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?

Ours is only doing 'ready read' packs that you pick up and return in reduced opening hours, Stitches, so I don't think they'll be accepting donations, unfortunately. I believe they're hoping to re-open properly soon, though. I'm relying on their ebooks at the moment (though a bit frustrated by how limited the selection is - I pounce on the rare things I actually want to read with cries of joy).

41. In this Country We Love Diane Guerrero. This memoir is by an actress most famous for her part in Orange Is the New Black. However, she is also an activist campaigning for immigration reform. She was 14 when her Undocumented Colombian parents were deported and she was completely ignored and left to fend for herself in Boston. One fact that really struck me was that if every undocumented person in the states was deported America would have a serious food crisis because of the cheap labour provided. This was really moving and spoke powerfully of the mental health implications of living in fear and separating families.
42. The Party Elizabeth Day. From the narrator Martin’s opening police interview about an event that took place at a high society party a few weeks ago this was a very cheesy thriller. The ‘plot twists’ were entirely predictable. It was full of tropes around motherhood and homosexuality. The non linear timeline kept you reading but the story definitely didn’t hold up to scrutiny. I thought this was well received but I might be thinking of The Hunting Party?

Well, I lucked out on my reading this week:

56. Howl's Moving Castle - Diana Wynne Jones
57. Into Thin Air - Jon Krakauer

Howl is classic YA fantasy but I hadn't read it before (or seen the film). 18-year-old milliner Sophie is cursed with the body of an old woman by the Witch of the Waste, and takes refuge in the magical castle of Howl, a fickle magician and incorrigible heartbreaker. A page-turner in which the multiple narrative strands are almost perfectly woven together, this is definitely one for a near-future reread, so that I can spot all the clues Sophie (and the reader) is given along the way. I also liked the Welsh connection (Howl is a slight contraction of his real name...).

Into Thin Air is journalist Jon Krakauer's account of the tragic events on Everest in May 1996, in which 12 lives were lost. Krakauer was part of commercial guide Rob Hall's team, which was at the epicentre of the tragedy. In this case, I had seen the movie - the 2015 film Everest covers the same events, although is not a direct adaptation of the book.

Krakauer examines in compelling detail the events leading up to the fatal storm of May 10th, and even though I knew the outcomes for each climber, the deaths were still heart-rending, particularly the drawn-out series of radio calls made by one of the casualties, stranded alone and too high on the mountain to be rescued. Krakauer is open about his own (entirely unintentional and unmalicious) role in the tragedies, and fairly even-handed in his judgement of the causes (although he does come down hard on Russian guide Anatole Boukreev - perhaps deservedly, but Boukreev has written his own conflicting account). The rivalry between team leaders Hall and Fischer in getting their clients to the summit may have led to unnecessary risk-taking, but Krakauer concludes that, ultimately, Everest is always a deadly place to be.

The book was a 5-star read for me, but the Audible recording let it down a little. The narrator's attempt at a Kiwi accent was laughable, but then I heard his South Africans who sounded like they had come via Transylvania. After the sombre ending, it was also the most inappropriate jolly 'Audible hopes you have enjoyed this programme' I have ever heard.

As I mostly listen to Audible when doing housework, Into Thin Air gave me an insatiable appetite for spring cleaning. I mostly listened whilst standing on a stool scrubbing windows (controversially without supplementary oxygen...)

80. The Dirty Life by Kristin Kimball This is her first book, covering the period before Good Husbandry reviewed upthread, from when she first meets her husband, through their early years on Essex Farm. It's a fun easy read, but I didn't enjoy it as much as the second book - probably partly because of my age & the way that one reflected my experiences, but also I think because the farm is more interesting and unusual in it's more developed form.

I DNF-ed my latest audio book Bad Feminist by Roxane Gray - I really liked the introduction, & enjoyed her reading of it, but I found it just too US-centric. Ironically - straight after an essay where she says 'in many ways things are better for women than they've ever been in history' - erm, maybe in the States, I'm not sure all women in Afghanistan, for one example, would agree - she then criticises Caitlin Moran for a lack of cross cultural awareness in How to be a Woman. (She also cites one passage as if it were a straight comment & doesn't pick up that it's sarcasm.) I also got irritated by her essay about how it's unacceptable to write unlikeable women in fiction, & how anti-heroes are always men. Since the first - and best - anti-hero for me will always be Becky Sharp, and Jane Austen's unlikeable women are some of her most fabulous & appreciated characters (Lady Catherine de Bourgh... Mrs Norris... Mrs Elton...), I couldn't really go along with her thesis.

Clothes and Other Things That Matter is one of the best books I've read this year and I loved it so much I just bought the Kindle edition! What a bargain for 99p.

28. Me - Elton John. This was a generally by-the-numbers memoir, with few revelations and insight although I did enjoy his reflections on his 1997 version of Candle in the Wind.

29. Exciting Times - Naoise Dolan. Ava is a 22 year old from Dublin who works in Hong Kong as a TEFL teacher. She starts to see Julian, a British banker, and after Julian travels abroad for work, Ava starts a relationship with a young lawyer, Edith. Dolan's been compared to Sally Rooney and as a big fan of SR I fell for the hype and excitedly picked this up at my library a few weeks ago. Her style certainly reminds me of SR (especially in Conversations with Friends) but this story was never as compelling as I wanted it to be.

