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?

I’ve just come back from holiday in Galloway, Scotland where the first Dark Skies park has been designated

Me too, JollyYella and highlandcoo! Much darker skies there than at home, and lovely weather for it most nights

And a quick post-holiday update:

64. Dreams of Gods and Monsters by Laini Taylor

Final part of the Daughter of Smoke and Bone trilogy. This was much more exciting than the middle book, and a good ending to the trilogy.

65. Gone by Leona Deakin

Thriller. People are going missing, but it turns out that they’re psychopaths who’ve gone missing after receiving invitations to join a mysterious game. Psychologist and private detective Augusta Bloom is investigating. An entertaining read.

66. White Cat by Holly Black

This is set in an alternate USA where magic exists, and was banned decades ago, resulting in the emergence of magic using crime families.
Cassel is the only member of his family not magically talented, but lately he’s been having strange dreams. Dreams that will lead him towards the secret his family is hiding.
This was a good fun easy read.

67. An Unwanted Guest by Shari Lapena

Several hapless guests have picked the wrong week to visit a remote hotel. They get snowed in, there’s a power cut which also takes out the heating and phones, and then murdered corpses start turning up.
All very average and a bit meh.

68. White Silence by Jodi Taylor

Elizabeth has known she’s psychic since she was a child (she seems to display just about every psychic power imaginable over the course of the book).
But unfortunately, despite spending most of her life trying to be as ordinary and boring as possible, she still attracts the attention of people hoping to control her and her powers.
Entertaining on the whole, although the end of the book is a bit confusing.

18. Gone with the wind by Margaret Mitchell
A classic love story set during the time of the American civil war. Follows the story of Scarlett O’Hara after (you could say) her life fell apart when the person she loved was marrying someone else.

Normally I end up having to read a few chapters before I begin to get into them, but with this one I loved it from chapter 1. Scarlett’s story was amazing to read (in a way given the pandemic too, somewhat lightened it for me), from how she has to keep on going despite tragedy after tragedy struck.

I’m not sure why, but at the beginning when they introduced Rhett Butler and he heard about her professing her love to Ashley, I just knew that she would end up with Rhett. I also rather liked Melanie right from the start, I thought she was sweet and I though she was rather like me

Hello everyone,
Back from les vacances and I managed to hit the 50-book mark!

49. Charming Billy by Alice McDermott. In two minds about this. I can imagine some readers loving this tale. The book begins at the eponymous Billy's funeral with relatives and friends reminiscing about his life. Basically, young Billy fell in love with an Irish girl, who had to return to Ireland. He sends her money so that she can return to America to marry him but she tragically dies of pneumonia. Or so he thinks. Unfortunately Billy is an incurable alcoholic and dies many years later of alcoholism. Fans of Anne Enright might like this.

50-53. Simon Scarrow's quartet of the lives of Napoleon Bonaparte and the Duke of Wellington. Set between the late 1700s to the death of Napoleon, this series looks at the early lives of both generals, their early careers, their rise to power and fame.
Really interesting - fast-paced historical fiction and eminently readable. Perhaps a little heavy on the battle scenes for me but I guess those are pivotal to the story!

54. The Long Winter book 5 in the Laura Ingalls Wilder séries - am reading these to my kids. A horrifically hard winter for the Ingalls family who have moved out west to the new town of De Smet, close to where they have made a claim to build their homestead.

55. The Wrong Mother by Sophie Hannah. Meh. Read this but couldn't get into to it and couldn't keep up with it. I think it was probably a case of my mind being stuck in the Napoleonic Wars followed by the winter-stricken prairie in the 1880s wild west.

Currently reading American Dirt which is eye-opening, and A year in the life of an English Meadow, and just started reading the 4th Harry Potter to my kids.

Courtesy of my new random number generator (DS!) I am now reading Anne Lister's diaries. I've heard a lot about her but I've never been to the area she lived in so the frequent mention of places is meaningless but other than that it's interesting read so far.

How old are your kids, EmGee? We've just read the 3rd HP book together and they're pestering me to start book 4, but I think they're too young - the Goblet of Fire is probably ok, but not the books after that. So I was planning to do one a year, but that means we won't finish them until 2024 .

