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?

@medianewbie

I imagine it was very atmospheric for a local

@splothersdog

Oh fingers crossed you like it too!

1. Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea by Jules Verne

This has been sat on my kindle for ages and I thought Twixtmas might be a good time to get stuck in but I pretty much wish I hadn't bothered.

The first third as the scene is set and we get to know the characters drew me in, but my goodness the middle third is boring. It's essentially a list of what fish one can see at what coordinates around the globe. At least once in each chapter Conseil the manservant is referred to as "that gallant lad".

The actual story then moves along a bit more in the final third but by that point I was seriously considering a DNF at 70% and I no longer cared what happens to the Professor or Captain Nemo.

I did finish it but only because I it seemed a waste of time to give up that far in.

That might be my classic for the year 😂

Book 2

A Tomb With A View: Peter Ross

First of all, ignore the silly title. This is one of the best books I have read in a very long time and will absolutely be one of my books of the year no matter what else I read.

I picked it up in Waterstones at some point in 2022 and have just got round to it. It is utterly, totally, beautiful. The premise is graveyards and cemeteries and what we do with our dead, and Ross takes us on an eclectic and quirky tour throughout the British Isles visiting places of burial, and talking to the people who work in them, and the people whose loved ones are in them. It’s funny, it’s thought-provoking, it’s informative. It’s never mawkish, sad or disrespectful.

Christianity, Islam and Paganism are all covered. There’s history, literature, social policy, architecture, environmentalism, and nature. Famous people, and ordinary people. Old people and young people. People who died after long illnesses, suicides, IRA members. But never any judgement, just beautiful, beautiful writing and thoughts. It could have slipped into #sadface tabloid stories, or factoid central, or sniggery Bill Bryson travelogue totes hilaires musings. But it never, ever does.

What comes out of it more than anything, and it’s something Ross himself says, is how much sheer love there is in these places, from those left behind, and those who take care of the dead.

It was, strangely, one of the most uplifting things I think I’ve ever read, and I’ve put a pre-order in for his book on Churches which is out in February.

@BlindurErBóklausMaður thanks for your review of A Tomb with a view definitely another to add to my list looks very interesting.

Morning. I joined MN at Christmas so am new to this thread and would love to join in.
I've just finished Breath In, Breath Out by Stuart Sandman and about to start Someone Else's Shoes by Jojo Moyes.

A Tomb With A View is indeed a beautiful, thought-provoking book @BlindurErBóklausMaður . I have Steeple Chasing in hardback and it is just as good. A variety of churches large and small, grand and unassuming. It also highlights the work of Friends Of Friendless Churches, who are a fantastic organisation.

@MorriganManor fabulous!

@BlindurErBóklausMaður Thanks for your review of A Tomb With a View. Sounds like my kind of thing and I’ve just bought (2.99 on kindle btw).
Have a fascination for cemeteries anyway.

The stats are in on the round up thread...

Fantastic! Thank you, RomanMum.
I can't imagine taking on that job!

I've also got Tom Lake on audio, Meryl Streep drew me in. I'm a few chapters in to Hungry Ghosts on audio too though which I'm regretting not having the book of as there are so many characters to keep track of. Haven't had much time for listening over the holidays but will get back into it when the commute restarts next week.

1. Hello Beautiful - Ann Napolitano. This is one of those books that seemed to be everywhere at the end of last year so I picked it up when it was in the deals. It's about 4 sisters living in Chicago from roughly 1980 to 2008. The author was inspired by Little Women and there are references to it throughout. The book is told largely from the viewpoints of the two eldest sisters Julia and Sylvie, and from Julia's boyfriend William. I found it quite moving particularly towards the end, but after I put it down wondered if it was moving the way a Disney film is. There's a lot of telling and not much showing, and quite a few of the characters seem quite thin. The title comes from the way their father Charlie always greeted the girls, and there's lots of stories about what a great guy Charlie is, but we're not really shown that. The timeline is also a bit odd in that is quite slow moving in the first half of the book and then jumps 15-20 years at a time in the second half. And it's set in the 80s but feels a lot earlier. There are also a few life events and decisions that are just referred to fleetingly, which I found a bit annoying. But it was a decent family saga that kept me reading. I'll probably recommend it to my mum.

