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.

I would be, too!

I was chuffed to find it cassandre - now we’re subscribed for the month so looking forward to more watching!

I am struggling with The Bat by Jo Nesbo

About 30% in and I’m just bored. Is it worth persisting?

As a former reader of Jo Nesbo who one day also just got bored, I would say the answer to your question is no.

I think I abandoned The Bat. It was my first Jo Nesbo and should have been right up my homicidal Scandi street.
It wasn't, from what I recall.

26 Strangeways: A Prison Officer’s Story - Neil Samworth
This needed some serious editing, especially the first half which I had to force myself to power through. There were moments I found really interesting such as how they deal with difficult prisoners, how the system is coping without funding etc but I didn’t need to detailed descriptions of each wing or the logistics of each floor. I also wasn’t that interested in Neil’s life story before he started working for the prison service. It didn’t add anything I didn’t feel.

27 Is it just me? - Miranda Hart
Picked this up for £1 in the charity shop yesterday. I know Miranda is a bit marmite but I am a fan. The style of this book didn’t work for me though. She kept having conversations with her younger self and would sometimes carry a joke on too long. The most interesting parts and the bits I did enjoy were the longer, less comical chapters which just told stories of her life. I think I would have preferred the whole book to be like that. I did laugh a few times but many of her anecdotes have ended up in her tv show so I was familiar with a lot of them already. A nice easy read though.

I've only ever read The Snowman by Jo Nesbo and it was bad enough to make me never want to read another.

Right, I am going to mark The Bat as my first DNF of 2024. I think it was a 99p kindle one 😀

21 the Sense of an Ending - Julian Barnes
I read a lot of JB in my 20s and then stopped. This was short and well written, focused on one of a group of four friends from sixth form, looking back over his life, especially school and uni. Not a bold but a good read.

I remember thinking exactly the same about the Miranda Hart @MrsALambert . The whimsy irritated me, when it doesn’t so much in her tv comedy and appearances.

I will have to keep my feelings about Miranda to myself, as none of them are polite. Suffice to say nothing I've ever heard her say or seen her do has made me laugh, at all.

Shes definitely a love or hate comedian. If you don’t like her on tv, her book will do nothing to change your mind

I could cope with her as a gawky 1950s midwife but it ends there.

So much to catch up on. For now,

The Song of Achilles Madeleine Miller
This is already getting a lot of love from my book club, before we’ve even had the meeting. I really liked it and found it very readable. I am so late to the whole Greek myths retelling genre because I kept telling myself I would read the source material first. I’m sure this needs no introduction, but this is a retelling of the story of Achilles and Troy through the eyes and narration of Patroclus, the companion and lover of Achilles. It did inspire me to take a look at some short Classics courses nearby and I will read Circe at some point and maybe Fry and Barker’s various retellings.

34 Ordinary Human Failings by Megan Nolan
A missing child is found dead and another child is suspected of the murder. This book tells the story of the child under suspicion and her family and explores issues like addiction, mental health issues and domestic violence. A tough read but Nolan managed to make me empathise with some characters I found unsympathetic initially.

Lots of reviews to catch up on!

40 Sheep’s Clothing by Celia Dale

A subtly menacing story of two women who team up on their release from prison to pose as Social Security officers and con elderly people. Needless to say there is a twist in the tale. I enjoyed this although the ending was a bit too inconclusive for my liking.

41 The Queen of Poisons by Robert Thorogood

The third in the Marlow Murder Club series. Here a local councillor is killed by aconite poisoning and our team has to work out whodunnit. I liked this better than the second in the series that I read earlier this year.

42 Lost In The Lakes by Tom Chesshyre

Travelogue about the author’s walk around the Lake District. I was on holiday there last year so I enjoyed reading about the places I’ve seen and finding out more about areas I didn’t see.

43 - 47 Chasing the Dead, The Dead Tracks, Vanished, Never Coming Back, Fall From Grace by Tim Weaver

The first five books in the David Raker series. He’s a missing person investigator, and inevitably the cases he investigates have a big back story that he gets caught up in. I really like this series but for some reason I had read later ones but not the earlier ones so went back to read those. I’ll probably carry on and reread the rest but will have a bit of a break first!

48 Shelley by Peter Tilbury and Colin Bostock-Smith

I used to enjoy this sitcom so was intrigued when I spotted the book in a charity shop. It basically retells the plots of the TV series and was a nice bit of nostalgia (especially the references to the sexist 1970s tax system!).

49 The Second Life of Amy Archer by R S Pateman

Amy disappeared aged 10 around 10 years ago, and now a girl who looks exactly like Amy and knows details of her life has appeared- but she’s still only 10 so how can it be Amy? Intriguing hook but it all falls apart and the ending is annoyingly ambiguous.

I read The Bat a few years ago after reading The Snowman and loving it, thinking it’d be a new favourite series.

I can’t remember a thing about the plot, and never carried on the series, so would also be inclined to say not worth carrying on.

I’m falling very behind in my reading this year so joining to keep myself accountable!

1 Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J K Rowling

2 Notes on an Execution by Danya Kukafka

3 The Final Support Group by Grady Hendrix

4 The Promise by Damon Galgut

5 Once There Were Wolves by Charlotte McConaghy

6 This Tender Land by William Kent Krueger

Oh dear, I’ve got a Jo Nesbo book waiting to be read….

I'll be the Jo Nesbo defender on the thread! I've read all the Harry Hole books and really enjoyed them. They get increasingly outlandish as they go on but I was sucked in early so now have excessive tolerance for Harry and his...holes.

