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?

10. This is Going to Hurt - Adam Kay (audible)

Bit late to the party on this one. I liked the somewhat sick and twisted humour of this former junior doctor's secret diary (stories of inappropriately inserted objects are always welcome at my house). The tragic case that caused him to give up his career was devastating, and I have a much deeper understanding of the immense stress weighing down on doctors every time they go to work.

Can I join? Am finally back in a reading mode after a long hiatus. My list so far this year:

1. The Essex Serpent- Sarah Perry

Meh

1. The Mars Room Rachel Kushner

Loved

1. Let Me Lie- Clare Mackintosh

Good apart from disappointing ending

1. Aquarium- David Vann

Really well done

1. I See You- Clare Mackintosh

Not convinced by the plot of this one

1. I Am, I Am, I Am- Maggie O’Farrell

Absolutely loved. Made me sob in several places. Such a clever idea for a memoir

1. Everything Under- Daisy Johnson

Again meh. Think was spoiled for me by reading AQUARIUM just before it which is also about a disfunctional mother-daughter relationship but is infinitely better done IMO

1. Manhattan Beach- Jennifer Egan

Ok. Quite interesting setting and point in cultural history

1. My Name is Lucy Barton- Elizabeth Strout

Absolutely loved. So beautifully crafted and classy

10. Do Not Say We Have Nothing- Madeleine Thien
    Hard work. Interesting subject (Chinese cultural revolution) but have preferred other similar novels eg Amy Tan

11. Have Mercy on Us All- Fred Vargas
    Disappointing as normally like her. Translation felt clunky

Currently on Commonwealth by Ann Patchett and loving every word so far

10: Tin Man by Sarah Winman

I had such high hopes for this, so many five star ratings and I had a mostly free weekend to enjoy it.

It's the story of teens Michael and Ellis whose friendship develops into a gay love affair, Michael moves to London and Ellis gets married. Lots of long descriptions of working in car plants, and trips to France.

So many people seem to absolutely LOVE it, so this review might be an unpopular opinion, but here goes. I am quite happy to accept I am missing something.

I didn't love it. I can appreciate it was 'powerful' description and a 'wonderful bittersweet' story, but I got really bored. If it had been a longer book it would have been abandoned under my 100 page rule (if I am not loving it by page 100, it doesn't get finished. BUt at 100 pages, I was just about half way, so I thought I may as well finish it.
I found the lack of chapters and any speech punctuation at all both irritating and tedious, and felt it was trying to be far too clever. I am a big reader, have a literature degree and can follow a complex plot and literary devices, but this was just trying to confuse the reader for the sake of it. I spent most of the first 75 pages or so wondering what on earth was going on. It did pick up a little bit when the narration by Michael started, but it was not enough to save it for me.
The only character I was really interested in was Dora (the first two or three pages on how she won the painting and how she stood up to her husband about it were brilliant) but there was far too little about her, she was really only there to 'understand' Michael and Ellis. There should have been far more about Annie as well.

I only realised about halfway through that it is the same author who wrote When God Was a Rabbit, which I read last year. I looked back at my review of that, and I was a bit underwhelmed by that as well. She is obviously a writer I don't 'get' and won't read any more of hers.

21. Anne Boleyn: A King’s Obsession
22. Jane Seymour: The Haunted Queen Both by Alison Weir

Weir is writing a series of 6 books about each of Henry VIII’s wives, and these were books 2 and 3. These are, I think, the soap version of Tudor history. Weir admits in the author notes that some of the things she puts in the novel are just theories with very little evidence to back them up, so as long as you don’t treat these as a history lesson they’re OK. The Anne Boleyn one was better than the Jane Seymour one because Anne is a more interesting character than Jane. I’m interested to see how she deals with Anne of Cleves who was only married to Henry for about five minutes (but had the luckiest escape)!

That’s should be book 22 not 23

I agree with you entirely about Tin Man, BookWitch. I was very underwhelmed and similarly hadn't realised I'd also read When God was a Rabbit a few years ago and been underwhelmed by that as well - despite many friends recommending it to me.

To be fair I did read Tin Man straight after Hearts Invisible Furies which meant it paled in comparison.

I agree the characterisation in Tin Man was lacking and the story a bit confusing.

Waving to CluelessMama for your post on Friday evening about the need for new happy endings (sorry, was offline till now).

Added two contrasting books:

16. Lizzie Siddal, by Lucinda Hawksley
A biography of the Victorian woman who was variously a Pre-Raphaelite muse, poet, artist, laudanum addict, drama queen, possible anorexic and, for s short and tragic period, Mrs Rossetti. Canters along fairly briskly, until it ends abruptly with Rossetti having her coffin dug up to retrieve the poems he had buried with her. She remains somewhat elusive and not particularly likeable.

