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

I'm with Tarahumara. Read the first one.
Didn't feel bothered about reading more of them.

@RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie well said, I feel very similar.

She’s a great storyteller in my opinion which is why I stick around. Although, sometimes I despair of her writing. ‘As she came from a farming family, Robin was unfazed by the snuffling noises the baby was making <breastfeeding>’. There’s also so much commentary about women’s bodies, I feel like it could be written by Ken Follett.

Like others I've read the first and didn't like it enough to read any more.

Maybe I'll get to them when I retire, by which stage each book will be a billionty pages long and they still won't have shagged.

Glad it’s not just me then. I did try a couple of episodes of the first series but gave up on that half way through.

She certainly is a good storyteller, but what a shame her books have become much too long. The Casual Vacancy is my favourite of hers. I appreciate her philanthropy and that she sticks her neck out time and time again for her views on transgenderism. She’s also good value on Twitter and my favourite tweet of hers to some moron is in the attached pic.

I think they absolutely are generic crime procedural that, if written by any other writer, would long have sunk without trace.

They are clichéd, stereotypical, often wrong in details and timings and repetitive. (see Doom Bar and add mentions of hurting stumps) If they ever shag, that would possibly be the most incredulous thing about the whole 58,000 pages (feels like) as Strike is one of the most unattractive (mentally and physically - not the stump bit, the fact he sleeps on sofas and stinks) characters ever written. Yack.

I don't think JKR is a great writer. At all. I've said before, I use some of her paragraphs for my (Italian) students who have to write a story as an illustration of how trying to be clever and giving every noun an adjective, and every verb an adverb makes your writing clumsy. And that quality and not quantity should be a mantra.

She is a fantastic storyteller. Or was, with HP. I'm not sure we needed Yet Another Flawed Detective in our lives. And I agree to some extent what the Guardian review says. A lot of her words could be eliminated if she stopped treating the reader as if they were at a show and tell for grownups.

And yes, I'll continue reading them. A long way behind everyone else though, I don't mind a 99p Kindle version and will wait for those. I've only done Lethal White this year and doubt I'll do another till 2024. 😂

And I'm Team JK about the other stuff. Absolutely.

Yes, I’m completely unbothered about reading any of her books, now or in the future (I’ve never read a Harry Potter either) but I’m with Sol on the* Team *JK bench.

Yeah, absolutely agree that she’s a great plotter, but a mediocre writer at best. As such, for me, all of her work from Potter, to The Casual Vacancy and Strike works far better on screen. I only managed the first Strike on the page, but rather enjoyed the telly adaptation.

I’m definitely team JKR but gave up reading her after the first Harry Potter - I found her stylistically annoying even in my early 20s (when my tastes were pretty forgiving). Have watched all the movies, but that may be Jason Isaacs-related.

Although I'm not a Strike fan I do like Harry Potter - the books and the films.

65 Word Monkey by Christopher Fowler

Well, what can I say? I made this final book in his autobiographical trilogy last a month, because I didn’t want to reach the end.
My favourite author died on World Book Day this year, after being diagnosed and treated for cancer mostly through the Covid pandemic. This is not a miserable book, it’s a joyful, gossipy, informative memoir about books, films, friends, his husband, living in London, living with cancer and a whole host of other things. It raised far more smiles than tears, apart from his conversation with his creation Arthur Bryant and the postscript short story, originally published 2005. Not ashamed to say I cried buckets at those bits.
I will miss his books, both fiction and non fiction, I already miss his blog and although my feelings as a reader are a tiny fraction of what his family and friends must feel, his death means a great loss to the world of books and to me.

The medieval fantasy book, The Foot On The Crown will be published in Feb next year, but I’ll probably let that sit on my shelf a good long while, so there’s a Christopher Fowler novel I haven’t read yet.

I don’t know what to read next.

@TattiePants I've also never read a strike book. My mil, who has very similar taste in books to me, read the first one and told me not to bother so I didn't. Then from reading the discussions on here I'm convinced they're not for me. Life is too short for these mammoth books she's churning out

@LadybirdDaphne hello to Jason Issacs ❤️

I haven't read any of JKRs adult books, although I enjoyed the Harry Potter books as they came out (not so much when I had to read them out loud!). Definitely Team JKR wrt the trans issue.

