Vestafan challenges herself

Keskustelu2023 Category Challenge

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Vestafan challenges herself

1vestafan
tammikuu 2, 2023, 7:13 am

I read that I can customise my own challenge, so that is what I have done. My home is a giant TBR storage facility, so I am aiming to work on that, trying to strike a balance between what I know I will always read, and those areas that I would like to read more. I shall post one message per category and shall update them as I read throughout the year.

2vestafan
Muokkaaja: joulukuu 1, 2023, 11:20 am

Category 1: Reading Group

I belong to a reading group where we choose our books on a month by month basis, so that is what I shall list here.

1. Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson - possibly less well known here in the UK than in the USA, a book of interlinked short stories set in a small town, revealing the unspoken frustrations and sorrows of the inhabitants. The only person anyone seems to talk to, a local reporter, leaves at the end of the book to pursue his dreams. The book seems to me to touch on psychological themes without using the terminology that was beginning to be used in the early 20th century.

2. Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan - this is a short novel set in Ireland in the 1980s, touching on the scandal of the Magdalen Laundries and the community collusion in choosing not to acknowledge what was happening for fear of offending the powerful religious establishment.

3. Violeta by Isabel Allende - an elderly South American woman writes an account of her long and eventful life to a loved relation. A relatively short novel for the amount of time covered, giving a description of events in politics and the development of women's position. Neatly bookended by the Spanish flu of 1920 and Covid 19.

4. Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus - set in late 50s/early 60s USA - a thwarted woman scientist responds to personal tragedy and professional betrayal by becoming a TV cook. This is a funny and touching book, with many appealing characters, my favourite of which is Six-Thirty the dog.

5. Molly's Game by Molly Bloom - an account of a woman's involvement in high stakes poker games and how it led to her arrest. There are almost no likeable characters in this book, and the author does not seem to have learned any life lessons from this experience.

6. For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway - expecting more action, I was surprised that very little happened for the first 200 pages and a substantial part of the novel was the main character's internal dialogue. Knowing the outcome of the Spanish Civil War, it is inevitable that the novel does not end well for all.

7. The Satsuma Complex by Bob Mortimer - a comic novel, in which a shy and insecure man leading a boring life gets involved with crime and corruption. More notable for the writing style of the author than the plot.

8. Scarpetta by Patricia Cornwell - The 16th I think in this series. I have to confess that had I not had to finish this out of a sense of duty I would have put it down after about 250 pages. To understand what is going on, you need to have read all the previous books in the series. Also, conversations go on for pages longer than necessary, characters have confusingly similar names (Marino and Morales) and Scarpetta herself, who seems to be a constant preoccupation for Wesley, Lucy and Marino, seems a cold and detached person. After the incredibly long winded exposition of the first two thirds of the book, the author seems to realise she has almost reached her contractually obliged word count and polishes off the far fetched plot in about three chapters. The first few in this series were good, but it has long since gone off the boil.

9. A Winter Book by Tove Jansson - a collection of short stories by the Finnish author most famous for the Moomin stories. The majority are inspired by her childhood with Bohemian artists as parents, but some later ones look at old age. I particularly enjoyed the evocation of the singular imagination of the child.

10. Any Human Heart by William Boyd - an engaging and readable novel in the form of a memoir told through diaries of a self-confessed flawed character whose life spans most of the 20th century. Initially the main character is infuriatingly pompous, but as his life goes on you warm to him and the final section of the book is extremely touching.

3vestafan
Muokkaaja: joulukuu 30, 2023, 10:21 am

Category 2: Backlisted

I am a great fan of the podcast Backlisted so this category will be books discussed in their many episodes.

1. Cassandra at the Wedding by Dorothy Baker - Set in the early 1960s, Cassandra travels back to her family home to try and persuade her twin, Judith, not to marry. I felt that the novel gave great insight into the lives of twins and at the conclusion, I felt some anxiety about the future lives of both of them.

2. Heart of the Original by Steve Aylett - a book about originality in creativity and the way society resists it. I felt the author had emptied the contents of his mind onto the page, which was stimulating but I eventually felt I was being browbeaten without time to think anything through. But it is unlike any other book I have read.

3. Elizabeth Finch by Julian Barnes - this is not a book Backlisted has devoted a whole episode to, but one that was recommended on Backlisted or its associated podcast Locklisted. In part this novel is thought to be inspired by the author's friendship with the novelist Anita Brookner, but also looks at the theme of how well we know people and how much we conjure up in our imagination.

4. Daddy's Gone A-Hunting by Penelope Mortimer - a novel set in the late 1950s, set in the commuter belt in the Home Counties. A woman whose sons are at boarding school and whose daughter is at university lacks a purpose in life and is prone to mental health problems. A crisis for her daughter gives her temporary focus. The writing is clear and unsentimental, portraying the emptiness of her life unsparingly. I found this book so impressive I have now got another by the same author, The Home on my TBR pile.

