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?

A few new reads- all pretty good but none bold
130 The Burgess Boys- Elizabeth Strout
Im trying to catch up on my Strouts having lived the Olive books and getting ready for the Lucy ones. This one was just okay. The Burgess brothers- Jim (successful, married, overconfident lawyer) and Bob (public defender, divorced, nervy) try to help out their difficult audited in their home town when her son is accused of a hate crime. This one was just okay- I think Strout tried to deal with too many issues rather than being led by the characters as she was with Olive

131 Summer by Ali Smith
The fourth and final book in the seasonal quarter- it draws together some of the storylines and characters from previous books. I found this one the patchiest and hardest to get into of the four but I did enjoy it. I plan to reread them all in the next year or two to try and pick up on all the allusions and themes that I’ve no doubt missed.

132 The Nickel Boys- Colson Whitehead
The story of Elwood, a young black man trying to make something of himself in 1960s America. He ends up in a reformatory school m- Nickel- unfairly. This flashes back and forward from adult Elwood to his time in Nickel. This is a really sad story and it should have moved me more than it did- I don’t know if it’s because I’ve read too much (way over my normal yearly numbers already) or I’m hitting a book slump or Whitehead’s writing just didn’t do it for me. It was just okay- but that could be my fault rather than Whitehead‘s.

I bought quite a lot of books from the deal list this month, including a few mentioned that I didn't already have - some are quite lightweight. @UlldemoShul mentioned Amongst Women by Irish writer John McGahern, which I read and loved soon after it first came out (1990/91?). It was listed for the Booker. It was serialised on Radio 4 a year or two ago and I really want to reread it, and read some of his other work. It is £1.99 rather than 99p, though.

33. The Fellowship of Puzzlemakers by Samuel Burr
After a few chapters which weren't great, I ended up quite enjoying this. Clayton Stumper (a name that nearly made me throw the book across the room) is a man in his 20s who was fostered by a group of older people who make and sell different puzzles. After the death of a parent he is presented with a puzzle quest to complete to find himself.

Has all the character depth and authentic dialogue of a Professor Layton game on Switch, but if you don't take it too seriously I ended up wanting to know what happened.

I didn’t get round to looking at the deals till yesterday but I bought I Seek a Kind Person - mentioned recently on here; the author Julian Borger tells the story of his father and other Jewish children who were saved from the Nazis by adverts placed in English newspapers asking for families to take them in.

Also bought David Grann's Killers of the Flower Moon and Confinement, Jessica Cox's history of Victorian childbirth. Oh and Rose Tremain's Absolutely & Forever.

68. It Ends With Us by Colleen Hoover

As I've said a few times, I've been struggling with reading in print and have mostly been doing audiobooks. I thought I would try something mass market that I perhaps perceived as lightweight and I was successful though I don't have much good to say about the book.

Florist Lily Bloom (yes really) falls for dashing neurosurgeon Ryle, but he has a dark side.

It's clunkily written, and times cringy, it has the same Lifestyle Porn thing as Fifty Shades of Grey as well as dubiously romanticising unhealthy dynamics in this case domestic violence.

What's odd is that the Authors Note states that her parents had a DV relationship, though Lily's parents also do in this book, it seems like we are meant to care about complete dickhead Ryle who is abusing Lily. I did not. The film is coming out soon and they've made it look like a romcom in the trailer.

Dating it, there are also swathes of prose in italics (which I hate) as Lily as a teen writes imaginary letters to TV star Ellen DeGeneres, the book having been published before her cancellation.

Are you coming off a heavy book like Crime And Punishment ? Have you recently had major surgery and can only face trash? Then this might be for you.

BookTok this might have been but it is absolute garbage. Though it was garbage I a) finished and b) felt compelled to continue though

I will read the follow up if I am absolutely desperate!

@EineReiseDurchDieZeit loved your review very similar to how I felt. DD recommended and I read It ends with us to see what all the hype was about. Nevertheless I am not going to read the next as a bit of a blooper this one. However will take DD to see the film when it is out as I believe that one is being done as DD enjoyed the book.

