50 Book Challenge 2018 Part Six

[southeastdweller]

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

How're you getting on so far?

Started listening The The Butterfly Effect (see, I haven’t emboldened it yet as I don’t know if it’s allowed) and was immediately reminded of this classic mn thread on Jon Ronson's voice where his wife came in and was cross and asked if we were all “living in institutions”

Scribble - Yes, we count Audiobooks, as well.

What are DNFs?

Did not finish

Have just finished the much feted This Thing of Darkness. I honestly have no idea why this book is not better known. What a wonderful book. I had already read Penguins Stopped Play so I know Thompson was a great writer but his characterisation in Thing is so fabulous. I did cry. But actually reading the author's postscript. I cheered up at Henrietta though! I am so sad that Harry Thompson did not live to write another book.

I was more interested in the fascinating bits about colonialism than the evolution/ science stuff and did skim a lot of the arguments between Darwin and Fitzroy (I'm allowed; it's a long book!) I learnt loads reading this.

The thing that tickled my fancy most, other than the endless Fannies (when DID that go out of fashion?!), was the mention of two relatively obscure places local to me (one of which being the town I work in) in the space of less than 100 pages. I have never seen either of them mentioned in a book before!

Yay - half way to fifty!

24. How to get filthy rich in rising Asia by Mohsin Hamid Great book - quite disturbing. I found getting drawn into the fates of the quite unlikeable characters - it's gripping and very moving.

25. Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng - Wow. Possibly the best read yet. It's a tremendous story of class, of family, of attitudes and of love. She has such a subtle way of manipulating your emotions as the story unfolds. Just noticed she's doing a web chat next week so hoping to be able to join that.

41. Small Great Things - Jodi Picoult. A thought-provoking read about a black nurse, Ruth, who is barred from treating the newborn baby of a white supremacist couple. Tragedy ensues as does a court case. Ruth's life is turned upside down and it raises questions of what it is like to be black in today's world (e.g. when Ruth goes shopping the store manager follows her, the security guard checks her bag and receipts when she leaves the store etc). We also have the the white supremacist perspective which is eye-opening. I have been dipping in and out of Why I am no longer talking to white people about race and feel compelled to finish it now.

ShakeItOff I really enjoyed Bluets too, Maggie Nelson is one of my favourite writers, have you tried The Red Parts it’s about the aftermath of the murder of her aunt? I thought it was very good. If you like Maggie Nelson have you come across either of the first two books on my list? Pond which is a meditative, poetic novel – think the writer is a friend of Nelson’s certainly they move in the same literary circles – or the Walsh Hotel which is a short non-fiction book with reflections/observations on life in hotel rooms intermingled with incidents from her life, cultural musings that kind of thing. Sorry a bit of a rant coming on . It annoys me that they all get lumped together with Chris Kraus under the auto-fiction label when they’re a different generation and, I think, better writers - although Kraus’s second novel Torpor was great, find most of her other stuff’s very patchy. Also annoys me that they get grouped with Cusk too. I think that Cusk has a slightly disdainful, condescending approach to her readers, she reminds me of Will Self in that way, she seems to want to exclude whereas Nelson, Walsh et al are so much more open and direct and clearly want to share/spread their ideas/reflections.

EmGee – Your Picoult review made me think of Claudia Rankine the incidents in Picoult’s character’s life exactly the ‘micro-aggressions’ she’s talking about. I think Picoult’s a really interesting writer, her books are packaged and marketed like typical ‘airport’ books but they’re always a lot more than they seem.

So glad you loved This Thing, Piggy.

53. Robert Harris - Conclave

I have mixed impressions of Harris. Fatherland was brilliant, but I thought Archangel was a little disappointing, although Pompeii was better. Conclave is marvellous. The Pope is dead, and 118 cardinals are meeting in the Sistine Chapel to elect his successor. The entire story is centred on the procedure involved, the repeated votes, and the personalities of the various candidates plus the different views as to the direction the Church should take under the new pontiff. It's surprisingly gripping, and while there's a certain inevitability about the end result, Harris still manages to leave a sting in the tail.

28. Left Bank by Kate Muir
Not nearly funny enough "comedy" about a rich, Paris-based, Franco-American couple and their respective cinq à sept liaisons. Straight to the charity shop with this one.

I did Remus. It wasn't a quick read but it was all the more satisfying for it. I thought Thompson's style was great, particular his use of irony and his little parting shots. Although Darwin was a smug and conceited pat, I was awfully fond of him in many ways. Thompson must have immersed himself in years of research to write it!

Piggy you can keep Darwin, it's all about FitzRoy for the majority on this thread

32. Lion: A Long Way Home by Saroo Brierley Amazing true story of a five year old Indian boy who got separated from his family by accidentally boarding a train to Calcutta. Not being able to find his way back or describe where he came from, he lived on the streets, eventually being adopted to Australia. Twenty five years later he identified his home town on Google Earth...and went back. As an adoptive parent (and well frankly as a human being with feelings) i sobbed my way through this. If I had a criticism of this, it's that it's had the life ghostwritten out of it. For such an extraordinary story to be told in such workaday journalistic prose that doesn't let Saroo's own voice come through seems like a missed opportunity.

