50 Book Challenge 2018 Part Eight

[southeastdweller]

Welcome to the eighth (and probably final) 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 and please try to let us all know your thoughts on what you've read.The lurkers among you are also very welcome to come out of the woodwork and share with us 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, the sixth one here and the seventh one here.

How have you got on this year?

Oh, OK!

Of course you’re right. Mixed up my titles sorry brain blip It’s the right thread to do it though; you don’t have to wait long for a correction

55. The Button Box: The Story of Women in the 20th century told through the clothes they wore - Lynn Knight Interesting bit of domestic/social history although could have gone into a little more depth for me. Also felt it was crying out for pictures, didn’t quite make sense or have the impact it could have without them.

53. Reunion - Fred Uhlman. Novella set mostly in Germany in 1932 about a friendship between two teenagers, one a German aristocrat and the other a middle class Jew, who meet at school at a time when Hitler is rising to power. It's short but says a hell of a lot about loneliness and the comfort found in friendships, and the last line is the most devastating sentences in a book I've read in my life. I would never have heard about this book if it wasn't for the guests on this week's BBC A Good Read raving about it. Recommended, especially if you're after a short book.

I absolutely love A Good Read, southeast, but I must say I was doing a bit of shouting at the radio this week as Jeffrey Archer mansplained at Harriett Gilbert and Kamila Shamsie.....

133. Careless love : The unmasking of Elvis Presley- Peter Guralnick
This has taken me 2 long weeks!! Only probably worth it if you have more than a passing interest in Presley's life.
I read the first part Mystery Train last year. That book finished in 1958 with the death of his mother and induction to the US army.
This book picks up where the other left off. And it is fair to say that both of those events marked and marred Presley's life going forward. His mother's death seem to cut him adrift, her approval and moral compass was gone; the army gave him his first taste of prescription drugs.
This is a bleak tale. The 60's and early 70's show a faded star with some flashes of brilliance. For the last 2 maybe 3 years he is a cruel parody of his former self. The amount of near misses there were in that time in only leaves you wondering how he managed to survive for so long.
Very very sad.

I fancy Reunion. Sample ordered.

40. The Plague And I, by Betty MacDonald a re-read of a book belonging to my mother that I first read in my teens. An autobiographical tale written in the '50's (and consequently employing some uncomfortable racial stereotypes that don't sit well with modern sensibilities) that deals with the American author's contraction of TB and subsequent stay in a state run sanitarium, run on military lines and largely staffed by Nurse Ratchet types.
    It doesn't sound like a barrel of laughs but she has a gentle laconic humour which she puts to good use bringing her family and fellow patients to life.
    Her biggest seller (but probably better known in the states) was The Egg and I, another autobiographical yarn that deals with her years as a chicken farmer when newly married and I've purchased this one from Abe books to read at some point.

41. The House We Grew Up In, by Lisa Jewell purchased on a £2.99 Audible daily deal (what fresh hell is this adding audio books to my mountainous TBR pile!) it was a real soap opera of a story dealing with the trials and tribulations of a dysfunctional family all affected in different ways and to varying degrees by a family tragedy. The mother, a free spirit hippie type, does everything in her power to make her four children's childhood perfect but becomes a problem hoarder as she gets older. She, her husband and her children all go on to have unsuitable and divisive relationships that put further strains on the family ties.
    I enjoyed this whilst I was listening to it but it felt insubstantial and unbelievable in retrospect, particularly the happy ever after ending that seemed deeply implausible to be.

118 The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler
I have mixed feelings about this. I can see why it’s seen as a classic of its type (laconic private eye solves crime and navigates corruption while encountering various beautiful enigmatic women). And some of the writing is highly arresting (“Neither of the two people in my room paid any attention to the way I came in, although only one of them was dead”). But I never quite got into the story the way I needed to to want to pick it up and it was only because it was a book club choice that I persisted. I won’t rush to read others by Raymond Chandler, although I can see in the right frame of mind they’d be entertaining.

119 Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman
I have resisted so many people’s attempts to get me to read this, in a slightly “well, if they all like it it can’t be that good” way. But it’s been languishing on my Kindle for so long I thought I should give it a try. It was immensely readable and there were some genuinely funny moments and some real pathos-filled moments too. I didn’t find the plot particularly interesting, it really was all about the character of Eleanor and her gradual awakening to the people around her that made the book.

