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?

Biblio local library actually has the Guy Stagg so have put in an order too! Sounds like a cross between the Lewis-Straus and Tobias Jones's Utopian Dreams which is another book I really liked, so looking forward to the Stagg. Thanks!

19. The Interestings, Meg Wolitzer My first Meg Wolitzer and I enjoyed it so much that it won't be the last. Six people meet and become friends at a summer camp for talented teenagers in New York. The story follows them through their lives up until they are in their fifties. Great writing, finely drawn characters and an interesting plot - loved it. It is fairly long but I was enjoying it so much I didn't mind at all.

20. Who Thought This was a Good Idea, by Alyssa Mastromonaco Oh dear. This was really awful. Alyssa Mastromonaco was Deputy Chief of Staff to Obama, and the youngest ever woman to hold a position of that seniority. She's clearly had a fascinating life and career, but this book doesn't tell you very much at all about that. Instead of being written chronologically it's 'themed' around career advice, with stories that theoretically illustrate each point, although it's often hard to see how they're related. She also has a strong aversion to including 'other people's stories' so doesn't actually include much about the White House and the President. When we get to page 206 she finally explains this, saying the idea for the book was an advice book/memoir aimed at women aged 15 to 25. WELL. I wish that was printed in the intro or the inside cover; I could have saved myself some time and just not bothered. Mind you I also wouldn't recommend it to that target audience. This feels like a real wasted opportunity, although it is mercifully short.

26. How To Be Famous - Caitlin Moran
You can’t have your best friend be famous if you’re not famous. It doesn’t work. You’re emotional pen-friends. You can send each other letters—but you’re not doing anything together. You live in different countries.

Johanna Morrigan (AKA Dolly Wilde) has it all: at eighteen, she lives in her own flat in London and writes for the coolest music magazine in Britain. But Johanna is miserable. Her best friend and man of her dreams John Kite has just made it big in 1994’s hot new BritPop scene. Suddenly John exists on another plane of reality: that of the Famouses.

Never one to sit on the sidelines, Johanna hatches a plan: she will Saint Paul his Corinthians, she will Jimmy his Pinocchio—she will write a monthly column, by way of a manual to the famous, analyzing fame, its power, its dangers, and its amusing aspects. In stories, girls never win the girl—they are won. Well, Johanna will re-write the stories, and win John, through her writing.

But as Johanna’s own star rises, an unpleasant one-night stand she had with a stand-up comedian, Jerry Sharp, comes back to haunt in her in a series of unfortunate consequences. How can a girl deal with public sexual shaming?

I thoroughly enjoyed this. I think Dolly's letter to John Kite is a good piece of standalone writing in its own right. I also love Dolly's response to her slut-shaming and positive messages around sex. Having listened to CM read from the book and discuss some of the issues raised, I think all young adults should read this book - it's a gentle introduction in to feminism but also the importance of mutual respect in relationships. I know it won't be for everyone and that someone much better to reviewing will come along soon and tell you about it in more detail than me (and with a much greater understanding of the issues raised) but I enjoyed it and am glad I've picked up her writing again.

1. Mythos - Stephen Fry
2. Origin - Dan Brown
3. The Mitford Murders - Jessica Fellowes

4.Paris - Edward Rutherford

1. The Four Quartets- TS Eliot *
2. The Magus of Hay - Phil Rickman
3. Innocent Traitor - Alison Weir
4. The Robber Bride - Margaret Atwood (audio) *
5. Land Rover:The story of the car that conquered the world- Ben Fogle

10. The Good Terrorist - Doris Lessing (audio) 11. Station Eleven - Emily St John Manuel 12. American Gods - Neil Gaiman 13. Monarch of the Glen - Neil G 1.Mythos - Stephen Fry

1. Origin - Dan Brown
2. The Mitford Murders - Jessica Fellowes

4.Paris - Edward Rutherford

1. The Four Quartets- TS Eliot
2. The Magus of Hay - Phil Rickman
3. Innocent Traitor - Alison Weir
4. The Robber Bride - Margaret Atwood (audio)
5. Land Rover:The story of the car that conquered the world- Ben Fogle

10. The Good Terrorist - Doris Lessing (audio) 11. Station Eleven - Emily St John Manuel 12. American Gods - Neil Gaiman * 13. Monarch of the Glen - Neil Gaiman * 14. Reservoir 13 - Jon MacGregor (audio) 15: The Management Style of the Supreme Beings - Tom Holt 16: Stone Mattress - Margaret Atwood * 17. Burial Rites - Hannah Kent * 18: Animal - Sara Pascoe 19. Friends of the Dusk - Phil Rickman 20. Fools and Mortals - Bernard Cornwell 21. A Very English Scandal - John Preston 22. Even Dogs in the Wild - Ian Rankin 23.The Girl Who Got Revenge - Marnie Ritches 24.Keeping Faith - Jodi Picoult 25: How to build a girl - Caitlin Moran 26:How to be famous - Caitlin Moran

Sorry - have managed strikeouts by mistake

dottierichardson - your review of The Swish of the Curtain really brought back memories. It was a favourite childhood book of mine, though looking at publication dates I suspect it was my mother's original copy, as she was born in the 1930s and would have been the right age to read it when it first came out. I must have a rummage on the shelves at my parents' house and see if it is still there.

41 In the Light of What We Know - Zia Haider Rahman
This was a dense, absorbing book, possibly a bit heavy for bedtime reading so it has taken me a while to get through.

