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?

Happy new thread everybody!
Thanks southeast.
In the past month I have finished
11. Me Before You
12. After You
14. Still Me all by Jojo Moyes.
Easy reading chick-lit, I flew through the first couple while staying home but on holiday from work then slowed a bit when work picked up again. I really enjoyed these. I haven't read anything by Jojo Moyes before and was given these, I wouldn't have picked them but would read more of hers on the back if these. It was nice to follow a series and just roll from one to the other without needing the concentration to pick up a whole new story, but the three novels are different enough to avoid feeling repetitive with different settings and some new characters appearing in each.
Also listened to
13. Mudlarking by Lara Maiklem
Previously reviewed on here, all about the author's experiences of mudlarking along the Thames. My attention wandered so I let some parts...flow by? Wash over me?! Sorry, I can't describe it without sounding like I'm using river themed puns! There's lots of interesting bits of history. It was good but I wondered if I would have connected with it more if I had spent more time in London and knew the places she was describing.
One consequence of our stay at home situation is that I have a pile of books I have read piled up waiting for the library and charity shop to reopen. It's a pleasant change to look at books I have finished rather than feeling guilty looking at a TBR pile that never gets smaller!
Now listening to a random self help book and reading Holes by Louis Sachur.

1. Native Tongue - Suzette Haden Elgin
2. If Cats Disappeared from the World - Genki Kawamura
3. Frankenstein in Baghdad - Ahmed Saadawi
4. Lies Sleeping -Ben Aaranovitch

5. The History of Bees - Maja Lunde 6. Severance - Ling Ma 7. NOS4A2 - Joe Hill 8. Choose Your Own Apocalypse - Rob Sears

1. Before you Sleep - Adam Nevill

10. Recursion - Blake Crouch 11. The Hot Zone - Richard Preston 12. Hotel Iris - Yoko Ogawa 13. Bazaar of Bad Dreams - Stephen King 14. Friday Black - Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah

I haven’t updated for ages but I’ve been reading and collecting even more ides for my tbr list. Far too many

Before you Sleep was a collection of 3 short stories, connected in various ways to houses. A group of boys break into a creepy old house, a young girl moves into a new house and meets its resident (very lively) dolls, and a man’s new house brings unexpected changes. Solid creepy but not terrifying horror.

Recursion was a bit bonkers. A ‘virus’ is infecting people with false memories (with horrible consequences), but where did it come from and can it be reversed? The last part is like a particularly apocalyptic Groundhog Day, it was entertaining in its bonkerness.

The Hot Zone was a topical re-read. A factual account of an Ebola/Marburg near-outbreak in the USA. The most interesting parts of the book cover the origins of Ebola outbreaks in Africa, and the author doesn’t pull any punches with the graphic descriptions of of the effects of Ebola, whether in humans or monkeys. Slight spoiler - the villain of the piece is once again the poor, maligned bat.

Hotel Iris was beautifully written but thankfully short. 17 year old Mari is drawn into a twisted relationship with a much older man. The details of their sexual relationship are graphic and awful, most of the characters are (deliberately) awful and you know that 40 year old Mari will be looking back at 17 year old Mari and shouting “wtf are you thinking?!”.

Friday Black Short, dystopian stories looking into race into America. The first story, The Finklestein Five, is a take on the prejudice of the judicial system. It’s horrific. And reading this alongside the news of the shooting of Ahmaud Arbery, you have to ask if it’s even fiction at this point (The narrator of this particular story tells us how he consciously dials down his blackness to keep himself safe.) Most of the stories in this book are based in a reality that feels only a very visceral inch away from this one. Adjei-Brenyah’s writing is superb.

28. The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion

Joan Didion's celebrated memoir of the first year after her husband's death, during which their daughter was also dangerously ill (and subsequently dies). I absolutely love the way Didion writes and I am going to buy as many of her essay collections as I can find. Clear, luminous, beautiful prose. And for me, so many bits where I went "Oh yes, of course". You may not want to read a book about death and loss and grieving, but if you think you can stand it, this is bloody brilliant.

Welshwabbit so agree with you about Didion, my favourite collections are the early ones The White Album and Slouching Towards Bethlehem, also if you have Netflix there’s a great documentary about her directed by her nephew Griffin Dunne.

Hello - lost you all briefly. Need to update my list then will post it.

Isn’t Joan Didion wonderful, welsh? The Netflix documentary was great at bringing colour and light into my mental images of her books.

The Body - Bill Bryson Bit of a slog this one although he brings his usual lightness of touch to the subject. I eat a chapter at a time in between other books - didn’t have enough concentration to read it all in one go.

Dead Cert - Dick Francis - otoh I read this in one go yesterday.

Now on The Sealwoman’s Gift

22 Autumn, Ali Smith

I'm not even sure how to describe this book, it was Booker nominated so that's probably enough to tell you it's arty.

The "story" (inverted commas as there really is no story) follows the relationships of Elizabeth with her elderly neighbour David Gluck and her mother. Ali Smith is good at word play and I enjoyed her meanderings into wordy riffs. There is no character development though, and no plot. I dont think I'll be bothering with the rest of her seasons quartet.

