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?

37.) Tudor Monastery Farm -- In two minds whether I should include this in my list, since it has [whisper] pictures and that feels a bit like cheating, but there were lots of words too, promise. Tie-in with the BBC series featuring Ruth Goodman et all, this is a social history about farm life during Tudor times. Lots of practical details and historical minutia about everything from cheesemaking to making rushes to the monastic life. Really enjoyed it.

38.) Under A Pole Star, by Stef Penney Historical novel about the late 19th century expeditions to the Arctic. Holy crap, there was a lot of sex in this. I enjoyed it a lot, but by the end even I was starting to think, 'Oh FFS, they're at it again?' Loved some of the description of the Arctic the bit where Flora and Jakob enter a glacier was a stand-out point for me -- but although there's a sense of place, I didn't get the same feel of time. It's mostly set in the 1890s, but for some reason I kept thinking it was set much later. Not enough historical detail to fix it in a particular time period, perhaps?

I'm also not sure the 1940s bookends really added anything, and some of the obstacles thrown in the couple's way felt a bit contrived. But mainly, there's just an awful lot of sex.

~~

Currently reading (and enjoying very much) The Cheapside Corpse by Susanna Gregory. I'm all agog to find out if the Earl of Clarendon ever gets his curtains.

Mainly there's just an awful lot of sex - sounds like every book by Pat Barker. Yawn...

Not sure if anybody else will be interested, but a book I've been watching on Kindle for FOREVER in the hope that it would come down in price, has finally done so! Eat Me: A Natural and Unnatural History of Cannibalism (reviewed by the Grauniad here ) is now just £2.85.

That may be one just for you Remus. Yuk

I gave my book group a second chance after they made me read PS I Love You, but I could not forgive the publishing crime that is A Street Cat Named Bob. I do miss the people in the group but not the awful books they chose!

39. Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race, Reni Eddo-Lodge

I'm a bit torn about this one. I read the original blog post that spawned the book and thought it was brilliant - so passionate and yet so clearly argued. The book contains just as much passion but, for me, the clarity had gone. Her arguments are important, but not always coherently stated (I'm not sure, for example, how or why the chapter on black feminism wandered into talking about the media's coverage of "Asian sex gangs"). I would personally have appreciated more statistics to back up her assertions, and fewer cases of anecdotes or single examples being used to prove a wider point.

A very important book, nonetheless, and certainly one that I would recommend to anyone who wants a fresh and intelligent opinion on race and identity in modern Britain. Eddo-Lodge goes onto my list of people I would invite to an imaginary dinner party :)

I got a recommendation on Goodreads today and wondered whether the fans here of mountaineering books might like this one?

Icefields, Thomas Warton
On an expedition in the Canadian Rockies at the end of the nineteenth century, Dr Edward Byrne slips and falls almost 60 feet into a crevasse on the Arcturus Glacier. While trapped, hanging upside down and wary that the slightest movement could send him plunging deeper into the abyss, Byrne notices a mysterious winged figure embedded in the ice wall. The vision shakes his sanity, and after his recovery continues to haunt him until he abandons his fiancee and his medical practice in England and returns to a lonely vigil in a shack near the spot on the ice where he almost lost his life. His spirit trapped, he seeks the truth by questioning closely the strange characters that cross his path and meticulously recording the advance and decline of the myths and legends of an early settlement and is transformed by the coming of the railroad into a thriving tourist centre - with an impact as far away as the battlefields for the First World War.

Don’t know what’s occurring at my local bookshop, but I’ve now brought home two books that don’t appear to have been published yet. I’ve read

11. The End We Start From, Megan Hunter

already. Very short, very unusual. And now I’m going to read the much longer Connect by Julian Gough which looks like it has much in common with some of my most successful recent reads. Virtual reality, government control of cutting my edge research, and a maze on the cover.

Not sure if anybody else will be interested, but a book I've been watching on Kindle for FOREVER in the hope that it would come down in price, has finally done so! Eat Me: A Natural and Unnatural History of Cannibalism (reviewed by the Grauniad here ) is now just £2.85.

I'm a grisly bugger and that does sound fascinating. Hardback's only 3 quid too...

But I can't help noticing that no matter how fast I read, I'm always outpaced by the rate at which I acquire new books.

Sounds like you've found a pocket of L-space to me, YesILikeItToo.

