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?

16. The Secret Mother- Shalini Boland A thriller which was 99p in the Kindle monthly sale: this is not the type of book I would normally choose, but I found it really gripping.

17. My Year of Rest and Relaxation- Otessa Moshfegh Several people have already discussed this one. For a book in which the central character spends most of her time asleep and therefore not much happens, I actually thought it was quite fascinating. The references to 9/11 worked well.

18. Rock Needs River- Vanessa McGrady This interesting book was free on the Kindle: it is about an open adoption and the ways in which the author tried to help her daughter's birth parents, including allowing them to move into her house for periods of time.

19. Three Weeks To Say Goodbye- C.J. Box Another thriller, this time one which had been sitting around on my Kindle for ages. I didn't really enjoy it.

I've just finished the birthday, it was as good as it seemed early on. I was guessing who was responsible several times but hadn't guessed correctly but it will be a spoiler if I explain why. I gave it four stars instead of my usual three, it could have had more but I was disappointed with who was responsible.

I have not yet managed to get along with audio books- they always seem slightly too slow. However, I love podcasts- but I also can only concentrate while walking or driving.

14. Transcription by Kate Atkinson. I tried to skip earlier discussion of this as I didn’t want spoilers. I liked Life After Life, and although I enjoyed this it didn’t compare. The story, the tone, the scene setting are all great; but for me the narrative voice was just a slightly less engaging version of Ursula’s- Juliet never came alive to me. I also felt she didn’t change or develop from an 18 yr old in 1940 to a 28 yr old in 1950- and I didn’t get a real sense of any of the male main characters except Cyril. Interesting, engaging, but ultimately did not move me.

Sorry, I meant to add apologies in case I am repeating what others have said.

I started listening to audio books about a year ago. For some reason I only do it while driving (I drive to work), but that works well for me and I find it much more engaging than I thought I would.

9 Autumn, All the Cats Return by Philippe Georget

Discovered this author with a random purchase in Waterstones a couple of years ago, this is the second of his books set in Perpignan and featuring Inspector Sebag. This one is focusing on the French in Algeria and how grudges and feeling of not belonging can continue after so long. I didn't know much about Algeria and this gave a basic insight into it. It romps along at a fairly good place and very much comfort reading, it's published by World Noir which will give you some indication about the contents. The translation is a bit dodgy at times but all in all a good series.

21. Scrublands - Chris Hammer picked up in the Kindle Sale after being mentioned here. Set in Outback Australia, investigative Journalism and policing collide in a small town. A year on from a massacre by the local priest the tale gets a whole lot darker. Everyone in this town has a secret and a past. Not a standout but definitely compelling and kept me guessing. Not a bad start to half term!

I don't do audio books - they make me feel really tired and as I'd only listen to them when driving I think it'd be a bad idea.

I listen to audiobooks a lot but I’m another one whose mind wanders, so I find it better listening to books I’m already familiar with so it doesn’t matter too much if my mind does wander. I am currently attempting to listen to A Tale Of Two Cities - it’s beautifully read by Simon Callow but I’m struggling to keep track of what’s going on. I have the paperback at home so I’m skimming through that as well which does defeat the point of audiobooks! I was hoping I would be able to concentrate enough but i think I need to just accept that audiobooks have to be rereads or non fiction.

32. What A Carve Up! by Jonathan Coe

This is an unusual book, about a powerful family, the members of which are all horrible, and the man who is writing a book about that family. There are also links to the film of the same name as the book. It is funny, but it was written in the early 90s and there’s a lot about the politics of that time which I didn’t always understand as I was only a young teenager then. I enjoyed it more than The Rotters’ Club by the same author.

I remember reading What a Carve Up! when it first came out. It was very enjoyable back then but I can imagine a lot of it hasn't aged well.

16/17/18 – My Family and Other Animals trilogy = Gerald Durrell

The first one of these was slower than I remembered from when I read it aged 11/12ish. There’s lots to like in them, and some of it really made me smile, but there were a few too many pages of descriptions of the sea water sparkling etc for my liking. Definitely well worth 99p though!

Sadik I think i definitely would have got more out of it at the time and yes, a lot of the references haven’t aged well

15 Municipal Dreams: The Rise and Fall of Council Housing by John Boughton
Rather appropriately, this is a competent, workmanlike history of council housing from its earliest pre WW1 incarnations through to the present day. It would definitely have benefitted from more and better quality photographs, but well worth a read for anyone interested in the subject.

22. Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel Henry VIII is trying to put aside Queen Katherine to marry Anne Boleyn. Told from the perspective of Thomas Cromwell, a coarse and calculating commoner rising through the ranks of the political echelons.

