50 Books Challenge 2024 Part One

[Southeastdweller]

Welcome to the first thread of the 50 Book Challenge for this year.

The challenge is to read fifty books (or more!) in 2024, though reading fifty isn't mandatory. Any type of book can count, and please try to let us all know your thoughts on what you've read.

If possible, please can you embolden your titles and maybe authors as well of books you've read or going to read? It makes it much easier to keep track, especially when the threads move quickly at this time of the year.

Who's in for this year?

Palegreenstars - That was a good video of Jen Campbell's. I haven't watched her in ages. I'm particularly interested in the adaptations of Mr Loverman and The Mirror and the Light.

On the subject of Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day, I read it several years ago and recall being shocked by the casual anti-semitism in it. It made me feel very uncomfortable and took me right out of feeling it was a lovely comfort read. Given the time it was written, fascism was on the rise rapidly so it makes it all the more disturbing.

I love Miss Pettigrew and find I have to treat it in the same way as Agatha C or Enid B, as a period piece that couldn’t be written now. I don’t approve of rewriting adult books though, as I’d assume most adults reading such texts are capable of being shocked by the racism even if they enjoy the story. My feelings on tinkering with children’s books are more complicated.

Thanks for the birthday wishes, I had a lovely day!

@Boiledeggandtoast I wondered about the film / series as the book covers similar subject matter, but I looked it up and there's no link.

I read Miss Pettigrew in 2022 and I definitely noticed and disliked the racism / antisemitism but still loved the book overall. It's interesting how historical racism / sexism can ruin some books, but for others I can like them, in spite of this.

1. Boudica - Dreaming the Eagle by Manda Scott
2. Boudica - Dreaming the Bull by Manda Scott
3. Straight Shot by Jack Lively (Audio)
4. Murder Most Malicious (Audio) - Alyssa Maxwell (in pro)
5. Rebugging the Planet - Vicki Hird (in pro)

DNF

1. The Seventh Son by Sebastian Faulks

Boudica - Dreaming the Eagle by Manda Scott Absolutely loved this. A saga you can lose yourself in, reminded me of Clan of the Cave Bear but a different era and lacking the sex scenes. I’m generally very happy to suspend belief when I read books and I fell into this one. Manda is very clear that she is filling in large amounts of blank in the written record as the history that survives is written by those linked to Rome. I do imagine there is truth in her depiction. The pain of not being able to complete the tests that mark you as adult male or female match with what I heard from aboriginal Australian friends. She is harking back to a time when there was ‘space for the gods’ and humans and the world around them didn’t have to fit a mould: pre-Rome, pre-right angles and straight lines. Manda also has a podcast - Accidental Gods - and while much of it (she’s a shaman) is over my head I do enjoy listening to it occasionally. This is a bold for me. I read the second in the 4-part series straight away and have ordered the 3 & 4 from the library so hopefully they’ll come soon!

Straight Shot by Jack Lively Audiobook. Reviews say it’s just like Reacher. I hope it’s not else the Reacher books as more poorly written than I thought, and I’ve read a few but not for a while. This did seem very, very cliched and out-dated. I finished it but more to get it finished than because I wanted to know what happened.

First DNF and I don’t think I even got the end of the first chapter. The Seventh Son by Sebastian Faulks. I found the writing really clumsy. It read to me as an early draft - what little that I did read - where the bones and sinews of the plot structure are yet to be fleshed out. It was all too obvious and stilted. I read Birdsong many years ago and am pretty sure I loved it - this was just not in the same league, which is a shame as I was looking forward to it. People who weren’t put off by the writing enjoyed the premise of the book so I’m sorry (ish) to miss out on that but had serious ick … luckily it was a library book so I don’t feel too hard done by.

Oh, didn’t know there was a new Jasper Fforde coming. Think I’ll have a reread of Shades of Grey myself.

And I remember someone saying they were reading Brazzaville Beach - I read this first late teens/ early twenties and it made a really strong impression on me.

I loved Tomorrow x 3 but then while not particularly into gaming I was born within a couple of years of the main characters and they had me at Frogger! It was a good read with some depth in the characters, I thought.

I have a copy of Miss Pettigrew waiting and was keeping it for when I needed serious cheering, might read it sooner if its not so likely to be a total comfort read.

