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?

Hi everyone

Updating my list. Have still be reading but not much room for threads or reviews.
My daughter had recently been diagnosed with a significant mental health issue so life has been a bit overwhelming.
Reading is bright spot
My updated list

1. A spell of good things- Ayobami Adebayo
2 mist over Pendle - Robert Neill
3 The familiars - Stacey Hall
4 Prophet song- Paul Lynch
5 Wintering - Katherine May
6 Giving up the Ghost - Hilary Mantel
7 Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries - Heather Fawcett
8 Fifteen wild Decembers - Karen Powell
9 Politics on the edge - Rory Stewart
10 The Amber Fury - Natalie Haynes
11 Witchcraft : A history in 13 trials - Marion Gibson
12 Christ on a bike - Orla Owen
13 The Glutton- A.K. Blakemore
14 Confinement- Jessica A Cox
15 On Beauty - Zadie Smith
16 Write a great synopsis- Nicola Morgan
17 Wahala - Nikki May
18 Dear Agent - Nicola Morgan
19 Tom Lake - Ann Patchett
20 After you’ve gone - Maggie O’Farrell
21 Instructions for a heatwave- Maggie O’Farrell
22 The shepherds life - James Rebanks
23 Lobster - Hollie McNish
24 Dark Pines - Will Dean
25 The Rachel Incident - Caroline O’Don
26 Solider , Sailor - claire Kilroy
27 The Wren The Wren - Anne Enright
28 Restless Dolly Maunder - Kate Grenville
29 Ordinary Human Failings - Megan Nolan
30 The maiden - Kate Foster
31 Gillespie and I - Jane Harris
32 Western Lane - Chetna Maroo
33 And then she fell - Alicia Elliott
34 This much is true - Miriam Margolyes
35 Thunderclap - Laura Cummings
36 8 lives of a Century Old Trickster - Mirinae Lee
37 Enter ghost - Isabella Hammad
38 River East River West - Aube Rey Lescure
39 Oh Miriam - Miriam Margolyes
40 Nightbloom -Peace Adzo Medie
41 Acts of desperation- Megan Nolan
42 Quickly, while they still have horses - Jan Carson
43 The covenant of water - Abraham Verghese
44 Brotherless night
45 Rizzio
46 Cuddy - Benjamin Myers
47 Imposter syndrome- Joseph Knox
48 Notes to self - Emilie Pine
49 Birding - Rose Ruane
50 The light years
51 Marking time
52 Confusion
53 Enlightenment- Sarah Perry
54 Frank and Red - Matt Coyne
55 Piglet - Lottie Hazell
56 You will be safe here - Damian Barr
57 Grief love and fury - Salena Godden
58 The lost man Jane Harper
59 My family and other rock stars
60 The dictionary of lost words - Pip Williams
61 Wild embers - Nikita Gill
62 The painters daughters - Emily Howes
63 Casting off
64 Why don’t you stop talking - Jackie Kay
65 Fair Rosaline - Natasha Solomons
66 Clairmont - Lesley McDowell
67 1914 and other poems - Rupert. Brooke
68 All change
69 Night side of the river - Jeanette Winterson.
70 Motherhood - Pragya Agarwal**
71 My husband - Maud Ventura
72 Newborn - Kerry Hudson
73 Night Crawling - Leila Mottley
74 One boy, two bills and a fry up - Wes Streeting
75 Blue Sisters - Coco Mellors
76 On earth we are briefly gorgeous- Ocean Vuong
77 The goldfinch - Donna Tartt

Wow @Terpsichore volume 6 is quite the achievement! The penguin modern editions I have only seen to go up to 6 but I thought there was 7 so I’m a bit confused by that but I’ll worry about it when I get that far!

@splothersdog thinking of you and your daughter. I hope the diagnosis will help her get any treatment and support she needs 💐

Different editions bundle The Prisoner and The Fugitive together to make a combined Vol 5 and hence a total of 6, @ÚlldemoShúl

Ah thank you- that answers that question.

Thank you - things are looking brighter

@inaptonym your birthday book haul looks awesome! Enjoy

@RomanMum, that's an interesting review of Adele. I'll avoid it! I've read two of Slimani's books so far (Lullaby and The Country of Others) and had mixed feelings about both of them, though I liked The Country of Others more than Lullaby. I feel like Slimani is sometimes sensationalist/provocative in a kind of attention-seeking way, rather than in an ethically probing kind of way. She's huge in France though.

I'm feeling very tempted to embark on Proust now (it's FOMO!). I've only ever read Combray, the first part of his first novel. It was beautiful but very slow going. I might try to read him less conscientiously and just let the words wash over me.

