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 think it can't cope with bullets or numbering. I don't post from my phone but when I post a list from my laptop I use 'paste as plain text' and it doesn't freak out then.

I can vouch for the Audible adaptation of The Sandman

I can only post numbered lists if I don’t put a full stop after the number.

Thank you for the new thread @Southeastdweller Hope things settle down for you soon

@cassandre – how fabulous! I am learning. Did French at school, but it was a long time ago! I’d like to try a book in French, but not sure where to start. My daughter has the first Harry Potter in Spanish and is enjoying reading that, so that might be a good place.

@TimeforaGandT – me too! Another book foisted on me by my book snob sister lol

@BlueFairyBugsBooks – I’m very much looking forward to the new Sara Sheridan. I’m a big fan!

Well I'm definitely on my own! I really enjoyed Children of Men and everything else by PD James. I think some of her early Adam Dalgleish books were old fashioned and wouldnt be out of place in the Rather Dated Section. Bit like Agatha Christie as well with parlour maids and such like, but PD James' first novel was the early 1960s I think, certainly not the 1920s!

1 Enough Cassidy Hutchinson
2 Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow Gabrielle Zevin
3 Kim JiYoung, Born 1982 Cho Nam-Joo
4 The Menopause Reset Dr Mindy Pelz
5 Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day Winifred Wilson
6 Past Lying Val McDermid
7 The Winter List SG MacLean
8 The Seeker SG MacLean
9 Cross Roads Val McDermid
10 Mythos Stephen Fry
11 The Bookseller of Inverness SG MacLean
12 Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat Samin Nosrat
13 Terms of Restitution Denzil Meyrick
14 Standing Still Caro Ramsay
15 The Black Friar SG MacLean
16 The Rabbit Girls Anna Ellory
17 How To Kill Your Family Bella Mackie

17 How To Kill Your Family Bella Mackie - I'm sure this has been well reviewed previously. I found it very enjoyable. I was looking for something lighthearted after The Rabbit Girls and this fitted the bill. A very unexpected ending too.

"Tamsyn Muir's Gideon the Ninth, first in The Locked Tomb Trilogy, unveils a solar system of swordplay, cut-throat politics, and lesbian necromancers. Her characters leap off the page, as skillfully animated as arcane revenants. The result is a heart-pounding epic science fantasy. Brought up by unfriendly, ossifying nuns, ancient retainers, and countless skeletons, Gideon is ready to abandon a life of servitude and an afterlife as a reanimated corpse. She packs up her sword, her shoes, and her dirty magazines, and prepares to launch her daring escape. But her childhood nemesis won't set her free without a service."

Hard pass, Noodle

What, you don't fancy reading about the lesbian necromancers? I can't think why 😂

@MorriganManor I’ve generally avoided the film adaptations of comics that I love (Preacher, Watchmen, V , From Hell etc)

@EineReiseDurchDieZeit would never have considered listening to an audiobook of a graphic novel - I mean obviously it’s such a visual medium - am a bit intrigued though!

@MegBusset

I promise it works, it's like a radio drama

Lesbian necromancers

I thought Gideon the Ninth a fun romp, but it's definitely YA fantasy with silver paint and swearing rather than SF! Also found the sequel incomprehensible, so if @noodlezoodle can explain what happened there I would be v. grateful and look up book 3 😁
I loved Sandman and Gaiman generally as a teen/early 20something but find him increasingly insufferable and have disliked all the recent adaptations, to the point of not wanting to revisit his work.

@MegBusset @EineReiseDurchDieZeit I also hadn't considered listening to a graphic novel on audible but am also intrigued! I think I might give The Sandman a go.

I've been very intrigued by the SF discussion. I do like SF but probably not quite as 'hard' as I think @CoteDAzur likes. That said I looked at my Goodreads top reviews convinced I'd be able to come back with a list of female SF authors whose books I'd loved, and all I came up with was Connie Willis, who I am pretty sure Cote didn't like. I definitely seem to lean towards male SF authors, although not consciously. I'm really surprised that I didn't have more, and will have to check out some of the names of female authors provided. I do have an Ursula K. Le Guin book on my TBR mountain so might have to move that up.

Connie Willis I only read just one book by her and this was my review.

