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?

I’m sorry to hear about your dog MrsA.

12. Snap by Belinda Bauer

As others have said, I can’t see how this ended up on the Booker long list. I enjoyed it, it’s a good story, but I don’t think it particularly stands out over other similar books. One thing that did irritate me was that part of the book was set somewhere I know well, and some of the descriptive details of the area were wrong. Most readers wouldn’t even know that, but it did then make me wonder what other aspects may not have been researched thoroughly and therefore may not be accurate. However, as I said above I did enjoy it and would recommend it if you like this genre, but don’t let the Booker longlisting make you expect any more from it than you would normally expect from this type of book.

Nuffaluff - my favourite Anne Tyler is Back When We Were Grownups.

This thread moves really fast !

Finished my third book of the year which was
The keeper of lost things by Ruth Hogan.

I absolutely loved it and didn't want it to end.

1: The Perfect Family
2: Birdbox
3: The keeper of lost things

Mrs A.

9. Transcription - Kate Atkinson. I only discovered Kate Atkinson last year with the sublime Life after life and God in Ruins . Although her latest offering doesn't get near those I still really enjoyed it. I love the way she writes. Her wit and strong, quirky female characters really appeal.
10. Votes for Women - Jenni Murray This was a Xmas present from my DH, bought as he knew I really enjoyed her 21 woman of British History and 21 woman of World books. What he didn't realise and I quickly did is that this books is a reprint of 6 essays from her first book. No real matter. It was nice to revisit them and an easy read as I try to get rid of a horrible tummy/ flu virus I seem to have picked up.

I loved My Naughty Little Sister books. I remember my mum reading them to me and I read them to my DD's who are now 22 and 18. Happy memories

1. You think it, I’ll say it by Curtis Sittenfeld

Short stories set in modern USA. I loved this. I enjoyed every story which is unusual in a collection. They are mostly from a female perspective including a fictionalised Hilary Clinton. Definitely recommend.

Thanks Tara. I’ll put that one in my list too.

1. The Luminaries
2. Clock Dance
3. A Single Man
4. The Vagina Monologues

And now 5. We are all completely beside ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler. Can’t say too much about the plot as it will give too much away, but superficially it is about a family with estranged family members, but it’s a lot more than that. I absolutely loved this - my standout book of the year so far. At first I thought I hadn’t read anything by this author before, but then I realised I read The Jane Austen Book Club about 15 years ago. I enjoyed that, but found this novel so much more satisfying on an intellectual and emotional level. It made me cry, which always sucks me in to enjoying something! Now reading The Iliad, as I’ve read so many books and seen so many films based on it but never the original text. Not going to read all of it in one go, so also going to start Hotel World by Ali Smith, my favourite living author. So excited.

6 The Will to Battle by Ada Palmer

This is the third in her Terra Ignota series. Like books 1 & 2 (Too Like the Lightening & Seven Surrenders) this was a fantastic read.

The series is set in 2454, when nation states have become obsolete - they fell apart in the aftermath of the devastating world Church Wars. Super-fast & cheap transport has made geography much less significant (in the same way we can travel easily from one part of the UK to another), and the world is now organised into seven Hives, each with their own set of laws and customs. People enter the hive of their own choosing after taking an Adult Competency Exam when they feel ready to do so, and can change hive at any time, so limiting the power of any hive over it's populace. The Hives come together in a World Alliance with a base agreed set of laws & customs.

The series covers a period of crisis in this world order, after 300 years of peace, with this latest book leaving the world on the brink of war. The world building is fantastic - the author does a really good job of imagining a completely different yet very plausible way in which political life could be organised.

They are novels of high political intrigue, rather than action or every-day life (we find out almost nothing about the way the economy works for example) and are heavily influenced by the author's interest in the 18thC and the Enlightenment. If I had to describe them, I'd say they read like they were written by the love-child of Ursula le Guin and CS Lewis, taught creative writing by Laurence Sterne. But for anyone who enjoys SFF, politics, philosophy and theology, they're a fabulous read.

Sadik you've done a very good sell on the Terra Ignota series. I already bought book one a few days ago for £1.99 on kindle, based on your previous reviews. Just checked and it is still on at that price, for anyone else who is swayed by your latest review. it will take me a while to get to it though, not least as I have just started the massive The Five Giants by Nicholas Timmins. I may be some time.

I hope you enjoy it Museum - I love them, but they're definitely marmite books

I think it did help for me having them in paper copy - I think a kindle would be fine, but I read e-books on my phone, & I don't think they'd have worked well with the small screen.

It sounds right up my street Sadik. I'll let you know when it reaches the top of my digital pile, probably in about November at this rate. I find kindle format fine for reading most things.

1. Spies by Michael Frayn An old man takes a trip down memory lane to piece together the events of a childhood wartime summer in suburban London. Very evocative with detailed descriptions, and very much seen through the eyes of the boy, with misunderstandings, confusion and fear about the mysteries of the adult world. It was very slow, with much of the book being taken up with the boy's own childish thoughts and observations, upon which the reader can superimpose their own interpretation of events. I enjoyed being immersed in that world for a while but feel like he could have done more with it.

How very kind you all are, thank you everyone.

