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.

Don't say that about This Thing!!!!! I bought it on the back of these threads and the seemingly universal love for it!

So did I and neither have I. I tried starting it but maybe I wasn't in the right mood. Books have to suit my mood, if only I knew what I was in the mood for!

I'm reading a book written by a paramedic at the moment about life as an ambulance driver/paramedic.

37 Death On The Nile . The third Christie book I have read this year and by far the best. Even though I have seen the famous (80s?) film and read the book as a teenager and so knew what was coming, I still enjoyed the unravelling. I am overlooking the 30s racism ,although some of it is fairly abhorrent. I enjoyed the social context , though : mentions of social class, of British attitudes to foreigners (that seems quite contemporary!), of the Wall Street Crash and, most interestingly, the rise of communism add a little more weight to the book. Poirot's weakness for women and his ready desire to forgive them is a bit grating but I suppose Christie did always like to make men seem more pathetic in criminality! There was a character everyone said was likeable, though : Mrs Allerton and I found her an awful woman. Can't decide if that' s because her views are out of date , or whether it is an undeveloped red herring.

I did find this more enjoyable than other detective mysteries , though : such as Shardlake, thus far (sorry) and Strike.

I think DS2 will like this one : a good high body count!

And, on a completely different note :

38 How To Teach English Literature : Overcoming Cultural Poverty

One of those exhausting, amazing books that makes me feel all inadequate and imposter syndrome-y because I simply do not put as much effort in as Jennifer Webb obviously does!

I'd be drained if I put as much energy and effort into teaching and planning resources as the author does, and I don't agree with some of what she says(well,one thing , as it goes), but the book itself has many great ideas and lots of useful and really straightforward to use (not so much to create : love it when she says 'if you don't have a visualizer , just use your smartboard!)resources. Haven't looked at it yet but she also has a website.

Not sure the subtitle of the book is always all that relevant but I guess it's what sells the book!

Any English teachers on here: get this and read it.

I'm primary so not an English specialist but it does look good - added it to my wishlist. I need to reduce the amount of time I spend planning: all day on one lesson was overkill but I wanted it to be just right, I will add that included doing my research into the topic first.

I get carried away and am rubbish with IT so can't make the 'really handy' resources they always tout in these books. It somehow doesn't feel the same when they are hand drawn!

I am also a spontaneous type so don't really do routines in teaching . I have a sudden whim (lie iceberg quotations, yellow box marking or recall quizzes) and then forget I was doing them after a few weeks....

I feel teaching is very much these days about rather rigid lesson structures and routines.

I would say this book is VERY focused on GCSE floralso may not be all that useful to you.

Mog- I can still remember the summer evening (it was a Monday, that's how mad a memory I have- I am 53 and I must have been about 8 or 9 at the time) when my Mum came into my bedroom (milk and M&S all butter biscuits for supper) and gave me her copy of Five on a Treasure Island.

Back from holiday, and managed to fit in a wee bit more reading than usual while away.

18. Chocolat by Joanne Harris
Gawd knows how I'd missed picking this one up in the last 20 years. For anyone else similarly in the dark, Vianne is nomadic type who moves to a rather uptight, but picturesque French village, where she opens a shop selling handmade chocolates. The locals, at first suspicious of her, are ultimately won over by her pleasure-focused take on life.
The book, like it's subject matter, was rich and enjoyable but sometimes overly cloying.

19.Sophia Khan is Not Obliged by Ayisha Malik
Largely an updated Bridget Jones, with online dating, mobile phone obsession and an observant Muslim protagonist. Fine fluff, dragged a bit in parts though.

*20.Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie
For those with a classical education, this is a reworking of Antigone. For uninformed proles like me, this was a gripping tale of a family torn apart by extremism and governmental responses to it. Elegantly written and terse but without this limiting scope or characterisation, beautifully demonstrating how bloated and badly edited a lot of fiction seems today. A corker.

21. Unnatural Causes by Richard Shepherd
Memoir of a forensic pathologist. As grimly fascinating as the premise suggests, Shepherd explains the science behind his work, much of which concerned some very high profile deaths. Enjoyable would be the wrong word, but Shepherd's honesty and reflection helps soften a tough read.

43. Tell Me a Secret by Jane Fallon

Single mum Holly has just been promoted into her dream job, but it soon turns out that her work best friend Roz actually wanted the job too, and has set out to secretly undermine Holly in the hopes of stealing the job.

It’s an entertaining read, but I think it suffered from being too similar to the last Jane Fallon book I read.
Different setting, but same sort of plucky yet humanly flawed heroine, same sort of devious backstabbing best friend, more subterfuges as plucky heroine strives to win the day.... so overall, I enjoyed it, but I’d have enjoyed it more if I’d left more space between Jane Fallon books.

