50 Book Challenge 2019 Part Six

[southeastdweller]

Welcome to the sixth 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, the fourth one here and the fifth one here.

33. Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer
I am the last person on this thread to read this first-hand account of a sadly disastrous expedition to Everest. I didn't think it was at all my cup of tea, but on seeing it at a quid on Daily Deal I took a punt.

You were all right. I was totally absorbed. The author is an experienced mountaineer so the technical detail and insight into the world of climbing is hugely informative. Krakauer's account is gripping in how it reflects the mistakes and moral dilemmas experienced on the climb.

On the deals, Heartburn is a pound today if anyone fancies a light, funny read you'll have finished by teatime.

sorry - i missed that Remus had already spotted that one

Goody, just bought Heartburn. I read it years ago when it first came out but I was only about 20 then and didn't really appreciate it.

Quite tempted to get the audiobook as I adore Meryl Streep.

Off to Hay-on-Wye tomorrow for a few days bookshop browsing. Can’t wait.

I'd completely missed the fact that it's New Monthly Deals Day! Hooray flexes credit card

Best, over the last week Heartburn has been the daily serial on R4, read by Julianna Jennings....OK, not Meryl Streep but a nice dry delivery. Not sure whether it was abridged as I didn't hear every ep but as it's such a short book, possibly not (they probably omitted the recipes).

Anyway, it's on BBC Sounds and the bits I did hear, I liked.

Midnight in Chernobyl is in the sale, and I'm tempted by The World as It Is by one of Obama's aides, which sounds like a real life West Wing

I will look out for that Terpischore. I’m not great with audio books generally as I tend to drift off but am on a new fitness kick so might try one when I’m in the gym.

Long time lurker and occasional contributor here. Have read and enjoyed lots of recommendations from these threads such as Europe in Autumn, the St Mary's series and Francis Spufford. Just finished The Girl in Green by Derek B Miller and would recommend it - set in fairly modern times in the Middle East - refugees, aid workers, war, soldiers, factions - regret and how things in the past affect behaviour today. Interesting characters and an unusual plot. I'm better at reading than writing reviews but I enjoyed this and thought some of the 50 bookers might want to give it a try.

It’s the best monthly round for a while, I went a bit crazy! I would thoroughly recommend Idaho for bleak and beautiful writing.

102. The Stranger Diaries - Elly Griffiths An English teacher researching a Gothic novelist finds events from the past mirrored in her own life. Her colleague is murdered and her research seems to be a key component in the killer's motives.

Modern Gothic mystery told from multiple points of view. I really enjoyed this and was hooked straight away, although I thought the ending was a bit naff.

103. A Spool of Blue Thread - Anne Tyler Multi-generational family saga - a bit of scandal and a lot of sibling rivalry. Again a few different narrators and the time frames jumped around a little jarringly at times.

Considering that nothing really happened, I found myself quite happily pottering through this on audio while I did the garden. A very easy and yet somehow pleasing read.

Best I found your comments interesting on reading something aged 20 and not appreciating it. I've been looking back at books read in my late teens/ early 20s and choosing a few to go back to at some point as I think I was too young and naive to really get them. I think some books should come with a guide of the ideal age/ life stage to read them in.

I agree Fortuna - for example, I am certain I read A Suitable Boy in my early twenties but I do not remember it now at all! And I read Jane Eyre too early I think - I loved the bit at the start when she is a child, but didn't "get" the entire rest of the book.

Can anyone recommend anything that's perfect when you are nearly 50?

48. Heroes by Stephen Fry. I also very much enjoyed this sequel to Mythos, but as I read this one rather than the audio book, I missed his voice (although I did like the illustrations in this one, I must check out a paper copy of Mythos and see if there were some there too). I'm looking forward to the next one which I assume will be the Trojan War.

I was a very pretentious teen with delusions of intelligence and very steadily worked my way through many "should have read" book lists.

