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?

I’ve got around to compiling a list.

1. Little Women
2. Good Wives
3. Little Men.
4. Jo’s Boys.

5 China Court - Rumer Godden

1. Persuasion - Jane Austen
2. Me - Elton John
3. Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen.
4. Pale Rider - The Spanish Flu of 1918 and How It Changed the World - Laura Spinney.

10. The Year That Changed Every Thing - Cathy Kelly 11-15 What Katy Did and all the sequels ending with In The High Valley 16. The Corner Shop - Elizabeth Cadell 17. Still Life -Louise Penny 18. A Fatal Grace and 19. The Cruellest Month - Louise Penny 20. The Body - Bill Bryson 21. - 28 Malory Towers books 1-7

29. Lamentation - CJSansom
30. Bel Canto - Ann Patchett
31. Proof - Dick Francis
32. The Magician’s Assistant - Ann Patchett
33. Dead Cert - Dick Francis
34. The Sealwoman’s Gift - Sally Magnusson
35. The Long Call - Ann Cleeves
36. Ellie Griffiths- The ZigZag Girl
37. Lost Dog - Kate Spicer
38. Flying Finish - Dick Francis
39. Making it up as I go along - Marian Keyes
40. Under The Duvet - Marian Keyes
41. The Stranger Diaries - Ellie Griffiths
42. The Lantern Men - Ellie Griffiths
43. Take A Look At Me Now - Miranda Dickinson
44. The Year Of Living Danishly - Helen Russell
45. Escape to the French Farmhouse - Jo Thomas
46. Nevil Shute - Requiem for a Wren
47. On The Beach - Nevil Shute
48. Bill Bryson - Down Under.
49. Grown ups - Marian Keyes
50. One Summer America 1927 - Bill Bryson
51. The Man Who Went Into the West: The Life of R.S.Thomas - Byron Rogers
52. Jamaica Inn - Daphne Du Maurier
53. Broken Greek - Pete Paphides
54. Between the Stops: The View of My Life from the Top of the Number 12 Bus: Sandi Toksvig
55. The Five - Hallie Rubenhold
56. Bridget Jones’ Diary - Helen Fielding
57. Bridget Jones - The Edge Of Reason
58. Bridget Jones’ Baby
59. Bridget Jones - Mad About The Boy
60. Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier Five Stars
61. Susie Steiner - Missing, Presumed

30 of them are re-reads and several I’ve read multiple times. Almost a 50 percent rate of Re-Reading.

Great timing from me there .

I stopped doing lists for a while because mine is getting ridiculous, but then I found if I'm looking for what I (or someone else) said about a book then I can't find it without. The search function on this site is pointless. I used to keep it all on a word doc, but stopped as I haven't reviewed a book properly on here for ages.

I do like to see other people's lists though as I find it interesting to see what's universally bold and it helps me to choose things for my IRL book club.

I bookmark where I'm up to on a thread so I can't say the lists are an issue as once I've seen it I don't get it again. I'm happy to stop if people find it a major issue.

Here is my list, but if the future consensus is that we want to stop lists, I don't mind either way:

1. The Secrets of Blood and Bone - Rebecca Alexander
2. Little Women - Louisa May Alcott
3. Identity Crisis - Ben Elton
4. Sunny Side Up - Susan Calman
5. How to Stop Losing Your Shit with Your Kids - Carla Naumburg
6. Smoke Gets in Your Eyes - Caitlin Doughty
7. This Book Will Change Your Mind about Mental Health - Nathan Filer
8. Damascus - Christos Tsiolkas
9. The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo - Taylor Jenkins Reid

