50 Book Challenge 2019 Part Six

Oh Nelly Dean! Yes.

I loved The Rotters Club and had forgotten that it had the longest sentence, I doubt you forget after a thousand pages though. I love a big chunky book if it’s a quest or a saga, but I’m getting a bit put off by such long books that are just people wanging on. And I say that as someone who doesn’t mind a challenging read but I often think 1000 pages, you had better be Tolstoy.

I mean that ducks thing sounds ridiculous. It's Like The Rotters Club on acid.

I forgot that Catherine Morland wasn't the narrator

Can I redeem myself by citing Nelly Dean?

Urgh didn’t mean to post then!

Catherine Morland isn’t the narrator but you see her point of view so I don’t know if it would count but I certainly don’t think Austen gets enough credit for her innovation in the novel in comparison to the attention she gets for comedy and subject matter.

As to unreliable narrators I always think of Poe’s Tell-Tale Heart as an early example but that was a short story.

Catherine Morland isn’t the narrator

splother I’m sorry you have been having a hard time

I’ve been reading but getting behind on updating.

Piggy I counted War and Peace as one book and thought most people did when they read it here the other year when a few of us had it on the go. It didn’t occur to me to split it, but I see my list as keeping track of whole books read and am not so bothered about the numbers. But it is between you and your list!

I read a review of Ducks, Newburyport from the Booker shortlist and that is apparently 1000 pages as one run-on sentence

Certainly is : but each volume is actually very short , mercifully!

Piggy it's up to you, but personally I think it would be fine to count each of the volumes separately. It's on my tbr list too and has been for several years but its length certainly is rather daunting!

I meant My Cousin Rachel but Rebecca also is.

Wikipedia is very interesting on this and gives lots of examples much older than RA.

I think it depends what you mean : he is certainly often cited as a famous example, but surely Catherine Morland is one, too, to an extent? When was Rebecca written compared to Roger Ackroyd?

Theres’s a Christie thread in AIBU at the moment Discerning They sound like experts - maybe they could answer you?

oops - spoiler alert - Roger's doctor

Question for Christie fans- was Roger Ackroyd the first unreliable narrator?

74. The Woman in Cabin 10 by Ruth Ware

Travel journalist Lo is on a luxury press launch on a boutique cruise ship which all turns out to be much less relaxing than she hoped.
Lo’s an unreliable narrator, medicating herself with alcohol on top of antidepressants after a traumatic break in.

She’s woken in the night by screaming, and a big splash, and when she runs to the veranda she sees bloody smears on the other side of the glass privacy screen.
But when she calls for help - she’s told that no one is missing, the cabin next to hers was empty all along, and is she sure she didn’t imagine the whole thing?

And Lo’s efforts to find out what’s really going on might get her into an awful lot of trouble...

It got a bit far fetched in places, but okay easy reading.

58: On the Move - Oliver Sacks

Sacks wrote an earlier memoir of his boyhood fascination with science ( Uncle Tungsten ) but this book was published in 2015 - the year of his death - and takes a much broader look back across his whole remarkable life.

From his early years as a medical student in London - when he was an ardent motorbiker and member of the 'Ton-Up' club on the North Circular Road - to his weightlifting exploits on Muscle Beach in California, the narrative is full of surprises. Despite his eventual eminence and fame, the impression I took away from this book was of an essentially shy, gentle, unconfident man who sought refuge in science and in his patients - Sacks was gay but found forming relationships difficult, and was celibate for decades.
His humanity and enormous care for his patients shines through, as does his formidable intellect and unquenchable curiosity about not just his own specialism of neurology, but everything.
Even though the narrative does get a bit meandering and peters out towards the end, this is one those reads that makes you wish you'd met the author.

I have just finished Volume I of War and Peace, which was relatively painless! Question :does this count towards the book count, or does it only count when I have read the whole 1200 pages??

52. Lethal White by Robert Galbraith

The 4th in the Strike mystery novels by J K Rowling. I’ve seen some negative reviews of this but I much preferred it to the last 2. Cuckoo remains a far superior novel but I found this gripping and the back drop of the 2012 Olympics was excellent.

Jess Phillips was thanked in the acknowledgements for giving Rowling the tour of parliament and I love the image of those two exploring the place. I also thought the commentary on the egos of both the left and the right and the lack of awareness people on both sides of the political spectrum have was pretty apt.

All got a bit James Bond, villain explains every action before finishing things towards the end. However, surprisingly I’m back on board with the series.

