50 Books Challenge Part Three

[Southeastdweller]

Welcome to the third 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 first thread is here and the second one here.

Thank you @Southeastdweller for the new thread, and all good wishes to you

My list to date:

1.Just Like You by Nick Hornby
2.Oxblood by Tom Benn
3.My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell
4.Vernon God Little by DBC Pierre
5 The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid
6.Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart
7.Tresspasses by Louise Kennedy
8.Black Dogs by Ian McEwan
9.Music and Silence by Rose Tremain
10. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
11.Mouth to Mouth by Antoine Wilson
12.Mantel Pieces by Hilary Mantel

Currently reading Freya by Anthony Quinn on audio, and Exiles by Jane Harper in print, both of which have started promisingly.

Thank you @Southeastdweller

Double posted

Thanks for the new thread @Southeastdweller.

1 The Chrysalids, John Wyndham
2 Bomber, Len Deighton
3 Stay With Me, Ayobami Adebayo
4 A Thread of Grace, Mary Doria Russell
5 Under Sea, Over Stone, Susan Cooper
6 Frenchman’s Creek, Daphne du Maurier
7 War Doctor, David Nott
8 Zoo Station, David Downing
9 Politics on the Edge, Rory Stewart
10 My Forth Time We Drowned, Sally Hayden
11 A Passage North, Anuk Arudpragasam
12 So Late in the Day, Claire Keegan
13 The Night Circus, Erin Morgenstern
14 The Rose Code, Kate Quinn
15 The Burgess Boys, Elizabeth Strout
16 Redhead by the Side of the Road, Anne Tyler

Thanks for the new thread @Southeastdweller

My list so far
1 Jane Eyre- Charlotte Bronte
2 Salt Lane - William Shaw
3 Convenience Store Woman- Sayaka Murata
4 The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store- James McBride
5 Strong Female Character- Fern Brady
6 Vox- Christine Dalcher
7 Hamnet- Maggie O’Farrell
8 The Traitor- Anthony Ryan
9 The Secret Lives of Church Ladies- Deesha Philyaw
10 Tom Lake- Anne Patchett
11 A Tomb with a View- Peter Ross
12 Mad at the World- William Souder
13 Journal of a Novel- John Steinbeck
14 1984- George Orwell
15 In Cold Blood- Truman Capote
16 The Comedy of Errors- William Shakespeare

17 Midnight at Malabar House- Vaseem Khan
18 The Aeneid- Virgil (trans Robert Fagles)
19 Olive Again- Elizabeth Strout
20 The Fell- Sarah Moss
21 The Patient Assassin- Anita Anand
22 The Theban Plays- Sophocles
23 Days End- Garry Disher
24 Lysistrata- Aristophanes
25 All the Little Bird-Hearts- Viktoria Lloyd-Barlow
26 Children of Time- Adrian Tchaikovsky
27 The Taming of the Shrew- William Shakespeare
28 Capote’s Women- Laurence Learner
29 Cockroaches- Scholastique Mukasonga
30 Pet- Catherine Chidgey

Thank Southeast. Just placemarking for now.

I'm on the Rory the Tory bus and I want to get off.

Thanks for the thread!

a lot of us have been there, fortuna!

Thank you southeast for keeping us all on track. Hope things calm down for you.

1. Trust - Hernan Diaz

1. The Mysterious Affair at Styles - Agatha Christie
2. Ruin Beach - Kate Rhodes

4. Hamnet - Maggie O’Farrell

1. Northanger Abbey - Jane Austen
2. Snow - John Banville

7. The Golden Mole - Katherine Rundell

1. The God of Small Things - Arundhati Roy
2. Hostage - Clare Mackintosh

10. One Enchanted Evening - Katie Fforde 11. The Secret Adversary - Agatha Christie 12. The Bandit Queens - Parini Shroff 13. How it all Began - Penelope Lively 14. Pulse - Felix Francis

Struggling with what to read next. Started The Grapes of Wrath but it’s not doing it for me so will have to try something else.

No idea what’s going on with my spacing - sorry!

