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.

17 Peril at End House by Agatha Christie not one of her best and I have seen the TV adaptation already. It was an easy read like @PermanentTemporary I am still reading Life and Fate but haven't got as far

Tabby - I haven't heard of any of those writers but I will trust your judgement and read one of their books you think is the most exceptional. Let me know which.

1. Femina, Janina Ramirez
2. Lady Sapiens, Thomas Cirotteau
3. Sankofa, Chibunda Omuzu
4. A Thing of Beauty, Peter Fiennes
5. The Ghost of Thomas Kempe Penelope Lively
6. The Sittaford Mystery, Agatha Christie
7. The Running Grave, Robert Galbraith
8. The Britannias, An Island Quest, Alice Albinia

9. The Secret Countess, Eva Ibbotson 10 The Theory of Everything Else, Dan Schreiber 11 Third Girl, Agatha Christie 12 Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow, Gabrielle Zevin 13 The Bone Chests: Unlocking the Secrets of the Ango-Saxons, Cat Jarman 14 A Company of Swans, Eva Ibbotson 15 Rizzio, Denise Mina 16 The Patriarchs, Angela Saini 17 Oh My America, Sara Wheeler 18 The Secret Hours, Mick Herron 19 Jobs for the Girls, Ysenda Maxtone Graham 20 Murder is Easy, Agatha Christie 21 Notes from the Henhouse, Elspeth Barker 22 How Literature Saved my Life, David Shields 23 Old Bones Lie, Marion Todd 24 The Raging Storm, Ann Cleeves 25 An Inspector Calls, J B Priestley 26 Onions in the Stew, Betty MacDonald

And the latest is
27. The Great Plague: A People's History, by Evelyn Lord
This is by a local historian, and focuses on Cambridge in the plague years 1665-66. It's short and benefits from its tight focus. It's inevitably repetitious - first someone in this house fell sick, and they were all locked up together, and then the same thing happened to their neighbours, and so on. Even as a short book, there is sometimes too much detail - if the author has dug out a will which includes an inventory of all the belongings someone possessed, she'll list it all off for the reader. At the same time, it is a vivid account of what things were like at the time.

Sadik - I would be interested in a SF book about linguistics but do you think I would like Native Tongue? It feels like its feminist/political agenda will be annoying and "families whose women breed and become perfect translators of all the galaxies' languages" sounds like it will need too strong a suspension of disbelief.

I have been mean with the bolds, but I did enjoy most of the books above.

I think it might not be your thing if I'm honest. The linguistics content is I think really interestingly built into the story & world, but it's very explicitly political.

She's probably someone for people who like le Guin I'd say

Been on holiday for a week, so some catching up has happened.

#7 The Crew by J.M. Hewitt Random bargain buy, described as a "must-read for Below Deck fans". Decently written thriller with a fairly obvious killer and some interesting insights into the lifestyle.

#8 On The Beach by Nevil Shute A re-read from decades ago inspired by it appearing in my YouTube feed. The writing is more sparse and elegant than I remembered and the premise just as chilling. Recommended.

#9 Unknown Pleasures by Peter Hook. The story of his time in Joy Division, and an interesting exploration of the mental health issues affecting Ian Curtis.

#10 Fall by West Camel Blurb: "Twins Aaron and Clive have been estranged for forty years. Aaron still lives in the empty, crumbling tower block on the riverside in Deptford where they grew up. Clive is a successful property developer, determined to turn the tower into luxury flats. But Aaron is blocking ng the plan..." I thought the very premise would make this feel contrived, but it's been an interesting and captivating read on both architecture (hidden spaces), morality and the nature of twinship. Recommended.

Thanks all for the SF recommendations. S and F are probably equally important to me so I enjoy both Ann Leckie and Cixin Liu trilogies, for different reasons. However remember finding Kim Stanley Robinson's style drier than Martian dust, sorry @Kinsters 😃Though I appreciated the concept of The Years of Rice and Salt.

China Miéville's Embassytown is excellent linguistic SF.

Mine too. It looked fine until the moment I posted it and it went weird. I thought it was my phone playing up, but maybe it's MN instead.

I really liked Embassytown too

How has this thread gone so fast?!

It only started on Saturday but I feel late bringing my list over!

1. The Trial – Rob Rinder
2. The Generation Divide: Why we can’t agree and why we should – Bobby Duffy
3. The Fell – Sarah Moss
4. Impossible Creatures – Katherine Rundell
5. Over Sea Under Stone – Susan Cooper

6. Greenwitch – Susan Cooper

1. The Grey King – Susan Cooper
2. Silver on the Tree – Susan Cooper
3. Orlando – Virginia Woolf

10. Liza’s England – Pat Barker 11. Winter – Ali Smith 12. Farewell Fountain Street – Selcuk Altun 13. Hungry – Grace Dent 14. The Shadow Murders – Jussi Adler-Olsen

My brief thoughts on current pressing topics, should anyone be interested, are:

I have read all of PD James' books and I'm not really sure why, because I think her dialogue is awful (people just do not talk like they do in PD James books). I quite enjoy the plots, though. I agree that Children of Men was execrable, but (see below) I am not a big sci fi fan so might well have thought that even if it was good sci fi.

