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?

Can't get my list to copy across for some reason!

However Echoes by Evie Wyld which I have recently read and loved is 99p on Kindle Daily Deals.
I thought The Bass Rock by her was a wonderful book.

Thanks @splothersdog I've picked up The Echoes.

You didn't mention that 80's inappropriate teen fave Flowers in The Attic was also in the deals!

O Caledonia by Elspeth Barker

The novel starts with the murdered corpse of Janet, a misunderstood and unloved girl. The rest of the novel is the story of her life growing up in post war Scotland in an isolated castle in the Highlands. I probably overidentified with Janet and adored this witty book with its sparkling imagery. Probably my favourite book of the year so far, there will be people getting this for Christmas.

Edited to add: this is regularly compared to I Capture the Castle but is much darker and gothic, more like a cross between Beryl Bainbridge and Angela Carter.

I'm not going near Flowers in the Attic but I remember it being passed from hand to hand at school. I bought Mother Country in the daily deal - hadn't heard of it, but it looks my sort of thing.

I absolutely loved O Caledonia, Janina. I loved the prose. It also reminded me a bit of Alice Thomas Ellis.

I've never read Flowers in the Attic and don't intend to now, even though it featured in a book I read recently about "the teen classics we never stopped reading". But for anyone who wants a copy it's actually 99p for a series omnibus of 4 books.

I've read The Bass Rock and All the Birds, Singing by Evie Wyld, and have The Echoes from the library, so I'm very pleased to have it come up on the deals, as I have more in-demand loans than I can possibly read in time already, and a couple more awaiting collection (including the new Kate Atkinson, Death at the Sign of the Rook).

Thanks for new thread @Southeastdweller

Waves at @bettbburg

I’ve got three on the go; Adventures in the Screen Trade (oldie but goodie) on Audible, plus on Libby The Trading Game (compelling) and continuing the David Peace phase with Munichs (excellent)

It’s me MegB under a new name btw! 🤓

I also love O Caledonia!

61. Ordeal by Innocence by Agatha Christie This month's read christie challenge which it's taken me a while to get to. I'm mostly frustrated that this cost me £7 on Kindle which is a lot more than I'd normally spend on a Kindle book, especially one I'm only reading for a challenge!

The Argyle family's life is rocked when Dr Calgary shows up one evening to announce that Jack Argyle, who was convicted of murdering the family matriarch and died in prison, was in fact innocent. This leads to uproar in the family as everyone now suspects everyone else. I did like this book, the characters were varied and well-drawn. I also have relatives who adopted 3 children from neglectful homes and the sections on how adoption affects both the children and the parents rang painfully true. Christie is remarkably insightful into the reality of adoption in these circumstances and this part of the book felt very progressive for its time

However, I found Dr Calgary's investigation a bit hard to believe, I just don't think the police would have given him so much information on an active investigation. I also found the climax between him and Hester simply impossible to believe. I worked out whodunnit quite early, it seemed fairly obviously signposted, but I didn't see the final twist coming

Immediately goes to check out Alice Thomas Ellis @bibliomania.

👋 to @bettbburg. Lovely to see you again and read your reviews.

I loved Flowers in the Attic as a teenager but I think in the past is where it should remain.

I'm nervous, now Janina! The ATE books I like are The 27th Kingdom and The Inn at the Edge of the World. It's a long time since I read them though...

I ended up finishing two consecutive books about the Holocaust, not intentionally - I started one on Audible several weeks ago, stopped over the summer, and by the time I started it again I happened to be reading the other on kindle.

39 East West Street by Philippe Sands. This focuses on three men, Jews Hersch Lauterpacht and Rafael Lemkin, who were involved in the Nuremberg trials on the prosecution side, and Hans Frank, one of the Nazi defendants. This is a very interesting book, but it was possibly a mistake to listen to it on Audible, as it is complicated with lots of information so would be useful to flick back and forth more easily.

40 House of Glass by Hadley Freeman. Already recommended many times on this thread, and I can add to the chorus of praise. Freeman researches her father's family and their fascinating history in Poland, France and the US. A definite bold.

