2022 52 Book Challenge - COMPLETED
Following successfully completing the 52 Book Challenge for 2021, I'm moving on to the 2022 Challenge.
More information can be found on the Facebook group, and here - https://www.the52book.club/.
I will add books here usually with brief comments as I complete the challenges. Here we go...
1. A second-person narrative
Notes on an execution / Danya Kukafka. An astonishingly powerful book that I would have never read was it not for this challenge. The story is told from several viewpoints - the serial killer, told in the second person uncomfortably drawing the reader in, and the victims, families, and the tenacious police officer (all female).
On one level it is a fantastic crime novel, but it also challenges society's fascination with true crime, and its memory of those caught up in it.
It was often a troubling, difficult read but worth it.
2. Featuring a library or bookstore
Books, baguettes and bedbugs / Jeremy Mercer.
Enchanting book about a Canadian journalist's flight to Paris and how he rediscovered himself courtesy f the wonderful if eccentric bookshop, Shakespeare and Company. Thoroughly enjoyed this. A real uplifting read.
3. Title starting with the letter “E”
An English Murder by Cyril Hare
4. Title starting with the letter “F”
A fine madness by Alan Judd. A compelling novel about the life and death of Christopher Marlow and his relationship with Elizabeth I's network of spies.
5. Chapters have titles
The White Ship by Charles Spencer. An extraordinarily readable non-fiction account of the reign of Henry I, the tragedy of the White Ship, and the anarchy that ensued. Spencer brings the past to life, but what most stood out for me, even 900 years on, was a very human tragedy. Beautifully written. Would recommend.
6. Household object on the cover
A magnifying glass on the cover of Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe mystery Murder by the book.
7. A non-fiction bestseller
Lost dog : a love story by Kate Spicer.
I adored this book. Journalist Kate Spicer and her boyfriend adopt a 3rd-hand lurcher, Wolfy, who moves in and , the way dogs do, changes their lives, but then Wolfy goes missing. As Kate hunts for the dog, a whole new world of dog lovers and kindly people in the most unexpected places opens up. At the heart of the memoir though is the wonderful Wolfy.
It's a joyous read, sometimes difficult often hilarious. I loved it.
8. Involving the art world
 |
| Juan de Pareja painted by Velazquez |
I, Juan de Pareja by Elizabeth Borton de Trevino.
9. A book that sparks joy
My dog and me: To my little human, I love you / Samantha Heaton.
A very short children's book. Does it spark joy? Undoubtedly.
I first came across this on a Springer Spaniel group when a novice author asked for some advice. The book was received enthusiastically, and she responded by including Springers' names in the thanks (my beloved, and much missed, Alfie Spaniel is on there).
It's short, sweet and utterly charming. Written for her daughter it's made with love. How could it not spark joy?
10. A book based on a real person
Nothing like the sun / Anthony Burgess.
His fascinating fictionalised account of Shakespeare's private life.
11. A book with less than 2022 Goodreads ratings
Amazing cast of characters from Nazis straight out of Raiders of the Lost Ark to New Zealand bee-keepers, American millionaires, and some seriously feisty women.
A stunning read even if, like me, you have never climbed a mountain in your life (walking up mountains is fine, true climbing - nope)
12. Set on at least two continents
A writer's world : travels 1950-2000 / Jan Morris.
If there is a Heaven I am absolutely sure that travel writer Jan Morris will be there for she wrote like an angel. Beautiful book of fascinating writings.
13. Includes a club
The unpleasantness at the Bellona Club by Dorothy L. Sayers.
14. A character with superhuman ability
One woman walks Wales / Ursula Martin.
Not really into comic book / fantasy superhuman types. But when I read Ursula's memoir of her more than 3700 mile walk around Wales for ovarian cancer, I thought if that's not superhuman I don't know what is.
First came across Ursula on Twitter when she been walking across Eastern Europe. Knew nothing of her back story and then chanced upon this in a Fenland library just as I was about to return to my homeland of Wales for a holiday. I had to read it.
