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?

was very glad to get past the chapters on diseases caused by parasitic worms, and into the relative comfort of smallpox

Best review snippet I have read for a while

26 The Moon's a Balloon by David Niven
I've read this before many years ago in my teens, but was reminded of it by reading Elton John's autobiography. Reading it as an adult, he sounds like he was a right PITA as a child/young man, but fortunate enough to have bucket loads of charm to get himself out of sticky situations.

27 The Bilingual Brain by Albert Costa, translated by John W. Schwieter
Interesting exploration of bilingualism in the context of cognitive neuroscience. Lots about how babies learn to differentiate language, how decision making is affected if we use a language other than our mother tongue, and how bilingualism affects brain structure.

The only thing I thought was slightly disappointing was that the author didn't really make the point that bi/multilingualism is the norm for large chunks of the world's population, so actually maybe we could think of monolingualism as the outlier state, rather than the other way round. I also thought the section on code switching was quite limited (living in an area where code switching back & forth Welsh to English in a conversation is very, very common along with some extremely creative half way words on occasion!) But nitpicking really, and it's an excellent book. (I listened to this on Audible, and the very posh RP English used by the narrator was also entertaining)

1. Ulysses by James Joyce. This is a hard one to review. Yes, I can see that it's a work of genius. Yes, I recognise that Joyce was ploughing a path that has inspired the works of future authors. I loved some bits (particularly when I felt that I 'got' it), while many other parts flew straight over my head. I started it back in November and I'm both pleased to have read it and relieved to have finally finished

I was looking at reviews online, and here is my favourite:
I began to read Ulysses and I must say it is not too difficult to read however it takes a lot of time due to the neverending references to almost every field of classic knowledge but I want to finish it so that when someone will ask my if I have read it I will say yes I will be so proud that my heart will go like mad and yes I say I have YES.

10. The Mother of All Jobs: How to have Children and a Career and Stay Sane by Christine Armstrong. Like a few other posters on this thread, I'm trying to avoid buying new books and instead reading some that have been sitting on my kindle for a while. I got this ages ago, on the recommendation of a friend, and I'm sure I'd have got more out of it if I'd read it at the time - my youngest DC is 10, so I've been a working mum for many years now! Still, some interesting perspectives (the author interviews lots of mums and dads to get her material) and worth a read overall.

11. Wounds: A Memoir of War and Love by Fergal Keane. I bought this after reading and loving Milkman a year ago, and thinking that I really should know more about the history of the Troubles. In this I was disappointed, as it's actually about the Irish War of Independence and is set in southern Ireland during the years 1918 to 1923. My fault entirely for not reading the blurb properly. It's an excellent historical memoir (so-called because Keane's grandmother and great-uncle feature in it), written by a journalist who knows his way around a civil war, having covered among others the Rwandan genocide and South African Apartheid, and therefore gives a good balanced view despite his family influences. Really interesting. Unfortunately I still need to read another book to find out about the Troubles...

tara, you did it! I am stuck at section nine and there are still so many pages to go. I’m not scared of long books or difficult books but this is both. Time to put on my big girls’ pants and knuckle down, I think.

You can do it Pepe!

Tara I've heard really good things about Say Nothing by Patrick Radden Keeffe . Not that I am encouraging you in any way to buy it. Oh no.

Tara I read Making Sense of the Troubles by David McKittrick a while back & thought it was a good solid read.

Thanks - they both sound really good. (Arghhh!!)

tara, I’m reading Bad Blood by Colm Toibin at the moment. It’s written just after the Anglo-Irish agreement in the 1980s and although it doesn’t set out to give a history lesson it’s very interesting in depicting life on the Border, and the relationships between communities. Would recommend.

I couldn't get into SIghtlines either, it's my kind of book but it just didn't do it for me.

16. The Last Anniversary by Liane Moriarty

Not as good as Moriarty's now world famous Big Little Lies, but a great deal of frothy undemanding fun. The book centres around the Doughty family and the mystery (an abandoned baby) that they've worked into an all singing, all dancing family business on Scribbly Gum Island. Into this big, multi-generational family comes Sophie (the ex girlfriend of one family member), who is unexpectedly left a house by the matriarch, Connie, when she dies. Fun and japes ensue, but with some nicely drawn characters (including a good, sharp portrayal of a new mother who can't bond with her baby) and just a hugely good-natured feeling that drags you along with the (frankly wholly implausible) storyline. This book had a bit of a Marian Keyes feel about it for me (which is a compliment, in case you were wondering).

