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?

I'm also especially grateful for the MacNiece recommendation, I didn't know of it.

Massive fan of his poetry and strongly recommend beginners get a selected works

Here is Meeting Point

www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/91396/meeting-point

Boiledegg no I haven't read it, I had it out from the library but had to give it back before I got round to it, and then didn't follow it up. I saw something about the Siena book on the LRB blog, I think, and it sounded like my kind of thing. But I will follow his other work up again! And thanks for the HD info. will look out for it.

Eine thanks for the link to the poem, the journal is much more conversational/direct in style but still lots of strong images. Now I'm casting around to find something else that grabs my attention, I've started at least four other books but put them all down again.

Olly, short but good reads, page number
*Holes 233 pages
84 Charing Cross Road 97 pages
Skellig 208 pages
I Am, I Am, I Am 304 pages
We Have Always Lived In The Castle 146 pages
All Quiet On The Western Front 296 pages
The World I Fell Out Of 336 pages
Heartburn 179 pages

Apologies for that badly formatted post! The typed reply disappeared so only the post button was showing, but having looked up the page numbers for the books on Goodreads I posted anyway!

Thank you for going to that trouble! So kind of you @DesdamonasHandkerchief

All added to my Goodreads list.

59. Quit like a Woman, Holly Glenn Whitaker
Picked this up on a 99p deal as I decided not to drink for a couple of weeks. This had some interesting points - liked the Big Tobacco / Big Alcohol comparison, and the women and alcohol strand had potential but didn't go anywhere much. It makes sense to focus on creating a life you don't want to escape from, and find new rituals to replace drinking rituals. It was very East Coast in its suggestions for those rituals - lots of sound baths, essential oils and esoteric forms of yoga.

24. The Flat Share by Beth O'Leary. The author is touted on the front as the new Jojo Moyes, and this is definitely chic lit, but with a very derivative style.
    Hero, in a caring profession (nurse) tall and 'gangly' with a crooked/lopsided smile, a mass of unruly dark hair and a controlling girlfriend.
    Heroine, and flat mate, is also tall with a mop of unruly red hair, clumsy, individual, 'kookie' dress sense with abusive ex. What could possibly go right.
    Cheap on the Audible daily deal, and picked up because of lots of positive reviews, but I should have known better. Told in alternating chapters by a male and female narrator, who largely did a good job with the material they had, but the heavily accented, whiney voice employed by the male narrator when ever he had spoken dialogue attributed to the female character (which bore no relation to the way the female narrator spoke her own chapters) was very jarring.

25. At Lady Molly's by Anthony Powell. More jolly japes with Nick Jenkins and his chums and in this fourth instalment everyone seems to be obsessed with marriage, engagements and elicit entanglements. I'm slipping into the rhythm of these books now and half the fun is reading the Wiki entry afterwards to see if I spotted the various characters who have been mentioned in earlier instalments and now rise to prominence.

You're very welcome Olly, I hope one or more of them hits the spot 😊

Olly, can I also propose any of Jilly Cooper’s earlier books (Harriet, Imogen, Octavia etc) or my favourite short read of the year so far, Christy Malry’s Own Double Entry by BS Johnson which is bonkers and hilarious and heartbreaking and not like anything I’ve ever read before.

@Sadik I used to love Mercedes Lackey too- and Marion Zimmer Bradley. I doubt they would stand a reread as well as the Dick Francis does.

33. All the Crooked Saints by Maggie Stiefvater I was disappointed by this after I loved The Raven Boys so much, but it isn't bad- it's written in that fake fable type way (like Neil Gaiman did in the Ocean at the end of the Lane) and which I don't love. Is there a proper word for that style, lovely English teacher types on this thread?! It's about magic and knowing yourself, and almost quite charming, but didnt quite work for me.

I have a lot of catching up to do!

