50 Book Challenge 2019 Part Three

[southeastdweller]

Welcome to the third 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 and the second one here.

What are you reading?

11. Dissolution - C. J. Sansom
It’s taken me a while to get to this series even though it has lots that I like - historical details, detective work. I think I put them on the back burner because the Tudor period is not one my favourites.
I did enjoy this story though. It romped along at a fair pace and I liked that those famous Tudors were background characters rather than the main players. The effects of the politics on ordinary people was much more interesting to me.

20. Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine- Gail Honeyman I know I’m the last person on earth to read this book: I had a long period of concentrating on non fiction. I found that the book was quite slow to reveal its charms in the first half: I rather wondered what all the fuss was about. However, I galloped through the second half and, by the end, I loved it.

21. Born Under A Million Shadows- Andrea Busfield This is in the Kindle monthly sale for 99p and I would really recommend it. I’m glad that, when I read it, I didn’t know that the author was a News of the World journalist, or my judgy pants would have prevented me from reading it. Although it is fiction, her love of Afghanistan (where she lived for several years) shines through. It is the story of a boy growing up in Kabul and his friends and family, including his mother’s English employer and her lover, an Afghan warlord. The writing is just lovely (apart from a couple of graphic descriptions of the effects of cholera!) and there is a surprising amount of humour.

The Lighter Side: An NHS Paramedic's Selection of Humorous Mess Room Tales

It's a must read if you are in need of some humour, a real laugh out loud book in places. Just what the doctor ordered.

Hope the back heals soon whippet

The other book I was going to report back on:

14: Deep South - Paul Theroux

After travelling the world and writing about it for years, Paul Theroux decided to drive from his home in the North to make a tour of the Deep South. He ended up paying repeated visits, and reporting on what and who he found there in this substantial book.
It's overwhelmingly a story of need, poverty, decline and collapsing infrastructure, with industry quitting to go abroad and whole towns being abandoned.
Underpinning everything are religion, guns, and - even now, in the 21st century - the ever-present legacy of the Civil War. The racism is jaw-dropping and segregation barely seems to have gone away at times. But, despite this, some people and organisations determined to try and rebuild things shine out as beacons of hope and encouragement.

Theroux has a keen and satirical eye for the inequalities he finds, and is generous about the people he comes to regard as friends on his visits back and forth. I felt drawn into the landscape and ended up feeling I knew much more about the South by the end - even if I'm still pretty resistant to the more romantic aspects of its mythology (as I suspect Theroux is too).

Bonjour from Paris

10 The Killings at Badgers Drift by Caroline Graham*

I picked up this and the second book on a daily deal

The first in the series of book on which Midsummer Murders was set. An elderly spinster out doing a spot of orchid spotting sees something she shouldn't have and is found dead the next day, murder is not suspected at first but her friend insists on Barnaby having a closer look and so the investigation begins. Well written and puts a lot of background to the characters which you don't get to see in the television series, Troy is not very likeable and Cully is explained a bit better. Overall a very easy and enjoyable read and despite seeing the episode s few times I can't seem to remember to much about it

Educated by Tara Westover is 99p on Kindle daily deals today.

Thanks @splother. Have been waiting for this. Anyone else judge the business of their day by how late they check the daily deals? I didn’t check at all yesterday

Terpsichore and Chessie
Thanks for the recommendations, I didn't know that RIchmal Crompton wrote adults books. I loved the boarding school books so Terms and Conditions is on my virtual tbr pile.

Palegreenstars - yes, I've been really busy lesson planning (something I enjoy) so haven't had much time. Off to spend the rest of today doing it now.

Persephone books publish at least one of Richmal Crompton's adult books - Family Roundabout. I don't think they were ever as successful for her as the William books.

I'm interested in Terms and Conditions as well. I loved reading boarding school books growing up, although I suspect that had my parents been able to afford it, I wouldn't have actually enjoyed going to one.

