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?

Envious of all fresh relegations to readers of Slough House. Can I ask anyone who's up to date with the latest series if the show diverges more from the books? Have heard conflicting things and would like to avoid spoilers if so, so can't investigate properly.
I'm back at work tomorrow and saved The Secret Hours for a commute treat.

1. Nettle and Bone: T. Kingfisher.

On Kindle. This is a darkly humorous fantasy about a young princess, Marra, who is on a quest to save her older sister from her abusive husband, the prince and heir to the throne of the Northern Kingdom.

This is a dark fairy tale. There is a lot of humour in it but there is also a seriousness underpinning the story concerning domestic abuse and the abuse of power. There is also one very sinister episode concerning a controlling puppet that I found disturbing. It's definitely meant for adults, not for young readers. I liked the motley crew of crusaders; Shy Marra, her bashful knight, the anxious godmother, the plucky gravewitch, her demon chicken and faithful Bonedog, all going forth on their impossible quest.

An enjoyable read and I'll revisit T. Kingfisher later on this year.

1. Anything is Possible by Elizabeth Strout

Second of the Lucy Barton books, where we learn more about many of the characters from Lucy's small town upbringing. I did enjoy this, but not as much as the first. In many ways I feel like it explained too much, and I preferred just seeing people from Lucy's perspective. I'll definitely read the next two, but might wait a while to do so.

I have finished another two books thanks to 8+ hours on a coach yesterday!

4 The Real Deal by Caitlin Devlin

This is one of my Amazon First Reads freebies for this month. The quality of these is mixed but this was a good choice. It’s based around a reality show where a star, Donna, chose six teenage girls that she would try to make famous through acting/singing etc. Ten years later, the girls are brought together for a reunion and it’s clear that things with the original show went very wrong. Gradually the story of what happened is revealed. I thought this was a good story, with believable characters and it rang true about the downsides of TV and the uncertainty of what and who can be trusted.

5 Almost Surely Dead by Amina Akhtar

This was my other First Reads freebie and this wasn’t as good as the one above, although I did enjoy most of it - the first three quarters I thought were great but it was all let down by the last quarter where the story took a turn that I did not expect and wasn’t for me. It’s about a woman called Dunia who we know has disappeared after an inexplicable attempt to murder her. Now there’s a podcast looking into her disappearance. The story is gradually revealed interspersed with transcripts from the podcast and flashbacks to Dunia’s childhood. I liked the character of Dunia and the story did engage me until the ending.

Book 3 - Shakespeare - the man who pays the rent.
I have to say that I absolutely adored this book. It’s a series of interviews with Judi Dench about the parts she has played in Shakespeare plays over the years and it’s such a lovely read. I could hear her voice throughout - she is very funny and witty (and sarcastic!) whilst being incredibly thoughtful about the plays. I learnt so much about each play from the interviews - probably my favourite non fiction book in several years!

For book 4 I’m heading back into fiction with Jeffrey Archer’s new William Warwick series which I always enjoy!

Love Jane Eyre. I am actually wondering about reading all the books that were written by the sisters during this year.

Interesting about Sara Seale, @istara . I'm also a Scoop fan. "Up to a point, Lord Copper".

Collected The Running Grave from the library yesterday and I'm 167 pages in and resenting the long-windedness. My, Robin is dull and bland while obviously a fantasy projection of JKR. The Wounded/Drowned/Stolen Prophets are rather intriguing though.

Refreshing myself at intervals with The Ghost of Thomas Kempe, by Penelope Lively which I picked up for pennies at a Christmas school fair. It used to be a school library book and it still has the names of the child borrowers in the front, the most recent over 25 years ago. It's just a tatty paperback, but it's oddly touching to think of the child hands turning the same pages years ago.

Oh yes that's such a brilliant phrase! Actually useful, particularly when dealing with certain clients/managers etc.

I'm also planning to read some old childhood favourites. Fire & Hemlock by Diana Wynne Jones will be on my list somewhere.

Interesting to see all the love for Tom Lake! I thought it was the weakest Ann Patchett book I've read (too bland), but clearly opinions differ.

