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?

If they’d edited the Hobbit trilogy of films down into one film it would probably have been a much better viewing experience.

The Hobbit films are awful - even Luke Evans and Richard Armitage can’t redeem them.

The Hobbit is not long enough to make into three long films. I enjoyed the book when I read it many years ago but only bothered to watch the first of the films. It's normally the other way around with books adapted into films - they cut out chunks of the story to make a better film. This one they added in loads from the back story which slows down the main plot.

8 All Passion Spent by Vita Sackville West
Lady Slane's husband has died - former prime minister and Viceroy of India - he lived into his 90s. His widow is now - at the age of 88 - set free from her life as his wife. The children decide that she can live in turn with each of them - as a paying guest so that she's not embarrassed(!) - but she has ideas of her own. She rents a house in Highgate and retreats from the family. She makes new friends in some unlikely people. This is a lovely book. It is short, but Sackville West cleverly creates the characters of the children in just a few lines - the penny pincher, the bossy one who never lets his wife finish a sentence, the collector, the dreamy one. So as the reader you feel you know exactly what they'd be like to meet in real life. It explores a woman who - because of her time of life and social class - has spent her whole adult life being the appendage of a man. How she has drifted, being perfectly amenable to the life that he leads. She looks back and wonders if it could have been different - the moment where it might have been different if only she'd had more courage. But, would she really have wanted it?

Since finishing this I've been dipping into Charles Dickens - Selected Journalism. There are some very funny pieces about staying in an English seaside town out of season and poor service in restaurants. I think it is one to pick up every now and again rather than read in one go.

Bitter Orange by Claire fuller - reviewed previously here so got the Kindle sample and then luckily found it at the library. I quite enjoyed this although I thought there were a few well-used themes: repressed & socially inept Frances gets a job at a decaying National Trust type pile during a hot 60s summer and makes friends with a glamorous couple who are also temporarily working there. All of them are emotionally fragile and you know it will not end well as further aspects of their lives are revealed: glamorous compulsive liar Cara; her handsome & pragmatic partner & Frances who has never got over being abandoned by her father as a child. This against a backdrop of the decaying mansion, lush wild gardens and nature "red in tooth and claw" (there are a significant number of animal deaths). The subplot of ghosts is not developed but seemingly is merely a symptom of Frances' mental unravelling. A passing reference to religion is also thrown in via neurotic Cara's belief that she had a virgin birth. This book reminds me of many others but the final impression is of a Victorian melodrama.

ScribblyGum it is very moving to hear how much impact The Hobbit had on your experience of childhood illness

1. Longitude by Dava Sobel

This was the fascinating true story of the search for a method to reliably tell one's longitude, which was essential to determine our location on Earth. This was a time before proper documentation of the stars' positions or even a regular clock of any size, so the problem seemed unsolvable for a long time and led to countless people dying of hunger or scurvy on long marine voyages as captains tried to determine where land might be.

I liked this book as the story was amazing but found it annoying that the author couldn't be bothered to stick in a picture or two, and instead relied on flowery prose to describe early clocks: "Built our of brightly shining brass, with rods and balances sticking out at odd angles, it's broad bottom and tall projections recall some ancient vessel that never existed..."

I was also not terribly impressed that the author makes no effort to differentiate between fact and legend, telling it all as if they really happened and leaving the reader to sort out what is what with the help of Google.

The sentimental feeelings bit at the end that culminates with the appearance of a little girl as the author is touring the museum makes it clear that we are indeed reading the work of a female author.

It might not sound like it at this point but I did enjoy this book and would recommend it to especially the fans of exploration/sciency books on here.

Fran - Thank you for your recommendations. I read and loved Musicophilia. The other two don't appear to exist as ebooks but I'll keep an eye out for them.

9. Brother of the More Famous Jack - Barbara Trapido

A classic coming-of-age novel (and book club read). When she applies to university and meets charismatic philosophy professor Jacob Goldman, bright, 18-year-old Katherine finds herself welcomed into his large, exuberant, chaotic family. Her love-affair with Jacob's son Roger ends suddenly and she flees to Italy, returning years later, sadder, wiser and with a traumatic loss behind her. The Goldmans fold her back into their embrace and she finds love with Roger's younger brother Jonathan.

I have vague memories of trying to read this once before and abandoning it - it was entertaining enough and rattled along splendidly, but it felt surprisingly dated to me (despite being written only in 1982), and the dialogue teetered on the verge of being irritatingly arch and mannered a bit too much of the time. A quick glance at Goodreads shows that it's a favourite book for a lot of people, which it won't be for me, but it was OK enough.

I'm anticipating much protest at the book club meeting though, because there's a profusion of sex and swearing and my lot are depressingly puritanical

May I join please? I think I prob read about 50 books a year.

So far this year:

The Travelling Cat Chronicles - Hiro Arikawa

Beautiful book but achingly sad. Not great for depressing January

Perfume - Patrick Suskind

Wanted to read this for ages. Fabulously evocative in many levels

Romesh Ranganathan's autobiog I gave up on when I found out he'd been privately educated. Pisses me off massively that majority of meeja are.

