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?

Totally up to you InTheCludgie. I excitedly started to list books I read to my son when we started to read chapter books, but stopped counting them when I felt like the whole sequence of My Brother's Famous Bottom titles was lowering the tone!!

It's up to you Inthecludgie
My children are beyond the age where I read with them so I don't include children's books - it's a good job really as my list would be nearly all the numerous Biff, Chip and KIpper books I read each week.

Another one for the slow readers club here, just thought I ought to post at least twice on the thread. Loved Hit hikers when I read it as a teen, DD read it when she was in year 7, she has just read Lord of the Flies, and looking for other dystopian novels to read, now in year 9.

Can’t remember who talked about the prison book but I used to work the drugs team in our local prison, they did get a large amount of support for drugs, both clinical and psychological, it was the amount of drugs coming in that scuppered it all, some beat it some didn’t

Five What about Z for Zachariah for your daughter? Although it might be a bit dated. I started reading Stephen King around Year 9, so The Stand might be another option. I'd definitely recommend the abridged version though. The Hunger Games books are also good.

five ,I know Animal Farm isn't dystopian, as such but DS2 loved it in year 9. he also quite liked The Chrysalids.

I have just finished Now We Shall Be Entirely Free which did manage not to entirely fall apart , despite its terrible binding!

I liked this : I liked the evocation of Napoleonic era Scotland and Miller's elegant writing. I also liked the menace of one character although to say more would be too revealing. The central protagonist is interesting. Wasn't sure about the point of the eye operation (which made me feel quite faint whilst reading it in my 'right everyone pretend to read so Mrs Piggy can ' session). Am assuming it's a metaphor.

One thing, though : Miller is very intense and quite hard work. I think he expects his reader to properly concentrate and remember things, like names and details. I had to reread chapter 2 twice when I got near the end of the book! I did feel some bits that seemed important (Phyrro, Thorpe and Medina's fascination with him, if they are the same person, God only knows!)) were just left dangling like Miller had a n idea and then couldn't be bothered.

A rewarding read if you like them slow and richly detailed. But not a star read because I was too confused at times...

I did mean to mention that Sir John Moore of Corunna was considered a hero Former Pupil of my school and that one of my ancestors fought in the Peninsular War under Moore. Not so sure how I feel about these things now! Thanks Andrew Miller!

Five, I was the one who reviewed Prison: A Survival Guide. Yes, I did think that surely some prisons must have good drug rehabilitation programmes- sorry if I was a bit dismissive. The Prison Doctor certainly seemed to spend quite a lot of time helping addicts to quit drugs, though possibly on a more ad hoc basis. I don't know why I'm so fascinated by prisons: the other day I bought Inside Broadmoor on the Audible Daily Deal and I've also been eyeing up Strangeways on BorrowBox! I do live very near quite a famous prison, so maybe that has piqued my interest.

We were a separate team to th doctor, my boss was a prescribing nurse, very good at her job, she did work with doctors sometimes but mostly left to get on with her job. Working with doctors was only if they had other issues that they were getting medication for. Once that prison closed I was moved and did admin for the prison mental health team and then ended up Being moved to admin for healthcare in a immigration detention center.

Thanks for the suggestions for books for DD, will add them to our list, she had a large book token from her grandmother for her birthday and we are London bound in March to spend it 😊

I tell a lie, she wasn’t a prescribing nurse, she did that later, she basically organised what they were to be given and then got the prescriptions sorted by the doctor. If they were sentenced and the sentence was over 6 months they had to be detoxed, if the sentence was under 6 months then they could be put on a maintenance programme although all were encouraged to detox.

24. The Year of Reading Dangerously- Andy Miller I have read this a couple of times, but enjoyed it even more this time as an audiobook. It describes the author’s project of reading 50 books he had previously fibbed about having read: mostly fairly hefty tomes such as Moby Dick, Anna Karenina, War and Peace etc. The audiobook did get a bit ridiculous by the end, when Miller felt the need to read out the long bibliography, acknowledgements etc.- I could have switched it off at that point, but it would have felt like cheating!

25. This is Going to Hurt- Adam Kay I read this last year but found the audiobook on BorrowBox. I enjoyed it even more as an audiobook- the funny bits are funnier, the moving sections are more moving- although Adam Kay came across as a tiny bit smug at times.

26. Mummy Told Me Not to Tell- Cathy Glass Another fostering memoir (my guilty pleasure: I’m limiting myself to one per month). These are always interesting and illuminating but will never set the literary world alight.

27. The Aerodynamics of Pork- Patrick Gale Last year I loved reading Take Nothing With You, Friendly Fire and A Sweet Obscurity but this one (Gale’s debut novel) was incredibly disappointing. Some of the scenes set at a classical music festival were vaguely interesting, but on the whole it barely captured my imagination at all. Apparently the author doesn’t think much of it now, either. There is one baffling part where a main character goes into a music shop to buy violin strings, including a C string: as he is supposed to be a musical prodigy, he should know that violins don’t have C strings!

@FranKatzenjammer

Notes On An Exhibition is the best Patrick Gale (of those I've read)

13 The boy with no Boots Sheila Jefferies not sure quite what to make of this one
14. The Stoy Path Rita Bradshaw bit of a weird one not sure how I feel reading about incestual relationships

*stony

Book 14
The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt

I started this in 2019 and have been steadily reading it alongside other books. This was so, so good. It’s been a while since I felt so bereft at finishing a book and having to leave its world behind.
This is the story of Theo, who survives a catastrophic event and is left alone at age 13, clinging only to a painting. As the ‘goldfinch’ becomes the link between his lost childhood and an ever more chaotic present, it also draws him gradually further into a double life and eventually the criminal underworld.
The characters and the plot are so beautifully crafted and intricately woven. Themes of friendship and betrayal, love and loss and the wonderful Boris, Pippa and Hobie all made my (usually fairly cynical) soul hum. I know others have said it needed a good editing in places... hmmm, I think it struck the right balance personally and I enjoyed the detail of those scenes in between the drama.
Truly epic and unique, this has got to be one of my favourite all time reads.

