Good Morning and a Happy New Year to all.
Well here it is on this new year's day, the brand new 50 book challenge and hope that all our regular posters will continue to contribute and anyone new who enjoys their books will consider joining us.
For the benefit of anyone who isn't familiar with this thread, I will run through my introductory spiel. Firstly I would like to point out that if you are someone who thinks that you wouldn't read 50 books in a year but would still be interested in joining in, don't let that number put you off, do come here and join us anyway, particularly if you think you would enjoy ongoing discussions about books which is the essence of this book challenge. This is a thread that I filched from MN, over there they have two threads running concurrently, one for 50 books a year and one for 25. Our reading community here on GN is relatively small so I think it's preferable to keep us as one group allowing for the fact that we all read at different rates, given time constraints or whatever else we have going on in our lives.
The choice of books you opt for is entirely up to you, anything is permissible, fiction, non fiction and I would particularly like to stress your reading material doesn't have to be a novel if you want to opt for something factual, biographies, memoirs, even a children's book if you want to revisit a childhood favourite maybe, audio/Audible. Again how you post is down to you, merely list your books, maybe a brief description, or feel free to waffle on, I do, particularly if I've been enthused about a book I've read. Sometimes we interject and comment on other posters choices, more often than not agreeing with their opinions, and taking up recommendations, occasionally interjecting with our own dislike of maybe one they have favoured, but always with a view of agreeing to disagree. Books as with most other forms of entertainment are subjective and will of course divide opinions as well.
I hope I have outlined all the relevant points for anyone who is contemplating joining us and I would like to wish everyone a happy year's reading and all the best for 2024.
Book 17
The Ghost Tree - Barbara Erskine
Another of her compelling time-slip novels.
I always really enjoy her work, she mixes the paranormal, the mysterious, the magic, with normal people leading normal lives, I always feel when I read one of her novels, that there is much we don’t know.
Very enjoyable
Im in the middle of Middlemarch, literally.
I’m on a bit of a roll at the moment, and would recommend all of these.
11. The Husband’s Secret, Liane Moriarty
The story takes place over just 7 days, and involves three very different women, whose lives are turned upside down as they become intertwined. The secret is in a letter Cecilia finds by accident, in an envelope addressed to her but marked to be opened only in the event of her husband’s death. And it’s a secret that blows her perfect life apart… The narration on the audio book was excellent, apart from the exaggerated lisping voice given to one of the children - thank goodness she didn’t feature heavily!
12. None of This is True, Lisa Jewell
This is a real page turner (if you can say that of an audio book!) full of twists and changes of perspective. Podcaster Alex meets her birthday twin Josie Fair at her 45th birthday celebration. When she interviews her for a podcast a whole world of intrigue and deception comes to light. But how much of it is real?
13. Bournville, Jonathan Coe
The story of four generations of a Midlands family told by way of key events in our history, from VE Day to the pandemic. It’s an easy read, and I enjoyed it - the last chapter, based on the author’s own family experience in lockdown, is very moving. I could have done with a family tree to keep up with the different characters, but that’s often an issue with reading on a Kindle, when it’s not so easy to keep flicking back and forth.
22-Photo Finish-Ngaio Marsh. Saw this in the kiosk and remembered reading her books as a teenager, along with Agatha Christie's. In fact they gave me the start to becoming a thrillers fan. But this time I was very disappointed as it seemed so slow and even at the halfway mark I really wasn't inspired to finish it. So I'm sorry to say I gave up. Maybe with modern thrillers being so fast moving, I've been spoilt. My time for reading is limited and I don't want to waste it reading something I'm not enjoying, as I have 200 other books on my shelf waiting to be read.
Do other readers feel the same?
Book 54, Darkest Before Dawn, by Katie Flynn. Although there is a love story theme running through it, this is an excellent account of life during WW2.
Book 39 Help Wanted by Adele Waldmann. I love books about work, the mundanity, the annoying colleagues and the workplace plotting. Three that spring to mind are
Then it came to an End by Joshua Ferris
Convenience Store Woman by Kikuko Tsumumi and There’s no such Thing as an Easy Job by Sakaya Murata. Help Wanted is about a group of retail workers in a superstore in a small town in upstate New York. They’re on the early morning “Team Movement” shift “breaking out “ the boxes of incoming deliveries. It’s a precarious job with varying hours but never enough to qualify for health benefits. When the store manager announces that he’s leaving it creates a vacancy that it’s likely their hated boss , Meredith, will fill. The characters are brought alive with all their quirks and complexity; even the annoying ones are drawn with warmth. Amazon is never mentioned by name but the threat of “online “ to the retail trade and the effect on the workers wages and conditions looms large in the background.
I agree with you Digging Doris; no point in plodding through a book if you’re not enjoying it. I must have started Madame Bovary at least 3 times, everyone says it’s a great book but I just can’t get on with it. I used to read a lot of Ngaio Marsh and enjoyed her books but not sure if I would today. Dorothy Sayers is another renowned golden age writer but I find her unreadable.
#23. The Zig Zag Girl by Elly Griffiths.
18 Unsettled Ground Claire Fuller
I'd never read any of this author's books before but would certainly try one of hers again having enjoyed this one immensely. This is the story of twins Jeanie and Julius Seeder, a name that Julius was able to overcome any ribbing from his school days by just throwing a few punches. The twins are no spring chickens, 51 years to still be living with their mother. their father had died in a horrific tractor accident when the twins were children. However, their lives are thrown into turmoil when, Dot, their mother suddenly drops dead and they both face eviction from their rural run down cottage, the only home they have ever known.
