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?

Oh, and of course thanks southeast for the thread

Thanks southeast. Not going to post my full list due to laziness.

1 The Short End of the Sonnenallee by Thomas Brussig, translated by Jonathan Franzen and Jenny Watson
2 The Five Minute Garden by Laetitia Maklouf
3 Kristin Lavrandatter III: The Cross by Sigrid Undset. Translated by Tiina Nunnally
4 Stars of Fortune by Cynthia Harnett
5 Heartstopper Vol 5 by Alice Oseman
6 Nimona by ND Stevenson
7 Territory of Light by Yuko Tsushimo. Translated by Geraldine Harcourt
8 Rizzio by Denise Mina
9 Sophia, Princess, Suffragette, Revolutionary by Anita Anand
10 The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa. Translated by Stephen Snyder
11 Nightingale Wood by Stella Gibbons
12 The Door by Magda Szabó. Translated by Len Rix
13 Aya: Claws Come Out by Marguerite Abouet and Clément Oubrerie. Translated by Edwige Renée Dro
14 Poor Things by Alasdair Gray
15 Pereira Maintains by Antonio Tabucchi. Translated by Patrick Creagh
16 Moms by Yeong-shin Ma. Translated by Janet Hong
17 The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett
18 Hags. The demonisation of middle-aged women by Victoria Smith
19 The Thing Around Your Neck by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
20 The Blue Flower by Penelope Fitzgerald
21 Last Train to Istanbul by Ayşe Kulin. Translated by John W. Baker
22 No Surrender by Constance Maud. Adapted by Scarlett and Sophie Rickard
23 Hilo 10: Rise of the Cat by Judd Winick
24 Second-Class Citizen by Buchi Emecheta
25 All the Lovers in the Night by Mieko Kawakami. Translated by Sam Bett and David Boyd
26 The Warden by Anthony Trollope
27 Madgermanes by Birgit Weyhe. Translated by Katy Derbyshire
28 King Hereafter by Dorothy Dunnett
29 Ducks. Two Years in the Oil Sands by Kate Beaton
30 Kairos by Jenny Erpenbeck. Translated by Michael Hofmann
31 Elena: A Hand Made Life by Miriam Gold
32 O Caledonia by Elspeth Barker
33 Thursday Night Widows by Claudia Piñeiro. Translated by Miranda France
34 Percy Jackson and the Lightening Thief by Rick Riordan
35 In the Ditch by Buchi Emecheta
36 This Winter by Alice Oseman
37 The Motorcycle Diaries by Ernesto 'Che' Guevara. Translated by Alexandra Keeble.
38 Children of War by Ahmet Yorulmaz. Translated by Paula Darwish
39 The Odyssey. A graphic novel adaptation by Gareth Hinds.

Currently reading Zorba the Greek. I am not enjoying it but I'm too far in now so have to finish it.

Thank you southeast.

My, no doubt, badly formatted list below:

1. Trust - Hernan Diaz
2. The Mysterious Affair at Styles - Agatha Christie
3. Ruin Beach - Kate Rhodes
4. Hamnet - Maggie O’Farrell
5. Northanger Abbey - Jane Austen
6. Snow - John Banville
7. The Golden Mole - Katherine Rundell
8. The God of Small Things - Arundhati Roy
9. Hostage - Clare Mackintosh