I've finished:

After the end
The man who didn’t call
Bill bryson the road to little dribbling
Dont go there Adam Fletcher
A rockstar ending nicola rossi
The Stationery Shop of Tehran
The Beekeeper of Aleppo

I'm just starting Rachel's holiday

Well done on Ulyesses Tara. Keep going Pepe.

36. Bring Up the Bodies - Hilary Mantel I have read this slowly and savoured every word. While she is not shy of words (I'm going to need a book stand for the next one at double the length) she certainly knows how to convey a lot with very little. I thought this was brilliant. I agree with a nibdedibble that it is an easier read than Wolf Hall, but it does not suffer in quality for it. She manages to make Cromwell nuanced and real in a way that other authors don't seem to be as able.

I am really looking forward to The Mirror and the Light. Although I know how it will end, the journey to get there will be worthwhile.

Ulysses

Move has happened!

First priority two full bookshelves!

Weirdly I have just moved in but with the books up it just feels like my house 😊

Glad the move went well Eine.

Ulysses...

I've read Chapter One

Nearly 20 years ago

😂

Actually, I think its a fantastic candidate to get done via Audible

@Tarahumara - I’d really recommend A Place Apart by Dervla Murphy. She cycles around Northern Ireland in about 1976 and talks to people from all sides. Really fascinating.

Great review of the bilingual brain too. I grew up bilingual and speak a couple of extra languages now and think just being aware that there’s always more than one way to say something makes you understand language and culture better from an early age.

Book 11.
Un échec de Maigret Georges Simenon (Maigret’s failure)
Nice easy read. Maigret is approached by a butcher who has aggressively taken over a string of butchers in Paris and the North of France and has been receiving death threats. Maigret organises à guard outside his door but the next day he is found dead. Maigret discovers a team of staff and wife who all hate him for some reason or another.

I’m much further behind than everyone else
7 Nine Perfect Strangers - Liane Moriarty
It was readable enough, but I also thought it was so bloody silly! The characters were a bit one dimensional also I felt...
interested to see what other people who have read it thought.

Doh that’s book 6! Further behind than I thought. I am on holiday next week so hopefully get caught up a bit.
My next book is Estates, an intimate history.

1. Native Tongue - Suzette Haden Elgin

1. If Cats Disappeared from the World - Genki Kawamura
2. Frankenstein in Baghdad - Ahmed Saadawi
3. Lies Sleeping -Ben Aaranovitch

5. The History of Bees - Maja Lunde 6. Severance - Ling Ma 7. NOS4A2 - Joe Hill

1. Choose Your Own Apocalypse
2. Children of Time - Adrian Tchaikovsky

10. The Pale Horse - Agatha Christie

Read this having watched the TV adaptation and being completely confused by the ending. The book was no help at all since the TV plot did not stick to the book. Not my favourite Christie mystery as quite a lot on the supernatural and what was then considered to be cutting edge science (speculation that murder could have been carried out by use of “rays” from two counties away). However, Christie led me nicely along the path before including the obligatory twist.

I am meant to be reading my TBR pile but cannot resist the lure of Kindle offers. So, next up, is Hemingway’s The Sun also Rises

Argh! Hit send too soon!
NOS4A2 by Joe Hill was great fun to read. A Christmas themed horror, definitely a gripping read and strangely lighthearted in places. We first meet Vic as a child, who has the unusual ability to find lost things via a bike and a magical bridge. As she gets older, she starts to dismiss the events she experienced as a child as mental illness, and turns to drink. We meet her again as a mother, when a nightmare from her childhood appears to kidnap her son, and Vic has to face her demons to rescue him. Strong, flawed female lead, a bunch of creepy characters and unputdownable in places.

Also really enjoying Choose Your Own Apocalypse, Rob Sears You are a junior officer in the UN, tasked with preventing a worrying amount of apocalypses (apocalypsi?!) over the Christmas period. Featuring Kim Jong-Un! Elon Musk! Donald Trump! Bees! Asteroids! Great fun if you’re a fan of choose your own adventures, apocalypses, wise cracking Kim Jong-Uns and uncanny android Elon Musks.

Currently reading (and loving) Children of Time #TeamSpider

TimeforaGandT I am getting fed up with the Sarah Phelps Agatha Christie adaptations. A fresh new look is one thing, but she's COMPLETELY CHANGING THE PLOTS!

Choose Your Own Apocalypse sounds awesome, Giraffe