Ah, Desdemonas, I know what you mean about the racial stereotypes but I love this book...... The Egg and I is also very funny (though brace yourself for more not-so-great attitudes which just wouldn't be countenanced today).

She wrote a couple more books about her life and her eccentric family too. Anybody Can Do Anything is quite a hoot. Very sadly, she died young, of cancer.

Terps I'm really grateful for Archer introducing me to the book but yes, he was certainly obnoxious to his fellow panellists.

I'm looking forward to a re-read of The Egg And I, Terpsichore, I didn't know if anyone else would have heard of the author on here or if my mum had just picked the books up on a whim in a charity shop or whatever and the author was largely unknown in the U.K.
I'll certainly look out for Anyone Can Do Anything. I goggled the author when I finished The Plague And I and was very sad to see she died aged 49.
I can forgive the lack of political correctness because the books were written in the '50's and 'the past is a different country' to coin a phrase but I think it's worth mentioning in case anyone else picks them up on recommendation and is horrified.
I love her gentle laconic style of humour, it reminds me of Helen Hanff in 84 Charing Cross Road, and gives the lie to the old adage that the Americans don't do irony.

79. Warcross by Marie Lu

Set in a near future where a virtual reality system called Warcross is wildly popular.
Teenage bounty hunter and hacker Emika’s life gets turned upside down when she accidentally hacks herself into the opening game in the worldwide Warcross championships.
Emika is whisked off to Japan, where the creator of Warcross, Hideo, offers her a job to uncover a major security flaw, and even gets her into the championships as an official player.

The story was enjoyable, with an unexpected plot twist at the end. The virtual reality bits were interesting, and I liked Emika’s character, although the romance between her and Hideo was rather unbelievable.

80. Parasite by Mira Grant

Another one set in the near future, a future where the SymboGen company has developed the humble tapeworm into an Intestinal Bodyguard system that takes care of all manner of medical needs, protecting the hosts from illness, allergies, and secretes medicines into the hosts - and all with no side effects. Almost everyone has one.
Unfortunately, it’s too good to be true.
All the tinkering around with the tapeworm DNA has accidentally created tapeworms who aren’t happy to just sit around in the guts. They want to take control....

I really enjoyed this, a good easy read. Absorbing and fast paced, with a believable main character, although the logic behind the tapeworms gaining sentience and driving bodies didn’t make much sense to me.

Sorry, Desdemona, I hadn't quite grasped that you'd read The Egg and I in the past as well! Yes, she was reflecting the attitudes of her time and it can be very uncomfortable for us now to realise just how unthinkingly racist and dismissive people were in the 40's and 50's.....especially as she was clearly a thoughtful and considerate person.

I think the books had a vogue here because there was a Hollywood film of The Egg and I, then a couple of spin-offs featuring the comic couple, Ma and Pa Kettle (a cue for more accusations of unfair characterisation because they were poor 'hillbilly' types). But at one time you could pick copies of the books up all over the place in secondhand shops, and until very recently too.

Howdy everyone, some great reviews in the past couple of weeks. Have added a few to my ever-growing reading list...

41. "Homo Deus" by Yuval Noah Harari. I started this earlier in the year but had to abandon it when some reservations came up at the library, and I remember not being that bothered because it wasn't living up to his first book (Sapiens). However, I'm glad I picked it up again as the second half was much better than the first (which was really a re-telling of the first book Sapiens but not as good). I finished it on Saturday then watched Doctor Who on Sunday which was coincidentally based on one of the themes of the book - we will make machines that make humans redundant. The positions he outlines in the book sound so sensible when you read them although fantastical at the same time.

80 Stalin's Englishman: the Lives of Guy Burgess by Andrew Lownie

I picked this up on daily deal after reading Ben Macintyre's A Spy Among Friends (biog of Kim Philby) earlier in the year. I enjoyed both, but on the whole preferred this to the Philby book, mostly because Burgess is such an interesting character.

(I think my next spy book will have to be another Macintyre, The Spy and the Traitor, to look at the other side.)

Not only have I been mithering around picking up books, putting them down again and not finishing anything; I've now managed to leave a library book on an aeroplane this afternoon.
Very unimpressed with myself!