I now only have a vague memory of most and while some I know I have definitely read, there are others that I think I read them, but have little to no memory of them. Some I still have the book for, but most came from the library so I have no way of knowing. A wasted youth!

I’m sure I posted something similar last year - The Grapes of Wrath and Lord of the Flies were two books that looked very different at 16 and 56.

I had the opposite problem - I only read Catcher In The Rye a year or so ago in my late 30s and really didn’t see what all the fuss was about. I expect if I had read it as a teen I would have had a different view!

I’ve just realised a long post I wrote a few days ago hasn’t posted, grrr! Oh well, I’ll start again.

158. Brazzaville Beach by William Boyd

I didn’t enjoy this as much as Tarahumara upthread, although I didn’t dislike it! I found the sections about their marriage emotionless - I didn’t understand why they had even got married in the first place and found it hard to care about either of them. I preferred the bits with the chimps although I would have preferred less graphic descriptions of chimp sex and violence. This isn’t something I would have picked up normally so I’m glad I read it but won’t be rushing to read any more by him.

159. Good Me, Bad Me by Ali Land

A fifteen year old girl is given a new identity after she gives evidence against her serial killer mother. Can she really start again though or has she inherited her mother’s problems? Not bad although ending was quite predictable.

160. The Cactus by Sarah Haywood

Another book described as similar to Eleanor Oliphant. In this one though the main character was just rude and I have no idea what her various love interests saw in her.

161. 1411 QI Facts To Knock You Sideways

Collection of random facts that were quite interesting!

162. The Stranger Diaries by Elly Griffiths

I did enjoy this but was expecting it to be more supernatural than it actually was. Agree with Fortuna that the ending wasn’t great.

163. Everything But The Truth by Gillian McAllister

This started well - woman finds strange email on her new boyfriend’s phone and becomes suspicious - but the ‘twist’ (such as it was) happens about halfway through and the rest it just then working out how to deal with it. I kept expecting something else to happen but it didn’t.

164. Rock Needs River: A Memoir Of a Very Open Adoption by Vanessa McGrady

This was a freebie and I’m glad I didn’t pay for it! It’s the memoir of a woman who adopted a child but stayed in touch with the birth parents, even having them to stay with her for a while when they became homeless. Sounded interesting but the first half is all about her failed relationships. The adoption only happens about halfway through and there’s very little info about the process. The second half was better, with the relationship with the birth parents, but the whole thing used lots of American phrases I didn’t really understand which I found hard going (example: ‘we sat at the table and quarterbacked stuff for a while’). Not recommended.

I read The Rainbow as a grumpy A-level English student and hated it so much I’ve never touched Lawrence since. I do think it may be time to try again as I really don’t think it is a book for teens. There are very few books I loved then and still love now, so I do think stages of life is an important factor in the way we read. Though children’s books are different, mostly - perhaps that is just a memory and comfort thing, but I still love some of the books I read and loved as a child.

A few updates and belatedly bringing over my list:

26. Very British Problems: vol 3 - Rob Temple. This is a very short humorous Christmas stocking-type book, which was occasionally amusing but the concept felt a bit stretched out to me so I doubt I'll read the other books in the series.

27. Born Lippy - Jo Brand. Non-fiction guide to life kind of thing from the comedian and actress. Funny in places and often relatable. Jo says in this book that she's a MNer so .

28. An American Marriage - Tayari Jones. The best-selling recent book about an African-American couple whose lives are shaken when the husband is arrested for a crime he did not commit. I'm not on the love train for this as I felt the author lost her way in the second half of the book when she explored the lives of the more peripheral characters and didn't think she worked hard enough to capture the different voices. All in all, I felt largely unmoved by the stories here.

29. Queer Graphic History - Meg-John Barker and Jules Scheele. This is a fairly accessible broad guide to queer theory with lots of superb graphic illustrations. I wouldn't re-read it but it was good to read something different.

