50 Book Challenge 2017 Part Two

[southeastdweller]

Welcome to the second thread of the 50 Book Challenge for this year.

The challenge is to read fifty books (or more!) in 2017, though reading fifty isn't mandatory. Any type of book can count, it's not too late to join, and please try to let us all know your thoughts on what you've read.

The previous thread is here.

How're you getting on so far?

No. 6 Wifework by Susan Maushart.
A look at the silent and unseen work that women do in the home. While it is a bit dated now, there was much that resonated with me and is food for thought. It's not about necessarily achieving equality in doing housework, childcare etc., but about achieving equality of recognition. I found a lot of it very insightful and useful.

Still going with Pillars!

Sadik, I remember seeing that one reviewed and I'll look out for it. I might have to be in the right frame of mind to undertake something so weighty - Hand to Mouth was a fairly quick and undemanding read, despite its subject matter.

1. How to Be Both - Ali Smith I really enjoyed the first half of the book and found George's story engaging and well written. However, I was extremely disappointed with the second half I found it too rambling and difficult to follow the thread of the story. I had also hoped that we would meet George again before the end of the book and was very disappointed when we didn't.

Welcome Iris, what did you think of Eileen? I read it over Christmas and found it a bit self-indulgent. I got a bit bored by it.

I've just re-started How to Be Both after giving up on it last year Vistaverde , not sure how it'll go. I keep trying Ali Smith but am never that wowed by her.

1. The Essex Serpent - Sarah Perry. This has been much reviewed but is basically set in late Victorian England and follows a surgeon, a priest, amateur archaeologist and a campaigner. It covers a lot of themes and evokes the time perfectly. I laughed at your comment about horse chestnuts Best. My only slight niggle here that I noticed was her attributing a William Morris quote to Cora: "Have nothing in your house that you do no know to be useful or believe to be beautiful". I should add that I thought this was a far better read than her first book which I persevered through last year.

I'm rather late to the party, but have enjoyed reading though this thread - I am very tempted by the Grayson Perry but am going to be good and just add it to my wish list till I have read a couple most of the unread books I already own!

1. Take Six Girls - the Lives of the Mitford Sisters by Laura Thompson - fascinating subject matter, though it focuses heavily on the girls' youth rather than their whole lives. The author was very opinionated and partisan through out; for example commenting "she was almost certainly wrong to think Nancy's virulent cancer was caused by lack of love and excess of spite" (my emphasis). Last I noticed those who are loved and kind sadly contract terminal illnesses too . . .

1. Missing, presumed - Susie Steiner - a pampered student goes missing in mysterious circumstances, and a flawed detective tries to find her. Yes, it was full of cliches and yes, the ending was silly, but it was an enjoyable distraction

1. The Year of Living Danishly - Helen Russell - summarised upthread - amusing

1. Spies - Michael Frayn - an old man makes sense of events that happened around him as a boy in World War Two. I really enjoyed this as it was so evocative of its time

stokey re: The Essex Serpent Perry doesn't attribute the quote to Cora - another character merely remembers her having said it; the inference is that Cora is engaged with the culture of the time, not that she originated it. As the cover of the book is based on a William Morris design, it is another nod to his influence rather than an appropriation of it, especially as the novel has strong elements of fantasy as well as being concerned with both beauty and practical knowledge.

I'm tempted by that book about the Mitfords, dragon, even though I feel I've read loads about them, including the book about Nancy by the same author. Oh well, I can get it for free in my local library, so why not?

I stand corrected Stasuki - i thought he meant she said the quote. I have the Kindle version so haven't seen the cover!

Bibliomania I remember reading an interview with the author of Hand to Mouth and made a note to read it when I was less depressed! Not sure I am in the right place to read it yet though. A similar book, although written from an objective perspective is Nickelled and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich. I also read Hard Work (?) by Polly Toynbee. Behind the Beautiful Forevers by ??? is terrific about the poor in India.
I was really sad to finish Eileen and a week later I am still thinking about the protagonist. I think she'll stay with me a very long time. Very hard to like, but somehow sympathetic. The writer is brutally honest about how some women experience themselves and it is raw and graphic at times. I had shivers of recognition about early teenage years although Eileen is older.
It was also one of those books that demanded my attention and every chance I got I picked it up. I am afraid I gobbled it up very quickly and it deserves better than that! Moshfegh also writes beautifully about small town America and about winter. As it happened it was very cold and snowy when I read it but I imagine even at the height of summer the snowy landscape would be very real. There was one aspect which I was disappointed with but I won't say anymore about it as I don't want to spoil the plot. 😀

I think the character quoting her - was it the doctor? - Didn't know it wasn't her, he just remembered her saying it and applied it to himself iirc. It stood out to me too because it's so well known. I have the Kindle version as well but I saw the paper copy in Waterstones and I'm tempted to buy it as the cover is so beautiful

stokey I didn't see your post before I made mine! There were parts which were self indulgent. I really didn't think some of the events involving the mother and son needed as much detail and the relationship with Rebecca was a bit feverish, especially as we already the overheated infatuation with the guard. After I had read it I was surprised that it made the Man Booker list.

