THE BRAND NEW 2024 50 BOOK CHALLENGE

Book 23 Such a Beautiful Family by T.R Ragan - A psychological thriller which is a quick and easy read. Nora’s new boss wants to be her best friend, she’s also got designs on her family.

5. From the Cradle, Louise Voss and Mark Edwards
Three young children go missing, and a detective with his own interesting back story is on the case. If you like improbable twists and turns, this is one for you, but in the end there were just too many for me.

6. The Island of Missing Trees, Elif Shafak
Based around a family from Cyprus, moving between their current life in London and the time of the troubles in their home country. Beautifully written, touching and for me very informative. I loved it.

Book 24 Odd Girl Out by Elizabeth Jane Howard - Published in 1972, it seems such a different way of life with everyone smoking, even in restaurants, and purposefully getting drunk on the plane, and 50p being a generous tip to a taxi driver who carried 7 pieces of luggage up some stairs and there were porters at railway stations and no mobile phones or internet. A really enjoyable novel about a ménage au trois which you just know is going to end badly.

Book 27, The One From the Other, by Philip Kerr. Set in Germany, it opens in 1937, then advances to 1949. I read it all, but didn`t enjoy it, mainly because I didn`t like, or approve of, the main character, or the rest, come to that. It was the first of a series, all featuring the same main character, Bernhard Gunther,but I won`t be reading any more of them.

Book 10
The Survivors - Jane Harper
I’m a big Jane Harper fan, so was expecting to enjoy this, and I did, but it took a while to really get into it.
Same format, small coastal town, a crime to be solved, slow and steady and atmospheric.
Slightly disappointing ending, wrapped up very quickly, I turned the page expecting another chapter to tie in all the loose ends, but it was finished.
Would recommend though.

I really enjoy Jane Harper books, have read them all, I think, Sara1954 but agree. It was very good but this wasn't her best book.

I'm a big Jane Harper fan too and agree that The Survivors wasn't her best book, but I have loved the others. Her books are very atmospheric and although I've never been to Australia, her descriptions take me there.

10 Three Worlds - Memoirs of an Arab-Jew - Abi Shlaim
(Non fiction)

Once upon a time there was a flourishing Jewish community in Iraq they had been there not just for centuries, but several millennia. In Baghdad in particular they accounted for approximately one 3rd of the population. During the period of the Ottoman Empire, minority religions were able to operate and have autonomy to run their own affairs, subject to a poll tax. Jewish communities lived along side their Muslim neighbours in relative harmony, in fact quite a few forged close relationships. It was into this world, Abi Shlaim the author of this personal memoir was born. His father was a wealthy businessman and they lived in some style in an opulent villa in the centre of Baghdad. However this happy existence was to be shattered when he reached the age of 5, the early 50s, the Jewish community were forced to flee Iraq. Relations undermined by not only Iraqi nationalists who had been heavily influenced by The Nazis during the 1940s, but by the Zionist underground who covertly operated in Baghdad in the late 40s early 50s. Contrary to what many might imagine many Jewish Iraqis had zero interest in Zionism and Avi Shlaim's family were typical of Iraqi Jews in feeling Iraqi first and Jewish second most were fully immersed in Arabic culture. However, around the time of their flight to Israel anti semitism was surging in Iraq, one factor was the 1948 war where the tide of nationalistic Iraqi opinion was turning against them. As always, to be Jewish was to be conflated with the worst excesses of Zionism. Abi Shlaim was mostly to be throughout his life a fierce critic of the Zionist cause he abhorred the way The Palestinians, became "the victims victims" and were forced out of their lands by the successive governments of what was to become his newly adopted country. The objectives of Zionist operations in Iraq around the time of surging anti semitism was to persuade the Jewish population to leave Iraq and come to the newly formed state of Israel, many would have preferred to stay where they were. However, many were unnerved by bombs that were detonated in their areas, including a synagogue the perception at the time being that these had been planted by Iraqi nationalists. In Abi Shlaim's research as an Oxford Professor he and a Muslim colleague had pieced together evidence that in fact it was an underground Zionist movement who were behind the bombs, seeking to fan the flames and crank up the fear of the greater Muslim population, Those tactics to a greater extent worked, what was an initial trickle of immigrants turned into a steady flow. The Jewish community in Iraq has all but disappeared maybe a handful of people remain.

