50 Book Challenge 2017 Part Two

"Books featuring 'modern lives of women' "

Yeah, I have no interest in normal women leaving normal lives in normal cities. Is there a male equivalent of this phenomenon at all? I don't think I've ever seen a book about a man just working in a boring job, then coming home to a dysfunctional marriage and kids waking in the night etc.

Who. Cares.

Seriously.

LOL - Cote

I read most of Binchy as a teen, and have a soft spot for the occasional Keyes (Irish)

I meant the difference between Keyes/Kinsella (womens) and Ali and Zadie Smith (contemporary)

I too avoid those flowery cottage cover books, in general, and go to the "contemporary" section, but I do read widely.

but sometimes I think that vibe still creeps in to contemporary novels featuring "modern lives of women, in general

What I'm saying I guess is that I think NW has serious elements of "those books" but pretends otherwise.

"there's a world of difference between say, a "Shopaholic Goes Shopping" or a Keyes/Binchy/Lette/Aherne type book"

Not that big a world.

I don't see those books you speak of at all, Every, because I don't even slow down near the "women's" section in a bookstore. Any book with a flowery, pink, etc cover or whose title includes the words who "the girl who...", "my sister's...", "me and you..." have practically no chance with me.

I have no interest in reading about motherhood, patisseries, etc and am baffled by the popularity of that stuff in print.

Tarahumara

Yes, I know!

But there was a LOT of "motherhood mundanity" going on, and it's a plot point. Isn't there loads of angst over the children eating the "right" food at one stage?

And it's not all on the island

I did not like it.....

Satsuki

(Nod)

But I think there's a world of difference between say, a "Shopaholic Goes Shopping" or a Keyes/Binchy/Lette/Aherne type book

and what the likes of Amanda Craig and Ali Smith write (though I find both pretentious)

There are of course plenty of female writers who don't write that sort of Middle Class London book. It's not even that I abhor the Middle Class London novel, it's just there are WAY too many. It's pretty much its own genre at this point.

Night Waking is set on a remote island off the coast of Scotland! Definitely no croissants or patisseries in it!

I realise I may have taken your description slightly too literally, but I loved Night Waking.

mrsdonofrio I read If This Is a Man at university and it was harrowing but it felt necessary to have read it.

1. Fashion Quotes - Stylish Wit and Catwalk Wisdom. A Christmas gift - lots of quotations from various fashionistas - ranging from Coco Chanel and Yves Saint-Laurent to Lady Gaga. A quick enjoyable read - perfect for a rainy afternoon.

1. The Muse - Jessie Burton I really enjoyed this. I thought it was a more rounded novel than The Miniaturist. There were some good descriptions of both life in London in the late 1960s and Spain in the build up to the Spanish Civil War in 1936.

I didn't especially mean "chick lit" as being non-literary - books with titles like Night Waking Her and Hearts and Minds would all give me as strong a whiff of motherhood and patisseries as "Book Club at the Cupcake Cafe" tbh I'm not running down these kinds of books btw but they don't appeal to me so I never get the sense of reading only about one type of thing.

I'm going to give Swing Time a go because I listened to the podcast stokey mentioned and found her interesting, but I didn't rate either White Teeth or On Beauty that much.

Finished number 6 last night - If this is a man by Primo Levi. It describes his time in Auschwitz. The subject matter made it a difficult read and I had a weeks break in the middle but I'm glad I finished it. I still have The Truce to read which describes his journey home to Italy. A pp, I think HappyFlappy, said in the first thread that it showed the joy and kindness of human nature but although it did describe some acts of kindness, the context of the book held more horror than joy, for me anyway.

Keith

Genuinely one of the books I have hated most in the last 5 years, it's not a fiction novel, it's a thinly disguised moral lecture, with lots of handwringing and unlikeable people and one absolutely entrenched in stereotype and cliche.

Thank you for also hating it.

Hearts And Minds by Amanda Craig (don't, just don't, any of you)

Until I read this, I had never given up on a book, ever. This was the first one I cast from me, saying "No no no no".

It opened the floodgates - now I will give a book a few chapters to grab me (more if it's been recommended by someone I like or trust) then it goes back to the library or off to the charity shop.

Stokey

I only finished it last night I feel fairly sure there's a croissant interlude somewhere in there

1. Did You Ever Have a Family by Bill Clegg

Set in small-town America, opening with a family tragedy, several members of the same family killed in a mystery fire the day before a wedding. Multiple narrators, loops back and forward explaining the complex human relationships between the people involved and piecing together what actually happened on the fateful day. Not perfect - the different narrative voices could have been better differentiated, and some inconsistencies or lack of motive were glossed over in a rather amateur way - but well-imagined and touching. I thought in particular the way he describes loneliness was very moving.

Your post made me chortle Everysongbird, although I don't think the pastry motherhood label is quite fair to Zadie.

I wasn't wowed by Swing Time but the issues she raises have stayed with me. I just listened to a Penguin Podcast on it which I'd recommend. It made me feel a bit more sympathetic towards the narrator, as she talks about how women in their 20s often struggle with identity that is seperate from their friends and social group. It was a bit elitist I guess as she is being interviewed by David Baddiel who is from the same part of London, but both also talk about being from minority backgrounds.

