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?

I knew Decca had a long second marriage but I didn't realise she had lost another child, that's awful.

Nicholas was her son that died, Benjamin her other son was last heard of sleeping rough in the UK, have you read the Letters @MamaNewtNewt ? It's such a brilliant collection

@EineReiseDurchDieZeit that's so sad. No I've not read the letters collection, I have it on my wish list waiting for it to come down in price. I have read The Mitford Girls by Mary S Lovell though, which I really liked.

If I knew you in RL I'd buy you it, that's how much I love it

A couple of 99p deals that I think a few others also bought:

93. Slow Dance by Rainbow Rowell
    Shiloh & Cary were best friends in high school; both from difficult family backgrounds, and planning their ways out of the Midwest (college & the Navy respectively). Now they're both in their 30s, & life hasn't necessarily panned out quite how they'd expected. They meet again at an old friend's wedding, & start to reconnect.
    This was a pretty gentle read, with the ending never really in doubt. I enjoyed it, but I'm a sucker for a low stakes romance novel.
    
    As a side note, I was slightly bemused by more than one character saying 'thank you for your service' to Cary. I somehow can't imagine anyone saying that to a member of the Forces in the UK & wonder if it's a standard thing in the US.

94. The Cracked Mirror by Chris Brookmyre
    Hardboiled LA cop Johnny Hawke follows a crime lead to Scotland, where he ends up teaming up with elderly Penny Coyne, retired library volunteer with a knack for solving murder mysteries. As murders pile up, strange parallels appear between different family crimes.
    I found the first part of this a bit slow, though I enjoyed the developing partnership between Johnny & Penny. The twist was pretty heavily signalled, & I felt could have come sooner, with the final section a bit rushed (a shame, as I thought it was the best part of the book).

Now that is a ringing endorsement. Actually I might put it on my Christmas list, it sounds like one I might like to have a hard copy of.

@Sadik, "thank you for your service" is indeed very common in the US, to the point where quite a few in the armed forces get fed up of it.

I found it quite jarring when I first moved here but now have it filed under 'weird american things that I've gradually got used to'.

There was a funny episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm where Larry got into trouble for not thanking a serviceman for his service.

Oh wow, I also read Hons and Rebels this summer, and thought it was great, but hadn't got round to reviewing it yet. 🙄 I also wonder how Decca and Esmond's relationship would have evolved if he hadn't died so young.

I didn't know about Decca's sons, Eine! I just googled, and it looks like the younger son Benjamin is still alive and working as a piano tuner in Coventry.

https://tunerben.com/about-ben/

I really want to read the letters now!

According to Wikipedia and a website about his business, Jessica Mitford's surviving son Ben Treuhaft is a piano tuner in Coventry.

I see @cassandre and I must have both looked up Ben Treuhaft at the same time!

76. The Country Girls - Edna O’Brien

Latest for the Rather Dated Book Club, and a re-read for me. It’s been ages, and I remembered a certain amount, but was very glad to revisit this beautifully-written, poetic, often very funny but achingly melancholy story of the narrator, Caithleen, and her progress from life on the farm with her beloved Mama and feared, alcoholic father, to young womanhood in Dublin with her friend Baba in the 1950s, via a grim convent school. Some of it is heavily autobiographical, I think - especially the childhood section - and O'Brien is revealing about the ubiquity of the sexual harassment young girls had to deal with: although Caithleen is bewitched by the elegant, world-weary Mr Gentleman, who singles her out for special attention, we'd see it as straightforward grooming by an older man of a naive and (by-then) motherless 14-year-old.

I didn’t buy the other books in the trilogy and I’m slightly kicking myself about that now, although I have read those too, but long ago! More discussion over on the other thread.

@cassandre

That's actually so great because the last time I saw his name crop up he was sleeping rough on a beach.

