50 Book Challenge 2018 Part Seven

[southeastdweller]

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

Scribbly - "Does anyone else feel a bit daft trying to write a review of a classic?" Yes, me, definitely, know exactly what you mean!!

I have to say I found The Bookshop a bit of a let-down after some other Penelope Fitzgerald books, but it's still not bad. I presume it's being promoted because of the recent film?

E-mail from the library saying Record of a Spaceborn Few is waiting for me to collect. Whoop! I've also a couple of things to review and will come back later.

Dottie if you're still reading this thread I do hope you come back.

Turn, I rated The Bookshop as one of my worst reads last year--though, I am, most probably, not sophisticated or discerning enough for its extremely subtle pleasures.

Everyone is reading such intriguing books! My update is a little less literary:

44. Limelight, by Amy Poeppel: The protagonist, recently relocated from Dallas to Manhattan with her family, is at loose ends after her teaching job falls through and finds herself, after a fender bender, as the personal assistant/life coach/nanny to a Justin Bieber-type pop star who is performing in his first Broadway musical. Fairly light but a bit contrived.

45. The Marmalade Murders, by Elizabeth Duncan: set in a picturesque Wales market town, the latest in this cozy mystery series sees protagonist Penny Brannigan as a judge at the local agricultural show, where she of course stumbles across a body. Sleuthing ensues. Full disclosure: Duncan is the friend of a friend, and I dip into this series occasionally. I found this book fairly contrived, though I have enjoyed others, particularly the one set in a slate mine.

46. China Rich Girlfriend, by Kevin Kwan: the second book in the CRA triology, this novel continues threads from the first, including introducing Rachel's father and his family. Good fun!

47. Outline, by Rachel Cusk: much reviewed and discussed. This novel made me uncomfortable, as there's no real discourse--merely words directed at the narrator, which I suppose is the entire point.

48. Rich People Problems, by Kevin Kwan: the third book in the CRA trilogy, which sees the end of one familial era and the beginning of a new one. This series, while not unproblematic, was just FUN in so many places. Also, I'm totally down for going to rich lady Bible study (food, champagne, jewels, maybe a verse from Proverbs to ignore) if I'm ever in Singapore. Can anyone make an introduction?

I think my next books will be Asymmetry by Lisa Halliday and The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu.

Clueless, I'm glad it’s not just me!

Satsuki, stalker is right, plus entitled whiny narcissist, oh and let’s not forget the GBH assault on a horse, but yeah he walked across some snowy fields in a hurry at the end and got all sniffly at a rose so whatever, what a sterling bloke .

Waterland won't be coming on holiday with me. In order to reduce my packing (because one paperback makes all the difference...) I steamed through it today. Which was easy because it has lots of short chapters and is so well written, it's a joy to read. A peculiar book, that's for sure, and coming out of that tradition of history teacher narrators (they don't make teachers like that these days but, oddly, in the book he says history goes in circles and the bits about cut backs are very now ironically) who are a bit over familiar with their charges. He'd definitely be managed out now. And there'd be no whisky chats with the head to smooth his passage.

I never really had much of an awareness of this book when it was written or at uni ,which seems odd, because it was obviously very highly regarded for some time. I can't quite recall but think I may not have chosen the 20th Century British literature option at uni though so that might account for that oversight!

133. The Death Of Mrs Westaway by Ruth Ware

Harriet receives a letter telling her that her grandmother has died and she’s left Harriet something. Harriet goes down to the family estate in Cornwall because she needs money, even though she knows it’s a mistake because her real grandparents are already dead. Needless to say, trouble ensues. This had echoes of Rebecca, with the spooky house and creepy housekeeper. Some parts of the book were set in the 1990s but at times it felt more like Victorian period - I don’t think the book gave a good sense of the time period at all. However, I still enjoyed it .

Posted too soon!

134. Reading Allowed: True Stories and Curious Incidents from a Provincial Library by Chris Paling

As it says really - tales from a librarian. Mainly about the people who use the library. Nice easy read, although the author came across rather patronising at times.

I’m not sure I actually have read Tennant- in my head it is ticked off, but your reviews don’t ring any bells! I shall have to give it a whirl.

