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?

6 The Gabriel Hounds by Mary Stewart Not her best but still enjoyable. It took me a while to read this as I have started watching tv again because I have taken up knitting. I am also going to teach myself to crochet, if I can, so I will have to listen to more audio books

I remember reading all of Mary Stewart's books in my teens but cannot recall what The Gabriel Hounds was about. They seemed full of old fashioned glamour to be then

11. Sam Time Donna Balon

A slightly odd story about a woman called Sam who time-travels from modern America to the past to meet President Grant. She appears to be able to do this because of a magical dress.

There were some interesting Time travel concepts. Like not being able to take modern inventions into the past. And things she brings back to the modern day have aged appropriately.

But overall I wasn't a fan. The language was basic, the conversations felt stilted and unrealistic. And the constant descriptions of what Sam was wearing were unnecessary. Everytime she went to bed and didn't want to time-travel it mentioned that she wore one of her fiancé's shirts and some crew socks.

3/5 🌟

1. The Maid - Nita Prose
2. The Lost Bookshop - Evie Woods
3. Unruly - David Mitchell

4. Lucy by the Sea - Elizabeth Strout

Loved this last one so much!

1. Why I'm no longer talking to white people about race - Reni Eddo-Lodge

This was a tough listen.

The author demands that we listen, learn from marginalised perspectives, intervene as bystanders and collectively address profound inequalities. Yet another reminder that change starts with us and that's a huge responsibility.

Two more reads - I had to power through these as they were due back at the library.

8. The Britannias, an Island Quest, by Alice Albinia
As the title suggests, the author travels to islands around the British coast and writes about their history and life there. In the first chapter, she writes about Orkney, drawing on her 13 months there and the Neolithic monuments. This was right up my street (or processional pathway), and I settled in for an enjoyable read. Subsequent chapters go off in at different tangents, however, and it becomes a bit of a mish-mash. She says she wrote the book over the course of a decade, and it shows - it doesn't cohere all that well. For Anglesey, she walks around monuments with two companions who indulge in various cod-Celtic rituals while she goes on about druids. Some chapters are just information dumps, and she's introduced a theme (the search for prehistoric female power) that she can't find much evidence for and so has to make things up. There were still things I found interesting - the women protesting the macho nature of Up Helly Aa in Shetland, the Nazi occupation of Alderney - but overall the idea was better than the execution.

9. The Secret Countess, Eva Ibbotson
Fairy tale story of a young Russian aristocrat who flees to England after the Revolution and works as a servant. Everyone promptly falls in love with her. This includes me - I only discovered Eva Ibbotson last year and I'm a complete sucker for her writing. I laughed at all the jokes, booed the villain, and cheered on love's young dream. You could pull it apart, but the author fled Austria as a child in the 1930s and if she wants to dream up a tale where foreign exiles and welcomed and valued, and Jewish families are embraced by the interwar English aristocracy, then she has earned the right do so and I'm happy to live in her world for a while. I uncritically loved this.

4. Yellowface - RF Kuang - I read this super quickly and enjoyed it start to finish. Probably not a book that will linger in my memory but I enjoyed my time with it. I will definitely read some of RF's earlier books as they look like something I'd enjoy.

I also loved The Secret Countess, Biblio. That's a lovely review.

1. She and Her Cat: Makoto Shinkai and Naruki Nagakawa trans. Ginny Tapley Nagakawa.

My ds gave me this book as a Christmas present as I am the slave to two resident felines.

This is a nice, gentle book about four single women living on their own who struggle with loneliness and anxiety and due to various difficulties find it hard to make a connection with other people. There are four separate stories that interweave with each other and it's the cats who help connect the stories and ultimately the characters to each other. An uplifting, easy read. Complimentary picture attached with the book and one indolent cat.

7 Agor Y Drws Six short stories for Welsh learners. Very simple, humorous stories, just about right for my level of Welsh.

Lovely cat @FuzzyCaoraDhubh. I have cat envy. We have two dogs and I’m not allowed a cat.

1. How Not To Die by Michael Greger

A bit of a niche read. Dr Greger puts a good argument forward for the plant based diet as a way to maintain long term health, and even to reverse some conditions. His research findings are fascinating, and very persuasive, although some bits I wasn't entirely convinced about.

I am a vegan already, and was previously vegetarian for around the past 30 years. I found myself making notes of useful facts.

1. Politics On The Edge: A Memoir From Within by Rory Stewart

In which we find out that Rory Stewart is the best Prime-minister we never had. Obviously written from his own perspective so there is a lot of blowing his own trumpet - but then there seems to be a lot of trumpet to blow. He comes across as earnest, hardworking and caring. In every role he's parachuted into (and there are many) he does his best to get to grips with the brief and make positive changes, but the bureaucracy and red tape is endless. The prisons my god the prisons! - something as simple as introducing body scanners and fixing windows in prisons (to stop drone delivered drugs) seems to involve a Herculean effort and battles with everyone involved. It's like swimming through treacle. The reshuffles are relentless so just when he feels he's making headway in a ministerial role it's all change - all the players are thrown up into the air and land in a different department where they have often have no expertise or even interest in the job at hand. They rely on the armies of Civil Servants, who weld the power behind the throne, and most of whom seem to prefer that the ministers let them get on with their jobs without disturbing the equilibrium too much.

