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.

Pepe, a couple of years ago we went to a local theatre thing (upstairs over a pub-type-event but with a group led by a very well-known actor who lives locally). It was a sort of revue about WW1 with readings, songs etc. The most gripping bit of the evening was a long passage delivered by said actor which was mesmerising, so much so that I went up to him afterwards to ask what it was - it was from All Quiet on the Western Front. Definitely on my ‘must read’ list.

40. Middlemarch by George Eliot.

I listened to the audiobook (excellent narration by Juliet Stevenson) and read the paperback copy at the same time. I really liked it, but it perhaps did not move me as much as Tess of the D’Urbevilles.

This is the story of middle-England in the 1830’s, Middlemarch looks at the middle classes and evokes a thorough picture of the time through her characters and descriptions. The book had wisdom through insightful observations about human nature along with gentle humour and I’m sure I will think of it often over the weeks to come.

My favourite quotes:
Might, could, would - they are contemptible auxiliaries. Mary Garth rebuking Fred Vincy, the two having known each other since childhood, when he was trying to persuade her to marry him although he had no real plans for the future, displaying general irresponsible behaviour.

Books were stuff, and life was stupid. Lydgate when young discovering study and medicine.

Since we can not get what we like, let us like what we can get. A Spanish proverb beginning one of the chapters, wise words indeed.

..for the growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts; and that things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been, is half owing to the number who lived faithfully a hidden life, and rest in unvisited tombs. The famous last paragraph.

Another classic well worth reading.

And Hearts of Atlantis added to the to-read pile..

59: The Slaves of Solitude - Patrick Hamilton

I've had this on the shelf for ages and finally picked it up yesterday. Devoured it on a longish train journey. It was published in 1947 and is set just a few years before, in wartime in the fictional town of Thames Lockden, where 39-year-old Miss Roach lives as a 'paying guest', away from the bombing in London, at the painfully genteel Rosamund Tea Rooms.

Hamilton mercilessly describes the agonies poor Miss Roach undergoes at the hands of Mr Thwaites, monstrous fellow-guest and psychological tormentor par excellence. Into her life come American serviceman Lt Pike and German-born refugee Vicki Kugelmann, who between them create further turmoil for Miss Roach.

I LOVED this book. It's hilarious but also almost unutterably tragic in its depiction of loneliness, and the pathos of the boarding-house inhabitants living lives of quiet desperation, most without friends or family and with nothing to look forward to in the bleakest depths of wartime. Thwaites and Vicki Kugelmann are repellent but fascinating creations, and I was cheering Miss Roach on to the end. On the strength of this, Hangover Square has now leapfrogged several places near to the top of the tbr pile.

How exciting - Waterstones have just emailed me to say the new Sally Rooney book I pre-ordered is ready to collect, six days before the official publication date!

Have been on holiday. Have been reading nine books but have only finished five. The ones I actually finished were-

37. PG Wodehouse A Damsel in distress Not any version of England that is remotely familiar to me but with its own logic, rules and some superbly crafted sentences

38. A Kestral for a knave by Barry Hines Read this as H is for hawk is one of the books I am half way through. Read Kes as an adolescent and identified with it more then but probably understood it more now. Read in one sitting, its that good.

39. MC Beaton Agatha Raisin and the witch of Wyckhadden . These always raise a smile even though its no big surprise when Agatha 1. Drinks and smokes too much 2. Finds an unsuitable man 3. Never tells the police anything useful 4. Solves the murder by accident or a random flash of intuition 5. Walks into a trap 6. Returns to home village and cats. Don't care. They are like literary Horlicks

40. Francoise Sagan Bonjour Tristesse An updated Liasons dangereux with a more sympathetic protagonist. She does what she does because she is young, self-willed and doesn't think about consequences. Very short so this was read as one. May be one of my standouts as I think the sense of gilded youth, frivolity and fatality reminded me also of The Great Gatsby which has to be my favourite book.

41. A Classic Christmas Crime Ed Tim Heald Yes I know its August but I ran out of detective books at cottage so read this. 4/13 really good stories. Rest a bit meh. Really enjoyed the Peter Lovesey short story. Anyone read anything else by him?

