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?

The first book is definitely different but gives a lot of back story for Shardlake himself iirc.

Hmm, I've never thought of recommending people start with Dark Fire before. Shame, as a few friends have dismissed Dissolution as The Name of the Rose fanfic and refused to continue with the series. I think CJS may be the reason I try to give serial mysteries a two book grace period (within reason).

Adding a couple of quick reviews

29. Slow Horses - Mick Herron. I'm probably the last person to read this. Decent spy thriller with underdogs to root for. I've just cancelled my Apple subscription but am going to try and watch the series over the next fortnight.

30. The Fury - Alex Michaelides. A 99p Kindle murder based on a Greek island with limited characters. An unreliable narrator tells us at the start that it is a whydunnit rather than whodunnit but it still takes most of the book to get to it. It was ok, a solid 3.

I think the first works quite well as a standalone, but don't think he really warmed to the series or Shardlake as a character until after it, and the relationship with Jack adds so much that was missing in the first. Me, I just enjoyed the crazy monks.

I tried one of the Shardlake books as so many rave about them, however Thomas Cromwell was so different in character from the one I’d grown to love from Wolf Hall that it just didn’t feel right if you see what I mean!

31 Death: The High Cost Of Living - Neil Gaiman

More Sandman universe goodness - Death is definitely my favourite character from the whole series. I’m only planning to read the Gaiman written ones so only have Dream Hunters left to go, although I have heard good things about the spin-off Lucifer series - those are really expensive to buy though and my library doesn’t have them.

30 One Day All This Will Be Yours by Adrian Tchaikovsky

This is a fairly short book about a survivor from the Causality Wars at the end of time, and his attempts to stop the same thing from ever happening again. I started this book with an idea of what it would be about, but it definitely surprised me on several occasions, but not in a twisty kind of way. I really enjoyed it and will be reading more by the author as I also liked Dogs of War by the same author.

31 The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss

In contrast this was a bit of a beast of a book that took me a while to get through. I’ve not been a huge fan of fantasy historically, but have been reading a little more over the past couple of years, and enjoying it. This is the story of Kvothe, a legend in his own lifetime, who we get to know as he tells his life story to a Chronicler.

I have stolen princesses back from sleeping barrow kings. I burned down the town of Trebon. I have spent the night with Felurian and left with both my sanity and my life. I was expelled from the University at a younger age than most people are allowed in. I tread paths by moonlight that others fear to speak of during day. I have talked to Gods, loved women, and written songs that make the minstrels weep.My name is Kvothe. You may have heard of me

I really enjoyed this and there’s a follow up book that I will definitely read.

32 The Perfect Husband by Lisa Gardner
33 The Third Victim by Lisa Gardner
34 The Next Accident by Lisa Gardner
35 The Killing Hour by Lisa Gardner
36 Gone by Lisa Gardner
37 Say Goodbye by Lisa Gardner
38 Right Behind You by Lisa Gardner

This is the FBI Profiler series which has Pierce Quincy (FBI profiler) as the constant character throughout, although the main character switches from book to book. As happens in a lot of cases, the series started off quite well and delivered diminishing returns, although the books never became really terrible. I needed a series of quick easy reads while I recover from yet another cough / cold and these fit the bill.

72 Code Dependent by Madhumita Murgia
Thisnis my last read from the WP non-fiction shortlist and is an examination of the impact of AI in our lives already. I’ll be honest, I wouldn’t have read this apart from wanting to complete the shortlist as I’m not very interested in AI or anything techy. Murgia writes well and manages to grasp my interest at times so that’s an achievement in itself. My favourites from the shortlist are How to Say Babylon and Doppelganger. My favourite of everything I’ve read on the list was Intervals.

73 The Fall- Ryan Cahill
This was a free ebook novella as a prequel to Cahill’s self published fantasy series, which I’m hearing great things about. It was fine for what it was. I read the first full novel a couple of years ago but am going to read again to remind me for continuing on with the next two novels and two more novellas to get me up to date.

Tomorrow I’m going to my first ever book launch which is for John Connolly’s latest Charlie Parker thriller in a local indie book shop. Looking forward to it!

Enjoy the book launch ÚlldemoShúl!
I'm half way through the series. I usually read one book per year.

I like the sound of Shardrake and bought the first book, but there isn't enough time to read all the books dammit! I keep adding to my pile.

