50 Books Challenge 2024 Part Seven

[Southeastdweller]

Welcome to the seventh 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 , the fifth one here and the sixth one here.

What are you reading?

69 Adventures In The Screen Trade - William Goldman

An oldie but a goodie. The screenwriter (and Princess Bride author) shares his experiences from 20 years in the movie industry. Funny and perceptive, and though written 40+ years ago a lot of it still rings true - and decades before the MCU he is eerily prescient about the rise of ‘comic book movies’.

I'll join in with the review catch-ups!

36. The Blackbird Chronicles, by Deborah Harkness. Latest in the Discovery of Witches series, this was great fun. Spells! Labyrinths! Feuds! Formerly secret relatives! Far too much detail about tea! As always I got a bit lost with some of the who's who, but this was very diverting.

37. The Last Devil to Die, by Richard Osman. Latest in the Thursday Murder Club series, you know what you're getting with these. As well as a mystery, some mayhem and the usual gags, this one made me cry with some beautiful writing about dementia.

@noodlezoodle

Oh ?! I thought they were finished as a trilogy ? They were excellent trash reading!

Nope, she's back at it! I read the fourth one recently and didn't love it - too much Marcus and Phoebe and not enough Diana and Matthew - but it was still very entertaining. This one is very Diana focused and very witchy. Excellent trash reading is a very apt description!

@RomanMum yes, I would think a 16 year old would find it perfectly accessible. It would certainly make a fantastic book for a sixth former to read for UCAS personal statement purposes.

And I am very happy to hear there is a new book from Deborah Harkness. That had completely passed me by but they are the perfect Autumn non-taxing read. Not going to win any prizes for literary brilliance but well worth anyone's time. (And I quite like Phoebe and Marcus. I don't mind Matthew when he's being vampire-ish but Diana can be a touch tedious).

Yes, I'd say it is based on my geography mad daughter reading it between GCSEs and a levels

279 Property: A Collection by Lionel Shriver

A collection of short stories, all based around the idea of property or ownership. Usually with short stories there’s at least a couple of duds but I liked all these stories. The only complaint really is that the characters are all quite similar across the stories but that’s really just a product of Shriver’s writing style which I can see might be a bit marmite. It works for me though!

280 The Art of Death by David Fennell

This is the first in the series featuring detective Grace Archer, here trying to trace a serial killer using the corpses of his victims in his art in a Damien Hurst way. I’ve read this series out of order so this helped make sense of some things mentioned in later books. I did work out who the killer was earlier than Grace did and I don’t usually do that so the denouement lost some effect for me, but still a good read.

Only tangentially related to book chat, but thought @RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie might appreciate my purchase at the Lego fair today

At risk of sounding like a really annoying 13 year old girl: my heart! ❤️

64. The Enchanted Wood by Enid Blyton my older two children are finally old enough for me to read them chapter books. Dh attempted the first Harry Potter with them which they insisted on dnf. So I gave this a go and they LOVED it. It was so nostalgic for me as these were my favourite books as a child and my parents read them to me over and over at bedtimes. It was so lovely to share the magic of this story with my own children. I did change the names of the 3 children to my own children's names to keep them interested but they got so into the book

65. The Waste Lands by Stephen King
    Number 3 in the Dark Tower series and Roland, Eddie and Susannah are continuing their journey through Mid World where they must draw Jake into their world to join their quest. Once Jake makes it through he draws their final member, Oy the Billy-bumbler and the team of 5 must make it through the decaying city of Lud ready for the next part of their journey. Oy is by far my favourite member of Roland's ka-tet. In this book, Roland finally redeems himself for his actions in The Gunslinger when he let Jake fall

Thank you bett and Pepe, added to her Christmas list.

42 The Sentence by Louise Erdrich. The title of this book has a double meaning - the past prison sentence served by the main character, a Native American woman called Tookie, and a momentous sentence in a book in the bookshop in Minnesota where she now works. We follow an important year in Tookie's life, including the start of pandemic and the George Floyd race riots, but also events closer to home such as her step daughter's new baby and an irritating ghost at the bookshop. I know lots of people on the thread loved this - I really enjoyed it, but it didn't quite reach a bold for me.

