50 Book Challenge 2019 Part Two

[southeastdweller]

Welcome to the second 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, it's not too late to join, and please try to let us all know your thoughts on what you've read.

The first thread of the year is here.

What are you reading?

13. Day Of The Dead by Nicci French

The last in the series featuring psychologist Frieda Klein. Frieda is now in hiding from serial killer Dean Reeve. I enjoyed this although did find the ending a bit of a let down. I think I need to go back and reread the earlier books in the series to remind myself of the history!

1. Herland by Charlotte Perkins-Gilman Three male explorers find a harmonious, isolated utopia entirely populated by women. Funny, feminist and prescient; at times it is hard to believe it was written in 1915 but also at times reveals its age, with jarring references to savages for example. I enjoyed this and am looking forward to chatting about this at book group, it’ll be interesting to see what everyone thought of it!

Grim - have you read In the Heart of the Sea about the sinking of a whaleship, which was the inspiration for Moby Dick? I highly recommend it, if not.

Oh gods - I hated (loathed/despised/insert further synonyms here) In the Court of the Red Tsar. It took me about a year to read it and I resented every...single...flipping...word...

Finished #7 All Things Wise and Wonderful today. I'm rereading all the Herriot books which I have very fond memories of as I shared them with my dad. This is actually two books Vets Might Fly and Vet in a Spin which continue the tales of a Yorkshire vet mixed in with his war training in the RAF. Gentle stories which evoke a specific time and place.

Not at all sure what I’m going to start next. I was planning to read Dissolution the first of the Shardlake series which for some reason I haven’t got round to reading. Unfortunately DH has started it and two people reading the same book on a Kindle is annoying. I counted 54 books in my Kindle TBR pile so something should appeal…

1. Career of Evil Robert Galbraith
2. The Land of Green Ginger Winifred Holtby
3. The Explorer Katherine Rundell
4. Patricia Brent, Spinster Herbert Jenkins

It's 1918. Patricia Brent has never been kissed, despite being clever and beautiful and twenty-four. She lives a miserable life as a paying guest in a boarding house, until the day she hears two of the other guests openly pitying her. It's too much, so she announces that she's going to have dinner with her fiancé in the Quadrant Grillroom the next evening. The ruse works ... until she arrives at the restaurant and discovers that the two women have followed her.
Whatever is she to do? Why, throw herself on the mercy of an attractive young stranger in khaki, of course ...

Anyone who has even the vaguest acquaintance with romantic comedy can guess what happens next. He falls madly in love with Patricia! She falls madly in love with him! But for not-very-convincing reasons she must reject him entirely! He then turns out to be a lord! As well as a lieutenant-colonel and a DSO! She wins over his friends, his family, and random Dukes, due to her wit, her dazzling beauty, and her knowledge of statistics about potatoes. (No, really.) Can he convince her that they belong together? (Spoiler: yes.) She falls blissfully into his arms with a faint and the happy thought that: 'It was as if someone had suddenly shouldered her responsibilities, and she would never have to think again for herself.'
This was apparently a bestseller in 1918. I have no idea why. It's a pretty convincing portrayal of the horrors of boarding house life, but otherwise don't bother.

Thanks Remus- I haven’t read that and will definitely add it to my list.

Muddler I’m sorry that you had to suffer through Mr Jenkins’ ‘oeuvre’ but your review did make me laugh

Book 10: Prison Writings--My Life is my Sundance by Leonard Peltier
I wasn't really drawn into this one. It's about a Native American man supposedly wrongly accused of murdering two white FBI agents in the US. It was for a prison literature course I am taking but TBH I really didn't learn that much about the prison system. I'm also nowhere closer to understanding whether or not the author was actually innocent.

@ChessieFL
I read Blue Monday, which I believe is the first book about Frieda. It was fairly well-written (I'm not usually a mystery reader but my friend tried reading it for a reading challenge and thought I'd like it). The fact that Dean Reeve stayed alive is actually what stopped me from continuing to read the books. It felt like the book wasn't properly "wrapped up". I would have preferred if each book about Frieda was about a new case with completely new suspects.

Fran - re "what's the book about a dead Baroque musician who works in a church and wants to be a court composer?"

I was thinking of J S Bach there. He lived in Leipzig and worked at Thomaskirche (the church) fir most of his life. He also worked as organist in Weimar and kapellmeister in Köthen courts but these positions did not work out for him in the long run - happily, for those of us who love and admire his music, because his body of work would have been very different if it's goal were to please the court.

If you are interested in this subject, I would recommend a historical fiction book called Evening In The Palace Of Reason. There is also Forkel's biography to which most of our knowledge of Bach's life originated from, called Johann Sebastian Bach: His Life, His Art, and His Work but it's a bit dry and might not be your thing. Then of course there is Sir John Eliot Gardiner's amazing Music In The Castle Of Heaven, although it's more about Bach's music than his life.

