50 Book Challenge 2020 Part Six

[southeastdweller]

Welcome to the sixth 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, the fourth one here and the fifth one here.

So, we're now almost half way through the year - how's the first half of the year gone for you, reading-wise?

@MegBusset I hope you and your son are both feeling much better. You must have been very anxious.
41 Machines Like Me Ian McEwan This story had so much potential but was less than the sum of its parts. The book is set in a parallel 1980's London , where some technological advances have arrived early and political events are significantly different These are imaginative and innovative but they have no real bearing on the characters or the narrative. The characterisation of the couple, Charlie and Miranda, didn't work as their actions and behaviour in the second part of the book seemed inconsistent with how they were written at the beginning. They weren't particularly realistic or engaging. The development of the character of the android raised some thought provoking questions and moral dilemmas but they weren't integrated into the story but described and discussed so I felt I was reading speeches rather than dialogue. I did admire the way it was written though.

65. Miss Austen,. Gill Hornby
Switches between an elderly Cassandra looking back at her life (liked this) and her reminiscences of her earlier life with Jane (taken from countless biographies and lightly fictionalized; a bit over-familiar). Hornby is no prose stylist, but overall it wasn't bad. I like the older Cassandra's wry admission that not all sisters are cut out for living together. My overall impression is a book that played it a bit safe and could have been more interesting in the hands of another writer.

*66. Is there still sex in the city? Candace Bushnell"
Just because you're nearly 60 doesn't stop you being a "girl" who longs to be chased by "boys". Lots of anecdotes of dubious veracity about "friends" and their success (or lack of it) with men. A bit incoherent - I wondered if she was slightly drunk when writing certain sections - but I read with a degree of residual affection. There's something touching about the innocent optimism that the next man you see could guarantee your happy ever after.

67. The Guest List, Lucy Foley
Guests gather on remote island for wedding. Stock character broods over dark secret; another stock character broods over another dark secret; repeat, repeat, repeat. Lights go out, a scream, blood. Which stock character was compelled by which dark secret to murder??? Complete paint-by-numbers, reliant on far too many coincidences, devoid of atmosphere or interesting characters. Why do books like this do so well?

Meg - I hope your son is making a good recovery. Very stressful for you.

41. AllThe Light We Cannot See - Anthony Doerr

I am probably rather behind everyone else in reading this as I seem to remember it cropping up on previous year’s threads.

The book switches between the stories of Marie-Laure (a young blind French girl) and Werner (a young German orphan) telling their stories before and during World War II. By 1944 they are 16 and 18 respectively and their stories converge. I really enjoyed this and there is also an excellent set of supporting characters. My only complaint would be that sometimes a section was very short before switching back to the other lead character which meant I didn’t have time to adjust/immerse myself in their story again. I would also have loved a happier ending....

Plodding on with A Theatre for Dreamers, by Polly Sansom.. I loved the Leonard and Marianne documentary that came out recently so expected to love this, but I'm finding it a plod. I just don't believe in the narrator. It's 1960, she's 17, brought up strictly, and she never has a qualm about sex with her boyfriend? Never a thought about pregnancy or whether she's doing it right or right to do it? She neatly transcribes the dialogue of older characters without any sense that ugh, they're old and boring, or missing out on subtext, or feeling self-conscious and tongue-tied and gauche? I just don't think the author has found the right voice to tell the story.

biblio I gave up Theatre for Dreamers and think you’ve nailed it. The voice isn’t quite right. The subject is right up my street but I could not get on with it and thought it was a waste of time sticking with it for me as I knew it would take me ages and knock me off my stride (I’m very protective of my stride in lockdown).

Timeforagandt I liked All the Light but the ending was awful I thought and stopped it being great. Didn’t have to be happy or neatly tied up - I think ending it after they opened the peaches would have been perfect for me.

I agree Satsuki if he had ended at that point I would have counted that as a happy ending. It’s almost as if he didn’t know how to end it and kept on writing until he gave up and it fizzled out.

Satsuki, you're right to be protective of your reading mojo. I feel I've been doing the reading equivalent of eating junk, and feel a bit nauseous and unsatisfied. At least the Dickens readalong has been meat and two veg.

The Porpoise by Mark Haddon is 99p on Kindle today, I'm tempted after reading the reviews on here.

All The Light We Cannot See appears to be some kind of nemesis for me, I have DNFd it at the same point 3 times, and can't really face it again.

It was during the period I really was struggling to read AT ALL though so I have been debating a One Last Chance as it is usually the sort of thing I eat up

Eine - where did you get to?

The orphanage. I think I got to where he was leaving, maybe, I remember something about a radio?? I know I wasn't far in. It just wouldn't stick.

Sometimes a storyline/character/style doesn’t gel. Sounds like you have given it a good crack - maybe just not the book for you!

I haven't yet read Theatre for Dreamers but was interested in the snippet that all of Cohen's words in the book are taken directly from his letters or other writings - they're all his real words.

I really struggled with All the Light We Cannot See I couldn’t quite work it out. Possibly I’d binged a few too many war stories at once which has proven problematic before. However, my entire book group loved it.

I wonder if it was something in the writing style as I remember struggling with About Grace too although very different subject matter and a long time ago.

I feel the same about Naomi Alderman. The Power and Disobedience should have loved both on paper but felt such a disconnect and I wonder if it’s something in the writing style that’s not bad but puts me off.

Totally agree about the ending of All the Light. For about 75% of it, it was right up there with my best reads of whatever year it was I read it, and then the ending plunged it right down. Agree that he should have stopped earlier and not tried to do too much.

I really loved All The Light I Cannot See. Must admit I can't remember the ending

@Palegreenstars

I've read both those Naomi Aldermans this year, and I know what you mean. The Power's lack of a real vision of the post Power landscape did not help it much and I felt I ought to have found Disobedience more profound then I did.

