50 Book Challenge 2019 Part Five

Aaaargh, I have so many books TBR on my Kindle that I really can't justify buying another but am VERY tempted by what's on offer today.

The Poisonwood Bible is one of my favourite books.

Now, should I succumb to A Fine Balance or The Underground Railroad???

They didn’t Piggy?! Oh that’s bad. I would have been furious.

A Fine Balance is wonderful, one of my favourite books ever. But so very sad in parts - only read on sunlounger if you're happy weeping like a baby in public.

It's beautiful and worth every penny of £1.19

I haven't read Brodie in ages but was very affected by Spark and Bainbridge as a teen. I loved the old film and Maggie Smith. I prefer The Girls of Slender Means as a book. I may have mentioned this before but I have (had) a letter from Spark written not long before she died. When I was on Mat Leave it was taken down off display and binned!!

Just finished Alias Grace. It was as I expected : unreliable narrator, possible lunacy, ambiguity and sexual desires. I did like it though and that is definitely more than I can say for Hag-Seed which I hated and Handmaid's Tale which I found dull and so depressing.Now when anyone compares an unreliable murderess tale to Atwood, I can nod sagely at last!

Jean Brodie is actually my favourite book. I think it is perfect.

23. Thin Air by Richard Morgan

Whoa. This was good!

I have been following the author of Takeshi Kovacs novels (e.g. Altered Carbon that was recently made into a TV series), and read all his books except the fantasy rubbish, and I have been waiting for the price to drop on this book to snap it up.

The story takes place on Mars, finally colonized and loosely under Earth control but with corrupt management and factions working for independence. We follow Veil, a disgraced "overrider" (it takes a while to learn what that is) who is genetically engineered and otherwise enhanced for superior strength and tactical greatness. When the Earth sends an audit team and Veil is tasked as guide/bodyguard to one of them, a conspiracy and great threat is slowly uncovered.

The story was good but the worldbuilding was excellent. The author has imagined in minute detail what a pioneer society would be like on the "frontier" of space, and the technology that could accompany us there. I'm not a big fan of military plots and long fight scenes but this author does those well, too.

Recommended. (As are the author's Takeshi Kovacs books)

Miss Brodie - I read it too young and it wasn't what I was expecting. I do remember being impressed by the flash forward technique though, which I hadn't previously encountered.

Just me and MuseumOfHam for Miss Brodie then

Just finished 46: Milkman - Anna Burns - a read that demands close attention, but worth it. Often very funny, and written with a joyous and inventive use of language that I enjoyed hugely, but overall I found it utterly chilling.

The terrifying reality of day-to-day life in the environment the narrator describes - as a young woman, as someone trying their utmost not to be caught up in the political situation of the Troubles, as a person with a mind and an intelligence having to conceal those things for fear of being singled out in any way by one faction or another (though conspicuously failing), and above all as someone with the need for endless analysing of every single tiny detail to reckon its likely consequences - had me reading with my heart in my mouth pretty much continuously.

The sexism was jaw-dropping too, incidental to everything else. What dark, dark times.

High quality kindle deals of the day today - The Underground Railway and The Poisonwood Bible are excellent, although the former in particular is harrowing - not a pool lounger read. I haven't A Fine Balance, but I believe some on here liked it a lot.

31. The Siege by Helen Dunmore. Set in the siege of Leningrad, Anna is trying to keep her family alive as the German blockade tightens. The author writes powerfully about the physical and mental effects of slow starvation on a city full of people.

This is my book of the year so far. Incredible.

I still liked Jean Brodie when I re-read a few years ago. Clearly in the minority here!

I'll be the one who comes on and says I like The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie , although tbh I prefer The Girls of Slender Means .

I'm a big Muriel Spark fan generally.

Oh and I'm a fellow Jean Brodie refusenik. I thought it might be because I'd had to read it at school but no, I was just as baffled reading it again as an adult.

Best I am the Judith Krantz mention-er upthread and last year I bought a new copy of I'll Take Manhattan expecting it to be fairly terrible but no... I still loved it! Yes it's very much of its time but she certainly knew how to spin a yarn. Good luck with Princess Daisy, I haven't read that one so I can't wait to hear your review

Chessie I also felt the same as you about Jean Brodie.

Me too (Jean Brodie) though I remember liking it as a teen though that might have been because of the TV series.

Funny that Judith Krantz was mentioned up thread because I had an urge to read some hing of hers again and the copy of Princess Daisy I ordered off Amazon turned up today. Loved it as a teenager and read several times. It will probably be awful won’t it?

I need to update my list but currently reading The Punishment She Deserves by Elizabeth George, the latest Inspector Lynley. In which Lynley hardly appears and which is mostly about his sidekick Havers and his boss, Isabelle Ardery. I do enjoy the books in this series but they are vastly over long and the author has a habit of abbreviating words in speech which I find irritating and unnecessary.

I need

Chessie I read Jean Brodie last year and wholeheartedly agree with your review.

Chessie - I loved Jean Brodie when I first read it years ago, but I tried a re-read relatively recently and found it utterly unreadable. DNF.

