50 Book Challenge 2021 Part Eight

*60. Beatles '66 by Steve Turner
Both a fan book and trying to be more than that. But I'd be amazed if this could be interesting unless you were at the very least someone who grew up with the Beatles. Once you're over that, a great format - 1966 really was a fascinating year and this gives a close-grained perspective on events in UK music, art and marketing. As always with Beatles stuff I end this book meaning to read a biography of George Martin, who wasn't just the 5th Beatle but tbh the structure and enabler that meant they happened at all.

I thought the Anthony Briggs translation of W&P was very approachable. I tried the Louise and Aylmer Maud translation, which was free on kindle, but in the end paid the very reasonable £2.99 for the Briggs, which is considered more up to date.

I just ordered the illustrated Philospher’s Stone to read with my 5 year old. One of the things I looked forward to most about being a parent if I’m honest!

Strike’s are a bit hit and miss for me - Silkworm almost made me give up but I loved Lethal White although the most recent seems so long, I worry.

J.K. Also did an amazing speech about failure which is one of my fave things to watch when I’m feeling crap!

I found the first Strike a bit cringe and didn't continue, I also strongly disliked Casual Vacancy

I also agree about every Potter from #4 onwards being badly in need of an edit.

I still love JK and the Wizarding World though

Also interested in both Hard Times and W&P readalongs - though going for both possibly a bit optimistic. Maybe I'll start both & see :)

112. We are Satellites by Sarah Pinsker Teenage David comes home from his private school begging his mothers Val & Julie to get him the latest fad - a Pilot brain implant that increases attention, and helps students excel in their studies. They hold out for a while, but very soon it's obvious that all his classmates who've signed up are racing ahead. Next, Julie realises that all the young employees in her office working for a congressman have the little flashing blue light showing they've been Piloted, and she starts to worry about being left behind. Younger daugher Sophie 'isn't suited' to the implant, as she has epileptic seizures, but very soon she and Val are a shrinking minority in their wealthy town. I really enjoyed this, though it wasn't quite what I'd expected. The setup sounds very much like an exploration of advantage vs disadvantage, what might happen with 'designer babies' etc, but in fact it turns very quickly into a much more plot driven story than I'd expected. It's a great plot that rattles along though, & I'd definitely look for more of her books.

The Silkworm was truly terrible. I hated Lethal White too. I really liked lots of the last one and was prepared to give it a really positive review, until the stupid (embarrassingly bad imo) revelation. I loved the trip to the Ritz bar and it's made me really want to visit one day.

@VikingNorthUtsire I’m in too.

I’m going to try for Hard Times as well.

Unlike everyone else I really liked the last Strike. It dealt with a family bereavement and I’d just lost my Dad and it was very timely. I didn’t mind the ending.
Lethal White was awful though and I didn’t like The Silkworm either.
I think they are very hit and miss.

Been up since six finishing Persuasion which was, as always, perfection.

I've never been a JK Rowling fan due to get utter wordiness. I actually found Harry Potter quite painful to read aloud when the DDs were younger. My 9 year old gave up on the Goblet of Fire which even she realised needed editing - she's a strong reader otherwise!

I've never made it past the farming but hear the start of W&P so could give it a go. I think Anna Karenina is actually a surprisingly easy read, although there is a bit of arable stuff there that I may have skimmed.

I'd be up for it too.

@ editing needed. Since Goblet of Fire I'd say. I gave up on Strike at Silkworm which I loathed. Should I try again? I do love crime which also has storytelling (Reginald Hill, some Elizabeth George (though am half way through one of her later ones at the moment- of which later- and the cracks in the "having researchers who live in the place when you don't" thing are as big as the one on Amy Pond's wall)

I'd be be for a W&P readalong too. I've read it before but a long time ago, and it's definitely on the reread pile.

I would be up for a W&P readalong. I've never read it and have been meaning to for years!

I’m up for a W&P readalong - I’ve never read it but have always felt I should. Don’t worry Piggy, I’ll still do Hard Times too!

On W&P, I read it about 18 months before the recent BBC version and really enjoyed the adaptation. I read it at lunchtime at work (short chapters work well for that) and one of my male colleagues said he liked the war chapters but wasn't fussed about the romance. I think I was the opposite but found the descriptions of the slow death from war wounds fascinating, it was a good reminder that before antibiotics hospitals were basically 50 % infection wards for people dying of sepsis. I remember reading somewhere that Anna Karenina is much easier to get into, I enjoyed it when I read it in my 20s but glad I read W&P in my 40s when I could appreciate it more (Sally Rooney, take note, life is not over after your 20s).

52 Beautiful World, Where Are You by Sally Rooney

Sally Rooney continues to delight and infuriate me. This is basically the love stories of two couples and there is a lot of sex in this book, literally every second chapter ends in a sex scene. The chapters alternate between a conciously external view of events (we don't get told what the characters are feeling and there's some 'the woman looked up and appeared to acknowledge the man who had just walked into the coffee house') and very long emails between the two women that weren't believable in their length and content but read realistically boringly, although I did enjoy the joke about looking for the loo in an art gallery. I much preferred the external viewpoint chapters where you had to infer what was happening and, as a PP said, things got better when all four characters were together and we didn't get the emails and Felix, who I didn't see the point of initially, became the catalyst for the action (not that there's really much, this is a very slight story really). And yet despite all the annoyance and deeply irritating characters (we have yet more beautiful and brilliant humanities graduates who seem incapable of actually saying what they really think) there are moments that are beautiful and catch you and I like that she's experimenting with the form of literary romances.

Stokey I can see it being a really good book to study. So much in there and interesting too. I bet there are some cracking essay questions on it.

I know we are not quite ready for the yearly round ups, but that will stand out by a mile for me. I don't think I've had that many wow books from fiction this year. I tend to rate the non fic I read much higher. I don't know if it's the novelty, or a hint I should read more. I feel quite jaded by fiction at the moment.

@FortunaMajor. I loved Home Fire too. My 17 year old babysitter is doing it as one of her optional texts for English A-level this year which made me very happy. It would be a great book to study.

I gave up on the Brodies. Too many really convenient coincidences.

Remus quite a lot of people were dissatisfied with the last one. I've still got a few to go, so not on that wavelength yet. I always felt a bit more drawn in by the Jackson Brodie books, so never really went for these and need to catch up.

Saw a thing today that Ian Rankin posted from the Times about how to read between the lines of publisher's blurbs with one about being too successful to edit. It made me smile and I thought of JKR and the comments here.

Viking, I would have definitely have been up for that if I hadn't read W&P this year, but having said that if you get a read along off the ground I might well join in just for the discussion.

194. Home Fire - Kamila Shamsie
     A modern retelling of Antigone set in a British Muslim family where the brother is radicalised. This has been taunting me from the bookshelf for years, but I'm glad I picked it up shortly after reading The Children of Jocasta by Natalie Haynes as it refreshed the Antigone story for me. I thought it was brilliantly done, told from different POV and detailing the dilemma of whether and how far to integrate, attitudes to Muslims and radicalisation. I feel like it's ages since I've read such a good novel.

195. Shakespeare for Every Day of the Year - Allie Esiri
     Lovely Shakespeare anthology with 365 passages arranged to fit the date or season. Well introduced and beautifully read on audio by an all star cast. A great mix of excerpts from plays and sonnets.

Had my covid booster today, invite, booking and appointment all took place in under 3 hours.

News just in direct from the horse's mouth. Strike 6 is finished, to be released next year. I'd better start catching up with the others.