41 The Two Week Wait by Sarah Rayner. After the above two books I was ready for something a bit lighter. Lou and Cath both want to have a baby but are unable to get pregnant by the traditional route, Lou because she is gay and Cath because she has had her ovaries removed during cancer treatment. Will it work out for them? This was OK - not bad, not great, but at least it didn't involve the mass slaughter of millions of people.

Thanks @splothersdog I too picked up Echoes

27 The House of Fortune - Jessie Burton
A sequel to the Miniaturist, 18 years on from the events of the original, a young woman struggles with her new adulthood. Her aunt's desperation for her to snare a rich husband, her father's melancholy, the servant who won't accept she is now all grown up and the secrets surrounding her birth are all instrumental in her making some terrible decisions.

While the Miniaturist was an interesting and absorbing read, this felt like the author had just thrown something together to keep the publishers quiet. The anachronistic language grated* *on me (would a 17th century Dutch lawyer really be "unfazed"?) and the protagonist's views on life and her family reminded me of a much younger teen. My DD at the age of 14 to be precise! I liked the pineapple theme though

I'm not one for cancelling books but Flowers In The Attic is completely demented. I can't believe it was a staple of 1980s teen culture.

I agree - it seems crazy now!

My MIL passed Flowers In The Attic on to me. I was 😯

A colleague who was old enough to know better (in her forties) passed it on to me (then early twenties). Ych.
I saw Rosemary's Baby mentioned up thread, that gave me proper nightmares aged 14 to the extent that I still have a strong dislike of long dangly necklaces with big lockets on them.

I devoured Flowers in the Attic etc as a young teen, passed on by my mum. But I agree with @JaninaDuszejko that in this case what was read in the past should remain in the past.

200. Eighth Moon Bridge. Angus Peter Cambell
     I dont remember much about this, but i liked it when I read it. Ummm... a guy went back to the Scottish (?) Island he grew up on. And something about trying to find Spanish Gold.

201. The Safehouse. Danielle Bannister
     Sequal to The Cage which I reviewed previously. Can't remember the girls name, but she's escaped from a sex trafficker and now has to try not to get caught again. Lots of action and violence.

202. The Codebreaker Girl. Gosia Nealon
     Based on true events. Beata is a Polish woman working for the Polish Cypher society, trying to break the Enigma code. When the Nazis invade Beata and her colleagues flee to England and Bletchley Park.

203. The Orphan List. Ann Bennett
     I think this was also possibly based on a real person. Nurse Weiss is sent to work in a home for pregnant mothers in Nazi Germany. Only it's not as it first seems as she finds out the young women are sent there specifically to have "babies for the reich" Babies who are then adopted by high ranking officials. Nurse Weiss starts to keep a list of the real parents and vows to one day reunite them.

204. The Last Bird of Paradise. Clifford Garstang
     A dual timeline about 2 women 100 years apart. One is an artist who was sent to Singapore during the 1st world war. The other moves their with her husband following 9/11. The woman in the modern day buys some art by the wartime woman and decides to find out more about her.

205. When The Sky Falls. B.R Spangler
     This was a bold for me. Set in a Dystopian world where clouds of poison gas falls to earth, Emily and her little sister Sammi join a group of survivors in a shopping mall. Their father has something to do with the gas, but they don't know what and can't tell anyone.

206. The Boy Behind the Glass Screen. Ian Siragher
     Another bold. 2 "brothers" raised on opposite sides of a glass screen, educated in different ways to see how much they learn from each other. Then their father is murdered and the truth about the boys is revealed.

207. Summer at Pine Lake. Alyssa Delle Palme
     Alyssas Grandma has died so the family go to spend the summer at Granny's house at Pine Lake. There was a romance, and I can't remember anything else.

208. The Physics of Relationships. Chas Halpern
     A 60 year old woman agrees to let a young desperate woman move in, much to her daughters annoyance. Then her best friend leaves her husband and also moves in. It was a really interesting take on female friendships and getting older.

209. A Promise to my Sister. S.E Rutledge
     This was so almost a bold for me. Holocaust fiction never will be, purely because there are so many true stories to tell.
     Hodaya and her little sister Bayla are sent to Auschwitz for being Jewish. A German guard unexpectedly gives them the hope to survive, doing everything he can to help them.

