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?

15. Calypso - David Sedaris - I love David Sedaris, and this book is no exception. He writes about his sister's suicide, his father's lonely ageing, and his mother's alcoholism, so it's not an easy read in places, but it's all framed with the Sedaris wit I love.

I actually went to see him live, and many of these stories were read that night. It was great as I could read them all in his voice, which made them all the more enjoyable. I am still envious of Carol though (if you know, you know). 5/5

43. The Lost Man by Jane Harper

I enjoyed The Dry, didn’t think much of Forces of Nature, but enjoyed this. Cameron is found dead out on his property in the outback, but his brother Nathan thinks there’s something suspicious about his death. Harper does a fantastic job of describing the setting and I thought it was a great story too.

44. I Owe You One by Sophie Kinsella

Usual formulaic chicklit from Kinsella. Not one of her best though.

I'm in awe of you reading 44 books by the start of March!

Yes, me too (founding member here of the Slow Readers Club!).

I do read quickly, but I also have quite a long commute plus do a lot of additional travelling for work so get a lot of reading/audiobook listening done then. I am also lucky because DH is a SAHD (I work FT) so he does most of the housework which gives me more reading time!

Has anyone read The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo? It's 99p today and I'm debating whether or not to get it.

I have been rather quiet on this thread, for Infinite Jest related reasons (now into the home stretch - about 130 pages left...), but I have been reading a few other things as light relief.

8 The Dead Ladies Project - Jessa Crispin
I think someone on last year's 50-book thread recommended this to me, but I can't remember who. Jessa Crispin at around age 30 was a book blogger and writer with serious issues in her personal life and mental health, who decided that the only thing that would stop her killing herself was to take off abroad, on a kind of pilgrimage to places where writers she loved (or at least was interested in) had spent time. So she followed the ghost of William James (younger brother of Henry, major figure in history of psychology) to Berlin, James Joyce and his lover Nora to Trieste, Jean Rhys to London etc.

Along the way she has various encounters with locals, but is also conducting a tortured affair with a married man back home. She rants about the restrictions of marriage and how it damages women ("And I have watched friends transform themselves into wives, start shutting down their existence for the sake of the husband. I have seen them swap out their desires for their husbands' desires. I have seen them relinquish jobs, names, motherlands and prospective motherhood..."), so I was wryly amused to discover, when googling to find out what she is doing now, that she got married last year, though not (I think) to the married man in this book.

This a fusion of personal and literary memoir with added existential angst; I think I was recommended to me in the context of having just read Lonely City by Olivia Laing, or Flaneuse by Lauren Elkin, and there are certainly strong similarities. I also found it reminded me of A Sense of Direction, the book on pilgrimages by a similarly-rootless and restless American 30-something I read last month.

9 Cassandra Darke - Posy Simmonds
Graphic novel set in the London art world, by the wonderful creator of Gemma Bovery and Tamara Drewe, though I have been reading her work since growing up as a Guardian-reading teenager in the 1980s. Quick to read, but the detail of the drawings and the darkness of the world underlying the story make it more substantial.

10 Tokyo Ueno Station - Yu Miri
A newly-translated novel by a Korean-Japanese writer, focusing on the community of homeless people living in the park next to one of Tokyo's biggest stations. Many of them are construction workers from north-eastern Japan (the area hit by the tsunami and nuclear meltdown in 2011) who hit hard times as they got older and the construction boom years ended. She follows one man, born the same day as the current emperor, and gradually reveals the personal history which left him stranded in the park. Definitely worth reading to give a different view of Japanese society.

11 84 Charing Cross Road - Helene Hanff
Classic book based on letters from a New York writer to a second-hand bookshop in London, starting in the early years after WW2, which led to life-long friendships, even though she did not manage to visit London in person until long after the main bookseller she wrote to had died.

12 I am, I am, I am - Maggie O'Farrell
A middle-aged writer looks back at the many occasions in her life to date when she could have died - she has had a more eventful life (medically and otherwise) than most of us, but I think nearly all of us can think of at least one or two occasions when a small chance one way or another could have made the difference between life or death. She describes everything in clear, poetic but undramatic prose. It sounds cliched, but she manages to make the story of so many near-death experiences into an affirmation of life.
When she tells someone a small portion of what has happened to her, he says "You were so unlucky", but she writes, "I consider myself steeped in luck, in good fortune to have avoided the fate the doctors decreed for me. I have been showered with shamrocks, my pockets filled with rabbits' feet, found the crock of gold at the end of every rainbow."
Instead of becoming fearful of a world that seems out to get her, she has made a conscious choice to go out and see the world, seize the day and not let some of her lingering disabilities hold her back. I don't really like the word inspirational, but this definitely is.

