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?

Thanks @Tarragon123 - if I see him again I’m going to accidentally drop a fat cookery book on his stupid head.

Another stressful week. I’m just catching up with the thread and loving the Nigel/Jay chat, cheered me up no end. When my books come out of storage I’ll try the ‘read what you own’ challenge, but at the moment I’m supporting our county library service like never before. It’ll be interesting reading the year end stats to see how many I've borrowed.

Terps - I enjoyed Vagabonds, a bold in a somewhat sparse year for them. I’m ploughing through an interesting but dense non fiction for now, but in the meantime catching up on a recent review:

<strong>64.	Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption -</strong> Stephen King

I’m not sure whether this strictly counts in the list as it’s a novella, but hey ho. I think this might be the first King I’ve read, and it helps that I know and love the film it inspired, as do many here I suspect. Told from the lifer Red’s point of view, it relates the story of Andy Dufresne, imprisoned in Shawshank penitentiary for a double murder he didn’t commit.

There were obvious differences to the film where more drama was needed for cinematic or casting purposes (eg how did 6’ 5” Tim Robbins make his escape?) but on the whole the main plot remained faithful to the novel. A compelling story of hope, patience and friendship, and a definite bold.

One of my favourite King novellas @RomanMum . You get much more of a sense of the passing of time as the pin-up girl posters change on the wall hiding the escape route. Red is also more of an interesting character rather than just a ‘voiceover’. The film is Andy’s but the story is Red’s.

@RomanMum

I think you should absolutely count your novella. I have read quite a few standalone short stories this year, mostly borrowed or "bought" free through a couple of features of my Amazon Prime subscription

I haven't (yet) read any books by Nigel Slater or Jay Rayner but have bought a few through Kindle deals. I do enjoy listening to Jay Rayner's Kitchen Cabinet on Radio 4 and reading his articles - there is so much enjoyment of the subject (and clearly, of food) there!

Argh, yes, sorry @RomanMum - it was you who recommended Vagabonds (and sorry also for tagging @PepeLePew who was probably wondering why I was dragging her into it but kindly forbore from pointing out my brain malfunction!)

@Terpsichore - my brain fog is so pronounced these days I just assumed I'd read it and forgotten about it. I was going to go and review my list to see if it was me, and then promptly forgot to do so. It sounds great, though - I've added it to my list.

Sorry to hear about the tosser in the bookshop Remus, can imagine how that shook you up. Well done for protesting!

Signs for Lost Children by Sarah Moss I’ve enjoyed reading the reviews of Good White Wolf as I’ve got it to read after Christmas. I wanted to read this first as it’s been on my tbr for a while, and because I thought it would be better to read the fiction before the memoir. This is Moss’ own favourite of her novels, but it isn’t mine - I prefer Summerwater and The Fell, where we inhabit rather than observe the characters and there is more humour. This one is a kind of sequel to Bodies of Light, set in Victorian period and alternating between Ally’s work in an asylum and her new husband’s stay in Japan. I enjoyed how the book conveys Ally’s own troubled mental health and the way she has internalised the negative voice of her mother despite her professional success. However the book didn’t wholly come alive for me, somehow the alternating sections made it less than the sum of its parts.

Flagging up Ex-Wife by Ursula Parrott in today's deals which I think WAS recently bolded by @PepeLePew and which I totally recommend too, for sparky writing and insight into Jazz Age women's lives while also feeling totally fresh and relevant in 2024. But not the film adaptation, for all it won Norma Shearer an Oscar: butchered the book in infuriatingly making-the-opposite-point way (though her clothes were nice).

@Tarragon123 I only spotted the rape CW for March Violets on storygraph afterwards, so joke's on me for thinking I'm not enough of a snowflake to check those out beforehand. Though it wasn't the content so much as how detailed and lingered-over it was, unlike the multiple murders and beatings in the book up to that point.
Also DNFing The Pale Criminal at 25% - while the wacky similes have been reined back, the misogyny's crossed my personal line. Not just the prurient descriptions of every woman's breasts no matter the context and tone of each of the scene, the latest case involving raped and murdered blonde girls has got Bernie so horny he's just ripped the knickers off a schoolgirl to teach her a lesson in not being such a lil slut Just too much try-hard edgy private DICKness for me.

