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50 Books Challenge 2023 Part Ten

517 replies

Southeastdweller · 08/12/2023 12:56

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?

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13
Terpsichore · 26/12/2023 19:11

Hurrah, so pleased you enjoyed Modern Ranch Living @cassandre!

Sadik · 26/12/2023 20:49

@GrannieMainland & others who've enjoyed Amy and Lan might be amused to know that I bought it for dd for Christmas to see what she thought of it. She agreed it really caught the experience of living in community as a small child spot on.

(She did say that perhaps the children in the book were more aware of the adult dramas than IRL - but I have a suspicion that in fact it's because we all spent rather more time in meetings discussing house maintenance & milking rotas, & rather less time in relationship angst Grin )

GrannieMainland · 26/12/2023 20:54

Oh that's very interesting @Sadik! Good to know that Sadie Jones captured the atmosphere well.

Happy Christmas to all and I'm sorry to those who are ill.

Great to see all the book hauls! I only got a couple - The Future by Naomi Alderman and short stories by Camilla Grudova. I seem to have picked up a lot of things for myself recently though so plenty of new things to read in the new year.

Sadik · 26/12/2023 21:23

I've just seen that KM Peyton died a few days ago, aged 94. I loved her books as a teenager - Flambards, of course, but also the Pennington series.

GrannieMainland · 27/12/2023 07:16

Kindle deals are all over the place at the moment, but mine are showing Tomorrow x3 and Happy Place as 99p today which might be of interest.

Boiledeggandtoast · 27/12/2023 07:27

Sadik · 26/12/2023 21:23

I've just seen that KM Peyton died a few days ago, aged 94. I loved her books as a teenager - Flambards, of course, but also the Pennington series.

Oh no, I hadn't heard that. I loved the Flambards books too.

BoldFearlessGirl · 27/12/2023 08:03

I just picked up Tomorrow x3 for 99p. I get the feeling I’ll either love it or DNF it!

MaudOfTheMarches · 27/12/2023 08:07

House of Doors is also in the deals today and I've picked that up.

CornishLizard · 27/12/2023 08:33

Sorry to hear about KM Peyton - I loved Flambards too, and Pennington.

Wishing everyone who has been unwell a swift recovery, and enough energy to read in bed if not to get up. Enjoying the book hauls vicariously, none to report here but debating treating myself to The Bee Sting after enjoying your reviews.

My latest is Wheels within Wheels by Dervla Murphy, having read Full Tilt last year and A Place Apart earlier this. WwW is her autobiography covering her childhood, the years she spent nursing her mother, and, though it doesn’t cover the journey described in Full Tilt, it ends with the success of that book on her return. I loved this - fascinating to read about how this incredible woman was shaped, her family life and her friendships, her joy in the landscape and her capacity for life. A Place Apart remains my favourite and I’m glad I read that and one of her travel books first, but I preferred this even to Full Tilt. Will read more of her books - any recommendations on where to go next?

LadybirdDaphne · 27/12/2023 09:17

The latest Sophie Hannah Poirot is 99p at the moment, for any fellow masochists.

minsmum · 27/12/2023 10:41

Winter People and The House of Doors are also 99p today

noodlezoodle · 27/12/2023 10:52

What excellent hauls! I only got one book but I'm very pleased with it - the new edition of Helene Hanff's Letter from New York.

I'm off work until the New Year so am determined to do a lot of lolling about and reading and very little else.

Welshwabbit · 27/12/2023 11:10

Belated happy Christmas to you all! I have some nice crime novels to get stuck into. Enjoyed seeing everyone's festive hauls.

69 Chronicles of a Cairo Bookseller by Nadia Wassaf

Interesting non-fiction account of how the author, her sister and a close friend established the Diwan bookshop (and later additional branches) in Cairo. The author is engaging and I found the sections on the types of books their customers wanted, the difference between the Arabic and English sections and the difficulty of operating as a female entrepreneur in a man's world fascinating.

70 The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper

Annual re-read before Christmas. I enjoyed this even more than usual this year. I love the story but I think Cooper writes a family Christmas better than anyone else and that's what makes this the best in the series.

71 Still Life by Val McDermid

6th in the Karen Pirie series, I thought this was one of McDermid's better novels. A good main plot with a nice art theme, enjoyable writing and a nice new character (a DS shoehorned from another investigation - McDermid clearly getting a bit bored with Jason Murray). There was a fairly pointless subplot that petered out at the end and could have been left out entirely but overall, a good read.

MaudOfTheMarches · 27/12/2023 11:28

76 American Royals - Katharine McGee
America has a royal family, installed in Washington Palace after the war with the British (or something like that - it's not very clear but neither does it matter). Princess Beatrice has to decide between marrying for love or duty, wayward heirs Samantha and Jefferson grow up in public, Sam's best friend Nina wonders whether she can handle a relationship with Jefferson, and social climber Daphne Deighton gets in the middle of it all. Fun YA froth, totally inconsequential.

JaninaDuszejko · 27/12/2023 11:49

Small Pleasures by Clare Chambers

Read by what seems like pretty much everyone on here already. I loved it, thought she captured the feel of those 'slightly dated' mid century novels we all love about women with 'small lives', although I do think now being a journalist would be seen as more aspirational than being a housewife. I enjoyed the science, particularly the description of electrophoresis as complex. 60 years later it's such a simple technique my daughter did it during her work placement in Y10.