31. Devotion by Louisa Young.

The third in the trilogy which began with My Dear I Wanted To Tell You
.. a chick-lit title for a book that is not chick-lit at all. It does include a love story but at the other extreme some gritty descriptions of the pioneering facial surgery following WWI and one character's struggle to come to terms with his altered face. I really liked it.

The second in the trilogy deals with the two couples' attempts to rescue/reinvent their relationships despite the aftermath of the war; one man being very altered physically while the other is struggling mentally.

This third book is quite different; the original characters play a lesser role and the focus is on the next generation. Much of it is set in Italy at the time of the rise of Fascism with the family relationships being explored against this background.

I've read many books set in Germany at this period but I this is the first I've come across set in Italy pre-WWII. Really interesting; the sense of the growing threat and the frustration of those who can see what's happening but cannot make others understand, is well portrayed.

Tanaqui I've tried one other of Maggie Stiefvater's books, and also wasn't taken.

JollyYellaHumberElla I felt very much the same as you about Small Angry Planet - I much preferred the second book in the series, A Closed and Common Orbit (which follows Lovelace's story), which has a great deal more plot :)

I really liked Christy Malry (one of those great read's that I'd never have come across without this thread - thanks again Pepe ). My suggestion for (very) short but charming would be The Pedant in the Kitchen by Julian Barnes

@OllyBJolly I'm late to your request for short, fun, non-fluffy reads but I couldn't pass up the opportunity to recommend Muriel Spark, if you haven't already read any of hers. I think The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, The Girls of Slender Means and A Far Cry from Kensington are her best.

Also The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers.

I really like short books.

16. Of Walking In Ice - Werner Herzog

A Backlisted recommendation and a short, odd but compelling book narrating the film-maker's journey on foot from Munich to Paris in the depths of winter to visit his mentor who he'd heard was dying, through small towns, dreadful weather, and breaking into houses and barns to sleep along the way. It's full of deadpan comic moments and dreamlike flights of fancy, and if you like This Kind Of Thing (which I do) then it's very enjoyable.

ollybjolly A Month in the Country is lovely, comic but surprisingly substantial and wistful and under 200 pages.

Oh yes I love Pedant good call sadik. Often think of it when I cook. “A handful? Well how big is his hand?!”

Very good short-list desdemona some crackers on there.

32. Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie.

The story of three British Muslim siblings whose father was a jihadi fighter, as well as a senior British Muslim politician and his son and how these people's lives intertwine and influence one another. It's described as a retelling of Antigone which I haven't read. I may do so now though.

The divided loyalties within the family and the theme of radicalisation are interestingly explored. As each of the main characters' stories is recounted our sympathies and understanding shift .. to some extent. It's cleverly done I think.

I haven't yet asked my Muslim relatives if they've read this but would be interested to hear what they thought and will seek out more of KS's books. An excellent read.

33. The Wisdom of Sally Red Shoes by Ruth Hogan

A lovely elderly neighbour lent me this. If books like A Man Called Ove and that Harold Fry one are your thing then this is in a similar mould. There are some poignant passages re losing a child, otherwise it's best described as whimsical. Not my usual sort of read.

34. Doctor Thorne by Anthony Trollope.

The third in the Barchester Towers series and my favourite so far, maybe because Frank, Mary and Dr Thorne are all such likeable characters, the rivalry between the various medics is entertaining .. and at the moment it's great to escape into the small town society that Trollope describes so well. Looking forward to the next in a few weeks - I'm spacing them out.

35. Big Sky by Kate Atkinson. When Will There Be Good News? is my favourite Jackson Brodie book, and it was good to meet Reggie again, and see that her adult character had developed convincingly from the 16 year old girl we met last time. I missed Dr Hunter though. A quick entertaining read.

36. Saving Missy by Beth Morrisey. Another "uplit" book, which I had to read for book group. Heart-warming whimsy which hopefully I'm done with for some time. I must pass it on to my neighbour asap.

