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.

*26. The Big Ones - Dr Lucy Jones
*
Before you all get too carried away this is about natural disasters.
In fact, it is subtitled, "How natural disasters have shaped us (and what we can do about them."
I really enjoyed this. It's accessible yet informative. I found the bits about how earthquakes occur and what makes some worse than others really interesting.
Each chapter covers a different disaster, starting way back with Vesuvius and the destruction of Pompeii and the surrounding area, and covering lots of well known and not so well known (to me anyway) disasters finishing with the Japanese earthquakes and tsunamis that led to the Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011.
It covers floods, earthquakes, volcanoes and the resulting fires and tsunamis.
As well as describing the what and why of each disaster, the author also discusses how humans reacted to each situations, both as individuals and societies and how over time these actions have shaped and will continue to shape our preparedness and reaction to future disasters.
I found it fascinating, although living in the south east of England I'm unlikely to ever have firsthand experience of any of the phenomena (for which I am very grateful!)

My list, highlights in bold:

1. Jacob’s Room Is Full Of Books by Susan Hill
2. Our Endless Numbered Days by Claire Fuller
3. The Dry by Jane Harper
4. Best Friends by Jacqueline Wilson
5. Oh My God What A Complete Aisling by Emer McLysart
6. The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton
7. Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
8. The Music Shop by Rachel Joyce
9. Mrs de Winter by Susan Hill