64. The Mermaid and Mrs Hancock by Imogen Hermes Gower. There is definitely a good book in here and some of the writing is lovely. I also enjoyed the plot and the setting, although as I think I mentioned befor, I have read a book about a mermaid set in Louis VIIII France, so not original in that sense. I did think it wasn’t quite there structurally- as a pp noted, one character has quite a storyline, and then vanishes; and I wasn’t sure the mermaid voice really worked. I also felt the Angelina/ mermaid childhood thing would have been better earlier in the story. I did also feel it was a little overwritten in places, with some odd word choices! But it was pretty impressive overall and I wonder if it will soon be a film or tv show?

40. Riddley Walker by Russel Hoban Riddley Walker is a 12 year old boy trying to make sense of things as he roams through a brutal post-apocalyptic landscape that is what has become of Kent, many generations after (we presume) a nuclear war. Written in a degraded English of a non literary and oral tradition based society, this is layered with mythology, symbolism and mangled history. Strangely, the things that Hoban has chosen to be enduring themes (e.g. the green man, Punch and Judy) plus the nuclear war theme, do more to tie it to the 1970s when it was written. The language was difficult to penetrate, but once into it, had its own internal consistency, and really made this novel unlike anything I've read before. The lack of representation of women is problematic, but we're seeing through the eyes of a 12 year old boy in what is effectively a dark age society, so maybe understandable. I loved this, and will be thinking about it for a long time.

41. The Outcasts of Time by Ian Mortimer This was so easy to read after Riddley Walker, I skipped through it. Great concept - two brothers about to die of the plague in 13something are granted 6 more days to live, but will jump forward through time by 99 years each day. This allows us to see a snapshot of what's going on in the same location across 7 centuries, marvelling along with the medieval men at the pace of progress and the predictability of conflict. It's really well done and the characterisation is very sympathetic. There was a twist at the end that I really should have seen coming but didn't which left me quite teary. In a good way.

61 The Husband Hunters: Social Climbing in London and New York by Anne de Courcy

The story of the wealthy American women who went to England from the late 19th - early 20th century in search of titled husbands - including Winston Churchill's mother Jennie Jerome. I found this absolutely fascinating, though it's not a book I'd have particularly looked out for (I picked it up in the library from the recent returns). There was much more than just the story of the women concerned - though that was also fascinating - but really a whole social history of the Gilded Age in the US.

Many of the women were much more than just socialites - in particular I want to read more now about Tennie Claflin - amongst other things 10th child in a very poor family, suffragist who spent time in and out of jail, first woman (with her sister) to open a stockbroking firm in New York, radical journalist, and eventually wife of an Engish baronet.

62 Wigan Pier Revisited by Stephen Armstrong

This follows the structure of the Orwell classic, with chapters on food, housing etc. It was written in 2012 in the early days of the coalition government, & in the wake of the 2011 riots, but realistically things will be pretty much the same now (and probably weren't that different any time from the 80s manufacturing shutdowns onwards). Competent journalism, but I doubt anyone with any interest in poverty / urban decline in the UK will find much new here. Basically, it suffers from the fact that the author isn't George Orwell, and even apart from that, plenty of writers have done the same job better in recent years.

@exexpat I read The Ginger Tree last year, I loved it.

Interesting to see people’s thoughts on Song of Achilles Like so many of you Circe has been a real highlight for me this year, which is why I have borrowed Song from my library’s ebook service. I’ve not got to it yet, I can’t imagine loving it as much as Circe and it seems most of you didn’t.

Couple more from me:

40. Good Omens - Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
    Not half as funny as it thinks it is. Tedious.
    I’ve kept trying Pratchett books because I feel I should like them but there we are, I don’t and that’s that. I kind of liked American Gods by Gaiman but I think I’m probably done with him now too. I’m sure he’ll be devastated.

41. Sleeping with dogs: A Peripheral Autobiography - Brian Sewell
    I loved this, each chapter the story of a different dog Sewell has rescued/owned/loved. I found it really beautiful and moving, particularly as my own adored dog is getting on in years and was asleep with his head on my lap whilst I read.

Exexpat, really enjoyed the reviews in your last post and think I will add all three to my TBR list :)

68. Our House, Louise Candlish

Fiona comes home early from a weekend away to find a removal van outside her beloved London house and a family moving in. They say they have just bought it - she knows nothing about it. How this comes about is told from two viewpoints - Fiona, who is telling her story as part of a true crime podcast, and her husband, Bram, whose letter has a rather darker purpose. Rather twisty with a host of not-entirely-likeable-but-entirely-believable middle class London characters, this was a good sunlounger read.

