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?

Notes from the Henhouse by Elspeth Barker Posthumously published collection of autobiographical essays with an introduction by her daughter Raffaella. I love EB's writing and when she is good she is very good, but the collection is a bit of a curate's egg and while some of the pieces are beautiful, moving and funny, others are more bathetic.

Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl This is a truly remarkable book which I'm embarrassed to say I had never heard of and only discovered thanks to radio 4's A Good Read. VF was a professor of neurology and psychiatry in Vienna who spent 3 years in concentration camps (including Auschwitz and Dachau) during WWII. The book recounts his horrendous experiences and explores how, in the face of such extremity, he could find life worth living. Survival in the camps was often dependent on sheer fluke and circumstance, but he observed how some prisoners had the mental capacity to to survive the apparently senseless suffering, and he was interested in "man's attitude to his existence, an existence restricted by external forces". Poignant, profound and very powerful.

My recent Penguin edition also includes an explanation of his therapeutic doctrine "logotherapy" which he went on to practice after the War; I won't even attempt to summarise it but it is well worth reading too.

Me again!

60. Swanfolk by Kristin Omarsdottir

Elisabet likes to take long solitary walks near the lake. One day, she sees two creatures emerging from the water, half human, half swan. She follows them through tangles of thickets into a strange new reality. Or so says the blurb.

I haven't read pretentious nonsense as bad as this in quite some time, practically impenetrable in terms of being able to follow what was going on.

I refused to DNF because of time invested but it may as well have been in the original Icelandic for all I understood of it

Utter gobbledygook

Recent reads
90 Black River- Nilanjana Roy
This is literary crime- the body of a child is found on her father’s land in present day India. We have POVs from her father, one of his closest friends and the local policeman amongst others. It also dives into Chand’s (the father’s) past and social issues within the village and India as a whole. This was really well-written and most of it was excellent. An overlong exploration of one of the subplots stole pace from the book in the middle section which made it drag a little. The ending is predictable from quite early on, however, the rest is good and I will try something new by this author whenever she releases something.

91 After Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil- Marilyn J Bardsley
Free Audible plus listen. Adds nothing to the original worth talking about. Only a 3 hour listen on 1.5 speed so kept me going while waiting for my library hold but overall a bit of a waste of time.

92 Pride and Prejudice- Jane Austen
I don’t think I need to give much description on this one! I enjoyed this reread- Austen’s wit is sublime. I’ve read it too many times for it to be a bold but a good comfort read.

93 Wild Houses- Colin Barrett
Doll English is the younger brother of Cillian, a small time drug dealer who owes money to the big men. Two enforcers kidnap Doll and take him to their cousin Dev’s house to try and put pressure on Cillian to pay up. Meanwhile Doll’s girlfriend Nicky tries to find a way to free him. This is a short book set in the west of Ireland and it explores the sometimes stifling atmosphere of a small town, the feeling of being trapped. Despite the unlikability (I’m sure that must be a word…) of almost every character, Barrett manages to get under their skin. I liked this a lot. I recommend it to people who liked Kala though it’s much darker and funnier.

I heard the discussion about that on 'A Good Read' as well, @Boiledeggandtoast - it did sound fascinating. It definitely resonates with me atm having read the Daniel Finkelstein book about his parents, and his mother and his aunts and grandmother surviving Westerbork and then Belsen under horrific circumstances. The coda to their survival story was that his grandmother, having somehow protected her three young girls all the way through this hell and finally achieving the near-miracle of getting them all released from Belsen as part of a prisoner exchange, died of sheer exhaustion as they were on the train-journey on their way to eventual freedom.

Thanks Terpsichore. I have the Daniel Finkelstein at the top of my wishlist, having read the extracts published in The Times a few months ago and corroborated by your review!

@Terpsichore
@Boiledeggandtoast

You would both appreciate The Escape Artist, the Finklestein book will have to go on my Wishlist

Come and Get It - Kiley Reid. Reviewed byGranniemainland* on the previous thread, I agree that this is a disappointing follow up to Such a Fun Age. I feel like maybe she was under pressure to deliver a second novel so just wrote some thing that didn't really have a plot. There are basically 3 main characters in this campus story. Agatha is a middle-aged academic (white, lesbian) who is taking a year out in a uni in Arkansas to write a book about weddings. As part of her research she interviews 3 college students and decides their views on money are more interesting. The interview is facilitated by Millie, a Black senior, who is working as a resident supervisor in the dorm to save money towards buying a house. The third person is the room mate of one of the interviewees who is new, friendless and adores Agatha's first book. Agatha ends up paying Millie to eavesdrop on the interviewees and their roommate and uses the information for some articles. I think there are points about privilege, ethical behaviour and race that Riley is trying to make as well as satire but she didn't really land them. The characters felt a bit flat to me, I didn't get what was so fascinating about the conversations and articles, the ending was so obviously signposted from the start that it was just not that good. I wonder if an American audience may have got more from it. There are loads of cultural references and brand names used that I didn't get and found a bit tiring.

