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?

Thanks Bibliomania - and yes, it’s linked to the whole snobbery piece too, since it seems that a book from anywhere on an eclectic spectrum can provoke a new way of thinking, sometimes almost randomly.

Raynor Winn, the author of The Salt Path, appeared on The Big Travel Podcast last year and talked about some of the scenes from the book – it can be found here.

Thanks for the thread southeast, and thanks Bakewell for your comments on the Ancillary Justice series. I'll definitely read the others. I'm really put off by sci-fi or fantasy books that are too pompous, humourless, and take themselves too seriously, and I think it took me a while to unpick that while the Radch definitely had those qualities, the book itself didn't. Here's my list so far:

1. Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel
2. Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
3. Slade House by David Mitchell
4. Ancillary Justice by Ann Levine

I've started Spies by Michael Frayn. It's on my dad's old kindle which has 80+ books on which I've slowly been reading through over the last couple of years. There are still about 30 I plan to read on there. Because it's an old style kindle, all i have to go on before starting a book is the author and title. My only awareness of Michael Frayn before starting this was that he wrote the farce Noises Off. I had no idea he wrote serious novels. A couple of chapters of beautifully written, measured reflective prose where nobody's clothes accidentally fell off, and nobody made a double entendre to the vicar, sent me to Google. Yep, same Michael Frayn. Enjoying it so far.

Ann Leckie, not Levine. I am so pissed off with the absolute randomness of auto-correct on this device.

So strange - was talking to my husband yesterday about the old John Cleese film Clockwise, and Michael Frayn wrote the script! He is married to Clare Tomalin. (All conversations lead to Wikipedia these days, don’t they)

5. Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather

This was a slow read for me. A series of vignettes from the life of a missionary, it offers insights into the times, the landscape and the people of old America, through a lens of faith, told in Cather’s rich, meandering style. It had some interesting tales and wonderful, quotable passages, but I didn’t enjoy this quite as much as I did My Antonia or O Pioneers, as it doesn’t have the same narrative drive (by its nature) so would suggest those first if you’ve not read any Cather before. It is an extraordinary novel though, and superbly written as all Cather’s novels are.

Ah, here you all are. Thanks for the new thread southeast.
My list to date:

1. Winter by Ali Smith
2. Help the Witch by Tom Cox
3. The Silent Companions by Laura Purcell
4. The Pursuit of Love by Nancy Mitford

Just picked up The Woman in the Window which seems a pretty standard thriller so far.

TimeforaGandT - Hangover Square was one of my real highlights of last year, if such a beautifully sad book can be described as a highlight.

I bought the entire works of Nancy Mitford on Kindle daily deal so I'm looking forward to reading them (in order) this year.

Oh my I feel a little overwhelmed looking at some of your lists - by day 16! Wow! Can I join? I don’t think 50 is achievable for me so am aiming for 40. This is my list:

1. Anatomy of a scandal - Sarah Vaughan
2. Crazy Rich Asians - Kevin Kwan
3. The Music shop - Rachel Joyce (loved this)
4. The tattooist of Auschwitz - only about 40 pages in but really great so far.

Can I ask a nosey question to all you mega readers? How do you manage it? Do you plan reading into your day? I only really read in bed when I’m tired which isn’t great.

List so far not very long as I took forever to finish number one

1. The Secret Barrister

1. The Rumour - Lesley Kara

A new mum hears a rumour in the playground. She doesn’t mean to pass it on but a rogue comment at bookclub and it spreads like wildfire through the small village. Is there a child killer living amongst them? And if so who is it and how dangerous are they?

There’s been a lot of hype regarding this book on twitter and I feel it lived up to it if you like this type of book. I didn’t guess the twist at all. Think I suspected everyone else. Would recommend now to find book three!

Thank you for the new thread too!

Thanks for the new thread southeastdweller

My list so far:

1. Northanger Abbey by Val McDermid
2. Grey Sister by Mark Lawrence
3. The Christmasaurus by Tom Fletcher

I read quickly which helps, but I also read at every possible opportunity and different formats depending on situation. I have a fairly long commute, so read paperback/kindle for 35-40 minutes each way, then a 15-20 minute walk each way where I listen to an audiobook. I do this 3-4 days a week. I then read whenever else I get chance - before I go to bed, while eating if I’m alone, couple of pages when I go to the loo, in the bath, during DDs swimming lesson. To be honest it’s harder for me NOT to read - I get twitchy if I don’t have anything to read for long!!

Thanks southeast for the new thread and to everyone who has posted interesting and eclectic reviews and recommendations.

1. The Good Immigrant, Nikesh Shukla (Editor)
2. Everyone Brave is Forgiven, Chris Cleave
3. Bitter Orange, Clare Fuller

4. A Country Road, A Tree, Jo Baker

A fictionalised account of Samuel Beckett's wartime experiences in France, where he chose to stay and join the resistance rather than return to the safety of Ireland. I liked Longbourn by the same author but thought this was so much better - beautifully written in appropriately spare prose, and such a very human book, about hunger and cold and sore feet and fear and hope and being scared to hope and wishing for comfort and being brave. I really enjoyed the afterword by the author as well which explained what inspired her to write a novel on this topic.

5. Waiting for Godot, Samuel Beckett

Inspired to go back and re-read this after finishing the Baker novel. I remember reading it in sixth form at the urging of our keen young teacher, and making neither head nor tail of it. So much better on a re-read, and I think the knowledge of Beckett's war experiences helped (especially as Baker very clearly links her story to Beckett's writing in her account). This is really unlike anything else I am familiar with - nothing happens, it's repetitive, it makes no sense, and yet it's funny (very funny), and physical, and thought-provoking and moving. Reading that list above ("hunger and cold and sore feet and fear and hope and being scared to hope and wishing for comfort and being brave") - that applies to this play very much too, and shows me how clever Baker was to capture that same essence in her book. I'd love to see this on the stage.

