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?

Over the years a few other 50 Bookers have enjoyed Hangover Square, but I've never got round to it. I've just put in a reservation at the library.

Loved it. Also loved The Slaves of Solitude. I’ve yet to get round to 20,000 Streets Under the Sky (what a title!) but it’s on the shelf and waiting.

I also love Hangover Square but it is very bleak.

I loved Twenty Thousand Streets Under the Sky which I read after seeing the TV adaptation, probably about 20 years ago now. I have had Hangover Square, The Slaves of Solitude and Craven House TBR for a few years.

I don’t mind bleak, but I do mind boring.

I’ve had the horrible cold/cough this week so have done quite a lot of reading while lying around pathetically.

76 The Pre-War House by Alison Moore
Collection of short stories, some of them very short, that I’ve been reading for a while. Didn’t want to read too many at once as they blend into one and they deserve individual readings. Quiet desperation in ordinary lives, some with a Dahl-esque twist.

77 The Northumbrians by Dan Jackson
Superb history of the region, with so many interesting facts! Jackson has a readable, almost chatty style, despite the huge amount of research (and references, handy for all the follow ups it inspired me to read). It’s divided into sections i.e work and industry, military, leisure and there’s a bit of crossover as you might expect, but never to an irritating degree. Quite centred on Newcastle, again expected, but does take in the whole of Northumbria. I very much enjoyed thinking Been there! Been there! Ooh, must head off there next time!
A definite bold for this year.

78 William by Mason Coile
A short novel, read in two sittings. Can’t say too much for fear of spoilers, but this started as one thing (computer scientist couple have relationship difficulties), dallied with classic Something In My House Wants To Kill me then turned into something else again. William is a robot. William has not taken on board Asimov’s Laws. This may be because AI doesn’t really tally with those Laws.
There’s also a robot dog, a robot baby doll and a strange little magician on a bike toy. If the latter isn’t taken from the creepy short film ‘Alma’ then I’ll eat my hat, or the magician’s hat if it forces me too (it very well might).

I read Hamilton's The West Pier a few years ago, a copy picked up secondhand by chance years ago, and keep meaning to find the next two books in what turned into a trilogy - they were his last novels. It’s set in Brighton so the sense of seediness that he evokes so well is there in force, and the main character is a con-man whose manoeuvres for carrying out what he wants to achieve build up a powerful sense of creeping dread in the reader. It’s not as good as Hangover Square or Slaves of Solitude (Hamilton was well into alcoholism by then) but you can definitely see from the plot that he was the man who invented the concept of 'gaslighting'. It’s simultaneously riveting and repellent to read. I find him anything but boring, though!

I think Slaves of Solitude is an objectively better book than Hangover Square but I find it almost unreadable because it's just too much. The hope then the despair is just awful. Like my soul has been put through a mangle.

I'm immensely fond of you all and as there are some Hamilton fans around I will issue a blanket exemption to those of you who don't like him, and remove you from my LIST OF PEOPLE WHO ARE WRONG. Or maybe move you into a sub-category - PEOPLE WHO ARE WRONG ABOUT THIS BUT HAVE GENERALLY EXCELLENT BOOK INSTINCTS SO PROBABLY ARE ONLY LOCALLY WRONG RATHER THAN GLOBALLY WRONG.

I’ve never read Hangover Square but now I intend to!

@Terpsichore I do think the last two books in that trilogy are far from his best work. By that point he was deep into alcoholism and they get progressively more slang-ridden and less well constructed. Ten Thousand Streets Under The Sky would be a better use of the time if you want more.

I'm in a bit of a book slump, & keep DNFing things that I suspect I'd happily read at other times (including Adrian Edmondson's Berserker ).

Luckily a new independent bookshop is opening in our little town (first day today) which is very exciting, since we've not had one for around 20 years. There's a great bookshop a few miles ago, but it's somewhere I rarely go in working hours, so I don't make the time to visit often enough. I'm not wildly optimistic about this new venture lasting long for various reason, but clearly I'm morally obliged to buy lots of books to help prove myself wrong
I have finished a couple of books which I did enjoy:

101. Help Wanted by Adelle Waterman
     The 'Movement' team at a big-box store in a small US town work from 4am-8am unloading and shelf stocking, with any overtime carefully counted by the store to make sure they can never get to the point where they qualify for health insurance & other benefits. Their only chance to get out of the cycle of low employment & debt is if a supervisor moves on & one of them gets promoted. When the store manager leaves, there's suddenly the possibility for a cascade of promotions working down the line - but will anyone from Movement actually get to move?
     This was billed as a comedy, but I didn't find it particularly funny. I did think the author did a great job of creating a group of characters who felt very real, rather than (as often in this type of book) being there simply to make political points. I liked spending time with them all, and this only failed to be a bold because the plot that held things together was a bit too thin.