This book lays bare the absurdity of politics and confirms all your worst fears about how things are run and the people involved in running them. Bo Jo, Cameron, Gove and Truss all come across as variously slippery, undemocratic, Machiavellian and unhinged.
Theresa May is the only PM, or wannabe PM, who comes out of this well. Sajid Javid is described as 'likeable' and former Secretary of State David Gauke, who I'll admit I'd never heard of before (and sadly is no longer in politics thanks to Bo Jo removing his whip and effectively sacking him for the crime of voting with his conscience rather than the government) seems to be Rory's own choice for 'best PM we never had' award.

I'm not a regular reader of political memoirs, the last one being A View From The Foothills by Chris Mullin in 2011, and that was dealing with the Blair/Brown years. If I had any hopes that Parliament may have improved in the intervening years then Rory Stewart has sadly rectified any optimism on that score. Roll on the next election it surely can't get any worse 🤞

I read this over 4 days - v fast for a 'slow reader' like me, and would recommend for anyone who has the least interest in politics and politicians and has the stomach for it, just don't expect to emerge feeling any more positive about the state of the nation but it's certainly eye opening.

I'm here for the cat pics @FuzzyCaoraDhubh

Loved your Gatsby review @RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie . It inspired me to dig out my old A level copy complete with underlining. I think I'll have to read it now. I also loved the Robert Redford film, Leo not so much.

3 Winter In Sokcho by Elisa Shua Dusapin

Set in Sokcho, a South Korean seaside town that borders North Korea. In the summer the town is full of tourists who want to look across into North Korea. In the winter the town is freezing cold and bleak. The narrator - we never learn her name - works in a run down guest house as receptionist/cook/general dogsbody. Her closest relationship is with her mother who runs a seafood market stall. A French author/artist, old enough to be her father, comes to the guesthouse to write a graphic novel. The narrator shows him around Sokcho. She is wistful about some kind of closer relationship with him, he is aloof and makes no effort to hide his dislike of Sokcho.

I haven't made it sound very appealing but I really loved it. Elisa Dusapin writes beautifully - evocative- capturing the bleak, empty town in winter which reflects the narrator's inner empty bleakness. Its very descriptive but it's show, not tell (unlike the Val McDermid, the last book I read, which was all tell, no show). It's only a short book and I didn't want it to end. There were times when I had to stop and reread a passage just because of the beauty of the words. I gave it five stars on Goodreads.

Also some reviews:

1. Big Swiss - Jen Beagin. This is about a woman called Greta who is has turned up in a woke town near New York where she's living in an old derelict house with her friend Sabine. She has a job transcribing therapy sessions for a sex therapist called Om, one of whose clients is Big Swiss. Greta is kind of an anti-hero, she's pretty messed up but not in a naval-gazing Sally Rooney way. I found this really enjoyable and quite silly. There are some funny characters and the descriptions are very evocative - I live in east London and some of it felt scarily familiar.

1. The Memory Of Animals - Claire Fuller. I think I've mentioned before that I'm a bit over pandemic books. This is set in a much worse pandemic than the covid one. It's about Neffy who signs up to do a vaccine trial to fight the virus, and then wakes up with a random bunch of other volunteers at the end of the world. The main chunk of the book explores Neffy coming to terms with what is happening but also hasa whole part with a flashback machine that means she can relive her memories so we see how she got here. It also has a lot about octopi... My favourite parts. It reminded me a lot of The Stranding which I read before Christmas but which I think was better done. I didn't really get why she needed a memory machine and why the story couldn't just be told I'm flashbacks. It's also very slow moving in the main part of the book - maybe intentionally re living the boredom of lockdown - but then the end is wrapped up in a few pages, which felt a bit uneven.

Another one who loved your Gatsby review Remus. I only reread it last year but I’m tempted to read again after that. The free audible book is read by Jake Gyllenhal so I might give that a listen later in the year.

Meanwhile, I’m reading far too many books at once (again). I do my daily but from Another Year of Wonder, am reading 4 for an online literature book club- 1 reread, 2 associated non-fics and a book of poetry I’m struggling with. For my own general reading I have a fantasy book, a non-fic and a book of short stories on the go and I’m listening to Tom Lake on my commute (this is the one I’m enjoying most). Despite all this muddled carry on, I am enjoying my reading this month in general (apart from the next review) and have finished two more.
6 Vox by Christine Dalcher
This has a great premise but the execution is poor. In a near future America an extreme right wing Christian government has come to power and women have been given ‘bracelets’ which give them increasingly powerful electric shocks after they speak more than their allotted 100 words. Dr Jean McClellan has hers temporarily removed and is allowed to return to work to help the president’s brother who has had a brain injury. Coincidentally this is the same brain injury that controls speech and she is an expert in and then her mum has a stroke creating the same problem. This book is riddled with implausabilities and coincidences.
SPOILER ALERT DO NOT READ NEXT BIT IF YOU INTEND TO READ THE BOOK. In a supposed feminist book it is the men who come to the rescue and just about everybody turns out to be a member of the secret resistance. SPOILER ENDS HERE.
A poor copy of The Handmaid’s Tale. Nonsense. Do not recommend.