Sorry I meant There But For The by Ali Smith, I've not read How To Be Both but I am looking at.

I absolutely loathed There But For The

Thanks for the link highland very interested, will definitely read.

Satsuki

Yes and no, the more "literary books" do 2. in a more literary way I find, so that maybe you won't notice.

I compared NW to the following in my head, lots of crossover

Hearts And Minds by Amanda Craig (don't, just don't, any of you)
Night Waking by Sarah Moss
Her by Harriet Lane
How To Be Both by Ali Smith

There's also some crossover with the London Bloke Lit genre too : Hornby, Maher, O'Farrell, Parsons, which is always marketed as being much more literary than it actually is.

Crikey, everyone seems to be rattling along except me. Just finished my Book 2: All Quiet on the Western Front which, although short, took me ages to finish. The bloke seems determined to help me spend my bonus on the right lens for my new DSLR and is overwhelming me with youtube reviews. My brain is utterly boggled now and am completely unable to make a choice However, what a great book, thought-provoking and beautifully written. I won't do a longer review as there have been many before me. But a great start to the year with two 5-star reads when I had none last year.

Skimming a fair bit this year as trying to clear the massive backlog. But I am keeping an eye out for that overlap on the Cote-Remus Venn diagram thread favourites as they are proving to be absolute winners

gracefully - I think I mean graciously !

"2. Someone becomes a mother and struggles with the demands of motherhood against the back drop of various patissieries"

Made me laugh too Keith!

I'm not a massive fan of Zadie Smith's writing but do admire her speaking up in the fight to try to save London's libraries. This is what she wrote about the importance of libraries to the community:

I don’t think the argument in favor of libraries is especially ideological or ethical. I would even agree with those who say it’s not especially logical. I think for most people it’s emotional. Not logos or ethos but pathos. This is not a denigration: emotion also has a place in public policy. We’re humans, not robots.

The people protesting the closing of Kensal Rise Library love that library. They were open to any solution on the left or on the right if it meant keeping their library open. They were ready to Big Society the hell out of that place. A library is one of those social goods that matter to people of many different political attitudes. All that the friends of Kensal Rise and Willesden Library and similar services throughout the country are saying is: these places are important to us.

We get that money is tight, we understand that there is a hierarchy of needs, and that the French Market or a Mark Twain plaque are not hospital beds and classroom size. But they are still a significant part of our social reality, the only thing left on the high street that doesn’t want either your soul or your wallet.

I lived near her in London a few years ago and agree she is very feted there. So it was a little unusual to see her at Hay-on-Wye not as an author, but accompanying her husband Nick Laird who was there to talk about his second novel. I had a chat with him after his interview and hadn't realised they were a couple until he mentioned it. He spoke gracefully about her being a much bigger name than him but also couldn't resist pointing out he'd beaten her in a writing competition at Cambridge Very nice guy.

Interesting what you say about London-centric novels EverySongbird.

Kate Kellaway wrote an interesting article The places where the story of Britain is told . Deals with the question of novels set in London but covers many other places too.
www.theguardian.com/books/2008/dec/28/1

"2. Someone becomes a mother and struggles with the demands of motherhood against the back drop of various patissieries"

Songbird this made me snort (in a good way!). I've said further up that I love ZS, but have wondered whether I would enjoy her books if I wasn't the same age as her and also from London. Critics love her because she's "authentic" (I think this means she's black and pretty and can write) but we could certainly do with more of the "authentic" voices from other parts of the UK.

I can’t keep up with this thread! It’s moving too fast for me. Slow it down people.

3. The House of Silk – Anthony Horowitz
I found this to be engaging enough and didn’t guess all of the mystery, but I’m not a particular fan of Sherlock Holmes anyway, so this left me feeling rather meh overall. It’s made me want to read more of the originals though.

4. The Return: Fathers, Sons, and the Land in Between – Hisham Matar
I can’t recommend this enough, it’s just an excellent, though sad memoir and I read it in just over a day (when I should have been working). The Libyan born novelist returns to Libya to try and find out what happened to his father and other members of his family during the Qaddafi regime. I really didn’t realise the extent of the horrors inflicted by Qaddafi, but this was so beautifully written I didn’t want to put it down despite that.

5. The Sympathizer – Viet Thanh Nguyen
Another good novel and so different to anything I have ever read. We learn about The Sympathizer, half Vietnamese, half European and his role in the Vietnam war and the troubles that came after it in his life in the USA. Not really accepted anywhere due to his mixed heritage, the Sympathizer lives between two camps, both literally and metaphorically and has many secrets. Yet despite there being some upsetting elements to this novel, such as rape and torture, the narrator is so engaging and at times funny and human, that it’s an excellent ( if not perhaps overly long) read. It also won the Pulitzer prize for fiction last year.

Phew.

Not to contradict you everysongbird because I'm sure you're right about those numbers but doesn't it also depend on where in the bookshop you're looking? Those things you describe in 1,2,3 sound very much a "chick-lit" style of book and I don't think I've read anything that matches that in the last year. Zadie Smith is very much associated with the North London literary novel, though.

I don't think you can slightly , people generally give the time I think?