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?

I really love this thread. It’s the first thing I check when I look on MN. I can’t wait to hear what you’ve all been reading. Delighted to hear that 'A London Child of the 1870's', one of my old favourites, has had a good outing. You must read both the sequels, Cheerful (I’m another Forest fan, btw).

Anyway, I digress. I’ve finished 15. Into Thin Air - Jon Krakauer

One of the thread favourites. What a great book - terrifying, sad, gripping. My heart was in my mouth throughout. I still can’t understand why in a million years anyone would want to climb Everest but JK tells it so well, and was clearly changed forever by the terrible outcome. I'd almost finished it last night before bed and actually couldn’t sleep because I kept thinking about the dreadful fate of the climbers who perished.

28. When She Was Gone by Lisa Jewell

Well written but predictable. Ellie went missing 10 years ago, and now her remains have been found. Then her mother meets a new boyfriend with a very strange daughter. Quick read but as I said, disappointingly predictable.

Ooh spooky Terpsichore, my no 15, also finished last night because I couldn’t stop listening to it was Into Thin Air.
Can’t fault the book, although I couldn’t give it a rating on goodreads as it just felt off giving a book about so many terrible deaths enjoyment stars.
Can fault the audiobook though, some dodgy editing and by far the worst Kiwi accent I've ever heard.

Has anyone listened to Atul Gawande's (him of How to be Mortal) Reith lectures? WhileI was listening to Into Thin Air I was reminded of Gawande's lecture on systems, specifically how systems in high tension operating theatre environments can be to the detriment or the benefit of the survival rate of the patient depending on how robust they are. Couldn’t help but thinking how the breakdown of, or absence of. robust systems during the entire expedition could have prevented so many of the deaths that occurred.

Being Mortal that should be. Mixing up my Atul Gawande and Ruby Wax books there . Not the same.

cheerful yes I’ve discovered this about library stores while searching for some of the Persephone suggestions on here. Found the child book and will get to it in due course so enjoyed your review.

scribbly I think with Into Thin Air I more appreciated how he tried to do clear-eyed justice to what had happened up there and the people who lost their lives, however painful, more than I “enjoyed” it, you’re right. It was an achievement under the circumstances. And interesting what you say about systems. It was fascinating in that respect. The other thing I found mind-boggling was that this out and out disaster happened, yet people were still up there doing the same thing in the next days, weeks, months, coming back unscathed, as though it hadn’t happened at all.

I have been away over the weekend and didn’t get in any reading. What’s infuriating now my son is a reader is that I had to watch him polish off two books this weekend whilst I had to be and adult. The little blighter can read in the car whilst I get carsick, and I had to live vicariously as he wandered down to breakfast and tried to get dressed one-handed with nose firmly in book. I’m into Shardlake but have taken a break to try and get a library book finished before it’s due back this week.

(1) Witch is When Life Got Complicated by Adele Abbott
(2) Witch is Where It All Began by Adele Abbott
(3) Coming Clean by Kimberly Rae Miller
(4) Die Last by Tony Parsons
(5) Restaurant Babylon by Imogen Edwards Jones
(6) The Sugar Men by Ray Kingfisher
(7) The Hospital by Barbara O'Hare
(8) Fade Out by Rachel Caine
(9) Yellow Crocus by Laila Ibrahim
(10) Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer
(11) Would You Like Some Magic With That by Annie Salisbury
(12) The Ride Delegate by Annie Salisbury
(13) The Magdalen Laundries by Lisa Michelle Odgaard
(14) Just What Kind of Mother Are You by Paula Daly
(15) Amber Earns Her Ears by Amber Michelle Sewell
(16) Breathe by Sarah Crossan
(17) Kiss of Death by Rachel Caine
(18) Ghost Town by Rachel Caine
(19) A Pocketful of Holes and Dreams by Jeff Pearce
(20) Dead Man Running by Martin McGartland

The follow up book to 50 Dead Men Walking, which is the true story of a young man from Belfast who becomes a Special Branch agent whilst being a member of the IRA. This is the continuation of his story once he escapes a murder attempt on him and gets moved to England to try and start a new life.

14. If Only They Didn't Speak English by Jon Sopel

Ostensibly this book is about how we would view Americans as foreigners of they spoke a different language and, instead, we expect them to be like us. It isn't really about that. It is about the lead up to the US election and has some interesting anecdotes about being American, or British, within it. I picked this up because I didn't want to juts read a book pro or anti Trump . My family are American so I have many angles, but I found Sopel's outsider-cum-insider viewpoint interesting and informative. The chapters on God, Guns and Fake News were very interesting and I liked his story about drinking wine around Americans.

A really engaging , easy read. he writes well (apart from the unforgivable misspelling of 'drawer' on about page 230!!Hopefully, his editor and not him.. although I am not sure which is worse)

Northanger Abbey next. Feeling indifferent and haven't even started it.

