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 .

Checking in on the last thread of the year - thanks southeast!

Thanks for the new thread @Southeastdweller !

I’ll save my list for the round-up thread - just hoping to finish one more and hit 70.

Got Intermezzo for Christmas (don’t worry, it was requested, I’m a Sally Rooney lover not a hater). Also book token which I’ll be spending later today!

Welcome @BiscuitsBooks - this is a lovely thread but may be bad for your bank balance and your unread book pile!

Thanks @Southeastdweller for the new thread.

I've just checked and have been a 50 booker since 2020!

Thank you for the new thread Southeast. I posted on the one started earlier, but it got disappeared by the time I pressed send 😊

Kinsters that's wonderful news about the baby.

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and all the best for the new year.

Hope everyone had a really lovely day yesterday. I laughed at all the gifting woes at the end of the last thread. We're an extended family of 22 and have tried many solutions over the years as the cost was getting ridiculous. We had a fab year where we gave vouchers for "time" and skills. I taught a niece to knit. My BIL helped me with some work on my campervan and my elderly mum got a year of lawn mowing from one of her grandsons. We then decided once the last of the generation down left university that we should all just stop between siblings and beyond. The sibs with kids and grandkids sort their own family out, but we don't go sideways or up the tree anymore. My mum is in her 80s and doesn't want any more stuff. She's taken Swedish Death Cleaning to a level where I needed to open the wine with a screwdriver yesterday. Everyone has been significantly happier as we're no longer buying or receiving tat for the sake of it and you get to treat yourself to something you really want instead.

I'm on 249 books, but think I'll get a few more in before the end of the year. I've recently really liked.

The Amendments - Niamh Mulvey
Three generations of Irish women go up against laws and social norms surrounding reproductive rights and the consequences. It did get a bit muddied in places between the three storylines, but overall a decent stab at the issues.

Private Rites - Julia Armfield
A retelling of Kings Lear. Three sisters in the near future living through a climate catastrophe come to terms with the death of their father and the aftermath.
I thought this started well, but lost its way a bit towards the end. I don't think you'd need to be familiar with KL to appreciate it.

Toxic: Women, Fame, and the Tabloid 2000s - Sarah Ditum
An examination of celebrity culture and 9 women who bore the brunt of the tabloid press and the wild west of an emerging internet.
I found this really interesting. I was in my 20s at the time and was aware of most of the women discussed, but didn't always know the background to the scandals or vilification of them.

@Southeastdweller "then there was Covid, redundancy, bereavements...so much bloody LIFE and a fair bit of stress, and these threads have always been there and such a comfort to me.

Coming on as a huge lurker to say that that sums up my life in the last 5 years.

I moved to France four years ago and have been reading almost exclusively in French to try to get as fluent as I can but this thread has been my "box of delights" on the internet.

Thank you so very much @Southeastdweller for this lovely space.

Happy New Year to you all.

Edited for spelling errors. I blame the wine! My backyard is a vineyard!

Thanks for wrangling MN to get us our new thread Southeast and welcome BiscuitsBooks. This is my ninth year on these threads, definitely the loveliest corner of the internet.

Last two books of the year, & happily both went on my bolds list.

109. Elena Knows by Claudia Piñero, trans. Frances Riddle
     Elena's daughter has been found dead, & the police have closed the case. Elena is determined that a proper investigation will take place, and wants to track down an old contact of her daughter's. But just getting from her house to the bus stop is a huge challenge for Elena, as she has advanced Parkinson's disease & very restricted mobility. The book takes place over the course of one day, as she travels across the city.
     
     Although this is billed as a crime novel, it's far more a book about family relationships, living with disability, and the impact of our actions. A really good read and a definite bold.

110. The Christmas Chronicles by Nigel Slater
     I only picked this up for a bit of a giggle following the Nigel chat on here, but actually I really loved it, & it was a perfect Christmas time book. The only down side was that we had our festive meal on the solstice, & I only reached Christmas day in the book - and discovered much better instructions for cooking goose - yesterday evening. I've also bookmarked lots of the recipes for some new year cooking sessions.

