50 Book Challenge 2019 Part Five

18. One plus one - Jojo Moyes
Lovely, easy read. Quite moving in places and laugh out loud funny in others. It was great to escape to Scotland with Jess and her kids in the hours it took to read this book.

Just seen the link - doh!!
Many thanks - purchased :)

Where did you see A Ladder to the Sky at 99p, southeast?

InMyOwn that is an intriguing review of Under the Pendulum Sun and I have added it to my TBR list, thank you

Sadly unlikely egg!

The Gary Younge book is a terrific and important read. I wish that every US library (especially high school libraries) had at least one copy.

Piggy and Keith - I've added the Gary Younge to my list on the basis of your excellent reviews.

37. Under the Pendulum Sun by Jeannette Ng

1843: Catherine Helstone follows her missionary brother Laon into Arcadia, the land of the Fae, where reality is unstable and the Pale Queen delights in trickery and deceit. The world building is fantastic and the revelations that Catherine uncovers are brilliantly woven into the narrative; this is an exceptionally well-planned novel. An excellent balance is struck between satisfying the reader and leaving Fairyland's ambiguity in place. My main criticism would be that the language does not ring true for Victorian Gothic (this draws heavily on Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre), but I would strongly recommend this to fans of fantasy with a theological/mythical underpinning.

Have just seen that Tayari Jones has won the Women's prize for fiction for An American Marriage. A worthy winner imo.

I knew there were jaguars! You can see how they could have been sexy, right?

mortified to have written Columbian not the correct Colombian, although in fairness I have spent the last few days perusing walking trousers and have the Columbia brand on the brain.

I'm definitely going to look out for him on other books Fortuna - his reading of The Difference Engine was also exceptional.

Sadik I agree that the narrator is fantastic. I'm also doing the audio versions and I could listen to him all day, he really suits the books.

and in other news... halleFREAKINGlujah

60. One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Follows the Buendia family in their remote Columbian village for 100 years through epidemic, revolution, capitalism and ruin with a bit of rape and incest thrown in for good measure. Lots of political ideology and philosophy, commentary on Columbian history and I am pleased to confirm a whole lot of butterflies and TWO jaguars although neither were sexy.

I'm at a bit of a loss about what I can say about it. Beautiful, bonkers and in places brilliant, but ultimately quite boring and a battle to read. I feel like I went to war against this book. It's taken nearly a month to read and was something I couldn't settle into but also couldn't stop with. It tired me out. I would go to bed early thinking I could get a good hour with it but would find my eyes rolling back and my head nodding after about 6 pages. I fell asleep with it in my hand several times. I read No One Writes to the Colonel for my Spanish A-level lit paper and didn't find his work that hard to cope with in another language. I have no idea why it was so hard to read and I don't feel like I've won by finishing it. Enter if you dare, but if you don't like magical realism then run for the hills.

44 A Question of Upbringing by Anthony Powell

The first of the Dance to the Music of Time books, much reviewed on here. I think someone upthread commented that AP never uses one word where ten will do, and it's true, but still a gentle and enjoyable book. I listened to this on audio and it was perfect for the format (and particularly well read by Simon Vance).

I've got the first three books as one volume from the library audio service, so now onto book 2.

The Warlord Chronicles was my introduction to Bernard Cornwall. I loved how loathsome he made Lancelot and Guinevere.

Keith - it's my favourite Cornwall series, and they're the ones he likes best out of all the books he's written too

Piggy, that Gary Younge book was one of my absolute stand-outs of last year. I think he's a great writer, he tackles complex subjects in a nuanced way but with enormous heart at the same time. The stories in the book were heartbreaking.

Thank you for the heads up about the Bernard Cornwell, InMyOwn. Sounds well worth the 99p :)

34. The Years She Stole Jonathan Harvey After the weeks it took me to get through TTOD I wanted something I could tear through in a day and this fit the bill. I like Jonathan Harvey, but this tale of a baby being snatched and the long term consequences was not his best. But like I say, I ripped through it nonetheless.

The Winter King by Bernard Cornwall is 99p today - the first of his Arthur trilogy. Would strongly recommend if you like epic historical fiction with a slight hint of magic.

36: Where Shall We Run To? - Alan Garner

A very short but intensely-felt and beautifully evoked memoir by the author of The Owl Service etc. Garner grew up in Cheshire, in Alderley Edge, where his family had lived for generations, and this sense of continuity and history is ever-present in the book. His grandparents and great-grandparents were important figures in his childhood, during which he was often ill and spent long periods in hospital. He writes with a directness and simplicity that captures just what it felt like to be a child in a world of adults. A lovely book.

102. The Secret Lives Of Colour by Kassia St Clair

I spotted this in my local bookshop and remembered someone mentioning it upthread. It explains the background and some interesting stories about lots of different colours. It would be of most value and interest to an artist - I am definitely not an artist but still found it really interesting.

Another Day In The death of America. Goodness, this is a searing work. Gary Younge (black and British, a journalist working in the US towards the end of Obama's tenure) researched all the child victims of gun crime in America in one 24 hour period (his definition of child takes anyone up to the age of 19, and he does explain why). All of the victims were poor, all male, all from fractured families (which actually he passes less commentary on but I noticed), and almost exclusively from ethnic minority backgrounds. It is fair to say Gary is by turn, depressed and then angry. He writes in his afterword that he feels as if he is howling at the moon. He uses his investigative skills very well as some of the families and authorities were less forthcoming. But he dwells on the fact that these deaths went unremarked, barely reported (even though two victims were under 12) and , almost entirely, unpunished. Two of the deaths were accidental , symptomatic of the access to guns in the US by young people who do not know how to handle of them, three or four were gang related. Even the death of the young man which was definitely not gang related (he was walking a friend home after having played a game of UNO at his grandmother's) was initially reported as gang related.

It's all terribly sad : but an excellent read. He contrasts the reportage on Sandy Hook with the way his victims are overlooked. My family are liberal Americans and my DSis is a police officer so I have extra interest. My BiL and his (Mexican, believe it or not!) wife are ardent Trumpists and would probably declare this book Fake News. Or blame the victims.

Well worth a read.

I'd definitely recommend it Terpsichore.

I'd really like to read Bad Blood, too, Sadik - funny you should review it now, I've literally just read a write-up of it in the LRB and it sounded fascinating.