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.

Have had to take a break from my Western binge as a couple of the books I ordered from the library turned up. Reviews to follow shortly...have also ordered the latest Sally Rooney from the library, but the waiting list is very long. Am looking forward to it after the positive reviews on here so far.

Ah, it was you Indigo, well thank you for your positive review. Having loved True Grit earlier this year I made a mental note to try to read some more Westerns. Spotted a copy of Lonesome Dave ** in Waterstones yesterday, picked it up and thought 'cor, hefty', put it back and wouldn't you know it there it is on the Kindle deal today. The book gods are sending me a message.

Tickled by this :

www.thepoke.co.uk/2015/08/28/lend-someone-book-yeah/

Just back from Italy, updating holiday reads:

37. The Talented Mr Ripley by Patricia Highsmith
Ripley is a low-level conman and social climber in New York. He is instructed by Herbie Greenleaf to travel to Italy to persuade Greenleaf's son Dickie to return home. He is captivated by both Dickie and his glamorous lifestyle, and when it looks like Dickie is tiring of him he takes drastic action.

Really enjoyed this. Nicely gripping, captures the glamour of a certain 1950s set. Ripley makes a very believable psychopath, with enough superficial charm that you end up wanting him to get away with it all.

38. Delight by JB Priestley
Collection of essays on the joy to be had in the simplest of things, such as Cosy Planning, Answering Back and Gin and Tonic. This was just lovely. Uplifting without being the slightest bit saccharine. Recommended.

One of Priestley's Delights was that of ditching your carefully planned, improving holiday reading material for whatever nonsense you find left behind in your holiday rental, which brings me on to

39. The Growing Pains of Adrian Mole. Found in the holiday house, re-read in a morning. Bert and Sabre steal the show as ever.

40. I Remember Nothing by Nora Ephron. Another holiday house find. Collection of essays loosely on the theme of growing older. Some of the pieces are in list format and others a bit half-baked, but the one that hit the spot were great - light, funny and honest. I liked the longer ones enough to go on to read...

41. Heartburn by Nora Ephron. Reviewed upthread, this is the (only very slightly) fictionalised account of Ephron's discovery of her husband's affair, and the subsequent ending of her marriage. Incredibly funny for a retelling of a pretty horrific experience. It's almost outdone by its introduction, in which Ephron reveals how very cross her husband was when she wrote it, and how she doesn't give a fig.

I do like it when a holiday rental has a decent selection of books on the shelves.

I still shudder to remember the holiday rental where the only printed material left there was an old Scrabble dictionary. No Scrabble set either, which made the dictionary utterly pointless.

Love the sound of the Priestley. We saw a hilarious 'horror' film in our local art house cinema a few weeks ago, based on a Priestley novel, Benighted. Great fun. Will probably read the book at some point.

I will look out for the Priestley too, sounds wonderful.

Great holiday finds too. I only ever come across thrillers in mine which aren’t my cup of tea.

Will be updating shortly with my holiday reads - I had a great fortnight as far as reading went, read lots and all enjoyable bar one.

Love JB Priestley. Might be about time for another reread of The Good Companions.

I have fond memories of reading my way through all the nonsense in the cottage we used to rent every year as a child. Seeing what had accumulated over the year since we left last was another delight.

35. The Secret Barrister: Stories of the law and how it's broken The Secret Barrister Account of the British legal system and in particular how it's been affected by recent governmental cuts. Well, this was depressing. I freely admit to being one of the people SB rails about at the beginning of this book, who never gives much thought to the justice system beyond assuming it works and I'll probably never have much contact with it. The author points out that government cuts in this instance mean, for example, evidence not being given to the prosecution, who then don't give it to the defense, which means you're literally being tried on the basis of a bit of paper handed to a barrister five minutes before and probably isn't very accurate. The entire cps is being run on a budget smaller than the cost of giving free TV licenses to pensioners. It's frightening. This was a very readable book, though the author definitely has an axe or twelve to grind. It's quite a basic, whistlestop tour of the justice system, so not for anyone who wants something more in depth, but very readable.

Criminal justice system, not the entire legal system. That would be a very different book.

Love to see Priestly mentioned. Have recommended The Good Companions on here a number of times.

31. The Rotters’ Club by Jonathan Coe

I really enjoyed this, it was clever and funny I absorbed by all the characters. He doesn’t create “likeable” characters - he creates real and interesting ones. This is a story of growing up in the 70s, and he is great at evoking the culture and politics of the time, in the midst of which the usual all consuming teenage anxieties are played out. Mysteries large and small are woven deftly through the novel, and the sense is of a group of young people struggling to hold onto the last vestiges of childhood humour and innocence, all the while the tragedies of life creep in closer around them. I loved this so much I went straight on to revisit the characters twenty years on in

32. The Closed Circle

Set in the late 90s Britain with Tony Blair at the helm, this was darker, as was to be expected with the ageing of the characters, but totally involving again. The way this book interlocks with the first, the callbacks to seemingly insignificant moments, and the way threads are pulled together, is excellent, so while this doesn’t have quite the charm of the first, it so expertly weaves itself from it that I couldn’t help but get lost in it. A piece of music, a passing remark, a pair of swimming trunks - they are all reprised with a dexterity that gives the whole thing a satisfying ring of reality. I am looking forward to his new book Middle England this autumn to see what he does with them next time.

