50 Book Challenge 2018 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 2018, 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.

What are you reading?

southeastdweller I hope they don't skip too much of the earlier stuff in the Goldfinch movie, it really is quite pivotal to the story. Am sure they will have to cut loads just to fit it all into one movie. Hope they do it justice, although reading the book before seeing the movie tends to leave me disappointed even when they do an OK job of it. I will probably make the effort to see it in the cinema and then sit there muttering through it all.

I just realised that my first sentence in my previous post was totally garbled- it was meant to be “I am sorry I didn’t bite Piggy, was it in The Staffroom?”, referring to the educational books! Apologies!

I understood! Yes, it was....

1. A London Child of the 1870s MV Hughes

Autobiographical account of the author's life as a little girl growing up in Victorian Islington in a loving, eccentric family with four older brothers. I liked this a lot. It's comic, wistful, highly individual and tremendously British (perhaps something I noticed more because I was contrasting it with the other eccentric 1870s family of mostly boys in Eight Cousins). There's lots in there that's familiar to our sense of Victorianism - hansom cabs, peasoupers, big families of children writing their own newspapers and putting on plays and making toffee - and lots that feels more like an account of the 30s or 40s (when it was written), the sort of grimy British respectability, family in-jokes and secrets. And that ending! My God. I think I'm going to have to read the sequel to make sure everyone comes out the other end all right.

Pleased to see another London Child fan Cheerful - I like London Girl even more (partly because it features Miss Buss & Miss Beale :) ).

Pleased to see another London Child fan Cheerful - I like London Girl even more (partly because it features Miss Buss & Miss Beale :) ).

Oops, sorry for double post

I'm about 20% through The Goldfinch (after seeing recommendations here) and loving it so far. The writing makes you feel like you're actually there in the dingy, dusty, lovely antique shop. Can't wait to read more but sadly half term and kids are getting in my way!!
Didn't know there was a film in the making, will be glad to have read the book first I'm sure!

Laughing at, "I'm sorry I didn't bite Piggy, which felt like MN at its most surreal!

Clearly skilled at understanding the illiterate Piggy - no doubt honed by years of teaching!

21. The Antidote by Oliver Burkeman. I enjoyed “Help!” by the same author (a distillation of many self help books), and so was interested when this was mentioned (I think by Sadik but can’t scroll, and last time my memory let me down!). It is an interesting guide/meditation on non- positive thinking, and I found it very interesting; from a personal point of view especially as I have been told I am very cynical and also very positive; which would make sense if dwelling in the negative can actually make you happier. I would be interested in reading more in Stoicism and Buddhism, if anyone has any recommendations.

It was indeed me Tanaqui. I'm also a cheerfully positive cynic (in fact, I do sometimes wonder given our overlapping reading tastes if you are in fact me ).

33. The Witchfinder's Sister- Beth Underdown . Despite this being one of those sister/ daughter titles that we have established are extremely annoying,this was not a terrible read. Based loosely on the true case of Matthew Hopkins who was a witch hunter in the South East of England during the mid 1600's around the time of the Civil War. Kept me reading, won't win any awards but I wanted to know the ending .
Burial Rites next.

12. Reservoir 13 by Jon McGregor

I'm being lazy and copying over the review I posted on Goodreads earlier today.

This has been, so far, the best read of 2018. I know it's only February, but it's really going to need to be a very special book that tops this one.

I loved the way that each chapter represents one year. There are, as the title suggests, thirteen chapters/years, although that number has other references too.

Year 1 begins with the disappearance of Becky Shaw, aged 13. She was on holiday with her parents in the village. She vanished whilst the family were out hill walking. They were unfamiliar with the area, were ill prepared for the sudden poor weather clamping down over the moors. It's not a spoiler to say that Becky was never found - not even a trace of her, although there are hints in the novel at clothing items which may or may not have been hers. There was no trace whatsoever, despite a massive search. This is not a detective novel. It isn't even really about Becky Shaw. It's about how that one event resonates through subsequent years and how it shapes the lives of every person who was even slightly connected to the event.

What I loved about this book was its quiet, almost mesmerisingly beautiful prose. Each chapter follows a pattern, beginning with New Year and ending with the end of the year. Throughout each year, the same events are recorded - New Year celebrations, lambing season, Well dressing, Harvest Festival, Mischief Night, Christmas, and patterns are repeated. It's how lives are lived - we all do the same things - walking the dog, going shopping, talking to friends, raising children, going to work, just going about our daily lives, dealing with illnesses, deaths, births, relationships, marriages and break-ups.

