50 Book Challenge 2019 Part Five

[southeastdweller]

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

Storied is a weird word but it fits the book..it's a good read.
Don't judge a book by it's strange title

Pepe Thank goodness it's not just me with One Hundred Years of Solitude. Alas at only halfway I am yet to encounter any butterflies or jaguars, sexy or not. Oh the joys to come!

Best Yes to following events on Everest. Such a tragedy as it does not need to be like that. My cousin climbed it in 2001 and it was busy then. He did a round of goodbye visits to family before he went just in case. Very sobering. Two in his team made the summit, but a combo of illness and weather drove the rest back (2 deaths in other teams while they were up), they were desperate to get back down as soon as possible. Criminal to see deaths as a result of overcrowding (although there are many other contributing factors and issues).

The Climb by Anatoli Boukreev and Left for Dead by Beck Weathers are other very highly recommended books by those who have personally experienced the 'Everest Circus'.

62. The Rapture - Claire McGlasson. This one was an Advanced Reader copy that I was sent to review. It's out on 6th June and I really enjoyed it.
It is based on the true story of the Panacea Society; a religious group of almost exclusively women who lived in Bedford in the years after WW1. They were led by their self styled guru Octavia, who after a period of mental illness claims she is the daughter of God. The society is based on the claim that in the later 1700's a woman called Joanna Southcott has sealed a box containing a prophecy which would save mankind. The box could only be opened by the 24 bishops of England, but only when they accept women into the church.
The story is told from the point of view of Octavia's timid daughter Dilys and centres on her growing relationship with the group's newest member Grace. Grace is an unsettling and questioning force in the group.
When I first began the book there was a real Oranges are not the only fruit feel about it. That black humour of a very British cult where domestic details like choosing the right cushion covers are very important to the second coming. The book gets darker as time goes on and members start to fight to control each other. Definitely worth a read.

63. A man called Ove Book club read. I was quite cynical about this one. But actually I found it quite an easy and pleasant read. The story of a grumpy widower, mourning his wife and brought back to life by being thrust unwillingly into his community.

fortuna, I may have made up the sexy jaguars. We used to laugh about the magical realism tropes and a friend used to talk about sexy jaguars. When I finally came to read the book I was so befuddled by the million people with the same name and plot machinations I couldn't tell you if the jaguar actually made an appearance.

Pepe
I was starting to wonder. I don't even like magical realism, but this was on the bucket list. Glad I didn't go for it in Spanish as was the original plan. I'd have been even more confused.

Pepe are yo worried that you have sexy jaguars that live in your head?!

I may be wrong but don't the Panacea Society appear in the Maconie Jarrow Crusade book? I love it when the thread throws up these little synchronicities.

I have no idea about that Keith. But it is quite possible, they were very conservative and seems to believe in a 'natural order' - viewing any kind of socialist movement as indicative of the end of days. This book is set around the time of the General Strike. Apparently there is a museum in Bedford which is going on my list of places to visit.

That is correct, Keith.

Just finished Stacey Halls' The Familiars.

Tales of witchcraft and Tudorish times seem to be all the rage , especially from first time authors. This is one of the better ones . It moves along at a pace and the plot is involving. I did think much of the independence of the 17 year old, pregnant narrator stretched credibility and wasn't massively keen on some elements of the ending.

It's very popular on Amazon having gained no 2 or 1 star reviews, which is quite an achievement. The cover design is lovely and coincidentally matches my bookmark!

I am getting a bit bored now of all these historical novels. It's lucky this is not an era I know much about since I am sure there are yawning inaccuracies and anachronisms!

41 La Belle Sauvage by Philip Pullman

First in a prequel trilogy to the Northern Lights books. I didn't have great expectations of this having read various reviews (including on here), but I really enjoyed the first half in particular. Pullman is always good at world building, and the descriptions of the main character, Malcolm, and the pub he lives in / his family are just lovely.

