50 Books Challenge 2022 Part Seven

Phew! Managed to finish a book without hurling it at the wall and swearing.
Oft reviewed on here, so I'll keep it brief:

The Fell Sarah Moss

I did start it with trepidation as I'm in Italy. People that were allowed to form bubbles and go for a walk don't really get to tell me and mine about what a lockdown is.

Ahem. Anyway, I liked it. I like her writing. I like the way she handled a book about Covid without once mentioning the word Covid. I thought for such a short book the characters were well-rounded and you could tell they were based on people's real individual characteristics, emotions and quirks. The whole Covid thing was handled intelligently and sensibly.

I probably won't read many fictional or otherwise books about Covid (and sweet Jesus there is so going to be a dross laden bandwagon of them) but this was good. Solid 4*

PS am also naughtily tittering to myself wondering if Katherine May is going to be wintering along at the helm of that bandwagon. Sadly (or possibly not) she jumped the shark with W-ing which was apparently released one month before lockdown. Dodged a bullet there guys!

35. The Summer House Party by Caro Fraser Typical book following a group of upper middle class friends and family from the last idyllic summer before war breaks out and continuing through the war charting the ways society and the characters change. This was slightly different in that most of these books cover the first World war whereas this one starts in the summer of 1936 and follows the characters through the second World war. The book was weirdly disjointed. There seemed to be a few threads of story that were never followed up/reached a conclusion. One specific one was in relation to a barn that was significant in the beginning and had a storyline that was left somewhat up in the air. The barn was frequently referenced throughout the rest of the book, as though the storyline would be "completed" but it never was. To be honest the whole book seemed to finish somewhat abruptly with many unresolved storylines. It almost felt like the author had a minimum word count and as soon as it was reached she stopped writing. Maybe there's a sequel

In fact, have just broken away from writing this to check and have found there is a sequel, although it looks from the blurb like it skips forward in time somewhat, but would hopefully resolve all the unfinished storylines. Not sure if I can be bothered to read it or not. I don't think I liked the characters enough to invest more time in them

I'm trying to turf some books off my TBR, all familiar names that have been there too long to try and freshen up the titles for 2023.

62. The Girl With The Louding Voice by Abi Daré

Adunni wants an education, her father wants her to have a husband.

Possibly the last person to read this. I feel like I had overinflated expectations as a result. It is good, but I felt that thematically speaking, (village innocent in corrupt city) I had been there, done that many times. It also has a weird ending like she wrote a beginning and middle of a story which then just ends when there is plenty more scope for continuing.

63. Small Pleasures by Clare Chambers

A journalist investigates a woman's bold claim to have immaculately conceived.

I devoured this quite greedily. It's a great depiction of a certain type of person and era, sometimes you would be forgiven for thinking it wasn't written in the fifties. On Page 98 I pretty much figured out where it was going, and wasn't far wrong but it didn't spoil my enjoyment. The ending, or rather what the ending implies can fuck right off though.

I keep meaning to say to @MaudOfTheMarches that I really like the sound of Threads of Life - it’s gone straight on my wishlist.

Agreed - have put it on my wish list for a time when I'm less snowed under with other things and can therefore cope with upsetting content.

Just seen The World for Sale is on kindle daily deal - it's the story of commodity trading from WW2 until the present day, some proper swashbuckling stuff, but also pretty eye-opening. One of my top reads last year.

Thanks for the new thread!

Terpsichore I found The Dancing Bear fascinating (I read it straight after A Chelsea Concerto which I think I read on the back of your original recommendation) and as you say, she brilliantly contrasts the circumstances of the occupiers cf the occupied. I also thought it was really striking that the son of the German family went straight from the Hitler Youth to the Young Communists. I spotted an old hardback edition of The Dancing Bear in a charity shop last week and was sorely tempted, despite having the modern paperback and far too many books piled on the floor due to lack of shelf space.

It's a good one, biblio - I think I wasn’t expecting it because it’s a Furrowed Middlebrow, and while I generally love them for reviving huge amounts of forgotten women's lit of the 30s/40s/50s, they do have a fatal tendency towards the cosy (there are reams of DE Stevenson that I steer clear of). You definitely couldn’t accuse this of being cosy, the discussion of rape, starvation and people freezing to death is frankly engaged with. But it’s a compelling read.

