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.

61. A Short History of Drunkenness - Mark Forsyth (Audible)

Brief, light and amusing look at the role of drinking from ancient times to Prohibition, by the author of The Etymologicon. My personal top fact was that a typical price for an encounter with a lady of the night in ancient Sumer was a piglet - so you knew what type of evening a chap was planning if he went to the ale house with a pig under his arm...

62. Less - Andrew Sean Greer

Gently comic literary novel about the misadventures of middling writer Arthur Less, who is fleeing round the world to avoid both his fiftieth birthday and his ex-(not-quite-)boyfriend's wedding. Touching, sweet yet also structurally quite complex, it's the sort of novel you want to read again soon because you sense there are layers you missed the first time. Highly recommended.

51. The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden.

Enjoyable fantasy set in Russia - magic in a time of change where the old ways are being forgotten and magic is slowly fading. I will continue with this series, a nice easy-reading diversion from heavier topics.

52. The Eye in the Door by Pat Barker.

Talking of heavier topics. This is the second book in The Regeneration Trilogy, set during World War I. PTSD, class, homosexuality, The Trenches, feminism, the treatment of anti-war activists - a book of menace and discomfort, appropriate for a time of war and thoughtless loss of life.

I also enjoyed The Glass Castle. Both Elmet and The Idiot are on my tbr but they are a bit marmite so I’m going to get them from the library instead. Easier to DNF. The Ginger Tree looks very interesting, I may snap it up.

Thanks terpsichore, sounds good, think I will go for it. Never read any Tom Wolfe.

Popping by to say hello! Haven't posted recently because my laptop has been playing up. Now that's resolved, I hope to catch up with my reviews this weekend. I have been immersing myself in feminist science fiction, having finished Herland, The Handmaid's Tale and The Testaments

I too really enjoyed The Ginger Tree earlier in the year, imo the perfect holiday read for lovers of historical fiction.

The Bear and the Nightingale sounds good ShakeItOff. Not much happening here other than a re-read of The Pedant in the Kitchen, always amusing.

32. Still Life With Woodpecker - Tom Robbins

Like Jim Dodge's Stone Junction, this was a book I adored as a rebellious teenager. Happily this quirky, comic sort-of-love-story featuring an exiled princess and an outlawed bomber has stood the test of time rather better than SJ - although still juvenile in parts (and there are bits where a man writing about the sex drive of a teenage girl gets a bit cringey), it wins over by sheer exuberance and joie de vivre.

As well as the monthly deals, there's also an Autumn Sale on with about 450 books. Usual mixed bag from what I can see - it does include Lilian Boxfish Goes For A Walk which was discussed here last year (or earlier this year maybe?)

I've also been exploring the Prime Lending Library which is worth a look if you have Prime. Lots of classics, some worthwhile modern classics, interesting non-fiction etc - quite a few that I've paid to buy and could have had for free!

I haven't bought anything in either sale YET - too many good unread books on both my kindle and my shelves.

Michelle Paver's new book is free to download on the Kindle for Prime subscribers. I've done so and might read it as my spooky Halloween book for the month.

I've been laughing at the Autumn sale titles. They are mainly menacing: Dead to Me, Her First Mistake, Winner Kills All and my personal favourite, Terminated.
It's a fun season...

65. The Testaments - Margaret Atwood
I think we all know what this is about! I enjoyed it for what is was but not the amazing novel I was expecting.

66 The Western Wind - Samantha Harvey
Set in a village in the 15th century this is the story of a man swept away by a river - suicide, accident or something else? Told by the village priest the book works backwards to the event.

An easy read but I was waiting for something more to happen the whole way through.

67.The Mothers - Brit Bennett
Set in a black community in California this follows the story of two girls, the local pastors son, the church community and a secret that goes into their adulthood.

68. Yellow Brick War - Danielle Page
The third book of the Dorothy Must Die series. This is a YA series but I've really enjoyed them. It's a new take on the Wizard of Oz whereby Oz is a real place, Dorothy became it's ruler but then became powerhungry on the magic there and turned it into a warped version of the story we know. Amy Gumm from Kansas is trained with the Order of Witches to kill Dorothy and save Oz.

69. The End of Oz - Danielle Page
As above - fourth in the series. This is the last one written but I'm sure there will be more!

I've ready both Elmet which was completely not what I was expecting and got 5 stars from me and The Bear and the Nightingale which is part of a series. Got the third part sitting on my TBR pile.

