2024 52 Book Challenge
1) Locked-room mystery
Mortal Mischief / Frank Tallis
Clever mystery, the first in the Vienna Blood series. Author doesn't always play entirely fair with the reader, but that can be forgiven for the beautiful background of early 20th century Vienna (I wanted to visit again), well-drawn characters, and engrossing plot. Recommended.
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2) Bibliosmia: A smelly book
A month in the country / J.L Carr
One of my favourite books, and a little jewel of a novel. My edition is not that old, only published in 2000, but my second hand copy has a distinctive old books smell. Reading it again is like being in the company of an old friend.
I love the writing of J.L. Carr. Often very funny, it's also elegantly beautiful. Have now read this several times and each time I take something new away with me. Beautiful.
3) More than 40 chapters
Portraits and Observations / Truman Capote. A selection (41!) of Capote's non-fiction writing. Spanning his career they are variable. Some excellent reads, some much less so. Worth reading though for the wonderful The muses are heard about the 1955 Porgy and Bess tour to the USSR. Enchanting.
4) Lowercase letters on the spine
Scruffy / Paul Gallico
6) Women in STEM
Written in Bone / Sue Black.
Fascinating if occasionally gruesome book by renowned forensic anthropologist Professor Dame Sue Black.
7) At least four different POV
8) Features the ocean
9) A character-driven novel
A terrible kindness / Jo Browning Wroe.
I had very mixed feelings about this novel. It opens with the Aberfan disaster and then moves backwards in time to the protagonist's time as a chorister at Cambridge and then forward again as he struggles to come to terms with various life events, including his time as an embalmer at Aberfan.
I grew up not far from Aberfan, while much of the latter part of my life has been spent in and around Cambridge, and I have a background in church music. All of which feature heavily in the novel. This almost certainly contributed to my problems with the novel.
There are some moments of beautiful writing, and although some of the coincidences are rather obvious there is a strong narrative flow. The opening chapters in Aberfan are undeniably powerful. However, I'm not convinced that the novel needed to be set in Aberfan. Part of me admired her writing in these sections, but part felt very uncomfortable that such a tragedy was being used as a vehicle when an imagined tragedy would work as well. It felt like imposing on someone else's grief.
There were a few grating musical errors, and frequent 21st century sensibilities grafted onto the 1950s and '60s, which made for some odd reading. (Did 1950s 10 year old schoolboys really have intense discussions about relatives' sexuality?)
I really wanted to enjoy this. And I did want to find out what happened to the characters, but somehow for me, it all fell a bit short, with some of the scenes very uncomfortable. At times powerful, but not one I would want to read again.
10) Told in non-chronological order
The zoo gang / Paul Gallico.
12) Title starting with the letter “L”
The lie tree / Frances Hardinge
Clever YA / Fantasy / Historic crime novel. Not convinced that the fantasy segment truly works as is principally an easy way of amassing evidence (something that is easier to get away with in a YA novel than an adult one). Nevertheless it's an interesting read with beautiful writing, some good characterisation and a definite sense of time and place.
13) An academic thriller
14) A grieving character
Dominion / C.J. Sansom. Excellent thriller set in an alternative Britain in which the UK has signed a peace treaty with the Nazis following Dunkirk. It is 1952, there is a new monarch, and resistance is on the rise.
Features a number of grieving characters most notably the central characters of David, Sarah and Natalia.
15) Part of a duology
16) An omniscient narrator
Demons / Dostoevsky
There is some argument as to whether the narrative voice in Demons (also published as The Possessed or Devils) can be described as omniscient, but in this translation by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky, the omniscient voice triumphs with the narrator knowing far more than he apparently should.
17) Nominated for The Booker Prize
Empire of the sun / J.G. Ballard
Brilliant dystopic novel set against the Japanese invasion of Shanghai following Pearl Harbor, and drawing heavily on J.G. Ballard's own wartime experience.
It's a brilliant book from which you can draw something new every time you read it. Astonishingly powerful, often distressing, as with Canticle for Leibowitz and the author's roots in the battle for Monte Cassino, it shows how dystopia is not that far away from the modern world, and that society can be overturned dramatically in an instant.
18) An apostrophe in the title
We couldn't leave Dinah by Mary Treadgold.
I first read this when I was about 10, and was delighted to come across it again while staying with a friend. Indeed the book itself was like coming across an old and much loved friend after far too many years apart.
Winner of the Carnegie medal in 1941, Mary Treadgold wrote the novel while in an air raid shelter during the Blitz.
