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?

24. The Casual Vacancy- J K Rowling
Some how I missed this one when it came out. I know that Rowling gets stick for the length of her offerings but I really enjoy the way she builds up characters. She is the master of creating characters, back stories and all. This was compelling reading, sometimes uncomfortable, fascinating portrayal of a small community.

25. Is there anything you want? - Margaret Forster. I have a lot of affection for Margaret Forster. Good reads tells me I have already read this one but I have zero recollection of it. This is based around a group of woman who attend or have associations with a breast cancer clinic in the North of England. Knowing that Forster suffered from Breast Cancer herself in the 1980's, ultimately dying from secondary cancer, it would be interesting to know how much of this was based on her own observations and experiences. This is one of those novels which is made up of individual stories and portraits, interconnecting at various points. Nothing of dramatic significance happens, but small domestic dramas and insights make it believable and often moving.
26. The lion the witch and the wardrobe- C S Lewis After my Lucy Mangan outburst earlier in the week it was predictable I would reread this old favourite. I passed a very lovely train journey in Narnia! Aslan, Mr Tumnus and crew were a welcome distraction from the man behind me and his repeated loud belching!

@ Whippetwoman - I found Tenderness of Wolves really boring. I loved the idea, and it was a promising plot, but no matter how lovely and well written the descriptions were, it really is just an account of different groups of people trudging through snow, tenuously linked by a narrator who somehow knew things they really had no way of knowing, and a very rushed, unbelievable ending.
I know lots of people who liked it though.

Not updated for a while, so bringing my list over:

1. This is Going to Hurt by Adam Kay
2. Paper Aeroplanes by Dawn O’Porter
3. The Glass menagerie by Tennessee Williams
4. Vinegar Girl by Anne Tyler
5. Endurance by Alfred Lancing
6. Lord of the Flies by William Golding
7. Animal Farm by George Orwell
8. Hagseed by Margaret Attwood
9. Tin Man by Sarah Winman

10. Heartstone by CJ Sansom 11. The Light Between Oceans by M.J. Stedman 12. Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata 13. Llywbrau Cul by Mared Lewis (In Welsh)

14: Weird Thing People say in Bookshops by Jen Campbell

A very short, amusing read about (predictably) the ridiculous, cheeky, ignorant and downright weird things people say in bookshops. However beyond the laughs there is a feeling of sadness that people no longer "get"books, and how individual bookshops are disappearing due to the likes of Amazon and Kindles. (I am as guilty as anyone on this), but I really wouldn't have the nerve to phone a bookshop, ask numerous questions, all well answered by the bookshop and then say breezily "Well, thanks, I won't be ordering it from you, I can get it from Amazon for 50p cheaper. I wish they had a real person I could phone and ask these questions." 

Think my favourite is this one though:
Customer: Do you have any books that can recommend different careers to my daughter?
Bookseller: Sure. Is she off to uni?
Customer: No, she's five. Darling, come and talk to this nice lady about how you want to be a doctor.
Bookseller: Hello, and what do you want to be when you grow up.
Little girl: A Bumble Bee.
Bookseller: Excellent.

15: Educated by Tara Westover
This is the autobiographical account of the early life of Tara Westover, who was the youngest of seven in a family of Mormons - who hold extremely conservative religious view, and are survivalists planning for the end of the world. They do not believe in modern medicine (even serious injuries are treated with essential oils, herbs and prayer) and they do not send their children to school. Tara's mother made some half hearted attempts at homeschooling, but gave up as soon as the children could read to a basic level and had a vague concept of numbers. Four of the children didn't even have birth certificates and none of them were ever vaccinated for anything.
From a young age, Tara felt different from her family but didn't have the vocabulary to express how she felt. She started to study in secret and eventually saved enough to enroll at a local university. In her early days at university, she realised how little she knew and how huge the gaps in her knowledge were- she knew nothing of the Holocaust, the Civil Rights Movement and very little about world history beyond the Founding Fathers.
Eventually Tara got her degree and a PhD, and became "educated", but she reflects that this was at the cost of her family (she grieves most about the loss of the relationship with her mother), as does question herself as to whether it was worth it.

An excellent read, well written and the characters in her family well described. Her older brother Shawn and her father, with whom she had a very complex relationship, are particularly well described.

@whippetwoman

Yes, as it's only 99p on kindle! I wouldn't pay more for it (I borrowed it from the library). It's good, but predictable with many of the scenarios/effects you get in so many post apocalypse novels. It would be a good read for a journey or a holiday IYKWIM.

Are the books people write in bold the ones they recommend? I've been following these threads for ages and some have stars/bold.

Thanks @BookWitch I think I'll swerve Tenderness of Wolves this month and read Wolf Winter.
Also, thanks @magimedi I will go to the Kindle store right now...

@Newcamper, I often bold the books I have read or am talking about as it's easier to pick them out in a post. Also, when people post lists of books they have read, they often bold the books they enjoyed and italicise books they didn't enjoy.

@whippetwoman Thanks

BookWitch DH and I are regular patrons of our local Oxfam bookshops and you overhear some corkers in there too. Not quite people ringing up asking if they've got a book with a blue cover, no they can't remember what it's called and who it's by or what it's about or indeed anything about it, but it's DEFINITELY got a blue cover.......but not far off that.

