50 Books Challenge 2024 Part Two

[Southeastdweller]

Welcome to the second 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.

The previous thread is here

Thanks for the new thread - can’t believe it’s here already!

Fast work southeast thanks for the thread

Small list so far :

1.	Harry Potter And The Philosopher’s Stone by JK Rowling
2.	Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets by JK Rowling 
3.	Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban by JK Rowling 
4.	Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire by JK Rowling 
5.	The End We Start From by Megan Hunter
6.	<strong>Tom Lake</strong> by Ann Patchett
7.	Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix by JK Rowling
8.	Wandering Souls by Cecile Pin
9.	Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano
10.	Harry Potter And The Half Blood Prince by JK Rowling
11.	Penance by Eliza Clark
12.	Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows

What? A new thread already? I’ve got three on the go at the moment. I’m in the wastes of Antarctica with Cherry-Garrard, in a vicarage with Richard Coles on Kindle and in A Village in the Third Reich on Audible.

Can’t believe we’re on a new thread already. Thanks Southeast.
My list so far
1 Salt Lane- William Shaw
2 Jane Eyre- Charlotte Brontë
3 Convenience Store Woman- Sayaka Murata
4 The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store- James McBride
5 Strong Female Character- Fern Brady
6 Vox- Christine Dalcher
7 Hamnet- Maggie O’Farrell
8 The Traitor- Anthony Ryan
9 Tom Lake- Anne Patchett
10 The Secret Lives of Church Ladies- Deesha Philyaw

Thanks for the new thread Southeast. Just placemarking for now.

Thanks Southeast. My list so far although I’m behind again on my reviews.

1 The Chrysalids, John Wyndham
2 Bomber, Len Deighton
3 Stay With Me, Ayobami Adebayo
4 A Thread of Grace, Mary Doria Russell
5 Under Sea, Over Stone, Susan Cooper
6 Frenchman’s Creek, Daphne du Maurier
7 War Doctor, David Nott
8 Zoo Station, David Downing

Hi all. Just place marking for now.

Thanks for the new thread, South

I'll post my list, as it’s still quite manageable:

1. A Heart Full of Headstones - Ian Rankin
2. The Piano Shop on the Left Bank - T. E. Carhart
3. Late in the Day - Tessa Hadley
4. The Wah-Wah Diaries - Richard E. Grant
5. Resurrection Walk - Michael Connelly
6. A Fortunate Man - John Berger
7. The Messalina of the Suburbs - E. M. Delafield

I'm also on the Nicholas Nickleby readalong, and just starting a book of Tuscan foodie writing which is a wondrous thing.

Thank you SouthEast.
My list and new reviews to date:

1.	The Second Sight of Zachary Cloudesley by Sean Lusk
2.	Slow Horses by Mick Herron
3.	Cyrano De Bergerac by Edmond Rostand 
4.	Politics On The Edge by Rory Stewart  

The Audacity by Katherine Ryan
I came across this autobiography on Libby when I was looking for something else and thought I'd give it a go. It was funny, bright and breezy in the main,
but does detail how she has dealt with toxic relationships in her life and her struggle to carry a second baby to term. No mention of the recent Russel Brand unmasking that she was instrumental in, but this book predates that.
Much of the content was familiar to me as the recent Louis Theroux interview covered a lot of the same ground and her stand up routines borrow heavily from her own life. Not a bold but not a waste of time either.

A Heart That Works by Roberts Delaney
Heartbreaking, honest dissection of the illness and death of the authors third son, Henry. It did feel somewhat voyeuristic to be invited into the raw grief and anger of this time but Delaney has some important points to make and doesn't shy away from sharing them.
The book is written, I think, as a kind of catharsis for him as he works through his memories and emotions, as a thank you to those who helped with Henry's care and lightened the load and as a handbook for those who are going, or have gone through, similar tragedies in their own lives. For everybody else there is advice on the right and wrong way to try to help and comfort those grieving.

I listened to this on Audible, read by Delaney, and I honestly don't know how he got through it.

Place marking on the new thread- thanks southeast.