On the other hand, @elspethmcgillicuddy, I loved Naomi Klein's Doppleganger pretty much unreservedly. I didn't find it incoherent at all. She did explore the concept of 'doubles' in all kinds of different ways, but there was a unifying theme in that they were all ways of 'othering' people, and it turns out that these practices of othering are often a strong reflection of our own desires and fears.

I also found her discussion of Judaism and Israel to be very insightful, and similar to the perspective of many left-wing Jews: she calls out anti-Semitism while still critiquing Israel's treatment of the Palestinians. She has been very vocal on Twitter recently in condemning the genocide in Gaza.

At one point she says that the story of having a doppelganger which most resonated with her was a novel by Philip Roth, Operation Shylock, and I mentally shuddered because I'm not a Roth fan; I find him too sexist. But then she goes on to say that she didn't consider herself a Roth fan for that very reason (I'm paraphrasing!), but that she thought this particular novel was brilliant anyway. And she goes on to do a very interesting analysis of the novel. (It didn't convince me to go read Philip Roth again though, ha!).

2. Dear Fred by KM Peyton
I was sad to read of KM Peyton's death - or whatever the emotion is when someone who has lived a very long and creative life dies beloved at 94. Melancholy? Nostalgic? I read and reread many of her books as a teenager and would go back to them as an adult. However, I'd never heard of this one, a fictional telling of the life of Fred Archer, jockey extraordinaire of the 1870s/1880s. All the romance of Peyton's YA novels but a lot more passion and a little violence. I really enjoyed it and will remember Fred's life.

Belated Happy New Year to everyone! I haven’t finished anything yet but have caught up with the thread and wanted to say thanks to elspethmcgillicuddy for mentioning the The Rest is Entertainment podcast which looks fab!

Has anyone read Shakespeare by Judi Dench via audible? Tempted to renew my subscription for it.

Thanks for pp who have recommended it, it's definitely on my list.

Glad to hear you enjoyed Dear Fred Temporary. I've been pondering a re-read, but sometimes it's better to leave teenage favourites in the past.

(Family history says that my great-grandfather was friends with Fred Archer - or more to the point, spent all his money partying with him, then died of the Spanish flu leaving my chorus-girl DGGM penniless with baby.)

@Sadik that is a great bit of family history!

@istara I absolutely loved Fire & Hemlock as a teenager.

Epic family history @Sadik

@DesdamonasHandkerchief

I didn't rate Zachary Cloudesley last year, very so what? Very middle of the road.

Finished my 2nd book of the year last night, Spook Street by Mick Herron. It's the fourth in the slow horses series and definitely the best one yet. I won't give a plot summary as I don't think I can do it without spoilers and I see other posters are reading the series too but this one was explosive. A real page turner, and I now can't wait for the next series of the tv show as it's based on this book.

Next I'm reading some Agatha Christie for my book club next week, and I've got an audiobook on the go too.

Thanks to the poster who recommended StoryGraph, it's fascinating.

1. My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell. Vanessa is a 15 year old girl who starts attending a Maine boarding school on a scholarship. She is groomed by her teacher Jacob Strange, and has an abusive relationship with him that lasts into adulthood. This was obviously an uncomfortable read. Strane introduces Vanessa to Nabokov’s Lolita, and there are clear parallels with this novel, although the perspective here is all Vanessa’s. There are some graphic descriptions of Vanessa’s rape by Strand which are incredibly hard to read, and I did wonder if the book needed quite so many of them, but the deep sadness in which Vanessa at first cannot, and later will not, accept that she was a victim was very powerful.
2. Oxblood by Tom Benn Nedra, Carol and Jan are from three generations of the Dodds family living in a single house in Manchester. The Dodds men have been heavily involved in crime in South Manchester from the 1960s to the 1980s, and are now mostly absent as a result. The lack of agency of the women was depressing but probably accurate. However it led to the characters being a bit one dimensional, which is a problem for a novel focusing on characters at the expense of plot. I also found the narrative voice inconsistent. Benn seemed unsure whether to commit to writing in Mancunian vernacular, or to show off some Creative Writing MA poetic prose. As such, he did both within the same narrative sections, which left it feeling quite inauthentic.

