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?

I like Tom Gordon precisely because of its simplicity. I think I can imagine reading it as, say, a 13 year old and being really caught up in it. I think King does children really well, in a way that ET echoes and Stranger Things tapped into (although I’ve only seen a couple of episodes of the latter).

The new book is on my list to buy over half term and will hopefully remind me that I can read!

Yes, I think it works well as a YA intro to adult books, definitely

After my literary death march through A Passage to India I picked some shorter, livelier pieces from my list. Unfortunately for my bank balance both have opened up new series for me. Tragic!

Rizzio Denise Mina

Absolutely brilliant. A great description of the events surrounding the murder of David Rizzio. Gory as all get out (of course) and a wonderful depiction of the life and times of Mary Q.of Scots. It's part of the Darkland Tales series, aiming to highlight and retell key moments and stories in the history of Scotland which has always teetered on the edge of becoming the story of shortbread and speeding bonnie boats (or as my school history teacher once described it 'biscuits and brawls'. Very much recommended and will be looking out for more in the series as well as more DM.

Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day Winifred Watson

Part of a series published by Persephone books, who aim to publish 'forgotten fiction and non-fiction by unjustly neglected authors'. Well bless them. Miss Pettigrew is a beautifully realised character, a dowdy middle aged failing governess who gets the chance to live a different life, and transform those of others, through a series of misunderstandings. Attending for an interview Miss Pettigrew 'spinster, maiden lady, dull non-entity, jobless, incompetent' finds a new side to herself and a new purpose amongst the glamorous in crowd of 1930s London. Watson's Geordie humour shines through in wonderful turns of phrase. In one scene Miss Pettigrew, at a loss for a toast in response to 'Mud in your Eye!', replies with a hearty 'Wash and Brush Up". A gentle, affectionate and 'life affirming' piece which I'm glad to have found.

34. 1599: A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare - James Shapiro

Finally staggered to the end of this - not because it wasn’t good, but because it demanded very concentrated attention which I’m finding difficult at the moment. Shapiro chose 1599 as his focus because it was eventful in many ways: the Globe Theatre was built for Shakespeare’s company of players, The Chamberlain’s Men, of which he was a shareholder; As You Like It, Julius Caesar and Hamlet were all written. It was also a politically febrile time, with the Earl of Essex humiliatingly failing to quell rebellion in Ireland, and panic whipped up on the streets with rumours (false) of a second Spanish Armada. The ageing Queen was expected to die at any time but still held her court and nobleman in a state of enthralled terror.

Shapiro places Shakespeare within this landscape with considerable skill and imaginative flair, and shows how masterfully he negotiated the very dangerous territory he trod with his writing - he could easily have ended up losing his head had the Queen taken offence. I will admit that my eyes skated over some of the longer passages comparing minute changes in drafts of Hamlet, however….!

That sounds like a really good read @Terpsichore !

It was good but veeeeerrrrrry detailed, Fuzzy, hence the enormous amount of time it’s taken me to read it! (glad you got home OK and hope you made it to the V & A, btw 😊)

I got to the V & A and loved it Terpsichore. I'll return some day. * *
For any cat owners on the thread, this is what happens when you're* *late getting their breakfast ;)

@FuzzyCaoraDhubh 😃

I love the V&A too, Fuzzy. And that image is one of the reasons I do not have a cat.

61. Snow Crash, by Neal Stephenson

Sci-fi - someone is using ancient Sumerian knowledge to seize power in both the online and real world in a dystopian near-future America. Only a sword-wielding hacker and teenage courier stand in the way.....I did warm somewhat to this, as it didn't take itself too seriously, and the ending was an enjoyable chase scene that brought the various threads together in a rather satisfying way. That said, all the Sumerian stuff was delivered as an info dump. While there's a wide range of reference, there's more breadth than depth to it. Overall, I thought it was a decent enough example of what the genre can do.

54. The Trading Game by Gary Stevenson
    Recommended by a few people up thread. This memoir follows Stevenson from a relatively deprived background in Ilford, through success in school & a place at the LSE, and then - through winning a competitive 'trading game' to get an internship - into life as a city trader. He joined Citibank in 2008 just as the world financial sector started to implode.
    
    I was a bit unconvinced by Gary as the only one seeing the problems with post crash low interest rates & austerity economics. Obviously the bank traders are very homogenous, and trained in a particular style of economics, but there were an awful lot of dissenting voices around at the time putting forwards a classic Keynsian analysis around deficient demand. Plus of course you'd imagine that bank traders would have been aware of Japan's 'lost decades' & long lasting zero interest rates post 1990.
    