11 Tono-Bungay by H G Wells
Narrated by a young man who joins his uncle in a business to make a health tonic called Tono-Bungay. It is wildly successful and the book charts their rise to success and downfall. I think Wells had an ambition to write a 'state of the nation' book and in parts he achieves this - there is some brilliant writing, particularly a passage at the very end. It has an unreliable narrator who is ambivalent about the whole enterprise - he has principles but not enough to stop him joining in on something he knows from the start is a fraud. The whole story does get bogged down in a few places, though, so not a completely satisfactory read.

12 Clock Dance by Anne Tyler
Willa is retired with both children long left home when she responds to a call for help on behalf of an ex girlfriend of her son's. Although she has never met the girlfriend and lives the other end of the country she agrees to go and help out. She becomes caught up in their lives. This is the usual mix of sharply observed family life, some poignant moments and some funny ones.

13. The Road to Lichfield by Penelope Lively Anne's father is dying so she drives up and down to Lichfield to visit him. During the time there she finds out things about her father, and herself, that she didn't know before. An enjoyable read.

Richmal Crompton wrote 41 adult novels, Brizzle (I now know this thanks to Wikipedia) - all out of print, of course, except, as Cedar says, Family Roundabout (which is also well worth seeking out.

Her last 'adult' novel was published in 1960. I didn't know that there's a branch of Wetherspoons named after her in Bromley, where she lived

(She didn't live in the pub..... she lived in Bromley...oh, you know what I mean....)

12. Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi

A very ambitious first novel by Gyasi, a Ghanaian-American author who was only 26 when it was published. It tells a story of slavery and its consequences through two branches of a family split apart, over several generations, beginning in Ghana in the 18th century and threading right through to modern day America. I found the first two instalments, about Effia and her half sister Esi, really compelling and thought I was going to love the book. As I read on, though, the structure (which tells part of the story of a character from each branch in each generation, before moving on to the next) began to feel more disjointed. This may have been because I had a lot of other stuff going on whilst reading it - I suspect it is better read in long sittings. That said, I did like the way Gyasi wove many of the segments together by allowing you to find out what happened to the character in a later instalment. As I said, I found the initial stories much the best, although I was also gripped by the stories of H and Akua, later in the novel. I found the last two modern-day characters least effective and the ending was a bit trite. Overall, well worth reading, but I felt the whole was perhaps less than the sum of its parts.

Richmal Crompton wrote 41 adult novels, Brizzle

How did I never know this?! Maybe living in a pub helped to get them written

16. Bridget Jones's Baby - Helen Fielding

Going through my book shelves at the mo trying to read all the unreads, some of them been gathering dust for years (I'm a sucker for 5 for £1 charity shop deals). This was a birthday present from a couple of years ago, signed by the author no less.

It was a fun way to while away a couple of hours but the differences from the film actually made it less satisfying IMO.

My partner has built a new set of shelves in our bedroom and my inner librarian spent a very happy afternoon populating them yesterday. As you can tell, I'm on the short side

12. Wool by Hugh Howey

In a ruined post apocalyptic landscape, a group of survivors live a structured life inside a giant underground silo. Things start getting shaken up when a new sheriff, Juliette, is selected from the Mechanical levels.

I found this a bit of a struggle in terms of keeping my attention on the plot.
I kept drifting off into wondering how they keep everything running - how long before they run out of lightbulbs, vitamin D supplements, and 101 other bits of equipment, how long will it take their generators to drain the oil well they’re sat on top of (and would they need to worry about refining that oil?)
And, when someone is sentenced to death and they walk off into the distance instead of cleaning the silo’s cameras, how come that sparks an uprising?

Anyway. Not a great read.

13. Sticks and Stones by Jo Jakeman

Psychological thriller.
Phillip’s wife, ex-wife and mistress combine forces to get revenge on Phillip. He’s a very bad man.
The book opens with Phillip’s funeral and then goes back to show what led up to that, so we know from the start that things aren’t going to end well for Phillip.

Overall it’s pretty average, and implausible in parts. Like the whole part where the women lock Phillip up in the cellar and plot to have him sign a new will in their favour, or get restraining orders, while planning on releasing him afterwards. It’s clearly a plan doomed to failure.

Loving the book shelves :-)

Random Richmal Crompton info: (work avoidance is in full flow here)

She continued her writing here, and became involved in the local community, as a church goer and supporter of the Conservative party. She also became interested in reincarnation, mysticism and the occult.

