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 Abbey Court recommendation Remus, I do like a Golden Age mystery!

I missed out on the Shardlake special offers which is probably good for my bank balance, but it would have been nice to re-read some of the older ones, I can't be bothered to dig the (enormous) hardbacks out of a box in the loft. Like some others on this thread, the last one did leave me a bit cold, there was only so much 'war in Norfolk' description that I could read without skipping pages...

38. PD James - Cover Her Face

I'd never read any of the Dalgliesh books - no idea how as my DM loves them! - so bought this on a Kindle special offer. Really enjoyed it actually, will look out for the next ones in the series.

39. Elizabeth Peters - The Curse of the Pharaohs

The second in the Amelia Peabody Emerson series of Victorian murder mysteries. Wonderfully entertaining (and instructive too, as they cover a lot of Egyptian history and archaeology).

40. Clare Chase - Mystery on Hidden Lane

A Kindle Unlimited choice in the 'cosy mystery' genre, a bit predictable but still an enjoyable and interesting read - I'm on to the sequel now. I often struggle to find things to read during my KU trial - hence why I don't pay for it after the 30 days is up! - so tend to read my way through a series if I find one I like.

Our local library isn't taking reservations; I'm quite gutted as I thought I'd be able to make them online even with no opening date in sight, but will have to make a list instead with an eye ordering them all in the future!

I was a big Just William fan too! I think I read them all (and there are loads!).

I've fallen massively behind, a combination of a complete lack of concentration since everything kicked off and struggling with the book I was reading -

19. Shades of Grey, Jasper Fforde

This was an accidental re-read, I picked it up from the library thinking I hadn't read it, as soon as I started I realised I had read it 🤦🏼‍♀️

Maybe the fact I couldn't remember it should have spoke volumes?

The premise is a dystopian world where caste is determined by your ability to see certain colours.

There were too many characters, and more nonsense than I was in the mood for. Like I say, it may have been me and not the book.

Squiz - it's not you. I couldn't finish it. So poorly written.

Jumping on before a new thread starts.
18. Transcription, by Kate Atkinson

Part of my pre lockdown haul from the library. Juliet Armstrong is recruited to MI5 as a typist during the war. She ends up getting in deeper than intended and 10 years later the past catches up with her.
Switching between 1940 and 1950, the tension and questions are maintained until the unexpected twist in 1980.

That's good to hear @RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie I've liked his other books, so this was a disappointment.

Highlandcoo my favourite is (as usual) the first one I read, The Black Sheep.

You really don't need to read everything, and I haven't read them in any particular order either, just one comes to hand in a bookshop, I look at the bumph on the back and buy it.

I have dipped in and out all my life. Maybe I'll have read them all by the time I die! Just look at the descriptions of each and choose the one which interests you.

Thinking about it, it's high time I read a new Balzac so I'll be visiting Amazon soon.......(NOT ALLOWED TO BUY ANY NEW BOOKS THIS YEAR)

Still Life -Louise Penny

I can’t remember who recommended this series to me but thank you very very much. There’s nothing I love more than a detective series and this fits the bill perfectly.

When an elderly lady is killed by bow and arrow in a village full of artists, poets and antique dealers in the French-Canadian Eastern Townships, Chief Inspector Gamache is called in to investigate.

Some of the writing was really nice too, there were some lovely bits about dogs. Loved it.

Jux thank you; I will investigate further! I really enjoyed the couple of Zola novels I've read, love France and its history and am interested to read Balzac too.

BestisWest that's great you are enjoying Louise Penny. It might have been me who recommended her as I'm a fan and I've mentioned her a few times on here. Many more books in the series which is always good news when you discover an author you like

22. Wanderlust: A History of Walking by Rebecca Solnit When approaching a history of walking, one of the first things that should come to mind is accessibility. This book had such a tiny and annoyingly unclear typeface that I had to go and buy reading glasses from the poundshop (I just decided I needed them, left the house, walked there and bought them, that's how long ago I started reading this book). So I was cross and squinty from the start, and the book would have to do a lot to make up for that. It didn't really. A history of walking turns out to be too big a subject to keep everyone happy all the time. I liked this in parts, but it was too heavily populated with philosophers, artists and intellectuals, too densely written, too tangential to the act of walking itself. No flow, no landscapes, no feeling of a journey. Disappointing. I did wonder whether I just objected to a book on walking due to the timing of our movements being restricted, but as I am finding comfort in various travel and outdoor TV shows at the moment, I don't think it was that.

23. The Book You Wish Your Parents Had Read by Philippa Perry I must have bought this when it was on a deal. I don't usually buy 'mainstream' parenting books, as due to my son's various additional needs I tend to do extreme parenting . Decided the current situation was as good a time as any to read some gentle reminders to communicate with your child and not to fuck up their mental health too much. Perfectly reasonable book, nothing earth shattering, but very readable.

Highlandcoo Hurray! And thanks again.

felt a bit like an appendix to it.

@ThreeImaginaryBoys I like what you did there (when commenting on the Adam Kay book).

Remus I didn't get on with the Jasper Fforde books either.

