50 Book Challenge 2019 Part Four

[southeastdweller]

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?

Five sorry I had missed your update about your DH upthread. I hope that reading is giving you a little comfort and that you have lots of RL support.

32 The Shepherd's Life by James Rebanks

The story of the author and his parents/grandparents lives as upland sheep farmers in the Lake District. Much reviewed on here, this made a good follow on to Wilding reviewed upthread, giving the perspective of someone from an established farming community in a marginal area following traditional practices. The author doesn't always come across as a likeable character, but it feels as though he's writing honestly rather than trying to present things in the best light. Overall a very good read.

NowanearlyNicemum I think quite a few posters on the thread have read and enjoyed Washington Black so I may well be being too harsh, it’s a good book I just wish she had gone large and done the whole of his life.

Remus I love those "111 places" books, I look out for them now when I'm visiting somewhere new, and I have one for my own city that I'm working my way through. I bought the New Orleans one on the way to visit there and read it all the way through on the plane - it was really well written and had a great mix of well known and off the beaten tracks recommendations.

Scribbly I was disappointed with Washington too. It had so much promise and just fizzled out. A good idea but not well executed.

Chris Packham's Fingers in the Sparkle Jar is 99p on Kindle Daily deals today .

That’s interesting you thought that too Spother. Did you get the feeling that the original plan was to write a whole life book and then Edugyan had, or was advised to have a change of plan? I couldn’t marry up the rich and exciting start with the the latter half of the book. Washington and Tanner's naturalist project which was just starting to become a developed and interesting story line also just felt cast aside (whatever did happen to the poor sad octopus? )

I wonder if publishers today are really wary of publishing the whopper novel? Do you think there is analysis of book buying behaviour that shows that a significant number of customers never even pick up a book that’s say 800+ pages long and that in turn influences publishers/editors/writers not to encourage such works.

I'm trying to think of books I've read that have been published in the last decade that would be considered giant tomes. The Goldfinch maybe, The Kills was huge.

Sorry to misname you there Splother (what is splother btw?)

I'm massively on the go-slow at the moment, still reading Landfill about gulls but I have finished two other books that were more interesting which are:
38. As You Like It - William Shakespeare
One of my favourite Shakespeare plays with the lovely "All the world's a stage" speech by the melancholy Jaques and high-jinks in the Forest of Arden. We went to see this at the RSC (we live just down the road from Stratford-on-Avon) and it was an interesting production.

39. The Grand Babylon Hotel - Arnold Bennett
Although I enjoyed this tale of murder, mystery and subterfuge in an inordinately large and grand hotel in London, this could have been so much better I think. It just fell short in the plot and characterisation, but it was amusing and good fun. Plenty of attempted poisoning and holding people hostage with revolvers. I do love other Arnold Bennett novels such as Anna of the Five Towns and The Old Wives Tale but this wasn't up to their level.

And now, back to gulls.

31. Educated by Tara Westover

Much-read and reviewed on here - not sure there is much I can add. A shocking account of the author's childhood, living with a survivalist Mormon family. The sheer number of horrific injuries sustained by family members whilst working with the father collecting and selling scrap metal is a story in itself. The book is very good on the difficulty of separating yourself from your family even when you know it's what you need to do. I enjoyed the parts about Westover's academic development but the story felt almost unfinished - I think she's still only in her early 30s - and I felt that perhaps she hadn't quite reached her resolution.

I'm sorry to hear about your husband five

33. Sorcerer to the Crown by Zen Cho

Set in Regency England, Zacharias Wythe is England’s first African Sorcerer Royal, and facing plenty of trouble. Falling magic levels, ambitious sorcerers planning political coups against him, assassination attempts.
Things threaten to get even tricky when Zacharias crosses paths with ambitious orphan Prunella Gentleman, who’s just discovered a magical legacy left to her by her mother.

I really enjoyed reading this.
One of the comments on the back of the book describes it as a cross between Georgette Heyer and Susannah Clarke, which I’d agree with.

Noodle - They are excellent. This one isn't as good as some of the others but still interesting. I'll definitely buy more.

stitches - love the idea of a cross between Georgette Heyer and Susanna Clarke. DH is way tonight so will settle down with book and wine once I can persuade my brood to go to bed!

