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?

60. A Life of My Own - Claire Tomalin

Much reviewed already on this thread, I really enjoyed this one. She has a lively and engaging style which meant I tore through this in a couple of days. After writing the biographies of many famous individuals this is the story of her own life, and she tells it brilliantly. I finished the book full if admiration for her unfailingly positive outlook on life, even in the face of exceptionally difficult challenges. I've read a few autobiographies this year and A Life of My Own is hands down favourite. This has piqued my interest in her other books and I have added her biography of Jane Austen to my tbr list.

Oh dear, my strike-rate has taken a drastic nosedive for various reasons. Must do better. But I have finally finished something:

71: Dadland - Keggie Carew

This was an impulse charity-shop buy but a hugely rewarding one. Keggie Carew's father, Tom Carew, was a true larger-than-life character: a war hero, charmer, all-round big personality. As he started to slip into dementia, Keggie decided to try and find out all she could about his life and his wartime experiences - something she hadn't investigated properly before.

She uncovers the desperately dangerous secret missions he undertook as a 'Jed' - a special unit of the SOE working with the Maquis in wartime France and then, later, in Burma (where one of his undercover colleagues was the father of Aung San Suu Kyi). But after the war, he struggled to adapt to peacetime and to family life. For Keggie and her siblings, home was often a battleground as her parents clashed and, eventually, divorced.
Remarriage to a difficult stepmother leads to an estrangement with her father but the rekindling of their relationship in the last years of his life is a poignant element in this very moving book - which is full of humour as well as regret, sadness, the secrets within families, and the horrors of war (she doesn't spare the details of wartime atrocities).

It struck a chord with me because my own father also had dementia. I felt many of the same emotions and she coveys them beautifully and unsentimentally. But it also works as a rattling good read. Really highly recommended.

Now finished The Wish Child by NZ author Catherine Chidgey. I read a review of this in the Sunday Times, I think, although I may just have been directed to it on Amazon. She is a new writer, produced down that now well worn path of a Creative Writing degree. However, she also has a degree in German Literature, which informs this work set in wartime and post War Germany. I thought it was excellent and very well written and poignant, with some interesting themes, motifs and symbols. It reminded me a little of All The Light We Cannot See and The Book Thief (although I have never finished The Book Thief - to my shame-, this, too, has an interesting omniscient narrator, which I won't give away as this is marketed as a twist : it's not a huge twist but it is unsettling and poignant).

I learnt lots about Germany during the war and I liked that the protagonists were children. It's not saccharine or particualrly sentimental, though.

There is a great Greek chorus effect with the increasingly sinister and paranoid Frau Muller and Frau Miller serving as ciphers for the suspicion and cruelty of German society. Lovely deft use of irony and satire in places with this and the factory visits.

The only thing I would be tempted to criticise is that the post War years are rushed so the whole point of Sieglinde's job almost reversing her father's is not perhaps obvious enough and the idea that Germans lurched from one horrific surveillance state into another again is interesting and underdeveloped. Maybe Chidgey thought her book was becoming too long.

I recommend this one : she is a promising new writer, definitely. A good one for those looking for adult books for teengaers, too, I'd say : challenging thematically but not too distressing or opaque , and well written. It feels like a progression upwards from Book Thief for the YA age group, bypassing the bilge that is much of actual YA fiction.

apologies to Catherine Chidgey : just noticed she has written three other books! The front cover quotes Nock Hornby calling her 'a wonderful new talent' so I went on that. New beyond NZ, I guess.

Nick... Nick Hornby. I give up!

44. Norse Mythology - Neil Gaiman

Entertaining and easy- to-read collection of tales based on the exploits of Odin, Thor, Loki, and the other gods, giants and monsters of Norse mythology.

Oh, that 's next on my list meg! Once I have finished my October chapters of Bleak House.

Ah, it'll definitely make a nice easy contrast to Bleak House! (Which I do love though)

Will investigate that, Piggy.

I've given up on The Meg after about 30 pages - it's bloody awful and it's making me angry, rather than amusing me as I'd hoped it might. It feels as if it's been written by a geeky Year Nine pupil, who hasn't had his first wet dream yet.

Yes afraid I returned The Meg.

I am enjoying Melmoth, a spooky tale just right with the rain lashing at the window. However, I had read a few comments elsewhere of people finding it unsettling, and didn’t feel disturbed by it myself - until my ds knocked loudly at the glass door behind me with his raincoat hood pulled up, having come home unexpectedly early, and the book nearly hit the ceiling So maybe it has drawn me in more than I realised

Satsuki picked up Melmoth today so might make that my Halloween read.

My main issue with The Meg is thinking people are talking to me all through the thread

Looking forward to Melmoth too.

Meg

remus, do . It is a book with a very kind and gentle heart, I'd say. The reviews on Amazon concur. There aren't very many, so it'd be nice to get more people reading it!

One of the most divisive books I've seen discussed on here, A Little Life, is just 99p today on Kindle Daily Deal. I loved this book.

Ha ha south - you won’t be surprised to learn I’ve completely avoided this one

South I still have that unread on my kindle from the last time it was on daily deal!

I've just bought A Little Life, but I think it may join A Suitable Boy in the 'books that are modern classics and you really ought to read but keep putting off' corner of my Kindle.

