50 Book Challenge 2019 Part Four

Just charged through 15 Transcription, much reviewed on ths thread. If I recall many PPs felt lukewarm about it, whereas I really liked it. I didn't particularly enjoy Life After Life and God In Ruins : I found them a bit 'worthy'. I prefer the wry humour of this, and can very much 'hear' the voices and imagine it as a TV programme.

That said, I found the ending a bit convoluted and suddenly felt a bit thick!

Clueless, thank you for the fab review, I have added All Among the Barley to my TBR. And thank you to the person above who mentioned the free Hourly History books - useful for me and the teens too!

I read Cold Comfort Farm as a teenager and did not get it, at all. Might need a re-read I think.

31. Ghost Wall, Sarah Moss

A short and disturbing tale. Teenage Silvie has been taken by her parents to join an Iron Age re-enactment in Northumbria. For two weeks they, and a group of university students, will live off the land, using only the most basic of tools.

We soon learn that Silvie's father is an unpredictable bully, and tensions arise among the members of the family as well as between them and the students. For Silvie's father, the students are failing to take the re-enactment seriously enough - there's a meaning in this for him beyond simple archaeology - while for Silvie, interaction with the students starts to open her eyes to possibilities in her own life.

Considering the short length of this novel, Moss packs in a lot - a genuinely disturbing plot, layers of myth and the supernatural, descriptions of the natural world, gender politics and some uncomfortable questions about racial and national identity. I read this in a few hours driven by the plot but found afterwards that my brain was buzzing with the connections and echoes contained within it.

32. Natives: Race and Class in the Ruins of Empire, Akala

Been wanting to read this for ages and it didn't disappoint. Akala (a 30-something musician, writer and activist from London) examines Britain's murky imperial history, and how issues which many people in today's society know little about are still affecting the ways that we think and talk about race - and the lives of BAME people in the UK.

I've read a few similar books in the past year or two but this, for me, was the best. Akala has just the right combination of historical information, contemporary statistical analysis and personal anecdote to make his points in a way that is both illuminating and authoritative. He's also skilled at teasing out the tangled relationship between race and class, recognising the shared issues and concerns between working class people of all racial backgrounds while clearly pointing out the ways in which race can confer a double disadvantage.

As a white reader, I found this eye-opening and accessible. I didn't think I was entirely ignorant on these issues but Akala really made me stop and think about the way that unspoken historic prejudices, and the way that these are wielded by those in power, can lead us to erroneous conclusions even with the best of intentions.

33. Spies, Michael Frayn

Another good read! I seem to have been on a streak of good'uns this month.

Stephen, now an old man, is drawn back to memories of his childhood during WW2, when he and his posh-er, and more dominant, friend Keith spent their time watching their suburban neighbours and making up breathless plots. Mr X is a murderer. The people in number 7 are a secret cult. Keith's mother is spying for the Germans.

With this last conspiracy in mind, the boys embark on a project to follow Keith's mother and write down her movements. They discover that there IS something mysterious going on - and this atmospheric story follows their experiences finding out the secret.

A great depiction of a hot 1940s summer, of childhood and of the feeling one has looking back at ones childhood from a grown-up viewpoint. It reminded me of The Go Between for obvious reasons, but Keith and Stephen's adventures also reminded me strongly of some of the really good wartime Just William stories, boys playing at grown-up things that are happening all around them but which they don't have the capacity to understand. The story is told subtly and with humour, and the clues that lead you to the final denouement are dropped so quietly that you can miss them if you're not paying attention. I wasn't entirely convinced by the ending but this is a genuinely excellent piece of story-telling.

I've never actually read anything by Mary Webb but I did read a lot of D H Lawrence as a teenager and I reckon she must have had him in mind as well.

Pepe, Shipman's two books were the first I read last year and I thought they were great. I can see that reading them now would feel like overdosing though!

A plot that would have been enormously improved with the introduction of a few man-eating mermaids is the story of the 2017 General Election campaign. Which leads me nicely to...

43 Fall Out by Tim Shipman

Account of the 2017 General Election campaign, and the associated Brexit hoo-ha, by Sunday Times journalist and chronicler of these crazy times, Tim Shipman. His access and sources are incredible – he’s got some jaw dropping quotes from people and the forensic detail is really impressive. It’s oddly truncated, because he had to draw the line somewhere, but the reader is left hanging at the end, in the full knowledge that the insanity was only just beginning. He has a surprising amount of sympathy for Theresa May, and at times he comes close to portraying her as a tragic heroine, with her advisors – Fiona Hill and Nick Timothy – as the real villains of the piece.