Can we have an adjudicator - Southeast maybe? - on audible downloads that do not have a book counterpart? I have not been counting them and just assumed they wouldn't count. I 've recently (re)listened to Yes, Minister and dip into Crackanory short stories, both of which are on audible but don't have book counterparts.

#TeamFitzroy #sob

People have been counting audiobooks for years so to me it doesn’t matter there’s no book counterpart

Don't get me wrong , I preferred Fitzroy but my favourite part of the book was Darwin drunk.

I' m Team Fuegia Basket. Poor Jemmy

Look out for a non-fiction book, Savage: The Life and Times of Jemmy Button - highly recommended.

oooo... will look into it!

Southeast Now I'm confused I see that audiobooks have to be okay, I have a relative who's partially sighted and she couldn't take part if not, as can only listen to audiobooks - although if abridged that raises issues as not sure that the abridged version of Jane Eyre should count as equivalent to someone reading the whole book. But based on MuseumofHam's examples such as Yes Minister you seem to be saying that I can count the 40 odd episodes of Hancock's Half-Hour, countless episodes of Ed Reardon's Week, The Archer's etc? My OH records these for me and like Museum as I listened to them as audiofiles? I haven't counted either, for example, the versions of Dorothy L.Sayers I've listened to as they're performances with none of the surrounding descriptive matter, as assumed not equivalent to a book? If now count all of these things that puts me up in the 100s easily.

Southeast I know I'm being an uppity newcomer but if all of these things count from my point of view starts to make the whole challenge quite different and blurs distinction between book and radio.

Dottie I think that looking at Audible or a similar download service like Overdrive that only sell or hire audiobooks is a good way to gage what can be counted (my apologies if this comes across as patronising). So as audiobooks can count (and have counted on here for years), looking at your examples, a download of Hancock's Half Hour counts as one on here, if you see what I mean. Counting radio recordings or audio files is up to you, but I don't do it and pretty sure nobody else does as they're not books in any format. It's been in the OP since 2014 that any type of book can count.

What does everyone else think?

Southeast I checked on Audible and all the things I've downloaded are available on there, but I noticed that the Dorothy L. Sayers that I mentioned come in two formats: one listed as unabridged books narrated by Ian Carmichael, the other listed as dramatizations. I would want to count any unabridged-narrated-by Sayers, but wouldn't want to count the dramatizations as they are a different 'artform'. So similarly don't think, personally, would want to count Hancock, for example, as listed as radio dramatizations. If I did then would have to start counting other dramatizations such as film versions of books and my list would become endless. I think Scribbly's example as it is on her Goodreads list is an 'honorary' book. I will shut up now.

Southeast we cross-posted and no you didn't come across as patronising, I never assume that anyone is on this thread - unlike other areas of Mumsnet many of which seem to be online 'hyena pits'! I also hope you don't think I was being pompous/ratty, I don't do social/online media other than this, and my email experience is mostly formal/work-based so find striking the right tone for informal posting difficult to gauge sometimes.

Apologies if my question has caused any upset. I think this issue may come up again though as Audible do seem to be producing a fair amount of original content which has no physical book counterpart. I wonder if checking to see if it has an ISBN number would help clarify?
Having listened to most of the Butterfly Effect yesterday while painting the bathroom (dds vocal in their contempt for me listening to a programme about internet porn) it’s clear to me that this isn’t a book, it’s a collected series of podcasts. The chapters are called episodes and even though Ronson in the description calls it a story it isn’t, it’s him interviewing people working in the industry. Even though I could count it as part of my Goodreads challenge I won’t, and therefore won’t count it here either.

However scrolling through the Audible Originals content today I came across The Chopin Manuscript. It sounds bizarre (15 authors!) but it does have an ISBN number, and Audible calls it an ‘unabridged audiobook’ . I think if I were to listen to it I would count it as a book.

56. Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk by Kathleen Rooney.

Thanks exexpat for reminding me about this book. Loosely based on the 1930s real life poet and copywriter Margaret Fishback, this follows an elderly Lillian as she takes a walk in the final hours of 1984 New York. Her encounters with people along the way and the New York locations she passes prompting her to reminisce about her extraordinary life working for Macy’s in their advertising department.
I did enjoy this, it’s well written and I enjoyed the contrast between 1930s and 40s NY with the badlands of the city in the 1980s. The writing is engaging and doesn’t stray into sentimental old lady bollocks.
It’s a shame I read it immediately after Moon Tiger though, also about a women looking back in her life. Lively's writing sparkles where Rooney's is pleasantly sufficient.