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 am really struggling with And Then She Fell and fear it may become a DNF for me.

The thing about The L Shaped Room is that it's written with humanity. I do remember the racist / homophobic bit - the character John is described in ways that would not be acceptable today. But my memory is that the protagonist Jane has a wonderful relationship with John. So it's the wording that is problematic rather than the underlying message IYSWIM.

Disclaimer: I haven't read it for many, many years so I may be inadvertently minimising here.

I’m sure many of us look back fondly on The L-Shaped Room; I know I do. And yes, it wouldn’t be published nowadays.

I wonder whether the film might pop up on TV now LR-B has died - it differed from the book in some ways (casting the French Leslie Caron in the main role, which never quite seemed right) but it has a charm of its own.

Whilst I know I read The L-Shaped Room whilst at school and enjoyed it, I have absolutely no recollection of the story. Unsurprising since I can barely remember what I have read this year which brings me onto:

25. Murder at the Vicarage - Agatha Christie

This month’s challenge book and already reviewed by satelliteheart (and possibly others!). My favourite style of Christie - a big house, village setting, dysfunctional family/unpleasant family member. Miss Marple’s debut apparently. Alarmingly, I read this in 2021 but whilst I could recall the murder and characters, I had no recollection of who was the murderer until the big reveal. Very good.

I have never even heard of Lynne Reid- Banks- must keep my eye out for anything by her seeing as so many of you have such positive things to say.
I’m off work this week so have finished a few more.

57 Where They Lie- Claire Coughlan
Nicoletta Sarto is a journalist working on (fictional) Dublin newspaper The Sentinel in 1968 when the body of Julia Bridges is discovered in a suburban back garden. Bridges had disappeared over 10 years before and was connected to the infamous illegal abortionist Gloria Fitzpatrick. Sarto investigates. Fairly run of the mill thriller. Gets a bit silly towards the end.

58 Titus Andronicus- William Shakespeare
April’s play and the best so far (thanks @inaptonym you were right). Bloody and brutal- more like a Greek tragedy than what I’d expect of Shakespeare. I enjoyed it- definitely prefer the tragedies to the comedies. Next up is my first (3) history(ies)- Henry VI parts 1, 2 and 3- they can wait until May.

59 8 Lives of a Century Old Trickster by Miranae Lee
Much reviewed on here. The story of a Korean woman who experienced much in her hundred years- from her impoverished childhood in a small village through to her last days in a nursing home and in between as a spy, a Korean ‘comfort girl’ to the Japanese army and many other events. I enjoyed this more than many other readers on the thread, but it’s still only a Tier 2 for me in the fiction longlist.

Currently struggling to enjoy All that she Carried from the no -fiction shortlist and for fiction have started Restless Dolly Maunder and Drive your Plow over the Bones of the Dead

I found the beginning quite hard work, but it gets better as it goes on. I was debating not finishing it myself. It's one I admired rather than liked as such. The overall concept of it is very impressive.

Checking in with the results of the book token spending spree. Very excited to take these home and release them into the wild. Not sure which one to start with.

Oooh Pepe, great haul. Lovely new books.

Enjoy, Pepe!

What a lovely way to spend a Saturday Pepe, books ... and wine!

Placemarking. Thanks for the New thread, @Southeastdweller ❤️

35. The Time Traveler's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger

Well, I finished it. This novel has been bugging me ever since I DNF'd on holiday with DH before the DC were even born. No idea why, because I don't normally give a second thought to books I DNF. It's done, and maybe I should have listened to my instinct to DNF it the first time round. 2.5 stars.

80. Dark Shadow. Simon Dinsdale
    This is the first in a newish crime series. There are 2 books at the moment, no idea if there are plans for more.
    
    Ex army turned police detective Christian solves a bunch of murders. That makes it sound crap. It wasn't. But i have the memory of a goldfish so can't remember the details.

81. The Keeper of Secrets. Maria McDonald this was a really lovely story about Beth who's left some cassette tapes from her grandmother telling her all about her life. Its set from 1912-1976. Starts in Ireland, ends in America. Tragic family secrets and so on.

82. Crown of Confessions. E.J Tanda
    Another bold for me. Book 2 in the Matriarch series. Mafia wars. Illegitimate children. Secrets. Love. Loss. What more could you want?

83. The Grief of Godless Games. J.T Audesley
    I'm not sure what to say about this. Its set in a made up land, but has a very Chinese/Japanese feel to it. Everyone the world over knows there's no such thing as god. Some mountains magically rise and join 2 islands together. Akkael is killed in a battle but comes back as whoever killed him. He needs to save the world basically. Its got magic, love, battles, time travel. You know, the standard stuff.

84. The Magical Journey of John and Adele. Ancius M. Murray John and Adele have been married forever and don't really seem to like each other much. Mainly because John is a prick. Then they run out of petrol and find a big old house in the middle of nowhere. I hoped it would be a bit rocky horror but it wasn't. They found some relationship counsellors who sent them off on a mysterious trip. Thankfully it wasn't a "and they realize they are totally in love" happy ending. But not a sad one either.

85. Liddle Deaths. Morgan Christie
    Niya is trying to write and say a eulogy at her father's funeral. But her mother takes the opportunity to tell her how awful her father was. Niya's book is also being adapted for TV and there's a lovely sort of symmetry in how she perceives the loss of her father and the loss of parts of her book as its adapted.

