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?

30. Factfulness by Hans Rosling

Non fiction about statistics, news reporting and how the world is becoming a better place and no one knows it.

Poverty is decreasing. Less people die in wars. More children are in school than ever. We've had a population book but it will level out. He writes about 10 instincts on why our perspectives get distorted and how to think critically about what we are being told.

The writer is quite inspiring. He worked in Africa as a doctor for some years and did some great work in understanding diseases and furthering knowledge. He also doesn't shy away from the mistakes he made and how others can learn from that.

It is also a relief. He is right that news today shouts so loudly about the awfulness and it's hard not to feel negative about everything, however many aspects of life across the globe are (slowly) improving all the time.

I hope I remember this book, and can keep hold of the positivity and think beyond the headline.

46. The Dictator's Wife: Freya Berry

This book is set in a fictitious Eastern European country following the fall of communism in the early 1990s. Laura, whose parents fled the regime when she was a child, is part of the defence team for the former First Lady who is on trial for corruption and collusion and may face the death penalty if found guilty.

I liked this very much. The author succeeded in creating the dark, suffocating atmosphere of post communist rule and the terror of living with secrets from the past that are still dangerous to know. The personal stories of Lawyer Laura and First Lady Marija were compelling and interwoven; each of them bound more closely together than they realised. A tense, gripping read.

47. The New Sorrows Of Young W: Ulrich Plenzdorf (trans. Romy Fursland)

This is an odd, quirky novella. Edgar is the perfect GDR poster boy. Clean-cut, scholarly, obedient, until one day he snaps and leaves home to live by himself in an outhouse of a friend's derelict house in Berlin. He falls in love with a Kindergarten teacher and relives in an ironic and self-conscious way the life and sorrows of Goethe's young hero, Werther.

I liked this. It has an interesting narrative structure, mainly narrated by Edgar from beyond the grave (he had an unfortunate accident involving a rudimentary paint-spraying machine) and also his father who goes round meeting people Edgar knew in Berlin to try and find out what happened to his son. There are also quoted passages from the original work interspersed in the text, so Goethe is also an important voice. This was an offbeat story of teenage rebellion set against the stifling backdrop of life in the German Democratic Republic.

48. The Pursuit of Love: Nancy Mitford

Read for the August instalment of 'The Rather Dated Bookclub'.

This is the story of Linda, told by her cousin Fanny; two girls who grew up in an eccentric, aristocratic household in the country during the interwar years. The girls are quite different in outlook and character although they have quite a similar upbringing. Fanny gets married young and her marriage works out. Linda makes a series of unfortunate choices that lead her into strange situations, but in spite of difficulties, she persists in the pursuit of true, romantic love.

This book is told in a witty, humorous style, capturing the eccentricities of aristocratic lives in all their absurdity and in particular the restraints of young women from such families. For all that, it describes the enduring affection that binds this family during the most difficult of times. I enjoyed this very much. It felt like an honest and endearing account of Mitford's own youth, on which this book is based.

Typo

The Dictator's Wife - this sounds excellent @FuzzyCaoraDhubh

Hi @SheilaFentiman ! Yes. I thought it was very good, lots to like about it. A very interesting setting. I remember the toppling of the Romanian dictators, the Ceausescus, in around 1990. It made an impression on me, I was sixteen I think. I was hoping that this book would recreate those times and examine these people up close to see what they are made of and I think it did. Apparently, Freya Berry spent some time in Eastern Europe talking to people and I thought this came through quite strongly. The Ceausescus are referred to in the course of the book as well, it's almost as if they have a cameo!

The question of complicity on the part of the dictator's wife was dealt with in an interesting way. It's ambiguous and suspenseful up until the end.

The book is quite dark, thrillerish and the outcome is not at all uplifting. The personal story of Laura's family is very sad in particular. The pacing is good, the length of the story is good, just long enough without overstaying its welcome. It's well written. There was one sentence towards the start of the book where the three lawyers arrived in the country and couldn't find their way around in the 'eyeless fog' which made me wonder for a minute, but I settled into the story and enjoyed it.

This was her debut book and I thought it was a strong one. It was a library loan for me, but might be worth while looking it up on Kindle to buy it.

Thank you for the extra info @FuzzyCaoraDhubh - I am now even more intrigued 🙂

The dictators wife sounds fascinating @FuzzyCaoraDhubh . It's going on my tbr!