I'm funny like that

Fascinated by the different categories of SF but have nothing to add as it’s not something I really read - possibly because I am hopelessly unscientific.

Having abandoned The Grapes of Wrath (good to see I am not alone Tarragon) I raced through:

15. Where Angels Fear to Tread - E M Forster

This has been sitting unread on my bookshelf (or a succession of bookshelves) since 1988! Anyway, now I’ve read it - it’s very short so didn’t take long if anyone wants to boost their numbers later in the year.

Lilia, a young(ish) widow, sets off on an extended holiday to Italy accompanied by a more sensible family friend leaving her daughter in the care of her in-laws with whom she lives. Worrying news soon arrives from Italy and Philip, her young brother-in-law, is despatched to Italy to resolve the situation. Don’t want to spoil the plot so won’t say more. I enjoyed this (but I generally like Forster) - the story and certain characters developed (although some were a bit more stereotypical), not entirely predictable and it wasn’t trying to have a happy ending for all.

Blimey I'd forgotten quite how much you hated that one. As for me I love "long hours of boredom with the occasional gore" 😊

I do agree with you on John Wyndham though and I have quite a few Neal Stephenson books, although I've only got round to actually reading The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O.

I suspected as much, but I'm still very disappointed

As for all you other doubters, I'll have you know it's lesbian necromancers IN SPACE, so there <flounces>

@HenryTilneyBestBoy, I can explain why book 2 is so confusing, but book 3 is incomprehensible in a totally different way so you may not want to go there either!

Oh in fact @CoteDAzur I just remembered that The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O. was co-written with a woman, Nicole Galland, so might be a good gateway?

The Years of Rice and Salt was truly terrible, it had promise in the begining but omg, I skipped vast chunks of it. Red Mars is in a class of its own and nothing will persuade me otherwise 😅

My classic for February 15. Little Women/Little Wives - Louisa May Alcott after speaking to my mum I realised that this was published as two books in the UK. I'd have been quite happy if I'd only read Little Women as the Little Wives half was overly moralising and a bit dull.

Lesbian necromancers in space you say? Sounds good to me! Which book is this? I’ve lost track.

Am saying that in A Muppet Voice in my head 😀

It's Gideon the Ninth @RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie I bought it for my DD on the strength of that tag, & she loved it.

I've tried to read it more than once & given up after a chapter or so & I'm well up for SF, fantasy, YA, writers of diverse genders & the lot. I must try again, as I'm not really sure why it didn't click, & I know lots of (presumably adult) posters on here have liked it.

The Rise and Fall of D. O. D. O. was a huge disappointment. Here is my review from 2017. It felt like nothing Neal Stephenson has ever written before and his trademark wit and brilliantly complicated plot were nowhere to be seen.

Gideon the Ninth by Tamsin Muir @RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie . If you google 'lesbian necromancers in space' it's (unsurprisingly) the top hit.

I loved Doomsday Book and thought it was incredibly atmospheric, I think 'long hours of boredom with the occasional gore' is probably a pretty accurate description of the Middle Ages. TBH @CoteDAzur 's review just made me want to read it more, but I would quite happily read a beautifully written book about someone stuck in a room where nothing happens and think lots of plot = a Marvel film.

I've downloaded a sample for Gideon the Ninth to sample the fun.

I haven't weighed into the discussion because I only venture into the pillowy-soft side of SF. Like Janina, I found Doomsday Book very compelling and I agree that the stretches when not much happened added to the atmosphere. Plus there's the rather adorable weirdness of an American who seems to have been raised on war-era English films writing about her conception of a future Oxford, mufflers and all. I read it in lockdown, which helped.

Around the same time, I also read The Last Policeman trilogy by Ben H Winters, set in a world awaiting an imminent asteroid impact. Not recommended to Cote, but I still think about it and its question of how we find meaning in a world about to end.

@MamaNewtNewt I keep banging on about her but if you haven't read it, I strongly recommend The Fifth Season by N K Jemisin. I thought it was excellent. It has literary merit, great world building and deas with race and minorities within a SF setting.

I also read Octavia E Butler's Kindred last year which was again a strong book about racism but it's more a time travel historical book.