The Letters are fantastic it's my favourite non fiction book ever

@LadybirdDaphne A is for Alibi was the first crime novel I ever read after borrowing it from my mum's bookshelf. I think I was 10. I loved the book and it's stayed with me ever since, it started my love of crime fiction. My mum only had the first book so I guess it hadn't appealed to her enough to buy the rest of the series, but I've had the series on my tbr for a few months as I'm keen to go back and see how I feel about it now

Just came on to say that Hons and Rebels is currently 99p on kindle if anyone is interested.

@Drachuughtty I wasn't that impressed by The Kellerby Code after Richard Osman raving about it for months. I think it was meant to be funny but didn't really work for me as the main character was so unsympathetic. I felt like it was written to be picked up as an adaption, hence the violence. A poor version of Ripley.

94. Rivals - Jilly Cooper. I've been having a lovely immersive time in Rutshire over the last few days, bingeing the new TV series and rereading Rivals. This was always my favourite of hers and I'm so pleased that it was so well done.

Moving straight on to Polo and @ChessieFL 's namesake!

90 My Favourite Mistake - Marian Keyes

Walsb family - this one is Anna’s sequel. I like Anna. Following the death of her husband and the breakdown of her pandemic relationship, Anna enters perimenopause, quits her job in beauty PR and moves back to Ireland to help old friends develop a small holiday resort. Sma town shenanigans ensue, along with the reappearance of two of the Real Men and the formation of new friendships. All very lovely and fairly light. Sparkling Keyes.

32. All the Lonely People Martin Edwards
    Liverpool set thriller. Lawyer Harry Devlin's estranged wife turns up at his flat hoping for a new start away from her current gangster partner Coglan. However, she is brutally murdered and Harry feels compelled to uncover the truth about her death.
    I have been reading this on and off for a couple of months, which says it all really. Plot moves forward at a glacial pace & i didnt care about any of the characters. First in a series - won't be bothering with anymore.

33. Weightless Sarah Bannan
    Before i come to the cavaets, i have to say i really enjoyed this random pick off Borrowbix. In contrast to the above, i rattled through it in a couple if sittings. The unusual style worked for me and it captured both the culture of a small, consevative town in the south of the USA and the universal struggles/horrors of teenage life particularly that of teenage girls. It is a YA novel, but in my own (uninformed view) an interestingly written one. The whole book is written in first person plural ('We saw her at the pool ...') by an unnamed narrator. Her and her swim team friends sit in the middle of the high school social hierachy and have an apparently hive mind.
    In Adamsville, the population attend church twice a week and worship the high school football team. Mysogeny is front and centre with the age old paradox of girls needing to be sexy, but not sexual creating an impossible set of hypocrictical social rules. Into this toxic atmosphere comes Carolyn an incomer from the north. Intially popular, her life unravels as she unknowingly breaks the unwritten social rules of Adamsville. This is not a redemption story, nobody is learning life lessons and it pulls no punches in showing how girls relational violence thrives in an atmosphere where no one wants to fall to the bottom of the pecking order. It also raises interesting questions about teens and adults responsibility to address bullying.
    Whilst i found it an interesting and engaging read I have two cavaets. First what is in some ways a strength, is also a weakness. Unlike most YA novels there are no sympathetic characters. Pretty much everyone, adults & teens alike, are complicit in Adamsville's toxic culture. Whilst this avoids twee life lessons, on reflection I wondered whether this creates an un-nuanced caricature of southern life? Also Carolyn's mother has no voice in the novel. Although we learn a little about Carolyn herself (from school assignments and interview transcripts) and even something about her father, her mother's point of view is completely absent. I found this a bit frustrating.
    If you like a teen novel, i'd give it a go. It is definetely one of the more interesting ònes ive read recently.

134. Mrs Tim of the Regiment, D E Stevenson
First published in 1940, this is the (fictional) diary of an Army officer's wife and has quite a few similarities with the Provincial Lady - angst over the need to have an Unpleasant Talk with Cook, stiff upper lip about dispatching your small son to boarding school, acerbic views on irritating acquaintances. It's not quite as good as the Provincial Lady though - not as funny, and with more sentimentality. Lots of people find Mrs Tim an adorable creature and tell her so, which I can't imagine happening with the PL. It's also slowed down by some lyrical descriptions of the landscape on a Highlands holiday. Not bad, but I won't clasp it to my bosom with the same fond affection as I do the PL.

