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?

That does sound interesting Stitches- I once read an article about the survival instinct, and how some people have such a strong instinct for self preservation they will leave loved ones and climb over people to escape (for example), while others freeze, and it isn't related to age or sex or much else at all.
26) Guilty by Felix Francis after this was mentioned upthread I thought I would give it a go- I love Dick Francis, and I know his son Felix did a lot of his research. Unfortunately, the writing in this is leaden and clumpy. He uses some of Dick Francis's stock characters - the clever but waffly solicitor, the grieving husband, the aristocratic background- you would recognise bits of Reflex, Flying Finish, Proof, here- but none of it comes alive. I won't read another one, but I might reread the originals!

stitches that is interesting - I always clock the exits whenever we go anywhere and my dh thinks it’s funny but maybe it’s not so crazy.
tanaqui there is a new film out with Will Ferrell based on the guy saving himself from the avalanche and leaving his wife to fend for herself and kids and the fallout from that.

fortuna are you actually a real Major?

Tanaqui
I love Dick Francis and have read them since a teen. I have all his novels. I really don't enjoy Felix though despite trying 3 times!
Happy to re read Dick though

Satsuki I'd not heard of that real-life story and it sounds fascinating/awful. I'm not sure I can picture Will F being anything other than ridiculous though. I'm assuming it's a straight role?

Tara - really glad you enjoyed The Stand. I bet you 10 pence you'll read it again within the next two years!

Ah just googled it. Not based on real life, and the film is a comedy. Phew!

Sorry remus didn’t mean to imply it was a true story but I think reading it back it did sound like it! I heard an interview when it came out where the discussion was about how people don’t know how they’d react in an emergency situation. I think it is a remake of a Scandinavian film.

tara, welcome to The Stand fan club. I’ve never come across anyone who read it and didn’t fall in love with it.

Satsuki different service and more akin to Major Major Major Major in Catch 22 than a real Major.

91. The Story of My Teeth - Valeria Luiselli
    A very absurd tale of a man who auctions off his teeth pretending they used to belong to various famous dead people. Gives an insight into life in Mexico City and the literary influences on the author. The whole thing felt like a very intellectual in-joke that I was far too stupid to understand.

92. Topics of Conversation - Miranda Popkey
    20 years of a woman's life told in the form of conversations she has had with others, leaving the reader to piece together the events. Pretentious navel gazing angst. The author is compared to Rachel Cusk and Sally Rooney. I don't think it quite deserves the annihilation it has received on Goodreads but does have an air of precocious wankery about it.

93. A Single Thread - Tracy Chevalier
    In 1932 a 38 year old woman who lost her brother and fiancé during WW1 is still stuck living with her difficult mother and is one of the 'surplus' women destined to be spinsters due to a lack of men. She saves just enough to be able to move out and moves to Winchester where she stumbles across the embroiderery guild making cushions for the cathedral. She starts to build her own life and make friends but various events start to threaten her independence.

TC is another author I would happily buy blurb unseen, I really rate her writing. This was very slow moving and character driven, but I really enjoyed it. It does include a lot of detail about the finer points of embroidery and bell ringing so I could understand people finding it dull in parts. It explores the lives of women at a difficult time during the inter-war period and the attitudes towards them.

Satsuki - don't apologise. My misunderstanding.

Just finished Just William - I liked the first few pages when he goes to the cinema. Wasn't very taken with the rest. William is a horrid little boy and his parents are awful.

I love a bit of Dick... do you have a favourite?

Satsuki, that sounds interesting- especially as I gather it might not be a conscious decision.

27. Funny, you don't look Autistic by Micheal McCreary I gather the author is a Canadian stand up comedian. I hadn't heard of him, but I dont watch much stand up so he may be a big thing! I I didn't find this as engrossing as some other similar books I have read, but I have been trying to read more by people with autism, rather than about autism in an attempt to help my teaching.

Pepe and Remus - thank you. I'd never have attempted it without your recommendation!

Although I rarely re-read (too many books, too little time) so I think I might win the 10p!

89. Normal People by Sally Rooney

I read this in advance of the TV programme. It was ok. I don’t understand all the hype, but I didn’t hate it. I started watching the TV programme and got bored and the book also wasn’t interesting enough to make me keep watching the programme to see if it improves! I’ll read Conversations with Friends (as it’s already on my kindle) but unless that’s brilliant I probably won’t bother with any more of her books.

I haven't read it but watched the programme. I was actually taken aback by all the sex and nudity. Didn't expect it.

But most of the time I spent wondering 'this was longlisted for the Booker Prize'? It doesn't seem very literary to me?

Yes, I don’t understand why it was long listed either. However I quite often read prize nominated books and don’t understand the fuss (Remains Of The Day) so there’s obviously something I’m missing!!

I quite enjoyed Normal People (the book) but didn’t think the writing that good. What she does well is create believable interior monologues (at least in the case of one of the characters) and convey emotion in a very spare and restrained way, but not sure how those things translate to tv. The book is also good on class difference and how it affects relationships. However, the writing itself was a bit lacklustre for me to consider it anything out of the ordinary. Lots of cliched phrasing and just a bit uninspired.

Jumping in on the Dick thread if that's OK.

Banker is probably my favourite, I quite like the main character.

I would like to read Normal People before watching the show but like, EVERY review on here has called it nothing special.

I haven't read Normal or Conversations - to quote Morrissey, "I was bored before I even began." They just hold no appeal to me whatsoever.

I detested Conversations so never bothered with Normal People. I keep picking it up and then deciding I lack the tolerance.

94. The Opposite of Fate - Alison McGhee A young woman is raped and battered and left for dead in the street. She wakes up from a 16 month coma to discover the rape resulted in a pregnancy that tore her family apart in trying to decide whether to abort or proceed. She has to come to terms with the consequences of their choices.

This was a great plot idea that I think could have been better executed. It wasn't badly done but I found myself a bit disappointed. It concentrated all the action in the time after she woke up when the interesting stuff was before. It does all come out in the wash but I think it missed a trick.

My Sally Rooney theory is that I’m too old, at 44. My younger colleagues adore both her books and say she is a genius. Whereas I just think “whatever”.

I enjoyed Normal People much more than Conversations though I don't get the hype either

pepe I did read it and think a square meal and some meaningful work might have sorted them out a bit. But then I am reading Trustee from the Toolroom and revelling in how low maintenance and meticulous all the characters are. Very comforting.

I am also a big Dick Francis fan and have all his books. I have continued to buy and read the Felix books but they are more variable in my view.

Agree that Banker was memorable. I think High Stakes might be my all time favourite but possibly because I have had it for so long and read it more than some of the others. Worryingly, can’t now find it on my bookcase!