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.

25. Stone Cold (Camel Club #3) by David Baldacci

Adventures continue for this group of misfits headed by a former CIA assassin, as they battle the CIA for their lives while also helping a beautiful con artist deal with a murderous casino owner.

If that sounds corny, that's because it was. Still, it was a good beach read and better dick-lit than Jack Reacher books.

59 The Steerswoman by Rosemary Kirstein

Rowan is a Steerswoman, from an order dedicated to charting the world and increasing knowledge and understanding. If you ask her any question, she will answer, but you must answer her questions in return, or no Steerswoman will ever answer you in the future. The only people who don't interact with the Steerswomen, and will never answer their questions, are the mysterious wizards. At the start of the book, Rowan is investigating strange jewels, scattered in an inexplicable pattern across the land, but as she asks more questions, people start trying to kill her.
I really enjoyed this - it feels rather like the Pern novels in being something of a SF/fantasy hybrid (I suspect this will all become clearer in later books). The mystery element of the plot works really well, and unlike so many books where there's a pull-away-the-cloak moment of revelation, you see Rowan puzzling things out bit by bit. It's a shame I have two library books I really ought to read, because I want to read no. 2 right next.

37. All Among the Barley Melissa Harrison Someone on this thread recommended this, and I bought it for my kindle at the time and have just read it in two evenings. Thank you so much to the person who recommended it - I’m sorry I didn’t think to note your name down at the time!! - because I really enjoyed this.

I'm starting that later Alias really looking forward to it. It will be my 33rd book this year

I love the Pern books Sadik so i will be adding that to my list. Thanks for the review

56. Atlas Alone by Emma Newman

Set on a spaceship heading off to form a new colony following a Earth destroying nuclear strike.
Dee accidentally witnessed the nuclear strike, and she knows that someone on the ship pushed the button. She’s traumatised and filled with suppressed rage.
Then, she’s invited to play test a new mersive game. It’s a game unlike any she’s played before, and when a character she kills in the game bears an uncanny resemblance to a man who dies suddenly in the real world at that exact time, Dee finds herself hunting for information about those responsible for the nuclear strike and their plans for the new colony.

An absorbing book, with good character development. I think it’s a follow on from some of Newman’s previous books, but it works well as a stand alone novel.

57. The Reality Dysfunction by Peter F Hamilton

This was excellent.
I can’t remember who on here recommended it, but thanks, it was well worth the reading. And it’s well worth checking out for those of you interested in science fiction.

Set in AD 2600, and humanity has spread across the galaxy, in a largely peaceful Confederation. And then something goes wrong. On a primitive colony planet, a devil worshipping criminal encounters an alien entity.
Chaos is unleashed in the form of malevolent spirits possessing (or sequestering) their victims, and threatening to exponentially spread across human civilisation.

I thoroughly enjoyed this.
It’s a great big epic complex sci-fi story. Great world building, detailed and believable, multiple plot lines spanning a diverse range of different worlds and habitats, with a large cast of well developed characters. I’m looking forward to reading the next instalment in the trilogy.

It is very long though - 1200 pages and it’s the first in a trilogy - so not a quick read. (Not helped by the other library user who kept reserving it before I’d finished with it!)
It’s definitely the sort of book that’s best saved for when you’ve got some big chunks of time for uninterrupted reading.

I've added The Reality Dysfunction to my wish list Stitches. Sounds right up my street.

I read The Reality Dysfunction about 20 years ago and even then thought it was basically a zombie book with a lot of torture. It starts off interesting enough but then becomes all about the horrible tortures the ghosts inflict on the living to snatch their bodies I gave it the benefit of the doubt and read 2 sequels, as well, and it was just more of torture & zombies.

Should finish My Sister the Serial Killer tonight. Not particularly taken with it, to be honest.

back on board. will be starting with a re=read of a Virago modern classic of a view of the harbour by Elizabeth Taylor (not the actress of course). £2.99 in the co-op of all places. World of books (2nd hand site) is 3 for 2 at the moment so have ordered another ET together with Superwoman by Shirley Conran (which I remember my mother buying when it came out or in a 2nd hand bookshop) - I seem to recall her housekeeping methods are nothing like so-called Mrs Hinch and reveal that the author would rather lie on the sofa with a novel rather than hoover underneath it.

47. The Dark Side of the Mind - Kerry Daynes

Case studies and memoir from a forensic psychologist - someone who mostly works with existing inmates in prison and high security mental health facilities (as she explains, helping police with psychological profiling is very rare). This stood out for its compassion towards both offenders and victims, with a welcome emphasis on our shared humanity. Also illuminating was the specifically female experience of being a forensic psychologist, as she suffered harassment and stalking which offered interesting parallels to the offences committed by / inflicted on her clients.