OhGod, 100 Years of Solitude. I read it, and copied huge chunks of beautiful prose into my Everything Book (kind of journal/quote collection/musings) but feck me the magical realism thing is not for me.
(anyone read the Wimbledon Poisoner- made me l-o-l several times in the wannabe murderer's views of magical realism)

100 YOS looks like one of my most-thumbed books on my shelves- only because it took me almost 100 years to get through it.

I vaguely recall reading something about the Panacea society as well, somewhere. Very possibly Stuart Maconie.

32. Women and Power A Manifesto Mary Beard Very short book based on two lectures Beard gave in 2014 and 2017. Feel I’m cheating including it as so short, but I’m struggling with This Thing of Darkness and not making much progress so I need to make up my numbers Interesting and thought provoking, though I wanted more - in her afterword she talks about how she wants to go on to develop the ideas and I look forward to reading when she does.

20. A History of the World in 21 Women by Jenni Murray
Listened to this on Audible which worked well - each of the selected women gets a chapter approx. 20-30mins long which for me works out as a good length for doing the dishes! The selection covers different continents and periods of history (although there seemed to be more from the last century than before that), and there are representatives of the fields of science, politics, art, literature and more. A lot of it was interesting to listen to but I've already forgotten the detail, but certain themes seemed to recur - it was more feminist than the History of Britain version and it was fascinating how many of the women had opportunities because their fathers nurtured their potential. The chapters on Angela Merkel and Hillary Clinton were also particularly interesting as the author gives her personal views and tries to cut through some of the misconceptions about them and their successes and challenges.
21. Shine by Andy Cope and Gavin Oates
A short, upbeat, rambling self-help book from a former teacher and a happiness guru. This has a very chatty conversational style, jumps around a lot and doesn't have one clear message but lots of anecdotes and metaphors that are intended to prompt a bit of reflection and help the reader see things in a different light. I read this last week when I wasn't well and flitted between feeling it was cheering me up and getting irritated by the style of writing and the whole message that we should all just make up our mind to be Mary Poppins instead of Mr Banks. Think I'll have to dip into it again when I'm on an even keel and see if it there's anything that resonates with me...or if any of it even makes any sense.
Currently reading Mad Girl by Bryony Gordon

I've spent silly money on kindle books in the last couple of days as many on my wishlist were down by 50-60%.

I've bought A brief history of time as it's 99p, The House across the street by Lesley Pearce - a light read for when I'm stressed, Consumed: how we buy class in modern Britain by Harry Wallop which has been on my wishlist for ages, The Hidden Ways: Scotland's Forgotten Roads (another wishlist long timer), First Bite: how we learn to eat, East of Croydon by the lovely Sue Perkins, plus Everywoman after seeing it mentioned on here.

Good job it's half term! (nobody mention lesson planning....)

Over a month since my last proper review update and precious little reading going on, like a pp I've been distracted by a rewatch of Game Of Thrones, and also the garden. However audio books come into their own when gardening and I've listened to:

20. David Copperfield by Charles Dickens. As always with CD the coincidences the plot relies on are a little far fetched but the characters he brings to life are wonderful, my favourites were Wilkins McCawber ("Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen pounds nineteen shillings and six pence, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery.") Betsy Trotwood, Rosa Dartle and the despicable Uriah Heep. The less said about Dora Spenlow the better, I appreciate she's meant to be a simpering airhead but my god couldn't she have had some redeeming features other than looks! The character of Agnes is also very one dimensionally drawn, a pure angel with no other sides to her personality. Overall though I loved it and I'm glad I haven't seen a dramatisation for decades because much if it was fresh to me. The audio book was brilliantly read by Richard Armitage. I've already ordered the BBC serialisation starring a pre Harry Potter Daniel Ratcliffe as the young David Copperfield and Bob Hoskins as Micawber to watch post GOT.

