THE BRAND NEW 2024 50 BOOK CHALLENGE

Book 2
The Seaside - Madeleine Bunting
Loved this book.
Part love affair, part depressing stories of social and economic decline.
Madeleine traveled the British coastline, stopping at most of our major resorts
The story is almost always the same. Poverty, low pay, drug addiction, mental health problems, magnificent Hotels turned into seedy HMO’s
There is lack of investment, and lack of visitors.
But there is some hope, some resorts are buckling the trend, and with the help of a few imaginative and visionary people are turning things around.
I love the seaside, and I hadn’t realised the rate of decline, it will be sad indeed, if the British holiday becomes a thing of the past.

Still ploughing through The Year of the Locust, but finding it hard going, so I’m interspersing other light, quick to read books

#5 Five Bloody Hearts, Joy Ellis. Fairly sure the central character is one of the most irritating ever written, and I knew whodunnit very early on, which is always annoying.

Finally finished book 1, The Bee Sting, equivalent to two books at 650ish pages which is why it took me a while.

The setting is a provincial town in Ireland when businesses hit the buffers during the financial crash. The Barnes family who were previously enjoying the fruits of a comfortable existence reach crisis point, when the second generational family business, a garage, looks as if it might be going to the wall. Dickie the patriarch, spends most of his days burying his head in the sand about the ever growing black hole in the family finances, escaping instead to the nearby woods to build a bunker preparing for his perceived vision of an apocalyptic future along with his sidekick Victor who is busy annihilating the grey squirrel population with a shotgun, a source of protein he asserts that will sustain them when the second famine arrives.

His wife Imelda, a local beauty, previously engaged to Dickie's brother, having come from a dirt poor background is contemplating that level of poverty might become her future and occupies her days selling off possessions on ebay as a meagre source of income.

Meanwhile their daughter Cassie, full of teenage angst, with her best, but manipulative friend Elaine are preparing to take their finals so they can decamp to Dublin, university and escape the restraints of small town life. PJ her brother, still an adolescent, immersed in his diverse interests ranging from video games, porn and a fascination with nature mopes around the woods trying to escape the atmosphere at home and the town bully who is trying to extort money from. him due to a grievance with work carried out at his father's garage. That's pretty much the opening part of the book, subsequent chapters unfold to reveal the gilded but not altogether happy upbringing of Dickie and his brother Frank and their relationship with their father, a wealthy self made man. Imelda's impoverished early years being a sharp contrast to the brothers, one who she becomes engaged to and the older one she eventually marries. A large part of the book is very much a reflection on Dickie's lost youth and the horrors of Imelda's chaotic childhood that never really leaves her.

A complex and excellent novel laced with humour although there were also some darker themes that left a feeling of disquiet.

Book Number 2, a change of direction, Chris Brookmyre's The Cliff House, a mere 350 pages so altogether a quicker read.

Finished Book # 3 Sea Glass by Anita Shreve - another great book by this author which I thoroughly enjoyed.

Set in New Hampshire in 1929 and early 30s, Sexton Beecher proposes to Honora Willard although they don't know each other particularly well.

This book gives a wealth of sharply drawn historical detail and the poverty of social conditions at that time, and against this backdrop is the story of relationships and human beings pushed to the edge.

1-The Midnight Lock-Jeffery Deaver- At last I've finished my first book of the year. I started it on Boxing day but found it hard going to start with. I found that because I had it on my kindle, I didn't like reading at bedtime as it seemed to keep me awake. Something to do with the bright screen I think. So it's taken me ages.
It was a complex story with Lincoln Rhymes investigating, with 3 cases intertwined which confused me a bit. I usually love the stories with him in but was a little disappointed this time. Maybe it's just me not feeling in the best of health, so let's see how I get on with no.2.
I know it's not a race, and am almost ashamed that I read 107 books in 2023, when I should have been doing housework, gardening etc. But never mind, I find it relaxes me from my stressful life. So happy reading to all the new posters this year.

I’ve started our book club read today as we meet next week. It’s ’The Satsuma Complex’ by Bob Mortimer. His first novel apparently. I’m not at all sure I’m going to like this but hoped to be proved wrong. A standard thriller (not a genre I’m that keen on to be honest) mixed with humour. Hmm.

#1- Night Sleep Death Stars - Joyce Carol Oates. (My second book of 2024 but I can't remember the first one's title, will post retrospectively) This one's engrossing, she writes so well about well-off suburban East Coast American women, challenging their lifestyle sympathetically. A long book but plenty happening to keep my interest.

The Dark is Rising sequence. Oh this speaks to me. Still.

Oh I didn’t know we were counting so
Book 3 The Bee Sting , TerriBull gives a good introduction to it. I really recommend it if you like big fat dysfunctional family books like Jonathan Franzen’s. I loved it but felt the ending let it down ; the author very cleverly drew together all the characters and plot lines in a suspenseful ending which I found a bit too melodramatic.
Book 4 Drinking by John Cheever
A slim volume of short stories from the 50’s and early 60’s. Cheever was an alcoholic as well as being a brilliant writer. I was especially impressed by The Swimmer as I admired the film starring Burt Lancaster, in his swimming trunks throughout.

