50 Book Challenge 2017 Part Three

Romantic poetry might have feeeeeliiinnnnngs, I fear

Can't wait to catch up on this thread in full when I get home

I'm scared now

The Romantic poetry is boring but the rest is pretty good. It has astronomy and natural science and hot air balloons and chemistry and all sorts!

"You are forgiven."

Good. Who else would I so agreeably lock horns with every single book I read?

"I think you'd probably like The Age of Wonder by the way, although you might find the Romantic poetry a bit wearing (and, frankly, who wouldn't?)."

Romantic poetry?! Why do I get the feeling that you are going for revenge? No, thank you

My tally will gladly take the hit if it means more people are spared that book

Enjoying Cold Comfort Farm so far. Nice, quick read, with a bit of wit. Exactly what I needed.

You are forgiven. In 'my version' of the book, Gauss did some sums (admittedly some when he was very young) and had a lot of sex. I suspect Gauss and I are unlikely to cross paths again, and that's fine by me!

I think you'd probably like The Age of Wonder by the way, although you might find the Romantic poetry a bit wearing (and, frankly, who wouldn't?).

I didn't mean to offend you Remus. We had this conversation before and I remember that you don't like reading detailed explanations of chemical reactions or mathematical formulae. Not many people do except weirdoes like me

It did seem like you skim-read Measuring The World because you dont seem to have noticed that Gauss has done MUCH more than "sums", even when barely out of childhood.

Again, that is fine. The book clearly didn't interest you, which is my mistake for thinking it would. That is also fine. Nowhere have I intended to insult your intellect or character. Apologies if it felt that way

Cote
I didn't need the Maths/Science to be 'simple' and I didn't 'skim read'. I also didn't 'skip' the science in The Martian - I was just rather bored by it. Just because somebody doesn't enjoy something, it doesn't mean that they are stupid, or didn't understand it. It's possible to disagree with somebody, without assuming that it's a fault in their character/intellect, surely?

Re. childrens/YA lit, I think it also depends on why you read. I very rarely watch tv, so I'm often looking for books that are the equivalent of say a cookery show or a soap, I'm not looking for moral complexity or deep insights about the world, just something to read when I'm flopped on the sofa and need to wind down before bed.

These days the equivalent of the light fantasy that I read in my 20s (Mercedes Lackey, Anne McCaffrey, that sort of thing) is generally marketed as YA - but tbh it's the same stuff repackaged. It's also quite nice to read books that my dd is reading, and I think she likes it when she recommends a book and I enjoy it.

Wow! Other unfavourable comments The Slap - you've obviously all done me a favour.

Thank you for the "Slap" comments ABC.

I had been withering whether to add it to my massively huge pile of books to be read, but I won't bother.

ABC, sorry but I don't think you can count books you haven't finished in your total!

The fact is that no 8-year-old is going to read and understand the morally ambiguous and complex world of pain, necessity, betrayal, and sacrifice that us middle-aged women live in. It is actually not possible for a book written for an 8-year-old to take place in an adult world, with adult concerns and adult struggles.

I agree that obviously a child's world has different concern's to an adult's - you don't get many children's books about mid-life-crises, the problems of retirement or how hard it is being a middle-aged male academic who wants to sleep with his hot students (though I consider the last a point in its favour.)

But children don't live in a separate world to adults. They live in this world. They suffer as much trauma, bereavement, loss and fear as adults do - you only have to hang out on Mumsnet for an afternoon to read about abuse, complex moral battles in which the children are central, bastard fathers who don't want to see their kids any more and mothers posting things like 'I don't like my child'. They're actually more likely to suffer abuse and neglect and live in poverty than adults are. And you don't need to study much child psychology to know that eight-year-olds are capable of highly complicated and contradictory emotions.

An eight-year-old may not understand all the intricacies of Anna Karenina. But as all of you who've been reading the Elena Ferrante novels can vouch for - that doesn't mean their own morally ambiguous and complex world of pain, necessity, betrayal, and sacrifice is any less complicated or interesting.

It can't help but be woefully simplified and black/white.

Ooh, that's fighting talk. And untrue. Take the last book I read on this thread - The Thursday Kidnapping. It's not a perfect book - it goes a bit loopy at the end, it's rather snobbish, there's a car crash that comes out of nowhere and it's very 1960s. But it features child mortality, Hungarian refugees, child kidnapping, class issues, an incredibly well-observed portrayal of a teenager living a life of severe emotional neglect - and possible abuse - with very accurate attachment issues, a car crash which is not only the fault of our heroes, but has at least one serious casualty, possibly fatal, PTSD and stress, questions of responsibility and fault, and moral problems such as what moral responsibility do you have towards someone you feel desperately sorry for, but do not actually like?

And yes, it could also be read by an intelligent eight-year-old - though I think it would sit in the 9-12 section of a bookshop.

No, it's not as intricate as Anna Karenina. But its villain is a hell of a lot more psychologically complicated than any I've ever read in an Agatha Christie.

ABC, I binned The Slap as well. Horrible book filled with horrible people.

I hated The Slap too ABC, it made me want to throw it out of a window.

Have you read The year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion HistorianMum? I liked that last year, although I think she got a bit of stick for being misleading with the facts.

