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
Here is my list

1. Wrong Place, Wrong Time - Gillian McAllister
2. The Making of US - Lisa Jewell
3. Shrines of Gaiety - Kate Atkinson
4. The Satsuma Complex - Bob Mortimer
5. Dark Tides - Philippa Gregory
6. Downlands - Philippa Gregory
7. My Name is Leon - Kit De Waal
8. The Island of missing Trees - Elif Shafak
9. Winter Garden - Kristen Hannah

10. Shadow Baby - Margaret Forster 11. The Warm Hands of Ghosts - Katherine Arden 12. The Stargazers - Harriet Evans 13. Music In the Dark - Sally Magusson 14. Silver Nitrate - Silvia Moreno Garcia

Currently reading Demon Copperhead, which is marvellous.

Can't seem to do bold, but if I could they would be The Island of Missing Trees and Shadow Baby

I hope so too. She said she was making an urgent referral, but that the waiting list was still long for that 😞

I'm determined to finish TTTW this time, having got bogged down in the confusion of their ages last time. But I really hate that Claire was only 6 when they first met, and he was nearly 40. It's making me very uncomfortable, and with lots of talk about how Henry insisted on waiting until she was 18 before they had sex 😒

I really didn't like her second novel, Her Fearful Symmetry.

According to Wikipedia, Audrey Niffenegger was writing a sequel to TTTW which was supposed to have been out last year, but has not yet been released. Curious.

TTTW was one of the first books i read when I got back into reading so I enjoyed it at the time. I suspect I’d feel different if I read it now. Her Fearful Symmetry was abysmal.

@BarbaraBuncle I hope things improve for your DS. My eldest has SEN so we’ve had some CAMHS support in the past which really helped. More recently my youngest needed support and following an urgent referral from her school we had an appointment within two weeks, despite the long waiting list, so you never know.

I love TTTW and agree Her Fearful Symmetry was bad.

I agree about the Claire is 6 issue… but if you were in that situation, where your life was twisted in itself and you met your spouse as a child, what could you do… and whatever you do is what you did, as your wife has already experienced it?

it’s a headfuck, for sure!

And sending all good wishes to you and DS, @BarbaraBuncle

TTTW I've had a different reaction each time, most recent reaction: it's romanticising psychological abuse!

I thought it was wonderful first time. One of those books were you've changed as a reader but the book hasn't

1 The Short End of the Sonnenallee by Thomas Brussig, translated by Jonathan Franzen and Jenny Watson
2 The Five Minute Garden by Laetitia Maklouf
3 Kristin Lavrandatter III: The Cross by Sigrid Undset. Translated by Tiina Nunnally
4 Stars of Fortune by Cynthia Harnett
5 Heartstopper Vol 5 by Alice Oseman
6 Nimona by ND Stevenson
7 Territory of Light by Yuko Tsushimo. Translated by Geraldine Harcourt
8 Rizzio by Denise Mina
9 Sophia, Princess, Suffragette, Revolutionary by Anita Anand
10 The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa. Translated by Stephen Snyder
11 Nightingale Wood by Stella Gibbons
12 The Door by Magda Szabó. Translated by Len Rix
13 Aya: Claws Come Out by Marguerite Abouet and Clément Oubrerie. Translated by Edwige Renée Dro

Poor Things by Alasdair Gray
I loved Lanark when I read it as a student in Glasgow over 30 years ago so I'm not quite sure why I didn't read this back then. Anyway, after watching the film I decided to read this; I'm sure you'll all be pleased to know there's far less sex thanin the film. A Scottish gothic romp based on Frankenstein, complete with multiple unreliable narrators and several pages of notes on the text which blend fact and fiction. Great fun.

BarbaraBuncle

Here's my list carried over. I've got a few more to add later.

