50 Books Challenge 2024 Part Nine

[Southeastdweller]

Welcome to the ninth and final thread of the 50 Book Challenge for this year, possibly the shortest thread in the twelve years the other 50 Books Challenge threads have been going.

The challenge was 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 , the seventh one here and the eighth one here .

The 50 book thread - such a slay!
With reviews good and bad every day
Posters so erudite
That there's rarely a fight
Just don't mention Remains of the Day...

😂😂😂😂

😆
Anyone else have a brief panic yesterday when Ishiguro's name popped up in the news?

😂
The bloody boring butler
believed himself to love her
but he hesitated, waited
delayed, anticipated
the book would be better if he’d fucked her

Remus

Think this one wins 🤣
Brava Remus 👏

Excellent 👏👏

Last one of the year and a re-read in tandem with me watching the Slow Horses on television:

88. Real Tigers - Mick Herron

Catherine’s been snatched,
But Lamb’s still unmatched—
Sending the slow horses out
To what could be a rout
But ending with them all barely scratched

More cover-ups, double-crossing and politicking in MI5 whilst trying to blame the slow horses. Great fun.

i will try and do my summary of highlights and lowlights tomorrow.

My NY resolutions should be to buy fewer books and read all my unread books (along with eating less and taking more exercise) but I will settle for keeping on track with the read along of The Count

Me too!

@RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie After this and your Strike limerick I'm just imagining you chanting 'shag shag shag' at every book 😛
Guessing Madonna also kept her fur coat on?

😂
I actually read lots of very serious non-fiction with not a shag in sight. Clearly, though, I must. find sexual tension in fiction boring and just want the literary foreplay over with. Having said that, I've rarely met a well-written sex scene, even when the shagging does occur.

I was hoping to get to 300 by tonight, but DS decided we should spend time together so I won't. I could add the children's books I've read (for review purposes rather than to a child) but I feel like that would be cheating. So here's my last 2 for the year. (Probably)

297. The Widow's Lie. Melanie Price
     Psychological thriller. Jacqueline lives with her wealthy husband and their daughter. When a mysterious new neighbour moves in across the street, who's husband had died in mysterious circumstances. But Jackie recognises Anastasia, and she looks suspiciously like Charles' first wife who was declared dead. Totally unbelievable secrets aplenty, no one is who they say they are, and everyone is somehow linked. But despite the total lack of reality it was a great read.

298. Childhood Behind Barbed Wire. Bogdan Bartnikowski Trans. By Tomasz Pobóg-Malinowski
     My mum got me this for Christmas from the shop at Auschwitz. It's the memoir of Bogdan, a Polish child who survived Auschwitz. The blurb on the back implies its a series of short stories, but it felt like one story with a few other random ones about other people thrown in. I think something got lost in translation. Anyway, as you'd expect it was hard to read in places. I'm always awed by the strength of those who survived, and the courage they had to relive their memories and write them down.

My new year book resolution is to get back into the habit of going to bed earlier with a book instead of staying downstairs, eating to stay awake and watching television.

FFS MN ate my round up post 😭

New NYR to draft all book posts in notes app but then deal with formatting weirdness

Otherwise the usual:
Read less, read better.
Epic fail this year going from 150ish to 200ish (not including books in other languages or read for work). I know others manage many more but that's too much for my brain and included much more contemporary meh than usual (I was trying to reread less, which backfired!) And never did get round to W&P....

RWYO/lowbuy (ish). I've already spent my Chrismukkah book tokens on preorders so won't have 'free' money to fritter on 99p ebooks. Though still allowed a deal book if it's one I've already read, loved and will reread OR one I'll start immediately.

Reduce number of bookgroups - the source of almost all this year's italics, and several DNFs (though I mind those less as DNF plenty on my own). Two should be plenty, so replacing the rest with other hobby groups, maybe even a new sport 😮
Still going to hang around here though! Your own fault for making my first year so lovely ♥

I decided against cheating with short books, and won't finish The Cracked Mirror today, so my final total is 46. I'm surprised I didn't get to 50 as I was reading at pace for the first half of the year but dropped off dramatically the last couple of months.

So my new year's resolution is to get to 50 again. I've only managed it 3 times out of the 8 years I've particpated, but hope springs eternal!

Off to post my bolds on the roundup thread.

no. 40

The Canterville Ghost Oscar Wilde
Fun short story (in its own binding as a standalone book, so I am counting) about a ghost who cannot spook an American family who have moved into his ancestral home. The children play tricks on him and it’s lovely and witty.

