50 Books Challenge 2023 Part Eight

[Southeastdweller]

Welcome to the seventh thread of the 50 Books Challenge for this year.

The challenge is to read fifty books (or more!) in 2023, though reading fifty isn't mandatory. Any type of book can count, it’s not too late to join, and please try to let us all know your thoughts on what you've read.

The first thread of the year is here, the second one here, the third one here here, the fourth one here, the fifth one here, the sixth one here and the seventh one here

Oh @RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie I'm too late for the 99p deal to tell you it isn't all in second person, only the chapters from the perspective of the murderer, if that is tolerable?!

If it goes to 99p again, I might give it a try!

I seem to remember being ultimately very disappointed in The Lie Tree, not because it was YA but because I thought it wore its feminism clumsily.

DD1 read The Lie Tree when she was 11 and liked it. Then they did it in school in Y7 or 8 and i think found it a bit boring. I'm not sure it was plot driven enough for a load of tweens used to the Hunger Games, Twilight and Karen McManus.

I've always thought of Hardinge as a children's writer rather than YA - appealing to the same sort of age group as Joan Aiken. I thought her early books were fantastic (A Face Like Glass & Fly by Night for example), & ideal for enthusiastic readers too young for YA books.
I got the impression she was pushed into simplifying her language & plots for a while (I've read The Lie Tree but can't remember anything about it). Her recent book Unraveller was excellent but did feel more YA. I think it's a shame really, there does feel like a bit of a gap for complex plot driven books that appeal to top end of primary sort of age.

North Woods - Daniel Mason This is being hyped as a potential Pulitzer prize winner. The book is arranged in 12 chapters that follow the months of the year and tells 12 stories set during the relevant month in the lives of the residents of an isolated shack, later a house in the woods of Norrth Massachusetts over a period of 400 years from a runaway Puritan couple to a climate change story set in the future. It reminded me of parts of The Overstory by Richard Powers and also A Traveller at the Gates of Wisdom by John Boyne and like those books an issue for me was that I felt I was just getting interested in someone's tale when off we jump in time and season to another person and I find that quite frustrating and unfulfilling. I'm sure lots of people will love this book but like a short story collection it was very patchy in quality and interest and ultimately, for me, a bit of a slog.

Just finished Lowborn by Kerry Hudson. I really don't seem to read cheery books.

Thsi is an interesting memoir where Hudson revisits her childhood towns and in turn memories of a traumatic childhood resurface.

Bits dragged but the end 50 pages or so are compelling. It's a a troubling story but happily she worked her way out and up (unlike so many others, as she acknowledges).

38 Upgrade by Blake Crouch

Logan and his sister are deliberately and unknowingly “infected” by a system that hacks into their DNA altering and improving it and making them more than human. Although this is done to save humanity and the World, Logan fears it may there may be unintended and catastrophic consequences and he may be the only person on Earth able to stop these events unfolding. Gripping story with a heart.

39 Artemis by Andy Weir

Set on the Moon’s first colony. A scientific crime caper. Jazz Bashara is a bolshy, young and poor courier with a side line in smuggling. She accepts a more dodgy and dangerous job of sabotage for a lot more money and finds herself involved in corporate crime and dangerous criminal organizations that may detrimentally change life in the colony forever. Different tone to The Martian, but still stuffed with scientific information. Exciting and interesting read.

40 Utopia Avenue by David Mitchell

Set in 1960s and starts with the formation of a pop group called ‘Utopia Avenue’ in England and how they continued. An untried agent (with their best interests at heart) brings four gifted musicians (one woman and three men) together. They are all very different and have different backgrounds and struggles. Several real famous musicians pop up as well. On paper it doesn’t sound like much but I loved it. There are little titbits about singers/bands, the characters are sympathetic but very human, and the story enfolds in an interesting way. It is just a very good read.

41 Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor

Part 1 of a fantasy trilogy. If I had realised it’s a YA I probably wouldn’t have picked it up. Set in Prague, Karou is an art student whose adopted family are a group of ‘monsters’ AKA Chimera – hybrid animals (including human). She doesn’t know anything about her or their background, but she is often sent out to collect teeth from sellers to bring back to her father-figure Brimstone and is given tokens that are wishes. On a mission to collect teeth she is attacked by a beautiful angel called Akiva, who later tracks her down to find out why he is so drawn to her as she is to him. She discovers that human beliefs in angels and demons or devils are based on the angels and the chimera from bygone times, but in reality neither side are wholly good or bad. The angels and chimera are locked in an ancient war and Karou has been deliberately kept in the dark for her own safety from her own kind. From apposite enemy sides Karou and Akiva come together. I have been feeling a bit jaded about recent fantasy books that I have read, but this one was gripping and engaging and I have already started book 2.