6. The Crown, Robert Lacey

Some much-needed light relief, especially as I am also dipping into Tove Jansson's Winter Book which is rather bleak. This is a big book full of photos that explains the history and gossip behind the Netflix series (season 1, so the post war years, coronation, Churchill, Princess Margaret's affair with Captain Townsend). Useful for someone like me who learns all her history from historical fiction (whether books or film) and a reminder that they're not always all that accurate! And lots of lovely pictures of people in nice frocks.

Thanks for the new thread,South!

Just finished:

1. Starlight And Storm - Gaston Rebuffat

The first book I read by my no.1 old-school mountaineering crush, and the one which along with Macfarlane's Mountains Of The Mind kick-started a vicarious obsession interest which means my shelves are now groaning with mountaineering books.

This was Rebuffat's first book; I've read all his others which have been translated (sadly a few have never been translated), which go into more technical and historical detail. But this book, describing his ascent of the six major north faces of the Alps (he was the first to do all six), is a fantastic introduction to his writing and the golden age of Alpine climbing.

5. Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue - John McWhorter (audiobook) - a history of English grammar by the American linguistics professor. I have a huge intellectual crush on McWhorter and if you have a linguistics nerd streak like me, you'll love it (if not, probably not so much). Focuses largely on the influences of other languages (Welsh, Norse, and possibly Phoenician in the far distant past) on the development of English grammar. Although I enjoyed it, there was not a lot that was new to me here as I listened to the author's Great Courses lectures on linguistics last year. I think I need to take a McWhorter break for a while...

1. Blue: a memoir – keeping the peace and falling to pieces - John Sutherland
2. The unquiet dead - Ausma Zehanat Khan
3. Past mortems: life and death behind mortuary doors - Carla Valentine

4. The heart's invisible furies - John Boyne 5. Burial rites - Hannah Kent

1. Call the midwife - Jennifer Worth
2. Death wore white - Jim Kelly
3. Cambridge blue - Alison Bruce
4. The history of Britain in 21 women - Jenni Murray

10. The siren - Alison Bruce

Just finished 11. Travelling to work: diaries 1988-1998 by Michael Palin. The third of his published diaries covering his major world trips, Around the World in 30 Days, Pole to Pole and Full Circle. This was also the period when he began serious acting, play-writing and became a novelist. Read this out of sequence as it was cheap on Kindle last year; looking forward to reading the first book that covers his Monty Python years. Huge Python and Michael Palin fan.

Still enjoying Prisoners of geography Going to start a Brad Warner book next I think.

John McWhorter sounds interesting. Will have to venture onto Amazon for a look.

@KeithLeMonde - that Jo Baker sounds really interesting. I only "sort of" enjoyed Longbourn, but what I thought she did really well and the element that stuck with me was the very clear evocation of the physical existence of the characters, their chapped hands from constantly doing laundry and so on. It sounds as though her Beckett book might be an even better use of that talent. Thanks for the tip

I'm in!

Kitty, I read in bed too. I tend to go to bed pretty early (lone parent so I go when dd goes) so I have a decent stretch for reading then. I'm more likely to read than watch TV, partly because my bed is warmer than the sitting room, where the TV is. I also read while having breakfast (probably a bad habit) and once a month or so I'll have a train journey, which is another good time for reading.

Thanks for the new list southeast.

Nearly finished current read American Overdoseand then will bring list over.

Very happy to report that today’s Audible Daily Deal, The Wood by John Lewis-Stempel is superb, nature writing at its best, and contains zero sound effects, skirt swishing or otherwise.

Food Politics - Marion Nestle

Oh the irony!

@brizzledrizzle she actually states that she's nothing to do with them in the chapter where she basically lists all the fuckwittery they've done.

Lovely review, Waawo.

Waiting for Godot is one of my favourite plays (although I must admit, I think his Endgame might be even better). I read and liked the sample of A Country Road, A Tree and must give it a try at some point. I'm afraid I absolutely detested Longbourn though.

1: Unnatural Death – Dorothy L Sayers
2: The Life Changing Magic of Not Giving a Fuck
3: So Disdained – Nevil Shute
4: The Princess Bride – William Goldman
5: Lethal White – Robert Galbraith

No stand-outs at all yet, sadly. Still reading Erebus, which is almost certainly going to be a stand-out, unless something goes horribly wrong in the second half, plus a Miss Silver mystery by Patricia Wentworth, which I'm thoroughly enjoying so far.

MuseumofHam and Satsuki - Michael Frayn is well worth exploring. Someone (in the last thread, I think) mentioned his early novel Towards the End of the Morning, which I'd definitely recommend. And his memoir My Father's Fortune is simultaneously hilariously funny and deeply poignant.

Just checking in on the new thread. My list so far is:
1 Ada Palmer Seven Surrenders
2 Thomas Levenson Newton and the Counterfeiter
3 Chris Brookmyre Places in the Darkness
4 Andrew Caldecott Rotherweird
5 Andrew O'Hagan The Missing

Now reading the third in Ada Palmer's series The Will to Battle, which is enjoyable but suffers 'middle book in a series' syndrome somewhat with lots of minor action but not much really moving forwards.

I've already fallen down on my 'no new books' resolution by ordering the second Viv Albertine book from the library following reviews on here (and slightly randomly discovering that my friend's dad played with the Slits at one point in his career & had a walk-on part in Girls Girls Girls)

@hugandroll I thought she might have said that, what an unfortunate name.