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

Not like Sally Rooney is appealing in itself tbh.

Thanks so much for all the kind words everyone, I feel very moved. I also feel embarrassed, like I've overshared. Oversharing is a problem of mine, I blame it on being American 😂. Even though I've lived in the UK for a long time now, there are some cultural habits that are hard to break, ha ha. I have been embarrassing my DH by oversharing for some 25+ years now 😂

Bibliomania, I will look for I'm Glad My Mom Died, thanks!

I've also just remembered Rebecca Stott's In the Days of Rain, which is another story about escaping from fundamentalism, in her case the UK cult of the Exclusive Brethren. A beautiful and very thoughtful book.

When I was younger I went through a stage of seeing things very much in black and white, was furious at my parents and so on. I see things very differently now and realise my parents were trying to do the best they could, albeit imperfectly. And my weird upbringing did ultimately result in my becoming an academic (though my siblings were less lucky and have led much less privileged adult lives. They are still extremely religious). When I look back at how my life changed, it seems more a case of me being extremely lucky and meeting various generous and understanding people (tutors and professors and so on) who took me under their wing and helped me break away. Rather than there being any extraordinary courage or initiative on my part. I am also keenly aware of how much people's beliefs depend on their cultural context. E.g., if everyone you know in your community thinks Trump is fantastic (which would include pretty much my whole family of origin!), then something fairly dramatic has to happen in your life to enable you to break out of that and adopt a different world view. It's really not just down to individual intelligence and strength of mind regardless of what J.D. Vance might say.

As a parent, I've kind of gone to the opposite extreme with my DC. Because my parents were authoritarian, I'm permissive to a fault. Because my parents banned pop culture, I've given my DC ipads and phones and whatever else their mates seem to have. I really really wanted my DC to be normal. Until once a friend said to me, 'How much pressure are you putting on your kids to be normal?' And I thought, oh dear, that's so true. This parenting thing is so hard!

Btw I think Ali Smith is a love or hate kind of writer, so if you don't get on with her style, you should drop the book and not worry about it.

Lovely review of Tom Lake, GrannieMainland! I reserved it at the library awhile ago and am waiting for it to come up.

@cassandre thank you for sharing your story. I thought that In The Days of Rain was a very thoughtful and honest account of a life I didn't know people led in this country. The US experiences of fundamentalism I was more familiar with from various memoirs, but it's hard to fathom that disconnect from society, and how it must continue to affect people who step away from their families.

Cassandre I am riveted by your story. Thank you for sharing.

Octavia - Jilly Cooper I think this is one of the better ‘Name’ books despite being (as they all are) somewhat problematic. Violence against women, homophobia, ageism, fat shaming, even in the context of it being the 1970s, still not ok. But I like the development of Octavia’s character and as always the descriptions are lush.

@cassandre you've definitely not overshared. For a start it's information that was very relevant to the book and topic being discussed. And I think we all feel grateful that you felt you could share that with us. I know none of us have met in real life but I always refer to you as my online book friends.

I also think of you all as my virtual book squad ❤️.
Mama has put it perfectly, You haven't overshared it was completely relevant and astonishing.

What Mama said ☝👌 * *

I've had a busy weekend and little time for reading. I'm going back into Demon Copperhead and bracing myself a bit. Things have been going quite well for him so it's probably going to go pear-shaped again. I'm just past the half-way mark in the book.

@cassandre please don't think that you've overshared. I've just started The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls which s a memoir of growing up with very questionable parents (to put it mildly)!

@cassandre you definitely weren't over sharing, that was absolutely relevant and very interesting. Please write down some memories for yourself and your children at least. If you feel up to it of course.

Just popping in to send regards and respect cassandre, to you and to everyone in your past and current lives.

Don't give up on Autumn!
As @cassandre said, Ali Smith is a marmite writer. I love her work, others don't. (I don't find her pretentious either.)

@cassandre nothing to add but best wishes and

I also feel like it's my online book group. I love this part of the internet and everyone's varied experiences. @cassandre it sounds like you've had to make some very difficult choices and I also think you could write a memoir!

@BaruFisher Autumn was my least favourite of the quartet, but it fits in better as a whole. I would also persevere.

81. Love and Other Thought Experiments - Sophie Ward. This was quite odd. I think it was on the Booker Longlist a couple of years ago and I saw it recommended somewhere. Each chapter starts with a famous philosophical theory like Nagel's how to be a bat and the prisoner's dilemma. Then the contents of the chapter reflect the experiment at the start. The first chapter follows a young couple Rachel and Eliza who find some ants in their house. They go to sleep and Rachel wakes up screaming convinced that an ant has crawled into her eye. This then becomes a test of their relationship - whether Eliza believes her and trusts in her, which Eliza, a scientist struggles to do. Each chapter as well as having a different philosophical theme is also told from a different character's viewpoint - some closer to the story and some further away, including one from an ant. I quite enjoyed this - I did philosophy at uni and it was interesting remembering some of the theories - but I'm not sure it entirely worked as a book.

