50 Book Challenge 2019 Part Two

sadik, Ada Palmer sounds intriguing. I will definitely check those out. I like all those things!
My TBR pile is massive. Life isn’t long enough to read all these books.

Mrs Arabin I'm so sorry to hear about your dog. Such a sweet picture. She looks lovely!

Have just finished Making Kids Cleverer. This is the third book by David Didau and I preferred the other two as I found them more practical and/or thought provoking. The subtitle to this is ' a manifesto for closing the learning gap' and I guess the word choice of 'manifesto' should have led to me to expect 240 pages of (highly informed) opining. It isn't terribly original either : it's more of a meta analysis of all the - currently very in vogue- research into memory, knowledge and instruction. It's an apology for the knowledge rich curriculum , with no real tips on what this might look like. I'd like to come across a book which actually plans out a suggested curriculum for English, for example.

I do like a lot of what he says though - in his (and others') rejection of teaching to the SATs, teachign to a GCSE exam (he laments from year 9 onwards, but I know of many schools which begin this in year 7)

He is very outspoken, and I do worry that Didau and his nemesis , Garvey, are rather acridly dominating the education debate at the moment ; things are becomign ideological again and Ofsted are falling into line with the so called 'trads : it is becoming an righteous echo chamber with mates just touting each others' idea and books . We'll end up with trad curriculums, no excuses behaviour policies in otehrwise progressive schools with mental health champions and no exclusions or isolation booths and we'll be in one royal mess.'. We will just replace 'we do it like this because Ofsted' with another variation of the same , despite Didau's high minded claim that we will do these things to close gaps in disadavantage. However, I do think it is right that we should go back to thinking about what we hink children should know to gain their place in the world, and not just to pass an exam.

I skimmed stuff I had come across elsewhere, as this is a tome. But it is readable and well written. But he really is a show boater. I still can't decide whether I would like him if I met him : almost certainly I'd be inspired, but I am not sure I'd want to work with (or worse, for) him.

1. The Welcome Visitor by John Humphries and Dr. Sarah Jarvis

mrsarabin she looks lovely. It is so hard, I had to do the same (ten years ago now!) and I knew it was the right thing too but I still couldn’t talk about it for weeks afterward. What’s lovely now is I have pictures of him around and my children who never knew him love hearing funny stories about him and point out dogs that look like him sometimes and it is nice that he still comes up in this way as he was a good little dog

Mrs A was she a ruby Cavalier? Such loving little dogs

Now reading The Iliad, as I’ve read so many books and seen so many films based on it but never the original text.

I had The Iliad on my January TBR ( it will probably be for February now) I have it on audiobook and bought the same translation (Ian Johnston) so I can read it alongside. I'm looking to read a few retellings over the next year so, like you, thought I should read the original.

How are you finding it? I'm a bit daunted by it, truth to tell.

How very kind you all are, thank you everyone.

My MIL had to have her little dog pts a few weeks ago, too. And we've been through it too, having to make that heartbreaking decision with our cats in the past
It's such a hard decision to make, isn't it - you don't want to make it too early in case there's any chance but you don't want to leave it and cause them to suffer.

Here she is stopping me from reading by sleeping on my book.

It sounds right up my street Sadik. I'll let you know when it reaches the top of my digital pile, probably in about November at this rate. I find kindle format fine for reading most things.

1. Spies by Michael Frayn An old man takes a trip down memory lane to piece together the events of a childhood wartime summer in suburban London. Very evocative with detailed descriptions, and very much seen through the eyes of the boy, with misunderstandings, confusion and fear about the mysteries of the adult world. It was very slow, with much of the book being taken up with the boy's own childish thoughts and observations, upon which the reader can superimpose their own interpretation of events. I enjoyed being immersed in that world for a while but feel like he could have done more with it.

I hope you enjoy it Museum - I love them, but they're definitely marmite books

I think it did help for me having them in paper copy - I think a kindle would be fine, but I read e-books on my phone, & I don't think they'd have worked well with the small screen.

Sadik you've done a very good sell on the Terra Ignota series. I already bought book one a few days ago for £1.99 on kindle, based on your previous reviews. Just checked and it is still on at that price, for anyone else who is swayed by your latest review. it will take me a while to get to it though, not least as I have just started the massive The Five Giants by Nicholas Timmins. I may be some time.

