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.

cote so funny I mentioned your Cloud Atlas thread a few posts ago and you show up

Ha ha at Beetlejuice bibliomania hadn’t seen that

I might as well update my list while I'm here

37. Kill Decision by Daniel Suarez

This was brilliant US military makes extensive use of unmanned drones at present but they are remotely controlled by a human operator. In order to make them more efficient they experiment with the ant swarming model, where there is only one consciousness and it learns about its environment and the hostiles in it through the ants that leave chemical indices on what they see in their path. The more something/someone is tagged, the more it is attached by the group.

It's a fascinating story that is told in a fast-paced and totally credible way. You can clearly imagine the near future where soldiers are obsolete and armies are made of little drones that have no problem finding and destroying their target without any human intervention - persisting forever, wherever the target hides.

I've been a fan of Daniel Suarez, with his real-world technical knowledge and inspired stories about what possibly lies in our very near future with the way internet and AI are developing since I read his books Daemon and its sequel Freedom in 2017. Another book of his that I read last year called Influx was also very interesting. I recommend his books to everyone here.

38. Change Agent by Daniel Suarez

Of course, I had to continue reading more of his books This was another interesting one, about the near future where CRISPR genetic editing of adults opens the door to a weird new world where people can literally (physically) change into other people.

An INTERPOL agent feels a sting in his arm in a crowded underground station and wakes up in a nightmare where people think he is a crime lord... and understands why that particular crime syndicate's top men change every couple of years and the previous ones found killed. He now needs to run before he can gather together a few people who believe him and take on the criminals, hoping to get his identity back.

39. Delta V by Daniel Suarez

Yes, I was on a bit of a Daniel Suarez run this summer In this one, we are taken on a wild ride about asteroid mining.

As far-fetched as the idea sounds, it actually makes a lot of sense when the author explains it. Our resources are not infinite on this planet - we have to find more. And we can't stay on this one planet forever if we intend to multiply like we have been doing - we have to spread to other planets.

... and in order to do that, we must find our raw materials elsewhere and construct our ships and habitats outside of the deep gravity well that is the Earth.

This is a great story with interesting character development - a rarity in SF, for sure, but also necessary in this case because the characters spend years in close quarters. I very much enjoyed it and would recommend it to everyone here.

Thanks Cote - I think I will give it one last try!

Hi Cote, yes I'm planning to read Miracles of Life quite soon, and also The Kindness of Women, though I've been warned the latter may be a disappointment.

It's been ages since I posted. Have been so busy in IRL that everything is passing me by. Some stuff good, some stuff not so but have been trying to read. Have no idea when I last updated but popping in to say that I was less than impressed with The Testaments . Felt overly long and not at all like the style of ** the original Handmaids Tale. So disappointed as I was really looking forward to it.
Best book I have read recently was The Caravaners by Elizabeth von Arnim. Going to post a link to review I put on the blog, because I am too lazy to write it again. But it was the funniest thing I have read in ages. Written at the turn of the century by Katherine Mansfield's cousin.
In other book news I have for the first time ever abandoned a book club book. This week I will be going having not read The Murmur Of Bees. Don't know if it was because my head was so full of other stuff but I couldn't focus on it at all. Will be quite liberating to be that person who 'hasn't read the book!!'

Link to Caravaners review 🙄 heads all over bookbound.blog/2019/09/22/book-review-the-caravaners-by-elizabeth-von-armin/

Marking place (and waving to Cote).

Currently reading Meddling Kids by Edgar Cantero which I think has been mentioned a couple of times. Very much enjoying it so far, although it has its faults (metaphors which make precisely zero sense being one of them).

Kindle Daily Deals good this morning: Touching the Void, The Five by Hallie Rubenhold (been in my TBR for ages, about the victims of Jack the Ripper, who have been poorly served by those telling their story up to now), and the Country Girls trilogy by Edna O'Brien

keith oh great. I’ve been wanting Country Girls

Hey All. Late to the challenge as I’ve been finishing a degree and stuff. Just getting back into novel reading! Really want to read more classics. Anyway this year I have read:

1. The Salt Path- Radnor Winn — Best thong about this book is the cover. I am a Rambler so I do like walking books but this just fell a bit flat for me.
2. The Moonstone - Wilkie Collins. — loved this one and in particular the section narrated by Drusilla Clack “Satan among the sofa cushions” 😁
3. Notes on a scandal - Zoe Heller — loved the dry astute narrator and overall pace of the book.

