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?

143. Tangerine. Christine Mangan
Single White Female type mystery set in 1950s Morocco. Fairly bog-standard.

144. Another Year of Wonder, by Clemency Burton-Hill
I know nothing about classical music, and she does make it more approachable. I like the daily routine aspect. This made my year a little bit better.

Currently partway through Femina and Why Mummy Drinks at Christmas - just need to finish one to beat last year's book total. Probably the latter as I'm a bit bogged down in the Cathar chapter of Femina, and burnings at the stake lacks that festive glow.

72 Death Called to the Bar by David Dickinson

A Christmas present, this is the 5th in a turn of the century detective series featuring aristocratic investigator Lord Francis Powerscourt. I haven't read any of the others, but although there were references to earlier cases, that didn't matter. Light and frothy, I liked the scenes from Powerscourt's family life and the sweet romance between two minor characters. The mystery wasn't terribly exciting but was sufficiently interesting to keep me turning the pages.

I am another one like @BaruFisher who enjoyed the Year of Wonder books. @CoteDAzur is aabsolutely right that there is little on the technical musical side. Sometimes I found the author's comments interesting and at other times less so. But the huge benefit to me was introducing me to new composers and artists, last year Jan Dismas Zelenka and this year, the wonderful harpist Catrin Finch. Even if there had been no other discoveries (there have!), those two alone would have been worth several times the purchase price.

I am glad I read Another Year of Wonder but tbh I preferred the first book. This one seemed to be apologising at times for including any white male composers. I found it a bit jarring!

My final total this year is 53. My standout books:
A Swim in the Pond in the Rain - George Saunders
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn - Betty Smith
The Mirror and the Light - Mantel- by far my favourite of the trilogy
Someone at a distance - Dorothy Whipple
Prairie Fires - Caroline Fraser which led me to read some of The Little House series including the wonderful...
The Long Winter - Laura Ingalls Wilder

Year of Wonder. I took more notice of the first book. It became a bit predictable second time round. I agree with the lack of commentary on technical detail and that it was emotive on the author's part. However, I loved the music both times and it really broadened my listening experience. There was rarely a piece that I didn't like. I think I'll go back to those playlists and delve deeper into them. There were so many composers 'old and new' that I really loved.

I enjoyed Year of Wonder for the same reasons as @Welshwabbit and @FuzzyCaoraDhubh It helped me to rediscover my love for classical music and discover some new composers and pieces. Tbh what Clemency wrote was just background to the music itself.

I’ve made 45 and I think that’s probably me for the year.

84 Charing Cross Road Helene Hanff
This has been reviewed many times and my edition came with her diary from her visit to London titled The Duchess of Bloomsbury which I rather liked.

77. Soldier Sailor - Claire Kilroy
My book of the year, by a mile. A first person narration of new motherhood. The exhaustion, brainfog, and loss of self are all there, as is the strain on the narrator's relationship with her husband as she focuses on her child to the exclusion of almost every other consideration. There is so much more here, though, with motherhood ultimately being the thing that makes death a reality. The book starts with a shocking act which thankfully doesn't come to fruition, and if you read this I would urge you to keep going past the initial episode. It's very funny in places, but also describes the terrifying moments, the child wandering off, the temperatures and rashes, all of that. I am rambling because I've just finished this book and it absolutely did me in. I don't really know how to review it, but just want to say it is highly recommended.

I fell off the thread half way through the year after having a baby. I was well on track with my reading before June then it all went sideways. I’m finishing off on 32 this year which is a slight improvement on 2022. I hope to increase it next year, I have stuck to my plan of not continuing books I don’t enjoy. I really also need to make my focus trying to make a significant dent in the books I have and stop buying more….unless they are good ones I find in the charity shops as who can resist a bargain whilst also helping a good cause.

Congratulations on the birth of your baby @LessObviousName 🌺

Congratulations x

Congratulations @LessObviousName

Congrats @LessObviousName, lovely news!

The White Spider by Heinrich Harrer
A re-read after many years, and I didn't find it quite as good as it was in my memory. It's basically a history of people trying to climb the North Face of the Eiger, with the writer being part of the first successful team in 1938.

My edition had a very good intro by Joe Simpson, and the first half of the book is, indeed, as masterful as I remembered. The awful death of Toni Kurz in 1936 is especially well done. However, I found the second half a bit petulant and occasionally oddly discriminatory: he seemed to have a real bugbear about Italians for some reason, which took up a good few pages in a rather tedious way. I didn't think the book ever really found its way back after that.

