50 Book Challenge 2020 Part Three

[southeastdweller]

Welcome to the third 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 and the second one here.

What are you reading?

Thank you for the new thread! Just pulling my list so far over.

1.The  Dilemma - B A Paris 
<strong>2.Dangerous Crossing - Rachel Rhys</strong>
3.The Testaments - Margaret Atwood
4.A Wedding in December - Anita Shreve 
5.The Other You - J S Monroe 
<strong>6.To The Lions - Holly Watt</strong>
7.Here to Stay - Mark Edwards 
8.The Bigamist - Mary Turner Thomson
9.The Other Wife - Claire McGowan 
10.Finding Cupid - Bridget E Baker
<strong>11.All the Rage - Cara Hunter</strong>

Currently reading the newly released Quickread The Donor - Claire Mackintosh. To The Lions above was read as part of her Facebook book club which I thoroughly enjoyed and probably wouldn't have picked up without the nudge.

Thanks Jux

31. My Sister, The Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite (Audible)

Kerode is a responsible, respected nurse. Her spoiled, capricious, sister Ayoola is a serial killer having recently killed for the third time.

I thought this book got off to a good start, and I liked that the chapters were snappy, but I didn't think Ayoola was well drawn as a character, quite simplistic in fact

Why does she murder people?

Oh because she's spoiled and entitled

Why does everyone enable spoiled, entitled Ayoola, I'm so sick of it, I hate it so much muses Kerode, the person who has single handedly enabled her every murder

Anticlimactic end, and actually thoroughly unbelievable.

A good concept though.

Thanks for the new thread,I'll post my list when not on my phone. I suspect it's not changed though

Thanks for the new thread southeast

My list so far:

1. The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton
2. Death is a Welcome Guest by Louise Welsh
3. Bird Box by Josh Malerman
4. Stranger With My Face by Lois Duncan
5. Calmer, Easier, Happier Homework by Noel Janis-Norton
6. Skeletons by Jane Fallon
7. The Wolf Gift by Anne Rice
8. Red: A Natural History of the Redhead by Jacky Colliss Harvey
9. The Neutronium Alchemist by Peter F Hamilton

10. The Hunting Party by Lucy Foley 11. 99 Red Balloons by Elisabeth Carpenter 12. Starcrossed by Josephine Angelini 13. Female Chauvinist Pigs by Ariel Levy 14. The Scent of Shadows by Vicki Pettersson 15. The Silver Dream story by Neil Gaiman & Micheal Reaves, written by Michael Reaves & Mallory Reaves 16. By Light Alone by Adam Roberts 17. The Treatment by C L Taylor 18. Days of Blood and Starlight by Laini Taylor 19. The Escape by C L Taylor

45. Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng

The first third of this book was OK, then I suddenly found I was hooked and couldn’t put it down. This is the story of a community shaken up by new arrivals. I found all the characters engaging if not always likeable, and the story kept me engrossed wanting to know the outcome for everyone.

I'm so impressed by the amount of books read by some on this thread! I'm currently on book 8 and feeling pretty proud of that - I'm 4 books ahead of schedule on my Good Reads challenge (trying to reach 30 this year) .

My list so far:
1: Gotta Get Theroux This - Louis Theroux
2: The Body - Bill Bryson
3: The Dutch House - Ann Patchett
4: Trick Mirror: Reflections on Self Delusion - Jia Tolentino
5: Olive Kitteridge - Elizabeth Strout
6: Wakenhyrst - Michelle Paver
7: Lady In Waiting - Anne Glenconner
8: Still Me - Jojo Moyes

My list

1.Conviction by Denise Mina

1. Sorry I'm Late, I Didn't Want to Come: An Introvert’s Year of Living Dangerously by Jessica Pan
2. Three Things You Need to Know About Rockets: A memoir by Jessica A. Fox
3. Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking by Susan Cain

5.The Stress Solution by Rangan Chatterjee

1. Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China by Jung Chang

7.Feel Better In 5: Your Daily Plan to Feel Great for Life by Rangan Chatterjee 8.The Salt Path by Raynor Winn 9.Maybe You Should Talk to Someone by Lori Gottlieb 10.Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata 11. George's Marvellous Medicine by Roald Dahl 12. Heartstopper by Alice Oseman

I'm only about 90 pages into Conclave so it's early days, Ruby. I'm enjoying it so far, though. I haven't read any Robert Harris before but he crops up on these threads a fair bit and this presented itself at an opportune time (50p charity shop bargain).