A tough book to get in to due to an interesting narrative style and a jumping time frame, but worth sticking with as it flows a lot easier after the first 60 pages or so. Mantel pulls off a very sympathetic portrayal of the usual villain of the piece. I loved what she did with this, too often historical figures come across as cardboard cutouts but her level of humanisation of the major players made for an interesting take on a very well known period of history. While I won't get to it straight away I am looking forward to Bring Up the Bodies.

33. Everything I Know About Love by Dolly Alderton

I really enjoyed this memoir of the author’s teens and twenties. I’m a bit older than she is but could still recognise a lot of what she discusses. This is more the life I always wished I had though - popular and fun with a close group of female friends. I’ve never really had that so this wasn’t my life - but she writes well so I enjoyed reading it. She does come across rather self indulgent at times but overall I liked it. I can see how it would be a marmite book though.

Just finished

10. A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole

On recommendation of a friend who said it was the best book he's ever read. i quite enjoyed it, laugh out loud in places, but the constant farce was getting a bit tiresome by the end.

Re the audiobooks - I have the same issue re concentration. However I find biographies very easy to listen to. If your mind wanders for a few minutes you don't lose out on a key plot detail. I especially enjoy autobiographies read by the author. Michelle Obama, David Attenborough, Danny Baker, Nile Rodgers, Susan Calman, Robert Webb, Elizabeth Warren, Amy Liptrot, Patti Smith are all worth a listen.

Checking in.
I'm reading two things at the moment. I just started the chic lit novel "Don't Tell the Groom" by Anna Bell. It seems pretty good so far. It's a very large electronic volume that also has her books "Don't Tell the Boss" and "Don't Tell the Bride" in it, so I'm hoping these books aren't too similar/about the same people.
For uni I'm now reading Eugene O-Neill's play "Long Day's Journey into Night." I find the family dynamics very interesting, but also wish more was happening in the play. It seems like people are more talking, rather than doing.

I tried reading The Rotters Club, but couldn't really get into it. Also tried reading his other book about a sleep clinic (can't remember the name), and didn't care for that much either. I'm not sure why, because I usually like this type of fiction.

@CazzieBo
A friend of mine recommended A Confederacy of Dunces a couple years ago. I just couldn't get into it. The way he treated his mum was just appalling.

23.) Rotherweird, Andrew Caldecott -- The self-governing town of Rotherweird has been isolated from the rest of England since Elizabethan times, its townsfolk forbidden from studying history from before the 1800 and from studying Rotherwierd history at all.

This was a reread of a book that I read a few months back and was thoroughly disappointed by because I'd really wanted to like it. This time around I enjoyed it much more. The first time around, I think I struggled because of the combination of a slightly odd and not always easily explicable plot with the detached writing style which seemed a bit convoluted and dense to my tastes. This time around I knew more or less what was going to happen, so I could relax and enjoy it a bit more. The idea behind it delights me: this steampunky Elizabethan-esque town, and I do love some of the characters -- Orelia, Oblong and Gregorius Jones, so I'm glad I gave it a second chance.

I was going to head straight on to its sequel, Wyntertide, but found myself making a start on Terry Pratchett's Moving Pictures instead. That should be a quick read, but I have a book to read for book group to finish off this week too (Star of the North), and might be a push to finish Wyntertide in time to finish that... argh, dilemmas.

My list so far. Standouts in bold.

1. Patrick Gale, Take Nothing With You
2. Sophie Kinsella, My Perfect Life

3. Bart Van Es, The Cut Out Girl

1. Julian Barnes, Levels of Life

5. Sophie Ratcliffe, The Lost Properties of Love 7. Dorothy L. Sayers, Strong Poision

Still trying to work out whether to attempt Sally Rooney's Normal People again having failed on the audiobook, or if not, what to read....have hit a reading roadblock!

Sadik, what kind of books has your father enjoyed recently? Some books I've loved with elements of both nature and history writing (but not very recent publications) are: Weatherland, by Alexandra Harris, Under Another Sky, by Charlotte Higgins and In Ruins, by Christopher Woodward.

Mightn't suit him if he's more interested in the ins and outs of WWII battles, mind you.

Endeavour by Peter Moore is one of today's daily deals (99p).

I don't know anything about it, but do know many of you read Erebus & loved it so thought I'd point out another history of a ship.

I'm going to give it a go - what's to lose at 99p?

I was hoping endeavour would be a book about young Morse. Love that show.

Jess Kidd's book Himself is free on amazon prime at the moment.