50 Book Challenge 2018 Part Five

[southeastdweller]

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

How're you getting on so far?

21. Good Night, Mr. Tom - Michelle Magorian

I blame Lucy Mangan for this. And for the fact I've just bought all the Kingscote books at some exorbitant price. Having a little nostalgia moment!

Anyway, this is a lovely book. DS (8) asked me why I was reading a children's book, and as I explained it to him, he said it didn't really sound like a book that would be nice to read. But despite all the sad moments, the relationship between Tom and Will is so heartwarming, I enjoyed my re-read. Not sure I'll pass it on to DS yet though - he's capable of reading it, but I don't think he'd cope very well with the emotional side - he can't watch a Disney without ending up in tears!

43.) Why Mummy Drinks, The Diary of an Exhausted Mum, by Gill Sims -- Damn, I read some trash. Silly, shallow and mildly amusing chick/mum-lit in the Slummy Mummy (ugh, how I loathe that phrase) vein, with a streak of Shopaholic compulsive shopping thrown in for good measure. It was a fairly quick read, and for the most part I enjoyed it, although there's really nothing new or particularly original here, but then...

The ending. Oh dear god, the ending, and how the problem of the feckless hippy sister-in-law was dealt with enraged me. I won't go into much more detail in case of spoilers, but I kept imagining in the form of an AIBU post... I can picture how it could go and it wouldn't be pretty. I'm actually prickling with indignation on the behalf of the main character at the bloody cheek. Has anyone read it? Did you find it as infuriating as I did?

Anyway, it's 99p on Kindle. It's okay. A fun enough read, so worth it if you don't mind trashy chick-lit of the 'mums drink shitloads of wine' kind. It did feel a bit odd that MN wasn't namechecked though. Mine was a library book. Worth it for 99p? Eh, if you like that kind of thing. I note there's a sequel being released later this year -- I'll probably keep an eye out for it in the library.

Now onto Ngaio Marsh's Colour Scheme which is set in New Zealand. Bit of a change of scene, and so far I'm enjoying it very much.

Happy birthday Chessie. Just checking in to keep this on my TIO list.

I'm well into The Secret Barrister on Audible, and it's the first audiobook I've had for ages where I've been looking for listening opportunities (great for getting more cleaning done ) rather than just half-heartedly putting it on when I'm working & need distraction. It's fascinating/horrifying in equal measure, and even at only half way through already one I'm sure I'll be pushing at everyone I know.

Happy birthday, Chessie. Books are the best presents!

Book 55
The Mermaid and Mrs Hancock Imogen Hermes Gowar
Not as good as the hype, unlike The Essex Serpent which it has very slight echoes of. It ought to have been right up my street – 18th century London, a froth of floozies, a mermaid and a madam – and I liked it enough to finish it (and liked the second half better than the first) but I didn’t ‘love’ it.

I thought the first ‘Volume’ was far too slow, I disliked the italicised ‘mermaid voice’ sections and I thought that a subplot involving one of the prostitutes was there to stick in an ‘issue’ rather than to particularly do anything in the novel. I also really disliked, and didn’t see the point of, an episode near the end. And I don't like books in the present tense.

Overall, not hideous, but it could have been great and was just okay. An Almond for a Parrot does tarts with a heart so much better.

remus I’ve started it and found a couple of instances of slightly odd grammar so far, and a couple of expressions that don’t really make sense, and perhaps a printing error (but perhaps not..) which made me feel already like it’s not quite as assured as I was hoping. I’m quite enjoying it, but already feel I’m not going to love it, so interested to see how it pans out for me. The writing quality is certainly not up to the standard of Serpent.

It could have used some pretty ruthless editing, for sure.

oooooooohhhh mermaid dissenters!!!

I am reading The Fourteenth Letter' another attempt at this vogueish Victoriana. Pretty poor so far : too absurd without the fun of parrot* but similar (albeit dark) attempt at voice. Way too many characters.

Who knows what went on with the bold there!!!

I thought another attempt at this vogueish Victoriana was a bit on the nose as a subtitle

It would be rather fitting...

reading The Fourteenth Letter' another attempt at this vogueish Victoriana. Pretty poor so far : too absurd without the fun of parrot but similar (albeit dark) attempt at voice. Way too many characters.*

It's 99p on Kindle, but don't think I'll bother if it's that rubbish.