10. One Enchanted Evening - Katie Fforde 11. The Secret Adversary - Agatha Christie 12. The Bandit Queens - Parini Shroff 13. How it all Began - Penelope Lively 14. Pulse - Felix Francis 15. Where Angels Fear to Tread - E M Forster 16. Politics on the Edge - Rory Stewart 17. The Mystery of the Blue Train - Agatha Christie 18. False Colours - Georgette Heyer 19. Jane and Prudence - Barbara Pym 20. Crisis - Felix Francis 21. The Scapegoat - Daphne du Maurier 22. Burnt Island - Kate Rhodes 23. Pulpit Rock - Kate Rhodes 24. Judgement Day - Penelope Lively 25. The Murder at the Vicarage - Agatha Christie 26. The Cleaner of Chartres - Sally Vickers 27. Queens of the Age of Chivalry - Alison Weir 28. Guilty Not Guilty - Felix Francis 29. Devil’s Table - Kate Rhodes 30. The ABC Murders - Agatha Christie 31. Tackle - Jilly Cooper 32. Berlin Game - Len Deighton 33. The Chateau - William Maxwell 34. The Trial - Robert Rinder 35. Iced - Felix Francis 36. The Trio - Johanna Hedman 37. Girl - Edna O’Brien 38. Fallen Angel - Chris Brookmyre 39. And Then There Were None - Agatha Christie 40. In Memoriam - Alice Winn 41. Hands Down - Felix Francis 42. The Painter’s Daughters - Emily Howes 43. The Secret Hours - Mick Herron 44. Consequences - Penelope Lively 45. No Reserve - Felix Francis 46. Polo - Jilly Cooper 47. Spinning Plates - Sophie Ellis-Bextor 48. Taken at the Flood - Agatha Christie 49. A Catalogue of Catastrophe - Jodi Taylor 50. Henry VIII: The Heart and the Crown - Alison Weir 51. Death in the Spires - KJ Charles 52. The Brutal Tide - Kate Rhodes 53. Mexico Set - Len Deighton 54. London Match - Len Deighton 55. Knife - Salman Rushdie 56. The Midnight Feast - Lucy Foley 57. Dead Man’s Folly - Agatha Christie 58. Poor - Katriona O’Sullivan 59. The Quiet Gentleman - Georgette Heyer 60. The Bee Sting - Paul Murray 61. Emily - Jilly Cooper 62. Spiderweb - Penelope Lively 63. The Enchanted April - Elizabeth von Arnim 64. Hickory Dickory Dock - Agatha Christie 65. Yellowface - Rebecca Kuang 66. Water - John Boyne 67. Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont - Elizabeth Taylor 68. A Spy Alone - Charles Beaumont 69. Unbreakable - Ronnie O’Sullivan 70. By the Pricking of my Thumbs - Agatha Christie 71. The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox - Maggie O’Farrell 72. The Stalker - Kate Rhodes 73. A Civil Contract - Georgette Heyer 74. I Will Greet the Sun Again - Khashayar J Khabushani 75. Sea of Memories - Fiona Valpy

Thanks for the new thread @Southeastdweller - bringing my list over (fingers crossed for the formatting...)

1 The Trial – Rob Rinder
2 The Generation Divide: Why we can’t agree and why we should – Bobby Duffy
3 The Fell – Sarah Moss
4 Impossible Creatures – Katherine Rundell
5 Over Sea Under Stone – Susan Cooper
6 Greenwitch – Susan Cooper
7 The Grey King – Susan Cooper
8 Silver on the Tree – Susan Cooper
9 Orlando – Virginia Woolf
10 Liza’s England – Pat Barker
11 Winter – Ali Smith
12 Farewell Fountain Street – Selcuk Altun
13 Hungry – Grace Dent
14 The Shadow Murders – Jussi Adler-Olsen
15 The Wayward Bus – John Steinbeck
16 My Dark Vanessa – Kate Elizabeth Russell
17 Giving Up the Ghost – Hilary Mantel
18 Spook Street – Mick Herron
19 The Waves – Virginia Woolf
20 At Freddie’s – Penelope Fitzgerald
21 Before the Queen Falls Asleep – Huzama Habayeb
22 The Progress of a Crime – Julian Symons
23 Death of a Lesser God – Vaseem Khan
24 Giovanni’s Room – James Baldwin
25 Green Dot – Madeleine Gray
26 Family Politics – John O’Farrell
27 The Five – Hallie Rubenhold
28 London Rules – Mick Herron
29 The Brightest Night (Wings of Fire 5) – Tui T. Sutherland
30 Joe Country – Mick Herron
31 Spring – Ali Smith
32 Yellowface – Rebecca F. Kuang
33 Sidesplitter – Phil Wang
34 Slough House – Mick Herron
35 Bad Actors – Mick Herron
36 The Girls in the Wild Fig Tree – Nice Nailantei Leng’ete
37 8 Lives of a Century-Old Trickster – Mirinae Lee
38 A Month in the Country – J. L. Carr
39 The Letters Volume IV: 1929 – 1931 – A Reflection of the Other Person – Virginia Woolf
40 The Truths We Hold – Kamala Harris
41 The Chinese Maze Murders – Robert van Gulik
42 Summer – Ali Smith
43 Virginia Woolf (vol 2) – Quentin Bell
44 Wifedom – Anna Funder
45 Past Lying – Val McDermid
46 The Wind Through the Keyhole – Stephen King
47 L’Etranger – Albert Camus
48 Patchwork – Ellen Banda-Aaku
49 Night Waking – Sarah Moss
50 Traces – Patricia Wiltshire
51 Maskerade – Terry Pratchett
52 The Marrying of Chani Kaufman – Eve Harris
53 Mayflies – Andrew O’Hagan
54 How to Say Babylon – Safiya Sinclair
55 The Unexpected Inheritance of Inspector Chopra – Vaseem Khan
56 The House of Mirrors – Erin Kelly
57 Clara’s Daughter – Meike Ziervogel
58 Mongrel – Hanako Footman
59 Frankie – Graham Norton