15. A five-syllable title
Friend of the devil by Peter Robinson. All hail Peter Robinson - King of the police procedural.
16. A book you’ve seen someone reading in a public place
Hamnet / Maggie O'Farrell.
This was one of the very few books I saw being read in a public place, all the way back at the start of the challenge in January. It's an absolutely glorious book. Heartbreakingly beautiful. I read the closing pages in a noisy canteen (ironically you wouldn't have known what I was reading either, reading it on my phone), and time and noise stopped as I was back in Tudor England grieving for a lost child. Wonderful writing. O'Farrell thoroughly deserved the Women's prize for fiction.
17. A book picked based on its spine
The appeal / Janice Hallett.
The appeal by Janice Hallett is brilliant. Cosy crime meets Cluedo. It's a bit of a hark back to the You're the detective novels complete with pull out clues of the 1920s, which I've always thought looked like fun. I've never read anything quite like it. Dead clever.
18. Jane Austen-inspired
I couldn't say for sure that High rising by Angela Thirkell was inspired by Jane Austen, but this comedy of manners owes a lot to the earlier writer, so I had to include it.
19. A book that has an alternate title
The Trapp family singers by Maria Augusta Trapp. Am sure that I have come across this in a later edition where it was retitled The sound of music, with the original title given as the subtitle.
20. Related to the word “gold”
The great bazaar & Brayan's gold by Peter V. Brett. Two fantasy novellas. Not the sort of book I would normally read, but might read more in the series now.
21. Published by Simon & Schuster
The German girl / Armando Lucas Correa.
A moving fictionalised account, very appropriate around World Holocaust Day, of the Voyage of the Damned - an attempt by Jewish refugees to leave Germany on a gigantic cruise liner for the Americas on the eve of war. Arriving at Havana which was meant to be a transit point for the US and Canada, most were turned away. They were also then rejected by the States and Canada.
The ship's captain, Schroder, who was later acknowledged as Righteous among the Gentiles, was forced to turn back to Europe, still trying to desperately find somewhere for his passengers to safely disembark. 287 made it to the UK and were saved. The others found a haven in continental Europe, till their countries were invaded. Many vanished into the night and fog of the Holocaust.
Correa weaves a story around this central historical point with parallel tales of loss and redemption.
22. An unlikely detective
The Thursday Murder Club / Richard Osman.
A quartet of unlikely detectives as a group of OAPs living in a retirement village take on cold cases. Great fun, but also a solid mystery which is satisfyingly wrapped up. Astoundingly high body count, but done with such changes panache you can't help but enjoy it.
23. Author with an X, Y, or Z in their name
Toto among the murderers / Sally J. Morgan
24. Addresses a specific topic
Cries from a lost homeland by Guli Francis-Dehqani.
I think this probably qualifies for this challenge point as it's a meditation for Holy Week.
25. A wealthy character
True crime story / Joseph Knox. Very clever, unusual novel which reads like non-fiction. A major character starts the novel wealthy but is broke but happy by the end, while a minor character who may or may not be implicated in the murder is criminally wealthy. Bit of a slow start to novel but glad I stuck with it.
26. Has an “Author’s Note”
Painted in blood by Ilaria Tuti. Italian detective story with an unusual theme set in the equally unusual and remote Resia Valley (which has now been added to my To Be Visited list). I wasn't entirely convinced by the more mystical parts of the storyline, but I loved the characters from Teresa Battaglia to the tormented and hugely likeable Marini and Battaglia's team of detectives. Strong characters and an enjoyable read.
27. Includes a map
The tribes of Britain by David Miles - with a choice of maps!
28. Award-winning book from your country
Winner of the Romantic novel of the year award 2016 Letters to the Lost by Iona Grey.
Am not a huge reader of romance but this is a beautiful novel set against the backdrop of the Second World War and a contemporary setting which is part detective story, part romance. It's surprisingly moving and compelling reading.
