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?

63: Redhead by the Side of the Road - Anne Tyler

Another very short book - I started reading it this morning and have just finished. Micah Mortimer is a classic Anne Tyler 'outsider': an unremarkable middle-aged man who works in an unremarkable job (self-employed IT) and lives alone in a small apartment which he keeps obsessively spick and span. But is this orderly routine really enough to sustain a life? When something happens to disrupt his self-imposed habits, he starts to question himself.

I've read most of Tyler's books and like some more than others - sometimes I find her fascination with social misfits a bit hard to take, and at first it looked as Micah might be yet another of them. In fact he isn't, not quite, and there are some nice turns of phrase along the way (Tyler can be very funny)....but things just peter out at the end, and this did feel slightly like half a book, or even an expanded short story.

110. A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara

Avoided this book for years because of its reputation as "depressing"

Four friends meet in college :

Willem, an aspiring actor from an austere loveless childhood
Malcolm, an architect from a family of privilege ever seeking paternal approval
JB, an artist from a contented home and
Jude, a lawyer and orphan from a mysterious and undetermined origin.

Yes, all of the stuff about Jude's childhood is horrendous to read, and I would say the book might need a trigger warning for some as it also has a lot of self harm content.

Yet, even for this I was engrossed, it entered me somehow on a personal level and I found it both wonderful and heartbreaking.

If I was to critique it at all, it is that it begins very much as a story of four men and yet Malcolm and JB end up as incidental, forgotten extras. Some of it seems a bit overwrought, a bit fantastical. Harold & Julia towards Jude. The changes that come in Willem & Jude's relationship. Some repetitive qualities.

Even so I loved it, and was very moved by it. Though I have on the whole been favouring non-fiction this year this along with American Dirt and Lincoln In The Bardo

I am the reader who had to DNF A Fine Balance for being "too much" so I would say don't let this books rep for being miserable put you off it. It is very sad, but beautifully done.

That should say this along with American Dirt and Lincoln In The Bardo are my best fiction reads this year.

23. Peaches for Monsieur le Curé by Joanne Harris
The third Chocolat novel. Vianne Rocher returns to Lansquenet from Paris. In the years since she left, the town has changed, and there are tensions between the old estabished villagers and the new North African community. More topical and more strongly rooted in the present day than the previous two books, which feel quite timeless, and with less overt magic. These are just the right side of warm and fluffy for me.

@TheTurnOfTheScrew

23. Peaches for Monsieur le Curé by Joanne Harris The third Chocolat novel. Vianne Rocher returns to Lansquenet from Paris. In the years since she left, the town has changed, and there are tensions between the old estabished villagers and the new North African community. More topical and more strongly rooted in the present day than the previous two books, which feel quite timeless, and with less overt magic. These are just the right side of warm and fluffy for me.

I couldn't put it better myself.

Oooooh now, did someone mention organizing a 50 bookers camping trip?

Books, camping, wine, clear skies for star gazing and possibly some sewing talk? Where do I sign up?!

56. The Last Painting of Sara de Vos - Dominic Smith

Sara de Vos is a Dutch still life painter in seventeenth century Amsterdam. Following the death of her daughter she paints a haunting landscape featuring a young girl. The painting is sold to meet her husband’s debts. In 1950s New York, Sara’s landscape hangs above Marty‘s bed having been handed down generations of his family and Ellie, a young Australian art student is commissioned to paint a copy of Sara’s landscape from a photograph. The story moves between seventeenth century Amsterdam, 1950s New York and 1990s Sydney following the painting and the lives of those linked to it. I really enjoyed this and would have enjoyed it even more if I hadn’t been busy at work and limited to a few pages each night. The characterisation is good and it’s unclear how the story will unfold and the destiny of the painting. Recommended.

@JollyYellaHumberElla

Oooooh now, did someone mention organizing a 50 bookers camping trip?

Books, camping, wine, clear skies for star gazing and possibly some sewing talk? Where do I sign up?!

I'll seriously think about organising one if people are up for it.

Camping, books and wine sounds amazing. Less keen on the sewing chat after being scarred for life by a home ec teacher (something about NOT PUTTING THE PRESSER FOOT DOWN.

Great review of the plough book @BadSpellaSpellaSpella I have that one to read later this year.

