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.

Place marking. Nothing to add except I'm wallowing in James Herriot and I like it there.

I liked the Miniaturist but wasn't that taken with The Muse. They were very different novels.
Remus Herriot is a good 'place' to wallow!

Cherrypi if she's in your area I highly recommend you go and see Holly McNish doing a live reading of her poetry. She comes across and a genuinely warm and funny woman. I went with my parents in law which was a little awkward at times as she's not backwards in coming forwards about sex but the night alternated between laughing out loud and shocked contemplative silence. She's a fearsome feminist too which really comes across when she is speaking live. I thought the poetry in the book Plum was OK but it really came alive when she read it. I have a handmade paper rose that she made from pages of old books that she gave to the audience at the end as a memory of that evening.
I’d definitely go back and see her again.

31. How I escaped my certain fate by Stewart Lee. Thanks for the recommendation terpsichore, i had a great time reading this. Understanding more of how any professional does their job, and how anybody makes a living, is always really interesting.

55 The City and the City by China Mieville
Much reviewed on these threads. I enjoyed reading it but I wasn't convinced by the cities set up. One small point but I'm just not convinced that human beings are clever enough to have two road traffic systems running simultaneously where you can't 'see' half the cars on the road because they are not in your 'city'. Having watched Michael Palin's programmes about North Korea I can understand how you can live somewhere and train yourself not to show any kind of dissent or reaction to things that you're not allowed to 'see' or 'hear' though. So perhaps I was half convinced.

The Muse is sitting in my to be read pile where it's been for about a year I think. I ought to get around to reading it.

Really glad you enjoyed the Stewart Lee book, Annadale. You must have whizzed through it!

Annandale, sorry.

167. Something In The Water by Catherine Steadman

I had read good reviews of this so was looking forward to reading it. However, I have no idea why it got such good reviews. The premise is a couple on honeymoon find something in the water which inevitably leads to trouble. However, this doesn’t happen until almost a third of the way into the book, after loads of pointless description about choosing wedding menus and flying first class. At the start the couple have money worries to the extent of cancelling their posh wedding and talking about selling their house. However next minute they’re flying first class to a luxury hotel in the Pacific for their honeymoon with no mention at all of any money concerns! The main character, Erin, is unlikeable and possibly one of the most stupid women in the world, and her husband Mark has no personality whatsoever. The plot just gets more and more ridiculous with lots of plot holes and lots of detail about things that had nothing to do with anything (the book could easily have been a third shorter without any impact whatsoever on the plot). I can’t say any more without giving away spoilers so I will just say don’t believe the hype and don’t bother!

125. The Milkman - Anna Burns. This is my first Man Booker short listed book this year. I can't remember when I last felt so conflicted about a book.
It is set in Northern Ireland in the 70s during the troubles. The central character is a young woman who unwittingly becomes the target of local gossip and we follow how this affects her life. This book has a lot to say on woman's role in the community, it has a fascinating insight to the structure and hierarchy of a community divided and under siege. It has surprisingly amounts of humour.
However ... it is really difficult to read! The whole thing is written in kind of but not quite a string of consciousness. The paragraphs and sentences are long, sometimes whole pages and at times feel impenetrable. I did actually end up reading out loud at times as it was the only way I could make sense of things.
In the middle of the book I felt I really got into the flow of it and actually felt I was really enjoying it but then I lost it again. By the The last 20% it felt like a slog, I found It was better if I had a good chunk of time to read uninterrupted, but it certainly was a book where you could grab snippets here and there.
So in retrospective I think it was properly one of those books where I can admire and acknowledge the authors skill, but can't in all honest say I actually enjoyed the book. I felt I had to work too damn hard at it. Maybe wrong book, wrong time?

Just did some lovely thoughtful reviews and then dick head WiFi ate them all up. Bastard. Here are curt reviews because I have a bad cold, the dishwasher just leaked all over the floor and simply cba

76. White Teeth by Zadie Smith.
    Three families in multicultural north London in the 1980s have relationships with each other. Liked it but didn’t love it. Funny in parts (wasn’t expecting funny) and cringey over egged bloated pudding in others. Chalfonts felt like a family from Viz. Some brilliant scenes though. Thought the hairdressers scene was amazing. Not sure if I'll be racing out to read more Smith after this.

77. The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson
    Audiobook narrated by Robin Miles
    Already reviewed far more eloquently that I could ever do by dottie and Sadik.
    Non fiction examining the great migration of black people from the South to northern US cities from the early 1900s to the 1970s. Wilkerson uses the true stories of George, Robert and Ida-May lives to examine the reasons why so many people left the south, and the difficulties they faced when they reached their destinations.
    Superb.
    Best non fiction book of the year.
    Horrifying, fascinating, engaging and ultimately for me a huge eye opener of the culture black people had to endure following the abolition of slavery. Highly recommended.