@whinsome I've adjusted finished Brazzaville Beach. I really enjoyed it. Next up is Hoods an non fiction about organised crime in Nottingham. My son recommended it when it was first published - he was living in Nottingham at the time. But the publication led to my son being threatened by one of the gang leaders (who was in a high security jail!) due to mistaken identity so I haven't been able to face it before. He doesn't live in the UK now so I'm finally picking it up.

Finished my first book of the year - Slow Horses - Mick Herron

Pretty sure this is going to be a bold for me (I usually take a while to decide!) Not my usual genre but I’d heard good things and wasn’t disappointed.

The ‘slow horses’ are the outcasts and misfits of MI5, sent to serve out their time at the depressing Slough House on mindless, dull and repetitive tasks, usually in response to some misdemeanour or cock up on their record. I have to admit there were so many characters that I struggled to keep them all straight at times, and I felt the one who is highlighted the most - River - to be fairly uncompelling so far. Some of the forgettable ones don’t make it to the end of the novel anyway though, so no harm there, and I’m sure others will become more fixed in my mind as the series progresses.

On the other hand, Jackson Lamb is brilliant drawn and glorious in his repulsiveness.

Lots of humour, though I had to skim some of the kidnap plot passages quickly as I was finding it really uncomfortable reading (as it should be I guess!) Overall this was a compelling read and I’ll definitely continue the series, although number 2 is still £5 on kindle which is more than I’m happy to spend on kindle books, so might see if I can reserve at the library.

3 Murder On The Dancefloor by Shirley Ballas

Or more accurately, ghostwritten by Shelia McClure with Shirley’s name stuck on the front. At least she’s honest about it. This was pretty dire. I would have given up on it within a few chapters (well, in fact I wouldn’t have even picked it up in the first place) but my mum bought it for me for Christmas so I felt I should read it. On the plus side, it’s light frothy reading, didn’t take long, and some of the backstage dance stuff was fun. However the writing style is poor and there’s just too much irrelevant dance detail shoehorned in unnecessarily (lots of lists of various dance steps, or the type of fabric outfits are made from etc). The story is OK but it’s very ‘tell don’t show’ so I just couldn’t get engaged enough to actually care about any of the characters and the final denouement is just ridiculous. Not recommended!

It's an interesting topic - historic racism in novels. Should it stay or should it be edited out for modern readers? I think, on the whole, as adults we are capable of recognising what is and is not acceptable to the modern reader. It still jars, though.

Agatha Christie's novels are full of casual racism, of its day. Her novel And Then There Were None wasn't originally called that. A quick Google will tell you what its original title was.

Oooo I've just come across this magnificent thread! I read 53 books last year so have upped my goal to 75 for 2024, my kids are a little older (youngest is 6) so I can read more than I've been able to the last few years 😊

Books so far in 2024 : 1. The Flat Share - Beth O'Leary
*2. Til Death Do Us Part - Daniel Hurst
*
I'm currently reading Fourth Wing. I read anything genre that takes my fancy and usually have a physical and an audio/kindle on the go simultaneously. Happy reading everyone!

Finally finished my first.

Dianne Setterfield - Once Upon a River.
I enjoyed it, all the threads starting separate and weaving together. Well written, fantastic descriptions. Just not entirely sure how I feel about the ending!

Interesting debate around racism etc in books.
My approach is that if it reflects the time it was written then I want to read it as it was with the context in my mind. No alterations. Miss Pettigrew may well have been written when fascism was on the rise. It doesn’t mean she was aware of it (look at how many people aren’t aware of current affairs in, even with the constant news and social
media stuff), it might mean that she sympathised with it. It doesn’t much matter - not reading the book won’t change anything. I see it in the same way I see my grandparents more questionable views - they were a product not only of their time but also their individual upbringing and experiences. It doesn’t change that they were loving, wonderful people that I adored. I can’t rewrite them to have different views. I just need to be aware.

It can also help give me an insight into the reality of the lives of the people who are so casually dismissed in the books. If that is expunged do we not risk failing to see and understand exactly how insidious the racism etc was? It’s an insight into the appalling way people were othered. Without that, aren’t we rewriting history, with the risk that it starts to look nowhere near as bad as it was?

@Hopingforno2in2024 your poster sounds fun, id be interested to know what books are on it. Is it a selection of classics/modern classics? I love a 'must read' list. Years ago when the BBC did The Big Read I was lucky enough to go to the filming of the finale, then felt I had to work my way through all 100 books on the list! I think I may still be missing a couple.