For those interested, Lissa Evans’s follow-up to Crooked Heart and Old Baggage is out in August, to be called V for Victory, topically.

I eat? Read obv.

Oh, I’ll look forward to V for Victory Satsuki I liked the other two.

17. Marking Time - Elizabeth Jane Howard The second instalment following the life and loves of the Cazelet family sees them enter WWII and finishes with the attack on Pearl Harbour. Really loving these chronicles. Will try to read something else before I go for the third instalment though ;)

31. Unreliable Memoirs - Clive James

The story of the cultural commentator's boyhood and university years in 1940s/50s Australia. I find it fascinating to read about ways of life that are at the very edges of our living memory (James passed away last year), and his boyhood antics make for compelling, and very funny, reading. He acknowledges that the urge to tell an entertaining story has always been stronger than the urge to tell a true one, but I got the sense that while individual stories were exaggerated, overall it captured the spirit of his carefree, but insecure, youth.

As always, he's a little too keen to show off his (admittedly great) intelligence, and the objectification of women is shocking: I was really hoping these were the attitudes of his teenage self and that he moved on in adulthood. But overall this is one of my favourite reads of the year so far. I was particularly amused by the titles he invented for the anthropological works he supposedly read after Coming of Age in Samoa, such as Having it Off in Hawaii and Frigging About in Fiji. There's a potential future username in there somewhere...

Thanks for the new thread, southeast. Here is my list- as is my wont, I have retrospectively bolded a few books:

1. My Name is Why- Lemn Sissay
2. Damaged- Cathy Glass
3. Wonder- R.J. Palacio
4. Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People about Race- Reni Eddo-Lodge
5. Lost at Sea: the Jon Ronson Mysteries- John Ronson
6. Gotta Get Theroux This: My Life and Strange Times in Television- Louis Theroux
7. Birdsong- Sebastian Faulks
8. Lord of the Flies- William Golding
9. The Beatrix Potter Collection- Beatrix Potter

10. The Cold War: a History from Beginning to End- Hourly History 11. The Subtle Knife- Philip Pullman 12. The Amber Spyglass- Philip Pullman 13. Nine Perfect Strangers- Liane Moriarty 14. Brazil- Michael Palin 15. The Great Gatsby- F. Scott Fitzgerald 16. The Collector- John Fowles 17. Ready Player One- Ernest Cline 18. Other Minds: The Octopus and the Evolution of Intelligent Life- Peter Godfrey-Smith 19. Engleby- Sebastian Faulks 20. Fanny Hill: Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure- John Cleland 21. The Boy at the Back of the Class- Onjali Q. Rauf 22. Prison: A Survival Guide- Carl Cattermole 23. The Children- Alice Meynell 24. The Year of Reading Dangerously- Andy Miller 25. This is Going to Hurt- Adam Kay 26. Mummy Told Me Not to Tell- Cathy Glass 27. The Aerodynamics of Pork- Patrick Gale 28. Aztec Civilisation: A History from Beginning to End- Hourly History 29. Cannery Row- John Steinbeck 30. La Belle Sauvage- Philip Pullman 31. War Doctor: Surgery on the Front Line- David Nott 32. The Bookshop that Floated Away- Sarah Henshaw 33. The Imperial Phase: The Rise & Fall of British Indie Music 1986-1997- Ray Dexter 34. Lunch with the Wild Frontiers: A History of Britpop and Excess in 13½ Chapters- Phill Savidge 35. The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind- William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer 36. Frost in May- Antonia White 37. Lyra’s Oxford- Philip Pullman 38. Scrublands- Chris Hammer 39. A History of Loneliness- John Boyne 40. Here Comes the Clown: A Stumble Through Showbusiness- Dom Joly 41. Nickel and Dimed- Barbara Ehrenreich 42. Inside Broadmoor- Jonathan Levi & Emma French 43. The Bell Jar- Sylvia Plath 44. Doctor Sleep- Stephen King 45. The Lost World- Michael Crichton 46. The Catcher in the Rye- J.D. Salinger 47. Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?- Jeanette Winterson 48. The Perfect Child- Lucinda Berry 49. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets- J.K. Rowling 50. To Siri with Love- Judith Newman 51. Prognosis- Sarah Vallance 52. When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit- Judith Kerr 53. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban- J.K. Rowling 54. Another Forgotten Child- Cathy Glass 55. The Children Act- Ian McEwan 56. And the Ocean Was Our Sky- Patrick Ness 57. Harry Potter and the Cursed Child- J.K. Rowling, John Tiffany and Jack Thorne 58. In the City, by the Sea- Kamila Shamsie 59. Fleabag: The Special Edition- Phoebe Waller-Bridge 60. Winston Churchill: A Life from Beginning to End- Hourly History 61. The Rehearsal- Eleanor Catton 62. The Saddest Girl in the World- Cathy Glass 63. Sal- Mick Kitson 64. It’s Not About You- Tom Rath 65. The Nanny State Made Me- Stuart Maconie 66. Sonic Youth Slept on My Floor- Dave Haslam 67. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time- Mark Haddon 68. I Was Britpopped- Jenny Natasha & Tom Boniface-Webb 69. A Bit of a Stretch: The Diaries of a Prisoner- Chris Atkins 70. My Brother’s Name is Jessica- John Boyne 71. Unnatural Causes- Dr Richard Shepherd 72. Bookworm- Lucy Mangan 73. Innocent- Cathy Glass 74. Eye Can Write- Jonathan Bryan 75. The Covid Companion: 52 Ways to Be Happy in Isolation- Muzzammil Ali 76. Unknown Pleasures: Inside Joy Division- Peter Hook 77. Strangeways: A Prison Officer’s Story- Neil Samworth 78. Finding Stevie- Cathy Glass 79. Horn Life, or What’s Your Proper Job?- John Pigneguy 80. Keeping On Keeping On- Alan Bennett 81. Julius Caesar: A Life from Beginning to End- Hourly History 82. Fun Home- Alison Bechdel 83. Swallowdale- Arthur Ransome

