50 Books Challenge 2024 Part Six

[Southeastdweller]

Welcome to the sixth 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, the fourth one here and the fifth one here.

What are you reading?

Thanks @elkiedee Inpicked up the Rachel Cusk and the Lucy Caldwell- I haven’t read either before so a 99p deal is a good time to try!

Another 99p bargain spot, perhaps a bit niche but someone here might be interested - non fiction by Francis Spufford - Red Plenty is about the Soviet Union in the late 1950s, after Stalin's death and under Kruschev. Also on offer by him is Unapologetic (about being a Christian) but I'm not sure that even I'm going to snap up that one.

Giovanni’s Room is 99p today. I thought it was outstanding, although I don’t think everyone agreed with me.

I’m on holiday, but still not reading much. Have started and given up on a dreadful Christie and Ambrose Parry, amongst others.

I have that one lined up Remus.
Enjoy your holiday!

Hello Beautiful- Ann Napolitano

Recommended by a friend who loved it but I thought it was a tiny bit dull. The characters seemed very one dimensional to me and I didn’t get the supposed relationship to Little Women other than there were four sisters. The whole thing felt very flat.
The other thing that I found odd was that it’s set mostly in the mid 1980s but has the feel of something set much earlier, the fifties or sixties maybe.

Yes! @BestIsWest

I can't remember what I said exactly in my review but definitely not believable as the time period and the comparison to Little Women is so paper thin it shouldn't exist

Thanks Remus, I don't have it!

63. Enlightenment - Sarah Perry. Second read of the Booker Longlist for me. This has two main characters - Thomas Hart, a 50 year-old gay writer, and Grace Macauley who is about to be 18. They are both part of a Baptist church and live very old-fashioned lives. The book starts in 1997 but Grace has never worn trousers or watched television. The atmosphere is quite similar to that of The Essex Serpent and feels very Victorian. Both the characters fall in love with different people and the story evolves around an old manor house in their village that was inhabited by a female Romanian astronomer, who appears as a ghost throughout the story. So there's basically a mix of religion, astronomy and lots of descriptions of Essex countryside, weather and nature. I found it quite slow to start and was considering giving up about a quarter of the way through but it improved for me. The story starts in 1997, then lives to 2007 and finishes in 2017. I do think Perry's writing is better suited to Victorian times, she doesn't make many concessions too modernity. I don't think it's going to be one of my favourites from the list.

I found Before the Coffee Gets Cold mawkish, but I have a real thing against books that try to be cute about grief.

Ministry of Time... I don't know what I thought about it. No it did not make sense. No I didn't understand why all the people from the future were there, or the other people from the other future, or who was trying to kill who. But I still think about the love story months on so there was something there for me.

@Stowickthevast I gave up on Enlightenment has it had to go back to the library, but I like to think I might pick it up again one day. I do like Sarah Perry a lot.

And my most recent reads...

53. We Begin at the End by Chris Whitaker. In the 99p deal today coincidentally! Small town crime. A group of teenagers have their lives upended when one kills the sister of another in a road accident and goes to prison. Years later, he is out and his best friend is now the local police chief, the sister of the girl he killed is a drug addict, and her daughter is looking for revenge. Another terrible crime takes place and he is the prime suspect. It takes a turn into Demon Copperhead territory too as the children are moved round the care system. Very enjoyable, atmospheric and twisty, albeit with some credulity stretching bad policing and child protection failures.

54. Greta + Valdin by Rebecca K Reilly. Following two siblings living in New Zealand and their chaotic, Russian-Māori family, as they both navigate dating and relationships. This is undoubtedly funny, and moving at times, but it does go on a bit without that much to say. I like books about unconventional families though.

55. Experienced by Kate Young. A rom-com following Bette, who has recently come out at 30. Her girlfriend Mei suggests she have some time out to meet other women and experience all the things she missed out on in her 20s. She's certain she won't find anyone more perfect for her than Mei, but will she...? Fun and sweet.

I suspect we're coming to the end of holiday season now, but for those that are yet to go away and have a 'how many books to pack' dilemma, I may have found the answer...

https://www.instagram.com/p/C8PZ7qOpF0x/

71. Just One Damned Thing After Another by Jodi Taylor

And so, I succumbed

I felt so let down by Ministry Of Time that I thought I'd give these a go.

And I enjoyed it.

But aren't there about 14 of them plus shorts?

