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?

Meg, I’m rarely disappointed by Backlisted recommendations so have been toying with this too but really don’t think I should be adding new books to my list when it is so long. I’m torn. Maybe I should listen to the podcast and then take a view. Particularly as “brutal” is what I am trying to avoid at the moment, after My Dark Vanessa.

I have The Inheritors TBR. 🤔 I'm not really a podcast person my only exception is Kermode and Mayo, are the presenters of Backlisted easy to listen to and not too gratey or in jokey?

Given up on or never got into so many pods.

You can keep your sardines Best. I buy obscene amounts of fish/meat paste, but it's for the dog and I always make a point of saying so at the till.
Pepe St Clare's is nothing but midnight feasts, practically one a term.
There was a big push to modernise EB books a while ago, the new prints of The Faraway Tree series have renamed the kids Rick and Franny instead of Dick and Fanny and some old terminology got taken out. I'd rather they left them alone, but do understand the change of names.

Really enjoying the chat on Vanessa. I really rated it at the time, but it feels like eons ago that I read it (mid-April). I quite liked the inconsistency of her feelings, as if she knew but couldn't always admit it to herself. It's not a patch on Lolita but then very little is. I had it pegged as one of my top reads of the year, but a lot of others have really overshadowed it since for quality. A lot of big hitters out there this year.

I've had a real reading/ anything slump in the past few weeks. I'm bloody fed up! I have managed to listen to a few but I can't settle with a print book at all.

126. Days Without End – Sebastian Barry Follows a young man and his friend who have fled to America to escape the potato famine. Finding little else to do, they join the US army and fight in the Indian Wars and the Civil War. They take in a Sioux orphan along the way.

This was beautifully written in places and very atmospheric. I liked a change of scene as I haven't read much set in this time/place.

127. A Thousand Moons – Sebastian Barry Picks up from Days Without End but instead changes narrator to the Sioux orphan, now a teenager. Looks at life in the wake of the Civil War and the fate of people still not considered as citizens or even human and worthy of protection under the law.

This felt like it was written by a different author and for me didn't have any of the lyrical language of the first. While it was an important topic, it felt quite laboured and ultimately I was a bit bored by it.

128. The Grove of the Caesars (Flavia Albia #8) – Lindsey Davis
     Roman private detective series. Great for a bit of mindless entertainment.

129. The Bookseller’s Tale (Oxford Medieval #1) - Ann Swinfen
     Medieval murder mystery. Again a bit of mindless entertainment, but I liked this a lot and want to read the rest of the series. I've started a few in this vein recently and haven't been that taken with them.

It's the only podcast I listen to TBH, not in jokey or grating at all imo. Just intelligent but accessible chat about really good books. I have picked up so many fantastic recommendations from them.

I will have a shufty Meg

Heads up that the popular Once Upon A River by Diane Setterfield is 99p today.,

Been away from the thread due to studying so it's been lovely to catch up. Delighted that so many people are rediscovering MT and SC. I adored Blyton as a girl. I seem to recall that I read SC first so maybe that's why I don't compare them unfavourably. I tried reading MT to my daughter and, frankly, she could not have been less engaged!

I've just finished the audiobook of The Man Who Didn't Call by Rosie Walsh. This is yet another in the 'wanted to like it more than I did' pile. I liked the characters, and the premise, but it just descended too rapidly into width-washy storytelling for me. Despite the twist (which was woefully underplayed, like a slightly soggy firework) I came away from it shrugging slightly and not really caring about the outcomes. But it was an unchallenging read if you want something digestible.

'Width washy' should be 'wishy washy'!

I love Backlisted. Even when it is a book I gave up on after two pages (never going back to Under The Volcano despite their best efforts) or one I shall never read, it’s still engaging and informative. It is obviously great when they cover a book you’ve already read but certainly not essential. There’s usually about ten minutes of general book chat then they get into the discussion with the guests. Just a lovely sensible thought provoking chat. I avoid most book podcasts as the chat here is way better but make an exception for John and Andy.

I don’t listen to many podcasts but Backlisted is well worth a listen eine. Andy and John are intelligent and enthusiastic and the guests are wonderful; they’ve had authors, academics, people in publishing. They are lighthearted and funny but are always serious about the material and while they focus on one book they go all in on an author and their work, they play audio from interviews etc which is often quite special. I feel like it’s really broadened my knowledge of publishing history as well as expanding my reading list.

I've had a look and I'm REALLY surprised by how many featured I either haven't read or haven't heard of, really curious now.

Re podcasts, I really like A Good Read due to Harriet Gilbert's dry sense of humour and intelligent presentation, and I've picked up some excellent recommendations to add to the ever-increasing TBR pile.

Her World Book Club is great for flagging up less widely known authors too.

I hadn't heard of Backlisted but will definitely have a listen thanks.

I love Backlisted too. They had me at Bert Fegg's Nasty Book for Boys and Girls and it just got better from there, really. Even if I've read half the ones they mention, and I probably (certainly) won't read the other half, the general book chat is just a joy.

Yes I sometimes know I won’t read a featured book but always enjoy the conversation anyway.

Coo I love A Good Read as well, and the one with Marielle Frostrup whatever that's called.

