50 Books Challenge 2022 Part Seven

Another <sigh> DNF.

Harriet Tyce The lies you told

I've romped through all her others recently, quick reads, neither brilliant scary psycho thrillers or ridiculous plotholed guff- but your typical middle class flawed woman meets varied nutters scenarios.

Abandoned this at 30% in on the Kindle (my cut off point) Middle class barrister turns into pathetic useless slummy mummy (cue the shoehorning of the PTA über mummies and their costumes and fund-raising etc etc) There's a backstory which will obviously be hugely relevant later about her own abusive mother and husband she's left in the US.

None of which are the reasons why I ditched it. It's the bullying. Her daughter is relentlessly bullied by the other girls in the new school, the barrister is bullied by the über mothers. It almost reads like one of those dreadful "true stories of shocking childhood" things. But with a hint of gratuitousness about it (like Mo Hayder writes about the things men do to women's bodies) It just felt unnecessary.

I'm guessing our drippy barrister will turn out to have been the school bully herself or will have murdered one . (There's a peripheral best friend who is probably going to be relevant)

But I'm not sticking round to find out. I'm off to Google. 🤣

@ChessieFL I remember enjoying A Christmas Cornucopia

I am dipping in and out of the Little Book of Hygge which is actually better than I thought it would be. Less about candles and sitting under a blanket but lots of little informative snippets about why Scandinavian culture (in general) is so hyggelig.

#TeamMorocco now, but it was nice to hear even the Italian commentators say England wuz robbed for once.

Greer is presumably after the lady herself. As a choice of character name it’s either cleverly wry, or toe-curlingly unsubtle. I haven’t read the book or formed an opinion on the writing so I wouldn’t know.

I've done very little reading over the last few weeks as I've been far too involved in the World Cup. (Normal service is almost resumed but I'm still very excited about Morocco, not least because they are my sweepstake draw.) Anyway, I did manage to read and enjoy Childhood, Youth, Dependency by Tove Ditlevsen. I'm sorry I can't remember who recommended this a while back but thank you, I found it a compelling read. I see it's described in the reviews at the front of the book as "autofiction", which I suppose is true, but it is a ghastly word. It follows Tove from the working-class poverty of her childhood in 1920s Copenhagen, through her friendships, loves and hardwon success as an author towards her self-destructive descent into addiction. My only (slight) criticism is that it seemed to finish rather abruptly, but overall it is a great read.

283 Pride and Prejudice and Mistletoe by Melissa de la Cruz

Spotted this in the library - a modern day retelling of P&P with a Christmas theme. How could I refuse? Well, I read this so you don’t have to. I do like an Austen retelling when it’s done well but this wasn’t. The main character, Darcy (the woman in this book) was so awful I couldn’t understand why anyone would want to be anywhere near her, and the rest of the characters weren’t much better. Poor writing didn’t help. Avoid at all costs.

War and Peace was on my TBR bookshelf for over 20 years before I read it.

In 2010, college student Greer (yes really)

What's wrong with Greer?

18.Shiny Pennies & Grubby Pinafores by Winifred Foley How we overcame hardship to raise happy families in the 1950s.

This is about Winifred and her life story but the latter part of her life. She has had her children and marries and up-sticks from London to re-settle back to her roots in the Forest of Dean.
I enjoyed this but did begin to be disinterested when all her children had flown the nest.
It then goes on to book 2 which are short anecdotes of her childhood raised in the Forest of Dean which I enjoyed far more. Her first autobiography is Full Hearts and Empty Bellies and I will seek this out at some point as will enjoy this more.

277 The Rearranged Life of Oona Lockhart by Margarita Montimore

Each New Year’s Day Oona wakes up in a different year of her life. Sometimes she jumps forwards, sometimes backwards. This was an interesting idea but there were too many plot holes and things left unexplained, and the characters weren’t particularly likeable.

278 Driving Home For Christmas by Joanna Bolouri

Chicklit about a warring couple who realise over the festive season how much they mean to each other. Not as Christmassy as I hoped but still enjoyed it.

279 Undoctored: The Story of a Medic Who Ran Out of Patients by Adam Kay

This is his story of why he left medicine and what happened next. I did enjoy it but it’s not laugh out loud funny (and there’s a very disturbing anecdote towards the end of the book). Also a lot of footnotes which made it awkward to read on a kindle.

280 A Christmas Cornucopia by Mark Forsyth

Non fiction about the history of some of our Christmas traditions. I really enjoyed this.