It's out next Friday @Midnightstar76

Are you coming off a heavy book like Crime And Punishment ? Have you recently had major surgery and can only face trash? Then this might be for you.
love that!

51 Skippy Dies by Paul Murray
Monstrously good, especially the last quarter. If anyone has read books by Tom Sharpe there are elements of that in the machinations of Seabrook School’s Priest/Administrative Staff clashes. It’s pretty heartbreaking however and doesn’t pull any punches when looking at the realities of the influence of porn on teenagers (and some pretty graphic descriptions). Without spoilers, this does turn out to be echoes down the generations of privileged, smug Irish boys - a terrible cycle of abuse that endures.
Also hilariously funny in places, while at the same time……not.

Love in Provence - Jo Thomas
Retreat to the Spanish Sun - Jo Thomas
Berlin - Anthony Beevor

Three books that neatly fit the @EineReiseDurchDieZeit question above.

Berlin, the unremittingly grim, highly detailed analysis of the downfall of Germany on the Eastern Front and the advance of Stalin’s Red Army on the capital city in 1945 has taken me months to read in small bursts with google maps and Wikipedia to hand.

The Jo Thomas books are light, formulaic easy reads and perfect when the unrelenting misery of Berlin got too much . They follow a pattern - middle aged woman moves abroad to a small town with a dark secret, wins the heart of various locals and other motley ex-pat characters, usually through food and eventually wins over the town and the heart of some handsome local. Lavender in Provence, pigs in Andalusia and I’m now on one about lemons in Sicily.

A few more reads:

53. Mexico Set - Len Deighton
54. London Match - Len Deighton

These books continue the story of Bernard, a member of the Cold War spy fraternity, which started in Berlin Game. The book blurb says the three books can be read in any order but they follow events consecutively in 1983/4 so it would massively spoil the plot of the earlier ones if you read them out of order.

Bernard is still dealing with the fallout from events in Berlin Game, trying to turn a Russian spy, worried about a possible mole in London and dealing with issues in his personal life. He also drinks far too much! I really enjoyed these because I like Bernard. Fortunately for me, I think there are more books featuring him.

55. Knife - Salman Rushdie

I have never read any of his fiction but this is an account of the attack on Salman, his recovery and reaction to it and attempt to come to terms with it. I found it interesting and Salman obviously had to work very hard in rehabilitation to recover from some of the injuries he suffered. The one part that I found slightly jarring was his imaginary conversations with his attacker as he had no real insights into the character and motivation so it’s all complete guesswork but I can see that it might have helped him.

Look forward to catching up with all the book chat.
Booker Longlist has some on I’d like to read. Although I’m still on last years 😀

just finished book 14 The Bee Sting by Paul Murray. A family story set in Ireland each facing their own issues and demons and sometimes more than one. The style takes one family member at a time and we see past and present events through their eyes.There is an anticipation of disaster which builds up throughout the novel but it is only in the last chapter that the whole thing comes together in a dramatic conclusion which ends suddenly questions.
I thought this book was brilliant! I could critique some sections for the lack of punctuation which did see me rereading to clarify. I’m guessing this was to show a chaotic mind. But, ultimately it did not detract from my enjoyment. This is a bold for me.

Hi All. Just a quick note to say we are currently organising the Northern meet-up after the success of the Southern meet-up earlier this year. We are meeting on 17th Aug in Manchester and would love to see anyone who can make it.

If you are interested in attending send me your email address and we will finalise the details. You can also find more info on this chat. http://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/whatweree_reading/5012510-50-bookers-meet-up-2024

@EineReiseDurchDieZeit I had a discussion with my then Y7 about the CoHo book around how just because he's misunderstood, domestic violence is still not ok. Not a great book for the tweens. Then again I guess we all read Flowers in the Attic and didn't indulge in incest ...

