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?

It is a moment to be remembered, naturally, right alongside the wanking vicar

I scrolled back on the previous thread but couldn’t work out which book had the gelding (and it seems a wanking vicar!) Do I want to be enlightened?

In the least surprising development possible, the serial killer romantic comedy porn that tiktok made me buy was as utterly dire. I tried to keep going as far as the first rude bit at least but couldn’t do it, I’ve returned it to kindle because I’d rather have my 99p back!

Following on, I feel rather staid reviewing my latest read, but here goes.

Sylvia Pankhurst, Natural Born Rebel by Rachel Holmes This is quite some tome at 850 pages but marvellously interesting (although I do think it would have benefitted from a better editor, of which more later). It begins with her parents - the well known Emmeline Pankhurst and, to me at least, the lesser known Richard Pankhurst, who was also an interesting and pioneering intellectual figure. It follows through her rather unconventional childhood and artistic training on to her involvement and absolute commitment to the suffrage movement, primarily votes for women but developing through her socialist beliefs in equality to wider political suffrage. The torture (and I use the word advisedly) that she suffered during her imprisonment is absolutely horrifying. After political disagreements within the women's suffrage movement, and in particular with her mother and sister Christabel, she moved to the East End of London and carried on with her political campaigning while becoming more involved in practical, social and community work. While her mother and Christabel drifted rightwards politically, Sylvia remained a committed socialist and was involved in international as well as domestic movements, engaging with Lenin until they became increasingly at odds over policy and practice. She travelled widely, often in disguise, and was again imprisoned for her political beliefs.

After an early but long lasting affair with Keir Hardy (who knew?!), she later had a long and supportive relationship with (but never married) an Italian anarchist, Silvio Corio, with whom she had a son (causing a further rift with her mother). Her continuing political work and support to refugees from Europe led to her early and prescient concern about fascist movements and she was particularly involved in campaigning against the Italian invasion of Ethiopia and championing liberation struggles in Africa and India. She became great friends with Haile Selassie (as well as many other international political figures) which eventually led to her moving to Ethiopia in the 1950s after the death of Silvio, where she continued working to improve conditions for poor people.

I haven't done justice to what an amazing and brave women Sylvia Pankhurst was and I had no idea quite how indefatigable she was in her pursuit of justice and equality. The book is a very full description of her life - sometimes too full - and there is a section in the middle where I think the editor must have tired because it is riddled with repetitions (even of complete sentences), misplaced words and text that does not match up to the photograph of the same event. But if you have many hours and the interest to commit, Sylvia Pankhurst is certainly deserving of the attention.

36. Girl A by Abigail Dean

This was a very disturbing tale of children held captive and abused by their parents in the grip of religious fanaticism.

The novel switches backwards and forwards between the present time, narrated by Lexi (Girl A) as an adult and the back story of her childhood. She has returned to the UK to wind up the estate of her mother, who has died in prison, and to decide what is to be done with the former family home.

It's set in the UK, but I understand loosely based on a true American case. In the beginning, not knowing quite where the story was going, I thought of the awful case of Fred and Rosemary West, but this wasn't quite that story, although there were still some similarities.

It is very well written but disturbing and upsetting in nature. Not for the fainthearted - could be very triggering for child abuse.

I missed the new thread so placemarking for now.

Currently reading

32. Autumn by Ali Smith

Careful @cote You’ll be giving me nightmares.

@AliasGrape The gelding is in King of Scars and the wanking vicar is in the silly alien one by Michael Faber iirc.

Boiledegg, I've always thought her son Richard Pankhurst, had quite a cool life - he had a lifelong engagement with Ethiopia and only died in 2017, which makes Sylvia feel quite close in time.

Just looked - The Book of Strange New Things

11 Oscar and Lucinda - Peter Carey
Oscar is a man of God with a weakness for gambling on horses. Lucinda is an orphaned heiress with a habit of gambling on card games. Both eccentric characters with a disregard for the opinions of the Victorian societies in which they exist (Oscar because he doesn't realise he's odd, Lucinda because she's decided not to care, influenced by the character of her deceased mother). The two meet by chance on a steam ship from England to Sydney - Oscar is setting out on an evangelical mission and Lucinda is returning home - they bond over card games and rekindle their friendship on land and conceive a project involving the construction of a glass church and its delivery overland through uncharted bush, to a lawless town where Lucinda's friend has the living of the parish.

A re-read for me, but it's been such a long time that I'd forgotten a lot of the detail. This is beautifully written, Oscar and Lucinda are both finely-drawn figures, but the supporting characters are also depicted (in appearance and character) with such detail and care. Some fabulous depictions of landscapes too, the rugged beauty of the Devon coast and the Victorian squalor of Inner-City Sydney are evoked with equal skill. Oscar's Kurtz-like journey through the bush is both sickening and emotionally intense. Lucinda's single-minded passions (for glass, gambling and Oscar) are skillfully drawn.

Yes, he seems to have had an incredible upbringing and was obviously very close to Sylvia; he and his wife lived with her in Ethiopia during her time there.

