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?

Good to see you bettbburg, hope you’re ok.

Interested to see the shortlist reviews and reaction - though I’m a year behind - just read Prophet Song by Paul Lynch for book group. Skilfully articulates my worst fears of society’s descent into tyranny, oppression and horror. Whether this is what I want from my reading is another question, and unfortunately, no, it isn’t.

Smiling ? Sailing ! Without my glasses in the dark I didn't notice auto correct...

• 79 Wifedom: Mrs Orwell’s Invisible Life - Anna Funder

I loved this. Lots of people have read it - it’s a partly-imagined biography of Eileen, Orwell’s wife, a personality and talent and interesting person in her own right, entirely effaced by Orwell and his biographers and - to an extent - herself. It was heartbreaking and wonderful.

60. Twilight Cities: Lost Capitals of the Mediterranean by Katherine Pagonis Recommended on here and bought in the 99p deals. Non-fiction covering several ancient Mediterranean cities and their rises and falls. This was fascinating and covered a lot of ground. She did have a habit of repeating the same points several times though. I got the strong impression from the book that it was already written before the February 2023 earthquakes in Antakya and she went back to amend the text in light of those tragic events. This was probably the cause of some of the repetition, but there was also repetition in the other chapters that can't be so easily excused. Her love of the cities covered really comes through in the text. I did however find it quite a slog to get through and was shocked when I finished to discover it was less then 300 pages!

264 The Examiner by Janice Hallett

Continuing her theme of novels told in an unusual way, this is told through Doodle and WhatsApp chats, as well as essays. It features the tutor and students of a multimedia art course, and the idea is that an outside examiner is reviewing everything to calibrate the tutor’s grades but becomes suspicious that something happened to one of the students along the way. I did enjoy this, although not quite as much as Hallett’s other books. I really like the way she is trying to do something a bit different, but not being an artist or particularly interested in art I found some of the detail about their projects a bit boring. I didn’t really like any of the characters but I think that’s deliberate - I don’t think any of them are meant to be likeable! Anyway, I will definitely reread this again in the future sometime now I know the ending to look for all the clues, and was pleased to see that Hallett will have another book out next year which again appears to be told through texts/chats etc so will look out for that.

Hi bett, hope all is well.

I too loved Mongrel - am also surprised more people haven't read it. It felt like a good counter to Butter which I have just finished so will probably get round to reviewing in November based on the current rate of reviews.

No one needs my list at this point in the thread, so posting a couple of overdue reviews from the summer holiday reading, which feels an eternity ago now!

76 All the Little Bird Hearts by Viktoria Lloyd-Barlow
Picked up in the library on a whim. Sunday lives with her teenage daughter Dolly in a house in a village in the Lake District. Sunday likes routine, etiquette and clear rules. These are all thrown into the air when Vita and Rollo move in next door and challenge everything Sunday values. Initially she’s charmed by them, and finds a new meaning in life, but things take a sinister turn when Dolly falls under their spell. This was dark and bleak and the fragility of teenage self-esteem and conviction in particular was spot on.

75 Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo
Dark academia without any academia, as no one in the book seems to do any actual studying, despite it being set in Yale. Among Yale’s secret societies (I only knew of Skull and Bones because George W Bush was a member…), magic flourishes. They are watched over by an organisation set up to curtail their worst excesses and to police the implementation of magic. Enter Alex Stern, a freshman brought to Yale by the authorities when they become aware of her unique ability to see and interact with ghosts who is tasked with considerable responsibilities that she doesn’t really want to implement. They could have done more due diligence or supported her a touch more effectively, as she isn’t an obvious fit and brings a considerable amount of baggage from her past. The plot was very young adult (not a criticism, necessarily) though the writing and content was anything but. Not entirely successful (the switching between timelines was really confusing) but entertaining enough.

74 Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir
This was fun! More fun in many ways than The Martian – the same amount of really really detailed science-based explanations of what the protagonist is engineering or hacking, which made me glaze over about 80% of the time (it’s just not my thing, so I treat it as background colour rather than vital plot information) but this time with the added twist of a fabulous character that arrives about half way through the book (trying not to give much away). The premise – the Sun is dying because its power is being leached away by alien microbes that are drawing its energy away towards Venus and the only way to save Earth is to send three brave astronauts on an interstellar mission to figure out how other stars are resisting the infection – is clearly nonsense as is the entirely preposterous way in which the protagonist ends up on the spaceship. But it was fun! Fun, fun, fun! More books should be fun, like this one.

