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

Glad you think you're on the mend @Terpsichore

@Boiledeggandtoast I am plodding through Invisible Women and am full of self-loathing about how interminably BORING I am finding it.

I bought it for DD a couple of years ago as part of my master plan ("you may be a southern Italian girl but you're the first one in the family to not be a housewife, and you're getting the fuck out of Dodge before you fall for a southern Italian boy and decide to stay here" - that sort of thing)

But it's so just full of numbers and statistics that I find my mind wandering.

Should I be angry that women soldiers have only just recently got Kevlar vests that take breasts into consideration? And should I be angry about toilet facilities in offices? And that boxes should be smaller and shelves lower etc etc.
I expect so.

But it's just "x% of women I spoke to said that y% had happened" and it does slip at times into "but women need special treatment" which leaves me uncomfortable.

I just don't think it's very well presented for the hugely important things it's undoubtedly trying to say.

It's not opened my eyes to anything other than how much I don't like numbers.

Glad you're feeling better @Terpsichore

Thanks Blindur. Perhaps I'll stick at Sharron.

@BlindurErBóklausMaður totally agree - all I felt from reading it, was ‘ah yes I am (should be) outraged’. It was so data heavy.

I really enjoyed Invisible Women (in between the outrage). I do like numbers / data though.

I also enjoyed Invisible Women (although it did make me angry!) and much preferred it to Hags

I enjoyed Invisible Women when it came out. I think that anyone reading it now has already heard its conclusions as they were widely reports in the press so it’s probably lost the shock and outrage factor.

Learnt a valuable lesson in not falling off this thread for a few days! All caught up though with several more suggestions for my TBR pile. Very interested in the Boudica chat so have added those to the list.

I have several things on the go at the moment but have managed to finish:

4.Atomic Habits by James Clear. Listened to this on Audible and enjoyed it. As someone who is terrible at getting habits to stick (except reading), constantly wants to improve but loves procrastinating, I found lots of useful hints and tips that I look forward to trying out.

I've also never made it beyond 20% of Invisible Women and not sure I ever will.

@PepeLePew I've been rereading the Chalet School but am sticking to the older ones where Joey isn't quite so insufferable and has yet to have eleventy million children although is very fragile and being drugged by doctors. Madge has just got engaged to the first Doctor.

I have finally got DD1 (14) to read one though, as she's learning German and quite likes the bits of language dropped in.

19 The Mitford Murders by Jessica Fellowes

A murder mystery based around both a real-life murder and the Mitford family. A woman gets a job as a nursery maid to the Mitfords, and she and 16 year
old Nancy get caught up in the murder of a nurse on a train. Great idea, sadly not very well executed. The story is slow and dragged out, and having all the Mitfords as children meant that they were never really a proper part of the story. I will read the rest of the series though (there’s a book for each sister) as I’m interested to see what she does with the rest of them!

I haven't read Invisible Women yet, but dd(16) did and was very impressed. That might be a good age to read it. I read The Female Eunuch and The Women's Room around that age. Eye-opening, if not greatly encouraging.

I’ve never read the Chalet School books and imagined them as Malory Towers set in the alps but with all this talk of hordes of children and being drugged by doctors I’m beginning to be very curious.

It kind of is like Malory Towers @BestIsWest but the author had a weird obsession with multiple births so as you get through the series, hundreds of children of the original characters start appearing. The doctors are at a sanatorium near the school and turn up to marry and administer drugs to all the women at convenient times.

It does feel more exotic when lots of French and German thrown in, and countless breaks for Kaffe und Kuchen (as in @PepeLePew 's post!).

@BestIsWest there are pranks, new girls and friendships but there are a lot of adults, random bursts of song, grave illnesses and girls having life threatening accidents that leave them with curly hair and a new found sense of responsibility, a lot of religion, badly rendered Continental accents and some occasional inexplicable nonsense. There are soooo many books, it's hard to keep track of everyone. And yes, there is a lot of drugging and essentially girls' rewards for being smart or kind or beautiful is seemingly to marry a doctor and have a lot of babies. The two heroines of the novels (first Joey then latterly Mary Lou) are almost unbearably annoying even though everyone apparently loves them.

It's hard to not love them, though. They were an essential part of my childhood. I borrowed two from the library and read them obsessively. Then a friend of my mum's noticed and dropped off two whole boxes of them one day during the summer holiday that her daughter didn't want any more and that was just the best holiday ever. They are completely mad - I forgot about the interminable shows they put on where there is always some drama (girl catches fire, girl vanishes under the stage...) that take up the last four or so chapters of the later books. Or the insane villains who occasionally kidnap a princess or some such kerfuffle. And then there was Hitler - I forgot about the whole "Nazis are after Joe and Robin" plot line until reminded of it last year.

They sound endearingly bonkers! I feel I missed out.

11 I Survived - Victoria Colliars
This is the autobiography of Victoria whose husband tampered with her parachute in an attempted murder plot.
This was hard reading. I must have shouted LTB about 8 times while reading it but the grip he had over her was astonishing. Even now in the aftermath and through the court case she struggled with admitting the truth. An interesting insight into controlling, abusive relationships.

12 Inside Broadmoor - Jonathan Levi
This wasn’t really a recommendation from here as the PP (sorry forgotten who is was now) DNF but I’ve always been fascinated with prison and notorious criminals so I gave it a go. It is terribly written and I agree with PP, the repetition he uses is frustrating at times. But it’s so interesting as well. I really grappled with myself that the patients who were being discussed and rehabilitated were guilty of some of the worst crimes in this country. But that’s the main theme of the book, can they be rehabilitated? I’m not sure and I don’t think the book answers it. I did go down a google black hole while reading though looking up some of the past criminals. A good book if you are into that sort of thing, but badly written.