I was thinking that as I read your review, Eine, but I reckon a bit of a break's needed for all of us before plunging back into the horrors….

Yes, I definitely feel that way too

Thank you Eine, although I similarly feel the need for something lighter for my next book. I did read The Volunteer by Jack Fairweather a couple of years ago, about Witold Pilecki, a Polish member of the resistance, who got himself arrested and sent to Auschwitz in order to report on its atrocities and alert the world. It's a true and extraordinary story and I would very much recommend it too.

@RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie

Remus I may have found you something ! Have you heard of The Battle Of Ink And Ice by Darrell Hartman?

Thanks, boiled

Ps I should have said that Witold Pilecki also managed to escape from Auschwitz.

Heads and Straights, Lucy Wadham

Picked this up at the recent meet up from a lovely pile of pre-loved books that @elkiedee brought along. I thought I recognised the author’s name and realised that I had previously read the book she wrote about living in France. Anyway, this one is part of the Penguin (Tube) Lines series and is a memoir about her family and life growing up in Chelsea. I enjoyed this, her style is journalistic (which makes sense, since she is apparently a journalist) so very readable. She tells it as a sort of bonkers Nancy Mitford story, but not as good. Still it passed a pleasant afternoon and I am pleased to have read it.

All of those Holocaust/Auschwitz books are straight to my wishlist. Thanks for the reccs.

41 Travellers In The Third Reich - Julia Boyd

An interesting premise, to tell the story of Germany between the wars through the eyes of foreign visitors and residents, though the frequent switching of narrators leads to a rather jumbled set of impressions. Still fascinating and rather depressing how antisemitism was widespread among the Brits too and how few people really cared about the suffering of Jewish people.

Hello all on the new thread! Yep I read Come and Get It recently @Stowickthevast and wasn't that impressed. I did think the characterisation was excellent but no plot really.

I think The Bee Sting is out in paperback soon so I will try and read it then. I'm pretty sure I'll like it but daunted by the size of tut hardback!

38. Mad About You by Mhairi McFarlane - enjoyable as she always is, but the plot of this has escaped me already! The love affair is definitely overshadowed by a storyline about getting revenge on an abusive ex-boyfriend, which was satisfying if not entirely believable.

Found you!

1 Nine Quarters of Jerusalem by Matthew Teller
2 How To Avoid A Climate Disaster by Bill Gates
3 Tackle by Jilly Cooper
4 A Heart That Works by Rob Delaney
5 This Is How You Lose The Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone
6 Slow Horses by Mick Herron
7 Politics on the Edge by Rory Stewart
8 Letters To My Palestinian Neighbour by Yossi Klein Halevi
9 Big Beacon by Alan Partridge
10 Joey Goes To The Oberland by Elinor M Brent-Dyer
11 Going Dark by Julia Ebner
12 Reach For The Stars by Michael Cragg
13 Sonic Life by Thurston Moore
14 Poor Things by Alistair Gray
15 Fire Weather by John Vaillant
16 Rizzio by Denise Mina
17 The Stone Angel by Margaret Laurence
18 Airhead by Emily Maitlis
19 The Cancelling of the American Mind by Greg Lukianoff and Riki Schlott
20 The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal
21 Lillith by Nikki Marmery
22 Dead Lions by Mick Herron
23 Real Tigers by Mick Herron
24 The Bee Sting by Paul Murray
25 Spook Street by Mick Herron
26 Dune by Frank Herbert
27 London Rules by Mick Herron
28 Stone Blind by Natalie Haynes
29 From Russia with Blood by Heidi Blake
30 Why Patti Smith Matters by Caryn Rose
31 The Trading Game by Gary Stevenson
32 Mongrel by Hanako Footman
33 The Places In Between by Rory Stewart
34 The Ferryman by Justin Cronin
35 Still Unwritten by Caroline Khoury
36 Doppelgänger by Naomi Klein
37 Trustee From The Toolroom by Neville Shute
38 A Village In The Third Reich by Julia Boyd
39 Good Pop, Bad Pop by Jarvis Cocker
40 Soldier, Sailor by Claire Kilroy
41 From Here to Eternity by Caitlin Doughty
42 Private Equity by Carrie Sun
43 How Westminster Works and Why It Doesn’t by Ian Dunt
44 Joe Country by Mick Herron
45 Cobalt Red by Siddharth Kara
46 Ready Steady Go by Paul Oakenfold
47 Such A Fun Age by Kiley Reid
48 1989 by val McDermid
49 Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport
50 Holiday At The Dew Drop Inn by Eve Garnett
51 Cloistered by Catherine Coldstream
52 Hatchet Job by Mark Kermode

Lots of books, not many bolds. But very few total duds. Am behind on reviews but am also attempting to put the lessons of book 49 into action so plan on being very frugal in my approach to life online over the next couple of weeks!