Next up will be Giving Up the Ghost (physical book) and Vernon God Little (audio).

I think I meant more lacking cohesiveness rather than incoherent. I felt the theme was a bit forced. I did find her thoughts on holocaust teaching extremely interesting and well argued. I didn't hate it at all but I thought it suffered by trying to cover too much ground.

ugh, horrible autocorrect typos in my post below!

Gosh so many of you have read so many books already! My book suggestion list is growing. My first two:

1. Hercule Poirots Silent Night by Sophie Hannah - a Christmas gift and perfect for New Year day sleepiness. I like Hannah’s approach to new Poirots, they aren’t too different while being new stories. A good cosy murder.

2. A Pocketful of Happiness by Richard E. Grant- a memoir that focuses on the Christmas 2020 until September 2021 from his wife’s cancer diagnosis to her death, with seasonal memories back to their early days and his career. I don’t normally read memoirs (it’s a book club one) but I liked this, just the right level of name dropping (lots!), and his upbeat joy of life suited a cold busy week. (I loved that Nigella Lawson’s response to the news her friend had cancer diagnosed in a lockdown was to send a taxi round with stew.) like lots of people who read it, I’ve been left wondering about Grant’s step son who doesn’t get a mention beyond his existence being acknowledged as a child.

@BlindurErBóklausMaður – I’d also recommend Val McDermid’s Karen Pirie series. My other picks would be Marion Todd’s DI Clare Mackay series (set in North East Fife mostly), Denziel Meyrick’s DCI Daley series (set on the Mull of Kintyre) and Lynne McEwan’s DI Shona Oliver series (set in Dumfries and Galloway). I love tartan noir!!

@Palegreenstars – I’m also a sucker for a dynasty and I finished the Moreland saga a year or so ago, after a huge gap. She fair battered out some books during the First World War.

@DuPainDuVinDuFromage – Been too busy with the inside of the house, rather than the garden ha ha! Had a party last night and had a lovely wee bar area set up in the garden. Kept the drinks nice and cold. That’s really about the extent of my gardening!

@AliasGrape – I bought Slow Horses when it was a 99p special and it lay unread in my kindle pile. I started watched the TV adaptation and thought that the name rang a bell. So I went back and read it. Loved it and the adaptation.

@HenryTilneyBestBoy – I was utterly gobsmacked at the ending. I was thinking my book must be damaged and I must have missed some pages. I went back and reread and thought, oh I think this is supposed to be really clever, but I didn’t feel like that. I feel cheated. Is that too strong a word? I’m going to give Kwon Yeon-Sun's Lemon a go. Thank you for the recommendation

@RomanMum – I’m interesting in Dostadning. A friend is starting to clear out her father’s property. There are gas bills from the 1970s, they kept everything!

@purplewhipple – I missed the post about Storygraph, my daughter recommended it. Much better than Goodreads I think

No 3 finished - Kim JiYoung, Born 1982 by Cho Nam-Joo trans Jamie Chang. I really enjoyed it until the ending as per my reply to @HenryTilneyBestBoy. I’ve now moved onto The Menopause Reset by Dr Mindy Pelz and I also have just got Miss Pettigrew…out of the library.

Beyond the Wall by Katja Hoyer
Finally finished my first book of the year and it was a real slog, which I can’t recommend. I felt it was a bit of a con, in that lots of it didn’t even focus on Berlin at all and a good chunk of the first half was pre-wall. The writing style was quite boring and it was also very disjointed in places. Really glad I bought it cheap on kindle, rather than splashing out full price on the hardback as I almost did.

I’ve finished number 2, The Mysterious Affair at Styles - Agatha Christie,
Thanks for inspiring me to read this @TimeforaGandT - I’d watched the (Suchet) tv adaptation years back but couldn’t remember the storyline very well, and I’d never actually read this first Poirot novel. An entertaining couple of hours passed and I genuinely laughed out loud at Hastings’ pomposity a few times. Great stuff.

I’ve been tempted by the Judi Dench, but wasn’t sure how much Shakespeare and how much Judi life story I would get, but it sounds like it’s quite focussed and I like the idea of interviews. I still have some
vouchers burning a hole in my pocket.