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?

83. Heresy by S. J. Parris First in the Giordano Bruno series which I'm doing a re-read of before getting to the latest one. I skimmed this as I've read it twice before. I remember absolutely loving it the first time I read it but was less enamored this time. Bruno heads to Oxford to take part in a debate and finds himself in the middle of a Catholic plot and a string of murders. Taking a break now to finish this year's christie challenge

Well remembered @RomanMum it was me who started a round-up thread last December. Please feel free to start one this year!

I got HHhH as a Blind Date with a mystery book from TikTok. It’s on the giant TBR. I’m intrigued!

@RazorstormUnicorn – that’s so interesting. My daughter, 31, was just diagnosed with ADHD and she is convinced that I have it too. I also have depression and have had disordered eating. Post menopause now and the brain fog is worse than ever. I will look this up! If I do have ADHD, then its definitely at the less severe end.

111 The Secrets of Blythwood Square – Sara Sheridan. Ah, Sara never lets me down. This is set in early Victorian Glasgow and is about the beginning of professional photography. She throws in some very interesting characters and plots. Very entertaining.

Kindle TBR now down to 41, but I haven’t been able to start on my physical pile. I resisted temptation on Sunday to buy Butter when I stumbled across a Waterstones that I wasn’t expecting. My latest Elly Griffiths is available at the library, so I’ll pick that up today. I think I have the next book in the series as a paperback, so that’s one of the physical TBR. Slowly but surely!

What is HHhH please? 🤔

That’s literally its name Fuzzy!

https://www.amazon.co.uk/HHhH-Laurent-Binet-ebook/dp/B007NG91ZO/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?crid=ZEMZXZRT9BSM&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.SVTN_To8TdBx9m79bqr3zvDTh_Lgsw2csHEArBosadZ2IASln6ipWyCnD5Z2r44LkVas1hxhdldjzOe48R-I0lB2tZEKW8R6U6ea9Dm_8N760ENpY35IgFapzr7FWCvsS9FW2hkS4Meay2mHKdR6dP9jb1YITzt08Xcj-ehD8Zg4O66d6kxNIrtCnOcucc0RFen13tabzTJadw3bagg4xg.hhG52cFBO2UguyBN-xXzhNL63xwcdgWabgBVfBZ_FtA&dib_tag=se&keywords=HHhH&nsdOptOutParam=true&qid=1733316112&sprefix=hhhh%2Caps%2C98&sr=8-1

Oh heck! I assumed it was initials too, like HHGTTG 😀

Thanks @ChessieFL 😄😄😄

Am I the only one who was on the fence about HHhH? Everyone seems to love or hate it. I thought it was okay.

Heinrich Himmler heißt Heydrich.
HHhH. Interesting!

It is confusing considering we often do use initials to describe books! I haven’t actually read it and had wondered what it stood for.

I would never have guessed!

HHhH looks right up my street!

Me too, thought it was interesting, but wouldn't rave about it (and indeed, very French!)

Exactly @Sadik

197 Gliff by Ali Smith
The new Ali Smith is out and DH ordered me a signed copy after seeing how much I enjoyed the seasonal quartet. This new book is narrated by Briar, a child who is abandoned along with sister Rose in a dystopian world. The story too straightforward for Smirh so I’m wondering if I missed something massive but I did enjoy it.

198 Annie Bot by Sierra Greer
I picked this up on a 99p deal just before I started my Read what you Own Challenge (now at 17). Set in a future where humans can buy robot helpers- to do physical work/ look after kids or be a ‘cuddle’ bot. Annie is the latter and her owner Doug sets her to autodidactic mode so she can learn and change. This all sounds very bizarre but it’s actually great on themes of consent, coercive control etc and entertaining with it. Good read.

True fact... By the 1980s , Blythswood Square's main activity was prostitution.

