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?

hahaha!!

I will know think of that next time. Thanks for that...

Fortuna - brilliant!

Anne Hathaway is one of my favourite poems, ever

@RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie Duly noted!

23. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Frederick Douglass

A short autobiographical account of his life from childhood to his escape from slavery. He talks plainly and passionately about the what it was to be a black slave in America in the 1800s, with few extraneous details or wasted words.
I believe he wrote further autobiographies of his time as an orator, abolitionist and social reformer, which I'll pick up if I happen to come across them.
This is brief, interesting and hard-hitting. His life was quite amazing, all things considered, and his attitude in the face of everything he had to cope with is to be admired.

Next I think I'm going to go back to Untold Stories by Alan Bennett which I was reading a year or so ago until becoming distracted from it by something or other. I recently watched a programme about him and that has prompted me to return to this.

81. When Will There Be Good News (Jackson Brodie #3) - Kate Atkinson
    Jackson is in a train crash and a woman goes mysteriously missing. Didn't enjoy this as much as the first two.

82. Supper Club - Lara Williams
    A socially awkward student goes on to spend the next decade stuck in a dead end job with few friends. With a new intern at work she creates a club for women looking to acknowledge their appetites and start to reclaim their space in the world. The club starts to get out of hand and she needs to reevaluate what matters most.

This has lots of very clever things to say about self esteem, body image, attitudes to food, friendships, relationships etc. I think knowI'm a bit older than the target audience and found it very 20-something existential angst. A bit too Balham for my current levels of tolerance, but I would have lapped it up 15 years ago.

83. Hamnet - Maggie O'Farrell What Piggy said.

I think knowI'm a bit older than the target audience

I've started noticing that, until not that long ago I just assumed that the protagonists were a similar age to myself but now it's becoming very obvious that it's no longer the case. I suppose I've done well to be heading rapidly towards a Big birthday before noticing that.

It's only really hit me recently too (not long had a big birthday).

When reading Saltwater I realised all of the cultural references for her parents were the ones I identified with more.

I've just started Bunny by Mona Awad and I think I might be too old to tolerate it.

Being older - I think that's one reason I don't get on with Sally Rooney. I have no time for her character's youthful angst. Grow up and stop navel-gazing.

Characters'

Misplaced apostrophe- - speaking of angst...

Pleased with today"s Kindle daily deal - had my eye on Breaking and Mending for a while, and took a punt on two others.

I think knowI'm a bit older than the target audience

God yes, this! I am currently listening to Queenie on audiobook on my runs, and while there are some excellent things about it, I am spending my time wanting to hug her, shake her and give her some life advice. See also Sally Rooney.

Biblio, I've been after Expectation (another of today's Daily Deals) after reading positive reviews here and elsewhere

Another vote for Into the Silence, I thought it was terrific.

Oh yes, the getting older thing. I find I have much less patience with chick lit (which used to be a reading staple for me) and I am drawn to autobiographies. Definitely me not the books that have changed!

Fingersmith by Sarah Waters

This has been sitting on my Audible list for a while after I saw it recommended in several places. The setting is reminiscent of Dickens, though it’s probably safe to say easier to read. It is set in Victorian London, the main character Susan Trinder, is raised by Mrs Sucksby after her mother is hanged for murder. Mrs Sucksby is a Fagin type character, raising infants and her house is full of thieves, forgers and pickpockets – also known as Fingersmiths. Susan grows up as one of them, but when she is 17, a visit from a con artist called Richard Rivers, who they refer to as Gentleman, changes her life. He tells them of his plot to defraud an heiress called Maud Lilly of her fortune. Susan will be needed to pose as a lady’s maid to make his plan work and Susan is promised a share of the fortune - a life changing sum of money. The story moves quickly with lots of twist and turns. It seems a reasonably simple plot, but as the story progresses, Susan and Maud’s relationship becomes close and complex. The reader ends up not knowing who is conning who, who is being double crossed and who really knows the whole the story.
The story is divided into three parts, each with a different feel, and told from different narrator viewpoints. Some parts very harrowing, eg in the madhouse and some parts downright confusing as to who knows what.
It was probably one of the best books I have read so far this year, purely from the not knowing what is coming next scenario, and the sheer pace of the story. No one is blameless in the story as it draws to its conclusion, there are no clear black and whites, it is all shades of grey and an understanding that everyone has their own motives for their actions.
A very good read.

I loved Fingersmith too Bookwitch, one of the few books to make me gasp out loud at that first audacious twist!

I've been doing a lot of gardening and listened to a few 'meh' books, or maybe it's the current climate, but skating briefly over:

13. <strong>The Dutch House</strong> by Anne Pratchet. This has got a lot of love on the thread, and it was nice to have Tom Hanks read to me. (But what was he trying to do with the overexcited voice to introduce each chapter!) I thought it started well but didn't really go anywhere, I just ended up wishing the siblings would move on with their lives, particularly the sister. It was okay but didn't really float my boat.

14. <strong>Where The Crawdads Sing</strong> by Delia Owens, I really enjoyed this to start with, so much so that I added audible narration to my kindle book purchase, and maybe that's where I went wrong. Irritating narrator with irritating 'voices' for the main characters. What could have been an excellent premise became a bit Mills and Boon towards the end, but it was noticeably better to read than listen to. 

DNF A Boy Called Why, which was a Audible daily deal purchase, I returned it for a refund. It's the biography of Lemn Sissay who was badly let down by the U.K. foster and care system but was somewhat repetitive and narrated by the author, not always the right choice even for a biography.

15. <strong>My Antonia</strong> by Willa Cather, free from Audible while the schools aren't in session. Another thread favourite but again I found it a bit 'meh'. 

I thought I had completely lost my reading mojo but a couple of days ago I picked up Alias Grace on BorrowBox Audible and it's excellent. Beautifully written and beautifully narrated, absolutely captivating. I have prepared myself for a disappointing (maybe inconclusive?) ending, I've been on the threads long enough to know it's a common complaint with this book, but I'm enjoying the ride.

I couldn't get into My Antonia and am one who has repeatedly criticised the ending of Alias Grace so will be interested to see what you think, Desdemona.

Massive fan of Fingersmith and My Antonia. I stayed up all night reading Fingersmith

Found Alias Grace hard work.

Fun Fact aged 17, Sarah Polley wrote to Margaret Atwood to ask for the rights and was turned down due to her age. She later adapted it for Netflix The adaption does it justice though.

I love Sarah Polley.Have you seen Stories We Tell?

I enjoyed Alias Grace on Netflix. I haven't read the book though. It's not often I say that; usually it's the other way round.

24. The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater. I am not the target age range for this at all (its YA, I'm nearly 50!), but I loved this story of 4 teenagers looking for ley lines and Owain Glendower. It's the first of a 4 part series, and I am enjoying it so much I am pacing myself! I even paid real money for this as I didn't want to wait for the library.

@Piggywaspushed

Yes. It was quite I felt for all her siblings

I love it. I actually find bits of it really funny (especially the end...shhh) but then other parts made my while year 13 class cry (and me.. every time). So beautifully done. I love Johnny so much.

Alias Grace is the only Atwood book I’ve enjoyed though I’ve agreed with Remus on the ending before. I will look out for it on Netflix.

The Volunteer by Jack Fairweather I feel quite shell-shocked having just finished this. It is the true story of Witold Pilecki, a member of the Polish underground resistance, who volunteered to go to Auschwitz to report on Nazi crimes and try to establish a secret network and stage an uprising. The details of Nazi atrocities in Auschwitz are well-known and shocking in their depravity. Against overwhelming odds, Pilecki and other members of camp's resistance movement risked their lives to smuggle out reports of what was happening, only for them to be largely ignored or disbelieved; Britain's failure to act is a sad indictment of attitudes towards Poland and the Jews at the time, but the Polish underground movement also let them down. Unbelievably he was able to escape after nearly 3 years in the camp. He then worked tirelessly to record all he had witnessed and to try to get the Allies to take action. He was also involved in the resistance against the Nazis and the Soviets in an effort to establish an independent Poland. Tragically (spoiler alert) he was put on trial by the Communist Polish government in 1948 and shot for treason.

This was a very harrowing read but such an important book about a remarkable and, until relatively recently, unknown hero of the Second World War and the terrible events suffered in Poland. Highly recommended.

Best - Yes, I actually really liked most of Alias Grace, which is an unusual result for me with an Atwood, but the ending made me very cross indeed - more cross than a cross person with a very special reason for being cross.