281 Surrender: 40 Songs, One Story by Bono

Bono’s autobiography. This is very disjointed because it’s not told in linear fashion. Instead he takes a song and tells the story of how that song was written/events linked to it etc. This makes it quite hard to grasp exactly how things happened. I found his writing style hard to engage with as well, so much as I like U2 this was a bit of a slog.

282 Cold Christmas by Nina Beachcroft

This was mentioned on Christmassy books threads on here and it sounded interesting. It’s a children’s book about a girl staying in an old house over Christmas when strange ghostly things happen. This was ok.

I have finished shrines of Gaiety. I think I recall a couple of other reviews on here.

I have always loved Atkinson's writing and that is on form. It's great to read her books and prose after so much clunkiness in other novels this year.

But the plot is a bit of a mish mash. It's a bit like KA had a concept and a historical context and then introduced too much to it. I got confused by all the people at several points.

She captures the hedonism and danger of the 1920s scene well but it felt a bit superficial - perhaps deliberately.

As many on Amazon reviews have said, the ending fizzles out an dis very matter of fact and speedy. Too many plot strands and not top form Atkinson but still a good read, I think.

@AliasGrape

I'm actually fighting a bit of flu right now so I've got time on my hands, sick of looking at the same titles on the Kindle screen. I've got even more in physical books which I'm not even looking at because the Kindle is more convenient right now.
I do have some that have sat on that Kindle bloody years though. The Sonambulist is one, there since 2012, and a few there from 2011, and one from 2010. It's curious how some just never move. With The Sonambulist I started several times and just went nowhere, ironically it sent me to sleep. Only since I started this thread really have I given myself permission to say, fuck it off, DNF. It's quite liberating, I'll have to give those dregs at the bottom one more chance before doing a big DNF cull in the New Year Maybe.

Thanks for the recommendation @GrannieMainland - adding to the list, that’s an author I’ve never read.

I haven’t actually picked up anything yet! Working my way through How to talk so little kids will listen as having a rather intense time of it with toddler currently, and also listening to The Secret History of Christmas by Bill Bryson on audible (think it’s included in membership).

@EineReiseDurchDieZeit you are going for it clearing the tbr pile! Making me feel bad, I swear there’s stuff on mine that’s 10 years old! I wonder if I’ll ever get round to them.

I'm a bit late to the party on lovely books for @AliasGrape but I did wonder about Tessa Hadley? Some of her books are quite sad but others, like Clever Girl are more uplifting. And I don't think she's ever cynical. I've also just collected The Whalebone Theatre from the library which seems very charming, upper class siblings running amok in a country house between the wars.

I must read Circe as I think it would be up my street. I just felt I'd reached my limit for feminist Greek myth retellings for a while.

Onto book 64 which is...

The Female Persuasion by Meg Wolitzer. In 2010, college student Greer (yes really) comes into the orbit of a famous, older second wave feminist and starts working for her foundation. She starts to become disillusioned as years go by and eventually establishes herself as a new feminist writer. With subplots about her high school boyfriend and college best friend whose lives veer off in unexpected ways.

I like Meg Wolitzer and I like her writing style, very zippy and poppy and readable. In theory there was a lot in here about second and third wave feminism and different kinds of activism. Unfortunately it didn't go much deeper than 'everyone is just trying their best' which was a bit of a shame. Still enjoyable though.

46 The Changeling (or possibly just Changeling) Philippa Gregory.

Another pile'o'shite off the Kindle random number generator. Didn't realize it was "young adult" till I googled it.

This is the second time a Philippa Gregory has been randomly selected and the second time I've muttered "how do these things get published"

The premise was quite exciting. Loony nuns running amok in the night (first we think it's visions and satanic goings on but it turns out to be belladonna in the gruel) a Morgana style Abbess disemboweling dead ones, a Veela style bewitching floozy dressed in silk and a couple of dudes sent from Rome to investigate. It was like Narnia meets JKR meets Shardlake meets Merlin. Badly.

It's the first in a trilogy. Won't be reading 2 and 3.

Continuing with my "This isn't following me into 2023" vibes

67. Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo

Last to the party on this Booker winner which is not so much a novel, as it is a bunch of chapters of interconnected portraits. As such, some were better than others, and some felt maybe a bit clichè. Representation is very important, but I didn't think this was bringing anything surprising or new into the conversation. It wasn't for me, and that's OK.

I loved Circe, really really loved it. In my current slump I considered a re-read as it really stood out when I was trying to think ‘when was the last time I totally unreservedly loved something?’

But I didn’t re-read it because Sod’s law I’d not like it second time round - especially in my current mood (I feel like the issue is me at this point!)