I have put The Bee Sting on my wish list, it sounds like I would enjoy it, I really like Jonathan Franzen

As much as I liked The Bee Sting it is bleak in parts and I also felt it didn't have a great conclusions, almost as if he had thought the ending through kind of just fizzled out.

hadn't not had

Happy New Year to everyone, and thank you, TerriBull for setting us up for another year of reading and (ahem) learned literary discussion.

1. The Gift, Cecilia Ahern
I started this one over the Christmas period and thoroughly enjoyed it. A fantastical fable that owes a lot to A Christmas Carol, it’s the tale of a driven high flying businessman in Dublin whose life and priorities are changed by a mysterious homeless person to whom he gives a job. I loved it, especially as I always like to have something Christmassy to read at Christmas. Be warned though that there isn’t the happy festive ending I was expecting.

2. Deadly Focus, R C Bridgestock
The Bridgestocks are ex-police, and professional advisors to such productions as Happy Valley, and I’m sure I’ve enjoyed their work before. Not this one though. It was about child murders and I found the details way too graphic and gruesome. The plot was thin as well, and the ending obvious. Also, the maverick detective working on the case got away with behaviour that would have had him out of a job. Police inspectors really don’t get away with yelling at and physically assaulting their superior officers. Very disappointing.
.
I’ve just started one of the Prime First Reads, The Real Deal. So far, so good.

Urms you write as though you think Bob Mortimers book should also be his last novel. 🤣

No 3. Reaching Down The Rabbit Hole by Alan Ropper & BD Burrell.

This was not what I was expecting it to be. I had been under the impression it was about children’s literature through the ages. In fact, it was an account of the extraordinary cases that came through the doors of the Neurology unit at Brigham & Women’s hospital in the US! I don’t know how I had it so muddled. 🤣. Anyway, it was fascinating although also very sad at times. One case mirrored that of a friend who died suddenly about five years ago of a rare condition. It actually gave me some peace of mind of what happened to her and I now see why they were unable to save her.

I have finished The Maid by Nita Prose. Right up to the epilogue I would have put it in the category "cosy crime". It was lightweight with a feelgood factor, where the "baddies" got their just desserts and for the "goodies" everything came right and more. Only in the epilogue was there a more challenging view of events and a more complex main character.
There is to be a second book featuring Molly the maid. I hope the character will be more rounded and complex in this book.

Finished book 3, The Other Passenger. I enjoyed it, quick and easy read, some nasty but intriguing characters, although I think my favourite Louise Candlish novel is Our House, such a breathtaking ending.

Now on book 4, Orphans of the Storm, my first novel by Celia Imrie, the actress from Dinner Ladies and Calendar Girls. It's for our Bookgroup 📚 at the end of the month.
It's a fascinating story, based on fact, about a passionate love affair which begins in Nice - beautiful descriptions- in the early 1900s, which leads by a series of twists and turns to a fateful journey on the Titanic...
more to follow!

TerriBull, enjoy your Christopher Brookmyre! We met him at a book signing in Glasgow many years ago, he's very interesting. I found his novels very visual, I could see them in my head as movies or TV series.

I finished The Running Grave last night, 945 pages, an excellent book, latest in the series by Robert Galbraith, aka, J K Rowling. Book two, which I’ve started is The Last Devil to Die, Richard Osman, I’ve read his previous ones.
I only read in bed, goodness knows why!

I am not getting on well with Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese. I know some of you have raved about it. Is it worth pressing on? (I have a pile of appealing Xmas present books calling to me )

My cu-off point for whether to continue reading a book I am not sure about is p56 - if I’m not enjoying it by then, I stop.

#6 The Silence Project by Carole Hailey. I think this was recommended by someone here, but I can’t find the post (note to Gransnet: please provide a decent search function in the purported upgrades).

Anyway, it’s a novel presented as a memoir, touching on some interesting themes: family, loss, cults, culture, control, power, sexism, modern colonialism, the use of social media, and more. I enjoyed the first two-thirds more than the remainder, but overall, recommended.

My cut-off point for whether to continue reading a book I am not sure about is p56 - if I’m not enjoying it by then, I stop.

Haha! That's interesting because I have reached p.57 !!!

Philippa Gregory Earthly Joys. What a joy!

Urmstongran. I really enjoyed the Satsuma complex, having said that, I forgot that read it ( November maybe) until you mentioned it.
I would love him to write another.

Sparklefizz.
I was a raver, but I worked in medical things and love very descriptive text and sagas.
This is quite a lengthy read with twists and turns too so maybe it is marmite.

I usually enjoy reading books set in other countries and I wanted to learn more about Ethiopia. I may go back to it, but I've got a lot going on in my family at the moment so perhaps I'm just not in the right mood for it.

I can think of just one book I'm glad I persevered with and that would be "Atonement", I nearly binned it, I found the first 70 pages tedious and then it opened up into something wonderful after that point and I was glad I stuck with it. So many others I wish I hadn't, Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, I gave it 120 pages, bored stiff! it was a long one too, can't remember the length exactly, but life's too short. I vowed after I'd finished another boring really long book, The Booker Prize winning The Luminaries which kind of started off ok, but got duller as it progressed, that I'd definitely wouldn't be persevering with something that long again. It's harder to shelve books once a fair amount of time has been invested though.