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?

Chillie I read Clan of the Cave Bear when I was a teenager. I can't remember what I thought but I did finish it and it was a bit of a brick so I must have thought it was OK. My Mum was a big fan of the series, that and Stephen King were my literary inheritance!

Dottie I also just read a Rachel Cusk with a similar reaction to yours:
25. The Bradshaw Variations by Rachel Cusk It is the first one of hers I read, I found it in my library when looking for Outline (it was recommended on a podcast I follow - hopefully when it is back it is not tainted with yellow!). I found the writing achingly beautiful the whole way through, but almost too beautiful, like it was standing up and waving for attention instead of getting on with it! I was so distracted by the beautiful passages and observations I had to put it down lots. However at the end it felt ... unfinished. Characters slightly under-formed. Definitely unsatisfying.

I also got in 26. The Public Image by Muriel Spark. I would call this slim volume a novella, about a English movie star in Rome who becomes consumed with protecting her public image in the face of an increasingly loveless marriage. It is an interesting observation on celebrity culture, and so keenly observed it is still relevant now even though it was written in 1969. Halfway through, when she mentions befriending the children of famous people, I had to check the publish date as it really seemed so up to date. A light but interesting story which would make a good holiday read if you are on the lookout for one.

I've really been enjoying reading along, though I do think I'll skip the Mermaid book.

21. Moxie, by Jennifer Mathieu: fed up with the sexist culture of her Texas high school, Vivian Carter, inspired by her mother's past as a 90s Riot Grrl, starts an anonymous zine that spreads like wildfire and helps the girls fight the everyday sexism they experience through acts of civil disobedience at school. A great YA book that encourages action and the recognition that good people can be imperfect but also can grow. Loved it.

22. Bookworm: A Memoir of Childhood Reading, by Lucy Mangan: such a wonderful book that I discovered here; thank you! One thing that I really enjoyed was seeking where and how Mangan's childhood reading converged and diverged from mine. I'm so glad she came around about Anne and agree that the novel is really about Marilla's evolution.

23. Everything I Never Told You, by Celeste Ng: Lydia, the middle Lee child, is dead. But why? This book traces the Lee family, both as a unit and as individuals, to see how this happened. This is a book about silence, disconnection, misreading, and desire. Excellent.

24. Radiant Shimmering Light, by Sarah Selecky: Lilian Quick is a talented but broke Toronto artist whose life changes when she reconnects with her cousin Eleven Novack, a wellness and empowerment guru for the Instagram age. Lilian moves to NYC to work for Eleven and participate in Eleven's signature Ascendancy program, experiencing the good and bad of the wellness world. I found the book interesting but uneven, especially as some of the narrative choices didn't ring true.

25. A Room Swept White, by Sophie Hannah: this book has it all: unnecessary POV switches, flimsy characters, a ridiculous plot, pro Andrew Wakefield propaganda, and an utterly unbelievable ending. I sat in wonder as I read, horror in my breast for the poor editor who surely recieved an even bigger mess of a first draft.

Half way there!

Corvus, I'd save your 99p.I've read both The Three and Day Four and thought they both suffered from having a great plot idea, but not brilliantly executed. Not awful, but not worth buying if you can get them from the library.

Panda glad you had similar impressions: had been wondering if I missed some deeper point as so many critics have been falling over themselves to praise Cusk's trilogy. However, it just left a bad after taste where I was concerned so excited to read Sally Rooney's article posted on Slate where she actually expresses exactly how I felt, if you haven't seen it, think it's worth a read here's the link

slate.com/culture/2018/05/rachel-cusks-kudos-reviewed-by-sally-rooney.html

Almost makes the cat fight that woke the dog who woke me bearable!

Squeeee, my copy of Peter’s Room has arrived! Girls Gone By have republished it.

That’s Antonia Forest, sorry, I was too excited to post properly.

London Under by Peter Ackroyd. Birthday present from my lovely MIL. A much slimmer volume than the brilliantly epic London: A Biography but no less enjoyable. It's a rattle along London's Roman ruins, sewers, hidden rivers, bomb shelters, secret government rooms and of course the tube. Informative and enjoyable.

of interest to no-one but for my own reference that was number 23.

I love Antonia Forest- hope you love Peter’s Room Cheddar!

Piggy, you certainly don’t come across aggressive on here; and it is surprisingly easy to sound a bit blunt when typing, so I would be very surprised if you were less warm in real life!

44. Casting Off by Elizabeth Jane Howard. The fourth in this enjoyable series; again not as original as the first, but this is a saga where you definitlsu get fond of various characters and what to “catch up” with them all. Am slightly doubtful about reading the fifth and last, as I gather it was written rather later, but I expect I shall. Then must get back to Fatherland before I forget who is who!

25. Bookworrm - a Memoir of Childhood Reading - Lucy Mangan. I liked this memoir but her and mine childhood reading tastes were very different - most of the books she mentions here I'd never heard of. This isn't a fault of Lucy's, but it did make me feel quite distanced from her writing and affected my enjoyment.

26. In Therapy - the Unfolding Story - Susie Orbach. Loved this book of vignettes from a psychoanalyst's sessions. This is similar to The Examined Life but the writing here is more rigorous, empathic and complex and the sessions transcribed are dramatised. The writer only had an outline of what the 'patients' were going to talk about, and the actors improvised when they were being recorded in which they were asked questions by Orbach (a psychotherapist for many years) after being briefed by a director. This was a fascinating and very illuminating glimpse into the world of therapy by someone at the top of their game and I highly recommend.

73. The Silent Companions - Laura Purcell A day of reading and nursing a summer cold! I have had this one for a while and was saving it as I enjoy a good gothic ghost / horror story. This one looked promising as the reviews in the blurb compared it it The Woman in Black, Turn of the Screw and Rebecca. Unfortunately it didn't live up to it's promise. Think Sarah Walters The Little Stranger but with much less suspense and skill. It was readable but never really got going.