OTOH glad you've had such a fantastic run @cassandre All 3 bolds for me too and The Empusium probably my read of the year. Interested to see its French title is 'Le Banquet des empouses' which might sacrifice the Symposium reference but gives the food angle its due 🍄 I think Nigel Slater would fit in very cosily among the gentlemen diners at the guesthouse, if that's any indication...
I also nodded along to your reviews of James and The Safekeep. Which would probably both make better films than books and were written with that in mind.

That was indeed me, @inaptonym. I had to keep reminding myself it was a hundred years old- madly contemporary in style and tone.

@AlmanbyRoadtrip absolutely I agree - you get much more depth to his character in the novel, and I found the descriptions of the prison life and its hierarchy more vivid too.

@elkiedee funnily enough a couple of this years bolds have been shorter stories (Ghost Wall, A Month in the Country) , maybe there's something about that format and making every word count.

@Terpsichore and @PepeLePew, I'd recommend it if you're into Victorian London street folk, a Dickens story brought to life. As it's still resonating with me, it's definitely a bold, but I find that world fascinating anyway.

30 The Hundred Year Old Man who Climbed out of the Window and Disappeared - Jonas Jonasson
Meh

27. London Rules by Mick Heron, more from the Slow Horses crew, I'm sure people know by now if this series is their thing or not so no need to go into plot details. I'm loving the characterisation and finding J.K. Coe a great addition to the team.

28. Foster by Claire Keegan a beautifully told novella that is very much in the 'making each word count' mould as mentioned by RomanMum.
    I haven't read a Keegan book that I haven't enjoyed, I think Small Things Like These had the edge over this one for me. I'm very much looking forward to seeing the film adaptation of that with Cillian Murphy, but I can also see Foster making a beautiful and affective movie in the right hands.

@DesdamonasHandkerchief There is an Irish language version on Foster called An Cailín Ciúin (The quiet girl) which had a subtitled release too. I’m pretty sure it had an Oscar nomination as well.

@ÚlldemoShúl oooh I didn't know that, I'll definitely be looking out for that, I did feel the novella was very cinematic and there was so much going on below the surface.

Yes that's right. It's a gorgeous film.

This is such a lovely way of describing the difference.

Just been looking to see if this is available to watch - sadly not included in any of my subscriptions (too many at the moment) but it is available to rent for £1.99 or to buy for £2.99 both through Amazon Prime (or Apple TV). If you don't have or want to spend any more on subs Curzon has it to rent for £4.

I could do with one of their offers of video credit for my extravagant spending on Kindle books - but I might just buy this at some point - I guess it's not that much compared to what I've spent in the past on DVDs I've never got round to watching, never mind my regular spending on Kindle books (only occasionally more than £2 but my 99p and sometimes £1.99 purchases do add up!)

I've reserved that Stephen King novella in the library. Really like the sound of it.

Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption was originally published in Different Seasons which also features a novella called The Body which inspired the film, ‘Stand by Me’. It also has the very creepy, ‘Apt Pupil’ in which a high school kid discovers that a local old man was a Nazi.

Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption, The Long Walk and The Jaunt (short story) are my favourite Stephen King’s. He’s really good in shorter form I think.

He really is. The Long Walk is brilliantly horrible.

The Jaunt is fun. I love The Langoliers too, which isn’t quite a novella but is a long short story, as it were.

I absolutely love Different Seasons, to have The Body and Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption in one collection is pretty impressive. I think Apt Pupil is a film too, I want to say Ian McKellen is in it but I've never seen it. I enjoy a King novella but I don't really like his short stories, although to be fair I don't really enjoy short stories in general. I've been stuck on Everything's Eventual in my Great Stephen King Readathon for months now.

I'm not keen on Apt Pupil because of the sexual torture element with a child as voyeur.
The Breathing Method is ok as a pastiche of old men sitting around telling spooky stories but suffers from the usual 'women as plot devices and objects' King approach.

76. Third Girl by Agatha Christie This month's read christie book, a Poirot. This was mixed for me. I found Poirot's views on women at the beginning absolutely abhorrent. I know Christie was trying to show him as a man who is behind the times due to his age but the misogyny was too much for me. The idea that a woman wasn't worth his time because she hadn't put enough effort into her hair, makeup and clothes is simply gross. On the other hand, I felt this book, more than other Poirot's I've read, had much more insight into Poirot's thought processes when it comes to solving crimes. I had my suspicions about the outcome fairly early in (I was suspicious of the father) but I didn't guess the full reveal so it was overall an enjoyable read