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.

70 Zazie in the Metro by Raymond Queneau

This is a cult classic in France. Foul-mouthed Zazie comes to Paris to stay with her uncle and ride the metro but a strike means she and an eccentric cast of characters end up roaming Paris above ground getting into scrapes. This was cleverly translated (my French is nowhere near good enough to cope with the original which relies heavily on slang and word play) and Zazie was great. But there wasn’t enough Zazie - she kept falling asleep and then it was a little dull.

I have no idea why I have got to this ripe old age (excuse pun!) and not read Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit but I have now righted the wrong. I remember seeing it in bookshops when it was published but I think I was devouring Hardy at the time, perhaps. It certainly was not mentioned at school (lesbians!).My (male) English teachers did encourage reading but it was mainly classics and Scottish literature. My DM loved taking me book shopping and would have though the book very right on (lesbians!) in her way but it bypassed me. I have vague memories of the TV series but missed that, too.

I thought it was a great book. Really well written and funnier than expected. I love Mrs Arkwright with her vermin shop and Jeanette's silent father. I liked the fairytale bits, especially when I go to the end and realised the thread (pun for those of you who have read it!) that holds it all together.

I have known some strange religious people in my day, but it almost seems unbelievable that such a sect should exist in such an ordinary Northern town.

If you too have somehow missed out on Oranges, I highly recommend you pick it up : as bonus it's a really quick read at only 220 largeish typeface pages.

Piggy I've had the audiobook of Oranges for an age and never listened to it...might get to it over the summer after reading your positive review.
June has been a slow month for reading...
22. Dare to Tri by Louise Minchin
Written by the BBC Breakfast presenter who took up triathlon in her 40s as a working mum of two and went on to represent GB in European and World age group triathlon events. If you are interested in triathlon and starting out in competing yourself there are practical tips that could be helpful in here. Otherwise, not one I'd recommend.
23. Back When We Were Grown Ups by Anne Tyler
"One morning, Rebecca wakes up and realises she has turned into the wrong person. Is she really this joyous and outgoing organiser of parties, the put-upon heart of her dead husband's extended family? What happened to her quiet and serious nineteen-year-old self, and what would have happened if she'd married her college sweetheart? Can someone ever recover the person they've left behind?" It took me a while to get into this. I was reading in tiny chunks before falling asleep which is never a good way to read a novel, and we are introduced to a large cast of characters with unusual names at the start which confused my addled, sleepy brain. I've read a couple of Anne Tyler books and they are somehow not the quick reads I was expecting. I grew to enjoy this and found the themes it revolved around interesting - how reliable are the stories we tell ourselves about who we are and how our lives have taken the turns they have. Without meaning to, we all see our own histories from a limited perspective and with unreliable memories. I liked it. My favourite character was the elderly man who was constantly eating sweets...reminded me of my Grandpa :)

Placemarking because the watching button seems to be broken

Just finished two good ones, hopefully I'm on a roll going into summer...

39.Signs Preceding the End of the World – Yuri Herrera

More of a novella than a novel at around 100 pages, I sped through this is a day and enjoyed it very much.

Makina makes the dangerous journey from Mexico to the USA to deliver two messages; one to her brother and one to a Mexican drug cartel. The premise is a simple one, but powerfully delivered through punchy and uncompromising prose. I though the translator Lisa Dillman did a fantastic job on this one.

A sinister, foreboding tone is set right at the beginning when Makina describes narrowly avoiding being swallowed up the sudden appearance of sink hole. The underworld, both actual and metaphorical is a recurrent theme in this novel. This is a very timely read with the Mexican/USA border appearing in the news again this week following the tragic death of a Father and his daughter trying to cross the Rio Grande. Overall a great read with a fabulously strong female lead and moments of sometimes surreal comedy making it a stand out for me.

40. All the Lives We Never Lived – Anuradha Roy

I’ve been meaning to read this since it was published (last year I think?) and can report it was well worth the wait. My first book by this author, it will not be my last.