48. Home Grown: how domestic violence turns men into terrorists - Joan Smith

Not quite so keen on this one. Smith's case that a large proportion of terrorists have suffered from and/or perpetrated domestic violence is based on anecdotal, rather than statistical, data. It's an interesting starting point but hard numbers are really needed if this is to become useful in profiling potential terrorists; Smith does not even acknowledge this weakness in her case.

More convincing is her wider argument that those who become terrorists often have troubled pasts (involving eg parental abuse and petty or violent crime); peaceful men don't just come across extremist ideology and instantly turn into mass-murdering thugs.

I certainly agree with her conclusions:

1. that more needs to be done to help troubled children and young people, and
2. that better systems of recording domestic violence are needed so that the authorities are aware of the perpetrators as men who are already on a violent path, and can factor this into profiling.

Finished My Sister the Serial Killer which I thought a disappointment. It felt like the kind of silly girly YA that I might have liked around 15. DP thought it was really funny, but it didn't raise even a single smile in me. I guessed the 'twist' really early on and just thought the whole thing lacked substance and style. I guess if you just want a really easy, mindless read then it could serve that purpose.

25 Nine Perfect Strangers by Liane Moriarty - very enjoyable, I have become a big fan of Liane Moriarty, very easy reading with a little bit of bite

26. Divine Justice (Camel Club #4) by David Baldacci

This is the direct sequel to the last book I reviewed, where Stone assassinates two of the most important people in the US. It was a pretty good thriller with OK character development - my kind of beach read.

27. Masterpieces on a Weekly Basis: Bach's Start in Leipzig by Bach Museum Leipzig

This little book was about J S Bach's first four years in Leipzig when he embarked on the impressive challenge of composing and performing a while cantata for each Sunday service at Thormaskirche in Leipzig, as well as a whole repertoire of large scale passion oratorios and other magnificent works.

I found most interesting the pictures of Bach's autograph scores and discussions on who his librettist might have been.

58. Everything Under, Daisy Johnson

This book tells its story in short chapters which describe three chunks of the narrative, in parallel: sort of the beginning, the middle and the end all at the same time. In the first story, Gretel is living with her mother in a broken down houseboat on an isolated stretch of river in rural Oxfordshire. In the last, the now adult Gretel and her mother, who have long been separated, have come back to live together, this time in a small cottage, where Gretel is effectively nursing her mother as she succumbs to dementia. The middle strand is the most slippery, as Gretel revisits her past as part of her search for her missing mother.

This isn't normally the sort of book I like: fractured narrative, slippery story-telling, fey characters. But... but but but. I really enjoyed this. It's written beautifully, the story is mysterious, compelling and a bit scary, and it all came together as a great read.

59. The Year of Reading Dangerously, Andy Miller

Andy Miller is the guy from Backlisted who talks over people a lot. I started to notice how much he talks over both his fellow presenter and their guests and once you notice it you can't un-notice it . This book isn't really about books, or about reading, it's about Andy Miller and Andy Miller reading some books. He has a deeply middle-class midlife crisis, feels he hasn't achieved the things in life that he thought he would, and decides to put things right in one area at least by reading a list of books that he feels he should read in his lifetime.

Plus points: funny, clever, inspires you to read more of the classics. Minus points: way too much smug Andy Miller and not enough about the books! Did we really need a whole chapter devoted to a pretentious fan letter than he once wrote to Michel Houellebecq?

60. The Guilty Feminist: From Our Noble Goals to Our Worst Hypocrisies , Deborah Frances-White

I wasn't sure whether to include this as, if I am honest, I rather skim read the last half of the book and may have to go back and give it another chance at some point.

I found it a disappointment. Feminism is in a bit of a mess at the moment. Society seems to be having (yet another) nasty misogynistic moment and feminists are tearing each other apart and policing each others' views. I had hoped, from what I believed to be DFW's pragmatic and humorous form of feminism (this book has also been published with the subtitle "You Don't Have to Be Perfect to Overthrow the Patriarchy") that she might provide some useful views on how we might come back together and turn back to our common enemy (the Patriarchy, obvs). Sadly, this was not to be. Instead I found this to be surprisingly proscriptive and judgemental, despite the fact that I agreed with much of what she was saying.

Perhaps I was just in the wrong frame of mind to give this a proper chance as it gets gushing reviews.