1. I Have To Save Them. Ellie Midwood
2. P.S Jane. Jessica Julien
3. Mrs. Quinns Rise to Fame. Olivia Ford
4. The Villa. Jess Ryder
5. Artificial Wisdom. Thomas Weaver
6. The Paris Spy's Girl. Amanda Lees
7. Twisting Time: Forbidden City of Gold. D.F Jones
8. The Liberation of Bella McCaa. Catherine Aitken
9. The Quelling. C.L Lauder

10. Munich Wolf. Rory Clements 11. Sam Time. Donna Balon 12. A Most Malicious Messenger. Katherine Black 13. Taken to the Hills. S.J Richards 14. Blood On The Tracks. Guy Hale 15. Black Money. S.J Richards 16. The German Child. Catherine Hokin 17. Phoenix Rising. Celia and Ephie Risho 18. The Bakers Secret. Lelita Baldock 19. The Vermillion Ribbon. Hayley Price 20. Inheritance. Philip Tyler 21. Nicole's War. Andrée Rushton 22. Aria and Liam: The Druids Secret. Coline Monsarrat 23. Dark Arts. Karen Taylor 24. Vermilion Sunrise. Lydia P. Brownlow 25. Opaque. Calix Leigh-Reign 26. Knights, Witches and Murder. R.M Schultz 27. The Advocate. Theresa Burrell 28. Queen of Secrets. E.J Tanda 29. The Lost Child. Kathleen McGurl 30. Blood Sapphires Revenge. Bruce Farmer 31. New Dreams at Polkerran Point. Cass Grafton 32. Highly Flawed Individual. T.C Roberts 33. Tale of Two Curses. Theresa Biehle 34. Right Across the Bay. Quinn Avery 35. How Boys Learn. Jeff Kirchick 36. The False Men. Mhairead MacLeod 37. Evermarked. A.J Eversley 38. Truth Sister. Phil Gilvin 39. Crodor The Ancient. Celia and Ephie Risho 40. The Whispering Palms. Annette Leigh 41. Good Girl Deprogramming. Michelle Minnikin 42. When The Moon Was White. Jeff Probst 43. Split Adam. Calix Leigh-Reign 44. The Wartime Book Club. Kate Thompson 45. House of Dreams. Mark Stibbe 46. Humebeasts. Lisa Munoz 47. Island In The Sun. Kate Fforde 48. Shooters. Julia Boggio 49. Escape to Polkerran Point. Cass Grafton 50. Knights, Necromancers and Murder. R.M Schultz 51. The Secrets of Blythwood Square. Sara Sheridan 52. Chasing the Light. Julia Boggio 53. Another Side of the Heart. C.H Lazarovich 54. Exodus. Steve Catto 55. My Perfect Family. Melanie Price 56. Fog Of Silence. S.J Richards 57. Daughters of Warsaw. Maria Frances 58. Olympia. Eva Grace 59. Mannigan. L. Ross Coulter 60. Pink Camouflage. Gemma Morgan 61. Hear her Scream. Dylan H Jones 62. Cursed by Slumber. Michelle Moras 63. The Clark's Factory Girls at War. May Ellis 64. An Elf With No Name. Mortimer Langford 65. Memory Road. Sarah Edghill 66. What we Thought We Knew. Claire Dyer 67. Moral Injuries. Christie Watson 68. A Woman Of Pleasure. Kiyoko Murata. Translated by Juliet Winters Carpenter. 69. All The World's A Stage. Guy Hale 70. Orson the Great. Colm McElwain 71. The Giveaway Girl. Chrissie Bradshaw 72. Knights, Witches and The Missing. R.M Schultz 73. Naked Truth. Vicki Rebecca 74. Into the Darkness. Steve Catto 75. Gathering of the Four. A.E Bennett 76. A Tale of Something New. D.S McColgan 77. Specular. Calix Leigh-Reign 78. Maybe It's About Time. Neil Boss 79. The Godfather of Dance. Andrea Barton

1 Watership Down: the Graphic Novel - Richard Adams
2 The Lord God Made them All - James Herriot
3 A Helping Hand - Celia Dale
4 Where I End - Sophie White
5 A Net for Small Fishes - Lucy Jago
6 Even the Dogs - Jon McGregor
7 How To be Both - Ali Smith
8 Snow Falling on Cedars - David Guterson
9 Ironopolis - Glen James Brown
10 Behind the Scenes at the Museum - Kate Atkinson

@BarbaraBuncle sorry things are tough.

