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?

I also read The Unspeakable Acts of Zina Pavlou earlier this year, which I did think was quite good as well - also 99p in the Kindle deals this month.

@StrangewaysHereWeCome

I have all 3 of those on TBR, in what order should I prioritise?

@EineReiseDurchDieZeit Soldier, Sailor if you're feeling introspective, or Notes on an Execution if you can handle some grizzliness.

Thanks Sheila, RomanMum and highlandcoo for reviews of Meet me at the Museum by Anne Youngson. I read The Bog People recently, and found it interesting though rather macabre. This was available on my library’s audiobook catalogue and so I thought I’d try listening to it. It’s partly inspired by TBP, in that a middle-aged English woman who has long had an interest in the Tollund Man described in that book, strikes up a correspondence with someone who works at the Danish museum where the Tollund Man rests. I thought this might be too twee, but I enjoyed the ‘found family’ friendship that develops between the 2 and the sense of the possibility of connection that their unlikely friendship gives. I wasn’t sure about the last hour or so but overall thought this was a good audio read.

I can't believe so many of you have bought Orbital in the deals.

Yes it is that bad.

I await your realisation with great delight. If I had to suffer, so should you!

Seconded !

I already bought Orbital back in January, I think - must have come up as a Kindle deal then. Haven't read it yet.

59 The Maiden by Kate Foster

Lady Christian and Violet try to navigate the tricky world of Edinburgh in the 1600s. Both are drawn into the orbit of Lord James Forrester and it ends badly for him, but also them. Based on a true murder, which I didn’t know until the Afterword and I probably wouldn’t have read it if I’d known because I hate made up things about real people (St Cuthbert and a rare few other exceptions ).
I can see what the author was trying to do but it didn’t really work for me. The first half is pure bodice-ripper and I’ll be kind and say the author intended the reader to sit there thinking it’s all a bit abusive and rapey. Apart from Lord James and an ineffectual husband or two the voices are all female, so it’s got that going for it and is relatively well written. It doesn’t hit the mark as a feminist book imo. Too much stuffing ‘titties’ into corsets and anachronistic speeches.

Small Bomb At Dimperley next, I think.

Thanks Strangeways!

45 In Defence of Witches - Mona Chollet
Old-school feminism with mostly twentieth century references, despite being originally published (in French) in 2018. The witches largely seem to be tacked on as a trendy angle, although she has a valid point that, like the early modern women typically persecuted as servants of Satan, women still come under fire for being independent, childless, and old. And it did make me add a few of the feminist classics it references to my TBR.

46 Emperor of Rome - Mary Beard
Covering roughly the first two and a half centuries of Imperial Rome, this is not a chronological account but rather an exploration of the Roman construct of what an emperor ‘should’ be. The standout point for me was that the emperors we think of as ‘good’ were those followed by their appointed heirs, who had an interest in upholding the reputation of their predecessor; whereas those supposed bad’uns like Caligula and Nero were ousted from the throne - and those who had seized power legitimised their behaviour by throwing shade on the man they’d just assassinated. My degree is in Ancient History but I’d never quite grasped this so clearly before.

47 You Don’t Have to be Mad to Work Here - Benji Waterhouse
Memoirs of an NHS psychiatrist as he goes through his specialist training. In part, it does jump on the Adam Kay bandwagon and play up the amusing ‘antics’ of some of his patients, but he is clearly motivated by compassion at their plight and despairs at the lack of time and resources available to treat all but the most severely affected patients. I admired him for sticking with it (despite becoming close to giving up at times), and working through the attachment issues resulting from his own upbringing in therapy. I hope there’s a sequel.

Everything I clicked on in the Deals, it turned out I already had purchased. Surely a sign that I should stop purchasing.