(I work in an area where we get similar kinds of disastrously vague requests so I feel their pain)

We’ve been away over half term. Hope those that were also off this week had fun. It’s been lovely (at least in Suffolk) and nice to get out and about. Maybe winter is ending. Youngest DD has been doing a sponsored read for her school’s PTA so we have all been reading together.

#16 Dominion a non Shardlake CJ Samson novel. Its set in an alternative 1952 where Britain surrendered to Nazi Germany rather than fight The Battle of Britain. I found it a logical development of the politics of the day and the key players. It’s a spy story and we follow the actions of a civil servant spying for the resistance. His cover is blown and he gets tangled up in a rescue of a scientist with a secret. It all cracks on at a good pace with several showdowns. You have to suspend disbelief at times and the main characters are untouchable but overall a good holiday read.

#17 The Hanging Tree which is not quite the latest Rivers of London book. I think these are like Marmite you either love them or hate them. It helps to have a good knowledge of the last 50 years of SF&F as the books are littered with references. I also think you do need to read these in order. In this book Peter finally finds out who the Faceless Man / his arch enemy is. I enjoyed it and will be reading the next when it hits a price point I’m happy with (and I've cleared a few more books out of my backlog).

#18 1984 I’ve been reading Orwell recently. It made a huge impression on me 30 years ago so it will be interesting to see what I think of it today.

@Bakewelltart I re-read 1984 recently (well listened to it on Audible), having done it for o-level in 1986 (Old gimmer)
Loved it.

Just catching up after life being in the way a bit, and bringing across my list. Thanks for the new thread as always. It's been a slow reading year what with university work starting up again and being bogged down in Normal People - still, it's the book club meeting on Tuesday night and that's usually a good kick!

1. Edward St Aubyn - Bad News
2. Anonymous - The Secret Barrister
3. Raynor Winn - The Salt Path

1. Stephen L. Dyson - In Pursuit of Ancient Pasts - university reading
2. Michael Shanks - Classical Archaeology of Greece - university reading
3. Roald Dahl - The Twits - read to DD over a few nights, she's having a Dahl kick at the moment and I somehow missed this one when I was small.

I don't know whether I can claim to have read 1984 or not. I au-paired for a family in Austria in my youth and they had 3 books in English in the house. One being a sanitised version of 1984 for learners of English. I always feel like I should read the original text as I don't know how different the 'dumbed' down version was.

I did also join the village library and read books in German. A lot of Heinrich Harrer.

13. Milkman
This, as well as The Power, has been one of the highlights of this year's reading so far. It's been much reviewed on here, but I loved it. Like, for example, Trainspotting, it took time to feel at ease with the style, but I really enjoyed the rhythm of it, the words, the dark humour.
It was my book group book, so will be very interesting to see how everyone else feels. Someone has proposed Sally Rooney for the next one

Prompted by terpsichore’s comment about blue covers, can I ask the 50 Book hive mind a question? I was in the big Piccadilly Waterstones on 13 Feb and they had a small display of vaguely love-related books including (here it comes...) a paperback novel with a red cover. It was a love story set in New York written in the form of dictionary definitions of words. Quite short. And definitely red.

I put it down to retrieve a phone call, walked out and forgot about it. But would actually quite like to read it. I did try calling but couldn’t speak to anyone who could help - I won’t be back in central London for a couple of weeks otherwise I’d go and ask the counter staff. But if anyone has any good ideas I’d be very grateful!

Pepe

The Assassination of Ambrose Bierce: A Love Story Paperback
by Don Swaim

??????

Any chance that it might have been The Lover's Dictionary by David Levithan, Pepe ?

No, not that - more like a list of words with definitions than a traditional story. And definitely a red cover with no writing on it.
That said, I now do want to read about Ambrose Bierce!

Yes! That is indeed it, thank you terpsichore. Have you read it?

Pepe no, but I love a challenge when it comes to finding books!

And you rose to it admirably! I’m normally not too bad at strategic googling but couldn’t track this down despite it actually sounding quite obvious now. The cover is indeed very red. Thank you very much.

I love The Devils Dictionary by Ambrose Bierce and now want to read The Lover's Dictionary too.

I have done this twice in Waterstones and you see the looks they give each other when you start with, "I'm looking for a book but I don't know what it's called or who it's by..."

In fairness they have been able to help me immediately. I wanted

It's like the Horse Whisperer but for dogs
and
It's the bible but with pictures of Lego

I am awful at remembering books, my photos only phone are full of pictures of book covers so I can remember what I want to get

37. Die Of Shame by Mark Billingham

A member of an addicts recovery group is murdered and the police have to work out which other group member did it. Rattled through this quite quickly, it was OK.

@FortunaMajor I'm enjoying rereading 1984 so I'd recommend giving it a go even if you've read it before. I also can't imagine how you'd santitise it. It is a very distrubing book.

Am reading The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay which I've seen raved about on here before. Can't remember who by - sorry.

It's good, but overlong and seems to be taking me forever.