@Palegreenstars I didn't manage to put a review for this on the thread but it's a definite bold for me. I thought the ending was perfect so would be interested in your thoughts once you read the sequel

Crikey this thread moves quickly! Thanks to south for keeping us in order. As always I'll save my list till the end of the year. In the meantime a mixed bag of reviews:

31. Delicacy - Katy Wix

I'm sure others here have read this memoir, themed around cake in twenty-one moments which have defined the author's life. Raw in many places, the chapters (some only a page, others much longer) detail a strange life punctuated by loss, grief and addiction. It was an engaging read, the only reservation being that the chapters bounced around in time which was quite confusing. I would recommend this, however.

32. Mysterious Worlds - Dennis Bardens

Another 1970s 'examination' of various phenomena, from telepathy to deja vu. Lots of examples but not so much explanation put forward. A bit of a yawn fest TBH. Checking out the author's Wikipedia page he seems to have led as interesting a life as the cases he was chronicling, as a journalist, author, creator of the BBC programme Panorama, and possibly a spy during the war.

33. Tales From Old Ashford - Robert Calder

Local history book, detailed with many photographs. Nuff said.

34. Watching Neighbours Twice a Day - Josh Widdecombe

Another themed memoir, this time taking 1990s television programmes or filmed events as a jumping off point. I really enjoyed this reminiscence of the decade's televisual treats through the eyes of a child/teen in rural Devon, with a good mix of autobiography and television history, and laughed out loud at times, a rare thing while reading. While it's not a classic work of literature, I'm considering this as a bold just for the way it made me feel.

Checking in on new thread. This is my list so far. I think I need to step up the pace. I've had a couple this month that I just couldn't make it through but perhaps I am being unnecessarily picky!

1. Claire Keegan - Small Things like These
2. Charlotte Gilman- The Yellow Wallpaper
3. Emerald Fennel - Monsters
4. Orson Scott Card - Ender's Game
5. P.D.James - Shroud for a Nightingale
6. Nina Bawden - The Peppermint Pig
7. Stephen King- The Tommyknockers (audio book)
8. Margaret Atwood- Madadam
9. Penelope Fitzgerald - Offshore
10. Diana Wynne Jones - Howl's Moving Castle
11. Thornton Wilder- The Bridge of San Luis Rey
12. Adams, Sturm and Sutphin - Watership Down : Graphic Novel version
13. E M Foster A Passage to India
14. F Scott Fitzgerald The Great Gatsby
15. Denise Mina Rizzio
16. Winifred Watson - Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day
17. Sheila Mackay The Orchard on Fire
18. Maggie O'Farrell Hamnet
19. Per Petterson - Out Stealing Horses
20. Ben Halls- The Quarry
21. Danya Kukafka Notes on an execution* *
22. Simon Armitage Hansel and Gretel : A Nightmare in Eight Scenes.
23. Rob Rinder The Trial (Audio book)

No list from me as it's so short!
Latest reads:

18. You Are Here by David Nichols an enjoyable rom com that takes as its protagonists romantically disillusioned late 30/early 40 somethings. This rattled along with some funny bits and some bits that had me nodding along (Marnie's reassessment of Wuthering Heights on reading it in middle age for one) but it's unlikely to change your mind about David Nichols if he's not your bag.

I'm now listening to Demon Copperhead at a glacial pace. It's not that I'm disinterested - I want to know what happens and I'm enjoying spotting the David Copperfield characters reimagined, but I'm not enjoying it enough to prioritise it so it's going to take a while.

Hello 50 bookers I have been away for sometime & have missed you all. I have breast cancer & am currently undergoing treatment so my head is a bit mashed. Don't worry I won't be contaminating the thread with depressing health related posts just putting my sick note in to explain my absence, tiny list and drift towards comfort easy reading 😊. Inconsequential list so far below with reviews of the new ones to follow.

1. The Cutting Season Attica Locke
2. Jesus Land Julia Scheeres
3. In a Dark Dark Wood Ruth Ware
4. Night Waking Sarah Moss
5. Falling Animals* Shelia Armstrong
6. Little Disasters Sarah Vaughan
7. Bluebird Bluebird Attica Locke
8. Heaven My Home Attica Locke
9. Black Water Rising Attics Locke

10. The Ready Made Family Antonia Forest 11. Eating for England Nigel Slater 12. The Homes Period J. B. Mylett

Dear @Owlbookend it's good to hear from you. Sending love and best wishes 🌷

Owlbookend I am quite new to the thread so I'm not sure we have crossed paths but all the best with your treatment. Cancer is hard. Sorry I don't have any better words than that x

38. The Dictionary of Lost Words - Pip Williams I read the other book in this universe first which meant I knew some of what was going to happen but I don't think that detracted from my enjoyment. This book is about Esme, the daughter of a lexicographer who is working on the preparation of the first edition of the Oxford English Dictionary. It spans from her childhood into her adulthood and I adored reading this. I loved the setting, the characters and the easy to read writing.