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?

I don't know whether anyone's heard about this but mention of This Thing of Darkness reminded me.

There's a project to digitise historical weather data, much of it recorded by Robert Fitzroy himself at the Met Office in the early 1860's. People can get involved by entering figures from images of the written records - just doing as much/as little as you like. It's very easy to do and you don't even have to register if you don't want to.

If anyone's interested in contributing, the website is here

I loved A Month In The Country, read last year after listening to the Backlisted podcast.

12. Hawksmoor - Peter Ackroyd

Another of my top 50 rereads; first read many years ago. It's a creepily atmospheric kind of thriller/ghost story set in the parallel London of the 1700s and 1960s, with the architect Nicholas Dyer (based on Christopher Wren's assistant Hawksmoor who oversaw the rebuilding of several London churches after the Great Fire) who in Ackroyd's vision is a Satanist who designs his churches to secretly be centres of arcane power with a human sacrifice at the foundation of each; and the 20th century detective Hawksmoor investigating a series of parallel murders. It's pretty dark in places (there are several child murders which were harder to read than last time, before parenthood) but stunningly written and conjures up different eras of London very effectively while making the point that the dark history of the city is never as far from the surface as you might think.

13. A Place For Us Fatima Fahreem Mirza A story about a strict Muslim family growing up in California pre/post 9/11. This book was a slow burner for me, the time line jumps a lot to start with and I couldn’t find my feet. However, by the second half I couldn’t put it down and it was some of the best writing I’ve read in a long time.

I’m surprised it wasn’t nominated for the Women’s Prize. I definitely had an expectation of the way the story would develop and who the characters were but it didn’t go that way at all. The way Mirza deals with big American problems in a Muslim setting was fascinating.

Sally Rooney ( Normal People) and Mirza are the same age (27) and unlike a lot of people here I loved Normal People. However, I think that’s a lot to do with how much the story line spoke to my own post uni experiences and how relatable the characters were. This on the other hand feels timeless and a novel and author I will come back too forever.

Oops just posted on the end of thread 2, can I get it posted over to this current thread, not tech savvy!

Probably easiest just to cut and paste, Booklover.

32). So Me, Graham Norton
Flicked idly through the opening chapter of this in the library, and was blown away by the familiarity of certain youthful experiences, things I've never seen in print before. I grew up mostly in the next county and went to the same university, and recognise the houses built from Bungalow Bliss and hanging out in UCC's Kampus Kitchen. Our paths diverged, and I am not a rich and famous gay male TV presenter (or am I? Who can tell on the internet?). It didn't make me laugh that much, but it felt honest and quite endearing, particularly about his search for love.

33. The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History, by Elizabeth Kolbert
As the title indicates, it's a science journalist's account of how human activity is leading to mass extinction of other species. I was worried that this would be immensely depressing, but you pick up the book knowing the headline bad news, so it frees you up to turn from What We Know to How We Know It. She takes us to various scientific field stations to observe what's happening to frogs and bats and coral, and we go back to the early eighteenth century when natural philosophers were just beginning to grapple with the concepts of species going extinct. She racks up quite a few air miles along the way - I wonder if she felt conflicted. Not a downer, despite the subject matter, but a chance to admire the glorious variety that life takes, even for a brief existence.

Thanks!

I've fallen by the wayside a bit and I'm 4 books behind but here's my latest list:

1. From source to sea - walk along the length of the Thames.

2. So disdained - Nevil Shute

1. Cruise Ship SOS - tales of a cruise ship doctor
2. Rosa Parks - hourly history biography
3. Stephen Hawking - as above
4. 101 bets you will always win - waste of time!
5. This is going to hurt - finally joined the party!

8. The old man of the sea - classic I've finally read and enjoyed 9. The best friend good psychological thriller 10. Triple Crown - by Felix Francis instead of Dick but a good read. 11. Beneath the surface - good read 12. Crossing the bridge of autism - very negative about her son 13. 365 surprising and inspirational rock star quotes - neither surprising nor inspiring. Returned for refund. 14. I'd rather be reading - good. 15. The wheel of justice awful short story. 16. The librarian good, protagonist irritated me at times though 17. TIckling the English - excellent 18. Reading allowed - a good diversion. 19. Cottage by the sea - lightweight diversion 20. Unbelievable: the bizarre world of coincidences a good read 21. Hello World, Hannah Fry - not as good as I thought it would be 22. The Birthday, Carol Wyer - good 23. Kept - an American househusband in India. OK. 24. I use my thumbs as a yardstick - weird title, turns out to be a joke. 25. Upsticks 26. The Wars of the Roses. Interesting historical facts. 27. Prince George - short read, interesting. 28. The Lighter Side - another paramedic book. 29. Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania - Lonely Planet. 30. Post-modernish - a graphic guide. 31. Gigantic world of gags - rubbish. 32. The Dark Side - another paramedic book. 33. The Perfect Child - Lucinda Berry. Good but disturbing. 34. The Secret Mother Shalini Boland. Intriguing.