I want to read a really (really) good, straight history book.

I had in mind that someone on here had recommended a book about the Raj, but then again it might have been on Twitter, or I might have imagined it

Anyway, recommendations (for that or any era) welcome.

I'm glad my Cloud Atlas thread helped you enjoy the book, EmGee

Not the Raj meg but Rise Up Women! by Diane Atkinson is very interesting. Very long but fascinating .

There was a thread on books about the Raj recently with quite a few recs, mostly fiction but there were one or two history books as well . The last one in particular Women of the Raj looks interesting.

Id copy the link but my phone is knackered and refuses to cooperate with c&p, sorry. It's on the first page on the What We're Reading section though.

Just popping in to give a heads up - one of my favourite non-fiction reads from last year, Gone: A Girl, A Violin, A Life Unstrung by Min Kym is 99p just now in the Kindle Monthly Deals.

I really enjoyed it because I was working in a Conservatoire at that point and reading about the life of a child prodigy from the performer's point of view was quite eye opening. It's not a heavy read, but well paced, interesting, and I listened to some new pieces I really enjoyed.

EmGee I have now convinced my DH to listen to it as well as I desperately need someone to talk to about it!

I need to update properly, but for now just popping my head round the door to say hello. I'm at peak library book, with the maximum 20 volumes currently out and another 10 reserved. That includes 1 travel, 1 gardening and 2 cookbooks, so those are for consulting rather than reading, but I need to get stuck in and/or start winnowing the ones I'm not going to read.

Meg if youve not read it already read Albions fatal tree. Lots of rural crime in 18c. Very political and tells you a lot about the era. If you dont like the politics read Albions fatal flaws a critique of this. After.

I feel slightly out of step with you lot at the moment- I am struggling with The Blackest Streets, which was highly recommended; am enjoying The Break, unlike Corvus; and 37) Off With His Head by Ngaio Marsh was started with low expectations due to Remus’ review, but I rather enjoyed it! (still I like a bit of hokey folklore, too much Chalet School as a child I expect!).

Biblio, I sympathise, I think I have more out than I will ever be able to finish! And so I never even get to my paperback pile!

My library habit has been made so much worse by the discovery of library ebooks via Overdrive. I don't even have to find time to visit the actual library (although I do love visiting, it is instantly calming and good for the soul).

Hi everyone - won’t update whole list just now, but here are my latest reads...
15) What Alice Forgot - Lianne Moriarty 39yr mother of 3 loses 10yrs of her memory after an accident - thought this sounded an interesting concept whilst flicking through kindle deals, but turned out to be a fairly (overlong) fluffy read. Shame...
16) The Night Watch - Sarah Waters was really looking forward to this, generally really enjoy her writing style & it is set during the Blitz ...but ...the story starts at the end of the war & you travel back in time to revel the big secrets that the leads are carrying at the start. Hmm. Didn’t work for me as I just couldn’t bring myself to care about the characters to engage in each ‘mystery’
17) A History of Britain in 21 women - Jenni Murray I did however thoroughly enjoy this - 21 short biographies on a great selection of inspirational women (even if some of them weren’t particularly nice...)Recommended.
18) The Night Circus - Erin Morgenstern have just started this & hoping that it will be wonderful. Have had a few duds & need something to love....fingers crossed

Thanks, Keith - have just got the sample.

Corvus - Glad I'm not the only grisly bugger on here!

Keeping on Keeping On by Alan Bennett is in the Kindle sale. It's not quite in the league as Untold Stories and Writing Home but it's still a really good read on the whole.

25 - the night manager I really hated it... I don’t like spy lit so I don’t know why I bothered

My housemate has lent me the book thief so that’s up next!

karmatsunami85, thanks for the recommendation- it looks really interesting and I have downloaded it on my Kindle, ready for when I’ve finished my current book(s).

I’n pondering Anna Karenina. I read War and Peace a while back and loved it, but for some reason AK has never appealed. Does anyone have a translation they’d recommend? I understand the question prompts strongly held views after seeing two friends nearly come to blows once but I can’t remember what they were each suggesting and don’t want to open old wounds by asking!

72. Posing for Picasso by Sam Stone

This is a supernatural thriller. Not something I would usually go for but DH bought it for me. I quite enjoyed it and didn’t work out who (or what!) dunnit!