The novel tells the story of two pony mad children, who are accidentally left behind on one of the Channel Islands as the Nazis invade. Desperate to get home, they are unexpectedly thrown into espionage.
It's a great adventure story, but it's also surprisingly moving as the children struggle to work out who is friend and who foe; and discover that even enemies can unexpectedly become friends. I adored it every bit as much as I did as a child, but also found an added depth to it which I had not expected. Wonderful book.
19) A buddy read
Contact / Carl Sagan.
Thanks to a 52 Book Club fellow reader, this was read in memory of her brother, "Buddy", whose favourite book this was, and who passed away far too young.
Contact is a charming read. Full of Sagan's love and enthusiasm for science and humanity it's surprisingly touching. Not a book I think I would normally have read (a bit too hard sci-fi for my usual taste), but am very glad that I did.
The ending is perhaps a little disappointing, and did become a little more religious than I had expected, but there were moments in the novel where I had a distinct lump in the throat. Carl Sagan's joy of life shines throughout.
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20) A revenge story
House of cards by Michael Dobbs.
Gloriously cynical, blackly comic political thriller. When a Chief Whip fails to get a deserved promotion an intricate revenge story will play out.
Not just a revenge story either, this was also a revenge write for the author whose political career was ruined after a mauling by Margaret Thatcher. Revenge must have been sweet (though I am sure that Michael Dobbs like Francis Urquhart couldn't possibly comment)
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21) Written by a ghostwriter
22) A plot similar to another book
23) The other book with the similar plot
24) A cover without people on it
The winners / Fredrik Backman
Final book in the Beartown trilogy. Loved Beartown and have enjoyed reading the rest of the trilogy and rounding off the story. Haven't found the sequels as good as the original, but glad that I read them as a group.
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25) An author “everyone” has read except you
Bear town / Fredrik Backman
The fortunes of a hockey club are the centre of life for a small remote community.
Wonderful book. Starts off like a standard Nordic noir, then turns into a story about community. Alongside this there are much deeper and darker themes about how what unites community can also divide it, rape culture and toxic masculinity, bias, justice and law. It is an astonishing book that treads lightly but thoughtfully. Great writing.
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26) Hybrid genre
The name of the rose / Umberto Eco
Historical novel / murder mystery.
First read this shortly after it was translated. Enjoyed it but didn't understand the hype. This time around I adored it. Such an insight into medieval life and thought especially for those who love and work with books. Also thoroughly enjoyed listening to C13th music while reading.
Have also included this in the Read it / Watch it challenge. Have seen the TV series - beautiful photography, good acting, but a very different beast from the book. Re-watching the film next.
27) By a neurodivergent author
Wishful drinking / Carrie Fisher.
Incredibly funny, often outrageously shocking, Wishful drinking is actress, Carrie Fisher's memoire of life, celebrity and her battles with addiction and bi-polar disorder.
I found this prompt a tricky one and was delighted to suddenly remember this. Am sorry that Carrie died far too soon, she was a wonderfully hilarious story teller.
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28) A yellow spine
29) Published in a Year of the Dragon
30) Picked without reading the blurb
Hiding the elephant / Jim Steinmeyer
I came across this accidentally online when I saw and loved the front cover. It's not the sort of book I would normally read, but I loved Jim Steinmeyer's fascinating history of optical magic, from its roots in the mid 19th century through to the 1920s.
It features a big cast of characters through the greatest illusionists of the day, escape artists, con artists, and some of the most elegant magicians ever to grace the stage. There's also a cast of disappearing donkeys, an invisible elephant and a craze for sawing women in half (thankfully no-one was harmed in this process, though ambulances were on stand by).
It's quite frequently funny, sometimes astonishing, and occasionally unexpectedly touching. A really interesting look into an unknown world by a master of illusion.
31) Includes a personal phobia
Russia : revolution and civil war 1917-1921 / Antony Beevor.
I wasn't intending to fill a challenge with this book, but unexpectedly came across an incident (phobia related) that had also prevented me for many years from finishing George Orwell's 1984 (am sure he must have based the rat incident on stories he had heard emanating from the Russian civil war).
It's a haunting and often disturbing read. I was troubled by how many towns have suffered time and again through the revolution into the Second World War and onwards into modern times. It's not an entirely neutral account but is written in Beevor's beautiful style. He really makes you care about those caught up in events beyond their control.
32) Timeframe spans a week or less
Candleshoe (originally published as Christmas at Candleshoe) by Michael Innes.
