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'm also really enjoying Rivals on TV, but can't decide whether I've read the book, or if I just have a rough knowledge of the plot. I have definitely read The Man Who Made Husbands Jealous and think I might have had that confused with Rivals. Now wondering whether I should go back & read Riders & Rivals or if the TV adaptation is the best way to experience the whole thing at this later date. (I did try Riders on audio, as it's currently free on audible, but didn't get on with it.)

I reread Shogun this year it's a real page turner

I read The French Lieutenant's Woman about twenty years ago and was blown away by the ending, Ull.. I hadn't read anything like that and didn't know you were allowed to play with the rules of fiction like that.

@Sadik

Rivals the TV series doesn't cover the whole book so I assume they're angling for a series 2

I find the decision to start with Rivals a bit odd as there is so much potential in Riders and so much backstory as well that isn't covered

@BestIsWest @ChessieFL

I'm reluctant to carry on after Rivals because I haven't heard good things, I've noticed that the next books are new characters and I was wondering if existing characters feature ?

IIRC RCB and Taggie are mentioned in virtually every book though not as major characters. I don’t think the O’haras or Baddinghams (except Bas) or Cameron Cook feature much at all after Rivals.
In either Appassionata or Score (can’t remember which), Marcus CB is one of the main characters as a young adult.
Jake’s children feature in one as well, might be The Man who… TBH, it’s years since I read further than Polo. Which I’m enjoying a lot. Though there are as usual some irritating characters.

My latest 2 reads:

77. Challenger - Adam Higginbotham

Previously recommended on this thread. A solid and absorbing history of the US space shuttle programme, leading up to the horrific explosion of the rocket propelling 'Challenger' into space in 1986, with the loss of all crew, including the much-publicised 'Teacher in Space', Christa McAuliffe. This is a chunky brick of a book but Higginbotham is excellent at balancing the human stories of the astronauts and their families, right from the start of the shuttle project, against the terrible evidence of a pattern of cover-ups and magical thinking - NASA and its contractors were shooting their crews up to space atop what were basically gigantic, unpredictable bombs with known, potentially fatal, faults, while loudly insisting everything was just fine.

78. Bonjour tristesse - Françoise Sagan, trans. Heather Lloyd

Book club read. This was an interesting contrast to The Country Girls, for sure, with its depiction of a similarly-aged female protagonist - written in 1954 when Sagan was 18, it famously caused a huge sensation (again, just like Edna O'Brien's book).

17-year-old Cécile and her widower father, free spirit Raymond, go for a sun-soaked holiday on the Riviera with Raymond's younger girlfriend, Elsa. Cécile is annoyed when old family friend Anne decides to come and stay with them - Anne is soignée, cultured and strict, only too ready to boss Cécile around, as she sees it. When, after some days of spending increasingly long periods tête-á-tête, Raymond and Anne announce they’re getting married, Elsa is devastated and Cécile is horrified, seeing an abrupt end to her happy carefree times with her indulgent Papa. She sets out to orchestrate the outcome she wants, with ultimately tragic consequences.

This wasn’t actually what I’d expected at all, and seemed an astonishingly mature piece of writing for such a young woman. Apart from the odd moment of hilarity (Anne, at 40, is witheringly condemned as 'old' by the dewy-fresh Cécile), Sagan's emotional grasp is impressive. A quick note about the translation, which is (relatively) new - Irene Ash was the original translator of this novel and I stumbled across heated online debate over which is better. Heather Lloyd does however add a 'translator's note' that manages to cast some subtle shade on Ash for her old-fashioned style. Translator wars! 🥊

I've just read Polo Eine which has Rupert & Taggie in but not as main characters, although they do have a storyline that progresses from Rivals. Cameron is in it as a cameo and Bas features but the main story is with the new characters.

96. The Fell - Sarah Moss. My first book by this author who I think is much loved on here. This is set in lockdown and follows three main characters - a single mother Kate who is isolating but to combat her depression decides to go for a walk on the fell, her teenage son Matt and their elderly neighbour Alice who is clinically vulnerable. The story is told in alternate chapters in stream of consciousness narratives from each characters perspective. I wasn't quite in the right mood for this kind of writing (and generally dislike pandemic books) but I did think it was interesting and would read other books by the author.

Eine the Campbell-Blacks pop up in every book to varying degrees, but generally each book features a new set of characters. A few of the ‘musical’ characters do appear across The Man Who Made Husbands Jealous/Appassionata/Score! and some of the teenagers from Wicked! do appear in later books. The vast majority of Rivals characters are never heard of again except maybe brief mentions in other books. Similarly most Polo characters don’t appear again.