I just went on a Kindle Splurge. Everything from The New Puritans to creepy short stories. As if my TBR piles aren’t big enough. I only stopped because Amazon wanted to check a transaction with my bank, like I’d been hacked or something. There really is no hope for me

Agreed. It is so shit.

absolutely are generic crime procedural that, if written by any other writer, would long have sunk without trace. They are clichéd, stereotypical, often wrong in details and timings and repetitive. (see Doom Bar and add mentions of hurting stumps)

Absolutely agree Solly yet I have kept reading

I enjoy the investigation parts (I like crime fiction anyway- especially police procedurals) and the will-they-won’t-they (though I think Jane Casey does both better in her Maeve Kerrigan series). The books are an enjoyable distraction and sometimes that’s what I look for in a read. They are getting a bit unwieldy though and the last one could have done with some serious editing!

Hope you had a safe journey home Sol.
I can't seem to settle to read since dropping my DD last week.

77 Notes on an Execution by Danya Kukafka
Ansel Packer is on death row, scheduled to be executed in twelve hours for the murder of a number of girls and young women. As the hours count down, Ansel's story is told partly by him and partly by three women connected to him; his mother, sister in law and the police officer that caught him.

This was fast-paced and thought provoking, focusing more on the women whose lives were affected than on the murderer. It doesn't shy away from questioning why he made the choices he did, how complicit society was in making him a murderer and nature v nurture.

78 The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls
Walls' honest and raw memoir of growing up in the American South West and her complex relationship with her parents. The family had a nomadic existence, frequently moving towns and schools at the whims of her parents (usually because her dad had lost another job or the 'authorities' had caught up with him). They often lived a life of poverty, going without food for days on end, living in little more than unsafe shacks with no heating or hot water. The parents clearly loved their children but were unable to keep them safe or effectively parent them which results in some horrific experiences. Whilst making hotdogs aged 3, Walls set herself on fire which resulted in skin grafts and weeks in hospital. Despite this, her parents continued to give their children complete freedom. The two older sisters left for New York as soon as they turned seventeen with the younger siblings joining them shortly after and they were able to achieve the stability and education they'd craved. The book deals with some tough themes; conflicting feelings about family, guilt, shame, poverty, generational abuse, mental health and alcoholism but it's never mawkish or self pitying. It's a difficult read in places but I'd highly recommend it and it reminded me of Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight.

79 Attack Warning Red by Julie McDowall
Recently recommended on here, it outlines the UK's response to the Cold War and the constant threat of nuclear weapons. The governments of the day encouraged families to build their own fallout shelters, stockpile supplies and trained an army of volunteers to man lookout stations and sound the sirens giving a four minute warning. Thank God the Government's response was never put to the test as the Protect and Survive manuals and first aid advice is frequently farcical. It was also interesting to read how different governments responded to the threat. Earlier governments reminded people to look out for their neighbours and pets but by the 80s is was very much every man for himself and don't expect any help from the state. The section on TV and films was particularly interesting as, like most people my generation, I vividly remember watching Threads which scarred me for a lifetime!

I'm reading and mostly enjoying Attack Warning Red although I refuse to believe that the writer really was powerfully affected in the way she describes, by seeing parts of Threads aged just 3.

I googled to see when Threads was aired. September 1984 then repeated the following year for the 40th anniversary of the atomic bombs so I was 10-11. What were my parents thinking??!!

Threads was terrifying. I’m not sure how old I was when I watched it - maybe 13/14? Very few things have stuck in my mind the way that film did.

I wasn’t allowed to watch Threads as I scared easily. It’s why I learned to read really, really fast - by the time my library books had been checked over I’d read them. Plus I had a very generous Aunt who let me borrow Stephen King and James Herbert paperbacks. Tbf to my parents I could be terrified by the most innocuous and mild things. Poltergeists and spontaneous human combustion were my main early teenage fears, but thankfully I was not troubled by either of them
Strangely, John Wyndham was deemed ‘suitable’ and I was allowed to watch Day Of The Triffids, the one with David whosit in.

Oh good god. I've just started it, and was very glad to have had prior warning about that line. How on EARTH could nobody have chopped that? It's embarrassingly awful.