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?

Hope your interview went well Piggy

I'd like to read Mermaid in a way but I wasn't keen on Serpent.

I read 45. Night Walk - Chris Yates
As the title suggests! The nature writer takes us on a beautiful summer walk in the dark, culminating with a sun rise. A sweet, gentle and easy read if you like nature writing. Which I do.

46 The Argonauts - Maggie Nelson
Highbrow, non-fiction book on queerness and pregnancy/childbirth and family relations from the American author (and sometime academic) Maggie Nelson. There are a lot of complex references to the work of psychologists with which I struggled, but this is a good, if somewhat challenging read, written in short chunks. Some interesting sections on her partner Harry Dodge, who physically transitions to male whilst Maggie is pregnant.

47. Things That Are - Amy Leach
Avoid! Weird and not very well written snippets of non-fiction musings on plants, animals and planets. Could have been good. Wasn't.

I do need to read something good now!

I enjoyed Serpent a lot but I’m falling asleep every time I pick up mermaid so it might be the other way around for you whippet

20 The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson - This was a re-read. It’s hard to know how to do justice to this, for me it was the best thing I’ve read in years. It’s a book that has been loaded down with accolades and prizes and for once I felt here was a work that deserved every one and more. It’s a non-fiction account of the ‘great migration’: the movement of scores of African-Americans from the former slavery states of the American South to cities like Chicago and Detroit in their quest for a better life. It could have been a dry recitation of facts presented in a linear format but instead Isabel Wilkerson adopts a different approach: she interweaves the facts with a mixture of oral history and biography presenting the ‘great migration’ through the lives of three people. The three are Ida May Gladney, George Starling and Robert Foster. Their stories are told so beautifully and so vividly that I felt as if I knew them, I worried about their choices, their fate and their families. It’s also brilliantly written, carefully structured and deeply moving. I had it on a shelf for some time before I read it, I was a bit daunted by its sheer volume. However, once I started it I literally couldn’t put it down - it flowed so well that at times I forgot I was reading a history book. I read it so fast the first time round I thought I owed it a re-read so that I could actually take more time to appreciate the underlying ideas. For some reason it’s only available in an American edition, why it hasn’t been snapped up by Penguin is a complete mystery to me. If there was ever a history book for people who don’t normally read history books this is the one, especially if you’re a fan of Maya Angelou, Toni Morrison or Alice Walker or if you watched ’12 Years a Slave’ and wondered what happened afterwards.

Good luck Piggy!

Cheerful I am very jealous you have read the new MacKay, I think she is fab.

Dottie, I so agree with what you are saying re literary / non literary fiction- I know Cote will agree that Never Let Me Go is really not good as science fiction, and for me, His Bloody Priject was a failure as it abused the rules of detective fiction. Am looking forward to reading Mermaid to see!

To be fair to His Bloody Project, I don't think it was trying to be detective fiction.

Echoing the calls of good luck, Piggy.

46.) A Clash of Kings, George RR Martin -- Reread. Despite the not inconsiderable levels of violence, comforting in the way only proper epic fantasy can be. It's interesting, too, having watched the series fairly recently, seeing the differences between the two.

47.) The Harrowing, James Aitcheson -- Historical fiction set during the Harrying of the North, the destruction wreaked by the Normans in revenge for an attempted uprising. Reportedly some 100,000 - 150,000 people were killed. Five people band together in an attempt to find safety. Each has their own secret, and during their journey through devastated countryside they all have the chance to tell their story. Thoroughly enjoyed it. Sort of like apocalyptic fiction crossed with Chaucer.

~~

Currently reading Odd Girl Out, a memoir about a woman with autism, which focuses on how autism presents differently in women and girls. So far very interesting.

I've also signed back up to Audible in the hope that it'll give me the impetus to do a bit more about the house. Any bloody excuse to buy a book... I plan on picking out horror and thrillers that'll keep me listening. Picked up A Head Full of Ghosts for the first book, which is about two sisters and demonic possession. And the house is now marginally tidier. But not by much.

Thanks for the good luck wishes. Am sitting at home now waiting for a phone call. Not a feeling I like. Started reading The Colour of Bee Larkham's Murder to distract myself. Am just finding it a bit irritating and derivative . Jury is out in more ways than one!

Thanks for that review of The Warmth of Other Suns Dottie - it sounds fascinating. Just bought it with this month's Audible credit :)

I haven't updated for ages!

23. The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle - Stuart Turton - I can't remember who recommended this book on here. Our man wakes up with no memory, he has to relive the same day over and over in the bodies of 7 different people in a house party, the end of the day, Evelyn Hardcastle will be murdered, he must work out who kills her and why.

24. Death Stalks Kettle Street - John Bowen - selfconciously "cosy murder mystery", someone is killing the inhabitants of Kettle street, giving a warning first to a resident with OCD. There's a good idea in here, but not a good read.

