THE BRAND NEW 2024 50 BOOK CHALLENGE

Books 8 and 9, both easy reads, but none the worse for that, enjoyed them both

Book 8
This Family - Kate Sawyer
Mary is getting married for the second time, all she hopes for is that all her family will be there and manage to be nice to each other for the day.
As we go backwards and forwards in time, we realise how impossible this will be, too much has happened.
It’s a good story, a family saga of sorts, mostly decent people who sometimes make bad choices.
I enjoyed it

Book 9
The Paper Palace - Miranda Cowley Heller
Another family saga, this one set in the US
The Paper Palace is a ramshackle series of cabins in the woods, by the lake.
With their family, Elle and Anna return every summer, and reunite with the other families along the lake.
One summer Elle meets Jonah, and their lives are tied together through the years by love, and secrets, there are some great characters, Wallis, the rather eccentric mother, a series of step mothers and step fathers, Peter, Elles English husband and Conrad, the vile step brother, who is the catalyst for everything that goes wrong.
Again, I enjoyed it

Alibee in John Boyne's notes at the end of the book, he explains how he has linked this book to The Boy in Striped Pyjamas, not that I've ever read that. Anyway hope you enjoy All the Broken Places and do come back and tell us what you thought of it.

TerriBull I have also put All the Broken Places on my Amazon wish list, thanks for the recommendation. I see amazon describe it as a sequel to The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas. I shall feed back once read.

TerriBull I loved The Appeal so I look forward to reading The Christmas Appeal. I didn't enjoy Janice Hallet's two follow ups though.

I didn't enjoy her follow ups either, but The Christmas Appeal is back to The Appeal format and I found it very enjoyable.

Urmstongran
I am constantly in awe of the amount of books some ladies are getting through. I read every evening for an hour or so, and if I can’t sleep, which is most nights, I get up and read for another hour.
I would love to have a bit more time, maybe when I retire x

Urmstongran gran fear not if you don't reach the 50 mark; there isn't a demotion zone for those that don't

I loved The Appeal so I look forward to reading The Christmas Appeal. I didn't enjoy Janice Hallet's two follow ups though.

I’m still on book number 3! But hugely enjoying it. Should be done in a couple of days. I’m such a slow reader compared with most on here! Then I thought book 3 isn’t too shabby. It might mean 2 books per month so that’d be 25 in a year. Now that sounds quite impressive.
😁

Sparklefizz
I bought this to read over Christmas, but I didn’t get around to it. I loved The Appeal, so I’m sure I’ll enjoy it.

Book 14 The Christmas Appeal by Janice Hallett This is a sequel to her earlier book The Appeal and is a light-hearted "romp" for want of a better word through the lead-up to an Amateur Dramatics Group's pantomime preparations to raise money for the church roof appeal.

There's a crime so this book is like a witty, good fun Agatha Christie novel.

I’m going to read the John Boyne book too thanks for the recommendation Terribull.
Book 19 Infidel - my life by Ayaan Hirsi Ali - This is an extraordinary book, Ayaan survived genital mutilation, civil war, forced marriage and numerous death threats. She changes from a devout Muslim to a questioning atheist. She is a gifted writer and makes everything vivid from the almost medieval Somali society to the punitive anti-women Islamic state of Saudi Arabia, the chaotic but tolerant Nairobi, a disappointing spell in Ethiopia and ending up in the puzzlingly clean and kindly Dutch asylum system. She becomes a Member of Parliament before being rushed out of the country and her citizenship revoked because of the upheaval provoked by her efforts to educate the Dutch people on the inherently backward and oppressive nature of Islam. An amazing book.

#7. In Cold Blood by Jack Cartwright.

I'll be I interested to read both your feedbacks when you get round to reading it.

I’ve put it in my Waterstones basket TerriBull, but I’m buying so many recommendations from you all, that I don’t know when it will surface to the top of my TBR pile.

It's wonderful Sparklefizz

That sounds a terrific book TerriBull. I’m going to reserve it from the library. Thanks for your review.

8 All The Broken Places - John Boyne

Another absolutely wonderful book, which I alternated between wanting to read continuously but feeling bereft when I'd finished it. I first discovered John Boyne's writing a couple of years ago when I read "The Heart's Invisible Furies" which is one of my all time favourite reads and certainly set a very high bar for me with that book.

This one opens with his main character, Greta, aged 91, a woman of considerable means living in a flat opposite Hyde Park one of the most expensive areas of London. The narrative slowly unwinds to reveal her past, a past that causes her much shame and grief. Born to a father who was the commandant of one of the notorious Nazi concentration camps and was hanged for his role in that.

