50 Books Challenge 2024 Part Four

[Southeastdweller]

Welcome to the fourth 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, the second one here and the third one here.

What are you reading?

Ooh @SheilaFentiman we watched that last night, sounds interesting!

Good description, Tara.. I've reserved Delicacy at the library, despite my ridiculous non-problem - my library allows me to borrow 20 books at a time, but I have 19 out and 13 reserved, so I need to read through them as fast as possible and stop adding reservations.

24. Scrap - Calla Henkel. Like many of you, I've been stuck in a bit of a rut. I keep starting things that aren't doing it for me (Cuddy) or detective light weight stuff that isn't compelling enough (Bitter Wash Road). So this was a good mixture that was a real page turner. A friend invited me to a reading of the author and one of the things she said that made me buy her book is that she's a big fan of plot. Hurray!

Anyway this is narrated by Esther, a sometimes artist who has given up art to make books in the countryside. It starts with her going to an art opening in New York where she sits next to Naomi, a rich older woman, who asks Esther to undertake a scrapbook project for her, making scrapbooks of the last 20 years of her life as a 60th birthday present for her husband. Esther eventually agrees and then midway through the project Naomi is murdered. The rest of the book is Esther trying to figure out what happened. How much you like this probably depends on your view of Esther. She's quite intense and chaotic and you find out some shady stuff about her as the book progresses. But I thought she had a strong voice, the plot moves along pretty quickly, and touches on lots of different things from true crime to school shooters and the New York art world. It has elements of Eliza Clark and Rebecca Makkai but is funnier and doesn't take itself very seriously. I didn't know if it really works as a crime bill, but was a decent read.

@BlueFairyBugsBooks , thank you, I’m going to read it!

@ASighMadeOfStone - I haven’t read My Dark Vanessa and thanks to your review, I won’t be 😁

@Tarahumara - I loved Delicacy. I read it when it first came out as it was featured on a podcast I listen too. Very much recommended

Im on hols, so don’t have access to my list. Not sure of my numbers. Anyway, Tackle by Jilly Cooper. Perfect pool lazing book. Much reviewed here. I’d only add that I wish she’d included some of the older family members . Where is Pandora? Why did Xavi not return to England when his Mum was unwell? Where is Tabatha? Her kids were around so why not her? Where were Taggie’s family? Her Mum couldn’t even visit? Meh.

Hello! I'm just back from 10 days in New York so have missed a lot here. I read 3 books set in NYC:

25. A Love Song for Rikki Wilde by Tia Williams. Romance following Rikki as she opens a floristry business in present day Harlem, interspersed with scenes from the Harlem Renaissance. She meets a man she can't stop thinking about, but it's impossible for them to be together for reasons so absurd I won't even write them down. Verging on romantasy I guess. Still, a fun love story and nice evocation of Harlem through the ages.

26. A Woman is No Man by Etaf Ram. A novel about 3 generations of Palestinian women living in Brooklyn, all fighting against the limitations on their lives in different ways. I had mixed feelings on this, it was good to read a book set in a community I don't know much about, but the setting felt quite dull and restricted (the women not really being allowed out the house) and there was a lot of exposition, characters saying 'women have to obey men and that's all there is to it' and the like. Plus some really upsetting domestic violence scenes which not everyone may want to read.

27. What I Loved by Siri Husvedt. Definitely a modern classic so I'm sure lots have read this. It's about the lives of two couples and their respective sons through the SoHo art boom of the 70s and 80s. I have to say I found the lengthy discussions of art theory quite boring, but the relationships are well portrayed and there are some sections focussing on grief which are very powerful. The last third gets very strange as one character gets tangled up with a 90s shock artist who may or may not be involved in a murder.

And a snippet for the many of us who have read Demon Copperhead - I tried to buy some sudafed but discovered you have to provide photo ID for a state database, which reminds me of the scene where he is puzzled by the shop he works in selling boxes and boxes of decongestant meds every day.