The Faviell books sound intriguing, Terp.

62. Blonde Roots - Bernadine Evaristo

A reimagining of the Slave trade from the other way round, where white Europeans are captured and sold to African plantation owners as slaves. This was told mostly from the viewpoint of a woman originally from North-East England, Doris, who tells her life from before she was seized and transported overseas to work for a wealthy owner. For someone who loves a historical setting 😊, the mix of time periods was confusing, with everything from Georgian-style dress to modern self-help books and tube trains. I couldn't work out when this was set but I suspect that was the point. Elements of satire contrasted with harrowing passages which were presumably not too dissimilar to real life experiences of slaves. A thought-provoking read.

88: The Dancing Bear - Frances Faviell

This was Frances Faviell's first book, although chronologically it recounts her real-life experiences in post-war Berlin, after the events of the war years she described in A Chelsea Concerto. I read that a while ago and found it quite gripping, full of humour and vividly evoking the craziness of living through Blitz-torn London, and I expected this book to be much the same in tone.

Well, it isn’t - no punches are pulled in describing the horror of war-devastated Berlin and the abject misery of its citizens. Faviell became friendly with a German family, the Altmanns, who become the main characters of the book, and a tragic fate they have too. One of the most surreal aspects of the narrative is Faviell's descriptions of the utter poverty and destitution of the Berliners, in contrast to the hectic non-stop partying of the occupying military forces, who had access to everything in abundance. At least she did everything she could to try and alleviate some of the distress. Quite a bracing and at times uncomfortable read, but in a good way (if that makes sense).

Oh whoops, I thought I was replying. Never mind. I’m 100% not making 50 but that’s cool. I hadn’t planned to start anything new but try to finish some of the things I am
part way through but then I got side tracked by Viv Groskop’s latest on French literature.

Pereira Maintains is on my select list of 17 books that I have ever given 5 stars to.

@Midnightstar76 Thats an impressively quick delivery of Manchester 14 Miles despite the postal strikes!

I read Family Secrets earlier this year and rated it - I looked up my review:

This turned out to be an unexpectedly absorbing read - Cohen examines aspects of life that have historically been sources of shame, including illegitimacy, marital infidelity and divorce, adoption and homosexuality, and traces the changing attitudes to the keeping of secrets, with plentiful and illuminating case histories.

The most difficult chapter to read was the one dealing with children branded 'feeble-minded' and consigned to asylums: some of the stories are heart-rending.
Much to think about here from the perspective of the modern world in which sharing everything - however intimate - has increasingly become the norm.

Thanks for these @ChannelLightVessel, lots that look interesting to me. I went straight to buy Family Secrets and the Kindle version is £1.99 today - no idea if that's a fixed term deal but thought I would pass it on.

Just marking my place. Not putting my list up but no where near 50 but will try again next year. Still enjoy popping in to read everyone’s reviews. Enjoy all the lists too as like seeing what everyone’s bolds are to see if there is anything I fancy reading.

Received a copy of Manchester Fourteen Miles by Margaret Penn in the post so looking forward to read this. It’s an oldish copy and someone has put their name in it and marked it July 1984.

Currently reading Shiny Pennies & Grubby Pinafores by Winifred Foley and really enjoying this so far so will mark this as a bold. I will read her other book Full Hearts & Empty Bellies as well at some point.

Listening to The Girl from Bletchley Park by Kathleen McGurl enjoying this so far as well.

This isn’t a list, but a desperate attempt to catch up with my reviews. I really don’t have an excuse, although going back to work has made me pathetically tired, and DD’s OCD is particularly bad atm, poor love.

93.Horribly Harry - Lisa Henry and Sarah Honey
Sweet but not very exciting Australian ‘fake boyfriends’ romance.

94.Eyewitness Mesopotamia - Philip Steele
For children, but very well illustrated.

95.After Sappho - Selby Wynn Schwartz
A group biography of late 19th/early 20th century feminists, mostly lesbians. Billed as fiction, but the bitiness doesn’t work for certain key aspects, such as the development of romantic relationships. And she doesn’t have anything of interest to say about Sappho.

96.Rome in the Late Republic - Mary Beard and Michael Crawford
An excellent textbook I read before my trip to Rome.

