50 Book Challenge 2017 Part Three

[southeastdweller]

Welcome to the third 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 first thread of the year is here and the second one here.

I'll join late, if I may. It's possible I've missed something as I haven't been keeping track but here goes. I started the year with a job lot of Uncovered Editions, which are reprintings of HMSO reports and correspondences, so non-fiction:

1. Rillington Place (Uncovered Editions) - the Brabin report into the convictions - sparked because of the TV series.
2. An Evil Cradling: Brian Keenan. He's a bit flowery but still profoundly moving.
3. John Profumo and Christine Keeler (Uncovered Editions): the Denning report
4. The Secret Agent: Joseph Conrad. Enjoyed this very much.
5. The Watergate Affair (Uncovered Editions): the report of the Watergate Special Prosecution Force
6. The Russian Revolution (Uncovered Editions): reports from witnesses and correspondence
7. The Assassination of John F Kennedy (Uncovered Editions): the Warren report
8. Falling Awake: Alice Oswald. I love Alice Oswald but I'm not sure this is her best collection.
9. All the Presidents' Men: Bernstein and Woodward. Read this twice as so much to follow. Spookily relevant.
10. Dr Thorne: Trollope (audiobook) Timothy West is reading this series and I'm enjoying them so much. I really appreciate the classic 19th century elegance and social commentary. Nice straightforward omniscient narrator, nice straightforward narrative structure.
11. Framley Parsonage: Trollope (audiobook)
12. Saplings: Noel Streatfeild. In fact I think I'd read this before as it seemed very familiar in parts. Interesting but flawed. Same themes shining through as in her children's books.
13. A Murder of Quality: John le Carré. One of his earliest and a murder mystery, not a spy novel, though Smiley appears. Easy to read and very enjoyable, though not his best.
14. All the light we cannot see: Anthony Doerr. This was just a terrible and really overhyped book. Badly overwritten (Easy on the adjectives! Steady with the metaphors! Not everything needs to be in a group of three!), sentimentalised, weak (non-existent) characterisation, choppy structure, bad dose of Wikifacts about molluscs and radios, contrived and implausible plot, very weak ending, historical inaccuracies. Can you tell it made me very angry?
15. Some rain must fall: Karl Ove Knausgård. Well, I'm very used to Karl Ove by now so there's something quite soothing about all his repetitive drunkenness and self-loathing. The style itself is hypnotic, but I still think the first two are much the strongest.

Next up is The Way of Wyrd by Brian Bates that I've been lent.

I agree on the weak ending ontopofthesunset but otherwise I quite liked All The Light, including the style, and didn't find it overwritten at all. If you're interested, I think rather than Wikifacts the radio stuff came a little bit from Richard Feynman's memoir Surely You're Joking Dr Feynman, which I'm reading at the moment. The early chapters on his childhood experiences with radio repair are very similar to Werner's, and it was in the acknowledgments.

And welcome

Welcome, Sunset.

I'm with Satsuki - I enjoyed All the Light until the ending (which I thought was dreadful). I thought the 'choppy' structure worked well and am usually the first to criticise sloppy, adjective-laden writing and cardboard cut-out characterisation, neither of which I found this novel guilty of. Had it not been for the last quarter, this would have been one of my favourite novels of last year, though I did think the final section let it all down very badly.

I will add the Feynman to my reading list. It's not so much that the characters were cardboard cutouts as that they (particularly M-L) had no definable character at all - plucky blind girl with interest in snails/ genius orphan boy with occasional brief moral musings/ noble father with magic stone and miraculous carving skills.

Anyway I'll try not to warm to my theme otherwise I'll spend the next few hours picking out particularly egregious examples of Doerr's laborious MFA style. But it was sufficiently jarring for me to be expatiating about it within the first 20 pages. Anyway obviously loads of people including the Pulitzer committee did rate it highly so you are in good company!

13. The Breakdown - B A Paris

I didn't get into this as much as the debut novel. A woman drives home past a car in a storm and later discovers the driver was a woman she briefly knew and was murdered. She then starts to get paranoid and that coupled with her memory loss recently leads to a chain of events that make her believe she is losing her mind. It wasn't as gripping as the first book probably because it wasn't quite as twisted . But I still enjoyed it enough and to wanted to finish

Now onto 206 bones - Kathy Reichs

14. This Thing of Darkness by Harry Thompson: wonderful! I didn't want this to end and was a little bereft when I finished it a couple of days ago. I wouldn't have heard of this if it weren't for this thread so thankyou everybody who raved about it, you were so right!
15. The Detectives Daughter by Lesley Thomson a detective thriller that I'd had on my kindle for ages. I realised I'd read it years ago midway through and then had to continue to see if I'd remembered who the culprit was correctly! A bit long winded, the endless descriptions of cleaning products (the detectives daughter runs a very successful cleaning company) and people's teeth did not add a great deal to the plot but it was a good page turner to keep me awake during night feeds!
16. Burning Bright by Tracy Chevalier 18th century London set historical fiction. The recently bereaved Kellaway family move to the Lambeth area from rural Dorset into the house next door to William Blake, who fascinates their teenage children and a local girl they have befriended. Engaging and a good depiction of London at the time of the French Revolution,though I'd have liked to have got to know Blake more in the novel. He is an eccentric, kind character spied on by the children rather than playing a central role as well known historical figures have in the other Chevalier novels I've read such as Girl With The Pearl Earring and Remarkable Creatures.

