50 Book Challenge 2018 Part Four

[southeastdweller]

Welcome to the fourth 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, the second one here and the third one here.

How're you getting on so far?

18. Elmet – Fiona Mozley

Present day Yorkshire. Adolescent Cathy and Daniel live with their “Daddy” maintaining a self-sufficient, off-grid existence living in a house Daddy built with his own hands on land that it transpires does not belong to them. They live off the land and have limited contact with the wider world. So far, so idyllic. However reality is close at their heels, in the form of sinister landowner Mr Price and his two spoilt and thuggish sons. The tone and content of the story builds menacingly to reach a brutal and shocking conclusion. There is violence and it is pretty graphic. If this book were a film , it would have an 18 certificate.

I thought this was a really clever and confident debut. I felt Elmet managed to address so many topical issues in an interesting and thought provoking way : the battle between the haves and the have nots, the dispossessed and marginalised north, gender and sexuality, education, the complete unreality of home ownership and the drastic steps required to achieve it – there are probably others! At times not an easy read, but I thoroughly enjoyed it.

19. Stay With Me – Ayobami Adebayo
This book made me cry. Repeatedly. DD even suggested I stop reading it as it seemed to be making me so unhappy. A beautiful, sad and tragic book about relationships and the steps we take to protect ourselves and the people we love, and the devastating, unexpected consequences we invite.

After several years of happy marriage together, Yejide and her husband Akin are unable to conceive. Akin, under intense pressure from his Mother and extended family, takes a second wife, and their lives begin to unravel. I felt this book was perfectly plotted with many twists and turns which I could not have predicted. However, what made this book so special for me was the way Adebayo provided such a completely convincing insight into Yejide’s thoughts, feelings and emotions. I thought this was a stunningly good read. Favourite book of the year so far for me.

10. The Heat of Betrayal - Douglas Kennedy

Robin accompanies her artist husband on a trip to Morocco. However, partway through the trip, she finds out he's been keeping something from her. He then disappears and she is left to travel round Morocco to try and find him, while discovering more about his hidden past.

A good read, with some very evocative descriptions of Morocco. I think this may have been a recommendation from last years thread, and has sat on my TBR pile ever since - thanks to whoever suggested it!

Seems to be a graphic novel kind of weekend.

18. Enigma by Robert Harris

Mystery set in Bletchley Park. A codebreaker’s girlfriend disappears and he attempts to investigate why alongside his bread and butter codebreaking. This took me a while to read, I put it down a few times and went onto other things, so I would say a slow start, but I was in bed with yet another stinking cold this afternoon and got into it finally, a perfect easy and yet smart and diverting read for those circumstances. By the end I enjoyed it and was suitably engrossed.

It does doesn’t it Satsuki.
Pepe as you enjoyed Persepolis can I reccommend The Arab of the Future volumes 1 and 2 by Riad Sattouf. It’s a graphic memoir of the author's bizarre childhood growing up in Syria, France and Libya. The art work is great, subject matter is eye opening stuff and it’s full of dark humour. Sattouf's father is one of those larger than life characters who once you read about him will never forget.

26. A Boy in Winter by Rachel Seiffert.

Another longlisted book for the Women's Prize. This is set in the Ukraine in 1941 and follows for a few days the lives of several characters from a small village which has recently been overrun by the Germans following the retreat of the Red Army.
The primary focus is on fourteen year old Yankel who with his little brother has managed to escape the round up of his family with all the Jews from the area. Yasia is an older teenager from the marshlands who unwittingly becomes involved in their survival.
In addition to the villagers is Otto Pohl, a German engineer who has arrived with the army to supervise the road building effort through the village.

This is a short novel, only 260 pages, and that I think is it's main fault. Seiffert prose is clean and sparse, almost observationally clinical at times, but she has the skill not to sacrifice believability and character depth by using it. You are rooting for all of these people by fifty pages in. I just wish she could have written another 260 pages about them. Pohl's story, the one I found the most interesting as he is truly horrified and conflicted by what is happens in the village, ends so abruptly I felt really let down.

