50 Book Challenge 2020 Part Eight

I agree with TimeforaGandT about Reservoir 13. I loved it, but had been briefed about it in advance and wasn't expecting the thriller element. Might be worth taking a break for now and going back fresh with a different idea of it.

InTheCludgie - I think it’s misdescribed as I thought it was going to be a murder mystery thriller type book and it’s really not. The death is almost incidental. The book is, however, a lovely observation of the local population and the changing seasons over the course of a year but that may be disappointing if it’s not what you’re expecting!

What are people's thoughts on Reservoir 13? Started it last night but not sure I'm feeling the love. Is it worth persevering?

I think I could get to fifty but depends on how busy I’ll be! Feel like I barely have time to breathe sometimes

I was talking to some of my friends on a call and had a book in my hand and they were shocked when I told them I’d read 27 this year! most of these have only read the compulsory gcse books Although saying that I have met a match in reading terms as someone said they’ve read 46 so far they never struck me as a bookish type

Welcome Aworldofmyown - I never thought I would get to 50 but this thread has really encouraged me to read more (and spend less time faffing on the Internet...)

tanaqui I mentioned Articles of Interest I think. Glad you’re enjoying them.

palegreenstars I read Charlie and the Chocolate Factory to my dd last year when she was about 5 and she was so excited about the Golden Ticket and so invested in poor Charlie it’s one of my favourite memories.

Yes sorry I meant the reason Breakfast at Tiffany’s is the title is because it’s also a symbol of the character’s unconventional, out of step life (she is still up when the city is asleep) and her attempts to anchor herself in the midst of the chaos (looking through an ordered window) and not just about the breakfast itself

Audrey famously hated the Danish she had to eat in the movie.

I read Breakfast at Tiffany's donkey's years ago* so can't remember a great deal about it, but always thought - from the film at least - that the title comes from Holly Golightly idly window-shopping at said store in the wee small hours while drinking take-out coffee and munching on a Danish pastry as if Audrey Hepburn ever permitted even a crumb of said delicacy to pass her lips

*so many years ago that I was still a bit too innocent to grasp what she was doing getting dressed up in black satin and going out meeting men

@Aworldofmyown I didn’t think I’d get to 50 but having a community to talk to about what your reading really adds to the experience,

Most people bold titles when they are talking about them and then some bold their favourites when we write a list for a new thread.

I can't believe I have not been on this thread since it started! Belated thanks to @southeastdweller. I will settle in for a leisurely read, but before I forget, some thank yous! I think @Sadik recommended the articles of interest podcast that I have been enjoying - thank you. Many of you recommended All The Light We Cannot See on previous threads, but it took me months to get to the head of the queue, and I loved it, book 57. 58 was The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg, and 59 was another fabulous book - I will try to search who recommended it, but We Begin at the End by Chris Whittaker was definitely a good read. Thank you all!

You guys are making me so excited for my kid being old enough for Harry Potter. I can’t wait to introduce her. Just doing a little bit of Dahl at age 4 is lovely enough.

Ive just discovered this thread. Not sure I could ever manage 50 but interested to see what others read.
What does it mean when a book is bold in a list?

Having read it very recently, they do mention Tiffany's and he does mention having early hours coffees with her, any breaking of fasts is merely implied...

Thanks terpsichore, those moments when they’re just desperate for you to read on are to be cherished, even if you want to get downstairs for a cup of tea, bittersweet when you know you’re at the peak of it and it won’t go on forever.

eine I used to think so but can see why it was done now, and felt differently.

“Breakfast at Tiffany’s” really just alludes to someone still wandering the empty streets at dawn and living outside of convention, and trying to find solace there.

I liked it, I read it a long time ago because I used to love the film when I was young - the film is like when Disney took on a story about prostitution and ended up with Pretty Woman.(I never liked the racist part btw, I think it was always detrimental to the film and horrible to watch, even as a kid, but Audrey Hepburn’s performance is still compellingly charming and the imagery and style from it is timeless)

I have to say, I've only read Breakfast at Tiffany's once, a long time ago, but I don't actually remember any breakfasting - just rather a lot of blokey angst [hides from Remus]

Sadik - "living in a cloistered math spending my time growing vegetables and discussing philosophy and books would suit me down to the ground "

I'm right there with you, minus the vegetables

Remus Really? I'd have never guessed!