78. Crow Country by Mark Cocker.
    It’s not about crows. It’s about rooks. Stupid title for a great little nature book. Cocker becomes obsessed with the giant rook and jackdaw roost near his home near the Yare valley in Norfolk.
    If you like corvids or live in Norfolk you should read it.
    I now can have a decent stab at identifying rooks, carrion crows, jackdaws, ravens and choughs.
    I now know what whiffling means.
    I now know the difference between a roost and a rookery and at what time of year the birds use the different sites.
    It has a very nice cover and end papers and would make a good present for someone who likes birds or who lives in Norfolk.

As my reading pace picks up significantly, I'm feeling the need to review my whole list, but I'll just put the highlights

1. The Loved One, Evelyn Waugh
2. His Bloody Project, Graeme Macrae Burnet
3. The Goldfinch, Donna Tart
4. The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle, Stuart Turton

12. Connect, Julian Gough 13. A Month in the Country, Julian Gough 16. First, Catch, Thom Eagle 20. The Beast, Alexander Starrit 21. Officers and Gentlemen, Evelyn Waugh 25. A Short Book about Painting, Andrew Marr 27. Last Night at the Lobster, Stewart O'Nan 30. The Moon's a Balloon, David Niven

and new

33 IQ by Joe Ide
An LA private eye story involving an attempt on the life of a rapper. Great characters, the assassin especially is very memorable. The next one is out in hardback, I'll definitely be reading on.

46. A Spy Among Friends: Kim Philby and the Great Betrayal by Ben Macintyre. I'm not really into spy books (have never been tempted by John Le Carre), but I do like biographies and this was well reviewed on here so I thought I'd give it a go. I'm glad I did because it is superb. A fascinating account of how Kim Philby managed to hide his double identity from his colleagues, both his wives and his closest friends. I found it interesting to find out about the human side of MI6, and what the job of a spy is really like, with some Cold War history and politics thrown in. One of my top reads of the year.

Annandale

53. The Outcast Dead by Elly Griffiths Ruth Galloway 6. This wasn't the greatest one in this enjoyable forensic archaeologist series, but it was still good. It felt too much like she took a theme, in this case parenthood and crimes against children, and made it run through every plot strand, ancient and modern, to the point where it felt a bit contrived. I felt that one particular strand was handled in a rather unsatisfactory way. And I guessed who did it, as I have done with most of these. Still like them though.

I'm now on to Crazy Rich Asians which so far is delivering the escapist international family saga that I was hoping for.

120). Working Stiff: Two Years, 262 Bodies, and the Making of a Medical Examiner by Judy Melinek and T.J. Mitchell
As the title suggests, it's an account of the training of a forensic medical examiner in NY. She was there at the time of 9/11, so it's a fairly visceral account of dealing with the aftermath. It's a good corrective to some of the fictionalised versions - having to wait for months for tests results rather than getting them immediately, and police officers who try to persuade you not to sign a death off as a homicide as they can't cope with their existing workload.

121). A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Chemo: A Rather Unusual Memoir, by Ileana Von Hirsch
Picked up at random in the library. Musings about life with chemo. Author very much looking on the bright side, cracking jokes etc. I'm not sure how to categorise this. On the one hand, it could be a good present for someone in this situation. On the other, her chirpiness might drive them up the wall. The private health care certainly sounds nice.

67. The Shadows In The Street Susan Hill I’m beginning to think Simon Serrailer is pretty rubbish as a detective. The body count is never less than half a dozen. Poirot, Wexford and Vera Stanhope never let it get above three at the most.Now I’m on Book 5 , it feels like a an on-going soap opera about the town of Lafferton with a bit of casual police work on the side.

I am enjoying them though.

Scribbly I really liked Crow Country. We have a roost near us and we estimated there were around 10,000 birds at one time based on a photo we took. The noise was phenomenal.

fewer than

80. Laura Purcell - The Silent Companions

This is really creepy! A brilliant little gothic horror. Set in the 1860s. Elsie is both newly married and newly widowed after her husband died suddenly at his country estate while Elsie was still in London. She arrives at The Bridge with only her husband's cousin Sarah for company and discovers resentful servants and a local village which largely shuns the family at the big house due to a history of strange deaths and associations of witchcraft. In the locked garrett of the house Elsie and Sarah discover the diary of a 16th century lady of the manor and a wooden figure - a Silent Companion - which has an unsettling resemblence to Elsie herself. As more of these figures start to appear in the house, Elsie, Sarah and the servants begin to suspect there is something malevolent at work.

Finished Snap after a busy - and generally shitty- couple of weeks at work, so took me longer than this type of book normally would.