10. The Rebecca Notebook And Other Memories by Daphne du Maurier 11. Wuthering Heights According To Spike Milligan 12. The Growing Pains Of Adrian Mole by Sue Townsend 13. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott 14. All She Wants by Jonathan Harvey 15. Good Wives by Louisa May Alcott 16. The Trouble With Goats And Sheep by Joanna Cannon 17. The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett 18. Confusion by Elizabeth Jane Howard 19. The Outcasts Of Time by Ian Mortimer 20. The Power by Naomi Alderman 21. How To Stop Time by Matt Haig 22. The Secret Library by Oliver Tearle 23. Close To Home by Cara Hunter 24. Arrowood by Laura McHugh 26. Adrian Mole: The Wilderness Years by Sue Townsend 27. Pemberley by Emma Tennant 28. When She Was Gone by Lisa Jewell 29. The Child by Fiona Barton 30. The Universe Versus Alex Woods by Gavin Extence 31. Burnt Paper Sky by Gilly Macmillan 32. Before I Go To Sleep by S J Watson 33. Casting Off by Elizabeth Jane Howard 34. Timekeepers: How The World Became Obsessed With Time by Simon Garfield 35. The Hiding Places by Katherine Webb 36. Dangerous Days In Elizabethan England by Terry Deary 37. Nelly Dean by Alison Case 38. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte 39. The Last Tudor by Philippa Gregory 40. The Sisters Who Would Be Queen by Leanda de Lisle 41. All Change by Elizabeth Jane Howard 42. Britain By The Book: A Curious Tour Of Our Literary Landscape by Oliver Tearle 43. Rachel's Holiday by Marian Keyes 44. Three Sisters, Three Queens by Philippa Gregory. 45. The Runaways by Ruth Thomas 46. Under The Duvet by Marian Keyes 47. The Bookshop That Floated Away by Sarah Henshaw 48. Hired: Six Months Undercover in Low-Wage Britain by James Bloodworth 49. Smoke Gets In Your Eyes: And Other Tales From The Crematorium by Caitlin Doughty 50. The Vanishing Of Audrey Wilde by Eve Chase 51. Animal Farm by George Orwell 52. Odd Child Out by Gilly Macmillan 53. Relight My Fire by Joanna Bolouri 54. Fanny Hill, or Memoirs of a Woman Of Pleasure by John Cleland 55. Before You Die by Samantha Hayes 56. In The Unlikely Event by Judy Blume 57. Turn Right At The Spotted Dog: And Other Diversions by Jilly Cooper 58. The RMS Titanic Miscellany by John D T White 59. Quiet Power by Susan Cain 60. The Reunion by Samantha Hayes 61. Quiet by Susan Cain 62. The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald 63. America’s Back Porch by Daniel Jeffreys 64. Notes From The Sofa by Raymond Briggs 65. Saturday Requiem by Nicci French 66. Never Greener by Ruth Jones 67. Let Me Lie by Clare Mackintosh 68. This Is Going To Hurt by Adam Kay 69. A Wild Life by Martin Hughes-Games 70. Anything You Do Say by Gillian McAllister 71. The Years She Stole by Jonathan Harvey 72. Posing for Picasso by Sam Stone 73. Why I’m No Longer Talking To White People About Race by Reni Eddo-Lodge 74. Five Children On The Western Front by Kate Saunders 75. The Corpse Bridge by Stephen Booth 76. Bookworm: A Memoir Of Childhood Reading by Lucy Mangan 77. The Time Traveller’s Guide To Restoration Britain by Ian Mortimer 78. Sunday Morning Coming Down by Nicci French 79. Victoria Wood: Comedy Genius - Her Life And Work by Chris Foote Wood 80. A Piano In The Pyrenees by Tony Hawk 81. Surprise Me by Sophie Kinsella 82. The Lido by Libby Page 83. Our House by Louise Candlish 84. The Mermaid And Mrs Hancock by Imogen Hermes Gower 85. The Greedy Queen: Eating With Victoria by Annie Gray 86. The Silent Companions by Laura Purcell 87. The Betrayals by Fiona Neill 88. Need You Dead by Peter James 89. Truly Madly Guilty by Liane Moriarty 90. Blood Sugar by Suzanna Dunn 91. Bring Me Back by B. A. Paris 92. Dead If You Don’t by Peter James 93. All That Remains: A Life In Death by Professor Sue Black 94. The Secret Barrister: Stories Of The Law And How It's Broken by The Secret Barrister 95. The Woman In The Window by A J Finn 96. The List by Joanna Bolouri 97. Force of Nature by Jane Harper 98. An Almond For A Parrot by Wray Delaney 99. When God Was A Rabbit by Sarah Winman 100. Thanks For The Memories by Cecelia Ahern 101. Islander: A Journey Round Our Archipelago by Patrick Barkham 102. Are You Dave Gorman? by Dave Gorman and Danny Wallace 103. All Quiet On The Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque 104. Emily by Jilly Cooper 105. Dave Gorman’s Googlewhack Adventure by Dave Gorman 106. The Secret History Of Jane Eyre: How Charlotte Bronte Wrote Her Masterpiece by John Pfordresher 107. G is for Gumshoe by Sue Grafton 108, 109 And 110: And The Rest Is History, An Argumentation Of Historians and The Long And Short Of It by Jodi Taylor 111. The Trouble With Henry And Zoe by Andy Jones 113. Jane Doe by Victoria Helen Stone 114. The Long Weekend: Life In The English Country House Between The Wars by Adrian Tinniswood 115. Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn 116. Danny The Champion Of The World by Roald Dahl 117. Hillbilly Elegy by J D Vance 118. My Husband’s Wife by Jane Corry 119. How We Eat With Our Eyes And Think With Our Stomachs by Melanie Muhl 120. In The Dark by Cara Hunter 121. How It All Began by Penelope Lively 122. Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn 123. Bad Twins by Rebecca Chance 124. Autumn by Ali Smith 125. My Name Is Leon by Kit de Waal 126. The Other Us by Fiona Harper 127. The Missing Girl by Jenny Quintana 128. My Name Is Lucy Barton by Elizabeth Strout 129. Good Morning Corfu: A Year On A Greek Island by Maddie Grigg 130. Three Things About Elsie by Joanna Cannon 131. Corfu - A Notebook by Richard Clark 132. Cross Her Heart by Sarah Pinborough

I've just cast aside Call Me By Your Name by Andre Aciman. 17 year old Elio, falls in (initially unrequited) love with Oliver, a young academic who comes to stay with Elio's parents at their summer home in Italy. I was expecting wistfulness, yearning, romance and passion. It appears to have had universally good reviews. However, I've got a good third into it and it feels horribly superficial. Lots of schoolboy lusting, with no real sense of passion or emotion. I was bored rigid. Have moved onto Ragtime by EL Doctorow which seems much more promising.

