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?

@MamaNewtNewt I did years ago. I’d say cut your losses- cut price early Patricia Cornwall (before she jumped the shark)

I really enjoyed Tom Lake but also listened to the audible, which was a joy.
I've never done The Dark Tower and don't know that I ever will.
Also followed Sam Freeman on Twitter formerly and was a bit confused about his politics, but now I don't go on there.

102. The God of the Woods - Liz Moore. I'm not sure if someone on here recommended the in the monthly deals. It was an Obama summer read pick and compared to The Secret History, which is one of my favourite books ever. Anyway, this was fine but nothing like Donna Tartt. A young teen from a rich, dysfunctional family goes missing at a summer camp on her parents' land 14 years after her brother disappeared. The book has multiple points of view which gradually tell the whole story. It was engaging enough but nothing particularly special.

Same here and I agree. They became increasingly annoying and je ne regrette rien!

Thanks @Terpsichore and @ÚlldemoShúl - that confirms my thinking after the first book. I'll move to one of the other crime series I have lurking in TBR mountain!

Just nipping back with my latest.

86. To All The Living - Monica Felton

Somewhere in England, 1941. In the sprawling, half-finished, comfortless factory of Blimpton, on the outskirts of the dreary town of Dustborough, 20,000 people spend each day filling shells for the war effort as the Blitz rages in London. Among the girls arriving to take up a war job doing this monotonous and dangerous work are spirited Norah McCall from Camden Town, and the beautiful, enigmatic Griselda Green. Both become part of the workforce, while on the management side, the Assistant Superintendent, vigorous Welshman Dan Morgan, wrestles with the daily challenges of trying to produce the ammunition required by the Ministry, often hindered by his own colleagues, not least the slippery Principal Clerk, Gittins. Felton weaves a vivid picture of daily life in a factory in wartime, teeming with intricately-meshed relationships and hostilities - and a mystery, in the case of Griselda.

This is one of the Imperial War Museum's Wartime Classics reprints, and it kept me gripped - often very funny, but also full of interest, and realistic in its creation of a believable mini-world (though Griselda's secret wasn’t hard to guess). Thoroughly enjoyable.

321 Hotel Lucky Seven by Kotaro Isaka

This was sent to me as part of a subscription and isn’t something I would have picked up otherwise. Unfortunately I did not enjoy it. It’s about a load of assassins all working for different people and all staying in the same hotel trying to kill each other, for reasons that I never understood. None of the characters had any personality or backstory (although it is the 4th in a series so perhaps personalities were covered in an earlier book). I also got very fed up of them constantly going up and down in the lifts. I won’t be going back to read previous books in the series.

322 Homecoming by Kate Morton

One of her usual dual time period novels, here covering the story of a whole family who mysteriously died suddenly in 1959, and a journalist in 2018 who’s returned to Australia when her grandmother had a fall and who decides to look into her grandmother’s past. I really enjoyed this, but it is long and could have been cut down a bit.

323 Polo by Jilly Cooper

Sex and horses!

324 Sweetpea by C J Skuse

Rhiannon projects an image of a completely normal young woman, but she’s actually a serial killer, ridding the world of paedophiles and rapists. This is told in diary form so you get an insight into Rhiannon’s thought process. Despite the subject matter it’s actually a black comedy so good fun to read and I’ll look out the next in the series. It’s now been televised so will seek that out too.

325 Small Man In A Book by Rob Brydon

His autobiography. I only read this because I wanted some backstage insight into Gavin and Stacey but this inexplicably stops in about the year 2000 (it was published in 2011 so no real reason to stop then). It was fine but his childhood wasn’t really very interesting. The bit about why he admired Jimmy Savile hasn’t aged well…

57 The Quiet Gentleman - Georgette Heyer I loved this - one of the best Heyers I've read. I read a different one a couple of books ago and thought I must have changed in the years since I previously read other books by Heyer, as I really didn't like that one; but it turns out it was just that book that wasn't great. This one, by contrast, had likeable characters and a good plot - as well as plenty of comedy. Recommended.

@Terpsichore
I really like the sound of the Monica Felton book, and the Imperial War Museum series - like I need another series. The author of this one sounds intriguing as well - she was a town planner and was involved in housing and new towns after the war, and tried to start a National Assembly of Women in 1952, some years before the Women's Liberation Movement. She lost her job and was expelled from the Labour Party over her opposition to the Korean War and support for North Korea.

Yes, I definitely recommend it! Monica Felton sounds like a fascinating person, too, who stood by her principles (and suffered for them, later in life).