69. Different Class, Joanne Harris

I absolutely loved Gentlemen and Players, and this is sort of a sequel - it's set at St Oswald's and Roy Straitley, the latin teacher, is again one of the narrators. I liked this but didn't love it. It wasn't as strong as G&P in my opinion, and the format was a bit too much the same as in the other book (the second, anonymously menacing voice, challenging you to guess which of the characters it belongs to). I felt very uneasy about the way that Harris chooses to end the book - there's a rather dubious morality about the choices made by characters who (I think) we are supposed to sympathise with, and it left a nasty taste in the mouth for me.

70. Life, Death and Vanilla Slices, Jenny Éclair

A good book with a lousy chick-lit title. Anne has left her painful northern childhood behind and lives a smugly middle-class existence in Dulwich - on the surface, at least, she has a very nice life. Then her mother, Jean, is knocked down in the street and Anne travels up to her childhood home to confront her past. Not dissimilar to Moving in looking at the skeletons that families have in their cupboards, the memories and regrets of an old lady, and the pain that we can cause to the people we love most. It made me both laugh out loud and cry, both of which are more unusual than you would think.

Here's Anne, rather pissed and contemplating her life near the beginning of the book:

I am tired, she realises, not just of tonight but of everything, tired of trying to be good enough for Paul so that his mother can't say "I told you so", tired of wearing glasses that don't really suit me because I am too mean to buy some more. But really I am tired of being such a middle-aged female cliché. Book club - check; Eastern European cleaner - check; thinking about getting a wormery - check; overweight - check.

Difficult sons - check. Boring friends - check. Distant husband - check.

Anne glances at Paul. He loves me, she thinks, but he never actually looks at me, and he makes love to me as if I were a family pet that needs the exercise.

71. Songs of the Brokenhearted, Sheila Walsh and Cindy Coloma

A book by an evangelical Christian author - not one I would normally have picked but it was sent to me as part of the book swap we have going on. I've posted a review here: www.mumsnet.com/Talk/mn_book_swap_clubs/3294071-Gin-and-Tolstoy-Summer-2018-Book-9

72. Bookworm, Lucy Mangan

I believe that Lucy Mangan is a MN-er so hi, Lucy . I was so looking forward to this as we are of a very similar age and grew up a few miles from one another. I was also (and still am) a bookworm - a person who would welcome a nuclear apocalypse as long as I could hide in a bunker lined with books. I liked this and it's probably my fault, not hers, that I was disappointed to find that actually the books that we loved as children had much less overlap than I had expected, with a few lovely exceptions. Lucy, if you're on this thread, I hope you read Charlotte Sometimes and A Traveller in Time, both of which are steeped in that same beautiful melancholy yearning that you describe in Tom's Midnight Garden. And did Lewisham libraries have the same fantastic teen selection as Southwark, with thrilling few shelves of Pan Horizons, or were you totally tied up reading Sweet Valley High?

I guess starting imaginary conversations with the author of a book is a good sign :)

35. Ragtime by EL Doctorow
The story of three families, one WASP, one Jewish and one black, living in turn of the century New York. Their stories are interwoven with each other, and their lives are touched by a number of notable figures of the day, such as Sigmund Freud and JP Morgan.

It's fast paced and feels authentic. In some ways it reminded me of an urban version of Reservoir 13, which I also loved, in that there is no overall narrative thrust or lead character, and the ensemble work together to produce something of a mood piece where the location and the nature of historical change is the real star.

I think my only criticism was that the first half was a bit too aggressively Penisey for my personal taste .

134. The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin

I really can’t decide how I feel about this. The premise is that 4 children visit a psychic who tells them each the date they’re going to die. The book then follows each in turn, seeing how they live their lives with that knowledge. The first half of the book is good, following the gay scene in San Francisco, followed by a female magician. Unfortunately, the first two siblings are the most interesting so the second half of the book fell a bit flat for me. I also don’t think the book really did what it said it was going to do - only the last sibling really seemed to have made a conscious decision to live in a particular way as a result of what she had been told. On the whole I do think this book was a bit of a wasted opportunity, but I’m still thinking about it and may well read again in the future to see if I get more out of it now I know what happens.