Also, I got excited about your meadow book, thinking it was the one I bought last month, but it's not - I've got Meadowland: the private life of an English field by John Lewis-Stempel instead. Sounds like a similar premise, though, so I'll be very interested to hear your review.

Haven't reported in for a while! Been in Wales and the whole results chaos has taken up my headspace !

Did manage crime thriller We Begin At The End by Chris Whitaker. This is his third book and they are good for this kind of thing. He has set all his books in America despite being British but he has all the vernacular correct so must know the country. It's all quite similar to Jane Harper if you like her, although I find him warmer and he draws child and teen characters well. A nice redemptive arc and a compassion for foster children which is an unusual angle. The central teen is a bit precocious but not nastily so.

Good holiday type read.

mackerella we read the first 3 quickly then took a break after the 3rd Harry Potter - I’m only reading to the eldest. We read Goblet at 8 and we’re reading Phoenix at 9. Obviously the subject matter is older/darker, but also I feel like they have a better chance of understanding and enjoying the twists and turns of the story if they’re the right age. He may want to read the next two by himself, but wants me to read them alongside him so we can talk about them.

46. The Glass Room by Ann Cleeves

I have terrible trouble remembering the titles of the Vera series because they appear in general to have only the most tangential relevance to the plot. That quibble aside, this was a strong addition to the series with a bit of temptation for Joe Ashworth and an enjoyably bonkers plot. I do feel Cleeves plays a little unfairly in that I find the perpetrators are often wholly unexpectes with veru few helpful clues, but that may be because I'm not yet sufficiently familiar with her tells.

On the Harry Potter discussion, my eldest has just finished the whole series (read the last 4 to himself) and he turned 8 in April. He really wanted to keep reading and as someone who read wholly unsuitable books from a very young age and feel it did me no harm, I didn't have the heart to stop him. He absolutely loved them and was full of the ending for days. I don't expect he took it all in (although there were some tears for the demise of a small but large-eared personage) but I am sure he will re-read at a more suitable age and enjoy them all over again.

Mackarella whoops, I wrote the wrong book title - the Meadow book I'm reading is the one you mentioned!!

Re HP. My kids are 10 and 8. We had a break after the third book but the eldest got the illustrated Goblet of Fire last Christmas and they were keen to read it. My eldest is quite 'young' for her age, and the youngest is quite 'old' for her age so I decided to read the books to them both. I've warned them the later books are too scary for them at this point in time. So it will be back to Laura Ingalls Wilder after Goblet!

I've just finished American Dirt which is harrowing but hopeful (there are many kind people in the book among the baddies). It's too late to write a proper review but I would recommend it - it's a really gripping story.

Ha! How funny that we were all there at the same time highlandcoo and stitches !

We had an amazing time beach hopping and sky watching. The perfect tonic after lock down.

19. ASOUE the bad beginning - Lemony Snicket

I really had gotten into this series around Dec’18 after seeing the Netflix series and receiving the books, alas I had only read a few chapters of the first book (until tonight...read it all in under an hour). I found it spellbinding and despite having watched the series therefore vaguely knowing what was going to happen I couldn’t put it down. There’s generally something so much better about books than tv series/movies

While we’re on the Harry Potter topic ... I refused, absolutely refused to even touch them with a barge pole until I was almost 11 (world book day, everyone was dressing up as Hermione so I jumped on the bandwagon). I begun with POA (school library didn’t have TPS or COS). The dementor’s terrified me, but overall I came to love Harry Potter. until Merlin came along, then Harry Potter got kicked out

It’s a great part of Scotland to visit isn’t it Jolly

Welshwabbit I’ve read all of the Vera and Shetland books and the new Three Rivers one and agree with what you say about the perpetrator - even more so in the latest one. I still like them very much though.

I'm tickled by the idea of all you 50 bookers in Galloway at the same time! We need a secret handshake or something, so we can identify ourselves to each other. (Maybe we could adopt "FitzRoy" as a password? ) Did any of you visit Wigtown while you were there?

