50 Books Challenge Part Eight

[Southeastdweller]

Welcome to the eighth 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 , the sixth one here and the seventh one here .

What are you reading?

I dropped out of the Liaisons readalong, but going to have another go with Count - I've read it before, but not for years.

@satelliteheart I think I must be in a minority in that I really loved the ending of the Dark Tower. I wonder if anyone has ever heeded his warning and just not read on!

All episodes of Say Nothing are up on Disney +

It was brilliant in translation, so I imagine the original will be even better.

I love finding a gem like that. I stumbled on it completely accidentally. It makes me wonder what else I'm missing out on.

That sounds great ('Madonna in a Fur Coat'). Have reserved it in the library.

I’d recommend Mehmed, My Hawk by Yasar Kemal. I thought it was an absolutely bonkers hoot. My dad says it’s a load of shite.

I’ve watched the first four episodes tonight.

My next glut of reviews.

235. A Killer of Influence. J.D Kirk
     A bunch of Influencers are kidnapped and start getting murdered one by one on live streams. There are votes for the public and the loser is next to die. A mad rush to find the killer and the motive. Standard crime thriller really.

236. The Ballerina of Auschwitz. Edith Eger
     A bold for me. This is the memoir of Holocaust Survivor Edith, who was a ballet dancer pre war. I'm not sure what else I can sat.

237. Wolf Boy. David Fitzpatrick
     Danny, a 16 year old in the late 70s is trying to figure out who he is. He and his best friend/possible boyfriend, meet a young woman who makes them the subject of her photography book. Usually naked and wearing a Wolf mask. The book becomes famous, but the fame comes at the cost of Danny's mental health.

238. Bring Back Time. Julia Sutton.
     Apparently this is a time travel fantasy book but I don't remember any of it. Make of that what you will.

239. In The Shadows of Love. Awais Khan
     A wealthy Pakistani woman lives in a guided cage. Her child isn't her husband's, but he's forgiven her affair and she throws herself into the life of the privileged. Until secrets from her past come back to haunt her. I really enjoyed this. I don't know anything about Pakistani culture really so can't vouch for its authenticity.

240. Susanne: Anne Frank's Forgotten Friend. Sloane Ballou
     Another bold for me.
     This is a really short book written by a young woman that I follow on Instagram who runs a Holocaust memorial page. This is the story of one of Anne Frank's best friends, Sanne Lederman. It's really short, but that felt fitting for someone who was murdered at 15.

I like the ending of The Dark Tower, whilst also wishing something happier for Roland.

At risk of being controversial, I detested Madonna in the Fur Coat which I thought was horribly boring.

84. Orbital - Samantha Harvey

I liked it. Banishment from this thread beckons.

85. Vagabonds - Oskar Jensen

Many thanks to @PepeLePew for alerting me to this one. A fascinating exploration of the history of street people of 19thc London, using sources that don’t include Henry Mayhew's magisterial 'London Labour and the London Poor' (Jensen admits that he had to exclude Mayhew completely or he would have taken over). He uncovers strange, heartbreaking and occasionally comic stories and introduces us to some memorable people. His sources do include the deeply weird Arthur Munby, one of the era's oddities, a ‘respectable' barrister who was obsessed with working-class women and kept copious diaries detailing his interactions with them - not to mention secretly marrying his servant and suppressing the fact for the rest of their lives. A very strange man indeed but the source of much valuable information for historians, some of which is in this book. Gripping if you like this kind of thing.

Zorba the Greek by Nikos Kazantzakis. Translated by Carl Wildman

This is supposedly a greek classic that is joyous and life affirming. It is not, it is possibly the most misogynistic novel I have ever read. The female characters are constantly ridiculed and by the end the two main female characters (one of whom is only ever refered to as 'the widow') are both dead, the widow having been decapitated by the villagers. I only finished it because we were on holiday in Crete and I didn't have many alternatives to read.

@TattiePants

I've started a thread in Telly Addicts

I may never be able to go back to our local Oxfam bookshop, after having a complete menopausal meltdown at a rude old man, who was following me around and trying to intimate me away from the shelves I was looking at by standing right behind me (virtually touching me) and sighing in my ear to try to make me move away (I'd already moved away from one shelf when he tried it, so then he followed me to another to try to make me move again).

He then made the mistake of telling me to behave myself when I shouted at him. Reader - it was not pretty, but I'd do it again in an instant. I'm still fuming.

Oops. So much for bookshops being an oasis of calm and a place to rejuvenate the soul.

123. Land Of Milk And Honey by C Pam Zhang

This has, as its concept, a horribly believable dystopian setup

America is covered in smog, there's a global food crisis, but the 1% live in luxury and plenty on an Italian mountainside, where the protagonist gets a job as a chef.

Sadly the concept leads to a flawed execution. It has a narrow worldview through the eyes of the chef, things are alluded to but not seen. There's a lot of verbosity, it's hard to follow...it could have been so much more. Perhaps with a multiple character POV which didn't work in my last book but would have here.

I did like a certain reveal in the last 20% but honestly it offers much but leaves you unsatisfied

I was fatshamed once in an Oxfam bookshop that also did a few clothes @RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie I made an actual complaint via email something I rarely do.

I asked what size something was and was told it wouldn't fit me, which wasn't the question I asked!!!

I really liked North Woods - I've bought it for a couple of people since I read it, worried that they'll have hated it too now!

101. Our Evenings - Alan Hollinghurst. A book club reads that I wouldn't have chosen myself, I don't love Hollinghurst but if you do, you'll find plenty here that appeals. It follows Dave Win, a half-Burmese, gay (obvs) actor from his boyhood as a scholarship kid at a boarding school in the 60s, through to the pandemic. The first half concentrates on school and uni, again obviously Dave's sexual awakening, and the second half jumps through his career and relationships much more quickly. Being Hollinghurst, there are some beautiful descriptions of country houses, small towns, alienation but there isn't that much plot as such. Dave's mum and her relationship with another woman is interesting and touching by on the whole I was pleased to finish this. It didn't feel like it was breaking any new ground.

@Stowickthevast

It just didn't click with me at any point say beyond Alice and Mary...I really wanted it to all the quotes on the cover praising it suggests it's probably me.

Was this a member of staff? Absolutely right to complain!

I wish I could complain to somebody about the rude old man, but he was a customer. Everyone in the shop, including the member of staff, behaved in a terribly English way and pretended nothing at all had happened.

@RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie

Yes, a volunteer I think

I have always had weight problems and I am big now, but at the time this happened I had recently lost 3.5 stone. I knew the item was too small but I was hoping to either slim into it or repurpose it. It was a lovely gold Asian style wrap dress

I started watching this. Got distracted by a howler of an anachronism near the start when the assassination of MLK was mentioned. Surely it isn't 1968 yet when Dolours is 16? I've not read the book.

@Piggywaspushed

She was born in 1950 so would have been 18 in 68

Yes, it said she was 16...

The first date stamp was 1957 and then her voiceover said 'until I was 16'. Oh well, not to worry. It's well made and was only a side quip by the auntie.

If it makes you feel any better, I had a creepy old bloke practically breathing down my neck round Home Bargains clearly following me, so I turned to face him and bellowed, "Are you a pickpocket or a pervert?"

Wasn't one of my proudest moments but he did run away.

Good for you!

I don't feel at all guilty about it, just very, very angry. How many more women does he get away with intimidating every day? Why the hell should women move because a man wants to be in the space we are occupying?

I used to be 'nice' and polite and indulge people, but fuck that.

I need to get a nice, calming book on Kindle to wash the rage away.