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 did not lol. I only have two, one which I am currently reading, The Ghost Fields and The Stone Circle. I picked them up, I cant even remember where/when, thinking that I would start Ruth Galloway at some point. I first started Elly Griffiths on DS Kaur :)

@AlmanbyRoadtrip we need to hear more about your Reading Bed. Is it different from your actual bed?

@Tarahumara yes it is! It’s DS’s room when he’s home but when he’s not here it reverts to my Reading And Craft Room (except he took the table with him to Uni this time so my sewing machine needs somewhere else to sit).

Has anybody managed to look at Kindle deals today? I'm just seeing lots of stuff at £5.99.

The deals were all there for me earlier. Nothing much in them though!

Hopefully this link works

www.amazon.co.uk/b?ie=UTF8&node=3017941031&pf_rd_m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&storeType=ebooks&pageType=STOREFRONT&pf_rd_p=&pf_rd_r=3720HRHN1TANGKH476QE&pf_rd_s=merchandised-slot-0&pf_rd_t=&ref_=dbs_f_w_s0_3&pf_rd_i=

https://www.amazon.co.uk/b?ie=UTF8&node=3017941031&pf_rd_m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&storeType=ebooks&pageType=STOREFRONT&pf_rd_p=&pf_rd_r=47YVNB5GQ7QV7XPYM2A0&pf_rd_s=merchandised-slot-0&pf_rd_t=&ref_=dbs_f_w_s0_3&pf_rd_i=

try again!

Sorry, link doesn’t seem to want to work!

70 Day One by Abigail Dean
Gosh, this was so much better than I expected it to be. I thought it would be an average thriller to pass the time but I had to park it several times as it affected me so much. Part of that was due to me having lost a good friend to conspiracy theories and after she genuinely and flatly denied the Manchester Arena bombing happened I had to call time on the 20 year friendship; so I could totally see how Trent could be pulled in in this novel, even though the character is much younger than she was.
I think a lot of people on these threads have read it so I won’t dive in with a synopsis of the plot, but the school shooting in a Lake District town was sensitively and heart-breakingly handled. I thought several times “please, no more” when she returned to the event and the reader has to relive it. The last chapter left me sobbing.
Every character was believable, it’s never mawkish or manipulative. Secrets are gradually unveiled and I appreciated the fact we don’t even learn the shooter’s name until halfway through the book - he’s not sensationalised at all.
A solid bold for me.
I went straight into the first story from John Connolly’s new anthology afterwards, which was, rather fittingly, about the invention of the printing press releasing fictional characters into the world for those with the capacity of imagination to see them. As I’m still wondering how Marty and Trent might be doing 8 years after Day One, that was poignant and apt.

I am in Lanzarote. First holiday read was Norwegian, confusingly- left over from summer !

It was the slightly odd Bird Tribunal by Agnes Ravatn. Slow burning, but short, cat and mouse kind of psychological thriller. The lead character's risk taking is not often believable but its intriguing enough. Apparently this was a film in Norway and it is very Scandi Noir.

My dcat died on the first day we were away so nothing is getting my full attention tbh. I now have a Bonnie without her Clyde 😞

Oh no @Piggywaspushed , it's terrible losing a cat. How old was he?

1. He was knocked down 😞

That should say 9.

Oh! I'm really sorry Piggy

Thank God I don't have a cat book on my TBR.

I’m so sorry @Piggywaspushed

@AlmanbyRoadtrip I’ve also spent the last week in the north-east, although my visit focused more on eating and drinking, rather than walking and sea-swimming 😄

Several of my wish-list books were 99p today - I’ve got Gnomon (Nick Harkaway), Every Little Secret (Sarah Clarke) and Madam, will you talk? (Mary Stewart). Quite eclectic 😄

Aw @Piggywaspushed so sorry about your lovely puss. It’s nearly 2 years since we had our 19 year old old lady put to sleep and I still think of her often.

Oh no Piggy

Despite none of the books on my wish list being in the deals I’ve still managed to buy 10 books!

Shy Creatures is a Daily Deal, so just a few hours to get in if you like Clare Chambers or want that book. I've read it from the library and am happy to be able to get my own copy for 99p now. I also bought Wandering Stars (Booker listed) and am fairly sure I have the others you bought @TattiePants from previous offers but will check that that is the case.

From the monthly deals at 99p is a non-fiction book I read last month and recommend, especially to people who like 20th century women writers/biographies of such writers/participate in the Rather Dated reads etc, is Rural Hours by Harriet Baker - it's about Virginia Woolf, Sylvia Townsend Warner and Rosamond Lehman experiences of living in the countryside, efforts at village life and the impact on their writing and more generally on their lives. For those who are bothered about such things (I really am fussy) the Kindle version has page numbers and linked endnotes, both of which I prefer if I'm not reading a dead tree version. My library copy was a nice-looking hardback but the illustrations are just published within the text in black and white (photos) on ordinary paper, so you don't lose much by reading on Kindle.

Towards the end of the deals I also found a few Penguin Modern Classics including a James Baldwin book I didn't have and some other books by African American writers, a biography of Audre Lorde and some poetry. And a non fiction title Goodbye Eastern Europe. I also bought a few crime novels including the latest Peter May, The Black Loch is a return to characters from the Lewis trilogy, and some fluff (chicklit/henlit!).

Deals being weird for me as well BUT I did want to jump on before the end of the day to say Shy Creatures by Clare Chambers which I've just finished is 99p in the daily deals and I think it's well worth reading for that price.

It's set in a similar world to Small Pleasures, 60s suburbia with a focus on the things hidden under the surface. Helen works as an art therapist in a psychiatric institution and is having an affair with one of the senior doctors. A man is brought in who is mute and has been found living in a house he hasn't left in many years. Helen starts to trace his history and finds out about the traumas in his past that have led him to live this way. Some of it was a bit melodramatic but I really enjoyed reading a book that was both thoughtful and plotty, and like her earlier books the setting is so well described. And no shocks on the last page, some people will be pleased to hear!

And a couple of others... Heaven, My Home by Attica Locke. Second in her trilogy following a black Texas ranger and dealing with race related crimes. This book covers the disappearance of the son of a white supremacist from a small town. A really great crime novel, tense, clever, fatally flawed detective. I can't wait to read the final part.

Slow Dance by Rainbow Rowell - second chance romance as high school sweethearts Shiloh and Carey are reunited in their 30s, with Shiloh now having an ex husband and two children. A nice read though I struggled a bit to believe in the relationship - we were constantly told how in love they are, but there wasn't that much evidence of them having a good time together or enjoying each others company.

Oh we just crossed with the Shy Creatures recommendation @elkiedee !

Thanks @TattiePants I've picked up a couple of those

112. The Crossing Places by Elly Griffiths

Read this in one sitting, would never have gone near it without this thread, and now I might have found a Maeve Kerrigan replacement. Could have done without the main characters internalised ageism and body shaming but all signs point to a series worth investing in.

I bought both Shy Creatures and Rural Hours earlier today - along with Good Girls and Tessa Hadley's Accidents in the Home. Haven’t bought so many from the new deals for ages!

Not found much in the deals so far. I was tempted by And Still I Rise by Maya Angelou and when I downloaded a sample I saw it was dedicated to Jessica Mitford, amongst others!