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?

Here is my long-overdue update, which covers the second half of March. I’m still reading- and still listening to audiobooks- but my concentration is pretty poor, so I can only cope with fairly short and/or undemanding books. I haven’t read any of the David Copperfield chapters for March but hope to catch up soon. During March I did manage to continue with my plan only to read (and listen to) free books, so everything was either a free Kindle book, a library book or an item from BorrowBox. It was an interesting experiment and one I will probably repeat.

57. Harry Potter and the Cursed Child- J.K. Rowling, John Tiffany and Jack Thorne I hadn't previously read this or seen the play. I enjoy stories featuring alternate realities, so the plot is right up my street. The scenes about Harry’s parents’ deaths work well. It is interesting that Harry’s son is such close friends with Malfoy’s son- I would have liked to discover more about Harry’s other two children.

58. In the City, By the Sea- Kamila Shamsie I listened to the audiobook a couple of weeks ago. It is a well-crafted novel, but it was probably a poor choice for me at the time. My ears pricked up at every mention of house arrest, curfews or civil unrest.

59. Fleabag: The Special Edition- Phoebe Waller-Bridge The second play I’ve read this month, this is mildly amusing but less so than the TV series. There are some extra chapters on ‘the making of’ which I found far too luvvieish and backslapping.

60. Winston Churchill: A Life from Beginning to End- Hourly History This is much like any other Hourly History. I found the sections about Churchill’s private life the most interesting.

61. The Rehearsal- Eleanor Catton The tale of a sex scandal in a secondary school, interspersed with the story of a local drama school putting on a play about it. The plot is fairly well handled, but I just didn’t have the necessary concentration.

62. The Saddest Girl in the World- Cathy Glass Most Cathy Glass books follow a similar trajectory (child comes into care with huge problems, child gradually improves with the help of Cathy and her family, child is the subject of a court case, child moves on to long-term placement or returns home) so it was good to read something very familiar and undemanding.

63. Sal- Mick Kitson I stumbled across the audiobook on BorrowBox. It is an excellent novel about two sisters who run away from their abusive home life to live, Bear Grylls-style, in the Scottish wilderness. It is very moving and beautifully read.

64. It’s Not About You- Tom Rath A short, free book on the Kindle about devoting one’s life to helping others. I found it rather inspiring.

I've just finished The Hunting Party by Lucy Foley.

I wanted to like this more than I did. It had some really promising elements but it didn’t click for me. The Oxford University student stereotypes slipped into caricature to the point that I really didn’t care what happened to any of them. They felt utterly insubstantial as characters.

The sub plot around the estate and its inhabitants felt bolted on and, frankly, a bit hackneyed. The writing was lazy in places and it really grated to hear the same phrases and metaphors repeated over and over (‘s/he felt a cold that was nothing to do with the weather’ springs to mind).

To cap it all, the solution to the actual whodunnit is pretty obvious from about halfway through, and then you're left to navigate some flimsy (and not very credible) plot twists until the end.

It was a disappointment. Sadly the writer didn't have the skill to fulfil the potential of the premise.

I've actually finished a book, which seems like a major achievement at the moment.

29: Short Life in a Strange World - Toby Ferris

The title seems strangely apposite just now, but in fact this is a chronicle of the author's quest to see, in person, all 42 surviving paintings of Pieter Bruegel the Elder. It took him five years and involved trips around the world. In this shortish book he meditates on Bruegel's life and art, the times in which he lived, his contemporaries and the copies that were made of his works (many by his son).

Amongst all this Ferris interweaves stories from his own life, memories of his late father, and of his mother, who has dementia. Add in all sorts of odd information about all kinds of other subjects, and the result is an eclectic, eccentric but absorbing little book, with a bit of a philosophical edge.

I'll probably slump into something a bit more mindless after this, though - I haven't really got the mental bandwidth for anything too taxing.

I am really struggling with The Night Circus; it doesn't hold my attention at all.So bitty and so many characters.

I've read Sal , Franz! There's two of us!

Oh Piggy, I loved The Night Circus I don't remember it that way and I've read it twice. Her new one suffers massively from that exact problem though, so you may be onto something

I gave up on The Night Circus but I have a couple of friends who loved it.

I've actually finished a book, which seems like a major achievement at the moment.

I feel like that too.
Talking of finishing things, this thread is nearly full!

I’ve managed to read a few books recently, but nothing demanding.

61. The Bookshop by Penelope Fitzgerald

Short novel set in the 1950s about a woman opening a bookshop. I expected to love this but it was just OK. It was too short to properly develop either the plot or the characters.

62. Mauve: How one man invented a colour that changed the world by Simon Garfield

Biography of the chemist William Perkin who accidentally invented the dye for the colour mauve while trying to discover something else. It was interesting to read about all the developments that this led to, but there was a lot of technical detail about making dyes that was less interesting.