25. Bath Tangle - Georgette Heyer - I hadn't read any Heyer before, this is another recommendation from here! A Regency story, a woman's father dies, he leaves her a fortune, but tied up in a trust, that can only be paid out on the occasion of her marrying with the permission of her trustee, who just happens to be a man she previous was engaged to, but chose to break the engagement. Silly, obvious but quite lovely. I was having a particularly bad week when I read that and it really was what I needed!

26. Burial of Ghosts - Ann Cleeves - a stand alone novel. A young woman meets a man when travelling, she doesn't realise that he's dying, but he leaves her some money in his will, along with a request to track down the child he discovered he had via a short lived relationship when a teenager. It's a well written mystery and I didn't see which way it was going. Cleeves is very good at describing enviroment and how it effects people.

And finally, another recommendation from here - thank you southeastern
27. A Very English Scandal - John Preston - I won't bother reviewing as it's on the TV and pretty much everyone has read it by now! I'm glad I read it, and found it very interesting, although at times, it did feel too much like Preston was just typing out his research, rather than trying to make the story flow.

Fingers crossed Piggy. I went through similar last year - not teaching though - and they kept me waiting for two months!

25. A Very English Scandal. I found this a reasonably good read, although my interest flagged a little at the mid way point when it seemed to become a little repetitive. I was 15 when the Thorpe scandal broke and the only thing I picked up at the time was that Jeremy Thorpe had had a relationship with a younger man. I also distinctly remember the salacious detail that Norman Scott had stuffed a pillow in his mouth during sex, which made a big impression on my teenage mind! But I couldn't have told you why he did that, or if he was doing it under duress. If you had asked me prior to reading the book what Thorpe was on trial for I think I would have said for having sex with an underage man and/or rape. This being the case this book was quite a revelation to me, and given I didn't know the outcome of the trial that aspect was also quite gripping. (I wouldn't have predicted the verdict.) The author seemed very biased towards Scott's version of events, always seeming to suggest he had noble intentions, and was not attempting blackmail, but this made more sense when he thanks Scott for being one of his primary sources in the afterword.

Didn't get the job : telling MN before my RL friends

Sorry to hear that, Piggy.

Coffee - What did you think of Evelyn? I reviewed it but didn't recommend it - it annoyed me!

Oh Evelyn Hardcastle! So extraordinary to read. It was like watching someone who had set off across a high wire to perform on the way some complicated interpretative dance act that I couldn’t understand. Although I knew I wasn’t really following the story, I had to read to the end to see him bring it off. Compelling in its own way. And, like a cheeky ‘highbrow’ movie the end did seem satisfying even if I hadn’t really understood it all. Who writes such a thing?

That sounds intriguing re Evelyn! Might give that a go once I’ve got bad 90s dragon fantasy out of my system.

Boo re the job, Piggy! Better luck next time!

Remus - I found it...odd. It felt like there were too many questions unanswered. All very fake, yet with a "and everyone works out for the best in the end". Not sure I'd recommend it to anyone else, but agree with YesILikeItToo - I had to find out what happened, even though I wasn't particularly enjoying reading it !

Re A Very English Scandal - It was before my time, I did know that the former leader of the Liberals had been involved in a case involving sex with a young man, but like DesdemonasHandkerchief - I thought it was a rape/underage sex case, not murder.

oh and can I go off topic a tiny bit and ask for book recommendations with a winter/Christmas/cold theme?!

The book club I'm in are setting up the lists for the rest of the year and we get to vote on our shortlist for each month/category - normally it's a different genre each month, but the December book is reserved for something 'seasonal' - it doesn't need to be about Christmas, but has to 'feel wintery' (last year it was The Snow Child ). The short list so far is only 4 books, and I'm not seeing any I want to vote for, so wanted 1 or 2 new ones to add to the list - anything springs to mind?!

Bad luck Piggy, all good interview experience so you can smash it next time!

Coffee - What about The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula le Guin - old, but pretty topical, and unquestionably cold . . .

41 Patterns in the Dark by Lindsay Buroker
I'm with TooExtra on on the bad dragon fantasy, though mine is contemporary. Sequel to the Dragon Blood trilogy reviewed above - this is Biggles meets Indiana Jones with magic and dragons. Harmless fluff, but not as good as books 2 & 3, so I think I'll give the series a rest for a while.

What about The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper as a Christmas choice? That’s a winter’s tale if ever there was one. A children’s book but a really good one.

That sums up Evelyn Hardcastle for me. I was baffled half the time but impressed by the flair and the craziness. It was genuinely creative and unlike anything I’d read before without being massively experimental.

Or Christmas Days by Jeanette Winterson?

A Christmas Carol?
Snow Falling on Cedars?
Miss Smilla’s Feeling for Snow?

Snowcrash?

oh thank you all! I'll do some research and put forward a couple of extras! Most of the other categories the suggestions look pretty good or I can think of a few I want to add.

The Terror by Dan Simmons or The North Water both sprung to mind, but ghost stories are particularly Christmassy, I think, so perhaps Dark Matter by Michelle Paver?