So it was into this second world as a five year old Avi and his family found themselves. Gone was the large villa and luxurious life- style, the family, of five were crammed into a small pretty basic flat. They were able to squirrel into the country a little money, but most of their assets were kept by the Iraqi state. Avi's father, once a successful business man was unable to find work and became a shell of his former self, and his mother became the breadwinner. At school Avi describes himself as an underachiever. In retrospect he feels a factor for that may have been, the overt prejudice towards Arab Jews, they were almost regarded as a sub culture, the European Ashkenizis being held up as the ideal. Speaking Arabic, in fact anything to do with Arab culture was frowned upon. Avi's mother laments that she has nothing in common with Ashkenzis, her whole existence and experiences have been in the Arab world. Israel for them was a depressing place. Eventually, as Avi is not flourishing at school, Avi's mother moves heaven and earth through her contacts to send him to school in England.

The third world of the title relates to Avi's school life in England, an England where his Arabic origins are not held up to ridicule as they were in Israel, and in spite of London's grey skies, a climate he found dreary, he does at last begin to find his academic wings, under the guidance of the headmaster who he lodges with in the family home whilst he goes on to eventually acquire the requisite A levels to gain entry to Cambridge. Today he is an Oxford historian of the modern Middle East.

This book provides a fascinating insight into an almost forgotten world.

#8 Little Wing- Freya North, I really enjoyed this, Nell in the search for her birth mother on the beautiful island of Harris, dipping into her other friendships, relationships with family and colleagues.
#9 Going Rogue - Janet Evanovich, I’ve read many of her books and I’m looking forward to the laughs.

Book 28, The Two Week Wait, by Sarah Rayner, the story of 2 womens` attempts to become pregnant through IVF. A good read.

I started Burial Rites, by Hannah Kent, but after a few pages realised I`d read it before, found it morbid and depressing, so decided not to read it again. Am about to start The Corporal`s Wife, by Gerald Seymour, one time newsreader at ITN, many years ago.

Sorry about my missing book #5, Urmstongran. I’ve been away for a few days without my iPad (don’t do GN on my phone) so only just reading the posts following my last one, now. It was Tyger, a children’s book by SF Said. I think it wasn’t to hand when I was posting last week. I was mainly listening to the audiobook until I realised I didn’t like the way it was being read. I went back to the print version and enjoyed it much more. It is set in an imagined London of the near future but part of a country that still has an empire in which slavery has not been abolished. There are themes of racism, poverty, control of people’s lives by rich, feudal lords, but also of the wonder and power of nature and the ability, with practice, of humans to expand their minds to see deep into the hearts of other people and to engage with the wonders of the natural world through opening the mind to mystical experiences. That sounds a bit heavy, but it is also a thrilling, dangerous adventure that friends Adam and Zadie have when they have to save a mysterious, magical Tyger, from captivity in a menagerie. I thought I would love this book but I have struggled with it in print form as well as audio. Some sections flowed but others seemed to be trying to explain too much in a didactic fashion. The writer is known for his Varjak Paw books, published in the early 2000s. He is an inspirational spokesman for the importance of imagination in the lives of children in particular, and access to books through school and public libraries. I am really sorry that I did not enjoy this book as much as I hoped but I would still recommend it for all ages from about 9 upwards, for for a story that links with ancient stories and poetic vision.

Book 6 The Favour by Nicci French.

Book No. 17 Reading in Bed by Sue Gee.
This is the best book I have read this year!! Beautifully written with wry humour at times, moving and uplifting.