I'm currently listening to my first ever book on Audible (as it was a fiver cheaper than on kindle): The Masked City, by Genevieve Cogman, the second in the Invisible Library series. It feels different to normal reading - I feel as if different synapses are firing in my brain. It's not a bad thing, just a different experience of the story.

@bibliomania
It feels different to normal reading - I feel as if different synapses are firing in my brain. It's not a bad thing, just a different experience of the story.

Yes absolutely! I’ve heard a few audiobooks this year and have realised that you can re experience a book that you’ve loved and read so many times you don’t feel like you can read it again but wish you could. I’m currently halfway through listening to Stephen King’s The Stand on audible (all 47 hours of it!) and as I’d read my copy to tatters this was the only way I could read it again without skipping along. The story hits different (and keeps me sane ferrying DCs about)

Behind on my updates so here's three all together.

55 The Unexpected Inheritance of Inspector Chopra by Vaseem Khan

I love Khan's Malabar House series, and wasn't sure whether I would like this as it struck me as likely to be a little twee (it involves a baby elephant. Nuff said). But although much gentler than Malabar House, it was an enjoyable read. Upright, honourable policeman Chopra is retiring from the force - but what will he do now? Just as he is about to leave, he becomes embroiled in trying to resolve a crime that will bring him face to face with old enemies. Oh, and he's inherited a baby elephant called Ganesha from his late uncle. Heartwarming escapades ensue, but there's enough grit to keep it from becoming too sickly sweet, and I liked both Chopra and his wife, Poppy. Enough to keep me going until the new Malabar House comes out in November (and I'll probably read the rest of the series too).

56 The House of Mirrors by Erin Kelly

Another book bought at the Chiltern Kills crime writing festival. I really shouldn't be allowed to go to book festivals given the size of my Kindle TBR pile. Anyway, this was an absorbing psychological thriller. Rex Capel was imprisoned for killing two men in 1997, following which his sister Biba disappeared and is presumed dead. Fast forward 25 years and he has long since been released, but his troubled past still haunts him, his wife Karen and his daughter Alice. Alice has opened a clothes shop called Dead Girls' Dresses, but has temper problems of her own and a controlling new boyfriend. And who is the mysterious woman who has been turning up at her shop? Twisty, turny, competent but not outstanding; I'd read more of Kelly's books, though!

57 Clara's Daughter by Meike Ziervogel

This novella caught my eye in a 50p Waterstones sale. Michele is a successful businesswoman, but her life is upended when her mother, Clara, falls on the stairs and decisions have to be taken about her future. The story is told in snatches from different points of view and it's not always clear where we are in time, or who is talking; a discombobulating effect that, combined with the slight awkwardness of the writing (Ziervogel is German but writing in English) creates an edgy feeling that suits the subject matter. Sometimes the writing is so odd as to jolt you out of the moment, but the book paints a compelling portrait of a controlling, co-dependent mother/daughter dynamic. Patchy, but brilliant in places.

I have never read Riders or Rivals (the shame!) only the short Jilly Coopers with women's names as the titles (Octavia, Prudence etc etc), but I am absolutely loving the adaptation. I don't want to read it and spoil the surprises now, but I may read it once I've finished watching. Everyone is so perfect in their roles.

Hi everyone. I love this thread and so many new books to investigate , i sometimes get stuck in a rut and the kindle algorithms !!
Can i ask please what significance have the bold titles got ? do i write a list of what i have read or plan to read ? i am ashamed of the amount of absolute rubbish ive read this year but i want to get it all out there before i loose count.

I loved this book - if anyone fancies it the audiobook is also excellent. Tissues at the ready though

If someone uses bold in a list, it means they like it.

If they use it at the top of a review or in text, it is just to show the title and author clearly.