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?

@BestIsWest

Lovely 50Bookers, can any of you suggest anything for my DM to read. She’s just finished Cider With Rosie and loved it - she also loved Lark Rise to Candleford and Cranford so I’m looking for something along those lines. I’ve just left her with Diary of a Provincial Lady but she wasn’t sure if she’d read it.

How about The country diary of an Edwardian lady ?

@BestIsWest Has your DM read the sequel to Cider With Rosie, As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning?

Mill On The Floss?

I know she’s read the Edwardian Lady and I have Mill on the Floss and Enchanted April on Kindle (We share an account) so might direct her to those next - will take a look at the others. We’re watching The Crown together (a re watch for me) so Lady Glenconner might be the ticket.

I’m steering her away from more Laurie Lee until I’ve had the chance to re-read myself as A Moment of War was one of the last books Dad read and is still on his little table next to his chair.

A month in the country by Carr?

Good one Betts I have A Month In The Country here. Will dig it out.

best what about Lissa Evans Crooked Heart and Old Baggage? North and South another Gaskell?

pepe same here we are at a distance but I’ve been ill for much of lockdown and dh has an underlying condition so lockdown hadn’t really ended for us. It was nice to see them but, as you say, the circumstances are awkward and a bit sad. I hope you feel brighter again soon.

How about Angela Thirkell, Best? I've been working my way through the wartime ones, and they're a nice mixture of light comedy, village gossip, a sprinkling of romance and lots of interesting social history.

Or the Miss Read books? Or even Stella Gibbons (there are quite a few that aren't Cold Comfort Farm!)

@BestIsWest

I am so envious of those of you who are camping, heatwave or not. No way on this earth would DH spend a night under canvas.

Almost finished The Five Such a sad book.

Agreed! Although family camping is NOT something I want to do again, I do love camping (when I’ve done it..and that was in the middle of an expedition!). At least in heatwave’s you don’t have to wear onesies and hide under the the sleeping bag stuffing every layer of clothing you have and wearing a coat after walking in 25° heat up a fucking mountain with a bag bigger than you on your back and almost getting blown off said mountain somehow

I would certainly prefer sleeping outside than inside! Although am currently holidaying in Ireland so weather isn’t as hot as Britain has been

I have the Lissa Evans books on Kindle so that’s another good shout. Miss Read - good idea, I love them but not sure if she’s read them. Will investigate the other suggestions.

Have serious holiday envy now. Have nothing booked but a few weeks off at the end of August and everywhere seems either full or extortionate.

Glad you've got some good suggestions, Best. Mine would be to investigate the Furrowed Middlebrow books which we were talking about a couple of weeks ago - all women writers, most set (and written) during or just before/after WW2. Almost none are well known at all but I've thoroughly enjoyed the ones I've read. They're on Kindle and tend to be under £3, as a bonus.

I know what you mean about the lack of holiday, we haven't had one for years because of caring responsibilities, which I usually don't mind too much, but just at the moment I'm having longing flashbacks to past holidays to Greek islands in more carefree times

Similarly, Persephone books may have something of interest.

Best I think your mum might enjoy The Darling Buds of May and the other Larkin books by H E Bates.

Books4people has the series of all 5 books for £11.99 at the moment.

Not an easy time just now for so many people. Escaping into books and chatting on this thread is a great help for me although I'm not sure deciding to read The Stand was such a wise choice

highlandcoo, I found The Stand rather comforting in April. The best of human nature and a reminder things could be worse when it comes to pandemics...

I found The Stand all I could focus on novel wise at the start of LockDown

The ironic thing about The Stand is that so many novels have heavily plagiarised it, that when I did come to read it it felt predictable. That's not the books fault though its all the copycats

Best Maybe we should have a 50 bookers camping trip.

Thanks for the encouragement about The Stand. I'm a little over a third of the way through now and feeling better about having chosen to read it. For the first three hundred pages it was one decomposing body after another, with a really horrible sequence of deaths at one point, and although it was gripping it was getting a bit much. I kept waiting for the individual characters to get together and make some progress and that seems to be happening now. I'm enjoying it.

I am also finding I can only cope with certain books at the moment- very very light ones. Although @TimeforaGandT is inspiring me to consider a Dick Francis reread- I am also enjoying your reviews! I think Trial Run is the Russian one- I shall look forward to seeing if I was right!

54)Wayward Son by Rainbow Rowell More light reading - this is a sequel to a book that is purportedly the fanfic written by a character in another of Rowell's books, based on a not really disguised at all Harry Potter. Which sounds very modern and meta but just means angsty teenage gay magicians ftw!

BestIsWest has your DM read Period Piece by Gwen Raverat? Also the Mary Hughes memoirs starting with A London Child of the 1870s.

Many thank for the link to the Provincial Lady thread btw mackerella. Not getting a lot of reading done at the moment as busy with work & other stuff, but working my way through Black and British which is very interesting. I've also got The Language of Kindness on audio which I'm enjoying but again going slowly.

Thanks Tanaqui. You may have to wait a while for me to get to Trial Run as I am making rather heavy weather of The Weekend at the moment. However, you have inspired me to go and read another chapter.....

A 50Bookers camping trip sounded awesome

Thank you for all your suggestions - I’m enjoying looking them up myself. I will load up her Kindle with a few and see how she gets on. Furrowed Middlebrow/Darling Buds is just the right sort of thing I think.

Although I’ve just finished The Five which I think we’ve all liked on here and I think she would enjoy that too.

How much fun would a 50 Bookers camping trip be! You'd have to pack popcorn and a safety helmet. I'm away from Monday for a few days to the Lake District in the campervan, but very much lamenting that my annual trip to the Verdon Gorge ending with a day in Monte Carlo will not be taking place this year.

171. Winter - Ali Smith
     Second in the quartet. Ali Smith's take on modern Britain. I hated the first one, so don't know what possessed me to pick this up. I found this one more tolerable.

172. The Huntsman's Tale - Ann Swinfen
     Tales of medieval derring-do. Third in the series, the second ended on a mighty cliff hanger which this failed to really acknowledge until the final chapter, so I was a little annoyed with it. I like her writing even if the events are beyond ludicrous for the age. Still fun for a mindless read.

173. Dear Ijeawele, or a Feminist Manifesto in 15 Suggestions - Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche
     Her advice to a friend on how to bring her child up in a feminist way in Nigerian culture. This is very short, so I feel a bit of a fraud for counting it. Nothing particularly new beyond her ideas in We Should All Be Feminists and the TED talks she has given. Still an interesting read with the cultural slant.

174. The Sun Also Rises - Ernest Hemingway
     Set after WW1, some British and American ex-pats leave their hedonistic lifestyle in Paris for a trip to the San Fermin Festival in Pamplona, Spain. They experience the running of the bulls and bullfights, while having relationship issues.

For me this was one of those classics that leave you wondering what the big deal is. I understand it captured the spirit of the age, and is well written, but it did nothing for me. I did the bull run myself when I was 21 and don't feel the book did the festival or the experience of being part of it justice. I have probably spectacularly missed something, but I don't feel like I care enough to want to explore what that might be. (It's too blummin' hot).

I am convinced I read For Whom The Bell Tolls when I was at 6th Form, which would make sense as I did Spanish, but I can't remember a thing about it. Is it worth me bothering to dig it out again? I was so underwhelmed with TSAR that it's put me off any more of his.

Currently 20% into Hidden Valley Road, my goodness those parents are stone cold.