48. The Colour of Murder by Julian Symons

Classic crime novel (1957) picked up as a Kindle Daily Deal. This is split into two parts - the first is a first person account by the accused of the events leading up to a murder, and the second is a third person account of the trial. I didn't much like the first part - the (male!) protagonist was unlikeable and not in a way I found as psychologically interesting as the author obviously did. I did enjoy the trial part and thought (with a bit of professional background) that it was very well and pretty accurately done. And there was a good unnerving twist at the end.

@TimeforaGandT I really liked The Last Painting too - I've been giving it to sundry friends and family members!

"I'll seriously think about organising one if people are up for it."

Come to Wales and I'll be in!

I agree about a little life needing the trigger warning eine. I didn’t realise how graphic the self harm would be!

On topic of 50 bookers camping, if there’s Koppaberg I’m in (I’ve had wine a few times and HATE it )

160. The Small Bachelor - P G Wodehouse

One of his stand alone novels and I really liked it. It’s the usual sort of farce you expect from Wodehouse although this one is set in New York which makes a change from the usual English country house setting.

161. Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh

This is another of those highly rated books that I just cannot understand the hype for. I quite liked the first part of the book where they’re all at university, but I found the second half boring.

162. A Spool of Blue Thread by Anne Tyler

This is a sort of family saga book where nothing much actually happens. I often like that sort of book, but the characters need to be engaging in some way (either likeable, or unlikeable enough to be interesting). Unfortunately the characters here were neither. They weren’t particularly likeable, but not in an interesting way, just in an annoying family way. That meant I didn’t really care what happened to them. I did like the writing though so I’ll probably give Tyler another go sometime.

163. Ukridge by P G Wodehouse

A collection of short stories about a man who consistently has no money but always has an (unsuccessful) scam running to make some, usually roping in his long suffering friend Corky. I did like this (it’s Wodehouse after all) but not one of his best.

164. Watermelon by Marian Keyes

An audible ‘reread’ of one of my favourites. This is the first of the Walsh family books and features Claire, whose husband leaves her on the day she gives birth and then gets a shock when he decides he wants her back.

A Spool of Blue Thread was a DNF for me, Chessie. Quite a rare thing, as I do try to plough through to the end of everything, and doubly so for an Anne Tyler, but I really didn't think it was one of her best.

24. American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins
Lydia lives a middle class life in Acapulco, largely untroubled by the city's problems with drugs cartels, until her husband, an investigative journalist, writes an article about the newest cartel boss, Javier. Javier seeks brutal revenge, causing Lydia to flee for her life with her eight year old son Luca. Fearful of Javier's possible reach into the police and wider officialdom, she joins the migrant trek to the US border by over land.

I am aware of the controversy surrounding this book, much of it focusing on the inauthenticity of a white author writing a Latina voice, and the alleged inaccuracy of the depictions of Mexico and immigrant life. I am probably too white and definitely too ill-informed to add anything to that debate, although I don't feel entirely comfortable with the idea of policing who writes what. But I'll still have a stab at reviewing what was on the page.

I was hooked in from the gripping opening, a tragedy at a family party, and the action takes off immediately from there. The sense of peril at each turn is terrifying throughout. Lydia's reluctance to trust anyone she meets for fear of them reporting her to Javier, and yet having to trust strangers to stand any chance of escaping him maintains the suspense.

However there is some cheesy writing, and some of the minor characters are thinly drawn. Some of the plot developments in Lydia and Luca's favour were improbable. I also found the peppering in of Spanish words at random (why "futbol" and "el norte" and not "cell phone" or "border"?) a bit cringeworthy.

In essence, although not a novel with great depth, this read to me as a decent thriller, and I wonder if efforts to make this book something it's not, in terms of wider reflections on immigration and life in modern Mexico, may have been to its detriment.

ChessieFL brideshead was a dnf for me, I couldn't see the fuss

52 The Giver of Stars Jojo Moyles I was drawn to this by the setting; a travelling library scheme set up in 1930’s Kentucky. This book falls squarely into women’s romantic fiction territory, with an English upper class woman who marries an American to escape from a stultifying family and soon discovers that her new life isn’t what she expects. Volunteering with the library service gives her the opportunity to make new friends and transforms her life. The story is fast paced and the characters are engaging and have depth. Although the plot holds few surprises and the happy ever after ending for all requires suspension of disbelief I really enjoyed this, although I'm not usually a fan of this kind of book.