11. Amy and Isabelle Elizabeth Strout I loved this. In a small New England town, the tense relationship between single mother Isabelle and her daughter Amy is played out. It’s a beautifully written account of the love between them but also the secrets, resentments and anger. The portrayal of the predatory man (men really for it is echoed in different ways throughout the book) and Amy’s conflicted response to what happens is all too real and disturbing.

36. A Vicarage Family by Noel Streatfeild

This is her fictionalised autobiography of her childhood in the years before the First World War. Not much really happens - she goes to school, they have the odd party and holiday, occasional illnesses etc - but I found it interesting as a snapshot of life for a middle class family at that time and the expectations of what girls should and shouldn’t do. It’s written for children, so was a quick but nice read.

InMyOwnParticularIdiom - bookshelf envy!!!

Falling behind with my list so here goes:

15 The Wolves of Winter by Tyrell Johnson.
Post acpocalypse young adult set in Canadian wilderness.

16. The Switch by Joseph Finder.
    An American politcal thriller. I've been wanting to read this author for a while as he is well reviewed so was pleased to find this in the library. Real disappointment. Written in a very pedestrian fashion with no character development.

17. *Broken Ground by Val McDermid.
    The third in the Karen Pirie series and as good as you would expect from McDermid.

18. The Arsonist by Sue Miller
    Frankie arrives home to a small town in the USA, having spent many years in Africa. She is staying with her parents & there is an arsonist at work in the holiday resort they live in. Frankie's father is descending into dementure & Frankie starts an affair with the owner of the local news paper.
    
    I really enjoyed this, Sue Miller's characters are really vivid & her writing is very good & easy to read.

19. Star of the North by D. B. John
    Thriller set in North Korea & the USA. The plot was far fetched but the author's knowledge of North Korea made this a fascinating read.

The characterisation of the 3 main protagonists was also very good.

I'd recommend this for a long journey - easy to read & very gripping.

12. The Mysterious Affair at Styles - Agatha Christie - picked up in a Kindle deal. Her first book and Poirot’s first appearance. Set in a country house during WW1. I am sure I read this many years ago but I still didn’t manage to guess the murderer even when it was limited to six possibilities! An enjoyable page-turner.

Whoops - I think that should have been my 11th book above not my 12th!

7. Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie on Audible, a modern reworking Of Antigone, although as I was unaware of the story of Antigone this didn't mean much to me. This book deals with the lives of three British Muslim's who are the children of a jihadi father. At 19 the son follows in his dead fathers footsteps, after being radicalised, and leaves to fight in Syria, leaving his sisters to deal with the fall out. Both sisters become involved with Eamonn, the westernised son of the British Home Secretary. Eamonn's father is a lapsed Muslim who feels his birthright both compels and allows him to act tough on Muslims who join ISIS. He feels he needs to demonstrate to the electorate where his loyalty's lie. Despite this the sisters hope Eamonn can assist them to bring their now very much disillusioned brother back from the Caliphate, but escaping from ISIS involves all of them taking great risks. This story certainly felt very relevant with lapsed Muslim Sajid Javid in the Home Office coming down hard on jihadi bride Shamima Begum and others who defect to ISiS, but it wasn't a stand out book for me, it was slow to get going and I found my mind wandering from time to time while listening. I did feel it offered some insight in to how and why people become radicalised however and gave me more empathy for those who may genuinely regret their actions but are left no choice but to continue to live a life they no longer believe in or desire. Definitely food for thought.

11 Thin Air by Michelle Paver

Not be confused with Into Thin Air this is set on Kanchenjunga in the Himalayas. 1935 five Englishmen trek to Kanchenjunga in the footsteps of an ill fated previous trek in 1906. However when they get higher up the mountain they are not alone.

This was the second book I have read from my Blind Date with a Book subscription and enjoyed it. It was a quick read, well written, page turning and entertaining.

magidmedi, would you recommend Wolves of Winter? I am reading a wolf book a month and wondered if it was worth a read?

As soon as I've finished my current read I will be embarking on either Wolf Winter or The Tenderness of Wolves. I'm not sure which one yet. So many wolves, so little time...