50 Book Challenge 2020 Part Three

I'm reading a gentle read - If Clouds Were Sheep: A tale of sheep farming in the Cotswolds it's good but annoyingly one chapter can't be read as it crashes my kindle. Luckily it was a free kindle unlimited book so I've not wasted the money.

12. The Lost Properties of Love by Sophie Ratcliffe I'm very slowly ploughing through a different big book, and this was a short step out into something easier. It's very good. But I'm left a little bit 'so what' by it. And that's not fair because it has really unsettled me. Sophie Ratcliffe writes about her father's death when she was 13 and the rest of her subsequent loves, interleaved with reflections on Anna Karenina. I don't know the author at all but I believe we have a mutual friend, and I found the shocking intimacy of this book really put me on edge. I feel like I know too much about things that nobody should know. I've written lots myself since my own bereavement, and the nature of that bereavement means that some friends have suggested I should try and submit my stuff to an agent. I was pretty uncertain about that and reading this has made me absolutely certain I was right to be cautious. Writers are brave. They expose themselves in public and Sophie Ratcliffe has certainly done that.

I do famous people's birthdays every day : they did not recognise George Michael!! these are 14 year olds...

Satsuki

Whilst not something I'd generally go for, your description has piqued my interest

That's what's great about this thread, really expands your horizons outside your usual comfort zone

In my defence the moons that have past since I read it are many.

I work with youngsters and feel like I'm turning into Grizabella.

One had never heard of Annie Lennox, another Mary J Blige 😱

None of them have read anything

@EineReiseDurchDieZeit

I don’t know if it’s your thing at all but I’m currently listening to Wild and Crazy Guys about all the SNL/improv alumni who went on to dominate comedy and movies in the 80s - Ackroyd, Murray, Martin, Murphy, Belushi, Chase, Candy etcetera. I’m finding it pure sex (not so much) drugs (quite a bit) and rock roll (well, comedy) escapism and just the ticket for the present awful restless moment. It’s read by Curtis Armstrong the actor so has plenty of authentic zing.

It's an even worse crime eine because God of Small Things is one of my favourite books!

Oh I LOVED Bel Canto read it though - excellent shout

Eine I'm currently listening to Bel Canto and I think it is very well read.

Any suggestions for what I should use my Audible credit on this month?

Must be an engaging voice.

I'm not reading TMATL either, but like you Pepe I feel quite distracted by what's going on in real life and have spent far too much time watching or listening to the news over the last few days. I'm hoping to escape back into Wolf Hall this weekend.

Willing to go anywhere that helps me forget the current situation! And I appear to own a copy on my kindle, so that is a win. Thank you!

If you are willing to go YA Pepe, I got quite obsessed with Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell when I read it

I’m hitting a reading wall. So many books and I can’t focus on any of them. I’m enjoying Wolf Hall but it isn’t pulling me back to it, so I’m spending far too much time refreshing Twitter and fretting.
Any recommendations for something frothy and escapist? I’m thinking along the lines of Big Little Lies or Crazy Rich Asians. Something totally absorbing with not a single reference to pandemics...

Museum the Solnit sounds really interesting; I've put it on my wish list. I enjoyed a small book work entitled something like Men Explain Things To Me, especially the eponymous essay; highly amusing and reminded me of quite a few of dh's friends and his step-father.

Sorry total misread of your post

Completely different writer

This is the sort of error I absolutely shrivel inside about for days

Didn't Arundhati Roy win The Booker Prize?

I've read that one, and now can't remember a single thing bar the title The God Of Small Things

I feel like I am going slowly but have now finished *All The Lives We Never Lived8 by the very underrated Anuradha Roy. There doesn't seem to be much profile for her in the UK.

It's a really well written book about India in the 20s - 40s and part based on a few real lives.

I really liked the first 2/3 which have a child's eye point of view and misunderstandings of an adult world. The book lost momentum when Roy changes voice and includes letters from Myshkin's vanished mother and then picked up again. It's a wistful book. It lacks the humour and vivacity of A Suitable Boy and the beauty and melodrama of that other Roy, Arundhati. But a good, quality read. Interesting perspectives on women and the lives they are forced to lead, hence, in part, the title..

Loving all the Jodi Taylors in that list.

1. Pet Semetary by Stephen King (2/5)
2. The Outsider by Albert Camus (5/5)
3. Somebody's Mother, Somebody's Daughter by Carol Ann Lee (3/5)
4. Just One Damned Thing After Another by Jodi Taylor. (4/5)
5. Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton. (5/5)
6. 4321 by Paul Auster. (4/5)
7. Valley of the Dolls by Jacqueline Susann. (3/5)
8. The Devil's Teardrop by Jeffrey Deaver. (1/5)
9. A Symphony of Echoes by Jodi Taylor. (3/5)

21. The Girl He Used to Know by Tracy Garvis Graves. I don't read much 'chick-lit' but with everything that's going on at the moment I just wanted to read something nice and not too challenging or anything depressing. This fit the bill perfectly, the main character reminded me a little of Eleanor Oliphant in the way she journeys from a solitary life to a life filled with love and friendship. There was the obligatory issue to overcome with the romance but all in all it was just what I needed. (3/5)

Me too betty. As you say I think many on here will be in that category.

I, like many of us I expect, am the unstoppable reading machine.

Apologies if this has already been posted but I thought it was fun and might be enjoyed here. And it's from Penguin so must be good!

www.penguin.co.uk/articles/2020/mar/what-the-amount-of-books-you-read-a-month-says-about-you

The Passage is on Kindle Daily Deal - up there as my No 2 Post Apocalyptic (after The Stand).

I ordered from the Book People on 1st March and it arrived yesterday.

I’ve been quiet on here because I can’t seem to find anything I actually want to read. I’ve given up on two books in a row which is very unlike me! It may be the books rather than me but even looking at my shelves I can’t find anything I fancy except my usual comfort rereads. Non fiction feels more appealing than fiction at the moment so will try that.

I do have a few updates though:

54. Mansfield Park by Jane Austen

Listened to this on Audible. I read it at A level and hated it so have been meaning for a while to revisit it as an adult. I did enjoy it more this time, but didn’t love it. I enjoyed it up to the theatricals, then it got a bit dull in the middle but picked up again once Fanny went to Portsmouth. I think there were two reasons I didn’t enjoy it as a teen - firstly we were told that one of the alternatives was Wuthering Heights which I already loved so I really wanted to study that, and secondly we were told it’s about a woman having an affair (very scandalous at that time) which of course does happen but not until the very end and is not the main plot of the book, so I felt let down by that. I’ll probably read it again at some point in the future but not my favourite Austen.

55. Swimming Lessons by Claire Fuller

Flora returns to her childhood home to take care of her father after an accident. We also get the story, told through letters, of her parents’ marriage from her mother’s point of view. Her mother disappeared when Flora was a child. This was ok but I didn’t really engage with any of the characters and I didn’t like the ambiguous ending.

56. Hidden London by David Bownes

Part of London Transport’s current exhibition about abandoned Tube stations and what’s happened to them. For some reason, despite having no interest in trains or stations generally, I do find the underground quite fascinating particularly the idea of closed stations just sitting there unused. Some have been repurposed with tunnels used as bat sanctuaries or growing salad, and some are used for filming. Others are just abandoned and used for access or storage. I found this really interesting but it won’t be everyone’s cup of tea.

57. The Picnic and Suchlike Pandemonium by Gerald Durrell

An old favourite comfort read. A collection of short stories, two of which feature his family. Very funny.