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?

That’s what happened to mine Satsuki. In the end I was having to reboot 2 or 3 times an hour and sometimes it would take a day or so to work again.

Thank you for the new thread. Just transferring my list over below.

1.The Dilemma - B A Paris 
<strong>2.Dangerous Crossing - Rachel Rhys</strong>
3.The Testaments - Margaret Atwood
4.A Wedding in December - Anita Shreve 
5.The Other You - J S Monroe 
<strong>6.To The Lions - Holly Watt</strong>
7.Here to Stay - Mark Edwards 
8.The Bigamist - Mary Turner Thomson
9.The Other Wife - Claire McGowan 
10.Finding Cupid - Bridget E Baker
11.All the Rage - Cara Hunter 
12.The Donor - Clare Mackintosh 
13.Who Did You Tell - Lesley Kara
14.I Wanted You to Know - Laura Pearson 
<strong>15.The Recovery of Rose Gold - Stephanie Wrobel</strong>
16.I Did It For Us - Alison Bruce
17.Half a World Away - Mike Gayle
18.The Suspect - Fiona Barton
19.War Doctor - David Nott
20.Tell Me Your Secret - Dorothy Koomson
<strong>21.My Dark Vanessa - Kate Elizabeth Russell</strong>
22.In Safe Hands - J P Carter 
23.Anything You Do Say - Gillian McAllister
24.The Flatshare - Beth O'Leary
25.Keeper - Jessica Moor
26.Blood Orange - Harriet Tyce 
<strong>27.Where the Crawdads Sing - Delia Owens</strong>

I have to say I would never have picked up Where the Crawdads Sing if it wasn't for the Clare Mackintosh book club. I absolutely love this book club for getting me to read things I'd never consider when I can keep up!

On the subject of LOTF I read this for school and loved it but I'm sure I have it on my kindle for a re-read at some point.

Thanks everyone for responding re the kindle. I think I’ll get the cheapest one It’s out of stock anyway so no rush in purchasing. Thanks again.

bookwitch, I enjoyed listening to Juliette Stevenson narrating Middlemarch - a couple of years ago now but i still remember it as a good listen.

I have a Kindle Fire which has a cracked screen already despite me buying a nice cushioned cover for it I only bought it in the Black Friday sale so can't even justify a new one yet, despite using it all the time!

65. Hazel Holt - A Time To Die
66. Hazel Holt - No Cure For Death

Two of the Mrs Malory murder mysteries. I really like these - slow paced but still hold my attention - but are becoming ever harder to get hold of either at the library or via Amazon, for some reason.

67. Erin Morgenstern - The Night Circus

Much reviewed on here so I won't say much; I did enjoy it although would have been helpful to read it in larger chunks than I could manage! If I remember correctly though the sequel (The Starless Sea) was nowhere near as well reviewed...?!

104. Dept. of Speculation - Jenny Offill The portrait of a marriage from the perspective of the wife with shifting points of view as time goes by.

I loved Weather which I hope will win the Women's Prize this year. This is written in the same fragmented style in short snippets of information that you have to jigsaw back together. This is short but pacy and packs a lot in. It has been described as a 'literary scrapbook' and 'an x-ray of a novel'. The writing is meaningful with lots of snippets of wisdom thrown in that at times verges on being a bit wankily arty and yet works beautifully. I find her writing style fresh and interesting.

105. The Lesser Bohemians - Eimear McBride A stream of consciousness novel of a young woman who arrives from Ireland for drama school in London. She embarks on a relationship with a much older actor that will tear them both apart as they confront their difficult pasts with an uncomfortable present. A love story like no other.

I was blown away by A Girl is a Half Formed Thing last year and put it up there with my top ever reads. In this her second novel the author has perfected her style and again I am in awe. This is not writing, it is art. Her prose is poetic, lyrical, mesmerising. She plays with form in a way that draws comparisons with Joyce. I have listened to both books as audiobooks narrated by the author and I don't think anyone else could pull this off. It needs to be heard, her pace and cadence are hypnotising. It reads in places as almost performance poetry in which your brain is assaulted with a riot of words. She makes you do a lot of work to piece it together but the result is astounding. Her work won't be for everyone, it is not conventional writing and she is very unsqueamish in discussing sex, abuse etc but I love it. I don't think many writers could achieve this. I was admiring how good the Jenny Offill was but this outshines her by a mile and then some. Outstanding.

Sadly not a sequel @RubySlippers77 just her new novel.

Absolute tripe. Me and another poster agreed, can't remember who

I love The Night Circus as well

rubyslippers77 it might be worth contacting their customer support online if it’s within a year - they offered me 15% off a new device when I scratched mine and it was out of warranty so they may well give you a better offer or replacement if newer.

58. Nod by Adrian Barnes

Overnight, sleeplessness grips the Globe, a handful of people are spared whilst everyone else goes slowly insane, becoming zombies.

It gets off to such a good start but really doesn't fulfil its potential. In the end, there are 3 main characters and you start to wonder if Paul represents the author, Charles, an annoying mothers basement type who becomes an unlikely cult leader represents someone he hated in uni, and Tanya, the girlfriend who left him for Charles in uni.

Some of the depictions of Tanya are uncomfortable misogynistic and objectifying.
Several elements of plot are not fleshed out and so don't add up.

The author passed away not long after it was finished though. So slight guilt. It is at least fairly short. It had been on my Kindle for 4 years.