@kinsters - that is a truly wonderful update

A belated happy Christmas to all of you lovely 50-bookers.

I've just totted up and realised I gifted a total of 14 books - but received none. Such is life. To be fair I probably own enough books to never need another until I keel over but regardless, I will be working on my wish list for my birthday in just a few weeks' time!!

I have been on these threads since January 2018 and have only once managed to make it to 50. Thanks for hosting the best part of the internet @Southeastdweller

My Christmas guests leave tomorrow morning and I'm looking forward to some cosy book-reading time over the weekend.

Next year will be year 8 for me. I've been pants at posting reviews for the past few years, but I'm always determined to keep up with reading the thread as like everyone else, find it a great source of sanity and loveliness in a crazy world. The effort everyone puts in is very much appreciated.

I am trying to seriously cut down my online time, but this thread is one of the essential things I'm not willing to lose.

I have read more physical books than usual this year, but I'm still very audio heavy. I'm hoping my ongoing war with decluttering and renovating the house will result in more time to actually read next year.

She's taken Swedish Death Cleaning to a level where I needed to open the wine with a screwdriver yesterday - that made me laugh immoderately, @FortunaMajor 😅

Lovely to see you @magimedi

2025 will also be my 8th year on this lovely thread - gosh, how time flies!

Gosh I've been on since 2013 too. More of a lurker than a poster but I read everything. Thank you for your service @Southeastdweller
In that time I've made it to 50 ... Twice 😆

I've been trying and failing to post on the old thread! Merry Christmas to all, especially @Kinsters and your new baby!

I specifically didn't want books as I have so many unread, but my husband got me Say Nothing as I've been enjoying the TV series so I'm interested to read that.

I thought I was done with Jilly but may pick up Polo not least as it looks like the next series of Rivals may pick up some of that.

I am enjoying reading silly festive romances on my kindle, and still making SLOW progress through A Place of Greater Safety - I have to say I'm finding it a lot harder to follow and to engage with the characters than Wolf Hall.

You laugh, but I was lucky to find a screwdriver.

Thanks for the new thread @Southeastdweller

Just place markimg for now. Partway through 2 books so hoping will finish at least one more before the new year.

Thanks for the new thread @Southeastdweller ! It may be a short one, but I’m glad to have somewhere to post about my latest book:

63 The Dictionary People - Sarah Ogilvie Someone on here (sorry, I’m terrible at remembering who) recommended this after I read Pip Williams’ novel about the people involved in creating the Oxford English Dictionary, and said I would like to know more about the real people and their actual lives; it turned out that I had actually received this book for my birthday (it tends to take me a while to get to proper books as I save them for a treat and mostly read on my tablet). It was well worth the wait - extremely interesting, touching on the lives of hundreds of contributors to the dictionary, many with interesting and unusual backgrounds. It must have been difficult to find the right balance between including as many people as possible and giving enough information about each one without just turning it into a list, but I felt that Ogilvie pitched it exactly right. One of my books of the year, and it has also led me to revisit my view of Williams’ novel which I have bumped up to a bold now that I have more of the real-life background on which she based her story.

I think that might have been me, @DuPainDuVinDuFromage. Really pleased you enjoyed it - it’s one of my bolds for the year too.

Jane Austen: The Secret Radical by Helena Kelly

Frequently boring. Often bollocks.

I thought this was, frankly, ridiculous. It smacked of desperation and a desire to shock, making claim after claim based on spurious coincidences.

As an English teacher, I like a bit of symbolism as much as the next person, but there’s a difference between finding patterns of meaning based on texts as a whole and making up random shite to force a point. Most of this book imo consisted of random shite. Badly done, Helena. Badly done.

Marking my place on the new thread! I think I might just make 52 books (if I can find where I have misplaced my kindle in the Christmas chaos). I've gone through my good reads and ruthlessly adjusted my ratings. I'm with @EineReiseDurchDieZeit with Project Hail Mary as my favourite read of the year.