29. Over 500 pages long
War and peace / Leo Tolstoy. Definitely over 500 pages - over 1000 in my Wordsworth edition, in tiny type. First tried to read this some years ago, and only got a few pages into it. Re-reading it some years later, very glad that I decided to give it another go. A fabulous book that completely gripped me. I thought about it constantly when I wasn't reading it, was moved by the accounts of war (depressingly very little has changed from Tolstoy's day - from the sadness of refugees, mock executions, and the tragedy of ordinary people being over-run by events outside their control). It also contains two new favourite characters - Natasha and Pierre. I adored this book, and was so sorry when I closed the book on the last page. I am going to miss it.
30. Audiobook is narrated by the author
Taste by Stanley Tucci. A food memoir. Enjoyed listening to this on my long drive in to work. Has it converted me to audiobooks? No. They're fun to listen to, but it's like watching the film of the book. Nothing to me beats the sensation of actually reading.
31. Technology-themed
Was struggling with this theme until I remembered a favourite childhood book The load of unicorn by Cynthia Harnett.
An adventure story set in 1482 as the new technology printing struggles to find a foothold in England against the resistance of the scriveners' trade. It's a fascinating read and happens to be partly set in Warwickshire where I'm holidaying this weekend.
32. A book that intimidates you
Emil und die Detective by Erich Kastner.
I found this a tricky challenge as have never been intimidated by a book. So I got around it by reading Emil and the detectives, which I know and love in translation, in German which I'm learning. I had my trusty English copy to hand to help with translation as well as a very helpful Google app where you can photograph the page and of course a German dictionary.
What did I learn from the experience? Some wonderful Berlin slang which is missing from the translation (a mouse hook was 1930s slang for a pickpocket).
The other beauty of reading in another language which you're still getting to grips with, I found, was that I read much slower than usual, and it was because of this I think that it felt more like my original experience of reading the book as a child.
I had forgotten, for example, that the author makes an appearance as a character, prompting the thought, which I'm sure I would have experienced even more strongly as a child, that perhaps the story really is true.
Good as my Puffin translation was, it was interesting to see how much was missing or subtly altered in translation. It was such a rich experience to read it in the original tongue even though my German is still at a basic level.
33. A bilingual character
Nightfall Berlin / Jack Grimwood. A British agent who speaks multiple languages including Russian, English and German.
Great book. One of the best thrillers I've read in some time.
34. An author’s photo on the back cover
All's well that ends well : From dust to resurrection: 40 days with Shakespeare / Peter Graystone
Due to a Lenten miscalculation I finished my first Lent read a week early. I've thoroughly enjoyed a chapter of this per day as Peter Graystone writes often very movingly about Shakespeare's life and work, and its religious connections. It's an absolutely charming book, never preachy, but gently prompts you to think rather more deeply. I loved it.
The good son by Jeong You-Jeong
Chilling psychological thriller by South Korean writer Jeong You-Jeong. This is the first of her books to be translated into English, and it's a compelling, if sometimes disturbing read. Fans of Patricia Highsmith will love it. It's a tough book from which to tear yourself away.
36. Recommended by a favorite author
The private lives of the saints / Janina Ramirez. Recommended by Tom Holland.
A wonderfully readable history of Britain and, to a lesser extent, Ireland from Roman times to the end of the Anglo-Saxon period told through the lives of British saints.
Would heartily recommend it.
37. Set in a rural area
Death of an expert witness by P.D. James.
Set mainly in and around Hoggatt's Laboratory, a (fictional) forensic crime lab in the heart of the Cambridgeshire Fens. The geography, and one incident in particular suggests that it's actually just a few miles from my nearest village, which endears this novel to me.
Ends are not tied quite as neatly together as James' usual novels, but it's still very well done.
38. Don’t judge a book by its cover!
A very plain cover for an exceedingly charming book - The diary of a country parson by James Woodforde.
39. A middle-grade novel
A hundred million francs (Le cheval sans tete) by Paul Berna.