5. The Blessing by Nancy Mitford - Grace marries Charles-Edouard after a speedy courtship during WWII, and finally gets to live with him in France after the war. This is a comedy of manners comparing French and English society. Social expectations differ - if your husband is unfaithful, you just have to put up with it, providing he still makes love to you. Entertaining as long as you bear in mind the date it was written.

6. Good Morning, Midnight by Jean Rhys - I've always found Jean Rhys heroines quite irritating in their passivity. I don't know if this is a better novel or if I have changed over time, but although I did keep getting the urge to say 'just do something!', I found I could empathise with the central character more than in previous Rhys novels.

7. A Girl in Winter by Philip Larkin - Katherine, a refugee, is working in a library and impulsively contacts a family she stayed with pre-war. The action moves between a day in her current working life and the summer she visited the Fennell family. I wondered how Larkin would manage writing a central female character, but I think he was identifying with her more as an outsider. Incredible to think of a time when work was so rigidly organised and managers smoked in their offices. As a retired librarian I'm glad I didn't work under these conditions.

8. Open Water by Caleb Azumah Nelson - there wasn't a whole episode devoted to this but the book was spoken about very warmly, so I gave it a try. I found it a very poetic and intense love story.

9. Mistletoe Malice by Kathleen Farrell - recommended in an edition about books from the archive, which, because I am about six months behind in my podcast listening, I heard just as it was republished this autumn. The novel concerns an extremely dysfunctional family who congregate in a house in Cornwall over Christmas. Everyone speaks unkind truths about everyone else and people's bad behaviour and weaknesses prevail.

4vestafan
Muokkaaja: joulukuu 1, 2023, 11:38 am

Category 3: Unfinished Books

There are some books that I have got stuck with or put aside so I shall give them one more try.

1. The Power by Naomi Alderman - I had ceased to read this about a third of the way through, depressed by ways in which men were trying to remove or nullify 'the power'. Pressing on, I found that the story went on to pose the question 'how do people behave when they realise they can exert power over another group and to what lengths will they go to preserve their privilege?'

2. A Song for Summer by Eva Ibbotson - I tried a couple of this author's books after hearing her recommended on the 'You're Booked' podcast. Maybe this genre isn't for me but I found the moral and domestic perfection of the main female character rather irksome. However the setting of Europe just before WWII is well-evoked I think.

3. The Seducer's Diary by Soren Kierkegaard - one of the Penguin Great Loves series. I had been reading through this series but came to a screeching halt with this one. Love would not seem to be the appropriate word for a man who describes with cold satisfaction how he intends to seduce a woman who will then be of no further interest to him.

4. The Lost Diaries of Nigel Molesworth by Geoffrey Willans - early writings about the prep schoolboy Molesworth, predating the famous Down with Skool and set partly during the war. This was written at a time when corporal punishment was accepted without a murmur, and smoking by schoolboys passed almost without comment. The humour still appeals.

5. The Hills is Lonely by Lilian Beckwith - this book used to be popular when I first worked in public libraries in the 1970s. It is written as a memoir by a woman who goes to live in the Hebrides as a rest cure. I began to read it out of curiosity. The tone reads very strangely now - the Hebrideans are presented as figures of fun with numerous sideswipes at their hygiene and ignorance. I don't think I'll read another book by this author.

6. Square Haunting by Francesca Wade - a group biography of five women (writers and academics} who at various times between the World Wars lived in Mecklenburgh Square in London. Particularly interesting about the lesser known (to me) women - Eileen Power and Jane Ellen Harrison.

7. Difficult Women by Helen Lewis - Women who have the determination and awkwardness to achieve real change for women are not always pleasant and 100% politically correct! The author expands this hypothesis, looking at subjects such as birth control, domestic violence and employment rights.

5vestafan
Muokkaaja: syyskuu 30, 2023, 11:48 am

Category 4: Books recommended or gifted to me by my husband

Stephen is also an avid reader and often recommends books to me that I have not yet got round to trying.

1. Spider Woman by Brenda Hale - the memoirs of the first woman President of the UK Supreme Court - a present from my husband as she is a woman we both admire. It is encouraging to see how successful she became in her profession, coming from a relatively modest background.

2. Treacle Walker by Alan Garner - my husband is a real Garner fan, and I read this at his recommendation. A short novel that mixes reality with fable and folk tales, written in a really striking style.