Lab Girl by Hope Jahren is 99p today, I've never heard of her but I think it looks worth reading:

Lab Girl is a book about work and about love, and the mountains that can be moved when those two things come together. It is told through Jahren's remarkable stories: about the discoveries she has made in her lab, as well as her struggle to get there; about her childhood playing in her father's laboratory; about how lab work became a sanctuary for both her heart and her hands; about Bill, the brilliant, wounded man who became her loyal colleague and best friend; about their field trips - sometimes authorised, sometimes very much not - that took them from the Midwest across the USA, to Norway and to Ireland, from the pale skies of North Pole to tropical Hawaii; and about her constant striving to do and be her best, and her unswerving dedication to her life's work.

Visceral, intimate, gloriously candid and sometimes extremely funny, Jahren's descriptions of her work, her intense relationship with the plants, seeds and soil she studies, and her insights on nature enliven every page of this thrilling book. In Lab Girl, we see anew the complicated power of the natural world, and the power that can come from facing with bravery and conviction the challenge of discovering who you are.

Palegreenstars thanks for posting a review of A Place for Us. I have this on my wishlist and am eagerly waiting for it to come out in paperback. It sounds like just my kind of book.

Two re-reads for me, both ones I read in 2016 & reviewed then, so I'll just revisit briefly:
19. Europe in Autumn by Dave Hutchinson.

Book 1 of the Fractured Europe series. This follows Rudi, a chef who gets drawn into smuggling organisation the Coureurs, who run anything or anyone across the hard borders of an increasingly fragmented near-future Europe.

Generally I don't re-read thrillers, but it was definitely worthwhile with this one, I zipped through it so fast last time wanting to find out what would happen that I missed a lot of the detail & world building. I've just bought book 4 in the series, but am going to read my way through the others again first.

20 Evicted: Poverty & profit in the American City listened to on Audible
I re-listened to this after reading Municipal Dreams about the successes & failures of British public housing. The author follows 8 individuals & families through the process of (in most cases multiple) eviction, as well as spending time with landlords specialising in housing low income families. Really excellent, and also very well read.

13- Barbara Hepworth - Penelope Curtis

Unusually for me, I've felt really in the mood for non fiction lately, and as one of my new year resolutions was to explore my interest in art, this was a timely acquisition.

One of the highlights of my Cornwall holiday last year was a trip to The Hepworth Museum and Sculpture in St Ives. It was such a beautiful, peaceful place, and Hepworth's towering sculptures were breathtaking.

The book is fairly brief at only 91 pages but had plenty of good quality photographs of her work. It offers a whistle stop tour of her life, work, critical reception and the changing way her art is viewed now.

Ultimately, I wanted something a bit more in depth, although this was a good introduction and has made me want to discover more.

@Indigosalt it was a gift, couldn’t have justified £12 on any book at the moment.

I’m desperate to chat to someone with all the spoilers so have already recommended to 3 people!

47. Lanny- Max Porter

Was a bit apprehensive about this one because I found his previous book a bit too experimental for my tastes but I thought it was absolutely wonderful. There were one of two wackier scenes with Dead Papa Toothwort- a kind of ancient countryside spirit- but actually the rest of it was very readable and really well executed.

17. The Breakdown by B. A. Paris

Psychological thriller.
Driving home one stormy night, Cass passes a car parked in a lay-by. She considers stopping to see if they need help, but doesn’t, and the next day, discovers that the driver was murdered after Cass drove on. She’s consumed with guilt, convinced someone’s after her, and scared that she’s losing her mind.

Cass is presented as an unreliable narrator - she’s got a family history of early onset dementia, she’s forgetting things, so there’s the question of whether it’s all in her head, or whether she really does have something to worry about. And she’s also a frustrating narrator at times. She’s really going OTT on the guilt over not stopping her car.
Overall it’s fairly average.

18. Five Children on the Western Front by Kate Saunders

This follows on from E. Nesbit’s Five Children and It stories, and is also aimed at older children. Saunders has set her story during World War 1 (hence the title), when the older ones of the five children are just the age to go off to fight in the trenches.