Then on the plane home I read 28. Piglet which I can see lots of others have reviewed recently. I liked it, gorgeous food descriptions and a new take on some well worn themes. I actually think it could have been a bit longer, I'd have liked to learn more about things like the sister's eating disorder and Piglet's feelings about having children. I do not want to give too much away but the lack of some crucial information did make me want to throw it across the room a bit,

20. Murder Most Royal by S. J. Bennett Latest in the Her Majesty the Queen Investigates series. This time the Queen is in Sandringham for Christmas when a human hand washes up on a beach nearby. Unfortunately the Queen is the person able to identify the hand (due to a distinctive ring) as belonging to a member of the British aristocracy. The Queen must then delve into the victim's complex family history to find a motive and unmask the killer, all before she has to return to London in the new year.

These books really don't have much substance but they're good for some light escapism. Think The Crown meets Midsomer Murders. I'll definitely read the next one when it's 99p

44. Wifedom by Anna Funder

This broke my slump.

Echo everything @PermanentTemporary said. This was a fascinating book about how Eileen Blair literally lived in her husband's margins.

My third bold of the year.

89 Seven Days by Robert Rutherford

Alice’s dad is on death row, and she has a week to prove he’s innocent before he’ll be executed. I liked this although it did get a bit slow in the middle.

90 The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin

This was a reread - first read and enjoyed from the library a few years ago but a pp flagged that it’s currently 99p on kindle so I decided to buy it. It’s a lovely story about a grumpy bookshop owner who is gradually brought out of his shell by various people who come into his life.

91 Centre Court: The Jewel in Wimbledon’s Crown

Pretty much as the title says - a history of Centre Court! One for tennis fans.

92 The Potting Shed Murder by Paula Sutton

A cosy crime mystery about a high flying woman who moves to rural Norfolk and gets involved with solving the murder of the local headmaster. This wasn’t completely terrible but the writing wasn’t great and it was very twee (character names included Augusta Papplewick, Minerva Leek and Ptolemy Oates). I’ve read much better in the genre.

93 The Vacation Rental by Katie Sise

A New York woman rents a house upstate while the owners are away themselves at another rented house. Soon strange things start to happen. The first third of this was pretty slow and boring and I nearly DNF, but it did get more interesting after that and I enjoyed the last two thirds.

23.Brotherless Night by V V Ganeshananthan.

my third women’s prize book and the winner for me so far. An epic story of Sashi a young Tamil girl in Sri Lanka’s experience of the civil war. This was beautifully written and very powerful. I thought perhaps the end was a little rushed but i do like reading 350 page epics.

I surprised myself by absolutely loving The Storied Life which I read before, and liked more, than Tomorrow.

@Southeastdweller

Yes i am in too i think 🤔 of idea of reading so many books 📚

I have a member of several kind of book clubs,
one of them became quite controversial at the time and ultimately disbanded cause of it ..

41 Does My Bum Look Big in This? - Arabella Weir
This was a quick read I picked up in the charity shop. I like Arabella Weir and I remember my mum reading this in the 90s. It is about a neurotic woman in her mid thirties who struggles with her body image and often misunderstands situations. It was sort of a cross between Miranda and Bridget Jones which I liked in parts. However, there were moments that I did think, no one is that naive and it felt a bit forced. Not bad but not great.

42 Waiting to begin - Amanda Prowse
This is the story of Bess and follows her on her birthday at two different points in her life, one at 16 and one at 53. Bess makes some mistakes at 16 that change the course of her life and we see the fall out in the modern day narrative.
I really enjoyed this and read it quickly as I kept wanting to read the next chapter. I preferred the story of young Bess and the ending was tied up a bit too neatly but I think this one will stay with me for a while.

@Tarragon123 do you think you need to reread previous Jilly's before tackling Tackle? I think I remember Riders and Rivals pretty well from copious rereads in my teen years but am not sure I remember much about Polo and others that came after it.

45. 11.22.63 by Stephen King (Audible)

Before I start I will say that I expected this to work well as an episodic audio at night and it fit the brief completely.

In 11.12.63 schoolteacher Jake Epping goes back in time to prevent the Kennedy assassination.

HOWEVER

The vast majority of the book is spent with him literally just pissjng about. He goes back in the late fifties so he has four years to kill.
He spends some time in the sinister Derry, Maine home of It was where the godawful Richie Tozier gets a reprise. His time in Derry only serves to make a bad situation worse. He then pisses about in a short interlude in Florida which is essentially pointless. Then he settles in Jodie, Texas.
His time there is so All American as Apple Pie and repetitive as fuck.