This is an epic and sweeping novel centred on a small Indian village just before the Second World War. The narrator Myshkin now in his sixties, looks back at the life changing events of 1937 when his Mother Gayatri “runs off with an Englishman”. The story unfolds slowly with great attention to detail and beautiful descriptions of the physical environment, the emotions and conflicts within the household which led to Gayatri’s explosive disappearance and the consequences for her then 10 year old only child.

The second half of the book focuses on Gayatri’s story, which is told through a parcel of letters sent to her friend Lisa during her exile in Bali, and gifted to Myshkin on Lisa’s death. Global events come into play, with the advent of the Second World War.

This novel combined the small scale story of family tragedy brilliantly with events on the world stage to very good effect; I thought this was an intelligent and enjoyable example of very good historical fiction.

a long Way from Verona - this was a favourite of mine aged about 11 onwards & I consider it a companion piece to When Hitler Stole pink rabbit by the late Judith Kerr.
re Jane Fallon - quite competent chic lit but I read a couple which basically had the same plot so gave up after that. I have also found out since that she is the partner of Ricky Gervais & so I have irrationally turned against her for that reason.
Penelope Lively - the Photograph - strangely dated considered it was published in 2000odd and self-indulgent stuff. Reminiscent of Margaret Drabble.
John Banville - Ancient Light - this has the usual toadying reviews on the cover e.g. "Brilliant - Guardian" but I am struggling with it and think it will be a DNF. A 60year old actor looks back on his adolescence & an affair with his best friend's mother. I am cringing ready for the bad sex descriptions & have already come across his juvenile efforts in the cinema with an amenable girl who let him "cup in his palm one of her surprisingly chilly but excitably pliable, soft little breasts". Worse than that, though, is a description of his friend's mother's underwear whilst bike-riding as "scantlings" - which I find is a noun of something scanty or small or something to do with ship-building. Bad. I was also under the misapprehension that he was married to Iris Murdoch (and her fringe cut by a toddler with a grudge) & prepared to cut him a bit of slack but that was John Bayley. However, I do like his Quirke novels written as Benjamin Black which are very evocative of 50s Dublin. Better get the new Kate Atkinson on order at the library.

I am up to about 65 now but can't locate my list ...

Is there room on the broom thread for another?
I have just finished reading Invisible Girl by Jill Childs which is about a woman who gave her daughter for adoption and then ends up living near her.

Welcome ladypenelope - great username btw

Part two of my update...was interrupted by DS who was "starving" so we've had lunch and are back on track!
24. The Lost Words by Robert Macfarlane
Thank you to whoever recommended this when it was on offer on Audible. Beautifully written. Interspersed with birdsong and nature sounds the 'spells' are very well narrated - Guy Garvey, Cerys Matthews and Edith Bowman are all great to listen to. This feels good for the soul and I keep going back to it again and again. Recommended.

High hopes that July will be a good month for reading. I'm halfway through Sense and Sensibility on Audible and still going with Mad Girl on the Kindle App. I've got time off work coming up too so looking forward to having more time and brain capacity for reading :)

@Indigosalt I've been eyeing up All the Lives We Never Lived recently and I'm glad you enjoyed it. I'm going to give it a go in the next few weeks. I saw someone recommend it in The Guardian books recently and thought it looked excellent.

Piggy Oranges is an amazing book. You might enjoy The Rapture - Claire McGlasson . It is just out and has lots in common with Oranges . I reviewed it on the blog a few weeks ago. Link here if you are interested. bookbound.blog/2019/05/21/review-the-rapture-by-claire/
Just popping on to say that Common People - An anthology of writing by Working Class Writer's edited by Kit de Waal is 99p on Kindle. No idea how long for. This is getting a lot of love on Twitter at the moment.

The Rapture is on my tbr pile : it is set in my town!

I also vaguely remember Oranges being on TV, but also never read the book- will remedy that!

Sorry about thr breast/beast confusion! Have a new multilingual keyboard with a mind of its own.
40) Ghosts of the Shadow Market by Cassandrs Clare and others. This short story collection is really only for fans of the main series- some bits really don’t make sense as standalones. Not quite sure why I read it!

