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

@nowanearlyNicemum

The funniest thing I have read this year is Really Good, Actually which is a woman doomspiralling after a divorce, not really the right tone.

The only other thjng I read in the funny category in recent years is Don't Laugh, You'll Only Encourage Her by Daisy May Cooper. Her background is steeped in financial struggle and I ended up feeling really sorry for her and nit particularly amused.

Third Aurelia Zen book finished. They served a purpose.

Moving on to disaster on Everest.

Is there an audiobook of The Diary of a Nobody? That is very funny. DD once fell off her bed laughing while reading it. It's a charming book.

The Just William audio books make me laugh. And Jeeves and any Wodehouse, obviously.

The Salt Path is not funny. Or even very interesting, IMO.

Oh, I love Period Piece @Terpsichore - haven't read it for years, I should set if it's still on my dad's shelves

@nowanearlyNicemum for your way home, if you like Caitlin Moran then her reading of her mid life autobio More Than a Woman is very funny. Definitely some sad parts too, but overall very entertaining. And she writes beautifully (& with their permission) about her daughters growing up & becoming young adults

@PepeLePew I know people who treasure their ancient cassette copy of Diary of a Nobody read by the great Arthur Lowe (of Dad's Army fame). He was an utterly perfect Mr Pooter in every way.

Out of curiosity I just clicked on the audio sample in Kindle and a young cockneyfied voice was reading it. Just not right 😢

Thanks for all the suggestions.
I will check out the Christopher Brookmyre and The diary of a nobody.

Ducks, Newburyport was on my mind given the number of hours but as you say, too frustrating to only get halfway through! I could maybe start it on my way back...
Just to be clear I wasn't expecting The Salt Path to be funny but it's about our destination so that was the interest there. I will keep reading, just not the right tone for our 'voyage'.
@Sadik you read my mind. I love Caitlin Moran and have Moranthology on audible that I haven't listened to yet.

Cockney?! Pooter would not approve of that one bit.

@MamaNewtNewt Eleanor is one of mine too. Empress Matilda wins slightly. I really liked that this book concentrated on the women and included the daughters in law. I wanted to love the Alison Weir book about Eleanor, but it was too heavily focused on Henry.

@nowanearlyNicemum for funny audible I would recommend David Sedaris. I was really disappointed by Bill Bryson - I love him in print but not his speaking voice.

@Terpsichore and @Sadik I also love Period Piece! Just wonderful.

A heads up for anyone who still fancies reading the Alan Rickman diaries - they’re in the Daily Deal today.

@nowanearlyNicemum the funniest books I've read recently have been Terry Pratchett's Witches books. I could happily listen to them all one after the other!

@MamaNewtNewt the 90s are now as far away as the 60s were in the 90s.

@JaninaDuszejko I'm just off to collect my Zimmer frame and my pension!

😁me too

I have just completed The School That Escaped The Nazis I'm kind of at a loss for suitable words. I've read lots of books and watched many films about the war, the Holcaust, Nazi Germany but this one is devastating. Moving, distressing, depressing but ultimately life affirming.

Extraordinary.

Oh I love Tom Gordon know t was the first Book I ever picked up as a recommendation from this thread. The only King I’ve been able to stand (not like the snooze-y Stand at all)

@Palegreenstars I really am in the minority on this one but I've read it twice now with a 2 then 1 star rating so I guess it just isn't for me.

Love your pun on The Stand by the way 😂

48. The Singularities: John Banville

This is the book that I mentioned up thread, that of the 'dithyrambed daffodil'.

A singularly awful book populated by repugnant characters and written in a verbose, pretentious style. It's depressing, grim, sordid and creepy. No redeeming features. Not recommended. (Remus, you were right!) * *

Don't sit on the fence there, Fuzzy😀

48. The Princes in the Tower by Alison Weir Non-fiction exploring the disappearance and eventual death of Edward V and his brother Richard, Duke of Gloucester. This is an incredibly well researched and thorough book. She goes into depth about the credibility of the various sources and looks at ways in which previous historians have dismissed some sources whilst placing too much faith in others. I agree with her conclusion of whodunnit

Couldn't get it back to Borrowbox fast enough Biblio 😄

My last few reads:

102. The Fantasy of the Middle Ages: An Epic Journey through Imaginary Medieval Worlds, Larisa Grollerono and Bryan C Keene
Unusually for me, I spent quite a lot of money buying this book new. It's published by a museum and has lots of attractive pictures, both of original works from the Middle Ages and from recent fantasy films/TV series/books that draw on medieval imagery. I'm interested in why fantasy as a genre is so firmly stuck in faux medievalism - is it just happenstance, based on the Victorian Gothic imagery in vogue at the time of the original practitioners such as William Morris and reinforced the later key figure of Tolkien, based on his own personal and academic interests? One obvious strand is a rejection of modernity, and what are the implications of the genre? I'd love to read an exploration these issues. Unfortunately this wasn't it - short turgid essays by a mixture of authors, none of whom had any real point to make. Pretty pictures, pointless prose.

103. The Game of Hearts: The Lives and Loves of Regency Women, Felicity Day The author has dipped into the archives to bring back the voices of real-life Regency women. For anyone who loves Jane Austen/Georgette Heyer (I still haven't read any of the latter), it feels like the real story behind the fiction. While the individuals tended to blur, partly because the names are all so similar, I still found this a good read. It's like the people in the dignified portraits coming to life and revealing themselves in all their messy humanity.

104.I'm Glad My Mom Died, Jenette McCordy
Child actress writes about her life and her relationship with her charming but dominating and frankly abusive mother, including the eating disorder her mother initiated and encouraged. I thought this was very well written. The opening sections reminded me of Oranges are not the Only Fruit - on the surface, you see the events through the child's eyes, an apparently artless and uncritical account, while underneath, the angry and artful memoirist knows exactly what they are showing you.

Three very different ones for me:

42 Unnatural Causes by Richard Shepherd. Memoir of a forensic pathologist, recommended by quite a few of you on this thread. I enjoy this kind of thing and this was right up my street.

43 Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy, as part of the readalong on here. I last read this when I was 17 and really enjoyed revisiting it more than 30 years later. Far less of a slog than War and Peace!

44 The One by John Marrs. Scientists have developed a method of identifying the gene which makes one other person your perfect romantic match. Sounds great, but what if your "the one" lives on another continent? Or is a criminal? Or dead? This was okay - the dialogue between characters is rather cliched, but it's a fun idea and very readable.

I've read some Banville. I feel about his books the way I feel about eating kale. It's miserable, boring and soul-destroying. I know it's probably good for me but as I can achieve the same positive effects by eating something different that is less awful, why would I persist with kale? Doesn't mean kale is terrible, or people who like it are bad, just means I'd rather gouge my eyes out than do it again.