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?

Skidding in with book no. 44 which seems to be my sweet spot for the number of books read in a year (2018, 2019 and 2023!). Thanks @BestIsWest for your review of Midnight at the Christmas Bookshop by Jenny Colgan with which I wholeheartedly concur.

I received one book for Christmas which was Leila Slimani's Le Pays des Autres which has been on my radar but not my wishlist so that was a lovely surprise gift from my SIL.

Quick heads up to say that both Kala and The Worst Journey in the World are 99p on kindle today.

34The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reed. I picked this up a few years ago in paper form and DNF’d quickly hating everyone. However, came back to it in audio format as it was a book club pick and thoroughly enjoyed myself. Glitz,glamour and froth it was a very enjoyable Christmas listen. I still disliked most characters but it was pretty fabulous.

Offline now til tomo, thanks everyone for another great year. I’ll look forward to hanging out with you all and trying to reach 50 for 2024 x

@nowanearlyNicemum - thanks I’ve bought them both.

I'm going to spend this afternoon on the sofa with a cup of tea and my current audiobook Proust and the Squid in preparation for going out.

Wishing a peaceful, book-filled 2024 to you all & see you on the other side of the 50-book January madness.

66. Die With Zero by Bill Perkins

Basic idea is good, don't save too much money for your retirement as 80 year olds don't spend much. Try and have experiences which good health enriches when younger.

However I think Bill is very wealthy and over saving is not a problem a lot of people will have. So it's helpfulness is limited.

He is also pretty harsh about quality of life and what those in later years can achieve.

It was a good read for my DH though. He is natural saver and I have had a hard time convincing him we can afford some slightly nicer and/or longer holidays. After reading this, his thought process has shifted. So that's a win for me!

A huge thank you to Southeast for hosting the threads.

I'll be hunkering down with loud music to mask the fireworks for the dog tonight so I won't get any more books in.

Just bringing this info across from the roundup thread.

My stats are a bit rough and ready this year but I've enjoyed using the graphs on Storygraph.

From 253 books

29% non-fiction
No classics this year
20% male authors
23% BAME.
I managed one whole book in French (a translation of Harry Potter so I'm not sure it counts).

Only 2 print books this year and 4 ebooks, the rest audio. I've had to start wearing glasses this year and it's definitely put me off trying to actually read as I get headaches and feel tired very quickly.

I've read a lot of self help type books, mostly around health/diet and decluttering/organising. I'm exiting the year equally as round and messy as I started it.

If my arm were twisted to pick my top 3 of the year they would be

Prophet Song - Paul Lynch
Trespasses - Louise Kennedy
Shy - Max Porter

Looking forward to seeing you all in the new year for the madness that is the January thread.

I finished Complicity by Iain Banks last night which brings my total to 103 which is far higher than any previous year. Partly due to ill health early last year but mainly thanks to joining this thread (and starting to read via the Kindle app). I’ve read and enjoyed so many recommendations that would have passed me by.

I’ve made a start on The Chrysalids which should be my first book of 2024 but I’m going to spend January finishing all the books I’ve started in the last couple of months but not got round to finishing.

See you all on a shiny new 2024 thread and have a fabulous New Year.

That sounds interesting, @RazorstormUnicorn. I am a saver by nature and would like to be able to enjoy the money I'm lucky enough to earn more than I currently do. Books are my only real vice!

I have just finished An Immense World by Ed Yong which was a fascinating meander through the different ways in which animals sense and interact with the world. That's it for the reading year, as I need to tidy up and make a pavlova before my guests arrive. Thanks to all of you lovely book friends, and may 2024 be filled with reading loveliness for you all.

It looks as is my last book of the year is going to be #43: Went to London, Took the Dog, by Nina Stibbe. Funny, gossipy, and generally fairly discreet, with lots of names redacted at certain points, with the notable exception of Lionel Shriver, who presumably is not only 'contrary' but also a total pain in the arse?!

Thank you Southeast for being a wonderful host and thank you all for your thoughts, recommendations, hilarity and for absolutely wrecking my attempts to pare down my TBR list. Looking forward to spending 2024 with the 50 bookers, and hopefully actually making 50 again.

Happy New Year, one and all!

Happy New Year all and thanks to Southeastdweller for hosting all the threads. See you on the other side!

