50 Book Challenge 2020 Part Two

[southeastdweller]

Welcome to the second 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.

The first thread of the year is here.

What are you reading?

Thanks for the new thread. I’m currently halfway through book 13 the choice by Edith Eger. About her survival in concentration camps and her recovery after, so far I am enjoying it

Thanks South

Bringing my list over:

1. Marie Antoinette: An Intimate History – Melanie Clegg
2. The Hunting Party – Lucy Foley
3. Louis VI: A Life from Beginning to End - Hourly History
4. Marie Antoinette: A Life from Beginning to End - Hourly History
5. Love in a Cold Climate – Nancy Mitford
6. Seven Signs of Life: Stories From An Intensive Care Doctor – Aoife Abbey
7. The Great Gatsby – F. Scott Fitzgerald

Currently reading The Princes in the Tower - Alison Weir and really enjoying it.

Thanks for the new thread South. Two quick reads to add to my list:

11. Do Sourdough by Andrew Whitley
    Nice little book about sourdough bread, I've yet to have time to try any of the recipes included, but an interesting read.

12. Whispers Underground by Ben Aaronovitch
    Re-read of the third Rivers of London book. I do like these - plenty of humour, but with a decent plot to carry things along. They're also nicely atmospheric - I particularly liked the London underground setting of this instalment.

Thank you for the new thread Southeast

Bringing my list over

1. Asymmetry - Lisa Halliday
2. The Silent Patient – Alex Michaelides
3. Woke – Titania McGrath
4. My Year of Rest and Relaxation - Ottessa Moshfegh
5. The Familiars – Stacey Halls
6. The Hunting Party – Lucy Foley
7. The Poisonwood Bible – Barbara Kingsolver
8. Frankenstein – Mary Shelley
9. The Sanctuary Murders – Susanna Gregory

10. North and South - Elizabeth Gaskell 11. Villette – Charlotte Brontë 12. Night Boat to Tangiers – Kevin Barry 13. Americanah – Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche

I'll be back shortly to tell you about the book that's making me need brain bleach.

The panics SouthEast.

Currently contemplating getting off the sofa to go and find an actual book. Nothing on my kindle I want to read.

Thanks ( not panics )

Swinging in with mine. Have done really well this month but I am working under the assumption that I will slow down massively before, during and after my current move.

I've been using an app called Bookly which tells me an average paperback takes me about 4 hours. I have been spending about 2 hours a day reading, but that may be because there's nothing appealing to me on Netflix right now

1. Northern Lights by Phillip Pullman
2. Vox by Christina Dalcher
3. In Evil Hour by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
4. Spasm by Lauren Slater
5. Elizabeth Is Missing by Emma Healey
6. Lincoln In The Bardo by George Saunders
7. Written On The Body by Jeanette Winterson
8. Lion by Saroo Brierley
9. Tony And Susan by Austin Wright

10. The Purveyor Of Enchantment by Marika Cobbold 11. Jamaica Inn by Daphne Du Maurier 12. His Bloody Project by Graeme Macrae Burnett

I think I misnumbered on last thread

Currently reading : Friendly Fire by Patrick Gale

@BestIsWest

Panics is good

Where's the thread?!??

Book 4 March Violets by Phillip Kerr the first Bernie Gunther book, bit slow to start but quite good, I will read the next one but that's mostly because I got the first three for 99p on the kindle

Oi, oi 50 bookers. Thanks as ever South for the new thread.
My modest list to date:
1. March Violets by Philip Kerr
2. Ring The Hill by Tom Cox
3. The Stepford Wives by Ira Levin

Am going to plough through my physical TBR pile for a bit, as I've got a fair bit of travel booked in April so want to hoard some Kindle books for then. Have just started The Lost Man by Jane Harper.

I did worry for a bit.

Thank you!

I have only done 3 books so no real list to bring across.

Have started David Copperfield for my readalong and am currently halfway through reading Midnight's Children which, for some reason, I have never read. Am enjoying it (I invariably like Indian literature) and can now see why other writers are accused of apeing Rushdie. But it's not a quick read, is it?!

1. One day in the life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhenitsyn.
2. Bookworm by Lucy Mangan.
3. Educated by Tara Westover. Bestselling memoir of a wo
4. The Nickel Boys by Colson
5. Finding Jenifer Jones Anne Cassidy

Average sequel to an average YA book about a child killer after her release from prison at 18. Average. 6. The Girl With the Lower Back Tattoo by Amy Schumer. Memoir of the comedian and how her experiences growing up influenced her comedy. There was some interesting personal stories about vaginas and body image. However, despite liking Schumer prior to this I found her pretty arrogant in this - she talks up her humble private jet experiences regularly. I also didn’t buy the whole introvert thing. Yes comedians can be introverts but almost every scenario she describes was extroverted.

A trashy mid Jan but getting into a few better reads now. I’m particularly enjoying Black Car Burning by Helen Mort poetical novel about Sheffield climbers in a polyamorous relationship with a side story about the impact of Hillsborough on the community.

Finished book 4 The Heart's Invisible Furies in three days. One of those really satisfactory reads where you're totally immersed in it and at the end you just have to sit and let it all sink in.