Eeking out a subsistence, hand to mouth existence, Jeanie never got to grips with reading and writing, having had little schooling due to a prolonged bout of rheumatic fever and like her brother Julius, somewhat orchestrated by their mother, the modern world has passed them by. They live their lives without bank accounts, internet or tv, living off what they can grow and what the eggs their chickens produce, their only company a much loved dog, Maud. Julius works intermittently at casual labouring jobs through local connections and does at least have a phone as a nod to the present day. Officialdom is something they have never had to deal with, unprepared Jeanie has to travel to their nearest town, Devizes to register her mother's death, at which time she evades the registrar's question as to whether their mother is to be buried or cremated, for which in any event they have no money for, and plan to unofficially bury her in the garden. As their lives unravel in a matter of days, impending eviction from a home they thought they had rights to occupy for the rest of their days, coupled with the news their mother owed money they are plunged into a life without security. However, their mother wasn't without friends, she supplied the local deli with homegrown produce and was well known and well liked within their community,, and whilst Jeanie in particular likes to keep herself to herself, she is forced to socialise when neighbours and the local business owners such as the deli owner make their way to their home for an unofficial wake. It's there that we find out about the twins musical talents, Jeanie especially has a special talent for signing when she skulks in a corner quietly singing folk songs and playing the guitar, her brother joining in accompanying her on the banjo, which leads to the local pub landlord suggesting he would offer them a gig or two.
Shortly though their world is to implode when eviction ensues and rough sleeping follows. Jeanie is offered shelter from her mother's best friend Bridget, which she takes for a night or two but eventually runs for the hills, in the form of an abandoned caravan in the woods repulsed by the trappings of modern life, huge omnipresent tv billowing out rubbish and an assortment of ready meals.
All through the book I was rooting for Jeanie, hating every twist and turn that made her life unbearable, less so for Julius who was somewhat on the feckless side spending what little money they had down the pub.
This is essentially a book about rural poverty and the perils of the outside world for people without any resources to fall back on, the squalor and dangers of living rough, but Claire Fuller also evokes the pleasures the natural world and a simple existence before tragedy snatched that away.
I loved it!
TerriBull I was at school with a girl named Diana Caesar whose brother had been named Julius. How cruel!
Yes agreed Sparklefizz, thoughtless and rather unkind parents.
@diggingdoris, l am reading The Franchise Affair by Josephine Tey. I am more than halfway through but finding it disappointing as it so slow-moving and dated in its attitudes. I have been tempted to give up on it several times but am taking the Magnus Magnusson approach of I’ve started so I’ll finish. The one Golden Age author who I think is still quite readable, along with Agatha Christie, is Patricia Wentworth with her Miss Siver mysteries. I prefer Miss Marple to Hercule Poirot in Agatha Christie’s books, too. @Maggierose, I agree with you about Dorothy L. Sayers.
Musicgirl ^ but am taking the Magnus Magnusson approach of I’ve started so I’ll finish.^
I take the opposite approach of "Life's too short to read something I'm not enjoying....."
I am usually with you, Sparklefizz, but for some reason I am persevering with this one. Goodness knows why.
Book 55, A Mother`s Sacrifice, by Jennie Felton. A nice, enjoyable read.
22-1979-Val Mc Dermid- I'll count this as no.22 because I didn't finish the last book I listed.
This is a first for me with this author, and I can see why she's popular and has won awards. This story was about 2 Glasgow journalists and their battle to bring 2 stories they are investigating to the front pages, only to discover they are serious crimes. So they take great risks to see justice done .
#14 The Magpie Key Sarah Painter. I 'read' this on Audible.
Number 8 (and I think last) in the Crow Investigations series. I have enjoyed listening to this series about the four magical families of London: Crows, Foxes, Silvers and Pearl. Lydia Crow whose flatmate is a ghost is the lead character.
TerriBull
I read Unsettled Ground last year and loved it, as you said it’s largely about rural poverty, and a lack of recourses.
Try her novel, Bitter Orange, I really enjoyed that as well.
Thank you Sarah, I will try Bitter Orange, I read a synopsis at the back of Unsettled Ground and thought it sounded like it would be my cup of tea book wise.
Just finished Book 27 The Mysteries of Glass by Sue Gee.
Yes, yet ^another Sue Gee book!! 
I reserved several of hers at the library and they all became available at once.
She writes so beautifully of the countryside and wildlife in her books which creates a wonderful atmosphere.
In the winter of 1860, Richard Allen, a young curate, takes up his first position in a rural parish near the cathedral city of Hereford. He is mourning his father's sudden death and is vulnerable and lonely when he falls in love with a married woman - a shocking thing for a young curate in Victorian times.
I would recommend this for all Sue Gee fans.
Sparklefizz
I loved this one as well, I agree her descriptive writing of the countryside makes you feel like you’re right there. I don’t think anyone does it better.
Book 56, A Wedding at Hedgehog Hollow, by Jessica Redland. A nice feelgood tale, set in the countryside. Lots of really nice folk, a few not so nice, but a nice, pleasant, easy read.
Would recommend " brother. do. you. love. me. by, Manni Coe and Reuben Coe, a tender story of one brother caring for his Downs Syndrome brother and the journey they travelled.
Well on the way now.
The Miniaturist. Jessie Burton
Oh my she can write….absolutely loved it.
I didn’t read it when it was popular, nor was it the first I’ve read of hers. Definitely worth the wait.
Dogsmother
I know a lot of people who were very luke warm about The Miniaturist, but I really loved it.
Not what I was expecting, but very enjoyable.
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