Scribbly and Satsuki - there appears to be an extreme single-mindedness (some might say mania) about this kind of endurance 'sport' that leads to the waning of what you might consider normal human instincts. Witness the Japanese climbers Jon Krakauer describes who simply ignored the Indian contingent lying in extremis on the slopes, and just carried on up to the summit. They simply didn’t consider for a moment that their own effort to get to the top should be interrupted for any reason, including aiding fellow-climbers who were in terrible agonies and on the point of death, but whose lives could quite possibly have been saved. It is truly chilling. But as he points out, the altitude, the effects of lack of oxygen to the brain, all the physical factors mess with the judgement to such a huge degree that you wonder how anyone stumbling about up there can possibly be in their right mind.

And yet there were obviously many others in the book who made superhuman efforts to try and save the stricken members of JK's team (and other teams, of course).

It certainly isn’t a book I’ll forget in a hurry. And yes, 'enjoy' isn’t the right word. 'Admire', maybe. I admired his honesty very much and he was clearly haunted by the whole experience.

Tanaqui if you liked Sorcery & Cecelia there are a couple of sequels too

Sorry I meant Sadik!

10. Etta and Otto and Russell and James by Emma Hooper.

Etta is an 83 year-old woman with Alzheimer's who ups and leaves her husband Otto and Canadian farm one day in a bid to walk as far west as she can to reach the water. This is a rather whimsical but very sweet book about their relationship, their relationships with Russell (who is kind of Otto's adopted brother), their upbringings, schooling, experiences in WW2. Among other things. Very readable indeed.

terpsichore yes agree totally - I was horrified by some of the casual writing off of people in desperate situations but then it’s as if normal rules don’t apply in that situation as all energy and effort is consumed in survival and trying to keep sane in the altitude. A window into a completely different mindset and way of life.

That’s okay Tabby, we clearly are the same person, and I will remember if I manage to get hold of a copy (am still on my no spend on books). Thanks!

1. Because of the Lockwoods - Dorothy Whipple Usually a big Whipple fan but this book had weaker plotting than the others I have read (They were Sisters, They knew Mr. Knight, Someone at a distance etc) and the ended suddenly (and badly IMO)

1. Sugar Money - Jane Harris I liked this less than The Observations and Gillespie and Me. Harris has been criticised as a white author for writing about the Caribbean slaves in patois. But if no one else was telling the story...

1. Miss Ranskill comes Home- Barbara Euphan Todd. Very odd book. A "middle aged"(think 30's)middle class spinster is stranded on a desert island with a working class carpenter. After several years he dies and she is rescued but arrives back to rationing and everyone busy with the war effort and feels like she is an alien from another planet. It is good fun for most of the book but ends suddenly which spoilt it for me.

1. The Crowded Street by Winifred Holtby. This was on my Kindle bought and read 2 years ago but I have no memory of reading it. I liked a lot of it this time round - she had incredible insight for her age into the lives of not very pretty or accomplished middle class women. Encouraged me to read No5.

1. The Land of Green Ginger Winifred Holtby. A missionaries orphaned daughter is brought up by her aunts and marries hastily during the Great War at age 19 to a guy she has only met a handful of times but thinks is jolly and has a quirky sense of humour like her. He does not tell her he is feeling joyful at being accepted into the military despite having TB. His TB returns and he is advised to try farming for his lungs. They move to a windswept remote farm with their two toddlers. The husband becomes increasingly depressed and abusive whilst the protagonist tries to hold everything together with no money. She feels guilty about escaping into fantasies involving Walter Raleigh and imagined conversations with her old school friends. There is also a side story about local opposition to foreign forestry workers being employed by the local big landlord. I really liked this book and felt for the heroine and how awful her life was and her compassion for her husband.

1. The Nix Nathan Hill. Thumper of a book but a bit of a mess felt like a few different novels were in it. Having said that I really enjoyed the first two thirds and it saw me through sleepless nights with the Flu. Disappointed by the ending( bit of a recurring theme this year with my book choices)

13. The Antidote by Oliver Burkeman.

Thanks to Sadik for the recommendation and a wave to Tanaqui for your review. I also very much enjoyed this brief synopsis of various philosophies all under the guise of discovering non-positive thinking. The writing was engaging and intelligent, using quotes to good effect (“Ask yourself whether you are happy, observed the philosopher John Stuart Mill, and you cease to be so.”). I think I found the book so engaging as firstly it echoes very much how I feel and secondly, I know relatively little about philosophy. His final chapter pretty much summarises my preferred mindset with a mix of Stoic/mindfulness/‘non-positive’ thinker philosophy to achieve some calm and tranquillity. This is the kind of self help book I can appreciate.

Corvus - I have Happy in my tbr pile so good to hear it’ll teach me more about Stoicism.