Actually that's a really good point Tarahumara, thank you. I think it is a wording issue rather than a sentiment issue. And of course it's very of its time - I think it's easy to forget how much things have changed.

I read a Barbara Vine a few years back (just checked and it was 2019, how can that be?) and posted this on this thread: The plot was still compelling but I was pretty shocked by the casual racism (much talk of the 'fatalism of orientals' referring to an Anglo-Indian character) - I'm assuming this was intended to colour our views of the characters thinking this way but it was so jarring and heavy handed that I don't think you'd get away with publishing a book with this kind of writing today.

I think that shocked me because I remember reading the book when it first came out, and watching the TV adaptation, and it didn't register as a problem at all at the time.

37 Piglet - Lottie Hazell
This this has been reviewed a couple of times on here already. Piglet is a food editor about to get married when her fiance reveals something to her about himself that rocks her world and makes her question everything.
I really liked this. The whole time I wanted to know a. What he had done and b. What did Piglet look like, as neither are revealed in the book, but actually we didn’t need to know and you could draw your own conclusions. I enjoyed the full descriptions of the food Piglet cooked and ate. I really grew to like her as in the beginning I thought she was a snobby cow, but actually, she’s not, and it’s that side of her that you see unravel as the book progresses.

We are staying in Alnwick for a few days so am off to Barter Books tomorrow fully intending to spend my children’s inheritance.

@MrsALambert have fun. I can highly recommend their fish finger sandwiches, avocado on toast and lemon drizzle cake. The weather’s a bit wet and windy up here on the NE coast so hope you manage to get some dry days to explore.

Thank you. We come up every year as we love it up here but fully expecting to be blown away tomorrow by all accounts

14. Life and Fate by Vasily Grossman
[Gasp] as I stumble across the line with this one. God it's long. But I'm aware that doesn't really count as an adequate review.

What an extraordinary book. A true saga, the story really of the battle of Stalingrad, but instead of the details of the battle, the military events become a kind of negative space or background turning point to the inner lives of a huge span of characters. And for some the change happens early and stops there; a mother loses her son and her grief at the end of the book is as present as at the death; an entire group of people dies in a gas chamber; a group of soldiers in some ways live the best days of their lives as the battle takes place, days that will never be equalled in intensity or comradeship; the malign presence of authoritarian Communism and the shadow of Stalin drag multiple characters helplessly into torment. There is always the terrible recent past, named only as '1937', which means the fear of denunciation and arbitrary death, the corruption of individuals into cruelty. The writing (and translation) are wonderful.

It was a challenge. If I were reading it again I'd probably start with the character list, which unfortunately in my edition was at the end of the book. Perhaps because it's in translation, the character voices aren't always as different as I needed them to be - I normally track characters by the first letter of their name, and that doesn't really work with Russian naming conventions. That's probably just me though. Bold.

Great review, Permanent.

Great choices @PepeLePew

Well, I finally read something.

King of Scars by Leigh Bardugo
One of the Grishaverse novels. YA. I quite enjoyed the original trilogy, but then heard that the next two were poor. This one is number 6, so I’d skipped two, which meant I was a bit out of the loop at times. This one makes no claims to be great literature and was a bit silly at times, but the king is a great character and any book that makes me want to pick it up is fine by me at the moment. I’ll probably read the next one.

Well done on breaking the reading drought, Remus

Thanks southeast for the new thread, here is my list:

1. Just One Damned Thing After Another – Jodi Taylor
2. Bad Luck and Trouble – Lee Child
3. So Late In The Day – Claire Keegan
4. Night and Fear – Cornell Woolrich
5. A Woman in Berlin – Anon
6. The Hotel Nantucket - Elin Hilderbrand
7. Win – Harlan Coben
8. I’m Over All That – Shirley MacLaine
9. Howl’s Moving Castle – Diana Wynn Jones

10. The Third Man – Graham Greene 11. Spectacles - Sue Perkins 12. Some Kids I Taught and What They Taught Me – Kate Clanchy 13. Fingersmith – Sarah Waters 14. Make Em laugh – Debbie Reynolds 15. Small Things Like These – Clalre Keegan 16. My Secret Admirer – Carol Ellis 17. Autumn – Ali Smith 18. The Secret Adversary – Agatha Christie

I'm currently doing a 60 mile drive each day so have been getting through a few audiobooks which has been great. I listened to The Secret Adversary which is the first of Agatha Christie's Tommy and Tuppence books, which seem to mostly be disliked by Christie fans. They're not a patch on Poirot and no doubt Marple too (not yet read a Marple) but it passed the time when driving I guess! I won't be rushing to read more of them at present as I still need to read all the Poirots and actually read my first Marple.

I've almost finished reading Shadows of the Workhouse by Jennifer Worth, which is the second in the Call The Midwife trilogy of books and one which I've been meaning to read for a couple of years now. There is much discussion on the treatment of children in the workhouses of the previous century and it was distressing in parts, I ended up going down too many internet rabbit holes with this book as well, the lives of the east end residents seemed both grim and fascinating at times. It's hard to believe this is the same place where Canary Wharf is now located. Anyway, I'm now debating doing a rewatch of the BBC series and will get round to the final book at some point soon.

@FuzzyCaoraDhubh missed your post but agree - think Soldier Sailor has stayed with me more than And Then She Fell it’s my winner so far. But I am having a good run Brotherless Night is amazing 100 pages in