I thought The Silent Companions began well, got worse and ended up ridiculous.

61: Travels in the Third Reich – Julia Boyd – An interesting but depressing account of tourism in Nazi Germany. This took me a long time to read, and because there were comments from so many different perspectives, I had to keep clicking back to see who was who, which was a bit of a pain. I found it fascinating that so many people (from countries such as Britain, Norway, America, even China) still travelled in Germany after the 36 Berlin Olympics, and some even during the war. Not a happy read, but I found out some things I didn’t know (always a bonus, after having read so widely about this period!).

81. Surprise Me by Sophie Kinsella

Typical fluffy chicklit about a couple who decide they need to enhance their marriage by surprising each other. Fun easy read for the first day of the holidays!

Currently reading The Lido but have Mermaid to read after that so am interested to see what I think after reading views upthread. I liked Serpent but wasn’t blown away by it. I also have The Silent Companions to read, not sure about it now after those last few comments. Oh well!

I picked up Mermaid and Miss Burma from the library yesterday. After all the talk about Mermaid, I’m intrigued to see what it’s like.

43. Alex Grecian - Lost and Gone Forever

Nevil Hammersmith, former police sergeant and now private detective, has spent a year searching for his colleague Walter Day, who disappeared without trace while investigating Jack the Ripper. No one has heard from the Ripper in a long time either, but he has plans for revenge in motion, plans that involve the man he has been keeping prisoner - a man who has no memory and doesn't even know who he is anymore.

I quite enjoy this series. They are a bit silly in places, quite gruesome at times, and rattling good yarns.

After what feels like approximately 10,000 years, I've finally finished

39: Serious Sweet - A. L. Kennedy

I suppose I was doing quite well, not having stumbled across a single book until this point that felt like really, really hard going - then I picked this one up and for some reason just got grimly determined to finish it, come what may. A resolution complicated by the fact that I read it mainly in the half-hour or so after getting into bed at night, and it seemed to have magical powers to make my eyelids droop in seconds

Jon and Meg, two damaged individuals - he a senior civil servant, 'a good man in a bad world', who in despair has been secretly leaking information; she a bankrupt and ex-alcoholic accountant - try and fail and then finally succeed in meeting during the course of one long day in London.

I like and admire AL Kennedy and a lot of the writing in this book is very funny. But it's largely in internal dialogue, massively repetitive, takes forever to get to the point, and - given that the above summary is basically the entire plot - is JUST SO LONG - 515 pages.

I feel I've accomplished something but did I want to, really? Onwards...

Remus I think that is a good assessment of The Silent Companions. Which was 74 on my list not 73.
75. Women and Power - Mary Beard much reviewed . Excellent but short. An extended essay rather than a book.

42 Confessions of a Failed Southern Lady by Florence King

Account of the author's childhood and early adulthood growing up in Washington DC, and her grandmother's fruitless efforts to turn her into a proper Southern lady.

It comes with cover quotes from Jeanette Winterson & an introduction from Sandi Toksvig promising an absolutely hilarious laugh-out-loud funny book, but I have to say it didn't really do it for me.

I did find it interesting (particularly the explanation of exactly what you were socially allowed to do with a boy sexually on each date starting with the first), but not that funny.

I've been listening to Armistead Maupin's autobiography, and I think it suffered in comparison - Maupin obviously genuinely likes and is interested in people, and his writing has a warmth because of it that I found this lacked.

Thank yo for the review of the Susie Orbach book SouthEast - another one for my list!

Number 38 The Colour of Bee Larkham's Murder by Sarah J Harris

After a dubious start where I just thought this was a Curious Dog rip off, I did like this. It's not literary but is well written and it has an interesting concept and a likeable unreliable narrator. There are a lot of books with characters with autism at the moment (is there a name for this genre?) but this one is an original enough whodunnit to keep you guessing. I did see the main twist (as ever...) but quite liked the nastier earlier twist. There is a sort of Go between thing going on too. I did worry that it mined a lot of well worn seams : women as victims, women as manipulative predators, abuse etc and the religious bit towards the end added nothing.

But it's a proper page turner. I am not in a Book Group but it strikes me as an interesting one to discuss and a pretty quick read.

I suspect this one will be made into a film/ TV programme at some point.

32. La Belle Sauvage by Philip Pullman. Audible.

Excellent narration by Michael Sheen. But the story itself was thin and didn’t catch my attention the way I wanted it to. The main characters are two children Alice and Malcolm who miraculously escape each problem/difficulty they encounter, with no real surprises. Where was the pathos? I like a bit of pathos in my fantasy and without it this felt more like YA than adult fiction. Saying that, I’ll probably still read the next one at some point to find out where the story goes, so it can’t have been that bad!

82. The Lido by Libby Page

Apparently there was a bidding war for this debut. I’m not really sure why. It’s a perfectly nice book and I enjoyed reading it, but not that special. It’s about two lonely women, one in her twenties and one in her eighties, who become friends while trying to save their local lido. It’s predictable, but I liked the descriptions of the lives of those who use the lido and the sense of community.

Aww, Sadik, I love Confessions of a Failed Southern Lady! I did laugh out loud, particularly at the bits about her cousin’s womb falling out, and the idea of carrying it around in a jar.

32. Dan yr Ogof by Martyn Farr Short book on the caving exploration of the Dan yr Ogof cave sequence in the Brecon Beacons from 1912 to the present day. Enjoyed this, only of interest to those interested in caving.

First book I've read in weeks. Hopefully means I'll get back in the habit now.

I do wonder if I would have liked it more if I'd not been listening to Armistead Maupin at the same time TooExtra