17 My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell

I'm late to this first person narrative of a schoolgirl groomed by her English teacher. I don't speak from a position of knowledge, but I found it gruesomely plausible. It had me gripped throughout and, although a little repetitive at times, was well written. I liked the ending. Impressive.

A few reviews to catch up on:

15 Call the Canaries Home by Laura Barrow

When three sisters reunite in their hometown to open a time capsule they buried 25 years before it reopens old wounds, including the disappearance of their sister when they were children. There are confrontations, healing conversations and an attempt to gain closure for their sister’s disappearance, as well as other family traumas. This was pretty mediocre and by the numbers. Free on Kindle Unlimited for those who have it and were intrigued by my ringing endorsement.

16 The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett

This book was a long, historical epic set around the priory of Kingsbridge in the 1100s. I loved the backdrop of the Civil War between King Stephen and the Empress Matilda and the impact that the major historical events had on the ordinary people who lived in, and around, the priory. I’ll definitely read the next in the series.

17 Magpie Lane by Lucy Atkins

When the daughter of the head of an Oxford College goes missing the police question the little girl’s nanny, and it is her viewpoint from which we see the events leading up to the disappearance. We are never really clear whether the nanny is a reliable narrator or not, but frankly every adult in the missing child’s life raised flags in one way or another. I really disliked this book and saw the ending coming a mile away. Wish I’d followed my instincts to make this a DNF about halfway through.

18 The Spare Room by Laura Starkey

Sweet rom-com between Rosie and her temporary flatmate Aled. I liked the characters, the friendships and the central romance. I’ll read more by this author I think.

19 Hags by Victoria Smith

I like Victoria Smith, I’m interested in the subject of the book, and am definitely within the demographic to which it is aimed. So why did I find this such a slog? There were definitely some interesting points made, but I found it quite dry and boring. I also found her incessant use of the word “mummy” to illustrate many points really irritating.

The Snakehead: An epic tale of the Chinatown underworld and the American dream. Am a huge fan of Patrick Radden Keefe and would read anything he writes. This intertwines the tales of Sister Ping, the most successful human smuggler of Chinese into the USA in the 1980s and 90s, with the fortunes of a group of illegal migrants who are found on a boat which has run aground off the coast of New York in 1993 and a mediation on what the American dream means and why so many people are drawn to try and enter the USA and achieve it.

This is written before Say Nothing and Empire of Pain and you can see how his narrative nonfiction style runs throughout his work, seamlessly stitching together the human interest and setting it in the international context. Would thoroughly recommend and I’m looking forward to whatever he writes next.

28 Unwanted - Cathy Glass
Cathy is a foster carer who has looked after over 150 children. She has written many books about the children she has cared for. This was about Lara and her 1 year old Arthur who are placed with Cathy on a mother and baby placement due to Arthur having non accidental injuries. Cathy has a nice easy writing style and this is a subject I’m interested in as I work with a number of looked after children. However this happened during 2020 which I didn’t realise when I first picked it up and so naturally the pandemic featured heavily. In twenty years I’m sure it will be interesting to read the details of the press conferences etc but I watched them and remember them so this I didn’t find interesting. I will read more from Cathy though and I’ve seen a lot of her books are on for 99p at the moment. Not a bold but an author I want to revisit due to the subject matter.

After seeing it recommended on here and in the 99p deals I read 21. When the Dust Settles - Lucy Easthope I really enjoyed this book that charts Lucy's career as an advisor on emergency and disaster planning. This is a job that I didn't even know existed but it's clearly vitally important. The book is interspersed with tales of her personal life, including her challenges with miscarriage, and commentary on the changing nature of her job in the times of austerity. 10/10 recommend from me!

The only comment I have is that it's mentioned in passing that burning real money for the deceased is a Chinese custom. It's not! Chinese people burn paper joss money but this doesn't look like real money. Burning real money would be very odd.

13 Shakespeare - Bill Bryson
Brief introduction to the life of the Bard, with a strong emphasis on how little we know. Nothing mind-blowing, but good to have a refresher 20+ years after A-level English!

14 Culture: a new world history - Martin Puchner
A history of human culture, with a strong emphasis on the role cultural mixing and rediscovery has played. I wasn’t too impressed with the opening chapters on the ancient world, which had some blaring mistakes (Medea as the wronged wife of Theseus, anyone?), but later sections on less well-known (to me anyway) corners of Japanese, Ethiopian, Nigerian and Islamic culture were fascinating. Ends with strong messaging against an obsession with cultural ‘purity’ ie a fixation on banning the adoption of aspects of other cultures, as well as a tendency to judge past cultures by our present values. Wise words, but this would have been a stronger book if they had been woven more closely into the general narrative.

11. Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver

Already read by many on here and I have little to add other than to say I loved it. It was a tough read and I was cheering Demon on all the way, he's a fantastic character. I have listened to some podcasts about Oxycontin and watched the Dopesick TV show, and this is an interesting accompaniment. I'll be thinking about this for a long time. 5 stars from me.

Sympathies please! After an unreasonably peopley weekend with no reading time at all, a deliveroo wanker just knocked me off my bike on my way to work -- I'm fine if bruised, but my ereader screen is irredeemable (pic 1). Emergency run to free bookswap nearby yielded this: Aunt Margaret's Lover by Mavis Cheek, on the basis of the cover alone 😀
I've never heard of Cheek (and slightly disappointed it's apparently not a pseudonym) but first page seems promising (pic 2)!