50 Book Challenge 2019 Part Two

That article leaves a very nasty taste. He is a cruel, manipulative liar. Having lost one parent to cancer, and one who tried to kill himself several times (he was a depressive alcoholic all the time I knew him), to have someone pretend about such things in order to gain advantage, is beyond despicable in my opinion.

I am ashamed now that I bought his book. My husband read it, but I don't want to. It has coloured my opinion of him. I'm glad it hasn't done so for you, southeast, but I am angry that someone can lie and lie and lie like that and expect to get away with it.

southeast I mean I agree I’m not sure how much it should have to do with the book and its sales now it’s out there as nothing he did was criminal. I found the whole thing fascinating - all the interactions with publishers and other authors, the auction etc, the fact the piece has been done in that way - but not sure to what end it all is!

It doesn’t distract from your (lukewarm )enjoyment of the book, but it would do for me. (I hadn’t bought it). That’s just personal taste, I suppose. I don’t expect/need writers to be whiter than white, but this leaves an incredibly nasty taste in my mouth. Probably because I’m widowed - my older kids lived through a parent dying of cancer, and it has overshadowed every part of their childhoods. Whereas this poor excuse of a human being lied about losing parents to cancer (and a brother to suicide, and experiencing cancer himself) for personal advantage. I’ve found it upsetting.
(My question will be along these lines if he comes for the webchat tomorrow... wonder if I’ll get deleted?)

The Growing Summer was one my favourites as as child too :) I read back through all my Noel Streatfeilds when dd was younger, and it was lovely to re-visit them.

Happy to see more JL Carr love too - though I guess a lot about The Harpole Report reflects the period when he was teaching, it's still very funny. My favourite is What Hetty Did (though perhaps influenced by the fact that I first read it when I was Hetty's age), followed by When Steeple Sinderby Wanderers Won The FA Cup. There's a very enjoyable biography of him too, by Byron Rogers.

It’s distasteful for sure and of note to past and future colleagues, and an interesting look behind the curtain of the publishing world, but he didn’t commit a crime.

I’m not really the market for these thriller of the month type books as it’s not a genre I enjoy, but lots of people do.

He got the book published so easily by knowing all the right people through working in an editorial role at a publishing house... (which he seems to have managed by lying about a PhD and DPhil when he didn’t even complete his masters). Also there is an insinuation that he copied the storyline from a film.
At its heart though, there is a belief that for all their talk of inclusion, publishing remains pale, male and stale and this is proof.

Satsuki and others re Daniel Mallory/“AJ Finn” - I’ve started a thread in site stuff to find out whether the web chat with Daniel is going ahead tomorrow www.mumsnet.com/Talk/site_stuff/3499866-AJ-Finn-webchat-promo-needs-reconsidering-no?msgid=84712527#84712527

Also to try to get them to put more thought into their book of the months promos. This thread is evidence of the readers on MN, and it would be great if those slots could be somewhat curated, so we find wonderful new writers who might otherwise get overlooked. They’re always filled with highest bidder (I think), which means it’s the same old dross as is on large display in the supermarkets. Fair enough for Hq to charge for the advertising but it doesn’t stop them being a bit more picky.

Yes biblio it really pulls no punches.

Yes, The Whites was a good call, Terp

Satsuki, I'm amazed The New Yorker's lawyers let it print that story. What a take-down.

Ah, @Terpischore, I too remember your recommendation for The Whites and it has been on my wish list for some time. I intend to read it this year at some point and I'm looking forward to it. No pressure

7 Conversations with friends - Sally Rooney

I may be alone here as it’s not popular on this thread but I really liked it.
Bobbi is a lot like my sister so maybe I “got” her a bit more.
I may also be the target audience too, late twenties, love life a mess just trying to muddle through.

Thought the last 30 pages lost momentum but otherwise I enjoyed this.

Just came on to say the same thing, magimedi!