210. Elite Sauna. Craig Lowe.
     Basically Gay porn set in a mens only Sauna. Not my usual book at all, but I figure I should try any genre once!

211. The Swaddling: Search for the Healing Cloth. P.H Bray
     Melody has visions about the swaddling clothes that baby Jesus was wrapped in. There's a gospel (which I think really exists) that says Mary gave the swaddling cloth to one of the Magi, it gas magical healing powers, and therefore a lot of people want it. Melody sets off on a search across Iran for the cloth, but some of the others looking for it are dangerous and prepared to kill. It was a lovely (IMO) blend of faith, action and danger.

212. Istanbul Crossing. Timothy Jay Smith
     Another bold.
     Adhaf is a Syrian refugee in Istanbul who helps others escape to Greece. He's a refugee on account of his sexuality, and his own cousin was murdered for being homosexual. As well as a story of survival, it's a tale of love and hope.

213. Soul Love. DF Jones
     Wasn't enamoured with this one. The main character somehow ended up in the past and had to stop herself being killed. I think.

214. Christmas at Polkerran Point. Cass Grafton
     A lovely, cosy, set in Cornwall Christmas story. Romance, snow and hot chocolate galore.

215. The Officer. Michael E Bistrica
     This had such a good premise, but was rather confused. A Soldier and a Pop Star fall in love. Maybe. The language and interactions felt like they were from the 1940s so it didn't really work.

216. Wartime Wishes for the Land Girls. Ellie Curzon
     As the title suggests it's about the land girls in ww2. They are getting ready for Christmas, but then a German plane crashes in the woods and the hunt for the German begins. This is book 4 in a series that I haven't read

217. A Seaside Murder. Alice Castle
     A lovely cosy mystery where an amateur sleuth tries to solve the murder of a much loved teacher. I liked that this book had older women as the main characters. And they were fairly normal.

218. The Human Trial. Audrey Gale
     I honestly can't remember much about this. Something to do with medical trials and corruption I think. Set during the great depression. The first 80% nothing happened, and the last 20% wasn't great.

219. Love And Other Cages. Emilia Ares
     The sequel to Love and Other Sins (previously reviewed) Mina has been kidnapped by the Russians, and Oliver needs to save her. This took a while to get going but then was really good. Mina's treated horrifically by the Russians and once they've 'broken' her they train her to basically honey trap men.

220. Her Secret Soldier. Julie Hartley
     A German airman crashes in the woods and hides out. He's found by a local villager and has to try and convince everyone that he isn't a Nazi. Local Nazi hunter does everything he can to capture him including lie and put people at risk.

Honestly that makes some of them sound really boring. And they weren't! But I don't want to give any spoilers.

@Thewolvesarerunningagain I haven't read Mansfield Park (maybe the only Austen I'm not familiar with) but the book I'm reading at the moment is a retelling of it set between Nigeria and Britain in the 80s - This Motherless Land by Nikki May. I'll report back.

@splothersdog thanks for the Evie Wylde tip, I've been waiting to get hold of her new book. I particularly loved her first two set in Australia.

I somehow missed Flowers in the Attic when younger but me and my friend aged 13 devoured another of her series about a group of 'orphans' who are all abused or mistreated by their adoptive families in some way. Dark stuff.

In Memoriam by Alice Winn
I liked lots about this story about posh boys in the First World War being brave and noble and gay. The two main characters were well drawn, the love affair was sensitively depicted and some of the writing was really strong.

However, it was too long imho, too cluttered, too determined to show off what a jolly lot of research the writer had done, too conscientious about making sure there was one (One!!!!) non-posh character that posh people could be kind to, too laboured and too many rather clunky moments of the universe aligning in mysterious ways. Also, whoever the writer’s agent was should have made her get rid of the stanza of truly dreadful poetry she insisted on writing whilst describing the character’s poetic genius.

I’m glad I read it. I liked lots about it- but definitely flawed. I feel the writer was aiming for something she felt might become an A level Literature text, but it’s not one I’d want to teach.

@GrannieMainland ooh that sounds interesting!

@RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie

It's no Birdsong basically

I haven’t read Birdsong.