50 Book Challenge 2019 Part Seven

[southeastdweller]

Welcome to the seventh, and possibly final, 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, the fifth one here and the sixth one here.

How've you got on this year?

30. Munich by Robert Harris A re-read. It's a good and enjoyable page turner for me, but for some reason the author's passion for the actual history of the agreement seems to soften his prose and his focus. No competitor to Fatherland or Conclave. Great and sympathetic portrait of Chamberlain and other historical figures though.

Fortuna, I'm rather relieved to me another Robert McFarlane sceptic on here. Like you, I like his topics, but am unmoved by his execution.

Finished Ghostland : in search of a haunted country, by
Edward Parnell. Described on the jacket as a mixture of psychogeography and grief memoir, which is likely to be enticing to only a select few of us. The author lost his parents and brother very young, and in his desolation, describes travelling around the bleaker countryside of the UK, visiting locations where horror films were shot and where the writers of ghost stories lived. I feel goodwill towards this book while at the same time I don't think he entirely succeeded in what he was trying to do. The weakness is that the nuggets he provides about the films and books aren't all that interesting. (Although he does talk about Sebald, which is a bit of a stretch for his chosen subject, and I was surprised about how much Sebald apparently fictionalised, given how artless he appears. Sebald is clearly something of a model for Parnell, what with the photos and the meandering, but he doesn't quite pull off the banal but somehow resonant atmosphere that Sebald does). There is also quite a lot about bird-watching.

Now on I must belong somewhere : three men, two migrations, one endless journey, by Jonathan Dean, another non-fiction acccount. The author's Jewish great grandfather fled Russian pogroms for Vienna just before WWI, from where his grandfather fled to England just ahead of WWII. He draws parallels with the European refugee crisis of the last few years. It sounds off-puttingly worthy, but the author is honest about his failure to take any significant action as a result of his knowledge ("I was so angry at the invasion of Iraq that I once nearly went on a march"). Big history goes on all around you and you're there scribbling in your diary about the film you just saw.

My library reservation of Gotta Get Theroux This, by Louis Therous just came through, so that is next up.

If you think etiquette could be a source of humour, Chessie then I would highly recommend Miss Manners’ Guide to Excruciatingly Correct Behaviour by Judith Martin. The rules are predominantly American, but there is an abundance of virtuoso comic writing.

73. Sex Power Money - Sara Pascoe (Audible) *
*
In this follow-up to Animal, the comedian continues her exploration of evolutionary biology, looking at its relation to porn and sex work. I found this a little rambling, though entertaining enough. Her attempt to mesh biological determinism (men and women behave in different ways because of their evolutionary past) with trendy woke views (not all women are born in female bodies) was mind-boggling at times.

74. Journeys to the Other Side of the World - David Attenborough

Compilation of Attenborough's accounts, written in the early 60s, of his quests to New Guinea and the Pacific, Madagascar and Australia. I really enjoyed the first volume of this earlier in the year (Adventures of a Young Naturalist) and this had a similar fascination: explorations in a late-colonial world that no longer exists but is still just about in living memory. However, this was more focused on the anthropological than the zoological, and some of the attitudes to so-called 'primitive' people were jarringly of their time: in the first section, Attenborough seemed to be ranking peoples according to how readily they adopted Christianity. However, it was clear that he approached individuals with respect, and his admiration for the Australian Aboriginal ability to forge a way of life in the conditions of the Outback shone through. The writing has an old-fashioned charm that makes it a very soothing read.

Are you allowed on the thread if you don't like Robert MacFarlane's books?

I do like them but I have found Underworld harder to get in to than his others. I wonder if he's had his moment?

Hit send too soon. How about John Lister-Kaye as an alternative suggestion?

It does feel quite daring, space

81: Towards the End of the Morning - Michael Frayn

An early novel by Frayn, published in 1967 and set in Fleet Street (which still then existed as the home of the newspaper industry). In the crossword and nature-notes department, epically frustrated John Dyson and his underling, diffident, unambitious Bob Bell - exhausted by fending off the unwanted attentions of his neighbour Mrs Mounce - drowse their way through each day in their clutter-filled office, never quite getting on top of whatever work it is they're supposed to do, and repairing to the local pub every lunchtime to meet their equally useless colleagues. Ultimately they glimpse their fate in the person of an unexpected new arrival who heralds a future they hadn't imagined.