It’s nicely written, and nostalgic as The Five Children and It is one that I remember fondly from childhood. I did however spend the entire book expecting at least one of the (now adult) children to be killed or maimed on the Western Front. It’s a bit of a gloomy book.

19. The Death of Mrs Westaway by Ruth Ware

When Harriet Westaway receives a letter telling her she’s received a substantial bequest from her grandmother, it seems like the answer to her prayers. Only problem is, it’s not her grandmother. But Harriet’s confident that she can use the cold reading techniques she’s honed as a seaside fortune teller to trick her way to getting the money. It’s not long before Harriet starts to wonder if she’s got in over her head.
It’s all rather far fetched but generally entertaining.

Walking the Americas by Levison Wood is 99p today - I've bought it as I'm a fan of his TV programmes.

I keep wondering whether to read Five Children on the Western Front but wasn't sure how well it worked as a book for adults since I don't get on with children's books any more.

BestIsWest re. JL Carr, maybe you're thinking of me? I didn't know him, but met & chatted to him when he used to bring his books (including the little pocket books which I still have quite a collection of) into the bookshop where I worked as a teenager. He was friends with the chap I worked for, and was always very pleasant to me. At the time (indeed still) I was very impressed with how well a man in his late 70s had got into the head of a teenage girl in 'What Hetty Did' - his many years as a teacher/head I guess.

Remus - "Cote - I'm so glad I discovered a battered old copy of This Thing of Darkness in a charity shop all those years ago, and that it's been able to spread so far due to these threads."

We are all grateful that you did 😊

Just finished the second and third in the All Souls trilogy by Deborah Harkness. Very readable indeed. I especially enjoyed the second novel Shadow of Night and being immersed into Elizabethan London/England. Despite these books being described as 'fluff' I found myself doing an awful lot of checking definitions of unknown words in the dictionary, and looking up references to art, literature and famous mathematicians/writers/alchemists/scientists/historical figures on Wikipedia. So, educational as well as being a ripping, good read!

Currently reading still me it's really really good I'm only half way through
I love it when I find a good book I just can't stop reading

StitchesInTime, what age would you say Five Children on the Western Front would work for? My 8yo has just enjoyed Five Children and It and The Phoenix and The Carpet, but I wonder if this would be a bit old for her?

Remus have you seen Off the Deep End: A History of Madness at Sea? I thought of you when I saw it. I believe it has mixed reviews with the first half (historical) being good and the second not so. I got it for an old duffer relative who served in the navy and likes high seas adventure books, he liked it and it prompted many tales. I haven't been tempted myself yet as I am still trying to get round to This Thing of Darkness first.

31. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte I genuinely thought I had read this during my pretentious literary teen phase, but I think I must have seen the film around the same time and it morphed into memory. I never had a particularly high opinion of it so I am glad I was prompted to read it now as it's actually rather good, despite being a bit god-y in places. Fabulous writing and great plot. I wish I could have read it with no idea of what was going to happen.

I'm now wondering if there are any others I'm missing out on. There are some books I know I have definitely read but can barely remember a thing about eg War and Peace and others that I am pretty sure I have read but am now having doubts about. Great literature is wasted on 17 years olds trying to cultivate an air of intellect, or at least it was on this one.

Great literature is wasted on 17 years olds trying to cultivate an air of intellect, or at least it was on this one.

Also wasted on this one!

Off the Deep End: A History of Madness at Sea?

That sounds like a case of finding out if duffers drown or non-duffers don't.

TheTurnOfTheScrew my DD read Five Children On The Western Front last year and enjoyed it - she was 8 at the time. Sounds like your 8 year old is a good reader so I think they would be fine with it. I also read it and while I agree with Stitches that it is a bit gloomy there’s nothing graphic there.

Brother of the More Famous Jack by Barbara Trapido. A reread after it was mentioned upthread. I enjoyed it, but not quite as much as I did when I originally read it back in the 1980s. I was also rather shocked that there were a couple of jokes about rape in it, which I didn't remember and am disconcerted that I might not have been so shocked when I first read it.

Which brings me on to

Vertigo and Ghost by Fiona Benson. Absolutely stunning poetry collection in two parts. The first half references violence against women in Greek myths, particularly focussing on Zeus as a serial rapist, and draws parallels with contemporary events. Disturbing but brilliantly done. The second half beautifully captures scenes of domestic life and early motherhood. The juxtaposition of the abuse of power in the first section contrasts starkly with the vulnerabilities and anxieties in the second. Thoroughly recommend.