97.The Colour of Magic - Terry Pratchett
Started reading this on my phone out of desperation in two-hour queue for check-in at Ryanair. I know it’s not supposed to be that great. The biggest problem for me was the lack of peril; it becomes obvious pretty early on that the main characters will survive anything. I also think that riding dragons near-naked would cause unpleasant if not painful chafing.

98.Family Secrets: The Things We Tried to Hide - Deborah Cohen
An excellent exploration of changing ideas of family privacy and secrecy in the last two centuries or so, with impressive and often moving use of archival material, from gay uncles to children with Down syndrome.

99.Dark Rise - C.S. Pacat
YA novel, clearly first of a series, set in (a lightly sketched) Georgian England, of ancient forces of good and evil being reborn in a number of young people for a new battle. Nicely sinister and some genuinely unexpected plot twists.

100.Black Narcissus - Romer Godden
Read for the Slightly Dated bookclub. Group of nuns go doolally in the Himalayas of the British Raj. Very atmospheric.

101.Ocean’s Echo - Everina Maxwell
A mind-engineering version of a ‘forced marriage’ romance, very entertaining space opera.

102.Under the Whispering Door - T.J. Klune
Whimsical romance about the soul’s journey after death, as a curmudgeonly lawyer is reformed by the influence of his sweet-natured pyschopomps. Sickly sweet at times. Death is much more painful than this, and A Christmas Carol is a lot better.

103.One Damned Thing After Another - Jodie Taylor
Time travelling academics. I didn’t like this as much as I hoped I would: the main character/narrator is an irritatingly perfect Mary Sue; far too much plot; the outside, everyday world is only vaguely sketched cf. Ben Aaronovitch’s contemporary London.

104.Fences Vol. 1 - C.S. Pacat
Rival fencers at US elite boarding school. Clearly will go on for volumes, so would rather wait and read the whole lot.

105.A Start in Life - Anita Brookner
Another Slightly Dated read. I had the idea that Brookner would be depressing, and focused entirely on luckless women with hopeless relationships. In fact, there is a splendid cast of characters and a great deal of social comedy. My favourite line: “Anthea had already run through the entire gamut of adult female experience, from promiscuity to dyed blond streaks in the hair.’ Will definitely read more.

Apart from War and Peace, am reading Victoria Wood’s biography, and contemplating a festive re-read of The Dark is Rising.

@Stokey I haven't seen the movie, but a friend loves it. If it's Guy P, I'll check it out as he's one of the few actors I actually recognise and like.

Remus yes, a long time ago, maybe when it first came out. I remember it being twisty turny. I think there's a movie of it, I want to say with Guy Pearce.

54. Threads of Life - Clare Hunter
This was great but took me months to finish. Hunter explores how needlework and textile art is used to transmit culture, to protest, and for therapy. It covers a lot of ground, from Mary Queen of Scots to the Glasgow School of the 1920s, how needlework came to be seen as a female pastime and was simultaneously devalued, African American slave quilts, and much else besides. Recommended if you have an interest in needlework of any kind.

55. Geek Drama - Holly Smale
Feelgood bedtime book, very low-effort - it's YA (even younger, actually, as the protagonist is at school). Nothing bad happens, so they're restful to read in between heavier books.

Gobbled down book 46 in tow days : Utopia for Realists by Rutger Bregman. I found this really fascinating and many of his ideas, derided by so many, make perfect sense once he costs them, explains them and gives the history. I found his parts on universal basic income (the parts on Nixon are fascinating), on giving money to the homeless and his bits on how many of us (well you probably do - I don't!) do, and acknowledge they do 'bullshit jobs', and a bit on how to get people to value the non bullshit jobs. I would have liked more on this but Bregman is Dutch and teachers and nurses are paid more 'fairly' there.

My DS - who likes to say he is a Keynesian- recommended this to me as he said I would agree with the author and I do.

Most apposite was his chapter on open borders with some real eye opening stats - particularly that Mexicans in the US used to return to Mexico. Now there's' a wall , there are more than ever illegal Mexicans in the US... you don't say...

Great book. I am a bit behind the curve on this so lots of you have probably read it.

I read Valentine earlier this year @Gingerwarthog started well but some of the meandering from the plot frustrated me

@MaudOfTheMarches
I thought it was superb and he was so joyful!

Gingerwarthog I loved the Richard E Grant series and I hope he makes another one.