There’s also one called You’re Booked that is quite good, it’s an interview of a different writer talking through their bookshelves. I listen occasionally depending on who’s on it.

highlandcoo and Keith Have you tried A Good Read on Radio 4extra on Monday evenings at 6.30? They're older editions with Sue MacGregor in the chair and tend to be more serious, but I love Sue MacGregor!

Oh good tip, thank you Boiled Egg. I tend to download and listen while I run so will look out for older editions.

Hello everyone, I started this year/thread quite well reading-wise, then lockdown sent me into a funk that I couldn't get out of and could barely read anything - like a lot of you I think? So I've not been on the thread recently as I didn't have much to review.

Since I last posted when I was on book 12 I think, I've also read the Malory Towers and St Clare's books. I had some old MT books and bought some on Kindle. However the kindle versions were very recent and there was a note at the back saying that they'd actually reverted back to the original text - so old money etc. However the St Clare's books did have the "updated" language, meaning each girl had to donate a pound to Miss Theobald's birthday whip-round!! That would have been a fortune in those days. I'm glad they changed it back in MT, hopefully they'll do the same with St Clare's!

In the last few weeks, I've also read The Cazalet Chronicles (1-4) - I think if I include those that takes me to a paltry 16 books for the year so far (I don't feel I can really include the Enid Blytons - much like Adrian Mole when he counted up his book collection as I'd read them all so many times before!).

Anyway I absolutely loved the Cazalets, and raced through them, even though I couldn't bear most of the main characters. I mostly enjoyed the descriptions of preparations for the enormous family meals, - oh and the outfits .

I'm another fan of the Backlisted podcast - their episode on The Breaking Point (Daphne du Maurier) was excellent.

50. Castle in the Air by Diana Wynne Jones

This, according to the cover, is a sequel to Howl’s Moving Castle.

It’s actually more of an Arabian Nights themed story, largely focused on a romantic young carpet merchant (Abdullah) and his attempts to rescue the object of his affections (sultan’s daughter Flower-In-The-Night), with a fair dose of magical goings on added in.
Sophie, Howl and Calcifer are very much supporting characters.

It’s enjoyable enough for what it is - although I much preferred Howl’s Moving Castle - but it’s really stretching things to call it a sequel to Howl’s Moving Castle. It’d be more accurate to say “set in the same world as....”

51. The Invasion by Peadar O’Guilin

The Grey Land Book 2.

Set in a dystopian Ireland, where the Sidhe (nasty fairy folk) have cut Ireland off from the rest of the world, and are attempting to take it over.

Nessa narrowly survived the events of the first book, but ends up accused of treason and making deals with the Sidhe, and confined to a maximum security prison. And now, the sidhe are getting ready to invade. Things aren’t looking good.

79. Long Walk To Freedom by Nelson Mandela (Audible)

After the success of Alexander Hamilton on Audible, I found myself thinking "What else have I wanted to read but have been put off by size?"

This came immediately to mind. I had always wanted to read it, but I really struggle with unwieldy paperbacks and LWTF is an absolute doorstop.

I was surprised by how snappy it actually is with succinct short chapters running from Madiba's birth in 1918 through to his election as President of South Africa in 1994.

I was 9 when he was released from prison and yet still remember the footage well.

I was surprised by how much of the story I actually knew, whether this is from interviews, documentary or popular culture I'm not sure.

Like Michelle Obama's autobiography there is "public face" going on, he offers nothing but praise of Winnie for example even though their marriage had irretrievably broken down. I also thought that though he acknowledged the price his children paid, he didn't really understand it beyond a surface level. The wider cause being all consuming.

Also the internal politics of the 1950's ANC wasn't really gripping.

But his fortitude in the face of the awfulness of his long term imprisonment can only be admired. Some of the things they did to the men as prisoners, apparently for sport are so petty and humiliating, it strikes you as feeling like its from another time not the 20th Century

Though injustice still reigns throughout the globe I don't feel we will never see his like again, and his story serves as a story of hope for all those facing government oppression for their cause or political view.

Note on the Audible : Michael Boatman reads this so well there were times I forgot it wasn't Mandela but it was obviously recorded before the technology had advanced too far and they had to split it into 2 halves due to size. This meant I had to use up 2 credits not one, but it was worth it.

Well that's the worst possible typo

I don't feel we will EVER see his like again.

62. Requiem for a Wren, Nevil Shute

Loved this. In the aftermath of WWII, the narrator unravels the story of one woman's experience of war and the impossibility of adjusting again afterwards. 75 years after it was published, it still feels new and fresh for a man to describe his admiration for a woman's competence and physical strength rather than her looks.

Here is some good news. Kazuo Oshiguro of Never Let Me Go fame is about to publish another SF book about an artificial being called Klara who longs to find a human owner. Get ready for years of fun on 50-Book threads

37. A Thousand Ships - Natalie Haynes

Having recently read and enjoyed Circe, this seemed like a good choice as it covers the fall of Troy from the perspective of women. The story is told by lots of different women including the former queen of Troy, Hecabe, and her daughters, the wives of some of the key Greeks (such as Odysseus and Agamemnon) and a number of others. I liked the premise and generally enjoyed it but I think it would have been better with fewer voices/storylines. Some characters/narrators appeared only briefly - admittedly because they then died - so I didn’t really engage with them. Loved Penelope’s letters to her errant husband, Odysseus but, for me, Circe was the better read.

cote He’s doing this on purpose! It might need its own thread.