50 Book Challenge 2019 Part One

[southeastdweller]

Welcome to the first thread of the 50 Book Challenge for this year.

The challenge is to read fifty books (or more!) in 2019, though reading fifty isn't mandatory. Any type of book can count, and please try to let us all know your thoughts on what you've read.

Who's in for this year?

Ooo I adored Twenty Thousand Streets Under the sky @pepelepew
If you enjoyed it I would heartily recommed London Belongs to me by Norman Collins. The most underrated book ever published

The Great Stink sounds excellent piggy. Have added it to my want to read list. Should I read it before or after This Thing of Darkness?

@cantstandmLMs I'm not that keen on the constant description of the surroundings so far, I don't know much about plants and guns so I don't know what he's talking about a lot of the time!

Is there a quick way of getting to the bottom of the thread? I just keep scrolling and scrolling every time!

@ArtisanPopcorn If you're using the app at the top right is a logo of arrows pointing up and down. Click that and it'll take you to the bottom of the thread.

I'm on the app but there are no up/down arrows. I'm on Android phone if that makes any difference?

scribbly, I can't see it matters that much, to be honest. Possibly reading This Thing and then thinking Darwin was a bit of a pillock and then reading the Ashton for a little perspective works best. Genuinely the extract about his little son dying is very touching.
The books both make you realise how dedicated and adventurous Darwin, and other naturalists, were. But this book makes him appear much more selfless, whereas This Thing makes him appear selfish.and a bit racist

artisan on my app , there is a blue circle with a cross bottom rh corner. Tap that and the top choice says flip. Tap the arrows and voila!

@piggywaspushed thank you!!!

I’ve started A girl is a half formed thing today. It takes some getting used to.

2. Everything Under - Daisy Johnson. This was a Xmas present and I absolutely loved it. A retelling of the Oedipus myth, it is the story of Gretel and her mother who live on a canal boat. Life changes for them when the a young boy Marcus comes to stay. I loved Johnson's style; she is a rare writer who truly doesn't waste a word. She writes honestly and evocatively. There are leaps in the timeline and place but I never found it broke the flow of the tale. And it is a tale in its truest sense, a modern day myth which draws you in. There are so many themes, layers and possible interpretations it would make an amazing book to study and discuss. Sadly I fear my book club might just run a mile!

Piggy putting The Great Stink on my to read list. I see what you mean about Darwin in This Thing but I do remember at the time of reading it how unbearable it must have been for him at the time of his son's death. Not just for the obvious terrible loss but because he had been responsible for turning the conventions of creation, religion and ultimately death on it's head. Victorians were so ritualistic about mourning and all bound up in religion...and if your lives work is in shattering the commonly held beliefs it must be a lonely place to be.

I'm in and have started the year with

1 The Woman in the Window by AJ Finn

Really enjoyed it and would recommend to anyone who likes thrillers with a sidenote of sadness and trauma (Happy New Year ) and a good old fashioned plot twist. Reading it made me feel like I was on a netflix binge, so I wasn't surprised to see it's already being made into a film.

Am all out of money so off to browse the amazon prime freebies for book 2.

Funny you should be talking about Patrick Hamilton - Hangover Square is in my top 50 books for this year's rereading challenge, but I've never read anything else by him, weirdly. Will line the others up for 2020, or if I fancy a new book!

Anyway, just finished a swift and lovely read:

1. Under Milk Wood - Dylan Thomas

OK, so strictly a 'play for voices' rather than a book, but an absolutely joy to read aloud in one's head as the inhabitants of Llareggub go about their daily lives and loves. I think I first read this when we studied it in secondary school and fell in love with the music of Thomas' prose - a long-forgotten email tucked in the back of my copy reminds me that I once worked on a screenplay treatment for an adaptation that a filmmaker friend and I planned to set in a West London housing estate. Can't remember why it never got completed and still not sure if it was a good or really stupid idea!

I fell off the thread last year but managed 60 books so I am pleased with that.

Currently reading Crazy Rich Asians for book club. Not really my cup of tea but I’ll persevere. Also reading Lethal White which is very enjoyable thus far.

Hoping to stick with thread this year!

Please sign me up. I kicked off 2019 by reading The Stories She Tells. I loved it. The twist gave me shivers and made me want to throw up at the same time.

The next book on my list is Autonomy of a Scandal.

Meg I read Under amilk Wood for the first time last year and absolutely loved it. Read it first then immediately downloaded the Richard Burton + all Welsh cast recording and listened to it with book in hand. Oh Burton’s voice is divine, just divine.
An adaptation set in a West London Housing estate whaaat?

I thought it was Darwin’s daughter that was focussed on in This Thing - I don’t remember his son’s health being as prominent.

ThingInTheAttic Are you enjoying The Power? I read it a few years ago. Has inspired me to read her other books. The Lessons is in my queue at the moment...

Satsuki you might be right about that ... but my comments still stand!

I am in this year and will try to keep updating as I fell off the thread last year.
1 The Unpleasantness at The Bellona Club by Dorothy L Sayers. First time reading one of the Lord Peter Wimsey books and really enjoyed it. I am reading another one now not in order but I hope that won't make a difference.
I am hoping to not have a dip in reading in the summer like I normally do and to make a reasonable dent in my TBR pile

1:Fragile Lives - Stephen Westaby
Really interesting non-fiction account of a cardiac surgeon, including some really interesting cases (the man with no pulse etc), with all the gruesome details.

Sorry I should have phrased it as a question instead of thinking out loud - my post wasn’t aimed at your comment in particular toomuch, or indeed intended to dispute anything. The situation with his daughter from This Thing stayed with me, but wondering now if the things piggy mentioned regarding his other children were also alluded to as I don’t remember? Either way, think I will look out for The Great Stink

I didn't go back and check sarsuki but I thought so too. A daughter is mentioned but this book focuses on Darwin's efforts to find a cure for himself and on the death of his youngest child. Next to the big characters if Disraeli, Dickens and Thackeray he seems vert humble and self effacing.

2. The Haunting of Hill House - Shirley Jackson
Atmospheric, creepy tale which I enjoyed. There was so much ambiguity and you can never be sure about what the main narrator is perceiving. I did prefer We Have Always Lived in the Castle of the two.