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50 Book Challenge 2020 Part One

999 replies

southeastdweller · 01/01/2020 09:17

Welcome to the first thread of the 50 Book Challenge for this year.

The challenge is to read fifty books (or more!) in 2020, though reading fifty isn't mandatory. Any type of book can count, and please try to let us all know your thoughts on what you've read.

Who's in for this year?

OP posts:
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6
Cherrypi · 05/01/2020 07:10

1. Conviction by Denise Mina
A woman listens to a true crime podcast about murder on a ship and realises she knows the victim. She then investigates.

This was a great first read of 2020. I became aware of Denise Mina on the great Scottish book club show on BBC Scotland and then this was a Reece Witherspoon bookclub pick. Pacy, quirky thriller with the podcast use woven in well. I read this on BorrowBox.

I was wrong about the goodreads challenge start date having to be 2020 to count just needs to have the finish date in 2020.

ShakeItOff2000 · 05/01/2020 08:34

State of Wonder is my favourite Ann Patchett so far. I think I’ll get The Dutch House on Audible at some point this year. I saw a YouTube interview with Reese Witherspoon where AP talks about opening a large book shop, Parnassus in Nashville, as all the other book shops in the city had been closed down. They both came across as loving books and wanting to create a thriving and thinking community.

nowanearlyNicemum · 05/01/2020 08:43
  1. The Unexpected Joy of Being Sober - Catherine Gray

Autobiographical experience of recovering from alcohol addiction and achieving lasting sobriety.

As well as being a personal tale of 'drinker to teetotaller' this was very well researched and includes a host of useful links to more scientific sources, and further personal accounts.

KnucklesMcGinty · 05/01/2020 08:51

Book 1 done - Wakenhyrst by Michelle Paver. Not my usual thing at all, as I usually stick to classics, but very enjoyable. Think it's Gothic suspense. I only got it because it popped up on Kindle unlimited.
I'm also joining the David Copperfield thread, so will have to keep a couple of books on the go at once.

estherfrewen · 05/01/2020 09:04

May I join please?

1 Suspicions of Mr Whicher - Kate Summerscale

Enjoyed very much. I have read a couple of others she has written and this was just as good. I’d read about the case before and I’m sure about twenty five years ago I read a more modern version of the same story set in India but I can’t remember what it was called,

I read Wakenhyrst last year and enjoyed it a lot. My son really likes Michelle Paver so I’ve read them after him.

DamnItsSevenAM · 05/01/2020 09:20

Thanks bettybattenburg, Rivers of London was on my "interested" list but I wasn't sure how I'd get on. 99p is worth a try though!

MogTheSleepyCat · 05/01/2020 09:48

I have also bought a few more of the Rivers of London instalments. The first two in the series were great but the third, Whispers Underground I wasn't at all bothered by. At 99p though, I couldn't say no to four and five!

Like many others on the challenge last year and again on this thread, I am also currently reading The Hunting Party ; as a previous poster said, this is the time of year for it.

TheTurnOfTheScrew · 05/01/2020 10:00

And 2020 is underway.
1.March Violets by Philip Kerr. Bernie Gunther is a private detective working in 1930s Berlin. His latest job is for a wealthy industrialist, whose daughter and son-in-law have been murdered. However, the client's main concern is to track down valuables taken from their safe. Gunther goes into battle against a cruel and corrupt Nazi regime.

As noted before, this is a decent noirish thriller story. The writing is sometimes distractingly cheesy, and the women characters are only broads or secretaries, who have a bit of a tenancy to breast boobily around. However the plot paced enough for me to continue with the series (I got the first three bundled together for a quid on Kindle).

Terpsichore · 05/01/2020 10:15

estherfrewen I know the one you mean - Francis King's Act of Darkness , which is rather good, as I remember.

Onto book 3 for me, which was The House Opposite - Barbara Noble

One of my standout reads of 2018 was a Persephone reprint of Noble's Doreen, about an evacuee. This novel (an ebook from the pleasingly-named Furrowed Middlebrow imprint) is also set during the war but couldn't be more different.

Elizabeth Simpson lives in the London suburb of Saffron Park with her parents, fire-watching by night and commuting by day to her job in Soho with a firm of importers. She has a sort-of boyfriend serving in the Forces. But what nobody knows is that for three years she's actually been having an all-consuming affair with her married boss, Alex Foster, whose wife and children are living in the country for the duration.

The other main character is Elizabeth's neighbour, 18-year-old Owen Cathcart, waiting to go into the RAF. His intense hero-worship of his cousin, Derek, a trainee pilot, leaves him in terrified confusion that he might be homosexual (never spelled out as such, but it's pretty clear).

What happens to Elizabeth and Owen, and their families, is deftly interwoven against a gripping background of the Blitz, which is superbly evoked with gritty candour. The novel was written in 1943 so it's contemporary and clearly by someone who lived through the experience of picking her way over piles of rubble in Oxford Street. I couldn't put this down.

estherfrewen · 05/01/2020 10:23

Thank you, @Terpsichore ! Will try and find that version. I know I enjoyed it at the time.

DamnItsSevenAM · 05/01/2020 11:02
  1. Mary Ann in Autumn by Armistead Maupin

This is the 8th in the Tales of the City series, wonderful, romantic, sometimes subversive, gossipy and witty books about a group of friends and lovers in San Francisco. In this book Mary Ann, the main character from the first book, returns to the city after 20 years absence. I love this series but this one had been languishing on my TBR pile for ages and I wasn't expecting to find this instalment as gripping and enjoyable as I did. I love Maupin's compassion for his cast of characters and the way their stories constantly interweave in surprising ways. There were some compelling new characters too: I especially enjoyed the complicated dynamic between Jonah, a young gay/bi Mormon with internalised homophobia, and Jake, a transman feeling his way into a new identity.