Currently reading - Offshore by Penelope Fitzgerald. - this was on prime -rereads thing
Little Women - Louisa May Alcott.

38. The Accidental Tourist by Anne Tyler

This is the first book by Anne Tyler I’ve read and one of my favourite books I’ve read in recent years. It is about how a man bound by routine and order approaches the act of living when the ultimate in disorder and destruction befalls him. It tackles the big themes of trauma, loss, what we need from life and what gives it its meaning, through a focus on its smallest details; its inconclusive conversations, its minor irritations, disobedient dogs and grammatical errors. Macon Leary is “The Accidental Tourist” because he writes guide books for people who need to travel a lot but want to do so with as little inconvenience and spontaneity as possible, and this also describes the relationship he has to his own life, before tragedy forces him to take a little more baggage with him than usual, and to allow room in his journey for detours. I felt moved but not depressed and like I was in the hands of a very very accomplished writer, and she’s so prolific it is exciting to think there is much more where that came from, and I will never mix her up with Anne Patchett again.

39. The Cost of Living by Deborah Levy

I read the first volume of Levy’s memoirs, Things I Don’t Want to Know last year and though I quite enjoyed it I don’t remember being particularly engaged by it. This second volume however grabbed me and wouldn’t let go. It is the author’s story of how she attempts to reframe her life after leaving her marriage of many years and packing up the family home she created with others at the forefront of her mind. Her new quarters are cramped, cold, and her new start uncertain and stilted, but it is freedom, and this book is about the hard and sometimes painful work freedom requires, as well as meditation on the work of women, motherhood, daughterhood, and how to carve your name and take your place in the world. It is about coming to terms with the past and setting your own terms for the present, and I found it moving and thoughtful and astute and interesting, which is a lot of things to find in under 200 pages. I’ve never read one of her novels but have the desire to now - would anyone recommend any of hers in particular to begin with?

Hi Roz 👋

I have Offshore lined up too and loved The Moonstone

The Accidental Tourist is also a funny book despite the subject, if that didn’t come across in my review.

Satsuki, my unhelpful (and very personal) take on Deborah Levy would be she is a much better memoir writer than novelist. I have always struggled with her novels which really are not my thing - overwritten and narratives which leave me thinking “huh”. However, her telling of her own story is I think much better. On the plus side the novels are short so if you choose to ignore me you don't have much to lose if you don't like them either!

I fell off this thread a few months back. I've been readinga lot of ARC books in a bid to save money as due to self employemnt and illness I have been really skint. I've read some stinkers but also some good books which I'll review. Most of them are out now.

A Single Thread by Tracey Chevalier.

I often find her books a bit hit and miss but liked this new one. The story fell apart a little towards the end, but I find many books do that. A good, easy read with interesting themes.
Violet is one of the "leftover" women, the 2 million or so women who are single due to the effects of the Great War. She lives a penniliess existence, having broken free from her mother's stultifying house and moved a few towns away to Winchester and a joyless boading house managing on her meagre wages from typing up insurance forms in an office. At 38 she is thought of as "middle aged", too old for marriage and living in poverty (fish paste or marmite snadwiches for lunch and beans or sardine on toast for dinner) as womens wages are way below those of men. She wanders into the Cathedral to enjoy the peace and the colourful windows one afternoon when she finds herself in the midst of a ceremony dedicating beautiul, bold coloured new petit point kneelers made by "broderers", volunteer women stitchers. Looking for friendship and something to do that will show she "was here" (the kneelers have the initials of the maker stitched into them) Violet reolves to join the borderers. Here she makes friends with two younger women who have a "very close" relationship that is causing aprobation in the sewing circle. She is taken under the wing of Louisa Pesel (a real life character who oversaw the mammoth task of producing kneelers, altar cloths, bench cushions, alms purses etc for the cathedral) and meets a bell ringer, an older man called Arthur with whom she starts an emotional affair. However, going on a short walking holiday on her in the area she becomes aware of the menancing presence of a local farmer who starts to stalk her.

This book really delves into the vibrancy of the petit point work the women are doing, dreamed up by Lousia Pesel. Stitches are described and explained. Arthur's bell ringing is also described in great detail, as is the architecture of the Cathedral and the surrounding countryside. The sense of foreboding when you suspect someone is following you is described to a tee, as is the disdain that others treat you with when you are a "spinster". I read this book in a few large chunks as it really gripped me. It also inspired me to look up images of the borderers work (which is currently being repaired and cleaned) and Louisa Pesel's books on embroidery. I really fancy taking a trip to Winchester now to check it all out. One of those books you don't want to end. If you are interested in life between the Wars especially for women, then this will really suit you, even if like me, you thought you had little interest in embrodery or bell ringing.