Persuasion by Jane Austen read by Nadia May on Audible

This is one of my all time favourites and most often reread books; I thought I’d reread it very recently but it turned out to be 4 years ago. I listened free on Audible stories website to help me get to sleep at night. It did the job so well I woke up frustrated at not having heard much so it took me a long time to get through. I really like Nadia May’s reading of it, competent and comforting, and I have never tired of Austen’s autumnal, wistful work, or Anne, who is her most thoughtful, intelligent and tough protagonist.

Fab reviews Fortuna. You appear to be on a roll.
I'll have what you're having

37: On the Plain of Snakes - Paul Theroux

I found this account of Theroux's travels in Mexico truly riveting. I have to admit I didn't know much about the country except for a bit about its history, and its modern-day reputation for horrific drug and corruption-related violence, carried out by rival cartels. Theroux writes about both of these (and the violence is stomach-churning, the danger to travellers a constant threat) while conducting his trip in sections: first, exploring along the border with the US - where Trump's bellowing about 'the wall' is exposed as the hypocritical humbug it is - then penetrating deeper into the south of the country where indigenous Mexicans subsist in poverty while clinging to their traditional rural lives (many still speak their native languages and a significant proportion of the population don't speak Spanish at all).

I know a lot of people have problems with Theroux's travel writing, and to some extent I share them, actually - but this book really gripped me, I have to say. Troubling and fascinating.

29The Nightingale Kirsten HannahAn elderly woman, now living in America, looks back on the experiences of her family in occupied France during the second world war. It would be difficult to write about this time in history without creating suspense and evoking the terror and anxiety felt by those who lived through it. In that respect this book succeeded but the constant Americanisms and overheated prose spoilt if for me. I didn't think that the author had any understanding of character of the French people. The last section, where all loose ends were tied up like a professionally wrapped parcel, was unbelievable.
30 One Enchanted Evening Anton Du Beke I feel like a penny whistle player turning up to audition for the Royal Philharmonic reviewing this here! However, if your aim is to write a feel good with a bit of menace story which is undemanding entertainment and aimed squarely at your fan base , this is the way to do it. He does credit his "writing collaborator" although not by name. This worked well for me as a book to wind down with at the end of the day. I'll be looking out for the sequel in the library when it opens .

Good review terpsichore I’ve never read any Theroux.

blackcountryexile all instruments welcome in this orchestra

Satsuki love your description of Persuasion; I’ve been thinking about re-reading it. I recently watched the Sally Hawkins’s version online, which I really enjoyed – although believe it’s a bit of a Marmite adaptation – and I was struck by how passionate and emotional the story was compared to other Austen works. I found the exploration of longing and loss particularly poignant. I don’t think I appreciated that aspect of the novel when I read it, but was in my teens at the time.

Agree that Persuasion is the most emotionally satisfying Austen.

Read Breaking and Mending, by Joanna Cannon. There have been quite a few medical memoirs in the last year or two. The standard has been high and this is no exception. She is honest about how inadequate she felt in her first rotations as a junior doctor and how badly she was treated by some. She finds her niche in psychiatry and becomes much happier. Nothing massively new but it's well done and I read it in one go.

younghillkang It is and the older I get the more I’ve realised Anne is more mature and misunderstood (even by the man who loves her) than I realised. She gets the Captain Wentworth she deserves in the end, one who has matured to meet her. I have to say I much prefer the earlier BBC adaptation with Amanda Root, but that came out not long after the first time I read it and I found it perfect and rewatch it often. I like Sally Hawkins though. I looked up the review I did on here the last time I read it to see what insights I had then and made myself laugh:

31. Persuasion by Jane Austen a re-read of a much re-read book, though not for a few years. I have a very poorly toddler with chicken pox so have been up all night and not feeling that well myself so felt in need of a favourite. I worried the horrors of the accident at Lyme might prove overpowering to my fragile state, but I showed remarkable forbearance, and was merely lightly thrilled by it.

I can't remember where, but I recently saw someone saying that anyone who claims that Persuasion is their favourite Austen (which it is mine and always has been) is just putting on a pretentious act because they don't want to admit loving P&P best. They were utterly convinced of this.

I feel like the world is divided into P&P-loving Mariannes and Persuasion-loving Elinors, both looking at each other with affectionate disdain 🙂

I might have once said P&P but can’t really choose between them - love them both and go back to each regularly. Persuasion is very rich but also has great comedic moments. I hate those kind of sweeping statements; we like what we like. I love it if I meet a fellow enthusiast of something I also love, but I like hearing anyone have enthusiasm for anything really.

Sense and Sensibility is my favourite, then Persuasion and then P&P.

I love Persuasion, but Pride & Prejudice is my favourite!

And my favourite Paul Theroux is Riding The Iron Rooster which is set in China. Really interesting.

Where Roses Fade by Andrew Taylor
Book 5 in the Lydmouth Crime series and the worst by a long way. Too slow to begin with, quite disjointed and then completely ridiculous at the end. Clumsy. I'll only buy the next one if it's £1.99 or less!

Remus, that made laugh - "It was awful and I'll only go back for more if it's cheap".

I read Persuasion again in January and just looked up my review:

Lovely.

It’s just so satisfying.

I've quite liked the other ones though, Biblio. And it wasn't completely awful - the middle was largely okay.