I have been good at avoiding the daily deals but lapsed and bought Clothes and Other Things That Matter.

Really glad you liked Into Thin Air, idiom. Such a good book. Krakauer knows how to tell a story and the phone calls from the guide on the mountain after the storm lifts are heartbreaking.

62: Apricots on the Nile - Colette Rossant

Mentioned upthread, and I was reminded that I had it around somewhere too, so I dug it out and read it this afternoon (it's very short). Colette Rossant grew up mainly in Egypt, living with her paternal grandparents and an exuberant extended family in their large, comfortable villa. Her father died when she was six and her French mother was mostly absent (she returned out of the blue after the war to reclaim a very bewildered small child).

This is a poignant tale in itself, but the main point of the book is the food - the fantastic descriptions of the dishes young Colette ate and helped to prepare as she spent time in the kitchens watching her grandmothers and their cooks. Absolutely mouthwatering, and my lunchtime cheese and tomato sandwich didn't seem as appetising, suddenly.....There are recipes too for anyone who fancies trying them.

I realise I've also got the two other memoirs she wrote, so I'm off to see if I can find those now....

Thinking I m might need a re-read of Into Thin Air soon. I struggled with the film, Everest, largely because I found it so difficult to tell who was who once they'd got all their climbing gear on.

Sadik I really went off Roxane Gay last year. She reviews a lot of fiction books on Goodreads and is quite mean-spirited with some of the comments. I'm all for constructive criticism, but your own writing would have to be pretty exemplary to get away with calling someone else's work, "a hot mess." She's also very naive to think women in the States have got it good, by W. European standards they have it pretty dire and it isn't that great here! I also agree with you on the unlikeable women, great literature is littered with some marvellous characters. The world would be very boring if we were all portrayed as saints.

177. A reread of Where the Crawdads Sing - Delia Owens for book club. I wasn't going to bother, but decided it wouldn't kill me to listen to the audiobook again as I need a reread or something light when on holiday. I very much like the nature writing element of the book and the vivid descriptions of the marsh, but this time round I was a lot more critical of the more sensationalist parts of the plot. I think it could have been a better book if it concentrated on the loneliness and human connection elements and didn't need a murder trial thrown in. The early parts felt very drawn out with all of the 'action' at the end so I could see why some people abandoned it early on.

In camping news, I didn't get wet, but did take the frankentent off the car in the early hours of the last day as the wind was whipping up. Half of the campsite was awake and out with torches checking pegs and taking things down, so I was not alone.

sadik I’ve seen that around a lot as an accepted truth that you can’t have unlikeable women and that it’s somehow a new thing and I just thought the people saying it can’t have read very widely. Mary Lennox in The Secret Garden, Anna Karenina, Emma. Even the much loved Jane Eyre isn’t exactly a loveable people-pleaser. Where does this come from?

remus that made me laugh, I quite enjoyed Everest but had the same problem.

They needed name badges.

Trying to imagine literature without imperfect/downright bad women - no Lady Macbeth; no Hedda Gabler; no Emma Woodhouse; no Cruella de Vil; no Abigail Williams etc etc. I like Pollyanna and Mary Poppins, but I wouldn't want to be stuck with just practically perfect paragons in prose. I want women with teeth and claws.

I think that initially I was OK with accepting that Gray was writing just about the modern US context - I don't read much contemporary literature, so it may be that publishers / reviewers do object to unlikeable women in fiction. I'm not sure the same is true in the UK - I know it's a bit old, but Bridget Jones for example would be deeply annoying if you actually knew her IRL. It was when she slagged off Moran - who basically is a journalist who writes funny columns / books / TV shows about her experiences as a British woman of a certain age/class - for her lack of universal cross cultural awareness that I got irritated. I'm not sure anyone would criticise Nick Hornby (thinking of a male counterpart) for the lack of universality in his writing.

Even Mary Poppins was a bit vain and quite strict really

Agree about Bridget Jones. She’s not particularly “nice” and that’s part of why she’s funny. Think too that this idea you have to consider all sides of anything before writing about could end up being stifling to writing and it is mainly women writers who are whatabouted in this way.

The Mirror and the Light by Hilary Mantel

This was gloriously written and utterly absorbing. It is very long but its such a smooth reading experience that it did not feel like a chore. It is more mellow and rich than Bring Up the Bodies, which has it beat for tension and the certain sharpness of dialogue and intrigue that Anne Boleyn brought to proceedings, but this is to the good as all three feel like distinct entities to me. This is an unravelling, but so subtly done that even as she draws you to the end you know is coming, it is somehow still a shock. The signs were there, and yet, not. It all turns on a sixpence, and could all have gone another way. Mantel inhabits scenes and reports conversations with such skill, and comments wittily on the past, the present and her own undertaking delightfully. Within the narrative, Cromwell’s past haunts his present, his beginnings are a part of his end. It is powerful and thoughtful and emotional and clever and really, unlike anything else.

