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.

57: Real Tigers - Mick Herron

As I'm now hopelessly addicted to this series (of which this is the 3rd), what the heck, I may as well admit it to all and sundry (although, in my own defence, I am reading other things too; I just haven't managed to finish them before this).

Jackson Lamb and his eternally-maligned 'slow horses' get tangled up in the wily schemes of spymasters Ingrid Tearney and Diana Taverner at 'the Park' (Spy HQ) as their struggle for precedence continues, and once again manage to come out on top. The formula to these novels is fully apparent now, but they're no less enjoyable. Very amusing, compulsively readable and not at all badly written - Herron has a very adroit turn of phrase.

I've already bought two of his non-Slough House books because I'm panicking slightly about finishing the 5-book series....

Reni Eddo-Lodge's wonderful book, Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race, is on Kindle Daily Deal today.

You've worn me down @Terpsichore and I've just downloaded Slow Horses - only £1.99 on Kindle. It's not just your fault, my mum has also been telling me about them so it was a dual attack and I couldn't sustain my defences any longer...

whippetwoman

Oh dear, I do hope you enjoy it, after I've been bigging up the series

42. The Broken by Tamar Cohen. Hannah and Josh can't help getting drawn in to taking sides while their friends Dan and Sasha are going through a messy divorce. I was surprised to see this described as a psychological thriller; it read to me more like chick lit (albeit with a 'twist' that is more characteristic of the former than the latter). Over use of suspense - the characters' dark pasts and current secrets are hinted at for ages and the reveal is usually something of an anti climax (eg what is the thing that Hannah has put in the back of her wardrobe and is trying not to think about?). Pretty rubbish really.

Terpsichore - i started off liking the Mick Herron series but then found something a bit off-key and nasty about them - each character's flaws were exploited by Jackson Lamb for his own purposes and he didn't seem to have any redeeming features. i was the poster formerly known as pencil museum & so am always on the look out for an engaging series such as this but i had reservations. The Boris Johnson political type character was very true to life & I am surprised they got away with that.

52. Lethal White by Robert Galbraith

The 4th in the Strike mystery novels by J K Rowling. I’ve seen some negative reviews of this but I much preferred it to the last 2. Cuckoo remains a far superior novel but I found this gripping and the back drop of the 2012 Olympics was excellent.

Jess Phillips was thanked in the acknowledgements for giving Rowling the tour of parliament and I love the image of those two exploring the place. I also thought the commentary on the egos of both the left and the right and the lack of awareness people on both sides of the political spectrum have was pretty apt.

All got a bit James Bond, villain explains every action before finishing things towards the end. However, surprisingly I’m back on board with the series.

I have just finished Volume I of War and Peace, which was relatively painless! Question :does this count towards the book count, or does it only count when I have read the whole 1200 pages??

58: On the Move - Oliver Sacks

Sacks wrote an earlier memoir of his boyhood fascination with science ( Uncle Tungsten ) but this book was published in 2015 - the year of his death - and takes a much broader look back across his whole remarkable life.

From his early years as a medical student in London - when he was an ardent motorbiker and member of the 'Ton-Up' club on the North Circular Road - to his weightlifting exploits on Muscle Beach in California, the narrative is full of surprises. Despite his eventual eminence and fame, the impression I took away from this book was of an essentially shy, gentle, unconfident man who sought refuge in science and in his patients - Sacks was gay but found forming relationships difficult, and was celibate for decades.
His humanity and enormous care for his patients shines through, as does his formidable intellect and unquenchable curiosity about not just his own specialism of neurology, but everything.
Even though the narrative does get a bit meandering and peters out towards the end, this is one those reads that makes you wish you'd met the author.

74. The Woman in Cabin 10 by Ruth Ware

Travel journalist Lo is on a luxury press launch on a boutique cruise ship which all turns out to be much less relaxing than she hoped.
Lo’s an unreliable narrator, medicating herself with alcohol on top of antidepressants after a traumatic break in.

She’s woken in the night by screaming, and a big splash, and when she runs to the veranda she sees bloody smears on the other side of the glass privacy screen.
But when she calls for help - she’s told that no one is missing, the cabin next to hers was empty all along, and is she sure she didn’t imagine the whole thing?

And Lo’s efforts to find out what’s really going on might get her into an awful lot of trouble...

It got a bit far fetched in places, but okay easy reading.

Question for Christie fans- was Roger Ackroyd the first unreliable narrator?

oops - spoiler alert - Roger's doctor

Theres’s a Christie thread in AIBU at the moment Discerning They sound like experts - maybe they could answer you?

I think it depends what you mean : he is certainly often cited as a famous example, but surely Catherine Morland is one, too, to an extent? When was Rebecca written compared to Roger Ackroyd?

I meant My Cousin Rachel but Rebecca also is.

Wikipedia is very interesting on this and gives lots of examples much older than RA.

Piggy it's up to you, but personally I think it would be fine to count each of the volumes separately. It's on my tbr list too and has been for several years but its length certainly is rather daunting!

Certainly is : but each volume is actually very short , mercifully!

Piggy I counted War and Peace as one book and thought most people did when they read it here the other year when a few of us had it on the go. It didn’t occur to me to split it, but I see my list as keeping track of whole books read and am not so bothered about the numbers. But it is between you and your list!

I read a review of Ducks, Newburyport from the Booker shortlist and that is apparently 1000 pages as one run-on sentence

splother I’m sorry you have been having a hard time

I’ve been reading but getting behind on updating.

As to unreliable narrators I always think of Poe’s Tell-Tale Heart as an early example but that was a short story.

Catherine Morland isn’t the narrator

Urgh didn’t mean to post then!

Catherine Morland isn’t the narrator but you see her point of view so I don’t know if it would count but I certainly don’t think Austen gets enough credit for her innovation in the novel in comparison to the attention she gets for comedy and subject matter.

I mean that ducks thing sounds ridiculous. It's Like The Rotters Club on acid.

I forgot that Catherine Morland wasn't the narrator

Can I redeem myself by citing Nelly Dean?

Oh Nelly Dean! Yes.

I loved The Rotters Club and had forgotten that it had the longest sentence, I doubt you forget after a thousand pages though. I love a big chunky book if it’s a quest or a saga, but I’m getting a bit put off by such long books that are just people wanging on. And I say that as someone who doesn’t mind a challenging read but I often think 1000 pages, you had better be Tolstoy.

30. Sirens Of Titen - Kurt Vonnegut

First time I've read this in a couple of decades; Vonnegut's first novel, it's a kind of tragicomic SF farce taking in time travel, war, religion, and what it means to search for purpose in life. It's not as subtle or concise as his later work but being Vonnegut is still thought-provoking and compassionate.

I quite fancy Ducks but still have Infinite Jest to get through this year and definitely won't manage both!