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.

Thank you grim. Just catching up. Have some updates but just too tired tonight and GCSES start tomorrow!

40. The Farm by Emily McKay

Vampire like creatures called Ticks have overrun the USA. Because the ticks find teenagers extra tasty, most teenagers have been locked up in camps (or farms) until they turn 18.
But Lily’s not staying put. She’s got a plan. She’s going to escape with her twin sister and head north to Canada.
Unless she gets talked into joining a resistance movement by former classmate Carter.

It’s all very YA. Lots of angsty romance, teenager with special power that might save America, and improbable plot points.

Not sure if anyone else on this thread has read The Confessions of Frannie Langton, a recent novel by newcomer , Sara Collins. Still rare in the UK(as I told a boy the other day who refuses to believe there is such a thing as a white saviour narrative) to find a book with a black central female protagonist written by a black , female writer. Collins was a lawyer , and then left it to take up a Creative Writing MSt at Cambridge. This rang some alarm bells and it does feel like a Creative Writing thesis. In fact, it began life as a short story and you can tell : it feels too long for the story (which is at times, horrifying) it tells so loses impact. It really picks up from about page 280, which tells you something!!

It's another unreliable narrator accused of a crime with added sex and lesbians story - reminded me of The Observations/ Burial Rites , and a little bit of Sugar Money but also takes inspiration from Moll Flanders and quotes and alludes to Byron, Keats, Shakespeare.

The bit I did find interesting was the bit that reminded me of TTOD : the eugenics of the 19th century, the views on race amongst the 'greatest brains' . This is shocking and horrifying and I wish this , in some ways, didn't take up such a small part of the novel. The whole opium eating stuff I found not so interesting.

I am sure Collins will write another novel, and I would probably read it.
One Amazon reviewer did bemoan the simile in every second sentence. Now , this is an exaggeration. However, once I had had this pointed out to me, I couldn't help but notice them (and she uses a motif of apples CONSTANTLY) : she does use a simile roughly every third sentence at one point! The book did need a kindly editor to trim it a touch!

Belatedly carrying over my list from the last thread:

1. The Crossing Places - Elly Griffiths
2. Things I Don't Want to Know - Deborah Levy
3. The History of Wolves - Emily Fridlund
4. Black Hole Blues and Other Songs From Outer Space - Janna Levin
5. Smile - Roddy Doyle
6. Mad Girl's Love Song: Sylvia Plath and Life Before Ted - Andrew Wilson
7. The Story of a Marriage - Andrew Seer Green
8. The Child That Books Built - Francis Spufford
9. My Year of Rest and Relaxation - Ottessa Moshfegh

10. The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ - Philip Pullman 11. The Magicians - Lev Grossman 12. Inventing Ourselves: The Secret Life of the Teenage Brain - Sarah-Jayne Blakemore 13. My Sister, the Serial Killer - Oyinkan Braithwaite 14. The Cyber Effect - Mary Aiken 15. A Life of My Own - Claire Tomalin 16. Our House - Louise Candlish 17. Whatever You Love - Louise Doughty 18. Bitch in a Bonnet - Robert Rodi 19. The Wife - Meg Wolitzer 20. Everything I Never Told You - Celeste Ng 21. This is the Story of a Happy Marriage - Ann Patchett

And two more to add:

22. Station Eleven by Emily St John Mandel. Dystopian fiction imagining life on earth in the near future after a flu epidemic decimates the population. I seem to remember that this divides opinions on the thread, and I do agree with the people who found the world-building element shoddy and unrealistic. However, I was able to suspend disbelief most of the time and enjoyed the storyline and the characters.

23. A Spool of Blue Thread by Anne Tyler. I am an Anne Tyler fan and the first half of this was right up there with my favourites, but then the perspective and time period shifted and I didn't enjoy the second half as much.

30. The 7 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Thurton.

This is the story of a man who repeats the day of Evelyn Hardcastle’s death over and over in different characters bodies to try and solve the crime. Ground Hog Day meets Agatha Christie. I did enjoy this a lot and cared about the twists and turns. I found the female characters a bit problematic and actually all the characters were a little wooden. Perhaps because the premise left many characters with no memories prior to that day there wasn’t a huge amount of character development. The whodunnit element was good though.

I’m very very behind but
17) Sorry to disrupt the peace by Patty Cottrell
It’s basically the aftermath of a woman finding out her adoptive brother has died.
An interesting book as the main character is not likeable.
Really enjoyed it.

Thanks for new thread @southeastdweller..

I just finished No. 17 Daughters of the Winter Queen by Nancy Goldstone, an excellent historical biography, although I was a little disappointed when the focus shifted so abruptly from the Winter Queen to her daughters, as she was such an interesting character, I would have enjoyed more focus on her later life. I might have to find another biography of her.