These are my latest books:

84. Inside Charlie’s Chocolate Factory- Lucy Mangan This is a delightful publication covering many aspects of Dahl’s book, including tantalising glimpses of earlier drafts, illustrations from different editions and the front covers of many foreign language versions. The two films (1971’s ’Willy Wonka…’ and 2005’s ’Charlie…’) are discussed in detail, along with interesting information about the actors, including the children. Merchandise also gets a look in, along with the musical. My only slight criticism is that, in comparison to Bookworm it seems to lack a little of Mangan’s personal touch.

85. The Scream: The Music, Myths and Misbehaviour of Primal Scream- Kris Needs This is a riot, even though I have long since lost interest in most new music being released by Primal Scream. Written in the style of an NME article, it includes a great deal- perhaps too much- about the band’s rock ’n’ roll lifestyle.

86. The Men Who Stare at Goats- Jon Ronson Having previously read the book and seen the film, the Audible version didn’t hit the spot for me this time. I’m not sure why, as I usually love Ronson’s audiobooks.

53 Dead Cert by Dick Francis
Many thanks to whoever started off the Dick Francis revival on here - found this on the online library, and I raced through it & enjoyed it greatly. Just picked up another of the early ones from the library, though I might wait a little to read it & go for something else in between.

This Is Shakespeare by Emma Smith. I picked this up based on very favourable reviews. It is certainly an excellent whistle-stop tour of a number of Shakespeare's works and het thoughts on them. I found the chapters on the plays I particularly like (Macbeth, King Lear and Antony and Cleopatra) the most illuminating and skimmed some others but I like her tone and style and she is an impressive scholar.

If you like, appreciate, want to know more about, or teach, Shakespeare plays, pick this book up! Its title is a little misleading : the subtitle How To read the World's Greatest Playwright is perhaps more helpful.

49. Father, Son and a Return to the Pennine Way, Mark Richards
More poorly-written hiking exploits.

50. Diary of a Somebody, Brian Bilston
Comic novel in diary form: man experiences mid-life banality and writes light verse. The obvious comparison is Adrian Mole. It has some decent jokes and I liked it.

51. The Last Policeman, by Ben H Winters
An asteroid is due to hit the earth. Most people have given up caring about work. One police detective still cares - was an apparent suicide really a murder? How much does it even matter and does his determination to pursue it do more harm than good? I was gripped by this - it shows how genre fiction can ask profound questions. It's the first in a trilogy, and I immediately downloaded the next.

Wrt the recent discussion of Lord of The Flies fascinating article in today’s Guardian
www.theguardian.com/books/2020/may/09/the-real-lord-of-the-flies-what-happened-when-six-boys-were-shipwrecked-for-15-months

Oh thanks best I saw that earlier and meant to go back and read it then forgot.

Well that brought the tears. How marvellous

Franz, I can usually rely on you to have excellent taste when it comes to rock memoirs so will put The Scream on my list. Very happy memories of seeing them live when their music was good (like you I am not so interested in their new stuff). I miss live gigs so much. Had the Pet Shop Boys, Stormzy, Nick Cave and Grace Jones lined up for this year, plus two festivals.

26. Hamnet - MaggieO’Farrell

I read this because of previous reviews on here and had not read anything by Maggie O’Farrell before. This is the fictionalised account of William Shakespeare’s marriage and the death of his son Hamnet/Hamlet. The story focuses on Shakespeare’s wife, Agnes, who is a healer and quite eccentric. Shakespeare himself is a minor, often absent, part of the story. I really enjoyed this and found the moving backwards and forwards worked really well as one came to know more about Agnes as she struggled to nurse her ill children. I thought there were some beautiful descriptive passages and the family relationships and grief were depicted very well. A winner for me.

I've only just narrowly avoided a fight on Twiter, as a result of that article. I managed to do my best Kenny Rogers and walk away from trouble when l could.

It doesn’t mean you’re weak if you turn the other cheek... but, how?!

I've actully never read Lord Of The Flies

As "classics" go is it a must ?

That's a lovely article Best. What was the argument Remus, or shouldn't we ask?