50 Book Challenge 2020 Part Seven

[southeastdweller]

Welcome to the seventh 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, the fifth one here and the sixth one here.

What are you reading?

300 messages already in just over a week!
Not all me though, I've been finishing a long book, Pepe I hope you aren't too lonely over in refusers corner

103. Churchill : Walking With Destiny by Andrew Roberts (Audible)

I decided after Alexander Hamilton that audio was perfect for long non fiction, but this, at 50 hours did start to wear me down towards the end.

It is widely considered the best and most comprehensive Churchill biography but is exhaustive. Read by Stephen Thorne I also found it a bit soporific at times and I just don't know how much I will retain.

Left with 4 main thoughts :

Churchill's childhood was dreadful even by upper class benign neglect standards.

The current cancel culture neglects the fact that though, yes Churchill was a massive racist by 2020 standards, his views were the norm at the time "Those who refuse to learn from history are doomed to make the same mistakes" if we go about cancelling our history and erasing it instead of acknowledging past shames as well as triumphs we are just going to repeat the past and learn nothing. He did after all save the UK from fascism and the attendant racial hatred and genocide that would have accompanied a fascist state.

Thirdly, I was struck by actually what a lovely retirement he had, in very sunny climes. He certainly earned it. I found it quite odd that the writer skated over the overdose and death of his daughter Diana during this period.

Lastly, he cried at everything, which I found quite sweet.

Quite the undertaking. Massive task of a read. Not for the faint hearted in that respect.

Awards to Eine along with a glass of, ahem, Liebfraumich

Thank you all, there is no wonder this is my favourite corner of the internet. biblio what you said about the half-remembered quotations is really beautiful.

I think the monthly deal might look awful because 78 pages is so long, and there's a lot of dross in there. Despite this I pottered through the whole lot and grabbed quite a few things:
Queenpin, by Megan Abbot
The Splendid and the Vile, by Erik Larson (he also wrote The Devil and the White City - this is his new one about Churchill and the Blitz, I'm surprised it's included in the monthly deal so early on)
Alexander Hamilton, by Ron Chernow
In Your Defence, by Sarah Langford
Night Owls, by Jenn Bennett I don't have high hopes for this one but I love reading things set in San Francisco so thought it was worth a go.

Calling everyone's attention to the Swallows And Amazon's pisstake thread in AIBU that loads of pearl clutchers are taking seriously.

I've just bought 10 Kindle books (and damn you, Eine, for listing yours - one of mine is Instrumental as a result):

The Night Circus (much reviewed on here)
Between the Stops (ditto)
Please Mr Postman by Alan Johnson (I'm blaming Welshwabbit for making me think about Labour politics)
Instrumental (shakes fist at Eine)
This is Your Brain on Music (I'm blaming betts for this one)
December by Phil Rickman (I like the Merrily Watkins books so thought I'd try a non-series one)
Jog On by Bella Mackie (started Couch to 5K last month, so looking for inspiration)
In Your Defence by Sarah Langford
How to be a Victorian by Ruth Goodman
GCHQ by Richard Aldrich

As you can see, there's a lot of self-justification going on here

On the other hand, DH and I recently shared our Kindle libraries with each other, so each of these books really only cost me 49.5p if he reads it as well (He definitely got the better of that transaction: he got access to my 400-odd books, while I got access to his 29 .)

I'm interested to see that only 2 of my 10 are fiction - like Eine and Tara, I'm obviously becoming more of a non-fiction reader.

@EineReiseDurchDieZeit

Calling everyone's attention to the Swallows And Amazon's pisstake thread in AIBU that loads of pearl clutchers are taking seriously.

Oh thanks Eine

One real hardship I had to face at university was studying S&A and writing an essay about it, the things we do....
I put the essay in the day after the assignment was published, my tutor exclaimed in horror that I couldn't possibly of read the blurb let alone the book - I hadn't, I read it so often as a child and watched the original film so much that I was word perfect in the script and would speak all the parts when I watched it!

Also enjoying the S&A thread - it took me a while to realise the pearl clutchers were serious

Is that the thread about the island? I tried to find it after someone else mentioned it and couldn't see one.

This is Your Brain on Music (I'm blaming betts for this one)

Oi! I am blaming everybody on here who discussed music seeing as I am the musically illiterate, tone deaf one who left music lectures in university in tears because I couldn't do any of the activities we were supposed to do.