43 Ramage by Dudley Pope

DH bought me this, as I am a massive Master and Commander fan. Pope’s writing is a lot simpler, with a few rough edges. However the opening certainly drew me in. Third Lieutenant Ramage awakens in the middle of a sea battle to find the crew urging him to wake up as everyone above him has been killed and he must take command of the boat and his captain’s secret orders. A good adventure, but I don’t think I’ll read on. I need more than adventure at the moment.

I also bought Mrs Palfrey. I think I got something else has well but can't currently remember what it is.

Busman's Holiday - Dorothy L Sayers

Regular readers will know how cross I get with these and this had its faults, especially in the first half. Quite a lot of wittering with Peter and the policeman quoting Tennyson at each other etc. It was far too long. BUT it also has some moments of real tenderness, an excellent comedy vicar who had no desire to wank whatsoever, and a really lovely ending. And I think I might have to marry Bunter.

Scuse mistakes. Trying to multitask.

The other one I bought = City of Scandal. My sort of content, although I wasn't massively impressed by the other one I've read by the writer.

116. Where the Crawdads Sing - Delia Owens Abandoned in the marshes of the North Carolina coast as a young child in the 1950s, Kya learns to fend for herself and becomes one with her natural environment. She has limited contact with the nearby townsfolk, but becomes the number one suspect when a body is found near to where she lives. Tried despite any real evidence she faces the death penalty if convicted.

Gorgeous nature writing and a decent coming of age/ romance/ mystery story to go with it. Sad but not cry-bait. I can't remember who recommended this upthread, but thanks, this is one of my standouts for the year.

117. The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle - Stuart Turton Gosford Park meets Groundhog Day. The protagonist, a guest at a house party is stuck at a crumbling country pile until he can work out who has murdered the host's daughter. He is condemned to repeat the day leading up to the murder living in the body of a different guest each time.

I can't say I was blown away by this. I think the idea was a good one, but wasn't that well executed.

118. Recursion - Blake Crouch Reviewed recently by JuneSpoon and also recommended by Cote.

Not my usual choice of genre but a decent enough thriller that rattles along at a great pace. I can see the film potential in it.

Just abandoned Salmon Fishing in the Yemen - Paul Torday about a third of the way in. I think there is quite enough farcical government ridiculousness going on IRL without it invading into my preferred escape method.

I have ordered Fierce Bad Rabbits. I am really looking forward to it.

102 Fleishman is in Trouble by Taffy Brodesser-Akner
I should have loved this as it’s the kind of novel I do enjoy - lots of well observed detail about relationships and people’s lives. But it failed to grab me. Partly, I think, because I listened to it as an audiobook and therefore was missing occasional bits, and partly because it was a case of wrong book, wrong time. I just wasn’t in the mood for rich neurotic Americans wallowing in their own problems. There were some very well made observations about marriage and parenting in there but they got lost in the detail of people being obnoxious and self obsessed.

103 Another Day in the Death of America by Gary Younge
I picked this up after a recommendation here and apologise to whoever it was for not recalling their name - I tried a search but with no success. Anyway, Younge picks a day at random and tells the story of the young people who were shot and killed that day. All male, only one white. It’s hard hitting and hard to read. He’s a British journalist and his bewilderment at a country where guns are so freely available is evident, although he largely steers clear of the politics. The human stories are gut punching as he tracks down family members and teachers to learn about the children and teens who died.

pepe I just read Fleishman and didn’t think it great either, rather a chore to wade through. Disappointing as I like her journalism. It did have good stuff in it but I don’t know - I seem to have read a few too many books lately all about rich people problems in New York. Someone can be a doctor and not be considered wealthy. Mothers are either working at amazing well-paid jobs which is very hard for them, or are rich enough not to have to, and they can do nothing, and neither is the situation for any mothers I know. I need a palette cleanser.

65: City of Girls - Elizabeth Gilbert

I have no idea why I got this out of Borrowbox except for the fact that it was one of the few things available on there that looked half-readable, and I'd vaguely heard about it - anyway, that'll teach me.

Vivian Morris looks back on her long and eventful life in a letter (a, er, 600-page letter) to 'Angela' - whose identity we don't discover until very late on in the book - from her arrival in New York as a naive young girl in the 1940s. There she goes to live with her flamboyant Aunt Peg and work at her theatre, the ramshackle yet (naturally) magnificent Lily Playhouse.