13. Parsnips, Buttered: How to baffle, bamboozle and boycott your way through modern life. - Joe Lycett

This was ok, I didn’t find it as hilarious as the friend who bought it for me assured me I would but it raised a few chuckles.

14 Wild Fire by Anne Cleeves

The final book in the Shetland series starting with a hanging in a barn. Lots of descriptions about Shetland, and dipping into autism and child abuse. It did round things off a bit with the characters as probably expected but I am so glad she hasn't fallen into the trap like Kathy Reichs and Patricia Cornwall of just bashing them out until they become unreadable

9. Nine Perfect Strangers - Liane Moriarty
Can ten days change your life? Nine guests check in to a health resort, all for different reasons, but they cannot imagine the challenges they will face.

I really enjoyed this book and getting to know the nine strangers. I preferred some stories to others but overall think it was quite enjoyable. Felt like it would be easy made into a tv show in the way it was written which may be the plan.

Also purchased Captain Corelli’s Mandolin as I’ve never read it before and was inspired by the discussion in here

19. The Magician's Nephew by CS Lewis. Read this to the DC and enjoyed it very much. I hadn't read it as a child so was glad to do so now before we read the rest of the Narnia books.

12. Copy Me and Other Science Fiction Stories by Laston Kirkland
13. Snap by Belinda Bauer
14. Murder at the University by Faith Martin
15. Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom
16. The Psychobiotic Revolution by Scott C. Anderson
17. The Mystery of Three Quarters (Poirot) by Sophie Hannah

Tuesdays : yuppie is taught the real lessons of life by his dying professor. It was probably inspiring when it was written but we all know now to "seize the moment" and "cherish the banal" so I found it kind of sweet but kind of tedious.

Psychobiotic Revolution currently reading. How our gut microbes influence our brain, mood etc. This is an area of science we'll be hearing a lot about in the future

Three Quarters my favourite Poirot by Sophie Hannah. Refreshingly centred on the death of a very old man, not a young woman. Poirot investigates.

Snap I know it had mixed reviews on this thread I enjoyed it but I felt it all finished very quickly. Not her best

EmGee did you enjoy the Magician's Nephew? All my DC liked that book the best, Uncle Andrew is a nasty piece of work. They were always disappointed that it never gets adapted. They also liked the Horse and his boy which seeems to be largely ignored too.

I haven’t updated my reads for a while which is remiss, so here they are:

20. Between the World and Me – Ta-Nehisi Coates
This book takes the form of a long essay from the author to his son on what it was like to grow up as a young black man negotiating the streets and schools of Baltimore until he attends University. He talks of the danger that follows the black body and its history of oppression. I found this to be both readable and thought provoking.

21. The Lucky Ones – Julianne Pachico
Mostly set in Colombia during the worst years of the disappearance and troubles between 1993 - 2013, this is a set of interconnected stories, which are, on the whole, reasonably good. This is the first novel from this author and I suspect there is more to come, which will be better. This was a 3/5 read for me, despite a story about cocaine addicted rabbits!

22. Last Bus to Woodstock – Colin Dexter
The first Inspector Morse novel. Oh Lordy, the misogyny in this book. The sexism! It completely and utterly ruined it for me which is such a shame as the actual crime and the solving of the crime is actually rather good. Plus I love the television Morse.

23. Wolf Winter – Cecelia Eckback
February’s wolf book. It’s taken me a while as for some reason I’ve not wanted to pick it up despite it being rather well written, snowy, spooky and definitely woolfy in both title and content. It’s the story of Maija and her family who move from Finland to the sinister Blackasen Montain in Swedish Lapland in 1717. A terrible wolf winter awaits and mysteries are painfully revealed. An atmospheric read but ultimately I felt a bit ‘meh’ by the end and it was another 3/5 read for me.

Another overdue update!

22. A German Requiem, Philip Kerr
Noir crime in post-war Vienna. Atmospheric and bleak. I don't like reading torture scenes, although the one here isn't massively graphic.