Thanks for new thread

Thanks for keeping us going as always @Southeastdweller

i forgot last night to add the fairly forgettable 13. Dear Dolly by Dolly Alderton. Another case of someone searching for a subject to write about rather than having something to say. It passed the time but nothing more

Thanks for keeping us organised @Southeastdweller - hope your troubles ease soon

1. Confessions of a forty-something **-up – Alexandra Potter
2. Why I’m no longer talking to white people about race – Reni Eddo-lodge

3. A heart that works – Rob Delaney

1. Really good, actually – Monica Heisey
2. 52 ways to Walk – Annabel Streets

6. Amy & Isabelle – Elisabeth Strout

Currently reading Islands of Mercy by Rose Tremain and listening to From miniskirt to hijab by Jacqueline Saper

1. The Cutting Season Attica Locke
2. Jesus Land Julia Scheeres
3. In a Dark Dark Wood Ruth Ware
4. Night Waking Sarah Moss
5. Falling Animals Shelia Armstrong

Just back inside from doing a bit of gardening. My hellabores are looking lovely (the surrounding weeds - not so much) and about to have a Dr Pepper and continue reading Little Disasters by Sarah Vaughn on borrowbox.

Thanks for the new thread SouthEast here's my current list and one review:

1 The Road by Cormac McCarthy
2 The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 3/4 by Sue Townsend
3 Here’s Looking At You by Mhairi McFarlane
4 Christmas Pie by Jodi Taylor
5 The Scarecrow by Michael Connelly
6 Last Dance at the Discotheque for Deviants by Paul David Gould
7 The Maid by Nita Prose
8 One Day With You by Shari Low
9 Fool Me Once by Ashley Winstead
10 Excellent Women by Barbara Pym
11 Sabrina by Nick Drnaso
12 Les Enfants Terribles Jean Cocteau
13 The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

14 Wandering Souls by Cecile Pin

Anh, and her brothers Thanh and Minh, are Vietnamese refugees who end up in 1980s Britain. I liked this and found it interesting but it felt very slight. It felt more like a series of vignettes than a cohesive novel.

Thanks @Southeastdweller
Sorry things have been tough.

Thanks for the new thread Southeast and all for the great thread and recommendations.

My list so far:

Appointment with Death - Agatha Christie
Demon Copperhead- Barbara Kingslover
Yellowface - RF Kuang
The Bird Tribunal - Agnes Ravatn
The Constant Rabbit - Jasper Fforde
Steppenwolf- Hermann Hesse
The Seven Dials Mystery - Agatha Christie
Notes on Grief - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
The Eye-Eye and I - Gerald Durrell
The Great British Bucket List: Utterly Unmissable Britain
When the Dust Settles - Lucy Easthope
On a beam of light - Gene Brewer
K- Pax III: the world of prot - Gene Brewer

Currently reading Mrs Dalloway - Virginia Wolf.

Thank you @Southeastdweller for the new thread

My list:
1 Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing - Matthew Perry
2 The Lost Bookshop - Evie Woods
3 TV: Big adventures on the small screen - Peter Kay
4 The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie - Muriel Spark
5 My Dark Vanessa - Kate Elizabeth Russell
6 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
7 I invited her in - Adele Parks
8 Little Whispers - K L Slater
9 Orange is the New Black - Piper Kerman
10 1984 - George Orwell
11 I Survived: A True story - Victoria Cilliers
12 Inside Broadmoor - Jonathan Levi
13 Normal People - Sally Rooney
14 The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo - Taylor Jenkins Reid
15 I, Partridge - Alan Partridge
16 Fourth Wing - Rebecca Yarros
17 The People of Platform 5 - Clare Pooley
18 My Sister, The Serial Killer - Oyinkan Braithwaite
19 Confessions of a Shopaholic - Sophie Kinsella
20 Skipping Christmas - John Grisham
21 Three Hours - Rosamund Lupton

and just finished
22 The Golden Oldies Club - Mark Dayby
Jo is about to retire but is anxious about what she will do with her time and how she will cope without coming to work every day. She meets the members of the Golden Oldies Club who help her to see the potential in her retirement as well as introduce her to a new potential love interest.
This was alright. Not great, not rubbish. I couldn’t relate to the character, not because I’m not of retirement age, but because I have so many hobbies I am fairly sure I could fill my days easily. There was a number of back stories hinted at with the other characters but these weren’t explored and I was disappointed by this as they seemed far more interesting than Jo and her lack of hobbies. It passed the time but probably wouldn’t recommend.

