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?

1.Motherland Jo McMillan
2Force of Nature Jane Harper
3 Silver Dark Sea Susan Fletcher
4 The Immortalists Chloe Benjamin
5 Fierce Bad Rabbit Clare Pollard
6 Platform 7 Louise Doughty
7 Fighting on the Home Front Kate Adie
8 The Truants Kate Weinberg

9 Paper Ghosts Julia Heaberlin
10 Strange Meeting Susan Hill
11The Murderer's Apprentice Ann Granger
12The Turning Tide Catriona McPherson
13 Diary of a Bookseller Shaun Blythell
14 Lost Girls;Love, War and Literature D,.J Taylor
15 All the Hidden Truths Clare Askew
16 The Gustav Sonata Rose Tremain
17 The Body on the Train Frances Brody
18 Y Marjorie Celona
19 The House at the End of Hope St Mena Von Praag
20 The Confession Jessie Burton
21 Force of Nature Jane Harper
22 The Words in my Hand Guinevere Glasfurd
23 The Age of Light Whitney Scharer
24 The Benefit of Hindsight Susan Hill
25 The Last Voyage of Mrs Henry Parker Joanna Nell
26 The Museum of Broken Promises Elizabeth Buchan
27 Haven't They Grown ? Sophie Hannah
28 Before Wallis Rachel Tretheway
29 The Nightingale Kirstin Hannah
30 One Enchanted Evening Anton Du Beke
31 Our Dark Secret Jenny Quintana
32 The Wild Air Rebecca Mascull
33 Educated Tara Westover
34 Saving Missy Beth Morrey
35 Love After Love Ingrid Persaud
36 Flip Back Andrew Cartmel
37 Their Eyes Were Watching God Zora Neale Hurston

Pressed post rather than preview so this is my review of37Their Eyes Were Watching God Zora Neale Hurston
I was encouraged to read this by a very positive review on A Good Read on Radio 4 . Janie is an African American woman, born at the turn of the 20th century. Brought up by her grandmother, who had been enslaved, she is married off to a much older man at a very young age, leaves him to marry a man who isn't who she thought he was and eventually meets and marries a much younger man. This marriage brings her more happiness but leads her into a rather precarious life There is a lot of biographical information and literary analysis in the edition I read and I accept that this is an important novel in the genre . I admired rather than enjoyed it. A large proportion of the novel is dialogue, written in idiomatic language , which took some getting used to , and the numerous lengthy conversations mean that the pace is slow. Attitudes towards relationships between men and women and the casual killing of animals are very much of their time and don't make for comfortable reading.

Pepe, thanks for the Storygraph tip, looks really interesting!

I adored The Paying Guests and am eagerly awaiting her next book (why is she taking so long to write it?)

I'm annoyed my borough haven't announced when they're reopening libraries but I know it's a big task for them, logistically, with 25 libraries to sort out with social distancing etc. One of them is at the end of my road and I really miss going there.

I've finished Platform Seven by Louise Doughty. Boy, was this dreary and could have done with 100 pages cutting. This is a contemporary 'thriller' and ghost story about a young woman haunting Platform 7 at Peterborough station. She can't remember how she died, but as the novel goes on her back story is revealed and it's here in the middle section where the story took a wrong turn, focusing on a pretty dull protagonist and her not-too-subtly written abusive partner. And no offence to anyone living or from Peterborough but she paints the city in a rather dreary light, which does the mundane story no favours at all. Such a disappointment from the writer of Apple Tree Yard.

I'm lacking concentration or motivation to focus on one book and have four others on the go - anyone else like this?

Yes, I have about 4 on the go right now

The app I use is called Bookly, I really like it. You don't really get much extra for the pay version except you can add as many books to it as you want so I find that important.