23. The Unexpected Joy of Being Single, Catherine Barber
I liked the titular premise, which is aimed at cashing in on her previous success with The Unexpected Joy of Being Sober. She doesn't really experience any joy in being single - at best she can just about reconcile herself to the prospect, with fingers crossed that it won't actually materialise. There wasn't a lot to it - it would have made a decent-enough article in Cosmo or Marie-Claire (which I only ever read in the hairdresser). She pads out her personal experience with "Here's what my friend thinks" and "Here's something I underlined in a self-help book". Okay as a 99p Kindle purchase, but not worth the full price.

24. The British: A Genetic Journey, Alistair Moffat
Does what it says on the tin. Readable, although it probably wouldn't convert those not already interested in the topic (who would be unlikely to be pick it up in the first place).

25. This is What Happened, Mick Herron
I've enjoyed his other books but this was rather dreadful. Woman is asked to carry out mysterious errands and then disappears. Her sister goes looking for her. Strains credulity past all limits and relies too much on coincidence. A disappointment.

26. The Trouble-Makers, Celia Fremlin
Gossipy neighbours become over-invested in a woman's marital difficulties and their intervention leads to dark consequences. Really enjoyed its evocation of life as a 1960s wife and mother - I really like her gloomy take on domesticity. Interesting portrayal of women bonding by dissing their husbands - did remind me of some of the discussions on mn sometimes...

27. Primate Change, by Vybarr Cregan-Reid.
How are bodies are damaged by leading lives they weren't designed for, from impacted wisdom teeth to back pain to asthma (he suffers from the last two so is particularly impassioned on the subject). He's a better guide to the literature (Victorian novelists on the deformities caused by factory life) than the science (standard evolutionary history). It did make me vow to get up from my desk more often.

28. Lab Rats, Dan Lyons
Attacks Silicon Valley management practices as exploitative, unsustainable and all too influential elsewhere. Talks up the value of social enterprises as an alternative.

29. Wish you were here: England on Sea, Travis Elborough
Cultural history of the English seaside, which is normally the kind of thing I like, but not particularly well executed - he doesn't turn up much that's new, and he has an annoying tic of using full stops. Where they are really not needed.

30. The Wych Elm, Tana French
It's a variant on crime fiction by an unreliable narrator, here with an acquired brain injury, but it also gives some nods to current concerns - an Irish-inflected "Me Too" moment of trying to report concerns to the authorities, but not being taken seriously, and "check your privilege" elements as well. It sprawls over 500 pages, and I'm not sure it needs to be so long. It was all pretty readable and the author had a few surprises up her sleeve, but I wouldn't say it was entirely satisfying.

16. Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan

Hugely enjoyable escapist frothy fluff. Just what I needed.

Tardy list:

1. The Closed Circle by Jonathan Coe. This is the second in the triology but I read the third one MIddle England first (which I thought was best). Enjoyed especially as I am of an age with the main characters.

1. A History of Loneliness by John Boyne. Abuse in the Catholic Church in Irelan seenthrough the yes of an avoidant "good" priest.

1. The Long Shadow by Celia Fremiln.
2. The Rotters Club by Jonathan Coe. The first in the triology

.. The Riddle of the Sphinx by Alexandre Montagu . Wakenhyrst by Michelle Paver. Not her best work but decent read

1. The Mother in Law by Sally Hepworth. Drivel.

1. She Lies in Wait by Gytha Lodge. Who in group of very successful "friends" was responsible for a murder 20 years before on a camping trip. Lightweight but decent enough. Written with an eye to a detective series for print and Tv I shoud think.

1. The Binding by Bridget Collins. Set in an alternate Victorian England where your darkest thoughts and deeds can be bound by a "binder" in a book and thus erased from your mind. The story follows Emmet a young man trying to learn to be a binder and deal with his late adolescent sexuality. Stark landscapes and gothic cityscapes. This was an engaging read. The first adult novel from an acclaimed writer for YA's

10. The Wolf and the Watchman by Niklaus Natt Och Dag.
    Set in Stockholm in 1793 a mutilated body is found in the putrid "larder" a stretch of water by a disgruntled army veteran turned watchman, Michel who is brought on board by Cecil Winge, a tuberculure ex lawyer charged by the poice with investigating the crime. Very dark, gothic, detective tale with a morally dubious climax. Good stuff and I'm not a detective novel fan.