The novel gave me South Riding-type vibes, in a funny sort of way….not story-wise especially, but in its very political feel, with lots of plotting between groups of people vying to push their own particular little schemes. It’s quite a long and dense novel but Felton makes it all work, with the possible exception of the rather weak ending.

101 The Definitive Guide to the Menopause and Perimenopause - Louise Newsom

I didn’t read this cover to cover as some chapters weren’t relevant eg early menopause. A useful primer on hormones and how they are changed by the menopause and what body systems are impacted. Less evangelical than some of her media stuff, I think.

72. Antarctica: Claire Keegan.

Claire Keegan's first collection of short stories. I found these stories very engaging but occasionally difficult to read as many of them are deep, dark and rather terrifying. A good and gripping read.

73. The Bell: Iris Murdoch.

A lay community of misfits are living together in the grounds of Imber Abbey, a community of enclosed nuns. They live a secluded life, overseen by the Abbess who exercises discrete authority over them. Dora comes along to join her husband who is staying there studying manuscripts for a few weeks. Their marriage is going through a rocky patch as they aren't suited to each other and he is cold and cruel towards her.

The leader of the community is Michael, an earnest, gentle man who would have been a priest if he hadn't been let go from a teaching position when he became close to one of his pupils, Nick, who happens to be a guest at the house. There is also enthusiastic young Toby, a good-looking college student who is full of admiration for Michael and the community's way of life. Michael finds himself drawn to Toby and history seems set to repeat itself.

The community is awaiting the arrival of a new bell to replace the old bell, which, legend has it, is deep in the bottom of the lake. As Dora and Paul's marital troubles play out in front of the others, new bonds are formed and plans are hatched which lead to all sorts of trouble which even the wise old Abbess couldn't have guessed.

It took me a little while to get into this book, but once I got to a certain point I was hooked. Thanks to Terpsichore for the recommendation. I'll be reading* *'Under the Net' next.

74. L'Ombre Chinoise: Georges Simenon.

Maigret is investigating the murder of successful businessman Raymond Couchet who was killed at close range while sitting at his office desk and from whom a large sum of money was stolen. His office is located at the ground floor of 61 Place des Vosges where he lives and in another part of the building his first wife and her husband also live but who are not well off. If that wasn't close enough for comfort, his son, Roger, who enjoys a dissolute lifestyle is renting a room in a hotel next door and in the same hotel is Raymond's mistress, Nine Moinard. It's a tangled web of relations where resentment and envy aren't far from the surface. I liked this Maigret very much. I thought it was very sharp and well-observed.

75. The Burgess Boys: Elizabeth Strout.

This is the story of the Burgess siblings, Jim, Bob and Susan, who are from Maine. The boys left Maine and became successful lawyers (especially Jim) and Susan stayed behind, separated from her husband and raising her son alone. Her son gets into trouble and she asks her brothers for help. The relationship between the boys is tested with their return to Maine and it sets in motion some irreversible changes which include a reappraisal of their own characters and how they see each other.

I hadn't read a book by Strout for a while, not since last year, and I enjoyed picking one of hers up again. I thought this was very good. I liked how the prologue between Lucy and her mother set the tone for the story. Her mother's line about how much we really know another person and the implication in the story with regard to close relationships and also the wider community, the Somalis, who were immigrants in the town. I have one niggle about the motivation behind the son's action. For such a lonely, clueless youngster who didn't have a particular motivation for his misdemeanour, I thought it was a very specific, targeted action and I don't think it was convincing in terms of an explanation because I don't think one was offered. He just did it. But I liked this very much. I have one more of Strout's yet to read.

189 Remembrance Sunday by Darragh McKeon
Simon is in his 40s living in New York when his childhood epilepsy returns. This brings him back to contemplate the events of his teen years, the death of his mother, his friend Esther and being caught up in the Enniskillen bomb in 1987. This book was a bit too introspective for me though the writing at times is beautiful.

190 Marriage Material by Sathnam Sanghera
I listened to this on audio. Two timelines- in modern day Wolverhampton Arjan is dealing with the death of his father and what to do with the corner shop that has been in his family for a couple of generations. In an earlier timeline Surinder struggles with the confines on her life as a Sikh teenager. This was mostly enjoyable but for a late twist from nowhere. I prefer his non-fiction.

191 In Search of Lost Time Volume 2 : In the Shadow of Young Girls in Flower by Marcel Proust
I’ve been reading this one for months at around 10-20 pages a day. I liked this one even better than the last. It’s quite funny how pompous and snobby our narrator is when he’s like any teenage boy at the seaside- falling for every woman he lays eyes on. I’ll wait for spring to start number 3 I think.

