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?

I’m going to have to read This Thing of Darkness. I do love a bargain. What if I don’t like it and you throw me off the thread?? I resisted The Heart’s Invisible Furies for ages and loved that.
Clothes Music Boys by Viv Albertine is in the sale too. A great memoir.

52 Moby Dick by Herman Melville
I don’t know what I expected. Maybe more of a plot than I got; all the action really does happen right at the end. Less humour; large parts are actually very funny. Lots of chat about whaling; definitely, and at immense length. It was surprisingly readable. I didn’t find it hard going though the episodic nature meant it didn’t necessarily feel urgent that I picked it up and continued. Still reflecting on this. Very glad I read it, but not sure how I feel about it as a novel.

53 Please Look After Mother by Kyung-Sook Shin
Someone (apologies, I cannot remember who) on here recommended this as one of my ‘twelve books in translation’ project my sister and I have embarked on this year. It’s a Korean novel about families. When Mother goes missing her family members reflect on her and their relationships. She loved it. I was less keen on the style - I fount the second person narration tricksy and hard to follow. And I wasn’t overly invested in the characters. I think that could be me, rather than the book - like others on the thread I’m in a bit of a funk and couldn’t quite focus on this in the way I think it warranted. That said I found the depiction of post-war South Korea and its rapid modernisation very interesting. What a transformation in such a short period.

Next, finish Infinite Jest. I’m picking up speed over the final stretch and plan on staying in bed tomorrow morning to finish it. Then am toying with The Silk Roads by Peter Frankopan or the new Shardlake. Or both. Although maybe one of my (many) problems is having too many books on the go at once meaning I don’t focus on any of them adequately.

Decumus The Jackson Brodie books in order are:

Case Histories
One Good Turn
When Will There Be Good News?
Started Early, Took My Dog

I recommend reading them in order - each has a stand alone story but some of the people in Jackson’s personal life keep popping up and his backstory makes a bit more sense if you read them in order.

You could also start with Behind The Scenes At The Museum which is one of her stand alone books.

Thanks, Cheshire. I think I’ll pick up Case Histories first in that case.

I've also bought This Thing of Darkness and like Pepe, I'm fretting about being expelled from the 50-bookers if I don't love it.

Am re-reading Adrian Mole: The Prostrate Years. For a comic writer, Sue Townsend certainly didn't roll out the feel-good plots. Adrian is losing his health, his marriage and his job, and the whole country is plunging into recession (set in 2007/08). She manages to combine the acerbic and the compassionate better than anyone. It's a real shame she's not still around to chronicle Brexit - I think she's one of the few writers who could do it justice. She was also picking up rumblings about it long before it became widely visible.

Sorry to those who've lost their reading mojo. It's strangely bleak to be deserted by one of your sources of comfort. Time to retreat to old favourites?

You guys are fast! I came on to alert everyone to This Thing of Darkness and bask in my triumph but I am about a page too late. My children would say 'lame'.
Hope you feel better Satsuki, I am sorry about your Kindle/lamp trauma. Both of those things would make me very sad indeed.

Also 56. House of Ghosts, by W C Taylor
1917: bereaved families gather for a séance in a big house on an island. The house is haunted and furnished with secret passageways and a crypt full of skeletons, the island is storm-lashed and cut off from the mainland. There are spies, military intelligence, ghosts, mediums and at least one murderer. Whodunnit and why? It's fair to say that the author isn't going for subtle and this isn't a deathless classic, but it kept me turning the pages, and the presence of families mourning their lost ones added a degree of poignancy.

Ack, sorry, Chessie, not Cheshire.

And Biblio, House of Ghosts sounds like it’s right up my street.

I can't unreservedly recommend it, Dec - it's one of those books where the premise is a better than the execution. The author doesn't quite conjure up the atmosphere he's aiming for. It's really an Agatha Christie with a fancier set dressing. But sometimes that's what you're looking for in a book, so it's worth the read if approached with moderate expectations.

Another mostly excited but slightly nervous buyer of This Thing in the Kindle sale - thanks everyone. @PepelePew I know exactly what you mean about having loads of things on the go at one time - Moby Dick I read in three separate chunks over the course of a few months but, as you say, it sort of lends itself to that approach. I’ve also been listening to The Silk Roads on Audible on and off for over a year now and it’s great - would recommend.

@Satsuki sorry you’ve been feeling rubbish - hope you manage to find the brilliant book that perfectly suits your mood and gets you into the reading flow again

I've been reading (and listening) a lot, but haven't updated for a few weeks, so here goes:

52. Atonement- Ian McEwan I recently saw the film: obviously, the story is a lot more fully realised in the book, which I enjoyed. The ending is clever, but I prefer the way it was handled in the film.

53. The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas- John Boyne I already knew the book and film very well, but decided to get the audiobook in addition. It was beautifully read, which enhanced my appreciation of the story.

54. Gone- Michael Grant I deliberately read this soon after having read Anna by Niccolò Ammaniti as both books deal with a post-apocalyptic future in which there are only children, no adults. I thought Anna was by far the better of the two novels.