113. The Seal Woman's Gift - Sally Magnusson. Tells the story of 400 Icelandic citizens, from the Western Islands, who were kidnapped and forced into Slavery in Algiers in the 1600's. Reviewed by Piggy upthread, I have spent quite some time deciding if this is one of my standouts or not.
It is very, very well written and researched. It is a fascinating episode in history which I had no idea about previously. I was pleasantly surprised by how much natural humour there is in the book. Her characterisation, in the whole is excellent, as is her exploration of how the islanders adapt to their new life and the decisions they face, particularly surrounding faith.
The thing that I found hard to connect with was the way she deals with the relationship between Asta and her 'master'. Quite possibly I am viewing the relationship with independent, modern and western eyes, but I found some of the writing uncomfortable and not always believable. In fact sometimes it bordered on the saccharine- think Mills and Boon.
And yet, there was so much skill, humour and genuine emotion on balance Magnusson gets away with it...I think.

Turnof great review. Have added Ragtime to my list.

56. The Hidden Girl by Louise Millar

Hannah & Will move into an isolated country house, convinced it’ll help them adopt the child of their dreams. But when heavy snow leaves Will stranded in London, Hannah starts to realise that the neighbours are hiding dark secrets.

It was interesting enough to keep me turning the pages, but all in all it’s fairly average.

57. The Silence by Tim Lebbon

This was much more gripping. A horror novel.

The premise is that scientists exploring a cave system in Central Europe that’s been previously cut off from the rest of the world accidentally free carnivorous flying monsters.
The monsters (vesps) are roughly cat sized, blind, hunt by sound, travel in swarms, eat any living creature they can catch, and breed vociferously. Basically, anywhere attached to Central Europe, or over short enough channels of water (such as the UK) is completely screwed.

The story switches between the viewpoints of dad Huw and deaf teenager Ally as their family attempts to survive.

Worth a read for anyone who likes reading apocalyptic stories and doesn’t mind things getting a bit gory.

58. End of Watch by Stephen King

3rd in his sequence of novels featuring retired detective Bill Hodges. In this one, the Mercedes Killer, Brady Hartsfield, has returned. Can Bill and his friends stop him?

I really enjoyed this. I liked this much more than the previous book, Finders Keepers. Hartsfield makes for an interesting adversary .

59. Firestorm by Lucy Hounsom

Concludes her Worldmaker trilogy. Starborn Kyndra has to stop time manipulating Khronostians from changing history and possibly destroying the fabric of time.
Meanwhile, Kyndra’s allies must try to stop the Sartyan Empire from taking over the restored continent of Rairam.

Fantasy novel. A good read and a good end to the trilogy. Definitely one where you need to have read the first 2 books first.

36. The Heart's Invisible Furies - John Boyne. Much reviewed and admired on these threads this year, I too loved this engrossing book, a saga of one man's life, mainly set in Ireland. I can honestly say that in 701 pages there were no passages or chapters that were dull, the pacing was terrific, and the balance of humour and poignancy was nicely done. I do feel, however, that if the author could have toned down some of the melodrama and coincidences it could have produced an even better book. Flaws and all, this is definitely one of the book highlights of the year so far for me and I'm sure will stay with me for a long time.

34. The Hound Of The Baskervilles - Arthur Conan Doyle

Somehow my first ever Sherlock Holmes, although I've read Conan Doyle before (The Lost World was a childhood favourite) and watched most of the Cumberbatch series. Anyway I'm sure I don't need to explain too much about this but needless to say it is pure joy to read, a cracking adventure from start to finish. Any Sherlock fans care to recommend more stories?

87 Moondust by Andrew Smith
The story of the Apollo astronauts after their return to earth, and the different paths they took and how they coped with their celebrity and the experience of being one of only a tiny number of people ever to leave the earth's orbit for deep space. This was a totally random book choice (picked it up from a pile outside a neighbour's house who was having a clear out) but I loved it. It was part biography, part history and part personal memoir - really human, compassionate and thoughtful.

I'm glad you said that, Pepe, as I've had Moondust on my tbr pile forever and keep meaning to tackle it. I'll make a real effort to get round to it soon.

Meg I recommend the Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - short story collection. Great to dip in and out of.

If you've watched the adaptations you may recognise some of the characters/plots.

33. Liar and Spy Rebecca Stead Children's book - this won the Guardian Children's Book Prize a couple of years ago. A boy moves to an new apartment and has various family and friendship issues. Not as good as the other one I read. The reveals fell a bit short of the weight the story gives them. I liked the school storyline though, even if it's one I've read before.