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?

@mackerella Glad to be of help!

@Tarahumara

bettsbattenburg, thank you for your review of Rough Magic. It sounds great and it's 99p at the moment so I've just bought the kindle version.

It's a bargain at twice the price. I can't claim credit for the review, I'm hopeless at them so I stole the blurb from Amazon. I hope you enjoy it Tara

Remus I haven't tried Hamnet but have DNF'ed a couple of others by Maggie O'Farrell because I found them overwritten. Slightly awkward as a good friend in RL is a big fan and keeps recommending her.

Just finished 33. Hamnet, and I concur Remus, a bit too ponderous and slow for me, although I think putting Shakespeare's family front and centre (to the extent where The Bard doesn't even get a name check!) is an interesting premise.
As far as Maggie O'Farrell goes generally I loved I Am, I Am, I Am and The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox but really didn't enjoy The Hand That First Held Mine, (particularly the modern day storyline) Hamnet sits firmly in the middle of the two extremes.

I have also bought Rough Magic thank you betty and thank you everyone for your concern, its just one problematic individual who causes drama and then blames it on others. Highly wearying but I will soldier on x

@EineReiseDurchDieZeit

I have also bought Rough Magic thank you betty and thank you everyone for your concern, its just one problematic individual who causes drama and then blames it on others. Highly wearying but I will soldier on x

@EineReiseDurchDieZeit I didn't realise you were related to Donald Trump.

I had a bit of a crisis of conscience today as I did get sucked into all the American Dirt drama and felt guilty for wanting to read it because of the good reviews but not having read much Latinx literature before. What solves this type of crisis but more book buying /borrowing eh? So as well as American Dirt I’ve bought / borrowed / audibled the following to support more of a range of voices (I hope)

• Hurricane Season by Fernanda Melchor
• The Adventures of China Iron Gabriella Gabezon Camara
• The Boy Kings of Texas: A memoir Domingo Martinez
• Bang Daniel Pena
• The Distance Between Us By Reyna Grande
• In the Country We Love Diane Guerrero

Going to try and get to some of these soon.

You are all such terrible enablers. Managed to resist American Dirt (and obviously the six other books you have to buy to assuage that, as very clearly rationalised by Palegreen there). But I have bought Rough Magic and while I was there thought it would be silly not to have a last look through this months deals. Naturally bought a couple more. You'll find out what in about a year's time, when they get to the top of my TBR.

Glad it's not just me with Hamnet. 'Ponderous' is exactly the right word.

@MuseumOfHam there is always justification for more book purchases.

See also book sellers need us now more than ever in these unprecedented times 😬

@SatsukiKusakabe

noodle you gave me hope, then dashed it away with mention of Goldfinch does Vegas. I’ll have to dive in and see. Maybe I’ll enjoy weird voyeuristic sex scenes and sniffing...

eine Hope you manage to get into something.

remus I didn’t get along with Hamnet either and DNF. Kept a low profile though as it seemed to be generally liked Also I saw an interview with the author where she said everyone was shocked to learn the name of Shakespeare’s son when she told them when I remember knowing this at school and didn’t think it was a big mystery. Not a criticism as such but an observation anyway. I hope you enjoy Stratford.

Hehehe, sorry Satsuki! I'm definitely an outlier for the Golfinch Vegas thing I know.

mackerella - Which early instrument did you play? I'm curious

I'm always looking for new books to read about Baroque composers, music and interpretation. If you have recommendations, please share!

YY re the name stuff. I thought his name was widely known.

Terpsichore - Great! Join the ranks of our admittedly small but growing ranks of Baroque fans on these 50-Book threads

I may have told you this before, but your name always reminds of the Terprichore suite in Fischer's "Musical Parnassus", which I worked on several years ago. Here is the first piece in that suite, the (the rest is beautiful, as well).

FranKatz - I was hoping that you would surface for this subject

Our choral practice has sadly stopped since March because of the Covid situation and we do not know how or even we will be able to start again in September. Are you still practicing?

Cote My choirs have been rehearsing online but have stopped now for the summer holidays. We don't know what is happening in September: we're waiting for the latest research from Declan Costello and others. It's a sad state of affairs.

Lovely piece and instrument, Cote. I had to go and listen to some Rameau after you mentioned him earlier. I've loved Les Indes Galantes for years but I confess to a soft spot for Platée as well. Any opera with a role for a marsh nymph gets my vote Even if she does get sent back to her pond in the end.

I'm a recorder player, Cote (although I also learned the baroque flute for a while). Also a singer and keyboard player. I tend not to tell people I play the recorder because it invariably elicits the response "oh, I used to play that at primary school - but it's not a proper instrument, is it?" (Why were we studying it at music college, then? ). I can see that this a safe space for that sort of confession, though!

For all you other French baroque fans: you might like , which demonstrates everything that is brilliant about this music - especially the chapeau chinois that they bring out for the Marche pour la cérémonie des Turcs at 09:35 😍

Re books (since that's why we're here, not fangirling over Lully) - I've got both Evening in the Palace of Reason and Music in the Castle of Heaven on my bedside table, so hopefully they'll make an appearance later this year.

I was a recorder player in my distant youth and play a mean crumhorn too .

Thanks palegreen for that excellent list to accompany American Dirt.

Heh, you're all coming out of the wood(wind)work now...

I learnt the name of Shakespeare’s son years and years ago when reading The Sandman, although I forget which volume Hamnet appeared in.

And wasn’t Hamnet also in some of the episodes of Upstart Crow? That BBC Shakespeare comedy with David Mitchell (the actor / comedian one, not the writer).

So yes, I’d assumed his name was widely known too.

Ha, talking of woodwind DS has decided to teach himself Turkish Folk music for some unknown reason. Last week it was the saz (a sort of lute like guitar) and this morning a zurna arrived in the post. This what it’s supposed to sound like zurna

You can imagine the racket in the hands of someone untrained. My ears!

DS2 plays the euphonium which is Latin for pleasant sound. A very badly named instrument.

@piggy

Since we’ve moved on to the wind section I’ll put my hand up to Treble recorder and Clarinet and join the virtual orchestra since none of you will ever hear how rusty I sound.

53. Lustrum - Robert Harris

Second in the trilogy covering the life of late-Republican Roman statesman Cicero, as narrated by his real-life secretary Tiro. In the first half, Cicero as consul works to undermine the populist, destructive conspiracy led by Catalina, making decisions that will have devastating consequences for his political survival in the second part of the novel.

The Catiline conspiracy is well handled (historians debate to what extent it was 'real' or whether Cicero stage-managed it to make himself look like the saviour of Rome), showing how Cicero is compromised by the reality of the political situation in which he has to operate. The self-aggrandising path taken by Cicero in the mid-section makes him difficult to root for here, although he does return to his principles in the end, making for a satisfying denouement.

I think this suffers a little from being the mid-point of a trilogy, and is not as pacy as the first volume, Imperium. Cicero is less sympathetic - it was easier to get behind him as a young man from relatively humble origins forging a path on his own merits, whereas here he is an established moderate politician with the not-so-exciting aim of maintaining the status quo. While the political manoeuvrings of the senate were covered in fascinating detail, there is little on the wider social context and so there is no real explanation of the widespread plebeian discontent which we see being exploited by populists like Catalina, Clodius and ultimately, Julius Caesar. This makes the novels feel a little thin and unnuanced.

That said, I love spending time in this world and seeing how Harris interprets historical events which I know well (and which he clearly knows inside out too). I already have the final volume, Dictator, out of the library.