17. The Whites, by Harry Brandt. Strongly recommended on last year's thread - sorry, can't remember by whom. Makes UK police procedurals look tame, as even when the police officer here has a maverick streak, he/she is mindful of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act, takes his/her time to focus on the crime, and doesn't jeopardise the prosecution by say, beating a confession out of a suspect. The New York cops in this book, facing multiple murders over the course of a shift, are far more jaded and cynical - another killing means more paperwork, delaying the end of an already-endless night shift, and justice is elusive, leading to the siren song of vigilantism. It is a page-turner and I stayed up too late last night with it.

10. The Wife by Meg Wolitzer

A short, quick read by comparison with A Gentleman In Moscow, but similarly defined by a very strong authorial voice. I read The Interestings by the same author a while back and found it just a bit meh. I liked this much more. The wife of the title, Joan Castleman, is the wife of an famed author who has just won a big international writing prize, and the story of their life together is told in flashback as they travel for him to accept the prize. I loved the way Joan's voice is written - bitter, angry and wryly funny, but occasionally with a sense of her own complicity in what she has become. I knew where the story was going from the first few chapters - I felt it was pretty obvious, and that spoiled it a little for me - but the pleasure of the writing carried me through and I liked the ending. It felt as though Joan was finally doing something on her own terms, even if it might not be what others would do in the same circumstances. I would like to see the film now. I think Glenn Close will make a great job of playing Joan.

Checking in as I'm unlikely to finish a book over the next few days after a non-reading weekend (I worked till the early hours Saturday morning then DH so work stressed that he ended up drunkenly dancing with chair on his head at Saturday night dinner party while I desperately tried to save friend's ornaments from his careering around - after all that I was no good for anything more than desultory sitcom watching on the ipad).

But this thread is very useful for mojo-restarting. Thanks to all of you for the recommendations. The Silence of the Girls", Troubles and Singapore Grip" (I love Siege of Krishnapur but somehow never twigged that there were more to be had where that came from!) and The Nightingale all added to my list.

My completed list so far this year:
1 - An Infamous Army - Georgette Heyer
2 - Zero Zero Zero - Roberto Saviano
3 - Milkman - Anna Burns
4 - The Bounty - Caroline Alexander
5 - The Sleep of Reason - David James Smith
6 - Moby Dick - Herman Melville
7 - Mike at Wrykyn - P.G.Wodehouse

Currently reading:
Winter by Ali Smith - loving this and spinning it out because my main criticism of her books is that they are over too quickly.

At Freddie's by Penelope Fitzgerald - one of my favourite authors and although this is a bit 'slight' and inconsequential in comparison to some of her other work, she is doing a great job of bringing to life the world of London theatre in the early 60s.
Independent People picked up in Iceland (country not supermarket) last year and it's the 'big-novel' by Iceland's first (and I think only?) Nobel prize winner. Am about half way through and it's really good, if exceedingly bleak...

Tempted to go for an Agatha Christie next, after catching up on December's LRB where John Lanchester made a good case for her writing - haven't read any since I was a teenager and he whetted my appetite. Do any of you know if she tends to be cheap on Kindle or am I better off trying a charity shop? Don't really mind which one I read.

Finally finished book 4) Les Miserables by Victor Hugo (2012 translation by Catherine Doughton.) It's only taken a decade or so! I started with an abridged paperback but feeling this was 'cheating', I moved onto Kindle and a free, but clunky, unabridged translation several years ago, only to stall half way through and give up.
Spurred on by Dominic West and the fabulous BBC adaptation I downloaded the praised Doughton translation for a couple of quid and tried again, starting at the beginning but skipping the infamous elaborate asides that do little to move the plot along. (Still cheating!)
It is of course a literary classic but, even more than Dickens, it relies on the readers suspension of belief to buy into the idea that so many coincidences could happen involving the main protagonists. Javert, it would seem, is 'the only copper in the village' initially a guard on the prison hulks, he becomes an inspector in Montreuil-Sur-Mur where Jean Valjean is living under an assumed identity, and finally ends up policing 240km away in Paris where despite the sprawling city he bumps into JVJ again. And don't get me started on how the Thenardier's, in their many guises, manage to be involved in every major plot point.
I know the story as told by the musical very well but there were a few surprises in the novel - Gavroche and Eponine Thenardier being brother and sister and the fact there are five siblings in total, Marius's indebtedness to Thenardier based on the mistaken belief he'd saved his fathers life, the way Marius and to a lesser extent Cosette, behave so badly towards JVJ at the end hastening his demise. I'm glad I've read the book and it's impossible to know how much more caught up in it I would have been if the plot has been unknown going in but it didn't grab me in the same visceral way the musical and the series have.
Now on to Birdbox which I expect to be a much quicker read!

Book 6; Skin Deep by Liz Nugent. I loved this, as I did her earlier two, though the main character is a thoroughly unlikeable sociopath. A great read.

grimupNorthLondon I bought all my Agatha Christies from charity shops between about 1991 and 2005. Never paid more than £1.50 for one. However, it's possible they've gone up (and it might also depend on the charity shop!). It looks as though on Kindle most are £2.99 and up although you may be able to find cheaper. I'd take pot luck by going to the closest charity shop and seeing what they have. I managed to get pretty much everything she'd every written (at least in crime novel/short story terms; I only bought some of the Westmacotts later) that way. It's amazing how widely even some of her least recognised novels are available.

grimupNorthLondon - The Mysterious Affair at Styles* is in February’s Kindle Deals

grimupNorthLondon I like the sound of Independent People. I've just had a look on Amazon and it looks like something I might want to read so I'm going to add it to my wish list. I might read it after I have read all the Knausgaard's. Let me know what you think of it.