10. Thinking About It Only Makes It Worse - David Mitchell 11. Queenie - Candice Carty-Williams 12. Between the Stops: the view of my life from the top of the number 12 bus - Sandi Toksvig 13. Murderous Contagion: a human history of disease - Mary Dobson 14. The Testaments - Margaret Atwood 15. Other Minds: the octopus, the sea, and the deep origins of consciousness - Peter Godfrey-Smith 16. When I Hit You - Meena Kandasamy 17. Around the World in Eighty Days - Michael Palin 18. How to Find Fulfilling Work - Roman Krznaric 19. The Foundling - Stacey Halls 20. The Butchering Art - Lindsey Fitzharris 21. How to Raise an Amazing Child the Montessori Way - Tim Seldin 22. Seven Worlds, One Planet - Jonny Keeling & Scott Alexander 23. Tamed: ten species that changed our world - Alice Roberts 24. The Reddening - Adam Nevill 25. Peas & Queues: the minefield of modern manners - Sandi Toksvig 26. Bookworm - Lucy Mangan 27. The Last Hero - Terry Pratchett 28. She’s Back: your guide to returning to work - Lisa Unwin & Deb Khan 29. I Am, I Am, I Am - Maggie O’Farrell 30. The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work - Alain de Botton 31. Unreliable Memoirs - Clive James 32. Buyer Beware: a New Zealand Home Buyer’s Guide - Maria Slade 33. The Five: the lives of Jack the Ripper’s women - Hallie Rubenhold 34. It’s Not Me, It’s You - Jon Richardson 35. Psycho-logical - Dean Burnett 36. The Ghost: a cultural history - Susan Owens 37. The Language Hoax - John McWhorter 38. The Secrets of Time and Fate - Rebecca Alexander 39. Wishful Drinking - Carrie Fisher 40. Savage Breast: one man’s search for the Goddess - Tim Ward 41. Normal People - Sally Rooney 42. Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race - Reni Eddo-Lodge 43. The Multi-Hyphen Method - Emma Gannon 44. If Only They Could Talk - James Herriot 45. Northanger Abbey - Jane Austen 46. A Shadow Above: the fall and rise of the raven - Joe Shute 47. I Thought It Was Just Me - Brene Brown 48. Imperium - Robert Harris 49. Animal Societies - Ashley Ward 50. Botanical Folk Tales of Britain and Ireland - Lisa Schneidau 51. An Orc on the Wild Side - Tom Holt 52. The Language of Kindness - Christie Watson 53. Lustrum - Robert Harris 54. Love After Love - Ingrid Persaud 55. Biological Anthropology - Barbara J. King 56. Howl’s Moving Castle - Diana Wynne Jones 57. Into Thin Air - Jon Krakauer 58. The Wonderbox - Roman Krznaric

And in the last couple of days I have finished:
59. Haven’t They Grown - Sophie Hannah
Standard Sophie-Hannah-by-numbers: impossible scenario is established (here, the narrator sees her best friend with her two young children who don't seem to have aged at all in the 12 years since she last laid eyes on them), slightly deranged heroine tries to solve mystery, its an absolute unputdownable page-turner as you read it, and the ending is very... meh. It makes logical sense but doesn't justify the emotional built-up, I think. This was one of her weaker ones I think, very simple plot with little action or story development and a lot of exposition.

I will still read everything she writes because I like being immersed in the mind-boggling scenarios she creates.

60. So, Anyway... - John Cleese (Audible)

Autobiography covering the period from his childhood to the start of the Monty Python collaboration (bit odd that he decided to stop there and I hope he writes the sequel at some point). Very funny and I liked spending time with a man who is essentially a very clever curmudgeonly old grandad, complete with obligatory rants about politically correctness gone mad. My favourite moment was when, to embarrass/amuse Graham Chapman, he booked them a table for dinner under the name of Mr Hyena Explosion. Which will very probably provide my next alias when name-change time comes around...

I hardly ever do lists any more but I do like reading them so am firmly on the fence myself [shrug]

I stopped doing lists for a while because mine is getting ridiculous, but then I found if I'm looking for what I (or someone else) said about a book then I can't find it without. The search function on this site is pointless. I used to keep it all on a word doc, but stopped as I haven't reviewed a book properly on here for ages.

I do like to see other people's lists though as I find it interesting to see what's universally bold and it helps me to choose things for my IRL book club.

I bookmark where I'm up to on a thread so I can't say the lists are an issue as once I've seen it I don't get it again. I'm happy to stop if people find it a major issue.

I like the lists - I don't always read all of them but I also like seeing who has liked and disliked the same stuff as me! Plus it makes me keep mine up to date which I find useful for making recommendations to other people. Personally I find them quite easy to scroll past as they usually bunch at the beginning of the thread and when I come back to the thread I can click on the recent posts - but I get that they can be annoying during the first few days of a new thread.

Thanks as ever southeastdweller for the new thread

I like a list - I am a slow reader and don't always log in often, so it's a good way to keep up with any recommendations I may otherwise miss, especially from posters whose tastes chime with mine. But I think one per poster per thread is plenty, rather than posting a list on every review.

so with that in mind, and with sorry-not-sorry apologies to Meg, Remus, and the other list deniers:

1. March Violets by Philip Kerr
2. Ring The Hill by Tom Cox
3. The Stepford Wives by Ira Levin
4. The Lost Man by Jane Harper
5. Cat's Eye by Margaret Atwood.
6. Wakenhyrst by Michelle Paver

7. Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

1. The Secret Barrister - Stories of the Law and How It's Broken
2. Enigma by Robert Harris

10.Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata 11. Fleishman is in Trouble by Taffy Brodesser-Akner 12. The Citadel by AJ Cronin 13. The Mirror and the Light by Hilary Mantel 14. Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid 15. Lady in Waiting by Anne Glenconner 16. A Journal of the Plague Year by Daniel Defoe 17. Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams 18. Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots by Deborah Feldman 19. The Five by Hallie Rubenhold 20. Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell 21. In the Days of Rain by Rebecca Stott 22. Magpie Lane by Lucy Atkins 23. Peaches for Monsieur le Curé by Joanne Harris 24. American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins

Most recently, 25. Bone China by Laura Purcell Hester Why is a servant who travels to Cornwall to take up a new position as a lady's nurse, having left her last post under a cloud. The household she enters is ruled by superstition about Cornish Fairy folk and their wicked plans for its occupants.