Greta and her mother flee Berlin in the immediate aftermath of the fall of Berlin to Paris, a Paris that is inhospitable to anyone with a German accent. Acquiring a new identity with a French surname she quickly has to learn French whilst simultaneously not betraying her origins doing her best to erase the Germanic part of her identity. Without giving too much a way whilst her mother becomes involved with a man who would appear to be on the surface an urbane French man enamoured with her, whilst meanwhile young Greta falls for a local teenage boy of her own age causing them both to feel that to all intents and purposes they have a future in Paris, only to find out at a later stage that their respective love interests were very involved in the French Resistance and have them well and truly sussed, dealing with them as they did with French women who were deemed German collaborators. Cast out from that community they move to another part of France, Greta's mother broken by the experience dies young and Greta wishing to leave her unhappy time in France behind emigrates to Australia to begin a new life

Having settled in Sydney for a while, into her life comes a young man from her German past and her involvement with him in their new country causes her to flee again this time to England, a new identity and a hope to erase her Germanic origins. In time she finds a boyfriend, her original identity and the dark secrets that stalk her eventually come to the fore and cause the demise of her relationship. Eventually she marries a kind and understanding man to whom she reveals her past secrets. Her life is never free from the angst she suffers about her early years which leads to a breakdown and it affects the relationship she has with her own child, never feeling she parented him particularly well. The narrative switches between her very elderly widowed years, her husband having left her financially very comfortable and the relationship she forms with a new family who move in a floor below and in particular the child of the family a boy of 9 who reminds her of her long lost brother who died at that age.

In his notes at the end John Boyne describes the story of one of grief, guilt and complicity which sums it up beautifully. Once again another marvellous book from this talented writer.

#10 was Black Hearts by Doug Johnstone. This is book 4 in his series about the Skelfs, a family of female undertakers/private investigators in Edinburgh. The books would be best read in order as there are strong themes which run through them. This one starts with a graveside fight, then there’s an obsessive stalker, a faked death, a haunted elderly Japanese gentleman and a charred body turning up in the river a year after going missing.
I am loving this series, I live in Edinburgh and his knowledge of the city is excellent. 8/10

I enjoyed The Cazalet Chronicles, after reading about them on here. (From the library).

Have tried to order ‘Something In Disguise’ but it looks like they don’t stock it unfortunately.

Book 21, I`m Travelling Alone, a Norwegian thriller by Samuel Bjork. I enjoyed it.

I think, she, Elizabeth Jane Howard was a great writer, I imagine many of us read the Cazalet Chronicles, I loved them.

Ditto TerriBull

Just finished Book 13 The May Bride by Suzannah Dunn
This story is narrated by Jane Seymour from childhood. Her older brother, Edward, brings home to Wolf Hall a bride - Katherine Filliol - and Jane enjoys having her as an "older sister". But 2 years later the Seymour family is torn apart by allegations Edward makes against his wife. I won't say any more in case you don't know the history.

I thought that this book was better written than her book The Confession of Katherine Howard which I read a few weeks ago, but the author is not a patch on Philippa Gregory and I won't be reserving any more of her books from the library.

One major criticism I have is that she gives her characters present-day speech, eg. Someone asks a question and the character shrugs and instead of saying "I don't know" says "Search me!"

I'm a great fan of the Cazalet Chronicles which I have read twice, about 30 years apart so had forgotten most of it.
Book 18 - Chaise Longue by Baxter Dury - Baxter, son of Ian Dury, had a chaotic and neglectful upbringing, left to run wild mostly, or in the care of Dury’s drug dealer, the Sulphate Strangler. it’s a wonder he survived all the scrapes he got into. Baxter writes in a matter of fact way, with no self pity and a good deal of love for his rackety parents.

9-The Gentleman Gypsy-Sarah Swatridge. This was a People's Friend pocket novel that was a short historical romance. A quick easy read in large print. This was my interlude before I start on Richard Osman's Thursday murder club.

I also remember reading Something in Disguise, I know I liked it but can't remember the ending!

I think, she, Elizabeth Jane Howard was a great writer, I imagine many of us read the Cazalet Chronicles, I loved them.

Maggierose

Book 17 Something in Disguise by Elizabeth Jane Howard. It’s set in the early 60’s, published in 1969, and the descriptions of the food, houses and clothes are very evocative of the times. It’s a very enjoyable, easy read despite a rather melodramatic and rushed ending.

Hi maggierose I read this book a couple of weeks ago and agree with you about the ending which I wasn't expecting at all.

AliBeeee
Hello Beautiful was an easy read but it wasn’t one of my favourites which surprised me as I usually love character driven books. It was a local book group read and everyone else loved it and it was a fascinating discussion that evening as we all had very different views around the characters behaviour.