50 Book Challenge 2020 Part Five

[southeastdweller]

Welcome to the fifth 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, it's not too late to join, 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, the third one here and the fourth one here.

How're you getting on so far?

desdemona I really liked all of 11.22.63 and don’t remember finding it overlong (paper version) but it did have an SK Special ending that did make me chuckle a bit after all that investment. I kind of wish he’d do more historical-type fiction as I enjoyed it a lot from him.

Another one bites the dust.

Did Queen even use a lute ?

Yes, in the KillerQueen Chronicles. “Fat Bottomed Girls” refers of course to the lute’s rounded shape. And who could forget the classic “These are the Days of Our Lyres”

Thanks Southeast. Here is my list:

1. The Secrets of Blood and Bone - Rebecca Alexander
2. Little Women - Louisa May Alcott
3. Identity Crisis - Ben Elton
4. Sunny Side Up - Susan Calman
5. How to Stop Losing Your Shit with Your Kids - Carla Naumburg
6. Smoke Gets in Your Eyes - Caitlin Doughty
7. This Book Will Change Your Mind about Mental Health - Nathan Filer
8. Damascus - Christos Tsiolkas
9. The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo - Taylor Jenkins Reid

10. Thinking About It Only Makes It Worse - David Mitchell 11. Queenie - Candice Carty-Williams 12. Between the Stops: the view of my life from the top of the number 12 bus - Sandi Toksvig 13. Murderous Contagion: a human history of disease - Mary Dobson 14. The Testaments - Margaret Atwood 15. Other Minds: the octopus, the sea, and the deep origins of consciousness - Peter Godfrey-Smith 16. When I Hit You - Meena Kandasamy 17. Around the World in Eighty Days - Michael Palin 18. How to Find Fulfilling Work - Roman Krznaric 19. The Foundling - Stacey Halls 20. The Butchering Art - Lindsey Fitzharris 21. How to Raise an Amazing Child the Montessori Way - Tim Seldin 22. Seven Worlds, One Planet - Jonny Keeling & Scott Alexander 23. Tamed: ten species that changed our world - Alice Roberts 24. The Reddening - Adam Nevill 25. Peas & Queues: the minefield of modern manners - Sandi Toksvig 26. Bookworm - Lucy Mangan 27. The Last Hero - Terry Pratchett 28. She’s Back: your guide to returning to work - Lisa Unwin & Deb Khan 29. I Am, I Am, I Am - Maggie O’Farrell 30. The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work - Alain de Botton

Currently reading The Ghost: a cultural history (a history of ghosts in British art and literature) in hard copy, Clive James' Unreliable Memoirs on Kindle and listening to The Five.

Thanks for the new thread Southeast Currently reading Dead Cert inspired by the last thread and very much enjoying it - as much as a period piece as anything else. I need a new audio book though if anyone has any good suggestions (probably non fiction), not feeling inspired by any of my wish list right now.

Thank you southeast!

My books thus far:

1. Following On – Emma John
2. Number One Chinese Restaurant – Lillian Li
3. If Cats Disappeared From The World – Genki Kawamura
4. Midnight’s Children – Salman Rushdie
5. The Hunting Party – Lucy Foley
6. Now We Shall Be Entirely Free – Andrew Miller
7. The Ballroom – Anna Hope
8. Emma - Jane Austen
9. The Mercies – Kiran Millwood Hargrave
10. Remembered – Yvonne Battle- Felton
11. Contested Will - James Shapiro
12. The Glass Woman – Caroline Lea
13. All The Lives We Never Lived – Anuradha Roy
14. Invisible Women – Caroline Criado Perez
15. The Five – Hallie Rubenhold
16. The Lost Girls – Charlotte Woolley
17. The Night Circus – Erin Morgenstern
18. Hard Pushed – Leah Hazard
19. The Year of Living Danishly – Helen Russell
20. Three Hours – Rosamund Lupton
21. Hamnet- Maggie O’Farrell
22. War Doctor – David Nott
23. Period – Emma Barnett
24. The Volunteer – Jack Fairweather

I'm on a run of non fiction and am currently on This Is Shakespeare by Emma Smith.

