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?

We’ve enjoyed a few visits to Wigtown too, it’s a lovely place for book lovers to visit if you’re in the area.

And I hadn't really thought of it as remote either highlandcoo!

I can't remember what number I'm up to but this is my most recent read:

Motherwell - Deborah Orr. The memoir from the late journalist, this mainly covers her childhood (too much of it and this part needed a good edit) and her more interesting adolescence growing up near Glasgow with a narcissistic parents. She writes well on the whole but the near constant narcissistic attributions felt tiresome and rather simplistic. An OK read for 99p on Kindle Daily Deal but not something I'd ever re-read and I've already deleted it from my Kindle.

highland I’ve earmarked Wigtown on my list of bookish places to visit - being able to play shop sounds lovely.

I’ve got The Friendly Ones on my Kindle shall have to get round to it. Very little time to read at the moment but youngest has had a reading breakthrough during lockdown so I’m managing to convince them to sit still for half an hour group reading after lunch!

I remember enjoying The Northern Clemency too, highland. I do really think that any issues with The Friendly Ones are mine, not Hensher's. Just a case of the wrong book at the wrong time.

Just a quick review as it’s a children’s one - I read Millionsas my son was reading it and it was a delightful eccentric funny book for children of around 9/10. It had lots of interesting facts and a moral dilemma that was dealt with amusingly and I learned some things about Saints. Death of a parent early on, but led to a very touching ending. Entertaining but intelligent.

Pepe, it's really interesting to read Oranges are not the only fruit alongside the same author's Why be happy when you could be normal?. She revisits much of the same material without the magic realism and shows how she use the process of fictionalization and humour to make her own life story easier to bear. I found it very thought-provoking.

I would love to go to Wigtown sometime although not sure when as I live completely the opposite end of the U.K. Also not sure DH would let me go there. We’re going up to Shropshire later this year and I suggested stopping at Hay on Wye on the way up. He looked a bit nervous at the thought of the dent in the bank balance that might occur although given the amount I’ve saved on commuting lately he can’t really complain.

Eliot Thanks for the review of Spam Tomorrow - I've been dithering over this and only held out because I felt I'd almost single-handedly kept Furrowed Middlebrow going during lockdown. I can see resistance is useless so will duly buy it.

Thanks Keith thought it was a beautifully-crafted book, it won several prizes in France, the author is French-Korean and originally wrote this in French, although unlike her main character she grew up in France I believe. And it does explore issues of identity, belonging and so on… The term ‘enigmatic’ comes up in a number of the reviews I’ve read of this one, and that’s actually quite a fair assessment. And some people have compared it to late-stage Marguerite Duras but it’s not quite as abstract, but I like the later Duras…

BTW the Boakye was already on my tbr list, but your championing it has made me bump it up my far-too-long list…

Terpsichore Spam Tomorrow didn’t instantly engage me unlike Monica Dickens’s One Pair of Hands for example, possibly because there’s a slight detour while Anderson fills in her family background, but then it totally captured my attention. From what I’ve seen Anderson’s book is used a lot in research on WW2 domestic life and I can see why, I got such a strong impression of what everyday life was like for her and her family. And although she does have a ‘jolly hockey sticks’ can-do attitude she’s not insensitive or oblivious to what’s going on around her. Although there was a point, after her zillionth move, that I wanted to stop her making any more curtains, they seemed to be physical harbingers of certain doom as far as housing was concerned. Also, despite all the privations and anxieties, there’s a lot of gentle humour and I found it a curiously upbeat read. But it does contain references to illness, pneumonia etc…so anyone avoiding that kind of material at the moment might find that a problem?

Are there any particular Furrowed Middlebrow titles you recommend?

Meant to say One Pair of Feet, although loved One Pair of Hands too!

If it's any consolation as soon as I finished the Anderson, went online and ordered two more of their titles, so that's two of us keeping them going at least!

Eliot Yes, I really like One Pair of Hands and Feet as well. MD's autobiography is good too, if you haven't come across that?

Of the Furrowed Middlebrows, I particularly liked Carola Oman's Nothing to Report and Somewhere in England - and I also enjoyed Barbara Noble's The House Opposite, although tbh the novel by her that I absolutely love (as I've banged on about before on here) is Doreen, which is a Persephone book.

Most of the others are on my tbr pile though I did start Table Two by Marjorie Wilenski (Barbara Pym mentions reading this in one of her wartime diaries) and had to break off because I had so much else to read to deadlines.