16. Frenchman's Creek by Daphne du Maurier Lady Dona is bored so flees London, falls in with a pirate and causes havoc on the Cornish coast.

I didn't enjoy this as much as some of her other work (Rebecca/ Rachel/ Jamaica), as it lacked the suspense and usual edge that I expect but it still contained some beautiful writing and had a very good sense of fun. I have a feeling my early teens self would have loved this. You could tell she enjoyed writing this and there was some very tongue in cheek humour.

More piracy on the way with John Boyne's Mutiny on the Bounty.

I've picked up a few 99p Agatha Christies on Kindle but on Amazon I've also picked up omnibuses with 3-4 books in each for about £2.

Finished #12 The Definitive Biography of Freddie Mercury not bad but have come to the conclusion that there is a reason I don't read celebrity bios. As it ends with Freddies and so many young mens untimely deaths from AIDS it has left me feeling a bit down.

Not sure what's next something but looking for something from my unread pile which will be cheerful.

14: The Listening Eye – Patricia Wentworth

The last of my splurge on Wentworths at 99p a shot. I didn’t like this one. It consisted of irritating people being irritating whilst Miss Silver knitted and coughed. The reveal was stupid, and I’d stopped caring by that point anyway.

Finished book 7. Mythos - Stephen Fry on my drive home tonight (audiobook obvs!) I really enjoyed this, I had some knowledge of the myths before but not an extensive one, most of what I knew was snippets so it was nice to get a sense of how things all connected. Last year I really loved Madeline Miller’s Circe and The Song of Achilles which both made me want to explore the Greek myths a bit more, and this was a nice easy way in to that (though both the latter two books seem to come later in the ‘timeline’ - looking forward to encountering those stories again in the next book).
I think the second one is out? Going to check that out now and use my audible credit to get it if so. There were times I wished for a ‘proper’ book with this so I could go back and check names etc I’d missed, and because I’d get a geeky amount of pleasure from the actual written words/names and tracing the roots through to our modern language. BUT I also know it would have taken me forever to read as I’d be constantly stopping to google and look things up, where the audiobook was great just to simply enjoy listening to the stories.

If anyone is interested in a bit of literary intrigue can I direct to the New Yorker article about AJ Finn who wrote Woman in the Window. Quite fascinating for a number of reasons which will become apparent. It does contain spoilers for said book and for Sophie Hannah’s Poirot novel to forewarn.

Oooh interesting Satsuki - does it spoil the first Sophie Hannah or the second? I have only read the second but may go back to the 1st. Though I don’t suppose it really matters as I can’t not read the article now you’ve piqued my curiosity

19 The Wife by Meg Wolitzer

I agree with Welshwabbit's review of this from earlier today - this was a quick and easy read and while it didn't have nearly as much going on as The Female Persuasion which I loved last year it was very good. I admired Joan as a character and her telling of her story was well done. I'm keen to see the movie too - I agree Glenn Close would be terrific in it.

20 The Growing Summer by Noel Streatfield

I picked this off DD's shelf - it was mine when I was a child, and I am not sure she's ever read it. It was an incredibly comforting re-read, albeit somewhat implausibly plotted and with all of the action concertinaed into the last quarter of the book, the first three quarters mainly being concerned with four children learning how to boil eggs while living temporarily with an eccentric great aunt on the Irish coast. There's something wonderful about revisiting books you loved as a child. A really lovely and uplifting story that made me want to find some of my other childhood favourites.

Pepe, that takes me back. How I loved The Growing Summer. I still have my paperback copy too, and just one glance at it is a sort of Proustian moment of evocation.

Very interested that biblio mentioned The Whites - it was me who recommended it but I was confused by the author - hadn't realised that Richard Price wrote under the pen-name of Harry Brandt.

Wow Satsuki, that New Yorker article is absolutely jaw-dropping!

My reads from the last few weeks:

3. Fear: Trump in the White House, by Bob Woodward. Thoroughly depressing and on reflection I'm not really sure what the point was of writing this book at this time. It's really just a series of increasingly alarming stories from the Trump White House, with no overarching narrative and of course no real conclusion. I understand why Bob Woodward wants to write a book about Trump but this felt more like notes for a book that he'll rewrite after the Trump presidency is over.

4. Transcription, by Kate Atkinson. Absolutely loved this, my first Kate Atkinson. Much reviewed here so I won't add too much more except to say that I really enjoyed the writing and was greatly surprised by the last part of the story.

5. Reading Allowed, by Chris Paling. Borrowed from the library on the recommendation of this thread, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. He's a great observer of his library's patrons and I enjoyed how gently humane this was. I wonder if he's still working in the library, a quick Google didn't provide an answer.