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?

Agree on both points whippet

Currently on Viking Britain: a history by Thomas Williams. I'm enjoying it, but it's not a very quick read, so it might take me some time. He writes very well, even if some of the detail about political rivalries between Anglo-Saxon kingdoms is less than enthralling. He spices things up with "you are there" moments - this is what it's like to enter the Great Hall, full of warmth and feasting and old pals, as you brush the snow off your cloak.

Is it too late to join in for the first time? Only just found this thread and love that there are other people who discuss Dick Francis and Colm Toibin together. Whip Hand was my favourite of those too. Like lots of you I'm trying to kick back into reading after too much Netflix bingeing so aiming for a book a week (more or less) this year.

So far I have read An Infamous Army by Georgette Heyer, because we were in Brussels over the holidays and I got interested in Waterloo. Excellent book if you like Georgette Heyer - if you don't then entirely frivolous. Then I read Zero Zero Zero by Roberto Saviano, a non-fiction book about the cocaine trade - not as good as his previous book on the Naples mafia and a real slog to finish. Now cheering myself up with The Milkman which I'm really enjoying. Also trundling through Moby Dick on my Kindle, but that's a carry-over from last year.

5. The Queen of Bloody Everything by Joanna Nadin just finished it, great read but wasn't overly keen but I think it has a great message to it!

And omg the snobbery on this forum is a but ridiculous at times.

What exactly do you mean DwangelaForever?

What snobbery?

@ClosedAuraOpenMind Mom for Mum is a Birmingham thing and therefore accurate. I’m reading the cactus at the moment too for my online book club.

I'm joining. Only managed 35 or so last year, would like to read more. Kicked off with The Girls by Emma Cline which I have mixed feelings about. Incredible ability to write about nauseating things - I felt background discomfort throughout, and I thought Evie the protagonist was really interesting. The dual time structure failed I thought, I was uninterested in the later time period.

Heads up for anyone who bought Emma on the Audible Daily Deal yesterday. Emma Thompson v good but did not realise it also came with a cast and sound effects. Lots of clinking plates and cutlery but even worse persistent rustling skirts with every scene that involves characters walking.
Didn’t get past 30 minutes. The absolute aural swishing horror of it all.
Returning that one pronto.

didn't know that @Cherrypi - it did baffle me and annoy me in equal measure, so thanks!

@ScribblyGum Thanks for the headsup - hate those recordings that sounds as though they have let the over-enthusiastic work experience kid loose in the sound effects booth on their first day.

Never too late Grimupnorth and you're an early adopter as we're only half way through January

grimupnorth agreed. No to sound effects and no to short musical interludes between each chapters in audiobooks. I usually only like one narrator too but Lincoln in the Bardo is a special exception to that rule.

ScribblyGum Jane Austen should only be read whilst flouncing round in a frock. If you're not making your own swishing sound effects you're doing it wrong.

I once got a Tolkien audiobook that has a tune playing in the background while it was narrated. I thought the tune would die down as the book started after the intro but nope, same tune for hours and hours. I lasted 10 minutes.

I haven’t read Little Fires Everywhere so you’re not quite the last, lastqueen!

I think there are at least four of us who haven't read it.

Currently on Viking Britain: a history by Thomas Williams

I love it when I see a recommendation or book mention on here and look it up on Amazon and see I already have it

Only just found this thread and love that there are other people who discuss Dick Francis and Colm Toibin together. Whip Hand was my favourite of those too.

I do like the variety of books discussed. I've not read any Colm Toibin but I really want to rectify that.

And omg the snobbery on this forum is a but ridiculous at times.

What snobbery? Is it because we don't just read Mills and Boon and chick lit all the time?

There's room for all kinds of readers and all kinds of books. I'm sure that even those of you brave enough for Infinite Jest can still admire the literary stylings of Jilly Cooper who wrote imho the greatest line in English fiction: "Slowly, slowly, like a Harrods lift at Christmas, he went down on her."

"Slowly, slowly, like a Harrods lift at Christmas, he went down on her."

Surely you jest?!

😂 Grim

Pepe, I also loved Clothes, Clothes, Clothes. Looking forward to reading To throw Away Unopened.

Ha! Scribbly, I listened to the little excerpt on Audible and also shuddered.

I haven’t read Little Fires either. 😊And have added Chronicles of Youth and Islam and the Future of Tolerance to my to-read list.

And my latest read:
5. Once upon a time in the East: A story of growing up by Xiaolu Guo.

Recommended on the 2018 thread, I thought this memoir was well written and interesting.

Xiaolu Guo is Chinese, born in the 1970’s and brought up by her grandparents in a poor fishing village, meeting her parents for the first time when she is 6 or 7. She goes through a lot - abuse, segregation, severe myopia, no love - but is a creative, driven and intelligent person, leaving her small town of Wenling for university in Beijing. Censored by the authorities and feeling she has no ties in China she wins a scholarship to study in Britain. Britain is certainly not perfect but allows her free rein to write.

Xiaolu Guo is very honest about her past and her relationships, giving insight into Chinese culture and mindset. I was struck by the inferior standing of women and the casual taken-for-granted violence towards women and children as she was growing up and during her time at university. She comments on her fractured relationship with her parents and particularly her lack of a bond with her mother, poignant now she herself has a daughter. And, although in the same vein as other memoirs of this type in depicting resilience and escape from the place they were born into, this book allows us a look into life from this part of China.

I also haven't read Little Fires Everywhere - nor do I intend to do so (I do have Under The Pendulum Sun by Jeanette Ng on my TBR pile but am waiting until I feel brave as I think it's going to be seriously creepy - anyone who has read it feedback on scariness levels would be welcome...)

Talking of terrible audiobooks, I really enjoyed the Ancillary Justice trilogy & got Provenance on audible as soon as it came out. I managed about half, the reading is truly dreadful. Characters from the same family have wildly different regional accents, and the main character is read with an incredibly annoying simpering voice. I was put off the book entirely, but I'm thinking now from the review upthread I should just get a paper copy.

I have. Never heard of Little Fires Everywhete

I haven’t read Little Fires Everywhere either. I expect it’ll probably appear in the library at some point.

Not read Little Fires and know nothing at all about it.

Can't say I've ever noticed snobbery on here - unless anyone is thinking about that time I accidentally on purpose let slip that I was posting from my yacht, whilst Stephen Fry massaged my feet and Prince Harry peeled grapes for me.

I enjoyed the Harrod's Lift line - there's great literature for you!

Just catching up on the thread with a nice cup of tea...and nearly choked with laughter at the Harrods lift line

scribbly at aural swishing horror and speaking of which also at grim’s elevator quote.