43 Wrong Place Wrong Time by Gillian McAllister. In the opening pages of this book, Jen is devastated to witness her beloved 18-year-old son Todd commit a violent murder. When she wakes up the next morning, it is the day before the crime, and she continues to move backwards through her own life, uncovering events in the past which led to the fateful night. The question is - can she stop the murder from happening? This was great - a real page-turner. One of the best thrillers I've read for ages.

69. Intermezzo by Sally Rooney. So... obviously needs no introduction, and I am starting from the position of being a huge SR fan! Her newest book follows the relationship between two brothers, Peter and Ivan, in the months following their father's death. Peter is older, a barrister, turning to drink and drugs to deal with his grief, while feeling torn between a relationship with his ex-girlfriend and a new, much younger woman. Ivan is in his early 20s, a chess genius, and starts a love affair with an older woman. The story switches between the two narratives as the brothers interact and badly fall out with each other.

I felt this was a bit of a departure from her previous books. It was richer and deeper and definitely picked up some broader themes - although the general 'how do we form romantic relationships in a hostile world' part was still there, she delved much more into complicated sibling bonds and grief as well. There was a lot that I related to and was very moved by.

She also maintains quite different styles for the brothers with Peter being almost stream of conciousness - which I have to admit doesn't always work and sometimes ends up in Yoda-esque syntax! But I thought it was an impressive feat.

So overall I loved it and I thought it delivered something substantially different from Normal People, which I guess there is a lot of pressure on her to replicate. I don't think it will convince anyone who really doesn't like her, but I know there are others who admire her writing but find her books a bit thin, so I think this might appeal a bit more to them.

Just a heads up that Material World is the daily deal on Audible today for £2.99.
Thanks to @PepeLePew and others who have recommended it...sounds fascinating.

Thanks for the review of Intermezzo @GrannieMainland ! I think I might like it. I've ordered it from the library.

Onwards with reviews!

60. The Italian Girl: Iris Murdoch

This has a charming title and front cover, but it is not a charming story. It's dark, haunted and melodramatic.

The novella begins with Edmund returning home for his mother's funeral. He is coming home for the first time in years, having escaped the clutches of his controlling mother. His brother stayed behind and his mother switched her attention to him. Their mother's malevolence has made its mark on both sons. Edmund does not intend to stay long, but in spite of himself, he gets tangled up in the family's web of corrosive secrets. His homecoming tips the precarious family dynamic over the edge and in the middle of it all, the Italian girl, the servant, looks on waiting for her turn to intervene as she holds all the cards.

I thought this was a good engrossing read. It really drew me in as it's very atmospheric. Edmund arriving home to the dark house in the middle of the night had the aspect of a dark gothic fairytale.
I found Edmund himself very unlikeable; a pale, insipid, ineffectual person, mired in his own unhappiness. 'I preferred to suffer the thing that I was'. In comparison, Edmund seems normal compared to his brother who is a complete oddball, quite an ogre. The women in the book are very unhappy. Nearly everyone loses the plot about two thirds of the way through and it turns into a real Freudian psychomuddle. Very melodramatic. You could see it on stage in your mind's eye.

This is ultimately about the legacy of a traumatic childhood and the secrets of a troubled family history that create dysfunctional people. I thought it was intriguing and would read more by Iris Murdoch.

@FuzzyCaoraDhubh loved your review of Amongst Women. It was one of my top reads of last year.

I do hope you enjoy it @FuzzyCaoraDhubh !

I also started but DNFd The Wife by Charlotte Mendelson, about a young woman who gets drawn into what later turns out to be a toxic and controlling relationship with an older woman. But I'm afraid I was finding both timelines circular and repetitive, even about a third of the way through, and I have a whole stack of others waiting for me at the library. loved her earlier books but was lukewarm about the last one as well which is a shame.

I haven't been feeling well so instead went to bed early last night and raced through 150 pages of Anybody Out There, the first Anna Walsh book by Marian Keyes which was as ever a delight. I got the new sequel for my birthday earlier this year but had never actually read this one, so have been keen to get through it first.

@noodlezoodle @PepeLePew

Realistically I'd need to read the first three again because it's been too long and I can't remember much. The TV adaptation was hopeless though. I could probably do them in a week being skimmy about it.

