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.

If anyone is looking for groundbreaking SF, here are the Neal Stephenson books I would recommend:

Snow Crash - A weird, wonderful, and oddly prescient story taking place in the very near future, published in 1992. This is the book where the words Avatar and Metaverse were first seen, where the software Earth (now Google Earth) is used. Then you get to about page 200 and your mind is blown when you finally understand how the author has connected Sumerian legends, languages, and... hacking the brain stem No other story compares.

The Diamond Age - Maybe a generation after the world of Snow Crash when nanotechnology is common, countries no longer exist and people are affiliated to tribes without borders. An interactive book is created that will guide the education of a young girl from an influential family, and its two clandestine copies find their ways into the hands of the inventor's daughter and a random girl. It will shape their lives and groom them, leading them to excellence in their own ways. What makes a human? How are societies organized? What are the relative merits of societal norms through history as well as Eastern vs Western ways of thought? These are all issues this book deals with, while also pondering the next technological paradigm shift: The Seed. Because it is not enough for Neal Stephenson to explore a world changed beyond recognition with Nanotechnology and he has to look beyond, to the next big revolution.

Cryptonomicon - Excellent math-heavy story on two timelines, one around code breakers working on Enigma during WWII and the other about their descendants setting up a data haven (like a tax haven but for data) on an island. The ending that brings together the two timelines is nothing short of sublime.

Anathem - Brilliantly brainhurty, with fantastic worldbuilding. This book is long, complicated, and impossible to summarize, with large portions dedicated to mathematical, philosophical, and scientific discussions.

Seveneves - The moon inexplicably disintegrates and a race starts to establish humanity in orbit once it becomes clear that its pieces will gradually destroy life on Earth. The story that follows is long, detailed, and covers thousands of years including the return back to Earth. This is a great book that explores original ideas, although I wasn't a big fan of the last third.

Okay, I'll take you up on it, Cote - I have reserved Snow Crash at the library. I'm not sure I want brain hurty - I like to bathe my brain in a nice warm glow - but I'll give it a shot.

"long hours of boredom with the occasional gore' is probably a pretty accurate description of the Middle Ages"

I doubt if people had the luxury of boredom in the 14th Century in general, even less so during the Black Death epidemic.

Singularly galling was how the author writes a time travel story back to Middle Ages, and all we get to read about is this time travelling historian taking care of some children and doing housework. This is not quite what I would call a fascinating time travel story, but it may be your thing.

Excellent It takes a while to get going but persevere and you will go on a wild ride and witness an incredible story.

Just popping on as I fell off the other thread due to some terrible sleep from my seven month old 😴however despite that (or because of it) I am still reading and have finished a couple of books since I fell off

7 Politics on the Edge by Rory Stewart. Much discussed on the other thread and yes the first half in particular was very annoying with his “I’m a genius and everyone else is an idiot” take on life, however it did calm down a bit. The last part of the book about the leadership contest just made me despair about the state of our politics. There is something very broken about the way we govern in my opinion, no idea how anything gets done!

8 The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O’Farrell I loved this. It was beautifully written and the sense of tension and foreboding throughout was incredible, especially as you roughly know what is going to happen from the historical note at the start. The ending was brutal and I couldn’t put it down. I have seen some comments that it is overwritten in places which I can see but I can forgive it as I thought it was great.

I have managed to get a copy of Hamnet from the library that I am excited to start but going to break it up with Watermelon by Marian Keyes.

Seismic 2nd for N. K. Jemisin's Broken Earth trilogy. I stand by my statement that women's (and mothers') feelings (and actions and lives) are key -- which was meant as praise! I bounced off her other two series though; how about you @Stowickthevast ?

@noodlezoodle thanks for the warning 😁I now gather from reviews that one is supposed to read the sequel immediately after/during Gideon the Ninth to make skulls or tailbones of the plot, so maybe will wait for the series to conclude then have a fluffy binge.

