50 Book Challenge 2017 Part Two

6. Forget you had a daughter: Spending time in the Bangkok Hilton - Sandra Gregory

This was another library book I'd taken out about a young girl who got caught smuggling heroin in Thailand in the early 90s. I enjoyed reading it to see why she'd done it and reading about her experiences in prison in Thailand. I didn't find the experiences of British prison as fascinating and somehow feel like she skipped how she got from Thailand to U.K. Prison. I wasn't the biggest fan of Sandra herself as I felt she was old enough to know better but must have been very self involved at the time. She does admit herself that she's glad it happened as she probably would have still been selfish. Overall it was an interesting read!

That made no sense at all.

Ploughing ON with Stalin.

Good to see some Grayson Perry love. Dp had his book about masculinity for Christmas, which I'll read at some point this year.

List so far:
1: The Essex Serpent – Sarah Perry
2: Fatherland Robert Harris
3: Stasi Child – David Young
4: Golden Hill – Francis Spufford
5: American Gods – Neil Gaiman
6: The House by the Lake – Thomas Harding
7: 84 Charing Cross Road – Helene Hanff
8: The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street – Helene Hanff

Now reading two light weight novels and ploughing one with Stalin and another non-fic.

9. The Pure in Heart (Simon Serailler Book 2) by Susan Hill.

The next book in the DCI Simon Serailler series. Good character development, enjoyed the storylines. Liked it and will continue with this series.

It was a good foil to my non-fiction epic at the moment which is Jerusalem- The Biography by Simon Sebag Montefiore. So far very interesting but requiring a certain level of concentration.

Iris, there is definitely an overlap with Barbara Ehrenreich, who also wrote a foreword to this book. Funnily enough, it's not a depressing book - there's a bit of a punk swagger to it.

stokey I didn't see your post before I made mine! There were parts which were self indulgent. I really didn't think some of the events involving the mother and son needed as much detail and the relationship with Rebecca was a bit feverish, especially as we already the overheated infatuation with the guard. After I had read it I was surprised that it made the Man Booker list.

I think the character quoting her - was it the doctor? - Didn't know it wasn't her, he just remembered her saying it and applied it to himself iirc. It stood out to me too because it's so well known. I have the Kindle version as well but I saw the paper copy in Waterstones and I'm tempted to buy it as the cover is so beautiful

Bibliomania I remember reading an interview with the author of Hand to Mouth and made a note to read it when I was less depressed! Not sure I am in the right place to read it yet though. A similar book, although written from an objective perspective is Nickelled and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich. I also read Hard Work (?) by Polly Toynbee. Behind the Beautiful Forevers by ??? is terrific about the poor in India.
I was really sad to finish Eileen and a week later I am still thinking about the protagonist. I think she'll stay with me a very long time. Very hard to like, but somehow sympathetic. The writer is brutally honest about how some women experience themselves and it is raw and graphic at times. I had shivers of recognition about early teenage years although Eileen is older.
It was also one of those books that demanded my attention and every chance I got I picked it up. I am afraid I gobbled it up very quickly and it deserves better than that! Moshfegh also writes beautifully about small town America and about winter. As it happened it was very cold and snowy when I read it but I imagine even at the height of summer the snowy landscape would be very real. There was one aspect which I was disappointed with but I won't say anymore about it as I don't want to spoil the plot. 😀

I stand corrected Stasuki - i thought he meant she said the quote. I have the Kindle version so haven't seen the cover!

I'm tempted by that book about the Mitfords, dragon, even though I feel I've read loads about them, including the book about Nancy by the same author. Oh well, I can get it for free in my local library, so why not?

stokey re: The Essex Serpent Perry doesn't attribute the quote to Cora - another character merely remembers her having said it; the inference is that Cora is engaged with the culture of the time, not that she originated it. As the cover of the book is based on a William Morris design, it is another nod to his influence rather than an appropriation of it, especially as the novel has strong elements of fantasy as well as being concerned with both beauty and practical knowledge.

I'm rather late to the party, but have enjoyed reading though this thread - I am very tempted by the Grayson Perry but am going to be good and just add it to my wish list till I have read a couple most of the unread books I already own!

1. Take Six Girls - the Lives of the Mitford Sisters by Laura Thompson - fascinating subject matter, though it focuses heavily on the girls' youth rather than their whole lives. The author was very opinionated and partisan through out; for example commenting "she was almost certainly wrong to think Nancy's virulent cancer was caused by lack of love and excess of spite" (my emphasis). Last I noticed those who are loved and kind sadly contract terminal illnesses too . . .