Would recommend people try the free version and see what they think

Found Storygraph hard to navigate due to not having ever clicked with Goodreads

63. When I walk, I bounce, Mark Moxon
Account of walk from Land's End to John o'Groats. He didn't seem to enjoy it much - particularly the Pennine Way section. Lots of moaning about blisters. Sent me off into a pleasant reverie about what I would do with three months free of work and family commitments and several thousand pounds. Not this walk.

64. Death at the Opera, Gladys Mitchell
1930s crime, set in those familiar stamping grounds, a school and a seaside boarding house. Not a classic of the genre, but I did rather like the detective, the elderly psychologist with the alligator grin, Mrs Bradley.

my three most recent reads:
25 was The Abbess if Crewe by Muriel Spark which is supposed, by some to be the best political novel ever. I didn't get it. At all. If some can explain it to me I'd be grateful....I only stuck with it because it's short, but it took me four days to get through 80 odd pages
After that was The Lager Queen if Minnesota by J Ryan Stradal which was a gentle tale of family and beer, which I enjoyed very much
And no 27 was The Last by Hanna Jameson, with a group of people in a hotel at the end of the world. This was enjoyable enough, but there were some plot hole, and lines which went nowhere, and it got a bit weird at the end. decent enough though

34. Lives of the Painters, Sculptors and Architects: Part 2 by Giorgio Vasari

I am continuing to read Vasari's Lives alongside my other reading matter and sometimes it's a bit of a slog, and sometimes it's really interesting. Part 2 takes us up to Luca Signorelli and includes some of my favourite artists (Giovanni Bellini, Botticelli, Mantegna, Fra Angelico and Ghirlandaio). My favourite Lives are the ones where Vasari takes against a particular artist; he spends so much time venerating most of them that it's hugely refreshing to find a bit of malice creeping in from time to time.

39. Slay Ride - Dick Francis

The British Jockey Club are called in by the Norwegians to assist with the theft of a day’s takings from the Oslo racetrack allegedly by a British jockey. There is, of course, more to it than a simple theft. It’s noticeable reading these in order that this, like Smokecreen (his previous book), is set overseas and the plot is, again, much less horse focused. A good crime novel but I enjoy those which are more horse/racing centric.

82. Corpus Christi by Bret Anthony Johnston

Completely forgettable short story collection that I nearly DNF'd twice.

I love the city name though "Corpus Christi, Texas" it's a real place and a cool name. Stories very empty and repetitive though.

Thanks southeast for preserving the safest, cosiest corner of the internet by far.

As you can see from my list below I'm not part of the 44 club, or even close It is, however, a magic number as this is the 3rd year I've been on this thread and the 2 previous years my total for the year has been 44 :)
Aiming for 50 this year though...

1. The Hunting Party – Lucy Foley
2. The Unexpected Joy of being Sober – Catherine Gray
3. Ta deuxième vie commence quand tu comprends que tu n’en as qu’une – Raphaëlle Giordano
4. L’élégance du hérisson – Muriel Barbery
5. Three things about Elsie – Joanna Cannon
6. Restoration – Rose Tremain
7. The Dreams of Bethany Mellmoth – William Boyd
8. The girl you left behind – Jojo Moyes
9. Antigone – Jean Anouilh
10. The Light Years – Elizabeth Jane Howard
11. Scissors, Paper, Stone – Elizabeth Day
12. Standard Deviation – Katherine Heiny
13. Behind the scenes at the museum – Kate Atkinson
14. The Well-Kept Kitchen – Gervase Markham
15. The Passion of Artemisia – Susan Vreeland
16. Lord of the Flies – William Golding
17. Marking Time – Elizabeth Jane Howard
18. Smoke gets in your eyes – Caitlin Doughty
19. American Heart – Laura Moriarty
20. Sing, Unburied, Sing – Jesmyn Ward
21. An American Marriage – Tayari Jones

Not much reading time at the moment but I do have 3 books on the go: David Copperfield (must get going on this month's chapters!), Beloved (Oh My God! How have I not read this before now??) and The Secret Life of the Teenage Brain (my teens are heading back to school today for the final 2 weeks of term).