Next is The Handmaid's Tale. I'm probably the last person in the world to read it!

Wow, thread 2 already!

My list:

1. My Sister, The Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite
2. The Dilemma by B A Paris
3. The Dutch House by Ann Patchett
4. Marianne Dreams by Catherine Storr
5. Literary Landscapes by John Sutherland
6. The Woman In Cabin 10 by Ruth Ware
7. The Wind In The Willows by Kenneth Grahame
8. The Secretary by Renee Knight
9. Miss Lonelyhearts by Nathanael West

10. Bedsit Disco Queen by Tracey Thorne 11. Lies Lies Lies by Adele Parks 12. The Water Cure by Sophie Mackintosh 13. The Chalk Man by C J Tudor 14. When The Lights Go Out by Mary Kubica 15. Finders Keepers by Belinda Bauer 16. Confessions Of A Showbiz Reporter by Holly Forrest 17. After Me Comes The Flood by Sarah Perry 18. Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson 19. Friend Of The Family by Tasmina Perry

Currently reading David Copperfield for the readalong, plus On Chesil Beach and have My Cousin Rachel on the go on audible.

1 The Devils Star by Jo Nesbo
2 The Hearts Invisible Furies by John Boyne

Just finished book 3 Reservoir 13 by Jon Mcgregor
I know this was much read last year and oh what a book. Starting off with the disappearance of Rebecca or Becky or Bec on New Years Eve it could start as a by rote crime novel but it is so much more. Each chapter is a year in the life of the village where she went missing from and from the start she is just a very small by line, beautifully written and engaging until the end

Thanks, South.

No list because I got a bit fed up last year of counting, especially when I was so disappointed in so many of them. But I'll review ones on here that I can be bothered to!

The King's Evil by Andrew Taylor - the 3rd in the Ashes of London series. This was okay, although Taylor is a bit of a clumsy writer. This had some interesting characters, moved along well enough, but the ending, again, wasn't great. Would I read another? Yes. Would I pay more than a couple of pounds for it? No.

Thanks, South.

Will bring my book list over tomorrow.

But for @Sadik - if you liked the Andrew Whitlry book about sourdough & you are a bread maker, his book Bread Matters is the best book ever about making bread & the history of commercial bread.
DH makes all our bread & really rates that book.

Thanks Southeast!

Here's my meagre list so far:

1. The Secrets of Blood and Bone - Rebecca Alexander
2. Little Women - Louisa May Alcott
3. Identity Crisis - Ben Elton
4. Sunny Side Up - Susan Calman

Now listening to Smoke Gets in Your Eyes (about working in a crematorium) and reading How to Stop Losing Your Shit with Your Kids

Thank you southeastdweller.

Currently rereading Little Women.

Thank you for the new thread Southeast

My list so far:

1. The Dutch House - Ann Patchett
2. Whose Story is This? - Rebecca Solnit
3. The Offing - Benjamin Myers
4. Frankisstein - Jeanette Winterson

5. Beware of Pity - Stefan Zweig 6. Surfacing - Kathleen Jamie

1. Letter to My Daughter - Maya Angelou
2. The Red Badge of Courage - Stephen Crane
3. Sorry I'm Late, I Didn't Want to Come - Jessica Pan

10. Crow - Ted Hughes 11. The Easternmost House - Juliet Blaxland

Wow, some long lists already!

Here’s mine.

1. The Other Half of Augusta Hope. Joanna Glen.
2. Unsheltered. Barbara Kingsolver.
3. The Sense of an Ending. Julian Barnes.
4. Confession. Jessie Burton.
5. Braised Pork. An Yu.

I’m now reading a book of poetry, but need to get started on the next ‘book’ book.

I like Bread Matters very much magimedi - I also like the fact that with AW unlike some real bread types there's no new age bollocks mysticism involved

13. Americanah – Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche
    On the surface a love story, a young couple leave Nigeria in the 80s, one for the US as a student, where she discovers what it is to be black in American and the hierarchy of race. The other ends up in London as an illegal immigrant. They reunite in Nigeria after 15 years, changed by their experiences. Underneath an extensive exploration of race and culture in 3 countries and continents, that gives a powerful insight to the issues faced by POC of diverse backgrounds in different places. As always she writes beautifully, however she did labour the point in places and it could have done with a better editor.

14. Homesick for Another World - Ottessa Moshfegh
    I picked this up from the library on the strength of the author's name without realising it was a short story collection (which I don't like reading). I also read it blind. Both errors. Contains some sharp observations on modern life through the eyes of social misfits and outsiders and their often perverse and depraved behaviour. I fully admit to being a bit of a prude but some of these were way beyond what I find ok and I now have images in my head that no amount of brain bleach will remove. I stand by that she's an excellent writer, but these did her no favours other than seeming to shock for the sake of it. A bit too revolting for me and I see from Goodreads, discovered after the fact, that I am not alone.

Here's my list so far.

1. Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers: Mary Roach
2. Circe: Madeline Miller
3. The Girl with all the Gifts: M. R. Carey
4. Odd Girl Out: Laura James
5. Their Skeletons Speak: Sally M Walker and Douglas W Owsley
6. The Royal Art of Poison: Eleanor Herman
7. The Boy on the Bridge: M R Carey