81 Dark by Paul Arvidson

Dun is one of the Bridge Folk, living in a web of lightless tunnels, many filled with water, creating folk-things out of the fungi and water plants growing around them, and trading for found-things with other nearby tribes. A trainee shaman, when all the fish in the rivers vanish, and other strange things start to happen, he is sent off with a group of friends to look for the semi-legendary Machine Folk.

Sci-fi novels set in lightless worlds seem to have become their own sub-genre in the last few years. Dark definitely has some interesting and different ideas and worldbuilding, and there were lots of things to like about it. It's the author's first novel, and it did tell in rather clunky writing and some rather heavy plot signalling, but it was definitely worth a read, and I'd pick up something of his in the future (I might give him another couple of books first, though).

Reading and thoroughly enjoying The Long Shadow recommended in Saturday's Grauniad. Currently 98p on Kindle.

I bought that on Kindle this morning, Remus. I hope you also read The Hours Before Dawn.

I will, South. Thanks. Might see what the library can get hold of for me.

42. I Am I Am I Am by Maggie O'Farrell. I've had mixed experiences of Maggie O'Farrell novels, I loved The Vanishing Act Of Esme Lennox but heartily disliked The Hand That First Held Mine. (Couldn't get along with the modern day couple.) Thankfully I really enjoyed this unusual autobiography that takes snapshots of the author's life, in a non chronological format, each vignette dealing with a brush with death, either hers, or in the final story, her daughters. Some are more visceral than others but all are described in a vivid and compelling way. I loved her powerful story telling and captivating turn of phrase. I found myself incensed by the high handed manor in which she was treated by some in the medical profession, the casual sexism she encountered (that if female we've probably all experienced) as a young woman and the bullying metered out to her because of her misfortune to suffer a debilitating condition. She vividly captured the emotions and impotence felt when faced with such situations. I will definitely seek out more of her writing after reading this, however if Ms O'Farrell ever invited me to join her for a stroll or a swim I would probably pass, she doesn't have a lot of luck!

Terpsichore I read The Egg And I so long ago I can remember absolutely nothing about it, I have no recollection of the hillbilly couple for example. My mother has lost or loaned out her copy at some point in the intervening years so I've had to buy a second hand copy, I'll have to look out for the movie.

Now onto The Seven Deaths Of Evelyn Hardcastle as recommended on here, and continuing with Persuasion on Audible which I'm finding a bit un-involving if I'm honest.

47. The Songlines - Bruce Chatwin

Fascinating book that's part travel journal based on the writer's experience of spending time with Aborigines in Australia, part ethnographic musing on not just the Aboriginals' belief systems but on the very nature of language and how it binds humans to place. The book neither patronises nor romanticises the people that Chatwin comes across, rather taking a born writer's interest in getting to the bottom of their stories (or in this case, songs). It rather digresses towards the end with extensive quotes from Chatwin's notebooks about all kinds of events in his travels, but they're still very interesting.

Oh dear I now appear to have bought about 8 Celia Fremlin books.....all reduced to £1.89 each on Kindle, from £12.00.

Oh well. An early Christmas present to myself, perhaps.

49. Tombland - C.J. Sansom
    Enjoyed this update on the Matthew Shardlake story, which brought back all the familiar characters. It was set in Norwich, and followed the events of Ketts Rebellion, which was of particular interest to me, as I live in the area. There was masses of historical detail in the book, which I love, but might be too much for some.
    I feel that this might be the last book in the series, as I gather the author is seriously ill. It felt like loose ends were being tied up, which was both satisfying - and sad.

50. Sugar Money - Jane Harris
    This was set during slavery, and followed an attempt by a group of slaves to escape, although only to a different plantation. I didn't enjoy it as much as her first 2 books, but still think it was good.

51. The Chalk Man - C.J. Tudor
    A good thriller, with several clever plots twists, particularly at the end.

52. Macbeth - Jo Nesbo
    Normally love his books, but felt this missed the mark a bit. It seemed to be trying to be both a thriller, and a sci-fi novel, and I'm afraid I got a bit fed up with it.

I'm thrilled to have reached my target of 50 books, more than twice as many as I've read in any other year. I'm currently off sick, so hope to get a few more read before the Christmas activities start.