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?

Most of mine are upstairs - alphabeticaaly arranged (fiction) but just within the letter of the alphabet. So Larsson comes after Lawrence................ fits the shlef better. I know where they are and all to hand.

Poetry has its own shelves.

I've got rid of a lot of books as I have them on kindle but I find it very hard to read poetry on kindle.

So many typos!

But here they are:

Keith yes! I've been following for a while, love that account. It's been a bit quiet lately, in fact. Maybe we've reached peak bookcase.

for all those struggling.

I also don’t have many visitors, but even if I did most of my books are upstairs so wouldn’t be seen by visitors. When we first started lockdown and had a video call someone did ask if I was calling from a library as I had two bookcases behind me. I also have had conversations that go like this a couple of times:

Them: ‘I love reading and read a lot’
Me: ‘Me too!’ [looks forward to long conversation about all the books we’ve read]
Them: ‘Yes, last year I read 12 books! I was very pleased. How many did you read?’
Me: ‘Over 200’
Them: ‘Oh’

It’s interesting how we all define ‘reading a lot’ depending on our own lifestyles and also I suppose how much the people around us read. I obviously don’t consider reading 12 books a year a lot, but I suppose if all your friends only ever read one or two books, reading 12 will seem a lot. Note please that I’m not judging at all, those that read less than me probably get far more done and have other hobbies and a social life! I do virtually nothing other than read and work which is how I manage to get through so many.

My bookshelves aren't that awe-nspiring tbh. I've moved a lot so they"ve been pruned, and most of my reading is from the library or Kindle.

For some reason, I've never really had bookish friends or a bookish partner, which is a bit of a shame.

71: Cold as the Grave - James Oswald

I noticed a week or two ago that a new instalment in this series of Scottish-crime-with-a-slightly-woo-twist had come up on the daily deal, so thought I'd better get on and read the previous one, which was on the tbr pile.

9 books in, the irritating quirks are well in place: Oswald's protagonist, DCI Tony McLean, is so perpetually exhausted he can never remember the last time he ate anything; nor does he sleep more than about three hours a night. We get it - he's overworked. And his relationship with forensic investigator Emma is, in traditional style, a dead duck, obvious to the reader but not to him.

There's usually a healthy dose of humour that saves these books but I felt it was a bit lacking here. OK but nothing special.

ChessieFL - I've had more or less that exact same conversation with friends (although I read around 50 a year) lol again im not judging either, it's a big hobby of mine so alot to me is different to someone else.

@magimedi I love the look of yours, lots of older editions. Here’s a little portion of mine in the spirit of nosiness. I do read more on my kindle these days but I’m trying to get through these and the others scattered around the house.

@Terpsichore

I just finished Cold as the Grave and totally agree with you. So often crime fiction writers seem to become fomulaic as they carry on churning out the series!

@Palegreenstars

Older editions as I am old

magi I realise it must be difficult to keep a successful series going but...I suppose at least he isn’t quite taking it to Peter James levels and actually cutting and pasting chunks from one book to the next!

I’m wondering whether I might have wasted my 99p investment on the next JO book though

to everyone who’s having a tough time at the moment

I’m loving the bookcase photos - here’s my contribution. All fiction shelved in strictly alphabetical order and non-fiction by theme.

Should have said, crime fiction has its own section. It doesn’t mix with the more literary books
And this is the TBR/just read pile by the bed. When it gets higher than the bedside table I’m not allowed to buy any more books until it subsides!

Loving the bookcase photos. Like biblio, mine aren't especially awesome or representative of my current reading tastes as their former contents have been rationalised, charity shopped and given away over many years, and much of my reading is now on kindle.

66. The Con Man by Ed McBain
67. Ax by Ed McBain
68. Bread by Ed McBain These three police procedurals are from the extremely long running 87th Precinct series, one example respectively from the 1950s (Con Man), 1960s (Ax) and 1970s (Bread). Ed McBain (Evan Hunter) continued writing them until his death in 2005, by which point there were over 50 in the series. As with many of you re-reading Dick Francis over lockdown, this was a bit of a nostalgia read. These are the crime fiction books that I remember my parents having on their shelves growing up, and I probably last read one of these as a teen. They have stood up pretty well. I was braced for attitudes to women and race to be 'of their time', but actually the attitude to race is woven through quite thoughtfully, in the fictional city of Isola, whose population is every bit as diverse as the New York it represents. In Bread in particular the issue of a racist cop who also happens to be good at his job is mulled over as a bit of a problem, which was quite refreshing. Women are somewhat objectified, but to be fair his descriptions of men often also lead on how attractive, or not, they are. The three books all have in common the detective Steve Carrella, who is a likeable character who is more of a thinker than an all action hero. These are well plotted, hard boiled and mostly zip along, driven by witty dialogue. Enjoyed these, and would read more.

I'm going to do my Shelfie (like Selfie, geddit) later, but yes I get similar to Chessie. also

Feeling loads better today, 2 people close to me have tested positive but I was negative.

Terrifying few days much!

A selection of my books, ordered vaguely by category/author but mostly by the 'bung it where it will fit' method

That's upstairs, if a visitor came into the lounge they'd get a selection of ancient and modern kids' books.

Loving looking at everyone's shelfies, my books are mainly in a book case unit with doors on it, specifically purchased to hide the messy books! So I tend to thrown them in every which way and have two rows of books on each shelf but I feel inspired to alphabetise them now I've seen everybody else's lovely shelves!
@KeithLeMonde did you read The Glass Palace? I thought it started well but by about a third of the way in it felt like wading through treacle and I DNF.