42 Murder in the Fast Lane by Natasha Orme

Debut novel by local Hampshire author. Up and coming Formula One racer Stacey James’ body double (Gemma) is murdered when standing in for her on the winners’ podium. Jason Hunter, her personal protection specialist, tries to keep her safe from another attack. Her stalker tries to intimidate her and is a threat to both of their lives. She is betrayed by someone close to her. Criminal elements are involved and closer to them both than they realise.
An impressive first novel/thriller. Told from multiple POV which made it interesting and with quite short chapters so was pacy and exciting – an absolute page turner. As it is listed as a Jason Hunter thriller, I assume this will be the first in a series. I will definitely look out for book 2.

80. All the Little Bird-Hearts - Viktoria Lloyd-Barlow. My fifth Booker longlist read (well listen) and my favourite so far. This story is told by Sunday, a neuro-diverse woman living with her 16 year old daughter Dolly. Summer has just started, when an exotic lady called Vita moves in next door. Sunday is fascinated by Vita - her strange clothes, posh voice and carefree attitude - and her husband Rollo, and they start getting involved in each others lives. But things start darker when Vita meets Dolly, who becomes entranced by the couple. I thought Sunday's voice was brilliantly done as a portrayal of the challenges autistic people face and how they cope. The story is told from Sunday's point of view so we feel her confusion and lack of understanding of some of the cues. It meanders a bit in the middle where there are several Friday night dinners between the 4 main characters, but on the whole, I thought this was really good. The Audible was also very well done as you hear Sunday trying to mirror Vita's accent.

126. Counting The Cost by Jill Duggar
127. Becoming Free Indeed by Jinger Duggar Vuolo

Not sure who on here will and won't have heard of The Duggar Family, so to summarise they are an ultraconservative megafamily who are for breeding but against dancing, secular music and immodesty. Parents Jim Bob and Michelle had 20, whilst terrorising the letter J and using older daughters like servants. There are also bizarre rules about courtship. I took a broad interest in that whilst I was not a regular or even that occasional viewer I read up on it all.

My main thought was How Will These Kids Turn Out?

So far, 2 memoirs and 1 in prison.

Josh, the one in prison, was first exposed as lacking when he was caught up in the Ashley Madison scandal, then it was revealed he had in the past sexually assaulted a number of young women including two of his sisters. Eventually he was sentenced on child porn charges.

Jinger's memoir is rather dry and tedious, it largely centres on the Bible and on her rejecting the principles she grew up in. (The IBLP and Bill Gothard)

She became the first Duggar girl to wear trousers once married and sister Jill not only followed suit but also got a nose ring. The parental backlash was huge for them, but this is mostly covered by Jill's book

With Jill there is real anger there but it seems to focus more on the fact that she and her husband were financially exploited by her father and less on the protection her parents gave an actual paedophile. Jill remains the black sheep, even though Josh is in prison

Given there are 20 of them and some still young, you wonder how the rest will fare down the line.

Glimpses into a world I'll never understand, and that's why I find unique upbringing stories so interesting. Unless you're really into the Bible, just read Jill's.

I have to ask…..Jinger? Pronounced…..Ginger?? If so, terrorism against the letter J indeed.

Yes! Ginger not Jing-er!

I remember looking at their television programme, Eine, years ago. It was weirdly compelling viewing. Poor kids.
Yes, Jinger/Ginger. Again, poor kids!!

Speaking of difficult childhoods, I'm reading Demon Copperhead at the moment. It's excellent but as many of you know who have read it, it's very harrowing and I am pacing myself, reading two chapters at a time. I hope the poor guy turns out alright in the end.

It seems to be a bit of a thing with massive families that the names have a theme. I didn’t know anything about the Duggars but have seen some things about the Radford family, and all their daughters have names ending with an ‘ee’ sound.

There’s also this family with 16 children whose names all begin with C: https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/uk-world-news/mum-16-pregnant-again-baby-27896306.amp

73 Yugoslavia: A History from Beginning to End by Hourly History
An overview, albeit rather high level, of the history of the country from its inception post WWI to its breakup in the early 1990s. Having holidayed in Yugoslavia in 1989 I still find the wars just a few years later incredibly shocking. There are only a few chapters at the end dealing with the wars and I thought this needed more detail.

74 Fall and Rise: The Story of 9/11 by Mitchell Zuckoff
I had planned a reread of The Only Plane in the Sky but bought this when it was 99p. It's in three sections; what was happening in the sky, what happened on the ground and a shorter section on the aftermath, and focusses on the individual stories of the victims, their families and witnesses which, as you'd expect, are devastating. The book also details just how much went wrong on the day and how unprepared the US was for this type of attack. The communication between air traffic control, the military and NORAD was seriously lacking. Many of the terrorists were flagged for additional security but this just meant holding back their luggage until they boarded. The firefighters radios were known not to work in buildings like the WTC so many wouldn't have heard the call to immediately evacuate. Not quite as good as Graff's book but still very interesting.