It is hard book to sum up - it ranges from Oxford to Afghanistan via Wall Street and Kensington and Dhaka; the plot involves the 2008 financial crisis, the aftermath of 9-11 and the 'liberation' of Kabul, and the war for independence in Bangladesh, as well as the English class system and a hefty dose of maths, physics and philosophy. Fundamentally it is about two men, and how their lives and relationships and most crucially actions are affected and influenced by all those things. Not an easy read, lots to digest and keep track of, but thought-provoking and well worth the effort, in my opinion.

Terpsichore - Yes, Shostakovich was a big Bach fan. After hearing the "Well-Tempered Clavier" collection of pieces where Bach has created polyphonic contrapuntal variations on each key of the chromatic scale (24 of them, in order), Shostakovich took the idea and ran with it, writing his "24 Preludes and Fugues for Piano" modeled on Bach's WTC.

I recently went to a concert where a harpsichordist playing Bach's WTC was alternating with Shostakovich's 24P&F. (See pic for the explanations in the booklet given out at that concert)

30. Notes from a Small Island - Bill Bryson. Needs no introduction by now, I wasn't keen on this. The humour felt forced and the observations were predictable and mostly uninteresting - this isn't a book I want to keep.

Thanks for the reminder southeast, I have that in my pile and was going to take it on holiday next week but maybe I’ll pack something else instead.

@southeastdweller - I love "Notes" - my home town and it's Crimean cannon are mentioned! I suspect you won't be rushing out to read "The Road to Little Dribbling" (which I loved too)

I also love “Notes” and almost anything else by Bill Bryson. He’s my go to comfort read when I’m poorly. In fact read a few chapters this week when my kindle went AWOL.

The first one I read was "A walk in the woods" when I was poorly in bed - comfort food in word form 😂

The Road to Little Dribbling is rubbish, but other than that, am definitely in Team Bryson.

I love those preludes & fugues, Cote. Especially the Tatiana Nikolayeva recording.

Ooh Remus was just thinking of you - saw a rec on Twitter for Finisterre - it was suggested for Philip Kerr fans.

Oh I hated The Road to Little Dribbling as well - but it felt like a cash in, where Notes felt like a book he wanted to write. If you want to read it, don't do it in one go, as it's a bit repeative. We had it as a 'book club' read and one of the others in the group said that if it had been a regular column in a Sunday newspaper or magazine, she'd probably enjoy reading each 'article' each week, but reading it all in one go got boring!

So don't take it on holiday to read all in one go, but perhaps keep on the Kindle and read a chapter at a time when you need a break between books, or aren't feeling 100% and don't want anything that you'll have to concentrate to read!

Ooh - thanks, Best. Will investigate immediately.

I am also a big Bryson fan. The Road to Little Dribbling is a poor imitation of the rest of his work, I think. I loved the science one he did, and the one where he went through all the things you have in your house. To my shame, I can't remember the title of either of them!

*21. From Here to Eternity - Caitlin Doughty
*
The follow-up to Smoke Gets in your Eyes (which I haven't read). The author goes to several different places around the world to observe their death rituals and the way the living interact with the dead.
I found this quite interesting. Certainly, up until now, I was unaware of these very different and seemingly macabre ways other cultures deal with death, handle their dead and in turn process their grief.
I can see how western society, and the US even more than the U.K., have made the immediate aftermath of a death very sterile and very distanced from the mourners. The author thinks this is an unhealthy way to interact with death, and having read this book I am inclined to agree with her.
Saying that, I'm not quite ready to share my bed with the corpse of my dead grandfather for seven years as one of the contributors to this book did!
I would definitely recommend, although probably not if you have been recently bereaved.

32. The Woman in Cabin 10 - Ruth Ware - got this because the popsugar book challenge (really wish it wasn’t called that!) has a prompt for a book set at sea. I tried and just couldn’t finish two other books that fit the prompt, so relented and went for this. It’s dross, was marginally entertaining during a long airport delay and the spaced out tiredness of a stressful week of worry and not much sleep plus long bus journey plus airport plus overnight flight, but coming back to it today after a semi-decent sleep it just made me angry and I mostly kind of skimmed the last 40% or so. Even if I could suspend disbelief at the mechanics far-fetched villanous plot at its centre, I couldn’t get past the fact that it was utterly pointless and there was basically no reason for the villain to have done what they did anyway.

Alias I know I’ve read that book as I can picture the book in my minds eye and that I read it but I can’t remember anything about it. Oh, is it the one with the wife and husband who goes missing on a cruise? If so I found it frustrating too!

Best -read the sample but it's not for me, I don't think.

38. The Idea of Him - Holly Peterson

Allie was looking to recreate the memory of her childhood happy times when she married her husband, Wade. But when she finds her charming husband locked in a laundry room with a gorgeous blonde Allie begins to wonder if she loves Wade or just the idea of him.

This wasn’t fabulous but also didn’t go quite the way I expected it too. Wasn’t a fan of any of the characters but it was a bit of light reading in this glorious weather.

Ah well, worth a shot - wasn’t for me either :)

41 Revelation - CJ Sansom

Shardlake gets involved in tracking down a serial murderer who bases his crimes on the Book of Revelation in the Bible?. Much easier read than the third Shardlake although this doesn’t have the outstanding final chapters that book 3 had.

Can’t decide whether to read book 5 now or save it up.

The final chapters of the third Shardlake are so, so good! Proper edge of your seat stuff.

32. The House Of Silk - Anthony Horowitz
A new Holmes and Watson story. It's twisty and turny, a good detective story, that grabs the feel of the oringal books. Would recommend it to anyone who likes murder mystery books.