Brideshead - Being Catholic Is Shit by A Convert To Catholicism

Book 45 Born Lippy by Jo Brand

I remember seeing Jo Brand in 1992 and thinking she was amazing and shocking and a total revelation. All the comedy gigs i’d been to (not many, but I grew up in a seaside town full of traditional entertainment) were generally men telling MIL and ‘her indoors’ jokes.

I think that JB gig was probably at the time my feminist self started emerging and this book sees JB take on feminism and issues such as social media, parenting and adulting whilst being a female in general.

Pithy and rude as you’d expect, with a dollop of JB’s life growing up and becoming a stand up comic. Refreshingly giving no shits. This was a quick and enjoyable read.

Oh and Jo, I know you’re on here, so hi from a fan! [waves]

134. Sweet Sorrow- David Nicholls The touching story of Charlie who, against his better judgement, joins in with an am dram production of Romeo and Juliet in order to win the heart of cool girl Fran. It is very moving and nostalgic.

135. Revolution in the Head- Ian MacDonald The book takes each of the Beatles songs, in the order that they were completed, and analyses them. There is much interesting information about the groundbreaking studio wizardry of George Martin. I have previously read the book and really enjoyed it- this time I listened to the audiobook. Unusually, the reading was divided between many different narrators, with varying degrees of success. The rock hacks such as David Hepworth came off best, with some of the other narrators struggling to pronounce musical terms such as ‘polyphony’ and ‘crescendo’. I would very much recommend the printed book, but not the audiobook so much.

136. The Wall- John Lanchester I listened to the audiobook last year- this time I read it and I enjoyed it even more. I’m always surprised when this book isn’t mentioned when people ask on MN for recommendations of dystopian fiction. Even my 75 year-old father really enjoyed it.

137. Coping with Coronavirus: How to Stay Calm and Protect Your Mental Health- Dr Brendan Kelly This contains some good advice, all of which I’ve already forgotten.

138. A Walk in the Woods- Bill Bryson This book is always mentioned when we discuss the best Bill Bryson books on these threads, so I’m glad to have read it. It is most enjoyable and a hundred times better than the film.

139. Holes- Louis Sachar As with The Wall, I read this after having previously listened to it. I picked up some intricacies I’d previously missed- particularly the historic elements of the story- and I very much enjoyed it.

140. Wuthering Heights- Emily Brontë Unusually, I read the first half and listened to the second half. The prose is lovely, but the plot just didn’t grab me at all: I must be missing something.

141. Middle England- Jonathan Coe Thanks to those who recommended this when it was on the Kindle Deal. It is very cleverly plotted, taking in the 2012 olympics, 2015 general election, the Leave campaign, the Referendum, Trump etc. I would have liked even more about Brexit! Despite not having read The Rotters’ Club or its sequel, I found the book easy to follow. I raced through it and thought it was terrific.

142. The Coronavirus Preparedness Handbook- Tess Pennington I found this on BorrowBox and thought it would be useful in case of a second wave. The author has written other books about prepping, so I assumed it would mostly be about which tinned and frozen food is the most suitable to buy. In reality, it was rather terrifying! Written in early March, it includes all the Doomsday scenarios: what to do if the water, sewage, internet etc. stop working. I’m glad I didn’t read it earlier in the pandemic, as it would have frightened the life out of me. One of the suggestions, in particular, seems very rash now, in the light of our current economic situation: the author suggests that if you have six months’ of savings it might be a good idea to hand in your notice at work and hole up at home.

143. My Sister Lives on the Mantelpiece- Annabel Pitcher An excellent children’s book, beautifully read by David Tennant. The protagonist, Jamie, is a ten year-old boy: one of his elder sisters has been killed by a terrorist bomb, their parents have split up, they have moved to a new part of the country and he has no friends. It isn’t as grim as it sounds- it is actually rather heartwarming. It reminded me of Onjali Q. Rauf’s books- ‘worthy’ but very well handled.

64: A Talent for Destruction - Sheila Radley

Yet another of these East Anglian whodunnits, which are fast becoming my go-to comfort reads. Satisfyingly well-written and absorbing, with very plausible characterisation. Relieved that I've got three more to binge on.

Pepe - "Cote, I thought that was a wonderful review. I doubt I will ever read the book but you inspired me to seek out some of the music."

Thank you. It makes me happy to hear that I have helped at least one person discover Rameau's beautiful music

1. Harley Merlin and the Secret Coven.

A woman who is spent her life in the foster system discovers she has magical abilities and joins the San Diago coven in the middle of some magical troubles.

Not the best written book but ok.