I suspect this book is only really for political nerds, and even I was a bit weary by the end of it, given the mayhem that has ensued subsequently. I think my decision to read it was poorly timed, as I’m close to overdosing on news, and while this period isn’t quite “news” it’s certainly not yet able to be written as history. I do think when the history of this period is written this will be an invaluable source.

I particularly like the way Stella Gibbons helpfully asterisked the purple passages in CCF so you can tell they’re coming up. If only Mary Webb had done that in Precious Bane et al (but then the whole of her novels would have pretty much just had one asterisk at the start and another at the end ).

I had a big Stella Gibbons phase a few years back and collected a lot of her other novels in hardback. She wrote tons - much of its been reprinted since and a lot is now on Kindle for £2.99-ish (grr). She’s really worth a detour if anyone fancies exploring.

Thank you Scribbly
Your book club experience with Cold Comfort sounds very similar to the time I recommended Wise Children. Tumbleweed time!!

They took it at face value. I was all “but it’s a parody!”

scribbly I feel your pain. Trying to explain to our book group why And Then we Came to the End was funny was like pulling out my own fingernails (I gave up).

principal not principle. I do know the difference!

Google tells me Mary Webb was one of Gibbons' principle targets, and I can't imagine many people have read her now (I certainly haven't).

Still, how you can not enjoy "something nasty in the woodshed"?

Re Cold Comfort Farm, I think the fact that it's a parody won't necessarily be obvious to everyone as the books being parodied have themselves become pretty obscure. The closest most modern-day readers are likely to come are books like Wuthering Heights and those by D H Lawrence. I'm not suggesting that these are being directly parodied in CCG - I gather there were a lot more (lower quality) rural dramas being written in the 1920s/30s.

Love your blog too Spother

I chose Cold Comfort Farm as a book club choice and everyone bar me hated it. They took it at face value. I was all “but it’s a parody!” Lots of criticism of the overlong and ridiculous descriptions of the farm house, I sat in the corner with my arms crossed muttering away under my breath and glaring at them like Father Jack about it being a piss take. Not a single laugh either for Amos Starkadder's “there'll be no butter in hell” pulpit rant. I thought very poorly of my book club that night.

Good start to the blog, splother!

42. The New Poverty, by Stephen Armstrong
A book about an important subject, without being an important book about the subject. I agree with his main point: austerity politics have caused genuine hardship and this, coupled with a ruling elite that are of touch with the margins, fuelled the Brexit vote. People were desperate for change of some kind. He adds lots of data from other people's research,, but none of it referenced so you have to take his word for it. He throws in a few interviews with people on the ground, which are potentially interesting but disappointingly sketchy. Overall, a worthwhile project poorly executed. The man-eating mermaids might have contributed more to the debate.

Splother I will keep it a secret from my bank manager and will remain able to visit

Man-eating mermaids! Best idea ever! Why are we not all talking about man-eating mermaids??

35. Fish Have No Feet - Jon Kalman Steffansson
I'm trying to read more fiction in translation this year and this fitted the bill perfectly, translated from Icelandic by Philip Roughton. This is a modern Icelandic novel that concentrates on Ari, who returns to the town of Keflavik to face his past; in fact some of this novel is set in the past as well as the present. Iceland itself is one of the central characters in the novel - it's black, lava fields and storm battered coasts are evocative settings. Not a particularly cheery read, but an interesting one never-the-less. I also know a lot more about fish processing factories than is perhaps necessary.

36. Dr Brodie's Report - Jorge Luis Borges
An odd collection of short stories here, set in Argentina and Uruguay. Most of them aren't really stories as such, they're more like snippets of writing about events, apart from the first one, which is really really good. And somewhat disturbing. His writing in this very short collection is described as 'laconic', which sums it up perfectly.

Please don't Brizzle!
Thank you for the kind words, and really enjoying writing it but does feel a bit like writing in the abyss.

Splother your latest blog entry was lovely to read. I suspect I am going to have to ban myself from reading your blog!

21 No Way Out- Cara Hunter
Another DI Fawley detective story.
Superior twists in the tale detective-ing but the DI himself as narrator is the weakest link.
Whenever the writer moves into "I went home and had my dinner" I have to remind myself that "I" is the main character.

Now reading Agatha Christie- A Caribbean Mystery After a straightforward noughties WhatsApp generation thriller, I wanted to go back to gentler kinds of murder.

