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?

@bibliomania agreed. The background to the story suggests an earlier era, not Ireland of the 1980s. As far as I recall, it's set in that time. It was still the dark ages then but not as bleak as all that.

@RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie hope you feel better soon! 📚🍵

Thanks Fuzzy, I did wonder what the other Irish readers on the thread thought (if they remember the 1980s).

I think if the story had been set in the 50s or 60s @bibliomania it would have been more consistent with Irish lived experience. I grew up in the 80s (I think we're a similar age; Inter Cert 1989!)

I remember my father's disapproving attitude towards an aunt of mine who was living with her boyfriend; he was a staunch catholic. Also, there was an elderly aunt of my mother's who was living in an institution that she had entered into as a young girl. My grandmother used to say that she was visiting a friend, but she confided once to one of her daughters that it was in fact her sister. We don't know the circumstances of how it came about that she was there, only that their own father was a very strict man.

You would wonder why Keegan didn't set the story in a previous decade. Also the nuns were often cruel when my mother was a child during the 50s and 60s but I remember them as cantankerous old biddies with an occasionally jolly one when I was in school. Slapping etc had been done away with by then.

42 Notes to self - Emilie Pine
I think it probably did Pine a whole lot of good to write this book. I don't regret reading it at all but I was glad to finish it. Extremely raw writing.

Ha, yes, Fuzzy, I remember the InterCert 1989 discussion! I agree that I would have found it more plausible if it was set in the 1950s or 1960s.

Another long-time Betty MacDonald stalwart here. You’ve made me want to read The Plague and I again. Also Anybody Can Do Anything. So funny.

Empireland is 99p on Kindle today, for those, like me, who haven’t read it but liked the 50 Booker reviews.

Empireland is 99p on Kindle today, for those, like me, who haven’t read it but liked the 50 Booker reviews.

<small whisper>

I didn't like Trustee

What was that Eine?

Who dear? Me dear? No dear

<mutterings>

What's that Eine, didn't quite catch it.

(Where does one acquire such a tiny voice/font please?)

@RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie

I was fed up today. It was wet (very wet). I decided to treat myself to a book in English, having been good & having stuck to reading French stuff for months.

I downloaded Trustee from the Toolroom, lay back on the sofa at 2pm (avec patisserie) and emerged at dusk after a wonderful afternoon of reading. Such a good yarn, well written and it did what I wanted it to do - took me away from life.

Merci mille fois.

85: Among Others: Friendships and Encounters - Michael Frayn

I always enjoy Michael Frayn's writing and this short book was no exception - it's a collection of reminiscences of people he’s known as friends, colleagues or lovers over the course of a long life (he’s 90 now). All his sketches are characteristically funny, self-deprecating and full of curiosity and intelligence….but also, inevitably, melancholy, as so many of his good friends have died. So not necessarily what you’d call a cheery read, but one that radiates humanity and wit.

@magimedi you’re very good, reading so much in French - I’ve pretty much given up on it these days, since starting back at work at the beginning of the year, as I just want to relax and enjoy what I’m reading when I’m not working. We’ve had loads of rain here too, and our cellar is flooded this evening - knee-deep and lots of things damaged. It’s horrible trying to deal with it, DH is still trying to sort it out as much as possible and I’m trying and failing to sleep so I can deal with tomorrow…only 4 hours until I need to get DD1 up for school 😴

Anyway, I’ve just finished a good one, and ironically given our meteorological situation it’s set in the Australian outback in roasting hot summer:

60 The Lost Man - Jane Harper I read a book by Harper earlier this year and liked it enough to seek out more by her. This one involves the death of a man in the remote outback, and the gradual uncovering of how and why he died and what was going on in the lives of the very few people who lived anywhere near him. We see things from the viewpoint of the dead man’s brother, and there are only about 7 or 8 other characters that are actually involved in the story. It really made me feel I could imagine what it’s like to live out there in the middle of nowhere, with only a few people for hundreds of miles around. Really quite creepy! It’s a good book - recommended.

84 Strange Sally Diamond by Liz Nugent

Well written, but it largely grated on me throughout. It seemed a cynical mash-up of Room, Misery Memoir and every oh look, an autistic person talking about getting a Heart from the Wizard… book ever written. Probably won’t seek out books by the author in future, it was all a bit trite.

@DuPainDuVinDuFromage

I loved that Jane Harper.

I have made myself read in French as I have only been here 2 years, am retired & my French is far from fluent so I need as much exposure as possible.

Ah @bibliomania that's shocking about the historical accuracy of Small Things Like These. That's a shame! It did occur to me when I read it that I hadn't known the Magdalene laundries were still operating so late, but I didn't think to question the author's depiction. And it's not as though the laundries constitute a minor detail in the book either; they're at the core of the plot.