Love the reviews, especially the Dawn French @bettbburg. I felt the same about the only one of her books I attempted. Good to see you.

Thanks @BestIsWest
It's good to be back.

Nice to see you @bettbburg

@TimeforaGandT "the story of Vanessa/Willow who has retreated to an island off the Irish coast to think following some major events in her life" sounds like the book of my nightmares but I very much like the idea of going and sitting on an island to think, especially if there can be cake too.

The Only Light Burning by Erik J Brown
The second in a YA series of, 'Queer Post-Apocalypse Fiction'. It was VERY YA and there was rather too much, 'Oh it's the end of the world and I can't tell if he still loves me or not' and far too much, 'He sighed gently and held my face in his hands' and most of the book is them schlepping around wondering if they'll see each other again or get to where they're supposed to be going, but it was readable enough and I found myself wanting to pick it up.

@RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie - she has books, there are two pubs and a shop (which sells cake). What’s not to like?

And to be fair there’s quite a lot of flashback to events in Dublin.

@PepeLePew

Really glad you liked Project Hail Mary if you find anything with a similar vibe regardless of genre, let me know!

Sounds bloody perfect.

Reading Eng. Lit. at a top tier Uni and now teaching it, can leave a gal somewhat erhm, difficult to please' where book recs are concerned. Anyway, I just came on to profusely thank the Op, (whom sadly, I cannot find just now), for recommending Noel Cowards' short story collection. The increasingly elusive joy of having ones head blown off anew by a peculiar arrangement of black scratches on a blank page! Thank you Op, wherever you are !😊

@PepeLePew – that was pretty much Julia Gillard’s review, thank you

@elkiedee – thank you, I hadn’t appreciated that it was a trilogy

@Southeastdweller – thank you for the new thread

@bibliomania – I’m pretty sure that drink driving was very much frowned upon in 1997. Certainly in my circles. I learnt to drive in 1987 and it was absolutely unacceptable.

I’m not bringing my list over as the formatting is doing my head in. I’m still ploughing through John Gardner’s The Garden of Weapons. Its such an old book, the pages don’t show up on Kindle. I checked on Amazon and its less than 300 pages. I am determined to get it finished this week! Also listening to David Cooperfield on Audio. Only 16.5 hours left to go lol

62
Crime by Irvine Welsh
A very difficult read due to the subject matter (child sexual abuse). He’s too good at writing, sometimes, but I never felt it to be glorifying or titillating. I have the third in the series but I’m not in a rush to get the second and immerse myself in Ray Lennox’s world again.

86 The Garden of Weapons – John Gardner (Herbie Kruger 2). Finally! This got better towards the end with lots of twists and turns. I think I struggled to get through it earlier because of all the characters and they all had code names. I don’t think I’ll bother with the rest of the set, there are 5 in total and they are cheap. I just think that there are better books out there. The good news is that I only have 50 Kindle books to get through now. Next up, having finished five out of my seven 2014/2015 Kindle books, I’m going to take a break from the older ones and dive into Malabar House Book 2 and my new favourite Indian detective, Persis Wadia.

I've not posted in a while as I have been really slooooow with reading. A few reviews then

35.Tove Jansson The Summer Book
I've read this several times and each time with a greater sense of wonder and happiness. The book is a fictionalisation of Tove's real life situation, living on a small island in Finland. The book follows the relationship of a grandmother and her young granddaughter as they live through long days on the island, learning and teaching each other. It is a beautiful portrayal of unconventional family life and makes me envious for it every time I read it. Tove herself is best remembered as the author of the Moomins books though her repertoire was much more expansive.

36.Diana Wynne Jones House of Many Ways.
The sequel to Howl's Moving Castle, loosely organised around elements of the Arabian Nights. Not as engaging as HMC but still kicks most kids fantasy into the long grass. Read to my DS but I'll pop it here anyway

37.John Boyne The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas (audiobook).
Bruno moves to 'Outwith' with his Nazi commandant family. The horror of the holocaust seen through Bruno's uncomprehending eyes and filtered through the everyday preoccupations of a young boy. Heartbreaking and raw even after several encounters. Bruno's inability to understand the 'pyjama people', or the nature of 'The Fury' gives a seasickness to the writing.