Thanks for the HP discussions. Emgee, my DCs sound similar to yours: they are a precocious and bookish 7yo and a bright but "young" (and very autistically "focussed" ) 9yo, so the difference between them is less than might seem on paper, which is why reading books together works well for us. And they LOVE discussing all the minutiae afterwards, so it's become a lovely thing to do as a family. Satsuki, your experience suggests that my instinct to hold off Goblet and Order until next year (when they'll be 8 and 10) is right. I take your point about "unsuitable" books, welsh (I was the same myself as a child!) but I think mine would get more out of spacing them out more - not so much because they're scary or disturbing, but just because I don't think they'll really "get" a lot of the more nuanced story elements.

I'm tickled by the idea of all you 50 bookers in Galloway at the same time! We need a secret handshake or something, so we can identify ourselves to each other. (Maybe we could adopt "FitzRoy" as a password? ) Did any of you visit Wigtown while you were there?

No Wigtown visit this time mackerella, partly because of the Covid restrictions but mainly because we had such unexpectedly amazing weather and wanted to make the most of swimming in the sea and walking in the hills. We did one beautiful coastal walk from Sandyhills to Rockcliffe and back and discovered some tiny hidden beaches we hadn't known about en route. Fantastic day out and cost absolutely nothing.

I'm hoping to be back before the end of the year and will plan a visit to Wigtown then. I love Shaun Blythell's bookshop for a rummage and Reading Lasses for undiscovered books by women authors as well as a cup of tea and a cake

I bet some of us have been in the same audience at author events or book festivals, or just mooching round bookshops at the same time. A secret signal is an excellent idea!

No Wigtown for me this time either - like highlandcoo, we were trying to make the most of the weather.
Although more beaches than hill walking for us!

151 - 153 Isabella of Angouleme: The Tangled Queen trilogy - Erica Laine

Historical fiction. I liked the first one a lot but the second and third dragged a bit. For those who don’t know, Isabella was the wife of King John. She was married to John at the age of 12 and ended up having about 14 children (5 with John and the rest with her second husband). This wasn’t a period of history I was particularly familiar with so was interesting to learn more about it.

154. Every Man For Himself by Beryl Bainbridge

Short novel set on the Titanic, featuring mainly fictional characters. This has won prizes but I was very disappointed. None of the characters are likeable and three quarters of the book is just them sitting around talking. I was pleased when the iceberg turned up!

155. Odd Girl Out by Elizabeth Jane Howard

Edmund and Anne are happily married until spoiled young woman Arabella comes to stay. Beautifully written as always with Howard’s books, and engaging characters even if you don’t always like them or their actions.

156. My Groupon Adventure by Max Dickins

A man decides to get over a breakup by doing a year of random Groupon deals. Quite amusing but a bit crude in places.

157. How To Eat Out by Giles Coren

A collection of essays about eating out experiences. I enjoyed this even though it’s very London centric.

158. The Sea Change by Elizabeth Jane Howard

This is one of her earlier books and I didn’t enjoy it as much as Odd Girl Out reviewed above. It’s still well written, but I was less keen on the characters and the story dragged a bit. I did enjoy the bit set in Greece.

159. The King’s General by Daphne du Maurier

I really enjoyed this one set in Cornwall during the Civil War. I really liked the heroine, Honor, and the setting of Menabilly which later became the model of Manderley in Rebecca.

No I didn’t visit Wigtown, we stayed beachside pretty much.

We also did a similar walk to highlandcoo - did you walk along an amazing white shell beach highland? It was magical.

Chessie - I was disappointed with the Bainbridge Titanic one. I thought her one about Captain Scott and co was better.

All this beach talk! I'm so envious.

I haven’t read any others of hers Remus, I only read that one because it was about the Titanic and I’m a bit of a Titanic geek. I might give another a try sometime if I come across a cheap one.

I didn't like that Bainbridge either but I LOVE her in general.

The Dressmaker and The Bottle Factory Outing are her best, I think.

mackerella I have noticed that my ds is a lot more switched on to the story elements and remembering clues etc that appeared early on now rather than me having to remind him and is enjoying it more as a result. I know he’s going to be sad about the things that occur in 5 toward the end but he’s equal to it I think! I got more upset at the end of 4 He reads loads of other things on his own - Percy Jackson and Frank Cottrell-Boyce etc but likes me reading these because they are quite heavily plotted in a way that’s fun to talk about.

Good idea to read to them together if you can - my youngest just isn’t interested yet and prefers being read more old fashioned things, so have a feeling I might be going through them all again in a year or two. I’ve got my voices down though