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?

52 The Marrying of Chani Kaufman by Eve Harris

I've left it too long to write this review! I liked this warm-hearted book about an orthodox Jewish marriage, interwoven with the slowly unravelling union between the rabbi who will marry the couple, and his wife, who is Chani's mentor ahead of her wedding. Chani is a spirited heroine, and the young couple are relatable. The slow changes in Rivka/Rebecca, the rabbi's wife, are well done. The author has sympathy for all the characters which imbues her writing, even when they do stupid things. Not earth-shattering, but an enjoyable read.

53 Mayflies by Andrew O'Hagan

I know I am late to this, but oof, this book. It follows a group of Scottish friends, with our narrator, Jimmy, but more importantly, his effervescent best mate Tully at its centre, first over a weekend when they go to watch their music idols in 1980s Manchester, and then over a longer period in 2017, when they are middle aged. It captures both the glory (and idiocy) of youth and the trials - but also the (more careworn) pleasures - of later life. It is absolutely brilliant on male friendship, but really on any kind of deep, abiding friendship. And it is both exhilarating and very, very sad. Highly recommended to those of you who haven't got round to it yet.

That was such a lovely review that I went and looked up Mayflies - it is 99p on Kindle today (bought, obvs!)

The Vegetarian was fucking BONKERS. I loved it. The White Book was neither here nor there for me.

I really liked Greek Lessons. I wasn't that fussed on Human Acts, but it gets really good reviews.

87 We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

This is the text of a speech that the author gave on feminism, and as such is fairly high level. For all that she manages to pack in a number of points in an eloquent way, but I’d love to see her expand this into a more detailed book.

Forgot to say it is also free with Kindle Unlimited (I am determined to get my money's worth with my subscription this year!)

Me too, thanks for the heads up 👍

Nice to see the Mayflies love. It was one of my standouts in whatever year it was that I read it.

Just checked - 2023: this was my review/

Mayflies by Andrew O’ Hagen
Well, this was lovely. I went into it knowing very little other than that it’s partly set in Manchester and has some good music references. I won’t say much more except that if you’ve ever thought Morrissey was speaking straight to you or you’ve ever played endless drunken games of, ‘Name your top 3 Joy Division’ songs in the pub, or you’ve ever had a friend you thought might live forever just because they seemed to be more alive than anybody else you’ve ever met then you should read it. I loved it.

285 25: Celebrating 25 Years of Goldsboro Books by Various

A collection of short stories put together to celebrate Goldsboro Books having existed for 25 years. While I love the shop, this collection was just OK with none of the stories really standing out to me.

286 Rivals by Jilly Cooper

Yet another reread of this Jilly classic. Can’t wait for the TV version next week!

@Stowickthevast My Han Kang ranking:
Human Acts (most overtly political and Nobel-ish)
The Vegetarian (most accessible, also political (feminist), would make a suitable Halloween read, if you're into seasonality)
.......
Greek Lessons (would have been better as essays, several novelistic elements overly prioritised symbolic coherence over not being very silly)
...
The White Book (aka white noise peak plotless rambling litfic)

Still have her next on preorder, though! (Due Feb.)
I'm a bit :S as she seems too young to win and it seems like scrabbling for relevance to the yoof. But if it decreases the likelihood of Murakami getting it brings more of her backlist into English, cool.

While on Nobel laureates, if anyone hasn't read the new Olga Tokarczuk, The Empusium it's excellent, and very funny, and with its play with gothic elements also quite seasonally appropriate
Unfortunately it's making The Safekeep, which my library finally delivered, seem very slight in comparison.

Weirdly aligning with the thread, my current Japanese read is an older novel by Asako Yuzuki (Butter), which is basically Anne of Green Gables yuri fanfic, but with a bit of contemporary Japanese class/gender commentary for literary respectability: Diana from the Bookshop. AoGG is huge in Japan, as central to the children's canon as it is in N. America (less so here, I think?)

@inaptonym

I can't find an English translation of the book you mention Diana From The Bookshop - do you know if there is one?

@EineReiseDurchDieZeit there isn't, I'm afraid! TBH it's enjoyable enough but you're not missing much. It's starting to turn soapy/saccharine at the halfway mark and I think the ending will probably be as annoying as her others. Though if you liked the dissection of gender and food relationships in Butter look out for the translation of Junko Takase's Akutagawa winner (out soon IIRC) which is a much stronger novel. I can't remember the English title, something like 'May you enjoy delicious food'

Thanks!