1. The Woman in the Window – A.J. Finn
2. This is Going to Hurt - Adam Kay
3. Home Truths - David Lodge
4. The Fast 100 - Dr Michael Mosley
5. Reading Allowed - Chris Paling
6. Lullaby - Leila Silmani
7. Never Mind - Edward St. Aubyn
8. A Ladder to the Sky - John Boyne
9. Another Planet: A Teenager in Suburbia - Tracey Thorn

10. Ghost Wall - Sarah Moss 11. Mentors: How to Help and be Helped - Russell Brand 12. The World I Fell Out Of - Melanie Reid 13. The Only Story - Julian Barnes 14. Tell Me a Secret - Jane Fallon 15. Started Early, Took My Dog - Kate Atkinson 16. My Brother's Name is Jessica - John Boyne 17. Logical Family - Armistead Maupin 18. Can You Ever Forgive Me - Lee Israel 19. Never Greener – Ruth Jones 20. A Better Me – Gary Barlow 21. Spring – Ali Smith 22. To Throw Away Unopened - Viv Albertine 23. Pride - Matthew Todd 24. Jar of Fools - Jason Lutes 25. Sweet Sorrow - David Nicholls 26. Very British Problems: Vol 3 - Rob Temple 27. Born Lippy - Jo Brand 28. An American Marriage - Tayari Jones 29. Queer Graphic History - Meg-John Barker and Jules Scheele

I'm currently reading Big Sky by Kate Atkinson, which so far feels like a return to form for her after Transcription.

Thanks Remus and Turnofthescrew, Heartburn snapped up just before the witching hour at 99p. Always good to have a short (and hopefully good) book to help me get to the big 5️⃣0️⃣

PepeLePew - I read The Rainbow at precisely that sort of age and loved it. I haven't re-read it and I suspect I would hate it now! All that youthful angst. Just goes to show that people can take very different things from a book (and I also understand why you hated it as even whilst liking it, I felt Lawrence's style was very ponderous). I agree with ChessieFL that reading The Catcher in the Rye later in life doesn't really work at all. I didn't read it until I was in my late 20s, I think, and couldn't get into it at all.

I read The Catcher in the Rye a few years ago and I hated it. I found the main character extremely extremely irritating.

I suspect I’d probably have liked it much more if I’d read it as a teenager.

I read Jane Eyre when I was 12 and someone had given my Mum a bag of books ‘for jumble’ - there was a 19thc copy of the novel in amongst them. I still remember the excitement of almost inhaling it in one go.

I haven’t really gone back to read it properly since because I’m afraid it’ll spoil the magic, but it did prompt me to begin a major Brontë obsession and become a life member of the Brontë Society a couple of years later, which cost a princely £15....I don’t think they let you do that any more! (Though admittedly there’s been major turmoil in the organisation so whether I’d want to join now is another matter)

38. The World I Fell Out Of by Melanie Reid. As recommended by Southeast amongst other PP's. On Good Friday 2010 The Times columnist Melanie Reid (then 52 years old) fell from her horse when it refused a jump breaking her neck and fracturing her lower back leaving her almost paralysed, save for some function to her right shoulder and arm. She details her life post accident where she seems to go through the seven stages of grief for the life and body she left behind: shock and disbelief, denial, guilt, anger and bargaining, depression/loneliness and reflection, reconstruction/working through and finally acceptance.

It's a brave, frank and hard hitting memoir that will stay with me and has definitely had an impact of how I think (possibly not in a good way) it's a real 'There but for the grace of God...' wake up call. I considered myself a fairly low risk type but when the author details the sometimes mundane ways in which the patients she meets on the spinal wards have found themselves there - slipping on ice, misjudging a dive into a holiday pool, having a spinal stroke on a long haul flight (didn't even know spinal stroke was a thing!) or tripping over a coffee table at home, to name but a few - you realise that living is dangerous and I've become a bit risk adverse, 'this bathroom floor is slippy and wet DH', 'don't dive too deep DS' 'careful on the stairs' and so on and so on. Hopefully I'll settle down in due course, but this is a book that leaves its mark.
Reid doesn't shy away from the realities of being a para or tetraplegic and she makes you aware of the realities of living with wheelchair use (crotch height, fart height, ignoring height) I'm sure everyone able bodied who reads this will re-evaluate their interactions with wheel chair users and search their conscience to ensure they aren't guilty of ostracism.
Ultimately Reid preaches 'carpe diem' - your body may not be perfect but if it functions then appreciate it and use it to the full, whilst taking all reasonable precautions to protect it.

