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

Posted too soon!
16 and 17 Write a great synopsis & Dear Agent - Nicola Morgan will be of no interest to anyone unless you are looking to submit work to an agent! But I read them so on they go!
18. Wahala - Nicky May Three university friends. 30 something women living in London, all mixed race with Nigerian Heritage. Standard trope if they are all dissatisfied with their own lives and hanker for each others. Then a new 'friend' arrives and shakes things up. Readable but got dull half way through and felt very familiar
19. Tom Lake - Ann Patchett - loved this! And the audible version with Meryl Streep made it all the more wonderful. Much reviewed on here but I definitely recommend. I hope this one is on the Women's Prize list when it comes out on 5th March.

Books 29-33 are The Cazalet Chronicles by Elizabeth Jane Howard. These are some of my absolute favourite books and I have thoroughly enjoyed my reread of them. I even love the last one which I know many people don’t - I do agree it’s the weakest of the five but I still love it. I feel bereft now I’ve finished them.

I wish they would do another TV/film adaptation of them. I really liked the 2001 version but it stopped at the beginning of book 3. Not sure why they didn’t continue it (although of course book 5 didn’t exist when it was made). I would love to see a proper adaptation covering the whole series although I would also be very nervous that it wouldn’t match the version in my head so maybe it’s better if they don’t…

A week’s holiday means I ploughed through American Wife - Curtis Sittenfeld.

This is a fictionalised account of Laura Bush and the book is split into four sections, each named after an address relevant to the section. I really enjoyed the first three sections and thought the writing was captivating and cleverly showed how people and the lives we lead impact and change us. At the heart of it is the relationship between Alice and Charlie.
The last bit is them in the White House and I found that less interesting I think because I could more easily ‘see’ the Alice and Charlie characters as Laura and George W Bush so it pulled me out of the book’s world.

Will definitely look out for Sittenfeld’s other books in the library.

@Kinsters I’ve got my fingers crossed for you. I had bleeding when I was pregnant with my eldest so I know how worrying it is.

I’m also reading a Tan Twan Eng book set in Penang, The House of Doors. I’ll also persevere but it hasn’t grabbed me yet either which is a shame as I loved The Garden of Evening Mists.

@Kinsters 💐📚and all the good wishes.
And THANK YOU for making me feel less alone in not raving over Tan Twan Eng. As you say, writing utterly devoid of humour, or any lightness or life. I was drawn to TGOR for the setting but the style was so clunky it actually ended up being anti-evocative.
Are there any Malaysian authors / books set in Malaysia you'd recommend? Especially historical or contemporary fiction. TIA!

@Terpsichore now wondering if we share a library system as I've just had a notification that The Glass Pearls is available to borrow. Another P&P fan, looking forward to diving in.

❤to all comfort reading. No shame, but some curiosity as to what you're reaching for, as I have a slightly scratchy throat....

All the best to you @Kinsters

12.Mantel Pieces by Hilary Mantel A collection of Mantel's essays for the London Review of Books. These are richly detailed, most often on historical figues such as Robespierre, Christopher Marlowe and Charles Brandon, with a few more contemporary subjects such as Madonna and the murder of James Bulger. Bodily vulnerability, including Mantel's own, is a big theme running throughout the essays.

The was good, but hard work - Mantel's research is always thorough and detailed, so there was a lot to digest in each short piece. I'm not sure I'm quite clever enough to have got the best from it!

@BlueFairyBugsBooks is the Jeff Probst as in Survivor? I had no idea he wrote books! Have only just started watching Survivor to fill a Traitors shaped hole in my life so not a Super fan but interesting!

@Jecstar sounds like you felt quite similarly to American Wife as I did. I read Romantic Comedy last year which I enjoyed, although think it's been a divisive on here.

Fingers crossed @Kinsters 🌷

@RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie I'm up to book 8 of the Chalet School which I started reading in February after booking a trip to Austria. I'm not counting them on here but there is something rather satisfying about a childhood read - although I did come across some Ku Klux Klan references which I didn't remember and made me raise an inner eyebrow.

Great thinking @HenryTilneyBestBoy - then I realised I’d forgotten to return it, so we probably aren’t on the same local BorrowBox system! But phew, that did remind me to send it back. I’ll be really interested to hear what you make of it. At times it was light-hearted and quirky and a charming read, then suddenly I’d be brought up short with a reminder of what was in the protagonist’s past. Very interesting though I’m not sure it meshed together completely successfully.

Thinking of you @Kinsters

@Hoolahoophop I didn't rate Magpie. It seemed to me there was a run of books around the same time - Erin Kelly wrote one, Louise O'Neill another, both of whom I generally like - where the plot hinged on a woman being generically 'mad', inexplicably delusional, with no attempt made to identify any actual mental illness. It felt really odd and dated.

@Stowickthevast I've never heard of Jeff Probst other than as the author of this book, but from what I can see on Google it isn't the same man.

5: 52 ways to Walk – Annabel Streets
52 chapters about different walking habits, styles, environments, challenges, tips, benefits.... An interesting enough listen if you particularly like walking, which I do!

@nowanearlyNicemum I have that on my tbr pile - it was a Christmas present. I love walking too, and am currently reading Walk Yourself Happy by Julia Bradbury.

The Explorer by Katherine Rundell

Firstly, I have no shame at all in reading children's books. Sometimes I review them and sometimes I don't. I don't count on here, so don't care about my total, but only review if I think I have something, however little, to actually say.