Thanks as always to @Southeastdweller

Adding my list -

1	 The familiars - Stacey Hall
2	Prophet song- Paul Lynch
3	Wintering - Katherine May
4	Giving up the Ghost - Hilary Mantel 
5	Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries - Heather Fawcett 
6	Fifteen wild Decembers - Karen Powell 
7	Politics on the edge - Rory Stewart 
8	The Amber Fury - Natalie Haynes 
9	Witchcraft : A history in 13 trials - Marion Gibson 
10	Christ on a bike - Orla Owen 

11 The Glutton- A.K. Blakemore
12 Confinement- Jessica A Cox
13 On Beauty - Zadie Smith
14 mist over Pendle - Robert Neill
15 A spell of good things- Ayobami Adebayo
16 Write a great synopsis- Nicola Morgan
17 Wahala - Nikki May
18 Dear Agent - Nicola Morgan
19 Tom Lake - Ann Patchett
20 After you’ve gone - Maggie O’Farrell

Thank you for the new thread Southeastdweller! Wishing you well 🌻🍵📚

I've slowed down a bit and only have a short number of books since the last thread;

1. Death in December: Michael Sheridan.

10. Old God's Time: Sebastian Barry. 11. The Rector's Daughter: F.M. Mayor. 12. Elephants Can Remember: Agatha Christie.

I'm currently reading La Promesse de l'Aube by Romain Gary, Listening Still by Ann Griffin and Italian Reader Short Stories (English/Italian parallel text) compiled by Alex Kouzine.

Thank you for the new thread southeast sorry things are hectic

My list :

1.	Harry Potter And The Philosopher’s Stone by JK Rowling
2.	Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets by JK Rowling 
3.	Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban by JK Rowling 
4.	Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire by JK Rowling 
5.	The End We Start From by Megan Hunter
6.	<strong>Tom Lake</strong> by Ann Patchett
7.	Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix by JK Rowling
8.	Wandering Souls by Cecile Pin
9.	Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano
10.	Harry Potter And The Half Blood Prince by JK Rowling
11.	Penance by Eliza Clark
12.	Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows by JK Rowling 
13.	The Buccaneers by Edith Wharton
14.	Educated by Tara Westover
15.	The Midwich Cuckoos by John Wyndham 
16.	Big Swiss by Jen Beagin
17.	1979 by Val McDermid 
18.	They&rsquo;re Going To Love You by Meg Howrey
19.	Washington Black by Esi Edugyan
20.	<strong>Project Hail Mary</strong> by Andy Weir
21.	Sorrow And Bliss by Meg Mason
22.	Rizzio by Denise Mina
23.	Happiness Falls by Angie Kim 
24.	Stubborn Archivist by Yara Rodrigues Fowler
25.	The Restless Republic by Anna Keay

Place marking on the new thread - thanks southeast.

Thank you for the new thread, Southeast.

My list, so far is:-

1. Heartstopper vol 5 - Alice Oseman

1. Ikigai - Francesc Morales & Hector Garcia
2. Went to London, Took The Dog - Nina Stibbe

4. How Not To Die - Michael Greger

1. Days At The Morisaki Bookshop - Satoshi Yagisawa
2. The Crossing Places - Elly Griffiths
3. Uncle Paul - Celia Fremlin

8.The Janus Stone - Elly Griffiths

1. Dirty Thirty - Janet Evanovich

10. Sometimes I Lie - Alice Feeney 11. Anything Is Possible - Elizabeth Strout 12. Oh William! - Elizabeth Strout 13. Why Mummy Drinks At Christmas - Gill Sims 14. The Amber Spyglass - Philip Pullman 15. Lucy By The Sea - Elizabeth Strout 16. Three Hours - Rosamund Lupton 17. Homecoming - Kate Morton 18. Comfort Eating - Grace Dent

And one DNF Mistletoe Malice - Kathleen Farrell

I give up. I don't know what's going on with the numbering in my post. I've tried twice & my phone thinks it knows best 🙄

Thank for the thread South 😊

10. My name is Lucy Barton by Elizabeth Strout

I read Amy & Isabelle first and loved it so much I added of Strout other books to my wishlist and once the 99p sales happened in the wrong order I started getting them from the library.

I don't want to admit it, but I didn't understand this. I assume it is high brow writing and I am missing some sub text. The writing is disjointed. Conversations are never finished (a bugbear of mine). She doubts her own narrative as she writes it which made the whole thing seem a bit pointless to me. I didn't especially care what happened next, which is a shame as I already own book three or four in the series! I might try the next book, but I might give it a while... feeling a bit disappointed.