Hi can I join please. So far this year I've read

I Have to Save Them Ellie Midwood
A fictionalised account of real people and events from the Holocaust. Orli is a political Prisoner in Auschwitz, who despite no medical training prior to the war ends up helping run the medical blocks. Unlike the Nazis she tried to save lives not end them. 4🌟

P.S Jane Jessica Julien about an ordinary mum who gains superpowers and decides she can fight crime. 4🌟

Mrs Quinns Rise To Fame Olivia Ford
Mrs Quinn is a 77 year old woman who decides to enter 'Britain Bakes' (ie bake off). Secrets from her past are revealed as the story develops. 4🌟

The Villa Jess Ryder A group of friends go to Marbella for Aoife's hen weekend. Aoife ends up dead following an attack but no one is ever caught. 3 years later the remaining hens return so Dani and try and fill in the gaps in her memory of what happened that night. 5🌟

@EineReiseDurchDieZeit - being 'local' doesn't hurt certainly but I think it was well written too. Currently 75% through 'The Heart's Invisible Furies'. It's good.

@Stowickthevast

I've just started Hello Beautiful and agree about it not seeming 80s at all.

Book 2 - The Guilty Couple, C L Taylor

Olivia has been released from prison after being found guilty of plotting to have her husband, Dominic, murdered despite proclaiming her innocence. During her time in prison Olivia has come to believe that Dominic was behind the plot and had framed her. Now that she is a free woman she is determined to get the evidence to show she was right.

This was a perfectly enjoyable thriller, great for the first week back at work after the Christmas break. As with lots of books in this genre if you can ignore the plot holes and unrealistic scenarios everyone ends up in then it is engaging, the chapters ends in cliffhangers to keep you reading and it zipped along. Readable but forgettable.

The Rose Code by Kate Quinn women who worked at Bletchley park trying to catch a traitor before the Queens coronation. It was a good read I didn't realise that the characters were based on mostly real people

Harking back to my own point about editing our anti-Semitic/racist references in older books, maybe one way to do it is to edit but to add a postscript explaining what was done, so we're not falsifying the past but also not acting as if this stuff is okay really.

I too picked up Tom Lake in the audible sale though I haven’t started listening to it yet. I also just picked up A Tomb with a View from your recommendation @BlindurErBóklausMaður It sounds great and I need to read more non-fiction.

2.Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. I’m sure I don’t need to give a synopsis of this one as I’m the last person in the world to read it! I’ll just say I enjoyed it very much and wish I had first read it in my teens, when I would undoubtedly have fallen head over heels for Rochester, instead of now when I’ve too much sense! Still, it was a real page turner and it’s my first bold of the year- delighted to have one this early on!

3.Convenience Store Woman- Sayaka Murata
This is the story of 36 year old Keiko, a neurodiverse mid 30s woman who works in a local convenience store. The first half of this was very good- a unique narrator and the book was often very funny (not at Keiko’s expense) and skewered the society that pushes people like Keiko aside. Unfortunately, I didn’t enjoy the storyline with Shiraha, which dominated the second half of the book which made it drag despite its short length.

I’m now reading The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store by James O’Brien and Vox by Christine Dalcher.

Could I ask what is meant by "bold" I take it that means you really enjoyed the book? Is the idea that when you read a new book you post your complete list of read books and the ones you really liked you embolden the title?

Please can I join?
I finished kala - Colin Walsh on Tuesday, this was ok but a bit depressing.
I have just started just one damned thing after* another-* Jodi Taylor after recommendations on here.
I have coming Home - Rosamunde Pitcher on audible carried over from last year, it's a long and gentle read.

It’s better to number your books as you go along rather than post your whole list every time. People tend to recap their full lists once or twice a year, or at the beginning of a new thread although there’s no hard and fast rule about that. In those full lists, bolding a title highlights your favourite reads and I believe italicising means you didn’t rate the book highly.
I like to bold my individual books so they stand out in my review, but that’s just personal preference.
DNFs aren’t counted in your total, but reviews of why you Did Not Finish a book are helpful.

Don’t worry, though, it’s a friendly set of threads and any mistakes are pointed out nicely

Yes, basically bold in normal reviews just highlights the books but in a list means it’s a fave.

Re: Hello Beautiful, thought it was decent but then I hate Little Women so probably wasn’t the target.

All are welcome @toastedcrumpetsrock ! I really liked Kala and in the 50 Bookers Round Up thread I believe it came out in the top 3 fiction read by us in 2023.

Thank you for the explanation @MorriganManor and @AgualusasLover