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?

Just catching up after a busy few days.

for Best and Chessie. Thinking of you both.

Slightly I agree about A Fine Balance. One of my favourite books and I didn't find it overwhelmingly bleak; my lasting impression was of the optimism and resilience of the characters despite unimaginably awful experiences.

Satsuki I would definitely be up for taking part in an Our Mutual Friend readalong. I've only read it once and many years ago. Don't remember many details but remember really enjoying it. And I do like the idea of a tbr pile being like a wine rack. Will be bringing that analogy out next time we discuss the teetering piles by the bed

Lol at the Sarah Moss hatred. I'm looking forwards to reading Night Waking now, just so I can review it at length and enjoy the rage it provokes .

Lovely to hear that you're back at work, Kensal.

I quite enjoyed Night Waking. It was a bit tedious in bits but then, looking after a toddler and a baby can be tedious. Interested in your take @mackerella

115. The Five- Hallie Rubenhold Unusually, I read the first half on the Kindle and listened to the second half on BorrowBox when it became available. Most 50 Bookers have already read this social history of the victims of Jack the Ripper. I agree that it was interesting to read something which focussed on their lives rather than their grisly deaths.

116. Magpie Lane- Lucy Atkins Thanks to those who recommended this, currently on the Kindle Monthly Deal. In general, I'm still struggling to concentrate when reading fiction, but this had me gripped. I felt that the author really understood Oxford, a place in which I lived for many years. I enjoyed the references to small cemeteries, back streets, and also the ways in which colleges treat outsiders.

117. Charlotte’s Web- E. B. White I listened to this on BorrowBox. I hadn’t read it for almost 40 years and had forgotten most of it- I kept expecting it to turn into Animal Farm. It is quite charming, but I didn’t particularly rate the narrator.

118. Forever- Judy Blume I hadn’t read this for well over 30 years, but found it on BorrowBox. Some passages (especially those involving ‘Ralph’) were much more familiar than others, as those were the ones my classmates and I (in an all-girls' school) had read out to each other numerous times! It was fun to revisit this.

119. The Body: A Guide for Occupants- Bill Bryson This was worth the long wait for the ebook to become available on BorrowBox. Almost every page contains fascinating facts about the human body, and I learnt a huge amount.

120. Hired- James Bloodworth I have previously enjoyed Hard Work by Polly Toynbee and Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich. This covers similar subject matter but is much more up-to-date, including Amazon and Uber as employers for whom the author worked. The time Bloodworth spent in an Amazon ‘fulfilment centre’ is particularly shocking. The whole book was pretty depressing to read in the current climate of the ‘gig economy’ and Covid-related job losses, but it is illuminating and important.

121. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince- J.K. Rowling I’m working my way through these on Audible, as read by the delightful Stephen Fry. The later books are incredibly long and I actually prefer it when Harry and his friends are just pottering along at Hogwarts, learning their wizarding craft and playing Quidditch. I find too much convoluted plot off-putting, but I'm sure that says more about my current state of mind than it does about J.K. Rowling’s skill as an author.

Our library is finally opening this week for click and collect only, though we do have self service desks. Fair enough but it won't let you request anything via the catalogue so I'll get a random assortment from any specified genre.... There's a request I was waiting for (new) that was being processed on March 11th so annoyingly it is still sitting downstairs somewhere. There are only 2 members of staff in and they got trained on the new system the day it started so I'm not blaming them!

Heart stopping moment when I tried to fix my iPad, made it worse, and for about half an hour lost my books when I am halfwayish through TTOD

This is the problem with eBooks

Really enjoying the RS Thomas biography. He seems throughly unpleasant.

Eine - the horror! Glad you got it sorted.

52. The Language of Kindness - Christie Watson (Audible)

Exploring her 20-year nursing career, this is genuinely heartbreaking at moments, as Watson tended to specialise in paediatric care. It gives an insider view of how scarily over-stretched the NHS is, and struck the right balance between personal and professional, sticking largely to the latter. (I've had enough of consultant surgeons in these sorts of memoirs telling me about their pilot's licences.)

However, I didn't 'enjoy' this as much as other recent medical memoirs, perhaps because Watson is so very earnest and keen to stress her 'kind' credentials. There was little to no humour in it, and while I wasn't expecting Adam Kay or a laugh a minute, all human life is touched by laughter as well as tragedy.

73 Tony Hogan Bought Me an Ice-cream Float Before He Stole My Ma by Kerry Hudson

Another excellent read - fingers crossed I seem to be on a bit of a roll. Also on kindle monthly deal (& well worth the 99p), this is the story of Janie Ryan, born into extreme poverty in Aberdeen, from birth until her late teens. This could too easily feel like poverty tourism, but it really doesn't - both Janie & her ma come across as flawed but compelling characters making a life in difficult circumstances.