I didn't get on with Call Me By Your Name.

Bill Bryson's excellent, Mother Tongue is 99p on Kindle today, btw.

68. Lucinda Riley - The Love Letter

Joanna Haslam is a young journalist working on the newsdesk of one of Britain's popular tabloids. When she is sent to cover the funeral of Sir James Harrison, one of the greatest actors of the century, she comes to the aid of an elderly lady who is taken ill during the service. The lady later reveals to Joanna that James Harrison had carried a secret for over 70 years - a letter, the contents of which could rock the English Establishment to its core. As Joanna tries to unravel the secret and to find the letterit soon becomes clear that sinister forces will stop at nothing to conceal the truth.

Enjoyable enough story, all rather fanciful as you'd expect.

The film of Call Me By Your Name is a million times better than the book.

62. Dead Water by Ngaio Marsh. Okay, but they are getting a tad repetitive now. I expect the earlier ones were the best but will persevere to the end.

turn I’ve got Ragtime lined up so will be interested in your review.

Had a day out today and treated myself to A Long Long Way by Sebastian Barry after enjoying Days Without End - anybody read it?

What I’m just starting to realise about encouraging children to be readers is they are just as keen to explore a bookshop as I am now, which on the one hand is lovely, but on the other I can’t treat myself without treating them! So also got a David Walliams and a Beatrix Potter

I’ve been very tempted by the film of Call Me By Your Name

I've not seen the film of Call Me By Your Name and now I'm not sure I ever will!

106. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. Perfect holiday reading fodder and has prompted me to look for more in-depth stuff on the occupation of the Channel Islands. Any suggestions?
Did love the section where she broke off her engagement after her fiancé boxed up her books. Reminded me of DH muttering about using the Kindle when I buy physical books!
107. Reasons to stay alive - Matt Haig Very much one man's experience of mental health issues. Nothing wrong with that and it may help some.
108. Yellow Crocus- Laila Ibrahim Story of a slave 'Mamma' and her charge. Not terrible but the story has been told better by many others.
Currently reading Land of Green Ginger by Winnifred Holtby which I think was a recommendation from this thread a while ago.

There are a bunch of Penguin Classics on the Kindle deal today for 99p each. I've bought Child of All Nations by Irmgard Keun, who was mentioned on this thread (maybe by Dottie?). Some other goodies there too.

Thanks Keith. I've bought One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and can highly recommend Lolita.

Copying my list over and updating the latest.

1. Sisters and Lies - Bernice Barrington
2. Her Husband’s Secret - Janice Frost
3. Mount! - Jilly Cooper
4. They All Fall Down - Tammy Cohen
5. The Word Game - Steena Holmes
6. The Good Widow - Liz Fenton and Lisa Steinke
7. Mummy’s Favourite - Sarah Flint
8. The Paper Year - Avery Aster
9. Gone - TJ Brearton