A long time travelling at the weekend and a couple of days off has meant quite a few books finished off.

79 The Blackbird by Tim Weaver

Continuing my reread of the David Raker missing person investigator series, here looking into what happened to a couple who disappeared from a car that ran off the road and burst into flames. Another good one.

80 Ruth by Elizabeth Gaskell

Read for the ‘fallen woman’ readalong on here. A frustrating book to read with modern sensibilities due to the judgment passed on Ruth, and it got rather too pious at times, but I did enjoy it.

81 Fallen Skies by Philippa Gregory

This is set in 1920 and follows the marriage of Lily and Stephen. Lily is 17, wants to work on the stage, but decides to marry Stephen when her mum dies. Stephen is suffering from his experiences during the Great War. Needless to say these aren’t the ideal grounds for a successful marriage. This was a bit too long but otherwise I really enjoyed it, in spite of not actually liking either Lily or Stephen very much.

82 Stiff Upper Lip by Lawrence Durrell

A collection of short pieces about various comic creations. Similar tone to Wodehouse. I liked this and it was a short read.

83 The Standing Chandelier by Lionel Shriver

Novella about whether a male/female friendship can survive when one of them gets married. Shriver writes well but I often find it hard to care about her characters and that was the same here.

84 Kings and Queens of England by Peter Snow and Ann MacMillan

Short pieces about each monarch. A useful reference guide.

85 The Wrong Sister by Claire Douglas

Sisters Tasha and Alice swap houses for the week, but when Alice is attacked Tasha receives a note saying it was meant to be her. This was OK but I found the ending quite confusing - it meant some of the plot strands didn’t make sense. I’ve read better by this author.

86 A Devon Midwinter Murder by Stephanie Austin

Latest in the series featuring antique dealer Juno who keeps getting caught up in murders. I really like this cosy crime series even if some events are a bit unbelievable at times!

87 The Man Who Didn’t Burn by Ian Moore

The first in a new crime series set in France, featuring a murderer who appears to be linking crimes to Joan of Arc. This was fine, and was a quick read. I’ll probably read further ones in the series.

88 The House on Rye Lane by Susan Allot

A triple timeline story featuring three families living in the same house at different times. I liked the idea but the ending left too many things unexplained.

Finished Oh Miriam on Audible. Enjoyable dog walking fodder, sometimes a bit repetitive if you have read her first autobiography. But she can certainly spin a tale.
Still on with Nightbloom - this is book eleven of the 16 longlisted WP books. Doubt I will read the whole list before the shortlist. At the moment my own shortlist is scant. Not a bumper year this year!

32 The Strawberry Thief by Joanne Harris

This is a bold for me, a lovely, mystical read with likeable characters. It’s been on my kindle for ages and I didn’t realise it was 4th in the Chocolat series (I didn’t realise there was a series! I read the original book in 1999ish and haven’t thought much about it since, though I liked it)

10. The Book of Love, by Kelly Link. I don't even know how to describe this, so I'll cheat and start with the blurb: "Late one night, Laura, Daniel, and Mo find themselves beneath the fluorescent lights of a high school classroom, almost a year after disappearing from their hometown, the small seaside community of Lovesend, Massachusetts, having long been presumed dead. Which, in fact, they are. With them in the room is their previously unremarkable high school music teacher, who seems to know something about their disappearance—and what has brought them back again. Desperate to reclaim their lives, the three agree to the terms of the bargain their music teacher proposes. They will be given a series of magical tasks; while they undertake them, they may return to their families and friends, but they can tell no one where they’ve been. In the end, there will be winners and there will be losers."

This was very long, quite slow and utterly bonkers, but I adored it. Some of the writing is exquisite and I cared so much about each of these characters. I returned it to the library and immediately bought my own copy.

There are a lot of very angry people on Goodreads complaining that nothing happens, which is far from true, but it's definitely more character-driven than plot.

16 Emma's Baby by Abbie Taylor
A quick thriller that was just about gripping enough to beguile my evening. Emma is distracted on a tube platform and her baby is separated from her. A desperate hunt begins

I liked the description of baby Ritchie - ds is 20 now so it is emotional to remember the toddler years.

Been away this week so managed quite a bit of reading which has been lovely as well as hitting the local secondhand bookshops for even more books to add to my list

38 Dear Teacher - Jack Sheffield
This is set in 1979/1980 in a small primary school near York. As a teacher I was looking forward to reading this but it was really dull. Far too many characters in the village that nothing happens to and a vague love story that isn’t interesting to anyone.

39 The Vanishing Half - Brit Bennett
Stella and Desiree are twin sisters living in a small town famous for its ‘pale skinned negroes’. They witness their father being murdered by white men for no good reason and both run away at 16 to find some excitement. Desiree marries a dark skinned man who beats her and Stella lies and tells everyone she is white, cutting ties with her sister. The story follows a few decades and the twins own daughters who cross paths numerous times.
I loved this. I thought it was well written and the characters were interesting. I couldn’t put it down.