22. To Throw Away Unopened - Viv Albertine. The second memoir from the former frontwoman of 70s punk band The Slits and reviewed many times on these threads since it was published last year. I couldn't get past my immense dislike of the author who came across as a massive pain in the arse and her decision to publish her late parents diaries here didn’t sit well with me. The most enjoyable part of the book for me was her referencing a road I used to live on in London and I only read on after the middle section to see what happened with her sister after an appalling incident happens at their dying mother's hospital. Some sections were downright boring (do I need to read half a page on her mother's hands? One page about the architecture of a former house?). Disappointing, and one of the non-fiction lowlights of this year so far.

113. Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit- Jeannette Winterson I expected to love this, but I really didn’t. I couldn’t understand why Jeanette (the character) stayed in the Pentecostal Church so long. I also found Winterson’s voice slightly grating on the audiobook, especially all the references to ‘the Loo-erd’ (before anyone accuses me of snobbery, my early childhood was spent about 30 miles away from her Accrington home).

114. Sorry I’m Late, I Didn’t Want to Come- Jessica Pan Last week, while I was still reading it, this was reviewed by Chessie - I liked it a bit better than she did. It is true that it is skewed in favour of comedy- the author took both improv and stand-up classes- but there were other activities Pan forced herself to do in order to become more extrovert, such as holding a dinner party and travelling alone. After a year of all this, Pan had made new friends and was much happier, so I felt (slightly) inspired.

115. Take Nothing With You- Patrick Gale This is a lovely story of a boy learning the cello and coming to terms with his sexuality. The only point against it was that I couldn’t believe that this fairly intelligent young man couldn’t work out who his mother’s lover was! I plan to read more of Patrick Gale’s novels, especially A Sweet Obscurity and other musical ones (if there are any more).

116. Forever Today- Deborah Wearing This is the true story, written by his wife, of Clive Wearing, the choral conductor and Radio 3 producer who suffered severe and lasting amnesia after an illness. I have mentioned him before on these boards, as he is featured in Musicophilia by Oliver Sacks and also inspired Before I Go to Sleep by S.J. Watson. This book was interesting, but the Groundhog Day-style existence of poor Deborah was pretty depressing. It wasn't particularly surprising that she divorced him for a while (they later renewed their vows), lived abroad and attempted to have relationships with other men. I loved the sections about how Clive could still sing, play the organ and even conduct a choir, and I would have loved to read more about that. The book is slightly similar to Falling and Laughing: the Restoration of Edwyn Collins by Grace Maxwell, except that Maxwell’s book is superior and Edwyn Collins has aphasia rather than amnesia.

117. The Antidote- Oliver Burkeman Previously discussed on these forums and subtitled ‘Happiness for People Who Can't Stand Positive Thinking’, this book was just what I needed. Some of the strategies are: expect the worst, get comfortable with the idea of failure, don’t be obsessed with goals, lower your expectations in life, contemplate death (so it doesn’t come as a shock when you realise you will eventually die) and, when suffering from stress, ask yourself ‘Do I have a problem RIGHT NOW’? The book has made an impression on me and I hope its effects will last.

118. Down Under- Bill Bryson I got this cheaply on Audible, having previously enjoyed the book. Unfortunately, it isn’t read by Bill Bryson: the narrator is very characterful but sometimes annoying. His impression of an Australian accent is irritating, but his attempt at a Yorkshire accent has to be heard to be believed! Perhaps inevitably, my favourite parts of the book are the sections about places I know well: Sydney, Melbourne, and also Perth and other areas of Western Australia.

119. The L-Shaped Room- Lynne Reid Banks I enjoyed this- it is far better than the film- and have since been interested to discover that it is part of a trilogy. The first book tells the story of a young(ish) woman who, after being kicked out of home due to pregnancy, takes lodgings in the titular ‘L-shaped room’. Initially, she just wants to be left alone, but she ends up forming some strong relationships there. The book is set in the 1950s and there is a lot of casual racism from some characters: apparently, the author later regretted this.

Keith I'm partway through Everything Under and agree with what you've said. It works really well and the writing is fabulous.

I've just read 2 books that I couldn't put down at the time, but I'm finding myself being very critical on reflection. I'm not sure if it's deserved or I'm just being a grump.

79. The Female Persuasion - Meg Wolitzer Greer, an idealistic college student discovers feminism and meets 2nd wave icon Faith at a talk. Faith later employs her and becomes her mentor at a Women's Foundation. Told through the eyes of various characters including the best friend and the boyfriend, the book explores different eras in feminism and the issues that have faced each generation.

While Wolitzer wasn't afraid to add flaws to her characters, there was little real character depth/development. I didn't feel like there was any plot as such to justify the length and it lacked any real momentum with some of the side stories adding little and dragging the whole thing out unnecessarily. It felt like a catalogue of issues that were briefly touched on and not really discussed or explored. Too much telling and not showing. The prose was ultimately sound in many places and left me feeling like the author is better than this.

