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?

Vandy, that sounds wonderful - but it doesn’t appear to be available in the UK until early January which is disappointing as I’d have snapped up copies for me and at least two other people I know for Christmas!

81. The Sudden Appearance of Hope by Claire North

A story about Hope and Perfection.
Hope is a young woman who is forgotten by everyone. No matter what she says, what she does, once she’s out of sight and sound, she’s completely forgotten in minutes, as if she’d never been there at all.

Perfection is an app, claiming to help people become the most perfect version of themselves, awarding them points for everything from eating right and exercising, to buying the approved things and associating with the most “perfect” people.

Hope becomes entangled with Perfection, the sinister side of things behind it, and plots to destroy Perfection.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this.

48. An Armenian Sketchbook - Vasily Grossman

A kind of companion piece to Grossman's epic masterpiece Life And Fate which I read a few books ago. In 1961, just after the manuscript of Life And Fate had been seized by the Soviet authorities, Grossman travelled from Moscow to Armenia (then part of the USSR) to work as a translator on a book by an Armenian writer (despite not speaking a word of Armenian himself). This short book is a record of his time in the country, but it's more personal than a mere travelogue, interspersed with his concerns about his career, his failing health (he died in 1964), and his musings on life in general.

Popping back in to say that Altered Carbon is 99 p on the Kindle just for today. It's well worth a read. If you like it, there are pretty good sequels, too.

Pepe, shucks! Would they accept an IOU? It's too bad that the UK publication date is after Christmas; it's a perfect choice for library and book lovers.

Orlean has discussed the book on several podcasts if you'd like a preview. Also, her interview at my library was filmed; I'd be happy to post the link when it's uploaded to YouTube.

It looks as though The Library Book is obtainable from Wordery - - free delivery too

How are you getting on with the yetis, Cote?

Fantastic! Thanks terpsichore - that will teach me not to default to Amazon!

I use Wordery quite a bit these days - they can often be cheaper than Amazon.

50. Jamaica Inn by Daphne du Maurier. (Audible)

I really liked listening to this. Gutsy young female protagonist, menacing baddie, spooky surroundings..good fun! I now quite fancy re-reading Rebecca.

That’s good to know. I try to buy books from bookshops rather than Amazon (Kindle aside...) and also to buy second hand (I know they own Abe Books but tell myself the sellers still get a sale they wouldn’t have got from me otherwise). But I shall definitely check out Wordery particularly as it looks as if they give cashback through topcashback.

I very rarely buy new books, tbh, Pepe on account of being a cheapskate and ime almost everything turns up in a charity shop eventually , but for presents and when I need to buy new in a hurry, I now check out Wordery and The Book Depository as well as Amazon.

60. Uniquely Human: a different way of seeing autism by Barry Prizant and Tom Fields-Meyer This was great, really great. I think a couple of others on the thread have already read it. It focuses on understanding, listening, 'getting it', making adjustments, and has an overall warm, positive and optimistic message. Will be making copious notes before this goes back to the library. Now, how to get DS's class teacher to read it.

61. Titanic: Minute by Minute by Jonathan Mayo Bought this for DS as he has an obsessive interest in the Titanic (for why, see review above!) and I read it too. It does what it says on the tin, is reasonably well written, drawing heavily on contemporary sources, and selecting them well to get the balance between technical detail and human interest. Would have benefited from a few more illustrations.

62. Either End of the Tunnel by Lannah Battley Re-read. The author is known to me, is currently working on the sequel, and has asked me to comment on an early draft, so I wanted to remind myself what happened in this first novel. Absolutely loads of things, and all very exciting, is the answer. It's a split world novel, set in the 1880s. One world has developed pretty much like ours, but in the other the industrial revolution never happened. It seems that only people with a certain family association can travel between them. While one, Gareth, sees this as an opportunity to bring the wonders of technology to the old world, another, Ursula, is driven by personal gain and power, and Gareth's family are put in danger as a result. Lots of characters, plenty of action, a good read, and of course the sequel will be even better once I've got my hands on it!

51. The Girl in the Spider's Web by David Lagercrantz

Full disclosure first: I LOVED The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Not so much the other titles in the trilogy but that first one was one of the few books I can remember in recent years that sucked me right into the story and didn't let go until the end. I was on holiday when I read it and actually wanted to stay in bed reading rather than go to the beach and lovely restaurants, I enjoyed it that much. I felt the second and third books jumped the shark somewhat, but still enjoyed reading them. This re-starting of the series following Stieg Larsson's death, however, just wasn't for me. Too clunky, way too much exposition, and the Salander character was just a bit of a pale imitation of Larsson's, I felt. Also, the ridiculous saintliness/purity and astonishing attractiveness of Blomkvist, already present in Larsson's novels, was even more intrusive and annoying here. Perhaps because the plot was all over the place and didn't have the driving force of even the second and third novels, let alone the first. I won't be reading the second "new" instalment.