A well written novel about a country affected by the the holocaust that I did not previously know about. Seiffert's aim is to cast a spotlight on how a small community reacts to the invasion and the moral choices people will make when forced to face atrocities happening under their noses.

16. The Acid Test by Elmer Mendoza

I picked this up from a display in the library as part of my attempt to read more modern, translated fiction. Mendoza is a Mexican author and is apparently called 'The Father of Narco-Lit'. It is translated from Spanish of course.

I had to force myself to read the first third of this book as it consists almost entirely of dialogue ..... and there are no quotation marks! Not only this, but each passage of dialogue runs into the other in one massive paragraph, so you really have to focus and make lots of assumptions on who is saying what. The cast is also large, and I had to keep flicking to the front of the book to work out who was who.

The book centres on the murder of dancers in a Mexican city, with the police investigating against a typical Mexican backdrop of drugs, corruption, and guns. The main character is a flawed detective called Lefty Mendoza who has had personal dealings with the main victim, found murdered in the outskirts with her nipple cut off.

With most of the novel being dialogue that needs to be untangled, it was interesting to me that half way through my brain caught up to the unusual structure and it became easier to read. I guess the story eventually transcended the style. It's interesting to me how the author managed to use the style of his novel to convey the chaos and randomness of Mexican life. It was also quite clever how well developed the main characters were by just using dialogue.

That said I was glad to finish it as I slogged the last fifty pages out as I had a looming library deadline! I would recommend it for people who like to try out different styles of novel, and who are interested in hearing about Mexico and Mexican food. The story itself was interesting enough - I don't read many books like this so found it interesting enough. I'd read another by this author if I came across it in the library.

15. The Minority Report - Philip K Dick

Ok so this is a short story but I’m counting it because I’m counting it towards the popsugar challenge, and that was the only reason I read it. The prompt was a ‘cyberpunk’ book, which couldn’t be further from my wheelhouse, and someone on the goodreads book recommended this as being good and short. It was short and indeed good, though my complete lack of interest in the genre I guess made it difficult to appreciate it fully. It’s a good story though, with interesting ideas, and very different from the film.

I do feel I’m cheating counting this but hopefully my endless struggle through David Copperfield (and actually From the Beast to the Blonde - Marina Warner, which I started LAST YEAR) mean I’m allowed a little slack on this

Alias - I wouldn't call Minority Report cyberpunk, a subgenre that started more or less with Neuromancer, decades after Philip K Dick died.

Cyberpunk features antiheroes, often hackers (hence "punk") living an underground existence in an urban setting. Computer technology and internet are indispensable elements (hence "cyber").

William Gibson and Neal Stephenson, for example, are Cyberpunk writers. Philip K Dick really is not. His books are about (interesting and often brainhurty) ideas but they are not the gritty urban tech-heavy urban jungle that Cyberpunk is about.

I love Persepolis. One of my favourite books.
Remus, sigh. I had a horrible feeling that would happen ...

@CoteDAzur arrrgh no, don’t make me read more!

Are you a fan of the genre? Any quick read recommendations?

Alias , Cote I too am doing the Popsugar challenge and had the very same book recommended to me. Same discussion ensued with two Colleagues who are cyberpunk readers. (I am most definitely not!!)
One held Cote view that it was too early to be cyberpunk, another felt it definitely was. I did a bit of internet research and it seems quite a debate. The most common definition I have seen for cyberpunk is 'High Tech, Low life.' Not specific about computer and internet. But hey, I literally have a toe in the water!!

@Toomuch

Thanks, glad you’ve had the same quandry as me! I think I shall count it for now but remain open minded about possibly looking for something else once I’ve completed a bit more of the challenge.

I don't think I've read any cyberpunk.
I wouldn't think Minority Report fits the genre though, it isn't really tech driven as such, I think the focus is much more on the nature of free will and authoritarianism told via the platform of sci fi. My copy of Minority Report is a collection of 9 of his stories, including the fantastic 'We can remember it for you wholesale' and well worth reading. I am a fan of his work though and Ubik was a highlight this year for me.