No worries Scribbly- splother comes from Alan Bennett's memoirs. It's some thing his mum and dad used to say about things which were too fancy or a bit over the top, 'a lot of splother!' I liked it.

Re: Washington I felt that there was a good idea in there but she didn't really have a clue how to bring it to fruition. She almost when the magical realism route but then sort of copped out and it became neither one thing or the other.

*16. I'd rather be reading: the delights and dilemmas of a reading life by Anne Bogel

A short collection of essays about reading. I quite enjoyed it. I like the authors podcast - what should I read next.*

I’m sure I’ll get flamed for this, but I was really disappointed in And Then There Were None. I hadn’t read any Christie and started with that a couple of years ago. I thought the plot was clever but I was shocked how amateurish the writing style was. There were so many exclamation marks and it was so simple I felt like I was reading a Famous Five book (apart from the murders obvs! ). Given how loved Christie is I decided to give her another chance and also read The Murder Of Roger Ackroyd and Murder On The Orient Express. I understand those three are considered amongst her best - all I can say is if these are her best, I dread to think what her weakest are like....

I know I am alone in this view though, it’s obviously me missing something about her books but I’m afraid I don’t want to waste any more time reading her to see if my opinion improves.

I wasn't a fan of And Then There Were None either - found it rather humdrum and anti-climatic. Didn't like Roger either. I do like Orient Express though.

I think that's why teenagers will read Christie, though chessie. She's quite accessible, especially for a slightly older writer- compared to, say, Du Maurier who is more wordy.

I thought ABC Murdres was quite simple but some of its narrative structuring is quite surprisingly stylised.

Murders whoops.

whippetwoman Goodreads have done a blog post on the trend of 'wolf' titles. Link

49. Danny the Champion of the World by Roald Dahl (Audiobook) Small boy takes poaching to the next level to get revenge on the local landowner.

For some reason I never read this in my Dahl phase in the late '80s. Every year I got a lovely hardback book for Christmas. As the youngest of 5 we already had most childrens books already (in ratty hand-me-down well loved paperbacks), so my very own posh Christmas book was a big deal. I got Matilda in '88 and it sparked a craze which the boy round the corner shared so we used to swap books, plus we had 3 read to us as a class by various teachers. I didn't enjoy all of Dahl's work, but I largely have fond memories of them.

50. Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert Bored provincial housewife lives beyond her means and has a string of affairs before realising the grass in not always greener.

Social commentary of the time and scandalous in its day. It discusses morals, the place of women and the dangers of reading too many novels. I had to translate chunks of this at uni but never got round to reading the whole book. I'm glad I went back to it as I thoroughly enjoyed it.

22 And Then There Were None

An easy read and I loved the edition of the book. I do agree that the writing is simplistic but it is of its time and I loved reading these as a teenager, it was a bridge to more adult reading.

Piggy agree that I would probably have a different opinion if I first read Christie as a teenager.

25: The Librarian by Salley Vickers

Tedious story about lovely Sylvia who becomes the Children's librarian at a library, befriends all the local children, does projects with them about foxes, inexplicably starts successfully tutoring them through the 11+ despite never even sat it herself, has an affair with the local doctor. The locals try to close the library because some of the children get hold of a book with naughty words in.

Ludicrous fluff, unbelievable characters, childish plot that reads like a Y7 essay, probably my reading low point this year.

26: Around the World in Eighty Days by Michael Palin

Lovely bit of nostalgia, listened on Audible and it was narrated by Michael Palin himself. First saw the series years ago, a great revisit.

Having recently read several Famous Five books to my six year old I really don't think the writing is comparable in any way to Christie. For a start she doesn't use the word "queer" twice per page (seriously. I am not exaggerating). She is also deft at a pen portrait and her ear for dialogue is good, in contrast not only to Blyton but also to P D James, who writes dialogue like a Martian who has read Dorothy Sayers and overdosed on Downton Abbey. I will admit that I read Christie as a child an a teenager and have only come to Both on as an adult but to my mind there is no comparison.

Sorry. Posting on phone. Both in previous post = Blyton.