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 Indigo .

Birthday book haul

I think my family want me to make more puddings...

Happy birthday inmyown! Very interested in that Sisters to the King book!

14. *God Emperor of Dune (Dune #4) by Frank Herbert
15. *Heretics of Dune (Dune #5) by Frank Herbert
16. *Chapter House Dune (Dune #6) by Frank Herbert

I reread these old favourites for the first time in about 15 years, and I was not disappointed. They are not quite the summit of achievement that I once thought they were, but the world building is outstanding and the stories are interesting, especially in #4.

1. A Game of Thrones (A Song if Ice and Fire #1) by George R. R. Martin
2. Avenger by Frederick Forsyth
3. Mr Spaceship by Philip K Dick
4. The Collectors (Camel Club #2) by David Baldacci

5. Longitude by Dava Sobel

1. The Wandering Earth by Cixin Liu
2. Total Control by David Baldacci
3. The Door Into Summer by Robert Heinlein
4. Call For The Dead by John Le Carré (Smiley #1)

10. Other Minds: The Octopus and The Evolution of Intelligent Life by Peter Godfrey-Smith 11. The Negotiator by Frederic Forsyth 12. Dune Messiah (Dune #2) by Frank Herbert 13. Children of Dune (Dune #3) by Frank Herbert

Indigo, I've had my eye on The Cost of Living for a while, but it's not in my local library and I'm hoping it will come down in price on Kindle.

For any Wollitzer fans, I enjoyed The Ten-Year Nap. It's about that hoary old topic, balancing motherhood and work/aspirations/being yourself, done with warmth and intelligence.

Have just reread The Reading Cure, by Laura Freeman (popular here last year: a young woman recovering from anorexia writes about how her favourite books helped her to see food as less threatening and more pleasurable again).

Because I really want to be on holiday, I'm now reading Dawdling by the Danube : with journeys in Bavaria and Poland by Edward Enfield. It's a bit like reading a blog of someone's cycling holiday.

I'm reading J K Rowling's Robert Galbraith's Lethal White now. Can someone tell me wtf I'm reading? I'm 9% in and absolutely nothing happened so far. It's all about Cormoran and his assistant Robin's feeeeelings for each other

"Strike's incurable predilection for getting to the root of puzzling incidents tended to inconvenience him quite as much of other people"

ODFOD.

32: Mischief - Charlotte Armstrong

This was terrific. DH and I collect old green Penguins (their crime novels and thrillers) and this 1951 novel was a chance purchase at the weekend. Very short at just 126 pages, so I polished it off in a day, and I really couldn't put it down.

Married couple Peter and Ruth Jones are in New York so Peter can give a speech at some industry dinner. They've brought their 9-year-old daughter Bunny with them, expecting a family member to babysit in their hotel-room while they go out, but when she lets them down, one of the hotel elevator operators offers the services of his niece and they trustingly accept. BIG MISTAKE.

I won't say more because it would be one big spoiler but this nail biting little tale was filmed in 1952 as 'Don't Bother to Knock', with Marilyn Monroe as the babysitter. If anyone happens across the book I'd certainly recommend it.

Thanks for the tip, Toomuch. I have downloaded the episode and am looking forward to listening to it.

Cote - It's really not very good. Far too long and frequently very boring.

17. If Beale Street Could Talk by James Baldwin
Fonny and Tish are school friends who become lovers in 1970s Harlem. Their happiness is threatened when Fonny is accused of rape, just as Tish falls pregnant with his child. Beautifully written, it's a poignant tribute to both romantic and family love, against a backdrop of omnipresent racism.

88. Rivals by Jilly Cooper

One of my favourites, listened to this on audible.

89. The Real McCoy and 149 Other Eponyms by Claire Cock-Starkey

Eponyms are things named after people and this book explains the history behind 150 of these. An interesting read if you like finding out about language.

Yes, if ever a book needed drastic editing it was Lethal White. The whole section with his nephew could have been cut with no impact at all on anything. As could about 40% of the rest of it leaving a vaguely entertaining crime novel/love story.

Welcome Shake Just seen on Twitter the next book they are discussing is Toni Morrison's Beloved

Terpsichore - I have searched for that Charlotte Armstrong book & see the copy you must have is "rare" on the second hand book website (Books of the world?) and goes for about £7. Others available around £4 from Amazon etc so might pick it up some time. Whilst searching I came across the "classicmystery.blog" which is quite entertaining if you are a crime fan.
re David Sedaris - I agree that some of his stuff is really funny but quite a big percentage is a bit off-colour i.e. his pre-occupation with physical ailments etc. I recommended him to an elderly relative and hope she has forgotten the name as I think she might find him distasteful. Her cinema-going friend thought "The favourite" (film) was "absolutely disgusting" but she is not as reactionary as that.
Trying to drag myself out of the house now to library and other boring errands.

16. Unsheltered by Barbara Kingsolver
In the 19th century Charles Landis created a utopian community, which became known as Vineland (New Jersey, USA). In Kingsolver’s most recent novel we follow Thatcher Greenwood and Willa Knox who lived in the same street of this town, but around 150 years apart. In both storylines the themes of family, self-belief and resilience are explored as well as the foundations we build for ourselves and our loved ones.

I simply fell in love with many of the protagonists and did NOT want this book to end. I feel bereft – I need to know how they’re all getting on!!

I adored the character of Willa’s daughter Tig (Antigone). Her strength and creativity, her deep-rooted caring nature and her vision of the future have renewed my faith in the next generation and their capacity to evolve and thrive despite the catastrophic state of the planet we live on. (and yes, I do know that she is a fictitious character !!).