ScribblyGum - I will definitely check it out. I work round the corner from a fantastic bookshop that specialises in graphic novels and comics so will see if they have it. I'm trying not to buy new books from Amazon. My Kindle devotion makes it hard but I'm doing well on the physical front.

Could Ready Player One be classed as cyberpunk? Because that’s an easy, quick read —and not a short story sorry Alias—

I wouldn’t have thought of Dick as cyberpunk, I don’t read a lot of that but do read sci fi more generally.

pepelepew I’ve found Abe Books to be a great substitute for Amazon, can find second hand and new books. I use library, abe and my local independent for buying books now, but they still have me over a Kindle barrel!

Ready Player One ticks more boxes than Minority Report but still doesn't have the cyberpunk "feel" imho.

Minority Report definitely isn't cyberpunk. It was punblished decades before personal computers, and has no cyber or punk in it anywhere. If anyone is thinking of the film, remember that the short story has very little to do with it.

As for a Cyberpunk recommendation, I would go for Snow Crash or The Diamond Age every time.

I’m torn now! I shall back away from the prompt and come back to it in a few books time I think!

Cheerful - That one page when she actually looks at him as a man is sublime. Such a pity that DLS couldn't do more of that sort of thing and a lot less wittering.

Cote will bow to your very definitely superior knowledge. I am putting off the Cyberpunk prompt!!

50. Three Things About Elsie - Joanna Cannon. Well, Scribbly warned me. This book is basically a weaker rerun of the author's debut The Trouble with Goats and Sheep. Apart from the fact that it is set in a retirement village rather than a cul-de-sac. It is the story of Florence, slipping into dementia but knowing a terrible secret that no one will listen too. Elizabeth is Missing did it better and in less pages. A laboured use of the unreliable narrator.
It is full of 'humorous' dialogue, aiming for the Victoria Wood feel but which mostly fall flat.
There is a timeline set out clearly at the beginning of the novel, yet I felt the author flaunted it throughout. I know I am not engaged in a book when I start searching for implausibilities and plot holes.
I found it boring. Everything is tied up too neatly. It is whimsical and sentimental but not in a good way. It will however be a commercial success.
In terms of whether it deserves it's place on the Women's Prize Long List I would say absolutely not. Eleanor Oliphant is a better book, but if the judges really want humour and accessibility on the short list they would be better looking to The Mermaid and Mrs Hancock which is vibrant, original and a far more crafted novel.

*8. The Day Before Forever - Anna Caltabiano
*
Another random pick from the library. I realised fairly early on that this is a sequel. However there was enough to go on that it made sense without having read the first book, which is called "The Seventh Miss Hatfield."
The story is about immortality and time travel. It was okay. There is a massive continuity error about halfway through where the author mentions something as part of the story and then two pages later introduces it as an entirely new concept. It was really jarring and noticeable and shows really poor editing.
Part of the story is set in London and there are English characters referring to elevators and things being "a few blocks away." This is something I find hugely annoying.
I won't be seeking out anything else by this author.

cote yes more cyberpunk-lite I suppose.

27. History of Wolves by Emily Fridlund

A 15 year old Thorley living remotely become a involved with a young family living across the lake. You find out almost straight away that the 4 year old son is dead and the narrative is leading up to what happened. There are jumps around in time and the narrator appears at 15, a young child, 26 and older.
It kept me reading and there are some great descriptions of live in rural America. The author uses the narrators youth at the time to explain why she didn’t understand things but that often means things are unclear for the reader as well.
Overall it’s an interesting read but I think the author has tried to cram too many themes in one book which means that there is a lot that is unexplored.

27. Animal by Sara Pascoe
Non fiction book about the female body and brain. This is very scientific with lots of references to back up her statements. Also it is extremely funny. I laughed out loud several times. Only downside is that it does get repetitive after a while and the author obviously has her own issues which she is trying to work out through the book (she admits this at the start) so there is a lot about female jealousy and rivalries. Overall educational and interesting told in a very funny and accessible way

Am now reading Nelly Dean which is suiting the snowed in atmosphere!