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?

Hi- I just came to say hello and happy Christmas- I dropped off the threads in September (new job in a new country!), but have really missed them! Am planning a massive catch up (and a look at where I got up to in my counting!), as soon as the holidays start! Hope everyone is well!

Thought some of you might enjoy looking through this recommended reading list (for both adults and teens) form the English and Media Centre : to plan ahead for 2019!

www.englishandmedia.co.uk/blog/emc-christmas-reads-2018

Great link piggy. Many thanks for that. Particularly happy to have picked up on the 'dyslexia-friendly' books by Anthony McGowan. Anyone have any reviews of his books?

149. Footnotes: How Running Makes us Human, by Vybarr Cregan-Reid
An odd mixture - mixes together accounts of the author's fondness for running barefoot in nature, with a valiant attempt to engage with scientific articles on the subject, while not letting us forget that he is a literature professor so dropping in references to Tolstoy and Hardy. I'm not sure it gels all that well, but I'm happy to enough to read about any of those things, so I persevered.

150. The Swerve: How the Renaissance Began, by Stephen Greenblatt. Opens with a fifteenth century scribe poking around in monasteries to discover ancient Classical manuscripts and describes how his discoveries lead to the rebirth of humanism. I found this an absolute pleasure, apart from some distressing accounts of people being burnt at the stake for championing these ideas. It's the kind of book that's easy to read yet makes you feel pleasingly intellectual as you do so.

151. The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle, by Stuart Turton
It feels you've retired to bed with malaria, picked up an Agatha Christie, then lapsed into hallucinations. There's a real sense of menace as you scurry down the corridors of the stately house, wondering frantically who is trustworthy and who is ought to get you.

NowanearlyNiceMum, I read Rook earlier this year as it was shortlisted for the Carnegie Award. Here was my review from this thread:

50. Rook, Anthony McGowan
More like a short story than even a novella, it's one of the books nominated for this year's Carnegie award. On the surface a simple story about two teenage brothers who find an injured bird, it deals with bitter-sweet relationships both inside and outside the family. The two boys' differing feelings about the bird's chances of survival (one naively optimistic, the other cynical) reflect the way that their different personalities, maturity and understanding lead them to view their other experiences. Like all good short stories, contains so much more than the sum of its parts.

Thanks so much Keith that's really helpful!

PS I never know how to search for anything on these threads!!

94. Susan Cooper - The Dark Is Rising

Seasonal re-read. Will Stanton turns 11 years old in the days before Christmas, and as his birthday dawns he wakens into the knowledge that he is the last of the Old Ones with a quest for the Light before him as the Dark is rising in power. He is the Sign Seeker who must find and unite the six signs of power which will be a force against the evil that threatens the world. But will he find them in time?

49. The Stepford Wives by Ira Levin A young family move from the city to the suburbs. The wife tries to meet other women to be friends with but finds them all preoccupied by housework. Her husband has no problems and simply joins the somewhat secretive Men's Association. She meets a small handful of like minded women but over time they all start to turn into perfect housewives instead. A little too perfect...

I came to this having never read the book or seen either film, however the concept of the Stepford Wife is so well known in popular culture that I imagine not many can approach it without an inkling of what it entails. Despite this the suspense creeps up on you in such a way that it doesn't matter that you ultimately know what is going to happen. The fear grips you. Excellent writing and it achieves a lot in such a short book. I think it's as relevant today as it was when it was written.

50. Sharp: The Women Who Made an Art of Having an Opinion by Michelle Dean The author chooses 10 leading lights of the US literary and intellectual scene in the 20th century and mixes biography, literary criticism and cultural history. The subjects are Dorothy Parker, Rebecca West, Hannah Arendt, Mary McCarthy, Susan Sontag, Pauline Kael, Joan Didion, Nora Ephron, Renata Adler, and Janet Malcolm

I expected to love this, but was sorely disappointed. I thoroughly enjoyed Jenni Murray's 21 Women as a joyous celebration of women who inspired her. Her own voice and warmth shone through and while she was giddy with her praise managed to give reason to admire even if they were flawed.

Sharp did the opposite and focussed strongly on the flaws. This aimed to be a more indepth and academic study, but for me broke down into caustic criticism rather than reasoned critique. It seemed to frame each woman by her personal failings and petty feuds rather than her achievements. I felt like it was aiming to tear them down rather than shine a light on them. The author manages to make the book quite boring despite having fascinating subjects at her disposal. Save yourself the trouble and wiki these women instead.