This was very wittily written, as you'd expect, and I relished many of the set-pieces, but I wouldn't call it laugh-out-loud hilarious (I did snort in several places, though). There's not much in the way of plot but it's very endearing, somehow, and as a portrait of a now-totally-vanished era, it has an added fascination.

I'm on my 99th book.
It's not great The Beekeeper of New York by Summer Luqman . A bit odd. There's a few things going on but the main character has a pretend/imaginary baby which I'm just about.

Anyway, I'm wondering should I read a "great book" for #100?
Maybe Wuthering Heights , a firm favourite hmmmm

Are you allowed on the thread if you don't like Robert MacFarlane's books?

I've said a lot worse about significantly better books

June I didn't bother to pick anything worthy or exciting for my milestones, more because it was a surprise to hit them, so I went with whatever was next. I figured the good stuff will stand out more than the position on a list. However I do understand the urge to read something worthwhile but not Wuthering Heights

Are you allowed on the thread if you have no opinion on Robert MacFarlane having never read any of his books?

I was wondering if you were allowed on if you have never even heard of him??!

Are you allowed on if you are Robert MacFarlane?

227. Through The Wall by Caroline Corcoran

This is gold from the POV of two women who live in flats next door to each other. They don’t know each other apart from what they hear through the walls. Each is convinced the other has the perfect life but things go too far when one of them becomes convinced someone’s been in her flat. This was OK - it was fairly obvious where it was going from very early on and there were lots of errors in the writing (for example saying one of them lay prone staring at the ceiling). It was also hard to like either of the two main characters. Having said all that the story kept me interested.

I’m ambivalent about Robert MacFarlane and so’s my wife!

50 Who was Changed and Who Was Dead by Barbara Comyns

This was an interesting, creepy little book which reminded me a bit of We Have Always Lived in the Castle with its talk of poisonings and madness in a village. It is an odd book and dark in tone, and one thing it does particularly well is move between the viewpoints of many different characters with ease, so you feel like you are getting an aerial view of the town, dipping in and out of the houses and eavesdropping on thoughts to put together a narrative. A small slice of English country gothic, and a short one to reach 50.

Satsuki Cripes, let's hope you aren't him then

Has anybody read any of John Lister-Kaye's books?

That was in reference to the Robert MacFarlane chat btw!

How about if you've looked at one of his books in a bookshop once, thought 'ooh, that's pretty', read two pages, felt vaguely patronised by the wise but benevolent voice of the patriarchy, and swiftly closed it again?

Have just looked up John Lister Kaye spacepyramid - looks right up my street, so he's going on the TBR. In a similar vein I have enjoyed Alistair Moffat though he's more all about the history, his Hidden Ways is more landscape-y and nature-y.

felt vaguely patronised by the wise but benevolent voice of the patriarchy

Can't remember the exact details, but I remembered being irritated by McFarlane being all Celtic Twilight-y about the portrayal of some boat captain. Very Othering.

I haven't tried John Lister Kaye. I like landscape stuff in relatively small doses, mixed in with a discussion of archaeology or literature.

Nature's Child is a good JLK book to start with, well, that's the one I started with anyway. I also enjoyed Song of the Rolling Earth which may appeal to you bibliomania though it's not archaelogy or literature so what do I know!

MuseumofHam I like the Alistair Moffat books too.

I'll keep an eye out for JLK. I admit I DNF the book I tried by Alistair Moffat.

I've put both JLK and Moffat on my list. They sound more my thing.

I won't be entertaining Macfarlane again. I was somewhat miffed that in book with the strapline A Journey On Foot he pissed off on a boat for about a quarter of it.

Just found this thread! How did I ever miss it?

I wonder if anyone has read Grandmothers by Salley Vickers?

I have tried to read her books but find them incredibly twee and the characters talk like people in a play in 1940. I just don't get why literally everyone who reads her books loves them. It is being serialised on radio 4.