Ayoade on Ayoade: A Cinematic Odyssey, Richard Ayoade

I saw Ayoade, or Richard as I like to call him, on Graham Norton talking about this ages ago and whimsically bought in a deal frenzy. As I was reading it I thought, surely this would make a good audio option, given he is a comedian. I did struggle to engage all the time with audio but largely it was successful. He even makes lots of asides about audio vs book, which is only in the audio version which I found amusing. Anyway, this is Ayoade basically interviewing himself about various aspects of film making and massively sending up the sort of talented, auteur, artist. It was amusing for the commute and I might try other books by comedians this way if it is read by them.

@InTheCludgie – well remembered on The Merchant of Venice! Thank you.

82 The King’s Sister – Anne O’Brien. This is one of my languishing kindle books from 2015. This is the first Anne O’Brien book that I have read and I enjoyed it. Her books are based on medieval women, mostly Royal. This book was about Elizabeth of Lancaster, daughter of John of Gaunt and sister to Henry Bolingbroke, later Henry 4th. I’d never heard of Elizabeth and she was an interesting character in this portrait. I’ll look forward to reading more of AO’B’s books, particularly Katherine Swynford.

The deals finally updated for me though I didn't see much. I got There There, which Wandering Stars is a sort of sequel to, and the latest Mhairi McFarlane.

Book 63 was The Appeal by Janice Hallett, read for a book club. Most people probably know the routine with her books, but it's essentially a murder mystery told through accumulated emails and messages between the suspects and lawyers. It's very cleverly done, though in a way that annoyed me as it felt so controlled and unrealistic - I kept thinking, but WHY don't you have any emails sent by one key character, and WHY can't you just pull these medical records which are clearly the key to the whole case. I thought the big twist was pretty obvious but I couldn't tell who the murderer was until the end. Still, I can see why people love these books - it was definitely addictive, I found myself reading 100 pages at a time without coming up for air.

On to My Friends now which has arrived from the library, and I'll start September on my kindle as my annual dose of Rosamunde Pilcher.

The rest of my holiday reading:

240 Songs of Blue and Gold by Deborah Lawrenson

This was unusual, but I really enjoyed it. It is fiction, but heavily based on fact. The main character, poet Julian Adie, is basically Larry Durrell and the vast majority of his story is based on fact about Larry’s life. However, this does invent a love interest for him, Elizabeth, and the main thrust of the story is Elizabeth’s daughter Melissa trying to trace what happened following her mother’s death. There are chapters from Melissa’s POV in the present, as well as Elizabeth’s in the past, and we also get some extracts from biographies written about Adie. It all sounds very odd and probably shouldn’t work but it did for me, although I think it helps to know a lot about Durrell’s life to understand what is fact and what is fiction.

241 The Lost Bookshop by Evie Woods

Again set partly in the past and partly in the present, this is an odd book based around a magical bookshop which appears and disappears at will. In the past Opaline escapes a repressive life and ends up running the bookshop. In the present Henry and Martha try to find the bookshop and find out more about Opaline. All very odd and while I enjoyed most of Opaline’s story I didn’t find the present day story or characters engaging and the weirdness of the bookshop was never
properly explained.

242 My Family And Other Animals by Gerald Durrell

One of my all time favourite books and when you’re on holiday in Corfu is the perfect time for a reread!

243 The Island by Catherine Cooper

Random pick from the hotel bookshelf. A group of influencers are on a luxury Maldives island when they get trapped by a storm and people start dying. Interspersed with flashbacks to events at a school event in the 1990s which gradually reveals what’s going on. Not an original idea but a good holiday read.

244 Escape To The Hummingbird Hotel by Daisy James

Woman inherits a hotel in Corfu and gets into bother trying to run it. This is the start of a series but I won’t be bothering with the others.

245 The Last List of Mabel Beaumont by Laura Pearson

Another pick from the hotel bookshelf. Mabel is in her eighties and her husband has just died, leaving her a challenge to find her childhood friend. Along the way Mabel makes new friends and we learn why she lost touch with her friend. This was OK but Mabel was a bit annoying and the group of friends she made never rang true (is a seventeen year old girl working in a supermarket really going to start blurting out all her secrets to a random elderly customer?).

