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?

Joining the thread for the first time and so many recommendations to follow up!
During lockdown I have read:
Anatomy of a Scandal - Sarah Vaughan
Dominion - CJ Sansom
The Red Hill - David Penney
Assorted Poetry Anthologies

Welcome dementedma

Thanks welsh for the heads up (buying no new books is going soooo well this year!!)

For those who have yet to discover Patchett and are not sure where to start I would definitely go to Bel Canto but having said that I haven't yet read any of the others that are in today's deal.
So which one should I choose???

Thanks for the recommendations of Some Kids I Taught and What They Taught Me by Kate Clanchy. and Bel Canto - the latter is now on my wish list and off to look at Bel Canto.

I can't remember if I said but I'm reading the 1000 page Sarum by Edward Rutherfurd at the moment, I can't put it down. I think it's a re-read but if it was it was so many years ago that I've forgotten
I may be sometime.

Has anybody read On Chapel Sands ? It looks promising but I'd be interested to hear reviews/comments.

Sarum is one of my top ten books. Absolutely loved it.

I found On Chapel Sands boring and annoying but I think some people really like it.

betty my step mum recommended some kids I taught (I don't think she has read it : just seen reviews!). I am not sure I wouldn't find it a bit grating and idealised but still have it on my Amazon shopping list! You know me : I am not really the dewy eyed idealist (although now I have no actual bodies in my classroom, I miss them !).

From Ann Patchett I particularly enjoyed Commonwealth but I don't think she's written anything bad. She's an author I'd happily buy blurb unseen.

I absolutely loved On Chapel Sands but I can see why it's a bit of a marmite book.

I was also completely gripped by Some Kids I Taught and What They Taught Me - one of my stand-out reads of last year. It's not idealised at all, Piggy, well, not as far as I could see...I'm not a teacher so admittedly I can't judge that aspect of it, but if anything I thought Kate Clanchy was admirably bracing and non-dewy-eyed!

80-87 the Frieda Klein series by Nicci French

I have read all these before but wanted to read the series in one go to pull all the threads together. I like the individual books but find the character of Frieda very irritating and I can’t understand why her friends are always so willing to put themselves at risk to protect her - they almost seem to hero worship her. It’s also never really clear why the main villain gets so obsessed with Frieda. However, the French team write well.

88. Coot Club by Arthur Ransome

In amongst the crime I listened to this on Audible and found it very soothing listening to the tales of sailing on the Norfolk Broads. This is one of my favourites of the Swallows and Amazons series since the TV adaptation in the late 80s (which featured Julian Fellowes playing a ridiculously post person - “clear orf”!).

Must proof read - should say posh person!

*You know me : I am not really the dewy eyed idealist

@Piggywaspushed Never in a million years would I have guessed....

(although now I have no actual bodies in my classroom, I miss them !).

Me too. I will probably never see one of them again. I'm feeling emotional now as a colleague died earlier this week

Betty - so sorry to hear that.

My condolences @bettybattenburg
I’m really sorry to hear that.

Thank you. Normal service is now resumed and I'm back to my usual self.

47. Outlander by Diana Gabaldon

Clare Randall, a former WW2 nurse, is on a second honeymoon in Scotland with her husband when she passes through some standing stones and finds herself in the 1700’s pre the Jacobite Rising. She then finds herself romantically involved with sexy Highlander Jamie Fraser.

So, bit of backstory, got the book about 5 years ago when the series started. Discovered via the Lallybroch threads on here that the books are LONG, and have an unfortunate tendency towards misogyny, frequent use of rape as a cheery plot device, and racism/outdated cultural depictions. I was put off as I knew I wasn’t going to read the rest. But, I am trying to clear my TBR and it was still on it.

Decided to do it via Audible.

Jesus Fucking Christ, this was a mistake. I’ve been at this now for a month. It is THIRTY TWO FUCKING HOURS LONG. THIRTY TWO.

Clare is a pretty decent character on the show. In the book she’s an insufferable prig. Awful. And the definition of a Mary Sue. Considers herself daring because she swears. Hate the constant “Jesus H. Roosevelt Christ” Naff as fuck, and a sign of an American writer not getting the British right. The many sex scenes are a cringefest. Cringily written in general.

In the first series of Outlander, it depicts a rape that takes place in the book in such a horrendously graphic way, it stops me recommending the series to anyone.

In the book, there is a further horrific scene near the end when Clare chooses to retraumatise an already traumatised Jamie. It is just deeply unpleasant episode, unsettlingly so, like, you wonder what the fuck the author was thinking.

Also, the voice, Davina Porter was crap and couldn’t pronounce some of the names.

Still I’ve boxed it off my TBR. Never again.

Eine Last time Outlander was mentioned on here it was described by someone as 50 Shades of Tartan. I have always taken that as a sign to avoid. You have confirmed this.

Betty so sorry

50 Shades of Tartan was Satsuki
I know this because I've just found my review:
Outlander - A friend lent it to me, thinking I'd love it. Essentially it's 600 pages of shagging a geezer in a kilt, or thinking about shagging a geezer in a kilt, with a few pages of plot to tie the shags together and pretend it's not just about shagging a geezer in a kilt.

I knew it would be one or the other of you involved!

Sorry, another big update...

84. Erin Kelly - He Said/She Said
    A couple who chase eclipses witness a crime at a festival and this overshadows much of their life together as the court case and subsequent appeals keep them involved. I usually really like Erin Kelly but found this tedious and slow going. I could imagine it working really well on TV. It had a few twists that I didn't see, but by the time they came round I had largely lost the will to care.

85. Surfacing - Kathleen Jamie
    On the theme of things coming to the surface as the covering becomes eroded. Part cultural history, memoir and travelogue with nature writing. The author explores an Alaskan village where the thawing tundra reveals items from the indigenous people and neolithic Scottish houses found under eroding sand dunes. She talks about how time has had an effect on herself and what it has revealed.

I thought I'd love this but didn't. I blame me not really being in the mood for it, but it was part of a long queue at the library so I felt the pressure to listen and return sharpish. I liked the Alaskan part at the start but feel I switched off for much of the rest as I found it a bit dull. I think I'd like to return to it at another time to give it a fair hearing.

86. The Other Bennet Sister - Janice Hadlow
    Pride & Prej from the perspective of Mary, going on to look at what came after. While this was no great work of literature, I found it an entertaining and light hearted read. I don't usually like authors stealing someone else's characters but this worked well. As the Mary of my sisters, it's heartwarming to read.

87. Our Women on the Ground: Essays by Arab Women Reporting from the Arab World - Zahra Hankir
    A selection of essays by women recounting their careers reporting on and living through various middle eastern conflicts. Covers from Lebanon 1975 through to present, largely looking at Syria and more contemporary events. It touches on the politics but concentrates mostly on the social history and women's lives. I found this really interesting.

88. Dear Mrs Bird - AJ Pearce
    A young woman takes a job at a women's magazine during the war. She deals with the agony aunt section and starts to defy a rather stuffy editor by answering unsavoury letters. A so-so read, starts off very flippant and fun, but then deals with some of the more serious elements of war. It was entertaining enough but I wouldn't say rush to read it.

89. The Five - Hallie Rubenhold
    The lives of the 5 women murdered by Jack the Ripper. This was my choice for IRL book club which we are still going ahead with via Facebook. I really enjoyed this but I've very nervous about how it will have gone down with the others, I don't think it will be popular. I was fascinated by the social history and women's lives.

90. *The Reservoir Tapes - Jon McGregor
    A companion piece to Reservoir 13 which recounts experiences of various villagers around the time of the disppearance/ search.
    This lacked the quality of writing of the original novel and I can't say I got a lot from it.

💐Betty.

Agree re Outlander - it's like the kind of fanfic you see that tries for angst or h/c, and only achieves piling more and more unbelievable trauma onto the characters. I like the genre done well, but done badly is particulaly painful.

25. The Dream Thieves by Maggie Stiefvater I am still loving this YA fantasy series, so thanks again to Sadik!

The Other Bennet Sister sounds excellent Fortuna - it's also available in our e-library but not until July, so now trying to decide whether to wait, or splash out for the Kindle book :)

I really liked it Sadik, it's gentle and fun. You know the characters so you fall straight in. I'd probably wait personally, but then I'm a bit tight (and a member of more than one library). Any chance it will come round faster if they get more copies or people read and return quickly? I've very conscious of queues when I borrow and try to get it back as soon as I can.

1. Altered Carbon (Takeshi Kovacs #1) by Richard K Morgan

This great book is finally getting the recognition it deserves thanks to its Netflix series. Altered Carbon and its sequels Broken Angels and Woken Furies are currently 99p on the Kindle! Of course, I have all three books as physical print copies - How quaint! - because I read them back when there were no Kindles but could not miss the chance of having them on my Kindle, as well.

Altered Carbon has not aged a day since I read it nearly 20 years ago, which is amazing for a SF book! It tells the fast-paced story of Takeshi Kovacs, a "UN Envoy" in the future when humanity has spread to other planets and UN is the governing body over them all, while Envoys are its ruthless soldiers. Consciousness is downloaded into interchangeable bodies ("sleeves"), and eternal live if possible if one can afford a new body.

Ethical, moral, and psychological dilemmas arising from this environment could easily fill a book on their own, but the author just uses it all as the framework for a great story with well-developed characters with credible motives.

Highly recommended. Definitely get all three books for 99p each, if you have any interest in such stories about the humanity's technological future.

Very tempting @CoteDAzur I have seen the first series, found it complex, and thought it would make a better read. Still haven't seen Season 2.

Betty I am sorry to hear about your colleague.

12. The Citadel by AJ Cronin . Andrew Manson is fresh out of medical school, and take up a post providing care to miners working for a company in Wales in the 1920s. From there, he goes into research, and then private practice.

This was great. It shows a number of difficulties that the lack of state organised and funded healthcare created, including poor epidemic management, lack of interest in industrial diseases, lack of oversight of the competence of medical practitioners, and being financially incentivised to provide interventions regardless of their benefits. It wasn't perfect - lots of the scenes from Manson's personal life verged on the melodramatic, and his swift change in moral stance felt a bit clunky - but it was a proper eye-opener.