I just typed out my list and lost the post. Will do it again later so just placemarking for now. Thanks for the new thread southeast

Thank you @Southeastdweller
I am laughing a lot at the letter addressed to ‘Cocoaberry’
@Passmethecrisps! My own home village (not in Scotland) suffers from frequent mispronunciation and I have to resist the urge to explain the etymology of the name if someone gets it wrong.

Duplicate post.

Thanks southeast

what's the Tuscan foodie book* *@Terpsichore ?

Here's my little list:

1. Confessions of a forty-something **-up – Alexandra Potter
2. Why I’m no longer talking to white people about race – Reni Eddo-lodge

3. A heart that works – Rob Delaney

Currently playing catch up on the Nicholas Nickleby readalong. Also listening to 52 ways to walk by Annabel Streets (nom de plume?), and I might just have started Really good, actually by Monica Heisey.

Thanks @Southeastdweller

I DNF Hags and feel that Unwell Women may go the same way. I’m all for female power etc, but often find it quite exhausting to read about, frankly.

Thanks for the new thread @Southeastdweller
List so far

1	 The familiars - Stacey Hall
2	Prophet song- Paul Lynch
3	Wintering - Katherine May
4	Giving up the Ghost - Hilary Mantel 
5	Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries - Heather Fawcett 
6	Fifteen wild Decembers - Karen Powell 
7	Politics on the edge - Rory Stewart

I have no desire to read Hags but loved Unwell Women. I just thought it was historically fascinating, if very disturbing.

Thank you southeast!

My list:

1. Trust - Hernan Diaz
2. The Mysterious Affair at Styles - Agatha Christie
3. Ruin Beach - Kate Rhodes

4. Hamnet - Maggie O’Farrell

1. Northanger Abbey - Jane Austen
2. Snow - John Banville

Still trying to decide whether to bold Snow.

Currently reading The Golden Mole and The God of Small Things

Thanks for the new thread South!

1 Be a Free Range Human - Marianne Cantwell
2 Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs? - Caitlin Doherty
3 The Second Sleep - Robert Harris
4 Poirot’s Silent Night - Sophie Hannah
5 Unruly - David Mitchell
6 Frankenstein - Mary Shelley

Now reading a science/classics crossover book about how ancient people reacted to fossil remains (bit niche but I’m happy because I’ve read lots about the Greeks before, and lots about dinosaurs, but never at the same time!). Also need to get on the case with January’s Nicholas Nickleby chapters.

Thanks Southeast as always!

1. The Long Shadow by Cynthia Harrod - Eagles.
2. A Heart That Works by Rob Delaney.
3. Daisy Jones and The Six by Taylor Jenkins Read.
4. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley.

Thanks for new thread southeast. On holiday so lots of reading time, I'll catch up on reviews when I'm back & not on my phone. After a few short books I'm now very happy immersed in A Suitable Boy. It was a favourite of my DMs, & I'm not sure why I've never read it before

I thought Menopause Manifesto much the best of the books on the topic that I've read @Razorstormunicorn

I liked Hags but it relied a bit too much on 'Mumsnet Says' to make it really good. I want to know what women not on MN think about getting older and attitudes towards them.

Placemarking but also noting the differing views of Unwell Women and Hags. Both are on my TBR pile I'm different states of being read. I keep picking them up and putting them down. I think the issue is I read to escape and wind down and both of these are just so depressing, although obviously real.

Hello all and thank you for the thread @Southeastdweller!

And thanks for posting the list of Women's Prize predictions @FortunaMajor, some big hitters there but as you say a lot of surprises last year. I actually had thought Soldier Sailor was a memoir so I'm a bit more interested now I know it's a novel, but having a young toddler part of me feels I'm still too close to the baby fog stage to want to read about it.

1. Carrie Soto is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid. Carrie comes out of retirement at the grand old age of 36 to defend her record as the most successful woman tennis player of all time. I don't like to give bad reviews but I sometimes wonder why I keep reading TJR as I've only really enjoyed Daisy Jones. A novel set in international tennis in the 90s could have been really soapy and gossipy, but instead it's just pretty much a list of every match she plays and how all the points are scored, plus a lot of references to knee cartilage.