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?

I FOUND ALL THE BLOODY SHOUTING IN A Prayer For Owen Meany VERY IRRITATING.

I really enjoyed The Marriage Pact until the end which let it down.

I’m reading A Prayer for Owen Meany at the moment - not sure where I stand on it yet.....

Usually any fiction written in the continuous present is a no-no (pet hate, don't judge me, although there are notable exceptions eg H Mantel), and I find that weeds a fair number out

Why is writing in the present tense so prevalent now? I agree with Terpsichore; I really dislike it.

I guess we all have our preferences stylistically. When I worked in our local independent bookshop one elderly chap refused to read anything written in the first person. He'd sit in the cafe with a pile of possible books and check through them pushing aside all the first person narratives in disgust.

We did have a conversation about it; I was suggesting that he might be missing out on some good books. His view was that they were full of lies: "Listen to this: I was born in London on the first day of winter , well I wasn't, was I? I hid myself behind the door and listened to what my parents were discussing .. well I didn't do that either! Completely inaccurate."

I loved Owen Meaney when I read it as a nineteen year old. I re-read it a few years ago and I couldn't think why I liked it so much. Far prefer Cider House Rules.

I also agree with not returning Audibles that you have finished. I can't believe that they let you to be honest. It would be so easy for them to only let you return unfinished books - and so easy to check. I have really got into audiobooks in the last five years - long drives, dog walking - so many new windows of opportunity! The narrator really does make all the difference in the world though, poor readers can ruin a perfectly good book. I'm currently listening to 'A Fine Balance' by Rohinton Mistry and the narration is just brilliant, it's really bringing it alive. Will review when I'm done.

Owen bloody shouting Meaney. Drive me bonkers. Would have made a great novella though.

I listened to A Prayer for Owen Meany on Audible and didn't realise all of Owen's dialogue was in caps until I bought a copy to have on the shelf. The narrator did a distinctive voice for Owen, but it was more just high pitched rather than shouting

Interestingly, A Fine Balance annoyed me almost as much as Owen Meaney. Owen Meaney was too long and full of annoyingly endless shouting and annoying sex. A Fine Balance was too long and full of annoyingly endless misery.

@RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie. There are some awful parts in A Fine Balance - atrocities described so matter of factly. But I've also laughed out loud at some of the dialogue and some of the ridiculous but relatable characteristics of a few of the secondary characters. I'm enjoying so far.

34. Spam Tomorrow, Verily Anderson – A classic reprint from Furrowed Middlebrow. Verily Anderson was a journalist, jobbing writer and children’s author; well-known in literary circles, she was friends with Joyce Grenfall and John Betjeman but seems to have faded out of sight in recent years. This is her memoir of life during WW2 from her time as an ambulance driver through to her wedding and children. Took a short while to get absorbed in this, probably because it was such a stark contrast to my previous choice but then became totally invested in following Anderson’s experiences: her time in a horrendously harsh fever hospital staffed by deeply scary nurses; the minutiae of wartime life in London; being sent away to a resident home for mothers to prepare for birth - a whole month before her due date - giving birth in wartime. Anderson seems like a grown-up version of the kind of girl who crops up in boarding-school stories from the same period, game for anything, good-humoured, sensitive but tough, but instead of ducking lacrosse balls she’s dodging bombs and anxious about a possible invasion. Found this entertaining and surprisingly endearing, Anderson produced a succession of memoirs and if any get reprinted would definitely pick those up too.

I had to DNF A Fine Balance - actually could not cope with the misery of it

A Fine Balance is one of my favourite books. There are some grim episodes and it's heartbreaking towards the end but I really cared about all the main characters and found the way they refused to be defeated amazing.

I do seem to be running out of things from my reading list now . Been going through things quite quickly lately!

1. The trauma of everyday life - Mark Epstein

From reviews it definitely seems to be a bit of a marmite book. It focuses a lot on teachings of Buddha and I’m not religious however as dealing with a recent trauma I decided to read it.

Some of the advice in it has been rather good and I definitely feel as though it has given me a different perspective on trauma. Now I realise this may not be for everyone but I feel as though this book has somewhat helped me a bit

I loved Owen Meany but it was many years ago and I can remember very little. I heard the shouting as squeaking though.

I don't think Owen was supposed to shout, he just had an idiosyncratic way of speaking which was rendered BY MAKING HIM SPEAK IN CAPITALS. I can't remember a huge amount about the book except that the airport scene near the end was (to the younger me) so heart-stoppingly perfect as it came together that it established the book firmly in my favourites list. I'm not sure whether it would survive a re-read if I am honest.

A Fine Balance is wonderful though. Not going to re-read that either as I quite like having my heart in one piece instead of many tiny shattered ones.