Shardlake. Oops 😊

38 Act of Oblivion - Robert Harris

This was a very good story, about a time in history I don’t know well. A civil servant is tracking down two followers of Oliver Cromwell who were involved in the regicide of Charles I and who flee to New England as fugitives. It started and ended strongly, was probably a bit long in the middle (successful author gets edited less - see also JKR and Diana Gabaldon) but the characters were strong and the settings well drawn. A bold for me. One to
read with concentration, though, not in a noisy cafe!

30. The Light That Bends Round Corners - Alexandra Carey this book is set in KL, Malaysia and follows the story of Laura, a newly arrived expat from the UK, and Mariel, her Filipino maid. I found this book impossible to put down, the story was pacey and interesting and I was very invested in Mariel's story. I live in Malaysia (though not in KL) and it sounds a very different place to the KL that I know, a lot has probably changed in the past almost 20 years (it is set in 2006 and I get the feeling it's semi autobiographical).

I found the tense somewhat irritating, I don't know what the different tenses are called but it wasn't one you commonly see in books and grated a little. I was also not satisfied with the ending but I don't think a book like this can ever have a satisfying, and realistic ending. I noticed no Filipino or Indonesian names in the acknowledgement section which I was surprised by. Maybe I just missed it though.

Overall I would recommend it as an easy, engaging read.

I’ve bought In a Good Light that @Tarragon123 read recently as it’s 99p today. Also bought Killing Thatcher by Rory Carroll that was recommended on here.

29. Saplings - Noel Streatfeild

Latest read of the Rather Dated Book Club. As ever I’ll say more over there, but in brief, this is the wartime story of the Wiltshire family - children Laurel, Tony, Kim and Tuesday, and their parents, Alex and Lena. The tensions within the family are thoughtfully managed by sensible, practical Alex, who loves his children and takes time and trouble to understand them (although by modern standards we may find their stiff-upper-lip code a bit eyebrow-raising), but the toll taken by war smashes family ties and leaves almost all the children, in their different ways, struggling to cope. A very interesting read, especially for anyone who’s only read Streatfeild’s children’s books and none of her adult fiction, as bits of her familiar tropes surface but are taken in other directions here, and sex, alcoholism and depression are major themes.

39 Elephants Can Remember - Agatha Christie

this was on Prime reading and I whizzed through it as a palate cleanser after Act of Oblivion, which is a weighty tome. Standard Poirot, enhanced by the presence of Ariadne Oliver. Interesting on the essence of memory… all in all, a good Agatha Christie.

28 London Rules by Mick Herron

Slough House 5, which I enjoyed, but not as much as the others. The plot is particularly silly and some of the writing felt a little forced in this one. However, the character development was still there, and the cliffhanger at the end was about Standish, who is my favourite, so I had to go straight into Joe Country (no. 6) which I think is much better so far.

29 The Brightest Night (Wings of Fire 5) by Tui T. Sutherland

I haven't particularly enjoyed reading the first tranche of this US dragon series to my children, but they did get better as they went on. 5 dragonets are brought up to believe they hold the key to ending the long war, started by the death of the Sandwing queen Oasis and her daughters' battle to be her successor. Various revelations spill out during the series, each book of which concentrates on one of the five. This final instalment is about Sunny the Sandwing, and was probably the most satisfying of the lot (I liked the third one about Glory the Rainwing too). A decent end to the first series - however, there are another umpty-million to go...

Can I join please? Appreciate it is rather late!

Here are my current 2024 reads and plans. I was hoping this year to make some progress on my 'Must Reads' and dig myself out of a 19th century sensation novel slump I've been in. In bold are the ones I have managed to finish so far! Looking through these I can see the thing they have in common is that they are on the shorter side!

1. Claire Keegan - Small Things like These
2. Zadie Smith- White Teeth
3. Charlotte Gilman- The Yellow Wallpaper
4. Emerald Fennel - Monsters
5. Erin Morgenstern - The Night Circus
6. Orson Scott Card - Ender's Game
7. Pearl S Buck - The Good Earth
8. Virginia Woolf - Mrs Dalloway
9. P.D.James - Shroud for a Nightingale
10. Nina Bawden - The Peppermint Pig
11. Stephen King- The Tommyknockers (audio book)
12. Khaled Hosseini - A Thousand Splendid Suns
13. Margaret Atwood- Madadam
14. Penelope Fitzgerald - The Bookshop
15. Penelope Fitzgerald - Offshore
16. Diana Wynne Jones - Howl's Moving Castle
17. Thornton Wilder- The Bridge of San Luis Rey
18. Adams, Sturm and Sutphin - Watership Down : Graphic Novel version
19. E M Foster A Passage to India
20. F Scott Fitzgerald The Great Gatsby
21. John Irving A Prayer for Owen Meany
22. Colin Walsh Kala
23. Denise Mina Rizzio
24. Carlos Ruiz Zafon The Shadow of the Wind
25. Eliza Clark Penance
26. Diana Wynne Jones Castle in the Air
27. Elizabeth Jane Howard The Light Years
28. Iris Murdoch The Bell
29. Winifred Watson - Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day
30. Dashiel Hammett - The Maltese Falcon (audio book)
31. Dean Koontz - Watchers
32. Mary Wesley The Camomile Lawn
33. Sheila Mackay The Orchard on Fire
34. Maggie O'Farrell Hamnet
35. Mariam Petrosyan - The Gray House
36. Per Petterson - Out Stealing Horses
37. Ben Halls- The Quarry
38. Anthony Price- Other Paths to Glory