21. The Girls by Lisa Jewell. I got this in a three for two Audible deal thinking it was a book with the same title by Emma Cline about a girl who joins a cult so for a long time I was thinking well she's taking a long time to get to the crux of the story!
    The synopsis of the book I actually read is: Clare and her two pre-teen daughters, Grace and Pip, move into Virginia Terrace, a cluster of flats and houses surrounding a communal garden. It's a place where families feel safe and children can run free. Neighbours have known each other for years, and trust each other implicitly. But then, after the annual garden party - a glorious summer's day of getting together and enjoying a barbecue, listening to music, having a few glasses of wine, letting the children play - the unspeakable happens. Grace is found by Pip, unconscious and half undressed, her face a bloody mess. And as a police investigation is launched, the secret games that the residents of Virginia Terrace have been playing for decades are about to be horribly, brutally exposed ...
    Not to put too fine a point on it this book was a load of tosh. Not recommended.

36. The Idle Parent - Tom Hodgkinson

This was pleasingly different from the average parenting book, with a philosophical backing to the advocacy of hands-off parenting. Read as part of my efforts against my acknowledged control-freakery.

I particularly liked his admission that children should have a regular bedtime because parents need an evening. (I have noticed that in both Jo Frost's and Sarah Ockwell-Smith's books, so different in approach in other ways, this ulterior motive was strictly disallowed - children should be put to bed on time purely for their own good.)

Hodgkinson wants to give children space to become resilient and able to make their own fun - not shaped into the dependent, subservient consumers required by the capitalist system. He also urges parents to curtail their spending so they can reduce the amount of time working and spend more time with their children and (crucially) being idle. I don't disagree with this per se. However, I suspect it is considerably easier to be idle if you have Hodgkinson's privileged background (he was educated at Westminster School and Jesus College, Cambridge); the nannies and au pairs he mentions have probably helped.

42 The Fifth Gender by Gail Carriger

Light & fluffy sci-fi romance/mystery featuring human space station detective Hastion and Tristol - exiled member of the reclusive Galoi species.

This is the first sci-fi novel by the author (she mainly writes steampunk / fantasy), & she does a good job of creating a plausible alien culture. It's not explicitly stated, but evidently the various races have a common origin far back and adaptation / intentional genetic modification has resulted in significant but limited differences, always a useful backdrop to a culture-clash sci-fi novel.

The only downside for me was the rather overdone sex scenes - I've no objection to lots of sex in a book, but it does have to be done well not to be cringe-worthy, and I don't think GLC is that great at it. Having said that, they're easy enough to skip without detracting from the plot at all. a

The Age of Wonder by Richard Holmes I heard this discussed on Radio 4's Bookclub and thought it sounded interesting, and it certainly is. It interweaves biographies of key scientists, explorers and literary figures of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, some of whom I had heard of (eg William and Caroline Herschel, Samuel Taylor Coleridge) and others who were new to me (eg Joseph Banks, Johann Wilhelm Ritter). I loved the way it brought together the sciences and arts, a reminder that they weren't always seen as mutually exclusive. It was also interesting to read about the discoveries in the context of what was believed at the time and how ideas developed. It's quite a long book with very small print but definitely a Good Read.

The Visitation by Jenny Erpenbeck This is a beautifully written and unsettling novel focused on a house in Germany across the twentieth century. The impact of history on the lives of the inhabitants is subtly described to very powerful effect. The translation is seamless although my only, very minor, criticism is the occasional Americanism such as fall for autumn (and too many gottens).

Boiledegg so glad to hear your praise for Age of Wonder. It’s a marvellous book. As is pretty much everything Richard Holmes writes, but especially this.

I haven’t yet made time for Jenny Uglow’s ‘The Lunar Men’ (it’s on the eternal tbr pile) but I think there’s probably some crossover there in terms of time-period and personalities.

I finished The storied life of A.J. Fikry, I'd really recommend it. It's a sad ending but also a happy ending. Sorry I'm not good at reviews.

