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?

I am very sorry to hear that, betty.

Betty so sorry

Sorry for your loss, betty.

So sorry, Betty

Sorry for your loss betty

14. Wilding
Picked this up from the library after seeing it on this thread. Was initially sceptical but actually can't knock the improvement in biodiversity.
15. Because Internet
Another rec from here. Very much enjoyed and learned I am a second wave internet person.
16. Blackcollar: The Judas Solution
Solid sci fi from Timothy Zahn though maybe not his best.
17. Property of a Lady Faire
Latest in Simon Green's Secret Histories - if you like them this is ok but nothing new.
18. Rivers of London
Reread. Had forgotten some of the horror of the face losing bits.
19. Moon Over Soho
Reread. Good to be reminded where some characters are introduced.
20 Dirge
Charity shop find - not a keeper. Aliens harvesting human organs a step too far!

betty, so sorry for your loss. Nothing can make that better.
plornish, it sucks. And then it doesn’t. I was broken but now I could not be happier. Reading helped lots, oddly. Courage - you can get through this.

Found a review of Wilding that matches why I have second thoughts:

"What’s more, as you might expect, who should actually own rewilding projects (as opposed to fund them - where she is quite clear it is in the public interest to do so) is not a topic visited in detail. She awkwardly admits that in the future other owners of the estate - their children - might choose to do something different with the land, perhaps less environmentally friendly but more financially rewarding under a different structure. In other words, if policy changes, the children might sell the land or start farming it again, at least partially invalidating the public investment already made. This could happen, of course, to public land – but it would, at least, be subject to direct democratic oversight. It is also noticeable that she avoids dealing with the historical system of enclosure that created estates like Knepp. The current super-farms she rails against are simply the end point of that trajectory – consolidated territories created at the expense of smallholders without the capital or resources to compete.

She also dodges the question of broader structural change. She makes the point that kind words and big ideals have not done much to protect the environment, and instead argues that it is necessary for the environment to speak the language of business in making the case for investment. She does not examine directly the idea that it might be that very structure which is the problem, even while acknowledging her descendants might choose money under a different incentive system. This same issue is present in her criticism of the EU common agricultural policy and her cautious support of Brexit as an escape from it. There are reasons to believe that, yes, freed from constraints, the British government would put more money into rewilding some privately owned land – very much in the class interest of the current government – but also that this would be counterbalanced by an enthusiastic race to the bottom in standards of environmental protection everywhere else. Big ideals did not save the environment, but saving small patches through special pleading is not going to do it either – our current system simply does not value the planet except as a resource to be exploited.

It is frustrating, in a way, to find myself so negative about the book. As I said, I agree with much of what she says about how we should be treating and managing the land, and for its eloquent, elegant demonstration of our shifting environmental baseline – the extent to which we take as “natural” the current limited biodiversity compares to that of only 50 years ago – alone, the book is essential reading. And yet there is a dishonesty at the heart of the book, where it is never fully acknowledged that what is good for Knepp is good for us – but best for the Burrell family. "

Sorry to hear about your sad loss, Betty

Also for Plournish

Betty

Take care Betty

Sorry for your loss, Betty x

So sorry to hear about your loss, Betty

to you too, plornish

Thanks for the welcome, Remus (I'm not new on the thread, but thought I'd get that previous post out of the way while I was feeling soppy)

I went to the Elly Griffiths event last night, bibliomania, and it was really enjoyable! The venue was packed - hundreds of people (of which my friends and I seemed to be the only ones under 60...). Elly Griffiths herself was great: warm, funny and generally lovely.

She started by reading a bit from her new book, The Lantern Men, which was suitably armospheric. Apparently, there is a bit of a cliffhanger ending, but EG says that she has already got ideas for books 13 (tentatively titled "The Night Hawk", about metal detectorists) and 14. She's also got a new stand-alone book (like The Stranger Diaries) coming out in October. Apparently, we are to think of Jeremy Bamber (re her character Ivor March) and the Bloomsbury Group when reading The Lantern Men .

There was a lot of talk about the landscape (which is fairly local to us), including an interesting discussion about why there are suddenly so many crime novels set in East Anglia - as one person put it, "is Oxford full up now?". General agreement that East Anglia is not only full of bodies, but some of those bodies have been here a very long time, making it good for archaeological mysteries. Round here is also full of stories and legends (our local paper is always full of sightings of the Fen Tiger), and the landscape is both ancient and spooky as well.

I was tickled by a couple of pieces of trivia. One is that the house in the current book, Greywalls, is named in homage to Malcolm Saville's Lone Pine books, which pleased me hugely because I loved these as a child. Another is that Francis Pryor, whose excavation of Seahenge influenced The Crossing Places, has written his own archaeological crime novels, and has put Ruth Galloway into one of them. I'm unclear about the details (whether this is the most recent book from 2017, or an impending one - and whether he has literally mentioned RG, or has just based another character on her), but am motivated to find out more.

Took Queenie back to the library and they had The Testaments right by the entrance... There goes my 'only read my own books' resolution

Thanks for the report, mack. I'm on the library waiting list for The Lantern Men, and I like the sound of a book about metal detectorists. I had a go at Francis Pryor's crime novels - I read one and DNF the other. The only bit I remember is the lead character liking biscuits for breakfast. I don't remember anyone Ruth-like, but didn't read attentively.

