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’ve been getting behind with my list and need to update before I take these back to the library.

20. Our House by Louise Candlish

Fi goes away for a few days and returns to find strangers moving into her house. They say they’ve bought it, which is a big surprise for Fi....
Overall it’s ok.

21. Symbiont by Mira Grant

2nd in her Parasitology series. The supposedly benevolent tapeworms sold by SymboGen have started migrating to their hosts brains, effectively turning them into mindless zombies. Our heroes continue trying to find a way to tackle this crisis.

22. The Child by Fiona Barton

When the body of a baby is discovered at a building site, a journalist decides to try and uncover the truth. Readable but the coincidences did get a bit hard to believe in.

23. Perfect People by Peter James

John & Naomi’s 4 yr old died from a rare genetic disorder, so they seek help from geneticist Dr Leo Dettore to conceive a healthy child. Except things don’t turn out as they expected...
The ending was more abrupt than I liked, but overall an ok read.

24. The Three Secret Cities by Matthew Reilly

This was good fun to read. Jack West Jr and friends must find 3 secret cities and complete an ancient ritual in order to save the world from destruction.

25. Brave New Girl by Rachel Vincent

Dahlia 16 is one of 5,000 identical clones, being raised to serve the greater good of the city. Her life starts to unravel when she has a chance meeting with another clone, Trigger 17, and the two start a forbidden love affair.
YA and a quick read.

17. Whatever You Love by Louise Doughty. I bought this because I enjoyed Apple Tree Yard and thought Black Water was ace. This was written before either of the other two and I think it shows - it's less original, and she has developed as a writer since writing this - but I still enjoyed it. The main character, Laura, has a young daughter who dies in a car accident at the start of the book, and it felt like an accurate portrayal of grief and guilt.

18. The Italian Teacher by Tom Rachman Highlight of the year so far for me, this is so vibrant and immersive. It’s been a while since I read a novel and enjoyed it for the writing itself as well as plot. The characters whose lives are followed over about fifty years are well drawn and interesting: particularly Charles “Pinch” Bavinsky who will never quite be good enough for his eccentric, philandering, dismissive, famous artist father Bear and his fragile mother Natty who Bear abandons in Rome for yet another woman. Unexpectedly funny in places too and thoroughly enjoyable, I’ll be seeking out more of this authors novels.

18. The Love of a Bad Man Laura Elizabeth Woollett A short story collection with each story from the perspective of a woman in a relationship with a famous bad man (Eva Braun, Myra Hindley etc).

I’m not really sure about this one. I guess like lots of people I find serial killers fascinating but this was blander than I expected. The approach seemed to be that every woman was blinded by love for the bad man. Despite it being graphic in places I don’t really feel like there was much truth in the writing. I also didn’t really feel like the author gave much sense of ownership to the women’s crimes.
The sections written by women that are still alive felt odd as well and I felt that the author had made a decision about their innocence which wasn’t warranted.

23. The Silence of the Girls - Pat Barker

The story of the Iliad told largely from the perspective of Briseis, a former queen whose city is destroyed by the Greeks and who is awarded to Achilles as his 'bed-girl'.

The clarity of the writing is exceptional, although I'm not sure whether the project of giving Briseis back her voice was entirely successful - really, this is the story of Achilles, as observed by Briseis. On the other hand, I think this may be exactly Barker's point - slaves caught in war have no agency and no voice, and as Briseis herself comes to realise, she cannot escape Achilles' story until after his death.

This novel excels at making real the horrors of life for women taken in war and distributed as sex slaves. (The parallels in the contemporary Near East are hinted at in the reminders that this is a society in which respectable women are veiled and secluded, but this point isn't laboured.) The Iliad shows us men distributing women to, and snatching them from, each other, as part of the play of macho power politics - The Silence of the Girls shows the reality of the 'rape camp' experienced by the women.

I studied the Iliad extensively at uni and am fussy when it comes to retellings (did not like Song of Achilles), so this is a thumbs up from a hard audience to please!

Welcome paperflowers I have been seeing Where the Crawdad’s Sing around a lot and I’m tempted after what you’ve written.

Indigo I really liked Olive but wasn’t too keen on Lucy Barton and got a bit put off, but might try a follow up to OK.

Finally, managed to get another book in in this thread

17 The Sixteen Trees if the Somme by Lars Mytting

Edward grows up on a remote farm in Norway with his grandfather after his parents died when he was three. Edwards quest to unlock family secrets which emerge after the death of his grandfather leads us to Shetland and France.

A beautifully written book and a sympathetic translation, it covers the relationship between two brothers and two families and sisters walnut trees and how it effects the generations. It has taken me a while to read, it is a book to savour and not rush.

Not sure what's up next something quick and easy

Thanks PaperFlowers - I've moved Where the Crawdads Sing up my list a bit.

Satsuki I think Lucy Barton is a bit of a love it or hate it book. Olive Kitteridge is probably my favourite of hers so far.

And like you Toomuch I am saving up her remaining books and don't want to binge.

