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?

Thank you for the new thread Southeastdweller! Thread four already!

Here is a continuation of my list since last time;

13. Listening Still: Anne Griffin
14. How to Eat (And Still Lose Weight): Dr. Andrew Jenkinson
15. The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne: Brian Moore
16. The Mystery of the Blue Train: Agatha Christie
17. Rebecca: Daphne du Maurier
18. The Bookshop: Penelope Fitzgerald
19. La Promesse de l'Aube: Romain Gary
20. Italian Reader: Short Stories English-Italian Parallel Text: compiled by Alex Kouzine
21. Sive: John B. Keane
22. The Seventh Bride: T. Kingfisher

I'm going to move onto Soldier Sailor soon and I've started a book in Italian that will be a slow read as I need to look up the dictionary very often!

We were referring to Jane Harris who wrote Gillespie and I. Not Karen Campbell.

Thanks @Southeastdweller

Winter in Madrid was good imo, until the very poor ending. However, I can’t remember now what I disliked about it.

I’m not reading anything, as a) I’m away on holiday and b) not even mindless crime is appealing. Not a single thing that people are reviewing is appealing either, so maybe I’m just a lost cause.

It diverts me how much Jane Harris and Joanne Harris could not be more unalike...

Enjoy your holiday Remus!

Have a fab trip, Remus!

@Southeastdweller thanks for the new thread

Hmm, now that you mention it @RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie I don't remember the ending of Winter in Madrid either. I tend to read mystery for reasons other than er, the mystery TBH, and this had good sense of time/place 😅 Hope you enjoy your holiday.

@Tarragon123 👋 Henry here. You may be reassured to hear the original Korean title of Miss Kim Knows was What We Wrote - no more of that KJY ending nonsense, thankfully! (Or indeed footnotes.)

Currently alternating Enter Ghost and How To Say Babylon, neither of which are making me wonder WTF the WP judges were thinking, at least!

Making slower progress than most bu.. finished 7) Five Star Billionaire today, first thing I’ve read in a long time I really struggled to put down.

Will start 8) Tropical Gangsters by Robert Kiltaard tomorrow

Thanks for the shiny new thread south.

Enjoy your holiday Remus, hope the reading mojo returns. Fuzzy, it'll be interesting to see what you made of Making it So (excuse the pun). I had much more to say but DH was playing music next to me.

Trying to decide which few books are going to stay out for the next 2 months while the builders are in. Narrowing the TBR pile to eight is giving me palpitations just thinking about it.

Remus would a little Everest fiction tempt you? Dixon, Descending - Karen Outen is fairly new. Two brothers attempt to be the first black Americans to summit Everest. Caveat - I haven't read it, just noticed it when it was released.

Hope you enjoy your hols.

Thank you for the new thread :)

1 Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing - Matthew Perry
2 The Lost Bookshop - Evie Woods
3 TV: Big adventures on the small screen - Peter Kay
4 The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie - Muriel Spark
5 My Dark Vanessa - Kate Elizabeth Russell
6 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
7 I invited her in - Adele Parks
8 Little Whispers - K L Slater
9 Orange is the New Black - Piper Kerman
10 1984 - George Orwell
11 I Survived: A True story - Victoria Cilliers
12 Inside Broadmoor - Jonathan Levi
13 Normal People - Sally Rooney
14 The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo - Taylor Jenkins Reid
15 I, Partridge - Alan Partridge
16 Fourth Wing - Rebecca Yarros
17 The People of Platform 5 - Clare Pooley
18 My Sister, The Serial Killer - Oyinkan Braithwaite
19 Confessions of a Shopaholic - Sophie Kinsella
20 Skipping Christmas - John Grisham
21 Three Hours - Rosamund Lupton
22 The Golden Oldies Club - Mark Daydy
23 Regeneration - Pat Barker
24 No, Pete Townshend: The Kids Aren’t Alright - Les Macdonald
25 A Heart That Works - Rob Delaney
26 Strangeways: A Prison Officer’s Story - Neil Samsworth
27 Is It Just Me? - Miranda Hart
28 Unwanted - Cathy Glass
29 Beautiful - Katie Piper
30 The Daughter of Auschwitz - Tova Friedman
31 Iron Flame - Rebecca Yarros
32 Fred and Rose - Howard Sounes
33 The Fault In Our Stars - John Green
34 Wuthering Heights - Emily Brontë

and just finish
35 Hear me out - Sarah Harding
This is Sarah’s memoir that she wrote after her devastating cancer diagnosis. I loved Girls Aloud but wasn’t a huge Sarah fan, but I was intrigued. She states that she wants people to understand that she wasn’t the mad party girl who was always drunk and taking drugs… then goes on to talk about all the parties where she got drunk and did drugs. She also had adhd which does account for her slightly manic behaviour in interviews and performances but I didn’t feel the image I had of her was that much different after having read it. Very sad how quickly she lost her cancer battle though and a good reminder to never put off drs appointments.

