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?

25. I’ll Be There For You: The One About Friends by Kelsey Miller

I’m a big Friends fan so snapped this up when I spotted it in Waterstones (I had a couple of hours to kill in a city centre the other day so spent most of it just wandering round Waterstones taking time to browse all the sections I don’t normally have time to look at - it was fabulous!). This didn’t really tell me much I didn’t already know about the show (and there’s no new interviews with any of the cast or crew) but it was fun to revisit that time.

26.Watching You by Lisa Jewell

I enjoyed this psychological thriller about neighbours, some of whom are watching each other, some are involved with each other and shouldn’t be...the only downside for me is that bringing them all together is a coincidence too far for me. Still a good read though.

A quick alert to say that Professor Sue Black's memoir about her life as a forensic pathologist/anatomist is one of the Kindle daily deals today - I think I remember it being well-reviewed here in the past.

Also on offer is Ben Macintyre's 'Double-Cross: the True Story of the D-D Spies'.

I can't remember what the other one was but it obviously didn't appeal to me....

Ha! X-post with Keith

My god, that’s amazing, Satsuki. You lucky thing...

I have been lagging behind with updates again, but I’m currently finishing off The Tyrannosaur Chronicles, which is a readable, in-depth analysis of the biology and likely behaviour of tyrannosauruses. Lots of info packed in, but it’s been a surprisingly quick read given how many times I’ve had to backtrack to reread bits I’ve skimmed over due to having the attention span of a gnat. I should finish it today, then onto Sugar Money.

And despite being quite sniffy about them at first, I think I’m getting a bit addicted to the Agatha Raisin books now that I’ve warmed up to the writing and the characters. They’re a bit moreish...

1. The Stonemason's Tale, Ann Swinfen

The last of a series of six mystery books set in medieval Oxford. I have read and enjoyed all 6 of these books. An easy read, and it is interesting learning about the way of life and the crafts in those times.

11: Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata

This a short quirky little novel set around a Japanese convenience store.
The main character is Keiko Furukura, who after a childhood of slightly odd behaviour and an inability to relate normally to people, gets a job in a convenience store. Initially her family are over the moon that she is finally doing something so "normal", but after 18 years Keiko is still there doing the exact same job. She has never married or had a relationship, has never sought a better job. She has seen eight different managers (which she remembers as anonymous Manager #2, #6 etc), and countless employees come and go. She has been absorbed by the convenience store and her life is governed by the routines and the shop manual. She loves her job and gives it her all. When a new employee Shiraha comes to work in the shop, who looks down on the job and the other employees with contempt, Keiko's world starts to change.
I assume Keiko is supposed to have some kind of autism, though this is never said explicitly. I would say it is also a comment on doing what makes you happy rather than coming under pressure to conform to society's expectations.
Some of the other reviews I read said it made them "laugh out loud" - I don't think it was funny in that sense, but it was an enjoyable read. It might have lost something in translation, but some of the decisions Keiko makes don't fit with what the reader knows about her (why on earth would she tolerate Shiraha at all, let alone let him move into her apartment and give up her beloved job for him).
I enjoyed it though

12: Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman
This is a story set in 1920s Australia.
Tom Sherbourne, returned from the WW1 front in Europe takes a job with the Commonwealth Lighthouse Service and is sent to the isolated Janus Island. He is joined by his young wife Isabel. The couple are on the island alone, with a supply boat coming once a month and shore leave every few years. Tom and Isabel are overjoyed when she becomes pregnant.
Isabel suffers three devastating miscarriages over the next few years, and when one day a small boat is washed up on Janus with the body of a man and a live baby girl, Isabel convinces Tom, against his better judgement, to not report the boat to the authorities. They bury the man on Janus and decide to raise the child, who they call Lucy.
A few years pass and on their next shore leave, they discover the identity of the dead man and Lucy, and that Lucy's mother is alive and well and grieving terribly over the loss of her husband and daughter.
It is a decently told story of what happens when good people make bad decisions and put themselves in impossible situations that wreck lives, not just their own, but those of extended families and friends.
It was a bit slow in places and I was listening on Audible and the narrator wasn't brilliant (Had a tendency to start a sentence at normal volume, but trail off to a mumbled whisper towards the end of the sentence. It was a mild irritation at the beginning but got really annoying)

I've fallen behind on my reading I'm afraid; I've been watching Netflix instead. But I've just finished Book 4 for 2019, a reread of Anne of Avonlea by LM Montgomery; a lovely easy read.