11. The Harpole Report - J. L. Carr

The excellent Backlisted podcast on Carr's A Month in the Country mentions how diverse all his other books are - and this one's certainly different. It's probably his best-known other than AMITC, a frequently-hilarious chronicle in letter, journal, official log and other documentary form of the interim reign of George Harpole as Acting Head of Tampling St Nicholas Primary School.

Carr was a teacher for 37 years so he knows what he's writing about, and there's a distinct Diary of a Nobody flavour about a lot of this - it passed my test of making me laugh out loud on public transport. Admittedly it's very dated, even for 1972 when it was first published (administering a sound smacking to persistent miscreants will sure raise some eyebrows in 2019), but I still raced through this with great enjoyment. There are a couple of quasi-sequels so I'll be seeking those out at some point.

The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller is £1.09 in today's kindle daily deal.

OMG Satsuki - that New Yorker article !!!

(Now even less tempted to read his book than I was before)

noodlezoodle I know, like a book in itself!

alias it’s The Closed Casket you could probably skip it but the plot is central because of parallels in the real world and Sophie Hannah herself features quite prominently.

For crime fans, I have just seen that the first in Tana French's excellent Dublin Murder Squad series, In the Woods , is currently 99p on Kindle.

6. The Tattooist of Auschwitz - Heather Morris
Much reviewed on here. This book really touched me and I still cannot comprehend that people survived such awful things or that so many people believe this didn’t happen. A true story which will not leave me for a long time.

Wow Satsuki, that New Yorker article is absolutely jaw-dropping!

My reads from the last few weeks:

3. Fear: Trump in the White House, by Bob Woodward. Thoroughly depressing and on reflection I'm not really sure what the point was of writing this book at this time. It's really just a series of increasingly alarming stories from the Trump White House, with no overarching narrative and of course no real conclusion. I understand why Bob Woodward wants to write a book about Trump but this felt more like notes for a book that he'll rewrite after the Trump presidency is over.

4. Transcription, by Kate Atkinson. Absolutely loved this, my first Kate Atkinson. Much reviewed here so I won't add too much more except to say that I really enjoyed the writing and was greatly surprised by the last part of the story.

5. Reading Allowed, by Chris Paling. Borrowed from the library on the recommendation of this thread, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. He's a great observer of his library's patrons and I enjoyed how gently humane this was. I wonder if he's still working in the library, a quick Google didn't provide an answer.

Pepe, that takes me back. How I loved The Growing Summer. I still have my paperback copy too, and just one glance at it is a sort of Proustian moment of evocation.

Very interested that biblio mentioned The Whites - it was me who recommended it but I was confused by the author - hadn't realised that Richard Price wrote under the pen-name of Harry Brandt.

19 The Wife by Meg Wolitzer

I agree with Welshwabbit's review of this from earlier today - this was a quick and easy read and while it didn't have nearly as much going on as The Female Persuasion which I loved last year it was very good. I admired Joan as a character and her telling of her story was well done. I'm keen to see the movie too - I agree Glenn Close would be terrific in it.

20 The Growing Summer by Noel Streatfield

I picked this off DD's shelf - it was mine when I was a child, and I am not sure she's ever read it. It was an incredibly comforting re-read, albeit somewhat implausibly plotted and with all of the action concertinaed into the last quarter of the book, the first three quarters mainly being concerned with four children learning how to boil eggs while living temporarily with an eccentric great aunt on the Irish coast. There's something wonderful about revisiting books you loved as a child. A really lovely and uplifting story that made me want to find some of my other childhood favourites.

Oooh interesting Satsuki - does it spoil the first Sophie Hannah or the second? I have only read the second but may go back to the 1st. Though I don’t suppose it really matters as I can’t not read the article now you’ve piqued my curiosity

If anyone is interested in a bit of literary intrigue can I direct to the New Yorker article about AJ Finn who wrote Woman in the Window. Quite fascinating for a number of reasons which will become apparent. It does contain spoilers for said book and for Sophie Hannah’s Poirot novel to forewarn.