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?

70. Disobedience by Naomi Alderman

In London's Orthodox Jewish Community, an eminent leader dies.

His death means the return of his controversial estranged daughter Ronit and the secret she carries with her.

So I enjoyed this and it is fairly short. I am no expert on Orthodox Judaism at all, but within the limits of my understanding, there is a Big Moment at the end that just wasn't believable as something that would be allowed to occur in an Orthodox congregation.

Secondly, there is a lot of Godding, a bit of Godding, I'm agnostic, is fine by me, but if you are averse to much Godding it's not for you. I also think that this book will only resonate on a deep level for people with strong knowledge of Judaism, because all the meaningful bits rely heavily on Jewish teaching.

I still really appreciated it though.

As I have been looking for my copies of MT with no success (how does one lose books?) I have downloaded them this morning. Thanks for the heads up, Remus. Have been craving something light and comforting after some heavy duty booking with little progress.

book 22 for me was House of Cards by Michael Dobbs thought I would enjoy this more, but it felt really dated
book 23 was Seven Days of Us by Francesca Hornak which was a lick down lark, with family secrets coming out. v light hearted, easy read. but seven days in isolation feels like a fairly amateur effort now!!

That's what I thought, Closed - seven days is for sissies!

gah! meant to say Seven Days of Us was a lock down lark
but just finished book 24 The Guest List by Lucy Foley
bought this for 99p on kindle, and for that it was an entertaining enough, easy read. I read The Hunting Party by the same author last year, and was a bit meh about it, so I liked this better

The MT tide pool would have been one of my worst nightmares as a kid.

I would have loved the MT pool but I grew up swimming off the Gower coast. I’m still a swimmer now, it’s one thing I’m really missing about lock down, I usually swim at least twice a week.

The lacrosse and games though - terrifying. Team sports brings out my inner introvert.

I have had a really tough week. I’m not generally a worrier and just bury things but this week has been hard. I’ve even cracked open the red wine and had 2.5 large glasses so far tonight. I should stop now.

71. Dear Mrs Bird by AJ Pearce

Emmy takes a job at a Ladies Magazine during the war. When she finds the resident agony aunt, Mrs Bird, harsh and unfair, she begins to ghostwrite responses without telling her...

Ok, so this is shite. The writing at the beginning is spectacularly shit as is the writing at the end.

BUT

Did it pass an evening? Yes
Was it easy and completely undemanding of thought? Yes

Has some uses

ONLY if you want Total Pap

Best, .
Bad weeks are more common than they should be. Doesn’t make them any more bearable though. I hope that someone is looking after you.

Sorry to hear that, Best. It's really hard and scary generally just at the moment, isn't it, which doesn't help

For anyone who fancies reading Stasiland (discussed here a short while ago), it's down to 99p today.

It's tough, Best, you're not alone.

Eine, I was disappointed by the Mrs Bird book too. The narrator feels observed from the outside and didn't come across as a real person. I like mid-twentieth century fiction and she didn't convince me as someone from that era - more like a Bounty comic strip from the 80s.

Best

123. A Different Class of Murder: The Story of Lord Lucan - Laura Thompson An exploration into the life of Lucan and his family and the murder of Sandra Rivett, nanny to the children. Looks at the changing post-war society and the effects on the aristocracy.

I very nearly ditched this at about 40%, but then mistakenly carried on. It does at the very end put forward some other very plausible and interesting alternatives to what could have happened, but it takes some forbearance to get there. This was very one sided - poor Lord Lucan, it wasn't his fault the bottom fell out of the aristocracy, he was born to better things. Nobody liked his awful wife anyway so nobody was surprised. Oh the wrong person was murdered, but never mind, she was a common pleb. The author also has an strange obsession with Agatha Christie quotes littered throughout and took several opportunities to slag off Princess Diana as another example of a woman who married above her station and failed to behave appropriately. Completely bizarre and could have been a very good idea for a book if it had been looked at impartially.

I think there are some David Sedaris fans on here - Calypso is on the Kindle daily deal.

Thanks all. Feeling a bit better this morning. Thankfully stopped at half a bottle of wine.

Glad your feeling a bit better, Best.

Stasiland well worth a read.

Best
Glad to hear you’re feeling a bit better this morning.

The lacrosse talk in MT baffles me slightly, it’s not a sport I’ve ever come across in RL. I’m sort of imagining it as similar to hockey, as I’m not motivated enough to actually research lacrosse.

I’m sure that I’d definitely have preferred the MT swimming pool to the team sports.

Stitches I was very bemused when I went to college age 18 to discover that (a) lacrosse is a real thing, and not just something that exists in girls' school stories, and that (b) it appeared to be played mostly by posh boys. (Also (c) posh boys played hockey too - universally a girls game in my previous experience.)

Lacrosse is a bit like hockey but with sticks like fishing nets (in my mind). I remember looking it up years ago because of MT. Never ever have I come across anyone who played it IRL.

I went to a very traditional school but not posh enough for lacrosse, we were very hockey based and the only school in the local league who provided half time oranges. When I went to Durham with a lot of private school kids most had played lacrosse. I was most jealous. Enid Blyton has a lot to answer for.

Fun fact of the day: women's lacrosse was introduced to the UK by Louisa Lumsden, who was also one of the Girton Pioneers - the first three students to sit Cambridge university exams :)

I played lacrosse and it’s lethally dangerous because the hard ball is thrown from net to net at head height - it’s very difficult to catch in your net. I was rubbish at it!

Thank you Terpsichore for the Stasiland heads-up, best 99p I have spent today.

Emotionally this seems to be getting harder and harder doesn't it? Thank you all for being a wonderful corner of escapism.

I was very pleased to see it suddenly discounted on my wish list, Keith. Small pleasures at the moment...but they all help.

I went to a comprehensive (academically very good, but by no means super-posh) and we were forced to play lacrosse. It was terrifying. I spent most of my time on the pitch trying to hide while the games teacher screamed 'Cradle, cradle !' at us. Traumatic.

I've left the house once in about 3 months. It does absolutely have a psychological effect. The one time I have gone out, no one was social distancing in the streets and no masks, it's an anxious time Best

Just bought the next 3 MT books. I have other things to read, but still struggling to settle to anything much.