Oh I remember loving Mayflies. I'm due a re-read. Heading over to the Kindle store right now.

I liked, but didn't love Mayflies. Maybe my expectations were too high as it sounded exactly like the type of book I'd enjoy so I went in expecting to love it.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0023pv8

For the Andrew O'Hagan fans ( i loved Mayflies too)

He was also on A Good Read with Irvine Welsh and Harriet Gilbert this week

www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0023nq1

When we discussed Mayflies at my book group, we could think of very few novels where love between two men not in a sexual relationship is depicted.
In Mayflies it's so convincingly and beautifully done.

Thanks so much for the Han Kang recommendations - especially the detailed list from @inaptonym - totally with you on Murakami, a disservice to women everywhere of he wins!

I found the writing in Butter so clunky, I don't know if I could read another book by her. That may be the translation.

Also very happy about the new Olga Tokarczuk, though I haven't got round to The Book of Jacob yet as it's such a doorstop.

90. Desperate Characters - Paula Fox. Well this was a gem. Apparently she's a well know American author but I'd never heard of her. A friend chose her memoir for book club so I thought I'd read one of her books first. This was written in 1970 and looks at the marriage of two privileged New Yorkers, Sophie & Otto Brentwood. The book starts with Sophie getting bitten by a cat, and then other things start going wrong over a weekend. It's beautifully written and very short, one of those books where there are countless sentences that you could underline. It could be a good one for the dated book club if you haven't read anything by her so far.

65. O Caledonia and Short Stories: Elspeth Barker.

This is an amazing novella; a dark, gothic tale of a young girl, Janet, a misfit, who finds happiness and solace in her books and in nature. The book opens in a shocking and brutal scene with her murder and then traces back to her childhood in a decaying castle in Scotland following World War Two.

Janet finds it difficult to engage with people as she really is an odd duck of a girl and always seems to be on the wrong foot. However, her attempts to gain acceptance in the eyes of her family and peers are very endearing. The family's motto 'Moriens sens Invictus' ('Dying but Unconquered') is a fitting epitaph for this courageous girl who lived and died in her own unique way, staying true to herself and unwavering in her own self-belief.

This is a rich, atmospheric tale with wonderful prose that is superbly lyrical; transfused with moments of dark humour, particularly in the earlier part of the story. Altogether this was a pleasure to read. Thanks for the recommendation @JaninaDuszejko !

Rivals umpteenth re-read. Can’t wait got the series.
Just bought Mayflies

I crumbled and bought Mayflies too. Might make a good book club choice (thanks for the idea, @highlandcoo!) as we're always being accused by the few male members of choosing 'women's books' 🙄

My latest: 73. Gut - Giulia Enders

This was a best-seller and is written in a chirpy, jokey tone in order to counter the fact that the author (a young doctor) is tackling the unromantic subject of the human digestive system. It’s also illustrated with wearisomely cartoony drawings by her sister. But when she forgets to maintain the required upbeat tone, it’s actually very interesting on the subject of an aspect of human biology that’s still relatively little understood - though it’s now known that the gut is effectively a second brain, and the two communicate in much more complex ways than ever before suspected. Plenty of new discoveries about the gut's connection to overall physical and mental health have been made quite recently, and there’s more to be explored. I certainly learned a lot I didn’t know before.

Sounds like you'll be on to a winner with Mayflies @Terpsichore! Out of curiosity, what books do the men pick when it's their turn?

Oh, they tend to go for things like PG Wodehouse or Evelyn Waugh, @InTheCludgie - which is fine, but not exactly imaginative. One of them tried to pick some ancient Latin epic once but we squashed that pretty quickly. They don’t like things with 'feelings', basically. Don’t get me started……

92 The Estate – Denzil Meyrick. A stand alone novel from the author of the DCI Daly books which I love. This was fine. Succession meets Scotland. Fabulously wealthy family live in rural Perthshire. Patriarch dies on live TV and the family fall apart once the will is read.

Meyrick is always strong on characterisation and I enjoyed most of the book, but the plot just bonkers and went into the realms of fantasy at the end.

I’m still struggling to finish the audio of David Copperfield. Only 6 hours or so to go, but I cant get passed his drippy wife. I have a fairly free weekend and other than batch cooking, I plan to do a lot of reading!

I've started on Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood. I've only ever read The Handmaid's Tale and The Testaments. I’m not enjoying this and I suspect I will DNF. Anyone a fan?