Welcome @Thewolvesarerunningagain that is a very respectable list!!

Welcome to the thread @Thewolvesarerunningagain and that's a great list of book. A word of warning - this thread is very bad for your bank balance!

Welcome to the thread @Thewolvesarerunningagain
That's a lovely list 📚

26. The Saplings: Noel Streatfeild

There is a very good review of this by @Terpsichore already. I thought this was very good. The poor children. They lived an idyllic life until their father was killed in an air raid and then their lives were turned upside down. Just when things started to look up, things got worse again. Heart-rending until the final read. Recommended.

50. Surprise, Kill, Vanish by Annie Jacobson (Audible)

Since 1947, domestic and foreign assassinations have been executed under the C IA-led covert action operations team. Before that time, responsibility for taking out America's enemies abroad was even more shrouded in mystery. Despite Hollywood notions of last-minute rogue-operations and external secret hires, covert action is actually a cog in a colossal foreign policy machine, moving through, among others, the Bureau of Intelligence and Research, the House and Senate Select Committees. At the end of the day, it is the President, not the C IA, who is singularly in charge.

For the first time, Pulitzer Prize finalist and New York Times bestselling author Annie Jacobsen takes us deep inside this top-secret history. With unparalleled access to former operatives.

That's the deal. It was all a bit AMERICA FUCK YEAH for my taste, very partisan, and the author read it and got on my nerves, Mackintosh was pronounced Mah - KIN tosh and Peugeot as Poo-zho

There's a lot of info from credible sources but I doubt I will retain much from this. Unlike other non fictions I've read it never captured my mind or heart.

Edit: Saplings (not The Saplings)
And 'read' = page

Sorry for typos.

Saplings has been a persistent DNF for me, although generally I like her writing. I kept giving up because I found the mother so very irritatingly middle class and the little boy such an annoying pita.

Thanks for the reviews of In a Good Light by Clare Chambers. I've just checked and I have it on my Kindle, apparently I bought it on 21 September 2021 and haven't read it. This is what happens to me and 99p deals - many books just seem to get forgotten and scroll way down my library if I don't read them straight away.

Count Luna - Alexander Lernet-Holenia The novel gets off to a cracking start. Alexander Jessiersky, an Austrian aristocrat who is visiting Postwar Rome insists against all advice in descending down into the Catacombs of Praetextatus. He claims he wants to locate the remains of two French priests believed to have vanished in the passageways. However, after two days when he fails to emerge from the catacombs, his disappearance is reported to the police who link him to some "incidents"in Austria. It is revealed in the first two chapters that during World War II, Jessierky was a major shareholder in a transport company. His company wanted to buy land from a Count Luna, but Luna refused all offers, so Jessierky and his co investors denounced Count Luna to the Nazi regime and Luna was sent to a work camp. It is almost certain that the Count perished but Jessierky becomes paranoid that Count Luna is alive and stalking him, even trying to poison his children.

I found that the intial premise of the book really drew me in. The tension and dark sense of dread was palpable. However, the narrative became becalmed and bogged down in digressions such as the recounting of the Jessiersky family lineage which detracted from the storyline. I feel that with editing this would be a fantastic short story or novella but the lack of consistent pacing and the segues made this a bit of a slog to read and although first published in 1955 it read like a novel from an earlier period despite being set in Postwar Rome.

I did finish Saplings but I seem to recall finding it quite tiresome.

@FuzzyCaoraDhubh I hope you’ve enjoyed the Charlie Parker’s. John Connolly’s book launch was great and it’s looking like the long discussed tv adaptation is going to happen- not sure if I’m happy about that or not!
I also met two other crime writers there- Steve Cavanagh and Brian McGilloway