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

I'm now reading 12. 'Heartstopper: Volume 1:- Alice Oseman.

7 Homecoming - Kate Morton Not sure where to start with reviewing this…it has left quite a sour taste after finishing it, and I’m pretty sure that’s not what the author was aiming for. It’s about a woman (Jess) who returns home to Australia from London to see her grandmother (who brought her up) when the grandmother has an accident; Jess then digs into her family history and finds out some pretty huge secrets. There is also a historical storyline where we see the events Jess finds out about. It’s very long and drawn-out, and a lot of it is a “book-within-a-book” as Jess (incredibly conveniently!) finds a book that was written about the events by an American journalist who happened to be on the spot in the remote South Australian town where they happened…a really lazy plot device and completely unrealistic.

The biggest problem for me was that one of the main characters (difficult to be specific without giving spoilers) was treated right to the end of the book as a wonderful person when in fact she did terrible things and damaged several people emotionally in a way which affected their whole lives - and all this was just waved away at the end, and we’re meant to feel like it’s some sort of cosy happy ending. I see what the author was trying to do but it just didn’t work for me. And the real story all happens in the last 50 pages or so, in a way which I didn’t feel reflected the rest of the narrative or characterisations.

All this is a long-winded way of saying: not a bad book and I’m sure lots of people will like it, but didn’t do it for me.

The Blood Doctor - Barbara Vine

This was a re-read for me - I read it when it was first published but had forgotten what a dark, unpleasant read it is.

Narrated in the first person by Lord Nanther, it begins in 1999 when the House of Lords is debating whether to abolish hereditary peers. Lord Nanther inherited his peerage from his great- grandfather, physician to Queen Victoria and a specialist in diseases of the blood. Victoria, of course, was a carrier of Haemophilia.
Nanther intends to write a biography of his great-grandfather and begins to work through his diaries and letters and trace relatives to build material, uncovering a dark family secret as he goes.
At the same time his wife is going through fertility treatment for repeated miscarriages- smugly he assumes it cannot be anything to do with him as he’s already produced a son from a previous marriage.

I hadn’t noticed it before but every single woman in the book is commented upon in terms of physical beauty and weight. It began to grate after a while but perhaps it was a plot device as the theme of the book is heredity. Or maybe a product of the times. Or maybe intended to show what a smug, unbearable git the narrator is.

I like the sound of the Sian Phillips autobiographies @ICrunchCrispsNotNumbers, added to the teetering TBR pile.

12 Farewell Fountain Street by Selcuk Altun

Shelterbox book pick and I'm afraid the third in a bad run. I really did not understand the appeal of this book at all. Translated from the Turkish and with some undeniably lovely passages, the structure just felt hopelessly disjointed to me. The narrator, Artvin, starts by relating difficult events in his own life, culminating in the removal of two fingers in a kidnapping that ends his music career. He starts working for Ziya Bey, a well-connected (oh, do we hear about his connections...) Ottoman aristocrat, who is unwell and hasn't long to live. A large section of the book is then taken up with Ziya Bey's life story. I didn't feel this worked at all, although there were a few moving parts. It wasn't done well as a story within a story. We then shift back to Artvin who engages in some violent revenge and discovers a secret linking him to Ziya Bey.

This is marketed as a thriller but really doesn't work as one. Although it's only 160 pages long, it is ponderous. The violent events seem to come out of nowhere and so feel gratuitous. I didn't care about any of the characters and thought both Artvin and Ziya Bey were actively unpleasant. Some of the language used around women and sex by Artvin felt really off to me too. Possibly missing something, but this definitely wasn't for me.

satelliteheart was right:

11. The Secret Adversary - Agatha Christie

Absolute rubbish - don’t bother.

I liked The Secret Adversary - it's like Enid Blyton for grown ups. Hilarious.

Sorry Remus - it was unlikely to ever be a positive review from me as I have always found Tommy and Tuppence annoying but I can see why you say it’s like Enid Blyton for adults! Sadly no ginger beer…

Don't beat around the bush @TimeforaGandT 😂

I just saw it as deliberate comedy.

As you will have gathered, it really wound me up!

Moved onto Bandit Queens now - higher hopes…

1. Spells for forgetting by Adrienne Young.

This is set on a fictional island off Seattle coast. The residents of this close-knit community all know each other and have grown up together. The story is told from the point of view of several main characters, a chapter at a time, which my menopausal brain just could not get my head around. The story revolves around a murder committed years ago, supposedly by one of the main storytellers, who at the start of the book is returning to the island after 15 years away. When back on the island his old girlfriend is still there and slowly the details of the crime are revealed and solved. I would give this book a 3.5. There's a magical element which was almost completely superfluous to the story, and not given enough story line to make it worth the credibility that you have to stretch to believe it. I enjoyed the atmosphere of the book, and got into it well enough to read it late into the night on a few occasions.