In the case of this one, I felt it picked up after a start that irritated me. 4 children end up in the Amazon after a plane crash. Three of them are terribly middle class and ridiculously clever and the other is a five year old who does little but cry and be covered in snot for much of the early part of the book.

Things pick up when they make a raft (but of course they do) and find a map (but of course they do) which they lose, but one of them has a photographic memory (but of course she has) so that's okay. Things pick up much more when they meet the 'explorer' of the title, and I actually really enjoyed it from then on.

I meant to jot down some of the ridiculous bits from the early chapters, but I forgot, and I don't want to read it again to find them. I suspect Rundell is terribly lovely, terribly middle class, went to a terribly good university and hasn't met many real children.

I'm being a bitch. It's a sweet book. If you have a precocious 8 or 9 year old they will probably like it, and I would have enjoyed it as a child too.

I love that so many of us revert to childhood favourites, especially when we need a bit of comfort. I'm currently reading Charlotte Sometimes with DD and will absolutely be reviewing it for you and including it in my list 😊

@Kinsters 📚📚❤️💋

19 'Stand Up Guy' by Nina Kaye

This was a book club read, so not my choice. A very predictable read about a young lonely woman who invites a broke stand up comedian to move in with her and then falls in love with him. I gave it a 3.0 on StoryGraph, so will do the same on here.

Now reading 'The Procession of Mr Cave' by Matt Haig.

Oh and I'm reading 'Dancing the Charleston' by Jacqueline Wilson on my kindle. 😊

Oh I love Charlotte sometimes @MamaNewtNewt. I used to get it from the library over and over again when I was about 9. Lovely story

Charlotte Sometimes is wonderful - a favourite comfort read.

17. Homecoming by Kate Morton

I'd never read a Kate Morton novel until this one, which sounded appealing from the blurb. However, it was so long. It dragged on interminably and could quite easily have been wrapped up in a much shorter novel. I was getting bored by about half way, but carried on so that I could find out what happened. Not really my cup of tea, after all. I might be tempted to give another of her novels a go some time, but I'm in no rush.

The premise of this one is - Jess, an Australian journalist living in London, is called back to Australia after hearing her elderly grandmother, Nora, has had an accident and is in hospital. She uncovers some convoluted family history concerning the deaths (was it suicide or murder?) of her grandmother's sister-in-law and her children, which had also been the subject of a popular true crime book. Many family secrets come to light, which had not been included in the book, especially some relating to her estranged mother, Polly.

Eric Gill by Fiona MacCarthy I'm not prone to swearing but bloody hell!

Eric Gill was a sculptor, wood engraver, typographer and letter cutter who produced some truly beautiful work, but is also known for his "sexual improprieties". In some ways this was an interesting and well written account of his life and the importance of his conversion to Catholicism on his art, marriage and subsequent living arrangements in a series of communes headed - and dominated - by his interpretation of societal and religious doctrine. Apparently he was a charismatic figure who inspired intense and passionate friendships, and fierce loyalty from his long-suffering wife. He was also sexually incontinent, sleeping with his sisters, daughters, wives of colleagues, seemingly any passing young women.... and dogs. This book was written in 1989 and I can't help thinking that if it were written today Eric Gill would be roundly - and rightly - condemned as a narcissistic, misogynistic, sexual abuser and paedophile. As it is, although the author does not condone his behaviour, she does seem unnecessarily understanding, for example suggesting that his abuse of his daughters "can even perhaps be seen as an imaginative overriding of taboos: the three Gill daughters all grew up, so far as one can see, to be contented and well-adjusted married women". Similarly, after his "experiment" with a dog, she writes "The urge to try things out, to push experience to limits, was part of his nature and part of his importance as a social and religious commentator and an artist."

There is much debate around separating the character of the artist from their art and I can still see the beauty of some of his work. However, I am also very uneasy about some of the sculpture and drawings that are distinctly erotic, knowing that they were modelled by his own daughters. Others are just outright disturbing.

I was lent this book by an arty friend who I visit galleries and exhibitions with and I haven't yet had the chance to discuss it with them. I hesitate to recommend it as it is quite unsettling, but it is also a well written biography and might be of interest to those better able to separate the man from his art.

@ChessieFL The Cazalet Chronicles are my go to comfort reads too.

I found The Explorer dreadfully worthy and quite dull @RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie . Michael Morpurgo has the same effect on me.

Just watched Demon 79 from season six of Black Mirror and it made me miss Christopher Fowler so much I’ve ordered some of his early books including Spanky, which the episode reminded me of the most.

9. The Witcher: The Last Wish by Andrzej Sapkowski translated by Danusia Stok I really enjoyed the TV series of the Witcher even though it's not my normal chosen genre (Dh convinced me to watch it with him) and I spotted this in the kindle deals a while ago. I think it's actually the 3rd book in the series but it's the book that series 1 of the show is based on. It's dual timeline. Geralt of Rivia, a witcher (monster hunter) is recuperating from an injury at a temple. Whilst there he has flashbacks to events in his past. I really didn't enjoy this as much as the series. The dialogue is really poorly written, I'm not sure if this is down to the author or the translation, but it seems to take forever for conversations to get to the point and it's all just very slow and wooden. For once, the adaptation is extremely close to the original, so much so that I didn't feel like there was anything in this book which wasn't covered in the show. I know Henry Cavill, who plays Geralt, is a big fan of this series and was passionate about staying true to the original text, and he certainly achieved this! I won't be reading any more of the books, I'll just stick to watching the show

@MorriganManor Agree about Michael M.

Adding my voice to the Charlotte Sometimes love. A second copy is sitting in my TBR pile and my first copy is in storage.