@whinsome I love the Boudica series, have listened to the first two and like you am looking forward to getting into the next this year. I know the Iceni home lands and Colchester well having studied in the area and have grown up learning about Boudica which makes it all the more fun.

@mustbefreakingmad Beth O'Leary is my new favorite light read for a quick pick me up. Loved Flat Share.

Another novel which takes a very different look at 1930s politics was Wigs On The Green by Nancy Mitford. It's an early novel of hers. She wrote it as a satire of her sisters Diana and Unity and their involvement with Oswald Moseley and Hitler. Not particularly amusing to the modern reader, but it does show how easily people were drawn to an allegedly attractive political stance.

@whinsome those Boudicca books sound like something I would enjoy. I'm not sure I ever read Clan of the Cave Bear either. I will look into both of those!

I personally don't like physical books. I have a two year old and a four year old so it's handy having a kindle that doesn't lose my place and can't be ripped. I also love being able to hold and turn the pages of my "book" with one hand.

Thanks to a long wait in hospital this morning I’ve just finished a second.
Matthew Perry - Friends, Lovers and the Big, Terrible Thing.

It was ok. It’s not my sort of read normally but it was on the kindle 99p deal. I feel desperately sorry for him. But I found it quite muddled and repetitive.

@AliasGrape n2 was 99p just before Christmas so undoubtedly will be again.

I read Clan of the Cave Bear as a teenager so don’t know how they’d stand up to reading now. But I did really enjoy them.

3 A Symphony of Echoes - Jodi Taylor Second in the Chronicles of St Mary’s series. Another fun, quick read - lots of it didn’t make sense but that’s not what these books are for. There was a lot of unpleasant goriness and some nasty treatment of women, as well as an unhealthily dysfunctional romantic relationship which we are supposed to think is great. Despite all that, I enjoyed the fun bits and will read the next in the series.

Some of my favourite re-reads are things I loved as a teenager, notably Tales of the Otori.

Ohh, I’ll look out for that one, thanks @Kinsters

Interesting thoughts babybythesea that certainly resonate with my recent reading of Rudyard Kipling.

Fabulous series. I've never re-read it, but must do so at some point.

Writing out historical racism aways feels a bit like sticking your fingers in your ears and saying lalala loudly to me. It's pretending the problem didn't exist.

Not sure when you read it but there's a fourth book and a prequel now. When I read it it was just a trilogy and seemed quite neatly resolved. I was very pleased to see two new books when I looked it up after many years. Both new books were good but I particularly enjoyed the prequel which is about Shigeru.

You veterans weren't kidding about how quickly these threads move!

I've no objection to expurgated editions, as long as the original uncut ones are also/equally available. For me, the Persephone-grey cover and listed date of first publication are sufficient 'trigger warnings' for Miss Pettigrew. Agree with every word @babybythesea and one of my pet peeves is contemporary historical fiction in which the virtuous characters all think and speak in perfect 2020s while only the vicious hold some flat cartoonish version of what the author thinks of as the bad period views ('wimmins should be seen and not heard'). Tell me you haven't read any primary sources without telling me etc....

Anyway, onto the second half of Little Dorrit and enjoying it immensely now after a slightly clunky start. Trying to avoid spoilers (!) but eventually will be curious to see what Dickens had going on when writing the first instalments. Maybe it's just my preference for his satirical Tollope-adjacent mode over his dramatic Collins-lite (or Collins-heavy) side.

Meanwhile, finished:
2. Anthony Horowitz, A Twist of the Knife. Already reviewed by @Stowickthevast . I find this series reliably enjoyable while preferring he'd write another Susan Ryeland installment. Immersion broken by petty detail of the hot young actress who wears a Cartier watch and dons a satin puffball dress to a cast party. In 2020s London. Not a 1980s-themed one.

3. Cho Nam-Joo, Kim Jiyoung Born 1982 (trans. Jamie Chang). Reread inspired by @Tarragon123 upthread. I'm more forgiving of its measured moderation this time round, knowing more about the scale of anti-feminist backlash in Korea. Still undecided whether the ending feels more cop-out than clever. What did you think, Tarragon? I found Kwon Yeon-Sun's Lemon* *a more complex novel exploring similar things, while not being as batshit radical as Han Kang's The Vegetarian.