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?

27 The Last Devil to Die - Richard Osman More of the same in the fourth book of the series - tons of murders, lots of silly quips, nice but sometimes trite observations of people generally…also a big dementia storyline, which was really moving and sad. Not the best thing to read during a bout of insomnia as it really gets you thinking about mortality, especially at 3am…but despite that, a fun read overall.

40 You Are Here by David Nicholls

Loved this! Will be a bold at the end of the year.
I like Nicholls’ books anyway, probably the only romance-adjacent fiction I can stand. This one was particularly good, because I am actually someone who calls mountains “bastards” and DH is a stoic and sparsely-packed walker There is humour and pathos and an understated refusal to make Michael any kind of ‘hero’, which I like.
I’ve never done the Coast To Coast, but many of the places are very familiar to me as we visit often and cross paths with people doing the C2C.

The House of Mirrors - Erin Kelly Twisty tale of murder. Only just realised this is a sequel to a book I haven’t read.

I hit my 50😎! I haven't got time right now to write reviews but hope to update later...

48 Sisterland - Curtis Sittenfield - a bold, picked up at the London meet up, thank you elkie!
49 Broken - Karin Slaughter - another Will Trent read, not a bold but good
50 Meet Me at the Museum - Anne Youngson - I wanted my 50th read to be a bold so I saved this and it didn't disappoint, it was lovely and a very solid bold.

Congratulations, Sheila! I'm still a little way off that point….

41. Who Will Run the Frog Hospital? - Lorrie Moore

A volume plucked from the shelves, as I’m trying to prune the book mountain at the moment. This slim novel (Moore's second) is narrated by Berie Carr, spending time in Paris with her husband Daniel. She looks back to her adolescence and the intensity of her friendship with the far more attractive, way cooler Sils, and this sharply-evoked reminiscence forms the major part of the book. When Sils discovers she’s pregnant, Berie offers to help, and gets the money for a termination by dipping into the till at the theme-park where they both work; the discovery of the theft has major consequences for Berie and yet, as the narrative swings back to the present and a suggestion that her marriage isn’t an unqualified success, the bittersweet suggestion remains that the friendship with Sils was the happiest and most uncomplicated time of her life.

I started out not feeling gripped by this and while I can’t say I completely loved it, the writing was sharp and arresting - you could really tell that Moore is an accomplished short-story writer. This was my first book by Moore and I'd certainly read more of her work.

How bizarre! I read Frog Hospital in 2020 and remember nothing of what you describe!

61. Doppleganger by Naomi Klein (Audible)

I have also read No Logo by the same author but it was maybe 20 years ago. Conclusion : Brands, bad.

In this part polemic part memoir social activist Naomi Klein finds she is being perpetually confused online with Naomi Wolf, a fellow activist with diametrically opposed views to Klein.

This leads Klein "down the rabbit hole" and she becomes obsessed with Wolf's social media presence and behaviour.

This touches on many current affairs topics :

Social media and personal branding
Antisemitism
Israel/Palestine
Vaccines
COVID
Wellness culture
Autism
Climate change

It's an engaging and educational listen but I couldn't help but feel that this was a more personal project and though her obsession with Wolf runs deep, it's her obsession and could have been covered by an Op. Ed piece and didn't need a whole book devoted to it. But then, I'm still quite glad I read it.

Interesting review of Doppelganger, Eine. I was looking at buying it but will wait for a library copy I think.

34. And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie This month's read christie challenge. I've definitely read this before, and only a couple of years ago because I could remember most of the storyline, but I couldn't find it in my kindle library or my bookshelves! So I had to buy it again. A twist on the classic locked room mystery, 8 people are invited to visit a luxury house on an island off the devon coast. When they arrive there are two servants present and no sign of their host. Then people start dying. Can they work out who the murderer is before they're all killed

This is good although I still prefer her Poirot and marple novels. But it's very cleverly done and the first time I read it I know I was taken by surprise by the reveal. Also obviously this book originally had a very controversial title. All instances of that word have now been replaced by "soldier"

I was a bit “meh” about The Unnamed
on to
15) Ice Princess
Not usually a big crime fan, but 50 pages in and enjoying so far

Did you watch the adaptation @satelliteheart ? I thought it was a good one.

I agree @SheilaFentiman. In my view it was the best of the recent Agatha Christie television adaptations.

Will be re-reading And Then There Were None shortly for the challenge. Can’t remember when I last read it but pretty sure I can recall whodunnit.

And Then There Was None scared the life out of me as a impressionable teen. Not sure I can steel myself to read it again.

I read it at the time of the adaptation, I think. It's the only Christie I've read, but surprisingly my sieve brain remembers whodunnit.

36. The Trio - Johanna Hedman

The Trio are Hugo, August and Thora who are students in Stockholm together and the book is about their relationships with one another and is alternatively narrated by Hugo and Thora. Although mainly based in Stockholm, the trio also spend time in Paris, London, Berlin and New York. I had forgotten how much time one was able to spend at that age hanging out, talking about relationships, analysing them and miscommunicating. The book was recommended by someone in their 20s and I can see the appeal to that age group who are probably still in the throes of this but for me it involved a bit too much navel-gazing although I thought the characters were well-drawn and believable.

37. Girl - Edna O’Brien

A gift from Permanent Temporary, thank you.

Maryam is abducted from her school by Boko Haram and taken to a jihadi camp which she survives but her life is shattered by the physical and mental ordeals she endures. A powerful story and difficult read but Maryam’s character and strength are uplifting. It’s very well written.

Exactly the same! I was scared witless!!

It’s one of the standouts, for sure

Just reporting that The Bee Sting is 99p today.

I haven't read And Then There Were None but the recent adaptation (I say recent, it must have been almost 10 years ago) is the scariest thing I've ever watched.

@CluelessMama I think Laura S-R's plots are fabulous!

@SheilaFentiman I think Sisterland is the last Curtis Sittenfeld book I haven't read so I'm always on the lookout for it at a good price.

ATTWN can’t have been 10 years ago… it was in the middle of a Tory leadership election…

Oh wait, that doesn’t narrow it down :-D

2015, says IMDB. Lord, where did the time go??

https://m.imdb.com/title/tt3581932/?ref_=tt_mv_close

Not quite 10 years ago - apparently it was broadcast December 2015.

@SheilaFentiman no, I haven't seen the adaptation but do plan to as I've heard good things

@TimeforaGandT 2015!! I am getting old.

Me too @GrannieMainland - I thought it was “recent”!

I was spooked by the ATTWN adaptation too despite remembering ‘whodunnit’ - that and Roger Ackroyd are the ones that really stick in my mind of the ones I’ve read.

Pereira Maintains by Antonio Tabucchi tr from Italian by Patrick Creagh Thanks to Agualusa, Janina and others who recommended this short and crystalline 1994 novel about a man’s conscience against the backdrop of rising fascism in 1930s Portugal. Will he be a ‘good man who does nothing’? Brings alive the stifling heat and oppression. I borrowed a library copy as ‘Pereira Declares’ then happened to find ‘maintains’ in a charity shop before I’d started it - ‘maintains’ is an updated version of the same translation (the phrase appears often in the text) and reads better.