All this talk of The Goldfinch makes me want to re-read it..

Thanks to this thread I have just bought Falconer's Lure and End of Term due to the association of Antonia Forest with the Chalet School. I bought Autumn Term last year and enjoyed it but managed to prevent myself from buying the whole series then - £26 down for two Girls Gone By editions. Oops! I bought Anna Karenina yesterday too

Ooh, have Girls Gone By done Falconer's Lure? That was one my library store didn't have, and it was incredibly annoying as it's obviously a key one in the series and they kept referring to stuff that had happened in it. Might have to get hold of a copy when I've got through my TBR shelf a bit ...

@cheerful I used to work in the library and that was my favourite part of the day going down to the basement to get books to send out to people and shelve returned ones, mostly out of print, or not popular enough fo the main shelves

13. Accidents Happen by Louise Millar

Widow Kate lives in Oxford with her 10 year old son Jack. She’s got serious problems with anxiety and has convinced herself that she’s cursed following her husband’s murder 5 years ago, and the tragic accidental death of her parents a few years before that. But her in-laws think she’s obsessive and are now threatening to take her son and report her to social services if she doesn’t start to relax a bit.
So when Kate meets a professor who offers to help her, it seems to come at just the right time, despite his unconventional methods.
But with the creepy mature student next door taking too much of an interest in Kate and her family, maybe Kate’s not just paranoid after all.....

Thoroughly enjoyed reading this and stayed up far later than I should have last night to finish it.

My only (exceedingly trivial) complaint about this book is that the title has lodged that irritating Thomas and Friends song in my head now

Just read two not very good ones. Reviews to follow.

I need something GREAT. But what?

Just finished 9. This is the Story of a Happy Marriage - some of the non-fiction writings by novelist Ann Patchett about key events in her life, such as how she became a writer, her early unhappy marriage and her later happier one.

18. Miss Pym Disposes – Josephine Tey – This was essentially ‘Malory Towers’ for adults. I liked the setting of a girls’ college but this didn’t do an awful lot for me overall. I thought it got too obsessed with minor characters and that the ’thing’ that happens came far too late in the novel. I also guessed ‘whodunnit’ very soon after the ‘it’ took place so wasn’t fooled by the twist. If I’d read it aged 13 I’d have probably liked it a lot.

19. Forever by Judy Blume - Speaking of being 13, this was 99p in the Kindle YA sale and I couldn’t resist a re-read to see what all the fuss had been about when we were at school. Well, they say you can’t go back home, and I really shouldn’t have tried to. This was ground-breaking when it came out, being a frank portrayal of a teenage couple taking the first tentative steps into a sexual relationship. And, to be fair to Blume, that's done pretty well. The problem, which I missed when I was 13 or so, is that obsession of YA with ‘issues’, so this couldn’t be just a book about a sexual relationship, it also had to go via possible homosexuality, mental health issues, teenage pregnancy, suicide attempts and death as well. I kept waiting for the ‘race issues’, bullying, child abuse and having to move house and leave friends behind issues to make their way into it too. Have I forgotten any?

Catching up on this thread with my updated list so far:

1. The Dark Flood Rises - Margaret Drabble
2. The Loved One - Evelyn Waugh
3. The Middlepause - Marina Benjamin
4. The Wall Jumper - Peter Schneider
5. The Gustav Sonata - Rose Tremain
6. First Love - Gwendoline Riley
7. The Furthest Station - Ben Aaronovitch
8. Quiet - Susan Cain
9. Death and the Penguin - Andrey Kurkov

10. The War on Women - Sue Lloyd Roberts 11. Harmless Like You - Rowan Hisayo Buchanan 12. Selfish People - Lucy English

13. How to Stop Time - Matt Haig
A feel-good, easy read. Maybe not quite as profound as it sells itself to be, but nicely done.

14. The Watchmaker of Filigree Street - Natasha Pulley
Another fun, quick read with elements of playing with time (like How to Stop Time). As someone with an interest in Japan, the parts relating to post-Meiji restoration Japanese politics particularly appealed, but I don't think all the historical detail is too heavy for someone not specifically interested in Japan.

Also, I have to confess to having been on a bit of a book-buying spree in London: I visited Daunts (Marylebone - one of my favourite ever bookshops) the Piccadilly branch of Waterstones, the Persephone bookshop and Foyles, all in the space of a few days. So my to-read pile has grown a bit again...

Thanks for the Persephone recommendations on the last thread, by the way. The bookshop is lovely and far too tempting, particularly as you get a discount and a free tote bag if you buy three at once.

16. The Girl on the Landing, Paul Torday

Somewhere between a psychological thriller and a ghost story, this was well written and spooky. I loved the settings - the rather stuffy London set-up with the minor gentlemen's club, and then the wildness of the Scottish estate.