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?

I've read 49 books so far this year, 50th on the go. The emboldened titles are ones I'd definitely recommend but I enjoyed them all.

1. Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow - Gabrielle Zevin
2. The Snow Angel - Anki Edvinsson
3. The Starfish Sisters - Barbara O'Neal
4. Last Night - Luanne Rice
5. A Deadly Influence - Mike Omer
6. Damaged Intentions - Mike Omer
7. A Burning Obsession - Mike Omer
8. Last Day - Luanne Rice
9. Hypnotized By Love - Sariah Wilson
10. Lights Out - Elise Hart Kipness
11. Simon's Choice - Charlotte Castle
12. What Does This Button Do? - Bruce Dickenson, An Autobiography
13. Why Does He Do That? - Lundy Bancroft
14. The Last List of Mabel Beaumont - Laura Pearson
15. The Day Shelley Woodhouse Woke Up - Laura Pearson
16. Missing Pieces - Laura Pearson
17. I Wanted You To Know - Laura Pearson
18. The Maidens - Alex Michaelides
19. The Vacation Rental - Katie Sise
20. The Mermaid - Anki Edvinsson
21. The Hiding House - Malcolm Richards
22. Meet Me On The Bridge - Sarah J. Harris
23. Summer Ever After - Jane Crittenden
24. Into The Void: Geezer Butler Autobiography
25. All The Little Raindrops - Mia Sheridan
26. Mayluna - Kelley McNeil
27. Where There's Smoke - Jodi Picoult
28. All Good Things - Amanda Prowse
29. The Mistress - Valerie Keogh
30. Silence - Tasha Preston
31. Broken Silence - Tasha Preston
32. Players, Bumps, and Cocktail Sausages - Natasha Preston
33. Very Very Lucky - Amanda Prowse
34. Nobody's Wife - Laura Pearson
35. Under Lying - Janelle Harris
36. The House of Lost Secrets - Anstey Harris
37. Human Remains - Elizabeth Haynes
38. Ma Polinski's Pockets - Sara Sheridan
39. The Beekeeper of Aleppo - Christy Lefteri
40. Eden's Garden - Juliet Greenwood
41. Watch Over Me - Daniela Sacerdoti
42. Take Me Home - Daniela Sacerdoti
43. The Watcher: A Jack the Ripper Mystery - Sam Croft
44. Where They Lie - Joe Hart
45. The Summer Party - Kate Gray
46. Deeper Than The Dead - Debra Webb
47. The Secret of the Brighton House - Cathy Hayward
48. The Art of Hiding - Amanda Prowse
49. The Orange House - Isabelle Broom

How am I supposed to reduce my TBR list when people keep giving good reviews and highlighting deals 🤣

Sorry…… 😂 (but it is very good)!

A Disney+ adaptation of Say Nothing feels very unlikely, but I'm here for it.

96 Creation Lake by Rachel Kushner
Sadie is an undercover agent-for-hire, embedded in a group of radical eco-revolutionaries in rural France. I enjoyed this a lot but I should have read this in a more leisurely fashion rather than racing through it because it had to go back to the library. I think Kushner’s writing deserves more attention than my “read for the plot” approach gave it.

95 A Thousand Feasts by Nigel Slater
Oh Nigel, you are a funny old creature. This was Nigel to the max, without any recipes though there was a lot of yoghurt eaten in snowy folds on artisanal ceramics while he feels the grain of his oak floorboards through his much worn but still loved cashmere socks. This is a series of mini-essays on travel, gardening and food that pick one concept and explore it briefly with an emphasis on sensory pleasures and things Nigel likes and dislikes. I give you as evidence “The benign intimacy of a spoon” – around 600 words on the perfect spoon and its anatomy and why eating from a spoon is more nourishing and seductive than eating from a fork. I think Nigel would be almost unbearable at close proximity unless in small doses unless this is all an elaborate trolling exercise and he’s slumming around in Greggs and peering at Tupperware boxes of unidentified goo in his freezer 90% of the time wondering if it’s sweet or savoury before slinging it in the microwave anyway. I don’t have time to curate the perfect spoon experience or contemplate the metaphysical implications of the act of slicing butter but I’m glad I made time for this because it did entertain me and sooth me and OH MY GOD DO WE NEED SOOTHING RIGHT NOW.

94 French Windows by Antoine Laurain
This was indeed a book about people in France looking through windows, and it was extremely French.
Nathalia, a young photographer, is seeing a therapist. Having accidentally photographed a murder, she finds that she can no longer do her job. So the therapist suggests that she write about the people she observes in the building opposite. Starting with the actor turned YouTube life coach on the ground floor and going all the way up to the fifth floor, Nathalia creates vivid accounts of the lives of each of her neighbours but are they real or imaginary? This was one of those books that was fine while it lasted but I’d be hard pushed to tell you what happened in a month’s time.