33. The Nest by Cynthia Something-Something

This was awful. Easy to read and I imagine if you were in the mood for a bit of froth about rich, dull, vacuous Americans fighting over an inheritance that will make their already fairly blessed lives a little more blessed it might hit the spot...but wait, does a bit of froth such as this nevertheless have the scope and depth to deal sensitively with 9/11, AIDS, teenage sexuality, amputees, and illegal immigration as well as ranting on and on about pay cheques, pensions, real estate, trust funds, off shore accounts etc ad infinitum? No. No it doesn’t.

34. Circe by Madeline Miller

Well reviewed already on this thread. I loved this - fantastic read. One of Miller’s strengths is getting you to care about, and find new angles into, stories you already feel you know inside out, so you don’t immediately recognise where it is all going, even if you are well versed in your Myths. There are probably faults I could find with it but I’m giving it five stars because of the pure enjoyment it gave me returning to it and it having one of those rarities in recent fiction - a good ending.

Was so immersed in the mythological world she created that straight after this I finally got stuck into

35. A Song of Achilles

I found this a really good read too, though I don’t think the writing is quite as strong as is Circe, there is a first novel sloppiness to the dialogue and I don’t know that she is as successful here, but it was great fun all the same. Until it wasn’t. Sob.

42. Run by Ann Patchett. This is the fictional story of local politician Doyle, a white man, his biological son Sullivan, and his two adopted sons Teddy and Tip, who are black. It follows the events in their lives following a night when Tip is pushed out of the way of an oncoming car by an unknown black woman who is there with her daughter. Despite the set-up, this isn't particularly a book about race (although it obviously does come into the story line at times). I think Patchett writes well about family relationships and I really enjoyed this, but not quite as much as the other books of hers that I've read (State of Wonder and Commonwealth).

61: My Friend Says It's Bullet-Proof - Penelope Mortimer

The third P. Mortimer novel I've read in fairly quick succession and a lucky spot in my local Oxfam bookshop.

This was a curious one. It's completely different to the two earlier books ( Daddy's Gone A-Hunting and The Pumpkin Eater - reviewed upthread), which are very domestic in setting and preoccupation. Journalist Muriel Rowbridge, still recovering from the trauma of a mastectomy, agrees to go on a press jaunt to Canada with a group of male writers. Struggling to process the ramifications of her operation and the break-up of her relationship with her married lover, she meets two men: rich, enigmatic Robert and married screenwriter Alex. The relationships she has with both of them force her to confront painful realities about herself and what she wants from her life.
The writing here is free, often unstructured - there are long passages from Muriel's stream-of-consciousness notebooks as she grapples with her feelings of panic about her mutilated body and her lack of control - and it's no surprise to find that, as with most of her novels, this closely reflected Mortimer's own life (she'd reluctantly agreed to be sterilised and been left with disfiguring scars). Not an easy read but I'm glad I persevered.

As a side-note - I'm still reeling from a review of the novel on Goodreads which described it as 'like Bridget Jones but a bit more serious' !!

I saw Daddy's Gone A Hunting in a charity shop yesterday, but left it there. Did I make a terrible mistake?

I bought Saplings instead, which I may or may not have read already - can't remember.

Not necessarily, Remus, I don't know whether it's quite your sort of book!

I've read Saplings - ages ago now though, so I can't recall much about it. A whole other ball-game to P Mortimer. I bought a load of Noel Streatfeild's, ahem, lesser fiction last year, books she wrote as 'Susan Scarlett'. Haven't got round to any of it yet, though.

I didn't know she'd written as somebody else. Must admit, I adore Ballet Shoes but haven't been very taken with much else of hers.

148. Prospero’s Cell by Lawrence Durrell

This is Larry Durrell’s memoir of his time living in Corfu in the 1930s, but it’s a very different beast to brother Gerald’s My Family And Other Animals. Larry barely mentions his family - this is much more about the island itself and the people who lived there. There’s some beautiful descriptions and it really evokes the time and place.

149. The House Swap by Rebecca Fleet

Caroline and her husband swap houses with someone they’ve never met, but in the new house Caroline keeps seeing reminders of an event from her past - and now there’s someone in her house.......This was ok but sagged a bit in the middle. None of the characters were particularly engaging.