As an aside, for those who enjoyed the Larsson Salander novels with all their over-the-top ridiculousness, the other Scandinavian crime novelist I have particularly enjoyed in recent years (apart from Jo Nesbo, who I think everyone knows about) is Asa Larsson with her Rebecka Martinsson series. Sadly it seems to have ground to a halt for a bit, but I think there are 5 or so books to enjoy. The plots are quite out there, but Martinsson is an extremely likeable heroine, with a bit of the strangeness that in my view made Salander such a great creation.

42. Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro Imagine that most have already read this. Saw the movie years ago and enjoyed it. Enjoyed the book moreso. Beautifully written. I imagine if I'd read it first then it would be a very different experience as what's actually going on is introduced bit by bit. Very sad and moving. Their acceptance of their fate is hard to take at times. Am glad that you got some more answers than I remembered you getting in the film. Really wanted them to just drive off into the sunset.

MuseumOfHam I read Uniquely Human earlier this year and agree it’s really great. It’s one of my favourite books of the year.

82 National Populism: The Revolt against Liberal Democracy by Roger Eatwell and Matthew Goodwin
Good readable survey of the rise of populism across Europe & in the US (though with the main focus on Europe). The authors break this down into four factors that they consider the main causes - increasing distrust of elites, fears about destruction of national identities, relative deprivation of lower income groups resulting from rising inequality, and widespread de-alignment from traditional political parties making politics more volatile. Overall this felt non-inflammatory and balanced, definitely worth reading for anyone with an interest in the topic.

83 The Road to Somewhere by David Goodhart
Much more polemical book on the same topic, but with a British focus. The author maps out two groups: the 'anywheres' - educated, mobile and with identities based on their careers & achievements, and the 'somewheres' - less educated, and with identities rooted in a sense of place and their role within their community. His thesis is that the 'anywheres' have dominated British politics since the 1980s, and that the rise of UKIP and Brexit are symptoms of a 'somewhere' revolt against this.

This was definitely an interesting read, though at times it felt like the author was shoe-horning anything and everything into his model, and some points were definitely reflections of his personal politics rather than following logically from his arguments. Lots of good food for thought though, even where I didn't agree with him (in particular I think he underplays the opportunities for the populist left, and also the impact of economic factors where they are operating at some remove from the immediate problem that he's considering).

Remus - I'm 75% through and haven't seen a yeti yet. It's getting a bit silly.

27. The woman in blue by Elly Griffiths The eighth Ruth Galloway novel. I really enjoyed this one. The archaeologists helps solve a murder in Walsingham with some vicars.

Don’t think I’m going to make fifty but I have a lot of half finished ones books I’m going to try and complete before the end of the year.

77: Heartburn - Nora Ephron

A quick and fun read, though it's based (very closely) on the painful real-life break-up of Ephron's marriage to Carl Bernstein of Washington Post/Watergate fame. She was heavily pregnant with their second child when she discovered his affair with 'Thelma', aka Margaret Jay, wife of the then-British Ambassador to the US, Peter Jay.

Not for nothing was Ephron the daughter of two screenwriters whose mantra was 'Everything is copy', so she turned her experiences into this funny, zingy, and successful book...a thinly-disguised re-telling of the events of the break-up and - more importantly, perhaps - a very effective revenge on Bernstein.

140) The Templar's Last Secret, Martin Walker
The third book I've read in this Dordogne series, and I think that's enough for now. I was lured in by the promise of some startling archaeological findings (could that be a Templar tomb?) but that was underplayed. There was a shoot-'em-up in a museum that I rather enjoyed. The plot didn't make any sense, and I say that as someone who can rarely follow plots anyway.

141). Somebody I Used to Know, Wendy Mitchell
The author was diagnosed with early-onset dementia, and this is her account of how she experiences it and the practical workarounds that keep her independent and still contributing - she is very active in supporting dementia research and awareness. I found this immensely readable - read it in a night. She is completely the opposite of self-pitying, and proud of what she is still achieving. It gives a sense what it's like when familiar surroundings suddenly become strange around you. Recommended.

Terpsichore, I love Heartburn. Definitely time for a re-read. I was so tempted to give it to a friend recently who's going through a similar break up but think I need to wait until she's ready for the humour as well as the pain.

Heartburn great fun.

Cote - yes - silly and rather predictably silly too. Not as silly as the Franklin one got though!

The bitter tone in Heartburn pissed me off. I much prefer her later non-fiction books, I Feel Bad About My Neck and I Remember Nothing.

88. George Mann - The Osiris Ritual

The second in the Newbury & Hobbes steampunk series, in which Sir Maurice Newbury is hunting for a rogue agent - half man, half machine - and Veronica Hobbes is looking into the disappearance of a number of young women which seems to be connected to a magician's theatre show. There's also the rumour of a mummy's curse after the murders of two members of an expedition which had discovered an unusual tomb and hosted an unwrapping of the body at a high society party.