1. Missing, presumed - Susie Steiner - a pampered student goes missing in mysterious circumstances, and a flawed detective tries to find her. Yes, it was full of cliches and yes, the ending was silly, but it was an enjoyable distraction

1. The Year of Living Danishly - Helen Russell - summarised upthread - amusing

1. Spies - Michael Frayn - an old man makes sense of events that happened around him as a boy in World War Two. I really enjoyed this as it was so evocative of its time

Welcome Iris, what did you think of Eileen? I read it over Christmas and found it a bit self-indulgent. I got a bit bored by it.

I've just re-started How to Be Both after giving up on it last year Vistaverde , not sure how it'll go. I keep trying Ali Smith but am never that wowed by her.

1. The Essex Serpent - Sarah Perry. This has been much reviewed but is basically set in late Victorian England and follows a surgeon, a priest, amateur archaeologist and a campaigner. It covers a lot of themes and evokes the time perfectly. I laughed at your comment about horse chestnuts Best. My only slight niggle here that I noticed was her attributing a William Morris quote to Cora: "Have nothing in your house that you do no know to be useful or believe to be beautiful". I should add that I thought this was a far better read than her first book which I persevered through last year.

1. How to Be Both - Ali Smith I really enjoyed the first half of the book and found George's story engaging and well written. However, I was extremely disappointed with the second half I found it too rambling and difficult to follow the thread of the story. I had also hoped that we would meet George again before the end of the book and was very disappointed when we didn't.

Sadik, I remember seeing that one reviewed and I'll look out for it. I might have to be in the right frame of mind to undertake something so weighty - Hand to Mouth was a fairly quick and undemanding read, despite its subject matter.

Still going with Pillars!

No. 6 Wifework by Susan Maushart.
A look at the silent and unseen work that women do in the home. While it is a bit dated now, there was much that resonated with me and is food for thought. It's not about necessarily achieving equality in doing housework, childcare etc., but about achieving equality of recognition. I found a lot of it very insightful and useful.

biblio - you might want to look out for Evicted by Matthew Desmond - which is both a passionate account of poverty in one US city and a serious piece of applied sociology - I can't recommend it highly enough.

10 Europe in Winter by Dave Hutchinson

Third in a SF/espionage thriller series set in a near future alternate universe where - following a flu pandemic and serial refugee crises - the EU has fallen apart and the continent has fractured into myriad states/statelets. The Coureurs des Bois specialise in running 'packages' whether information, goods or people across borders, and form the backbone of the story. This book starts with a terrorist outrage destroying a railway tunnel that is one of the main connections between Eastern & Western Europe, and builds from there.

I like this series a great deal. The first book (Europe in Autumn) was patchy and a bit slow in parts, but in books 2 & now 3 the author has really got going. I particularly like the fact that they aren't overly bloodthirsty compared to many thrillers - inevitably, given the genre, there are deaths, but on the whole it's very un-gory.

I'll probably go back in the summer when I'm on holidays and re-read through the whole series now I know where they're actually heading, I suspect there's an awful lot I missed on my first reads.

Hi Iris, yes, it's more fun arguing here than arguing with yourself!

8. Hand to Mouth, Linda Tirado. This is a polemic about being part of the working poor in the US. Seemed a timely read. It's repetitive, angry and purely about her own personal experience; nobody would call it a reasoned work of sociology. But there is still some merit in a piece that says loud and proud "This is what it feels like to be me". She evokes the despair you feel when you can't see any possibility that you might stop being poor. The section about living in daily pain with her teeth because she can't get proper treatment is pretty visceral. So overall flawed, but I thought it was worth the read.

4. This Real Night, Rebecca West Set in the years running up to WW1, this is the second book in a trilogy about the Aubrey family. I read the first book a few years ago, but it was easy to pick up the threads of the story. It's mainly a novel of family life - a musical family who are impoverished by comparison to their peers. It's been a struggle for Mrs Aubrey, but now her children are on the cusp of adulthood and things are coming together. Keenly observed and very evocative of the era, I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Really glad I found this. I was doing a challenge on Goodreads on my own. This will be much nicer 😀
So far I have read Eileen by Ottessa Moshfegh, Tristana by Benito Perez Galdos.
I am currently reading The Awakening by Kate Chopin, In Therapy by Susie Orbach and Thus Were Their Faces by Silvana Ocompa.
😀

Best I finished The End of the World Running Club last night and agree 100%. I listened on Audible and don't know why I continued with it instead of using their excellent return option. I am perplexed by the rave reviews.

I should have gone with the Arnie Cote

"Made Station 11 seem positively sophisticated."

Wow, that is an achievement!