Thanks for the thread @Southeastdweller here's my current list.

1 The Road by Cormac McCarthy
2 The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 3/4 by Sue Townsend
3 Here’s Looking At You by Mhairi McFarlane
4 Christmas Pie by Jodi Taylor
5 The Scarecrow by Michael Connelly
6 Last Dance at the Discotheque for Deviants by Paul David Gould
7 The Maid by Nita Prose
8 One Day With You by Shari Low
9 Fool Me Once by Ashley Winstead
10 Excellent Women by Barbara Pym
11 Sabrina by Nick Drnaso
12 Les Enfants Terribles Jean Cocteau
13 The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
14 Wandering Souls by Cecile Pin
15 Call the Canaries Home by Laura Barrow
16 The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett
17 Magpie Lane by Lucy Atkins
18 The Spare Room by Laura Starkey
19 Hags by Victoria Smith
20 Rachel Ryan's Resolutions by Laura Starkey
21 Amy Perry’s Assumptions by Laura Starkey
22 Doomsday Book by Connie Willis
23 Why Don’t You Love Me? by Paul Rainey
24 Cider With Rosie by Laurie Lee
25 Reaching Down the Rabbit Hole: Extraordinary Journeys into the Human Brain by Allan H Ropper and BD Burrell
26 The Princes in the Tower by Alison Weir
27 A Pocketful of Happiness by Richard E Grant

Not a massive amount of bolds but I have a few that were pretty near. I'm really enjoying my reading at the moment, even though (or maybe because) I am well behind where I was this time last year.

In an effort to read more non-fiction, and to get through my physical TBR mountain, I'm trying to have a hard copy Fiction and non-fiction, a kindle fiction and non-fiction, and an audible fiction and non-fiction on the go. It is working well so far, and I try to read at least a chapter of each every day, and alternate my audible books. I'm finding that I'm not getting bored by more challenging books, or by longer books, as I can just read a bit and switch to another book for a break, without abandoning them altogether.

Thank you for the thread @Southeastdweller ! Here’s my list so far:

1. Nicholas Nickleby - Charles Dickens
2. The Five-minute Garden - Laetitia Maklouf
3. A Symphony of Echoes - Jodi Taylor
4. Agent Sonya - Ben Macintyre
5. A Second Chance - Jodi Taylor
6. The Hunting Party - Lucy Foley
7. Homecoming - Kate Morton
8. Le Jardinage pour les Nuls - Michael MacCaskey (in French; tr. Valérie Martin-Rolland)
9. Once Upon a Crime - Robin Stevens
10. Heresy - SJ Parris
11. The Ministry of Unladylike Activity - Robin Stevens
12. Politics on the Edge - Rory Stewart
13. The Appeal - Janice Hallett
14. The Ferryman - Justin Cronin
15. The Twyford Code - Janice Hallett

Thanks for new thread Southeast.
No list from me. Currently enjoying Emily Maitlis - Airhead.

Thanks for the new thread South!

Here’s my list:

1. Be a Free Range Human - Marianne Cantwell
2. Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs? - Caitlin Doherty
3. The Second Sleep - Robert Harris
4. Poirot’s Silent Night - Sophie Hannah
5. Unruly - David Mitchell
6. Frankenstein - Mary Shelley
7. Rising to the Surface - Lenny Henry
8. The First Fossil Hunters - Adrienne Mayor
9. Vital Organs - Suzie Edge
10. Venomous Lumpsucker - Ned Beauman
11. Why Losing Your Job Could Be the Best Thing That Ever Happened to You - Eleanor Tweddell
12. Attack Warning Red - Julie McDowall
13. Shakespeare - Bill Bryson
14. Culture: a new world history - Martin Puchner
15. Vet in Harness - James Herriot
16. Weird Medieval Guys - Olivia Swarthout
17. Why is This a Question? - Paul Anthony Jones
18. Nursery Earth - Danna Staaf
19. Writing for Busy Readers - Todd Rogers & Jessica Lasky-Fink
20. Your Child is Not Broken - Heidi Mavis
21. The Ferryman - Justin Cronin

Now reading The New Life (you lot weren’t wrong about the, er, sperm count) and Karen Armstrong’s Sacred Nature.

