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 read & reviewed Another Day on here (back in 2017 looking at my spreadsheet), but not sure if I was first!

I'm evidently in super-grumpy mode & have DNFed a string of books now. I gave up on Bill Bryson's The Lost Continent at 20% - I've disliked everything of his I've read, but wondered if one of his earlier books might suit me better. Sadly it's still him trading in lazy stereotypes & looking down on people as far as I can see (if he can't understand an accent, it's evidently that the speaker is stupid, having a farmers' tan makes you stupid, living in a small town - you must be stupid).
I also gave up on The Tent, the Bucket and Me about 30% in (didn't hate in the same way, but just a bit repetitive and not funny enough - it vaguely reminded me of Gwen and The Art of Tractor Maintenance which I did like a lot, but never quite got there), and (sorry) also gave up on Kick on audible (didn't like the narrator, might try again in book form).

I'm now reading The Living Fields by Jack Harlan which I've read at least twice before, and enjoying the fact that the author can both write, and has something to say! Also just started Mindf*uck (their asterisk) by the Cambridge Analytica whistleblower on Audible, and so far so good.

94. Written In History : Letters That Changed The World by Simon Sebag Montiefiore

Unless like me, you got this in the Kindle July Deals I would strongly urge you to steer well clear of it.

Absolute rip off even at the Deal Price. Flim Flam and lacking in substance, some of the "letters" featured barely constitute letters let alone "world changing" ones.

Often, the paragraphs that explain who sender and recipient were are 5 times longer than the letter featured. It is also very short.

That said, one/two of the letters were very affecting. One was the famous account of the Christmas Truce of WW1, the other an absolutely chilling, extremely upsetting last letter from a Jewish mother who had chosen to go to the gas chamber with her son after he was selected due to disability. That was a letter that despite its brevity spoke universes. It is a letter worth reading but could possibly be found online.

That aside,

If it had not been a Kindle it would have gone straight to charity. It is clearly designed as one of those Christmas Crap Money For Old Rope Books.

I think it might have been me reise. It was one of my best reads last year and I did quite a lengthy review on it.

Sadik, Mindf#ck (had to replace the asterisk otherwise it messes up MN's formatting) is excellent. One of my absolute standouts of last year. Not just important in understanding the extent of the political manipulation that has gone on (and VERY eye opening in terms of current news stories too) but also thought provoking in areas such as identity, tribalism, and what it takes to change people's minds about things.

70. The Woman in the Window, A J Finn
Read this to sneer at it, having read the New Yorker take-down, which accuses the author of being a liar and comes close to branding him a sociopath himself. Even worse, the article contends, his plotting is very derivative. And so it is, but the book isn't that bad, overall. Woman sees murder from her window, or did she? Nobody will believe her. Is she now in danger? It's standard genre stuff, no better, no worse.

If anyone fancies a Dickens biography, The Mystery of Charles Dickens by A N Wilson is £1.99 today on kindle. Sample seemed good so I have bought.

The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro is 99p on kindle daily deals. I haven’t decided whether to get this yet. I’ve read the sample and was quite intrigued but there were also a few things that I could see would irritate me, plus reviews suggest it goes much more into fantasy than the sample does which doesn’t sound like my cup of tea. On the other hand, it’s only 99p. I’ve got so many books to read though, I really shouldn’t keep buying more just because they’re 99p! Has anyone read it? Without wanting to open up the endless debates, I really liked Never Let Me Go but haven’t got on with most of the others of his I’ve tried so that’s probably my answer right there!

71. Reading the Decades, John Sutherland. A survey of bestsellers from each decade, 1059s to 1990s. Fittingly picked up in a second-hand bookshop, as it was like being in one with a knowledgeable person who drew attention to certain tattered old volumes and told you things about them.

It was a tie-in in with a 2002 TV series and it shows - superficial analysis (often no more than a sentence per book), poor fact-checking (errors in his summing up of The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy and the Adrian Mole books) and odd, unsupported statements (A Boy Called It was probably read mostly by men because they were tired off hearing about male violence against women and this 'levelled the score'? I don't think so). So it's not Sutherland's finest work. But seeing familiar old titles and book covers gave me a pure dopamine rush. My parents kept up with the ,70s zeitgeist, and we had the big hitters: The Ascent of Man, The Female Eunuch, Watership Down. And the books of my young adulthood are here too (hello, Bridget!)

And for the teachers on here: "Hornby had worked for some years as an English teacher, and retains the morose personality that often accompanies that job".

Thanks Chessie, have been eyeing up the Wilson book.

I hated The Buried Giant. He has a pet theory about what causes conflict which is ill-informed and flat-out wrong. I spent the last part hissing "That's not how humans work!" And you don't even have a particularly good time getting there.

Reading the decades starts in 1945, not 1059. That would have been quite a bit bigger.

Haha biblio how rude!! Morose,moi!?

I was disappointed by The Buried Giant and can't even claim to have understood it as much as Biblio. I GET that it's an allegory of how humans deal with genocides and other huge national trauma but I just read it as two unengaging people wandering about endlessly in a fog.

Thought you'd enjoy that quote, Piggy!

I hope I'm not getting into spoiler territory for The Buried Giant, but I took the allegory as being a fairly crude contention that if we collectively forgot the past, conflict would end. He is taking what politicians/war-leaders say at face value and failing to notice the struggle for resources going on underneath. If humans forgot all history, does he think we can't simply make something up to justify attacking that lot? A strange failure of imagination by a novelist.

Thanks, I’ll give The Buried Giant a miss!

I have also read The Buried Giant and found it deeply irritating (partly because of a repetitive term used). I enjoyed Never Let Me Go more.....

57. When She Woke by Hillary Jordan

This is set in a near-future USA where, as a cheaper alternative to prison, convicted criminals are released into the community as Chromes, with their skin dyed to identify their crime.

Hannah is a Red, convicted of murder after having an abortion. She’s refused to reveal the father’s identity to try and protect him. And now she has to live as an outcast in society.

This was very reminiscent of The Scarlet Letter, which I read years ago, and it left me with the impression that Jordan had been aiming at an updated version of that.

The book started strongly, well paced with convincing world building and believable characters. The last section of the book? Not so strong. Rushed and less plausible, with one particularly unconvincing sex scene.

Good to see another Bill Bryson refusenik, can't stand his stuff, also not sure about his politics.

The John Sutherland sounds really interesting Biblio love books about books. As for The Buried Giant gave up on it after a couple of chapters, sounds as if I made the right call. I find novels that over-simplify complex issues, in the way you describe Biblio, absolutely infuriating. I can see that where groups are following irredentist policies he may have a relevant point about the past and its impact but a tangential one at best!

I also disliked The Buried Giant. It felt contrived and too literal for something that should have been more subtle and implicit. I also much preferred Never Let Me Go

[quote BookWitch]**@BestIsWest* I'm also listening to 1927* on Audible. Not Bryson's best - have not laughed out loud yet at nearly 40% in, and yes to the endless baseball zzzz[/quote]
Unusually fo a Bryson book, I just couldn't get into 1927 despite having loved his earlier books. That was the kindle edition not audio though.

I do love Bryson but did struggle to maintain my interest in 1927. Great if you like and understand baseball!

Yeah piggy it was probably you, such a great recommendation, thanks x

I share the love for books about books, Eliot!

I actually do like baseball, have been to a few games and thoroughly enjoyed it, I often watch it on a Sunday morning with DH in season and I even own a Toronto Bluejays baseball cap. I’m still finding 1927 hard going.

Baseball in season, not DH.

Baseball in season, not DH

So very glad you clarified 😂😂

I prefer the original mental image.