3. Hand Grenade Practice in Peking by Frances Wood - a fascinating memoir by a woman who went as a guest student to China in the mid 1970s. Accounts of the cultural revolution, both its political aspects and its day to day effects on the population in general give a lot of detail I wasn't aware of. Also its pleasant to read as its in a lovely Slightly Foxed edition.

6vestafan
Muokkaaja: huhtikuu 30, 2023, 7:19 am

Category 5: Poetry

Over the years I have acquired quite a lot of poetry collections which I have not looked at with any great attention, so I am going to try and rectify this.

1. You Took the Last Bus Home by Brian Bilston - an accessible collection by the author known as the 'Poet Laureate of Twitter'. Many of the references are quite UK-specific and the wordplay makes it good to read. Some of the poems are light hearted with undertones of pathos, but some take on wider topics such as his powerful poem on refugees written to be read from top to bottom and then in the reverse direction.

2. Serious Concerns by Wendy Cope - wryly humorous poems, some with an underlying tone of sadness. Some apparently simple poems like 'The Orange', I find quite affecting.

7vestafan
Muokkaaja: joulukuu 1, 2023, 11:27 am

Category 6: Short stories and essays

Even on a busy day, I can usually find the time to read a short story.

1. Blood on the Tracks edited by Martin Edwards - an anthology of short stories about murders committed on railways.

2. The Woman on the Island by Ann Cleeves - a short story published on its own on Kindle, giving a little back story to Vera Stanhope.

3. The Text by Claire Douglas - another short story published on Kindle.

8vestafan
Muokkaaja: joulukuu 30, 2023, 10:18 am

Category 7: Crime - UK

My weakness is crime fiction and I default to it when at a loose end. I have divided it by geographical area, because this category would quickly become embarrassingly long if I listed it as one.

1. The Ink-Black Heart by Robert Galbraith - This is my first completed read of the year and I doubt there will be another as long - well over 900 pages. This series is taking on the characteristics of the Harry Potter series - each book in the series becoming successively longer with lots of detail about the personal lives of the central two characters as well as the investigation. The thing I found most tricky in this book was the rendering of two or three message board conversations taking place at once in parallel columns on the page. I found it hard to keep track sometimes. Not being involved in on line gaming I can't say for certain if it is common for enthusiasm to become obsession as it seems to do here.

2. Local Gone Missing by Fiona Barton - a popular local man goes missing and is later found dead. Investigations reveal his past may have played a part in his demise. Readable, but I found most of the characters unpleasant.

3. True Crime Story by Joseph Knox - a young writer becomes interested in the case of a student who disappeared some years before and begins to write about it. Conflicting evidence from the people around at the time complicates matters, as does the involvement of another writer, with the same name and backlist as the actual author.

4. Local Girl Missing by Claire Douglas - a woman returns to the seaside town in which she grew up when human remains, possibly those of her childhood friend, are found. Ingenious, but I began to get an inkling of how it would be resolved about half way through.

5. Cat and Mouse by M J Arlidge - the latest (and possibly last?) novel in the Helen Grace series set in Southampton. I find this series a fast and addictive read, but get a hint from the end of this book that the author has decided to move on.

6. A Mourning Wedding by Carola Dunn - one of the Daisy Dalrymple novels set in the 1920s, this one centred round a murder at a wedding party at a grand house.

7. Into the Dark by Fiona Cummins - a domestic noir type of crime novel in which almost all the characters are unpleasant, but quite compulsive nonetheless.

8. Fall of a Philanderer by Carola Dunn - another Daisy Dalrymple novel - a light and enjoyable read.

9. The Last Remains by Elly Griffiths - the final book in the Ruth Galloway series, which I always enjoy. I saved this to read when I was on holiday - of course, I raced through it. A very satisfactory conclusion, particularly if you have followed the characters over many years.

10. The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton - an incredibly complex crime novel in which a man wakes up each day in the body of a different guest at a country house weekend, and is tasked with preventing a murder. Fabulously realised, but I felt that there was no way to end it satisfactorily.

11. Five Little Pigs by Agatha Christie - a reread of one of Christie's best, which I treated myself to when I was struggling with a rather heavy book for my reading group.

12. 1979 by Val McDermid - the first in a series about a young female reporter in Glasgow - the year is well within my lifetime, but some of the attitudes seem prehistoric.

13. Truly, Darkly, Deeply by Victoria Selman - against her better judgment, a woman visits her late mother's ex-partner, a serial killer, terminally ill in jail and discovers the truth about the past.

14. Evil Under the Sun by Agatha Christie - a reread of one of my favourite Poirot novels - they're always a reliable source of interest when I'm looking for something not too demanding.

15. A Killing of Innocents by Deborah Crombie - the latest in the Gemma James/Duncan Kincaid novels. I think this is one of the most convincing UK detective series written by someone who lives in the USA, although child care problems seem to be solved rather too easily. Its not the only series with this (minor) flaw, however.

