50 Book Challenge 2019 Part Seven

Have just finished My Sister, the Serial Killer which I know others have read, It didn't take long. An easy read and I did find it jaunty. I think it felt it had deep things to say but I wasn't too sure about this (I did like it reversing the women as murder victims trope) or that it is your usual Booker fare.

It ahs been optioned by Working Title which doesn't surprise me at all. For the first twenty pages or so, I could even imagine the editing techniques they will use!

Fell off the thread. Not much to report. Read a Georgette Heyer which half way through I realised I'd already read and hadn't liked much then.

Reading and liking The Library of Ice but it's not 'calling' to me, so is taking a while. I find it much harder to read during my journey to work in winter, because I'm too busy trying to work out where I am in the dark, through the steamed up bus windows.

Just found this thread! How did I ever miss it?

I wonder if anyone has read Grandmothers by Salley Vickers?

I have tried to read her books but find them incredibly twee and the characters talk like people in a play in 1940. I just don't get why literally everyone who reads her books loves them. It is being serialised on radio 4.

I've put both JLK and Moffat on my list. They sound more my thing.

I won't be entertaining Macfarlane again. I was somewhat miffed that in book with the strapline A Journey On Foot he pissed off on a boat for about a quarter of it.

I'll keep an eye out for JLK. I admit I DNF the book I tried by Alistair Moffat.

Nature's Child is a good JLK book to start with, well, that's the one I started with anyway. I also enjoyed Song of the Rolling Earth which may appeal to you bibliomania though it's not archaelogy or literature so what do I know!

MuseumofHam I like the Alistair Moffat books too.

felt vaguely patronised by the wise but benevolent voice of the patriarchy

Can't remember the exact details, but I remembered being irritated by McFarlane being all Celtic Twilight-y about the portrayal of some boat captain. Very Othering.

I haven't tried John Lister Kaye. I like landscape stuff in relatively small doses, mixed in with a discussion of archaeology or literature.

How about if you've looked at one of his books in a bookshop once, thought 'ooh, that's pretty', read two pages, felt vaguely patronised by the wise but benevolent voice of the patriarchy, and swiftly closed it again?

Have just looked up John Lister Kaye spacepyramid - looks right up my street, so he's going on the TBR. In a similar vein I have enjoyed Alistair Moffat though he's more all about the history, his Hidden Ways is more landscape-y and nature-y.

That was in reference to the Robert MacFarlane chat btw!

Satsuki Cripes, let's hope you aren't him then

Has anybody read any of John Lister-Kaye's books?

50 Who was Changed and Who Was Dead by Barbara Comyns

This was an interesting, creepy little book which reminded me a bit of We Have Always Lived in the Castle with its talk of poisonings and madness in a village. It is an odd book and dark in tone, and one thing it does particularly well is move between the viewpoints of many different characters with ease, so you feel like you are getting an aerial view of the town, dipping in and out of the houses and eavesdropping on thoughts to put together a narrative. A small slice of English country gothic, and a short one to reach 50.

I’m ambivalent about Robert MacFarlane and so’s my wife!

227. Through The Wall by Caroline Corcoran

This is gold from the POV of two women who live in flats next door to each other. They don’t know each other apart from what they hear through the walls. Each is convinced the other has the perfect life but things go too far when one of them becomes convinced someone’s been in her flat. This was OK - it was fairly obvious where it was going from very early on and there were lots of errors in the writing (for example saying one of them lay prone staring at the ceiling). It was also hard to like either of the two main characters. Having said all that the story kept me interested.

Are you allowed on if you are Robert MacFarlane?

I was wondering if you were allowed on if you have never even heard of him??!

Are you allowed on the thread if you have no opinion on Robert MacFarlane having never read any of his books?

Are you allowed on the thread if you don't like Robert MacFarlane's books?

I've said a lot worse about significantly better books

June I didn't bother to pick anything worthy or exciting for my milestones, more because it was a surprise to hit them, so I went with whatever was next. I figured the good stuff will stand out more than the position on a list. However I do understand the urge to read something worthwhile but not Wuthering Heights

I'm on my 99th book.
It's not great The Beekeeper of New York by Summer Luqman . A bit odd. There's a few things going on but the main character has a pretend/imaginary baby which I'm just about.

Anyway, I'm wondering should I read a "great book" for #100?
Maybe Wuthering Heights , a firm favourite hmmmm

81: Towards the End of the Morning - Michael Frayn

An early novel by Frayn, published in 1967 and set in Fleet Street (which still then existed as the home of the newspaper industry). In the crossword and nature-notes department, epically frustrated John Dyson and his underling, diffident, unambitious Bob Bell - exhausted by fending off the unwanted attentions of his neighbour Mrs Mounce - drowse their way through each day in their clutter-filled office, never quite getting on top of whatever work it is they're supposed to do, and repairing to the local pub every lunchtime to meet their equally useless colleagues. Ultimately they glimpse their fate in the person of an unexpected new arrival who heralds a future they hadn't imagined.

This was very wittily written, as you'd expect, and I relished many of the set-pieces, but I wouldn't call it laugh-out-loud hilarious (I did snort in several places, though). There's not much in the way of plot but it's very endearing, somehow, and as a portrait of a now-totally-vanished era, it has an added fascination.

It does feel quite daring, space

Hit send too soon. How about John Lister-Kaye as an alternative suggestion?

Are you allowed on the thread if you don't like Robert MacFarlane's books?

I do like them but I have found Underworld harder to get in to than his others. I wonder if he's had his moment?

73. Sex Power Money - Sara Pascoe (Audible) *
*
In this follow-up to Animal, the comedian continues her exploration of evolutionary biology, looking at its relation to porn and sex work. I found this a little rambling, though entertaining enough. Her attempt to mesh biological determinism (men and women behave in different ways because of their evolutionary past) with trendy woke views (not all women are born in female bodies) was mind-boggling at times.

74. Journeys to the Other Side of the World - David Attenborough

Compilation of Attenborough's accounts, written in the early 60s, of his quests to New Guinea and the Pacific, Madagascar and Australia. I really enjoyed the first volume of this earlier in the year (Adventures of a Young Naturalist) and this had a similar fascination: explorations in a late-colonial world that no longer exists but is still just about in living memory. However, this was more focused on the anthropological than the zoological, and some of the attitudes to so-called 'primitive' people were jarringly of their time: in the first section, Attenborough seemed to be ranking peoples according to how readily they adopted Christianity. However, it was clear that he approached individuals with respect, and his admiration for the Australian Aboriginal ability to forge a way of life in the conditions of the Outback shone through. The writing has an old-fashioned charm that makes it a very soothing read.

If you think etiquette could be a source of humour, Chessie then I would highly recommend Miss Manners’ Guide to Excruciatingly Correct Behaviour by Judith Martin. The rules are predominantly American, but there is an abundance of virtuoso comic writing.