50 Book Challenge 2016 Part Three

DD spent yesterday with her nose stuck to her Kindle reading Gone, so thanks for the recommendation, Sadik

And, as well as the class structure, even worse if they were (shock, horror) women - this was really brought home to me in the books reviewed above.

Canyouforgiveher

Just dropping in to say I have always been a big Margaret Forster fan and was really sad to hear of her recent death. I like her style whatever subject she is covering and plan to re read a few now.

Love Margaret Forster. My favourite story of hers is her describing going down to oxford from a tiny council flat and being in rooms and Lady X whom she roomed with coming in and seeing her in the bath and saying "I've never seen anyone ever sit at the tap end before!" MF had never had a bath available before so didn't know which end to sit at. This struck me as so true, so revealing, and so hopeful as she ended up being close friends with these women and also ended up one of the most influential literary figures of her day.

The truth is that Margaret Forster was not the first of her family to have this searing intelligence and creativity-she was the first to be given the opportunity to express it.

It makes me think how many many wonderful potential writers, scientists, composers, thinkers died unseen because of the class structure that put them down. and it is still going on.

17. The Past by Tessa Hadley I think I got this out of the library because of a recommendation on MN. It was also reviewed by the New York Times (good review)

I have to say I didn't get this book. it was ok but there wasn't one character I truly liked/loved which makes it all a bit of a slog.

Plus it was fairly unbelievable in admittedly pedestrian ways. So these 4 siblings plus spouses/children where appropriate spend 3 full weeks in the grandparents old house which isn't even in a particularly lovely area or on the beach or whatever. 3 weeks! I could barely spend 3 weeks on hols with my husband still less my siblings. And one of the siblings at the last minute brings along the early 20s son of one of her ex lovers which means her sister has to share the bunk room with her kids because he needs a room and the 16 year old niece needs a room. None of this raises more than a "oh Alice now I'll have to share the bunk room".

Can you imagine the threads on AIBU?

"My sister insists we spend 3 weeks together at my grandparents old house which means I have to use up all my holiday time. Then when I arrived she had brought along some guy we didn't know for this "3 week sibling get together" and he took MY room (not hers) and I ended up bunking in with my 2 kids. For 3 weeks. Would I be unreasonable to tell my sister to fuck off and to go home???"

Both of my last two books have a feminist flavour, for those of you who like that sort of thing - one fiction and one non-fiction.

12. Bodies of Light by Sarah Moss. This is the story of Ally (short for Alathea) Moberley, growing up in the second half of the 19th century with her devout, strict, feminist mother, her artist father and her little sister May. Ally's ambition is to become a doctor, at a time when this was almost impossible for women. I'm a fan of Sarah Moss, and I really enjoyed this book.

13. Romantic Outlaws: The Extraordinary Lives of Mary Wollstonecraft and Mary Shelley by Charlotte Gordon. This was recommended on last year's thread - possibly by bibliomania? It's a biography of two women - one was an early feminist and the author of Vindication of the Rights of Women, the other is best known as the author of Frankenstein and the romantic poet Shelley's wife. The two Marys are also mother and daughter, but never knew each other as Wollstonecraft sadly died a week after her daughter was born. This biography is written with alternating chapters about the two women, so you discover their lives in parallel. It's fascinating stuff, as they both led such interesting, varied, difficult, tragic lives.

Just dropping in to say I have always been a big Margaret Forster fan and was really sad to hear of her recent death. I like her style whatever subject she is covering and plan to re read a few now.

I'm also on Nora Webster at the moment and enjoying the gentle flow of the book.

19. The Year of Living Danishly by Helen Russell. I really enjoyed this. The author is a journalist, living in London with her husband. They are stressed and miserable and trying unsuccessfully for a baby. He is offered a job for a year working at Legoland. They decide to go for it and this the author's account of their settling into their new life in rural Jutland. There's humour and lots of interesting facts revealed through the author's interviews with various people in her attempt to discover why people living in Denmark are so happy (on a scale of 1 to 10 most of her interviewees are a 9 or 9.5).

She couldn't really have done a more positive piece about Denmark if she had been working for the Tourist Board. Despite the harsh winters, it really does sound a very good place to live.