If you haven’t got the message... I TOTALLY ADORED THIS BOOK.

Pencil - interesting about Mischief , it was £2.99 in Oxfam (and that's the upper end of what I'm prepared to pay for a green Penguin). DH and I have amassed a fairly good collection between us but there always seem to be more...the American ones by women writers in the 50s tend to be especially good. Definitely recommend this if you feel like a mini-splurge.

I went straight on to true crime after that with 33: The Long Drop - Denise Mina
Another short and gripping read but also grim as hell. I love Denise Mina's crime fiction: she's a very fine writer who brings her settings vividly (albeit often dismayingly) to life. Here though she re-tells the actual 1950's case of Glasgow serial-killer Peter Manuel, who murdered 7 (arguably 8 - 1 was 'not proven'), and was convicted and hanged.

While the subject-matter was unremittingly bleak, Mina writes superbly. Her new novel's just out and I can't wait to read it.

Catching up, as due to rather surprising minor earthquake, we are off school for two days while the engineers check structures.

Terpsichore- I agree about David Sedaris- many years ago, an American friend said I reminded her of him and thrust his books upon me. I found his humour mildly funny, but was never going to laugh-out-loud.

Pencilmuseum- interesting about Teresa Driscoll asking nicely for reviews. I'm afraid I have just left a scathing one about The Friend and sent it back for my 99p back.

So, recent reads:

26. They do it with Mirrors Agatha Christie. Not a classic. Unpleasant characters and too many of them.

27. The Growing Pains of Adrian Mole Picked up a couple of weeks back on a 99p kindle. I am obviously the only woman of my age never to have read any AM despite him being more or less my age. I loved this and truly roared with laughter (loudly) at various points.

My enjoyment of 27 led me to buy

28 The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole immediately. Not quite as raucously funny for me, this one, and I shall wait awhile before reading the others. Still a good, easy, funny all-in-one-sitting kind of read.

29 The Friend Teresa Driscoll.
Oh My Life. What utter dross. Appallingly bad, really. I need to stop compulsively buying these 99p psycho nutjob things just because a) they're 99p and b) all their friends have left 5 star reviews. I actually started making notes of all the cliches of the genre and sheer busyness of the plot. This is one writer who will not use one twist if she can use 39.

We had the ubiquitous people moving to nice arty farty village. We had a New Best Friend who our heroine envies because she's got a Boden coat and nice hair. We had the errant husband. We had the artists. We had the coast (obviously- nutters must gravitate to the sea and the "tangy salt air" like flies round a rotting carcass.

In no particular order, and not really giving any spoilers because at times it all seemed one big brainstorm of non-sequiturs from the writer, we also had: traumatised (and unpleasant) toddlers (lots of stuff here never explained either, did nutjob smash the plates or did the Damian-esque kid? Infertility, adoption, miscarriage, multiple sclerosis, gypsies, PND, financial trouble, drowning, gambling, dementia, pottery, selective mutism people getting run over while shoplifting, far too much detail about the detective leading the investigation and her ex colleague...and an ending that was wound up in about 40 lines.

As my (non Romany) grandmother would say, "total tripe"

Very much a contender for worst read of the year so far.

I think I need a nice Jean Plaidy now. You know where you are with Ferdinand and Isabella.

I have been AWOL since the new thread started and have a whopper list of reviews to post.

GrimUpNorth I've just started reading In Our Mad and Furious City by Guy Gunaratne, which might be a good next read for you. It's set on an estate in North London and has just win the Jhalak Prize for BAME writers.

Whippet, have you read any Irmgard Keun? She was recommended to me on here and was an associate of Roth, Zweig etc - her Child of All Nations is obviously based on her own experiences of being an exiled writer, and well worth a read.

I've heard bits of The Doll Factory being read on R4 last week. Sounded good though I do get irritated when the well spoken R4 narrators break into awkward cockernee to do the working class Londoners.

An earthquake???!

Finally managed to finish a book (been a bit distracted by Game Of Thrones these last weeks!):

20. Wind, Sand And Stars - Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Collection of essays by the Little Prince author, chiefly concerning his time as a pilot in the French mail delivery service in Africa and South America in the 1920s and 30s. It's impossibly dashing and romantic, and full of life - a kind of airborne equivalent of Gaston Rebuffat's accounts of the 'brotherhood of the rope' in the golden era of mountaineering.

Meg - dashing and romantic sounds great.

Not on Kindle though, sadly.

The Little Prince is only £1.99 though, if anybody fancies a really lovely, slightly cutesy read and hasn't come across this yet.

Dutifully done my monthly pedagogical read : Exam Literacy by MFL teacher Jake Hunton. Nothing new here , in that it brings together stuff form many sources, most of which I had encountered or read. But useful and accessible for those who haven't. I like his angle (ditch revision sessions! Stop finishing courses in Jan to spend months revising!). It is great for many as it actually (unlike many ed books ) gives worked examples from lots of subjects. Annoyingly for me (and even though his own brother is an English teacher) there are only 4 pages on English (suspect this is because Eng is always the rogue subject in this knowledge age!). Also, annoyingly, no one at my particular school will pay any of this new-fangled stuff any heed whatsoever and ignore me if I try to suggest it

Piggy- yes, a wee one that made bits of churches drop off and a bit of a crack that looks like Dr Who would call a rift at school. (Am in SE Italy) we're not in a seismic area at all really, so it's all a bit surprising.

Meg- loved the St Ex books. Devoured them all after doing the Little Prince for French A level. Must find time to re-read. Whilst wearing Guerlain Vol de Nuit of course. (Inspired by the book)