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?

Oh, and I'm still going with David Copperfield for the read-along and enjoying it hugely!

See you on the others side in a few days Terpsichore!

You're welcome, Eine!

34. A Farewell to Arms - Ernest Hemingway

Set in WW1 it tells the story of Lieutenant Henry, an American in the Italian army on the Austrian front, who falls in love with an English nurse (Catherine). It doesn’t have a happy ending. I enjoyed the story and thought the retreat of the army was particularly good. However, Catherine as a character really annoyed me - she seemed to need constant reassurance and be so eager to please and her dialogue really grated. I would have thought if you were a nurse in WW1 you would have had a bit more backbone.

...forgot to say it continued the Hemingway way the men of all characters consuming vast quantities of alcohol from breakfast onwards...

• the Hemingway theme - not just the men!

Morning all.
As predicted, a nearly 900 page novel + slow reader = fell off the thread. I will catch up with the reviews shortly

13. The Mirror and the Light by Hilary Mantel Final episode in her trilogy of the life of Thomas Cromwell. I loved the previous two, and thought this was wonderful too, although I know many on the thread feel otherwise. Despite the length I didn't feel it dragged. Mantel's beautiful tone (neither faux-Tudor nor clunkily modern) and attention to the tiny details of Tudor life made this a world in which I was happy to linger. As ever, she skillfully brings suspense to a story whose ending is well known. A corker.

Book 32
The Rosie Effect by Graeme Simsion

Second book in the Rosie series and moves on from Don’s ‘Wife Project’ antics into full relationship mode. Same formula, same characters

More misunderstandings and muddles ensue from Don’s non-neuro-typical approach to love with predictable results.

Meh.

70. Bill Bryson - At Home

I'd read this before but thought it merited a re-read as we're, well, at home at lot at the moment! Really interesting, linked topics well, good level of general knowledge for me. Shame I didn't find The Body (a DNF!) as engaging...

@bibliomania I read all of the Lorien Legacies books and found them easy to read too! Tried the Lorien Legacies Reborn series too but didn't find them as good at all. I found the original series a bit forgettable but a good read for my poor frazzled brain when looking after two toddlers

I think they'd be a good read for someone wrangling two toddlers, Ruby.. I'm impressed you could read at all!

They were entertaining and completely undemanding, @bibliomania.

(The books, not the toddlers, sadly!! )

Undemanding toddlers do not exist, alas.

33. Eleanor of Aquitaine by Alison Weir

I have read quite a lot of Alison Weir, both fiction and non-fiction, and there were no surprises here, I knew what I was getting.

Eleanor of Aquitaine was amazing woman, Duchess of Aquitaine in her own right, and therefore the ruler of vast lands which make up present day France and central Europe. She was married to King Louis VII of France, with whom she had two daughters and went on crusade to the Holy Land. Her marriage to Louis was annulled and she promptly married the young king of England, Henry II, eleven years her junior with whom she had eight further children, seven of which survived infancy.
Between them, Eleanor and Henry II ruled over England, most of present day France, Normandy and Brittany. They decided to divide the vast lands between their sons, - England for Henry 'The Young King', Aquitane for Richard (their second son- the future Richard I), Brittany for Geoffry but nothing for ther youngest son John, which earned him the name 'Lackland'. Their three daughters were married into various other royal houses in Europe putting their children and grandchildren in virtually every court in Europe, very like Queen Victoria and Albert would do in the 19th Century.
With that many sons in the family though, and the old king Henry looking like he would never relinquish power to his sons, they started to plot against him, and Eleanor plotted with them against Henry in favour of her sons. Henry imprisoned Eleanor for close to a decade, scared of her plotting and her influence with the princes and around the courts of Europe.
The family was no stranger to tragedy, with their eldest son Henry and their third son Geoffrey dying prematurely, leaving Richard the heir to the throne.
When, Henry II died, this was when Eleanor really started to shine. At the age of 67 (already very elderly by medieval standards) she helped Richard secure his throne and sort out various wars and rebellions around Europe. When Richard died in 1199, Eleanor was the powerful figure behind the throne when her youngest son John became king.

Eleanor lived to the remarkable age of 82, and outlived 8 of her 10 children. In her late 70s, she was still riding great distances across Europe and raising armies in her 80s to support John's interests. She had been married to two Kings and was the mother of two Kings. Her numerous grandchildren ended up in power all over Europe.

A very good, readable account of her life. It's armchair history, factual but not academic, well written and flowed well.

66. An American Marriage by Tayari Jones

Roy and Celestial are a young married black couple who have their lives ahead of them, when Roy is accused of and found guilty of a crime he did not commit.

The novel follows the couple onwards as his prison term impacts their marriage.

I don't know, I mean I read it one evening so it was engaging, and I would hesitate to say depressing, more melancholic but there is a pervasive sadness.

Even though I think the reader is meant to empathise with Celestial, very little of her world is actually given a voice to make that possible and you are left to perceive her as unfeeling and selfish (at least in my take)

The epistolary style and the narrative angles shown didn't give the right perspective balance for it to feel like : "Two sides to every story"

An Oprah's Book pick, I can fully see this doing the Oscar Bait Dance within the next 5 years, and I hope they make Celestial more sympathetic in the process.

De-lurking to say that The Song of Achilles is a kindle daily deal today.

I think most people have read it but you never know.......

I am re-reading Swallows & Amazon series, Pigeon Post stm. Just takes me away from everything else.

44 Just For One Day by Louise Wener
Lead singer of Sleeper recounts her adolescence in the 1970s and 80s and her Britpop success. I enjoyed this in the moment and it was a pleasantly nostalgic diversion - I miss the 90s which was very much my decade and looking back seems a lifetime ago given where we are now. But this was somewhat forgettable and certainly not a great rock memoir.