Happy New Year Chessie and to all the 50-Bookers! 🎊 Thank you for all the book chat and recommendations during the year and to Southeastdweller for keeping us on track. Here's to 2024 🎉

Happy New Year to you all.
Heading into 2024 half way through Prophet Song

OK, my last book of 2023! Happy New Year everyone, and thanks so much for these threads. They are a highlight of my year. I'm going to post my final list on the round up thread.

77. Penance, Eliza Clark 4/5 A gripping read. The element of satire wasn’t as strong as I had expected based on the reviews, but the depiction of relationships between secondary school-aged girls (their vulnerability, their cruelty to one another) was very convincing.

Happy New Year to all! It’s been a fantastic year of books made even more interesting by trying things suggested on here. Thank you so much

Been out bothering monks at ruined abbeys again today. Not a patch on my Cuddy, but still……in’t history brilliant!

Tomorrow x3 hmmmmm, verdict in 2024….

73 Another Year of Wonder by Clemency Burton Hill

Essentially reviewed upthread. Some wonderful discoveries and my husband bought me tickets to see Catrin Finch for Christmas so it has definitely served its purpose!

74 Fair Play by Tove Jansson

A series of vignettes in the relationship between Jonna and Mari, an artistic couple who, like Jansson and her partner, live in separate apartments on a Finnish island. This was a lovely book to end the year on, full of wisdom about life, love and living (sort of) with each other. And of course, as it is Jansson, beautifully and deceptively simply written.

That's it, didn't quite make it to 75 but close enough! Happy New Year to all you 50 bookers. It's been a pleasure to share my reading year with you, as always.

Happy New Year, all. I have 70 pages of Rory Stewart to go and won't manage that tonight, so tomorrow I can pretend I read a whole book in a day.

Happy new year to everyone when it arrives! I'll be starting 2024 catching up on Nicholas Nickleby I think. This has been a stressful year so I'm keeping 🤞 for a better one!

Happy 2024 all- I’m reading 2 great books at the moment which will be my first books finished of the new year so a good start 😊

Happy 2024, thank you @Southeastdweller and all of you for your company this year

Happy 2024 to all the lovely 50 Bookers! Thank you to everyone for the reviews, debates and general chat, and thank you @Southeastdweller for minding the threads.

Hogmavay party tonight so won't finish my last book of the year: The Short End of the Sonnenallee by Thomas Brussig. Translated by Jonathan Franzen and Jenny Watson. But really enjoying it, it's a linked series of vignettes about a group of teenage friends who live in East Berlin in the 1980s. Joyous.

Thankyou as always for all the book chat this year and thanks to @Southeastdweller for running the threads. See you in the New Year.

Just posted to roundup thread. Thanks Southeast for keeping us on track, and to all for your varied reviews and love of books that make this genuinely one of the nicest places to hang out.

Looking forward to more book chat and dubious tangents next year. Happy new year to the index of 50 bookers (is there a better collective noun?)!

Rather to my surprise (and notwithstanding 4 hours on the motorway) I managed to finish book 88 today:

88. Hell Bay - Kate Rhodes

Murder mystery/police procedural set in the Isles of Scilly. Ben Kitto, local boy and Met detective, is on extended leave on Bryher when a local teenager is killed. Ben is asked to lead the investigation. I know the island so enjoyed it for that reason but also a reasonable plot and love interest for Ben. One of the DC hated it as written in first person present tense…..

Thank you southeast for keeping us all going and to all 50 bookers for their reviews and views. The best thread on Mumsnet. Happy new year to everyone and best wishes for 2024.

Thanks to all the 50 bookers, and especially @Southeastdweller for another fab year - it's good to have such a warm, entertaining and informative corner of the internet to hang out in. I'll look up the roundup thread shortly, but I have my final reviews of 2023 to note:

21. Yellowface by Rebecca F Kuang A publishing industry thriller, in which white writer June Hayward, styled as Juniper Song, passes off the work of recently deceased Chinese American friend/professional nemesis Athena Liu as her own. Not massively dissimilar to The Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz, but with the additional themes of white privilege and cultural appropriation. This was funny and pacey, but went a bit off at the end.

22. Another Year of Wonder by Clemency Burton-Hill Much reviewed in the last couple of days, I liked this a lot. I know some posters would have preferred more biography/history/context, and I can see why. However, the short and often personal reflections made reading very quick and easy, which meant I kept up with the daily listening more than I think I would have done otherwise.

See you all in 2024, possibly with a new name for the new year.