    In any event, it made a good story, & it was interesting to see how much the sector seems to have changed since the late 80s when I had a little experience of it. (I also did a summer internship in a trading firm, though aged 18 & through falling into conversation with a customer in the shop where I was a saturday girl.) I reckon back then, Gary would have been an obvious recruit, not an outlier, & the general view seemed to be that going to uni was a waste of time, & merely a delay to making £££.

55. A Bookshop of One's Own by Jane Cholmely
    Unlike Gary Stevenson, I didn't spend my lunchtimes as an intern in the City building useful relationships with the traders. Instead, I discovered the wonderful Silver Moon women's bookshop & it's fabulous stock of feminist, LGBT (the 'T' definitely included) & other really-really-not-available-in-the-midlands books (possibly a sign that I was never cut out to be a city trader ). This is the story of Silver Moon, from its founding in 1984 through to closure in 2001. If I'm honest, it's probably only a book for you if you have fond memories of the shop & that period, but if you do, I'd say it's worth looking out.

56. Faro's Daughter by Georgette Heyer
    Picked up in the deals - I've not read this for ages, & I'd forgotten how funny it is. Deb Grantham may work in her aunt's gaming house - but she is definitely not going to take Max Ravenscar's insults lying down. He assumes she's scheming to get money from his infatuated young cousin, her revenge becomes more & more entangled & ridiculous.

41 – The Butterfly Room – Lucinda Riley. Publishers blurb: Posy Montague is approaching her 70th birthday. Still living in her beautiful family home, Admiral House, set in the glorious Suffolk countryside where she spent her own idyllic childhood catching butterflies with her beloved father, and raised her own children, Posy knows she must make an agonizing decision. The house is crumbling around her, and Posy knows the time has come to sell it. Then a face appears from the past - Freddie, her first love, who abandoned her and left her heartbroken 50 years ago. Already struggling to cope with her son Sam's inept business dealings, and the sudden reappearance of her younger son Nick, Posy is reluctant to trust in Freddie's renewed affection. And unbeknown to Posy, Freddie - and Admiral House - have a devastating secret to reveal....Absolutely loved this!

42 – The Murder at Fleat House – Lucinda Riley. This was already on my Kindle and had been for quite a while. I was sorry to hear that this was Lucinda’s last book, due to her early death. This was a bold for me. A seemingly straightforward death at a boarding school turns out to be nothing of the sort. Lots of twists and turns. Looking forward to reading more from Lucinda Riley.

43 – The Reading List – Sara Nisha Adams. Much reviewed and enjoyed on here. Thanks for the recommendation. I’ll be seeking out more from this author too.

22 Stoner by John Williams
I'm about 8 years behind everyone else in discovering this 50s novel about a man who grew up poor in the early 20th century USA and became a college teacher. William Stoner's biography is given in a few words but the novel shows what immensity a single life holds. A very beautiful book, sadness and comfort together. Another bold (it's a year of holds for me).

I absolutely loved Stoner and have had another of Williams’ novels, Butchers Crossing on my kindle for ages which I really should bump up.

Sadik, the whole "I'm a genius and no one has ever geniused more than me in the history of geniusing" angle did get a touch tedious after a while in The Trading Game. And I wasn't entirely convinced he would have been such an outlier on a forex trading desk either. I found myself wondering afterwards how much of it is true and how much is at best a convenient revision of what happened. The whole "I hate it here and it's ruining my life and the world and I'm a man of principle but I won't leave until you pay me the £££££ you owe me" thing was particularly odd.

I thought Stoner was a wonderful book too.

Lots of interesting things in the deals today! I bought The Husbands which has been quite buzzy and Closer to Home by Michael Pagee. Also saw but didn't get a Ruth Ware and a Colson Whitehead.

I missed the Georgette Heyer deals the other day and am a bit sad as I'm about to watch Bridgerton and will no doubt want more regency romance afterwards!

35. Enter Ghost by Isabella Hammad. Very strong Women's Prize contender. I thought this was slow to start but really escalated the drama and tension later on. I learnt a huge amount about life in the West Bank which I knew almost nothing about. I thought that some of the relationships between the theatre company members stayed a bit too opaque and could have been unpacked more, but overall it was a great book.

36. House of Mirrors by Erin Kelly. Sequel to The Poison Tree following Karen's daughter, now grown up and running the fabulously named vintage shop Dead Girl's Dresses, as she starts to investigate her family secrets. A really solid, well written thriller. I think I gravitate towards reading a lot of debuts and it is nice to read something by such an experienced writer who knows what she she is doing!

37. Go Lightly by Brydie Lee Kennedy. Novel about Ada, an Australian actor dealing with a bisexual love triangle in London. I expect most people are fairly bored of the 'chaotic young woman has an insecure job and bad relationships in a city' genre, but if not this is quite good fun. A very abrupt ending though.