70. JK Rowling - Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Since I usually have one of the Harry Potter CDs on in the background when I'm doing other things, I thought it was possibly time to actually re-read one of the books. I also re-watched Goblet of Fire the other day, and I do wish they had edited the story differently for the film. Mind you, I also think this one and Order of the Phoenix could have done with a bit of editing for the books, but they are entertaining stories so I can't complain too much.

Terpsichore, I am so glad you liked Slaves of Solitude. I think it is probably Hamilton's best novel, in many ways - it has grim humour that alleviates (slightly) the misery, and the war as backdrop is incredibly effective. But Hangover Square is something else altogether. It almost breaks my heart every time I read it (and that is often). It's an incredible novel and not one I recommend lightly - I couldn't bear to know someone read it on my recommendation and didn't like it. An ex once read it and said "it was fine" on finishing it. He's an ex for a reason!

Pepe I haven't read Hangover Square yet but did you ever listen to the episode of A Good Read on Radio 4 last year where the guests all raved about it?

www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08wp59r

So...haven't been here in awhile as got completely intimidated by your reading speeds
Anyway... my update:
30) Jane Eyre always thought I was a Wuthering Heights gal,But god I loved Jane Eyre -complete page turner. Have just introduced DD aged 12 to her. Hugely smitten
31) And then there were none Agatha Christie - didn't love this - read my 1st Christie with Murder on the Orient Express (which was fab & hugely enjoyable) but this felt of it's time - and whilst the premise was sound, I didn't believe in the end suicide & the explanation was too tidy. That's me probably done with Christie
32) The Ministry of Upmost Happiness - could not wait to read this - read & adored The God of small things. Well. The first 90 odd pages were a mess - too many characters I couldn't keep hold off,too much history/explanation of a country I had no idea about. I almost gave up but it changed- it really is a book of 2/3s the story became tighter - 4 people and how each lives were altered by the Kashmir conflict, all written beautifully. I ended up loving this book

Next book : The Song of Achilles

Terpischore You must read All Quiet immediately. It’s outstanding.

I’ve dropped off this thread a bit lately too but am plodding along reading my way through the Ann Cleeves Shetland series. Nothing exciting to report.

42. Walking the Amazon by Ed Stafford I like accounts of a good long walk, with all the planning and logistics that entails. Throw in a bit of personal development along the way, all the better. This was a mammoth task, and Ed let us know plenty about his frustrations with his companions, bureaucracy, weather and other hardships. He comes across as a my way of the highway type of guy, but is quite honest about his traits and motivations. He is so focussed on pushing ahead, descriptions of the places and environments he passed through suffer in favour of logistical detail. A solid example of the genre though.

Just popping on to say the Color Purple is 99p on daily deals today in case anyone is interested.

I haven’t, southeast, but am going to now. I’ve got coffee, a dog to walk and a podcast to listen to!

47. This is Going to Hurt - Adam Kay

Much reviewed on here! As an NHS employee I was keen to read. Found this funny and insightful! And was amused by the objects people put in places they shouldn’t be!

Cheerful, I am amused yet offended by your story about your DH. Does he think we are reading pink books with shoes on the front while breastfeeding?! I hope he loves Thing though, because it's fab.

73. Trio, Sue Gee

I really like Sue Gee. She writes gentle, understated books with lots of beautiful descriptions of the natural world. I sent out Mysteries of Glass as part of the last Mumsnet book swap that I was in and it got lukewarm reviews (for being boring - sob) and then disappeared... hopefully it didn't end up in the bin. Anyway, Trio is another quietly wonderful book. It is set in rural Northumberland in the late 30s, in the years just before the outbreak of WW2 and tells the story of a young teacher whose beloved wife dies of TB in the opening chapters. In the midst of his grief, a colleague befriends him and introduces him to his sister and her friends, a group of musicians. Movingly lovely descriptions of love, and loss, and how it feels to listen to beautiful music.