192 Orbital by Samantha Harvey
Much reviewed. To my surprise I actually quite liked it despite the themes being as subtle as a brick. Nice writing and I found the effects of being in space on the astronauts fascinating. Not bold but enjoyable.

102 The Hand That First Held Mine - Maggie O’Farrell

A lovely book and a bold. As ever, the author paints her characters beautifully. The narrative switches between present day-Elina, married to Ted, who has just had a son in a traumatic birth and past-Lexie, who ran away from Dorset to Soho to join a magazine and shack up with the man who ran it. Both stories are well told and compelling.

Camouflage: The Hidden Lives of Autistic Women by Sarah Bargiela Thanks to LadybirdDaphne for reviewing this. It’s a very short graphic work of non-fiction, almost pamphlet-length. I found the first book I read about autistic women (Women from another Planet) life-changing, but I didn’t find this added anything to what I read in that or since. If I hadn’t read anything else this would have been an accessible introduction, but I don’t think it would have had anything like the impact that WfaP had. Being so short there was little time to look at how the women felt about their lives or their autism.

77 Notes From Walnut Tree Farm - Roger Deakin

In which Roger is to nature as Nigel is to food- ie writing about it in loving, exquisite and yes, occasionally poncey detail. Which is not to denigrate this, a relaxing journal taking the year through a year in the Suffolk countryside with the odd detour to Dartmoor / London / Norfolk, and a fair amount of grumbling about incomers / people with dogs / people who convert barns rather than leave them for the bats and owls.

Great review, Meg!

65. Singled Out - Virginia Nicholson Thanks to whoever on here reviewed this (last year I think). It told the story of the ‘surplus women’, the 1.75 million more women than men in the 1921 census as a result of the First World War. The book explores the lives some of these single women made for themselves, becoming entrepreneurs, explorers and engineers, writers, campaigners and archaeologists. It also gives a wider perspective of women’s lives in the interwar period and how single women coped financially but also socially without a husband or children . An interesting read, I found it a little heavy at times but I think that was down to me.

Hi all

I've ordered the following books:

Butter

Piranesi

The Enchanted April - anyone read this?

I want to die but I want to eat ttebokki first

I also have a Philip Roth to read, Portenoy's complaint

The Enchanted April is a lovely book! There’s a whole thread on it somewhere if you search - it was one of the ‘Rather Dated’ reads from another thread on here.

Out of Character - Alison Steadman. Memoir from the actress of Abigails' Party and Gavin and Stacey etc. This was OK, nothing special. It's pretty much all about her career and the anecdotes she's chosen are mostly not terribly interesting, but where the book is successful is when she writes about the process of acting. I read an interview she did and she said that one condition of writing the book was that she didn't write in detail about her private life, which I respect, but as a memoir this doesn't work. A (much too glossy and cosy) book for hardcore fans only and I'm glad I resisted the temptation to buy it half price on Amazon (borrowed it via my library).

58.Monsters: What Do We Do With Great Art by Bad People by Claire Dederer. This was reviewed earlier by @Ladybird Daphne and I broadly agree with those critiques. The equivalence created between Roman Polanski and JK Rowling felt like a complete sop to all the woke bros who might be tempted to ask where all the female monsters are. Dismissing Monty Python as just a bunch of privileged white men with narrow views doesn’t take into Graham Chapman being out as a gay man in a time when that wasn’t at all the norm. While the notes on Lolita are interesting, there’s no suggestion that Nabokov was involved in any kind of inappropriate sexual conduct or was sympathetic to it, so this felt like writing that belonged elsewhere.

59.The Bloater by Rosemary Tonks
Min who works at the BBC. Her marriage to George is dull and unsatisfying, leading to various flirtations with other men. She develops a consuming fascination for her lodger, nicknamed The Bloater both for his physical size as well as his rather fishy aroma, who both attracts and repulses her.

This was an odd little book. The writing is deft and quirky, but I didn’t really get much of a sense of any of the characters. There’s lots of talk about potential sexual encounters, but no sense of anyone’s motivations. The atmosphere of the slightly bohemian middle classes in the 1960s is well created, but everything felt a bit mechanical, and I felt in the need of either more sadness or humour to elevate it.

107 – The Chalk Pit – Elly Griffiths (Ruth Galloway 9) Bit meh, a bit flat. But the next one is one reserve from the library. Oh and I think Ruth must have been born in 1968 if she started uni in 1986?