Like many of you, I'm currently reading (and enjoying) Rivals as I was so annoyed with where they stopped the TV series!

So, maths... I completed 18 books between 15 Sep (start of last thread) and today, in just over 7 weeks. That's a decent pace. If only I could stop buying books, I might make a proper dent in the TBR pile :)

Thanks southeast for your faithful hosting! I won't bring my list over this time but I hope to post some catch-up reviews shortly (there are books I read ages ago on my summer hols that I still haven't managed to review).

I've having trouble focusing today because of the US elections. 😬At least soon we'll know, one way or the other. I've promised myself that if the Orange Peril wins, I'm leaving twitter for good. Can't stand to see any more daft tweets from Elon and his horde of dodgy minions.

Welcome @Cashew1! I read Les Mandarins years ago and absolutely loved it. It gave such a vivid picture of the French post-war era. I would like to read more Beauvoir eventually: her novels and her four-volume autobiography.

Moving my list across since last thread
155 Murder Town by Shelley Burr
156 Distress Signals- Catherine Ryan Howard
157 Shrunken Lands- Gareth Rees
158 Bird Box- Josh Malerman
159 A Lesson in Violence- Jordan Harper
160 Lublin- Marya Wilkinson
161 Ashes of London- Andrew Taylor
162 The Blackwater Lightship- Colm Toibin
163 A Girl is a Half-formed Thing- Eimear McBride
164 Homegoing- Yaa Gyasi
165 City of Ghosts- Ben Creed
166 Age of Vice - Deepti Kapoor
167 Anna Karenina- Leo Tolstoy
168 My Brilliant Friend- Elena Ferrante
169 The Picture of Dorian Gray- Oscar Wilde
170 Himself- Jess Kidd
171 The Stone Diaries- Carol Shields
172 How we Disappeared - Jing-Jing Lee
173 Ancestors- Alice Roberts
174 The Amendments- Niamh Mulvey
175 Iron Lake- William Kent Kruger
176 The French Lieutenant’s Woman- John Fowles
177 Red Memory- Tania Branigan
178 My Name is Lucy Barton- Elizabeth Strout
179 The List of Suspicious Things- Jennie Godfrey
180 Stasiland- Anna Funder
181 The Wall- John Lanchester

Hello all, and the usual thanks to @Southeastdweller for keeping us all on track. My list:

1.Just Like You by Nick Hornby
2.Oxblood by Tom Benn
3.My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell
4.Vernon God Little by DBC Pierre
5 The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid
6.Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart
7.Tresspasses by Louise Kennedy
8.Black Dogs by Ian McEwan
9.Music and Silence by Rose Tremain
10.The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
11.Mouth to Mouth by Antoine Wilson
12.Mantel Pieces by Hilary Mantel
13.Freya by Anthony Quinn
14.Ghost Wall by Sarah Moss
15.Our Friends in Berlin by Anthony Quinn
16.Paper Cup by Karen Campbell
17.Matrix by Lauren Groff
18.Picnic at Hanging Rock by Jean Lindsay
19.Ordinary Human Failings by Megan Nolan
20.Exiles by Jane Harper
21. The House on Half Moon Street by Alex Reeve
22.Undoctored by Adam Kay
22.Exit West by Mohsin Hamid
23.Bewilderment by Richard Powers
24.Caledonian Road by Andrew O'Hagan
26.Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland, by Patrick Radden Keefe
25.Absolutely and Forever by Rose Tremain
27.Keep the Aspidistra Flying by George Orwell
28.The Tuscan Year: Life And Food In An Italian Valley by Elizabeth Romer
29.Broken Light by Joanne Harris
30.The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman
31. David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
32.The Man Who Died Twice by Richard Osman
33.Eight Months on Ghazzah Street by Hilary Mantel.
34.The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte
35.The Bullet that Missed by Richard Osman.
36.Mayflies by Andrew O'Hagan
37.Riders by Jilly Cooper
38.The Last Devil to Die by Richard Osman.
39.Shrines of Gaiety by Kate Atkinson
40.Ghosts by Dolly Alderton.
41.Piglet by Lottie Hazel.
42. Notes on a Execution by Danya Kukafka
43.Soldier Sailor by Claire Kilroy
44.Eureka by Anthony Quinn
45.Little House by Philippa Gregory
46. Exposure by Helen Dunmore
47. Counterfeit by Kirsten Chen
48.The Bee Sting by Paul Murray
49. The House on Rye Lane by Susan Allot
50. The Exhibitionist by Charlotte Mendelson
51.This Family by Kate Sawyer
52.Be Near Me by Andrew O’Hagan
53.A Terrible Kindness by Jo Browning Wroe
54. Rivals by Jilly Cooper

I'm currently listening to Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi, which is great so far, and reading Monsters by Clare Dederer, which isn't.

Nature abhors a vacuum, and so do my bookshelves.

😀😀

Today (inspired by the BookTuber CriminOlly) I am starting a ‘Read what you own’ challenge. I am going to read 50 books I own before I buy any others. The only exception I am making for this is the Waterstones sale at Christmas. Going by my usual reading rate, I should reach the end of my challenge in around March. This isn’t going to be easy…

Yes Úll. I think that bar readalongs on here, I'm going to read from my shelves and from what's on my Kindle starting from January!

Nature abhors a vacuum and so do my bookshelves 😅

Thanks @Southeastdweller . My list continuation

64 The Twford Code - Janice Hallett
65 Ghost Wall - Sarah Moss
66 Milkman - Anna Burns
67 Lincoln in the Bardo - George Saunders
68 King of Shadows - Susan Cooper
69 The Tigers Wife - Tea Obreht
70 Girl, Women, Other - Bernadine Evaristo

I have been trying to read from my TBR pile and getting a bit despondent at not making any impact - so like the idea of a more defined 'Read what you own plan!'. Not feeling quite as brave as Ull - so will aim to read 10 books from my shelves before I buy any new. (Does taking books out of the library count as breaking the challenge??)

Checking in. Having a hiatus while I am feeling down in the dumps and also pondering my meagre TBR.

Hi @CutFlowers I reckon you can use whatever parameters you want for the challenge. The booktubers do seem to count library books as breaking the challenge but then I bet they count the Waterstones Christmas sale too and I’m breaking it for that!
10 is great- I’m not sure I’ll stick 50 but I’m giving it a go. Won’t ever have the discipline to have @Piggywaspushed ’s TBR!

Thanks for the new thread @Southeastdweller here's my list since the last thread.

75 The Dig by John Preston
76 China Room by Sunjeev Sahota
77 Her Last Words by Brianna Labuskes
78 The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal
79 Your Place or Mine by Portia MacIntosh
80 Bridesmaid For Hire by Meghan Quinn
81 Lovelight Farms by BK Borison
82 The Devil and Mrs Davenport by Paulette Kennedy
83 Retribution by Julianne Hoffman
84 Foster by Claire Keegan
85 Yearbook by Seth Rogen
86 Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery
87 We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
88 Goodbye, Vitamin by Rachel Khong
89 I’m Thinking of Ending Things by Iain Reid
90 Hons and Rebels by Jessica Mitford
91 Ten Little Words by Leah Mercer
92 Deja Dead by Kathy Reichs
93 Happy Place by Emily Henry
94 Book Lovers by Emily Henry
95 The Ballad of Smallhope and Pennyroyal by Jodi Taylor
96 The Curse of the Burdens by John Wyndham
97 The Lies You Wrote by Brianna Labuskes
98 The Truth You Told by Brianna Labuskes

I've read a few books now by Brianna Labuskes and it's the most I have enjoyed crime novels in a while, and if you have kindle unlimited they are free.