21 Ex Libris by Anne Fadiman

Recommended on here as a "book about books". More of a short compilation of essays about books but no less good for that. The essay about carnal lovers of books (break the spines, write in the margins, focus on the words not the artefact) versus courtly lovers (reverence for books as books, would sooner chew their own arm off that leave a book open face down) rang true and sparked a massive row between me and DP (we are very different in our view of books) so that was unexpected. Certainly neither of us could be accused of not caring!

22 Middle England by Jonathan Coe

A follow up to The Rotters Club, and the first “Brexit novel” I have read. I don’t know who it’s for, or why he wrote it, thinking about it. It doesn’t challenge anything any vaguely sane Remainer (or vaguely sane Leaver, for that matter) would think. And if that isn’t the point then it’s just a slightly unsettling set of validating points that don’t do anything to change one’s world view. Lots of middle class people angsting about immigration, urban sprawl, the decline of manufacturing, multiculturalism, austerity, trans issues (it did feel a bit as if he was checking off the issues one by one). And the heavy handed narration really got
to me - anyone reading it now knows that Daniel Craig ("the latest incarnation of James Bond” - thanks for that, Mr Coe) and the Queen gamely participated in a skit for the 2012 Opening Ceremony, and doesn't need a blow-by-blow recap and no one reading it in 50 years time to understand where and why it all fell apart will need to know, or care. And it's very heavy handed - the foreshadowing of referendum themes in the early stages of the novel isn't subtle in any way. But I did really like the characters, their relationships and the warmth of those, and some of it was very funny. Not totally sold on this but don’t regret reading it.

12. Their Finest Hour and a Half - Lissa Evans

I've decided to call this book by its proper title even though I picked up an annoyingly re-packaged copy issued after the film version (called 'Their Finest') was made, complete with cover shots of actors portraying considerably more glossy versions of their counterparts in the book. I'm a bit curious as to how Lissa Evans felt about this, given that the main thrust of the plot was that a WW2 film version of a heroic rescue from Dunkirk played fast and loose with the less-glamorous facts. Actually I expect she smiled wryly (she was a TV director/producer in a former life), but it did keep irritating me every time I picked it up to see a lovely-looking Gemma Arterton smirking smugly from the front cover as the supposedly rather plain heroine struggling through the war at the height of the Blitz......!

Anyway. This is a good read and very well-researched, often funny and touching. Catrin Cole finds herself working on the script of the aforementioned morale-boosting film; sub-plots concern one of the actors - a vain, ageing former matinee idol - and other waifs and strays whose paths cross on the making of the film. Well worth seeking out.

terspichore I really enjoyed Sue Black’s Desert Island Discs too, that’s well worth a listen on catch up. Really interesting woman. I did see an interview with Lissa Evans from when Their Finest came out and she seemed very happy they were making the film and I think you’re right, she had a very strong sense of the irony of them having to glamourise her characters in the same way as they did in the book, it was very meta. Impossible for Gemma Arterton to look plain but she did a good job in the part anyway. Such a good idea to explore I thought, and a real feel for the time. I really recommend her other books as well.

decumus One of things I miss most since having kids is going to the (grown up) theatre. It’s the hardest to arrange.

Shame about Middle England pepe

Agree about the title too - Their Finest just doesn’t make sense the same way!

Exactly, Satsuki I very much enjoyed Lissa Evans on Backlisted, and she's a big fan of The Slaves of Solitude - I seem to remember she confessed to sneaking inspiration from it in parts for Their Finest Hour & a Half . Devotees will spot the bit she means instantly!

Ah interesting- I have a huge Patrick Hamilton shaped hole in my reading which I shall have to try and fill before the end of the year.

Pepe which side of the argument were you on? By that definition I'd be a carnal book lover!

Marking my place as I fell off the thread. I'm really behind with reading because of life. I'm currently reading The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August, and I'm enjoying it so far; I'm about halfway through.

Hmm yes - I’m not sure it rings true for me - I like a nice book cover etc but couldn’t really give two hoots what a book looks like, much more focussed on the words than the thing. All my series are mismatched different editions, picked up here and there etc in all sorts of conditions and I’m not particular about storing them or indeed taking them in the bath or up at the dinner table. However I just cannot bring myself to break a spine and don’t see why it’s necessary! Some of my books look unread, despite many readings, for that reason. I do also write in the margins occasionally depending if I need to but only very lightly in pencil. I also can’t bear turning the page corners. So I’m somewhere in the middle there

I was definitely carnal, tara. I see books as vehicles for the words in them. Unless it’s a rare first edition, the artefact is replaceable and should be used however you want to in order to get the most out of it. We have books everywhere, and although they don’t get trashed for fun, there’s no shame in loving them hard! Although I’m not really a spine breaker, for the most part - not sure it’s ever necessary. I do, however, happily put a cup of coffee on a book, to DP's horror.