I've ordered the ninth and final book in the series and am looking forward to it.

JoeGargery · 05/01/2020 11:03

@FranKatzenjammer that does sound very irritating. I listened to the audiobook of My Name Is Why on BorrowBox - Lemn read it, along with actors reading the reports and I thought it was very well done.

  1. Lifespan- David Sinclair
  2. The Van Apfel Girls Are Gone - Felicity McLean

I found this a bit slow to get into but it’s beautifully written; some of the prose blew me away. I predicted the way it would pan out but that was fine. It’s the story of three young sisters who go missing and their friend reflecting on that time. Set in an Australian suburb in the 90s and the heat and smallness of their town is vividly recalled.

The blurb says it’s for fans of Picnic at Hanging Rock and The Virgin Suicides. Haven’t read they latter but I found it more satisfying than the former. Quite creepy and sad... makes me want to read something light and fluffy next.

MegBusset · 05/01/2020 11:10

Hi South and 50-bookers old and new Smile

I'm back in, last year was a bit of a funny old year which affected my reading mojo but hoping to make more time for it in 2020.

Number 1 is a book I've been grappling with since mid November but having finished it this morning I'm damn well going to count it:

  1. Moby-Dick - Herman Melville

One of my favourite ever books so a surprise it took me so long, but it's a dense beast of a book that you really can't skip through. It's part salty adventure story, part treatise on whaling history and science, part Shakespearean tragedy, and just a tremendous read even if not a quick one!

Nuffaluff · 05/01/2020 11:11

2. All That Man Is by David Szalay
This was interesting. It’s a longish book which made the Booker shortlist (2016 I think) containing 9 short stories united by the theme of toxic masculinity and men getting older.
The first story is about a seventeen year old and in each story the main male character is older, until the last story where the character is 79.
Halfway through I wasn’t sure what to make of it. It’s very well written, but I thought well, I just don’t know any men like this, but then I realised it’s because I actively avoid men who are like that. These are not nice characters for the most part. Hardly any of them really love anyone or make real connections with people
Having finished it, I see it as a fable of the dangers of buying into this idea of what a man should be. Something I don’t really know much about, being a woman, but that my husband tells me is still a thing. I think there’s one minor character that the author has put in there as a ray of light, as how men could live their lives.
Has anyone else read it? It puzzled me and I like that sometimes!

Sirzy · 05/01/2020 11:20

is it my fault mummy? By maggie Hartley

Wow! First of her books I have read, I just happened to pick it up in Asda last week when killing time. It’s 3 short stories from a foster carer of some of the children she has cared for, had me in tears at the beginning

toomuchsplother · 05/01/2020 11:56

5. To the volcano and other stories - Elleke Boehmer this is a collection of short stories I have had for a while and had forgotten about. Read it in a day, each story is individual but there are themes running through the collection which make it really cohesive. I do like a good short story collection and this one was intelligent and accomplished. I have reviewed it on the blog so will put a link to the longer review if anyone is interested
bookbound.blog/2020/01/05/book-review-to-the-volcano-and-other-stories-by-elleke-boehmer/

Make to school tomorrow so reading rate is going to slow write down!!

toomuchsplother · 05/01/2020 11:56

Or even 'right' down!!

MuseumOfHam · 05/01/2020 12:05
  1. The Unexpected Joy of Being Sober by Catherine Gray Snap nowanearlyNicemum - you've already done the reviewing upthread! This was in the 12 days of Kindle sale, and as I'm doing Dry January I thought I'd give it a whirl, as I'm sure fellow bookish people will recognise the thought 'are you even really doing something if you're not reading a book about it?' Though the author had reached an altogether more serious level than feeling the need of a month off after the festive season, or slipping into a bit of a glass in the evening habit. An honest, useful and motivating account.
Chrissysouth · 05/01/2020 12:18
  1. A Christmas Carol- Charles Dickens
  2. The Girls- Lisa Jewell
  3. I am, I am, I am- Maggie O'Farrell
  1. The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion.
I really enjoyed this, some moments had me laughing and a couple had me close to tears too. If anyone has read The Rosie Effect, please let me know whether it's worth a read.

I'm still reading from my physical TBR pile, and it's day 5 with no book purchases this year Grin. Next book I'm reading is The Handmaid's Tale.

DamnItsSevenAM · 05/01/2020 12:28

MuseumofHam 'are you even really doing something if you're not reading a book about it?'
Hah! I love that!

  1. Sorry I'm Late, I Didn't Want to Come by Jessica Pan

Bought this for the Kindle based on recommendations upthread and really enjoyed it. An introvert's attempt to live as an extrovert for a year. I love the genuinely useful advice about Deep Talk and am now oddly tempted to try an improv class! I did find my interest waning slightly towards the end and felt grumpily unsatisfied by the almost twee happy ending. But in general a great read which could help me make positive changes in my own life.

DamnItsSevenAM · 05/01/2020 12:29

Sorry about the italic fail above! I forgot where I was and went into html instead Confused

toomuchsplother · 05/01/2020 12:30

If you haven’t read it yet, then Ghost Wall by Sarah Moss is a Kindle Daily Deal today - just £1.29. She was my writer of the year in 2019.

nowanearlyNicemum · 05/01/2020 13:17

You've just convinced me toomuch, I've gone for Ghost Wall
Now I need to stop consulting the daily deals!!!!!

magimedi · 05/01/2020 13:27

Have also bought Ghost Wall.

I read Night Waking a while ago & enjoyed it so am looking forward to this.

This thread is no good for my Amazon account!!!

toomuchsplother · 05/01/2020 13:40

@magimedi if you liked Night waking then you need to read Bodies of Light, followed by Signs for Lost Children which are linked to that book.