I loved Stonor when I read it a few years ago - thought about it as my gift book for the London meet-up!

43 How Westminster Works And Why It Doesn’t by Ian Dunt
Dunt is famously anti-Tory but this is an equal opportunities “why our political system is broken” book. It is very much a book about the system, not the politicians or the politics, as he goes through the individual components of the parliamentary system and examines what is broken and what just flat out never worked. I learned an enormous amount from this, and realised how arcane and just flat out weird our system is, held together by string and a belief in British exceptionalism, while failing on many fronts to deliver good outcomes. The chapter on the civil service in particular was jaw dropping, but he also goes deep into the way in which parliamentary candidates are selected, the role of the press, the House of Lords (who come out of this extremely well, all things considered), select committees and so on. This would be a fantastic summer read for an A Level politics student – it’s well researched, engaging and covers a lot of ground.

42 Private Equity by Carrie Sun
This isn’t a million miles removed from Trading Games – bright and bushy eyed young person with plenty of talent goes to high performing finance firm where they are slowly crushed by the effort of fitting in, while also being incredibly good at their job and valued by everyone. Carrie is a much more likeable narrator than Gary, and certainly has equally good stories of excess and how, as the executive assistant to the founder of a hedge fund, she was called upon to cater to his every whim, perfectly and with a weirdly large dose of public self-criticism heaped into the mix.

41 From Here to Eternity by Caitlin Doughty
A short and evocative account of burial practices around the world and how we get it wrong. It wasn’t a patch on The American Way of Death which is still the best book about the funeral industry I’ve ever read but it did mean I did look incredibly knowledgeable after I told my partner on Monday that there was a problem with sky burials in Tibet because of a declining vulture population only for him to see a news article a few days later saying exactly that.

40 Soldier Sailor by Claire Kilroy
It seems that everyone who has read this loved it, but I’ve forgotten at least half of what I read already and the rest is fading away in terms of plot. But I do think the description of the fog of early motherhood and the absolute isolation of spending all my time with a small tyrant who depends entirely upon you to survive but is ruthless in their ability to crush you completely was very very on point. Nearly two decades on, that feeling is still very much fresh in my mind.

Potentially of interest to 50 Bookers - British Library in June - tagging @AgualusasLover as a BL aficionado!

https://jlflitfest.org/london

https://thebritishlibraryculturalevents.seetickets.com/event/jlf-london-at-the-british-library-saturday-pass/british-library/2992826

50 Twopence to cross the Mersey - Helen Forrester
Set in 1930s Liverpool, the Depression has hit hard and Helen, her parents and six younger siblings suddenly find themselves plucked from wealth and comfort into the depths of poverty.
I first read this when I was 13 and have read it about twenty times since. I love it and my astonishment at the situation her parents found themselves in never diminishes. The language is of its time but apart from that I always enjoy reading it.

A cluster of reviews
84 The Outsider Jane Casey
Short crime novella linked to the Maeve Kerrigan series. A side character is under cover with a crime family. Okay. Diverting enough but won’t set the world on fire. The Maeve books are better.
85 Sworn to Silence- Linda Castillo
I bought this years ago on a 99p deal. Police procedural in Amish country where the small town chief of police is from an Amish background but strayed from the church. This wasn’t as interesting as the premise suggests and was a bi crime by numbers. Won’t bother with any more of this series.
86 Don’t Know Much about the American Presidents by Kenneth C Davis (audio) and 87 The Presidents by Iain Dale
Reading to remind myself of info for a module I’m teaching next year after a few years out of it. The first was okay for a brief synopsis of each president, the second had some great pieces but was hampered by the fact that a different person wrote about each incumbent of the Oval Office and the quality was variable.
87 Spring - Ali Smith
The third in Smith’s seasonal quartet. This one focuses on the detainment of refugees and on Richard who is a little bit lost after the death of his best friend Paddy. This is my favourite of these so far. Paddy was a wonderful character and Richard’s story in particular moved me to tears. A definite bold. I bought the next one today and am looking forward to reading it when summer hits. I get the feeling I will reread these many times over.

35. Romantic Comedy - Curtis Sittenfeld

Bit of a random choice for me, but I saw a rave review somewhere and the library had it…

30-something Sally Milz is a sketch writer on cult US TV show The Night Owls, familiarly known to all as TNO (a barely-disguised Saturday Night Live). After nine years on the show, Sally is jogging along, making good money but with not much of a life outside the demands of the show. She's shaken out of her rut by unexpected chemistry with guest host - and mega-famous singer/songwriter - Noah Brewster, but ruins the moment and scuppers their nascent romance. Cut to two years later in the depths of Covid, when he contacts her unexpectedly: an email wooing of sorts springs up, followed by idyllic consummation at Noah's lavish-but-tasteful multi-million-dollar mansion. But wait! In time-honoured tradition, the course of true love can’t quite run smooth yet, and there’s some angsting over their disparate positions in life (unfamous, un-pretty TV writer vs drop-dead gorgeous star who can summon a private jet with a click of his fingers). But a Covid emergency brings them back together and all ends happily ever after.