39. <strong>Dear Mrs Bird</strong> by A J Pearce, war time, would be, journalist finds herself overstepping the mark when she becomes assistant to a puritanical, cantankerous Agony Aunt. 

This was a nice bit of fluff following The World I Fell Out Of, and initially I enjoyed the light humour and blitz spirit, stiff upper lip on display. However the central 'conflict that needs to be resolved' felt a bit forced and unlikely, and the resolution was all a bit neat too.
Reminded me of the 'story mountain' plans the school kids I work with have to plot. Enjoyable enough for a holiday read though.

I'm really enjoying this conversation about reading a book at the right age. I'm another one who was put off Lawrence for life by studying him for A-Levels, and also read The Catcher In The Rye as an adult and just found it very eye-rolly. Similarly I wonder if The Secret History is my favourite book because I read it as a student and it was good timing - I don't know if I would feel the same way if I'd first read it as an adult.

27. The Ruin, by Dervla McTiernan. I was going to say I loved this, which is perhaps a strange reaction as it touches on some really grim and difficult subjects, but I found it incredibly well done and was surprised to find it's a first novel. I read it straight after The Scholar which is actually her second book - this is the first and establishes her main character, Cormac Reilly. I often get a bit bored of tortured or dysfunctional detectives so having a detective who is a functional adult is a refreshing change! Will definitely read the next in the series when it appears.

28. Hourglass, by Dani Shapiro. Memoir about marriage and memory - this is short, lyrical and beautifully written. I'm now on the lookout for more of her work.

29. Fallen Angel, by Chris Brookmyre. I love Christopher Brookmyre so I knew I'd enjoy this but it was very different from what I was expecting. It's a thriller about family secrets and is set in two timelines - one current and one twenty years ago. Very well done but again much darker subject matter than I was expecting. I think I need some light relief now!

I also DNF'ed Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk. It sounded right up my street but after a couple of chapters I was finding it not just slow going but actively annoying so I gave up.

I was also late to Catcher and I hated it. I only read The Bell Jar a few years ago and I really wished I had read it in my early 20s, assuming my 20s self would have picked up on the same things. There's the rub. Someone needs to write a guide to a lifetime of reading and when best to approach certain books, even if it is too late for me. Too many books, not enough time...

Chessie I think a more supernatural element would have vastly improved The Stranger Diaries. I agree that she definitely could have made more of it.

104. The Habit of Murder (Matthew Bartholomew #23) - Susanna Gregory More medieval murder mystery shenanigans. Because the author has already killed off most of the population of Cambridge, the action moves to the nearby town of Clare where several murders keep Matthew and the monks busy for a while.

I was saving this as it was the last one in the series, but I was delighted to discover there is a new one out next month. I don't have a tv so this is my book equivalent of watching crap soaps.

105. Heartburn - Nora Ephron Woman has a bitter but humorous reaction to her husband's infidelity. A fictionalised version of the author's own marital breakdown. Witty and clever and yet very sad knowing it was largely based in reality. I couldn't say that I loved it, but I do appreciate it is well written and Meryl Streep did a marvellous job with the narration.

Heartburn have not read this Nora Ephron but saw the film years ago and the best line in it was by Jack Nicholson (the husband) after reading a Beatrix Potter type book to his daughter - "What a story" - - delivered as only he could. Is he still alive or in an actors' retirement home in LA?
Also has anyone read Sour Dough" set in San Francisco? this is the choice for a Book Club I am considering but there are some quite damning reviews on Amazon ...