58. The Naked God by Peter F Hamilton

This is the last book in the Night’s Dawn trilogy, and it is loooooong (over 1200 pages).

Difficult to say much about the plot without spoilers, but the premise of this science fiction trilogy is that souls of the dead have started possessing living hosts, and they’ve got energistic powers that make them very dangerous.
In this final instalment, there’s conflict between the possessed and the human governments that are desperately trying to stop the spread of the possessed.
It’s told through a number of different storylines, some rather too drawn out. So sort of swinging between very exciting bits, and longer bits where there’s not much going on, along with a bit of philosophical debate about the afterlife.

And then I got to the last few chapters, where the book basically ends with a massive great deus ex machina. There was some foreshadowing of this, so not a total surprise, but I really wasn’t expecting things to be wrapped up quite so easily. All a bit too neat and tidy to be plausible.

What is TTOD? haven’t been able to read the whole thread

@teaandcustardcreamsx

What is TTOD? haven’t been able to read the whole thread

Oh my, just wait and see what you've unleashed 😂 it's a book...allegedly the book to end all books, I haven't read it so I hide out in heathens corner 😀

TTOD - This Thing Of Darkness by Harry Thompson. A favourite on these threads!

I haven’t updated my reading for ages so apologies for the long post!

134. Other People’s Secrets by Louise Candlish

One of her earlier books and not very good - annoying characters and the ‘secret’ that was revealed wasn’t very exciting. Nice setting though, on the Italian Lakes.

135. Queen Lucia by E F Benson

The first in the ‘Mapp and Lucia’ series. I’ve read one before and quite enjoyed it, but for some reason I really struggled to get through this which is a shame as on paper I should love it!

136. The Wimbledon Poisoner by Nigel Williams

I thoroughly enjoyed this, a black comedy about a man planning to murder his wife, but things go wrong and he ends up bumping off half his neighbours instead.

137. The Other You by J S Monroe

Slightly ridiculous thriller about a woman who worked for the police as a super face recogniser until she had an accident. She’s now with a new boyfriend, but suddenly becomes convinced he’s been replaced by an impostor. Are her skills returning or is she going mad?

138. Tender Is The Night by F Scott Fitzgerald

Really wanted to love this, but I struggled to get through it. There are some beautiful passages of writing but the story itself is a bit of a mess. Apparently Fitzgerald himself wasn’t happy with it and kept reordering the chapters so different publications of this may be in a different order!

139. They Came From SW19 by Nigel Williams

Another dark comedy. Simon is a teenage boy whose father has just died and becomes convinced aliens are visiting Wimbledon.

140. Long Time Lost by Chris Ewan

Fast paced thriller about a man who runs a network protecting people in witness protection, but runs into trouble when the network is breached leading to a race across Europe to get to them all before the baddies do. Enjoyed this.

141. Desperation Road by Michael Farris Smith

Found this on kindle unlimited and it was pretty good. Set in a small town in Mississippi, Russell has just been released from prison when he meets Maben and her small daughter who are running away from something. Will Russell risk his freedom to help them? The story is fairly predictable but I got really engrossed with the setting.

142. Love All by Elizabeth Jane Howard

The story of lots of different characters linked to a small village in the West Country. It can be hard to keep track of all the characters and how they connect to each other (a character list at the front would have been helpful), but she writes so well I really liked this.

143. The Parasites by Daphne du Maurier

The story of the three selfish Delaney siblings, as they reflect in their past one lazy Sunday afternoon. Another fantastic writer who really brings characters to life.

Hidden Valley Road, enthusiasticly reviewed on here, is on the 99p deal.

Ooh I’m pleased to hear it’s been well reviewed @bibliomania it’s my bookclub pick and I’d not heard of it. At least if it’s good I can be less annoyed at paying £9 and being too late to return to get the discount

Grr, that's annoying about the timing, Pale.

I just finished The Glossy Years: Magazines, Museums and Selective Memoirs by Nicholas Coleridge. I was expecting this to be in the same vein as his ex-colleague Alexandra Shulman's wonderful Inside Vogue but the anecdotes here are surprisingly dull, the snobby and sexist comments were irritating, and who needs a chapter on supporting a royal environmental campaign for wool? This isn't worth bothering with at the current kindle price of 99p.

I just bought Hidden Valley Road

How quickly we've raced through this thread! See you all on the new one

@Terpsichore

I just bought Hidden Valley Road

How quickly we've raced through this thread! See you all on the new one

I wondered about buying Hidden Valley Road but couldn't decide but I have now. I also bought the Cold War one and The Garden of Lost Memories

See on the new thread which will be the one where I don't buy any new books.

I'll believe that when I see it, Bett!

I admire your optimism betty!

Personally, I’ve given up on claiming that I’m not going to buy any new books 🤷‍♀️

Maybe just one book then - pig flying for dummies?

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/what_were_reading/3975794-50-Book-Challenge-Part-Seven?watched=1