Enchanting story spanning roughly 24 hours. For those thinking of using it as the Holiday prompt though, beware. It has nothing to do with the Christmas season whatsoever.
33) An abrupt ending
The making of the British landscape/ Nicholas Crane.
Lovingly told history of the changing landscape of Great Britain. It inevitably has an abrupt ending finishing, as the author puts it, in the middle of a chapter as the landscape and our relationship with it continues to evolve. Fascinating book.
34) Set in a landlocked country
The Salzburg Connection / Helen MacInnes.
Principally set in Austria and Switzerland.
This is how you lose the time war / Amal El Mohtar and Max Gladstone
Often wondered what the heck was going on, but I really enjoyed this. Beautiful writing, and the love of the central characters was both powerful and endearing. A salutary lesson in a world at war that opponents often have more in common than they believe if only they would look.
Also contains the most graceful acknowledgements of any novel.
Unexpectedly enchanting.
37) Palindrome on the cover
Still life / Louise Penny
This is the first of Penny's Inspector Gamache mysteries that I've read. I loved the community of Three Pines and Gamache that she created. As Whodunnits go, the murderer was easy to spot (or at least I thought so), but with this kind of crime novel that really isn't the point, it's more about finding a new fictional friend, that you know is going to be keeping you company for some time. A great comfort read.
39) Non-fiction recommended by a friend
The Wager / David Grann
It's only January, but I think I've just read one of my books of the year. Compulsively readable account of a naval disaster. A real-life adventure story beautifully told. Highly recommended.
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40) Set during a holiday you don’t celebrate
41) A sticker on the cover
The locked room / Elly Griffiths
42) Author debut in second half of 2024
43) About finding identity
Wandering stars / Sholem Aleichem
Utterly charming, heartwarming tale of life in a Yiddish theatre troop in the early C20th. Two youngsters discover their path in life after joinng the company. Partly based on real people and places, and very funny, this is my latest comfort read.
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44) Includes a wedding
45) Chapter headings have dates
Death comes as the end / Agatha Christie.
I was originally going to use this along with Sleeping Murder for the similar books prompt. Both have long been favourites, but I am particularly fond of Death comes as the end - a murder mystery set in Ancient Egypt. Agatha was married to an archaeologist and was very knowledgeable about ancient history.
Both Sleeping Murder and Death comes as the end were written during the Second World War, though Sleeping Murder, the last Miss Marple, was only published posthumously. Both Sleeping Murder and Curtain : Poirot's last case were locked away in Christie's publisher's safe, only to be published in the event of her death. They would remain there for 30 years.
You can tell however when reading Death comes as the end that they were written around the same period. There is a distinct resemblance between the villain, the innocence of the heroine, and even some tiny details of the surroundings.
In the end however I moved away from the similar books prompts (prompts 22-23) when I discovered that I had completely forgotten the dated chapter headings in Death comes as the end. OK they are a little vague - Second month of inundation, 20th day - but near enough to know that would be roughly September 15th. This feels like a more tricky prompt to fill, so have moved this rather unChristie Christie to here.
Here's my beloved suitably ancient copy with the beautiful Tom Adams cover.
46) Featuring Indigenous culture
47) Self-insert by an author
A line to kill by Anthony Horowitz.
Generally entertaining murder mystery as author Anthony Horowitz and former detective Hawthorne investigate a series of deaths at a literary festival.
The ending is a little disappointing with a very awkward abrupt cliffhanger presumably into the next book in the series. Unfortunate as the rest of the book was so enjoyable.
48) The word “secret” in the title
49) Set in a city starting with the letter “M”
Gorky Park / Martin Cruz Smith
Principally set in Moscow, Gorky Park is a thoroughly enjoyable and well written murder mystery / thriller. Loved the lead character of Arkady Renko.
50) A musical instrument on the cover
51) Related to the word “Wild”
Nordy Bank / Sheena Porter.
I had this book as a child. Tried several times to read it, never got on with it at all. Picked it up the other day and loved it (50 years on must make a difference).
Set in the hill country around the Welsh Marches, a group of children wild camping, are stirred by memories of the distant past at an Iron age hill fort (which really exists!) and rescue an ex-army dog, who is also of a rather wild disposition, hence why he is being sent for re-training. (To a Canine Defence League centre near Bristol - wonder if it still exists under Dogs' Trust?)
It's a delightful read and left me feeling decidedly homesick. I just wonder why it took me so long to discover the joy of this children's novel.
52) Published in 2024
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