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?

59: A House in the Country - Ruth Adam

One of the latest batch of Furrowed Middlebrows. Ruth Adam was one of a group of arty friends (BBC, actors etc) who had shared a house together during the war and believed in communal living. Fed up with London and with dreams of the country, they answered an advert and ended up renting a 33-roomed Tudor manor-house in Kent with 4 acres of grounds.
This book is a lightly-fictionalised account of the eight years spent living there, coping with difficulties (endless backbreaking housework, impossibility of getting help in the house, temperamental water supply, a chronic shortage of money) and joys (the spellbinding beauty of the house and gardens, the friendship of Howard, the former head gardener to the estate who'd worked there man and boy and knew all the house's idiosyncrasies).
It's also interesting as a snapshot of a pivotal period just after the war when the old feudal system of service was coming to an end and the survival of great houses like these was very much in the balance (as detailed in Romantic Moderns, dozens were literally bulldozed at this precise point in time - which is why the National Trust was set up to try and save them).
A gentle, funny read but not without a pleasingly tart edge. The house itself is never named and I'd love to know whether it's still in existence....

waving hello, as I know a lot of people on this thread have read Hamnet, and I saw Maggie o'Farrell giving a free online talk about it as part of the Edinburgh International Book Festival

should have said - Maggie OFarrell is 7pm tonight
also seen Hilary Mantel doing a talk at 8.30pm tomorrow (sunday)

[quote BestIsWest]@bettsbattenburg , tell me more.[/quote]
Swing Swang Lane is near Basingstoke, it's the old salt route from the Midlands (where they produced salt in Roman times and still produce it now) down to Hampshire. Swang means marsh land. I don't know where the Swing comes from though. The road is the site of one of the battles in the civil war.

@BestIsWest

FFS Diary. Bridget Jones’ Dairy would be something else entirely.

I can just see Renee whatshername dressed as milkmaid.

Back in the 1990s when we first got cable tv there were some German channels which only broadcast at night. Out of curiousity I put one on once and it was all people running round a cow shed in lederhosen and dirndls. Quite bizarre as that's all that was happening before I switched off.

I’m quite enjoying the idea of Bridget running a dairy...

55. Trial Run - Dick Francis

As previously trailed by Tanaqui this book mainly takes place in Moscow. The very reluctant hero is a retired steeplechase jockey who is now a gentleman farmer. He is sent to Moscow to unofficially investigate on behalf of the British government a possible threat to a British three day event rider who may be heading to the Moscow Olympics and has links to the Royal Family. The book evokes Iron Curtain Moscow well but this was not one of my favourites - but not sure why. Maybe not enough stable / racecourse action for me. I found myself easily distracted whilst reading it which is unusual for me and a Dick Francis.

Rubbish internet connection right now but just popping on to add my latest reads.

32. I am, I am, I am – Maggie Farrell
    Much reviewed and much loved on these threads. It took me while to get into this but then I was hooked. A couple of her incidents moved me to tears.

33. Inventing Ourselves: The Secret Life of the Teenage Brain – Sarah Jayne Blakemore
    This has taken me ages to read but I'm glad I didn't give up. Sometimes overly scientific, at others irritatingly vague, overall this left me with plenty to think about and a lot more questions to ask. The final section of the book included a large amount of additional reading so I'll know where to look next!

@CluelessMama, how is it going in school in Scotland? My class here is back on Monday, and no doubt my reading will also slow down.
55) Jack in the Green by Diane Capri. More easy hot weather reading- I am also reading the Balkan Trilogy recommended uptrend but finding it slow going (but interesting).

@TimeforaGandT, I also recall Trial Run as a "lesser" DF - although (iirc!), I liked how the murder was carried out, I don't remember the hero at all, or any side characters, whereas for some I could give lots of info; so I suspect the characterisation just wasn't as strong.

Probably a wise move to turn over from the milkmaids and lederhosen Betts

Saying hello before I fall off the thread.