102. Network Effect by Martha Wells
     The Murderbot series is narrated by a rogue Security Unit - an AI/human hybrid construct, rented out by a big corporation as a disposable bodyguard/mercenary. In the first installment, Murderbot has hacked the governor module which restricts it to blind obedience, and uses the newfound freedom to download and watch all the soaps it can get hold of in any spare moments.
     
     This is the fifth in the series, & the first full length novel. I thought the longer length really worked well - I've enjoyed the previous novellas, but found them a bit slight & lacking in character development for anyone other than Murderbot. Also very well read on audio, & so my first bold for ages.

Great news Sadik. I always wonder about the economics of bookshops (tbh of all businesses as I've never run one). Hope they get a good liftoff for Christmas.

104 Hercule Poirot’s Silent Night - Sophie Hannah

I think this is the fourth in the Poirot continuation series that Hannah is writing, with the blessing of the Christie estate. I enjoy them more than her own police detectives (Charlie and Simon) who seem to have implausibly complicated and self destructive private lives.

I digress.

Poirot and Catchpool (his sidekick, equivalent to Hastings) are inveigled by Catchpool’s mother into coming to a seaside house for Christmas to investigate a murder which happened in a nearby nursing home. The patriarch of the house is dying of cancer and wants to be transferred to the home to investigate the murder, being a long time admirer of poirot. The matriarch doesn’t want him to go as she is convinced he will also be murdered. Also in situ are their two sons, who are married to two sisters, whose parents act as the unpaid cook and gardener.

So much familial intrigue and plotting, plus another murder, until the usual denouement in the grand room, just in time for Xmas.

An easy and entertaining read.

😄

49 Seven Ways to Change the World by Gordon Brown. Brown discusses seven areas affecting all countries - global health, the economy, climate change, tax evasion, humanitarian aid, nuclear disarmament and US/China relations. He makes the case that it's pointless for countries to act individually on these issues and we need to aim for global co-operation. I respect Gordon Brown and I found this an interesting read even when I didn't agree with him - he has a wealth of experience and is well worth listening to. It's a pity that the health chapter was so dominated by Covid (understandable as he was writing in 2020/21).

50 The Bee Sting by Paul Murray. This is set in Ireland in a large village or small town an hour or two from Dublin. It starts from the point of view of Cass, who is in her final year of school and is busy rebelling against her parents. Then there are sections from the point of view of her mum, dad and brother. The treatment of her parents is so cleverly done - they both start off as quite two-dimensional characters, reflecting Cass's typical teenage self-absorption, and then their personalities and back stories gradually emerge. Excellent.

@PepeLePew Thank you for graciously allowing me to be merely locally wrong. It’s an honour that I feel ought to be celebrated.

Where do I stand Pepe? My review for Hangover Square concluded with “I didn’t love it but thought it was very good.”

Well, I can report back that new bookshop has a relatively limited stock so far, but it's a pretty good selection with lots of things I'd like to read. Plus sofas by a fire for coffee drinking while browsing. It's upstairs from an existing cafe, & run by the cafe people (who also own the building), which makes me a bit more optimistic that it might survive.

We're in a tourist town with lots of well off second home owners, so lets hope they all come in / bring their children in there on rainy days and buy lots of books
I came home with Scoff by Pen Vogler, which I'd forgotten was on my (mental) tbr list.

@RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie and @MamaNewtNewt I have just read the bit in Wolves of Calla where Ronald is moved to move and absolutely loved it! That will definitely be a stand out bit of the series for me! Which is good as I have forgotten loads of it. They keep referencing things I can hardly remember happening....

It's glorious, isn't it? I have a thing for men with slim hips in jeans and boots and that bit makes me come over all unnecessary!

Haha same @RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie. @RazorstormUnicorn I might have to read the series again when I get to the end of my Stephen King Readathon.

All good. I'm happy to concede it's not for everyone!

I'm adding it to my TBR list, @PepeLePew ! This is clearly another volume to add to the 50 Bookers Love/Hate List along Station Eleven and the Bloody Butler and so on.

The new indie bookshop sounds fab, @Sadik. There's a newish indie bookshop in my neighbourhood too and you've reminded me that I should go in and order my Christmas books from there. I'm not madly in love with it, because it's mostly a children's bookshop and their selection of adult fiction is shelved according to quirky trendy themes, not alphabetically, which I find very annoying. Plus they invited David Walliams to hold an event there and I can't stand David Walliams. Still, they're an indie bookshop and I want them to succeed!

Twenty Thousand Streets Under the Sky is actually the title of a trilogy of short novels linked by the characters, now published as one volume. Alcohol is something of a theme.

@cassandre, I quite agree on David Walliams, books and person, but I can see that if a new bookshop can attract lots of people to an event, it's quite a good way to get some publicity. Hopefully they'll get some better authors in....