I also liked Malcolm Saville and wrote him a fan letter. He'd been dead for decades by then, but I got quite a long letter back from his publishers, which thrilled me. I also wrote a fan letter to Helen Cresswell and got a lovely reply from her.

I'm going to a [[https://yorkliteraturefestival.co.uk/event/catherine-fox-and-anglican-women/ talk by Catherine Fox]] next month. I'm a big fan of her Lindchester chronicles. She'll be talking about authors including Barbara Pym, so I'm quite excited.

@InMyOwnParticularIdiom library books don’t count in my ‘don’t by new books this year’ challenge. Although I’ve very quickly realised I’m just going to the library a lot more then usual.

Has anyone been reading the controversy on American Dirt I thought the story sounded good and always tempted by a modern Steinbeck so would be interested in Latinx recommendations to check out instead.

💐 for all that need them today

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. (3/5)

10. What Katy Did by Susan Coolidge. (4/5)

11. A Second Chance by Jodi Taylor. This is the third in the Chronicles of St Mary's series and a return to form after the slightly disappointing second book. I really enjoyed the returned focus on time travel and found the sections on Troy and Agincourt fascinating. I found this to be an emotional read and can't wait to read more of the series. (4/5).

Pale Has anyone been reading the controversy on American Dirt

I saw the criticism of it, but decided to read it anyway. I'm 5 of 16 hours into it on audiobook and at this stage I could take it or leave it. Steinbeck it isn't.

51% of the 10k readers in Goodreads have given it 5 stars, with another 30% giving it 4. At this stage I really can't see why.

I would clear my pile of unread books at home a lot faster if I didn’t go to the library.

But I go past the library on the school run so it’s too tempting to avoid. I’m not even a tiny bit sorry about that.

There were two copies of The Testaments on display at the library today, but I want to re-read The Handmaid’s Tale first (which wasn’t on the shelves) so I resisted borrowing one.

for Betty and Plornish

28. Bone China - Laura Purcell A ladies maid on the run for theft and worse arrives at her new post in deepest darkest Cornwall where an elderly lady and staff are highly superstitious. Determined that it is nonsense, the new maid struggles to explain away the strange goings on in the house. The narrative shifts to 40 years earlier when the lady was a young woman helping her father to find a cure for consumption in the caves below the house.

I liked this a lot better than The Silent Companions. The author writes well and build suspense. It's a decent plot and very atmospheric. She keeps being compared to du Maurier which I wouldn't agree with, but she does pull off a decent enough book in that genre.

29. Call the Midwife - Jennifer Worth An uncompromising memoir that looks at the conditions of slum life in East End London in the 50s through the eyes of a trainee midwife.

Short but interesting. The author is not afraid to recall things as they were despite sometimes making for uncomfortable reading. I enjoyed this, but no enough to want to go and read the others in the series.

Very envious of those going to events. I was supposed to go to Stacey Hall's book tour yesterday, but I have been quarantined with the plague. In fairness I wasn't that fussed, but it was a big deal for a reasonably local library to host such an event and beggars in the sticks can't be choosers. Still I now have a good excuse to be tucked up with a hot toddy and a book or few and to be left in peace to do so.

I live a few doors down from a library, so I do go a lot. It really throws out my annual reading plan and means some of the books I own get pushed aside for lesser books which get priority due to return dates. However I am a believer of 'use it or lose it' and would hate to see a very valuable local resource and hub lost.

I'm still using the library a lot because I take 3 year old DD at least weekly. My aim is to come home only with Lego Star Wars, Mr Men and stegosaurus books, and to resist the adult 'New Releases' shelves...

betty the early days are awful but it will get better. plornish

13. My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite This felt fresh and fun, quite different from anything I've read before. What made it was the deadpan, matter of fact voice of the narrator, Korede. It wasn't laugh out loud funny, but wryly amusing. I liked that the central characters were female and the victims were male, in reversal of so many other crime novels. Not that you could really categorise this as a crime novel; it's in an odd little category of its own. Other reviewers have found the ending weak, but, although it wasn't the ending I'd hoped for, I thought it showed that Korede had made a decision about how to go forward and where her loyalties lay.

Also meant to say thanks for the write up of the Elly Griffiths event mackerella. Very interesting, I'm a big fan (and definitely also under 60).

I’m so sorry bettybattenberg

Plornish and betty

11. The Rotters' Club by Jonathan Coe.

This is a real mixture of a book. It's very insightful, informative about life in 70s Britain and sometimes very funny, however there's almost too much going on at times.

It tells the story of Benjamin Trotter, a teenager at a private school in Birmingham in the mid-seventies, and his friends and family. It includes industrial disputes, terrorist attacks, the racist and sexist attitudes prevalent at the time, as well as fashion, prog rock and punk, and the painful learning curve of adolescent love and sex. And lots more.

It tells the story from different viewpoints, and the narrative is disjointed at times, however I enjoyed the depiction of an era I lived through myself as a teenager. The dynamics within a school community .. the cool girl everybody fancied, the smug boy who was universally disliked, the earnest souls on the school newspaper committee, the in-jokes, the rivalries and the ganging-up on one unfortunate individual .. all accurately depicted and a reminder of you how glad you are not to have to ever revisit that time in your life.

I'm going straight on to The Closed Circle, the follow-up set in Blair's Britain, with Philip and his friends now adults dealing with jobs, marriages and kids.