74. Eileen, Ottessa Moshfegh

I seem to have read a lot of these books this year. They feature women (usually young women) living on the edge of society - women who drink too much, who self-destruct, who are agonisingly self-conscious, who live mainly in their own heads. I don't know if Eileen was the worst of the bunch or if I have just got a bit fed up of this kind of book. The main character has an arresting narrative voice but I didn't really want to read so much about how she sits at her desk at work, stupefied by self-consciousness, hyper-aware of the smell of her body (and the smell of her colleagues) and fantasising about shitting on the floor........ One thing I will say, not very much happens in this book for ages and ages and then something does happen, and when it did, it genuinely made me catch my breath. I could see the skill in this book, I just didn't like it very much.

42. The Girl You Left Behind by Jojo Moyes... This is the first book I've read by Jojo Moyes and now I'm sure it won't be my last. It follows a dual storyline - one set in 1916 in France under German occupation and one set in modern-day London. A portrait of Sophie who is the main character in the 1916 story is the thread which ties it all together. I wasn't expecting to like it as much as I did. I got completely absorbed and warmed to both characters. Before starting this I had started Our House having just finished The Woman in the Window and I only got four chapters in before putting it down as was just fed up of reading books where I actively disliked the main characters. It brought together themes of love and loss and the moral issue of stolen art during wartime. It had more depth than I was expecting and am looking forward to exploring more of her work.

By the way I'm totally with you PepeLePew on your thoughts on Standard Deviation by Katherine Heiny. I was so underwhelmed by this one and was hoping for so much more.

I've just started The Heart's Invisible Furies after reading so many good reviews on here and am 16 chapters in and LOVING it! Thank you all who recommended this.

And was amused by the objects people put in places they shouldn’t be!

I always wonder how the doctors and nurses keep a straight face whenever I hear anecdotes about patients coming in with bizarre items that they “accidentally” got stuck on their todger or “accidentally” got stuck up their bum as they were innocently strolling around naked at home

DP read and loved This is Going to Hurt recently, and has been regaling me with stories of various inserted objects ever since.

I really liked Standard Deviation but perhaps because I hadn't heard of it so found the humour a pleasant surprise. I think if someone had told me it was the best book of the year I would have been disappointed.

I think the worst inserted object was one I read about in the online version of a local newspaper some years ago.

A group of young men had been out drinking, and one of them had decided to stick a rocket (firework) up his bum, and then light it for a laugh. Of course it all went horribly wrong and the young man ended up being rushed to hospital.

!!!!!!!!!

It amazes me how stupid some people are. How can anyone possibly think it’s a good idea to stick a firework up your bum?!

139. A House In Corfu by Emma Tennant

I am currently on holiday in Corfu so have been seeking out Corfu themed books. This is about the house Emma’s parents built on Corfu in the 1960s. Unfortunately the book is a bit of a mess - there’s no coherence, she just jumps from anecdote to anecdote and you have no idea whether it’s days,weeks or months since the previous one. None of the people mentioned came to life for me, but there were some nice descriptions of the island.

140. Why Mummy Swears by Gill Sims

I enjoyed this. It’s pretty much every middle class parenting cliche in book form, and there’s a lot of swearing, but it’s fun for a quick beach read.

Back off my holiday in Mallorca. I managed one full book : Force of Nature by Jane Harper. This is the follow up to The Dry which I read last summer. She writes well. The books are set in Australia which is a good setting for a thriller- this time it's The Bush. She possibly under exploits the setting. Harper is British. Oddly, I find all the dialogue really American. Other than the setting, there is nothing distinctively Australian-perhaps because the books are quite derivative cop procedurals. Nonetheless, the book is a page turner and she does a good short chapter/cliffhanger/ red herring routine. I wonder if any one esle who has read it found it all rather anti-climactic?

My other book which I am over half way through is The Summer of Impossible Things. Bilge, as I suspected. Pish,tosh and bilge. May do a full review when I finish it. Any book with central characters called Luna (a quantum physicist who only ever wears a white t shirt, jeans and converse) and Pia ( a recovering addict sister) sets its stall out fairly early. And she keeps speling kerb curb ... can't understand why this wasn't spotted by an editor. (am pondering whether it's an American spelling as it is set in NYC, but the writer is British ). And constant references to eye colour and hair type . It reads like a year 10 story...

Ah, just updated myself on the thread and see Remus had the same issues with the ending of The Dry. Always comforting to know you are in good company!