Jolly I agree with you about The Goldfinch not being too long - I loved every word.

9. The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo - Taylor Jenkins Reid

Journalist Monique Grant is summoned to write the biography of Evelyn Hugo, an Elizabeth Taylor/Marilyn Munroe-like screen siren. Hugo has finally decided to tell the truth about her life, detailing the startling gap between her public persona and her private life. But the actress acknowledges herself to be an expert manipulator, so how far can Monique trust her narrative?

A very readable page-turner, but ultimately not as complex or ambiguous as I hoped. It signposts from early on that there's a major twist coming, but it was really just a underwhelming twirl.

1. Because Internet : Understanding how language is changing by Gretchen McCulloch
2. Mary Ann in Autumn by Armistead Maupin
3. Sorry I'm Late, I Didn't Want to Come by Jessica Pan
4. Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch

Just finished
5) Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman

I didn't like this at all to begin with but it grew on me. I love a makeover type story and this has elements of that genre but there is a little more to it. I kept having to suspend disbelief at various parts of the story but overall it was so charming it didn't matter.

I am failing so far in my resolution to tackle my TBR pile. I mostly read on the Kindle App in bed and have bought several new titles, while the untouched books on my shelf sit looking at me accusingly.

I'm reading Little fires everywhere and can't put it down. I'm off on the train in a moment so I think I'll finish it tonight. Why didn't I read it ages ago?

19 - The Saboteur of Auschwitz

I enjoyed the first half of this book but the second seemed a bit disjointed

23. The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead

After a gruelling episode at a Georgian plantation, 3 slaves run in the night, hoping to take their chances on a rumoured secret escape route in search of a better life.

Odd one this, historical novels are very much my bag, but I felt quite disconnected from the novel a lot of the time, I never quite felt I inhabited its world.

The scenes in North Carolina were very harrowing, and obviously books that call attention to the horrors of history are really important but I wasn't blown away by how amazing it was like I expected I was going to be.

@bettybattenburg

I was like that with it, absolute page turner, my app says I read it in 2.5 hours!

15. Mrs Jeffries and the one who got away - Emily Brightwell

I think this is the latest in the long series of Mrs Jeffries books - I reviewed another up thread. A Victorian police inspector's household help him solve crimes without making him aware. Good examples of the 'cosy mystery' genre.

16. Ghost Wall - Sarah Moss

Borrowed this as it's been on this thread a lot but... I just didn't get it I mean it was pleasant enough to read but I can't see why it's had such brilliant reviews. Reminded me very much of a book we read in GCSE English many years ago with a stream of consciousness style of writing. I didn't mind it, but certainly wouldn't recommend/ read it again.

@bettybattenburg I keep meaning to read some Menna von Praag but her books are always out when I go to the library - means she's popular, I guess!

@AnUnlikelyWorldofInvisibleShad I loved HHGTG when I read it as an awkward teen and could probably still quote large chunks. Maybe it doesn't seem so exciting/ ground-breaking now when electronic books etc are no longer the stuff of sci fi?

1. Pet Semetary by Stephen King (2/5)
2. The Outsider by Albert Camus (5/5)
3. Somebody's Mother, Somebody's Daughter by Carol Ann Lee (3/5)
4. Just One Damned Thing After Another by Jodi Taylor. (4/5)
5. Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton. (5/5)
6. 4321 by Paul Auster. (4/5)
7. Valley of the Dolls by Jacqueline Susann. (3/5)
8. The Devil's Teardrop by Jeffrey Deaver. (1/5)

9. A Symphony of Echoes by Jodi Taylor. This is the second book in the St Mary's Chronicles series. I did enjoy it but nowhere as much as the first one. It took a while to get going and I felt it was fairly light on the time travel element for a big chunk of the book. It also felt a bit disjointed, with lots of little stories that didn't seem to have a cohesive narrative. That said I really like the characters and enjoyed it enough to want to continue with the series. *(3/5).
*
The random number generator has selected What Katy Did by Susan Coolidge. I loved this book when I was young so will be interesting to see what I think of it now.

1. Back Story by David Mitchell. I enjoy a celebrity autobiography, and this one is excellent. I listened to it on Audible read by the author. Funny, revealing (I definitely feel that I ‘know’ him better now) and very enjoyable to listen to.

I really enjoyed Back Story, the bit describing how he fell in love with Victoria is so touching.

33. The Boy At The Back Of The Class by Onjali Q Rauf

This was lovely. It’s a children’s book about a group of friends who befriend the new Syrian refugee who joins their class, and then do everything they can to help find his family. Very topical and very touching.

34. The Nothing Girl by Jodi Taylor

I did enjoy this, although it’s rather unusual. Jenny has been brought up by an overprotective aunt and uncle, who are horrified when she suddenly decides to marry the local farmer (he needs a wife and money, she needs a home) and high jinks ensue. Oh, and she talks to an imaginary horse called Thomas. Won’t be everybody’s cup of tea, but with a go if you like the St Mary’s series and can suspend disbelief a bit!

I’m very pleased because the library have already given me the new Marian Keyes, so that’s today sorted!