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

Lovely idea. I could fly to London but I couldn't get to Bath as easily.

DH went into Mr B's in Bath to buy me a Christmas present a couple of years ago. He bought me ... a mug. FFS 🙄. I have had better luck when he's gone to Persephone 📚 😀

I am in the UK from end June till end August and I would love to meet up. I'm in Kent then so can easily get to London.

(I was chuntering to DD only yesterday about the fact she still hasn't booked the Mr. B spa I gave her for Christmas 2022! I've said either she does it soon or I'm asking them for a virtual one for me!

I’ve arrived in time for meet up
discussions. Notwithstanding DS1 heading to (a likely) Scottish uni early this would be fab. Meet at the statue of Isaac Newton at the British Library 📚 and start with Mary Wollstonecraft round the corner.

happy to help organise as in London if we are serious.

In other news,

Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë
a reread with a work colleague. I just didn’t have the time to sit down and devour it as I normally would which took away a great deal from the experience. I’m sure it needs no great intro - many intertwined gothic, toxic love stories, meanness and just overall unpleasantness, which I have always loved and found ok this time.

Lovely idea! Bath is quite a ways from here, but not as much of a ways as many other places. Plus a visit to Mr B's has been on my wishlist for a while.

Meet at the statue of Isaac Newton at the British Library 📚 and start with Mary Wollstonecraft round the corner.
And then head into Bloomsbury to say hi to Mary and Percy's house and hit Judd books.

Also been plotting a trip to London with DP, maybe I can post him off to watch some cricket or something & come meet up with you all.

What a lovely idea to meet up 😊
I have a ridiculous amount of reviews to add- I’ve been off all week and it’s been non-stop rain so apart from a big spring clean (during which I listened to an audiobook) I’ve been reading like crazy. Also all the plays were short.

22 The Theban Plays- Sophocles
Each play is short and dramatic. The first, Oedipus Rex, tells the story of how Oedipus did that which he is famous for and its consequences. The second, Oedipus at Collonus, tells of his death and the third of his daughter Antigone. I enjoyed the quieter second the most and overall enjoyed these more than I expected.

23 Day’s End- Garry Disher
The third (or maybe fourth) of Disher’s Hirsch series- quiet tales of a country cop in South Australia. Enjoyed the gentle pace and how he ties the storylines together.

24 Lysistrata- Aristophones

• *Another Greek play- this one a comedy. Lysistrata convinces the women of all over Greece to start a sex strike to stop their husbands from going to war against one another. I’m not convinced the translation was great here- the language was far too modern and there were far too many mighty naked phalluses wandering around for my liking.

25 All the Little Birdhearts- Viktoria Lloyd-Barlow
Booker longlisted though I didn’t get the chance to read it at the time. Told in first person from the POV of neurodiverse Sunday, it tells of her fascination with her wealthy and manipulative new neighbour Vita and her husband Rollo and how they impact Sunday’s relationship with her daughter Dolly. I found this very moving. The narration was excellent. I’m making it bold for now but not sure if it will stick.

26 Children of Time- Adrian Tchaikovsky
A spaceship carries the remnants of the human race through space as they try to find a new home to start again. Meanwhile, a planet terraformed for human habitation millennia before has in error developed a different sentient species of spider. The two are on a collision course. The first two third of this were very slow and I found it hard to connect to the characters as it was so stop-start between the different sections. I enjoyed it by the end but was definitely Team Spider.

27 The Taming of the Shrew- William Shakespeare
Petrucchio tries to ‘tame’ his wife Katherina- the shrew of the title, while several others compete for the hand of her gentle sister Bianca. Obviously the main story is abhorrent to a modern day feminist but somehow Bianca’s tale annoyed me more as she simpered around a pile of men who fell in love with her at first sight (instalove is a personal bugbear) Anyway, my second Shakespeare in order is done and here’s hoping Two Gentlemen of Verona is better next month.

Also Daunt Books and Highgate Cemetery. Or Chalcot Square for Sylvia Plath.
And I love Bunhill Fields where Blake is buried.

Well, we are going to need to start at 6am at this rate.

Ahhh name change fail

@ÚlldemoShúl I loved All these Little Bird Hearts last year. I think it was my favourite Booker prize book.

Also a fan of Greek plays. We acted The Bacchae by Aristophanes as part of my A level classics which I still find an extraordinary choice for a group of 16 year olds school girls!

@Stowickthevast i haven’t read The Bacchae yet though I have an idea what it’s about- definitely an unusual choice for teen girls!
When the Booker longlist came out last year I grumbled about how I hadn’t heard of most of them but I’ve heartily enjoyed the three I’ve read now (Birdhearts, Prophet Song and The Bee Sting). Have you read any of the others that you would recommend?

21. Sorrow And Bliss by Meg Mason

Martha has an unspecified mental illness (probably Bipolar)

That's it. That's the book. Everyone panders to her needs and she does not suffer any of the realistic social or financial problems that go hand in hand with severe mental illness. All around her is privilege and unrealistic dynamics

Even though it's engaging and from the perspective of the prose the writing is good, plot-wise...

There isn't one. It's twaddle. Absolute naval gazing rubbish. Like a friend dumping all their problems on you in long phonecalls.

I know I'm late to this by about 2 years of threads or so and a good few posters read it so @ me (but only if you agree it's well written but shite all the same)

Highgate Cemetery is one of my very favourite places, as is Daunt Books. Blake's grave is great too. Is it Daniel Defoe who's also buried in Bunhill?

I'm sure I've been to Blake's grave. There isn't much there apart from a small pub nearby.

I could potentially do London but I'm not sure if I prefer to remain a mystery!

@BlindurErBóklausMaður thanks for the reassurance that Steeplechasing is not too religious. I’ll definitely add it to my tbr now.

@EineReiseDurchDieZeit I agree with your review of Sorrow and Bliss. Mason’s decision to put Martha in an ultra- wealthy Bohemian London family meant she was untouched by the effects of her mental illness.

Bunhill is basically just surrounded by roads/traffic fumes. It makes me a bit sad that Blake ended up like that.

Hope I’m not overstepping as a newbie, but would it make sense to open a fresh thread on the potential meet up?

Would love to meet up but I live 24 hours of flights away and not planning to come to the UK this year. But if I was, would definitely need to add the BM’s bookshop to this London book-crawl!

Meet up sounds intriguing!

@EineReiseDurchDieZeit I started reading S&B after it was on 'Between The Covers.' But I couldn't finish it. I thought it was a waste of paper to be honest, as nothing actually happens.

I don't know why the BBC picked it for the show, to be honest.

I'll have to ask my mum about the Meetup as she's my carer- she'll have to get time off work as well. ❤️

I love the idea of a meet up. Whether I'd be brave enough to come is another matter