Just got 50% on Underland.

Verdict so far = a few good bits, but he doesn't half go on.

And on.

And on.

44. Pale rider the Spanish flu of 1918 by laura spinney

Recommended by someone on this thread and details the Spanish flu of 1918 around the world and includes the effect on indigenous populations. This doesn't read in a linear way and jumps around abit but I was interested enough in the subject to keep reading. Particularly found some of the misinformation going around at the time interesting.

45. The ten loves of mr nishino by hiromi Kawasaki

Same author of strange weather in Tokyo and the nagano thrift shop. This isn't as good as those but if your have enjoyed those then your likely to like this. Each chapter is told from a point of view from a post love of mr nishino, unfortunately alot of the voices ended up merging into one although all the women were independent and were in control of their relationships.

46. We the animals by justin torres

A very short book at 125 pages and is made up of very short episodic chapters which ends up giving a picture of a childhood. I think this largely works except the last couple of chapters which felt rushed and I wanted further detail.

Nice review Satsuki. Loving the image of the absolutely rapt 9 year old

Satsuki

OOTP is my worst Potter too. Will never agree with the main death. Unnecessary as.

124. Hillbilly Elegy by JD Vance

An autobiography from a man who graduated from Yale Law School, but who came from a "Hillbilly background". His family were "white working poor" in Ohio by way of Kentucky, and considered themselves Kentuckyians.

I made immediate UK comparisons to those people disparagingly described here as "chavs" or "the underclass" - same sort of thing.

His childhood was filled with violence, family disputes and addiction and he is particularly damning of his mother, who, though her own childhood was marked by similar violence and an alcoholic father had the same two parents growing up.

In Vance's case, he had a steady stream of Daddy figures, lasting five minutes each, including an adoptive father who vanished shortly after the adoption.

Here, he wrestles with what if anything made him a success, and not another statistic.

Eventually it boils down to only a few factors

In his final few years of high school, he experienced peace and security living with his grandmother, Mamaw who repeatedly kept him out of foster care.

Subsequently the Marine Corps gave him basic life skills that he had lacked or never been shown.

After entering Yale, an alien world, he realised that the difference for the elites is the capital that they have in their contact network. He then became part of that network.

The book cover does annoy me though :

"A Profound Insight Into Trump and Brexit"

"The Political Book Of The Year"

This is not what this book is. Neither Trump nor Brexit is ever mentioned, nor the correlation between right wing voting and the white working class.

Nor is it a political book. In fact, the only time politics is mentioned is when the author says his grandfather voted Reagan once because he hated the Democratic candidate at the time, but was otherwise a true Democrat.

Any links to that agenda are tenuous and tangential.

Instead what this is is an autobiography were one man muses on what made him the exception to the rule.

It was good and I enjoyed it, and would recommend, however it probably wont make "bold on the list"

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by JK Rowling

This was my least favourite of the series, when I read it first I thought it far too long, rambling and quite dull and was not looking forward to reading it to ds. But in a surprise switcheroo, I actually thought it was great! Moving, with a huge involving story and loads of characters, but nothing that happens in the end doesn’t have its roots somewhere in the beginning, and it felt a lot more pulled together and coherent than I remembered. It covers an awful lot of ground, but my ds wasn’t bored and nor was I. The beginning takes its time to get going, but there is a full circle feeling to the end and lots of moments where an offhand mention becomes important later on. The character stuff is very good as well, the way Harry’s eyes are opened to the flaws in his loved ones, and gets a glimpse into the idea that the people you don’t like can still be complex, worthy of sympathy, and capable of good things, is really at the heart of the series as a whole. Rowling carefully lays out where Harry has come from and where he’s got to go, and took her time doing it, so everything was set for the big push home of the final two books, and this time around, I didn’t begrudge a page of it. This may well be the difference between reading them as a young adult and reading them alongside their intended audience, an absolutely rapt 9 year old child, with whom you can then have discussions about good and evil, life and death, love and loss, Ron and Hermione, as you go along.