My favourite Connie Willis time travel books is the EXTREMELY fluffy To Say Nothing of the Dog which is Victorian screwball romantic farce. It's less ambitious than The Domesday Book or her WWII ones in the same series and much the better for it. There are some immersion-breaking Americanisms though.

Re: the hard/soft SF chat, I'm fond of "porridge SF" most famously espoused by female writer Jia Xia: it's even neater in Chinese, as both syllables of zhōufàn (porridge) rhyme exactly with kēhuàn (SF).

Thanks to recent discussion I'm beginning Adrian Tchaikovsky's Children of Time (filched from DP) having finished:

30. F. M. Mayor, The Rector's Daughter
Nothing happens, and it was heartbreaking. 👋Will see fellow sufferers on the forthcoming Rather Dated book group thread.

31. Kate Grenville, The Secret River
Substantial historical fiction on early 19th C. English colonists in New South Wales, excelling at old fashioned 19th C. novelistic things like Character, Story and Big Themes. I loved that the characters really did feel realistically of their time and place (semi-literate London working class, most transported as convicts) but obviously this also made for uncomfortable reading and mounting dread in the latter half.
“A secret river of blood runs through Australian history” (W.H.Stanner) is the full quotation from which the title comes, which should tell you what this book is about. I'm slightly torn about its sense of inexorability -- which gave the book much of its power and compulsive pull, but also an ethical weakness.

I read the fantasy one about the Gods @HenryTilneyBestBoy and quite enjoyed it but wouldn't be pushing it into people's hands the way I was The Broken Earth! I also read the one about New York which I didn't really enjoy, but I don't know NY at all so it may have been better if you're familiar with the city. It was still an interesting premise but just didn't do it for me.

I found the later 3 Neil Stephenson books very bloated - they could use a good editor.

@CoteDAzur I did rather like Gideon the Ninth but the second one not so much...

The Murderbot series by Martha Wells is very good as is A Memory of Empire by Arkady Martine.

I bounced off Ada Palmer's Too Like The Lightning but I know several people who rate her.

Well if nothing else these threads make me think. Went off to Google what the difference is between sci fi and fantasy (my literary knowledge being somewhat limited). The first hit suggested that sci fi creates worlds that are improbable but possible, but fantasy focuses on the impossible. This seems rather subjective to me or in fact unknowable. Anyway enough philosophical digressions, I don't read much that could fit into either category. The couple I can think of that I liked are very marmite ... Never Let Me Go and How the Dead Live. * *
On to the latest review.

1. Little Disasters Sarah Vaughan

A book with an identity crisis. Does it want to be a 'thought provoking' exploration of early motherhood, PND and child abuse or a twisty psychological thriller? It doesn't really matter as it succeeds at neither. Middle class mum turns up at A & E with her young baby who has a skull fracture. As you can guess there is then a lengthy untangling of whether or not she hurt her. Boring (which seems a terrible thing to say given the subject matter) and contrived. The characters are paper thin and have back stories that seem parachuted in to illustrate 'points'. It goes on for way to long and the ending seemed unnecessary. Lots of people seem to like it though - pages of those one line reviews at the start saying how great & thought provoking it was - so maybe it's just me.

My favourite Connie Willis time travel books is the EXTREMELY fluffy To Say Nothing of the Dog which is Victorian screwball romantic farce.

Loved that, it was great fun. I read a large chunk of that while being punted down the Cherwell which added to the atmosphere.

Thanks @Southeastdweller for the new thread. I've not been able to read as much as I'd like, between my dissertation and the house move it's been hectic here.

1. Just One Damned Thing After Another - Jodi Taylor
2. Bad Luck and Trouble - Lee Child
3. So Late In The Day - Claire Keegan
4. Night and Fear - Cornell Woolrich
5. A Woman in Berlin - Anon
6. Hotel Nantucket- Elin Hilderbrand
7. Win - Harlan Coben
8. I'm Over All That - Shirley MacLaine
9. Howl's Moving Castle - Diana Wynne Jones

10. The Third Man - Graham Greene

The library are looking for my loan of The Making of Another Motion Picture Masterpiece by Tom Hanks to be returned soon so I'm powering through, plus I really need to catch up on Nicholas Nickleby as I'm waaaay behind.