Terpsichore I noticed that Richard Holmes has written several other biographies. Are there any that you would particularly recommend?

Ps Wasn't Caroline Herschel amazing?!

The Age of Wonder sounds well worth reading. Also good for the heads up on print size - one for the Kindle option I reckon!

31. The Cut Out Girl – Bart Van Es

Saying I enjoyed this is probably the wrong word given the subject matter, but I found this in equal parts fascinating and moving. It’s been widely reviewed on here already and I think the consensus is that this is a very good account of the Jewish girl fostered by Bart Van Es’s grandparents during the Nazi occupation of Holland. I would agree. I particularly enjoyed the writers clear, understated prose which really highlighted the subject matter. Recommended.

32. The Silence of the Girls – Pat Barker

Returning to The Iliad after not enjoying The Song of Achilles very much was always a bit of a triumph of optimism over experience, but I was tempted by reviews describing this as a feminist re-telling of the tale. I so wanted to like this, but it just didn’t fly for me. I think one reviewer up thread - Bibliomania? described this as being as wooden as a trojan horse and I think that sums it up pretty accurately.

I did not think this was a feminist re-telling of The Iliad. The book starts promisingly enough with Briseis, a Trojan Queen as the first person narrator vividly describing the fall of Lyrnessus to the rampaging Greeks. I stayed with it despite having some reservations about weak characterisation (hence the woodeness), too many characters and too much happening, all of it quite bloody and violent to the extent I started to become numb to it.

About a third of the way through the narrative voice inexplicably switches to Achilles in the third person and Briseis’s voice drops back to appearing only every other chapter. It was almost as if the writer ultimately found Achilles and Patrolcus’s story far more interesting and kind of gave up a bit on Briseis, and the women in the story generally. This was so disappointing. Despite Briseis claiming the women called Achilles ‘the butcher’ right at the beginning of the book, what actually followed were many descriptions of Achille’s beauty and strength. Deciding to take the story in this direction meant I read on to the end without much enthusiasm and not caring much about what happened in the end. Sad, because I think an actual feminist re-telling of The Iliad would make a fantastic read.

I have now read all the books shortlisted for The Women’s Prize for fiction except Circe, which I’m not going to attempt as I have decided the re-telling of Greek myths although terribly fashionable at the moment, is just not my thing. I would like Milkman to win as I thought it was brilliant and one of my reads of the year thus far. Truly Milkman is a feminist re-telling of a different type of conflict, told confidently and without relegating the women back to their traditional supporting roles half way through. If not Milkman then I would like An American Marriage to win, as I loved the realistic way this addressed relationships and conflict.

I too have been catching up with my Women's Prize Reading and have just completed the short list with the two below. 64 & 66 I am the opposite of Indigo . Loved silence and think that Milkman is my least favourite

64. Ordinary people - Diana Evans This was a Book about the details. The little things that make up a person and a marriage. It was about the struggle to keep your identity in the fave of parent hood and long term relationships. Very London centric but very clear. A good observation on life. Don't expect plot, you will be disappointed but if you like a book that gets under the skin of its characters this might be for you.
65. Mrs Everything- Jennifer Weiner very aware I keep doing this and I am worried about annoying you lovely 50 Bookers but this was another ARC that I read for the blog. Out June 11th . Set in Detroit it tells the story of two sisters through the years. Beginning in 1950's ending in 2016, it is a commentary on how women's rights have developed, also touching on civil rights too. It looks at how life choices affect us and those around us, what it means to be a family and how hard that can be. This as a book that grew on me. It is quite a light touch but it was very readable and I wanted to see where the characters went. *
66. An American Marriag*e Last Women's Prize shortlisted Book. Really enjoyed this one. Portrayal of a young black couple separated by wrongful imprisonment. It has a lot to say about the treatment of young black men in The US particularly the South. Very well written, and heartbreaking in places

Toomuch sounds like if An American Marriage takes the prize, we'll both be happy