16. Headlong by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles - a Bill Slider detective story with added puns.

17. The Retreat by Sarah Pearse - features the same detective as The Sanatorium - a quick read with the infuriating introduction of the same unknown external threat at the end of the book as the previous novel.

18. Final Term by Leigh Russell - the latest in the Geraldine Steel series.

19. Dead If You Don't by Peter James - Roy Grace becomes involved in a case involving kidnapping and Eastern European crime gangs in Brighton.

20. The Last Party by Claire Mackintosh - The first in a series of crime novels set on the English-Welsh border (shades of The Bridge} involving a murder at a party on New Year's Eve, after which part of the back history of the Welsh detective come to light.

21. A Game of Lies by Claire Mackintosh - the second in this series. I enjoyed the first one very much and sought out the second in the hope that various plot points would be resolved. I was not disappointed.

22. Dear Little Corpses by Nicola Upson - a novel set in the first few months of WWII with the background of evacuation of children to rural villages.

23. The Raging Storm by Ann Cleeves - the latest in her Matthew Venn series, set in Devon. This was an enjoyable read, although the eventual revelation of the main culprit I found slightly far-fetched.

24. The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels by Janice Hallett - another of her crime novels told in the form of emails and other electronic media. I'm full of admiration for the skill with which a story like this is constructed and the layers of 'facts' that are gradually revealed.

25. Standing in the Shadows by Peter Robinson - the last Alan Banks novel written before the author's death. Readable as always, but like many reviewers, I guessed the essential subject matter fairly early on.

26. The Running Grave by Robert Galbraith - the latest Cormoran Strike novel where the author keeps Strike and Robin apart by sending her undercover in a cult. Its extremely long (900pp+) but I enjoyed it. The sections in the cult are genuinely anxiety-provoking, and by the end of the novel one or two things have irrevocably changed, which promises to move the central relationship on.

27. Cruel as the Grave by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles - Another in the Bill Slider series - an entertaining and easy read.

28. Death in White Pyjamas by John Bude and

29. Death Knows No Calendar also by John Bude - two golden age murder stories, where the committing of the murder depends on the construction of an ingenious gadget.

30. Dying Fall by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles - another Bill Slider book - an easy and relaxing read.

31. The Missing and the Dead by Stuart MacBride - My first book by this author - my main impression is of the vivid descriptions of smelly suspects in filthy surroundings being questioned by police officers with appalling diets.

32. The Last Devil to Die by Richard Osman - the latest in the Thursday Murder Club series. These books are written with a light touch but deal with ageing and death at the same time as celebrating the diverse talents of older people.

33. Without Trace by Leigh Russell - the latest Geraldine Steel book - enjoyable if unchallenging.

34. Reputation by Sarah Vaughan - A female MP is cyber stalked, which leads to blackmail and violence.

9vestafan
Muokkaaja: joulukuu 30, 2023, 10:12 am

Category 8: Crime - USA

1. The Lost Boys by Faye Kellerman - another in the lengthy Decker and Lazarus series. Like all such series, the standard varies, but the characters and situations keep me reading. I still feel the first in this series, The Ritual Bath is the best.

2. The Museum of Desires by Jonathan Kellerman - another in the Alex Delaware series. I have continued to read them although I find some of the plots rather far-fetched.

3. IQ by Joe Ide - The first in a series about a young black man with exceptional deductive skills who uses them to solve crimes. If I knew more about American cars and expensive jewellery I might appreciate this series more, but I will probably check out more books by this author.

4. He Who Hesitates by Ed McBain - an 87th Precinct novel unusually told from the point of view of the perpetrator rather than the police.

5. The Dark Hours by Michael Connelly - another Bosch and Ballard novel. More and more imagination is being required to keep Ballard in the police force despite her disillusion and Bosch alive considering his brush with leukaemia.

6. Jigsaw by Ed McBain - an 87th Precinct novel, which gives an insight into detection and policing before the advent of computerisation.

7. Sadie When She Died by Ed McBain - another police procedural from the 87th Precinct.

10vestafan
Muokkaaja: joulukuu 30, 2023, 10:07 am

Category 9: Crime - Europe and elsewhere

This will probably be dominated by Scandi crime.

And just to prove my point:

1. The Creak on the Stairs by Eva Bjorg Aegisdottir
2. Girls Who Lie by Eva Bjorg Aegisdottor
3. Night Shadows by Eva Bjorg Aegisdottir
These are three in a series called Forbidden Iceland. A police officer returns to her home town of Akranes after a personal tragedy in Reykjavik. Over the three books we learn more about her personal life, as she readjusts to life in a small town. I found them entertaining (as a Scandi crime fan) but not as atmospheric as some other crime novels set in Iceland.