Thanks @Southeastdweller

@cassandre I am also intending to leave Twitter if that dangerous orange nightmare ‘wins’ - I’d ideally like to see both him and fucking Musk in prison.

@elkiedee my eldest two are in year 12 and first year uni, so I did the double exam thing last summer. Good luck!!

Thanks southeast

My reading continues at a glacial pace this year...

• Confessions of a forty-something **-up – Alexandra Potter
• Why I’m no longer talking to white people about race – Reni Eddo-lodge
• A heart that works – Rob Delaney
• Really good, actually – Monica Heisey
• 52 ways to Walk – Annabel Streets
• Amy & Isabelle – Elisabeth Strout
• Islands of mercy – Rose Tremain
• From miniskirt to hijab – Jacqueline Saper
• Demon Copperhead – Barbara Kingsolver
• The Sober Diaries – Clare Pooley
• The Lost Words – Robert Macfarlane & Jackie Morris
• Tom Lake – Ann Patchett
• The Strawberry Thief - Joanne Harris
• The village by the sea – Anita Desai
• Soldier, Sailor – Claire Kilroy
• Sober curious – Ruby Warrington
• 500 miles from you – Jenny Colgan
• 0 Caledonia – Elspeth Barker
• The Winners – Frederik Backman
• Learn Spanish – Paul Noble
• Fire Rush – Jacqueline Crooks
• Hamnett – Maggie O’Farrell
• Wild – Cheryl Strayed
• The Outrun – Amy Liptrot
• The cellist of Sarajevo – Steven Calloway
• Angels – Marian Keyes

And today I finished
No. 27 - Four thousand weeks - Oliver Burkeman
Given that this is about making the most of your four thousand weeks on earth, I ironically felt like my time could have been better spent! The 10 top tips in the Appendix: Ten Tools for Embracing Your Finitude were the most relevant parts in my humble opinion!

Currently (still) reading A little life - in small chunks so that I can cope with the harrowing nature of the book. Also reading Strout's Abide with me and am loving it considerably less than everything else I've read by her previously. Just started listening to Miranda Hart's new book about her suffering from ME. She is already irritating me 'chum' but I really want to persevere as I have a dear friend who suffers horrifically from ME and who encouraged me to read it.

Thank you @Southeastdweller
No list this thread (lazy).

Am currently juggling Night And Day by John Connolly and an anthology of Body Horror which is…..patchy. She’s Always Hungry by Eliza Clark arrived today, so I’m hoping for stories melding the grimness of her previous books with some unsettling creepiness.

Gah. I resisted buying Rivals for 99p on kindle on the basis that it was probably more sexist and crap than I remembered, and now that the price has gone back up and everyone else is reading it, I really want it!! But not enough to spend more than 99p, on principle 😂 and it’s not available on BorrowBox! Wish I’d kept my old second-hand copy! I think my favourite scene is Caitlin at the wedding 😄

Thank you @Southeastdweller. Surrounded by my TBR pile ATM. Keeping it close helps me chip away at it.

115. The House At Sea's End by Elly Griffiths

Ruth Galloway #3

These are good light reads, I found this a bit silly and skimmed a bit. Like Maeve Kerrigan, Ruth Galloway is always somehow implausibly imperilled. So far the villains have been fairly unbelievable too. But I will keep going!

Thanks for the thread southeast.

My latest are The King’s Mother by Annie Garthwaite Heard of this on a podcast after reading Sharon Penman’s Sunne in Splendour in the summer and thought I’d read it while I had some memory of the later Wars of the Roses period. This starts slightly later than SiS, with Cecily Neville becoming King’s Mother at the beginning of the book. It’s billed as being about 4 women vying for the role of King’s Mother but the focus is very much on Cecily. Overall it covers similar ground to SiS, though is shorter, with less romantic sugar to help the history slip down. Character notice slightly too often that Cecily’s thinking is several steps ahead of their own, I wasn’t always convinced by the interactions between Cecily and Margaret Beaufort, and bets are hedged about the fate of the Princes in the Tower, but overall I enjoyed this, just wish I’d left it longer after SiS.

Les Liaisons Dangereuses by Choderlos de Laclos Enjoyed the readalong of this readable and surprising 18th century epistolary novel, though the grooming of 2 young women was often hard to watch.