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?

I'm putting Gatsby on my list for this year.
I may have tried reading it before and given up.

@TattiePants TY! loved House of Glass and will look up the others.

@Justpontificating Keep us updated on the Rory Clements. I'm always looking for more ways to scratch the CJ Sansom itch resulting in tottering pile of DNF historicals

What are you local libraries like for eBooks. I wonder if I am missing something. I have just searched my library catalogue and got to page 4 of my good reads want to read list before I found a title that was actually available as an eBook at my library. It's really frustrating. I have a Kobo so that I can borrow books....but my library have very few you can get on eBook. They are slightly better for eAudiobooks so I have borrowed them, but of course the apps are poor so its not such an enjoyable experience as listening to a book on Audible.

@Hoolahoophop ours is okay for ebooks, they have a reasonable amount of new/popular titles but there can be a really long wait - 8 months for the Prince Harry book, for example.

Thanks @InTheCludgie I have reserved about 6. Two have been reserved since before Christmas. I guess they don't bother holding many copies of eBooks. But hopefully if I and lots of others keep reserving and borrowing then eventually they will build up more stock.

3 Mrs Caliban by Rachel Ingalls. I absolutely loved this novella. The writing was beautiful and thoughtful. In a nutshell, it’s about a housewife who is stuck in an imperfect life with an unfaithful husband, her son has died and she has had a miscarriage. Then a ‘frogman’ appears in her kitchen one day, he’s a ‘monster’ who has escaped from a local scientific research facility. They develop a very loving and tender relationship. Sounds odd when I write that down! But when you’re reading it, it’s very believable in a fairy taleesque way. It’s also got an interesting female friendship thread running through it too. A definite bold for me.

10. Harry Potter And The Half Blood Prince by JK Rowling

The most evil wizard in all the land is as ever outwitted by schoolchildren

This being a reread I actually enjoyed this the most so far I think.

I'm sort of dreading DH at 700+ pages though.

Our library is part of a group of several counties, Libraries West, which means we have a big selection of ebooks and audiobooks although there can be quite long waiting times for popular books. They have really upped their game in recent years, so much so that I haven't needed my Audible subscription and cancelled it.

It depends greatly on where you are based in the country and which company they use. Some collections are the sorriest looking things I've ever seen with only 2k titles available, other larger collections have 18-25k choice.

Even if there is a queue it's still worth reserving it as the queues move a lot faster than the dates given. People either return them early which moves things along, or libraries purchase more copies once the wait time goes over a certain amount. Audiobook queues move a lot faster than e-books.

If your library uses Borrowbox it can be better to access it by the website rather than the app for audiobooks as you can download them as a zip file and use any player you like. I prefer SmartAudiobook Player and the paid version is only £2.

The web address is usually
Placename.borrowbox.com or placenameUK.borrowbox.com

1. Munich Wolf Rory Clements

Wolf is a policeman working in Munich in the early 1930s. He's tasked with investigating the murder of a young English woman. It seems like a cut and dried case. But the truth runs much deeper. With the Nazi party in power, and political issues at play it's not as simple as solving a crime.

I really really loved this book. Although it's fictional there are real characters, mainly Unity Mitford.
5🌟

Very brief reviews because I have what I suspect is COVID - bleurgh. You'd think it'd be the perfect excuse to sit on the sofa with a book, but sitting on the sofa is all I can manage.

5. Games and Rituals - Katherine Heiny
Short story collection on the theme of love, friendship and families which will definitely appeal if you've enjoyed Heiny's other work.

6. Lady Catherine's Necklace - Joan Aiken
I've never read anything by Joan Aiken before but will pick up another of hers when I want a gentle read. This follows some of the characters from Pride & Prejudice, mainly the Collinses and Lady Catherine de Burgh, and it was nice to pick up familiar characters without feeling obliged to appreciate the great JA (I do love Austen, but I can't race through her work as there is so much in there). Nothing much happens in the first half, then the second half involves a gratuitous kidnap, an illegitimate child, and multiple inheritances. I loved the ending Aiken gives to Maria Lucas.