63. The Queen And I by Sue Townsend

Listened to this on Audible. It’s dated now (written in the early 1990s) but still funny. It’s the story of a Republican government getting in and banishing the Royal Family to live on a council estate in the Midlands.

64. Long Story Short by Jodi Taylor

A collection of short stories, mostly about St Mary’s but there was one that wasn’t. The St Mary’s silliness was just what I needed.

65. Broken Ground by Val McDermid

Police procedural about a body discovered in a peat bog alongside two wartime motorbikes. Enjoyed this, well written and not gruesome.

66. Touching Distance by Graham Hurley

Another police procedural, this time about people being taken out by snipers. It was fine, a standard of the genre.

67. Perfectly Correct by Philippa Gregory

This is one of her earlier books before she moved into historical fiction. This wasn’t great - chick lit about a woman living in the country and falling in love with the local farmer.

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. (4/5) 12. A Trail Through Time by Jodi Taylor. (4/5) 13. Elevator Pitch by Linwood Barclay. (1/5) 14. Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari. (3/5) 15. The Talisman by Stephen King & Peter Straub. (2/5) 16. Ayoade on Top by Richard Ayoade. (3/5) 17. Black Ice by Michael Connelly. (2/5) 18. In the Woods by Tana French. (3/5) 19. The Dutch House by Ann Patchett. (3/5) 20. Red Ribbons by Louise Phillips. (1/5) 21. The Girl He Used to Know by Tracy Garvis Graves. (3/5) 22. The Other Us by Fiona Harper. (2/5) 23. Ready Player One by Ernest Cline. (3/5) 24. The Crow Trap by Anne Cleeves. (3/5)

25. The Dark Tower II: The Drawing of the Three by Stephen King. I'm currently reading Stephen King's books in order (although I got a bit mixed up and jumped ahead to this one) I'm a BIG Stephen King fan and have read most of his books several times but never got round to reading the Dark Tower series. I found the first book in the series (The Gunslinger) a real slog, and had given up on it a couple of times previously, but had heard it was worth persevering with the series so managed to finally get through it. Roland, The Gunslinger, spends his time battling infection and assembling his Dark Tower team. Maybe it was the fact that a big portion of this book took place in our world that made this an easier read but I enjoyed it, despite the erroneous description of a character as schizophrenic. This is clearly a bit of a bridge book which doesn't shed any light on what the Dark Tower is, why the Gunslinger wants to get there and why he needs the others he has gathered, but I enjoyed it and am looking forward to the rest of the series. Incidentally do any other 80s kids remember a series called Dark Towers, we used to watch it at school, anytime I see the words 'Dark Tower' the theme tune pops into my mind. Might have to google it for old times sake! (3/5)

Mama - I love The Drawing of the Three so much. The fight scene is brilliant.

Waits for Cote to pop up and bitch about the lovely Roland...

I have been flirting with a reread of The Dark Tower series too. I think they’d benefit from a second read. And for the first time in a month I have read a book. This is the first time since I was able to read that I have said that.

33 A Journal of the Plague Year by Daniel Defoe
I listened to the Backlisted episode on this last year and thought vaguely about reading it then. I wasn’t sure how I’d feel about it now but it was weirdly comforting. It’s all there - self isolation, food shortages, quack remedies, asymptomatic carriers, death. And it was very readable. I don’t know why this was what it took to get me back reading after not being able to for several weeks, but I think it was realising that we have done this before and survived. I don’t know...perhaps if I’d read this a year ago I would have dismissed it as a historical curiosity. It certainly didn’t feel like that now.

@RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie it really is, looking forward to the rest of the series now!

@PepeLePew I'd definitely recommend giving it a go, as I said I found the first book a slog but it's definitely picking up now.

I thought I'd post some reviews before I do another thread later. Not sure of my numbers at the moment.

Queenie - Candice Carty-Williams. I wasn't a fan of this novel set in contemporary London (which she captures brilliantly). I thought the depiction of white men was appalling, and the main character self-absorbed, charmless and someone IRL I'd swerve at any opportunity. Agree with a PP that the description of the NHS Talking Therapies here was awful.

Blood Orange - Harriet Tyce. Psychological/domestic noir about a married barrister who has an affair with a colleague and the fallout from this. There's also a story going on about one of her cases but I felt the author lacked interest in that part of the book. All in all, I thought this was mediocre. The 'twist' is very obvious early on, and it could have done with 30 - 50 pages being cut but I liked some of the insights into the legal world (the author is an ex-barrister). This has been frequently compared to Apple Tree Yard but that book was much better in every aspect.

Those People - Louise Candlish. Enjoyable thriller set in a middle-class area of south London that explores people's reactions to an 'inferior' couple who move into their street. I felt she could have done a bit less on the vehicle parking issues and more on the characterisation, especially the 'other people' who're a bit caricatured. But it's mostly escapist fun, well-paced, and I'll read another one of her books.

60. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd - Agatha Christie
    Cheeky bit of Christie for an easy entertaining read.

61. Lark Rise to Candleford - Flora Thompson
    Lovely gentle read detailing village and town life in the 1880s.

62. The Spire - William Golding
    The dean of a cathedral is determined to go ahead with the building of a new spire despite the advice from the builder that it is not viable.
    Marvellously atmospheric as it follows one man's obsession regardless of those around him.

I've been targeting shorter reads as anything longer feels too daunting at the moment.

It's really interesting how many people are finding solace in plague/pandemic novels.

Pepe - they're definitely worth a re-read. I've re-read them a number of times, although must admit I now skip a lot of the first, and of Wizard and Glass when doing so.

11. The Mother Tongue by Bill Bryson, well it turns out I'm not interested enough in my native language to sustain a whole book about its history and usage, some mildly interesting parts but all in all a bit of a slog.

12. <strong>The Mirror and The Light</strong> by Hilary Mantel, I didn't really change my opinion of this book from the remarks I made it the half way point, this was a captivating book attempting to emerge from the pointlessly repetitive, bloated text. She really needed a ruthless editor - less really is sometimes more. Perhaps she was trying to ensure new readers were aware of the events of the previous novels but surely there can't be many people who would embark on the third novel in such a well known historical trilogy without reading the other two. 

This was a book that came alive when it dealt with Cromwell's relationships with Henry and his own household. The passages describing the ill used Anne of Cleves and how she found herself married to the King of England were also interesting. Cromwell's fall from grace when it comes is swift and without warning, which is fitting as everything is seen through Cromwell's eyes and we also feel the shock of the ambush and his pain at the deception of those he thought he could trust.
I really appreciated the afterword that gives a brief synopsis of the lives of the main characters and would love Mantel to revisit Henry VIII to unpick his final two marriages. (With the help of the editor that worked on Bring Up The Bodies!)
As always with Mantel it was beautifully written but this is probably not a book I will revisit, unlike Wolf Hall and Bring Up The Bodies, which I've already read twice. Such a shame that this brilliant creative undertaking should end with the weakest of the three books, but that doesn't detract from the vivid world she has created and the remarkable feat of making the Henry VIII court accessible and interesting to such a huge audience.
I look forward to the television adaptation which will no doubt cut away much of the excess padding and reveal a leaner, fitter, better version of Cromwell's last four years on Earth.

I gave up the series on Wizard and Glass

The Gunslinger was an amazing book but diminishing returns thereafter for me

I like 5 and 7 a lot, Eine. 6 isn't great.

13 Invisible Women by Caroline Criado Perez. Loved this book but it made me so angry at the constant dismissal of, and refusal to listen to women. Not a relaxing read but fascinating and guaranteed to raise your blood pressure!

17. Blue Monday by Nicci French. The first in a crime series about Psychotherapist Freida Klein and the disappearance of a young boy. This was really silly. Didn’t like any of the characters. Didn’t believe any of their motivations or dialogue and just full of cliches. Frieda was very annoying. Also, the authors kept deliberately not showing sections of scenes so you are constantly wondering about the context but with all the subtlety of a sledge hammer.

Pleased to have finished something though!

@ChessieFL We seem to share a lot of the same taste in books, I agreed wholeheartedly with your comments about these books:

61. The Bookshop by Penelope Fitzgerald
62. Mauve: How one man invented a colour that changed the world by Simon Garfield
63. The Queen And I by Sue Townsend
64. Perfectly Correct by Philippa Gregory

19. Stephen Morris by Nevil Shute . Actually 2 books - Stephen Morris and Pilotage but published in one book as contains some of the same characters. An early work of Nevil Shute but contains his trademark writing style of lots of technical detail on flying and for a change, sailing, with a gentle plot about a man trying to establish himself in a career before he can ask his girl to marry him. Both books have a very similar plot of misunderstandings between man and his would-be bride, but the bride from book one (Stephen Morris) is around to help the would be bride from book 2 to understand. I probably wouldn’t have chosen to read both books in one sitting if they hadn’t been in one volume as they are a bit too similar

7. The Secret Barrister - Stories of the Law and How It's Broken An insider's account of how the British legal system functions (or more accurately doesn't) in the twenty-first century.

It covers how the justice system fails most people exposed to it, including victims, the wrongly accused, and vulnerable prisoners, largely due to the fact that most people think of criminal justice as something that happens to Other People. DH and I are both exposed to the system to a degree through work, so some of this was familiar ground (I've personally witnessed a legal adviser turn purple with frustration as a bench tried to hand out an unlawful sentence, so the stats on that sadly weren't a surprise). But the book successfully shows how successive funding cuts have been devastating, and why all of this should matter to all of us.