Ones I have seen that look interesting are:

The Seafarers: A Journey Among Birds Stephen Rutt
Chasing the Dram: Finding the Spirit of Whisky Rachel McCormack (which I have bought as whisky was my Dad's favourite tipple and so this is a must read)
Walks on the Wild Side: Exploring an Unforgiving Land John Pakenham
Silk Route Adventure: On Horseback in the Heart of Asia
Claire Burges Watson (which I have had to buy as I recommended it on here without having read it, oh the horror!)
GCHQ Richard Aldrich (you know who I blame for that!)
She-Merchants, Buccaneers and Gentlewomen: British Women in India Katie Hickman

and I may have bought a new Kindle, not a fancy one the cheapest one possible and refurbished to boot. I finished This Thing of Darkness on my phone and it was not easy reading in bed without my glasses.

@Piggywaspushed S&A thread

Thank you!]
I'll take some pop with me and some seed cake and have a read.

Oh Piggy shame on you - it's grog!
Call yourself an English teacher?!

Talking of which, DS showed me a meme the other day which so makes me think of you, I wish I could send it to you.

Whoops! It's a long time since I read those books!!

I would very much like to see this meme!

@Piggywaspushed

Whoops! It's a long time since I read those books!!

I would very much like to see this meme!

PM me an email address? I would warn you it has bad language though.

mackerella

I accept no fist shaking! I saw James Rhodes documentary years ago and had a huge amount of admiration and respect for him. Delighted to have got him another sale

Jealous of a Night Circus first reading too.

If you could re-read just one book, which one would it be?
I would have said A Town like Alice but re-read it last year, not so sure now.

Crying at that S&A thread

165. *The Book of Rosy: A Mother's Story of Separation at the Border - Rosayra Palbo Cruz & Julie Schweitert Collazo

The true story of a woman who fled from Guatemala to the US with two of her children, arriving 11 days after the separation policy was introduced. Placed in a detention centre she was separated from the children who were later moved from Arizona to NY and placed into foster care. A former social worker horrified by the new policy set out to do something about it and worked to raise funds to bail the women, reclaim their children and aid them with their asylum applications.

This was written by them both in the aftermath of the American Dirt backlash as an 'own voices' project. It details the events that led up to her leaving, the process she went through and how a community came together to oppose Trump's new regime. It's a fairly straight forward account, the only criticism I'd make is that it seemed a little too good to be true in places. I am sure the process must have been significantly worse than it is portrayed for many.

I did start American Dirt, but gave up at about 35%. I'd fallen asleep to it and had to listen to a large chunk again and lost patience. I won't say that I wouldn't try it again at some point, but it's not a priority.

@bettsbattenburg and @noodlezoodleoodle.

Biblio, that bit about sea glass was just lovely, thank you.

I loved World War Z (so disappointed by the film), why have o nit even thought he might have written something else?! I'm normally a "read every work" person when it comes to authors I like.

I don't generally reread other than for teaching but like a reread of Tess and Corelli.

@Tanaqui

*@bettsbattenburg and @noodlezoodleoodle*.

Biblio, that bit about sea glass was just lovely, thank you.

I loved World War Z (so disappointed by the film), why have o nit even thought he might have written something else?! I'm normally a "read every work" person when it comes to authors I like.

If it helps, he’s also written Minecraft: The Island

I couldn't possibly of read the blurb let alone the book

I hope your degree wasn’t English @bettsbattenburg !

44. Guiltless by Viveca Sten

Book 3 in the Sandhamn Murders series, this one rather spoiled my summer vibe by being set in the depths of winter. However, it had a bit about the history of families on the archipelago (and the archipelago itself), which I enjoyed, and the story looped back to something that happened in the first book, which I also like in a detective series. Nice development of the main characters relationships too. The detection aspect had a few annoying leaps but rolled along nicely enough otherwise.

Oh great, now I've just bought Chasing the Dram and She-Merchants, Buccaneers and Gentlewomen

54. Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman I listened the this as an audiobook read by Neil Himself, and was pleasantly surprised by how well he read it and how well differentiated the characters were. This is a fairly straightforward retelling of tales from Norse mythology, with none of the trickery or imaginative modernising that made American Gods so enjoyable for me. I've actually bought the Penguin translation of the Prose Edda to read soon, because I'd like to know how much is in the source material and how much is Gaiman's elaboration. I found the introduction quite illuminating in terms of making me think about what makes Norse mythology distinctive - Gaiman singles out the fact that it all comes to an end as significant (which it is, the twilight of the gods is quite a bold concept when you contrast it with other, more eternal religions). I was also struck by how human and ... "ungodlike" the gods and giants and dwarves were - fill of petty feuds and disappointments and desires to play tricks on or get their own back on their others. It's not at all like the lofty detachment of, say, the ancient Greek or Roman gods! This really came across in the longer tales, which we're the ones I wasn't already familiar with. So, although this book is enjoyable and competently done, what it's really made me want is to go to the original texts and read more .

Ack, I mean (my phone obviously doesn't have that level of vocab ).