Couldn't resist The Dragonbone Chair, though. the first in an old-school fantasy trilogy by Tad Williams - also 99p. Despite containing every fantasy cliche known to man it's a wonderful series and I wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone into epic fantasy.

I am however gritting my teeth and resisting the new Bernard Cornwell novel Gods and Mortals for £1.99, even though I really really want it. My TBR pile is getting silly now.

It is showing signs of maybe getting better corvus or I am just determined...

Thank you all for the SA recommendations :)

Currently way down the other end of the spectrum reading City of Bones by Cassandra Clare.

I'm currently listening to Mermaid on Audible, and I'm intrigued by the above comment I disliked the italicised 'mermaid voice' sections. I'm not aware of these sections at all, so I'm wondering how the narrator is dealing with them?

76. Bookworm: A Memoir Of Childhood Reading by Lucy Mangan

I LOVED this. Lucy is just a few years older than me, and I also read almost everything that Lucy mentions. I do enjoy a trip down memory lane, and I like books about books, so this was perfect for me and didn’t disappoint. I now want to go back and reread all my childhood favourites and find the few that Lucy mentioned that I haven’t already read.

Tarahumara it’s been several months now since I listened to it but I have a memory that when you get to those sections (they occur in the final third of the book) that Juliet Stevenson narrates them in such a way that you are left in no doubt that this is not a human's thoughts. She is such a superb actress, there is something she can do with the tone of her voice that makes it otherworldly iyswim.
I think her narration is a significant part of why I enjoyed the book so much.

Must get Bookworm!
Interesting reactions to Mermaid. I found it such an engaging and vibrant book. I know I have used that word before but I honestly can't think of another way to describe it. It certainly wasn't perfect but in my opinion it was an incredible first book.
69. Jane Seymour : The Haunted Queen - Alison Weir. This was a gift from DH as he knows I have a Tudor itch that needs scratching every once in a while. I used to really enjoy Alison Weir and Phillipa Gregory but they fall quite flat these days. Not sure if they have got worse or I have just moved on. This is the third in her Six Queens series. There was nothing earth shatteringly new, the usual liberties taken with the history. Readable if taken with a large pinch of salt.

Late joiner here.
This is my list so far:

1. Pond by Claire-Louise Bennett
2. Hotel by Joanna Walsh – beautiful little book which is hard to describe, in the vein of writers such as Maggie Nelson and Chris Kraus.
3. Borne by Jeff VanderMeer -I didn’t enjoy this as much as his ‘Southern Reaches’ trilogy, which was amazing but this was still very readable. Lyrical post-apocalyptic SF tinged with fantasy, with a brilliant female central character.
4. Rise Up Women by Diane Atkinson
5. Dog is My Co-pilot from the editors of The Bark – this is strictly for the similarly dog-obsessed. But if you are it’s a cut above the usual ‘Marley and Me’ dross that dominates the market. ‘The Bark’ is often called ‘The New Yorker’ of dog magazines and this collection justifies that comparison: contains excellent pieces by writers such as Ann Patchett, Erica Jong and the poet Mark Doty. Doty wrote my favourite dog-related book of all time ‘Dog Years’, which is a really poignant, literary account of the role his dogs played in helping him to cope with the illness and Aids-related death of his lover
6. Art, Sex, Music by Cosey Fanni Tutti – this was really a nostalgia read; some wonderful accounts of alternative living in 70s Hull and London, a time of damp squats and plentiful grants for artists. There were some great sections about being a woman in the music industry, but it doesn’t really explain the ideas behind Cosey’s artwork: she posed for a number of soft-core mags and worked as a stripper then used the material for art pieces. Also, towards the end it becomes more a list of events than a developed account. I much preferred Patti Smith’s books and Viv Albertine’s memoir.
7. White Girls by Hilton Als – I love to read essays it started out with an early Joan Didion crush and went on from there. Als writes for 'The New York Review of Books' and 'The New Yorker' and he has that amazing ability to mix entertainment with erudition that their writers have. His subjects often touch on issues of race and gender, for example his fascinating take on Michael Jackson. I enjoyed this although Eula Biss is still my favourite contemporary essayist.
8. Age of Anger by Pankaj Mishra- very disappointed in this, fragmentary and reliant on name-dropping theorists/theory rather than developing any convincing arguments for his position on contemporary politics/history. I really don’t understand why it got such rave reviews.
9. Ingrid Caven by Jean-Jacques Schuhl – a fictionalisation of the life of Caven, who was an actress and cabaret singer who worked with Fassbinder and Yves Saint Laurent. One of the reviewers calls her a ‘bohemian Madame Bovary’ and a ‘red-headed noir vamp’. I found the style a little difficult to engage with but the underlying story was fascinating.
10. History by Elsa Morante – I believe Morante was an influence on Elena Ferrante. A sprawling novel set in 1940s Italy. A great story but quite harrowing, I had problems with the writing style, quite florid and ponderous in places, but it’s possible that was the fault of the translation. However, I seem to be the only woman alive who didn’t like Elena Ferrante either, so it could be me.
11. Lost Japan by Alex Kerr
12. Don’t Let Me Be Lonely: an American lyric by Claudia Rankine – brilliant
13. Crewe Train by Rose Macauley
14. Territory of Light by Yoko Tshushima
15. Carrington’s Letters edited by Anne Chisholm – this is a great collection to dip in and out of, not as wonderful as Woolf’s letters but some very entertaining sections.
16. Insel by Mina Loy –slightly off the wall surrealist novel
17. The Farm in the Green Mountains by Alice Hurdan-Zuckmeyer
18. Molesworth by Geoffrey Willins and Ronald Searle – hilarious re-read.