152. Educated, by Tara Westover
Reviewed a few times on here already. Like others, I enjoyed it. It has the ingredients for a misery memoir, but she does something different with it - she is compassionate about the damage suffered by the people who inflict it in their turn, and picks out the moments of kindness and warmth that occur even in troubled relationships. A lot of her focus is on how you escape your family narrative and become your own person, and how much you have to leave behind along the way. A worthwhile read.

Have just collected Ben Aaronovitch's latest book, Lies Underground plus Tombland. I'm not sure if I'll get all the way through the latter - I'm not as committed to Shardlake as some on here - but I'll give it a go and see if it engages me.

Can anyone tell me a little about Ben Aaronovitch's writing style??

mamapants, sorry not to have answered you before. For me, a big part of the charm is that on one level it pretends to be a police procedural, with a narrator who is genuinely enthused about being part of London Met, but then it plays out as a fantasy. I like the attitude to race, particularly the fact that white is not an invisible default - if the person being described is white, the narrator (West African mum and white English father) notices it. It's not everyone's cup of tea, but the books are justifiably popular, and I'm a fan.

57. How To Be Right: … in a world gone wrong - James O'Brien. Non-fiction from the LBC radio presenter which he essentially tells the reader why his listener's right wing views on certain topics are wrong. I agree with most of his opinions but I thought he was a little patronising in places.

58. Fox 8 - George Saunders. This is a very short fictionalised view of a fox's life. I didn't get the point of this at all and as I disliked Lincoln In the Bardot maybe I shouldn't have picked this up in the first place. I wouldn't usually count a short story but I've been reading lots of extracts from text books recently so that's how I'm justifying this book's inclusion!

59. Christmas Days: 12 Stories and 12 Feasts for 12 Days: 12 Days, 12 Stories - Jeanette Winterson. Twelve short stories with a festive feel interspersed with recipes and seasonal memories, it's no fault of the writer but I couldn't get on with the fiction - short stories aren't enough for me.

Currently reading The Sparsholt Affair.

111 – The Streets – Anthony Quinn

I liked this. A young man with a bit of a mysterious past is employed to walk a certain deprived area of London, garnering information about the poor for a newspaper. He forms friendships but also makes enemies – and some of those enemies are in very high places. I liked the central character much more than that of “The Rescue Man” and it worked well as both social commentary and possible love story.

How did I not know Ira Levin wrote Stepford Wives?! I have seen the film and read Rosemary’s Baby!

Mamapants, I didn’t quite click with Ben Araonovitch (I expected it to be right up my street), but I would certainly suggest giving the first one a go.

61. The Christmas Hirelings Mary Elizabeth Braddon This was a freebie for audible members, narrated by Jennifer Saunders. It’s fairly short anyway and I listen on 1.5x speed as I’m used to that now and ‘normal’ seems weirdly slow, so it didn’t take long. It’s a predictable and cosy story, maybe I’m just in the mood for ye oldie Christmas sentiment right now but I found it quite charming despite the precocious children.

I think these are the books I’ve still to update... lost track with Christmas etc.

57. Resin - Ane Riel Liv died when she was six years old. At least that’s what everyone thinks after her dad reported her missing and lost at sea. He said it was the only way to keep her safe.

This was quite a strange read tbh. I’d seen all the hype and it was a little creepy. Still unsure as to how I feel about this even now weeks on!

58. The Last Thing She Told Me - Linda Green Just before she dies Nicola’s grandmother asks her to look after the babies in the garden. She thinks she’s talking nonsense but when her daughter finds a bone the family secrets become unburied.

This was a very interesting read and tied together multiple generations of a family and how attitudes changed.

59. Love As Always Mum xxx - Mae West
    True account from Mae West about life with Fred and Rose West as parents. Interesting read as I didn’t in fact know much about their crimes just the association of their names with evil.

60. Dying for Christmas - Tammy Cohen
    A Christmas themed psychological thriller. Jessica meets a blue eyed stranger on Christmas Eve and agrees to a drink in his flat. He keeps her hostage for the 12 days of Christmas and gives her a gift every day. But what happens at the end of the 12 days?

I actually really enjoyed this one though a little far fetched and a bit gruesome at times. Honestly don’t know how they think up the ideas sometimes but not bad for a Christmas themed book!