A sweet, undemanding read, essentially a Mills and Boon in terms of story arc, but with wisecracking New York sensibilities (although for me, the supposed hilarious sketches written by Sally were clunkingly unfunny). This won’t tax the brain cells but it’s a light and fun read.

24 Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout. Generally loved on this thread, I can now add my voice to the chorus of praise. Olive is such an interesting character - flawed but appealing.

25 Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell. YA fiction about two endearing misfit teenagers from very different backgrounds who fall in love. Very sweet - I can imagine loving this if I'd read it as a teen.

@GrannieMainland I bought the same two daily deals as you did...looking forward to both.
20. The Sun Sister by Lucinda Riley.
Book six in the Seven Sisters series. So long. Over 800 pages in print. Over 26 hours on audio. Following the same formula as the previous books, we are this time in modern day New York, and 1930s/1940s Kenya. Easy reading. I have the next book in the series lined up because I want to see where the whole thing is going.
21. Metropolitan Stories by Christine Coulson
I finished this and immediately wanted to read it again and pay closer attention - I think it maybe deserved more from me as a reader!
Recommended on the Strong Sense of Place podcast, this is written by a former Metropolitan Museum of Art employee. Characters are guards, curators, other staff...and also the precious objects in the collection. One early section titled 'Chair as Hero', written from the perspective of a wooden chair, gave a wonderful sense of how it felt about different periods in it's history and about it's purpose. It's a really unusual and interesting book, different to anything else I've read but also a good accompaniment to All The Beauty In The World by Patrick Bringley which I loved earlier in the year.
However...I listened to this on audio as it was included in the plus catalogue, and I was really concentrating because I was enjoying the writing, but I was listening to it as a series of short stories. Then I realised the cover has the words 'a novel' which intrigued me but didn't change my mind. Then I realised (in the final quarter), that the characters being mentioned had featured much earlier on, I recognised the names and could see how the two very separate chapters were connected. I continued to finish the book, and enjoyed it, but was left wondering what other connections/through plots I had missed along the way. If I'd had a paper copy I would have been doing a lot of flicking back and forward I think!

@CluelessMama Metropolitan Stories sounds fascinating. I've got Christine Coulson's latest, One Woman Show on my wish list so just added this to the queue.

Another Stoner lover here, although Augustus left me so cold, poor Butcher's Crossing got bumped way down the TBR.
Bought the same 99p books you did @GrannieMainland It will be interesting to compare Close to Home with Ordinary Human Failings (I'm still salty that one wasn't shortlisted for the WP).
*@Sadik I reviewed A Bookshop of One's Own *earlier - enjoyed it but felt wistful that I was too young to have experienced the shop (only ever visited the sad Foyles concession). Got the tantalising sense there was a lot of tea to be spilt re: Spare Rib though?

OK, it's no 50 Bookers meet-up but after queueing months I finally had my date with Meryl at Ann Patchett's Tom Lake. Worth the wait, and my first bold in a while. Sweet but in as cherries are, wth a tart edge and stubbornly hard stones. Think I need to reread Our Town (and The Cherry Orchard) to get more from it, neither of which I've read since school/uni.

Speaking of which, latest nonfic: Carol Atherton - Reading Lessons: The Books We Read at School, the Conversations They Spark and Why They Matter
Including the subtitle in full since it's a neat summary. Bibliomemoir, each chapter spun from GCSE/A-Level set texts from Atherton’s 30+ years of teaching English, e.g. 'On not fitting in: Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit’ which includes her memories of growing up in a small Merseyside town, Section 28, the impact of seeing yourself reflected in books. My favourite chapter read Macbeth through her struggles with infertility, and being treated as a failure for being ‘just’ a teacher.
The book is also a passionate defence of the study of English, with eloquent anger at the changes she's witnessed both as teacher and citizen, especially over recent years. I enjoyed revisiting some familiar works with such a thoughtful, engaging guide but the book fell just short of a bold perhaps because of this familiarity, and the fact that I already agreed with her about most things. (And wondered if it would persuade people who don’t think English a worthwhile subject? I doubt they’d read it.)
Did inspire me to add Coram Boy to the TBR, and reread Oranges and Of Mice and Men.