I read Cold Comfort Farm years ago and didn't get into it at all. But I'm the only person I know who doesn't adore it! I need to try again.

Welsh isn't Cold Comfort farm just brilliant!
46. The Familiars - Stacey Halls Set very locally to me, this is concerned with the Pendle Witches. Readable but didn't wow me. Felt that lots of characters were acting in a way that was contrary to their historical period. Not sure a woman heavily pregnant with a long awaited potential heir, with a history of miscarriage and whose actions were already in danger of threatening her husband would be allowed to ride unchaperoned all over the country. Some interesting stuff on power though.

Scribbly

26 Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons

Can't believe I haven't read this before. Not much point reviewing as I'm sure everyone on here is ahead of me, but I enjoyed it hugely. The something nasty in the woodshed trope made me laugh all the way through - the whole book was, in fact, much funnier than I expected. And beautifully written. Glad I finally got round to it.

Very belated thanks to Terpsichore for directing me to the Robert Macfarlane Twitter feed.
Without it I would be in a state of ignorance regarding the Latin name for the wren Troglodytes troglodytes meaning cave dweller (twice) because of their habit of hunting in nooks and little orbicular nests. That's exactly the sort of fact I need in my life right now.

Fortuna I Love your review of Autumn

29. Into The Drowning Deep by Mira Grant

7 years ago, a ship set off on a voyage to the Mariana Trench to film a mockumentary about mermaids. It was found drifting and empty, with found footage showing creatures resembling mermaids massacring the crew. Found footage that was dismissed by most people as a hoax.
And now a new ship and crew has been assembled, ready for a scientific voyage off to investigate the area where the original ship was lost....

This is a pretty straightforward horror novel. Lots of people sitting on a ship with faulty safety measures, while man eating mermaids lurk in the deeps and plan their attack.
The suspense builds nicely and made for a compelling read, if a rather gory one once the carnivorous mermaids start hunting the humans on the ship.

41. The Music Shop- Rachel Joyce One of my all-time favourite novels is High Fidelity by Nick Hornby, so I approached The Music Shop with slight trepidation. Could it reach those heights? Yes and no. I loved all the references to different composers and bands- from Bach to Blondie, Purcell to the Pixies and Schubert to the Sex Pistols- and the mentions of John Peel, the NME and labels such as 4AD and Rough Trade. There were some delightful sections about how music makes us feel and what it means to us. But ultimately, I just didn’t care enough about the characters and I felt the ending was a bit weak.

42. The Last- Hanna Jameson This was one of the best post-apocalyptic novels I have read. The fact that it is also a whodunnit gives it an edge over some of the others. I liked the way it referenced a couple of other books and films. As with book no. 41 above, I felt the ending was slightly disappointing.

43. Moab Is My Washpot- Stephen Fry This is in the Kindle Monthly Deal at the moment: I’m so glad I gave it a go, even though I wasn’t especially a fan of Stephen Fry. It is beautifully written, as you would expect from such an intelligent chap. The anecdote about stealing sweets at prep school is excellent. I also loved the section in which he laments his lack of musical talent (I'm a professional musician, so this made me appreciate my abilities more). I was also interested to read about Stephen’s ‘deflowering’ (as he puts it), his unrequited love, and the time he spent in a juvenile remand centre. I shall definitely be reading his other two memoirs and possibly some of his fiction.

44. The Black Death- Hourly Histories This was my first Hourly History: thank you to whoever recommended them (I’ve now downloaded about 20 free ones!). This was surprisingly informative and well-written. It was interesting to read about how the Black Death was referred to in contemporary art and literature: I was pleased that this was included in such a short book.

45. Boy- Roald Dahl I read this as a young teenager, but was inspired to re-read it by both Bookworm and Moab Is My Washpot, although it is mentioned in neither. This is a delightful memoir of Dahl’s childhood and schooldays. Some of the anecdotes- such as the mouse in the jar of gobstoppers and Dahl’s many canings- were still very familiar to me, even though it is over 30 years since I last read them.

@MogTheSleepyCat Agatha is definately like Marmite and yes all the other books are similar. I don't dislike her (obviously or wouldn't have carried on with them! In fact I like that she is not a "typical" female character and at times unpleasant.) but if you do I couldn't recommend you trying another!

Light read though and finished on my way home today. Up next is one from the Hugo YA list #33 The Cruel Prince. Interesting idea. Two human twins are raised in Faerie by their parents murderer. Lots of tension as you would expect and an interesting twist on the typical high school story.