4. The Katharina Code by Jorn Lier Horst - one of the series of Wisting novels, looking at a cold case. I enjoy them, although his daughter, a reporter, keeps on getting into dangerous situations, in a slightly irritating manner.

5. The Cabin by Jorn Lier Horst - another in the Wisting cold case novels, enjoyable Scandinavian police procedurals.

6. The Paris Apartment by Lucy Foley - another on the Theakston's 2023 longlist for crime novel of the year - a woman pays an impulsive visit to her brother in Paris, but he has disappeared and she becomes involved with a suspicious group of residents in his apartment block.

7. The Inner Darkness by Jorn Lier Horst - the third in the Cold Case series of Wisting novels - an enjoyable series.

8. The Fallout by Yrsa Sigurdardottir - another in the Freya and Huldar series - yes, more Scandi crime!

9. The Lost Man of Bombay by Vaseem Khan - my first read of this series, where the central character is a female police officer in India in the early 1950s.

10. The Man from Beijing by Henning Mankell - a standalone non-Wallander book from this author, but with this author's characteristic political themes.

11. Red Snow by Will Dean - The second in the Tuva Moodyson series, set in what seems a very depressing part of Sweden.

12. Ordeal by Jorn Lier Horst - a Wisting novel, annoyingly for me read out of sequence, so that a child already existing in another book spends most of this one in the womb.

13. When It Grows Dark by Jorn Lier Horst a prequel to previously published Wisting books - an enjoyable addition to the series.

14. Fallen Angels by Gunnar Staalesen - A Varg Veum novel, set in Bergen, Norway.

15. Black River by Will Dean - the third in the Tuva Moodyson series set in rural Sweden, in which the main character, a journalist, confronts an uncomfortable environment and extremely strange and rather sinister characters to find her missing friend.

16. A Question of Guilt by Jorn Lier Horst - another Wisting novel which is a series I enjoy.

11vestafan
Muokkaaja: lokakuu 31, 2023, 11:03 am

Category 10: 21st century fiction by women

I've quite a lot of novels on the shelves that fall into this category.

1. The House We Grew Up In by Lisa Jewell - this is the story of a family and the way in which the members are impacted by the mother's hoarding obsession and a traumatic family tragedy.

2. The Paper Palace by Miranda Cowley Heller - set in the USA, this novel shifts back and forth between the present day and the main character's teenage years, and shows how past actions leave lasting effects. It seemed that enormous amounts of tragedy and trauma were heaped upon the characters, and every parental figure appeared either weak or monstrous.

3. The Family Remains by Lisa Jewell - this is a sequel to The Family Upstairs which I haven't read, but I think you can pick up enough of the previous plot to understand what is happening. The discovery of a bag of bones in the River Thames triggers off a series of events which eventually lead to the resolution of an earlier traumatic event. I do find this author's books very readable.

4. Summerwater by Sarah Moss - an assortment of people are confined to their Scottish holiday cabins by constant rainfall. This gives many of them time to reflect and respond in differing ways when disaster strikes.

5. The Storied Life of A J Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin - a bookseller writes to his daughter about his life, using his favourite short stories to illustrate his experiences.

6. Crudo by Olivia Laing - A short novel set in the aftermath of the Brexit vote and Trump's election, with the narrator, about to marry, preoccupied with how life is changing in personal and political life. It would probably would have had more impact if I'd read it at the time it was published.

12vestafan
Muokkaaja: joulukuu 1, 2023, 7:29 am

Category 11: The Arts

My main interests outside literature are film and visual arts, so I am aiming to read some of my TBRs in this area in 2023.

1. The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp by A L Kennedy - one of the BFI Film Classics series about the wartime classic Powell and Pressburger film.

2. A Memorial Exhibition by Elisabeth Vellacott - the catalogue of an exhibition of a little known 20th century English woman artist.

3. Playing to the Gallery by Grayson Perry - a short and very accessible book on modern art, giving insights into the art world, and demystifying it for the lay person.

4. Circles and Squares: the lives of the Hampstead Modernists by Caroline Maclean - a group biography of artists and designers such as Ben Nicholson, Barbara Hepworth, and Henry Moore, who worked and lived as a group with shifting ideologies and attachments during the 1920s and 1930s. More about their emotional lives than art (there are no colour reproductions), but interesting on the energising and disruptive effects of ideas such as surrealism and abstraction on this group of artists.

5. Unlikeable Female Characters by Anna Bogutskaya - an interesting account of the way in which women who differ from male-defined ideal womanhood are portrayed in popular movies.

