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?

@Sadik I remember thinking In Ascension was a SF book for people who don't read SF. I also found the way that she as a marine biologist ended up as an astronaut a bit unconvincing. Some great descriptions in it but ultimately unsatisfying. I'd love to hear Cote's view on it!

83. Case Histories - Kate Atkinson
84. One Good Turn - Kate Atkinson
85. When will there be Good news - Kate Atkinson

Reread of the Jackson Brodie books ahead of reading the new one, which I haven't got yet. One Good Turn was the weakest and I got a bit bored in it. By the end of the third, the coincidences are wearing a bit thin!

86. Nightbloom - Peace Adzo Medie. This was on the woman's prize longlist earlier this year. It follows 2 cousins Akorfa and Selasi growing up together in Ghana. The first part is written from Akorfa's POV, the next recaps the events from Selasi's view and finally we get a third part of both of them. I found parts of this quite slow moving. The Akorfa character is hard to like and I was really eager to get through her bits, while it's a bit odd then recapping a lot of the same material with Selasi. But it has important things to say about how women are treated in Ghana, the role of the family, and racism in the states (where Akorfa moves to). The end part was the strongest for me.

I think Cote's view might be unprintable @Stowickthevast It's a bit of a weird one, I didn't so much get the 'I think I'm better than the genre' vibe that litfic authors sometimes give out when writing SF, more that I think he didn't quite know where to go with the SF element and kind of gave up on it. (I agree that Leigh's astronaut career change was a bit unconvincing, but that I could forgive as necessary fudging for the plot.)

28. The Dig - John Preston Fictionalised account of the archaeological dig at Sutton Hoo in 1939.

I loved this. The actual treasure uncovered in the burial chamber takes a minor role against the difficulties of life experienced by the 3 narrators.

Up in the early hours with earache.

September - Rosamund Pilcher
I have read before so it’s a bit of an indulgent comfort read. It’s another world honestly. Centred around the shooting’ and fishing’ posh crowd with grand houses in the Highlands of Scotland, lots of dinner parties, balls, lush descriptions of gardens and houses and food. A world I know nothing of at all which is where the fascination lies. Lots of problematic bits, especially around one character with MH issues, I guess it’s dated a lot now. I did enjoy though.

I saw that inappropriate inclusion, I so nearly bought it for old times sake but decided the memory was probably better than the reality.

Who wrote Mother Rock please ? I wasn't sure of the author when I checked.

I've recently bought these books on the deals

Will you read this please? by Joanna Cannon
Cry of the wild by Charles Foster
Fi: a memoir of my son by Alexandra Fuller
Undercurrent by Natasha Carthew
Fight by Harry Hill
The photograph by Penelope Lively*

This. I seem to remember thinking that it was crazy then, heaven knows what I'd think if I read it now.

I bought that too 🙂

I think remembering how demented Flowers in the Attic was is useful when dispairing at our teenage daughters reading Colleen Hoover and her ilk.

@bettbburg I love The Photograph - one of my all time faves.

I never read Flowers in the Attic despite being exactly the right era & everyone at school reading them (I was more of a Hitchhiker's kinda teen & snobby about them).

I've wondered since whether I should read them just to see what all the fuss was about. Then I looked at the basic plot & decided, maybe I made the right call for the wrong reasons!

I think I’m going to read Flowers in the Attic. Or at least watch the film. Is it the incest story that offends people?

Impressed at anyone who reached the end of In Ascension.
I was bored out of my tiny mind once she started space training.

@InTheCludgie Wizard and Glass is my favourite book in the series! I know it's the least popular on here but for me it's definitely the highlight of the series

I'll start it next in that case, thanks.

It doesn't offend me as such because it was something I read years ago when I probably didn't grasp the severity of it. I wouldn't read it again as I think it's best left in my teenage years, like most of the books I read then.

48.The Bee Sting by Paul Murray. We meet in the Barnes family in troubled times. Dickie’s business is failing, and the repercussions are being felt by his beautiful wife Imelda, university-bound daughter Cass and school aged son PJ.

This was great. The narrative switched between family members and each voice was strong and distinctive.I should add that I listened to this on audiobook, and Imelda’s stream of consciousness section is read as if punctuation were there - I wouldn’t have known it lacked any had I not read about it beforehand. Although each was strong, Cass and PJ’s voices felt the most authentic. The overall mood of the book is tragic and wistful, focusing on how little incidents of bad luck can shape a life, there are some great comic sections. There’s a strong theme of family folklore - “accidents” not being accidents, the titular bee sting not really being a bee sting. The dialogue is brilliantly written. There’s a menacing sense of inevitability as things fall apart and fall in place at the end.

Flowers In The Attic completely passed me by as a teenager (not sure why - maybe just wasn’t a thing at my school). I read it for the first time last year and was very glad I hadn’t read it as a teenager!

Great review!

Just a trigger warning about the mental illness theme in case it's not clear from the blurb.

Obviously the romanticisation of the incest storyline is problematic, comparable to the same storyline in The Blue Lagoon film with Brooke Shields but that's not what is stopping me revisting the book. It's completely bonkers gothic trash and I suspect if you were to read it for the first time as an adult you'd be bemused at the affectionate place it has in the heart of so many women of a certain age.

I didn't know there was a film so looked it up and came across this fabulously dry review from common sense media: Since the plot features a family who locks up and then tries to kill the family's children, positive messages are in short supply.

63
The Coast Road by Alan Murrin
Loved this. A rare example of a male author writing female characters well (no one 'pads' anywhere or breastily boobies down the stairs).
Set in an insular quiet Irish town, gossip and secrets thrive and twist under the surface, occasionally rising to shake up lives. Collette Crowley left her husband for another man but has returned, forbidden from seeing her sons and brazening it out in a rented cottage while teaching writing to locals with varying degrees of success. Izzy Keaveney is one of the locals and she has an uneasy friendship with Collette, but is distracted by her overbearing husband. There are a lot of overbearing men in this book; from the blatantly violent Donal to the quietly oppressive James Keaveney.
A murder mystery of sorts, with a wry turn of phrase and humour. Reminded me of The Bee Sting in parts and not because it's set in Ireland. Keen to see what the author writes next.

Flowers In The Attic passed me by. I remember friends talking about it at school but I was chasing darker and nastier horror in those days. Clive Barker’s Books Of Blood seemed more transgressive than some kids shut up in an attic
Read Forever Amber for the rude bits. Was unimpressed by the rude bits.

Ah you have reminded me that I bought The Coast Road. Looking forward to it.

Riders was the best 80s book for rude bits - I did a lot of research ...

Oh Forever Amber, there’s a blast from the past. How I loved that aged 13! I wonder if it’s worth a reread.