38.Jane Austen Mansfield Park
Glorious. Nothing can displace my love of Emma but this comes close to knocking P&P off its spot. Fanny Price comes to live with her relations at Mansfield due to the penury of her mother who made an ill advised marriage. Fanny grows up as the irreplaceable helpmeet of one idle and feckless aunt and the scratching post of another, the horrifying Mrs Norris. The world of Mansfield is that of the old order, stability, deference and noblesse oblige until the coming of the Crawfords, London socialites who bring challenges and a new way of life to Mansfield. Ultimately it is Fanny who becomes the means of resolution, her moral centre the one that holds. Critics disliked Fanny's apparent passivity and it is certainly true that she lacks the fire of other Austen heroines but I found more to like in this reading than I have in the past.

39.Ira Levin Rosemary's Baby

You've seen the film, you've read the book. A very lovely description of New York apartments though. Made me nostalgic for my time in Manhattan.

40.Dorothy Allison Bastard out of Carolina
Perfect in every way. The book narrates the story of Ruth Anne (Bone) Boatwright who grows up poor in Carolina in the post war period. She lives a rich family life, even in the face of the prejudices of the more privileged in the community (the oily Woolworth's store owner, the leader of the gospel choir performing circuit). However new love for her mother in the form of Glen Waddell brings disaster to Bone. I'm not going to spoil the ending but that was the only bit I couldn't relate to, and I think that was Allison's intention, to make us place ourselves in the character's shoes and really inhabit the place and time. Wonderful.

41.Jane Austen Persuasion
Having an Austen -fest! I found the heroine of Persuasion harder to relate to than other Austen women, perhaps because she herself does much to hide, obscure and deny her feelings. Anne Elliot grows up as the overlooked middle daughter of a vain father. Her mother having passed away Anne is caught between one ambitious elder sister, and a shallow and self-centred younger one. When she follows well meant advice of a family friend and mother substitute to reject Frederick Wentworth as a suitor, she finds herself 'on the shelf' and forced to be the helpmeet of her atrocious family. But a change in circumstances brings Wentworth back into her life. Does the world offer second chances? If you love Austen you will love Persuasion. It is much more centred on place than others of her novels and made me long to both visit Lyme Regis and re-read Fowles' The French Lieutenant's Woman :-)

69. Ships of Heaven - Christopher Somerville

While not having an atom of religious faith, I do like cathedrals, so I got this book out of the library thinking it might be interesting - the author, as it turns out, has produced several books with a 'walking around Britain'-type theme, so in fact this is probably a variation on that. Quite entertaining, although the chapters devoted to each cathedral are quite short and give a potted overview, so not massively informative. Some nice writing, although I admit I glazed over at times, and possibly there might be a few too many cathedrals to prevent them merging into one. So, just okay-ish.

I’ve finally got around to starting In Memoriam and not convinced it’s living up to the hype. It’s a bit awkward and dead poets’ society and there was a long anti- war rant that felt far too modern. I don’t think the characters are ringing quite true for me either. Having said that, it’s my sort of theme so I’ll see it though to the end, unless it all goes horribly wrong.

265 A Reluctant Spy by David Goodman

Jamie is a Legend - someone recruited by the British government to give up his identity when it’s needed by one of their agents. A handover goes wrong and Jamie finds himself taking the place of the agent - but as himself! This is a well written and fast paced debut and an interesting idea.

266 Comfort Eating: What We Eat When Nobody’s Watching by Grace Dent

Based on her podcast of the same name, this is all about comfort foods with chapters on cheese, bread, butter, potatoes and sweet things. Grace writes well about food and nostalgia and I did enjoy this but it did feel a bit slight - it didn’t take long to read.

267 The Racket by Conor Niland

A memoir about trying to make it as a professional tennis player. Lots of interesting detail about what it’s really like on the tour and how things suddenly become easier at certain levels. I am a tennis fan so really enjoyed this, but there is a lot of detail about things like how the ranking points system works so probably not of interest if you’re not a tennis fan.