121. Lowborn: Growing Up, Getting Away And Returning To Britain’s Poorest Towns by Kerry Hudson

This is told in two parts; the story of Kerry’s childhood interspersed with her revisiting the towns she lived in. I found the sections about her childhood much more interesting than the bits where she revisits the towns. Apart from one part where she visits a food bank, there’s little analysis of what she sees on her later visits - just a mixture of saying what has and hasn’t changed. Ultimately there was something missing from this book for me although I can’t really put my finger on what it was.

122. The Prime Of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark

This is one of those books that makes me think I must be really stupid, because it is generally thought of as a classic and highly rated, but I hated it. I really don’t understand why it is so highly regarded. At least it was short.

123. Pie Fidelity: In Defence Of British Food by Pete Brown

In contrast, I really enjoyed this. It takes nine well known British meals/foods, and discusses the history of those foods and some wider social commentary on British food generally, before the author goes in search of typical examples of those foods. Well worth a read.

124. The Famous Five series by Enid Blyton

Work has been crazy lately and sometimes I just haven’t had the energy to read anything remotely taxing, so worked my way through this series. I’m sure I read them all as a child, but while I recalled some others didn’t ring any bells at all. Reading them all does highlight the similarities - most of them feature secret passages or rooms; and involve the Five either finding treasure that’s been hidden for years or finding something (or someone) that’s been stolen. I enjoyed reading them again though and losing myself in this idyllic world where children can just go off camping with no adults. They do have their faults of course - they’re very sexist and some of them are a bit racist and/or classist but they’re still good stories.

125. Sorry I’m Late; I Didn’t Want To Come by Jessica Pan

Non fiction about an introvert who lives as an extrovert for a year. However, most of the issues the author had were due to shyness rather than introversion and most of it was about her undertaking various classes to be a stand up comedian which was very extreme. I thought it would be more about living daily life in a more extroverted way (similar to Yes Man by Danny Wallace) but that isn’t what I got. As an introvert myself I don’t feel I got anything from this book.

Thanks Tarahumara.

My favourite Bill Bryson is The Lost Continent.

Also, I'm excited to be able to contribute to Boobwatch!! A woman in Infinite Jest (hoping to finish and review it next week) is described a Howitzer-breasted! I'm struggling to picture that, I must say

Thanks Scribbly, I'll give that a go.

Thanks for your review Fran. I've just downloaded The Road to Little Dribbling from the library audiobook app. My favourite Bryson is A Walk in the Woods.

Get Out of My Life... But FirstTake Me and Alex Into Town by Tony Wolf and Suzanne Franks and How to Talk So Teens Will Listen and Listen So Teens Will Talk by Adele Fabre and Elaine Mazlish.
Asked a friend for some recommendations for books to help improve things at home (have a 14 and 15 yo dd). She succinctly summarised that Get Out of My Life explores the why teenagers behave as they do, and How to Talk has more strategies for dealing with it.
Of the two I've found Get Out of My Life the most useful and relationships in the house between dd2 and dh and me have improved since reading it.

Thanks to all of you for suggestions, tips and advice on getting dd reading again. Some great ideas here and a couple she even looked vaguely interested in. Off to Waterstones together after work.

The less she reads, the more I do - perhaps an attempt to encourage her although given her view of me perhaps the best thing to do would be to not pick up a book in her line of sight for several months .

But back to my updates...

75 American Prison by Shane Bauer
Journalist goes undercover in a private prison in Louisiana and interweaves his account with the history of private incarceration in the US. It’s shocking how enmeshed with slavery it was - white women couldn’t be imprisoned, so black women were sent to male prisons. If they got pregnant, which they did, the babies were properties of the state and would be sold as slaves when they got to the age of ten. The proceeds were used to fund education for white children. Some of this is squarely in the “you couldn’t make it up” territory and some of it is just very sad.

76 Alexander McQueen: Blood Beneath the Skin by Andrew Wilson
I don’t think this was a particularly well executed biography but McQueen’s demons and genius are on display throughout. I read it with YouTube to hand, matching the chapters to the footage of his shows which was a massive enhancement to the slightly pedestrian accounts of the clothes in the book. McQueen was extraordinary - his clothes were staggeringly beautiful and provocative. Whereas the Dior exhibition at the V&A leaves you thinking “oh, pretty frocks”, Savage Beauty was really breathtaking. So mixed feelings on this - I’m not sure I learned anything I didn’t know from the recent (highly recommended) documentary but good to be reminded of what great art can do.

77 The Valley of Bones by Anthony Powell
Everyone else who’s read this has reviewed it beautifully. I felt there was less comedy here than previous books and more of a narrative rather than set pieces but still just wonderful. And delighted to see everyone’s favourite pompous yet mysteriously successful man climb further up the greasy pole, even if it was left to the last minute. Anyone else find themselves revising their mental picture of Widmerpool to become more Boris Johnson-esque without really realising it?

20. What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty
21. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
22. The End of Days by Jenny Erpenbeck
23. The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker
24. Daughters of Chivalry The Forgotten Children of Edward I by Kelcey Wilson-Lee