40 The Perfect Neighbour - Susanna Beard
Beth and her family move to a nice street with very private neighbours. One day she sees a young girl at her neighbour’s window with a sign saying ‘help me’. The story is told from the girls viewpoint (a Bulgarian domestic slave) and Beth’s.
I was really into this in the first half, thought it was an interesting topic to handle. But the second half felt like a Nancy Drew novel. Everything tied up in a neat bow, random extra unnecessary plot lines being brought in but not fully explored and the characters being privy to way too much information during a police investigation. It felt like the author had a good idea for a story, but didn’t have enough to pad it out so threw a few more bits in towards the end.

28 Piglet by Lottie Hazell
I liked it,but didn’t love it. Reminded me of Fay Weldon’s books. Some luscious food imagery and the wedding dress fitting was a nightmare worthy of any horror writer, but it was all a bit too remote from my experience. She should have stopped being a pushover way, waaaaay before her fiancé’s family were mocking her by eating pork roast crackling imo.

37. The Long Shadow - Celia Fremlin

This was* *marketed as a Christmas mystery novel but, apart from a few references, it isn't really.

Isabel is a recent widow, her husband Ivor having been killed in a car accident returning late at night from delivering a lecture. He was supposed to stay overnight at an hotel, and this is where the mystery begins. Why didn't he? And why is Isabel being accused of causing his death, when she couldn't have because she was at home?

Various family members and hangers on turn up and fill the vast house over the Christmas period and seem to show no sign of leaving again.

Mysterious events begin happening, and Isabel is threatened. Someone is trying to blackmail her. Who? And what do they think they know?

There's a curious twist that I suspected might be coming, which was rather sad.

Without giving away any plot spoilers, the novel raised some pertinent questions about responsibility for long term care for unwell family members.

I thought it much better than Uncle Paul which I read earlier this year.

20.Exiles by Jane Harper The third Aaron Falk novel, in which Falk goes to spend time with former colleague Greg Raco's family in Southern Australian wine country. Naturally, he finds himself embroiled in the mystery disappearance of a local woman a year ago.

This was pretty decent. Falk is IMO one of the less annoying fictional detectives (hard stare at Simon Serrailler) and Harper is brilliant at capturing the sometimes oppressive nature of small rural communities. There's no great departure from anything she's previously done though, so it will probably please fans but not win over any previous naysayers. And while I liked that the first three quarters of book were quite slow paced and relationships based, this meant that the business end of the mystery was crammed in a bit at the end.

19 My Dark Vanessa

Obviously I'm the last person on the planet to read this and it's been languishing on my Kindle since it was in the 99ps.

Hmm.

I reread some of your reviews on this this morning and there seem to be fairly mixed feelings, though mainly positive.

It was too long. It was flawed in that Vanessa grew up to be just as abusive as her abuser, and it was never quite explained whether that was because she had been groomed or she was just a nasty piece of work. That we hear how she had few friends and those she had she lost both at school and at the college might suggest the latter.

The decision to kill off the perv halfway through was an odd choice as it left the book with nowhere much to go. (I kept there would be a huge ta-da twist and she would turn out to be the Taylor Birch one accusing him under a different name)

The couple of bizarre stream of consciousness outpourings felt out of place and clunky. As though the writer had had them in her creative writing folder for years and was looking for a novel to slip them into. I had the feeling those trippy paragraphs would have been shoehorned into any book she wrote. It all just felt forced.

Decent enough writing- no Secret History. But well enough written. I just felt that the writer did it with a view to the inevitable film/Netflix series.

Strane was a perverted creep. Vanessa was deeply unpleasant. I won’t hurry to read any more by the writer.

I've been a bit short of bolds so far this year, so it's nice to have two in a row:

17 Prophet Song by Paul Lynch. This is a dystopian novel set in present day Ireland. We watch the country becoming a totalitarian state from the point of view of Eilish, who spends the book desperately trying to hold together her family of four children and her ageing father in the face of mounting fear, violence and desperation. I found this original and gripping - worthy of the Booker prize.

18 Delicacy by Katy Wix. This is a memoir based around 21 events in the author's life (punctuated by cake). I bought it because I really liked Katy on Taskmaster, but it's a lot darker than I was expecting, covering themes like depression, body image and bereavement. In between the sadness there are some genuine LOL moments, even in the chapter describing the terrible rawness of her grief over her mother's death. I loved this. I seem to have a fondness for dark memoirs written by feminists - this reminded me of Sarah Polley and Viv Albertine.

I love Katy Wix @Tarahumara. Have added to wishlist.

Ooh, I've never heard of Katy Wix, but 'dark memoirs written by feminists' are very appealing to me too!

33 Scoops - Sam McAllister

This is a bold for me, because it’s such a fascinating subject. A very quick read. Sam was the Newsnight booker for many years and this is the story of key interviews she secured, most famously the Prince Andrew one, but prior to that, ex members of the Trump administration, Julian Assanhe, victims of kidnapping. Very interesting (and much less about her personal life than the Netflix film!)