13vestafan
Muokkaaja: huhtikuu 30, 2023, 7:46 am

Category 12: Folio Editions

These often sit on the shelf being admired, but I am going to have a go at some this year.

1. The Enchanted April by Elizabeth Von Arnim - a charming novel about the transformative effects of place, read in the most appropriate month of the year.

14thornton37814
tammikuu 2, 2023, 10:16 am

Enjoy your 2023 reading!

15Tess_W
tammikuu 2, 2023, 10:20 am

Happy 2023 reading!

16rabbitprincess
tammikuu 2, 2023, 1:43 pm

Welcome aboard and have fun! I'll be following your crime fiction categories with particular interest. Crime is my go-to genre as well.

17lkernagh
tammikuu 2, 2023, 4:14 pm

Wishing you a wonderful year of reading in 2023.

18lowelibrary
tammikuu 2, 2023, 10:30 pm

Good luck with your 2023 reading.

19dudes22
tammikuu 3, 2023, 7:23 am

Looking forward to seeing what you read.

20hailelib
tammikuu 3, 2023, 12:06 pm

Have a great year and some great reading.

21MissBrangwen
Muokkaaja: tammikuu 3, 2023, 2:52 pm

>1 vestafan: "My home is a giant TBR storage facility" This made me chuckle :-) Great categories - like >16 rabbitprincess: I am especially looking forward to the crime novels. Happy New Year and Happy Reading!

22DeltaQueen50
tammikuu 5, 2023, 12:47 am

You have some fun categories and I am looking forward to seeing what you read.

23MissWatson
tammikuu 6, 2023, 8:45 am

>1 vestafan: That description of your library made me smile, too. It feels familiar! Good luck with tackling it.

24majkia
tammikuu 6, 2023, 8:59 am

Welcome. Great set up. Good luck freeing some shelf space!

25pamelad
tammikuu 9, 2023, 4:08 pm

You can never have too many crime categories. Happy reading!

26dudes22
tammikuu 9, 2023, 5:50 pm

>25 pamelad: - So true!

27vestafan
Muokkaaja: joulukuu 1, 2023, 11:48 am

Category 13: Yes, the year is only a quarter gone and I've decided to add another category. Because I still go to the library and often see books I don't want to pass on that don't go into my other categories I'm introducing Library Serendipity to cover books that catch my eye.

1. The Premonitions Bureau by Sam Knight - an account of a psychiatrist who set up a unit to try and see if some people's premonitions were reliably accurate. Written in a journalistic style, with interesting speculation about how some people did seem to be able to predict disasters.

2. Bibliomaniac by Robin Ince - the author decides to go on a tour of independent bookshops when his high profile tour with Professor Brian Cox is cancelled during the Covid outbreak. A very enjoyable read for me, as someone who looks for a bookshop first when visiting anywhere new.

3. The Remainders of the Day by Shaun Bythell - another volume of the diaries of a Wigtown bookseller. Very funny and also revealing about how involved small businesses have to get in many aspects of their local community. Amazon and the internet have made him quite misanthropic but you can't blame him too much for that.

4. Chums by Simon Kuper - An examination of how the culture of Oxford University has affected the approach to government of Oxford graduates (mainly in PPE) and thus the state of the UK.

5. Ultra Processed People by Chris van Tulleken - a disturbing examination of the effect that ultra-processed foods have on our bodies and why they are so addictive. I now spend far more time examining labels in supermarkets!

28VictoriaPL
huhtikuu 1, 2023, 8:03 am

Catching up on your thread. I'll be watching your crime categories!

29vestafan
huhtikuu 30, 2023, 7:07 am

>28 VictoriaPL: I think they're about to expand exponentially as the long list for the Theakston's Crime Novel of the Year 2023 has just been announced!

30rabbitprincess
huhtikuu 30, 2023, 9:54 am

>29 vestafan: Ooh, thanks for mentioning the Theakston's award! Just checked out the longlist. I've read two: The Heretic and 1989, and I'm in the queue for The Twyford Code at the library.

31vestafan
toukokuu 30, 2023, 10:16 am

>30 rabbitprincess: I've read three so far - The Locked Room, The Paris Apartment and Into the Dark and I've got Wrong Place Wrong Time on my TBR pile next.

32vestafan
kesäkuu 30, 2023, 5:43 pm

With reference to the Theakston's long list, I have just read The Lost Man of Bombay which i would recommend.

33vestafan
heinäkuu 31, 2023, 10:44 am

Just a note to say that I'm finding it harder and harder to stick to my categories as the year goes on. I'm buying books that don't fit into any of them and am having to exert a lot of will power to stick to my set up for the year. It's tempting to just make up more categories but that seems to defeat the challenge. Perhaps if I do it again I'll have to put an I Can't Wait category.