Same! I read it as a teenager and I loved it so, so much. I have re-read it as an adult and I still love it. When I read Life after Life it gave me a little bit of the thrill I first got when I read The French Lieutenant's Woman. The characters are still etched on my brain. It* *also left me with an abiding love for the poetry of Matthew Arnold (I think I still know To Marguerite off by heart: "the unplumb'd salt estranging sea")

@Stowickthevast I am a Sarah Moss fan but The Fell is my least favourite of hers. I think because, like you, I've found that I don't really enjoy reading books set in lockdown.

Catching up on the thread and there’s a lot to catch up on. I tried the Shogun adaptation and didn’t get on with it, but have heard so many good things I will give it another go. I have occasionally thought about trying the novel too.
I agree that Mongrel is a great book, and I’m surprised that it hasn’t had more marketing and promotion. There was something very gentle and compassionate about it that really appealed to me.

I have read (I think) all the Rutshire books. They are not all equally good – I do think Rivals is the best by far, with Riders, Polo and The Man Who Made Husbands Jealous next tier. I didn’t hate the most recent one (I think Tackle) but the musical ones are all a bit ridiculous, with more than the usual amount of Rupert stomping around looking boot-faced and people breaking into random pun-laden snippets of song without any real reason. I have a soft spot for Jilly’s earlier works as well even though they have aged even more badly from the perspective of people’s behaviour in them.

I’m also loving the Anne chat. We took a family trip to Australia when I was about 8 and I was only allowed to take one book on the promise that my cousins would have lots for me to borrow when we got there. Turned out when we arrived in Sydney that none of my cousins liked reading and book prices in Australia were astronomical. My parents promised to hunt some down (I think from memory my mum spoke to a school friend who was a teacher who let me borrow some from her school library) but I found a copy of Anne of the Island in my grandmother's spare bedroom that must have belonged to an aunt, as my mother claimed to have never read it. I was absolutely entranced by it and must have read it about five times during the holiday, although a lot of it went entirely over my head. My delight on discovering there was a whole series when we got home was unmatched, and I have a deep affection for all of them. I do agree that the earlier ones are the best. I’ve never read any of the other series, but perhaps that would be worth my time.

91 Mayflies by Andrew O’Hagan
Thank you to everyone who reminded me of this on the thread – I reread it and loved it as much as the first time. It’s so unusual to see male friendships described with such fondness and reverence and the ending is just perfectly executed.

92 Amber Fury by Natalie Haynes
Alex leaves London and her career as a theatre producer and is teaching drama in a pupil referral unit in Edinburgh, following the death of her fiancé.One group of pupils becomes absorbed by Greek tragedy, with disastrous consequences. This was fine as a holiday read but didn’t really hang together plot wise. Like a cut price Secret History without any of the tension.

95 Then She Was Gone - Lisa Jewell

Standard Lisa Jewell - dramatic family and dark secrets. Well written, absorbing. Rather implausible resolution but the central character, Laurel, was good.

Laurel had three children but the youngest, Ellie, went missing just before her GCSEs. The family has broken down in the meantime, and - ten years on - Laurel is primed to meet someone new. But after she and Floyd get chatting in a coffee shop, and then start dating, she’s bemused to find his nine year old DD looks very much like Ellie.

This book almost caused me to have nightmares!

Just to add to the Anne of GG chat (and it’s been many years since I read them) - she was the answer to a question on University Challenge yesterday 😊

@bibliomania and @Welshwabbit Im glad others have read and enjoyed The FL Woman. I enjoyed the anachronisms throughout too- how he’d compare something to the Kennedy assassination etc. I may consider his other two at some point.

Love those kind of coincidences @Terpsichore

Realised I forgot to add:
97. James - Percival Everett. Much lauded & Booker favourite retelling of the story of Huckleberry Finn from the pov of the slave Jim. I haven't read HF and didn't really want to, but this worked as a stand alone. It's well done and some interesting concepts - slaves only speak slave dialogue when their masters are around - but to me it didn't have the something special to raise it above other books. I've definitely been more moved by other books about slavery. I listened to the audio which was great. It probably will win the Booker - I haven't read Held or Stoneyard Devotional yet, but this feels like the most Bookery of the ones I have read.

I've also read The Collector, A Maggot and The Magus. For my money, none of them is a patch on TFLW. The Collector is pretty horrific in terms of subject matter; I remember quite liking A Maggot but it was looong and The Magus is loooong x 1000 and I had absolutely no idea what was going on most of the time. But lots of people like it so that might just be me.

@EineReiseDurchDieZeit I was not best pleased to find that Rivals didn't completely adapt the source! But nothing I've read, including your recent Riders review, makes the books sound like my thing, so I hope the show's renewed. In any case I'm pretty satisfied with where they left the relationships I was invested in (mainly Lizzie/Freddy, a bit of Declan/Maud), so apart from finding out what happens to Cameron, eh. I also actively don't want to see the main couple getting together 😬
For similar reasons I struggled rereading Emily as an adult @Sadik the main romance was too groomy. All LMM books should be free on gutenberg though?