Oh, and I bought Monica Tindall's The Late Mrs Prioleau after Gillian Tindall mentioned it in her memoir (Monica T was her aunt). Errrrm and I have a lot a few more as well

Thanks Terpsichore that’s brilliant, and haven’t read Dickens’s actual autobiography so will track it down: apart from the children’s books in my pony phase, I’ve read the two I mentioned, picked up her journalist one in a charity shop so on pile; loved Mariana and was less keen on The Winds of Heaven. I haven’t read Doreen either so will chase that down too. I had a great run of Persephone titles then hit a few duds so paused…

Have you read House-Bound by Winifred Peck also a wartime title? I thought that was a decent read; in a similar vein as far as gentle humour about everyday life but in the 20s On Greenery Street and also Miss Buncle’s Book which is wonderful on village life; the Vere Hodgson diary is interesting but not as entertaining as Dickens or Anderson, imo.

And I will now go and use your list to browse more Furrowed Middlebrow. Although I’ve exceeded my book allowance for this month and part of next! Pym’s diaries sound very tempting too but I’m dipping into Sylvia Townsend-Warner’s at the moment as well as Tove Jansson’s letters – both good bedtime reading…

Like @Palegreenstars my latest completed book is The Only Plane in the Sky: The Oral History of 9/11 by Garett Graff

The sections on the president’s movements and the military actions weren’t for me either. It was also difficult to keep track of who people were since chapters tend to alternate between several different people’s accounts.

But overall, a very interesting and moving book, especially the accounts from within the towers themselves.

eliotbliss I loved Mariana and also quite enjoyed The Happy Prisoner. It was different and a bit darker in tone but still quite good I thought. I got that cheap on Kindle though so don’t know if it’s a Persephone title. I will be looking for her bio terpsichore

42 Valentine by Elizabeth Wetmore. Described on the cover by Ann Patchett as "stunning" and I would agree with her . Told from the POV of several women this starts with the rape of a Mexican teenage girl and the repercussions on a small community in the West Texas oil fields in the mid 1970s. The writing and the description of the barren landscape are fabulous but it is a bleak and unsettling story , with violence,poverty death and misogyny as recurring themes with barely any redemption. Even though it is set over 40 years ago I think the roots of Trump's power are in communities such as the one portrayed.

It’s called An Open Book, Eliot and Satsuki - she tells a lot of amusing stories about her actual experiences as a cook and a nurse which went into the books. I also found her tales of her family fascinating - her grandfather was Charles Dickens’s youngest son, although, frustratingly, she was too young to really ask him anything about his parents.

I went through a big Monica Dickens phase once so I have a lot of her books kicking around - loved The Happy Prisoner and also The Listeners, which is about the Samaritans. That’s a bit later, though; The Fancy is earlier (1945) and a good wartime novel.

@Blackcountryexile good review. I picked up Valentine in a kindle sale mainly for the cover but it sounds really interesting.

@Kensal agreed some of the stories were just incredible.

I'd never heard of Furrowed Middlebrow - and now I've 'bought' A Footman for the Peacock (was just looking, but it's free on Kindle so it seemed rude not to) and no doubt about to add more to my TBR pile. Hmm.

68 The Rules of Contagion : Why Things Spread - and Why They Stop by Adam Kucharski
This was published in February, and I imagine has sold rather better than it might in other circumstances Perhaps unsurprisingly, it doesn't actually tell you a great deal more about pandemic flu transmission than we all know already (though I didn't know that measles is exceptionally infectious & has an R of around 20, meaning that over 95% of the population need to be vaccinated to prevent outbreaks). Apart from epidemic disease, the author uses the same principles to look at social media, panics, and other spreading events. Overall a good & interesting read, though the structure is a bit bitty, & I did have to go back & piece some parts together (very glad I had it in Kindle where it's easy to highlight sections) .

You've got me interested in Furrowed Middlebrow now. It looks just the right side of engaging without being too "women's fiction"-y, which in my book means overly concerned with exploring feelings and family dramas. There's a good blog called The Captive Reader (thecaptivereader.com/about/) which covers lots of mid-20th novels, amongst other things. There's a list of titles by date at thecaptivereader.com/about/reading-directory/book-reviews-by-year-of-publication/. The main page of the blog also has a regular feature called Library Lust which has lots of pretty pictures of reading rooms.

Thanks Terpsichore and Satsuki yes Mariana was excellent, and thanks for the heads-up on her other novels

Sadik, could Furrowed Middlebrow be catching?! The book on transmission sounds interesting, I think, iirc, a measles outbreak was the spur for Eula Biss’s On Immunity which is excellent, don’t know if you read it/liked it? After reading about people objecting to a possible Coronavirus vaccine, I’ve been thinking about rereading it, she’s really clear about how herd immunity works and I appreciated her exploration of people’s cultural understandings of illness and how that feeds anti-vaccination narratives.

Harlan will take a look, thanks.

That blog is totally up my street, *Harlan."

Speaking of contagion, I also bought Spam Tomorrow.. I also like Monica Dickens.

I bought it too. And about four other things might have accidentally fallen into my basket, but at least one of them was free - thanks for the heads up about A Footman for the Peacock, Sadik!

Have also got Peacock - show me a bandwagon, and I'll jump on it.