Wow! I had no idea! This is what I think of when I think of Blythswood Square

https://www.kimptonblythswoodsquare.com/

@Tarragon123
I don't see HHhH as a mystery book. It's very self-conscious, rather meta and you definitely need to know something about the period and key players, but there's no mystery: the facts are all known from the outset, as far as I remember anyway.

I can absolutely see why it would annoy people, but I found it fascinating and was totally gripped by it.

I can't remember if I've mentioned before, but my dp bought one of those blind date with a book things from Costa for a donation to charity. It described itself as an urban thriller. It was actually soft porn.

I think that was done up around about the same time they 'regenerated' the area and packed the prostitutes off somewhere else! But there always was a nice hotel there . You just had to be careful who you talked to on the way in!

I read Blythwood Square earlier in the year and thoroughly enjoyed it. I'd never heard of the place before though!

I'm so behind with my reviews that I'll never catch up, and can't even remember enough about some of them to write anything! I often forget a book as soon as I've finished. So here's my list from my last review until now. I've added a tiny bit about some of them.

Feel free to ask about individual titles, and I'll go and find my reviews to recap them!

251. Moral Code. Lois and Ross Melbourne
     This was a bold for me. Sci-fi, Futuristic stuff.

252. The Twins on the Train. Suzanne Goldring WW2/Holocaust

253. The Jack O'Lantern Men. Lee Allen. Spooky Hallowe’en stuff

254. The Angel's Gate. G.P Ritchie Spooky, weird short stories

255. Through Fire and Shadow. R.M Schultz Dragons. Part 2 of Through Blood and Dragons

256. Nowhere Man. Deborah Stone.

257. The Night Counsellor. L.K Pang

258. The Witch of White Lady Hollow. C. David Belt
     Another bold. Witches of the old fashioned kind. Eg plant magic rather than pointy hats.

259. Selena Flowers and the Cursed Ruby. Ella English
     Yet another bold. Zombie mermaids.

260. The Other Couple. Tríona Walsh.

261. The Witch and the Devourer of Souls. C.David Belt
     Part 2 of The Witch of White Lady Hollow. Another Bold.

262. Another Breath Another Sunrise. Roberta Kagan. Part of the Michal's Destiny series, but sadly not as good as book 1.

263. Mona Lisa's Daughter. Belle Ami
     Bold. Dual timeline, Da Vinci's Italy. And 1940s Italy.

264. The Irish Family Secret. Daisy O'Shea

265. Cemetery Lodge. Paula Hillman

266. The Last Agent in Paris. Sharon Maas About Noor Inayat Khan who worked as a wireless operative for the British in WW2. She was caught and executed.

267. The Christmas Party. Mikayla Davids Family mystery.

268. The Family Secret. Mikayla Davids Sequal to The Christmas Party.

269. All Mine Enemies. C. C Gilmartin police drama.

270. Flora and Busby's First Christmas. Anna A Armstrong Short whodunnit story

271. Wait For It. A.L. Glennon

272. Winter Wishes in the Scottish Highlands. Donna Ashcroft.

273. What The Nanny Saw. Kaira Rouda

274. The Ranch at the End of the World

275. Earth Hagiography. Sfarda L. Gül

276. The Witch, The Warlock and The Damned. C. David Belt
     Part 3 of The Witch of White Lady Hollow. Bold again.

277. Catbird. ^Julia

278. A Safe Place. Stephanie Carty.

279. The Good Witch of Abbotsford. Alaisdair Hutton.

280. Bewitching Rosemary. Colleen Delaney

281. Sailing For Grace. Joseph Bauer

282. Why are you sick? Benjamin^

283. The Michalmas Daisy. Paul Marriner.
     Bold

284. The Stolen Sisters. Ann Bennett

285. Scream If You Wanna Go Faster. Wade Beauchamp.

Cormac Mccarthy or Justin Cronin

I enjoyed HHhH - but his newer one is cluttering up my TBR!

Is The Passenger the German one? I gave up on it.