34christina_reads
heinäkuu 31, 2023, 10:46 am

>33 vestafan: Nothing wrong with changing your categories or adding new ones! I often do a category for brand-new books so I can read them without feeling guilty.

35DeltaQueen50
heinäkuu 31, 2023, 1:43 pm

>33 vestafan: I like to always have an extra category for books that don't fit anywhere else - this way you are covered for everything!

36lowelibrary
heinäkuu 31, 2023, 4:58 pm

>33 vestafan: I only have a few monthly categories, the rest of my categories have no set time limit, which enables me to read any book that strikes my fancy, even if it is not on a list.

37rabbitprincess
heinäkuu 31, 2023, 7:10 pm

>33 vestafan: The only rule of the challenge is that there are no rules! Do change your categories if you want to read other things :)

38vestafan
elokuu 31, 2023, 9:43 am

>34 christina_reads: I think I'm convinced! I shall add 'I Can't Wait' as another category.

39vestafan
elokuu 31, 2023, 9:44 am

>35 DeltaQueen50: So I shall also do this - new category 'I Can't Wait' will be added.

40vestafan
elokuu 31, 2023, 9:45 am

>36 lowelibrary: Several encouraging replies have convinced me to add 'I can't Wait' as another category.

41vestafan
elokuu 31, 2023, 9:45 am

>37 rabbitprincess: I don't feel guilty about this anymore - I shall add 'I Can't Wait' as another category.

42vestafan
elokuu 31, 2023, 9:51 am

I Can't Wait is now officially a category, which helpfully includes everything not in any other category that has sparked my interest, which given that two thirds of the year has gone is quite a lot.

43vestafan
Muokkaaja: joulukuu 30, 2023, 10:20 am

Category 14: I Can't Wait

1. If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things by Jon McGregor - a novel in which one event on one day affects the lives of the inhabitants of one particular street. I enjoyed this very much, although the fact that none of the characters are named until late in the book means that some concentration is required to get one's bearings at the beginning.

2. Anna and Her Daughters by D. E. Stevenson- I listen to a podcast called Tea or Books, in which they speak very highly of this author. I had completely forgotten I had one of her books on my Kindle, but I read it and enjoyed it. Its not deep and meaningful, but it is a cut above a generic romance novel which is what I expected.

3. Things I Don't Want to Know by Deborah Levy - autobiographical writings about the author's childhood in South Africa and England, and a later trip to Italy.

4. The Ivy Tree - Lurking in the recesses of my Kindle, a romantic thriller set close to Hadrian's Wall.

44mathgirl40
syyskuu 30, 2023, 12:12 pm

>43 vestafan: Sounds like it was the right decision to add the "I Can't Wait" category! I'm having trouble balancing my categories myself and a lot of books have gone into my "Miscellaneous" cateogry.

45christina_reads
syyskuu 30, 2023, 9:47 pm

>43 vestafan: I'm a D.E. Stevenson fan, though I haven't read Anna and Her Daughters yet. Miss Buncle's Book is probably my favorite so far!

46vestafan
joulukuu 1, 2023, 7:25 am

I've done quite a lot of reading this month - mainly because I've had a bit of trouble sleeping and read quite a lot on the Kindle.

47vestafan
joulukuu 1, 2023, 11:42 am

Category 7: Crime - UK

My weakness is crime fiction and I default to it when at a loose end. I have divided it by geographical area, because this category would quickly become embarrassingly long if I listed it as one.

1. The Ink-Black Heart by Robert Galbraith - This is my first completed read of the year and I doubt there will be another as long - well over 900 pages. This series is taking on the characteristics of the Harry Potter series - each book in the series becoming successively longer with lots of detail about the personal lives of the central two characters as well as the investigation. The thing I found most tricky in this book was the rendering of two or three message board conversations taking place at once in parallel columns on the page. I found it hard to keep track sometimes. Not being involved in on line gaming I can't say for certain if it is common for enthusiasm to become obsession as it seems to do here.

2. Local Gone Missing by Fiona Barton - a popular local man goes missing and is later found dead. Investigations reveal his past may have played a part in his demise. Readable, but I found most of the characters unpleasant.

3. True Crime Story by Joseph Knox - a young writer becomes interested in the case of a student who disappeared some years before and begins to write about it. Conflicting evidence from the people around at the time complicates matters, as does the involvement of another writer, with the same name and backlist as the actual author.

4. Local Girl Missing by Claire Douglas - a woman returns to the seaside town in which she grew up when human remains, possibly those of her childhood friend, are found. Ingenious, but I began to get an inkling of how it would be resolved about half way through.