I started with Lucy Barton and I agree it definitely isn't her strongest. I really liked Amy and Isabelle

15. The Salt Path by Raynor Winn. This has been reviewed many times, (thanks to toomuchsplother for the first review that put it on my TBR list) so I'll just add that it was an inspirational read, managing to be both touching and amusing. I listened to it on Audible and whilst Anne Reid did a tremendous job of narrating I was a bit bemused as to why they choose an (obviously octogenarian sounding) 83 year old to voice the story of a 50 year old. According to the interview with Raynor Winn on 'The Big Travel Podcast' that a pp linked to, it seems like a film is in the offing, the interviewer suggested Merle Streep, who is a dead ringer but 20 years too old, Winn is hoping that Kate Winslet plays her, I'm thinking Helena Bonham-Carter (with a dye job) and Daniel Craig or preferably Ewan McGregor as Moth. Obviously I'm a bit over invested here. Always a sign of a good book!

46 The Stranger in the Mirror - a Memoir of Middle Age by Jane Shilling the author looks back over her life & the vexed concept of how different middle age is now to a generation ago. Quite well written as you would expect from an experienced reviewer but overwritten in some parts.

47 THe Lying Game - Ruth Ware another psycho thriller from this author but not as good as the rest of her work. A secret from 4 girls' shared past catches up with them at their school reunion.

InmyOwn thanks for the review of the Silence of the girls. Its been on my wishlist for a long time, your review makes me want to read it more. Just cant justify the price/spend atm.

Sapat I was lucky enough to find it in the library, otherwise I would have been waiting for the paperback!

the best friend Shalini Boland.
Beggars belief at times how writers find publishers. Worst book of the year so far. Formulaic "utterly gripping sensational twist" psycho thriller. The sensational twist could be spotted at 100 paces and the characters were, I swear, the same people used by this genre of writers for about the last 5 years.

Rich beautiful people (of course) with darling children (who never fail to irritate the reader with their babyish whining) fabulous houses (always by the sea- or how can our protagonists feel that salt wind and/or run away from nutters!) Perfect husbands who get a bit too friendly with equally rich and beautiful people blah blah blah.

I skimmed the last 50 pages as life's too short. Irritatingly it's not a returnable Kindle book or off it'd trot.

40. The Lost Abbot (Matthew Bartholomew #19) - Susanna Gregory More C14th murder mystery shenanigans. Matthew and the monks head to Peterborough in search of a missing person and the bodies start rolling in.

About a quarter of the way into A Place of Greater Safety by Hilary Mantel. I can't decide if I'm confused because it's an ambitious choice (for me) for an audiobook, or because it's Hilary Mantel.

HaventGotAllDay I picked up something similar in the library. The back was so busy telling me how "sensational" and "thrilling" everyone thought it was rather than what it was about, that I decided it was a sign and put it back.

10. Ghost Wall - Sarah Moss. This is a very short novel that covers the background of an Iron Age re-enactment and the effects of living with a violent and abusive father. Couldn't get into it and had no engagement with the characters. This definitely should have been a longer book.

southeast, I gave up on Ghost Wall, although I did a quick skim through to find out what happened. I don't know why it didn't work, but it didn't.

I loved Ghost Wall. Thought it worked really well as a snap shot in time which was essentially what they were trying to recreate in their camp.

Currently reading a stinker of a book, only carrying on with it so I can write a ranting review! I need to get out more!

Fortuna, I loved A Place of Greater Safety but I've got a crush on Danton and Julie (ever since A levels when I had to read Danton's Death) Wolf Hall stumped me though.

I've read a couple of Shalini Bolland books, though not the one criticised above so I'll give that one a miss. I've always shied away from psychology thrillers but I'm really into them at the moment.

New thread here

1. Normal People by Sally Rooney - well written, well observed. If I were younger I'd have loved it but it's about young people at uni which I'm a few years past. Very enjoyable though.

2. The Dreams of Bethany Mellmoth by William Boyd - utterly fabulous short stories. I'm not usually a fan of the genre but loved every page of this.

3)The Diary of a Bookseller by Shaun Blythell - loving this gentle memoir of a man who bought a second hand book shop in rural Scotland.

4)The Unexpected Joy of Being Sober by Catherine Gray. Very formulaic, I was a pisshead then I stopped type of book. I suppose might be helpful if you're in the same boat, but I'm not and found it boring and the writer unlikeable.

5. The Wild Remedy by Emma Mitchell . This was serialised in one of the papers and I loved the excerpts and bought it. It's a lovely gentle book to dip in and out of, and when I read it, it makes me want to be somewhere remote eg Norfolk, going for long solitary walks. Inspiring and beautifully written and illustrated.

6. The Salt Path by Ray Win. An assistant in Waterstones was recommending this to someone and I overheard and bought it too. Lovely (though shocking and sad) story of a couple who go through some serious shit and then pick themselves up and walk around the coastline of Devon/Cornwall and maybe a bit of Somerset and Dorset. Uplifting, inspiring and memorable.

7. Tangerine by Christine Mangan. Another Waterstones recommendation and I loved it. Gripping story of young women in Tangier - a real page turner and quite chilling. Great fun.

8. All Among the Barley by Melissa Harrison. Loved this beautifully written tale of a country childhood in the 1930s. So evocative.

9. Valley of the Dolls by Jacqueline Susann. Absolutely loved every minute of this 1966 classic about three women in showbiz in America. Excellent and just as relevant and sharp today, half a century on.

Currently reading:
Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer.