50 Book Challenge 2020 Part Four

[southeastdweller]

Welcome to the fourth 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, the second one here and the third one here.

What are you reading?

Well, happy to report that The Year of Living Danishly by Helen Russell was the required tonic. It was a very interesting insight , although Russell's wide eyedness about some things just made me think she is more of a Londoner than a Brit. ( I grew up never locking doors or shutting windows either, and routinely forget to lock my car...)

She is funny and endearing and it is nice to read a travel type book by a woman that is funny. I went to Denmark when I was 15 and would love to go back, but - my God- she doesn't mention the midgies! I spent two days in bed recovering from head to toe bites, and I'm from the west of Scotland!

I also read the book about Iceland and , all things considered, would rather live in Denmark but I definitely could not drink that much alcohol

MuseumOfHam I am totally with you on both Heartburn and Standard Deviation. I wanted to throw the latter out of the window.

And seconding several others, Force of Nature is not up there with Jane Harper's other two.

9. Enigma by Robert Harris. Cambridge mathematics graduate Tom Jericho is recalled to Bletchley to work on cracking Enigma, having taken a leave of absence due to mental and physical exhaustion. Trying to make amends with his former lover Claire, he discovers highly confidential stolen material in her digs, after which she vanishes from Bletchley entirely. Tom battles to break the code to save an Altantic convoy, whilst working out how and why information is being leaked to the Germans from somewhere in his immediate circle.

The sections on how the Enigma machines worked were fascinating, although I needed to read some bits three for four times to make sense of the technological detail, and the plot twists were gripping and plausible. Very enjoyable.

31: Somewhere in England - Carola Oman

Sequel to Nothing to Report, and a continuation of the adventures of Miss Mary Morrison. I can't be too specific because it would involve spoilers for anyone who fancies reading the first book, but we're into 1942 by now, and the war is in full swing (the book was published in 1943). The whole first half of the book focuses on a new character, trainee nurse Pippa Johnson, on her way to join the war effort at Woodside, the historic mansion now re-purposed as a military hospital, around which many of the characters from the first book are to be found.

There's inevitably a darker and more melancholy note to the action in places, but I still thoroughly enjoyed this, despite a bit of trouble keeping all the (many) characters in my head. And it leaves a certain number of loose ends unresolved. But as a picture of village life in England in wartime it's beguilingly done. Im just sorry Carola Oman didn't write any more to make this a series.

For folks wanting a gentle read, I just saw From goats to a garden is now free for the kindle:

This is the true story about a family that left the convenience of town living to embark on an adventure in the English countryside. They bought a run down four-acre smallholding and neglected cottage in an area of Outstanding Natural Beauty on top of the North Downs in Kent.
It is the story of the ups and downs of family life, including their own children, their foster children and their aged relations. It describes the early difficulties of living in and renovating the cottage and the hardships of harsh winters.
They had the companionship of their Border Collies, Sheba, Miffy and Sam, and later on their beloved Golden Lurcher, Tess.
Sheep, goats, pigs and chickens were part of their new life, prompting the learning of animal husbandry. Read about Chirrup the orphan thrush, Nellie and Gertie, the escapist pigs, fluffy white goat kids and Jacob, the lamb who went to work in a handbag.
It tells how they looked after the land and rejoiced in their surroundings.

I've completely fallen off the thread as I've been adapting to post Covid 19 life. Heartened to see so many fellow 50 Bookers have been afflicted with poor concentration - I thought it was just me! My reading has dropped off dramatically. As things settle down I'm trying to read at least 30 pages a day to give my brain a break from working at home or watching the news.

Sorry to hear some of you have been poorly and hope everyone is getting by as best they can.

Here's quick round up of what I've been reading. Will pop back to update my list a bit later.

15. The Five – Haillie Rubenhold

Thought provoking and gripping non-fiction. The writer approaches Jack the Ripper from a feminist angle, focusing on the lives of his five female victims.

This was the last book I read before Covid 19 pretty much took over the world. I have fond memories of reading it on my journey to work, on the top deck of a London Bus. Those were the days! I haven’t stepped foot on a bus since 17 March. What I enjoyed most was the incredibly detailed research into the minutiae of the women’s lives and description of 1887 London. Recommended.

16. Slack-Tide – Elanor Dymot

By this stage my concentration was starting to suffer a bit. I picked up and started Hurricane Season by Fernanda Melchor but I couldn’t get into it and I no longer had the stamina to persist. Slack-Tide* on the other hand is the perfect read for anyone stuggling to keep their mind on things.

I found this book well written with a good structure. The subject matter is refreshingly light and undemanding. The protagonist Elizabeth meets a charming American man and embarks on a passionate relationship which involves them having lovely lunches at London restaurants, going to parties, jazz clubs and art galleries. By this stage my interaction with the outside world was starting to get very limited, basically going out to work but also working at home sometimes so reading about somene else’s glamourous social life felt like a little holiday for my brain.

Both recently separated from their long term partners, you know it’s all good to be true and sure enough the cracks start to show and there’s red flags flying everywhere before you know it. The story stretched credibility at times; pleasant American man is so needy and self-centred I thought Elizabeth must surely see his true colours. Nevertheless a very enjoyable read. I’m going to look out for more from this writer.

17. Wolf Hall – Hilary Mantel

Listened to this on Audible and choosing this medium really slowed me down. By now the lockdown is in force so I’m working at home and with DD aged 12 doing the same and only leaving the flat with her for exercise or food shopping. So audible didn’t really work for me. I was snatching a quick half hour while doing chores and another half hour before I went to sleep. My mind was wandering off more than it wasn’t. I have now decided to shelf Audible until I have my commute back.

Despite everything I really enjoyed this. I think everyone knows what this one is about so I won’t bore you. It was truly epic. I have added BUTB to my reading list ( as a real book).

18. To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee

A re-read for my book group. I first read this for my English Lit GCSE and loved it then. As an adult I also loved it, but saw it from a different angle altogether, as I’m now approximately the same age is Scout's Father, Atticus Finch.

Written in 1960, Harper Lee was so far ahead of her time it’s quite staggering. Despite knowing what was going to happen, I couldn’t put this down. She writes like a dream; this book has it all, from humour to tragedy and everything else in between. I feel as if this book restored me, allowing me to feel completely submerged in Depression era Alabama, a real escape from London 2020.

A Fatal Grace and The Cruellest Month - Louise Penny

Numbers two and three in the Inspector Gamache series set in a small community of artists, poets, antique dealers and bistro owners in the small village of Three Pines in Quebec.

Thoroughly enjoyable, Inspector Gamache is a likeable character, the food descriptions are to die for. It sounds a wonderful place to live but I suspect it’s the Canadian equivalent of Midsummer judging by the regularity with which murders take place in a small community so maybe not a good idea.

Having a break from these now with Bill Bryson’s The Body

Here’s a quick update. I’m struggling to concentrate on novels at the moment, so I’ve generally preferred non fiction. I seem to remember that at least one person on this thread said the same, while at least one person said the opposite!

65. The Nanny State Made Me- Stuart Maconie Maconie’s latest offering rhapsodises about the many services provided by the state: the NHS, libraries, the railways, water, education, municipal sports facilities and so on. Fragments of his own history are also woven in. I listened to it on Audible and it was a perfect choice at the moment, the early chapter on the NHS striking a particularly moving chord. I also enjoyed listening to his extended rants, such as the one about private schools. Lovely stuff.

66. Sonic Youth Slept on My Floor- Dave Haslam In times of stress, I often revert to reading books about music. In this one, the latest by DJ and journalist Haslam, I enjoyed the parts about indie bands more than the sections about the rise of dance music culture, but that is just my personal preference. There is a particularly endearing vignette in which Haslam invites Morrissey round to his house for an interview and, knowing that Mozzer is a vegetarian, makes a huge effort to cook cauliflower cheese for him. But when Morrissey arrives, he has already had his tea, cooked by his mum, so he isn’t hungry.

67. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time- Mark Haddon This is a favourite novel of mine, so I decided to listen to the semi-dramatised version on Audible. The main part, Christopher, is read by a young boy called Ben Tibber who only sounds about nine or 10 years old, while in the book the character is supposed to be 15. I thought that this might be incredibly annoying, but actually Tibber reads incredibly well and it wasn’t a problem (to me at least).

68. I Was Britpopped- Jenny Natasha & Tom Boniface-Webb Another music book: this one is a history of Britpop written in dictionary form. Because of the format, there is an awful lot of repetition: e.g. if I wanted to read about Blur, I could look up Blur, Damon Albarn, the other three members, and each of their Britpop-era albums and singles, and some of the same information would be repeated. The authors’ definition of a Britpop band is extremely wide, including unlikely bands of the era such as Skunk Anansie, Garbage and Republica in addition to the usual suspects. There is also a huge obsession with chart positions. Despite these slight niggles, I enjoyed this book immensely. I had expected to pay £7.99 to download it, but because I signed up for a Kindle Unlimited trial it was free to borrow.

69. A Bit of a Stretch: The Diaries of a Prisoner- Chris Atkins For some reason, I always enjoy reading books about prison life. This one describes filmmaker Chris Atkins’ 30 months in prison for tax fraud, mostly describing his time in Wandsworth (as he stopped writing his diary when he was transferred to Ford open prison). It is interesting and illuminating; Atkins reaches many of the same conclusions as Carl Cattermole (who wrote Prison: A Survival Guide ). One of these conclusions is that prisons are hugely understaffed, meaning that prisoners often can’t attend their educational classes, work or medical appointments. Being confined to their cells for up to 23 hours per day is awful for their mental health and does nothing to rehabilitate offenders. Former Secretary of State for Justice, Chris Grayling, receives a well-deserved pasting.

65. The Nanny State Made Me- Stuart Maconie

I've tried several of his books because they look really interesting but there is something about them that really makes it hard for me to get into them. Still I've added this one to my wish list and I hope it'll be different. I didn't even realise he'd written a new book.

I've added Sonic Youth Slept on my Floor to my wishlist Franz, it looks like perfect reading for right now. I've just bought Mastering the Art of Soviet Cooking as my next read - like a few others, I'm justifying more Kindle purchases than normal on the basis that I'm not going out doing anything else!

69. The Absolutist - John Boyne A WW1 soldier arranges to meet the sister of one of his comrades when the war is over to deliver the letters her brother wrote to her. In 1917 the brother laid down his weapon and declared himself a conscientious objector, which on the battlefield had only one conclusion. The soldier has a confession of his own.

I don't think this is one of John Boyne's best, but it was still very readable and touching in parts. It brings home how terrible conditions were and how little was understood about the mental toll of war on the individual.

70. Daisy Jones and the Six - Taylor Jenkins Reid Much read on here, accounts the rise and fall of a rock band.

I really enjoyed this. I loved the style it was written in and found it refreshingly different and very entertaining.

71. My Dark Vanessa - Kate Elizabeth Russell Recently reviewed upthread by Roz and I agree wholeheartedly. It's only April and I'm willing to call it as easily making my top read of the year. The writing is sublime, the content is thought provoking and the whole work is captivating. I don't think I've read anything of this quality for a long time. Astoundingly good.

Roz I also wanted to say that I was sorry to hear of your experience.
This book brings to mind two things recently that have stayed with me, one was a twitter thread asking women for their age the first time they were aware of being treated as a sexual object (leers, comments, assault) by an adult male, the majority of the responses were a single digit. The other was a quote from If You Want To Make God Laugh “As women, we're told our worth and our value, and the many ways in which we fall short of others' expectations [...] We're reminded of the ways we dishonor the unwritten contract we didn't know we signed on the day of our birth: a contract in which we agreed to toe the line and know our place simply because we are the fairer sex.”
In the case of MDV I think the author handles the subject of grooming incredibly well. This book will stay with me for a very long time.

I have The Nanny State up next. I’ve loved all of Maconie’s books so far.

Fran - the stage play of Curious Incident is superb, if ever you get the chance to see it.

After My Dark Vanessa I read John Steinbeck's 'Of Mice and Men' as it was a short one. Then I read 'Putney' by Sofka Zinovieff which is another 'grooming' tale. Not as good as My Dark Vanessa by a long way but still readable and I enjoyed it.

All I'm doing is reading at the moment.

Fortuna Thanks for your words about my experiences. It's super confusing for me as like many viewed the whole experience as a 'love story' and it's only looking back as an adult that I'm quite horrified and annoyed that the people in my life just did nothing. He sent me roses to my school ffs. Anyway, I am really pleased someone else has read it and loves it as much. I just thought it was amazing.

I've added Sonic Youth Slept on my Floor to my wishlist Franz,

So have I, it looks like the kind of book I'd like. He's written one about the history of British nightclubs which I've also added, I hope he mentions my favourite.

So have I, Best!

Sounds good, Remus!

Roz The lack of action from the school/ parents really stood out in this too. I think as a society we brush this sort of thing under the carpet far too much. Hopefully books like this will continue to bring the behaviour to light and help others realise it's not ok. I'm going to look out for Putney too.

Got my reading mojo back after a few weeks of not being able to read anything.

17. Bitter Orange - Claire Fuller
A woman spends a summer at a derelict stately home cataloguing the garden and befriends a couple also living there.
I really enjoyed this one and the Daphne du Maurier comparison on the cover was valid.

18. The living mountain - Nan Shepherd
A woman describes her experiences of the Cairngorms in Scotland.
Reading this with Robert MacFarlane Twitter book club got me back onto reading. Some lovely phrases and thoughts in this nature writing. I particularly loved the afterward by Jeanette Winterson.

19. Platform Seven - Louise Doughty
A ghost haunts Peterborough train station and reflects on the events that led to her death there.
This is marketed as a thriller but it's not really. There's no twists. I enjoyed reading it and her reflections on teaching resonated.

Cherrypi you're brave mentioning Robert MacFarlane on here

I started the Nan Shepherd book after seeing the same book club on Twitter but I was ploughing through MacFarlane's introduction and eventually gave up on it.

I skipped most of his introduction it was long.

Indigosalt Just want to say how well your reviews summed up the experience of reading over the last few weeks, of associating books with 'when we were in the normal routine', through adjusting to home working and schooling while being totally unable to concentrate, to starting find a new reading routine and being able to become absorbed in books again. It really summed up how I have felt about reading recently.
Remus Totally agree about the stage version of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time - I thought it was very cleverly done would recommend it too.

41. Hidden Valley Road by Robert Kolker

Between 1945 and 1965 Don and Mimi Galvin had 12 children. Of these half would become diagnosed with schizophrenia. The rarity of the situation would lead to their family becoming the basis on which modern schizophrenia research is based.

I know there is another 50 Booker who likes Mental Health books. This is well worth seeking out.

This book is brilliant, absolutely fascinating, thought provoking insight, into one household ravaged by the impact of mental illness and the changing scientific approaches to it.

One of the best books I've read this year

5/5

Have to admit that I enjoyed The Name of the Wind it was many years ago though! Might re-read it in the light of Satsuki's excellent review

I liked The Year of Living Danishly more than anticipated too, I'd love to visit Copenhagen in particular, and the descriptions of Danish pastries were mouth watering

@bibliomania I thought I am Number Four was very entertaining, rattled along. I read all the rest of the series too but that was more from dogged determination to see how it ended than anything else!

46. Ken McClure - White Death

Another medical thriller, this one dealing with twists and turns to do with potential pandemics and the race to develop vaccines. It's not a recent book but makes for uncomfortable (if gripping) reading at the moment, as you can imagine.

47. Frances Lloyd - The Greek Island Killer
48. Frances Lloyd - The Bluebell Killer

The first two books in the Inspector Jack Dawes series. I found them a bit confusing in some ways - they skipped over a lot of ground which I thought must have been covered elsewhere, but apparently not - but the actual stories were entertaining enough, if a bit predictable.

Just realised how long it is since I’ve done an update!