93 Venetian Sanctuary by Phillip Gywnne Jones
Venice seems to be almost as dangerous as Oxford, if the body count versus population in popular fiction is any guide. I do enjoy the Donna Leon books when I come across them, so picked this up when I saw it was in the Kindle Deals because who doesn’t enjoy a Venetian whodunnit. This one had far too much cat chat, and was set in a slightly weird just-post-Covid period which meant the pandemic was referred to periodically but it had zero impact on plot or setting. And the protagonist’s exact status (Honorary British Consul in Venice which is apparently a thing) was not entirely clear at the outset which made things a bit confusing but that’s probably my fault for starting a series half way through. I’ll go back to the beginning because it’s Venice and I do enjoy Venetian fiction.

That’s a great review of the Nigel Slater book, Pepe 😂 I do enjoy watching/reading him, but he has an undeniable air of an upmarket Uriah Heep about him to me.

@PepeLePew

It's due to licensing. It's actually a Hulu production, and Disney has the stream rights for Hulu because it doesn't exist as a platform in the UK.

Boring of me to know or care I'm aware

117. You Are Here by David Nicholls

Lonely Marnie agrees to partially join a coast to coast walk organised by a friend of a friend.

It's very obvious from the beginning where the plot will go and end up but the writing is frequently lovely and I read the book quickly.

It's not perfect, the music section feels like filler and I didn't completely buy the chemistry of the two leads but it's well observed and an untaxing read.

If you liked One Day or Us then you will also like this

Agree with Terpsichore - you have captured The Essence of Nigel, @PepeLePew :D

@elkiedee – I’m sure I read that she was born in 1968. But then, didn't she have her daughter when she was 40? That would mean that Kate was born in 2008? And that doesnt that chime with your daughter, does it? Hmmm.

@MamaNewtNewt – that sounds good. I might give that a go 😊

@TattiePants – thanks for the heads up. I’ve just bought Say Nothing. I hadn’t appreciated it was a book! 🙈 I’ve seen a couple of articles about the show. Patrick Radden Keefe looks interesting. Empire of Pain looks like it would be a good read. Ah, I see my reading twin @SheilaFentiman is a fan so probably a safe bet

@countrygirl99 – I hear you! I’m trying not to increase my TBR, but we all know it’s difficult when we get such great suggestions

@PepeLePew – Nigel may be the distraction we need. I'm laughing my head off at your review. I think I could take Nigel in very small doses but he would drive me demented.

Hoping to finish off Dead Lions (Slow Horses 2) this weekend. As well as Say Nothing, I also bought Before and After by Andrew Shanaman, which was on my watch list. So current Kindle list is 45.

I give in, I'm buying Say Nothing. I always tell
myself it's only 99p, but God knows how many 99p's I've spent on the back of this thread 🤷‍♀️

Say Nothing is free on kindle unlimited for anyone who has that. This has been on my TBR pile for a while, and I'm determined to get my money's worth this year so might have to read next.

DS1 and I have agreed that the word to describe my book collection is 'modest'

(this is a lie, but a comforting lie...)

You're not supposed to reduce your TBR list. Why on earth would you want to do that? What a strange idea!

Series obsessive geekery warning (re Elly Griffiths' fictional characters Ruth Galloway and her daughter Kate)

@Tarragon DS1 was born in February 2009, a few months before my 40th birthday in the following summer. Any kids in his year at school could have been born between 1 September 2008 and 31 August 2009. Kate is apparently 12 by June 2021. Ruth Galloway would still have been 40 until her birthday in 2009, just as I was 39 until almost halfway through the year.... The oldest kids in my year at school were born in 1968 too. So it fits perfectly that Ruth was born in 1968, Kate in 2008, DS2 in early 2009.

Just popping on to say I feel exactly the same way about Nigel!! Great review PPLP!

That's a relief. I do try and keep it under control (aka under 50) but am failing.

Under 50? I can only dream. My TBR is in the high 3 figures… That’s physical/ audio/ kindle combined.
(which is why I’m doing a ‘read what you own challenge!)

@satelliteheart I think Song of Susannah is one of the weakest of the series. I don’t mind King writing himself into it but I can’t bear all the Mia nonsense.

@PepeLePew Loved your Nigel review and definitely won’t be reading the book. I get his books out to shout at occasionally whilst we’re eating dinner. He drives me batshit with his obsession with ‘perfectly ripe tomatoes’ and ‘tender buttery leaves’ from the farmers’ market and beautiful pieces of pottery sourced in Marrakesh and so on. I rarely feel tempted to actually cook any of his recipes.

Same 😂

Can you buy Essence Of Nigel in Lakeland? I expect you can.

Also bought Say Nothing , although I don’t remember finishing Empire Of Pain

It’s in a very simple but beautiful white ceramic bottle 😀

White? Can you not define this a bit more?

Old White? Schoolhouse White? Cabbage White? Templa White? Skimming stones.................................................

😂

The white of the fat that marbles the perfect steak? 😀

Shudder. It would smell of slightly greasy hair and old corduroy trousers.