Thanks southeast.

1 Nine Quarters of Jerusalem by Matthew Teller
2 How To Avoid A Climate Disaster by Bill Gates
3 Tackle by Jilly Cooper
4 A Heart That Works by Rob Delaney
5 This Is How You Lose The Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone
6 Slow Horses by Mick Herron
7 Politics on the Edge by Rory Stewart
8 Letters To My Palestinian Neighbour by Yossi Klein Halevi
9 Big Beacon by Alan Partridge
10 Joey Goes To The Oberland by Elinor M Brent-Dyer
11 Going Dark by Julia Ebner
12 Reach For The Stars by Michael Cragg
13 Sonic Life by Thurston Moore
14 Poor Things by Alistair Gray
15 Fire Weather by John Vaillant
16 Rizzio by Denise Mina
17 The Stone Angel by Margaret Laurence
18 Airhead by Emily Maitlis
19 The Cancelling of the American Mind by Greg Lukianoff and Riki Schlott
20 The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal
21 Lillith by Nikki Marmery
22 Dead Lions by Mick Herron
23 Real Tigers by Mick Herron
24 The Bee Sting by Paul Murray
25 Spook Street by Mick Herron
26 Dune by Frank Herbert
27 London Rules by Mick Herron
28 Stone Blind by Natalie Haynes

None of these have been terrible and I have really enjoyed most of them but looking back only a few merit a bold. I've got a few on the go at the moment that may be highlights. For anyone interested in the workings of the City, Gary Stevenson's The Trading Game is proving very illuminating right now.

Thanks for the holiday wishes, everyone.

@FortunaMajor Thank you. I’ll get the sample.

Thanks for the new thread @Southeastdweller . I'm on holiday too and have been staying in Austria where the Chalet School was set before it had to move because of the war. It is extremely beautiful but the weather has been a bit mixed.

My favourite book of the series is Chalet School in Exile when they have move. Re-reading it makes you realize how much people did know about concentration camps at the time - it was written in 1940.

Anyway bringing over my list

1. TheTwist of a Knife - Anthony Horowitz
2. Hello Beautiful - Ann Napolitano
3. Verdigris - Michele Mari, translated by Brian Robert Moore
4. The Covenant of Water - Abraham Verghese
5. Big Swiss - Jen Beagin
6. The Memory of Animals - Claire Fuller
7. The School at the Chalet - Elinor M Brent Dyer
8. The Biography of X - Catherine Lacey
9. Stone Blind - Natalie Haynes

10. American Wife - Curtis Sittenfeld 11. The First Bad Man - Miranda July 12. The New Life - Tom Crewe 13. North Woods - Daniel Mason 14. Western Lane - Chetna Maroon 15. Lublin - Manya Wilkinson 16. Tom Lake -Anne Patchett 17. A Visit From The Goon Squad - Jennifer Egan 18. The Candy House - Jennifer Egan 19. I Have Some Questions For You - Rebecca Makkai 20. Hungry Ghosts - Kevin Jared Hosein 21. Eight Detectives - Alex Pavesi 22. Jo Returns to The Chalet School - Elinor M Brent Dyer 23. The New Chalet School - EMBD 24. The Chalet School in Exile - EMBD

@nowanearlyNicemum try this https://www.tripfiction.com/find-a-book/?location=Madrid&btitle=&bauthor=&genre=Genre...

I’ll try and do my list later!

Popping in to wave at everyone - no list as I'm staying with family atm. Update when I'm back in harness next week. Still reading the thread though, my little pocket friends.

Thanks for the new thread

Here's my list

1. Echo Burning; Lee Child
2. The Mysterious Affair at Styles; Agatha Christie
3. Without Fail; Lee Child
4. Persuader; Lee Child
5. Beg, Borrow or Steal; Susie Tate
6. Lights Out; Elise Hart Kipness
7. A Fatal Inversion; Barbara Vine
8. The Secret Adversary; Agatha Christie
9. The Witcher: The Last Wish; Andzrej Sapkowski
10. I'll Never Tell; Catherine McKenzie
11. A Doctor Blind Date for the Cowboy; Dobi Daniels
12. The Frightened Lady; Edgar Wallace
13. The Mystery of the Blue Train; Agatha Christie
14. Manhattan State of Mind; Rosa Lucas
15. The Cowboy's Unexpected Love; S. J. McCoy
16. The Guesthouse; Abbie Frost