7 Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell
Im reading this years after everyone else and I’m sure it’s been much reviewed. It tells the story of Shakespeare’s wife Agnes, and the death of their child Hamnet. I found this hard to get into at the start and somewhat overwritten. I loved The Marriage Portrait which I read last year so I persevered and I’m glad I did. The second part of the book is beautifully written, the grief palpable and it feels real. Totally redeemed the book for me but the beginning stops it from being a bold.

That's my Gatsby copy and I believe mine is highlighted in pink as well. 😂

Just catching up on the last few pages.
I am enjoying the re-reads of Harry Potter , I quite often stick Stephen reading them on Audible when I fancy some easy listening.

@BestIsWest I'm a Welsh learner too, I am getting fairly good as I work in a Welsh speaking office. Happy to siarad Cymraeg if you like.

I've knocked off number 3 for 2024 - another of the Seven Sisters series.

3. The Shadow SIster by Lucinda Riley The next installment of the Seven Sisters series. Formulaic and a bit predictable, but easy comfortable reading and a decent yarn. This is the story of the third sister Asterope (Known as Star), who has always lived under the shadow of her domineering sister Cece, and barely speaks as a child. When their adopted father Pa Salt dies, each sister is given some information about their birth family, and then the story develops on two timelines, one with Star in the present day and the other timeline following one of her ancestors Flora MacNicol, who grew up in the Edwardian era and has connections with Alice Keppel, mistress of King Edward VII and write Beatrix Potter. Star learns the story of her birth and her original family and finds a new confidence in her present day life. Exactly as expected, decent story, easy read.

I've never read Gatsby, but hated the DiCaprio film

I actually really liked the Gatsby film, apart from the silly opening bit. I thought Leo was great.

The film made the book finally click with me in a way it hadn't before, something personal got me from watching it.

Gatsby is one of my favourite books. I quite liked the DiCaprio film!

12 Angel by Elizabeth Taylor

This follows Angel (Angelica) Deverell, from being a precocious 15 year old in 1901, until after the Second World War. Angel writes frankly terrible sounding books that are hated by the critics but inexplicably loved by the public, but she has an inflated sense of what a good writer she is and struggles when the public stops buying her books. This was an interesting read. None of the characters are at all likeable (except her publisher Theo) but I was still intrigued to find out what happened to them. I loved all the descriptions of her dream home, Paradise House, and how the house’s fortunes largely reflect Angel’s. I didn’t enjoy this quite as much as Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont by the same author, but this was still good.

Ooh, @ChessieFL , I have Angel out from the library right now; that's a coincidence! I haven't started reading it yet. I read several Elizabeth Taylor novels last year. I recognise the feature you mention, of characters often not being very likeable, but still being quite gripping. In some respects she seems to have quite a cynical view of human nature!

Hope you enjoy it cassandre. I haven’t read any other Taylor yet other than those two but will definitely look out for more.

Elizabeth Taylor is wonderful. I’m very fond of The Soul of Kindness, with another central character who's totally awful but also fascinating.

Anyway… 6. A Fortunate Man - John Berger

This classic short book, or perhaps long essay, with wonderful black-and-white photographs by Jean Mohr, was published in 1967. Berger and Mohr spent 6 weeks living with a GP, John Sassall (a pseudonym, though he’d be immediately identifiable from the photographs) in the small Gloucestershire community where he lived and worked.

Sassall was dedicated to his calling to a remarkable degree, perhaps overly so (his frequent, severe bouts of depression are mentioned later on) and the first part of the book describes various consultations with his patients, and the close bonds he'd developed with them, often literally from the cradle. The second part is Berger's philosophical musings on the relationships we have with illness and the people who treat us and strive to cure us. He puzzles over Sassall's motivations for doing what he does, for devoting himself to this small, poor, deprived community and - as he puts it - 'keeping the records' of the people living in it. While there's no shortage of caring doctors today, the book definitely charts a lost world, a time before the bureaucracy and box-ticking of the NHS had yet to descend with full force.

What the book can't record - as it happened some 15 years after it was first published - was that Sassall committed suicide after his own retirement following the sudden death of his wife. This is explained in the later book A Fortunate Woman, about the female GP who now lives and works in the same village as Sassall, and which I read last year. I’d recommend both books, although maybe don’t do what I did and read them the wrong way round!