The cardinals have just been locked into the Casa Santa Marta so it's game on....!

Eine - I'm so glad to find somebody else who was annoyed and underwhelmed by My Sister the Serial Killer. So many people (my dp included) r aved about it, but I thought it read like a cross between bad teen fiction and a bad Cosmopolitan article.

Thanks for the new thread southeast

ChessieFL you have already read more books in 8 weeks than I read in total last year

So here's my little list

1. The Hunting Party – Lucy Foley
2. The Unexpected Joy of being Sober – Catherine Gray
3. Ta deuxième vie commence quand tu comprends que tu n’en as qu’une – Raphaëlle Giordano
4. L’élégance du hérisson – Muriel Barbery
5. Three things about Elsie – Joanna Cannon
6. Restoration – Rose Tremain

Am still enjoying the David Copperfield read-along and have several other books on the go. About to start The Dreams of Bethany Mellmoth by William Boyd as it needs to go back to the library!

Just wanted to add to the love for Possession and The Children's Book - both wonderful books. I am also a fan of Byatt's sister Margaret Drabble, especially A Summer Bird-Cage and Jerusalem the Golden.

Here's my list:

1. The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris
2. 11.22.63 by Stephen King
3. The Yorkshire Shepherdess by Amanda Owen
4. Thomas Hardy: the Time-torn Man by Claire Tomalin
5. Lies Lies Lies by Adele Parks
6. The Dark Side of the Mind by Kerry Daynes
7. Back Story by David Mitchell
8. The Path by Malcolm McKay

I had no idea Byatt and Margaret Drabble were sisters! I'm a fan of Drabble too but haven't read either of the titles you mention Tarahumara

Thank you southeast
NowanearlyNicemum I'm at a similar pace, finished book 6 this week...
6. Little Men by Louisa May Alcott
First time I've read this, chuffed to find that the series continues strongly as I'd been worried it might fade. As a teacher, I found some thought provoking wee snippets as Jo and the Prof try to educate the children in their care...society has changed a lot, but these books make me think human nature hasn't changed much at all.
Continuing the series by reading Jo's Boys now

Thanks for the new thread Southeast. Won't post my full list as it's in Excel, so a bit of a pain to sort formatting. I'd had a run of decent but not exceptional books through January, so very happy to have had several really good reads this month. My latest is much-reviewed and thoroughly enjoyable

25 Me by Elton John
Bitchy, gossipy and very, very funny - who knows how much is true, and how much embellished, but I didn't really care.

Raymond Chandler fans, where would you start? The library online has lots of them, & they sound like something I really should read. There's also lots on library audio, but I suspect maybe better on paper?

Thank you for the new thread South.

And thank you @mackerella for the links!

I HATED The Children's Book- luckily all the details of why have faded slightly but the repeated drowning/ suicide plot stands out as the most incredibly irritating bit. Perhaps I won't try Ragnarok, though myth retellings are right up my street-!

I had no idea Byatt and Margaret Drabble were sisters!

I believe they're not close, to put it mildly - it's one of the great literary feuds, going back decades.

I had no idea Byatt and Margaret Drabble were sisters!

By all accounts they can't stand one another nowanearlyNicemum. There's been a real feud going on for years.

25 - Auggie and Me

This is a follow up to the book Wonder, I borrowed it from my 11 year old nephew and loved it. Really interesting to consider the story of Auggie from the POV of three other children and the impact that he has upon their lives

Thanks for the new thread

6 The Eyre Affair - Jasper Fforde

This is a re-read and I couldn’t remember anything that happened so was like reading from new again. I think everyone knows about book traveller Thursday Next so won’t bore you but I really enjoyed rediscovering her.

I would have had book 7 as well but I left it on the plane so have had to get a new copy

I have been toying with The Eyre Affair for a while, Five. May bump it up the TBR list.

