50 Book Challenge 2020 Part One

[southeastdweller]

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?

Thank you for the new thread @southeastdweller. I think this is my 5th proper year but I lurked and sometimes dropped in before. My reading has taken a bit of a hit since I went back to work full time 18 months ago, but I credit this thread for keeping me going, as well as widening what I read.

1. Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid This had been mentioned a lot on last years thread, but something right near the end must have made it appeal more to me and I downloaded and read the whole thing yesterday. I enjoyed it a lot - on reflection it was maybe a little unbalanced, with the beginning very focused on Daisy, but the book as a whole more evenly split between her story and Billy's. A good one to start the year with though.

I'm in, definitely want to make more time for reading this year. I'm currently reading the graphic novel Square Eyes by Anna Mill & Luke Jones.

mackerella yes the DLS one. I had never heard of the book (or in fact of the Society!) but PILs got me the book for Christmas and it is very interesting so far! The author is Dr Mo Moulton. The full title is "Mutual Admiration Society: how Dorothy L Sayers and her Oxford Circle remade the world for women".

I'd like to join, but I'm always a bit ashamed of the trash I read 😳

I'm currently reading The Book of a Thousand Days and book 7 from The Rivers of London series.

Thanks, Welsh - I'll definitely hunt down a copy. I decided to re-read all the DLS novels in order last year but got sidetracked after Whose Body? Perhaps this will give me the impetus I need to continue...

shattered read what you enjoy!

I want to try to rivers on London again because I just couldn’t get into them

I'd like to join, but I'm always a bit ashamed of the trash I read 😳

Don't let that stop you, you haven't seen the dross that I read yet!

@ShakeItOff2000 I listened to The Return of the Native on Audible a couple of years ago purely because it was read by Alan Rickman. I'd never read any Hardy before, and knew nothing about it, but was thinking how sad it was that he had died, and so searched to see if he'd recorded anything with them. It's the only full-length novel on there (he did some short African folk tales) which given how wonderful his voice was, is quite a shame, I thought.

Joining again this year and my aim is to keep going. I normally do well in January then fall of the thread in the summer.

Book 1 The Janissary Tree by Jason Goodwin. This has been on my kindle for years and I don't know why I haven't read it before. It took a while for me to get into but I enjoyed it.
Book 2 The Beguilement of Lady Eustacia Cavanaugh by Stephanie Lauren. A fluffy read but fun.

I am listening to North and south on Audible when I get the chance. Not sure what to read next

Shattered don't be embarrassed, look at what I just posted

Shattered The Rivers of London series is brilliant and I won’t hear otherwise I’m about a quarter of a way into Lies Sleeping (I think that’s number 7) and really enjoying it.

Shakeitoff just wanted to say hello as we appear to have a Taylor Swift theme with our names
I love Hardy but Return of the Native is not one of my favourites.
I wondered if people were reading David Copperfield in anticipation of the new film adaptation?

Copperstars I sometimes choose audible books based on the narrator too! I listened to A Tale Of Two Cities because it was read by Simon Callow. I’ll look out the Hardy one as I agree Alan Rickman has a lovely voice and I haven’t read that book before.

I've finished my first book of the year and it's not the one I thought it would be (I'm still immersed in the interesting but very fact-heavy story of Charles Ist's art collection).

1. Quartet in Autumn - Barbara Pym

I've read almost all of Pym's novels over the last two years, and have loved them. This one, published in 1977, is to some extent an outlier; the bleakest of all her books....and the one that was shortlisted for the Booker.

It follows four ageing office workers - Letty, Edwin, Marcia and Norman - as they draw nearer to retirement. None has any close family and all live alone, looking to the future with varying degrees of trepidation and uncertainty. Pym's depiction of their lonely existences and pointless office routines (we're never told what they actually do) achieves almost Beckettian heights, but with touches of classic Pym - much musing on their meals, strange habits and religious preferences.

At times this was unutterably hard to read, especially Marcia's story of breast cancer and death (Pym had undergone a mastectomy herself) and yet it's far from short of humour, and ends on an unexpectedly redemptive note. A subtle and truthful novel.