80. Bel Canto - Ann Patchett
    Set in an unnamed South American country, a group of diplomats and foreign businessmen are taken hostage during a failed kidnapping attempt at the vice-president's mansion. All of the women are released with the exception of one, a famous opera singer. The hostages have no common language, but the opera singer plays an important role in uniting them during an extended period in captivity. The book explores the relationships between the captives and with the guerillas holding them hostage.

I appreciate that the point of this was to look at the relationships, but I felt it was lacking in a few areas. Patchett largely ignored the politics of the situation and expects the reader to take this side of things on face value. The book is inspired by real events in Peru, so could have had an interesting look at the background to it to add some depth to the characters. This is the second of hers that I have read set in South America and I can't help but feel that she is very lazy in her portrayal of the countries involved relying on simplistic stereotypes. The pacing was also off with a very slow start and a ridiculously rushed ending. The epilogue was infuriating and unnecessary. However, she writes beautifully, so can be forgiven some of the flaws.

47: Moondust - Andrew Smith

I've been immersing myself in all the documentaries about the moon landing in 1969 so it seemed the right time to read this book, which has been on my tbr pile for ages. Andrew Smith set himself the task of tracking down as many surviving astronauts as possible and talking to them about their experiences of being part of this great, some would say crazy, adventure to take men (and of course it was very much men) to the moon - a project which ground to a halt in the early 1970s for political and financial reasons.

I really enjoyed this. It's full of interesting details and Smith weaves in an element of memoir - he grew up in the US but comes from an English background. He even manages to speak to the elusive Neil Armstrong, whose reticence and determination to avoid interviews was legendary (he's died since the publication of this book). Highly recommended if you're at all interested in the subject; it's as much a social history as anything and not overburdened by extraneous technical waffle.

Crashing in with my 2019 list so far. I started off well this year but then struggled to read much for a few months (I'm a huge phase person and seem to go from one extreme to the other). Back on it now though and feeling excited about my TBR pile. Favourites in bold:

1. Lucy, Jamaica Kincaid

2. Stories of the Seen and Unseen, Margaret Oliphant

3. Father and Son, Edmund Gosse

4. Café Assasin, Michael Stewart

5. Down Under, Bill Bryson

6. Personal Pleasures, Rose Macaulay

7. Circe, Madeline Miller

8. Reaching Down the Rabbit Hole: Extraordinary Journeys into the Human Brain, Allan Ropper

9. Things I Don’t Want to Know, Deborah Levy

10. Portrait of a Lady, Henry James

11. Venice, Jan Morris

12. The Man who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, Oliver Sachs

13. Mother Tongue, Bill Bryson

14. The Wonder Spot, Melissa Bank

15. Rhapsody in Green, Charlotte Mendelson

16. Living Alone, Stella Benson

17. The Greengage Summer, Rumer Godden

18. The Cost of Living, Deborah Levy

19. Hot Milk, Deborah Levy

20. Bad Dreams, Tessa Hadley

21. Proust, Letters to the Lady Upstairs

22. My Year of Rest and Relaxation, Ottessa Moshfegh

I loved Lucy so much I plan to read everything Jamaica Kincaid has written. Also thought Deborah Levy's latest memoir was fantastic. The writing was so good I wished it had been 10 times as long.

I'm glad some others here didn't like Wide Sargasso Sea. For some reason I found the style extremely difficult and the book as a whole utterly bleak. I'm glad I struggled through it for the new perspective on Jane Eyre but my god it was a chore.

Terpischore, there's an episode of This American Life about the astronaut Frank Borman which I really enjoyed (he was Apollo 8 rather than Apollo 11 but assume he's appeared in your reading)

www.thisamericanlife.org/655/the-not-so-great-unknown

Ooh, thanks for the tip-off, Keith. I'm almost (but not quite ) mooned-out, having seen all the TV documentaries over the past week or so and gone to the cinema to see Apollo 11 (which is very good, btw). I read Tom Wolfe's The Right Stuff last year, which really got me going with all this.

The BBC4 documentary that finishes tonight, Chasing the Moon, is a really excellent history of the whole space programme.

I'll definitely look up that ep of This American Life. Thanks again 🌍🌚

44. Evening in the Palace of Reason by James Gaines. Reviewed by many of you upthread, I would never have read this otherwise - I love these threads for expanding my reading so much. I really enjoyed this, although much of the music terminology was over my head (am not musical), this was really interesting about bits of history I knew nothing about and I even listened to some Bach of the back of it, much to dh's surprise! Am currently listening to Mythos by Stephen Fry but didn't finish it before Overdrive took it back, and both the book and the audio book have huge waiting lists now- it's good so I might have to spend some money!