44. Nine Perfect Strangers by Liane Moriarty

Nine strangers sign up for a retreat at health and wellness resort Tranquillum House. A retreat that turns out to be more intense than any of them suspected thanks to the slightly unhinged director and her unconventional therapy techniques.

A good page turner that kept me reading as I wanted to see how far the director was going to push things.

35: Moby Dick - Herman Melville

Blimey. A baggy, saggy, unruly epic of a read, with all the real action crammed into the last three chapters of what was, on my Kindle, a 613-page book.

I'd tried to read this many years ago as a young teenager and abandoned it in boredom/bafflement, but I can now see what an extraordinary piece of work it is, for all its faults. It often seemed like a delayed-action thriller crossed with a (very long) encyclopaedia entry on whales, but it's certainly unique and unclassifiable, with much truly wonderful descriptive writing and a dazzling wealth of reference, and not only about all things whale-related. I'd completely forgotten how Shakespearean the language sounds (and how mischievous Melville often is).

Now there's the joy of finding out how many of the book group (for which I had to read it) managed to get to the end, and what they'll have to say. I'm guessing it won't be the most crowd-pleasing choice we've had I'm glad to have read it, though.

101. The Exmoor Files by Liz Jones

Journalist Liz Jones writes about her move from London to Exmoor and the animals she adopted there. Liz is a good writer and I enjoyed reading this, although she sometimes comes across as a massive snob.

I have had plenty of time for reading and listening during half term:

78. To Throw Away Unopened- Viv Albertine I had enjoyed Viv’s previous memoir Clothes, Clothes, Clothes. Music, Music, Music. Boys, Boys, Boys. I expected this sequel to be mostly about grief, but it is more about anger. The scenes between Viv and her sister Pascale at their mother’s deathbed are quite shocking. It is an interesting and unique book.

79. Back Story- David Mitchell I had already read this memoir on the Kindle but decided to get the audiobook too. It is very funny and touching, and it was great to hear it read by David Mitchell himself, often with the clipped, slightly pissed-off tone of Mark Corrigan.

80. The Heart’s Invisible Furies- John Boyne I read this in a couple of days and thought it was lovely, very well written and plotted. I know nearly everyone on earth has already read it, but I have since managed to recommend it to a few people who hadn't.

81. Music in the Castle of Heaven- John Eliot Gardiner This portrait of JS Bach’s life and work was recommended by CoteDAzur a few months ago. It is a good biography, but I particularly loved the introductory section about John Eliot Gardiner’s study of Baroque music, his early career and the use of period instruments, and could easily have read a whole book just about that.

82. Convenience Store Woman- Sayaka Murata I really enjoyed the first half of this short novel, which reminded me of one of my favourite film, Clerks. The second half of the story was rather silly, but I suppose that was the point.

83. Misery- Stephen King This was my first Stephen King novel, hopefully the first of many. If my memory serves me, it is pretty similar to the film (which I haven't seen again since its release in 1991).

84. Close to Home- Cara Hunter This is not my usual sort of book, but I enjoyed the story, which is set in Oxford in an area close to where I once lived. The audiobook, partly read by actor Lee Ingleby, is very effective. I plan to read (or listen to) the other DI Fawley books.

85. A Thousand Splendid Suns- Khaled Hosseini This is very well written and moving: I enjoyed it, but I didn’t love it as much as The Kite Runner. A couple of posters on these threads have recently mentioned being inexplicably drawn to books about Afghanistan: I’m the same! However, I’m now a quarter of the way through And the Mountains Echoed and, so far, it hasn’t really drawn me in.

86. World War Two Auschwitz- Hourly History This seemed very short- possibly even shorter than the average Hourly History- but it was very informative about the horrors of Auschwitz and I learnt certain things I hadn’t found out from other books and films on this subject.

Fran - glad you enjoyed your first King.

And the Mountains Echoed is utter codswallop, imvho.

Franz, what is next on your Stephen King wish list? Misery is one of my favourites (I have many!). I love King, even at his worst (and I won't pretend they are all good...). But some of them are just extraordinary - 11.22.63 and The Stand are his best, I think, but there are so many gems tucked away on the backlist. His endings often suck but by the time you get to that point you're so swept away in the story telling that I for one can forgive him for lots of crimes.

@TheCanterburyWhales what a lovely memory. Enid Blyton was similarly impactful for me. I started with Five go to Smuggler's Top which was thoroughly gripping until Timmy got lost down the secret passage under the window seat, at which point I had to abandon the book and insisted very strongly that I couldn't sleep in the same room as it. Still can't sit on a window seat without shivering many (many!) years later.

