50 Book Challenge 2020 Part Eight

[southeastdweller]

Welcome to the eighth 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, the sixth one here and the seventh one here.

What are you reading?

Hope you feel better soon eine.

There is a confirmed Coronavirus case at DS's sixth form so some kids are being sent home (not him, thus far). Feeling a bit concerned!

Eine I hope you feel better soon.

Hope you feel better soon Eine.

Reni Eddo-Lodge's wonderful book Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race is on Kindle Daily Deal again today.

I think the 'normal' autumn sniffles have started kicking in already for lots of people, actually, which doesn't help things just now. Hope you feel much better asap, Eine, take it easy.

Hope you feel better, Eine.. Health issues can look very dark when you're lying awake in the wee hours.

for those of you having a rough time. Sorry to hear that.

So late to the new thread! Term has started and it's been chaotic to say the least.

Here's my list:

1.	Idiot by Laura Clery
2.	Three Wishes by Liane Moriarty
3.	Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs? by Caitlin Doughty
4.	She Said by Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey
5.	The Hypnotist’s Love Story by Liane Moriarty
6.	The Holiday by T M Logan
7.	Force of Nature by Jane Harper
8.	The Secretary by Renée Knight
9.	Ghost Wall by Sarah Moss
10.	The Chalk Man by C J Tudor
11.	Standing In Another Man’s Grave by Ian Rankin
12.	The Bigamist by Mary Turner Thomson
13.	Midnight at Chernobyl by Adam Higginbotham
14.	Twas the Nightshift before Xmas by Adam Kay
15.	The Hunting Party by Lucy Foley
16.	The Lost Man by Jane Harper
17.	The Summer Before The War by Helen Simonson
18.	The Sealed Letter by Emma Donoghue
19.	Close to Home by Cara Hunter
20.	In The Dark by Cara Hunter
21.	The Black House by Peter May
22.	The Family Upstairs by Lisa Jewell
23.	Murder in Belgravia by Lynn Brittney
24.	Instructions for a Heatwave by Maggie O’Farrell
25.	The Offing by Benjamin Myers
26.	In An Instant by Suzanne Redfearn
27.	Three Hours by Rosamund Lupton
28.	Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch
29.	Manhattan Beach by Jennifer Egan
30.	All Quiet On The Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque 
31.	The Man Who Didn’t Call by Rosie Walsh
32.	The Man With No Face by Peter May
33.	Between The Stops by Sandi Toksvig
34.	Chasing the Scream by Johann Hari
35.	Skeletons by Jane Fallon
36.	Nine Elms by Robert Bryndza
37.	For The Missing by Lina Bengtsdotter
38.	The Lewis Man by Peter May
39.	Sing Backwards and Weep by Mark Lanegan

Will be back to review.

eine hope you’re ok this morning

piggy such a nervy time, hope it’s contained.

With all the Rebecca talk I've never read it, however, seen the Netflix trailer the other day and decided to order it so it should arrive today!
Actually looking forward to it!

I hope you’re feeling better soon eine

Get well soon Eine. We have five children off in one class and I am waiting for test results myself.

Rebecca is a brilliant book, one of my favourites.

to all of you feeling rough or worrying about tests.

The Darkest Evening -Ann Cleeves

The latest in the Vera Stanhope series. Ann Cleeves can do no wrong in my eyes and this was another excellent episode. It sounds contrary for a detective novel but I find something very soothing in the way she writes and I eked this out a bit as I was enjoying it so much.

The Bank Manager and The Holy Grail - Byron Rogers

I think it was Sadik who recommended Byron Rogers’ excellent biography of R.S.Thomas. This is a selection of his writings about West Wales. A very quirky and often funny but also irritating at times selection of pieces, focusing mainly on the people, history and places Towy Valley and Carmarthenshire. I’m not sure how interesting it would be if you didn’t know the area - I live just south of the Towy Valley and know it well so the places mentioned were familiar to me. Some of the people mentioned are worth further investigation - Richard Jenkins of Llandeilo’s Diary which I’d only recently come across myself is fascinating, funny and poignant.

Hope you're OK, Reise!

Ooh, a new Ann Cleeves. Thanks for mentioning it, Best, have reserved at the library.

95. Miss Bunting, Angela Thirkell
It's a summer in England towards the end of World War II, and a group of characters are getting on with small life. There's not much plot - tea parties and tennis, a meeting of the local archaeological society and a jumble sale. Normally I love this kind of thing but this didn't quite weave it's spell. There's no point complaining about social snobbery in an Angela Thirkell book - if it grates, you're better off reading something else. But here, the author looks down on a father and daughter because they're vulgarly wealthy but of the wrong class and it gets a bit ugly. That said, there were a few amusing moments and quite a sensitive portrayal of a woman's conflicting emotions when her husband has been missing for years.

*Small town life

Its not it's. You knew I knew it, right?

Didn't doubt it for a second, biblio.

I work at a university too, makerella!

Get well soon Eine.

Eine hope you're feeling better soon x

Heh, I knew there would be more than one of us, Tara! I'm academic-related, not academic, but don't want to be too specific in case I out myself. What do you do (roughly)?

Sorry to hear you're not well, Eine. Hope you managed to get some rest today, and had a lovely, tranquil afternoon listening to your audiobook

Thanks all. Only left the bed a few hours ago. Will see how I go. The audiobook I'm listening to I won't name but the review will definitely be strongly worded!

Hope you feel better soon, Eine, not only for your own sake but so we can enjoy the strongly worded review.

Get well soon Eine!**

62. Exploring the Roots of Religion - John R. Hale (Great Courses, Audible)

Series of lectures on the archaeology of religion, spanning Neanderthal burials via Neolithic monuments and Minoan palaces to Buddhist rock-cut monasteries. The title was a bit of a misnomer, as there was little analysis of the origins of the religious impulse, or discussion of the scholarly disagreements around the meaning of early religious finds. Instead, each lecture was a description of an archaeological site with religious significance - but still fascinating if you're interested in that sort of thing.

Also plowing through Mansfield Park, which so far is shaping up to be my least favourite Austen. Fanny Price just doesn't do anything (about from being silently moony about Edmund)...