12. The Year of Our War - Steph Swainston. The main character in this fantasy book is Comet Jant, an immortal drug addict who is the only person in his world that can fly. There are a group of 50 immortals who help mortals and who are all archetypes - the Archer, the Sailor, the Messenger, the Swordsman. The mortals are fighting a war against insects - giant cockroach types that make spit structure over all the land they occupy, but where are they coming from? I really enjoyed this, interesting world-building and a good story. The blurb compares it with China Mieville, but it's not as steampunk. I've moved straight on to the second as Dh had already downloaded it, but the first is a self-contained story.

Best, if you're new to Terry Pratchett, I'd start with Guards! Guards!

Book 16 (I think, will have to check) was:

Victorians Undone, by Kathryn Hughes
5 non-fiction accounts related to body part that took on some significance - accusations of an illegitimate pregnancy by one of Victoria's ladies-in-waiting; did George Elliott have an enlarged hand due to her early years doing dairy work?; Darwin's beard (weirdly, the most enjoyable chapter); Fanny Cornforth's mouth (on the pre-Raphaelites) and Sweet Fanny Adams. I thought the last chapter was a bit ill-judged. The subject matter - the murder and dismemberment of a child - sat uneasily with the overall jauntiness of the book. Overall, however, I really enjoyed this book.

1. Gang Leader for a Day: A Rogue Sociologist Takes to the Streets (Sudhir Venkatesh). Loved it. It's a non-fiction about a sociology postgrad who decides to survey residents in a Chicago housing project for his thesis, and ends up befriending a gang leader. He then spends the best part of a decade hanging out with the gang, studying their hierarchy, and life in the projects. The murky morality of gang life was fascinating, and I'm very keen to read from Venkatesh.

1. The Slap (Christos Tsiolkas). Hated it. I enjoy flawed, unlikable characters; but the ones in this book were all so relentlessly horrid that they became caricatures. A chore to read. So much so that I didn't actually finish it .

I fancy something lighthearted now, so my next book will be Cold Comfort Farm (Stella Gibbons).

Book 8. The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg
Fascinating read about how habits are formed. He breaks them down into stages, cue/behaviour/reward, to help us understand how our particular habits are formed and allow us to identify how we can intervene and change a negative habit into a positive one. There are many examples of how the ad agencies use this knowledge to get us to buy more. Particularly fascinating was his description of how a man with no short term memory was still able to build and carry out certain habits in his daily life. I would recommend this well written, easy to read book if this sort of thing interests you. I'm still working on creating the habit of jumping out of bed and going for a half hour walk every morning instead of hitting the snooze button!
Book 9 The story of the lost child by Elena Ferrante blew me away? It is the fourth and last of the Neapolitan Novels which describe the friendship of two girls Lila and Elena from their childhood in the slums of Naples in the early 50s to the present day. I had got a bit bogged down in the third book and had to force myself to finish it. I'm so glad I persevered as this final book left me reeling. The wealth of characters and the depth and sometimes raw brutality of relationships and events is mesmerising and shocking in parts. Elena is the narrator so we see most things from her point of view but in this last book, she recounts more of what home truths other characters challenge her with forcing the reader to rethink Elena's true character and her reliability as a narrator. It's hard to say more about the effect this book had on me without slipping in to spoilers but it's the first book this year that I've felt unable to put down.

Happy - "Is that Pippi Longstocking, Cote?"

Yes, it is, indeed

Cheerful - "a big BOO HISS to all of you dissing children's books. Just because a book is written for children doesn't mean it can't also be wise, funny, well-written and interesting"

Oh yes no doubt it can be... for children

The fact is that no 8-year-old is going to read and understand the morally ambiguous and complex world of pain, necessity, betrayal, and sacrifice that us middle-aged women live in. It is actually not possible for a book written for an 8-year-old to take place in an adult world, with adult concerns and adult struggles. It can't help but be woefully simplified and black/white.

Remus - "Yes, Measuring the World alluded to all of the things you mention"

It doesn't "allude" to all that. It is about all that. They are a huge part of the book and what makes it interesting. If you have zapped them and focused on "One likes sex, the other doesn't", I am not surprised that you didn't like the book.

"but still (imvho) did it in a completely humourless, faux-whimsical and essentially bloody DULL manner."

I disagree completely. The humour is definitely there, and for those of us who are interested in science, mathematics, and the struggle of rational thinkers throughout history with ignorant masses, there is nothing dull about the beginnings of the scientific method. I also found interesting the discussions between Humboldt & Gauss as well as Gauss & his (ordinary and hence disappointing) son, not to mention anecdotes from his childhood & life such as that easy method he devised to quickly sum up all numbers from 1-100 (which is true, by the way).

"I thought it made Humboldt (who I've read a lot about and been v interested in) both dull and ridiculous"

Again, I don't think so. He comes across as a very enlightened man who is also diligent, meticulous, and humble despite his aristocratic background.

" the other one (Mr Sums whose name I've forgotten already) dull, ridiculous and unpleasant"

If you have never heard of Gauss (who is only the most famous mathematician who has ever lived ) recommending you this book was clearly a mistake, as you are obviously not interested in the subject matter.( I know that you had skipped "sciencey" bits in The Martian, for example, but thought that the science & math in this book was vague and simple enough to hold your interest.)

Gauss did MUCH more than "sums", which you really should know if you even skim-read this book Even as a teenager he made staggering discoveries, going on in the next two decades to make contributions to geometry, number theory, field theory, probability, and astronomy that amounted to huge leaps in these fields.

Anyway, the book clearly wasn't for you. My mistake

Liked it enough to look out for Bernadette in the future Satsuki, already checked that audiobook has same brilliant narrator. Will be interested to know what you think of Today Will Be Different when you get to it.