I started Nan Shepherd's The Living Mountain last night, Robert MacFarlane wrote the introduction to it, gosh he can waffle on - 22% into the book according to my kindle and he was still going After that I struggled to get into the book and switched to Squashed Possums: off the beaten track in New Zealand which is quaint little book written as partly from the perspective of a caravan in the NZ bush and partly as the diary entries of the person staying in it. I'm really enjoying it, it's in exactly the right spot for the stressful times we're all putting up with at the moment. I'd recommend it to the Trustee lovers although it's nothing like it but also is like it. Clear as mud....it's also only 99p.

58. Persona Non Grata (Gaius Petreius Ruso, #3) - Ruth Downie Roman murder mystery. These aren't that brilliant, but fit the bill for a bit of mindless entertainment. In the last few days I have started and immediately discarded half a dozen books that didn't engage, but it's me not them.

I have properly abandoned Tornado Weather by Deborah Elaine Kennedy at 54%. Ostensibly about the disappearance of a 5 year old in a small community, it looks at the lives of the residents in a town on the decline. Discusses immigration, attitudes to people with additional needs and those on the fringes of society and so on. It's trying very hard to be literary fiction and to make some very lofty observations, but fails to be engaging at the same time. A vehicle for point making that forgets there is a journey to be made as well.

59. Will be Heroes - Stephen Fry with about 2 hrs left on audio. I have much preferred this to Mythos and it has been perfect for keeping me entertained. It is impossible not to get swept along with Fry's joyful narration.

Also reading Outline by Rachel Cusk but it's going very slowly.

Betty you have reinforced my belief that Robert Macfarlane should be locked in an underground bunker or allowed to get lost - far, far away.

I have deliberately stopped reading intros to books until I have read the book itself first. I've had far too many books spoiled by another (usually lesser) author.

I really like his books but that introduction went on way too long. I don't normally read introductions either but at 3am I didn't realise at first it was an introduction despite it having INTRODUCTION in a font the size of a small elephant

Did Robert Macfarlane stop his introduction to ease himself out of a pool and dry off on a glistening rock while contemplating his relationship with said rock?

fortunamajor you just know he’d describe the living daylights out of that bunker.

Maybe we should have a thread competition with a prize for the best MacFarlane style bunker description.

in a font the size of a small elephant

Satsuki He'll be too busy writing about lock down and being in isolation. I would read with interest about the length and breadth and oh so profound depths of the hole his wife is currently digging in the garden. I wish no ill on Robert Macfarlane but could fully support his solitary confinement.

Museumofham - interested to see what you wrote about Wanderlust. I have read several books by Rebecca Solnit and enjoyed them, but have stalled about 30 or 40 pages into Wanderlust, despite the subject being theoretically right up my alley. The tiny font doesn't help, plus the ticker-tape style quotations running along the bottom of the pages which mean if you read them you are flicking back and forth and losing your thread in the main text.

But I think there must also be something about the way she is dealing with the subject that is somehow inaccessible too. I may try again when I am in a better frame of mind for concentrating on that sort of thing.

23. Still Midnight by Denise Mina

Crime set in Glasgow. I enjoyed the depiction of the various characters, both the Scottish/Ugandan Asian family who were the victims of the initial attack, and the criminals who were bound together by family ties and old loyalties that become progressively strained.

The rivalries and personality clashes between the police officers were well depicted too.

The plot unfolded well however the end was pretty abrupt and unsatisfactory.

Quite entertaining but not as good as Val McDermid's Karen Pirie crime novels.

I've got Underland sitting on my bedside table. What I've read of it so far has been excellent, but it feels like a bigger job than I've got the get-up-and-go for at the moment.

I'm reading Devil's Cub which I got in the Kindle deal. I think it's one that I haven't read before.

Betty, I'm tempted by Squashed Possums. That would count as 'required pre-emigration reading' rather than 'new book purchase' wouldn't it?

It's essential to learn about the culture of your new country and Possums is an excellent way to do it - for starters you will learn how to deal with possums which I can guarantee is essential for any NZ resident.

Lonesome dove is one of my favourite books, I don't remember it taking that long to read dispite its size.

Johnny got his gun by dalton Trumbo- an American man wakes up after being injured during WWI and comes to realise that he's lost all his limbs, is blind, deaf and can't speak. The book is made up of the man's flash backs, thoughts and him trying to work out how to communicate or tell what time of day it is.

Abit of a sad book to read at the moment and it did nothing for my mood, dispute Trumbos sometimes very on the nose anti war rants it's not a book im likely to forget as you really did feel for the character

38. Half Of A Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche

Seeing @TheTurnOfTheScrew 's review prompted me to address the fact that I'd had this bought and unread for years

I also knew little of the Biafran War

Very well written and interesting story chronicling a set of estranged twins, their partners and a servant in war and peace time.

I definitely feel the need to read more novelists that aren't :

British
Irish
American
Canadian

I feel like even the writers of non English speaking European countries don't get a look in in the markets here, would really like to expand my horizons.

This is excellent though, strongly recommend 4/5