Terpsichore, Moby Dicj is quite something, isn't it? I was bored to tears at times but couldn't put it down because every time I was about to throw it across the room he'd write something so funny or compelling I would forgive him. And Queequeg is such a great character. I was very sorry to see him drown!

I have no idea where I got to last time I posted so will add my list

1. The Secret Barrister
2. The Rumour - Lesley Kara
3. The President is Missing - Bill Clinton and James Patterson
4. Juror No.3 - James Patterson and Nancy Allen
5. Part-time Working Mummy: A Patchwork Life - Rachaele Hambleton
6. The Tattooist of Auschwitz - Heather Morris
7. An Anonymous Girl - Greer Hendricks & Sarah Pekkanen
8. The Flower Girls - Alice Clark-Patts
9. Nine Perfect Strangers - Liane Moriarty

10. The Secretary - Renee Knight 11. Dirty Like Me - Jaine Diamond 12. Dirty Like Brody - Jaine Diamond 13. Close to Home - Cara Hunter 14. The Perfect Child - Lucinda Berry 15. Saving Noah - Lucinda Berry 16. The Silent Patient - Alex Michaelides 17. When Breath Becomes Air - Paul Kalanithi 18. Stalker - Lars Kepler 19. Becoming - Michelle Obama 20. Truth and Lies - Caroline Mitchell 21. The Secret Child - Caroline Mitchell 22. One Day in December - Josie Silver 23. Twisted - Steve Cavanagh 24. I Found You - Lisa Jewell A man is found wandering the beach and cannot remember who he is or how he came to be there. At the same time in London a woman is missing her husband

I really enjoy Lisa Jewell’s books and this one didn’t disappoint. Although none of them have had me as hooked as Then She Was Gone. Looking forward to the new one in August and hopefully it won’t sit in a TBR pile for as long as this one!!

25. Everything I Know About Love - Dolly Alderton
A young journalists memoir about all things love (And parties) with a few recipes thrown in.
I had no idea who Dolly was and still don’t particularly know or care now either. Seen people reading this on Instagram and was obviously easily influenced. Read as quickly as possible to get it over with.

Now to work on some more of my TBR pile!

I’ve still only read a few Stephen Kings - Misery, The Stand, 22.11.63 and It. It stood out for me so far, I’m even contemplating a re-read.

I would say this book is VERY focused on GCSE floralso may not be all that useful to you

Thank you.

I am spitting feathers, I treated myself to the The Strawberry Thief at full price - something I never, ever do. It's 99p today

I can’t remember my first Enid Blyton but I do remember that we used to call in to the local newsagent on the way home from school for sweets. One day I noticed that he had a rotating stand of Blytons and I worked out that if I saved my sweet money for 2 weeks, I could afford one. I must have been 7 or 8. It would have been the Famous Five or one of the Barney adventures, I identified strongly with George.

18. Gideon's Vote by J J Marric. Potboiler thriller published in 1964. Random jumble sale read. Not recommended but I did finish it, eventually. 'challenging' sexual politics, reminds me it was 54 years ago.

Pepe my next Stephen King will be The Shining, but I'm also eyeing up Different Seasons and Cujo. I will definitely get around to The Stand at some point: it has been recommended many times.

Remus I think you might be right about And the Mountains Echoed- such a shame!

I've snapped up Schindler's List in the Audible Daily Deal this morning.

26. The Wallcreeper by Nell Zink. This is a quirky book written from the perspective of a young American woman, Tiffany, living with her new husband Stephen in various European cities. They do things like birdwatching (including rescuing the wallcreeper of the title, and keeping it in their flat for a while), environmental activism to save the rivers, and shagging other people. It's a bit strange but I really enjoyed it.

Queequeg is such a great character. I was very sorry to see him drown!

Yes, I wish there had been more about him. The first few chapters, where Ishmael meets Queequeg, were great. Then they go aboard the Pequod and it suddenly turns into a completely different book.

I remember reading my first Blyton, Five on a Treasure Island. I was sitting on a window ledge in the school library, aged around 6 or 7, and I had a dizzying sense of falling headlong into the book. It was the start of a love affair.

After all the talk about Lethal White, I got it out of the library and I'm enjoying it so far. You don't go to J K Rowling for taut, economical prose, but sometimes you're in the mood for something more sprawling and gossipy. I rather enjoyed the account of Robin's wedding. Both Robin and Strike are being incredibly childish - have a conversation, people.

1. Red Dragon, 4. The Silence of the lambs and 5. Hannibal by Thomas Harris

Got these on a kindle deal. The silence of the lambs is the best and the end of Hannibal is just silly but they got me through some night feeds with new DD.

1. A Caribbean Mystery Agatha Christie I don't think this is the best Miss Marple book but I still enjoyed it a lot.