50 Books Challenge 2024 Part Five

[Southeastdweller]

Welcome to the fifth 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.

Some of us bring over to the new thread lists of the books we've read so far, but again - this is your choice.

The first thread is here, the second one here , the third one here and the fourth one here

What are you reading?

40. Women Warriors - Tracey-Ann Knight

Possibly reviewed here some months/years ago, this has been sitting in my TBR for ages. Telling the stories of 10 women in the past who disguised themselves as men and entered the worlds of the military (army and navy). Some interesting tales, from notable examples (the female pirates Anne Bonny and Mary Read, the army doctor James Barry) to lesser known stories from the USA and beyond.

The only irritation was the lack of a proof reader; there were a few grammatical and spelling errors, particularly in names, one within the same paragraph.

Having said that I nearly sent out a newsletter recently with a typo spelling the name wrong in the title of the person's obituary 😳... luckily caught it just in time.

Mist Over Pendle by Robert Neill

Fictional story set in the run up to the Pendle Witch Trials from the POV of a fictional female character, Margery, a spirited and intelligent young woman farmed off by her Purtian siblings to a distant relative (Roger) in Lancashire. The writing is dated (written in the 1950s) and presumably generally historically accurate - although I did wonder how acceptable it would have been for a young woman to have gone off riding alone or in the company of unrelated men? It does get a bit bogged down with details of the landscape and many characters but I got the gist of the story. Although the names of the main players (and place names) in the PWT are accurate, the events themselves are not particularly. There seems to be little sympathy in the book for the poverty stricken 'witches' very much at the bottom of society's pecking order. The harsh treatment, terrible conditions and possible torture is either not mentioned or glossed over. But generally I did enjoy reading this book - it is what it is (a rompy tale). But there are no insights into the terrible events of the Pendle Witch Trials.

This Crime And Punishment audio is so odd! It's British actor Will Poulter and he's doing British and Irish regional accents for minor characters - had a Brummie, someone Welsh and someone Irish! It's a Russian book!

I had Will Poulter narrate John Lanchester's The Wall and he was really good. Don't understand it.

48 Borstal Slags - Tom Graham

Third of the four Life On Mars novels, and still pretty crap, though imagine I’ll read the last for completeness’ sake!

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