1 Guest House for Young Widows by Azadeh Moaveni
2 Little Women by Louisa Alcott
3 Homegoing by Yaa Gyasin
4 Lady in Waiting by Anne Glenconner
5 The Institute by Stephen King
6 Dracula by Bram Stoker
7 The Growing Pains of Adrian Mole by Sue Townsend
8 Snowblind by Ragnor Jónasson
9 Chernobyl Prayer by Svetlana Alexievicho
10 A Little Book of Language by David Crystal
11 Rewild Yourself by Simon Barnes
12 Smashing Physics by Jon Butterworth
13 Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont by Elizabeth Taylor
14 Over The Top by Jonathan Van Ness
15 Rosewater by Tade Thompson*
16 Imogen by Jilly Cooper
17 We Are Made of Diamond Stuff by Isabel Waidner
18 You’re Not Listening by Kate Murphy
19 Natural History of the Hedgerow by John Wright
20 Letters from an Astrophysicist by Neil deGrasse Tyson
21 Christy Malry’s Own Double Entry by BS Johnson
22 Ducks, Newburyport by Lucy Ellman

23 Maid by Stephanie Land
This was reminiscent of Educated and other such memoirs. Stephanie leaves an abusive relationship while pregnant and tries to make ends meet through domestic cleaning jobs. It’s brutal about the reality of such work and the humiliation of the US welfare system, such as it is, and her love for her daughter throughout shines through. Nonetheless I was left a little unsatisfied by this - it read like a creative writing project in places and the detail jarred with the more literary sections. For me, the standout in this genre will always be Barbara Ehrenreich’s Nickel and Dimed although as Ehrenreich acknowledges in the introduction to Maid, for her it was a temporary assignment for the purposes of journalism, not the reality of day to day life.

24 The Familiars by Stacey Halls
I should know better. After realising I was never going to be satisfied by “thriller by numbers” neurotic-woman-domestic-murder-no one believes her-Sauvignon blanc type novels, I did vaguely think that “Richard & Judy historical fiction making a serious point about women while showing off about how much research the author had done” (looking at you, The Miniaturist) should also be struck from my list. This was fine, but my reading life is too short for fine and forgettable.

I sound like a terrible literary snob. I don’t mean to. I like all sorts of books but keep being disappointed by genres that I should know by now do not float my boat.

Bringing my list over

1.The Guilty Mother, Diane Jeffrey -
2.The little book of hygge, Meik Wiking
3.It’s too late now, A.A. Milne
4.The world I fell out of, Melanie Reid
5.The Hunting Party, Lucy Foley
6.Christmas at Rachel’s pudding pantry, Caroline Roberts
7.The Patron saint of lost souls, Menna van Praag
8.The octopus nest, Sophie Hannah
9.The 50 list, Nigel Holland
10.The power trip, Jackie Collins
11.The lost child, Patricia Gibney
12.Heads you win, Jeffrey Archer
13.Titanic survivor: Life boat number 6, Pierre Beaumont
14. All balls and glitter, Craig Revel Horwood (DNF)
15. Sunny side up, Susan Calman
16. Honeysuckle House, Christina Jones
17. Double take tales, Donna Brown
18. The deal of a lifetime, Frederik Backman
19. My life in comedy, Nicholas Parsons
20. Seahouses, RIchard Barnett
21. Little fires everywhere, Celeste Ng
22. A crime short story collection, Parker Bihal
23. Little girl missing, J.G. Roberts
24. The 2nd book of general ignorance, QI
25. New Zealand calling, Alex Richards

Just spotted these two gems at 99p

Angela Carter's Book Of Wayward Girls And Wicked Women (Virago Modern Classics)

This bestselling collection of stories extols the female virtues of discontent, sexual disruptiveness and bad manners Here are subversive tales - by Ama Ata Aidoo, Jane Bowles, Angela Carter, Colette, Bessie Head, Jamaica Kincaid and Katherine Mansfield among others - all have one thing in common: the wish to restore adventuresses and revolutionaries to their rightful position as models for all women

The Private Life of the Diary by Sally Bayley

Diaries keep secrets, harbouring our fantasies and fictional histories. They are substitute boyfriends, girlfriends, spouses and friends. But in this age of social media, the role of the diary as a private confidante has been replaced by a culture of public self-disclosure.

The Private Life of the Diary: from Pepys to Tweets is an elegantly-told story of the evolution – and perhaps death – of the diary. It traces its origins to seventeenth-century naval administrator, Samuel Pepys, and continues to twentieth-century diarist Virginia Woolf, who recorded everything from her personal confessions about her irritation with her servants to her memories of Armistice Day and the solar eclipse of 1927.

Remus

Indeed, least said about boring and pointless Coma Man subplot the better, also.

Thank you for the shiny new thread