108 – Say Nothing – Patrick Radden Keefe – thank you @TattiePants for the 99p recommendation. Definitely worth it. I also got the Audio version too and switched between both. Very interesting book. I hadn’t heard of the Price sisters. I had heard of Jean McConville though. I visited Belfast in September and we took the bus tour and went past the Divis Flats.

Its so unbearably sad. Its almost incredible to believe that the disappearance of a mother of ten wasn’t even investigated by the police. I read the Ombudsman’s Report as well and while Radden Keefe is critical of the report, statements by social work about ‘the mother having abandoned her children’ are jaw dropping to me. I’m looking forward to the TV series, although I note that some of the McConville children are not happy about it and they feel that it shouldn’t be used as entertainment. I agree that their mother’s death is not entertainment, but shouldn’t it be seen as educational/informatitive? I imagine it will reach more people than the book. Very difficult.

I have 42 kindle books TBR. My physical books are taking over and quite a few are doorstoppers, so I’ll need to crack on with those. I am still doing the Kindle challenge and reading every day, but I think I'll just do a chapter or similar in order to attack the physical pile :)

100 Girls of Glass by Brianna Labuskes

When the granddaughter of one of Florida’s most powerful judges disappears, it triggers a personal trauma for Detective Alice Garner: the kidnapping and murder of her own child. As a flood of painful memories comes rushing back, Alice sees herself in the guilt-ridden and emotionally fragile mother Charlotte Burke, who has become the target of a rush to judgment. I’ve been working my way through the books by Brianna Labuskes as they are free on kindle unlimited and have been really good so far. This one was just ok.

101 Missing, Presumed by Susie Steiner
102 Persons Unknown by Susie Steiner
103 Remain Silent by Susie Steiner

I think Manon Bradshaw is one of my favourite fictional detectives and I enjoyed revisiting these books. Definitely tinged with sadness after the recent(ish) death of Susie Steiner though.

104 Loathe to Love You by Ali Hazelwood

Three short “enemies to lovers” stories. By the third one the author’s reliance on a single formula with little variation was all too apparent.

105 Sal by Mick Kitson

Sal planned it for almost a year before they ran. She nicked an Ordnance Survey map from the school library. She bought a compass, a Bear Grylls knife, waterproofs and a first aid kit from Amazon using stolen credit cards. She read the SAS Survival Handbook and watched loads of YouTube videos. Because her sister Peppa is ten, which is how old Sal was when Robert started on her.

It was an interesting idea, but I didn’t feel that the author made it work. Pepper was an irritating liability, the actions of adults who cross paths with the girls, and the coincidences involved beggared belief. But the biggest problem was that I don’t feel that the author was able to capture the voice of a young girl effectively. I did like the back story for Ingrid but it didn’t really add anything to the overall story.

106 Soldier Sailor by Claire Kilroy

I absolutely loved this book. I don’t think I’ve ever read anything that more effectively captures the feelings of the early years of motherhood. The intense love and bond. The desperate lack of sleep. The resentment towards those who are getting sleep. The loss of who you were before. And I felt all of that while having a very supportive and involved DH. If Soldier has posted on mumsnet it would have been a definite "LTB" from me. A bold and a contender for my book of the year.

107 The Dreamers by Karen Thompson Wall

A sleeping sickness sweeps through a small town, with those that wake telling of disorienting, life altering dreams. I really enjoyed this one and raced through it.

87. Other People’s Houses - Lore Segal

Lore Segal died in early October, aged 96, in New York, where she’d made her home for many years. This ‘fictionalised personal history’ tells of her escape from Austria, aged ten-and-a-bit, on the first Kindertransport, and her experiences navigating life in a strange country on her own, with a succession of different families. Her parents (surely very unusually) fairly quickly managed to get a visa to join her in England, although they couldn’t live together for a long time as her mother and father had to work in domestic service as a couple - the ultimate humiliation for her distinguished father, former chief accountant at a major bank, who found it impossible to adjust to this bewildering new life, and succumbed to melancholy and illness.

Lore’s (fictionalised) mother, the enchanting Frantzi, threw herself into hard work, made friends, was never idle, and embraced the changes forced upon her. As for Lore - clever, observant, lightning-fast to grasp nuances, already English-speaking, a pitiless judge of those around her - she’s the delight of this book. It’s a beautiful, heartbreaking piece of writing. I think it’s going to the top of my bolds for this year.

@Cashew1

I read Enchanted April earlier this year (following many recommendations on here). Yes, it’s dated but also rather lovely and made me very keen to spend a leisurely April in Tuscany!