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?

[SatsukiKusakabe]

I did enjoy Prep but more out of the sense that I would have really liked it as a teenager. It felt like YA for grown ups, with that readable, undemanding feel, but well written enough to sustain you. I enjoyed American Wife in a similar way - smart and thoughtful escapism about rich people. But I find her a bit hit and miss. She writes really well though so I would always give one of hers a go.

Keith good reviews - always wondered what Moon Tiger was about!

[HoundOfTheBasketballs]

*40. A Highland Christmas - M.C. Beaton
*
This was a very short Hamish Macbeth festive story, which I read in one evening. Very easy to read and enjoyable, but I'm not sure it is a series I want to get into. I get the sense they're probably quite repetitive, although I'm happy to be corrected if anyone has read them.

[Terpsichore]

82: Crampton Hodnet - Barbara Pym

A delight from start to finish - one of the greatest pleasures of this year (which has been a bit grim otherwise) has been reading my way through almost all of Pym's books. I've still got a couple to go and I'm dreading finishing them all because they're pure delight.

This was her first book and wasn't published until after her death because, once finished, she felt it was too dated - the bulk of it was written in 1939. It's more openly comic than some of her other novels but the North Oxford setting, the clergymen and spinsters, the tea-parties and even a couple of the characters (Miss Doggett and her companion Jessie Morrow, who reappear in Jane and Prudence ) ensure we're in familiar Pym territory. I loved it

[CoteDAzur]

49. Mozart's Journey To Prague by Eduard Mörike
    
    Odd little book - A vignette, really, of a day in Mozart's life. It didn't feel real, there didn't seem to be a lot of research behind it, and if there was a point other than help me reach 50 books I didn't see it. I'm utterly perplexed that this book is considered a classic
    
    I do love books about dead musicians and this was short enough to help me reach 50, so I'm grateful for the recommendation

[PepeLePew]

I agree with satsuki, I find Sittenfeld a very uneven writer. American Wife is a great read but not much else matches up to that and the one about Pride and Prejudice set in modern-day America was awful!

[PepeLePew]

Still trying to tie up loose reading ends before the New Year so finishing off a couple of books I've had on the go for a while.
132 The Odyssey by Homer
This was a new translation by Emily Wilson, read quite well by Clare Danes (as it was designed to be read aloud I thought the audio book would be the best option). I've never read the Odyssey but this was immensely well done, in extremely accessible language, with a fascinating introduction that sets out lots of detail about themes, approach etc. I was drawn to it after reading Circe earlier this year and thought it would be a good idea to go back to the source text. I'm not sure how I feel about Odysseus as a hero - he's deeply flawed and doesn't make things easy for the people around him. Much more interested in Penelope, so am going to try Margaret Atwood's Penelopiad next. But all in all, very highly recommended and I will definitely listen again at some point.

132 Beyond Infinity by Eugenia Cheng
For non-mathematicians who want to understand the concept of infinity. It's a largely accessible account of the maths, and she is an expert at creating analogies and concepts that illustrate something that is baffling and counter-intuitive. I do think popular maths is harder to do well than popular science and this book was a good example of that - sooner or later you need maths to explain maths, whereas with a lot of science you can get away with using words only. So this on occasion felt quite bewildering as she attempted to bring both rigour and clarity to the topic. Where it really stood out was when she shone a light on the practice of doing maths and explained the mathematical approach and what that means.

[CoteDAzur]

50. My Purple Scented Novel by Ian McEwan
    
    Short and sweet. This was the story of how one writer contrives to steal the masterpiece of his best friend and publish it as his own, reversing their roles of wealth and success in the process.
    
    Ian McEwan can certainly write and I like reading whatever he puts to paper, but he really needs some good stories. The novella format actually works pretty well for him.

[Terpsichore]

It was me who suggested the Mozart book - sorry, Cote! But I knew it was very short and I was trying to think of something musical for you!