7. When the Dust Settles - Lucy Easthope
Read off the back of numerous recommendations on here, and I thought this was great. Loved Lucy Easthope's resilience in the face of her own personal difficulties, and her message that life happens to all of us, and it's as well to develop your personal resilience in case you're caught up in a disaster on top of that. It felt at times that I was reading back over a lifetime's worth of the worst news headlines, which was fascinating but does ram home her point that plane crashes, earthquakes and other catastrophes are not one-offs, they happen all the time. We're lucky to have people like her thinking about them in advance, and thinking about the rebuilding phase (even if the powers that be aren't always listening).

Currently reading The House with the Golden Door by Elodie Harper and tempted to reread Gatsby soon, as it is one of my favourite books.

Get well soon @MaudOfTheMarches

Thanks fuzzy, sorry to moan.

Thanks @Boiledeggandtoast

@BestIsWest Increasingly rare! Isn't it great when a book hits you in just the right places at just the right time though?!

Get well soon @MaudOfTheMarches

@EineReiseDurchDieZeit I'm finding DH less irritating than HBP. Also because Kreacher is fabulous and much better than Dopey Dobby. Just read the best bit in all the 7 books IMO when Kreacher asks Harry nicely if he wallop Mundungus over the head again with a frying pan. (In similar irreverent fashion my favourite bit of all the films is when Harry imitates Aragog at his funeral)

(That said, I'm still rolling my eyes at silliness like Mundungus not knowing who Umbridge was when Umbrage is Book 5 which is TOOTP which bloody Mundungus is part of!)

Just realised this was book 10 not 9.

Hope you feel better soon @MaudOfTheMarches

@EineReiseDurchDieZeit Kreacher making steak and kidney pudding is my favourite Kreacher moment, I think.

You are very welcome to moan ☕️📚🌻
I hope you find a good book to distract you.

Thanks for the good wishes. I've just started The Disappearing Act by Catherine Steadman, which is glam and undemanding - after success in a TV series about Jane Eyre and being dumped by her boyfriend, Mia goes to LA for a round of auditions and meetings. She is given the use of an Audi sports car and a minimalist high rise apartment (yay!) but all is not as it seems (duh duh duuuh).

Sorry you’ve been stricken,* *@MaudOfTheMarches 🙁

5. Resurrection Walk - Michael Connelly

I know opinion's divided about these books but they’re solid, undemanding comfort reads for me and I tend to sink into them with a happy sigh, as I would into a soft pillow.

Technically this is one of Connelly's Mickey Haller books but Bosch is now working for him as driver, private investigator and general dogsbody, so it’s effectively a Bosch book as well, just to warn any of the Bosch refuseniks. The pair are working together to investigate the conviction of a woman jailed for the murder of her ex-husband, but the case seems stacked against them. Never fear, the Lincoln Lawyer has plenty of tricks up his sleeve to see justice done.

OK, there were moments when even I rolled my eyes (Bosch's indestructibilty is starting to seem beyond rational belief by now as he surely must be in his 80s and is a cancer survivor to boot), but I romped through this fairly happily.

@Terpsichore DH has just bought home a copy of Resurrection Walk from where he works. They have a book exchange library but the books he brings home aren't really the sort I tend to like. However, after your review I think I'll give this one a read.

@MaudOfTheMarches I always thought of Joan Aiken as a children’s author but in the last few years I’ve discovered and really enjoyed some of her adult books. She’s done 5 or 6 Austen spinoffs although I haven’t read them all yet.

Aiken also did a few crime novels, some of which are laughably dreadful. I’ve enjoyed most of her Austen ones, though.

I have one of the crime novels on Kindle - Herondale something? I don't mind if it's dreadful, sometimes yhat's what you need. Makes sense that she's a children's author, Lady Catherine's Necklace could be children's or adult, I think.

5. Northanger Abbey - Jane Austen

A reread but it’s an awfully long time since I last read it so had very little recollection of the characters and storyline. Catherine Morland comes from a respectable but not well off family - being one of many children. She is fortunate enough to be invited to join rich, childless neighbours on a visit to Bath. A huge adventure for Catherine after village life and leads her to encounters with those who are less straight forward and honest than her. Who is a genuine friend? Who can she rely upon? Lots of visits to the Pump rooms, the theatre and house calls. Northanger Abbey finally makes an appearance in the second half of the book and Catherine’s imagination runs away with her, there are some salutary lessons and a happy ending. Not my favourite Austen but an enjoyable read.