💐to @splothersdog. It's so hard when your child has MH issues. I hope things get easier for you and your DD from here.

Best wishes splothersdog

@inaptonym I was feeling pretty rough last week when I was reading HTSBabylon and have just been diagnosed with bronchitis by the out of hours GP - so my hatchet job might not have been completely justified! It’s quite likely I would have got the hates for whatever I was reading at the time.

49. Uncle Paul by Celia Fremlin I know a few on here have already read this. It's a recent re-print of a novel first published in 1959 following three sisters who fear the eldest sister's murderous ex-husband may have been released from prison and be stalking them while on their summer holiday

I thought this painted a painfully clear picture of seaside holidays of the period. I've only ever done one caravan holiday, as a child, but this was excellent at evoking the confinement, claustrophobia, and sheer misery of being stuck in a caravan with your whole family when it's raining

But overall I found the book disappointing. I'll be careful of giving spoilers but the final twist concerning Uncle Paul was incredibly disappointing and I felt made the whole book a bit pointless. I'm pretty sure I got this in the 99p deals which I'm glad about as I'd feel somewhat cheated if I'd paid anymore for it

@cassandre I think you've hit it - provocative is the right term. It's only 200 pages though so if you have read other of her works and have enjoyed them it might be worth a punt. It just wasn't for me.

I remember DGR, Terpsichore. I think she posted something that got her embroiled in the culture wars (can't remember what) and she said the site would be dormant for a while, then eventually it got completely taken down. It was a real shame, I think she was one of the original book bloggers way back when, and had such an interesting take.

Ah, that’s so sad if so, @noodlezoodle. TBH I'd wondered whether it might have been something like that. She was an ex-nurse, or perhaps a midwife iirc, and always a great supporter of women.

11.Steeple Chasing by Peter Ross. An enjoyable read very interesting about the people, stories, places surrounding churches. Will look out for any more that he writes. Preferred A Tomb with a view but just personal preference.

Forgot to bring my list across. I've read plenty of books that I've liked this year but still short on bolds.

1 The Chrysalids, John Wyndham
2 Bomber, Len Deighton
3 Stay With Me, Ayobami Adebayo
4 A Thread of Grace, Mary Doria Russell
5 Under Sea, Over Stone, Susan Cooper
6 Frenchman’s Creek, Daphne du Maurier
7 War Doctor, David Nott
8 Zoo Station, David Downing
9 Politics on the Edge, Rory Stewart
10 My Forth Time We Drowned, Sally Hayden
11 A Passage North, Anuk Arudpragasam
12 So Late in the Day, Claire Keegan
13 The Night Circus, Erin Morgenstern
14 The Rose Code, Kate Quinn
15 The Burgess Boys, Elizabeth Strout
16 Redhead by the Side of the Road, Anne Tyler
17 The House of Doors, Tan Twan Eng
18 Breathtaking, Rachel Clarke
19 Woman, Eating, Claire Kohda
20 The Alienist, Caleb Carr
21 Memphis, Tara M Stringfellow
22 Little, Edward Carey
23 Natives, Akala
24 Blood & Sugar, Laura Shepherd-Robinson
25 D-Day: Minute by Minute, Jonathon Mayo
26 Violetta, Isabel Alllende
27 On the Beach, Nevil Shute
28 Slow Horses, Mick Herron
29 Learning to Swim, Claire Chambers
30 The Glass Pearls, Emeric Pressburger
31 The Making of the Modern Middle East, Jeremy Bowen
32 The Thirteenth Tale, Diane Setterfield
33 One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
34 The Daughter of Time, Josephine Tey
35 The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde
36 Enter Ghost, Isabella Hammad
37 Bosnian War, Hourly Histories
38 Killing Thatcher, Rory Carroll
39 The Visit, Chimamanda Nigozi Adiche
40 I Who Have Never Known Men, Jacqueline Harpman
41 The Hiding Place, Corrie Ten Boom
42 The Book of Negroes, Lawrence Hill
43 Iron Lake, William Kent Kruegar
44 The Little Liar, Mitch Albom
45 Soldier Sailor, Claire Kilroy
46 Windswept & Interesting: My Autobiography, Billy Connolly

I can't get Mumsnet to do number 30 but this is 30th book this year - and what a read :

In Memoriam by Alice Winn
Beautiful, painful read detailing the stories of a cohort from a private boys school in WW1. It's a brutal depiction of war where there are no victors. The key theme is the homosexual relationships amongst the group. It's very sensitively handled with both key characters very flawed. Great characterisation, descriptions are excellent and the writing is impeccable. I really do feel quite exhausted having finished it although captivated throughout. Loved it- thanks to all of you who featured it in your bolds.