129. Washington Black - Esi Edugyan Shortlised for the ManBooker. This tale begins in 1830 in Barbados. Washington Black is a 13 year old slave owned by the cruel Erasmus Black. Wash, as he is known, is loaned out to Erasmus' younger brother, Titch. Titch is a scientist/ inventor, and it appears abolitionist. He is engaged in creating a flying machine called the 'Cloud Cutter'. He teaches Wash science and uncovers his natural skill for drawing. When things turn darker on the planation Titch and Wash escape in the Cloud Cutter. And so a tale ensues which takes us to the Arctic, Canada, North America, England and beyond.
It reads almost like a Jules Verne adventure story, where a good deal of suspended disbelief is essential. The writing is clever and pacy, the plot never really stalled. It felt always as if it was going to tip into magical realism but never quite managed it. It is a fairy tale of science and discovery.
There were many things about it I enjoyed and i was reminded in many ways of The Mermaid and Mrs Hancock. There are parallels to be drawn in both pace and historical setting . It, was however lacking the humour of The Mermaid and the characterisation was no where near as strong.
Some of the characterisation provides the novel's main flaw. By my count Wash is 13 when the novel begins and around 19/ 20 at it's conclusion. Throughout he speaks and acts with an air that seemed beyond his age and experience. I know I have eluded to the need to suspend disbelief but I do feel that to achieve that you need a convincing key character.
Wash never convinced me.
That said there are other wonderful characters, some of whom I would have liked to spent longer with. At times episodes and incidents lacked depth.
On the whole an interesting read.

Good review toomuch I was quite interested in Washington Black, but I don’t think I’ll rush to buy it. I didn’t get on that well with Mermaid and Mrs Hancock although I thought I would.

Speaking of Mermaid would anyone here like my copy? It was gifted to me in hardback but I didn’t finish it and won’t go back again, should like it to go to a good home.

I’ve finished Melmoth and though I had a few issues with it - due to the same suspension of disbelief/characterisation you mention toomuch I suppose - it was an enjoyable read and beautifully written.

Toomuch I completely agree with your review of Washington Black. For a novel where there was so much going on, it felt quite dull. I also found the characterisation was sadly lacking, and couldn't engage with any of the main players. A shame really as it's exactly the type of book I usually love and the premise was great! Not a bad book imho, but no where near as good as I thought it was going to be.

I recall feeling ambivalent about A Little Life. It's very moving and has some beautiful descriptive passages, however I also found it a bit disembodied and claustrophobic. There must have been so much going on at the time in New York, where most of the action is set (9/11 etc) and yet the outside world is never alluded to. Odd. Having said that it is a great huge book and it held my interest right until the end.

I have had a hard copy of A Little Life for about 2 years. I recently moved it from my TBR pile onto the general shelves, in acknowledgement that I'm not going to be in the market for anything harrowing for the forseeable future. Easy to read thrillers and jolly japes are more what I'm after at the moment, speaking of which:

55. The Ghost Fields by Elly Griffiths Ruth Galloway book 7. I need to slow down on these as the plots are starting to annoy me now. This was silly, but still enjoyable enough to suspend disbelief for. I love the set of characters she has created and want to follow their stories and relationships. I was disappointed that Ruth agreed to disregard her own forensic evidence and say something more palatable for the purpose of a TV programme. I wasn't sure whether this seemingly out of character lack of professional integrity was an indication of how silly some aspects of this series has become, or whether it was meant to show how her head has been turned by her recent TV success. I do like that her own inner critic that always runs through the books is contrasted with others seeing her in a much more favourable light.

Haven’t been on here in a while but been reading plenty, which I guess is the point!

65. Transcription - Kate Atkinson
    Already discussed a bit on here but I was quite disappointed. Didn’t love it as much as her previous and to be honest didn’t understand the ending but I admit that may be my own ignorance about the events of the time.

66. Little Fires Everywhere - Celeste Ng
    Again much reviewed on here but I really enjoyed it. A great story and made me think about my own parenting

67. When Breath becomes Air - Paul Kalanithi
    A brain surgeon is diagnosed with a terminal illness and reviews his thoughts on being both physican and patient. Thought this was beautiful and loved the testement it payed to the power of literature as well. Thought the chapter by his wife was especially moving.

68 The Mother of All Jobs - Christine Armstrong
A look at the realities of work and parenting. I found this to be one of the most down to earth books I have read on the subject. The majority of women she speaks with are not the Sheryl Sanbergs of the world but normal women, working to pay the mortgage, and this made the advice and stories much more palatable. Slightly sad in places as it lays it very clear it is practically impossible to have a job and a home life working in harmony all the time, but overall it felt like reading a good chat with a bunch of interesting women.

69. The End Of the Affair- Graham Greene
    Was surprised by how much of this book was about faith and religion. Enjoyed the writing but not sure would read again.

70. This Really Isn’t About You - Jean Hannah Edelstein
    A memoir of a young women who discovers she has a gene which means she will get cancer and die relatively young. She is currently well at the time of writing so this isn’t a story of illness but rather what it’s like to walk around life knowing that you will die, and isn’t that most of us, except she knows what of ? Author has lived in various countries and cities so there are some good observations of living abroad and it’s not all introspection

71. I Found My Tribe - Ruth Fitzmaurice
    A memoir from a women whose husband becomes completely paralyzed and can only communicate by eye movements. This is a brilliant and moving book. She writes very sparsely and it is a series of scenes rather than a straight line so you feel like you are dipping in and out of her life. The title comes from her and a group of women who go sea swimming in the early mornings off the coast of Ireland.

72. Anatomy of a Scandal - Sarah Vaughan
    A good pacy read about a political scandal and the lawyer caught up in it. Timely but I disliked the ending. Think it’s a bbc drama now but haven’t seen it.

Currently reading the new Shardlake book which is a mammoth brick but good so far. I have Melmoth and The Corset to read which have both had mixed reviews but seem suitable for the time of year.

Has anyone started their Christmas book wishlist yet? ( or just me !)

72. The New Hunger by Isaac Marion

Prequel to Warm Bodies.
Very slight and sedate zombie novel, lacking in dramatic tension, interesting characters, and zombie hordes.