68. Love From Boy: Roald Dahl’s Letters To His Mother by Donald Sturrock
69. Roald Dahl’s Marvellous Medicine by Tom Solomon

Dahl was a fascinating man. As well as writing books he had to deal with the death of his eldest daughter aged 7 from measles, which led to him campaigning for better understanding of the risks of measles; his son Theo suffered brain damage in an accident where his pram was trapped between a taxi and a bus, which led to Dahl helping to invent a type of valve used to help drain fluid from the brain which was used on many subsequent people; and his wife had a stroke leading to Dahl helping rehabilitate her to walk and talk again. The letters mainly cover his childhood and young adulthood but there are some from later in life and they show how his writing talent developed.

70. The Accidental Time Traveller by Sharon Griffiths

Undemanding chick lit about a woman who suddenly finds herself back in the 1950s. Good fun.

71. H Is For Homicide by Sue Grafton

Part of the alphabet series featuring PI Kinsey Millhone. I do enjoy these but this was probably the weakest I’ve read. The title is misleading as it’s mainly about insurance fraud - there is a homicide but that’s only mentioned a couple of times. Most of the time Kinsey is undercover in a skanky flat trying to get to the bottom of the insurance fraud and that all dragged on far to long. I’ll still read the rest of the series though!

72. 1066 And All That by W C Sellar and R J Yeatman
73. 1956 And All That by Ned Sherrin and Neil Shand
74. 1984 And All That by Paul Manning

Collection of spoof histories. The original (1066) was written in 1931 and I didn’t find it particularly funny. The latter two were both written in 1984 and I found these funnier. You need to know the historical events being discussed to get the jokes, so these aren’t for you if you’re not a history buff. I’m not that well up on my history so that’s why I preferred the more recent books.

75. In Pale Battalions by Robert Goddard

Regular readers may recall that Goddard is one of my favourite authors and this is one of his best. I listened to this on Audible. It’s set largely during the First World War but there are some sections set later, explaining the circumstances around Leonora’s birth. It appears to be a simple case of wartime illegitimacy, but things turn out not to be so straightforward. Brilliant.

76. Autumn Gleanings by Theodore Stephanides

The author is Theo from My Family And Other Animals and was a friend of the Durrell family when they lived in Corfu. This is a selection of his memoirs from that period, plus some of his own poems. I’m not a fan of poetry so didn’t get much out of that section (except one funny poem about a vampire!) but I really enjoyed the memoir parts, getting to see the Durrells from another point of view. Gerald Durrell is barely mentioned (at the time Theo was 40 and Gerald was a child of 10 so it’s unsurprising really) but Larry is mentioned a lot. An interesting read if you like the Durrells.

Moving on from that I’m now reading a biography of Larry Durrell.

I’m slowly finding myself able to read a little more. I’m abandoning more books than I usually do and trying to be careful in what I select. It’s still far too easy to get distracted by social media and news but as I am starting to feel better physically and to get used to the weirdness of the world, reading is a welcome distraction.

I have The Five ready to go, and am still getting on with The Stand, but that is a reread (possibly a re-reread, thinking about it) and therefore doesn’t feel urgent. Not sure what I want to read immediately, though.

34 Under The Skin by Michael Faber
This is an unsettling sci fi novel where truth is gradually revealed. Isserley drives around Scotland picking up hitchhikers but it isn’t immediately clear why or what happens to them. This is sad and gruesome, but very over-written. So many adjectives. I realise it’s Faber’s style but I don’t recall his other novels being quite so florid.

35 The Women’s Room by Marilyn French
Seminal feminist novel of the 1970s. I read this about 25 years ago - I was too young, and the stories of the women in the book seemed rooted in a past that I didn’t think was true any more. Reading it now I see how wrong I was - the backdrop has changed but not much else has. It’s depressing in its depiction of women’s roles and their relationship with men, but celebrates female friendships beautifully. I think this is an excellent and important book and deserves to still be read and celebrated.

13. Lady in Waiting - My Extraordinary Life in the Shadow of the Crown - Anne Glenconner. Easy read memoir from one of Princess Margaret's former ladies in waiting which had some interesting insights into post-war aristocratic life (the chapter on the Queen's coronation was fascinating). I thought the writing was mostly mundane - mostly a 'I did this, then that happened' shopping list style - and the biggest problem with the book. I also felt the book suffered from a lack of self reflection.

I'm now reading Girl, Woman, Other which so far is wonderful.