Still drip reading David Copperfield and The Mirror and the Light

Thanks for the new thread, Southeast. I'm valuing the book chat more than ever. My list, with favourites in bold:

1: Quartet in Autumn - Barbara Pym
2: The Sale of the Late King's Goods - Jerry Brotton
3: The House Opposite - Barbara Noble
4: Jacob's Room is Full of Books - Susan Hill
5: The Gathering - Anne Enright
6: The Night Fire - Michael Connelly
7: The Shadow District - Arnaldur Indriðason
8: 1939 - Frederick Taylor
9: North Korea Journal - Michael Palin
10: Clock Dance - Anne Tyler
11: The Missing Ink - Philip Hensher
12: A Very Private Eye - Barbara Pym
13: Odd One Out - Lissa Evans
14: Whistle in the Dark - Emma Healey
15: The Greengage Summer - Rumer Godden
16: Some Tame Gazelle - Barbara Pym
17: The Lying Room - Nicci Gerrard
18: Not in Your Lifetime: The Assassination of JFK - Anthony Summers
19: Our Friends in Berlin - Anthony Quinn
20: Airhead - Emily Maitlis
21: Pretty Jane and the Viper of Kidbrooke Lane - Paul Thomas Murphy
22: Conclave - Robert Harris
23: Bring up the Bodies - Hilary Mantel
24: Me - Elton John
25: The Poison Principle - Gail Bell
26: A Question of Upbringing - Anthony Powell
27: A Buyer's Market - Anthony Powell
28: The Town in Bloom - Dodie Smith
29: Short Life in a Strange World - Toby Ferris
30: Nothing to Report - Carola Oman
31: Somewhere in England - Carola Oman
32: The Bells of Old Tokyo - Anna Sherman
33: The Burning Man - Jane Casey
34: Rosie: Scenes from a Vanished Life - Rose Tremain
35: The Pulse Glass - Gillian Tindall
36: Eating Up Italy: Voyages on a Vespa - Matthew Fort

I'm currently reading Paul Theroux's account of his travels around Mexico, and finding it absolutely fascinating.

Yes, in the KillerQueen Chronicles. “Fat Bottomed Girls” refers of course to the lute’s rounded shape. And who could forget the classic “These are the Days of Our Lyres”

I think 'I want to break free' sums up what they probably thought of the lute, that and 'hammer to fall' of course

Didn’t Sting do a whole album with a lute?

To be fair Kvothe has Thunder Bolt And Lightning Very Very Frightening covered as we are often reminded.

Betty I'm enjoying The Sealwoman's Gift very much.

Satsuki, I'm sure it would have preferred 11.22.63 on the Kindle rather than Audible. I felt like if the narrator told me that 'the past harmonises' or 'the past is obdurate' one more time I'd hurl my phone across the room, maybe this kind of repetition isn't so obvious in print and Sadie sure as well wouldn't have had such an annoying voice in my head!

Speaking of Mr King, I've just started If It Bleeds.

To be fair Kvothe has Thunder Bolt And Lightning Very Very Frightening covered as we are often reminded.

Galileo did it better.

Shiny new thread

For shiny happy people 😀

Thanks for the new thread Southeast.

My list so far:

1. The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton
2. Death is a Welcome Guest by Louise Welsh
3. Bird Box by Josh Malerman
4. Stranger With My Face by Lois Duncan
5. Calmer, Easier, Happier Homework by Noel Janis-Norton
6. Skeletons by Jane Fallon
7. The Wolf Gift by Anne Rice
8. Red: A Natural History of the Redhead by Jacky Colliss Harvey
9. The Neutronium Alchemist by Peter F Hamilton