#TeamCirce

I hated Circe and couldn’t finish it. It was like listening to an utterly vacuous teenage girl talking to her mate on the late night bus, with too many pornstar martinis inside her.

I loved The Mermaid too & Circe.

Just finished the Booker winner The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Shehan Karunatilaka. Those who dislike magic realism, this is not for you. Also it's written in the second person which again I can imagine being marmite. But I absolutely loved it. Photo journalist Maali has woken up dead in a nightmarish afterlife populated by the many people murdered by various factions during Sri Lanka's civil war. He has seven moons to come to terms with his death, get his photos displayed and find out who killed him. It's chaotic, descriptive, disturbing and a brilliant history of one of the most brutal wars of recent times. Definitely one of my books of the year.

64 Four Thousand Weeks - Oliver Burkeman

Subtitled 'Time Management for Mortals', an interesting, short read tackling the habit ingrained in most modern humans to cram ever more stuff into their life, leading to a feeling that nothing ever gets completed and meanwhile the clock keeps ticking. With some helpful hints on how to let go of the illusion of control over our time, and find more fulfilment in the here and now.

I really loved Circe too. Thought it was much better than Song of Achilles. I loved Circe's character and her lifestyle, with her pigs and her plants.

76. Circe - Madeline Miller

I loved this! An ingenious exploration of the Circe story, weaving together the many mythic strands in which she's intertwined, and giving a plausible voice and narrative arc to a character usually sidelined as the stereotypical witch temptress. I love books that give a vivid sense of the protagonist's physical reality (in this case, a goddess who cannot die but can very much suffer harm, both physically and emotionally). Definitely a bold.

Weirdly, after the whole thing upthread about money off from Amazon, I suddenly got an email offering me a discount on books by 'an author you follow' - I wasn’t aware I was following anybody but it turns out I allegedly am - all sorts of people I’ve never heard of! Maybe I should start with some of the people on my wishlist, then they might offer me a useful discount…

Anyway, to resume… 89: At Freddie’s - Penelope Fitzgerald

A re-read, but it’s at least 20 years and probably more since I read this and I’d forgotten how wickedly funny and sharp it is. The titular Freddie runs the Temple stage school for children, and is a legendary and mysterious figure in the business, shamelessly manipulating every situation to her advantage. Two new teachers arrive at her establishment, Hannah Graves and Pierce Carroll, and are gradually drawn into the life of the rackety, crumbling school, with its perpetual money troubles and host of knowing, ever-performing children. I hadn’t realised that Penelope Fitzgerald used to teach at the Italia Conti theatre school, which explains how authentic it all feels. She always writes children so well and there are some joyous examples to be enjoyed here.

66. The Dutch House by Ann Patchett

Danny and Maeve grow up in an impressive and unique property. Their mother walked away, and they are given a Cinderella type Wicked Stepmother who slowly disenfranchises them before cutting them off entirely following the sudden death of their father.
As the years go by the house becomes a focal point both in their memories and literally as they sit outside and reminisce about what was and what might have been.

I loved this actually, I was like "this is what a proper fiction novel" reads like. I did have one quibble. The novel is narrated by Danny and it felt like Maeve was supposed to seem enigmatic and elusive but in reality it was as if Ann Patchett didn't know how to develop her character after Danny goes away to school, and just gave a character who was once full of life and opinion and ideas just nothingness, absolutely mundanity, isolation and loneliness. Justice for Maeve.

Otherwise, very good.

53. Family Secrets: The Things We Tried to Hide by Deborah Cohen
Thanks to @Terpsichore and @ChannelLightVessel for posting about this. I won't go on at length - I thoroughly enjoyed it and found the research fascinating and the writing good quality. I liked the thinking about privacy and secrecy and the differences between them.

From a personal point of view, I had a great uncle who was born with Down syndrome in about 1910, so exactly as the described change from Victorian privacy to Edwardian secrecy was happening. He lived most of his life in an institution, dying in his 50s before I was born. I believe he was rarely visited and my mother could hardly speak about him. She greeted each family baby with the question 'is it all right?' and I didn't understand for a long time what she was asking or the fear behind it.

I think I get the 40% off a few times a year but it's always for kindle books on my wishlist and like mamanewt they never reach my price threshold, plus I have so much unread on my kindle that I don't tend to use them.

I've just had an email offering me 40% off a list of books I don't want, that aren't on my wishlist and at least one of which my Dad already owns (we do the family library thing). Having said that a couple might have made good Christmas presents for him if I hadn't already got some titles picked out so perhaps not such a bad shout on Amazon's part.
I'd like them to give me 40% off some books that I want though!