45 Notes from an Apocalypse by Mark O’Connell
Audiobook about end of the world cults, climate change, preppers and tech billionaires holing up for the end of the world. It was wryly amusing and somewhat too angsty but also suffers somewhat from being published just as this all blew up. In truth, for most of us, the apocalypse seems to be about Zoom calls and Joe Wicks rather than underground bunkers and boiling oceans. I’d like to know what he thinks about this.

46 You People by Nikita Lalwani
A short but powerful novel about immigration and love. This is a recent publication and I’ve not seen much written about it but it deserves to be successful as it was rather wonderful, and very much a London love letter.

47 The Iliad by Homer
Not sure that I should review this, as such, given its longevity. I’ve read Homer-adjacent novels over the last couple of years (The Silence of the Girls, Circe) etc and read The Odyssey over Christmas so thought it was time. This covers just ten days towards the end of the siege of Troy, and tells the story of Achilles’ fury at Agamemnon who stole his slave girl and who refuses to fight as a result. Patroclus, Achilles’ best friend, fights on his behalf and is killed, and then the King of Troy’s son Hector is killed in turn. The gods meddle and observe and lots of men die. It took me a while to get into the narrative but once I did I couldn’t put it down.

28. Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch

This has been much reviewed on here so I'll keep it brief. I am really in two minds about this. It was an entertaining read, there's no doubt about that, but something about the narrative style really grated with me. I couldn't shake the feeling that it was trying too hard.

That said, I liked the characterisation and enjoyed the historical references. I think I'll read the next one in the series before I make up my mind.

29. Manhattan Beach by Jennifer Egan

I'm not sure why I picked this up so can only assume that it was recommended to me. I tells the story of Anna Kerrigan and begins in depression-era New York. As a child she accompanies her father on his meeting with a wealthy businessman called Dexter Styles. There is a mysterious secrecy surrounding that meeting which is left unresolved.

Many years later, during WW2, Anna's father has disappeared without trace and she is working in the naval yard in Brooklyn. A chance encounter with Styles in a nightclub leads to her investigating and understanding what happened to her father.

It's a good read. It paints an interesting picture of the era and the attitudes. I struggled a bit with the ending as it felt a little too neat and tidy, but I might just be being fussy. Overall I enjoyed it.

14. Such A Fun Age by Kiley Reid Emira is a young black graduate who has never really got her career off the ground, which she wouldn't be bothered about apart from the fact that she's fast approaching the age where she cannot benefit from her parents' healthcare insurance. Alix is a white nouveau-riche insta-influencer who hires Emira as a babysitter for her toddler Briar. Late one night Alix calls Emira to take Briar out of the house while she deals with a domestic emergency. Emira is wrongly accused of kidnapping Briar, and an onlooker takes video footage of the incident. The novel deals with how the incident affects the relationships of everyone involved, and how everyone seems to think they know what's best for Emira.

This was great - a very modern comedy of manners. It tackles race and class issues head-on, but with a touch witty and light enough that you don't feel lectured. And the lovely Briar is the most convincing child character I've come across in ages. My only slight complaint was the final rush to wrap things up.

Quick read of The Darkness by Ragnur Jonasson, an Icelandic police procedural. Nothing special, although hooray for an older, female protagonist. Interesting ending. I'd read another.

Thanks for the Tayari Jones review Eine, this was one I dnf’d. The subject matter obviously important but the delivery didn’t work for me, but now that you raise it think it would make a great mini-series – possibly better than the book?

Pepe loved your review of The Iliad I’ve been thinking about rereading it as well as The Odyssey - inspired by Emily Wilson reading her translation via videos on her Twitter feed, has anyone else been following these? She's releasing regular instalments.

twitter.com/EmilyRCWilson

Have you read any Greek tragedies? Would really recommend the ones that follow Agamemnom particularly the Oresteia, and Iphigenia in Aulis.

Yes @YounghillKang the format messes about way too much and prevents the reader from really knowing the characters

42: Babbacombes - Susan Scarlett

Heartwarming domestic romance penned by the insanely-prolific Noel Streatfeild under a nom de plume in 1941.

Pretty, modest and sensible Beth Carson lives with her parents and younger siblings in their small-but-happy London home, where make-do-and-mend is the order of the day. Into this harmonious environment comes a long-lost cousin, the spiteful and meddling Dulcie, whose rude behaviour is a severe test of the family's politeness, and whose jealousy threatens to scupper Beth's budding romance with David on the Cooked Meats counter of Babbacombes, the grand department store where Dulcie, Beth and her father George all work. The twist being that David is no ordinary shop-boy....

Utterly inconsequential but delightful piece of story-telling, completely of its time, which wouldn't be out of place as a black-and-white classic on Talking Pictures, and best consumed with a nice pot of tea and cake of choice as long as you overlook the forelock-tugging bits

Younghill, I have seen Emily Wilson’s tweets. I read her translation of the Odyssey last year, and it was great. She’s doing the Iliad at the moment I believe. I haven’t read any other Greek myths but have seen several plays - the Oresteia a few years ago was bloody amazing (literally very bloody!).

38. The Dead Season by Christobel Kent (Sandro Cellini #3) Who knew it was hot in Florence in August? Well, anyone who has read this book. This book is basically a pagely reminder of the heat in Florence in August interspersed with a slow and slightly overwritten detective thriller. Sandro Cellini is an ex policeman turned private detective. His technophobe (refusal to own a 'magic telephone') and traditional attitudes become increasingly wearing. It was evocative of place but I didn't warm to any other aspect of it. Another single item from a series on my Dad's kindle, and I wouldn't seek out any more.

22. Venetia by Georgette Heyer This probably appears on my list every time but it is just a lovely effortless Regency romance with sophistication and passion.