I'm now about to begin Nutshell by Ian McEwan and have One Little Mistake by Emma Curtis on the go on my kindle too, a psychological thriller that was one of the 99p daily deals this week.

mogloveseggs While joining in with recommending the James Herriot books that I borrowed off my parent's bookshelves when I was about that age, I'd suggest Twopence to Cross the Merseyside by Helen Forrester. It's the first of two autobiographical books and I did it in my first year of High School. The eldest daughter in a wealthy family living in Hoylake, she finds herself at the grand age of 12 effectively looking after her 6 siblings when her father loses all his money in the Great Depression and the family ends up in the Liverpool slums. Published in 1976 before the current fashion for publishing miserable childhoods it's what Call the Midwife was before it went quite so fluffy and feel good.

Actually there's Call the Midwife as well. The book is rather more stark than even the original tv episodes. East End poverty, child neglect, birth and survivors of the Workhouses with bits written in Cockney dialect.

I'd personally be wary of recommending the Call The Midwife books (Jennifer Worth wrote 3 of them I think) to a 12 yr old.

It's a few years now since I read them, and I can't remember which of the books had which bits in, but I recall them including anecdotes about infanticide, prostitution, child death, neglect, incest, enforced (and brutal) virginity examinations. Definitely more stark than the TV version. Quite possibly too stark for a 12 yr old.

It's even longer since I read Twopence to Cross The Mersey but from memory I'd consider that less stark and more suitable for a 12yr old.

I'd agree with Stitches on Call The Midwife. What about Bill Bryson?

Bill Bryson good but some books do have the occasional swear word in, which may or may not bother you. I would also agree that Call The Midwife not really suitable for a 12 year old.

25. The Forgetting Time by Sharon Guskin

This is about a 4 year old boy who remembers details of his past life. I did enjoy this but found some elements of what he remembers disturbing, and there's a sub-plot involving a psychiatrist which I couldn't see the point of. Ok for a quick read though.

Sorry, didn't finish that post. Down Under and Notes From A Big Country have some very funny parts.

But mostly I agree that James Herriot is perfect. I read them all at that age then again last year. Still loved them.

27. To Kill A Mockingbird -Harper Lee 28 A Caribbean Mystery - Agatha Christie

YA favourite followed by a Miss Marple. The racism in the Christie was a bit breathtaking I must say, especially following on from TKAM. I am more of a Poirot fan anyway.

11. The Outrun by Amy Liptrot. Already mentioned a few times on this thread, this is the memoir of a recovering alcoholic, seeking solace in the remote, windswept Orkney islands where she was brought up. I enjoyed this, both for the descriptions of nature and the psychological musings about what makes someone become an alcoholic.

20 Bitch in a Bonnet by Robert Rodi
Jaunt through the first three Austen novels in the 'Mark Reads . . .' style. Much reviewed already on here - entertaining and I'd certainly read vol. 2 if it were for sale cheap on Kindle, though probably wouldn't pay full price.

Just bought Bitch in A Bonnet 99p on Kindle.

22. The Food of Love - about a family's struggle when their daughter develops anorexia. Started reading this in the early hours of this morning when the dog got me up for the millionth time to go out in the garden - dog with an upset tummy - yuck!
Read it in one sitting. Is it the most skilfully written book ? No, but it's very readable, human and shocking. Being the sister of a long term anorexic I saw all to clearly the real struggle with emotions like anger, guilt, frustration and hope. It is the most cruel disease and nothing about it is simple. The desire to starve yourself is so hard to understand to anyone and the control element is massive. Like the character in the book my own sister has a very complex relationship with food. She is the best baker, makes all the family celebration cakes but never ever ever lets a morsel pass her own lips.
In the 5 hours it took for me to read this book I cried for about half.

RMC. It sounds very difficult.

It is a hard thing to watch in someone you care about rmc a friend of mine suffered from eating disorders and when we lived together it had a big impact on me emotionally even though I've not had food issues myself before or since. I hate that, particularly girls, find it so easy culturally to deny themselves, and find it so sad to seek control in this way which is actually a loss of power.

I read a very powerful book called Nervous Conditions some years ago, by Tsitsi Dangarembga, and it deals with the subject of, I think iirc, anorexia, and also education, power and control, for young women growing up in postcolonial Zimbabwe.

museumofham thank you for the recommendation of How to be Brave, I will look out for it. My heart really goes out to those who are diagnosed with type 1 as children (the vast majority), such courage is required of them from an early age.

I have started Ready Player One and I'm enjoying it so far, looking forward to reading others' thoughts soon as well

Me too satsuki!

Passmethecrisps - I also need to leave time between books. Brain/Emotions need to settle and cogitate.

16. The Girls by Emma Cline.
Set in the 1960's this story is told in the first person by a young girl, Evie, who falls in with the local hippy crowd of teenaged society drop outs held in thrall by a charismatic guru with tragic outcomes. Heavily influenced by the Charles Manson murders, I think the author captures that teenaged neediness so well; broken homes, first love, drugs, impulse decisions, commune living, there's a creepy undertone to the story. I liked the first person view point/narration. It's not perfect- the character of middle-aged Evie is not quite fleshed out enough, all of the male characters have a one dimensional quality with no redeeming features. But overall I liked it.

💐 for your DH, Satsuki, I hope he is adjusting to it all, it can be tricky..

Thanks Satsuki and Best . It been going on for a very long time, so long it's almost become a way of life. Every now and then something - like this book - brings you up short.
Poorly dog has been admitted to the vets on a drip. Been a bit of a day!

Oh, no, hope the dog is ok.

A dog on a drip is a sad thought, hope he gets better soon, rmc

Should be home tomorrow Best and Satsuki- feels a bit weird though...

Oh s/he's lovely.

Aw, gorgeous.