For Esme with Love and Squalor by JD Salinger

The first time reading this collection of stories, and I really enjoyed them. Meditations on art and artifice and the search for meaning, they are funny, sad and moving. And memorable. My favourite was perhaps D Daumier-Smith’s Blue Period, but the title track has a lot going for it too. I am moving on to Franny and Zooey next.

Austen is dripping with "women with claws"

Fanny Dashwood
Lady Catherine De Bourgh
Lydia Bennet

The Silkworm by Robert Galbraith

I found this a lot of fun and a much needed bit of escapism after a challenging couple of weeks concentration-wise. I read the Cuckoo’s Calling a while ago and thought it was ok; this was better. Rowling has her Dickensian leaning toward funny names and odd characters, but at heart she is great at telling a story, her plotting is clever and satisfying, her writing laced with humour and a solid sense of place. Crime is not my go to genre, and I don’t linger over the gore, but I liked this and enjoyed going back to it. The main characters of Robin and Strike are quite appealingly drawn, their growing trust in and understanding of one another is enjoyable to watch unfold. Robin’s self-esteem-sucking relationship with a handsome but subtly emotionally abusive fiancée was accurate enough to make my stomach lurch occasionally in sympathy. I read it because I want to watch the series which is currently on iPlayer, with the adaptation of Lethal White coming up this week. I know people might say she needs a sterner editor, but this was pleasingly time consuming for me and I’m glad to have another couple of doorstops to get lost in courtesy of JK.

Just reading Rebecca again to give yet another example.

Yes there are tons. George in the Famous Five. Always having a big strop about something, not wanting to share her island or boat and always setting her dog on people.

Give me George from the FF over Anne any day.

Those who asked for the camp site details, it's good. The only possible disadvantage is for 50 bookers staying with other 50 bookers as you will still have a 4g signal so are risking buying all those books recommended during campfire chat.

Just checked again with DH whether camping might be a possibility. Nope.

@BestIsWest

Just checked again with DH whether camping might be a possibility. Nope.

You'll just have to organise a 50 booker camping weekend and do that on your own instead.

69. The Institute by Stephen King

12 year old genius Luke is kidnapped and taken to a secret government institution deep in the forest in Maine, where children with telekinesis and telepathy are experimented on.
It’s a great read.

Still wondering what a cheesedog hotel is though.

70. All New Wolverine Volume 1: The Four Sisters

Wolverine’s female clone, Laura, has now taken over Wolverine’s name. This collection has yet more clones trained as assassins in it, although these ones haven’t got the mutant healing factor. A quick and easy read.

71. Dracula by Bram Stoker

I’m sure everyone’s heard of this one.
An interesting read overall - Dracula’s got a few tricks up his sleeve that vampires in modern vampire fiction tend not to have - although it’s a bit wordy and slow in places.

72. Roman Quests: The Archers of Isca by Caroline Lawrence

This is one of DS1’s books, set in Roman Britain (AD 95). The previous book in the series had 3 siblings fleeing Rome after their parents were denounced.
This book focuses on the oldest sibling, Fronto, as he enlists in the Roman Army, and is then faced with a dilemma about whether to desert and search for his stolen sister Ursula.
It’s aimed at kids aged about 8 - 12 and the plot rattles along nicely.

A timely completion to add to the unlikeable women discussion.

62. Moon Tiger by Penelope Lively Booker winner in 1987. Claudia is an undeniably unlikeable and difficult woman. On her deathbed she declares she is going to write a history of the world. Instead we get a very personal history: 'I've grown old with the century; there's not much left of either of us'. Her close relationships are mostly spiky and awkward, starting with her brother, setting a pattern throughout her life. But as the surviving characters all visit her in her last days in hospital we see the bonds between them, despite the fact she never seems to have been very nice to any of them. Her memoir focuses around her time in Egypt as a correspondent during WW2. Beautifully written, and quite frankly, if Claudia hadn't been an unlikeable character, there wouldn't have been a book.

37. Drive your plow over the bones of the dead by Olga Tokarezuk

A middle aged women living in rural Poland finds herself in the middle of a murder mystery.

Alot of people seem to be describing this as a quirky book and id agree with this. You can't help but like the main protagonist Janina as she tries to prove that animals are behind the murders using astronomy.

However despite the plot elements, this is very much a character driven novel and includes a fair amount ok f philosophing. The author has done an amazing job of giving Janina a sense of voice to the point where I'm almost surprised there is an author behind it and not Janina herself.

Recommended

38. The city and the city by China Mieville

Essentially crime procedural novel with a scifi element to it. Two cities exist in the same place and if you live in one you have to 'unsee' the other, otherwise your commit 'breach' and agree punished accordingly. At the beginning a women is found murdered and she appears to have been murdered in one city, then brought to the other one.

I'm not a fan of detective novels so that element didn't really interest me and I didn't really care tbh. The scifi element was more interesting but didn't really go into alot of detail about why the cities were the way they were.

I'm camping at the moment (leaving tomorrow) and the book was an easy read and did the job as a holiday read but that's about it.