Oh my goodness, I've missed so much since I last posted (about a month ago, I think)! I've just spent a mammoth amount of time catching up and am hugely grateful to all of you for your brilliant reviews and discussions. I've just bought another 5 books this evening, thanks to your persuasive charms (damn you).

As I am so behind, I'm going to dump my list so far into this thread and hope that I can return with some reviews before you've moved onto thread number 6.

1. Hall of Mirrors by Christopher Fowler
2. Festive Spirits by Kate Atkinson
3. The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher by Hilary Mantel
4. The Ghost Fields by Elly Griffiths
5. Angel With Two Faces by Nicola Upson
6. Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozie Adichie
7. The Road to Little Dribbling by Bill Bryson
8. The Woman in Blue by Elly Griffiths
9. The Chalk Pit by Elly Griffiths

10. The Crow Trap by Ann Cleeves 11. The Dark Angel by Elly Griffiths 12. Normal People by Sally Rooney 13. The Stone Circle by Elly Griffiths 14. The Herring Seller's Apprentice by L. C. Tyler 15. To Siri With Love by Judith Newman 16. The Screaming Staircase (Lockwood & Co) by Jonathan Stroud 17. 9th and 13th by Jonathan Coe 18. Literary Life by Posy Simmonds 19. Bach by Denis Arnold 20. The Constant Nymph by Margaret Kennedy 21. An American Marriage by Tayari Jones 22. Smallbone Deceased by Michael Gilbert 23. England's Finest by Christopher Fowler 24. How Not To Be A Boy by Robert Webb 25. The Quest for the Golden Hare by Bamber Gascoigne 26. Masquerade by Kit Williams 27. Vermeer to Eternity by Anthony Horowitz 28. Wine and Punishment by Sarah Fox 29. Back When We Were Grownups by Anne Tyler 30. True Love by Posy Simmonds 31. Airhead by Emily Maitlis 32. Grown Ups by Marian Keyes 33. The Porpoise by Mark Haddon 34. Annabel Scheme by Robin Sloan 35. The Mystery of Three Quarters by Sophie Hannah 36. Noble Savages by Sarah Watling 37. Coffin, Scarcely Used by Colin Watson 38. The Time Machine by H. G. Wells 39. Look Who's Back by Timur Vermes 40. Where Do Comedians Go When They Die? by Milton Jones 41. Mount! by Jilly Cooper 42. Love, Nina by Nina Stibbe 43. The Hoarder by Jess Kidd

I think the last book that I reviewed was number 28, on thread 3 .

Currently reading One More Croissant for the Road by Felicity Cloake and listening to The Golden Age of Murder by Martin Edwards. Having struggled to concentrate enough to read at all at the start of lockdown, I've now got slightly more into it but seem unable to settle down to much fiction .

24. The Stand Stephen King. This has taken me the whole of lockdown, not due to lack of enjoyment but mostly down to time. Much reviewed and loved on here. Stephen King is such a good storyteller and you can see his influence on subsequent dystopian novels. Such an epic tale.

Is it possible to find a book both too long and too short? I think it’s because the sections I enjoyed (first and last) I didn’t want to end but the middle felt bloated. I do think the book is of its time and things like the lack of diversity and inability to write a female character of depth wouldn’t wash now. My third King novel and the second in which I’ve found his descriptions of sexual violence problematic. Ultimately he might just be a bit too much of a macho Maine writer for me but if he could write female relationships with the nuance of the men in this book I’d get more from it.

There's something about the title The Wisdom of Sally Red Shoes which pushes my buttons and makes me want to throw the book out of the window.

@keith it makes me think of mummy bloggers with their ‘hot take’ on some social observation from ever day life. Although I have no idea what it’s actually about.

highlandcoo Many thanks for the Louisa Young review. I read and liked My Dear I Wanted to Tell You several years ago and didn't realise it was part of a trilogy. I will add to my (ever increasing) wish list.