(Links take you to threads of my book reviews rather than the reviews themselves because that's the best I can do on the phone. You'll need to 'Find' key words on the page to see the actual reviews.)

She wins over his friends, his family, and random Dukes, due to her wit, her dazzling beauty, and her knowledge of statistics about potatoes

My knowledge of statistics about potatoes has led to some of the wildest nights of my life {heaves reminiscent sigh]

Russian history is....big. For a slightly oblique approach, I enjoyed the memoir Mastering the Art of Soviet Cooking by Anjya von Brenzen. You won't get a detailed chronological history of Russia, but you do get a sense of what it was like growing up the Soviet era, and an overview of the twentieth century, as manifested in food. It's a good read, plus some recipes to try if that takes your fancy.

Sorry about the driving test, InMyOwnParticular I'm nerving myself up to start lessons again. I failed in my late teens, failed in my mid-twenties, avoided it entirely in my thirties, but accept that I'll have to try again in my forties. And you're free to give up on The Winter Isles if it's not working for you - there are too many enjoyable books to get bogged down in an unenjoyable one..

Palegreenstars I wonder if it's the same course. I'm doing English Lit with Creative Writing at OU. This is the compulsory Lit module for "year 2" (actually my fourth year of study).

Cheerful despite the fact that you don’t recommend Patricia Brent, your review really makes me want to read it.....

Waterbird most of the Frieda Klein books do feature different cases with different people, just with the ongoing thread running through them. I do enjoy the books but do find it baffling how willing everyone is to risk their own lives to help Frieda when she’s not actually that likeable!

Bibliomania I'm over halfway on The Winter Isles and it's for a book club so I think I'll keep on...

Good luck with your driving! I only got one major yesterday so I'm hoping third time lucky

I've finished my second book of the year, already behind schedule if I want to make it to 50

1. The ABC Murders by Agatha Christie, an enjoyable reread inspired by the BBC Christmas adaption.
2. The Talented Mr Ripley by Patricia Highsmith, I really enjoyed this.

I'm also belatedly adding to the dislike of the Roanoake Girls from the last thread, I too felt grubby after reading it.

Ah, the book club makes it more of an obligation, InMyOwnParticular.

Finished ReadingAllowed - the ending is quite sober, as the library cuts start to bite. The author certainly doesn't romanticise what public libraries are like, but he provides a reminder of their value. Worth the read.

Last year I was trying to identify a new crime series I could get stuck into it. I think I might have found a good candidate in Philip Kerr's Bernie Gunther series - I know there are some fans on here. I randomly picked up one of the later books in the series, The Other Side of Silence, set in the 1950s Riveria, but I gather that earlier books go back to 1940s Germany, a tough time to be a good German cop.

Satsuki, thank you so much for highlighting the Backlisted podcast again. I enjoyed delving in towards the end of the year and you've reminded me to look again. I have just listened to The Rainbow (D. H. Lawrence) one and absolutely loved it! It's one of my favourite books (not many people enjoy Lawrence these days I think) and they had such a great discussion about it

whippet it’s so good isn’t it? I really enjoy the chat even if I haven’t read the book, and if I have I feel part of the discussion. It’s so funny and enjoyable and yet intelligent and serious. And so many books are referenced in the course of the general conversation too. The guests are uniformly great and interesting as well.

8. Commonwealth by Ann Patchett

I bought this after really enjoying the same author's State of Wonder last year. I really enjoyed this too. Much less adventurous subject matter, as this is about a love affair which breaks up two families, and how it resonates down the generations - but more ambitiously and cleverly structured. The stories of the adults and children are told at several different points in time, and you're not always given a date or reference point, so you have to work out when things are happening, which I enjoyed. The story is also partly about the morality of taking people's real life experiences and turning them into "fiction" - as I understand Patchett did with her own family life in this novel. If this all sounds a bit like an exercise in creative writing, it is also a really engaging story that makes you think about the stories we and others write about our own pasts, and about the nature and ties of family. Highly recommended.

"My knowledge of statistics about potatoes has led to some of the wildest nights of my life {heaves reminiscent sigh]"
Biblio My now DP & I managed to spend quite a bit of an early date discussing seed potato inspection regimes (We did have a simultaneous terrible moment of self-awareness and change the subject rapidly!)

Unlike Chessie I'm still not inspired to read Patricia Brent though...

A marriage made in heaven, Sadik.

#'8 The Moscow Sleepers is my next read. It's the most recent Stella Rimington Liz Carlyle novel. A rolicking good spy story with interesting female leads. I read somewere that as the ex head of MI5 she has to get her books vetted before publication. Not sure if thats true. Anyway you have the feeling of realism in how her characters go about their trade craft.

Thanks CoteDAzur, I'll look into those books. I'm a musician and early music buff, but I've never read them.