon Copperhead , An Unequal Music, which I have long intended to read and the recent Michael Rosen book. The DSs bought me, with no help from me, The James O'Brien and Rory Stewart's book which I unwrapped whilst they apologised for 'buying me a Tory'. I told them it was fine, so long as it was't my beloved ex MP Nadine Dorries' book...

I have a massive Amazon wish list which everyone buys from - my DH would not have a clue what to get me otherwise! The only one that wasn’t on my list was the Shirley Ballas book - I didn’t even know she’d ghostwritten one. Sounds good fun though so I’ll give it a go.

at “buying you a Tory” @Piggywaspushed . I would have that Tory on my bookshelf too (think a friend is lending it me when she’s finished with it). Glad your Christmas isn’t a complete washout.

Hope everyone has had a good Christmas and those who were ill are feeling better.

Here are all the books we received as a family - only the top one is mine and the rest were given to the DDs (from various people but all with my input 😄). I used to love my parents' copy of Up The Garden Path, and they've given me a new one in anticipation of our impending house move after which DH and I will have to learn to be decent gardeners, as the new garden is dauntingly large!

Of the girls' books, I'll definitely be reading the Penelope Lively and the Eva Ibbotson after they've read them - they're new to me but look like great kids' books. And I've read the first two Tiffany Aching books to them, so might read Wintersmith to them too.

I loved A Stitch In Time as a child, @DuPainDuVinDuFromage ! It’s partly responsible for my enduring habit of wafting around old houses hoping to meet a ghost

Hope you feel better for betwixtmas @PepeLePew @Piggywaspushed. Our last Christmas alone at home was in 2020 when we all had covid, and we were saying yesterday how nice it was to be having a chilled Christmas with just the 4 of us and no covid.

I don't know why I didn't tell people to buy from my wishlist, so obvious. @Terpsichore the Kindle daily deals today look hopeless. Not only do we have Summer on The French Riviera but also Summer at Forget-Me-Not Cottage. Hopefully there are some better deals hiding somewhere.

Looking forward to hearing your thought on the LDB @StColumbofNavron . I loved his early stuff but wasn't so into some of his later work.

Have also got North Woods downloaded, I think someone else recommended it too on here @BaruFisher so look forward to that.

117. A Year of Marvellous Ways - Sarah Winman. I think Sarah Winman is a rather marmite writer, personally I liked Still Life and haven't read her other stuff, but if you hated it there's nothing for you here. This is a rather whimsical book about an old lady Marvellous Ways, who's a kind of midwife/witch, who lives in a gypsy caravan by a creek in Cornwall. The book is set in 1947, and she finds a young man who is scarred by loss ,Francis Drake, who she nurses back to health. I enjoyed this, it's a gentle easy read that's not going to set the world alight but was quite fun. Not for people that dislike magical realism.

@Stokey yes, the daily deals are awful! 🫤 it does look as though 12 Days of Kindle is happening but I haven’t had time to explore further yet. But Katherine Heiney's short stories Games and Rituals, which was on my wishlist, popped up at 99p, so I suspect more deals are to be had.