Next Women's Prize Book - Enter Ghost - Isabella Hammond . This is outstanding. Empathic, engaging, beautifully written and layered. Definitely a bold.

Next up is River East, River West

I've just finished my third woman's prize read In Defence of The Act by Effie Black. I think this has had quite mixed reviews.
It's about a woman who thinks suicide is not always a bad thing. She's experienced quite a few in her life (perhaps a few too many to feel normal?) and is building an argument as to why it has purpose.
I liked it on the whole, I thought the narrator was compelling and the story was original, with a scientific bent. She slightly lost me towards the end when a baby is born and creates a redemption arc that I found slightly cheesy. I read another book The First Bad Man where something similar happens and feel it's an overdone trope. Probably sits in between the other two I've read - Soldier, Sailor and Western Lane.

Lynne Reid Banks has died, link to her obituary. I remember reading the L shaped room as a teenager.

I read a lot of her books @JaninaDuszejko I remember one which was set in a kibbutz and I read The Indian In The Cupboard series as well.

Oh I loved The L Shaped Room and also One More River (that's the one in a kibbutz Eine)

Hopefully it's not too late for me to join and hopefully beat last year's unimpressive total!

So far this year:

1. The Stasi Game, David Young
2. Russian Tattoo, Elena Gorokhova
3. Klara and the Sun, Kazuo Ishiguro
4. Never Let me Go, Kazuo Ishiguro
5. Lessons in Chemistry , Bonnie Garmus
6. Crack Down, Val McDermid
7. So late in the Day, Claire Keegan

8.The Wager, David Grann.

1. Death on Gokumon Island, Seishi Yokomizo

10. Dead Beat, Val McDermid 11. Maurice and Marilyn, Sophie Elmhirst 12. 1989, Val McDermid

Yes! I'm possibly wrong in thinking there was a sequel as I can't find it

Welcome @KindaNormal

That's sad. I also loved The L Shaped Room.

So very sad to hear that Lynne Reid Banks has died.

I loved the L shaped room. I read it in my teens & it was a book that helped shape my views.

The sequels to it were The Backward Shadow & Two is Lonely. The latter, as far as I remember, is set in a kibutz in Israel.

As a teenager in the 60's they definitely resonated with me.

I now really want to re-read them.

That's very sad about LRB, I loved her books as a teenager and have The L-Shaped Room on my kindle, although I've held off re-reading as I think much of it will have not aged too well.

Yeah, the most recent reviews on Amazon say it's full of racist and homophobic stereotypes sadly. Think someone on here read it recently and said the same thing.

Oof just finished Soldier Sailor by Claire Kilroy last night and loved it. I was initially a bit frustrated as I’d just finished And Then She Fell and with similar themes of the craziness of new motherhood I didn’t think it was going to be able to compete. But about 50 pages in I was gripped.

I feel like this novel gave me a panic attack it was so accurate to the insanity of new motherhood (which I’m thankfully far out of). Trying to leave the house, worrying about fevers, the boredom of the days and questioning who you are and what matters.

The guardian reviewer said the father at times feels preposterous but she has clearly never read an AIBU thread - it feels like it captures some women’s realities entirely.

definitely a 5 for me, I hope it makes the short list with And Then She Fell. I’m onto Brotherless Night* next, which thankfully has no new mothers yet.

I finished Soldier Sailor last night too @Palegreenstars . I thought it was very good and it resonated with me. I found the last chapter very moving, the ode to her son. I had a lump in my throat reading it.