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

20 Skipping Christmas - John Grisham
Nora and Luther’s daughter Blair is heading to Peru for a year to join the Peace Corps. They decide to skip Christmas in its entirety and spend the money on a cruise instead.

This is cheesy, unrealistic and very white middle class. But I love the film Christmas with the Kranks so gave it a go. It’s pretty much word for word the same as the film so I didn’t gain anything from it but it was an enjoyable comfort read for a few hours.

@HenryTilneyBestBoy I will let you know if I come across any! I've got one on my list set in Malaysia about an expat family.

15. The Gift of Rain - Tan Twan Eng the story picked up towards the end and moved very quickly which I found more readable. I just didn't rate it though, the characters were flat and their actions unbelievable. The narrator is on a lofty podium with noone to hold him to account. I couldn't work out whether the reader was supposed to sympathise with the narrator or not. I gave it 3 stars on good reads.

I didn't love The House of Doors by Tan Twen Eng which was on the Booker longlist but lots of people raved about it so I presumed I was missing something. He does evoke Penang beautifully in it but I just wasn't that interested in the characters.

12. The New Life - Tom Crewe. Well I've finally finished the "ejaculation" lit to use Remus's phrase. This is loosely based on a true story about two men, John Addington and Henry Ellis, who published a book about sexual inversion (gay men) in the 1890s. Addington is a married man with 3 grown daughters but he is gay and is his fantasies that open the book. In the first part of the book, he is rarely in a room with another man without becoming hard or fantasizing which does feel a bit relentless. Luckily he meets someone and then this part calms down a bit. The book starts with Ellis marrying Edith, but they have an unconventional marriage where they live apart, and which is unconsumed. We later find out he only gets turned on by listening or watching women pee. The second part of the book becomes more philosophical and it's about the battle for gay men to gain acceptance and not be considered criminals. This is set against the back drop of Oscar Wilde's trial and sentence which puts the book that Ellis and Addington are writing in danger. I definitely preferred the second part of the book. The New Life is the philosophy Henry and Edith are working towards and their society eventually becomes The Fabian Society. But overall this wasn't for me and it's taken me ages to read as I just wasn't very engaged ( and kept returning to the simpler world of the Chalet School instead!).

Oh , I loved it and am excited that his new book is on paperback preorder to arrive son.

I think I am a style over substance type, a little. If a book isn't elegantly written, it loses me . If it's evocative and lyrical, it can get away with a lot.

A couple more reads from me:

13. How it all Began - Penelope Lively

It all begins with Charlotte being mugged and having to stay with her daughter, Rose, whilst she recuperates. This impacts not only Rose and Charlotte but also a string of other people including Rose’s employer, a historian and the book follows the repercussions. I enjoyed this - it’s a gentle read and well-written.

14. Pulse - Felix Francis

Still on my re-read of all the Francis books in order. Think this was number 51. This is the only Francis book with a female protagonist, Chris Rankin, an A&E consultant at Cheltenham General Hospital and also acts as a racecourse doctor. It all begins when an unidentified man dies in A&E having been brought from the racecourse where he was found unconscious. Chris is sure there is more to it than meets the eye and starts asking questions. This book annoyed me the first time I read it and still annoys me. The make Francis protagonists may have problems (relationships or injuries) but Chris seems to have more than her fair share (early menopause, depression and an eating disorder) which means that at times she is portrayed as an irrational or hysterical female. Not a success. Plot was ok though.

Adds House of Doors AND The Casuarina Tree to wishlist. You lot are a nuisance, I'm trying to reduce the books on my TBR shelves.

Popping in as I have been away for sometime. Been catching up with all the reviews. I too enjoyed Hunger and Charlotte Sometimes is one of my favourite books. I've been very down recently so have only been managing to keep on top of work (or at least give the outward appearance of doing so), manage the most basic of household tasks and watch crap on Netflix. Hoping that catching up on the reviews will inspire me to start something new. I keep reserving things on borrowbox and not even reading a page before they are automatically returned
Although the idea of real life meet up is tempting, in reality I think I'm also in the too shy camp.

18 Rhys Dylan - A Mark of Imperfection No 6 I think in a detective series set in south West Wales. The series started off quite well but is now seriously beginning to irritate me. The charm for me is that I know the locations well - my street even gets a mention in one of them - but they are a bit repetitive.

I’m also listening to Dominic Sandbrook’s Who Dares Wins which is tremendous and I think was written entirely with me in mind.

@MorriganManor @RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie couldn't agree more about Morpurgo. One of the lowlights of home schooling was getting dd to plough through one of his set by school. Endless dreary chapters. It came to a weird abrupt ending, but all either of us could think was thank god that was over. I'm sure there was some mawkish animal campaign involved as well just to compound the awfulness.

Campaign = companion. Sorry - no idea how you edit on mobile.

<whispers> thank goodness there are other people who share my feelings about Michael Morpurgo…

My DD hated Morpurgo too. As far as I could see he made his books 'meaningful' by killing off any animals that were unlucky enough to be significant to his child characters. (To be fair, this may be a small sample as she avoided them where possible)
Reminded me of the worst book club fodder cod-meaningful books for adults.

Haha, yes . Lonely, misunderstood child taken you into their care? You're dead, mate.

Need to catch up with this thread later.

I just wanted to share that I've applied to be a volunteer librarian at StoryGraph this morning. I really hope they get back to me! It'll be my second volunteer job if I'm successful but I'm sure I'll be able to manage it! ❤️

My DD loathed Morpurgo at school, refused to read more than she had to. I've read War Horse, Private Peaceful and his retelling of Beowulf. First two were mawkish and depressing but Beowulf was OK - I read it to DS, as we were doing a topic on Beowulf (home education).

Very quiet whisper (from hiding place behind sofa) - we all hate Roald Dahl in our house. We were given a box set of his novels, and didn't find one we liked.

Surely Walliams is the worst?

Unreadable tripe.

Can't stand Walliams. Thankfully DDs' love of him was limited to the Worst children books. Pretty sure he'll be cancelled one of these days.

Can't stand David Wallams books either. To me, they're just a bland rip off of Rould Dahl.

@Stowickthevast I think I stole, ‘Ejaculation lit’ from somebody far wittier than I am. Very glad I didn’t miss out on much my skipping that particular example of the genre.

Laughing at the Michael M hatred. I read a fair few of his at around the same time as reading lots of David Almond and the latter is a far better writer. I didn’t mind Private P though.

Ugh. This book is going to be a bit of a dose, isn't it? This is page four.

@BlueFairyBugsBooks if you'd like to read another book about the Highland Clearances, Music in the Dark by Sally Magnusson is very good.

@EineReiseDurchDieZeit that's a shame about Happiness Falls going badly off towards the end. I find comments like "but they're all specially gifted in some way aren't they?" lacking in understanding on so many levels.

@Terpsichore I've ordered The Glass Pearls. It sound like just my sort of thing, and was recommended by Ian Rankin on A Good Read so that's an extra recommendation.

Popping up to say I have nothing to report except that I have chipped my way through part 1 of Life and Fate.
Lowering myself back down underground to tackle part 2 [goggles on]

(It's brilliant, I'm joking. It's just very big).

@BestIsWest i agree with you re Rhys Dylan. 🙂

@highlandcoo

Oh it's much worse than that, having not spoken for 14 years he is in fact a secret genius with a massive vocabulary