BaruFisher · 27/12/2023 14:03

The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store by James McBride is on the kindle deals for 99p. I just bought it in hardback 2 weeks ago for £20 so a good deal. It’s getting a lot of attention in best book of the year lists by American newspapers and YouTubers and is tipped for the Pulitzer.

Terpsichore · 27/12/2023 15:45

Just dipping in to add my last read of 2023 - I wanted to finish this as it brings my total to a satisfying round figure, but also because it’s a token of commitment to reading all of In Search of Lost Time, which I’m still persisting with along with DH and a couple of friends. It’s not a quick read, for sure! But anyway, this is volume 4 (of 7) done.

90: Sodom and Gomorrah - Marcel Proust

In which our narrator makes the shock discovery that the self-regarding Baron de Charlus - one of the grand personages met with thus far in the most elegant drawing-rooms of Parisian society - is in fact making assignations with other men. It’s not actually a total shock to the reader, but marks a point of transition and darkening of the narrative in the novels….also a degree of impenetrability. I’m relieved that, on doing a bit of online digging, I’m not alone in finding this volume a struggle. Onwards and upwards!

RazorstormUnicorn · 27/12/2023 16:51

Thanks for the heads up on Tomorrow I had it reserved at the library but mine doesn't tell me how many people ahead of me and it had already been two months so 99p is worth it to me!

65. Really Good Actually by Monica Heisey

I wasn't going to bother with this but then Heisey was on Sara and Cariad's Weirdos Bookclub podcast and she was really funny so I went for it at 99p.

The short overview is late 20s woman divorces and struggles, at times in quite an annoying way. I could however relate to some of her moments of trying too hard, and her confusion about how could this be so hard when others in the world had real problems.
I did laugh (or at least snort a bit) in lots of places and I found myself speaking in the style of the writing in my head for a few days. So it's got under my skin a bit.

Oh and a late Happy Christmas! I was away in a cottage and distracted by our friends who are quite extrovert. Now home to put my nose in a book for a couple of days before I venture out again.

Mothership4two · 27/12/2023 17:55

Been waiting for 3Tomorrows to come down on Kindle. MIL gave it to me for Christmas

EineReiseDurchDieZeit · 27/12/2023 18:38

Mothership4two · 27/12/2023 17:55

Been waiting for 3Tomorrows to come down on Kindle. MIL gave it to me for Christmas

This sort of thing happens to me often

StColumbofNavron · 27/12/2023 19:06

I keep looking at 3Tomorrows because everyone is raving about it, but I just cannot muster enough interest. Hopefully it will reappear in deals at another time and I might be tempted.

MamaNewtNewt · 27/12/2023 20:57

I don't think I'm going to finish any more books this year so here are my final reviews.

150. Pod by Laline Paull

I still can’t decide what I think of this one. There were sections that I loved where I thought "this is a work of genius, the dolphins, they are just like us, but underwater", but there were other sections where I thought “why the hell am I reading about dolphin sex offenders and trans fish?”

151. The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides

Woman is convicted of murdering her husband and has not said a word since. Dr who is having marriage issues thinks he can save her. This should have been a DNF. I’m going to be much stricter about not reading rubbish, or if I do then launching it across the room when it’s terrible (unless it is on the kindle of course!)

152. A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

The audible version read by Hugh Grant. I loved it.

153. The Shape of Lies by Rachel Abbot

Next in the Tom Douglas series which I normally enjoy. This one was not good, especially as the ending seems to be lifted from one of the earlier books in this series.

GrannieMainland · 27/12/2023 21:25

My Christmas reads were:

  1. The Christmas Guest by Peter Swanson. A crime novel told through the diary of an American student, who has been invited to spend Christmas at a friend's country house, but quickly suspects something more sinister is going on. Then there is a big twist and things change, but I found the second part very rushed and it ended abruptly.

  2. In a Holidaze by Christina Lauren. A young woman has to re-live Christmas, Groundhog Day style, as she tries to save the family snow cabin and choose the right boy to make out with. Moderately enjoyable festive fluff. It does feature the most insane romantic gesture I've seen in my life - I think if my partner of 48 hours presented me with a charcoal drawing of the two of us happily married in our eighties I'd run for the hills, but who am I to judge.

  3. Heartstopper/This Winter/Nick and Charlie by Alice Oseman. Not sure how many books to count these as, not that it matters! I watched the Heartstopper TV series in the run up to Christmas, then skimmed the comics online, and the accompanying novellas (short stories really) were cheap on kindle so I read those too. I am at least 20 years too old but just can't get enough of these impossibly sweet teenagers.

Sadik · 27/12/2023 21:50

My pre-Christmas library haul is continuing to pay off, reminding me both how much more I enjoy fiction on paper, but also how much I appreciate this thread for leading me to books I'd never otherwise pick up.

  1. My Name is Lucy Barton by Elizabeth Strout
    Very late to the party on this, but I absolutely loved it & will be seeking out the other books. Short but perfectly formed, and an excellent follow up to Burntcoat with its focus on relationships (particularly the mother/daughter relationship in both) and art.
splothersdog · 27/12/2023 23:50

@MamaNewtNewt I hated Pod! Made myself finish it but the dolphin assault stuff was brutal!!