I have been true to myself this year with my choices not impacted by size etc so I feel justified in counting this as my last read of the year.

50 Billy Summers by Stephen King

Just in time! Pretty unpleasant story about a hit man who masquerades as a writer for one last hit. One female character extremely poorly written. Plus King seems to use rescuing a rape victim as a sort of meet cute. Unpleasant story with unpleasant characters told in an overly long way. I have always thought of King as a good storyteller if nothing else but this wasn't even that....

My last two reviews of the year:

29. The Nightingale by Kristen Hannah
    A novel set in occupied France during the Second World War.
    Not a bad story detailing the lives of two sisters, one who joins the French resistance, and one who resists the occupation in her own way from her rural home. I think I would have enjoyed this more if I'd read it rather than listened to it. It was read by an American who did a very disconcerting 'Allo Allo' type accent anytime a French character spoke. Very off putting.

30. Joe Country by Mick Heron
    Louisa Guy gets involved with the search for Min Harper's teenage son and a tangled web is revealed that ensnares the other Slow Horses.
    Reliably enjoyable tale with great characterisation.

Happy New Year 50 Bookers here's to another year of reading - maybe I'll even manage to hit the magic number in 2025!

@elspethmcgillicudddy wasn’t it horrid and sordid! With an unhealthy concentration on the injuries sustained during the rape. Just ugh.

@AlmanbyRoadtrip It really was. You always know with SK that he isn't to be trusted with your favourite characters. But this was next level. I didn't like how he kept sexualising the young woman but then justifying why he wasn't going to act on it as if that made him a good person. Sordid is the right word for it.

I'm loving the limericks. Sadly I lack the imagination and skill to join in. Here are my final reviews of the year, I managed 130 books in all and managed to fulfil some of my aims to make more use of Kindle Unlimited / Audible Plus, listed to more audio books and to read more non fiction. Will add full stats to the round up thread.

127 Ghost Wall by Sarah Moss

Pathetic excuse for a man, and the wife and daughter who he beats to deal with his own feelings of inadequacy, join a university reenactment of an Iron Age settlement. I quite liked the reenactment aspect and the descent of men into misogyny as the veneer of ‘civilisation’ was gradually washed away was well done. The ending was slightly rushed.

128 Disgrace by Jussi Adler-Olsen

Second in the Dept Q series where Carl and Assad are joined by new team member Rose to investigate a series of historic assaults and murders where the prime suspects are prominent and rich citizens. Good mystery and I really like the characters.

129 A Heart That Works by Rob Delaney

Rob Delaney’s book about his son Henry who died of a brain tumour when he was two. Beautiful, funny on occasion, and heartbreaking.

130 Lights! Camera! Mayhem! by Jodi Taylor

Traditional Christmas outing for St Mary’s, with a return to Troy to rescue an actress that the disaster magnets have misplaced. Enjoyable and I loved the appearance of some old St Mary’s friends at the end.

I liked Billy Summers - I thought it read like an early King. I enjoyed the fact that the hero was human and flawed.

Well I’ve surprised myself and finished two more
215 All Fours by Miranda July (audio)
This started out as an interesting look at a perimenopausal woman’s escape from her normal life. Yes she was selfish and self-obsessed but it had some interest and an intriguing though wholly unlikable narrator. As the book went on, she became more selfish and more unlikable- no consideration or respect for her husband or child and an obsession with graphically described sex. Menopausal women (like me) have always had a bad press and this adds to it, in a very unsympathetic way.

216 Small Pleasures by Clare Chambers
This has been much reviewed. Journalist Jean Swinney looks into the claims of Gretchen who claims that her 10 year old daughter is the result of a virgin birth. This was okay. I found the ‘jolly’ tone a little too jarring up against some of the serious issues that the story raises. Overall I enjoyed it, but less than I expected.

Just popping on to wish everyone a Happy New Year, as I fell off the threads in the Christmas mayhem I work in retail so the pandemonium starts mid-November with the Black Friday build up and doesn't let up till, well, now really...

@BarbaraBuncle sorry to hear about your DS' struggles, that must be very tough for you all. I find Penelope Keith reading the Agatha Raisin books to be a soothing listen, if you're in need of any recommendations.

I have Smallhope and Pennyroyal on my TBR list @TimeforaGandT and also Lights! Camera! Mayhem! @ChessieFL and @MamaNewtNewt - I have a few weeks left of a Kindle Unlimited subscription to make the most of, but after that I'm looking forward to reading my Jodi books!