A PP was talking about editions of ‘Anna Karenina’, I thought the Larissa Volokhonsky and Richard Pevear translation was excellent, I’ve stalled on all the other versions I’ve tried, but couldn’t put it down. Although I didn’t like their ‘War and Peace’, I still prefer the one by Rosemary Edmonds.

Just finished 2 very light reads this morning.

22. The Heist Janet Evanovich and Lee Goldberg - this was read for the popsugar challenge prompt book involving a heist. Took me a while to get going with it as it was full of cliches and generally very silly but once I decided I was fine with that it was actually good fun.

23. 84 Charing Cross Road and The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street Helene Hanff - my copy has both the original - 84 and the sequel - Duchess in. I found this charming and moving, though it made me feel terribly uneducated!

AliasGrape thanks for 'The Heist' recommendation; really enjoyed the Janet Evanovich series 'One for the Money' series, great comfort reads or brain candy as a friend used to call it. I've read a lot of weighty tomes recently so could do with a bit of froth.

Welcome to the thread Dottierichardson

49. Circe by Madeline Miller.

Maybe I should let the inside cover of the hardback do the review; beautiful, ornate and balanced. What a wonderful book. I've been taking my time reading it, eking the story out as I knew I'd be miserable when I finished it.
Circe is the daughter of the Titan sun god Helios and the nymph Perse. She is a disappointment when she is born with a reedy voice and lacking the beauty and presence of her siblings. She lives in the shadows of her father's palace until she discovers her powers as a witch and is ultimately punished by Zeus for using them. Banished to an eternity alone on the island Aiaia she grows in her powers, her life occasionally intersecting with other characters from the Greek myths: Prometheus, Hermes, Scylla, the Minotaur, Athena and of course Odysseus.
If you enjoyed The Song of Achilles you will enjoy this. Miller's writing is so wise and careful, it feels like she might have spent a week crafting each paragraph. Nothing feels out of place, you drift along in the prose soaking in the ancient well known stories but are asked to look at them from a different perspective. Circe features in the myths as a character who happens to other protagonists, but in this book she is the focus and Miller explores her as a deity and a woman.
Highly recommended. Possibly my favourite book of the year so far. I don’t want to put it away on the shelf.

27. man in the high castle A book about a world where japan and Germany won ww2. I liked it in snatches and found it really tedious in others. Unsure

LastQueen - Agree re High Castle. Overall, I decided that a few good bits weren't enough to offset the weirdness and tedium, and by the end I wanted to burn it!

remus glad its not just me!

Have you read Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, Queen? I really enjoyed it.