@Stokey

Yes! The weird ant book! I read it 2 years ago or so and was entirely
Good concepts wasted too

Can anybody hit me up with a good memoir/biography/unusual job or circumstance? Read so many but it's what's working for me right now. Fiction just isn't.

Cassandre thank you for sharing.

Eine my autocorrect insists you should be called Wine. Rose George is always good for quirky and interesting. Deep Sea and Foreign Going or Nine Pints are worth a look.

Interested but she's pricey I will wish list them!

@EineReiseDurchDieZeit for a memoir I’ve just started The Glass Castle today. Liking it so far.

Also, can’t remember if you’ve read House of Glass or The Escape Artist?

Need to catch up on the thread.
Still plodding along at what seems to be my new normal very slow reading pace and unlikely to make 50 (pinning all my hopes on a ten day holiday we have coming up but, given that it is with the 3 year old those hopes are wildly optimistic).

Just finished 31 - Hotel du Lac - Anita Brookner - a recommendation from here maybe, or a title I noted down following discussions either on previous Booker winners or maybe rather dated suggestions? I enjoyed this, and particularly the central character Edith, but also was glad that it wasn’t any longer - for a short novel it did feel slow and I was ready to be done with it by the end if that makes sense?

129. The Strength Of Love by Kate Garraway (Audible)

I would not have said I took any particular notice of Kate Garraway until COVID and since then (this is her second book) I've just wanted to buy these books as a show of support. I can't imagine what it is to say goodbye to your vivacious husband who "has a few COVID symptoms" to see him fall into a coma and then return to you, severely disabled with communication difficulties and sometimes not cognisant. I mean it's unimaginable. I do this purchasing act of support because really her situation is absolute hell, however shinily and positively she tries to portray it in the media, and she definitely needs the money. Do I question areas of how the old Derek might feel about some details from a pride perspective? Yes. But he isn't the old him and this is her reality now. Solidarity to her and the moments of raw honesty she manages to part with whilst protecting her family.

@TattiePants

Thanks for reminding me about The Escape Artist

48. Us Against You by Fredrik Blackman

This is the second book in the Beartown series. I gave the first one five stars.

This tells us what happens next, in the aftermath of the tragedy of the first book. All the way through we are promised violence, and it's all because of two hockey teams clashing. And I was gripped in book one, but all the way through book two I want to scream 'Its just a stupid game!' at them all.

Also, his style of writing started grating on me.

I think it's just me though, as both number one and two get 4.2 or 4.3 on good reads!

And joining my voice with everyone to say thanks for sharing @cassandre and I hope you do write about it one day, if you think it might be helpful.

63 Ordinary Human Failings by Megan Nolan

I was expecting a mystery/thriller from this, but what emerged was a more thoughtful book than that.
A young child has been murdered and a slightly older child accused. She comes from an Irish family who moved to London and are viewed with suspicion. A journalist, Tom, moves quickly to sequester the Greens in a hotel so his newspaper will have exclusive rights to their story.
What unfolds isn’t some gritty procedural, but a lyrical dive into the pasts of the family members. John, beaten down by life after an industrial accident.
His son, Ritchie, with perhaps one of the best descriptions of what it is to be an alcoholic I’ve read.
Carmel, his half sister, proud, clever, devastated by a teenage pregnancy and what the reader realises quickly is a long term mental health issue following the birth of Lucy. The author resists the temptation to over-explain Lucy and her actions, because she isn’t entirely aware of why she does them herself.
Rose, John’s second wife and Carmel’s mother appears intermittently, as she has at some point died.
It all sounds a bit miserable and at times it’s not an easy read, but I don’t think I’m doing it justice. The last chapter was a tiny bit rushed, I felt, but as a whole it’s a strong contender for a bold this year on my list.
A “no speech marks” warning, as I know this irritates some people.

@EineReiseDurchDieZeit Let IT Go by Steve Shirley and Land of a Thousand Hills by Rosamond Halsey Carr are both fascinating autobiogs. The latter was on audible plus as a free option when I listened to it.
Unorthodox by Deborah Feldman was one of my bolds from a couple of years ago, another memoir of leaving a deeply religious upbringing, though orthodox Judaism in her case.
I too see you all as my online book friends! & definitely not over sharing Cassandre.