15. Fruit of the lemon – Andrea Levy Based in both London and Jamaica, Levy's third book finds yet another engaging way to tell the story of families like hers who arrived in Britain on banana boats in the 40s and 50s. Faith, the main character, grows up knowing little of her Jamaican heritage and it’s only when she’s confronted with more and more acts of blatant racism that she seeks to know more about her origins. Definitely recommend!

I've gone off to the Lake District again while the weather is glorious. It's too hot to read! Spending the days yomping up ruddy great hills and too busy with the map and gorgeous scenery to concentrate on audiobooks either.

59. Casanova's Chinese Restaurant (A Dance to the Music of Time #5) by Anthony Powell (audiobook)

Life goes on for Jenkins' set against the backdrop of the abdication and the Spanish Civil War. With war around the corner the group react in different ways.

Absolutely hooked on these. He really captured the zeitgeist and manages to relate how people go about life with the major events of the century happening around them. I think I'll probably keep going with these as I'm not sure I can ration them to one a month from now on.

About 100 pages in to One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Bonkers and brilliant in equal measure. Thank goodness for the family tree at the start!

39. Chernobyl: History of a Tragedy by Serhii Plokhy

I went for this as my Audible monthly book based on BakewellTarts review, and wasn't disappointed. A really good exploration of the background to the disaster, incredibly gripping section as it unfolds, then equally thorough analysis of the literal and metaphorical fall-out. Many thanks for the recommendation, Bakewell :)

I've just discovered that the first DTTMOT is available as an audiobook from my library, so reserved it to see if it works in that format for me. Should be a good few hours listening if it does!

@Sadik glad you enjoyed Chernobyl: History of a Tragedy too. It's not an easy read. How scary just how close we came to wiping out lifein Europe. I have an interest in risk and health and safety and this is an object lesson in how not to manage risks.

@Tarahumara I'm in the like camp for Station Eleven very good take on a distopia.

My current read is #45 The Moon's a Balloon David Nivens autobiography which I bought in this months Kindle Deals. My guilty pleasure growing up was black and white films on a Saturday afternoon so I am familiar with many golden age films. I didn't realise he had such a full life outside of acting and in particular his contribution to WWII. Overall I am enjoying it. Niven is an entitled white male living a life far removed from mine in a world that certainly doesn't exist any more which makes it hard to connect to at times. However the variety of people and things he did make this worth a read. He also comes across as someone who likes the people he is with. Certainly very different from what I have been reading recently.

Ducking in to say I finished The Koon's A Balloon last night too, and agree with Bakewell. He's a shameless name-dropper but cheerfully admits that, and has good reason to be. It's a fun and funny read, and I appreciated the fact it's not the sort of thing I'd usually read.

Slightly unfortunate typo, Pepe....I read The Moon's a Balloon as a young teenager and was slightly scandalised and also laughed till I cried.

My last few books:

57) The Importance of Being Aisling, Emer McLysaght and Sarah Breen
Sequel. Doesn't pretend to be literature, but it's an amusing portrait of small-town Irish life.

58). A Sucky Love Story, Brittani Louise Taylor
An account written by an American Youtuber about falling for a wealthy and charming European doctor who is not quite who he seems to be. Again, not literary, but I found her story quite compelling. It shows very clearly how you be in a relationship and working very hard to sell yourself a romanticised account of that relationship even though part of you knows that it's horribly wrong.

59). In Search of England, H V Morton
1920s motoring tour of England. Lots of romanticised rhapsodies: "then the mists of time seemed to part and I saw stern-faced knights of old riding out on their faithful steeds" etc etc. If I'm in the mood, I like this sort of thing, but it needs to be taken in small doses.

*60). All the Single Ladies, Rebecca Traister. American non-fiction about how unmarried women have contributed to social change. I'm sympathetic to the overarching point, but I wasn't blown away by the book. She seems to have read a lot and talked to a lot of people, but she doesn't seem to have thought very much - I can't really find any argument, other than "this happened". Maybe her message is more incendiary than it appears in the conservative heartlands of America.

61). Gene Eating, Giles Yeo
Took me a while to click that the title is a pun on "clean eating" - one of many feeble but rather endearing dad jokes as the Cambridge geneticist takes on claims about how to lose weight and examines the science behind them. It's not bad, although I did get bogged down in an early chapter which went into a bit more genetic detail than I strictly needed. The take-home message is that you have to work out what works for you as an individual, as it won't be the same for everyone.

62. The Temptation of Forgiveness, Donna Leon
Part of the long-running crime series set in Venice. The series has been feeling a bit sour for a while now - endless diatribes about the multitude of tourists and the Chinese shops and the endemic corruption and pollution.