3.The hunting party - Lucy Foley. Usual holiday time reading binge. This one was ok, readable but a bit predictable. Read it for book club but have had it on my kindle for a while

1. Native Tongue - Suzette Haden Elgin
2. If Cats Disappeared from the World - Genki Kawamura

I’ve finished my first two of the year, massively helped by being pages away from the end of Native Tongue on New Year’s Eve, and the cat one being thankfully short.

Native Tongue was a gem. A bit Handmaid’s Tale, minus June, plus aliens. Not much was made of the aliens, except they help introduce the concept of Linguists, those born into families gifted at translating alien languages and keeping Earth’s economy and security strong. This is a world where women’s rights have been removed, and they are treated as slightly intelligent animals. The way they are talked about and treated is infuriating and makes it an angry read quite often. A lot of the story is centered on the women of a linguist community. They’re downtrodden, abused and worked hard with no respect. But will they attempt an uprising? Course they will

If Cats Disappeared from the World was mawkish, sentimental tripe. Tbf, that’s probably what the writer was aiming for but it’s not my thing at all. A man has a cat, and then a terminal brain tumour. The devil appears and offers him a deal - if he chooses one thing to be removed from the world, he’ll be allowed to live one day longer. It’s a good concept, but our main character is such a whiny drip that you really don’t care after a while. The last deal the devil offers is to remove cats from the world so our narrator can live longer. What does he choose? Do we still care? Was it necessary to include half a page of unanswered questions? What if coffee disappeared from the world? What if socks disappeared from the world? What if you only had days to live and spent it all dripping on about your ex girlfriend?

I’m now reading Frankenstein in Baghdad by Ahmed Saadawi which is fantastic, and much as the title suggests
And Lies Sleeping by Ben Aaronovitch, number 7 ish in the Rivers of London police/supernatural series.

My first reads of the year-

1. A Christmas Carol- Charles Dickens

This was a Christmas gift from my husband, it's the first time I've read it. Quite short so read it fairly quickly and did enjoy it.

1. The Girls- Lisa Jewell

This was another gift from my husband, from my amazon wishlist. I read a couple of books from the same author last year which I enjoyed. I started this one last night and it has been another page turner, couldn't put it down. I have a couple more of her books on my TBR pile.

1. Of Blood and Bone -Chronicles of The One - Nora Roberts. Continuing the story of what happened to the world after The Doom, a magic virus which killed the majority of the world's population and awoke latent magical powers in other. This was ok and very much a coming of age story involving lots of training montages. There is a third in the series but it's still £10 on kindle so I'm not going to rush to buy it.
2. The Man I think I know - Mike Gayle.

Easy and nice read about a previously successful young man with an acquired brain injury and his coincidental meeting with a former school acquaintance, whose life has also not worked out as planned. I enjoyed this, read it for my book group.

I'm in. I've downloaded a couple there now. I'll let you know which one is first shortly.

I have a goodreads account. No idea how to use it tho. Tips??

Potterhead I mostly use mine to keep track of (a) the books I've read (I mark them as "Currently Reading" and then as "Read") and (b) the recommendations that I pick up from here and from the book sections of the paper.

I then like to read the reviews of books after I finish them, to see what other people have thought of it (quite often picking up interesting points that I have missed). If I read a really good review, I will follow the reviewer, and see what else they are reading/reviewing - I've picked up.some interesting recommendations that way.

@DamnItsSevenAM Which Hardy would you recommend? I enjoyed Native but I'm wondering if that was mostly down to the narration, as now that I think about it, I can't really remember the plot in detail I do remember finding the opening section difficult to get through though.

@ChessieFL What did you think of A Tale of Two Cities? I want to read more Dickens this year (would have joined in with the Copperfield readalong if I hadn't just read it in 2019) and am currently trying to choose between that* and Oliver Twist*. Whichever I choose, I'll listen to it on audio as I find that works better for me with classics than reading them in paper format.

and Oliver Twist that should say.

I'm in! I'm currently halfway through The Dutch House and enjoying it.

A Tale of Two Cities is good, but harder going than Oliver Twist so between the two I would go for Oliver.