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50 Book Challenge 2019 Part Four

997 replies

southeastdweller · 27/03/2019 18:36

Welcome to the fourth 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, the second one here and the third one here.

How're you getting on so far?

OP posts:
ChessieFL · 17/04/2019 21:00
  1. Dark Fire by C J Sansom

Second in the Shardlake series. I don’t think this was quite as good as the first, but I still really enjoyed it. The historical detail and scene setting is brilliantly done.

Sadik · 17/04/2019 21:23

30 The Durrells of Corfu by Michael Haag, listened to as an audiobook

Billed as 'the real story of the Durrells', a pretty gentle and affectionate take on the family focusing particularly on the years covered by Gerald in My Family and Other Animals.

Although there obviously was a lot left out of My Family (many people including most notably Nancy, Laurence Durrell's first wife, as well as Mother's drinking) it's easy to see that the people who made it into his book were those who were central to Gerry's life as a young boy.

I guess it's the nature of life that many things can be true - the family no doubt annoyed a lot of people in Corfu, while being a source of entertainment and friendship to many others - Larry was a terrible husband but a good older brother - Mother drank too much but was a loving parent. On the whole this book focused more on the positive side of all these equations, while not entirely skimming over the negative.

It's interesting to compare My Family with the Laura Ingalls Wilder books - again, childhood biography essentially written for money, and with events softened for wide appeal as well as restructured for readability.

TimeforaGandT · 17/04/2019 22:10

Pepe - I will try and keep up the monthly pace with you!

ScribblyGum · 18/04/2019 06:58

Place marking with a heads up to The Lost Words prom on 25th August.

Welshwabbit · 18/04/2019 07:48

28. Our House by Louise Candlish

Back to my more familiar stamping ground of the crime/psychological thriller. Fi comes home to find someone else moving into her house. The rest of the book explains what has happened through a podcast she records and a document written by her husband. Plenty of twists and turns, some of which I guessed, but I didn't quite get to the last and best. Really enjoyed this to the extent of staying up late to finish it - been a while since I did that with a crime thriller. May seek out some of her others.

brizzlemint · 18/04/2019 08:29

The Proms this year look like the will be amazing. I really want to buy Lost Words but need to wait until the end of the month when the next lot of student finance comes in.

Welshwabbit I was the same with Our House

Cedar03 · 18/04/2019 08:37

22 Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders
Reviewed a lot on these threads. I enjoyed this although did find the sections describing the real life parts a bit thin and repetitive after a while.

23 Offshore by Penelope Fitzgerald
People living in barges in down at heel Battersea in the late 1960s. She's very good at evoking a sense of time and place and characters.

24 The Edge by Dick Francis
A transcontinental rail trip in Canada for horsey types is threatened by disruption. Our hero attempts to prevent any trouble. I pulled this off the shelf because I had a cold and wanted something comforting to read. It's some years since I first read it and it still stands up well. I couldn't remember the exact plot and the story pulled me along. Entertaining read.

toomuchsplother · 18/04/2019 09:09

I would love to see The lost words prom.

FortunaMajor · 18/04/2019 09:24

The Lost Words prom looks amazing.

  1. Birdcage Walk by Helen Dunmore

Set in Bristol in 1792. Daughter of political radicals marries property developer who feels the effects of the French Revolution on the property market in the UK.

I don't really know how I feel about this one. The writing is sound but was the first bog standard novel after a run of really excellent more literary works. I think I'd have been ambivalent about whatever came next. I just didn't see the point of it and felt the story of the novel rather pointless.

Off on hols today to a part of the Lakes with no phone signal. I have packed a dog, a map and a bag of books.

ScribblyGum · 18/04/2019 09:41

I'm on holiday when The Lost Words prom is on, which is a shame, I bet it will be wonderful. Can you listen to BBC sounds/ radio I Player from abroad do you think?

bibliomania · 18/04/2019 09:41

Sadik, for another perspective on the Durrells, I thought Amateurs in Eden, by Joanna Hodgkin was an interesting take. It focuses on Nancy, Lawrence's first wife, and made me think about what it feels like to be on the edge of a glittering circle, tongue-tied and inarticulate.

The Durrells in Corfu made be long to know about Margo, not least her wartime experiences - I'm morbidly fascinated by the fact that she was a prisoner-of-war in Ethiopia where she had an emergency C-section without anaesthetic - so I tried to read her memoir, Whatever Happened to Margo but alas, it's badly written and focuses on a boring period of her house, when she ran a small guesthouse in England.

DecumusScotti · 18/04/2019 13:32

44.) How to Stay Alive, by Matt Haig — At the age of 24, while living in Ibiza, the author suffered a severe depressive attack. A combined memoir, self-help book, and attempt to destigmatise mental health problems, this is told in lots of very short chapters, which touch on lots of different subjects to do with anxiety and depression.

I struggle with anxiety, myself, and found it worth reading, although I’m not sure how helpful it really was, since there’s not a lot in the way of practical help to be found. Some reviews I have read mention finding it actively unhelpful, since Matt Haig is lucky enough to have have supportive family members and to come from a privileged background.

I did find it helped me look at aspects of depression differently, such as his turning to writing because of his struggles with his mental health, and all the people of note who have achieved things despite, or perhaps because of, their depression. The chapter on things that have earned him more sympathy than having depression was amusing too (‘Living in Hull in January’).

