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?

The American Boy is v good. Also Old Baggage for anyone who hasn't yet read it.

I've bought This Lovely City and the book about menopause 😳 Would have bought Uncanny Valley but I checked and the library have the e book so I'm on the waiting list.

I like the look of Old Baggage. Is it part of a series? If so, is this the first book?

I have my eye on several titles including Rising Strong by Brené Brown, Milkman, The Museum of Broken Promises, Paper Aeroplanes, The Mermaid and Mrs Hancock, Akin, Exposure..... I'm going to have to make some choices!!

Would recommend The Poisonwood Bible to those who haven't read it yet. I also really enjoyed Kristen Hannah's The Nightgale. The James Herriott obvs!! Carrie's War, A Monster Calls....

39 Innocent Traitor by Alison Weir

This was really not very good at all - some badly written historical fiction about Lady Jane Grey, who the author (who was not, as I thought all the way through, Phillipa Gregory ) LOVED.

The dialogue was extraordinarily clunky and the exposition was very heavy handed...I quote

"What's that letter you are reading", I inquire of my lord.
"It's from Edward Courtenay, the Earl of Devon, that was in the Tower from boyhood and who was a suitor to the Queen".

Now, I know you couldn't turn round in Tudor England without tripping over Earls, but I do think the Duchess of Suffolk could have been expected to know of the Earl of Devon without her husband (who is admittedly prone to mansplaining) spelling it out to her like this. And Jane is unbearable, which is unfortunate as we are meant to sympathise with her but actually I found myself encouraging Mary to just get on and sign her death warrant so it could all be over.

So this was terrible on all counts. But it was an easy read - it made very few demands on my brain, and featured only the right kinds of death (beheadings and sweating sickness - neither of these feature on my current worry list, so it felt relatively safe). And sometimes you need a bit of so-bad-it's-almost-good fiction to get you through the 4am wake ups.

betty, it is The Sisters Grimm - or at least that is only £1.99 at the moment. I’m trying to avoid new book buying this month as I have plenty to get through but have had my eye on that for a while so have bought that but will steer clear of the deals list now!

Old Baggage is good - it is part of a series in that it is a prequel to Crooked Heart and came out after but imagine you can read them in either order that being the case. A character who is only a small part of CH is the main focus of OB. Looking forward to the third out this year which apparently follows on from CH

I adored both Conversations with Friends and Normal People. The latter is currently just £2.07 on Kindle.

I've gone back for another look at the deals and bought more: The Murmur of Bees, Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont and The Quest for Queen Mary

There are some good children's classics including Malory Towers :) also All Creatures Great and Small
At least two Kathleen Jamies
Some interesting-looking political and social science books especially about Russia and China
And the book that made me leave my book group in disgust, Street Cat Named Bob.

Thanks Satsuki that would explain why I couldn't remember which book came first, even though I've seen them both rated highly on this thread (for the most part!)

Mrs Palfrey is a terrific book, Keith. Not cheerful but very good.

High Stakes is a great Dick Francis- I am also very fond of Decider, and Break In / Bolt. But in fact I could probably pick more favourites than not!
28 and 29) Blue Lily, Lily Blue and The Raven King by Maggie Stiefvater. I was utterly absorbed by this quartet- the ending was a tad unsatisfactory, but possibly because I have already read the first of the next series. It was one of those books where you need a few minutes to come back to the real world afterwards- something that used to happen to me all the time when reading, but is much rarer for me these days and therefore much appreciated. I think it is an actual thing, to do with brain waves and "flow" , if anyone knows what I mean? But it's when reading leaves you feeling like you have been drugged, and isn't, as far as I can tell, related to how well written the book is, and I can enjoy a book without it happening, so I am not sure if it relates to that either! But, for me at least, it is why reading can be an addiction - suddenly I do hope I am not alone.

Pepe - at the right kinds of death!

I'm not in the Mrs Palfrey fan club, but that's more because I expected it to be something that it didn't prove to be, and I didn't want it to be what it was. :)

I know what you mean. If I had not been well briefed I’d have expected some Barbara Pym style happy feels. It was quite bleak, but I was expecting it.

Very tempted by Uncanny Valley - I nearly bought it at full price after reading a review in the paper, but was put off by mixed reader reviews. Might go for it at £1.99 as sadly our e-library don't have it.

I'd recommend We Have Been Harmonised also on for £1.99, not cheerful, but a very interesting read about the surveillance state in China.

Oh, Pepe, do I need a briefing?

Keith, now you have to tell us the book group story! Presumably you didn't like A Street Cat Named Bob and everyone else did (or just possibly, vice versa)? I thought it was OK: I can't really remember, but I think the film may have been better.

Phew - found my copy of High Stakes during a re-organisation of my bookshelves. Tanaqui - the Fielding twin books are also amongst my favourites. I may have to do some re-reading!

I used to read all my grandad's Dick Francis books (possibly a little too young, since he died when I was 13) - not sure whether I want to go back to them or whether they won't live up to my memories of them.

Sadik I started reading them when I was 11 and have carried on. I was reading other books at that age which were far more inappropriate!

tanaqui I know exactly what you mean and sometimes give books a higher rating because they’ve caught me that way and I feel I have to give them their due, even if technically they fall short. It doesn’t happen often enough.

There seem to be twice as many books as usual in this month's daily deal but it's still a very mixed bag. I'm another one who bought Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont, plus Practical Magic and Broken Greek by Pete Paphides which is his recently published autobiography.

Sadik I read and enjoyed Uncanny Valley earlier this year (in fact it's still sat on my shelf waiting to go back to the library, which is closed). I enjoyed it although I was irritated by her habit of not using proper company and people names. I live in San Francisco and work in a tech-adjacent job so the setting is very familiar to me, which I think in a weird way lessened my enjoyment. Having said that she captures everything very well, and has a great eye for the ridiculous. I definitely think it's worth 1.99

Practical Magic is on there?! That's on my Wish List!

Thanks! @noodlezoodle

Why can I never find a fucking thing on deals ?

It is! I must confess that I scroll through literally every page of the deal each month. But I also put things on my wishlist and then check frequently to see if they are part of a deal. This may explain why I have an embarrassingly large number of kindle books waiting to be read

noodle how large is embarrassingly large? (please make me feel better!!)

Well I just found the right suggestions for me (always takes me ages)

Bought shitloads off the back of this thread

I love and hate you all