And two new reviews

17. The Maul and the Pear Tree: The Ratcliffe Highway Murders, 1811 by P. D. James and T. A. Critchley
    Non-fiction book trying to uncover the perpetrator of the Ratcliffe Highway Murders in 1811. Two households were brutally murdered in their homes late at night. This book follows the investigation of the murders with a strong emphasis on the lack of a cohesive police force at the time and the amateur job the authorities did of investigating these crimes

18. Murder at the Vicarage by Agatha Christie
    This month's Read Christie challenge book. I LOVED this. I've never read a Marple before and this was by far the best Christie I've ever read. I loved Clement's narrative voice and his flashes of humour. I didn't guess whodunnit either. First bold of the year

30 The Gathering Storm -Lynn McEwan

fourth (and last, at present 🙂) of the Wee Shona books. I enjoyed this one too, I like that she’s blending in wider stories of the area, increases the sense of place.

I really ought to go back now to my half read Hilary Mantel or to Empire of Pain!

10. The Sober Diaries – Clare Pooley I thought this was excellent. As someone who teeters on the edge of giving up the booze altogether I found it realistic, honest, insightful with an overall positive vibe. I’d be happy to receive any recommendations of books in a similar vein. Probably more autobiography than self-help.

Just chucking my list in.

1. The Iliad – Homer (new translation Emily Wilson)
2. A Room of One’s Own - Virginia Woolf
3. When the Dust Settles – Lucy Easthope
4. For Thy Great Pain Have Mercy on My Little Pain - Victoria MacKenzie
5. Nottingham - Nathan Makaryk
6. The River at Night - Erica Ferencik
7. Cuddy - Benjamin Myers
8. Chrysalis - Anna Metcalfe
9. Soldier Sailor - Claire Kilroy

10. Enter Ghost - Isabella Hammad 11. In Memoriam - Alice Winn 12. Penance - Eliza Clark 13. Rouge - Mona Awad 14. Loot - Tania James 15. Falling Animals - Sheila Armstrong 16. The Glutton - A.K. Blakemore 17. A History of Burning - Janika Oza 18. The Shortest History of Israel and Palestine: From Zionism to Intifadas and the Struggle for Peace - Michael Scott-Baumann 19. The Fraud - Zadie Smith 20. Evil Eye - Etaf Rum 21. Act of Murder - Alan Wright 22. Chlorine - Jade Song 23. The Guest - Emma Cline 24. Land of Milk and Honey - C Pam Zhang 25. Sunburn - Chloe Michelle Howarth 26. Year of Wonders - Geraldine Brooks 27. The Future - Naomi Alderman 28. The Narrow Road to the Deep North - Richard Flanagan 29. Tunnel 29: The True Story of an Extraordinary Escape Beneath the Berlin Wall - Helena Merriman 30. When I Hit You, Or, A Portrait of the Writer as a Young Wife - Meena Kandasamy 31. Athelstan: The Making of England - Tom Holland 32. What You Are Looking For is in the Library - Michiko Aoyama 33. Tomorrow Someone Will Arrest You - Meena Kandasamy 34. Politics on the Edge - Rory Stewart 35. Ordinary Human Failings - Megan Nolan 36. The Collected Regrets of Clover - Mikki Brammer 37. Orbital - Samantha Harvey 38. The Centre - Ayesha Manazir Siddiqi 39. Talking At Night - Claire Delaney 40. The Museum of Failures - Thrity Umrigar 41. The Vulnerables - Sigrid Nunez 42. Hangman - Maya Bingham 43. Reproduction - Louisa Hall 44. Piglet - Lottie Hazel 45. River East, River West - Aube Rey Lescure 46. Black Narcissus - Rumer Godden 47. Nightbloom - Peace Adzo Medie 48. The Story of the Forest - Linda Grant 49. Brotherless Night - V.V. Ganeshananthan 50. And Then She Fell - Alicia Elliott 51. In Defence of the Act - Effie Black 52. 8 Lives of a Century-Old Trickster - Mirinae Lee 53. Doppelganger - Naomi Klein 54. The Dictionary People - Sarah Ogilvie 55. The Secret Book of Flora Lee - Patti Callahan Henry 56. Clear - Carys Davies 57. So Late in the Day - Claire Keegan 58. Code Dependent: Living in the Shadow of A.I. - Madhumita Murgia 59. How to Say Babylon - Safiya Sinclair 60. The Other Side Mrs Wood - Lucy Barker 61. The Maiden - Kate Foster 62. A Flat Place - Noreen Masud 63. Hidden Fires - Sairish Hussain 64. The Night Hawks (Ruth Galloway 13) - Elly Griffiths 65. Three Fires - Denise Mina 66. Diva - Daisy Goodwin