50 Book Challenge 2020 Part Three

Jux, I've nearly finished reading The Porpoise by Mark Haddon - in my case because it's part of my mythology-themed reading this year, but it would also count as a Shakespeare retelling because it's based on Pericles.

I like the sound of March.

I also hated Mrs de Winter. I’m sure I’ve read another Rebecca sequel, more recent than the Susan Hill one.

Still have Wide Sargasso SeaTBR.

Yes, Terpsichore, I think that was it. Eminently forgettable, at best.

What about all the Shakespeare retellings? I haven't embarked on any of them either, for the same reason really.

I've read Girl in a Blue Dress but can't remember what I thought about it. This suggests it was middling.

Jux I don't even like Jane Eyre* but thought Sargasso woman ruined Rochester for her own agenda and that nothing in the original justifies her treatment of him.

Mrs de Winter is dreadful.

Why furious, Remus, I haven't read it, and was beginning to think maybe I should - not keen on these "written from pov of......." books which have recently come into existence. I saw them as tools for tired authors who'd run out of ideas, and so I haven't really pursued them. Mind you, I liked Circe but see that as a different sort of thing altogether.

I didn't mind Longbourn but could never get past a few pages of Sargasso, tried to read the Rebecca "sequel" as a teenager but didn't get far

The worst one of all the one that gave me extreme rage is Death Comes To Pemberley an epically shit book that completely betrays its source material and all its characters. Not enough emojis in the world for it.

Susan Hill wrote a sequel to Rebecca - Mrs de Winter - which I think got fairly poor reviews. Not sure whether that's the one you remember, though, Pepe?

In my tbr pile I've got Gaynor Arnold's Girl in a Blue Dress, which is a fictionalised memoir by the wife of a famous Victorian writer - ie Dickens's wife Catherine, whom he left (with extreme heartlessness) for the 18-year-old Ellen Ternan. Her side of the story certainly deserves to be heard - unceremoniously dumped after 20+ years and 10 children....

I absolutely HATED both Longbourn and Wide Sargasso Sea! The former almost bored me to death, and the latter made me furious.

I liked Longbourn too. There is a copy of The Wide Sargasso Sea somewhere in the house so I shall track that down. I recall a bit so good one which did Rebecca from another point of view - possibly Mrs Danvers? Clearly meh at best as I remember nothing.

I did enjoy a Trojan War/Odyssey phase last year - Silence of the Girls, Circe etc.

Oops not sure what is going on with the random bold text there!

I really liked Wide Sargasso Sea. I used to love Jane Eyre, it was one of my favourite books when I was a teenager who saw the romance between two people who were not the stereotypical handsome / beautiful main characters* as proof that I too might enjoy a great love. I'm ashamed to say that I didn't give the poor, mad wife a second thought in her own right - I actually felt sorry for Mr Rochester I think time, age and experience have helped me to reassess but the Wide Sargasso Sea definitely contributed. I do still like Jane Eyre but not as much and I definitely view it through a different lens. *

On the subject of stories from another point of view, I enjoyed Nelly Dean by Alison Case which was Wuthering Heights from Nelly's POV, although the end was a bit trite. I've got Wide Sargasso Sea on my TBR list too. (Jane Eyre from POV of first wide who ends up locked in attic!)

Yes Remus, think it's called Year of Wonder. I haven't read any of her others but certainly would on the back of March.
Pepe What other 'other side of the story' books have you enjoyed? I thought Auggie & Me was a fab accompaniment to Wonder and have read Longbourn and enjoyed it but didn't entirely like the direction that the plot took, if I remember rightly.
I've started Black River by Will Dean as my next read.

PermanentTemporary that's an interesting perspective about writing autobiographical material. I always think that anyone writing an autobiography treads a tricky line between being too private (in which case why should the reader buy the book) and being too revealing about themselves and the other real people featuring in the book. My mum appears in someone else's autobiography - she's a very private person and found it difficult to deal with.

Thanks, Palegreenstars. I heard Lemn Sissay on the radio promoting his book and I think he would be great to see at a Book Festival - an articulate and passionate man.