Thanks ÚlldemoShúl and @RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie for the Bernie comments. A good narrator can help with distancing from male-gaziness so I'll try the audio. My main problem with Babylon Berlin was its terrible Dan Brownish writing, even without every female character solely 'characterised' by a) boobs and b) horny for self-insert protagonist. The show is totally different apart from setting and character names, and is excellent overall - some of the expressionist drug/dream sequences get too boring artsy for me, but I adore the musical/dance interludes which others find similarly trying.

Re: Fowles - I also blown away by TFLW as a teen (probably contributed to my choosing Eng Lit at uni) but unlike welsh found it didn't stand up particularly well to rereading (compared to, e.g. Possession or Arcadia - admittedly much later works), the calculatedness just comes through too strongly. The Magus was an overwrought snooze, gave strong 'you had to be there and been on the same drugs', The Collector is grim but felt weirdly juvenile too, in an edgelordy way. TBF those 2 prob influenced my rereads of TFLW....

Sarah Moss's Victorian duology Bodies of Light/Signs for Lost Children remain my favourites of her books and having My Good Bright Wolf (next fave) confirmed my gut feeling that they're even more autobiographical than her overt autofictions. @Stowickthevast

@Terpsichore I grinned at yesterday's UC too and thanks for the translator tea 😀Curious to give this a go now, though I read the Ash translation at around Cécile's age, so highly unlikely to be converted.

ETA tag and lol cross-posting with Welsh

@inaptonym ha - we clearly have the same view of JF's other works! I have read Possession but not Arcadia; I wasn't overly keen on the former, finding it a bit too mannered (but I feel that way about AS Byatt generally; couldn't get on at all with The Children's Book). I agree with you that the knowingness in TFLW is very obvious re-reading as an adult, but I didn't mind that. I think perhaps because I loved the three main characters so much, and I felt as though Fowles did too; his insistence that the characters were driving the story was obviously a conceit but at the same time, because they were so real to me, it almost felt true.

@Welshwabbit high fives on Fowles but I feel about Possession exactly as you do about TFLW - it touches my heart and head about equally. I have a real (and indefensible) weakness for that style of Victorian poetry, though. And Arcadia is objectively the tricksiest of the three, but somehow it successfully moves me every time. Though not as much as The Invention of Love (another Stoppard Victorian play, about A.E. Housman) which I find heartbreaking despite AEH's own poems leaving me cold (or inappropriately giggly).

'Mannered' is fair about Byatt - I strongly dislike all of her non-Vicwardian books and the tiresome feud with Drabble.

@inaptonym I really like the sound of The Invention of Love and I am actually going to a production of it in the New Year, which I am very much looking forward to!

I suspect I am very unfashionable in liking Matthew Arnold's poetry now too.

@inaptonym and @Welshwabbit thanks for the info on the other JF novels- sounds like I’d be best to give them a swerve but to move Possession up my tbr

I read and enjoyed The French Lieutenant's Woman in my teens (I think), definitely due a reread.

A S Byatt: I heard parts of an adaptation of the Frederica Quartet on Radio 4 extra a year or so ago, and that's made me want to reread/read. I quite enjoyed rereading The Virgin in the Garden (when I say reread, the first time was probably more than 30 years ago).

This Cultural Life on R4 included a rather sad interview with Margaret Drabble, in which she spoke more bluntly about her rivalry with her older sister and being unhappy with a novel by ASB, The Game - I don't think I have the book and I'm not sure whether I ever read it. Presumably she felt more able to speak after ASB's death, but I found it very sad, and she also spoke about her grief at losing her daughter (cancer in her 50s). I have quite a few books by both of them to reread or read for the first time including Margaret Drabble's memoir The Pattern in the Carpet (not yet read).

I also want to reread Bonjour Tristesse and The Country Girls trilogy - have heard quite a bit of the lattter on Radio 4.

I've read the first two Bernie Gunther novels by Philip Kerr twice, and then the third, as my pause in the series was over 10 years and I felt I couldn't remember enough. I now have the rest of the series on Kindle and need to progress to the other 10 or 11 books before I totally forget the reread ones. Unfortunately this is all too common.

I was a bit obsessed with all the Anne books, originally borrowed from libraries after the first one, as a child. I think I reread all of them a few years ago (maybe 15 or 20 years - gulp! I only read the Emily trilogy as an adult, and loved the first two. The third is a disappointment.

On 19th and early 20th century children's books I found that the 2019 film version of Little Women was available to watch on Amazon Prime just before they took it off, and it was interesting to watch, though it jumped back and forth in the story a lot, starting nearer the end. It included a lot of the story published here as Good Wives - I'm always confused about whether Little Women is one book or two. I first picked it up aged 6 when my mum was reading/rereading it and she thought it was perhaps a bit too much of a step up from what I was then mostly reading - children's chapter books but still with quite a few illustrations (eg the early Laura Ingalls Wilder books) - I enjoyed it though much must have sailed completely over my head.