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?

There is a definite similarity tonally and in a few ways between the two. And I think that similarity was what made me rate his second less.

Palegreenstars I would LOVE to have the Browns’ staircase. Their whole house is fabulous.

Paddington 2 is brilliant and currently on iPlayer. I hope I’m not giving too much away when I say me retelling the plot after seeing it with the DC inspired the purchase of a new piece of DIY kit for DH which has been very useful.

DS2 found the first Paddington a bit scary and had to come and sit on my lap

But don't worry Remus - it was Nicole Kidman he found scary, not the bear!

Funny we had the same reaction piggy - a bridge too far!

We just rewatched and I actually cried at the beginning too so many great jokes and lovely artistic set pieces. The first one is a bit scarier my kids don’t like to rewatch that as much.

Their house is lovely and I want all of Mrs Brown’s clothes.

My kindle says about 300 unread...no idea if that's right! But I'm very good at buying 99p books! Going to try cut down on that.

Interesting that Daphne du Maurier has come up. In my quest for reading matter I found a box of books in the spare room including a du Maurier set I bought from the Book People ages ago and had forgotten about. I've finished Rebecca and am just getting into My Cousin Rachel

Other books I've read recent

Hmm. I think the bear is scarier than Nicole K, who is admitedly quite scary.

She has a gun and her face doesn’t move. Paddington has a sandwich and a remarkably expressive face.

In a strange kind of synergy satsuki, A Bridge Too far is on Channel 5!

Re 'Read' books on a Kindle. I checked a couple of mine earlier that were not showing as read, even though I'd read them. It turns out that if you don't go to the very final page (ie past all the acknowledgements, adverts for other books, index etc) it doesn't count as read - so you could've finished the story, but it still wouldn't be counting it because you hadn't gone through all the index pages etc.

Want the end of @KateF 's post!

piggy that’s weird - yesterday I wore odd socks, unusually I have to say, and the book I chose to read featured a girl wearing odd socks in the first few pages which is a strange thing to mention in a book. What an utterly useless psychic gift.

Kate are you ok?!

Spooky!!

Oops posted accidentally!

The Storyteller - Jodi Picoult I've not read much by her and I thought this was good in parts but didn't quite come off. The basic plot is that lonely isolated Sage meets elderly Josef at a bereavement support group and after a short aquaintance he asks her to assist him to kill himself in remorse for his actions as a member of the SS who worked at Auschwitz. It turns out that he and Sage's grandmother, Polish Jew Minka met at Auschwitz and the main part of the novel traces the paths that led to that meeting. There is a sub-plot involving Sage's relationship with Nazi hunter Leo and a further fictional story written by the teenage Minka which is what brings her to Josef's attention. Minka's story is by far the strongest and as with any account of the Holocaust one cannot help but be horrified and moved by Minka's journey. The rest of th book didn't really work for me.

I Capture the Castle - Dodie Smith Much recommended on here so I had high expectations! Seventeen year old Cassandra lives with her impoverished and eccentric family in a tumbledown castle. The family pins it's hopes of financial rescue on elder daughter Rose making a good marriage to a wealthy man. Cue the appearance of two wealthy American brothers who have inherited the nearby manor. At the beginning I thought I was going to hate it. It's very 'of its time' in terms of women's lives and opportunities. However, it's well written and Cassandra is an engaging narrator. I ended up really enjoying it.

She has a gun and her face doesn’t move. Paddington has a sandwich and a remarkably expressive face.

27 Haven't They Grown?Sophie Hannah Twelve years after they have drifted apart a women finds an excuse to see the house where her best friend supposedly lives and sees her with her 2 young children who should be teenagers.. At the beginning the author did a good job of almost convincing me that the impossible could happen but as the story went on the plot became more and more far fetched as did the actions of the characters, who behaved in very unconvincing ways. Would a Cambridge graduate,living in Cambridge, leave her daughter in a high school where the teaching was so poor ? There was a very unpleasant scene illustrating why teachers who are unfortunate enough to cross
indulged teenagers , leave the profession. It had no bearing on the narrative. I have enjoyed the Hercule Poirot books by this author but not this one.
I loved Paddington 2 and when I saw it at the cinema my enjoyment was enhanced by sheer joy of the little boy sitting near us.

I suspect that’s the issue with my Kindle Remus

Lovely review of The Garden Of Evening Mists, which I think I own! Will go and hunt on shelves.

I love looking at bookshelves, my own or other people's. Always have. I find it genuinely calming which is welcome as I can be an overthinker and prone to anxiety. If I am having a shit day at work I will escape at lunchtime and just walk around the library for a bit.

I have never seen Paddington - kids too old. It sounds like I am missing out.

Keith my youngest is 22. It was he who made me watch it.

Just finished Clothes and Other Matters by Alexandra Shulman, which I loved. It's a non-fiction part memoir, part social history combo, written with wit and intelligence, and a must for those of us who love clothes and fashion. Her other non-fiction book, Inside Vogue, is also fab.

In the kindle app you can hold down on a book thumbnail until a pop up menu comes up, one of the options is 'Mark as read', this saves having to page to the end of every book to have it listed as read.

Keith looking at bookshelves has a similar effect on me. I can actually feel my blood pressure dropping when I walk through the library door. If I'm having a stressful morning at work, I go to my local bookshop for a peaceful lunchtime browse.