I haven't read anything that has blown me away in a long time. Reserving This Thing of Darkness for half-term, so we shall see.

Oh, heck. Yes, that was bad .

Thank you for the new thread.

26. Ammonites and Leaping Fish by Penelope Lively She explores time and memory and the way that particular objects can capture memories for us. Written from the perspective of having turned 80. Very interesting. I want to look up her account of growing up in Egypt which I've been meaning to read for ages.

27 Wilding by Isabella Tree
The author's account of how they stopped farming their land and turned it back to nature. A bit depressing in places as she lists all the ways we're busy destroying our environment but a positive outcome for their small part of Sussex. I was interested in how much of a negative response they had from other local landowners in the early days who criticised them for wasting their land. Also interesting how much time can be wasted by the various agencies involved sitting around discussing whether you can call it 'rewilding' or not!

28 Madensky Square by Eva Ibbottson
Set in 1900s Vienna our narrator runs her own clothes shop on Madensky Square and writes about the lives of her neighbours, customers, etc. Well written but a little too sickly sweet for me by the end.

Place marking. I finished another book about forensics but can't remember title or writer and cba to walk upstairs to check! It annoyed me, so my review, when it comes, won't be great.

This is my worst year for reading that I can remember in a long time. :(

19. A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley
"Larry Cook's farm is the largest in his county in Iowa, and a tribute to his hard work and single-mindedness. Proud and possessive, his sudden decision to retire and hand over the farm to his three daughters is disarmingly uncharacteristic. Ginny and Rose, the two eldest, are startled yet eager to accept, but Caroline, the younger daughter, has misgivings. Immediately, her father cuts her out. It is a decision that causes chaos."...say the blurb on the back.
This is a retelling of King Lear which I am not familiar with - I'm sure that the experience of reading this novel would be very different if you know King Lear and have the plot and characters in mind.
I really enjoyed this. My early impressions were that I liked the setting and that a big plot point came along surprisingly early. The narrator, Ginny, seemed fairly steady and reliable, describing events and other characters in a way that seemed trustworthy. Lives begin to unravel quickly and dramatically, with shifts that I really didn't see coming. It becomes clear that we haven't really known the characters and their motivations at all. The narrator doesn't really know what others are thinking and her own memories are questionable, and she reaches a point where she can't ask others so we are left with her own fuzzy interpretations which sometimes means huge revelations are mentioned but left unproven or up in the air. Large details are left open to interpretation. I definitely found this easier to follow when I had time to read in one hour chunks rather than 5 minutes before falling asleep, but it definitely got me thinking. A good read.
Halfway through listening to A History of the World in 21 Women, lots in the TBR pile but no idea what will be next.

I was listening to R4 on the way home from work and they were talking about a beautifully illustrated book about Von Humboldt, unfortunately it's not listed on Amazon despite being new.

28. The Song of Achilles – Madeline Miller

I am going to go completely against the flow with this one, as judging by the reviews on Amazon and Goodreads, everyone loves this…except me. It started well. I was interested in Patroclus’s account of his childhood, but I started to enjoy it less and less as Patroclus and Achilles became young adults.

I thought the characterisation was really weak and consequently I didn’t feel invested in the characters. I felt that Achilles Mother, Thetis was particularly hard done by in this respect, portrayed as a sort of one dimensional pantomime villain. I didn’t get the relationship between Achilles and Patroclus; it felt unconvincing.

For a story where there is so much drama, I felt the plot was actually pretty monotonous with too many battles and too many moments of high drama rattled through at lightning speed, with no space left in the narrative to consider anything or feel any impact. For me, there was a lack of dark and shade in this book, which made it quite dull. Disappointing. I don't think Greek myths are my thing.

29. Gun Love – Jennifer Clement

I liked this one very much. Margot runs away from her abusive, but incredibly wealthy family as a pregnant school girl and she and her daughter Pearl have lived in their car on the edge of a decrepit Florida trailer park ever since.

Pearl, aged 14 narrates the story and the writer describes their unusual life almost romantically, just as a child might see it. They live in abject poverty but eat their food off Limoges china plates, and the trunk of the car is full of priceless decorative objects Margot bought with her from her former life. It’s a chaotic, but not unhappy existence. A fascinating cast of their fellow equally eccentric trailer park residents are described perfectly, setting the scene for events to come brilliantly. I was particularly intrigued by Pastor Rex and his “Give your Guns to God” programme.

Guns are omnipresent in this story, and this lends the book a sinister air. Margot is vulnerable and lonely, and soon falls prey to the predatory but charismatic drifter, Eli Redmond with life changing consequences.

A fantastically written, satisfying read. I haven’t heard of Jennifer Clement before but would like to seek out more of her work.