55. Adolf Hitler- Hourly History This was a pretty good summary of Hitler’s life: I learned plenty of new things, including the fact that Hitler had been a choirboy. The introduction annoyed me, as it was a potted history of Hitler which was then all rehashed in the main body of the text. For such a short book, this was particularly unnecessary.

56. Set the Boy Free- Johnny Marr I have already read the book twice but enjoyed the audiobook even more. It was lovely to have Johnny’s voice coming out of my Echo and telling me his life story. In addition to his musical childhood, his time in The Smiths and the subsequent court case, the book includes Johnny’s very interesting and varied career with bands such as The Pretenders, The The, Electronic, Modest Mouse, The Cribs and many more. The story comes almost up to date with his work on the Inception soundtrack and his solo career. Set the Boy Free is excellent- superior to Morrissey’s autobiography, which I also enjoyed- and I would recommend the book and audiobook to all music lovers.

57. Home Fire- Kamila Shamsie Several friends and family members had recommended this to me. I appreciated its originality (Antigone notwithstanding) and unusual style, but I wasn’t absolutely bowled over.

58. The Middle Ages- Hourly History This was a whistle-stop tour through a 1000-year period which included Charles the Great, the Bayeux Tapestry, the Crusades, Eleanor of Aquitaine, Magna Carta, the Peasants’ Revolt, the Hundred Years’ War and much more. I would happily have read a separate book on each topic: it felt very rushed. However, it was a good opportunity to brush up quickly on a period of history I had learned about many years ago.

59. Kill ‘Em All- John Niven Set 20 years after Kill Your Friends, it continues the story of music A&R man Steven Stelfox who is now in semi-retirement having made his fortune running the reality show American Pop Star. Stelfox and his views have become even more deeply unpleasant. Another main character, Lucius Du Pre, is a very well drawn and amusing caricature of Michael Jackson. I listened to the audiobook: the fake American accents did become rather grating, but they added to the overall effect. I’m not sure if I actively enjoyed the book, but I was keen to keep going and find out how it would end.

28. Anything is Possible Elizabeth Strout Off work today and yesterday with a sickness bug - read most of this this afternoon once I was starting to feel better. I read My Name is Lucy Barton a few weeks back on holiday and was a little ‘meh’ about it as it just felt a bit too vague, a poster here mentioned this book which is a collection of short stories loosely linked to each other and to the original novel. Not only did I really enjoy this (the structure of short stories with myriad connections and echoes stretching between them just really works) it also made me retrospectively appreciate the first book more.

And just to add that I have also picked up This Thing of Darkness on daily deal.

Fran, I blame you for the fact that I now have this going round in my head

Percy Thrower's got a lawnmower
Johnny Marr he plays guitar
David Steele lives in Keele

itsgrim, funny you say that about listening to The Silk Roads as an audiobook. I have been trying for a while but I am much better at taking information when I read it than when I hear it. And so I have learned to pick audiobooks carefully as so much of the value and interest of the Frankopan seems to me to come from the detail.
So audiobooks are now mostly plot-driven fiction or autobiographies read by the author or episodic non-fiction I can dip in and out of. I started it on the train this morning and already have retained more about the Alexandran conquest of Central Asia than I got from listening to that first chapter three times!

ooh alias, totally agree about Anything is Possible which my book club LOVED including me. Lucy Barton we were much more lukewarm about.

Keith What is that song? Google doesn't seem to know either!

@Pepe I know what you mean - I have been saving The Silk Roads for the odd occasion I do long walks on my own and can have a good concentrated listen (hence why it's taking me so long to get through it). Even then I quite frequently resort to jumping back 30 seconds or more when I realise I've tuned out. For the journey to work/in the kitchen while cooking I can only really concentrate on things like autobiographies or easy fiction.

I loved the Alexander the Great stuff though - it's a period I'm woefully ignorant about and found it fascinating.

I have also bought This Thing of Darkness. Who could resist it after all the love from this thread?

I read a Kate Atkinson many years ago, can’t remember which one, and felt a bit meh so didn’t read anymore. DH bought me the second Jackson Brodie for Christmas and I then read the subsequent books in the series. They are a good read and I’m tempted to read Life after life now.

My latest read:
27. The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller.

A very nicely written page turner of a book. I’ve enjoyed both this and Circe, overall preferring Circe but they were both good.

I've probably misremembered the song words, I think it came out in 1988!

John Kettley is a Weatherman by Tribe of Toffs. Classic.

Video here

Love that song.

Thanks for the heads up, I've purchased This Thing Of Darkness and Lolita for 99p each. What a time to be alive!Joins other anxious 50 Bookers in the 'But what if I don't like TTOD' corner.

Going to have to get Clothes Music Boys too as recommended by Pepe and others,this thread is proving expensive, even if it is only in 99p increments.

Two works of genius for less than the price of a coffee. So jealous of everyone reading them both for the first time.

Thanks Keith, I remember that song but not the lyrics. I think my brain had conflated it with 'Brian Rix' by The Brilliant Corners!