10. The Hunting Party by Lucy Foley 11. 99 Red Balloons by Elisabeth Carpenter 12. Starcrossed by Josephine Angelini 13. Female Chauvinist Pigs by Ariel Levy 14. The Scent of Shadows by Vicki Pettersson 15. The Silver Dream story by Neil Gaiman & Micheal Reaves, written by Michael Reaves & Mallory Reaves 16. By Light Alone by Adam Roberts 17. The Treatment by C L Taylor 18. Days of Blood and Starlight by Laini Taylor 19. The Escape by C L Taylor 20. The Chalk Man by C J Tudor 21. No Dominion by Louise Welsh 22. How to Lose Weight Without Being Miserable by Richard Templar 23. The Fire Sermon by Francesca Haig 24. Chimera by Mira Grant 25. God Bless the NHS by Roger Taylor 26. Bring Me Back by B A Paris 27. The Shape We’re In by Sarah Boseley 28. The Understudy by B A Paris, Clare Mackintosh, Holly Brown and Sophie Hannah 29. Someone Like Me by M R Carey 30. Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman 31. Calmer Easier Happier Screen Time by Noel Janis-Norton 32. The Unthinkable by Amanda Ripley

desdemona yes I think the eye skips over things like that when you read as you get absorbed in the story and they don’t grate quite the same as when spoken. I find it harder to to listen to fiction on audiobook than non-fiction.

Thanks for the new thread @southeastdweller. Here is my list so far:

1.	Idiot by Laura Clery
2.	Three Wishes by Liane Moriarty
3.	Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs? by Caitlin Doughty
4.	<strong>She Said by Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey</strong>
5.	The Hypnotist’s Love Story by Liane Moriarty
6.	The Holiday by T M Logan
7.	<strong>Force of Nature by Jane Harper</strong>
8.	The Secretary by Renée Knight
9.	Ghost Wall by Sarah Moss
10.	<strong>The Chalk Man by C J Tudor</strong>
11.	<strong>Standing In Another Man’s Grave by Ian Rankin</strong>
12.	The Bigamist by Mary Turner Thomson
13.	<strong>Midnight at Chernobyl by Adam Higginbotham</strong>
14.	Twas the Nightshift before Xmas by Adam Kay
15.	The Hunting Party by Lucy Foley
16.	<strong>The Lost Man by Jane Harper</strong>
17.	The Summer Before The War by Helen Simonson
18.	The Sealed Letter by Emma Donoghue
19.	<strong>Close to Home by Cara Hunter</strong>
20.	In The Dark by Cara Hunter
21.	<strong>The Black House by Peter May</strong>
22.	The Family Upstairs by Lisa Jewell
23.	Murder in Belgravia by Lynn Brittney
24.	<strong>Instructions for a Heatwave by Maggie O’Farrell</strong>
25.	The Offing by Benjamin Myers
26.	In An Instant by Suzanne Redfearn
27.	Three Hours by Rosamund Lupton

Whoops, posted too soon. Should also have The Offing in bold as it was excellent.

Currently giving Rivers of London a try after the mixed reviews on here!

Thanks for the new thread @southeastdweller. Here's my list. I see a few people on exactly the same total as me today!

1. Autumn Term – Antonia Forest
2. Mutual Admiration Society – Mo Moulton
3. Swan Song – Kelleigh Greenberg-Jephcott
4. This Must be the Place – Maggie O’Farrell
5. The Bookshop – Penelope Fitzgerald
6. A Place Called Winter – Patrick Gale
7. The Reunion – Guillaume Musso
8. Black Water Lilies – Michel Bussi
9. Wilful Blindness – Margaret Heffernan
10. The Last Painting of Sara de Vos – Dominic Smith
11. The Farm – Joanne Ramos
12. The High Window – Raymond Chandler
13. The Lady in the Lake – Raymond Chandler
14. The Little Sister – Raymond Chandler
15. She Lies in Wait – Gytha Lodge
16. The Last Anniversary – Liane Moriarty
17. Bitter Orange – Claire Fuller
18. The Lost Man – Jane Harper
19. What Red Was – Rosie Price
20. Keeping an Eye Open – Julian Barnes
21. Heartburn – Nora Ephron
22. Crooked Heart – Lissa Evans
23. Old Baggage – Lissa Evans
24. A View of the Harbour – Elizabeth Taylor
25. The Crow Trap – Ann Cleeves
26. Lives of the Painters, Sculptors and Architects: Part 1 – Giorgio Vasari
27. Telling Tales – Ann Cleeves

I've nearly finished The Year of Magical Thinking, which I think is brilliant, and I'm all "why did no-one ever tell me about Joan Didion before???"