DNF The New Life
There’s only so many erections and ejaculations a girl can cope with in 15 pages, and this was too many.

Oh no Remus I was going to read that next
🍆

Me 3!

Too many trouser eruptions and not enough paragraph breaks. It’s a wearisome combination.

Annoying, as it definitely ticked some boxes for me in theory.

I'm behind on reviews so have done a bit of a catch up. Still plodding away with Hags and have just started The Pillars of the Earth, which is a BEAST.

7 The Maid by Nita Prose

Molly, a woman who is possibly autistic (although I don’t think it’s ever said explicitly) works as a maid in a fancy hotel. She is dealing with the recent death of her Grandmother, who was her only real companion, and the person who gave her guidance to help her social interactions go more smoothly. When Molly finds the body of a guest her difficulty with social interactions cause her to become a suspect. I thought this was ok, but didn’t find it, or Molly, as heartwarming or charming as I was clearly meant to. The investigation of the death, and the reveal of the perpetrator, was a bit boring and predictable too.

8 One Day With You by Shari Low

When Tress goes into labour her husband Max is not where he should be and no one can find him. All kinds of drama and heartbreak ensue. The supporting characters were way more interesting than the main characters, although I found them slightly unbelievable as women in their sixties in the current day, they reminded me more of my Nanna and her friends who were in their 60s over 40 years ago. I quite enjoyed this though, and it made me chuckle out loud a couple of times.

9 Fool Me Once by Ashley Winstead

I read a rom-com by this author last year and really, really enjoyed it. This wasn’t near that level but was still quite good. It’s set in Texas and there’s a bit about politics but not enough to get boring.

10 Excellent Women by Barbara Pym

I think quite a few people read this last year, or the year before. I was really looking forward to it, as on paper it’s exactly like my kind of thing, but unfortunately I just found it a bit dull. It wasn’t bad, it was just inoffensive, and didn’t spark any real interest or emotion for me.

I was the big naysayer on Excellent Women @MamaNewtNewt pleased to have your company

Just coming in to pearl-clutch over non-appreciation of the comic masterpiece that is Excellent Women 😮 Do y'all also hate Cold Comfort Farm too? Mapp and Lucia? Wodehouse? SCANDALISED.

Likewise by The New Life's cold open (or hot open). It was giving me flashbacks to Jonathan Coe's tube train erection scene in What a Carve Up (I think?), but without the intentionally overwritten comic grotesquerie.

11. Red Side Story - Jasper Fforde I've been waiting for this sequel to Shades of Grey since 2009. It's a story set in a dystopian world where individuals can only see a certain level of one colour and what colour you can see (and what intensity) determines your place in society. I enjoyed the book but not as much as I enjoyed the first one. It's been such a long time since the first book that there was a lot of recapping which I didn't appreciate as I'd reread the first book in advance of Red Side Story coming out. There were a couple of moments where names of characters seemed to change or an idea was introduced and then abandoned.

In short I would recommend it if you've read and enjoyed Shades of Grey but maybe wait for the price to come down a little 😅

@MamaNewtNewt that’s exactly how I felt about Excellent Women - expected to love it, found it boring. @HenryTilneyBestBoy I do love CCF and Wodehouse, liked but didn’t love Mapp and Lucia and that’s why I expected to enjoy Excellent Women - but I just didn’t.

11. Why Mummy Drinks At Christmas by Gill Sims

This is the fifth in the series, which I've been reading from when the first was published. They're not great literature, but what they are are a witty look at the complexities of modern family life, and this one specifically looks at family Christmases and Mummy's often frustrating pursuit of the perfect Christmas.

Mummy (Ellen) is sad because Peter and Jane are now in their late teens and want their own lives. They don't want to have family Christmases any more, like they did when they were little, and have planned to be away with friends. She fears the quiet Christmas with just herself, her husband and the dogs.

There's a lot of looking back over memories of past Christmases, with funny stories of disasters and how they were averted. Much drinking and partying too.

I enjoyed it. It's good light reading and a perfect antidote to more serious things.

I found Mapp and Lucia totally unreadable. Hate Cold Comfort Farm. I should probably stay well away from Excellent Women.

To all the Tommy and Tuppence naysayers, it is fair to say that The Secret Adversary is one of Christie's worst books, but I absolutely loved N or M as a teenager. I have re-read as an adult and still enjoyed it despite certain, ahem, stereotypes.* *

I was underwhelmed too!

I did really enjoy Excellent Women though.

Edit - there’s literally no connection between the two! Reading that back it made it look like I was drawing a comparison rather than just blurting out unasked for opinions on two unrelated books that have featured in recent discussions!