Two couples have been friends since university - one couple live in York, the other in London and they have happy lives, but unfortunately life is rarely as one wishes it to be.

Georgia is coming to terms with being widowed and her daughter's many problems. Dido, for the first time, has reason to question her marriage, and her adult children are grappling with their busy lives.

The author is wonderful at characterisation, and this book is about life and books, friendship and love, families and bereavement, children and old age.

I absolutely loved it.

Sparklefizz
I’m so pleased you enjoyed the Sue Gee. She is one of my favourite writers, and very underrated.
The Hours of the Night is one of my all time favourite books.

Book 25 The Only Story by Julian Barnes. I spotted Julian Barnes at an art gallery recently. He was still tall and distinguished looking but looking all of his years and it prompted me to reread this book as it’s narrated by an older man looking back at the youthful love affair which profoundly affected the rest of his life. Paul is nineteen when he falls in love with Susan, aged 48, married and with 2 daughters older than him. I believe JB had a similar experience with the mother of one of his friends. Paul’s youth and inexperience provides comedy - “I know little about the female orgasm, and somehow assume that if you manage to keep going long enough, it will at some point be automatically triggered in the woman. Like breaking the sound barrier, perhaps.” The lasting impression of this beautifully understated book however is one of sadness.

Sparklefizz - I thought your review of the "Reading in Bed" in bed book sounded something like I might enjoy, so I went to my library ap and shock horror they don't have it! not on Audible either, although the library does have some of Sue Gee's books, what a shame! I've never read any of her stuff before, I think they had the one Sarah recommended so might put that on my to read list.

TerriBull, I think you will enjoy it, let us know

TerriBull You might be able to pick up "Reading in Bed" 2nd hand from World of Books or We Buy Books. Might be worth a try. I've bought 2nd hand from both of those in the past.

PS. * TerriBull* You can buy 2nd hand from World of Books etc. via Amazon if you prefer.

Sara1954 I have just looked for Hours of the Night in my library but not available, so have ordered it 2nd hand from World of Books via Amazon because it sounds as if I'd like it.

I read one of Sue Gee's books years ago but had forgotten about her as an author (and also can't remember which book I read) but anyway, I shall definitely be reading more of hers, and thank you very much for your recommendation.

Sparklefizz, she hasn’t written that many, but each one is a gem. I really hope you enjoy them.

Have just finished re-reading ‘The Ink Black Heart’. I have re-visited all the Strike books, apart from the latest one as it is too recent to read again.

TIBH was my least favourite one, with all the endless online chats, but I simply skipped over them this time. It didn’t make a scrap of difference to my understanding of the whole book, and I would recommend doing that to anyone who reads the book.

No 6 Our Man In Havana by Graham Green. I’d never read this before. It’s dated with some unspeakable words in it that are no longer in use today, but the overall tale was enjoyable. Scarily, I suspect things haven’t changed much since then!

Calendargirl, good advice, it took me ages before I realised I was reading it wrongly. I was reading it across rather than down, but to be honest, it didn’t make much more sense when I corrected it.
I think it was an experiment which didn’t quite work out, but that aside, I enjoyed the book.

Thanks for the hints Sparklefizz and Sarah on how to access Sue Gee's books. As I said there are some I can order from the library, particularly the one Sarah mentioned, so I'll do that to add to my ever growing pile and there is an MP3 audio version of Reading in Bed, but that's not a lot of help to me. Incidentally I looked for it through Amazon and they had it to order for a staggering £28, No! I don't think so, I'm wondering if it's that price because it's out of print, but anyway used versions are available through The World of Books for £3 or so.

By the way, I'm loving Ann Tyler's The Amateur Marriage Sparklefizz which you read recently, two thirds through one of her best so far.

Yes agree, Calendar Girl, Ink Black Heart, not her best in the series, the on line conversations made it somewhat tedious. I always say this, but Troubled Blood for me, is the absolute number 1.