I have been reading along all summer but never got around to posting my books. Just saw I last posted 9 books ago - arrgghh! I won't bore you all to death with all of them at once, will string them out. Here's the list to start with:

1. The Gathering by Anne Enright
2. The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery
3. What Management Is by Joan Magretta
4. The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle
5. The English Spy by Gabriel Allon
6. Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi
7. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by JK Rowling
8. Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay (neopolitan novels 3) by Elana Ferrante
9. Emma by Jane Austen

10. Regeneration by Pat Barker 11. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck 12. And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie 13. The Naked Lunch by William Burroughs 14. Imperium by Robert Harris 15. Little Lord Faultneroy by Frances Hodgson Burnett 16. The Acid Test by Elmer Mendoza 17. Homer Price by Robert McCloskey 18. On Writing by Steven King 19. Adventures in Darkness by Tom Sullivan 20. Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy 21. The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins 22. The Five People you Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom 23. Peter Pan by JM Barrie 24. Autumn by Ali Smith 25. The Bradshaw Variations by Rachel Cusk 26. The Public Image by Muriel Spark 27. Portnoy's Complaint by Philip Roth 28. A HIgh Wind in Jamaica by Richard Hughes 29. The Sweet Life in Paris by David Lebovitz 30. Still Life by Louise Penny

31. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time by Mark Haddon I read this to my two kids - 13 and 10. I can't tell you how much they absolutely loved it - they were fascinated and begged every night for another chapter. The book is told from the perspective of Christopher, who has Asperger's Syndrome and is dealing with the fallout from his parent's separation. Even though we read it a couple of months ago we still talk about Christopher and what he would do in certain situations, especially how he faced his fears and fronted up to things that terrified him. We have friends who have children with Aspergers and it also gave the boys a window into why they do what they do. Plus, the story was a cracking read.

32. Reservoir 13 by Jon McGregor Much reviewed here so I won't go on. I loved it, the writing was beautiful but in hindsight, reading in snatches over summer with the kids haring around and fighting in the garden was the wrong time for me. Next time I'd read in winter under a blanket when they were at school. One side effect since reading - I have started commentating in my own head the changing of the season in a way similar to this book ... "The days closed in and a slight chill settled on the valley at dusk" etc etc. Maybe that's just a long summer....

33. To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf I think I have read this before, as snatches were familiar to me but I am sure I got a lot more out of it now I have been married for a long time. Especially the subtle nuances of conversation, the decisions we all make every day to smooth life over. Of course the novel is about more than this, but this was the part that I will remember. That, and the memory of summer days. And the ocean.

34. Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein Funny, nonsence poems I read out gradually to the kids when we were all too tired to read a proper book. Very amusing to two boys. He also illustrated these books as well. Often the poem and the illustrations were one - ie words shaped into an animal etc. Very clever.

35. Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng Also much reviewed here. I will go against the general opinion here and state for the record that I enjoyed Little Fires Everwhere more. Perhaps my expectations for this one were too great.

I'll be back with more soon! Enjoying reading all the summer reviews and adding too much to my TBR list!

Thanks piggy I hope so.
So first book since May!!
33. a series of unfortunate events, Bad Beginnings by Lemony Snickett
Read this to see if its suitable for DS bedtime story. Good enjoyable read. Think my son will enjoy it.
Need to read a grown up book now. Not sure what to go for. Seem to have too many long or dry books on my shelf and really just want some light reading at the moment.

67 Heartburn by Nora Ephron

Already reviewed by a few people on this thread. I enjoyed this, it's really a bit of a period piece now, and none the worse for it. As a pp said, the introduction is almost funnier than the novel itself.

Panda - the stage production of A Curious Incident is superb. Worth keeping an eye out for.

Ooh I forgot to say - absolutely loving Lonesome Dove so far.

I liked the flow chart Piggy!

I love Noel Streatfeild’s children’s books so much that I am not sure I want to risk the adult ones in case they somehow spoil it! Let me know what you think of Saplings Remus and perhaps I’ll be brave (you were lucky to find it in a charity shop I think!).

I was disappointed to hear that the second Jane Harper wasn’t as good as The Dry- I was hoping for an enjoyable series.

63. The Swish of the Curtain by Pamela Brown I had read this as a child but the review uothread made me want to read it again- I hadn’t realised the author was only 16 when she wrote it- quite an achievement. It isn’t a Streatfield, or a Jean Ure, but it’s a pretty good stage story!

64. Death at the Dolphin by Ngaio Marsh. Having said I though these were going downhill now, this was one of my favourites! Nicely set stage (literally as it Is set in a theatre), slow build on the characters, not too much Alleyn, and a decent ending (am often disappointed with her endings!). A good one if you like that kind of thing.

Also meant to say I LOVE that book tree! Have been to Berlin- wish I’d seen it!

Sounds like a good excuse to go back to Berlin!

tanaqui , I have a friend I keep lending books to and she has effectively stolen them... she did express mild guilt when I put this on Facebook. But she hasn't returned my Muriel Spark or my Diane Atkinson. She also has several DVDs and a mug.