It's such a massive commitment, I can't face it . I also think it might get tired. I do want to read the next though

Sorry if all my posts end up being the same for a while

@EineReiseDurchDieZeit id definitely read the next few St Mary’s if you’ve enjoyed the first one. I made it to number 8 but it started to get a bit samey and too silly for me.

Love the skirt noodledoodle!

@TattiePants

I don't think I got a good handle on who Ronan is/his motives. Have I missed something or is a background filled in down the line?

@noodlezoodle 😂

I have been in Norway so bought several Norwegian reads. Only managed to read The Unseen by Roy Jacobsen. This is a very quiet, slow book which reminds me of other books about hard, rural lives. A lot of people die, things suddenly happen but are of no consequence, and women go mad. It's a bit odd but it is a novel of hardship, resilience and survival so interesting, so long asone requires no action, bar a sudden intruder,near drownings, Swedish visitors , and a boat house that never really gets built...

That’s so funny @noodlezoodle 😂

Warning - St Mary’s spoilers coming! Don’t read this post if you don’t want spoilers.

Eine - Ronan is from the future and was friends with Dr Bairstow and another historian, Annie. Annie died and Ronan blames Dr Bairstow for it. As a result Ronan has a vendetta against Dr Bairstow’s incarnation of St Mary’s so tries to ruin it/kill people who work for it. I think this is explained in the first book but I can’t remember now as I’ve recently read so many in quick succession!

@ChessieFL

Thanks Chessie! I assumed that gets fleshed out as you go. For me in JODTAA he just turns up as a random baddie with very little context.

Roman appears in lots of the subsequent books and you get more of his back story. But he is a baddie…

@Stowickthevast I know what you mean about Sarah Perry, I've enjoyed her previous novels and felt a bit put off by her latest being set in modern times. I've still reserved it from the library (along with several other Booker nominees) as I'm curious to see what it's all about.

@EineReiseDurchDieZeit I really liked the first St Mary's book too and keen to read more, who knows when that'll be as there's all these other books I want to read also (and can't stop making library reservations!), thanks to @TimeforaGandT for the Ronan info, interesting to know he appears again and there is more to his story.

Just finished 41. Double Indemnity by James M. Cain. I'm a sucker for a 'hardboiled' novel and this didn't disappoint. Walter is an insurance salesman who starts an affair with a client's wife and together they plot to bump off the husband and make a claim on his accidental death policy. Of course, it doesn't quite go according to plan... I'm looking forward to watching the film version with the wonderful Barbara Stanwyck in a couple of weeks time and wanted to read the book first.

@MorriganManor I've added* The Seaside *to my list - thanks for the recommendation.

Interesting to see a few people are on Caledonian Road. I really enjoyed this at the start of the year. It's not perfect, but I think it would be really rare in a book with so many strands for each of them to be completely successful, and the key bits worked for me.

I've just finished another Andrew O'Hagan - 36.Mayflies*. A story of two halves. The first focuses on a bunch of lads from an Ayrshire council estate heading off to Manchester for a weekend-long indie music bender in the late 1980s. The second part catches up with them in their fifties, as they resurrect old, partly neglected friendships in the face of awful news.

I don't think I can be objective about this. Although I'm 10 years younger than O'Hagan the bands and venues featured are mine. The sense of escape the big city offers when you live on a dull estate where no one seems to do very much of anything is so vividly created here. And O'Hagan somehow captures something about the people with whom you take those first steps into the world being massively important in understanding who you are. I LOVED it, and will be posting it to my teenage best mate today.

72. A Symphony Of Echoes by Jodi Taylor

So I went straight in, more of the same, I think these do fall into light hearted escapism for me so I'm going to try and ration them.

Theres a death in this one that I found odd and poorly explained though.

And also, I do think Chronicles would make a far better TV series than Ministry Of Time but the cost would be prohibitive to most content makers

34. The Daughters of Mars by Thomas Keneally

Oh this was so good. A bold. To be fair I read the second quarter very slowly. It's a bit like a sculpture and I found it hard to see the shape of what the author was doing for some time. But as the sculpture took shape, I got more and more engrossed. His language is so authentic and precise, the characters very deeply believable, the emotions fully earned.

Two sisters from rural Australia nurse their mother, then travel to Europe to nurse soldiers from the WWI battlefields. The people they meet, their experiences both terrible and lighthearted, bring them closer than they ever thought they would be again.

@elkiedee Thanks for mentioning Red Plenty, one of my favourite ever books! In Spufford's case I'd have tried Unapologetic but looks like I've missed that.

@PermanentTemporary I haven't read that, but I love your description of a book being like a sculpture.