Just bought

Star of the North - D B John
Tangerine - Christine Mangan

Terpsichore
It's one of my favourite novels but that may be because I read it in 1982/3 not long after it first came out. I still enjoy re-reading it now and again.

I like Trapido but prefer Jack and Noah's Ark to her later novels, I think. When I read The Travelling Hornplayer I was so disappointed as you find out what happens to Katherine, Jonathan, Roger and Stella after several years.

I like some of the swearing: "The bloody fool asked me to paraphrase 'Heaven's cherubim horsed upon the sightless couriers of the air' What's the fucking good of paraphrasing it? It sounds better the way it is." is one of my favourite bits of Jonathan. I hope your book club members are not too scandalised.

I'm afraid I gave up on book 5! While You Sleep by Stephanie Merritt. Oh I could've slept alright. Touted as a psychological thriller, it was more 'mummy porn' and not thrilling in any way. Perhaps some may enjoy it but I didn't and gave up by about 80 pages. Onto number 6 which is more promising already!

Ah no MrsArabin, I didn't realise The Travelling Horn-Player was a sequel - I'm invested enough not to want to see them fall apart.

Sadly, I know the book club will hate the swearing, and they'll be completely prudish and censorious about the sex. It couldn't worry me less, but Dh and I now know what to expect. It's the debut choice of the person who picked the book, as well. They won't know what's hit them (although tbh they're robust enough not to care ).

Oh, I must add my thanks for the Backlisted tip btw. It's wonderful. I had a long drive yesterday and realised that if I downloaded episodes to my iPad, I could play them through the car speakers. I had a marvellous time listening to the editions on The Slaves of Solitude, Darkness Falls From the Air and A Month in the Country. Top notch stuff.

Agree, Lovely post scribbly

"the author couldn't be bothered to stick in a picture or two, and instead relied on flowery prose to describe early clocks"

I've looked at Longitude a few times Cote and been put off by the suspicion it would be just as you describe... (If I'm going to have feeeelings I want them with a good romance and plenty of sex thrown in )

Gone for Poverty Safari as my next audible MuseumOfHam and after a chapter I already want to kidnap the author, give him a pint & sit him in my kitchen to talk at me (I'm a sucker for a good Scottish accent).

So glad people are enjoying Backlisted I had to do an annoying errand the other day and it make such a difference thinking you can get a podcast in.

I, too, loved Brother of the More Famous Jack when I read it in my 20s (many years ago now) and reread it a couple of times; I particularly loved and identified with the character of Katherine. I also read Noah's Ark and I think I enjoyed it at the time, but I have just had a look at the copy of my bookshelf and don't really remember anything about it so I don't think it made much of an impression.

I enjoyed Barbara Trapido's Jack when it came out but didn't realise there was a sequel. In retrospect it is a bit too smug London-centric middle class but better than a lot of the current dross about.
I can't join in The Hobbit LoTR love as I despise fantasy and 90% of sci-fi almost as much as Martin Freeman's hairy ears in the trailers I have inadvertently seen. Similarly have never read Harry Potter or seen any films. Cartoons don't do much for me either. Will get a few positives together for next post.

4. The Standing Chandelier by Lionel Shriver

A novella about male and female best friends and what happens when the man gets a girlfriend. I do enjoy Shriver’s writing and she has a great turn of phrase. Great ending too.

Romesh Ranganathan's autobiog I gave up on when I found out he'd been privately educated

...and yet he refers to himself as a distinctly average human being !

I had to read The Hobbit at school - and hated it. So have never been tempted to pick up LOTR. My husband is a big fan of the films (but NOT the Hobbit ones) so I have watched them with him.

Just finished number
4. Leap In - Alexandra Heminsly
which I absolutely loved. I am a complete open-water swimming convert and I thought she wrote about her exploits with humility, honesty and humour. I set myself my first open-water swimming challenge a short while back when I turned 40 and it has turned out to be one of my better decisions during recent years. Highly recommend. For her writing style I would gladly pick up Run like a Girl by the same author but here our paths must part - I DO NOT DO RUNNING

9: Pilgrim’s Rest – Patricia Wentworth – Another fairly entertaining Wentworth. I could have done with Miss Silver coughing rather less though.

Can't remember who said they'd given up on book 5 but (ahem!) we don't count books unless we finish them. The rule of 50 Book threads is there is one rule. As you were.

Remus it was me! Ah of course I should be counting number 6 as number 5, thank you 😊

1. Queen of Shadows - Sarah J Maas 2. The Panopticon - Jenni Fagan 3. Empire of storms - Sarah J Maas

1. Tower of Glass - Sarah J Maas

No more Sarah J Maas for a while, I've got a bit sick of them
Anyway now reading Naomi Alderman - The Power and loving it.
Have also got Do not say we have nothing from the charity shop and Milkman from the library.

scribbly and meg have reminded me how I feel whenever I pick up Harry Potter - read for the first time (after years of turning my nose up at a “kids” book and a fantasy one to boot!) when my parents were at the beginning of a messy divorce. Spent many hours lost with my new friends and counting down until the 6th and 7th books were released. Whenever I re-read them there’s the familiar, “Hi it’s me again. Thanks for waiting for me,” feeling.
Thanks