11. My Life as a Rat by Joyce Carol Oates. Some wonderful passages and observations but as a whole novel just okay and it ends suddenly which is jarring.

12. The Glovemaker by Ann Weisgarber. Set on the outskirts of Mormon country a small group of mormons who have eschewed polygamous marriages are visited by a runaway Mormon who is guilty of the recently outlawed crime of polygamy looking for safe passage with the law hot on his heels. The door he knocks on belongs to a woman, a glovemaker on her own, her husband has not returned from roving to fix farm equipment. What should she do? I liked this book much to my surprise, the sense of danger and tension was well written.

13, The Girl in the Corner by Amanda Proswe. Total drivel. IAn insult to the reader. Worse than many "true life stories" in Chat style magazines. Why do I ever let myself be persuaded to try chick lit. Not for me but have seen it is 99p on KIndle monthly and number 2 in their chart, so what do I know?

14. The Fourth Shore by Virginia Baily. Unusual novel about pre war LIbya under Italian control. It's flawed, especially in the latter stages but was set in a place I knew nothing about in that era.

1. My sister the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite. Funny, macabre novel set in Lagos about a nurse trying to deal with her sister who just can't resist offing her boyfriends.

1.The Conviction of Cora Burns by Carolyn Kirby. Born in prison and brought up in the workhouse, Cora is a loner until she meets Alice Salt and they become inseperable. After mutilating a young child in the workhouse , Cora never sees Alice again. However on leaving the workhouse at sixteen she is given half of a bronze medal that has been kept for her. She assumes it is from Alice. Cora like her mother finds herself in prison but when she starts to work for Mr Jerwood who has given her a maid position after meeting her when measuring skulls and taking portraits of convicts in the prison she finds that all her convictions about her life are not what they seem. Enjoyable Victorian set gothic style novel. Ending was a bit twee given the narrative.

Apologies for length of my post and also didn't realise that my five and six keys are banjaxed

I always loved The Magician’s Nephew as a child- I loved the attics that all join up (our first house had those and I was delighted, but we had to have it bricked in before we could get the mortgage!).

21. Behold, Here’s Poison by Georgette Heyer. Her detective stories are not a patch on her romances, but this is quite entertaining!

I like the sound of Primate Change and The British: A Genetic Journey, biblio. Need something non-fiction soon and these look like they’d fit the bill.

They're not bad, boldly, but over and above either of those,, I'd recommend A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived, by Adam Rutherford. Enthralling and really engaging.

15. Watcher in the Woods - Kelley Armstrong 16. The Wife Between Us - Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen

Two quick reads. Watcher in the Woods is the 4th in the Rockton series. Rockton is a hidden town in the Yukon where people go when they have to hide. The books are all murder mysteries. I enjoyed this one, didn't guess whodunnit.

The Wife Between Us - for book group. Vanessa is apparently stalking her ex husband's new fiancée. But is everything as it seems? Of course not! And there's an extra wee twist at the end which is unexpected and probably too much!

I've been reading Troubles by J G Farrell, and it's really slowed me down. I've read so many popular picks from these threads, I was trying to branch out so I could give something back, so to speak. Not a five star review, though. I did find in places that I just wasn't caring what happened next. A low point was when I realised that I was just going to put the book down and go to sleep, despite the fact that the next paragraph began "The body …" Who's body? Oh, I don't care!

I think everyone who's read his Seige of Krishnapoor has raved about it, so to set it in that context, the book is another on the theme of Empire. It is set in Ireland just at the end of the first world war. The Major travels to Ireland to meet a girl who he had rather inadvertently become betrothed to in the heat of the conflict. Her family of Anglo-Irish landowners live in a massive hotel, which is disintegrating both physically and as a business proposition. As the Major moves in, the troubles are just starting to make an impression on the residents and their way of life. The Major feels differently from the owner about the righteousness of the Nationalist cause, but somehow they rub along and his life becomes utterly invested in that of the hotel.

The hotel itself is a superb character, and a basis for much of the humour in the book. I think the reason I did not enjoy it as much as Krishnapur was that the Seige itself was just much more of a driver for the story than the Major's love life ever could be. There is the same brilliant writing of people's inner thoughts on the issues of the day, although in this one the perspective is more firmly fixed on a single character, the Major. All in all, only quite good.

I've also read thread favourite We have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson (brilliant) and started listening to Backlisted.