Voted by French children as their favourite book when it was first published in the late '50s, "A hundred million francs" hasn't altogether aged well. A new translation would certainly need some sensitive adjustments made to it.
Having said that however there is something very touching about the story of a gang of kids, who are incredibly inclusive despite their different backgrounds, who set out to recover their favourite toy when it accidentally becomes involved in a huge heist.
The novel is funny and poignant. Most of all it 's a testament to enduring friendship. I didn't read this as a child. I had heard of Paul Berna and happened to find his works in a second hand bookshop with a load of other books many of which happened to be favourite childhood reads. I would have loved this as a child, and with the aforementioned caveat would recommend it.
40. A book with photographs inside
Speak, Memory by Vladimir Nabokov.
Fascinating memoir of the author's youth as part of a privileged family in Czarist Russia and their journey into exile following the Revolution. As you'd expect with Nabokov it's beautifully written.
41. Involves a second chance
Cobbler's Dream by Monica Dickens.
This was the original novel that the 1970s children's series Follyfoot was based on. This is rather more grown up though, and is a touching and sometimes shocking novel about a home for rescued horses. Lots of second chances feature here both for the horses and for the staff of the rescue centre.
42. An indie read
Lost voyage by Pauline Rowson published by independent publishers Severn House. It's always lovely when you find a new author who you know you are going to love. A good old fashioned thriller set at sea and on the south coast of England. Really enjoyable. Will be reading more.
43. Author who’s published in more than one genre
April in Spain by John Banville. An excellent crime novel by an author who's better known as a writer of literary fiction.
44. An anthology
Eight ghosts : the English Heritage book of new ghost stories.
Brilliant selection of specially commissioned stories each set at an English Heritage property. I especially loved Mark Haddon's tale set in York's nuclear bunker (though it was more sci-fi than ghost), the vindictive ghost of Kamila Shamsi and the eeriness of Sarah Perry's tale. They were all excellent however and there was also a fascinating afterword with a potted history of the changing fashions of British ghost stories.
45. A book with illustrated people on cover
The book of Margery Kempe, edited by Lynn Staley.
Margery may have been slightly nutty, but I was filled with admiration as she navigates her way across Europe on a succession of pilgrimages, deals expertly with misogyny, and avoids accusations of heresy. She may have been occasionally very annoying, but she also has a very kind heart, that embraces the whole world and wants to think good of everyone.
My illustrated people are from a stained glass window.
46. A job title in the title
The companion by Sarah Dunnakey. Enjoyable if flawed mystery. As the companion of the title becomes a companion thanks to what can only be described as a job advert, it fitted his challenge perfectly.
47. Read during the month of November. The murder of Harriet Monckton / Elizabeth Haynes
First read of the month - a superb murder mystery based on a real life unsolved crime. Clever stuff by Elizabeth Haynes, though I feel sorry for any real life, albeit long dead protagonists who may have been unjustly accused.
48. Re-do one of this year’s prompts but with a different genre
The corset by Laura Purcell.
Am re-doing Challenge 10 Based on a real person. Challenge 10 was a children's / YA novel, while this is a historical crime novel with a supernatural twist. Three of the figures at the heart of the story are based on real people and a horrible crime recorded in the Newgate calendar.
The novel itself is very clever, extremely well written, but also, personally, I found it oddly repulsive. I guess that may be in part due to the power of the writing.
49. Book title starts with the same letter as your first name
The man in the high castle / Philip K. Dick.
Brilliant piece of science-fiction writing. In turn chilling and funny. Note to self read more Philip K. Dick.
50. A person of color as the main character
Girl, woman, other by Bernardine Evaristo. Absolutely wonderful book, which I devoured. How have I never come across this author before. Funny, moving, incredible read.
51. The word “game” in the title
Harry's game / Gerald Seymour
52. Published in 2022
Eight days in May by Volker Ullrich. Previously published in German and in translation in another edition, but my copy was published for the first time in Penguin this year.
Very readable account of the closing days of the Second World War in Europe told from a German perspective. Fascinating.
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