6 The Will to Battle by Ada Palmer

This is the third in her Terra Ignota series. Like books 1 & 2 (Too Like the Lightening & Seven Surrenders) this was a fantastic read.

The series is set in 2454, when nation states have become obsolete - they fell apart in the aftermath of the devastating world Church Wars. Super-fast & cheap transport has made geography much less significant (in the same way we can travel easily from one part of the UK to another), and the world is now organised into seven Hives, each with their own set of laws and customs. People enter the hive of their own choosing after taking an Adult Competency Exam when they feel ready to do so, and can change hive at any time, so limiting the power of any hive over it's populace. The Hives come together in a World Alliance with a base agreed set of laws & customs.

The series covers a period of crisis in this world order, after 300 years of peace, with this latest book leaving the world on the brink of war. The world building is fantastic - the author does a really good job of imagining a completely different yet very plausible way in which political life could be organised.

They are novels of high political intrigue, rather than action or every-day life (we find out almost nothing about the way the economy works for example) and are heavily influenced by the author's interest in the 18thC and the Enlightenment. If I had to describe them, I'd say they read like they were written by the love-child of Ursula le Guin and CS Lewis, taught creative writing by Laurence Sterne. But for anyone who enjoys SFF, politics, philosophy and theology, they're a fabulous read.

1. The Luminaries
2. Clock Dance
3. A Single Man
4. The Vagina Monologues

Thanks Tara. I’ll put that one in my list too.

1. You think it, I’ll say it by Curtis Sittenfeld

I loved My Naughty Little Sister books. I remember my mum reading them to me and I read them to my DD's who are now 22 and 18. Happy memories

Mrs A.

9. Transcription - Kate Atkinson. I only discovered Kate Atkinson last year with the sublime Life after life and God in Ruins . Although her latest offering doesn't get near those I still really enjoyed it. I love the way she writes. Her wit and strong, quirky female characters really appeal.
10. Votes for Women - Jenni Murray This was a Xmas present from my DH, bought as he knew I really enjoyed her 21 woman of British History and 21 woman of World books. What he didn't realise and I quickly did is that this books is a reprint of 6 essays from her first book. No real matter. It was nice to revisit them and an easy read as I try to get rid of a horrible tummy/ flu virus I seem to have picked up.

This thread moves really fast !

Finished my third book of the year which was
The keeper of lost things by Ruth Hogan.

I absolutely loved it and didn't want it to end.

1: The Perfect Family
2: Birdbox
3: The keeper of lost things

Nuffaluff - my favourite Anne Tyler is Back When We Were Grownups.

I’m sorry to hear about your dog MrsA.

12. Snap by Belinda Bauer

As others have said, I can’t see how this ended up on the Booker long list. I enjoyed it, it’s a good story, but I don’t think it particularly stands out over other similar books. One thing that did irritate me was that part of the book was set somewhere I know well, and some of the descriptive details of the area were wrong. Most readers wouldn’t even know that, but it did then make me wonder what other aspects may not have been researched thoroughly and therefore may not be accurate. However, as I said above I did enjoy it and would recommend it if you like this genre, but don’t let the Booker longlisting make you expect any more from it than you would normally expect from this type of book.

MrsA My MIL had to have her little dog pts a few weeks ago, too. And we've been through it too, having to make that heartbreaking decision with our cats in the past

for MrsA

Yes Tanaqui and Terpsichore - I thought The Late Show was good but had a faint whiff of "cut and paste if Bosch was a woman" - but enjoyed Dark Sacred Night so much more. As well as enjoying the interplay between the characters I agree with Terpsichore that some of Renee's thoughts and reflections seemed much more realistic this second time around.

Thank you all for your kind posts, I'm really touched.

Wow this thread moves quick, I forgot I was one it.

1. Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng - I really enjoyed it and it's complex world of motherhood, race and privilege from different perspectives.

1. Notes on a Nervous Planet by Matt Haig - I always enjoy Matt's writing and this book is essentially telling us how bad an impact our overuse of the internet/social media us having on our lives, which I think most of us know. It's not preachy and has some good insights, I laughed and cried at various points.

Haven't selected book 3 yet.

MrsArabin that’s awful, I’m so sorry