If you're interested in mountaineering books, though, and have missed this, I'd highly recommend getting a second hand copy and reading the first half, even if you don't read all of it.

Pretty good excuse for not meeting reading goals, @LessObviousName !

Congratulations @LessObviousName I definitely had a bit of a reading slump after having DD

41. Dadland by Keggie Carew
It's a pleasure to finish the year with this one, because I think I read about it on here. 4 or 5 years ago I started a phone note called Wanted Books, and this was the first book on it. Whenever I have the chance to ask for presents or buy books, it's the list I go to. It still took all that time for me to feel like requesting this one.

It's good, first of all, but it's also quite sprawling and I certainly end up not really liking the Carew family. Tom Carew, Kevin Carew's Dad, was deep into dementia when she researched his life. He was a Jedbergh commando in WWII and had a complex series of careers, marriages and children afterwards. He's a fascinating character but the trail of destruction he leaves behind him is shudderingly familiar territory from my own dad and I ended up feeling quite alienated from his story, and sorry for the women involved despite their very obvious flaws. The details of the Burmese campaigns are the most gripping.

46 Trustee from the toolroom by Nevil Shute
An ordinary surburban man goes on an adventure in the Pacific to help his niece get her inheritance.

This was such a delight. Heard about it on the blacklisted podcast recommended by Richard Osman and it is such a lovely gentle read over the Christmas period. There is a lot of engineering stuff that went over my head but I just loved the story about everyone helping out this nice man.

Vital Organs by Suzie Edge

I really enjoyed Edge’s first book last year, Mortal Monarchs, covering the deaths of all the kings and queens of England/UK. This new book looks at different body parts. Part of each chapter talks about what that body part does/why it’s important, but the rest of the chapter is a famous (or infamous) example of that body part. Example chapters are Jeremy Bentham’s Head, Fanny Burney’s Breasts, Napoleon’s Penis and Hitler’s Testicle. Great fun.

Mrs Sidhu’s Dead and Scone by Suk Pannu

Although this is his first book, it reads like there’s earlier ones. This is apparently because it’s derived from a radio show, so if you’re familiar with that then you might find this book slightly less confusing.

Anyway, Mrs Sidhu is a caterer who for unexplained reasons helps the police with solving their cases. She becomes embroiled with a murder case linked to a local retreat. This fits into the cosy crime genre but I struggled to get into it having never heard of the radio show.

Thanks @MaudOfTheMarches I've just ordered Soldier Sailor; it's 99p on kindle ATM.

My reading has ground to a halt over the past week in a blur of lovely family time and relentless demands for me to be on parenting duty. Bookish highlight of Christmas was DS being excited about the book I gave him and then actually choosing to read it - hurray! I received a couple of sports autobiographies and, more excitingly, lots of vouchers to spend on books.
Not expecting to finish any other books now, currently reading The Long Shadow by Celia Fremlin and really enjoying it so expect that to be the first book I finish in 2024. Total for this year is 62, very much in line with the last two years.
December reads...
58. Dálvi by Laura Galloway
Memoir type non-fiction. The author moves to live in northern Scandinavia and shares her experiences of living with Sami reindeer herders while also reflecting on her incredibly challenging family background. There was much to like in this but it was undoubtedly elevated because I read it alongside...
59. Stolen by Ann-Helén Laestadius
Also set in Sapmi, this Swedish novel opens with a young girl from a Sami reindeer herding family witnessing the killing of her own reindeer. Elsa refuses to name the culprit. Years later, as a young woman, Elsa becomes caught up in the tensions between the Sami and other communities and events from the past continue to have consequences. I expected this to be a mystery, perhaps even a thriller, but it was a slow burn and, while I was completely invested in finding out where the plot was going, it wasn't the whodunnit I had perhaps expected.
The two books very much overlapped in the geographical location and setting among the Sami community which I found utterly fascinating, even if neither book was a bold on it's own.
60. Land of Snow and Ashes by Petra Rautiainen
A mystery wrapped book I picked up in Topping & Company in Edinburgh, this third book in my wee reading season with connections to the Sami people is a Finnish historical novel set in the 1940s. During post-war reconstruction in a remote community, an outsider arrives to to work as a journalist/photographer but also strive to track down what happened to her husband during WWII. We switch time periods between her story and the diary of a man serving in a camp in the same area during the war. This was an interesting book, quite unlike anything I've read before, but also really hard in places. Life in the camps was clearly brutal from the outset, but very sinister undercurrents are also gradually revealed. Found the translator's note at the end really made me think about how translation works.
61. The Christmas Guest by Peter Swanson
Previously reviewed by others. Short, light seasonal read.
62. A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
Annual revisit of the Audible version narrated by Hugh Grant. I like it a lot, always appreciate listening during the week before Christmas.