15 The Woman Who Walked into the Sea by Mark Douglas-Home

The sequel to The Sea Detective. Cal is an oceanographer who can use his knowledge of currents and tides to find where people and objects lost at sea are likely to end up and to track where flotsam and jetsam washed up on the shore originated from. In this book a woman abandoned at birth who is looking for the truth about her mother comes to a small, isolated community on the Scottish coast. It's not as compelling as The Sea Detective, probably because Cal is not such a major character and his oceanography plays a very small part. It's a good read, but nothing special.

book 10 Bernard cornwall the burning land book 5 of Saxon chronicles)this is my favourite book yet. As I know other posters are reading the series i don't want to give away too much. All that I will say is Uthred returns to the north after falling foul of Alfred only to be recalled South by another oath he has made in the past and this oath may change the course of uthred's fate

23 Girl in a Band - a memoir by Kim Gordon (of Sonic Youth).

MN bookclub giveaway that I expected to like. I read Boys Boys Boys . . . by Viv Albertine and Bedsit Disco Queen by Tracy Thorn last year, and enjoyed both books a lot (despite never having been an EBTG fan).

Sadly, I was far less taken with Girl in a Band - KG's evidently a talented musician and artist, but I just found her writing a bit dull. Reading reviews, she's criticised for namedropping, but tbh that wasn't really an issue for me (Viv Albertine drops far more names, and more interesting ones ) - more that she didn't make any of it sound very exciting.

I suspect part of the problem is that the book was obviously written in the fallout from her split with her husband/fellow band member; maybe a bit more distance would have made a better book.

The film has a different feel to the book. I think they tried to emphasise the loneliness of Mars, so it felt quieter and slower-moving. It is beautifully shot though, and I loved the costumes and spaceships.

Thanks tumbletumble. She is ok in the day but in that awful stuffy stage at night. That with her molars coming is making her cut a sad figure at 2am, and me a sadder one when I have to get up at 6.30!

I find series books a bit off-putting at the moment. My 'to read' list is so long already that I don't want to commit to something with lots of sequels!

I loved The Martian last year and am looking forward to seeing the film. I've heard it's not as good as the book, but Matt Damon should help me not mind that!

Hope your toddler is better soon, Satsuki

I don't think I've ever been in a position to read a whole series in one shot. I feel like I would find it a bit much and want to space it out.

I have Game of Thrones in its entirety pretty much on the Kindle, so I shall see if I ever get around to it.

Still on Black Swan Green. Have slowed down a bit the last couple of days. Don't know if it's me or the book; nothing much is going on in it yet. I haven't slept much this week due to teething and poorly toddler so haven't been able to concentrate as much though. Started The Uncommon Reader on Kindle.

Of course, if you did it the other way round, the book would fill in any gaps the film left, and you could picture Matt Damon. So swings and roundabouts

We watched The Martian last week. I loved the book so really enjoyed seeing it brought to life with the sets and technology and scenery. However, the film (necessarily) doesn't have as much technical scientific detail as the book, so I found it good to have read it first and have it in the background, as I could just watch the film without asking too many questions of how and why.

The other thing is, much as I liked the book, I don't know if I'd have enjoyed it as much if I knew the outcome; you have to work quite hard through all of his problem solving detail, and the plotting around it is the payoff. I personally need the suspense to sustain me in a first reading of a book, not so much for a film.

So personal choice, but I'm pleased I read it first. It is quite a fast read, iirc.

For those who like to read all of a series together, does that mean you wait till everything is out before starting them? Don't think I could do that, too impatient.

Another question: I've got The Martian in my to-read list after reviews on here, but DP has just bought the DVD. Is this one of those films where you really should read the book first or does it not matter?

Thanks Quogwinkle, I will put that one on my future reading list.I have also had 2recommended by Forster:hidden lives, book1, and Precious lives.

Booklover/Onlylovers - I'm reading my first Margaret Forster (I know, a bit late but nevertheless ...) - My Life in Houses, which is really good so far.

Aw, I love A Man Called Ove! I really enjoyed the dry, understated wit, and that it was deceptively naively written but actually very emotionally true, and piercing, in the end.

Booklover, no, I haven't read Margaret Forster but am intending to.

Sadik, thanks for that. Might try A Face Like Glass.

Currently reading Girl in a Band by Kim Gordon and really not that inspired, interspersed with How to Be Both by Ali Smith, which I didn't expect to like but am rather enjoying.

OnlyLovers, I haven't read The Lie Tree yet, but I absolutely loved Fly by Night and the sequel Twilight Robbery, particularly the main character Mosca Mye. A Face Like Glass was also excellent, again a really engaging main character.

Cuckoo Song and Gullstruck Island were both fine, but not at the same level, I'd say.

Only lovers, I'm glad my enthusiasm came across! It is a virago modern classics, I picked it up2nd hand from Amazon.no, Nora Webster is my 1st by colm Toibin, onto page 20 and it appears good! Have you read any books by Margaret Forster? Reading a few of her recent obituaries has sparked my interest. Happy reading and good to make contact with someone on this thread(you are my first since joining last month!)