There’s a follow-up, Notes from a Nervous Planet, which I’ll certainly be reading, although as I did with this I’ll be getting it from the library. This is a very, very short book. It’s tiny, with lots of white space. Not to be flippant, but I’d definitely be depressed if I’d paid the RRP of £9.99 for it. Hmm

Funnily enough, I always find myself signing up to learn something new when I’m having a bit of a wobble, and apparently this time is no different. I’ve registered with the OU for a part-time BA in History, which is something I’ve been daydreaming about for years. I haven’t actually signed up to any modules yet, but baby steps... you have to study for 2 years before you do any actual history modules though.

Boiledeggandtoast · 18/04/2019 14:53

The Noise of Time by Julian Barnes This was a fascinating, fictionalised account of Shostakovich's life. It was largely sympathetic to the composer, looking at the difficulties he faced working in the Soviet Union during and after Stalin, and exploring the relationship of art and power. It also touched on the different ways that other composers eg Stravinsky and Prokofiev managed during this difficult time. Recommended.

InMyOwnParticularIdiom · 18/04/2019 14:57
  1. The Gentle Discipline Book - Sarah Ockwell-Smith

Outlines an approach to disciplining children based on respect, empathy, mindfulness and compassion. Read this to try to counterbalance my own more authoritarian upbringing* and resulting control-freak personal style. Similar in the advice it gives to How to Talk So Little Kids Will Listen,* but I think the latter is better as it gives more examples of practical solutions.

InMyOwnParticularIdiom · 18/04/2019 16:48

Just realised I am probably the only person who has had The Gentle Discipline Book and Bernard Cornwell's Warriors of the Storm (Uhtred #9) on the go on the Kindle at the same time.

Putting a child on the naughty step will do them irreparable psychological damage, but bashing Vikings to bits with an axe is A-ok.

bibliomania · 18/04/2019 17:00

The BA in History sounds wonderful, Decumus!

Yes, that's an impressive juxtaposition, Idiom. You are a clearly a woman of many parts.

AliasGrape · 18/04/2019 19:53
  1. Pure Andrew Miller - This I must have bought in a 3 for 2 type Waterstones offer years ago, and has been languishing on the shelf ever since. I kind of wish I’d left it there. Set just a few years before the French Revolution, tells the story of the provincial engineer come to Paris charged with the destruction of Les Innocents cemetery which was overflowing and poisoning its surroundings. Some wonderfully descriptive passages but ultimately it seemed to go nowhere and never really succeeded in making me care about any of the characters.
HaventGotAllDay · 18/04/2019 20:32

A Pocketful of Rye Agatha Christie

Continued with my Marple omnibus the other night as started 2 or 3 other books and just wasn't in the mood.

Very satisfying Agatha Christie it was too. And not one I can remember reading or seeing on TV.

I'm grumpy because a package of eBay books arrived today. All from the same seller and all completely different editions to the ones I wanted (which were the ones in the photos!) I am recollecting my childhood versions and the 3 Enid Blytons which came were late 80s/90s versions, not the late 60s ones in the photo.

I really want to read Our House now but it would break my 99p kindle rule....

RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie · 18/04/2019 20:52

I gave up on Pure for being dull.

Saw Pet Sematary today. Has anybody seen it? I think the book is very silly and they managed to make the film even sillier. I still jumped out of my skin a couple of times though!

AliasGrape · 18/04/2019 21:39

It was one of only two paper books I brought on holiday Remus or else I’d have done the same! I stupidly brought iPad (with kindle app) rather than my actual kindle, forgetting that it’s impossible to read on the iPad in the sun, so I’ve been stuck with Pure.

I have not enjoyed this holiday’s reading at all really and as such have only managed three books which is low for me (although maybe not since I’ve been with DP since he will insist on doing things with our holidays and refuses to just let me read all day in peace). I’ve two full days plus a travelling day to squeeze something else in, I’ll try to pick something good.

Sadik · 18/04/2019 21:43

I think I read Amateurs in Eden when it came out Biblio - though I've also read a bio of LD a long time back, & am not 100% sure how much I'm remembering from what (including obits & book reviews).

Murine · 19/04/2019 08:29

I really want to see Pet Sematary, but doubt I’ll persuade anybody to accompany me! I really liked The Sisters Brothers film yesterday though, the Patrick deWitt novel is one of my favourites and I very impressed by how they had treated it.
20. Swan Song by Kelleigh Greenberg-Jephcott I enjoyed this novel based on Truman Capote’s life and liked that it prompted me to seek out further details of the author’s life and that of his glamorous “swans”, it’s gossipy tone was great. However I found the way it was set out quite confusing at times, for example if I put it down for a few days had difficulty remembering which Swan was focused on or was narrating.
21. Unnatural Causes by Richard Shepherd fascinating memoir by a top forensic pathologist. I found the medical and scientist accounts fascinating but (and I feel bad thinking it as the book must have been cathartic for the author who suffered terribly from PTSD) would’ve liked more of these and less personal life included.

Currently reading The Salt Path by Raynor Winn.

DecumusScotti · 19/04/2019 11:45

Heads up for all Kindle readers, Amazon are offering 9 books from around the world for free, up until the morning of the 25th.

www.amazon.co.uk/b?node=16393158031&ref_=SIN_CWBD19_UK&tag=mumsnetforu03-21

brizzlemint · 19/04/2019 12:29

Thank you Decumus

OllyBJolly · 19/04/2019 13:46

Thanks, Decimus !

Any books there anyone would recommend particularly?

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