I agree with Fuzzy that the author should have set the book in an earlier decade. I mean, one doesn't expect historical fiction to be entirely accurate, but if the author has taken big liberties with the facts, they should mention it in an afterword or something. yes I am a pedant

Raising a virtual glass to the other Anglophone readers of books in French! I try to read in French when I can, but it's definitely more effortful and not as relaxing as reading in English. Plus, as I teach French, it reminds me of work. 😂That said, I fell in love with the French language through books many years ago, and so I have a weird relationship with France and the Francophone world in that I feel more at home reading French books than actually being in France. When I go to France it's a bit like walking into a Harry Potter world that has come to life; I get to hear people using expressions that I've previously only come across on the page. Maybe one day I will be rich enough to buy a holiday home in France and I can start spending longer periods of time there. It's unlikely though!

Also, @DuPainDuVinDuFromage , I'm so sorry to hear about your cellar! Good luck sorting it.

Gosh, sorry to everyone who is poorly, flooded or otherwise incapacitated!

I've managed a few more and am wondering if I might actually make 50 after all, given that I have quite a few that I'm halfway through.

39. Air Babylon, by Imogen Edwards-Jones. Quite why I decide to read this on a plane I don't know! Inside look at the airline industry, following the general 'Babylon' format. Quick, fun read.

40. The Diana Chronicles, by Tina Brown. What a slog! It has taken me over a year to actually finish this and I'm not sure it was worth the effort. I think I started it when Diana popped up in The Crown and I was curious about her, having never been very interested in her (or indeed any of the royals) when she was alive. The first couple of chapters are incredibly boring and then it becomes incredibly gossipy and seamy. One thing I hadn't realised was the pettiness - Diana was forever announcing things or wearing showstopping dresses on dates that were important to Charles. Brown's writing is often very convoluted and this is far harder to get through than Prince Harry's Spare, where, regardless of what you think of the content, the ghost did a very nice job.

41. Rizzio, by Denise Mina. I'm probably the last to read this, but it was absolutely wonderful. Now I want to learn more about Mary - any recommendations for either a really good historical novel, or a very engaging non-fiction book?

@magimedi @cassandre @DuPainDuVinDuFromage Have any of you read anything by Romain Gary? I was listening to a discussion on a programme on Radio France yesterday. He won the Prix Goncourt twice under two different names, bending les règles du jeu quite a bit! It only became apparent that it was the same guy years later. He seems to have been a very interesting character and lived a full life. I thought I would look him up in the new year. I haven't read very much in French this year, only five books in total. Disappointed zut.

Best of luck with the clean-up DuPain.
What a dose.

64. Killing Floor by Lee Child The first in the Jack Reacher series. Reacher, recently out the army, is passing through Margrave, a small town in Georgia where he inadvertently gets caught up in a homicide investigation

This was a re-read, I read the first two books of this series many years ago and then never went any further. I've decided to see if I want to get into them again now. I'm not convinced I do to be honest. Reacher is superhuman in his abilities which borders on the frankly silly and the subject matter is quite dark with some pretty graphic violence. I've started the second one and will decide after that whether to go any further. Maybe I'll need to alternate them with something fluffier to counteract the graphic violence

@FuzzyCaoraDhubh & @ cassandre

The level I am reading at in French is well below Prix Goncourt!! Agatha Christie in translation, chick lit & some crime. It will be another year or so (at present rate) before I'm up to that level. I am just determined to get as fluent as I can as fast as I can. As I am old (ish) and retired I need to get as much Frenchlanguage exposure as I can.

@magimedi I was listening to Donna Leon (author of the Brunetti novels) on Radio 4's 'This Cultural Life', and she said she learned Italian from reading really mass-market crime novels, as many as possible. It did the job for her - she’s completely fluent now and indeed lived in Venice for years - so I wouldn’t be remotely concerned about the calibre of your French reading!

Agatha Christie is a good challenging read @magimedi I wouldn't say it's easy.
I read a few pages of Romain Gary's autobiography 'La Promesse de l'Aube' and it seems straightforward. However, I could be kidding myself! I found Annie Ernaux 'Les Années' difficult and ended up reading the translation alongside it. Reading in French will definitely bring your fluency up. Very good and worthwhile.

Thanks all - we’re getting there (and are going to reward ourselves with a takeaway this evening as the kitchen is full of dripping objects).

@FuzzyCaoraDhubh I hadn’t heard of Romain Gary - will look him up (and maybe even get round to reading something by him!)

Thanks for the good wishes. Sorry to hear about other illnesses and dripping kitchens.

Not reading much as my headache can't cope with more than three sentences at a time.