31. LOTE, Shola von Reinhold – Published by Jacaranda Books as part of its ‘20 in 20, Black Writers, British Voices’ project, this is the Glaswegian author’s debut novel. I read an interview where Reinhold said that the inspiration for this was a passage in Stephen Tennant’s biography that detailed an incident in the 1920s when he and Rex Whistler were students at the Slade School of Art, they burst into a room and gave a bouquet of white flowers to another student, a unnamed, unknown, mixed-race woman; Reinhold wondered who that woman might have been and what her life/work might have been like. In LOTE a young black, working-class woman Mathilda has escaped from her past into a world dominated by her obsessions or ‘transfixions’ mostly centred on the bright young things of the British 1920s, literary and artistic, social scene: Tennant, Edith Sitwell, Nancy Cunard, and a host of others. Mathilda bases part of herself on them, particularly her eccentric clothing and eccentric lifestyle. She volunteers in an archive where she unearths a photo of a young, black woman partying alongside some of Mathilda’s ‘transfixions’. But who was this young woman, whose name is given as Hermia Druitt? Mathilda tracks down an obscure study of black modernism which gives more details of the elusive Hermia, a Scottish Modernist artist. Mathilda’s fascination with Hermia takes her to a bizarre artists’ residency in a small European town, where it seems Druitt and other bright, young things were frequent visitors. This is the beginning of a literary mystery that also explores the erasure of black artists from mainstream narratives of art and heritage. All of that may make it sound like a very solemn novel but it’s suffused with a wonderful, dry humour and full of fascinating snippets of gossip and history. The fictional artists’ residency, which is peopled by drab earnest followers of an almost-incomprehensible theorist named Garreaux, is a particular source of rich comedy. I really enjoyed this one but I’m also fascinated by the culture of the 1920s, ‘negritude’ in Paris, the Bloomsbury set, the Harlem Renaissance, and Reinhold’s book engages with aspects of all of this history in a really accessible way, plus I found the send-up of academic culture/contemporary art hilarious and convincing. LOTE’s not without flaws, like a lot of debut novels it’s a little over-packed at times, it takes while to get going and it could probably be a bit shorter but even so found this a great read.

56. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by JK Rowling. Another audible listen. I powered through despite it being over 20 hours long and thoroughly enjoyed it.* Just started the next one so looking forward to five hours of Harry sulking and shouting. (5/5)*
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57. And the Rest is History by Jodi Taylor. The next book in the St Mary's Chronicles. It's been a while since I read my last St Mary's book after over indulging and it was just ok. I should have loved this, there was drama a-plenty and the historical events they visited were right up my street. The events leading up to the Norman Conquest are the period of history I've studied the most and they were definitely a highlight of the book, although there were a couple of little errors I spotted which was a bit jarring. I can't quite decide why I didn't like it that much, maybe it's that it feels like it's more of the same. I also found Max a bit irritating, how many times will she risk herself and others to see what's going on at a certain point in history, everything that goes wrong in this book is down to her irresponsibility. Also if I see "an historian" one more time I might scream! It's only an for a "h" word if you don't pronounce the "h". (3/5)*
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58.* Someone Out There by Catherine Hunt. Boring, predictable, terrible characters. God this was a steaming turd of a book.* Just in case it's not clear I hated it. (1/5)*

The Power definitely felt like dabbling with scifi without putting enough thought into consequences

68. A Theatre for Dreamers, by Polly Samson.
Finished it. It doesn't really improve. Keith, yes, the author does use Cohen's words, but it doesn't work particularly well. His words sound quite stiff and pompous, and the sly humour doesn't come across. A bit of a misfire all round.

90. The Accidental Tourist by Anne Tyler

In the wake of tragedy Sarah leaves her husband Macon. Macon then goes on a journey of self discovery.

I mean, if you've read Anne Tyler you know the deal. Meandering plot that doesn't particularly go anywhere, good human observations, family dysfunction.

I'd say she is either your bag or she isn't, this is the 3rd of hers I have read (after Patchwork Planet and A Spool Of Blue Thread) and I have to say I haven't made a final verdict either way.

52. The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker

This retells the story of the Iliad from the viewpoint of Briseis, a Trojan queen captured by the Greeks and given to Achilles as his prize.

This was very good, although the subject does make for difficult reading in places.

53. Early Riser by Jasper Fforde

This is set in an alternate, colder, Wales where most people hibernate in the winter.
Charlie Worthing is ready for his first season with the Winter Consuls, whose job is to ensure the safety of the sleepers. And eager to investigate the rumours of an outbreak of lethal viral dreams...

This was very enjoyable. Fforde’s books can be a bit hit and miss for me but this was one of his better ones IMO.

54. Friend Request by Laura Marshall

Louise gets a friend request on Facebook from Maria, a girl who was last seen more than 25 years ago. Louise blamed herself for Maria’s disappearance, so is very surprised and unnerved to see the request. Can it be Maria, or is it someone trying to avenge her?

This is one of those thrillers that’s an easy enough read, but that’s ultimately not particularly memorable.

55. A Stranger in the House by Shari Lapena

Another one of those unmemorable thrillers.
This one opens with a housewife fleeing the scene of a murder, before crashing her car and losing her memory. Is she a murderer or isn’t she? (And do we really care?)

56. The Little White Horse by Elizabeth Goudge

A children’s classic about a girl (Maria) who must restore peace and happiness to the valley of Moonacre.

A nice cosy undemanding read with a happy ending.

And in library news, some of the libraries in my county will be opening from Monday with a click and collect service.
No browsing allowed, only picking books up in appointed time slots.