"And then we did the Lindy Hop And Everyone Cheered"

"Someone Was Seriously Injured So We Held A Jamboree" (this happened twice with the same injury"

"The High School Play Was So Amazing We Sold Out"

It's so cheesy it could well be on toast.

Seriously at about a third left, he gets serious about Lee Harvey Oswald and even after what is actually a pretty good ending, King needs to tag on a trip back to Jodie as epilogue just to cheeseball it off.

If you want a book about a time travelling teacher, this is for you, but if you want a book about the Kennedy assassination this isn't it.

I have to wonder what resident King expert @RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie thought

@EineReiseDurchDieZeit have you read Making History by Stephen Fry?

No @SheilaFentiman I haven't !

@EineReiseDurchDieZeit the best Kennedy fiction is Libra by Don Delillo

having said that, I did enjoy 11.22.63 when I read it a few years back

I mean, I did enjoy it in a sense @MegBusset because I finished it. But it goes very off remit for most of it. It's like he got so caught up in his pastiche of the early 60s that he forgot what the story was meant to be about

@EineReiseDurchDieZeit a historian and a scientist team up to try and stop Hitler (they don’t time travel but find a way to influence the past). There’s a bit of back story to understand what motivates them but mostly it’s straight into the impact on history. I think it’s Fry’s best book.

@satelliteheart I’m listening to Murder Most Royal on Audible. I’m enjoying the series

@Stowickthevast - it probably would have been a good idea lol. I just cannot remember Xavi going to Pakistan!

Next book - The Dubrovnik Bookclub by Eva Glyn. This was a 99p Kindle. Well worth the money.

Claire had long covid and moves from London to Dubrovnik in Jan 2022 to stay with her grandmother and her newish husband. Gran has organised a job for her in one of the local bookstores. Claire is terrified of catching covid again. Her new colleague, Luna also has a secret terror. The Balkans War and the defence of Dubrovnik is a constant backdrop. Very enjoyable and I learned quite a bit about the area.

I have been very bad and have bought more 99p books, including The Maiden which everyone has hated so far, but I do want to read it 🤣🤣🤣

86. What Would Aimee Dean Do? Y.M Miller
    Aimee's boyfriend and best friend both went missing on a camping trip 10+ years ago. Aimee now works as a carer for a vile old man. She had a awful childhood, lots of abuse so it wasn't an easy read at times.
    Bea has a true crime podcast and she's trying to solve the mystery of the missing friends from so long ago. A total psychological thriller. Loved it.

87. 17 Alma Road. Ian Gouge
    This was an odd book, but I liked it. A man goes back to his childhood home and works through his past. It was a bit odd, but nice and gentle. Nothing really happened but it made me think a lot.

88. Chapel Field. Paula Hillman
    Set between the 1990s and today. A group of teens did a bad thing in the 90s. Now as adults they are back in the same town and have to unravel the past in order to have a future.

89. Jesse's Triumph. Amra Pajalic.
    YA book about friends and fitting in. The mmc is a young carer, there some lovely scenes between him and another lad who has done kind of ND. Some bits don't make sense (like hoping they play netball so the MMC and MFC have a net between them?) But a quick easy read.

90. The Pact. Lisa Darcy
    Sisters who are Olympic gold medal winners for doubles tennis, until one decides to quit and get married. Really enjoyed this book about the relationship between the sisters and life beyond competitive tennis.

I thought 11:22:63 was tedious. It was the first King I'd read since I was a teenager and it just felt like SK's editor had rung JKR's and said "what shall I do, it's a proper icon and I daren't tell him to lose 200 pages" and that SK had been bingeing on Back to the Future while writing it.

@EineReiseDurchDieZeit I've read it twice and quite enjoyed it both times, but agree it's overlong and the weird stuff with the woman whose name I've forgotten's ex was unnecessary. I did enjoy seeing Richie again though!

@RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie @ASighMadeOfStone

Something definitely went awry in the edit. The number of times it says "the past is obdurate" and "the past harmonises" is ridiculous and the Jodie stuff with Sadie is very repetitive

@SheilaFentiman

Thanks, it can go on my Wishlist

I really enjoyed 11.22.63 but then I had never read any other King when I read it plus I do really love a time travel book so it was right up my street!