These are my most recent reads:

45. Putney - Sofka Zinovieff
Essentially a Lolita story set in the bohemian world of 1970s London and the present day. I wasn't sure if I wanted to read this but I'm glad I did. It's well written and evocative of both the place and the time, where attitudes and freedoms were different to now, creating spaces in which relationships and abuse could flourish. The unpleasant subject matter is handled well and I would actually recommend this.

46. Sumer Before the Dark - Volker Weidermann
In the summer of 1936 a number of German writers either fled, voluntarily removed themselves or were banned in Germany and congregated in Ostende, where they drank, wrote and socialised. Amongst them were lifelong friends Stefan Zwieg and Joseph Roth, around which the book centres, but many other famous writers of the time are also mentioned and involved. Zwieg, the more famous of the two, and Roth (poorer, less well-regarded) had a troubled relationship which is examined in the book. A cross between fiction and biography and if you like the authors involved, which I do, this is a good read.

47. Coal Black Mornings - Brett Anderson
I really enjoyed this. On the whole a very well written and interesting autobiography of Anderson's early life up until his record deal with Suede. A good picture of growing up in suburbia and of life in London in the nineties, of which I was a part.

48. The Provoked Wife - John Vanbrugh
I saw this at the RSC last night, so read it first. It was a great production faithful to its period setting and it's an interesting and in places very funny play but, as is the case with all restoration comedies (1697), the misogyny is still a bitter pill to swallow.

Joining the new thread rather late...

My list so far:

1. The Anxiety Solution - Chloe Brotheridge
2. Me - Tomoyuki Hoshino
3. Arlington Park - Rachel Cusk
4. The Beast - Alexander Starritt
5. A Sense of Direction - Gideon Lewis-Kraus
6. To Throw Away Unopened - Viv Albertine
7. The Lady and the Little Fox Fur - Violette Leduc
8. The Dead Ladies Project - Jessa Crispin
9. Cassandra Darke - Posy Simmonds

10. Tokyo Ueno Station - Yu Miri 11. 84 Charing Cross Road - Helene Hanff 12. I am, I am, I am - Maggie O'Farrell 13. Infinite Jest - David Foster Wallace 14. Our Game - John Le Carre 15. Old Baggage - Lissa Evans 16. Tepper Isn't Going Out - Calvin Trillin 17. If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things - Jon McGregor 18. The Night Guest - Fiona McFarlane 19. My Falling Down House - Jayne Joso 20. The Little Breton Bistro - Nina George 21. Clever Girl - Tessa Hadley 22. Le Chien de Madame Halberstadt - Stephane Carlier 23. The Muse - Jessie Burton 24. Princes on the Land - Joanna Cannan 25. Astonishing Splashes of Colour - Clare Morrall 26. The Position - Meg Wolitzer 27. The Secret Life of Bees - Sue Monk Kidd

Currently reading about four different books, so will probably be back with a batch of reviews in a week or so.

Cedar03 I haven't yet read Ammonites & Leaping Fishes (it's in my TBR pile) but Oleandar, Jacaranda is one of my favourite books - I have bought several copies, as I keep lending it to people and not getting it back...

29. The Return of the Soldier by Rebecca West.

A birthday gift from DH, I loved this novel set and written during the First World War. Chris Baldry is an injured soldier who loses his memory, transporting him back 15 years to a time when he loves another woman and does not recognise his wife. Although slim it has so much to say about love, grief, class and the effects of war. And this Virago Modern Classics Edition has a lovely front cover too.

30. Quiet: The Power of Introverts by Susan Cain. (Audible)

This is a very American-centred book where it appears that results of personality tests are very important when applying to college and jobs. Susan Cain puts forward the case that there is too much lauding of the ‘extrovert’ personality over the ‘introvert’ type, particularly in the USA. She uses this book to explore the introverted personality in detail, to point out that both introverted and extroverted personalities are needed for the best result and uses examples from law, the stock market and banking to demonstrate this. I liked the in-depth look at the introvert personality but have a few reservations. Firstly the backing up of a lot of her points by one-off non-reproducible psychology experiments and neuroscience in its infancy gave me some disquiet. I felt the author was trying to sell me the concept with all the positives but little discussion of the negatives. And although it is useful to be aware of your personality and what you are good at and what you have to work on, I am wary of being boxed into certain behaviour especially at a young age (she discusses introverted children). And, lastly, the chapter about Asian versus Western characteristics put my teeth on edge - too much stereotyping.

An interesting topic that is obviously close to the author’s heart but several flaws in there too.

I've read Ammonites and Leaping Fish and enjoyed it, haven't read Oleander, Jacaranda (another one for the tbr pile!) but I absolutely love Moon Tiger and The Photograph by the same author.