Hello all and thanks as ever south.
I'm going to have to reconstruct my list at some point... not now though I'm hopeful that I will get to 50 books this year. I was genuinely shocked that I only managed 32 last year. 20 years ago i could read 5 books in a weekend. I'm reading meatier stuff though.

28. Neurotribes by Steve Silberman
The history of autism.

I loved this, having wanted to read it for ages. It was published in 2015 so had perhaps more on the biomedical 'treatment' of autism which from an outsider perspective has been more thoroughly discredited now (perhaps assisted by this book). But overall a wonderful, deeply researched history of autism as a diagnosis and its 'treatment', finishing on an upbeat note with the rise of autistic people taking charge of their own lives and services. From a 2020 perspective I really noticed the lack of non-English speaking countries discussed, and inhaled the sense of 'things getting better' like wine... almost feels like a dispatch from a lost country, ie 2015.

On The Beach - Nevil Shute

A group of people in Australia wait for inevitable death following a Nuclear war as the radiation which has devastated the Northern hemisphere creeps southwards. They carry on as normal as much as possible - farming land, taking secretarial courses. It’s only towards the very end that there is any sign of society breaking down.

Oh best I love that book - one of the few dystopian novels i really like, a deep quiet chill rather than grisliness. I thought of it when it turned out that people kept on doing their jobs in a pandemic and there was very little breakdown (not so sure now).

For those who feel strong enough, Pale Rider - Laura Spinney's excellent history of the Spanish flu pandemic - is in the Kindle Daily Deal today.

Thanks for the new thread Southeast. My list so far:
1. The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaimen
2. Holes by Louis Sachar
3. The Hunting Party by Lucy Foley
4. The Girl With All The Gifts by M R Carey
5. The Green Mile by Stephen King
6. Sweet Sorrow by David Nichols
7. Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout
8. The Acceptance World (Book 3 of A Dance To The Music Of Time) by Anthony Powell
9. Bring Up The Bodies by Hilary Mantel
10. Himself by Jess Kidd
11. The Mother Tongue by Bill Bryson
12. The Mirror and The Light by Hilary Mantel
13. The Dutch House by Anne Pratchet
14. Where The Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens.

15. My Antonia by Willa Carter
16. Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood
17. 11.22.63 by Stephen King
18. The Heart Goes Last by Margaret Atwood
19. Abomination by Robert Swindells
20. Me by Elton John
21. Knots and Crosses by Ian Rankin
22. Hide and Seek by Ian Rankin
23. Carry On Jeeves by PG Wodehouse
24. The Flat Share by Beth O’Leary
25. At Lady Molly’s by Anthony Powell
26. Casanova’s Chinese Restaurant by Anthony Powell

The latest read is
27. The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters. A working class made good doctor becomes inextricably linked to the occupants of the once grand Manor House who seem to be haunted by the past.
I enjoyed this, well written with a slow building sense of menace. I need to look at some Goodread reviews to see other people's take on the ending, I have my own theory but it's definitely open to interpretation.
I somewhat took the gloss of the reading experience by immediately watching the 2018 film (starring the very attractive Ruth Wilson as Caroline, who Waters constantly bangs on about being very plain in the book, and this is also mentioned in the film despite the obvious beauty of the actress, making her wear flat shoes and clump about a bit doesn't detract from the general gorgeousness on display!) and it managed to take the promising source material and make it desperately dull.

Thanks for the heads up Terpsichore, I've just bought Pale Rider.

On the strength of Best's review I've also bought On The Beach, which is also available for 99p.

Some cheery reading ahead for me then!

I read Pale Rider In January with more and more foreboding as the stories came out of Wuhan. It’s a fascinating read.

On the Beach another divisive one. I can’t quite bring myself to read it even though I am quite fond of Shute.

People do have weirdly stoic reactions to extreme situations in all his books.