Ooh! The pressure is on! Hope you think it's good BlueFairy and Sheila if you do read it!* * * *

I've reserved it at the local library so it could take anywhere between 5 mins and 37627738822 years until they move it from the other library!

62 Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin

American man, has an affair with an Italian waiter in Paris. I should have loved this. I really thought I would. Instead I just found it incredibly tedious.

I know that feeling 😄

Fuzzy I love The Pursuit of Love - better in my opinion than Love in a Cold Climate. First read as a teenager and regularly re-read since then.

75 Lessons in Chemistry - Bonnie Garmus
Elizabeth is a chemist in the early 1960s when women should be in the home. She starts presenting a cooking programme and opening women’s eyes to their potential outside of being a housewife.
I enjoyed this. It was pacy and characters that, although I didn’t particularly like, I felt their injustice deeply. A few too easily tied up ends but very minor gripes. A good book in all.

@FuzzyCaoraDhubh that sounds really interesting. My parents moved to Romania for a few years in 1991 just after Ceaucescu had been deposed. I think we must be the same age as I was 17. The main buildings all had bullet holes from the revolution, and there was nothing to buy in the shops. It was fascinating seeing the changes over the next 3 years as Western goods gradually appeared - a Benetton opened and Michael Jackson toured there!

@MrsALambert the TV series of Lessons in Chemistry is very good if you haven't seen it.

Does anyone know how to find the new month deals for Kindle?

I've had a look and can't bring to find them.

@Stowickthevast I go into kindle daily deals then at the top of that page click on all kindle deals. There isn’t much in it this time. I recommend John McGahern’s Amongst Women if you haven’t already read it.

That's fascinating. I've never been to any part of Eastern Europe. My music teacher was from Romania. He defected sometime during the 1970s. He was very slow to talk about it, understandably, but he did say one or two things once about not being able to trust people, that you could be reported to the authorities.

I'll definitely get around to reading the next one :)

Nothing on the Deals for me but Tomorrowx3 and Hello Beautiful are both there and both worth a read

I haven’t @Stowickthevast but thank you, ill
check it out

Thanks @ÚlldemoShúl

I thought it was a reasonable selection. I hadn't heard of the one you recommended so pick that up and also Nightbloom which was on the women's prize longlist, How To Say Babylon from the non-fiction shortlist and Judy Blume's Summer Sisters for nostalgia and holidays!

Other ones I've read which are decent were:
Horse by Geraldine Brook
Old God's Time - Sebastian Barry (Booker longlist last year)
Great Circle - Maggie Shipstead ( Booker shortlist I think in 2022 and one of my favorite books of that year)
Sea of Tranquility - Emily St John Mandel (of Station Eleven love/hate fame)

I didn’t think there was much in the deals but have still bought 5:

Nightbloom
The Nix
The King’s General
Tomorrow x 3
Oranges are not the only fruit (which I last read for my A Levels over 30 years ago).

@TattiePants

I have read about a third of The Nix and stalled - it's not a bad book at all but it was failing to hold my interest

@RazorstormUnicorn – am adding Factfulness to my TBR! Sounds just what is needed, especially in this dreadful week.

77 The Shadow Network – Deborah Swift. This is the second in a trilogy of books on espionage during WW2. It’s a few months since I read the first one and I was struggling to remember who one of the main characters was. Interesting plot based on the true ‘Radio Aspidistra’ story, regarding transmitting radio programmes to Nazi Germany, using German speakers, either PoWs or Jewish refugees. I felt this was slightly weaker than the first one, which was set in France/Netherlands/Germany and was more atmospheric. Looking forward to the third book which goes back to the Netherlands and the undercover spies.

Kindle deals - The Bookseller of Inverness, Mythos, Tackle, Where the Crawdads Sing, Birdsong, I am, I am, I am, The Secrets of Blythswood Square - all 99p

Going away tomorrow (hopefully ... didn't get to go last year and now I seem to be the only remaining household member who hasn't gone through Covid this week) so a quick review of David Mitchells' Unruly. I didn't really get into this until the middle ages as it were! It's entertaining but a bit convoluted. I think a decent editor could have told Mitchell to write in shorter sentences! Having grown up in Scotland,I didn't learn mch of this history - not sure I care too much...

I hadn't realised until today that there was never an Edward V!