I also loved the interweaving of the nature observations - the nesting birds, the heron feeding from the river, the families of foxes and badgers. All inhabiting the same spaces and observing the same annual patterns of lives stretching out as the seasons turn, one year ending and another beginning.

12. Fugitive Pieces – Anne Michaels

Aged 7, Jakob witnesses the murder of his parents and disappearance of his older sister in Nazi-occupied Poland. He runs away, and is discovered hiding in the forest by Greek geologist Athos. Athos smuggles him back to the Greek Island where he lives, and they spend the rest of the war living in seclusion, hiding from occupying Nazi forces. After the war they move to Canada. As an adult, Jakob must come to term with the events of the past, uncertainty about his sister's fate and his own survivor’s guilt.

The final third of the book is narrated by Ben, whose parents survived the Holocaust to start a new life in Canada. Ben and his wife meet Jakob at a party and have mutual friends. The narrative switches to focus on the impact of Ben's parents’ experiences on them and their family. Ben uses Jakob’s poetry to attempt to come to terms with and understand his own difficult feelings.

An almost unremittingly sad book. There were some positive moments, such as Athos' unconditional kindness and willingness to put his own life at risk to save Jakob, but these were few and far between. At times beautifully written, but often so dense with poetic imagery that I found it a tough read. Anne Michaels is a poet, and I’ve read some reviews that describe the book as a very long prose poem – I would agree with that analogy. I’m glad I read Fugitive Pieces as it covers such an important episode in recent history. However, I’m not sure I would want to read anything else by the same writer as I found her style too self-conscious and overwrought.

Just had a look Sadik and my local library stores have the entire series mouldering cheerfully away in the stacks. Might have to pick them up when I'm in the city center tomorrow.

Did I mention recently how much I love my local library stores? I really love them. They have the most wonderful collection of out-of-print novels. I often wonder how many people actually read them, but last year when I was reading my way through Antonia Forest's backlist, there was at least one other Forest fan reading them all too ...

I have been inspired to buy Ngaio Marsh by this thread, currently a load of hers are on for 99p on Kindle

@Tanaqui

I have Happy by Derren Brown on my going-to-read-very-soon list, and I think that's about stoicism. will let you know what I think.

Right now the choice for my next book is between that and a Ngaio Marsh omnibus (first book A Surfeit of Lampreys). Decisions decisions

Yes, I read Happy last year and it is very heavily influenced by Stoicism. It is a great read and definitely makes this philosophy seem very relevant.

10. Sorcery and Cecelia (or The Enchanted Chocolate Pot) by Patricia Wrede &‎ Caroline Stevermer

Epistolary fantasy novel set in an alternate history Regency with magic, wizards etc. Kate has gone to London accompanying her beautiful sister for their first Season; her cousin Cecelia is stuck at home in the countryside with her straightlaced aunt. The letters between the two make up the book. There's at least as much Heyer-esq comedy of manners / romance as there is magic, all very lightly done and charming.

I'm reading Reservoir 13 with my book group in April, Crampton. Really looking forward to it after your great review.

Thank you Corvus, I will look forward to hearing what you think.

Corvus and Five; I would strongly recommend you try to do the Ngaio Marsh books in order, starting with A Man Lay Dead- I am enjoying them much more that way.

Cheerful, I love Aontonia Forest, but it wasn’t me in the stacks as (smug) I have copies of most!

Sadik, I do look for your recs in particular now as so often I enjoy them! I love a Heyer so might look for the Sorcery book, but I am trying to stick to Overdrive at the moment. I want the mermaid book but they haven’t got it, grr!

I liked the sound of that London Child book ( is it like a real life Family from One End Street?), but it isn’t on overdrive and it’s £15 on Amazon! Will have to try the real life library, which is currently shut for 3 months, and my list is growing!

22. Final Curtain by Ngaio Marsh. A fairly good one but I think I might enjoy the rest more if I have a little break- I don’t want to though as I am enjoying them!

Thanks Tanaqui

The Kindle version of happy by Derren Brown is 99p at the moment

Another Antonia Forest fan here. I bought all the Chalet School series a couple of years ago, now trying to decide if I can justify the same for the Marlows. After all, it's a much shorter series, so must be cheaper...