Terpsichore - i started off liking the Mick Herron series but then found something a bit off-key and nasty about them - each character's flaws were exploited by Jackson Lamb for his own purposes and he didn't seem to have any redeeming features. i was the poster formerly known as pencil museum & so am always on the look out for an engaging series such as this but i had reservations. The Boris Johnson political type character was very true to life & I am surprised they got away with that.

42. The Broken by Tamar Cohen. Hannah and Josh can't help getting drawn in to taking sides while their friends Dan and Sasha are going through a messy divorce. I was surprised to see this described as a psychological thriller; it read to me more like chick lit (albeit with a 'twist' that is more characteristic of the former than the latter). Over use of suspense - the characters' dark pasts and current secrets are hinted at for ages and the reveal is usually something of an anti climax (eg what is the thing that Hannah has put in the back of her wardrobe and is trying not to think about?). Pretty rubbish really.

whippetwoman

Oh dear, I do hope you enjoy it, after I've been bigging up the series

You've worn me down @Terpsichore and I've just downloaded Slow Horses - only £1.99 on Kindle. It's not just your fault, my mum has also been telling me about them so it was a dual attack and I couldn't sustain my defences any longer...

57: Real Tigers - Mick Herron

As I'm now hopelessly addicted to this series (of which this is the 3rd), what the heck, I may as well admit it to all and sundry (although, in my own defence, I am reading other things too; I just haven't managed to finish them before this).

Jackson Lamb and his eternally-maligned 'slow horses' get tangled up in the wily schemes of spymasters Ingrid Tearney and Diana Taverner at 'the Park' (Spy HQ) as their struggle for precedence continues, and once again manage to come out on top. The formula to these novels is fully apparent now, but they're no less enjoyable. Very amusing, compulsively readable and not at all badly written - Herron has a very adroit turn of phrase.

I've already bought two of his non-Slough House books because I'm panicking slightly about finishing the 5-book series....

Splother I have totally lost count and no idea where I am - you are not alone. I can’t even claim an eventful or busy summer. re the dementia.

40. Any Human Heart by William Boyd the fictional collected journals of Logan Mountstuart (aka LMS) together with footnotes and amendments. The journals cover key episodes of LMS's life, which spans from 1906 to 1991, with other periods covered by an authorial voice who briefly details the events not covered by the diaries. (It's a clever conceit and did make me wonder how Boyd decided what was 'journal worthy' and what wasn't.)
    LMS is a kind of 'Zelig' character who manages to become personally involved in many historical events, and also rubs shoulders with the (non-fictional) great and the good in literature and the arts. LMS himself becomes a journalist, writer (with varied success) and an art dealer. He is frequently an unlikeable character, who does pretty despicable things, but he is never boring, and I was always interested to see what the next chapter of his life would bring.
    For me this book didn't quite reach the dizzy heights of The Hearts Invisible Furies, which it is often likened to, but it was very enjoyable.

41. Spinning Silver by Naomi Novak read by Katy Sobey.
    Wow, this was great. A fairytale for YA/Adults, loosely based on Rumpelstiltskin, told largely from the POV of three women, money lenders daughter Miryem, Lords daughter Irina and peasant Wanda. All three woman are oppressed in different ways by the patriarchy but ultimately, thanks to their ingenuity and bravery, manage to triumph.
    The audio book was a little confusing initially as the POV changes mid chapter without warning, but once I got used to this it was easy enough to follow and I thought Katy Sobey did an excellent job of bringing this dark magical tale to life.

Miryem is the daughter and granddaughter of moneylenders, but her father’s too kind-hearted to collect his debts. They face poverty, until Miryem hardens her own heart and takes up his work in their village. Her success creates rumours she can turn silver into gold, which attract the fairy king of winter himself. He sets her an impossible challenge – and if she fails, she’ll die. Yet if she triumphs, it may mean a fate worse than death. And in her desperate efforts to succeed, Miryem unwittingly spins a web which draws in the unhappy daughter of a lord, Irina.
Irina’s father schemes to wed her to the tsar – he will pay any price to achieve this goal. However, the dashing tsar is not what he seems. And the secret he hides threatens to consume the lands of mortals and winter alike. Torn between deadly choices, Miryem and Irina embark on a quest that will take them to the limits of sacrifice, power and love.

Uprooted by the same author is definitely going on my TBR list.

Spoiler Alert:

I did feel the female protagonists deserved a more radical ending to their respective story arcs than the traditional 'happy ever after' Novik provides. But not withstanding my hope that the two women would turn their backs on men and walk into the sunset together at the end, I must confess I was routing for the Staryk King by the end.