Basically remember :

Vampire and Witch
Book in Library
Lots of shagging
Chateau in France
Tudor times

I’m a big Iris Murdoch fan @FuzzyCaoraDhubh but I have to admit I haven’t read everything she’s written - it’s an ongoing project. Her very early books are quite different but you might enjoy exploring them if you haven’t already - Under the Net and The Bell are wonderful imho.

Thank you @ÚlldemoShúl :)
Thank you @Terpsichore :)
I will look those up! Thanks for the recommendations!

32. The suspicions of Mr Whicher by Kate Summerscale.

Disappointing. Real life murder case from the 1860s which apparently influenced Wilkie Collins in writing The Moonstone. I thought it would be really good but the murder itself was more distressing than I expected and there was no obvious whodunnit so it was all a bit underwhelming.

Ploughing on with another review!

61. Love in a Cold Climate: Nancy Mitford

I really liked the title of this book. It refers to Polly who has been living with her parents in India and has come home to 'come out' in society. Polly says it's easy to fall in love in exotic places unlike home where life is dull and ordinary and people are restrained. Love cannot be found as easily as it is abroad!

The subject of Polly's apparent aloofness to men is at the centre of this story and it is told from Fanny's perspective. I liked catching up with the Radletts again although they aren't often the focus as they were in the first book understandably.

I enjoyed Mitford's witty writing style and the satirical picture she paints of the British aristocracy in the 1920s and 30s. However, I preferred her first book 'The Pursuit of Love' which I thought was funnier and more charming. I found the storyline featuring 'Boy' Dougdale off-putting. I think the Radlett's mother was the one character who made a murmer of disapproval when events became known. The book really hasn't aged well in that respect. Also, the character of the effeminate Cedric was like a caricature and hard to take seriously. I think my enjoyment in the book started to wane towards the end. I will still go back and read the third book at some stage though as I enjoy her writing.

62. The Beauty Myth: Naomi Wolf

I rarely read nonfiction and so enjoyed this book.

Written in 1990 or thereabouts, Wolf sets out her conviction that women are trapped in an obsession with their own physical perfection and are being controlled by societal expectations within power structures. Caught up in a never-ending spiral, they will never win until they break the influence of the beauty myth and rise above it to gain their rightful place in society.

I found myself agreeing with a lot of the arguments put forward by Wolf. I would hope there is a better awareness among women these days of not becoming a slave to beauty, but perhaps the cycle continues especially for younger women. You tend to care less as you get older, I think. Generalising, of course.

I also liked the observation that Wolf made that women in novels exist as a pair, one pretty and one plain, for example like Laura and Marian in 'The Woman in White'. I can't remember the point she was making there, but I thought it was good when I read it.

💐to you, @Owlbookend.

Thank you, @GrannieMainland for the interesting review of Intermezzo! I'm currently number 51 in the library queue for it (!), but the library system seems to have ordered about 12 copies, so maybe I won't have to wait too long.

@FuzzyCaoraDhubh I read The Beauty Myth when I was at uni and it made a deep impression on me. One point I remember from it (if I haven't made this up!) was how beauty advertising played on women's desire to feel cared for and loved (eg L'Oreal, 'Because you're worth it'). So buying beauty products is a kind of substitute for real love. You do know that Wolf completely went off the rails in her later years and became a mad conspiracy theorist and Trump lover. It also turned out that some of the data in The Beauty Myth was wrong/exaggerated; the percentage of American women suffering from eating disorders wasn't nearly as high as she claimed. The overall message of the book remains compelling though IMO (which cannot be said of her subsequent books!).

I'm having a great weekend because I'm in northwest Wales (close to Barmouth) with my 'real life' book group. We are sharing a cottage and reading and I just swam in a waterfall. I expect to perish of hypothermia any moment now but otherwise it's fab 😂

I forgot to say that I'm hoping to catch up Liaisons dangereuses while I'm here; I'm massively behind with that read-along. I'm also very behind with reviews, but here is a review dump:

56. Outline, Rachel Cusk 4/5
    I read this years ago, but decided to reread it as I wanted to read the whole trilogy and I didn’t remember Outline very well. The style is original and striking, especially with respect to the narrator (herself an outline) and all the different voices around her, which she transmits. At the same time, I found it a hard book to warm to (which was also true when I read it the first time).