There's much breathless description of the sexual shenanigans Vivian and her showgirl friends indulge in (all of it sounding pretty wearisome tbh) until the fun stops when Vivian makes a catastrophic mistake. Thereafter the flow stutters and weirdly peters out....there's an attempt at a narrative arc but it's all rather effortful and for such a long book, fatally thin on plot. Vivian isn't interesting or charismatic enough as a character to sustain it, although Gilbert seems to think she is, and the last half of the book descends into 'this happened, then that happened'.
Quite honestly, if you're thinking of reading this, I wouldn't bother.

terpsichore I ditched City of Girls after 70 or so pages. “I wasn’t one of those girls that only realised she’s pretty when she gets to the Big City, Angela. I always knew” “I wasn’t one of those girls who grew up not realising I was poor, Angela, I grew up not realising I was terribly rich”. I thought I couldn’t take much more of it, Angela, and I couldn’t.

Remus I love that your criteria for vicars in books includes whether they want to wank or not!!

179. No Time To Wave Goodbye by Jacqueline Mitchard

This is the sequel to The Deep End Of The Ocean, which followed the Cappadora family coping with son Ben being kidnapped at age 3 then being found as a teenager. I really loved the original book. The sequel, in which Ben’s older brother makes a film about kidnappings which brings attention to the family again, is nowhere near is good but still nice to catch up with the characters.

180. The Family Upstairs by Lisa Jewell

Out of the blue Libby inherits a big house in Chelsea and discovers she was found there as a baby along with three dead bodies. The story is told in the present and the past as we gradually find out what happened in the house. I thought this was great.

181. The Testaments by Margaret Atwood

Agree with other reviewers that this didn’t really add anything and didn’t have the shock value that The Handmaid’s Tale did. I found the two teenage girls’ voices hard to distinguish. I did like finding out about Aunt Lydia’s background.

182. The Secret Rooms by Catherine Bailey

The 9th Duke Of Rutland died in a set of five rooms in the servants quarters, which he refused to leave. This book investigates why. It starts well and I was intrigued, but ends up going into far too much irrelevant detail which bored me. There’s also a few loose ends which is frustrating although understandable as it’s a true story and lots of the family’s documents were destroyed (all part of the mystery).

183. Becoming by Michelle Obama

I listened to this on Audible read by Michelle herself and I’m glad I listened rather than read - it really added something hearing Michelle tell her own story. It started slowly - her childhood wasn’t really that interesting - but once she met Barack it became really engrossing. My favourite bits were the day to Day life in The White House. I’d never really appreciated that the kids couldn’t just go to a friend’s house for tea - everyone had to be security vetted in advance etc. I thought Michelle came across really well.

Yes chessie was wondering what someone new to the thread might make of that casual aside.

184. Lie With Me by Sabine Durrant

I really enjoyed this and stayed up late last night to finish it. The narrator, Paul, is very unlikeable. He worms his way in to a group of friends and starts a relationship with one of the women, Alice, purely to get himself a free holiday to Greece in Alice’s holiday home, and ultimately to try and move in with her as his previous lodging is no longer available. He’s a liar and an opportunist with an inflated sense of his own importance. He goes out to Greece with plans to manipulate them all into getting what he wants. Very well written - you don’t like Paul or want him to succeed but you’re drawn in to his story.

Satsuki I really should have been warned about City of Girls given that it was by the author who brought us Eat Pray Love. But at least that book (or the film of it, anyway) prompted one of my favourite Peter Bradshaw reviews

Love that film review, Terp!

Didn't buy anything in the Kindle sales. The Autumn Sale does have a book by my favourite author, Quartet in Autumn, by Barbara Pym. It's probably not the best place to start if you're new to Pym though, as it's one of her later, bleaker books. "There was something to be said for a nice cup of tea and a cosy chat about crematoria".

52. Recovery: Freedom from our addictions - Russell Brand Been meaning to read this since it came out and I saw him doing some interviews which I’d thought made it sound relevant to the ‘three principles’ approach to mental health I’d been interested in. It’s not actually that relevant. Basically his take on/ advertisement for the 12 Step Program.

That’s very good terpsichore I hadn’t read the book but I began watching the film and stopped because it was so dire. I got this at the library as I quite enjoyed her book Big Magic which is about making time for creativity and I got The Signature of All Things on a Kindle deal which I thought looked good but am now trepidatious about. Oh dear.

The Signature of All Things is actually rather good, I think. I'd rather gnaw my arm off than read Eat, Pray, Love again and it never occurred to me when I bought it that it was by the same author or I wouldn't have picked it off the shelf. I only realised at the end when I thought "that was good, I wonder what else she has written" and went looking. So you may not be disappointed by it, Satsuki.