246 I Am Heathcliff: Stories Inspired by Wuthering Heights

As the title says. WH is one of my favourite books so I was looking forward to reading this, but was disappointed. Most of the stories don’t have anything to do with WH except that they are also about toxic relationships. I did enjoy a couple that did have more direct links to WH but overall very disappointing.

247 Birds, Beasts and Relatives by Gerald Durrell

The second part of the Corfu trilogy and another reread.

248 Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi

Another hotel bookshelf pick but this one was worth it! This starts with two sisters in the 1700s in what is now Ghana, who have very different outcomes in life, and follows their descendants through their lives in Africa and America. This is very wide ranging, focusing on different experiences of slavery and its impact on later generations. However, because it covers such a wide time period we only get a chapter for each person, with a small snapshot of their life, which makes it hard to fully engage with the characters - you’re just getting to know someone when it moves on to someone else. It’s also not always clear what time period we’re in, and the story jumps around between locations which makes it confusing to follow sometimes. I also lost track of who was descended from who and had to keep referring back to the family tree at the front. Having said all that, I did really enjoy this and would recommend to anyone who hasn’t read it yet.

The final volume of the Wolf Hall Trilogy, The Mirror and the Light, is in today's Kindle Daily Deals - I've been hoping it would come up for a while.

Thanks @elkiedee I wanted that. Just went to buy it and it’s free on Prime.

89. Let The Dead Speak by Jane Casey

Maeve Kerrigan #7

Maeve and Derwent investigate a murder with no body.

Not the best of the series, a tad melodramatic.

Taking a break now and will probably try Riders

The Coast Road is also on the Daily deals which was getting a lot of love on Bookstagram. I've picked it up.

76. The Kellerby Code - Jonny Sweet. I bought this after hearing Richard Osman rave about it. I was expecting a country house style murder mystery. Instead I got a terrible version of Tom Ripley crossed with Saltburn. Really not very good writing with a main character who swings between seeing himself as Charles Ryder or Jeeves but is far more violent than either. I think the writer is a screen writer and it reads like it's made for telly. Not recommended.

77. Hidden in Snow - Viveca Stern. Moved on to a Swedish crime as a palate cleanser. It was fine and have moved on to the second which isn't as good as the first.

Damn @Stowickthevast I also bought Kellerby Code

Ooh, thanks for the Vivica Sten mention. I binged the Sandhamn murders a few years ago although as always there were diminishing returns. Didn’t know there was another series. Just bought it.

Riders is nearly a 1000 pages?! (920) not at the moment do I have the energy to invest!

@EineReiseDurchDieZeit I thought the same! I thought it might be a bit of fun but 1000 pages.. I don’t think I’ve ever read a book that long. The audio book is over 30 hours.

A pair of music biogs for me, providing some much needed light relief after the gruelling though great Red Riding and Challenger…

61 1967: How I Got There And Why I never Left - Robyn Hitchcock
Semi-fictional and enjoyably whimsical account of a year in the singer/songwriter’s life that turned him from callow youth to budding ‘groover’ and musician. Quite refreshing to hear an affectionate account of boarding school including ‘happenings’ with a visiting Brian Eno. Lovely narration by himself on Audible.

62 Rebel Girl - Kathleen Hanna
Autobiography of the Bikini Kill/Le Tigre frontman and feminist punk icon, who is undoubtedly a total badass although can come across a little self righteous in places.

@OdileO

I have read a few things that long when a student but I just baulk at the time commitment now. It's a bit silly of me, if I can do a 300 pager in 2 days I could do Riders in a week. I'm also similarly put off Shogun and Monte Cristo

Yes same, I loved the film of Monte Cristo when I was younger (with Guy Pierce) but not sure I can’t face it. I decided to plough on with the first book of The Seven Sisters, I’m at 60% and it’s 700 pages - feels overly long! I generally prefer to read books under 500 pages but I really loved several longer ones this year, including the Bee Sting and Demon Cooperhead.