28 The Future We Choose by Christiana Figueres and Tom Rivett-Carnac
Sets out our two options as a civilisation - unrestrained global warming or keeping the rise in temperatures to below 1.5 degrees by 2050 which is the scientific consensus of what “manageable” looks like. This book is about the urgency of action but is optimistic about change. I would really recommend it - I particularly liked its emphasis on practical action over different time frames.

29 Unpacking Queer Politics by Sheila Jeffreys
I’m trying to read more widely across different types of feminism. This looks at the lesbian feminist movement of the 1970s which was distinct from gay politics and how it was subsumed by a gay, patriarchal agenda called queer politics. There is a lengthy and highly detailed account of this queer politics in terms of sexual and political activities. Whether her view reflects those of all lesbians is highly debatable, and there were views in here that I took great issue with. That said, it was fascinating and a different way of seeing something that I don’t give much thought to much of the time.

30 Unreliable Memoirs by Clive James
This was a re-read. It’s an account of James’s childhood and adolescence in Sydney just after the war. It’s still very funny and James is his own harshest critic though it’s far more sexist than I remember. I would love to be able to write like him. It’s hard to think of anyone who can put together an anecdote with so few words and have such an impact.

CluelessMama, March sounds good. I like the “other side of the story” type novels and am a huge Little Women fan. Could be just what I need as I rearrange my reading priorities.

Of course that should be Midnight In Chernobyl, not 'at'. Whoops!

Clueless - I enjoyed March. Is it the same writer who did a novel about Eyam? I liked that too.

Finally finished Midnight at Chernobyl by Adam Higginbotham.

An excellent, if not exactly cheerful, read. As you would expect it provides a fascinating insight into the machinations of the Communist Party, the USSRs facade as a world-leading scientific nation and the tension between Gorbachev's glasnost and a deep-rooted culture of lies and cover-ups.

More importantly, it puts a human face on the tragedy, from the engineers at the plant, to the men and women shunted like robots into the plant to clean up, to the undocumented thousands affected by the fallout.

I thoroughly recommend this book.

17. Dark Matter by Blake Crouch I have to say I read this after enjoying Recursion by the same author, and I was disappointed- its not badly written but the plot and characterisation are thin and it feels like there is a more gripping book in there somewhere. Also Diana Wynne Jones did the mulitiverse much better in Witch Week back in the 70s (imo!). Coincidentally there is a short episode with a killer disease though!

This week I finished listening to
8. March by Geraldine Brooks
and I thought it was awfully good.
Brooks imagines the life of Mr March running parallel to the events of Little Women as he writes home to Marmee and the girls while serving as an army chaplain. The novel opens with a battle scene but this isn't typical of the book as a whole which is more about slavery and it's abolition. There are flashbacks as March remembers key events from when he was a young man, how he met Marmee and their family life together.
March is a very principled man but also very naive about the complexities of life for blacks (whether slaves, servants, free men, children), and seeing the world through his eyes is brilliant for innocent readers like me who are also ignorant of what life was like at the time and learning as we go along. I felt that the complexities of March's emotions were well conveyed as he understands more, experiences tragedy and has to figure out how to keep going while feeling shame, embarassment, grief and, in my interpretation, suffering from PTSD.
I listened to this straight after completing the Little Women series and the connections to the original book are cleverly done...I more than once gasped aloud with an "ah, so that's why...." or "oh, we've reached the bit where..." as events intersected, and I loved that. I enjoyed reading about the characters in this book, but for a fan Little Women it's tricky to think about March and Marmee as the same people Alcott introduced us to. Brooks has created them entirely consistently with things we knew (Marmee has a temper, just as she revealed to Jo, for example) and it feels well done, but with Alcott we view them as steady, reliable parents where Brooks shows us that they are rounded, flawed individuals with a relationship based on love but also with it's misunderstandings and disappointments. And having seen them as parent figures, I found the description of their first 'union' a bit icky!
This is a novel that gave me lots to think about, but not a difficult read. I enjoy learning about history through fiction. Brooks based aspects of the book on the real life and letters of Louisa May Alcott's father which adds another element to it.
As a fan of Little Women, I wonder if this has removed a bit of it's innocence and tainted it for me. Hopefully not, in time I'd like to enjoy it as a comfort read again, but I'll be thinking about March for a while.