Shelfie

Aaaah Eine you have the beautiful books whose covers were designed by Coralie Bickford-Smith. I have some but not many so far...

Desdemona - I loved The Glass Palace but I did read it quite a long time ago.

No way am I sharing any of my bookshelf photos - it's all way too chaotic!! Although thank you all for inspiring me to do something about it.

@nowanearlyNicemum

Yeah I am due to add to the collection, hopefully Father Christmas thinks I've been nice.

Some of them are getting hard to come by which makes me itchy as I cant afford to just say Fuck It and get the Job Lot

I'm so impressed by all the beautiful bookshelves. I'm afraid mine are rather more haphazard. This is from my bedroom.

I've not had much time for posting, or reading for that matter over the last few weeks but have been trying to keep up with reading the thread and adding to the 'books I must read' list.

Sorry to read of illnesses and bereavements I hope you find as much comfort in reading and in these threads as I do. It's like pulling on a warm comfy cardigan, getting a cup of tea and curling up on the sofa.

My list to date:

1. Missing by Karin Altvegen
2. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
3. A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson
4. The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Attwood
5. To the Land of Long Lost Friends by Alexander McCall Smith
6. The Heart's Invisible Furies by John Boyne
7. Circe by Madeline Miller
8. Girl Woman Other by Bernadine Evaristo
9. Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie

10. Those People by Louise Candlish 11. The Stationery Shop of Tehran by Marjan Kamali 12. All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Duerr 13. Tidelands Philippa Gregory 14. To Kill a Mockingbird Harper Lee 15. Song of Achilles Madeline Miller 16. The Storyteller Jodi Picoult 17. I Capture the Castle Dodie Smith 18. Rebecca Daphne du Maurier 19. My Cousin Rachel by Daphne du Maurier 20. Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens 21. The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker 22. The Other Half of Augusta Hope by Joanna Glen 23. A Distant View of Everything by Alexander McCall Smith 24. The Beekeeper of Aleppo by Christy Lefteri 25. Birdcage Walk by Helen Dunmore 26. Raven Black by Ann Cleeves 27. Legacy by Yrsa Sigurdadottir 28. White Nights by Ann Cleeves 29. The Reckoning by Yrsa Sigurdadottir 30. Red Bones by Ann Cleeves 31. Absolution by Yrsa Sigurdadottir 32. Midwinter Sacrifice by Mons Kallentoft 33. Savage Spring by Mons Kallentoft 34. The Fifth Season by Mons Kallentoft

These three are from a Swedish crime series featuring detective Malin Fors, single mum to a teenage daughter who struggles to balance motherhood and career. The style takes a bit of getting used to, present tense with multiple narrative voices including the dead. I found the setting of a provincial city, Linkoping, with its perennial problems of social inequality, homelessness, poverty, tensions over immigration etc interesting. Not exactly the perfect Scandinavian society the media likes to portray. The first two books were good but the third markedly less so, the author seemed to lose his way a bit and I found the graphic violence against women uncomfortable. I might give the series one more chance if they're cheap on Kindle.

35. The Last of the Moon Girls by Barbara Davis

An Amazon freebie that I liked more than I expected to. A murder mystery/romance with a dash of witchcraft thrown in.

36. The Son and Heir by Alexander Muninghoff

Another freebie! When 4 year old Alexander finds an SS helmet in the attic and parades in front of his family he realises that it symbolises something unmentionable. In this memoir Alexander explores the lives of his authoritarian Dutch grandfather who emigrated to Latvia where he founded a business empire and married into the German-Russian aristocracy, and his father Franz who rebelled against his father's determination to make him a Dutchman by identifying with the German community in Riga and ultimately joining the SS. The book is an interesting examination of nationality and identity alongside the personal stories of Alexander's parents during and after the war.

37. Between the Stops by Sandi Toksvig

A few people have favourably reviewed this collection of episodes from Sandi's life and snippets of London history along the No.12 bus route. I enjoyed it and will read some of her other work one of these days.

38. Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng

Begins with the unexplained death of 16 year old Lydia then jumps back in time to portray the lives of her parents Marilyn and James. Marilyn is the clever daughter of a single mother who is determined not to lead the same kind of restricted life as her mother. On track to become a doctor she gives it up to marry James, academic lecturer and son of Chinese immigrants. The story works forwards through their marriage and births of their three children showing the effects of prejudice against Chinese-Americans on all of them and how Marilyn's thwarted ambition impacts on her children. Lydia's life is not what anyone thought it was and neither is her death.

39. Blue Lightning by Ann Cleeves

Another of the Shetland series which is consistently good. I heard Ann Cleeves on the radio the other day and will try her Vera series as well.

40. The End of the Line by Andrea Camilleri

The Inspector Montalbano detective series set in Sicily gets really good reviews but I am a bit mystified as to why. It wasn't bad but I found the characters very one-dimensional and the plot painfully slow. Then it just petered out at the end.....

I'm pleased to have reached 40 books, hopefully 50 for the year is now doable.

I feel I should go and tidy the bookshelves too.

Thanks for posting yours boiledegg! I’ve just bought a bigger book case for the sitting room so it’s actually reasonably tidy but that is a recent occurrence, otherwise it is piles everywhere.

My dh said to me this morning “all you talk to me about is books and bookish things” in a not unpleasant, observational way.

It’s taken 5 months of spending every day together for him to notice.

Shelfie!