5. Cat and Mouse by M J Arlidge - the latest (and possibly last?) novel in the Helen Grace series set in Southampton. I find this series a fast and addictive read, but get a hint from the end of this book that the author has decided to move on.

6. A Mourning Wedding by Carola Dunn - one of the Daisy Dalrymple novels set in the 1920s, this one centred round a murder at a wedding party at a grand house.

7. Into the Dark by Fiona Cummins - a domestic noir type of crime novel in which almost all the characters are unpleasant, but quite compulsive nonetheless.

8. Fall of a Philanderer by Carola Dunn - another Daisy Dalrymple novel - a light and enjoyable read.

9. The Last Remains by Elly Griffiths - the final book in the Ruth Galloway series, which I always enjoy. I saved this to read when I was on holiday - of course, I raced through it. A very satisfactory conclusion, particularly if you have followed the characters over many years.

10. The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton - an incredibly complex crime novel in which a man wakes up each day in the body of a different guest at a country house weekend, and is tasked with preventing a murder. Fabulously realised, but I felt that there was no way to end it satisfactorily.

11. Five Little Pigs by Agatha Christie - a reread of one of Christie's best, which I treated myself to when I was struggling with a rather heavy book for my reading group.

12. 1979 by Val McDermid - the first in a series about a young female reporter in Glasgow - the year is well within my lifetime, but some of the attitudes seem prehistoric.

13. Truly, Darkly, Deeply by Victoria Selman - against her better judgment, a woman visits her late mother's ex-partner, a serial killer, terminally ill in jail and discovers the truth about the past.

14. Evil Under the Sun by Agatha Christie - a reread of one of my favourite Poirot novels - they're always a reliable source of interest when I'm looking for something not too demanding.

15. A Killing of Innocents by Deborah Crombie - the latest in the Gemma James/Duncan Kincaid novels. I think this is one of the most convincing UK detective series written by someone who lives in the USA, although child care problems seem to be solved rather too easily. Its not the only series with this (minor) flaw, however.

16. Headlong by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles - a Bill Slider detective story with added puns.

17. The Retreat by Sarah Pearse - features the same detective as The Sanatorium - a quick read with the infuriating introduction of the same unknown external threat at the end of the book as the previous novel.

18. Final Term by Leigh Russell - the latest in the Geraldine Steel series.

19. Dead If You Don't by Peter James - Roy Grace becomes involved in a case involving kidnapping and Eastern European crime gangs in Brighton.

20. The Last Party by Claire Mackintosh - The first in a series of crime novels set on the English-Welsh border (shades of The Bridge} involving a murder at a party on New Year's Eve, after which part of the back history of the Welsh detective come to light.

21. A Game of Lies by Claire Mackintosh - the second in this series. I enjoyed the first one very much and sought out the second in the hope that various plot points would be resolved. I was not disappointed.

22. Dear Little Corpses by Nicola Upson - a novel set in the first few months of WWII with the background of evacuation of children to rural villages.

23. The Raging Storm by Ann Cleeves - the latest in her Matthew Venn series, set in Devon. This was an enjoyable read, although the eventual revelation of the main culprit I found slightly far-fetched.

24. The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels by Janice Hallett - another of her crime novels told in the form of emails and other electronic media. I'm full of admiration for the skill with which a story like this is constructed and the layers of 'facts' that are gradually revealed.

25. Standing in the Shadows by Peter Robinson - the last Alan Banks novel written before the author's death. Readable as always, but like many reviewers, I guessed the essential subject matter fairly early on.

26. The Running Grave by Robert Galbraith - the latest Cormoran Strike novel where the author keeps Strike and Robin apart by sending her undercover in a cult. Its extremely long (900pp+) but I enjoyed it. The sections in the cult are genuinely anxiety-provoking, and by the end of the novel one or two things have irrevocably changed, which promises to move the central relationship on.

27. Cruel as the Grave by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles - Another in the Bill Slider series - an entertaining and easy read.

28. The Tower by Kate London - The first in a series about a group of police officers in London. Interesting in that it examines grey moral areas.

48vestafan
joulukuu 30, 2023, 10:34 am

I've just looked at my categories for this year and what appears in each one. The least surprising conclusion is that yes, I read an awful lot of crime fiction. It is what I tend to turn to when I'm looking for something undemanding with a familiar format.
Of my other categories, I'm pleased to have finished some of the books that have been unfinished for some time. The Backlisted podcast has led me to some interesting books I had never heard of before.
On the downside, I never did read much poetry or Folio Books!
I think I shall repeat this project next year with some different categories.

49mathgirl40
tammikuu 6, 4:56 pm

>48 vestafan: I completely understand how you feel about crime fiction. I used to read a lot more of it myself, but I'm trying to branch out. It's still a "comfort read" for me when I need to read for relaxation.