1. Finally finished The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver. It’s about a man called Harrison Shepherd who ends up working for Frida Kahlo and her husband Diego Rivera in the first half of the book. Trotsky comes to visit. The second half of the book is where he moved to America and becomes an author. It’s very long.The length of time I took to read it - a week- is probably a reflection of how much I enjoyed it. The first half was great and the second half I didn’t enjoy as much. I wish there was more Frida Kahlo in it. She disappears in the second half of the book.

Having said that, I did enjoy it. The writing is very rich and I like how the lacuna itself could refer to many different things. I learned a lot about that period of American history. The ending was very satisfying. I’m still reading the Iliad, which I’m actually really enjoying. I didn’t expect to - I’m enjoying the poetry. Sometimes I’m reading it aloud which helps me get into the rhythm of it. Now I’m off to read something short, as I keep choosing really long books.

I am definitely a courtly book lover! I hate breaking spines, never write in books, never turn corners of pages over etc. I hate it when authors I collect change publisher so the books no longer look nice and consistent on the shelf! I have been known to rebuy books that have got too worn.

Need to report in on number 6 : The Beat of the Pendulum : a found novel by NZ author Catherine Chidgey.

I read this because I very much enjoyed The Wish Child.

I think some of you might really liek this quirky book. Its concept takes getting used to and is almost bewildering at first but you will get used to the different voices. Over ayear, Chidgey listened innon coversation, had her own, listened to the radio, read Ebay, published a book etc etc and she gathers all this together. She also has a young girl, who was born via surrogate, and does a lot of worrying , and her mother is descending into dementia. That is the main and most interesting thread and really suits the somewhat chaotic style of the book : it becomes poignant. Sometimes the book felt a bit overwhelming , and soemtimes a bit 'MA in Creative Writing' (which she is aware of as a lecturer!). Those of you who have read 'Nutshell' will enjoy the bitchy conversation she has with a writer friend!
The book is organised into months which helps. After one chapter, I nearly gave up, but I am glad I didn't. So much fiction is cliched or recycled these days and this (I think) is truly original.
I gather Chidgey is well known in NZ, and that The Wish Child is due to be made into a film.

My DB is a carnal book lover he actively breaks the spines on any new book. I can't bear it! I am in the courtly camp. DH less so but has come over to my way of thinking over the years, Constant exposure does result in a certain degree of - contamination.

I recommended Ex Libris, so sorry to have been the cause of marital discourse, Pepe!

Re courtly book love, I hardly ever read a brand-new book - mostly they're library books or second-hand, and come pre-bashed so I don't fret too much about them.

Currently reading a genetic history of Europe, translated from the Swedish, which sounds impressively austere. It's really not - it's by a science journalist and she's pretty light on the actual science (which fine by me, not a criticism). The book is My European Family: The First 54,000 Years by Karin Bojs.

She travels to various ancient sites, eg. cave art in Dordogne, Stonehenge (I was amused when she went to visit one academic in Bradford and was a bit sniffy about the locale). Not sure it was really worth all those air-miles, as it doesn't seem to add much information or colour to the picture. She outlines the various waves of migration (early hunters, the first farmers, the wave of Indo-European herders) and what we know about how they lived. She's making a vaguely political point that all Europeans are of migrant stock, one way or another.

It's not bad, but I enjoyed a similar book a lot more, A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived: The Stories in Our Genes by Adam Rutherford.

I read the Sue Black book last year. I wouldn't say I was completely blown away by it, but it's worth the read, especially for 99p.

By way of contrast, I've also downloaded the Kelsey Miller book about Friends, thanks to Chessie's mention. It's really for dd, who is Friends-obsessed, but I'll read it first.

MuseumOfHam I’ll see what I can do to oblige.

Thanks for your review of Convenience Store Woman BookWitch, sounds really interesting. I’ve added it to my want to read list.

bibliomania, it was heated but not the end of the world. We've argued about worse and weirder; the great Doric column row of 2015 stands out as a humdinger. I thought it was a wonderful book, so thank you. Rows notwithstanding, it was fantastic.

the great Doric column row

My DH and I row about what to have for tea.