Thank you for the new thread Southeast although I see we're already flying along! Will this be the year we have the most threads I wonder?

35. Burn, by Peter Heller. Ugh. The first Peter Heller I read (and loved) was Celine, with an amazing protagonist based on his mother. The others I've read since are very male - often based on men in the wilderness, and when women are mentioned they are rarely well drawn characters. This is even more true in his latest, where Jess and his friend Storey are on a back country hunting trip in Maine, and when they emerge from the wilderness they find towns razed, bridges exploded and the few people they stumble across try to shoot them. The premise of civil war breaking out in the US was interesting, particularly the musings on stumbling across mass graves and violence and thinking this only happens in 'other countries'. HOWEVER. The entire story was based on stupid male decisions - so there's been a lot of violent rhetoric and talk of Maine seceding, but you went on a trip there anyway, even though one of you has a wife and two children?! Ludicrous. There was also a very unnecessary strand of the story with the character Hannah which made me queasy. I think Peter Heller and I might be done.

I’ve read a few meh books recently- though to be fair I had loads of quality reads in August so I can’t really complain- the random spinning wheel still has more winners than losers so far.

155 Murder Town- Shelley Burr
I liked Burr’s previous outback noir (Wake) enough to give number two a whirl in a 99p deal. I won’t bother with number 3. A tour guide setting up a tour in ‘Murder Town’ is found dead opening up an investigation into the earlier crimes too. This was just silly. Tea shop owner investigates…

156 Distress Signals- Catherine Ryan Howard
This was on audio and the narration was fairly poor- especially the French accent in the totally unnecessary subplot. I enjoyed Howard’s 56 Days so this one was on my library list. Adam’s girlfriend disappears. What is her connection to a cruise ship and can he go under cover to find out what happened? Adam was a doofus. So was everyone else.

157 Shrunken Lands- Gareth E Rees
Non-fiction about cities which have been destroyed by flood and linger on underwater. This was an interesting read with some lovely writing and the terrifying prospect of how irreversible climate change is. However it just didn’t fit together well- it was a bit patchy, jumping around without any real flow. Apart from the first and last, the chapters could have been in any order. Just okay.

My current long reads Anna Karenina and volume 2 of In Search of Lost Time (which in my translation is called In the Shadow of Young Girls in Flower which sounds more pervy than it needs to) are both great. Also reading Birdbox by Josh Malerman which is terrifying so far in a good way.

80 Breaking the Dark - Lisa Jewell

Lisa Jewell is an author I like a lot. Marvel has asked various novelists to write about the Defenders from the MCU and Lisa has been given Jessica Jones, a street level hero who is superhero strong and who can jump/fly. I know the character from the TV series rather than the comics and honestly, this doesn’t hold a candle to Kristen Ritter in that. But that’s a very high bar.

This is set a few years after the Kilgrave terror (IYKYK), but faithful to the comic rather than the TV on it. Jessica investigates some too-perfect twins, in a story with many supernatural elements. It was good, but not amazing.

81 Who’s That Girl - Mhairi McFarlane (re read)

reread this as had just bought the sequel. Edie works for an advertising agency and has a crush on her Co worker Jack. He flirts with her, but married another colleague and then kisses Edie on his wedding day.

Fallout ensues, and Edie takes some work in Nottingham ghost writing an autobiography for a famous (and gorgeous) local actor, Elliott.

I like this writer and her books are always good value.

82 You Belong With Me - Mhairi McFarlane

(spoilers for 81…)

This book opens where the previous closes - Elliott is trying to win Edie’s trust whilst jetting round the world doing scenes with smoke show actresses. Can they work it out? Not least because - rather implausibly - the fallout from the Jack kiss stil hasn’t finished. This requires many people to be very unprofessional in a way that they probably wouldn’t.

I raced through these three in 48h because I needed heroines with agency in their own lives after Wifedom.

43 The Lost Plot - Genevieve Cogman Fourth in the Invisible Library series, and another good one - this time set mainly in prohibition-era New York, and heavily featuring dragons. The Poirot-style exposition of the perpetrators of the crime at the end was a bit too convenient and Irene is a bit too perfect, but nonetheless it was a good story and I especially liked the setting. On to the next one!