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?

Happy bookish birthday @Welshwabbit!

Happy Birthday @Welshwabbit 🎈

Happy Birthday @Welshwabbit

Happy birthday @Welshwabbit, enjoy your book haul!

Happy birthday @Welshwabbit

Thanks @CornishLizard - I’m not sure what to read next, but at least I now know that I CAN still read!

I've downloaded the sample of the Welsh peasantry book @Welshwabbit - it looks really interesting.

72 Over My Dead Body - Maz Evans

this might work for a reading slump!

Miriam is dead. But she’s talking to us. She’s in limbo, and she won’t get to go to eternity unless she can prove she didn’t commit suicide - and the inquest reports in a matter of days. Luckily, an old frenemy can see her… and has lots of detective experience. Well, experience in watching detective shows.

Amusing, easy to read, enjoyable.

Happy birthday @Welshwabbit 🎂 📚

Happy birthday @Welshwabbit 🎂

Happy birthday @Welshwabbit enjoy the reading!

80. The Creativity Code by Marcus du Sautoy
    This is subtitled 'How AI is learning to write, paint and think', and although it's from 2019 so predates the most recent & powerful LLMs, it's definitely the best book about AI that I've read so far. Du Sautoy starts with the story of AlphaGo, and uses it to illustrate both the way in which machine learning works, and the ways in which the interaction between AI and human can expand our own creativity. He then explores the ways in which AI is being used in a range of fields from art to mathematics. Overall lots to think about, and a definite bold for me.

81. A Power Unbound by Freya Marske
    Final book in the Last Binding fantasy / romance trilogy, where our band of heroes have to stop the bad guys taking all of everyone's magic for themselves. Not as much fun as no. 2 (A Restless Truth) but a good read all the same

82. Mona of the Manor by Armistead Maupin
    Most recent instalment in the Tales of the City series, but set well before the last few books. Mona is living in Teddy Roughton's country house, Easley, with her adopted son Wilfred. They're taking paying guests to keep the lights on, & the most recent couple bring their own problems, which Mona works to set right.
    This is pretty slight, and definitely one for fans, but it's nice to revisit old friends & see Mona's life in England.

Thanks everyone for the birthday wishes!

Happy birthday @Welshwabbit

@OllyBJolly - glad to see another My Name is Lucy Barton fan. I loved it, but it got a couple of mixed reviews on here recently.
Happy birthday 🎂 @Welshwabbit . I’ve got two of your birthday haul the bird book and the gardening one. I used to do loads of ‘crops in small spaces’, but they’ve all been replaced by untasteful clashing bedding this year. The multicoloured dahlias are going wild.

@owlbookend this is my somewhat overgrown small plot!

Very neat — I’m impressed 😃

belated Happy Birthday @welshwabbit - enjoy your book stash. I think Crops in Small Spots might be just the thing for my courtyard, so will add that to my list.

Happy birthday @Welshwabbit !

80. The Reckoning by Jane Casey

Maeve Kerrigan #2

Maeve is tasked with investigating who is targeting Sex Offenders

Many thanks to @ChessieFL for the heads up here, I almost wish they'd been on Audible because they are filling a Strike shaped hole but very glad to get the whole series cheaply. It's very much hitting the spot at the moment.

Glad you’re enjoying them Eine!

I’m regretting not buying the Maeve Kerrigan books now. It was a very rare occasion where I showed some restraint!

I'm enjoying the first Maeve Kerrigan book very much - I'm 25% through, and like Eine, think I know what the outcome is going to be - however I could be wide of the mark we'll see.

Glad everyone is enjoying Maeve Kerrigan. They get even better around book 4/5. @TattiePants they come up on offer every so often. My library has them too- may be worth checking.

57 Gay Shame: The Rise of Gender Ideology and the New Homophobia - Gareth Roberts

Often blisteringly funny, with an undercurrent of real compassion, Roberts addresses sex v gender from the pov of a gay man in his 50s. As such he is ideally placed to consider the rise of gender ideology and its impact on LGB people in the context of the lived experience of those who grew up under the shadow of homophobia. He manages to do this without denying the right to existence of people who have gender dysphoria, but he pulls no punches when it comes to the vested interests of TRAs.
I’m gender critical/ a sex realist so I enjoyed it and consider it a bold for this year. There are some interesting sections on the ubiquity of social media too (smartphones enabling us to carry round a simmering resentment in our pockets raised one smile amongst many).

James by Percival Everett I was drawn to this despite myself as I normally avoid slavery more than the plague, but I have The Trees on the tbr after hearing it recommended on A Good Read and my local bookshop were promoting James like it was a new Jane Austen, so I bought it and bumped it up after it appeared on the Booker longlist. It’s not quite what I expected from the long listing - it’s a much easier read in terms of readability. It’s very much a response to Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn, which I haven’t read, and was only dimly aware of - I hadn’t realised that it is apparently a central text in US schools despite featuring what seems to be a caricatured slave character - so lots of the book must be lost on me. While reading it, I didn’t admire it as much as I’d expected to - I couldn’t suspend disbelief and didn’t find the storyline convincing - though looking back it’s left a vivid sense of place and time. There is brutality and horrors - naturally given the subject it’s an uncomfortable read for that reason but also for a sense that the author is judging his readership. Mental note to avoid the topic in future.

Otherwise longlist-wise I’ve reserved My Friends after your excellent reviews, and non-Booker wise I’ve reserved the first Maeve Kerrigan.