Thanks south for the new thread. My list so far:

1. The Go-Between by LP Hartley.

2. One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexsandr Solzhenitsyn.

1. Normal People by Sally Rooney.
2. Taduno’s Song by Odafe Atogun.
3. 23 Things They don’t tell you about Capitalism by Ha-Joon Chang.
4. Girl Woman Other by Bernadine Evaristo.
5. Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris.

8. Matterhorn by Karl Marlantes.

1. Tell me how it ends by Valeria Luisella.

10. Pachinko by Min Jin Lee. 11. The Patient Assassin by Anita Anand. 12. My Name is Why by Lemn Sissay. 13. Offering to the Storm (Bk 3 in The Baztan Trilogy) by Dolores Redondo. 14. Taken (Bk3 in the Alex Versus series) by Benedict Jacka. 15. And Still I Rise by Maya Angelou. 16. Gabriela, Clove and Cinnamon by Jorge Amado. 17. An Astronaut’s Guide to Life on Earth by Chris Hadfield. 18. Black Wave by Kim Ghattas. 19. Home by Marilynne Robinson. 20. Some Kids I Taught and What They Taught Me by Kate Clanchy. 21. Frenchman’s Creek by Daphne du Maurier. 22. The Arab of the Future by Riad Sattouf.

Currently listening to and reading David Copperfield and reading The Making of Poetry by Adam Nicolson, a biography about the year Coleridge, Wordsworth and his sister Dorothy spent together in the late 1790s.

Thanks southeast

Here's my list so far, as usual miles behind most of you!

1. The Hunting Party – Lucy Foley
2. The Unexpected Joy of being Sober – Catherine Gray
3. Ta deuxième vie commence quand tu comprends que tu n’en as qu’une – Raphaëlle Giordano
4. L’élégance du hérisson – Muriel Barbery
5. Three things about Elsie – Joanna Cannon
6. Restoration – Rose Tremain
7. The Dreams of Bethany Mellmoth – William Boyd
8. The girl you left behind – Jojo Moyes
9. Antigone – Jean Anouilh
10. The Light Years – Elizabeth Jane Howard
11. Scissors, Paper, Stone – Elizabeth Day
12. Standard Deviation – Katherine Heiny
13. Behind the scenes at the museum – Kate Atkinson
14. The Well-Kept Kitchen – Gervase Markham
15. The Passion of Artemisia – Susan Vreeland
16. Lord of the Flies – William Golding

I'm also still reading David Copperfield, though I haven't yet started my chapters for the month. I have Marking Time, the second instalment of the Cazalet Chronicles, on the go on my kindle and I'm also reading Perfect Sound Whatever by James Acaster but that's taking me AGES to read because I keep stopping to look up the songs and artists he's talking about and then I get side-tracked!!

54. Catch And Kill by Ronan Farrow

Ronan Farrow's story of his investigation into Harvey Weinstein.

At first, I found this a little juddery and lacking in cohesion, and it felt like Farrow was maybe breaking the first rule of journalism a bit too much.

But then it all pulls together, and you understand why and there is just this horrific building sense of dread throughout the whole thing.

The stories of what Weinstein did are graphic and horrifying, just warning you all, but somehow equally horrifying in a different sense are the levels that supposedly good people stooped to silence Farrow and the group of women he was supporting to come forward.