[CoteDAzur]

Don't worry Terpsichore! It was a very good suggestion. I think I'm a bit hard to please re historical fiction about musical geniuses because I have already read such masterpieces as Evening in the Palace of Reason. Thank you anyway. If you can think of any others, I'll certainly give them a go

[Cakemonger]

Cote Have you read The Rest is Noise by Alex Ross? It's fantastic

Pepe satsuki So glad you said this, American Wife is the other one in my TBR pile. Still looking forward to it, despite my experience with Prep

[Piggywaspushed]

Managed Lullaby in two sittings : it is only 200 pages. I can't say I liked it as that would be the wrong verb for the subject matter. but is is very intense and atmospheric. And the central figure is fascinating. I like the fact it hints, rather than tells. I am sure some would find its inconclusive nature frustrating. The shifts of perspective are interesting and the detached tone helps the mood, avoiding melodrama. This would be an utterly different book in someone else's hands!

[Sadik]

My absolute favourite musician book is Joseph Wechsberg's autobiography Looking for a Bluebird - it covers the early part of his life including jobs as a cafe musician in inter-war Paris, as a 'claqueur' (sp?) at the Vienna opera, and as a ship's musician. Perhaps not quite what you're looking for Cote but I'd recommend it to anyone - it's enormously funny (and short!). Out of print but available for a couple of quid on abebooks et al.

[Indigosalt]

67. The Long Take – Robin Robertson

A novel written mainly as a very long poem, with some sections in prose, I wasn’t sure what I would make of this one. This turned out to be a smooth and very accessible read. In fact I quickly forgot it was a poem at all. The poetic form results in a beautiful economical style which completely transported me to a different time and place. It has the feel of quite an arty black and white film, without being pretentious at all.

Walker is a D-Day veteran suffering from PTSD. He finds himself living an itinerant existence initially in New York, latterly in Los Angeles and San Francisco between 1946 and 1953. While employed as a journalist in Los Angeles, he attempts to document and shine a light on the plight of many returning service men condemned to a life living on the streets in dehumanising poverty. I enjoyed this very much. By coincidence this was a complimentary read to the also booker shortlisted The Mars Room which is set in California much later (2003). IMO this was a worthy contender for The Booker and would appeal to anyone who likes poetry, American History, film noir, or social justice.

[toomuchsplother]

Indigo so pleased you liked The long take. Definitely one of my contenders for my standout of the year. Like you I was really unsure about it and wouldn't have read it if I hadn't been given it as a gift.

[toomuchsplother]

www.facebook.com/232212145472/posts/10161358357860473/
A different reading challenge for anyone interested .

[TimeforaGandT]

Probably my final update for the year...

49. Anatomy of a Scandal - Sarah Vaughan

Read this as it was a Kindle offer and short! I think previous reviews have compared it to Apple Tree Yard. I think it was more realistic than that and it was an easy read ... but nothing special.

Drum roll for No.50 ....

50. The Tattooist of Auschwitz - Heather Morris

I really enjoyed this - notwithstanding the subject matter. Whilst a grim read in many respects, it was interesting from a historical perspective and I found the characters believable.

51. Highland Fling - Nancy Mitford

Like many others I bought the complete works on Kindle and have started at the beginning. Witty and entertaining...but I wouldn’t want to spend much time with many of the characters.

[CoteDAzur]

Cakemonger - Thank you for the recommendation. My ignorance of 20th Century "classical music" is nearly complete, because I find most of it uninspiring and some of it (like Xenakis and Messiaen) even unbearable

[CheerfulMuddler]

Small book pile this year, but I got Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine, the next two Cormoran Strike books (which I asked DH for) and a book about midwives from my mum. I also bought DH the first Shardlake book thanks to you guys and he's already read it and ordered the next two, so thanks for that. (He's still not read This Thing of Darkness mind.)
Cote I was going to suggest The Shepherd by Frederick Forsythe as I think you like his books? It's very short and it's even Christmassy. (Well, as Christmassy as you can be if you're a book set almost entirely in the cockpit of a small aeroplane in fog. Okay, it's not that Christmassy, but it is set on Christmas Eve and has been read on Canadian radio nearly every Christmas Eve since 1979. It's a very simple and rather lovely ghost story about aeroplanes. You can also listen to it for free on YouTube. It's about half an hour long.)
Anyway, I've been taking advantage of my in laws looking after DS and have read:

42. The Silkworm Robert Galbraith
Writer is murdered. Cormoran and Robin investigate. I devoured this, and thought it was even better than the first one (though a bit too much about Strike's leg and overweightness). Thought the solution was completely bonkers and a few plot points didn't work (there's no such thing as a sleeper to York). But I loved the characters, and the interaction between Strike and Robin, and I liked that we're getting a bit more of a sense of their wider social circles. JKR is a great storyteller and it was a rare joy to be so sucked in by a book. (I wonder how much of the book is based on real literary London - the recently amalgamated publisher with the offices on the Strand is clearly supposed to be Penguin Random House, so I did wonder if there were other nods I'd missed.)

[exexpat]

88 The Death of Truth - Michiko Kakutani
Non-fiction, published earlier this year by the (former?) chief critic of the New York Times, who I think we can safely say is not a Trump fan. This is a lamentation for the lack of respect for reason, facts, logic etc in politics, the media and amongst the general public, which has led to Trump, Brexit and all sorts of other undesirable things. As she is originally a literary critic, it is perhaps not surprising that in the end she basically traces it all back to Derrida and post-modernism (might surprise Trump, I suppose, as I doubt he has heard of Derrida).

89 The Yellow Wall-Paper - Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Slight cheat here, as this is a mini Penguin Classics book which only contains three short stories, but the title one at least is a real classic I have been meaning to read for ages: a very unsettling first-person narrative showing a woman's descent into madness, partly or mainly due to her controlling husband.

[SatsukiKusakabe]

Can’t remember where I am with my reviews but here are last three quickly to round off the year. I’m part way through a couple of others but don’t think I’ll finish as busy next few days.

48. Their Finest Hour and a Half by Lissa Evans

Set in WWII, following a woman who writes for tv ads who finds her career suddenly upgraded to scripting “slop” - women’s dialogue - in propaganda features, it centres on the making of a film about Dunkirk, and the main character’s awakening to the opportunities as well as the tragedies of the war. Evans is a really wonderful, witty writer and it is meticulously researched. Her novels lack a certain something for me - maybe her style lacks warmth - but her approach is original and unsentimental, and I appreciate that though the romantic in me is left unsatisfied. I would read anything by her though and she is funny and clever in interviews too.

[CoteDAzur]

"it's even Christmassy. (Well, as Christmassy as you can be if you're a book set almost entirely in the cockpit of a small aeroplane in fog. Okay, it's not that Christmassy, "

[ShakeItOff2000]

Satsuki, I hope you find it helpful. Although I didn’t agree with everything in the book, it has changed how I approach my DSs, particularly DS1, whose attitude I struggle with sometimes.

[exexpat]

Does anyone else look back through their list from the year and do a bit of analysis? Assuming I finish the book I am currently reading before January 1st, I will have read 90 books this year, and of those:
61 (68%) were by women
19 (21%) were non-fiction
11 (12%) were in translation (plus one I read in the original French)
5 (5.5%) were written before 1900

I was slightly surprised by how few were in translation - I thought I had read more - so that is one of my aims for next year, along with reading more in the original (non-English) languages, reading at least one book by Thomas Hardy, and finally tackling Infinite Jest, which has been sitting on my shelf for nearly 20 years (I did attempt it once, but gave up after a few pages - think it might have been when DS was a baby though, so my uninterrupted reading time was limited, and it was too heavy to read single-handed while breast-feeding).

[CheerfulMuddler]

Christmas at the Cupcake Cafe it ain't.

[Sadik]

I've read 89 this year exexpat (might finish no. 90, the Lightening sequel, but I doubt it as lots happening this weekend).
So far I have:
51% by women / 48% men (1% multi authors!)
51% fiction, 49% non-fiction
44% paper books, 42% ebooks, 14% audio
18% from the library (paper or e-book)
21 'standouts' of which 12 (57%) were non-fiction, 9 fiction