I am not really a reader of sci fi but my husband keeps encouraging me to try. At his instigation I read Ursula Le Guin's The Left Hand of Darkness last year and really loved it, although I suspect that was because there were quite a lot of feelings involved. He is also quite keen on Sheri S. Tepper; I do plan to read one of hers this year.

@CrepuscularCritter I read a book of short stories by West Camel last year and they were very good. Intriguing and thoughtful. I will look out for Fall

Welsh - What did you think of Farewell Fountain Street by Selcuk Altun? I just read the synopsis and it sounds interesting.

12 The Sandman Book 1 - Neil Gaiman

I really don’t know how I’ve not read these before, as both a graphic novel and Neil Gaiman fan - just never quite got round to them I guess, but what a treat. A dark, beautiful and funny collection of the first stories featuring the somewhat gothic ‘endless one’ - with some googling needed for the more obscure DC characters who make cameos. Anyway I’m sure anyone who’s into this kind of thing has read it already - would be interested to hear opinions on the Netflix series.

@CoteDAzur I'm afraid I really didn't enjoy Farewell Fountain Street - I also though the synopsis sounded good but I found it very clunkily written. It was also oddly structured with a story within a story which was very long, so put the whole book a bit out of whack. I also didn't like any of the characters, nor did I find them interesting enough for the dislike to be intriguing. But there are some good reviews out there so it may just be me. Having said that, my husband - whose reading tastes I think are more aligned with yours - read another of the author's books and really didn't like it either.

Place marking. Nothing to add to the sci-fi discussion. I can’t remember if I’ve read Yesr of Wonder so must check and add to my wish list if not. I’m on a self imposed ban on buying any more nonfiction at the moment though.

Age of Wonder - yep - read and really enjoyed it, it seems.

Welsh - I am very skeptical about the viability of translated literature between languages that are linguistically as far away as Turkish and English. It is not surprising that you found it clunky. For example, the title Farewell Fountain Street sounds very ambiguous in English - Are were saying farewell to Fountain Street or is the street called Farewell Fountain? What kind of a street name is that anyway?

In fact, the word is Separation and not Farewell, and in the original it's very clear that we are talking about a street with a fountain where people said a more permanent Good-bye than "Bye, see you later".

I might read it if I manage to get my hands on the TR original.

Meg - Netflix series The Sandman is brilliant. I can't wait for the next season.

I also absolutely loved The Sandman series too, I keep meaning to read DH's graphic novels too.

19. Substance: Inside New Order by Peter Hook
    This picks up pretty much where Hook's Joy Division memoir ends and covers over 20 years of Hook's life as part of New Order.
    Very colloquial in style, almost as if someone has just transcribed Hook rambling on at times. He doesn't come across well in this book- hardly anyone else he talk about in it does either- it's mostly about him getting drunk or high, cheating on his wife a lot and arguing with New Order's singer Bernard Sumner.

20. Chain-Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
    In near future US convicts are pitted against eachother in fights to the death to entertain the masses.
    I didn't really like this very much. None of the characters came alive enough to make me care about whether they lived or died, and it was littered with footnotes, some of which were obviously part of the story and some that were facts and statistics about the real US prison system. I'm all for using science fiction to comment on real life issues, but please credit me with enough intelligence to draw the parallels myself, and don't keep pulling me out of the story. I think there is a lot of good writing in this, and the writer is obviously very passionate about the subject, but maybe that passion gets in the way of the story telling at times.

21. A Beginner's Guide to Acting English by Shappi Khorsandi
    Khorsandi's memoir of moving to England from Iran as a young child in the late 1970s and struggling to fit in. Her family all seem lovely and there are some sad and poignant moments but over all it doesn't leave much of an impression.

Sandman the series was excellent but not a patch on the original graphic novels. DH has the originals.
He also has all the Hellblazer comics, but I can’t recommend any adaptation of those, with the honourable exception of the Keanu Reeves Constantine. It isn’t Gary Ennis’s Constantine though, imo, however it is elevated by Tilda Swinton and Peter Stormare (best Satan on film? Maybe joint first with Robert De Niro in Angel Heart? hmmm)
Preacher is another one worth reading. Again, the series had limited merit. Jesse not charismatic enough, Tulip all wrong, Cassidy just Joseph Gilgun chewing the scenery.
V For Vendetta is incredible. Film messy and the UK seen through an American lens, embarrassing at times.

Anyway, I’ll shut up about Comics That They Needed To Leave The Fuck Alone.

@CoteDAzur yes, I did wonder if much of the difficulty for me was down to the translation. I would be interested to hear your views if you read it in the original Turkish.

I'm not generally a fan of SF but I absolutely love Tamsyn Muir's Locked Tomb series, despite it being the most confusing thing I've ever read. Can't wait for the final part.

@CoteDAzur I have no idea if it would be your cup of tea but I'd love to read your review of Gideon the Ninth.