The Testaments by Margaret Atwood. Like toomuchsplother I was disappointed in this. It really didn't have the same tone or sense of menace and claustrophobia that the HMT had. It flowed along quite nicely, very easy reading but it left me unfulfilled. I'm surprised it made the Booker shortlist.

The Man who saw Everything by Deboarh Levy.
The book follows Saul Adler over 3 decades of his life from beautiful young bisexual man in the late 80's to paunchy middle age in the present day, jumping backwards and forwards in time. after he is knocked down on the famous Abbey Road zebra crossing. This book felt like style over substance for me. I didn't like it and I'm not sure my perservernce was worth it. None of the characters behaved in a rational way, nor were they likeable, no one questioned things or behaved towards one another in a coherent way. The narrative and plot were. like "Luna", one of the characters (short for lunatic) , all a bit crazy. As the plot develops you can see why everything feels a bit off and disjointed (and I won't say how as I don't want to spoiler although it is fairly easy to guess early on) but it still didn't make things pay off for me. Saul, is sexually incontinent and at the most inappropriate junctions with seemingly no feelings of remorse , the comment that Saul "doesn't care for his own life so has no care for the lives of others" doesn't really explain it. It all seems dreamy and meandering (this is explained later) and the puzzle pieces start to fit) but it felt like a bad 1970's free love "trip"novel. I feel it was an experiment in writing that had a good premise but hasn't quite worked. Still, it is on the Booker long list and the Guardian have given it a long stellar review.

The Giver of Stars by Jojo Moyes

I enjoyed this book. It is a light, easy read that zips along. It is a fictionalised/imagined account of women working for a Pack horse library service that was set up by Eleanor Roosevely in the 1930's to help promote literacy in hard to reach places. The women who service the trails must have been amazing. In the story, a posh young English woman who has rashly married a handsome American whist he was visiting London, but whom she hardly knows moves with him to the small town of Baileyville, Kentucky. They live with his alcoholic, bible bashing widowed father and find they have little in common added to which her husband is asexual. Alice, therefore jumps at the chance to joinn the fledgling library service and the narrative follows Alice and the four other women who also sign up through the trials and tribulations of their relationships and the dangers of their work. I had to keep reminding myself that thestory was set in the 1930's and not the Victorian age, as Baileyville certainly felt from that era.. The narrative is a little predictable but it carries the reader along nicely. This is the first JoJo Moyles book I've read so can't compare it to her other works. I can see it will be very popular.

Jojo was on the Women's hour podcast (BBC sounds) a few days ago talking a bit about the book and modern day Kentucky She seemed really down to earth and nice.

The World that We Knew by Alice Hoffman
This was really beautiful book to read, heartbreaking and hopeful in turns. I read the Museum of Extraordinary things a while back and found it enjoyable and interesting but this book was even better, quite magical and poignantly sad. It is set during the second world war, opening in Berlin and then moving for most of the narrative to France. Hanni's beautiful, blonde haired daughter is almost raped by a soldier whilst keeping watch for her mother who is trying to steal some items from a derelict shop to use to buy food. Hanni kills the soldier but realises that she must get her daughter out of France as the round up of Jews is intensifying. She will need to stay to look after her bedridden mother so she uses the last of her family treasures to pay a rabbi's daughter to create a Golem woman who will be tasked with getting her daughter to safety. The long trip to safety and the people they meet along the way and their lives under the occupation are explored in the narrative. Magic realism is used to describe the demons and wolves (the soldiers) that are proliferating,how the Golem can speak to the birds and animals and see glimpses of the future and the visits of Azriel, the angel of death, so beautiful and strangely comforting for those about to die. I don't want to spoiler so won't describe the plot in detail. Suffice to say I read this book in every spare moment I had. I thought it was beautifully crafted.

pepe that does chime with my impression of her books - I’ve not really been tempted by the novels before now. I certainly have enough to read without seeking one out immediately, so shall see if one crosses my path!

Finished Offshore Was quite boring and mercifully short. Only took me a couple of hours. I was glad I hadn't paid for it.

Just started The Pursuit of Love by Nancy Mitford. 20 pages in and I think I will enjoy it. I bought it today with some other short books. I don't know if I will reach 50 books but I do read quite fast when I want to and if I get through my shorter books then I might have a chance.