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?

That's scary, "Chessie," hope he gets better soon.

Chessie What a worrying time. Sending my best wishes to you and your DH and hope he will be home soon.

Chessie, I mean. Or Cheesy, as autocorrect would prefer to call you.

Best and Chessie

Thanks all. I don’t object to being called Cheesy (I’ve been called worse in my time!)

Oh chessie that’s awful. Hope he’s home soon

to Best and Chessie

Best, I am so sorry to hear about your dad. And Chessie, I hope you have good news from the hospital soon.

mackerella, I did review it - I will see if I can find it. I loved Oman for the contrast between ancient and modern. And it’s beautiful and people there are gentle and welcoming - none of the glitz of other countries in the region. It has come such a long way since the 1960s when it had barely any paved road, so the pace of change has been stunningly fast. We weren’t there for nearly long enough to get a good sense of it and it was a holiday after a somewhat trying time so we lay on the beach a lot, rather than doing enormous amounts of sightseeing. But we saw some of Muscat and the desert; enough to go back in a heartbeat.

Here it is. I’m not sure it’s a very enlightening review, all things considered.

84 Celestial Bodies by Jokha Alharthi
My sister's choice for July's book in translation. It's an Omani novel about an extended family living through the massive changes in Omani society over several decades. Oman's a beautiful and fascinating place and has undergone the most extraordinary changes - in 1970, it had a two electricity generators, two hospitals, three private schools, and six miles of paved roads, and slavery was legal. I thought this story, which is understated and elegant, was wonderful. I would have liked more about the three sisters at the centre of the novel but that is a small complaint.

Best so sorry to hear about your dad. Hope your daughter has a swift recovery.

Chessie hope he's on the mend and wishing him a speedy recovery.

for Best and Chessie x

Chessie - wishing him a very speedy recovery. x

both x

for you both, Chessie and Best. Hope your DH and DD are doing ok now.

Thanks for sharing the review again, Pepe. As you say, it isn't glitzy like other countries in the region - I think I'd always lazily assumed it was all vulgar and hyper-modern like Dubai or elsewhere in the UAE, but it sounds as if it isn't at all.

And I agree that I'd have liked to have heard more about the sisters, especially Asma!

It has malls and five star hotels but there are no skyscrapers or amusement parks. Muscat is gleaming and new but rather charming. I don’t think it is a human rights paradise by any means but it is more progressive than a lot of its neighbours.

for Best and Chessie.

Best, I'm so sorry to hear about your Dad. And how stressful for all this to be happening at the same time - I wish your daughter a speedy recovery.

Chessie I hope your Dad is home and feeling better soon.

God I hate 2020!

Chessie hope your DH is on the mend and thanks everyone for the flowers etc.

Have bought both the Croissants and the RS Thomas (on offer at £1.49 today).

Just noticed that Hamnet is 99p today - I missed it last time it was reduced so have grabbed it this time.

44. 'A Fine Balance' - Rohinton Mistry

I know that there are people on here that said that they couldn't cope with the misery or that it was overlong so this may not be to everyone's taste. My brief review as follows:

Even the relentless misery and heart-breaking plunge into despair at the end, was not enough for me to not love this book. A sweeping tale set in an unnamed city in India during the state of ‘Emergency’ that occurred in the mid 70s, brings four unlikely characters, from very different backgrounds, together. Their spirit, growing friendship and optimism - together with their backstories - kept me hoping for better things for them. I completely fell for the lead characters who are beautifully drawn, and I was rooting for them throughout. There is humour, love and a history lesson sat alongside acts of appalling atrocity that are delivered quite as a matter of fact, and I went from genuine chuckling to a lump in throat, more than once.

I listened on Audible and the narration was truly excellent. Would recommend.

72 The Living Fields by Jack Harlan

Very readable exploration of the likely origins of our major agricultural crops, and the transition from hunter gatherer lifestyles towards farming. It falls somewhat in between popular science & a more academic approach, but still perfectly readable if (as in my case) you don't run even to O level biology. There's also lots of very entertaining anecdotes about the author's plant collecting travels (the benefits of travelling by bullock cart include being able to spot an interesting specimen, jump out, collect a sample, and easily catch up without having to break a sweat).

for best and chessie

10. Miss Peregrine’s home for peculiar children by Ranson Riggs

Will say I actually put off reading this for a while after the cover creeped me a bit. Also I refused to touch Harry Potter with a barge pole till I was 10

Jacob’s grandfather had grown up in Britain just before WW2 and would tell Jacob and his father stories off his childhood. As he grew older Jacob stopped believing these. After the death of his grandfather and “seeing monsters”, on the advice of his psychiatrist he goes to the place where his grandfather grew up. As time goes on secrets unravel and the truth is revealed.

At first I was finding some parts slightly creepy, as the story us told by a mixture of Jacob’s POV and photographs. Planning to read the sequel as the ending was rather and interested on what happens to the characters

Thanks for the heads up @noodlezoodle Hamnet has been on my wish list for a while.

Best - I'm so sorry about your dad. May he rest in peace and light I hope your DD recovers quickly.

Chessie - I hope your DH feels better soon

@bibliomania

Is it wrong to want to make "well-meaning neurotics and perverts" the title of our next thread?

Why not ? 😜