10. My Sister’s Grave - Robert Dugoni 11. Carrie - Stephen King 12. Based on a True Story - Delphine de Vigan 13. Every Last Lie - Mary Kubica 14. The Darkness Within - Lisa Stone 15. Anatomy of a Scandal - Sarah Vaughan 16. The Trap - Melanie Raabe 17. Flawed - Cecelia Ahern 18. Bring Me Back - BA Paris 19. Perfect - Cecelia Ahern 20. The Roanoke Girls - Amy Engel 21. He Said/She Said - Erin Kelly 22. 3,096 Days - Natascha Kampusch 23. Diamonds - K A Linde 24. First One Missing - Tammy Cohen 25. Lullaby - Leila Slimani 26. Just What Kind of Mother Are You - Paula Daly 27. Elizabeth is Missing - Emma Healey 28. The Fear - C L Taylor 29. My (not so) Perfect Life - Sophie Kinsella 30. The Roses of May - Dot Hutchison 31. The Serial Killer’s Daughter - Lesley Welsh 32. Then She Was Gone - Lisa Jewell 33. Never Let You Go - Chevy Stevens 34. The Mistress’s Revenge - Tamar Cohen 35. Don’t Close Your Eyes - Holly Sedden 36. Thirteen - Steve Cavanagh 37. No-one Ever Has Sex in the Suburbs - Tracy Bloom 38. The Idea of Him - Holly Peterson 39. Good Me Bad Me - Ali Land 40. The Trophy Child - Paula Daly 41. Watching You - Lisa Jewell 42. The Girl I Used To Be - Mary Torjussen 43. Clean - Juno Dawson 44. Open Your Eyes - Paula Daly

45. The Hate U Give - Angie Thomas
    Much reviewed on here. Was an interesting insight into the black lives matter campaign. Also made me look up a few of the names mentioned from real life.

46. I See You - Clare MacKintosh
    Now reading this

Toomuch, on the Channel Islands during the Occupation, you might try Island Madness by Tim Binding. It's set on Guernsey in the 1940's. Someone chose it for our book group and although tbh I don't remember much about it (it was a while ago!) I think I quite enjoyed it.

I really came on to note 56: The Western Wind - Samantha Harvey

I was v pleased to snag a hardback of this in a charity shop for £1.99 after reading a rave review. In 1491, priest John Reve has to minister to his flock as they come to terms with the drowning of Thomas Newman, the richest, most energetic and forward-thinking inhabitant of the obscure, land-locked Somerset village of Oakham. Was it murder? Suicide? Reve has to contend with the suspicious dean, who quickly arrives to investigate and seems keen to find somewhere to pin blame for Newman's disappearance.

I'm making it sound more like a whodunnit than it is, although in many ways it made me think of a more literary version of a Shardlake novel - it's a beautifully-written, poetic book, evoking an earlier time when the natural world was central to everyday existence....weather, animals, plants, food are all vividly evoked, as are the relationships between people in tiny communities. Most of all it examines the fundamental importance of religion in those times, when the system of confession and penance functioned as a method of social control and the maintenance of order within a community. Reve is the narrator and we quickly learn that, although given great power within his flock, he's far from infallible.

Three holiday reads:
76: After the Funeral – Agatha Christie
77: The Toll Booth – Georgette Heyer
78: Death of a Red Heroine - Qiu Xiaolong

Realised I’d read the Christie before but had forgotten who dunnit. Not one of her best – it all got pretty silly and the motive/method all lacked credibility.

Really enjoyed The Toll Booth - just silly Heyer frolics, but perfect for a beach read.

Disliked the Inspector Chen one –poorly written, far too much back story and lots of it was quite boring, including pages and pages describing him eating various bowls of noodles with spring onions on top. Too many short sentences; some really clumsy Americanisms and a lot of boring nonsense about poetry. I liked the central character, but won’t be reading any more of these.

I have just finished The Sealwoman's Gift which I recommend to those who liked Burial Rites. This is about an aspect of history I knew nothing about at all : that is the raiding of Iceland by Algerian pirates in the 17th century, taking them off to slavery ,and the quest of Asta's husband , the Godly Olafur to get the alcohol and pleausre pickled Danish king to care enough to pay a ransom.

It's well written : one could argue nothign happens for most of it but I liked its poetic qualities and its celebration of different types of love and her creation of a sense of two very different worlds. Nothing moved me but it was a good read. Recommended by Zoe Ball's book club, which I am not familiar with. She seems to have better tatse than Richard and Judy!

I was drawn to this as it is witten by Sally Magnusson, Magnus' daughter who I briefly went to school with. She writes a better book than my other ex schoolmate , Susan Calman (different school : I went to many!) but that's not surprising, I suppose. This is her first novel and I hope she writes more.