60. Caledonian Road - Andrew O'Hagan. This "state of the nation" book takes in everything from Russian gangsters, politicians, art, bitcoin, gangs, sweatshops and illegal immigrants. It's a lot to cover in one book, but he just about manages it. I liked the north London bits as know the area well from when I used to go clubbing in the dodgy parts behind Kings Cross in the 90s to the regeneration and naice redevelopment now. The dirty money and politics touches a bit on my work too so I was quite familiar with it. It's incredibly ambitious as a book. I think he could probably have done a bit less and made it a bit shorter but actually the ending was really strong and pulled all the threads together. It's not quite a 5 * for me as with so many viewpoints, I found it hard to get really drawn in, but would be a 4.25.

@Stowickthevast

Crazy to think 11-12 year olds are reading It Ends With Us due to TikTok, but as you say, it was Virginia Andrews in my day and I was a very advanced reader

Agreed - I was reading Virginia Andrews at 12/13 …..

I also read Virginia Andrews about that age.

Talking of books read at 12/13 years - I was delighted to discover a book on one of the can you identify this book threads that had been bugging me for about 3 decades.

52 The Fortunate Few - Tim Kennemore
Jodie Bell is a professional gymnast - starved to the perfect weight, worked to the point of collapse, and sold to the highest bidder in a not too distant future where gymnastics has replaced soccer as the world's most popular spectator sport. The characterisation was as good as I remembered - sad but very 80s. Loved it.

I too have just finished The Bee Sting and totally agree!

@CutFlowers - that sounds like a book I often think about but can't recall the title. Are the gymnasts in teams? I seem to recall the Herne Bayonets being one. And an accident on a beam?

I like the sound of The Bee Sting, but I really hated Skippy Dies. Should I give The Bee Sting a swerve or is it different enough that I'll enjoy it?

I'm stuck at 18% of The Bee Sting and not enjoying it.

I think I remember the gymnast book - was there a scene in which a someone criticized one of the other gymnasts for being too fat and the narrator says she would have been perfect as a beauty queen but was obscene for a gymnast?

I think he's honed his 'voice' between the 2 books. I could really see how he'd developed characterisation, particularly with regards to female ones. Skippy packs a punch but I preferred The Bee Sting.

Thank you Morrigan. I'll have a think about it!

Pepe and bibliomania - that sounds like the same gymnasts book to me, I read that so many times as a teenager!

63 Me by Elton John

This is everything you’d want from a celeb autobiography. It was funny, name-droppy, and full of totally bat-shit behaviour. I thought Elton John came across fairly well, mostly because he seems very honest about his failings and seems to be a generous and kind friend to many.

64 Black House by Stephen King and Peter Straub

The follow up to The Talisman was next up in my Stephen King readathon and it was one I hadn’t read before. Like @RazorstormUnicorn, who also read it recently, I found that after a slow start it really picked up and it was a definite bold for me. * *It was very grim in places, although anything that deals with a serial killer of children is never going to be an easy read. The tie in to the Dark Tower series was well done, and the ending felt very quick by King standards, maybe the influence of Straub at work. It seemed to be set up for a follow up book, but given that Straub died recently I’m not sure of this will happen.

34.The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte. Gilbert Markham is an unbetrothed middle class farm owner. A mysterious and attractive widow Mrs Helen Graham moves into the village, and Gilbert is rather taken with her, despite scandalous rumours being spread about her. She declines to marry him, and shares her diary in which we find out why.

Not sure how much of a detailed review I want to give, as I knew nothing about this before listening to it, and the unfolding of the plot was one of the many great joys. But this was brilliant. Desperately sad for much of the novel, there are incisive reflections on the place of women in society and the problems of the institution of marriage. The awfulness of Helen's past experiences is so vivid and real, and the feckless and debauched men she encounters are very familiar. Great stuff.

@StrangewaysHereWeCome

One of my very favourite books, as I've said in previous years I wrote my dissertation on it and Wuthering Heights