50 Book Challenge 2020 Part Four

Thanks, Eine. Read it but didn't think much of it.

I've bought Zone One by Colson Whitehead - I'm going in!

23. Old Baggage by Lissa Evans

This thread is clearly on a Lissa Evans kick at the moment! Little to add to previous reviews on this - thoroughly enjoyable, with two beautifully detailed central characters in Mattie Simpkin and The Flea. Lovely writing. Satisfying conclusion. Didn't want it to end. I look forward to reading the next book about Noel.

Girl With All The Gifts Remus?

Actually, what I really fancy is a zombie book! Any such thing as a good one? Have read The Passage trilogy (2 good ones, third dreadful), Warm Bodies and World War Z and there was a series I couldn't get into - was it called Wool or something like that?

@keith, oh great news! Wonder when it's set.

TheReply, Lissa Evans does have a new book about Noel - she tweeted artwork for the cover recently so think it must be imminent-ish

I'd love to add you all on Goodreads but I am paranoid about linking my (uninteresting) MN life with my (uninteresting) real life

Mog You've got an interesting goodreads list - a few are ones I've read.
I've just added the Hensher handwriting book to my TBR list - which as you might see is very long; I don't own all the books on it - something which I intend to resolve very soon.

I've followed you so you should be able to see me??

satsuki have you read either of her other books - Single, Carefree, Mellow or 561 ?

16. Crooked Heart by Lissa Evans

Tells the story of 10 year old wartime evacuee Noel, thrown together with Vera Sedge in St Albans in the early part of WW2. They are a mismatched pair, who nonetheless discover a money making racket that leads them both into danger.

I had read Old Baggage last year and loved it - this didn't disappoint, although in many ways it's a more melancholy work. I was pleased it featured 2 characters from Old Baggage. Like that book, Lissa Evans' strength is her creation of very memorable, idiosyncratic characters. You fundamentally believe in them, and the dialogue is spot on - the kind of dialogue where you don't need any speech attribution, as you can tell exactly who is speaking. But she also creates a very memorable world: the drabness and poverty of that time, mingling with the horror of the Blitz. I would love her to write more about young Noel - I like to think of him going on to Oxford or Cambridge and finding fulfilment in an academic career, but I suspect he will always be an outsider.

nowanearlyNicemum I reviewed it toward the end of last year and I was in the loved it camp. Really hope she has another one coming sometime, one of my favourites from last year.

12. Standard Deviation - Katherine Heiny This has been languishing on my kindle since a 99p deal made me snap it up based on reviews from some of you - sorry I can't remember who. I seem to recall it was quite a marmite book on previous threads. I'm definitely in the 'liked it very much' camp. It made me laugh out loud on several occasions which right now, is just what I'm looking for!!

Heading back into the Cazelet Chronicles now to see what the family is up to now that WWII is on the horizon.

@EineReiseDurchDieZeit

Yes its big problem is the gap between the talents of the main character and the talents of the writer - it was very much “and then he did something intelligent to demonstrate his intelligence but we won’t dwell on it. He’s got to get his lute back!!”

@Nocti
If I’d have read it when I was a teenager I may very well have attempted to learn the lute and demanded to be called Kvothe

Sadik oh yes, I also loved How Green Was My Valley as a teenager as well as Alexander Cordell’s Rape of The Fair Country and Jack Jones Off To Philadelphia In The Morning.
I wonder how they bear up now.

It doesn't offer light and shade does it Satsuki

He is THE MOST INTELLIGENT CHILD EVAAHH

He is THE BEST LUTE PLAYER

He can BEST ANY TEACHER

If a teacher doesn't like him they are OBVIOUSLY WRONG and WILL BE WON OVER or STAY WRONG

He is loved by the MOST BEAUTIFUL GIRL WHO EVER EXISTED

Oh I'm looking forward to the sequel now - to hyperbole hunt!

Betty

Feel free to peruse my list at www.goodreads.com/jinx_the_cat

@RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie Have you read The Old Man's Birthday by Richmal Crompton? That might suit you if you're after something old fashioned, gentle and well written.

@SatsukiKusakabe

Cracking review

I read it about ten years ago when I was in my early twenties and loved every nonsensical page of it. Afterwards, I responded to many of life's problems by bemoaning my lack of a lute as a general fix-all.

InMyOwnParticularIdiom if you want to be inspired and enthused by the domestication of plants, try The Living Fields by Jack Harlan (very expensive new, but generally available for a few quid on ebay / abebooks). (He was an academic plant breeder, but also an old-style enthusiast and collector, and it really comes through in his writing IMO.)

@EineReiseDurchDieZeit

It was very readable - I did finish it after all I wondered if the music was good it might have lifted it in a tv version - so much of the book was “then he played the greatest song in the world” . It reminded me of the Tenacious D song Tribute.

Ah, OK. I'll let him off, then.

I'd like him to write and excoriating book afterwards about severe shortage of PPE and underfunding, if poss.

Piggy I think I saw on twitter that Adam Kay has volunteered his services to the NHS and is waiting to hear back

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)

29. The Very First Damn Thing by Jodi Taylor. A prequel to the St Mary's series, a bit light as it's a short story but I'd have liked a bit more on the civil war and the politics of the time but a nice easy read. (3/5).

I have this very wool philosophy that books that are meant for you, will come to you in their time

Sent that link to DS (film student) Remus, it’s right up his street.

I should get started on The Body too. I bought it for DF for Christmas with the intention of borrowing is but it’s now in Isolation with him. Might download the Kindle sample.

Finished a couple of books today due to waking up at 4.30 because I was too hot squished in bed between DP and DD. (The rest of the day will be powered by caffeine and chocolate.)

22. Seven Worlds, One Planet - Jonny Keeling and Scott Alexander

Coffee table book to accompany last autumn's BBC series. The photography was lovely but the text about each animal was very brief and a lot of it focused on the experiences of the filmmakers.

23. Tamed: ten species that changed our world - Alice Roberts (Audible)

The anthropologist explores the history and science behind the domestication of ten animal and plant species. I found the animal chapters much more interesting than the plant ones, but that's due to my bias and not the book's fault. Overall, I discovered I'm not as into this subject as I expected to be, but it would be a good introduction if this was a topic you wanted to investigate. A tendency to focus on the history of scientific discoveries meant there was maybe a little too much detail for the lay reader. If you tell me, 'we used to think dogs came from x, but then they looked at the mitochondria and it said y, later they looked at the whole genome and it told us z, whereas in 2017 Professor Boffin thought blah blah blah', I'm just going to end up with a confused impression of what the current scientific consensus is.