The cinematography in Call Me By Your Name is fantastic and it’s very evocative of the 1980s- it does a very good job of conveying a specific sense of time and place, and it moves the plot on much more effectively- I was really disappointed by the book, which I read after I had seen the film.

63. The Wave by Todd Strasser. Well known YA book from the 1980s about a high school history lesson/ experiment in facism that goes wrong (apparently based on a true story from the 60s). I’m pretty sure I quite enjoyed this in the 80s; but reading it as an adult it perhaps hasn’t aged well- it is hard to see why the students get so sucked in so quickly, and it doesn’t really account for the positive parts of the experiment (the class “loser” is included for the first time, some of the footballers try to work as a team).

There is also a key plot moment where a boy pushes his girlfriend (opening his eyes to the danger of following the crowd), but it brings them back together- I am not that happy about the casual acceptance of male violence that suggests, although I suppose in the context of children’s behaviour pushing and shoving is (if apologised for and reproved) quite normal. I have to read it aloud to a class and I am hoping to find an equivalent, more modern book to suggest instead of anyone knows of one!

Tanaqui , have you seen the German film of The Wave (Die Welle)? It is really very good and works well in German setting given their history.
My GCSE class like it, too.

terpsichore , I have The Western Wind in my Amazon shopping list : waiting for it to go down in price a bit.

Thanks, Keith. Have bought Child of all Nations which I'd never heard of but looks right up my street. The writer was the girlfriend of Joseph Roth for a while, and I'm currently reading his What I Saw, essays.

Remus Hope you like my Keun recommendation better than the Inspector Chen! I really like those, I was in China for a while, and I think they capture a lot of key aspects of Chinese history and culture, but I developed an appreciation for Chinese poetry, so maybe it didn't have the same impact. I agree the first Chens are not as good as the later ones, it takes a while for them to take off, but I wouldn't agree that they were badly written - particularly in comparison to Agatha Christie, her work has some good points but writing style isn't one of them, imo.

I couldn't get through the film or the book of Call me by your name but found Out of Egypt Aciman's memoir of growing up Jewish in Egypt really interesting.

Badly written in the sense that far more variety of sentence length and style is needed. Also, in the sense that just because a writer knows about Chinese history and culture, it doesn't mean he/she needs to ram in pages and pages of back story about it just to prove that.

I really liked Chen himself.

And I'm no cheerleader for Christie, but at least she doesn't bore me for huge chunks of her novels.

Away on holidays at the moment, so I'll wait to update properly when I get back & have my computer / full list. In the meantime a rather fun novella pastiche of the country house style murder mystery. And then there were (n-1) by Sarah Pinsker from Uncanny magazine. Sarah Pinsker is an insurance claim investigator, who receives an unexpected invitation. In an alternate universe, her analogue has become a scientist, and developed a technique for travelling between alternate realities. In an initial exploration of the possibilities, she has got funding to organise a conference of Sarahs from different realities. To avoid premature publicity, this is held on an isolated island, with no transport on or off. Predictably, a Sarah is found dead, and the narrator tries to investigate in a scenario where all the suspects are iterations of herself. Well worth a read - it's available for free in the online Uncanny magazine.

30. Prisoners of Geography: Ten Maps That Tell You Everything You Need To Know About Global Politics by Tim Marshall

This was excellent The title doesn't do the book justice. The author is looks at each region of the world one by one, goes over the advantages and challenges bestowed upon each country, and how the hand that they are dealt by nature and history shapes their foreign policy. It was clear, comprehensive, and imho essential reading for anyone interested in politics and global economy.

Tim Marshall is a British journalist who has reported from conflict zones for many years, later becoming diplomatic editor and foreign correspondent at Sky News. His knowledge and understanding is impressive. The book was published in 2015 so the information it contains about international conflicts is very recent.

I definitely recommend this book to all of you.