And I'll now be looking out for the short stories. Thanks for the heads up.

After trudging through Little Women/Little Wives I went for a page turner 16. The Lost Man - Jane Harper which I saw recommended on another thread here. I loved this book. It's set on a cattle ranch in the Australian outback and opens with the death of a rancher under mysterious circumstances. It's told from the POV of the dead rancher's brother and covers the aftermath of his brother's death. I enjoyed the descriptions of life on the cattle ranch. Not high brow or groundbreaking but a gripping and emotive story that wraps up into a neat conclusion.

You are Harriet Vane and I claim my prize 😀

@Owlbookend I've never been entirely sure how to tell if some books are Sci-fi or fantasy. Or indeed Dystopian fiction at times. I (mistakenly it seems) assumed sci-fi had an science element to them

"Went off to Google what the difference is between sci fi and fantasy... The first hit suggested that sci fi creates worlds that are improbable but possible, but fantasy focuses on the impossible. This seems rather subjective to me or in fact unknowable."

I agree with you. Many ideas in past SF such as sending a rocket to the moon (H G Wells), communication satellites (Arthur C Clarke), connected little screens people communicate with and read information from (Star Trek), Metaverse & avatars (Neal Stephenson) etc. Who is to say which was improbable and which was "impossible"?

I would think that SF is the author's idea of a possible future for our species, for our world and universe, as opposed to Fantasy which could involve magic, elves, good vs evil, and... lesbian necromancers brought up by ossifying nuns and countless skeletons!

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic - Arthur C Clarke

No SF reader here but didn’t know linguistics SF was a thing - have reserved Embassytown.

Strong Female Character by Fern Brady - thanks to everyone who recommended this, I loved it. Memoir of late diagnosed autistic (both in the sense that she was diagnosed as an adult and also 20 years after telling a doctor she had it) comedian Brady covers a difficult childhood with a family who thought she was just being difficult and ostracism from other children, time in a teenage mental health unit, working as a lap dancer to fund herself at university, her eventual diagnosis, and working as a comedian. Funny and sad and strikes so many chords with me that I’ve booked to see her on tour.

Thanks. I'll get a sample of Gideon the Ninth and see if it looks like a contender to get me out of my rut.

@stowick thanks for the recommendation, will check it out!

I have 4 of those 5 Neal Stephenson listed by Cote so will definitely have to read one soon.

On the subject of Connie Willis I really enjoyed all of her time travel books, although To Say Nothing of the Dog was my least favourite of these. I seem to be in a minority on that one!

I hope you like it Remus. I love the series (even though the trilogy has grown to 4 books and we're still waiting for #4), but it's very marmite.

10 Lean Stand Fall by Jon McGregor. Antarctic veteran Doc begins a new season at a remote ice station with newbies Luke and Thomas. Disaster strikes, and the rest of the book follows Doc and his wife Anna as they struggle with his recovery from injury and trauma. This packs a surprising emotional punch - while reading the last couple of chapters I found myself suddenly sucked into the moment in a way that rarely happens.

11 Twelve Years a Slave by Solomon Northup. An autobiographical account of the author's time spent working on the Louisiana slave plantations in the mid-19th century, after being kidnapped as a free man and sold into slavery. This is a fascinating narrative about what life as a slave was really like. It's well written and a hugely important piece of social history. Not surprisingly, it's also really depressing to read about how the white slave owners felt entitled to treat their slaves.

18 The Talisman Ring by Georgette Heyer this was a re-read, I had forgotten how enjoyable this was.Missing heir, because t he was accused of murder turns up, great fun