Now looking for something a bit lighter.

best wishes to you and your daughter @splothersdog

33.Eight Months on Ghazzah Street by HIlary Mantel. Frances follows her husband Andrew to Saudi Arabia, where he is working and she will be a trailing spouse. She struggles to adapt to the corrupt and oppressive society. Stuck at home and unable to leave unchaperoned, she focuses on strange and menacing comings and goings within her apartment block.

For me, Mantel's attention to detail in creating worlds is unsurpassed, and the stifling Saudi society was brilliantly evoked. There's a sense of threat and unease running throughout. Lots of events remained opaque and unresolved, from Frances's perspective at least, which felt true to the corrupt and veiled nature of the regime as portrayed. Loved it.

I just had a great reading moment and I feel the need to share. I'm reading King Hereafter by Dorothy Dunnett. This morning I read a chapter about a sea battle in the Pentland Firth while on a boat in the Pentland Firth.

Oh wow! That's impressive.

Synchronicity of chance!

@splothersdog mind yourself 🌻
Best wishes to you and your daughter.

Yes, thoughts to you @splothersdog I have some experience in that area myself

@SapatSea ♥I usually stick to library offerings so get very excited when book shopping 😅

@LadybirdDaphne Hope you're feeling a bit better now! You make a good point about HTSB's intended American audience - one reason I felt so frustrated by the ending was the final (rushed, American) section that glossed over so much while also relying heavily on US-specific discursive shorthands to explain/lay the groundwork (trying to avoid spoilers).

@cassandre The Load of Unicorn was my favourite CH as a child! I'm looking forward to Toby Clements' new book, supposedly a novelisation of Malory's life - though which one I'm not sure, possibly cherry-picking the wildest bits of each contender's bio. Should be entertaining, based on his earlier quartet of medieval adventures.

@JaninaDuszejko reading goals! And impressed with your bravery in hefting such a weighty tome onto a boat😀

@splothersdog Also wishing all the best for you and DD. Based on your bolds we have similar tastes so I'm very excited to get to Cuddy and Abraham Verghese ...eventually. Too distracted by the Olympics for anything serious.

Sending best wishes to you and your DD @splothersdog

Just finished a cracking holiday read:

53 The Day Of The Jackal - Frederick Forsyth

My first time reading this groundbreaking thriller, and a real treat. A rare novel that manages to pack in a plot that’s both meticulous and rattles along at a great pace, without sacrificing character; and a testament to this is that I wanted both the cold-hearted assassin the Jackal, and the humble yet thorough detective Lebel to succeed in the end.

Sending you good wishes @splothersdog

That is a good experience @JaninaDuszejko! I read the bit of Bring Up The Bodies where Anne Boleyn is executed while on the tube going through Tower Hill, which was a nice coincidence but the train wasn't very atmospheric.

I've read 3 excellent books in a row:

50. The Island of Missing Trees by Elif Shafak. Dual timeline following Ada in London in the present day, a teenager reeling from her mother's death and struggling with her connection to Cyprus where her parents are from, and the story of her parents meeting in the 70s. Her mother was Turkish and her father Greek, so their love affair against the violence and partition of the island was doomed.

I had in my head this was very literary so in was delighted when it turned out to be just a beautiful story about love and family, with lots of Cypriot food and culture. It is narrated by a tree which is odd, but it makes sense in the end and I found the last pages incredibly moving.

51. The Long Island Compromise by Taffy Brodesser Akner. This one is hard to pin down. Inspired by a true story of someone the author knows, it starts with Carl, a wealthy Jewish businessman, being kidnapped and held to ransom for several days. He is eventually returned and the family are determined to put the events behind them, despite the perpetrator never being found. They all come back together decades later for Carl's mother's funeral.

At this point, the blurb says that it turns out Carl has been slowly trying to solve the kidnapping case, which is so much not what happens I don't think this person had read the book. There is no plot to speak of, but a very detailed exploration of each of Carl's grown up children and all the ways they have been affected by their wealth and their family trauma. Definite nods to Succession here! It is very funny and I've been thinking about it ever since.

52. Long Island by Colm Toibin. Follow up to Brooklyn set about 20 years later. After finding out her husband Tony has had an affair, Eilish returns to Ireland for the first time since the trip she makes at the end of the first book. She is thrown back together with Jim, who is still in love with her despite now being engaged to another woman in the village. I didn't love this as much as Brooklyn, but it was still a beautiful book about yearning and choices and wondering what might have been.