It would genuinely make a good thriller film and probably will, in time. People sit in cars outside Farrow's house, a shadowy investigative group under Weinsteins payroll builds a dossier on him and people he considered friends directly report on him. Even the victims are targeted by spies and plants.

He loses his job, his boyfriend is followed. It is just all so sinister.

And yet, just like the shallow world of media, when the truth emerges, his former bosses rush to deny they ever killed the story or tried to ruin his career.

And all for one man. How could one man have that much power for so many people to be silenced? He bought them off mostly. Huge donator to Clinton and then everyone is all "Hand Wringing Oh So Terrible" when they KNEW and that knowledge made them complicit.

Must have been an utter headfuck to live through for all concerned. He definitely did not go down without a serious, mind boggling, fight.

4/5

Thanks SouthEast. Here's my list, I've been neglecting my reading recently as I've been researching my family tree. Current list is:

1. Pet Semetary by Stephen King (2/5)
2. The Outsider by Albert Camus (5/5)
3. Somebody's Mother, Somebody's Daughter by Carol Ann Lee (3/5)
4. Just One Damned Thing After Another by Jodi Taylor. (4/5)
5. Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton. (5/5)
6. 4321 by Paul Auster. (4/5)
7. Valley of the Dolls by Jacqueline Susann. (3/5)
8. The Devil's Teardrop by Jeffrey Deaver. (1/5)
9. A Symphony of Echoes by Jodi Taylor. (3/5)

10. What Katy Did by Susan Coolidge. (4/5) 11. A Second Chance by Jodi Taylor. (4/5) 12. A Trail Through Time by Jodi Taylor. (4/5) 13. Elevator Pitch by Linwood Barclay. (1/5) 14. Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari. (3/5) 15. The Talisman by Stephen King & Peter Straub. (2/5) 16. Ayoade on Top by Richard Ayoade. (3/5) 17. Black Ice by Michael Connelly. (2/5) 18. In the Woods by Tana French. (3/5) 19. The Dutch House by Ann Patchett. (3/5) 20. Red Ribbons by Louise Phillips. (1/5) 21. The Girl He Used to Know by Tracy Garvis Graves. (3/5) 22. The Other Us by Fiona Harper. (2/5) 23. Ready Player One by Ernest Cline. (3/5) 24. The Crow Trap by Anne Cleeves. (3/5) 25. The Dark Tower II: The Drawing of the Three by Stephen King. (3/5) 26. Guilt by Jussi Adler-Olsen. (3/5) 27. This is Going to Hurt by Adam Kay. (4/5) 28. Just One Damn Thing After Another by Jodi Taylor. (4/5) 29. The Very First Damn Thing by Jodi Taylor. (3/5) 30. A Symphony of Echoes by Jodi Taylor. (3/5) 31. When a Child is Born by Jodi Taylor (3/5) 32. Roman Holiday by Jodi Taylor (3/5) 33. A Second Chance by Jodi Taylor (4/5) 34. Christmas Present by Jodi Taylor (3/5) 35. A Trail Through Time by Jodi Taylor (4/5) 36. No Time Like the Past by Jodi Taylor (3/5) 37. The Outcast Dead by Elly Griffiths (3/5) 38. How to Stop Time by Matt Haig (1/5) 39. Thinner by Stephen King.(2/5) 40. What Could Possibly Go Wrong by Jodi Taylor. (3/5). 41. Ships and Stings and Wedding Rings by Jodi Taylor. (2/5) 42. My Name is Markham by Jodi Taylor. (3/5) 43. Lies, Damned Lies, and History by Jodi Taylor. (4/5) 44. The Great St Mary's Day Out by Jodi Taylor. (3/5) 45. Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders. (4/5) 46. The Sudden Departure of the Frasers by Louise Candlish. (3/5) 47. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone by J.K. Rowling. (3/5)

48. Raven Black by Ann Cleeves. I really enjoyed this book which is the first in the Shetland series. The crime was intriguing and I loved the Shetland setting and the descriptions of the way of life. (4/5)