My MIL had to have her little dog pts a few weeks ago, too. And we've been through it too, having to make that heartbreaking decision with our cats in the past
It's such a hard decision to make, isn't it - you don't want to make it too early in case there's any chance but you don't want to leave it and cause them to suffer.

Here she is stopping me from reading by sleeping on my book.

Now reading The Iliad, as I’ve read so many books and seen so many films based on it but never the original text.

I had The Iliad on my January TBR ( it will probably be for February now) I have it on audiobook and bought the same translation (Ian Johnston) so I can read it alongside. I'm looking to read a few retellings over the next year so, like you, thought I should read the original.

How are you finding it? I'm a bit daunted by it, truth to tell.

Mrs A was she a ruby Cavalier? Such loving little dogs

mrsarabin she looks lovely. It is so hard, I had to do the same (ten years ago now!) and I knew it was the right thing too but I still couldn’t talk about it for weeks afterward. What’s lovely now is I have pictures of him around and my children who never knew him love hearing funny stories about him and point out dogs that look like him sometimes and it is nice that he still comes up in this way as he was a good little dog

1. The Welcome Visitor by John Humphries and Dr. Sarah Jarvis

Non fiction book about how we treat death and how to have a good death. Very well written. moving real case studies. Read in 48 hours which is very unusual for me.

Have just finished Making Kids Cleverer. This is the third book by David Didau and I preferred the other two as I found them more practical and/or thought provoking. The subtitle to this is ' a manifesto for closing the learning gap' and I guess the word choice of 'manifesto' should have led to me to expect 240 pages of (highly informed) opining. It isn't terribly original either : it's more of a meta analysis of all the - currently very in vogue- research into memory, knowledge and instruction. It's an apology for the knowledge rich curriculum , with no real tips on what this might look like. I'd like to come across a book which actually plans out a suggested curriculum for English, for example.

I do like a lot of what he says though - in his (and others') rejection of teaching to the SATs, teachign to a GCSE exam (he laments from year 9 onwards, but I know of many schools which begin this in year 7)

He is very outspoken, and I do worry that Didau and his nemesis , Garvey, are rather acridly dominating the education debate at the moment ; things are becomign ideological again and Ofsted are falling into line with the so called 'trads : it is becoming an righteous echo chamber with mates just touting each others' idea and books . We'll end up with trad curriculums, no excuses behaviour policies in otehrwise progressive schools with mental health champions and no exclusions or isolation booths and we'll be in one royal mess.'. We will just replace 'we do it like this because Ofsted' with another variation of the same , despite Didau's high minded claim that we will do these things to close gaps in disadavantage. However, I do think it is right that we should go back to thinking about what we hink children should know to gain their place in the world, and not just to pass an exam.

I skimmed stuff I had come across elsewhere, as this is a tome. But it is readable and well written. But he really is a show boater. I still can't decide whether I would like him if I met him : almost certainly I'd be inspired, but I am not sure I'd want to work with (or worse, for) him.

Mrs Arabin I'm so sorry to hear about your dog. Such a sweet picture. She looks lovely!

sadik, Ada Palmer sounds intriguing. I will definitely check those out. I like all those things!
My TBR pile is massive. Life isn’t long enough to read all these books.

Found you! Going a bit more slowly now back at work.
Books so far:
1. The Woman in the Window superior psycho nutty people story

1. Good Friday. Lynda La Plante. Tennison prequel. Not bad for run of the mill "the latest installment in..." Kind of thing
2. I invited her in Adele Parks.

Returned for a 99p refund. Yawn. Deeply unpleasant people and about 100 pages too long. 4. A Very British Christmas delightful snippets of people's lives.

1. The Darkest Secret. Alex Manford.

Loosely based on M McCann. Very loosely.

1. The murder of Harriet Monckton. Didn't finish. Hated stilted yet pervy sex talk.

7 You Let Me In Lucy Clarke Very good psycho thriller. One night literally kept me awake.

Am now:
Re-reading A Fatal Inversion by Barbara Vine- loved the series back in the 80s
Reading a chapter every so often of
Ghosts of Spain by Giles Tremlett (Spain is my "thing" (despite living in Italy))
Audibl-ing a chapter of GoT every so often.

Sorry, I don't want to be the thread police but for the benefit of the newbies I think we usually don't include 'did not finish' books in our totals?

I don't include them in my totals but I'd like to see if other people have started and not finished a book so I don't waste my money on it or so I am not alone at still having failed to finish the latest must read book that is raved about elsewhere (Gone Girl I'm looking at you).

Tarahumara I think you were providing useful info. rather than acting as the book police who I believe turn up in this car if they even exist The t'tinterweb tells me I need to acknowledge the creator of the photo so By Brocken Inaglory - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=7903882

1. The Woman in Cabin 10 by Ruth Ware

A journalist on a luxury cruise ships thinks she hears someone being thrown overboard but the staff can't find anyone unaccounted for. Was she ever even on board?

Quite an ok thriller actually as far as these things go. I thought it may be one of these over-hyped popular books, but it had a good pacy plot and a decent twist. I agree with the last person who read it that it is screaming to made into a film. (Sorry too lazy to go back and look).

I have promised myself that I can read one of the medieval series I like as every 10th book. Off to the 14th Century for a few days.

I did wonder if I should include it! (I haven't in my own journal list) Worst dialogue ever!