In case anyone else fancies it, The River by Peter Heller is 99p on Kindle today. It was on my Amazon wishlist and I can't remember whether that's because it was recommended here or elsewhere - either way, his book Celine was one of my reading highlights of the last couple of years so I can't wait to get started with this.

Piggy I had never heard of the story at all! Fascinating stuff!

Pepe, my DD is only two so I think Philippa Perry will still have some mileage for me. I agree that she doesn't have a lot to say about raising teenagers.

I have bought Common People.
Splother your blog is excellent, are you an author?

I read The River earlier this year, I thought it was very very good.

I had to abandon The Book of Night Women by Marlon James at around the 100 page mark. I had wanted to read it for ages, but I wasn't in the mood for it.

I am listening to The State of Wonder by Ann Patchett at the moment and really enjoying it. I've started using the Pocketbook app and have discovered that x1.3 is the perfect speed and it has a sleep timer so I don't wake up to spoilers in the middle of the night.

So many good suggestions from here recently that I have the Tower of Babel going on in the lounge - Books Amassed Beyond Expected Lifetime. I think I seriously need to go digital before I have an unfortunate crushing accident and get eaten by an Alsatian.

Ladypenelope thank you. Glad you enjoyed it.
I like to write but think it might be a stretch to all me an author. I did write a children's book a long time ago and self published on Kindle. I wrote it for my nieces. I have aspirations to write a story set in the Fens but time is always against me. Teaching full time and 4 DC and just life. Maybe one day.
Fortuna I really enjoyed The State of Wonder

Hope it isn’t too late to join but I’m aiming to read a book a week for the rest of the year after going on a bit of a reading hiatus since my son was born.

So far since I’ve started my “challenge” with

The Lonely City - Olivia Laing
Normal People - Sally Rooney
The Handmaids Tale - Margaret Attwood
Celestial Bodies - Jokha Alharthi
Heartburn - Nora Ephron

Really enjoyed all except Celestial Bodies - really wanted to love it but I found it boring with too many characters.

Next on the reading list is The Baroness by Hannah Rothschild.

Ah @FortunaMajor I bet it was your recommendation that made me wishlist The River, I think I had it on my TBR before I even realised it was by the same author as Celine.

Welcome @MyReadingChallenge!

Welcome aboard MyReadingChallenge, we're a friendly lot here but you may find yourself acquiring books at a frightening rate

I've just finished a couple more in double quick time (thankfully, one on Kindle and one from BorrowBox):

43: L'Appart - The Delights and Disasters of Making my Paris Home - David Lebovitz

I'm a big fan of David L's blog - he's an American chef (ex-Chez Panisse) living in Paris, and writes very engagingly on food and on his adopted city. This book includes some droolworthy recipes while recounting the horror story of his odyssey to buy, and then renovate, an apartment in Paris, during which process he was ripped off royally by just about everyone he encountered (with some honourable exceptions, including his boyfriend Romain, who had to come to the rescue more than once). As someone who's had their fair share of rogue buildersto contend with, I came out in a cold sweat more than once at the hair-raising events recounted here, but this is meant to be a light and fun read and mostly it is (assuming you haven't been traumatised as well).

44: My Sister the Serial Killer - Oyinkan Braithwaite

Another quick read. I really enjoyed this, although it wasn't entirely the comedy I'd somehow been expecting. It's much darker and more nuanced. Unfortunately it peters out towards the end and I felt wasn't quite an unqualified success, but I'm looking forward to reading more by this author.

Hi, Challenge.

Current status = reading Philip Kerr's latest Bernie Gunther, Metropolis which was published posthumously. Enjoying it so far, although, as with some of the previous ones, I think some of his dialogue is a bit clunky and unbelievable. People tend to talk in 'speeches', rather than dialogue. I'll be sad to say goodbye to these.

Welcome myreadingchallenge

Welcome ladypenelope and challenge