It's readable and better than The Dry. The characterisation isn't believable but it's well done and I like the touches of humour. But the ending was so full of improbalities that it became rather laughable. Like all these books, the opening is its strongest suit.

The Booker longlisting is bizarre, in all honesty!

Sorry about work, piggy. I know that feeling!

ChillieJeanie, I really wanted to be scared by The Companions because the premise is really frightening, but it just left me somewhat unmoved. I think it was a case of wrong book, wrong time. Every so often I find myself wanting a proper ghost story but in the case of that book I just picked it off the shelf.

After getting through lots of books over the summer I’ve slowed right down. Concentrating is hard when life is tough, and I think I need to go in search of something light and fun. I’m half way through Reservoir 13 at the moment which I’m enjoying very much but it isn’t the frothy fun I think I need.

107 The Idiot by Elif Batuman
I know this aroused strong feelings, and I wasn't at all convinced to begin with. I got about half way through the story of Selin's first year at Harvard and it all sort of clicked into place. Selin's story - social confusion, random classes, crush on an unsuitable boy - really resonated. I loved the sense of place and time, and the randomness of the university years when no one had mobiles and things happened without much planning and it was laugh out loud funny at times.

108 The Four Tendencies by Gretchen Rubin
I loved The Happiness Project and revisit it regularly. This was more theoretical (without an enormous amount of actual science - it really is just “here’s something - I reckon you can put everyone into one of these four categories”. But it did resonate - I recognised my tendency straight away and she was spot on with several observations about the way I do things. And the way other people round me do things which has helped think about about various issues.

73 Band Sinister by KJ Charles

Sir Philip Rookwood is the disgrace of the county. He’s a rake, an atheist, and founder member of a Hellfire club. Deeply respectable Guy Frisby and his sister Amanda live in rural seclusion after a family scandal.
But then Amanda falls and breaks her leg in a riding accident and is carried to Rookwood Hall, where the members of the Club are all in residence....

So far, so Georgette Heyer (and the cover picture is pure Heyer, complete with 'A Gay Romance of the Regency' pull quote). And while the romances aren't quite as Heyer would have written them, the spirit is very much the same. Delightful fun, and absolutely recommended if you like this sort of thing.

40. Life And Fate - Vasily Grossman

This beast of a 900-page Russian novel has been described as WW2's War And Peace, and it's easy to see why. Set during and shortly after the battle for Stalingrad, its epic sweep takes in a huge cast of characters - from Russian Jews in a concentration camp to German officers, Russian soldiers under siege in Stalingrad, political prisoners and inmates at a Russian labour camp. (There's a handy list of characters at the back to help keep track.) Not always an easy read - it had me in tears more than once - but a huge achievement in its ability to portray individuals in all their strengths and weaknesses against the backdrop of the might and insanity of the totalitarian State (both communist and fascist).

45. The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer.
I feel that this novel could be describing the life of someone I know, except that it is set in middle class America and not UK but the issues are similar. Jules goes to summer camp as a teenager on a scholarship after her father dies and finds her people. They like her, she likes them and they remain friends throughout their lives into middle age when the story finishes.

The teenager that wants to belong with a group who you feel are your own, where you can’t believe your luck to find those people. The tricky way that love and desire are not always reciprocal. Love through the ages from teen to your eighties seen through different characters. Dream jobs and actual jobs. Secrets and lies. Friendship and support. Mental health issues. Lots of money and struggling to get by. Nostalgia.

At first I wasn’t sure whether I was going to like the story or the characters but I did. It was a good read.

46. The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker.
This book retells part of the Iliad mostly from the point of view of Briseis, Queen of a vanquished City, turned slave when her husband and brothers are slaughtered and given to Achilles as a prize. Well, this was never going to be a barrel of laughs. I thought Pat Barker successfully set the scene and brought the characters to life, particularly Briseis. I wanted Achilles to be nicer; instead he was a violent, uncommunicative man with issues. Patroclus and one of Achilles’ captains were the only sympathetic men in the story. Overall, pretty grim (although not graphic, thankfully) and made all the more grim as you know that, even today, there are women being treated in this way.

Scribbly, White Teeth is always on those lists of books you should read but I found On Beauty okay and did not like Swing Time - I think I’d feel the same way about it as you did, ie okay but not ground-breaking. I’ve added The Warmth of Other Suns to my to-read list.

Pepe, I’m quite intrigued by the reviews on here of The Idiot, it’s going on my list to read at some point.

I liked the first half of The Silent Companions but thought it got increasingly less creepy and more silly as it continued, and I really disliked the ending.

I read a great Zadie Smith short fiction in the New Yorker but have not got on well with her novels. Couldn’t finish Swing Time and found On Beauty a mixed bag. I like some of her essays too but her thinking doesn’t always translate for me to her longer fiction.

shakeitoff good review of the Pat Barker