I haven't read anything of note, but I did watch an excellent film and highly recommend Peanut Butter Falcon if you haven't seen it.

Tanaqui An absolute joy to see our pupils again. Lots to think about so an exhausting first week back. Not great for the reading rate! Good luck for the week ahead

I am so listless and hot at the moment I am barely reading. Anyone else?

Eine - listless and a bit agitated here. I'm finding it much easier to settle to sewing than to reading, although I'm substantially better at reading than I am at sewing!

77 Good Husbandry by Kristin Kimball

Kimball and her husband are first generation farmers on 500 acres in the Adirondacks, NY State. They run a 'full diet CSA' - families pay a yearly membership fee, and the farm provides them with all the food that they need, from meat and eggs through to maple syrup.

This is her second memoir; the first (which I've not read but will now) covers the years when she met Mark, her husband, and the early stages of starting the farm. This book follows them as they develop the farm, have two children, and deal with the struggles of expanding and growing the business while maintaining a functioning relationship and family life.

I was posted this book by someone I know only slightly and as I read it I was already mentally making lists of all the women I could send it on to after I finished. I know so many 'invisible women' in farming/growing who do the vast majority of childcare while still carrying a lot of the farm work - plus the endless hours, every penny poured into the land while house/car/everything else is starved, cooking for armies of workers & volunteers, plus in plenty of cases working a side job to bring in money to keep the whole show on the road - and as a result of doing all this & therefore having less time on the land the man being seen as the 'real farmer' by the outside world. (I managed to sidestep some of this through a combination of bloodymindedness, only having one child, and being the one with more land skills starting out - but I'm also divorced )

I do also think this book would be an enjoyable read for non-farmers - the descriptions of the farm, animals & food they produce are wonderful, and there's rather more positives than the description above might suggest!

Definitely listless and agitated over here too eine and remus. Although have almost finished gone with the wind so that’s good at least

@EineReiseDurchDieZeit

I am so listless and hot at the moment I am barely reading. Anyone else?

Yes, that and back to school concerns for us all here. Year 11 is looming and it's an important year for that.

Amazon have all of the Mick Herron Slough House books (Slow Horses etc) in their deal today, 99p each. They've been popular here - I've only read the first one but thought it was clever and absorbing

eine me too. I am creeping through a short story collection. Not concentrating on audio either. remus that sounds very genteel.

Satsuki - 'genteel' is a lovely but entirely inaccurate description of me sweatily sewing in my knickers and a vest at the kitchen table!

42. Slaves of New York – Tama Janowitz

I'm glad to hear I'm not the only one feeling listless! It's cooler where I am today but really humid still.

The weather was so unbearably hot last week that I lacked the concentration to read anything substantial. I thought Slaves of New York might be an interesting and not too demanding choice. The book is a collection of short stories with recurring characters set in and around the 1980’s New York art scene.

I didn’t love this book, and would probably describe my feelings as ambivalent. It certainly wasn’t too demanding so it met my requirements in that respect. Unfortunately, it was almost too insubstantial. Perhaps the short story format didn’t allow sufficient character development, or perhaps I have been spoilt by reading Bette Howland recently, who manages to create such vivid depth with so few words and with such pathos.

Nevertheless, there were some genuinely funny moments in the book and it certainly captures a moment in time. I now feel like I need to read something epic and sprawling to balance this book out.

41. Paper Sparrows by Nathalie Abi-Ezzi. Layla has come home to Lebanon, on holiday from her studies in London, when she gets caught up in the Arab-Israel conflict. I enjoyed this, so thanks to PermanentTemporary for recommending it recently. It manages to be an easy read while touching on some big themes (war, family loyalty, living away from your homeland). Particularly poignant at the moment, in the aftermath of the Beirut explosion.

Great review, Sadik.

Thanks Tara - you can tell it was right on the nail for me!

Just started The Sealwoman's Gift and loving it so far :)