Hope to see you back here in 2024 :)

Way behind on my reviews so will try to be brief:

82. Cloud Cuckoo Land - Anthony Doerr

Five storylines with five protagonists all interlinked around a historical mythical tale. Two protagonists in ancient Constantinople, two in modern US and one in the future. I didn’t dislike the narrators or their storylines but it didn’t grip me or do much for me. Pity as I really liked All the Light we cannot see

83. Sleeping Murder - Agatha Christie

Agatha Christie challenge book which I can’t recall reading before. Miss Marple in her element on holiday in Devon solving a historical murder. Enjoyed.

84. On Chesil Beach - Ian McEwan

Probably the only person on the thread who has not read this and did not know it was about an unsuccessful wedding night. Beautifully done.

85. One Fine Day in the Middle of the Night - Chris Brookmyre

A book of two halves for me. I found the first half which set the scene whilst old schoolmates gathered for a school reunion quite slow but became more gripped as events deteriorated (trying to avoid spoilers). Not as good as I hoped it would be but had its moments.

86. Prudence - Jilly Cooper

A blast from the past which has aged better than some of her other books. Prudence is thrilled to be invited to stay with boyfriend, Pendle’s, family for a long weekend as she thinks it means he is serious but sadly he is not. Pendle’s family are fun but dysfunctional. Entertaining.

87. Family Album - Penelope Lively

Alison’s raison d’etre is to be a mother and have a family and a family home. As the six children look back at their childhoods, it becomes apparent that it was not all happy families. My first book by this author and I will read more.

Unlikely to make it to 88 as travelling tomorrow…..

Can’t sleep so I’ve been going through my books read this year - 63 of which 25 have been fiction and 38 non fiction. A bit of a change for me - I can’t believe I’ve read so little fiction.
Two to finish off the year:

Hatton Garden - Rachel Lichtenstein Recommended on this thread (Welshwabbit I think). Very much enjoyed this history of the area around Hatton Garden. I know the area slightly because I used to be sent on courses about twice a year to Long Lane just by Smithfield Market or to Holborn and used to go wandering during lunch breaks.

The Blair Years - Alastair Campbell
One for political nerds only I think. It’s taken me about two months on and off. The original spin doctor’s diaries covering the years from the death of John Smith until he left his post as head of No 10 press in 2005.
I was riveted - so many important events, New Labour, the 97 election, Diana’s death, The Good Friday Agreement, 9/11, the Iraq War etc. and enjoyed his analysis of some of the personalities involved.

Now for something frothy to start 2024. But what?

A few more finished, probably my lot for 2023 (only 4 hours until midnight here, and DP will probably expect me to watch a movie or talk to him and not be an antisocial sod).

62 Born for This: how to find the work you were meant to do - Chris Guillebeau
I’m not sure this was very good, as I’m none the wiser what I should be doing when my current job ends in June!

63 How to Overcome Trauma and Find Yourself Again - Jessamy Hibberd
I wouldn’t necessarily define myself as having suffered trauma, but a lot has gone on in the past few years, and this was an inspiring guide from a clinical psychologist on looking after yourself and taking charge of your own story.

64 Remainders of the Day - Shaun Bythell
Took me a while to get through this third volume of the bookseller’s diaries - still gently amusing, but not exactly new material.

Congratulations @LessObviousName! I have fond memories of reading (very, very easy) books on my kindle under a sleeping newborn.

I finished my last book of the year - a re-read of The Children's Book by AS Byatt and I'm so glad I returned to this. I must have read it 15 years ago at least but loved it as much this time. It's a sprawling novel, following Edwardian children's writer Olive Wellwood and her family, and various artists, craftsmen, Fabians and political radicals who drift in and out of their lives. We find out gradually about the tangled romantic lives and infidelities of the adults, which in turn determine the lives and choices of their children, while the horrors of WW1 loom in the future. It's full of fairytales, doubles and repeated motifs.

It's imperfect - some of the reviews complain about her heavy historic exposition, but I didn't mind that, knowing little about the period. With such a huge cast of characters some were forgotten about, and there were definitely inconsistencies (I counted a pregnancy that lasted from 1907 - 1909).

But I just found it glorious, beautiful, intricate storytelling from start to finish.