Some of my recent reads are clearly influenced by these threads:

12. Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow, Gabrielle Zevin
I'm not the obvious audience for this as I've never been into gaming, but it did make me wonder if I'm missing out on an art-form - I never thought of video games as things that make you think and feel. Should I try some? Where would I even start? Anyway, the book itself was very readable, and it felt like a fresh take on a friendship. A decent read.

13. The Bone Chests: Unlocking the Secrets of the Anglo-Saxons, Cat Jarman
The subtitle is a tease that wasn't fulfilled, alas. I liked the author's previous book and this had an intriguing framing device: recent archaeological investigations into the remains of ancient royalty held in Winchester cathedral. I got the impression she sold the book on the promise of exciting revelations (like the finding of Richard III, referenced a few times) but had to deliver the book before anything particularly new and exciting was discovered. It felt heavily padded. I liked the parts on archaeology and even the parts about those who previously engaged with the bones, whether Enlightenment antiquarians coming up with excited theories or Civil War Parliamentarians smashing the coffins. However, the sections when she's telling us about the individuals believed to be there drag quite a lot and she doesn't really bring them or their times to life. If the sources don't help much, you've got to pile on the atmosphere and she doesn't quite bring it off.

14. The Company of Swans, Eva Ibbotson
Harriet runs away from her cruel relatives in England to join a ballet company touring the Amazon. I've a feeling it's been said on here before - it's not entirely clear who it's pitched at, as the "running away to be a ballerina" bit feels quite young teens, and the whole "ah, the delights of sex", while not very explicit, doesn't feel pitched at that audience. I didn't love it as much as The Secret Countess, but I do like the warmth and humour of this author.

15. Rizzio, Denise Mina
Short and vivid account of the murder of Rizzio, in front of Mary Queen of Scots. I thought this was very well done, shocking and immediate and very human.

1. Ruth: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell

I was following the readalong for this and became so engrossed in the story that I couldn't help myself and read it through to the end. Ruth is a sixteen year old girl, an orphan, working for a pittance for the local dressmaker, Mrs Mason. She comes to the attention of Mr. Bellingham, young, handsome and wealthy, while in attendance at a ball. He makes excuses to see her, pursues her and seduces her. He leaves her alone, pregnant and despairing; a 'fallen woman'.

Spoiler alert ahead for anyone doing the readalong!

Fortunately, she is taken into the household of Mr. Benson, a dissenting minister and a kind, caring man. He looks after her and recommends that she calls herself Mrs Denbigh, a young widow and puts her shameful past behind her. He lives by a strict moral code as a man of God and takes it upon himself to rehabilitate Ruth. She lives a good life to attone for her sin. Years go by and she lives in peace and quiet. Unfortunately events come to pass where this stability is threatened and it leads to a tragic outcome.

This was a pioneering book in its day (1850s) to attempt to change the prevailing moral view that women like Ruth were sinners and to challenge men's treatment of women. 'Ruth' received a mixed reception. Apparently two of Gaskell's friends burned their copies and Gaskell did not talk about the book very much. The main characters are painted in black or white terms. Bellingham is portrayed in a very unflattering way as a shallow, uncaring man who used Ruth to satisfy his own desires. Ruth starts out innocent and rather saintly and becomes a Madonna-like figure by the end of the book. She isn't very nuanced as a character. However there is a very dramatic and fabulous scene between Ruth and Mr. Bellingham on the beach where Ruth speaks her mind and gives it back to this knob man and you can see that she has become her own person.

I was disappointed by the ending but it is in keeping with Gaskell's portrayal of Ruth as a woman who was too good for this earthly world and who had earned her place among the angels. I would like to read more by Gaskell. Recommended.

On to number 4 - Nice Work by David Lodge. Actually really enjoying the writing style.
Must find time/make self read when there is a train strike on so no office days this week

@bibliomania I also got inspired to try some computer games after Tomorrow and what I can tell you is they hard to pick up if you haven't done gaming before!

My brother (a keen aka obsessed gamer) has been trying to help me play The Last Of Us. It is painful for us both. Moving the character is one hand, and making him look in a direction is another hand. Most buttons do more than one thing, and I can't remember them all and want to take notes but this won't be quick enough to look up. Ideally needs to be instinctive as I keep dying as I cant find my gun quick enough to kill the bad guys, or if I happen to have it in my hand, they won't stand still while I try and line up the shot.

Apparently it's got a great story (there is a TV show) and I am trying really hard to not just give up as I am lazy about these things, but it just doesn't make much sense to me!

I'm not getting on that much better with Lego...

Ha, @RazorstormUnicorn that would be me as well. Tetris is about my level.

@RazorstormUnicorn I remember watching DD try to kill someone in Fortnite when she had just started playing. He clearly realised she was a newbie, and while she pressed lots of buttons and attempted to get her weapon under control, he started dancing in front of her!! Then he killed her. Her brothers found this absolutely hilarious.

@MrsALambert I was the DNF on Inside Broadmoor! I may give it another go at some point as it is a fascinating topic and you have given me hope that it might be worth powering through….

This takes me back... we had a ZX Spectrum when I was a kid and games were 2D, so it wasn't too hard to get the hang of it. When I decided in my twenties that I wanted to play Tomb Raider on the Playstation I was so excited to get started, then frustrated by many hours of running into walls and falling off things before I got the hang of it.

Haven't played in years so I have no idea if the muscle memory is still there or whether it would be more running into walls all the time