75 The Return of Faraz Ali by Aamina Ahmad
Faraz Ali lived in Lahore's Walled City (he red light area) with his prostitute mother until he was removed by his wealthy and influential father when he was five. He's now a police inspector and is send back to the area by his father to investigate the murder of a child prostitute and make the murder disappear. Being back in Lahore stirs long forgotten memories of his previous life that he's kept hidden and makes him question his own existence. The book also covers a particularly turbulent time in Pakistan's history including the civil war in East Pakistan / Bangladesh. An interesting read but it was the only book I managed to finish during a reading slump so think I would have enjoyed it more had I read it at a different time.

76 Down and Out in London and Paris by George Orwell
A partly auto-biographical account of living in poverty in both cities in the late 1920s. In Paris Orwell worked as a dishwasher and general dog's body in the kitchen of a fancy restaurant and he exposes the harsh reality of those people at the bottom of society. In London, waiting for a job to start, he sleeps in shelters for the homeless and gets to know the tramps and street people who have nowhere else to go. It reminded me a bit of Goodbye to Berlin which I read recently, giving a voice to ordinary people that are living quite extraordinary lives.

I'm now tearing through Notes on an Execution which seems to have pulled me out of my slump.

Slight spoiler which is revealed in the first few pages of the book

Julia - Sandra Newman The best thing about this book was the cover. This is being really hyped up in newspaper book sections and SM as an "Autumn must read," a potential award winner and a "feminist retelling of 1984" (not - unless being pimped out is now "feminist") and relevant in the light of new interest in Orwell's dreadful treatment of his wife and it has the cachet of being authorized by the Orwell estate.

It is supposedly 1984 through Julia's POV with extra nasty special departments and rules for women added . There is a lot more graphic and violent detail surrounding women. A key element of the original story is changed. It feels over long, over blown and melodramatic with a silly, sloppy ending which dilutes the narrative.

I don't why I put myself through reading books based on other books such as sequels or a "companion piece" such as this. They are invariably pale shadows of the original. When will I learn?

TattiePants Yugoslavia sounds interesting, thanks for your review. I'm currently reading Conversations with Stalin by Milovan Djilas, one of Tito's close associates and at one time Vice President of Yugoslavia. He led a number of important missions to Moscow prior to Tito's break with Stalin and it charts his creeping disenchantment. I knew (know!) very little about Yugoslavia and I'm finding it fascinating.

I should perhaps add, if anyone is interested in Conversations with Stalin, (and it is excellent) DO NOT order it through Amazon. I did this twice and both times it arrived with the correct cover but the book inside was The Book of Sand by Jorge Luis Borges. I ended up ordering a second-hand copy through Abe Books.

That sounds interesting @Boiledeggandtoast I’ll look out for it. Tito was able to unify the population against a common threat - Stalin / USSR. Once Tito had died and the USSR broken up the threat was gone and Yugoslavia fell apart.

God, that picture of those 16 children is depressing. Not a single smile.

The grim reality of the Duggar's lifestyle is disturbing, particularly how they reacted to Josh's abuse of his sisters. They are part of the Quivefull movement. Quiverfull: Inside the Christain Patriachy by Kathryn Joyce is an interesting insight into how the movement developed and operates. I didn't know the daughters had written books.

I was surprised that neither talked about there being corporal punishment which was apparently how you control a shit load of kids

It was also alarming to read two married women both feeling they needed to justify control over their own uterus

There's a definite sense that both husbands have had to put a lot of work in to help their wives gain autonomy

They sent him to some kind of Christian camp and then just brought him back.

@TattiePants I loved Notes on an Execution

Some of my latest reads:

Making Sense Of The Troubles: A History Of The Northern Ireland Conflict by David McKittrick

I was in Belfast recently and realised I didn’t know as much as I wanted to about the background to the Troubles. This was a good summary and I do have a better understanding now. It is a bit dry though and very much ‘this happened then that happened then this happened’.

Great And Horrible News: Murder and Mayhem In Early Modern Britain by Blessin Adams

A collection of stories of deaths and murders between 1500-1700. The stories were interesting, if a bit gruesome in places, but I wasn’t really sure what the overall point was.

Tom’s Midnight Garden by Philippa Pearce

This was mentioned upthread so I dug it out for a reread. It’s still lovely!

DNF Penance by Eliza Clark

Someone upthread gave this a rave review so I picked it up from the library, but it wasn’t for me. It’s fiction but it’s meant to be the true story of the murder of a teenage girl by other teenage girls, as told later by a journalist - but the blurb tells you that some of it might not be true. It’s an intriguing idea and started well but by the middle I was so bored of all the descriptions of how all the teenage girls got to know each other and some were friends with each other and then they weren’t and then they were again and oh my god it was so tedious that I really couldn’t be bothered to carry on. I don’t know who killed the girl in the end and I really don’t care.

Oh dear, @ChessieFL I fear Penance might have been my fault . I didn’t mind all the teenage friendship wall of text thing but I can see how it would grate for some people.