Eliot thanks for a great review of Winter in Sochko, it sounds like a lovely atmospheric read.

A deleted message? We don't get many of them on here!

Spam I think, I’ve just seen the same on a gardening thread.

I always thought the CAPITALS were because he was squeaking and straining to make himself heard.

I loved Owen Meany when I read it as a teenager. I wonder what I would think of it now. In my head, the CAPITALS were definitely him shouting. And A Fine Balance is a truly wonderful book. I re-read it last year ( I don't re-read often as life is short) and was delighted that it was no less moving and memorable than I recalled.

56 The Friendly Ones by Philip Hensher
Two families live side by side in Sheffield, and the story jumps back and forth across their histories, bringing in the history of Bangladesh, 7/7 and a whole lot of period detail. I can see it was well done but I’m a little bored of big clever books by men. Now, with a couple of weeks between me and the last page, I would file it under "fine, but perfectly forgettable".

57 Patience by Toby Litt
Elliott is smart, and confined to a wheelchair by cerebral palsy in an orphanage run by nuns in 1979. Lacking stimulation, even a trip to a shopping centre is such a thrill that he vomits to make it last longer. When Jim arrives, he spots an opportunity for adventure, but how will he communicate with Jim who is blind and mute? This was gentle and funny and full of humanity, and very very good indeed. It is literary in the best way - the writing is an integral part of what makes the book but it never gets in the way by being too clever.

It's published by Galley Beggar Press who published Ducks, Newburyport which was my hands down favourite read of last year. They really do put out the most creative and inspiring fiction, and their Buddy scheme means you get copies of every book they publish (which in all honesty is not that many over the course of a year). What I love about the scheme is that I get to read things I wouldn't necessarily pick up, and I'm rarely disappointed - this being a case in point.

58 Three Hours by Rosamund Lupton
Someone (Chessie?) reviewed this a couple of days ago. I agree with her - it was tense and oddly moving in places but it never quite worked for me. School siege, set in the South West somewhere - the characters felt real and I was very caught up with their stories and the feeling of terror but the plot was overly complicated by the school geography that didn't make much sense to me. A map would have been really helpful.

59 The Plague by Albert Camus
Plague comes to Oran in North Africa in the 1950s. This is a slow and thoughtful read that examines how people as individuals and communities respond to threat. I dipped in and out of the French, where I think it works better as I wasn't convinced by my translation, but got caught up in the story and abandoned the French in the end as the constant checking of the dictionary was getting in the way. This is a classic for good reason, and although it's certainly philosophical, the story and characters are engaging enough that it doesn't feel overly literary.

This definitely marks the end of my 2020 plague fiction reading list, though. It has been a good way of reflecting on the weird scary craziness of the last four months, but it's time for a change of tack now.

60 Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson
This has been on my to read list for a long time. I'm not sure what I expected but I think perhaps it was something unashamedly realist, whereas this has a hefty dose of magic and fairy tales woven through it. Jeanette - not quite Jeanette Winterson, I don't think this is an autobiography - is adopted by evangelists and comes to terms with her attraction to a girl within the congregation in the face of strong disapproval from the congregation. I think this is one of those books that will grow on me over time. I wasn't really in the mood for the fairy tales, but the stories of Jeanette's childhood were great.

I really struggle with present tense I don’t find it enjoyable. Only exception is Mantel as she is doing something slightly different with it and it works for me somehow though I know it doesn’t for others.

That’s funny highlandcoo I worked in a bookshop once and an elderly man came in and we were instructed to tell customers about the sale and he replied “Books? I don’t need more bloody books!”

I used to think it an odd response but now I kind of get it

“Books? I don’t need more bloody books!” is going to be my new Twitter bio

Me too Satsuki

I have Shaun Bythell's Diary of a Bookseller , with more bookshop stories waiting to be read, although I think the grumpiness there is mostly on the bookseller's part.

I was amused to see Wigtown - where Shaun has his big rambling second-hand bookshop - described in Google as "a remote Scottish village". It's Scotland's best known book town and fairly near civilisation. We go there most summers and I'm still tempted by the opportunity to "borrow" one of the small bookshops one day. You stay on the premises and play at being the owner for a week. Even before lockdown it was booked up (!) for ages.

Pepe unlike you I really enjoyed The Friendly Ones. I also very much liked The Northern Clemency, again with Sheffield as the setting and following the intertwined lives of two families around the time of the miner's strike.

I learned a fair bit about Bangladesh's war of independence while reading The Friendly Ones. I have Bangladeshi relatives, and although they've talked a little about their experiences during partition and the subsequent war, I had no idea just what a bloodbath it had been

I have Scenes from Early Life by PS on my TBR pile and understand that it focuses on his husband Zamed Mahmood's experiences growing up in Bangladesh in the 70s. Should be interesting.