Southeast - I have Fox8 on my Christmas list. I loved Lincoln and also some of his other short stories. Will be interested to see what I make of it.

139. Village Christmas : And other notes on the English Year - Laurie Lee. I picked this up on Kindle Sale and was looking for a Christmassy read. I should have paid more attention to the subtitle as there are really only 2 or 3 quite short essays on Christmas. So in all honesty I felt a bit diddled! I have never read the full version of Cider with Rosie, just lots of extracts through various English lessons at school. Lee has a wonderful way with words and a gentle humour. This is really a mixed bag of short pieces put together in broad season based categories. Some are interesting, some less so and some quite random. All in all an ok read.
Half way through Mars Room.

Alias was just coming on to review my no 98 The Christmas Hirelings. I am obviously not in the mood for ye olde Christmas sentiment as I thought it was sphincter puckeringly awful saccharine Victorian clap trap. Nothing celebrates the birth of Christ more to my mind that two rich old farts deciding to amuse themselves over the festive period by renting a few poor kids and consequently separating a widow from her children for twelve days. No po faced moralising epiphany at the end either. Jennifer Saunders doing lisping five years olds only served to increase my curmudgeonly status.
Its mercifully short status was the only thing in its favour.

99. Walking with Cattle. In Search of the Last Drovers of Uist by Terry J Williams.

Turns out I'm not in the mood for a historical account men moving cows around a Scottish Island either. Boring bovine trampings about which result in all the cows being put on a boat to the mainland. Felt like I was reading a text book. Thank God it’s finished.

One book left to reach my target, hope it’s better than the last two wooden spoons.

Thank you tanaqui and biblio.
I think I will give it a go. It does sound like my kind of thing but I have reservations incase it didn't click with me. I think I was worried it might be a bit try hard humorous for some reason or a bit silly which isn't my thing. Will see if I can get a copy relatively cheaply.

Never thought I'd do it, but thanks to you lovely, book-purchase enabling lot and your cracking recommendations and reviews, I have reached fifty!

50. Christmas Pudding by Nancy Mitford In which the cream of the inter-war gentry assemble at Compton Bobbin in the Cotswolds for the festive season. The plot is paper-thin, and something of an irrelevance to the comedy of errors that follows. It's daft, but deft, and just perfect for this time of year.

Hi mama, hope you like it. I'm in the middle of the latest one, and from that perspective I'd say to read them in order of publication if you can as they do build on each other. l like the humour - he pokes fun at things like management speak in policing.

Ooh Scribbly, sounds like your Christmas turkeys came early...

I haven't been keeping up the pace. Instead I've been making one of these. I wouldn't count this book as a book I've read, but it's an impressive piece of publishing nonetheless!

Onto the actual reading list have gone

37 The Knowledge by Lewis Dartnell
This is a high concept popular science book about the crucial things that survivors of the apocalypse need to know in order to re-boot civilisation. I didn't find it very uplifting!. There is so much underlying complexity in all the things we think of as simple parts of everyday life. It just made me feel that society is very highly geared and fragile. Other people I know who have read it have managed to just focus on the science and the ingenuity behind our manufacturing processes and found that very interesting.

38 Dead Lions by Mick Herron

Second in a humorous series about side-lined spooks. The plot of this was a bit bizarre, but I enjoyed the jokes and the characters. I'll keep going with these.

They sure did bibio. Was going to read A Christmas Carol next but I don’t think I can face anymore Victoriana (or Scottish cows) at the moment. Might need to find something about psychotic robots or something to get the vestiges of The Christmas Hirelings out of my brain.

I've given in and bought an Audible subscription; I don't have a lot of time to read when I'm working so listening to books may be a better option for me.

56. The 'Adults' by Caroline Hulse

Picked up from this month's Kindle monthly deal, I had low expectations of this but found it a fun, quirky read. Two divorced parents decide to have Christmas together in the Happy Forest holiday park with their daughter plus their new partners. Tension builds, unfortunate things are said and someone ends up getting shot with an arrow (not a spoiler, it's in there from the beginning - but you don't know who). Tied up in an appropriately Christmassy way, but it's not completely pat and saccharine - and there are a few lovely little observations in there about children's slightly sinister imaginary friends and, er, Watership Down. I would recommend as a light Christmas read.

Now getting into State of Wonder by Ann Patchett.