Iris, there is definitely an overlap with Barbara Ehrenreich, who also wrote a foreword to this book. Funnily enough, it's not a depressing book - there's a bit of a punk swagger to it.

9. The Pure in Heart (Simon Serailler Book 2) by Susan Hill.

The next book in the DCI Simon Serailler series. Good character development, enjoyed the storylines. Liked it and will continue with this series.

It was a good foil to my non-fiction epic at the moment which is Jerusalem- The Biography by Simon Sebag Montefiore. So far very interesting but requiring a certain level of concentration.

Good to see some Grayson Perry love. Dp had his book about masculinity for Christmas, which I'll read at some point this year.

List so far:
1: The Essex Serpent – Sarah Perry
2: Fatherland Robert Harris
3: Stasi Child – David Young
4: Golden Hill – Francis Spufford
5: American Gods – Neil Gaiman
6: The House by the Lake – Thomas Harding
7: 84 Charing Cross Road – Helene Hanff
8: The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street – Helene Hanff

Now reading two light weight novels and ploughing one with Stalin and another non-fic.

That made no sense at all.

Ploughing ON with Stalin.

6. Forget you had a daughter: Spending time in the Bangkok Hilton - Sandra Gregory

This was another library book I'd taken out about a young girl who got caught smuggling heroin in Thailand in the early 90s. I enjoyed reading it to see why she'd done it and reading about her experiences in prison in Thailand. I didn't find the experiences of British prison as fascinating and somehow feel like she skipped how she got from Thailand to U.K. Prison. I wasn't the biggest fan of Sandra herself as I felt she was old enough to know better but must have been very self involved at the time. She does admit herself that she's glad it happened as she probably would have still been selfish. Overall it was an interesting read!

1. The Thing About Prague by Rachael Weiss

This was bought on a whim as I was browsing in Waterstones on Sunday, so I'm pleased to say I really, really liked it. It's a memoir of the attempt of 40-something Australian writer Rachael Weiss, who had previously lived in Prague for a year in 2005, to move to the city and make it her permanent home, full of romantic ideals of living and writing in her father's home city. The reality is rather less than romantic and she lasted three years before the bureaucracy finally defeated her and she was deported. It's full of eccentric characters, a lot of frustrations, and a genuine love for the city which I think must be the result of looking back because by the end of the book and her departure for Sheffield she was thoroughly ground down by it all. Still, she's a much braver woman than I because she actually gave it a go.

1. The Dud Avocado by Elaine Dundy Wonderful light and frothy concoction, with a witty and eccentric main character, Sally Jay, a young American working her way through the bars and men of 1950's Paris, losing things along the way. She couldn't find her passport; I couldn't find a plot, but it didn't really matter. Comfort reading at its best.

1. The Iceberg by Marion Coutts, about her husband's experience of an aggressive brain tumour. The beauty of the writing means that this stands head and shoulders above a couple of other cancer memoirs that I have read. Devastating without being sentimental.

This thread has already given me so many ideas about what to read. Great stuff. museumofham I am filing away The Dud Avocado for when I need a comfort read.

I read The Iceberg a year or two ago, Taharamura and remember being struck by the starkness and beauty of the writing. It is outstanding. The rawness of their pain and anger is striking. I seem to recall that she felt almost violent in her anger against the cancer.

I've just read When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi which again is a unique read. He was a neurosurgeon, struck down by terminal cancer at the age of 35. He died before he could complete the book and it was left to his wife to finish it. It is another unique look at dying, with in depth insight from one who knows far too much about what is happening to him. He admits he found it hard to release himself into the care of his doctor and become a patient only.

Sorry - Tarahumara.

Will update with my list soon. Struggling to keep up with thread but am still trying to be here.

the dud avocado was my favourite book in my twenties!

7. 12 years a slave - Solomon Northup.
Wonderful book! Have not seen the film, but the book was a shocking read. Enlightening and not difficult to get into despite being written in the mid 1800's. Still find it shocking that all this occurred not much more that 150 years ago. A blink of an eye in terms of our history.
On to something lighter next... perhaps ...