Rodham by Curtis Sittenfeld

I find Sittenfeld an engaging writer and really hoped to enjoy this as much as I did American Wife but it didn’t really deliver, being neither fun nor juicy enough to satisfy any prurient proclivities one might have, not really deep and considered enough to feel politically insightful. An imagination of the life Hillary would have led if she had not married Bill Clinton, it was ultimately rather too dull to really captivate. Maybe it reflects the sturdy, diligent, dogged personality of Hillary herself, but I don’t really buy the view of her as completely bland without Bill, and unattractive to most anyone else of interest as the book seems to suggest. The narrative voice is stilted and perfunctory with no real bursts of feeling. It’s just a bit of an odd enterprise and often feels it, taking strange turns toward the end that I found hard to fathom. Some of the dialogue, especially in building the central relationship pre-derailment, is just plain silly. “I love talking about theology with you and I love doing other things with you” as a pre-coital fuse-lighter springs to mind. It was easy enough to read though and I did feeI I learned quite a bit about the behind the scenes business of the political climb in the US, and the background to some of the big political events of the previous 30 years and how Americans viewed their significance. This feels like an act of wish-fulfilment, but I think I might have enjoyed the true story, told at a slant as she did with the Bush family, a little more. For entertainment purposes, there are more thrills and spills with Bill.

@SatsukiKusakabe

Did you feel, as I did, that the dark ending, hinted at at one point would have made it a much better book?

The Mothers by Britt Bennett

I picked this up cheaply on the Kindle as Bennett’s current book, the much lauded The Vanishing Half was a little expensive for me, but seeing as she’d already written another well-reviewed book I went for that instead. It is the story of Nadia, 17, and motherless. Her father volunteers for the local church, and so Nadia comes within the sights of “The Mothers”; the elder women of the community who see and hear and, presumably to save God time, judge all. The narrative is sometimes from their perspective, and this device gets a little tiresome. I think the author had the conceit and followed it through but I don’t think it adds to the novel and might have been stronger without it, for me anyway. Nadia is young, lonely, in mourning for her mother and exploring friendship and early romance. The plot hinges on an unwanted pregnancy, and examines the consequences of choices made on all those involved over time. It generally does this well and interestingly, but in the final third I did get a little bored and thought it had stopped exploring new territory somewhat. Some threads I hoped would be revisited were left hanging. However this was a really good read in the vein of something like Little Fires; how secrets and lies affect families and friendships. She writes wonderfully well. There were several times I stopped to digest and admire a thought or a sentence or a whole paragraph, and was slightly stunned to read she was 25 when she wrote this. It has made me even more keen to read her new one as this was very assured and like a safe pair of hands, dealing deftly with a lot of the issues young people face with regard to sex, religion, race and identity. It felt pertinent, but subtly so.

Overall, I didn’t really rate the story and where it went so I would go for a 3 and a half if I was giving it stars, however I can’t fault her writing.

Sorry her name is Brit I got confused with the double TT on Bennett.

@EineReiseDurchDieZeit

Yes! I didn’t really consider it at the time, but there was a minute there where I thought I didn’t know where it was going and enjoyed that and then eventually it went with a whimper. That particular dark turn would have been interesting and brave I think, and left me thinking about it after, whereas I really haven’t much.

29. Firestarter by Stephen King Andy and his daughter Charlie are on the run. They are in the boondocks of upstate New York with the clothes on their backs and one last dollar between them. They are being hunted down by a semi-secret government agency that knows there is something unusual about them both, something that originated in a long-ago psychotropic experiment, which makes them much too dangerous to leave at large.

This was the first King I ever read, seduced by it in an English book exchange in a country where I barely spoke the language and was living away from home for the first time. I will never forget what it did for me. It is the most gripping of unstoppable stories, it makes me cry, even thirty years after I first read it. I love it. It's the only King I have kept.

Just found out belatedly that Carlos Ruiz Zafon died last week. Only 55.