57. Transit, Rachel Cusk 4/5
    Thank you @FortunaMajor for the pristine copy of this! This turned out to be my favourite volume of the trilogy. The narrator, recently separated from her husband, is in London, and there are some brilliant vignettes: the immigrant builders who are renovating the decrepit house she has bought, the middle-class parents who treat their children remarkably atrociously. It’s like a collection of short stories really. The satire is sharp.

58. Kudos, Rachel Cusk 3/5
    The third volume of the trilogy and my least favourite. It feels more self-conscious than the others, with lots of conversations about writers and writing. It strikes me that even though the narrator herself comes into being largely through the stories of other people (the people who speak to her), her interlocutors almost all seem remarkably self-obsessed. They’re not interested in communication; they just want to talk about themselves. Again, I can see the satire at work, but it’s hard to enjoy a novel so full of rather unpleasant people.

59. Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader, Anne Fadiman 5/5
    These short essays about books and reading are erudite, humorous and charming. Thanks so much @bibliomania ! I’ve already gone back to reread one essay since I finished the book (the one on polar exploration; it was very moving). The volume has a slightly retro feel to me, though it was only published in 1998, because the era of kindles and audiobooks has changed the physical experience of reading. Yet the author’s love of books and of language itself also feels quite timeless.

60. The Judge, Rebecca West 4/5
    This is a strange novel, densely packed with imagery and ideas. Although I’m a fan of West, I found it hard going at times, but I’m glad I persevered. The first half is the portrait of the engaging, impoverished young Scotswoman Ellen, who is fiercely intelligent and committed to suffragette ideals. The story then takes a darker turn and focuses on Marion, Ellen’s future mother-in-law, who has a traumatic past as an unwed mother, and a disturbingly co-dependent/Oedipal relationship with her adult son. It’s interesting to compare this novel to Ruth by Elizabeth Gaskell: whereas the 19th c. novel is a very idealistic story of a young single mother shunned by society, West’s novel is a much more psychologically troubling one. There is a shocking Gothic ending.

61. I Capture the Castle, Dodie Smith 5/5
    I was having a lot of writing-related anxiety and so I thought I would read something escapist. Unfortunately, I discovered that a main character in this novel is suffering from writer’s block, so it wasn’t quite as escapist as I had hoped, ha. But I did love it. The view of England is very romantic and idealised, but the voice of the young narrator is fabulous. And the cultural differences highlighted when two young American heirs descend upon the genteel but impoverished English family are a lot of fun. Thought-provoking stuff about class as well; at one point the whole middle-class family (none of whom are gainfully employed) are living off the wages of the one working-class character. Hmm.

62. The Road to Lichfield, Penelope Lively 4/5
    Another MN recommendation. Very well-written, with lots of period detail. The heroine Anne is a history teacher, and there are great satirical bits about the well-meaning newcomers to the local village, who band together piously in order to save an old cottage from demolition, without being troubled by any real knowledge about the place and its history. Family relationships and love relationships are equally well-depicted, though the characters all communicate in a very understated British way, which I found frustrating at times. Anne’s husband in particular is insanely boring and close-minded. The only other novel I’ve read so far by Lively is her wonderful YA novel The House in Norham Gardens, and I much preferred it to this one.

63. Wifedom: Mrs Orwell’s Invisible Life, Anna Funder 3/5
    I learnt a lot about Eileen O’Shaughnessy from this book, but found it unsatisfying in some ways. I’m not sure the mix of discourses actually works: Eileen’s own letters, plus Funder’s imagined accounts of what Eileen is thinking, plus Funder’s musings on her own relationship and the Me Too movement. Funder’s feminist commentary struck me as more obvious than profound. (What, you’re doing the lion’s share of the housework and mental load because you’re a wife and mother? Just stop it FFS, we’re in the 21st century!) Still, the portrait of Eileen was very memorable. It’s utterly tragic that she died so young.

Good to hear from you @cassandre !
Thanks for sharing your thoughts on the Wolf. Yes, that definitely rings a bell about the subliminal messaging in beauty advertisements. In my case, facts, figures and statistics tend to go over my head! I don't take too much notice of numbers.

We've been missing you on the Liaisons thread.* *
Enjoy your bookish weekend in Wales!
Can't believe you swam in a waterfall 😆
Hope you don't get hypothermia!! I would be drinking a hot Toddy as a purely preventative measure.
It's absolutely pouring out of the heavens here today, rather like a waterfall in fact :)