2025 will be my 13th year on this thread (username tumbletumble in the early days). In 2013 it was my New Year's resolution to read more - the only NY resolution I've ever kept!

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.
40 Percy Jackson and the Sea of Monsters by Rick Riordan
41 Zorba the Greek by Nikos Kazantzakis. Translated by Carl Wildman
42 Solitaire by Alice Oseman
43 The Observations by Jane Harris
44 Percy Jackson and the Titan's Curse by Rick Riordan
45 The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists by Robert Tressell. Adapted by Scarlett and Sophie Rickard
46 The Doll's Alphabet by Camilla Grudova
47 The Inn at the Edge of the World by Alice Thomas Ellis
48 Christmas Poems by Carol Ann Duffy

I've highlighted eleven above after having a top ten on the other thread but I can't choose between the two Emecheta novels and they are sequels anyway.

Now reading one of my Christmas presents: Suggested in the Stars and hoping to finish it before the year end (then I might have to borrow a kids book to make it to 50!).

Thank you for the final thread! I am nearly finished my Mantel. Hopefully tomorrow!

Reminder to Dickensalongers to read the December instalment of MC too!

Thank you, as ever, @Southeastdweller

And thank you @FuzzyCaoraDhubh, I think it was your review of Esther's Inheritance that inspired me to add it to my Christmas Wishlist.

Thanks for the new thread southeast!

Attached is my Christmas book haul. Very pleased with all of them! Although only two are new reads for me - the others are all ones I read this year but wanted my own copies to keep. The Grapes of Wrath is my book of the year.

Currently on 353 books but have another couple I’m hoping to finish today and will probably squeeze another one or two in before the end of the year.

List:

1. Identity, Nora Roberts
2. Nightwork, Nora Roberts
3. Chances, Freya North
4. Whatever it Takes, Adele Parks
5. Pretty Girls, Karin Slaughter
6. The Great Post Office Scandal, Nick Wallis
7. Politics on the Edge, Rory Stewart
8. Eat Sweat Play, Anna Kessels
9. Stranded, short stories, Val McDermid
10. Past Lying, Val McDermid
11. Ruth's First Christmas Tree (short), Elly Griffiths
12. The Crossing Places, Elly Griffiths
13. Let Me In, Claire McGowan
14. Still Life, Val McDermid
15. The Crossing, Mat Brolly
16. The Crow Trap, Ann Cleeves
17. The Maid, Nita Prose
18. Bringing Columbia Home, Mike Leibenhart
19. The Last List of Mabel Beaumont, Laura Pearson
20. A Memoir of my Former Self, Hilary Mantel
21. The Sense of an Ending, Julian Barnes
22. The Secret Barrister
23. The Time Traveller’s Wife, Audrey Nifenegger
24. I Have Some Questions for You, Rebecca Makkai
25. See Them Run by Marion Todd
26. The Premonition by Michael Lewis
27. In Dark Water -Lynn McEwan
28. Dead Man Deep -Lynn McEwan
29. The Girls of the Glen -Lynn McEwan
30. The Gathering Storm -Lynn McEwan
31. Empire of Pain - Patrick Radden Keefe
32. The Strawberry Thief - Joanne Harris
33. Scoops - Sam McAllister
34. Royal Road to Fotheringhay - Jean Plaidy
35. Sing You Home- Jodi Picoult
36. The Captive Queen of Scots - Jean Plaidy
37. Mother Tongue - Bill Bryson
38. Act of Oblivion - Robert Harris
39. Elephants Can Remember - Agatha Christie
40. Westwind - Ian Rankin
41. 1979 - Val McDermid
42. The Dubrovnik Book Club - Eva Glyn
43. After that Night - Karin Slaughter
44. Triptych- Karin Slaughter
45. Blindsighted - Karin Slaughter
46. Kisscut - Karin Slaughter
47. 1989 - Val McDermid
48. Sisterland - Curtis Sittenfield
49. Broken - Karin Slaughter
50. Meet Me at the Museum - Anne Youngson
51. The Last Widow - Karin Slaughter
52. Skin Privilege - Karin Slaughter
53. Rizzio- Denise Mina
54. A Faint Cold Fear - Karin Slaughter
55. Medea - Rosie Hewlett
56. Depp vs Heard - Nick Wallis
57. The Secret of Villa Alba - Louise Douglas
58. Yellowface - Rebecca F Kuang
59. The Bernini Bust - Iain Pears
60. Giving Up The Ghost - Hilary Mantel
61. Girl A - Abigail Dean
62. All Fours - Miranda July
63. Under Her Roof - A A Chaudhuri
64. Just Another Missing Person - Gillian McAllister
65. Indelible - Karin Slaughter
66. Faithless - Karin Slaughter
67. Fractured - Karin Slaughter
68. Three Women - Lisa Taddeo
69. Wish you were here - Jodi Picoult
70. Genesis - Karin Slaughter
71. Power Trip plus new epilogue - Damian McBride
72. Over My Dead Body - Maz Evans
73. Vanishing Acts - Jodi Picoult
74. The Summer of Lies - Louise Douglas
75. Sister in law - Harriet Wistrich
76. None of This is True - Lisa Jewell
77. The Tenth Circle - Jodi Picoult
78. Mythos - Stephen Fry
79. Wifedom: Mrs Orwell’s Invisible Life - Anna Funder
80. Breaking the Dark - Lisa Jewell
81. Who’s That Girl - Mhairi McFarlane (re read)
82. You Belong With Me - Mhairi McFarlane
83. An Officer and a Spy - Robert Harris
84. Rodham - Curtis Sittenfield
85. The Flower Girls - Alice Clark-Platts
86. Day One - Abigail Dean
87. The Cracked Mirror - Chris Brookmyre
88. The Turning point - Freya North
89. The End of Us - Olivia Kiernan
90. My Favourite Mistake - Marian Keyes
91. Alison Wonderland - Helen Smith
92. The Girl in the Ice - Robert Bryndza
93. Whatever You Love - Louise Doughty
94. The Burning - Jane Casey
95. Then She Was Gone - Lisa Jewell
96. Other People’s Husbands - Elizabeth Noble
97. A Colossal Failure of Common Sense: The Incredible Inside Story of the Collapse of Lehman Brothers - Larry McDonald and Patrick Robinson
98. Birnam Wood - Eleanor Catton
99. The Abortionist’s Daughter - Elizabeth Hyde
100. Failed State - Sam Freedman
101. The Definitive Guide to the Menopause and Perimenopause - Louise Newsom
102. The Hand That First Held Mine - Maggie O’Farrell
103. The Janus Stone - Elly Griffiths
104. Hercule Poirot’s Silent Night - Sophie Hannah
105. The House at Sea’s End - Elly Griffiths
106. A Room Full of Bones - Elly Griffiths
107. Fallen - Karin Slaughter
108. Criminal - Karin Slaughter
109. Conversations with Friends - Sally Rooney
110. The Truth About Melody Browne - Lisa Jewell
111. Breathtaking - Rachel Clark
112. Dear Coca-Cola: The Timewaster Letters - Terry Ravenscroft
113. Marple - various (12 short stories)
114. Mad Honey - Jodi Picoult
115. Unseen - Karin Slaughter
116. Blue Machine - Helen Czerski

DNF: The Bat, Jo Nesbo
Currently reading; The Kept Woman, Karin Slaughter and a non-fiction about screen time (Unlocked)

Morning! I think I fell off these threads in October for the first time in years. Popping in to say Happy Betwixmas. Guests are leaving today so I’ve a full day of reading in peace ahead.

ive one story left in George Simenon’s A Maigret Christmas and then on to something undecided.

See you all in 2025!