This started off as a reasonable Du Maurier pastiche, with sinister housekeepers and grand Cornish homes a-plenty. However it went far too full-on fairy for my tastes, to the point where I wasn't particularly bothered what happened as it all seemed daft, even though I generally quite like a bit of supernatural eerieness.

The lists are only the first couple of pages though and then they settle.

I quite like the comparing and pattern spotting

Many thanks for the new thread, south.

I’m posting my list anyway....

1: Quartet in Autumn - Barbara Pym
2: The Sale of the Late King's Goods - Jerry Brotton
3: The House Opposite - Barbara Noble
4: Jacob's Room is Full of Books - Susan Hill
5: The Gathering - Anne Enright
6: The Night Fire - Michael Connelly
7: The Shadow District - Arnaldur Indriðason
8: 1939 - Frederick Taylor
9: North Korea Journal - Michael Palin
10: Clock Dance - Anne Tyler
11: The Missing Ink - Philip Hensher
12: A Very Private Eye - Barbara Pym
13: Odd One Out - Lissa Evans
14: Whistle in the Dark - Emma Healey
15: The Greengage Summer - Rumer Godden
16: Some Tame Gazelle - Barbara Pym
17: The Lying Room - Nicci Gerrard
18: Not in Your Lifetime: The Assassination of JFK - Anthony Summers
19: Our Friends in Berlin - Anthony Quinn
20: Airhead - Emily Maitlis
21: Pretty Jane and the Viper of Kidbrooke Lane - Paul Thomas Murphy
22: Conclave - Robert Harris
23: Bring up the Bodies - Hilary Mantel
24: Me - Elton John
25: The Poison Principle - Gail Bell
26: A Question of Upbringing - Anthony Powell
27: A Buyer's Market - Anthony Powell
28: The Town in Bloom - Dodie Smith
29: Short Life in a Strange World - Toby Ferris
30: Nothing to Report - Carola Oman
31: Somewhere in England - Carola Oman
32: The Bells of Old Tokyo - Anna Sherman
33: The Burning Man - Jane Casey
34: Rosie: Scenes from a Vanished Life - Rose Tremain
35: The Pulse Glass - Gillian Tindall
36: Eating Up Italy: Voyages on a Vespa - Matthew Fort
37: On the Plain of Snakes - Paul Theroux
38: The Tortoise and the Hare - Elizabeth Jenkins
39: Into the Wild - Jon Krakauer
40: The Benefit of Hindsight - Susan Hill
41: Jeremy Hutchinson's Case Histories - Thomas Grant
42: Babbacombes - Susan Scarlett
43: The Last Train to Zona Verde - Paul Theroux
44: Joe Country - Mick Herron
45: Rebecca - Daphne du Maurier
46: Trace Elements - Donna Leon
47: Nine Pints - Rose George
48: David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
49: The Catcher in the Rye - J. D. Salinger
50: The House by the Thames - Gillian Tindall
51: Pilgrims - Matthew Kneale
52: The Way by Swann's - Marcel Proust, trans. Lydia Davis
53: Actress - Anne Enright
54: Boys in the Trees - Carly Simon
55: Romantic Moderns - Alexandra Harris
56: The Chief Inspector's Daughter - Sheila Radley
57: Life Among the Savages - Shirley Jackson
58: The Man in the Red Coat - Julian Barnes
59: A House in the Country - Ruth Adam
60: Death and the Maiden - Sheila Radley
61: Their Little Secret - Mark Billingham
62: Apricots on the Nile - Colette Rossant
63: Redhead by the Side of the Road - Anne Tyler
64: A Talent for Destruction - Sheila Radley
65: The Dutch House - Ann Patchett

I don’t always do a list but I do like seeing them as a reminder of who likes similar things. I just always scroll on and they don’t bother me really as they’re only on the first few pages. Don’t mind either way though.

inmyownparticularidiom John Cleese has a new book coming out, this autumn I think, about Creativity (in fact that might be the name of it but not sure) in case you haven’t seen it. I’m looking forward to that and might ask for it for Christmas.

And good review by the way, I may look out for it if I get another Audible credit.

Not a list writer here as such cos I'm too lazy technologically challenged to copy and paste from my phone. But I write each book I finish in my diary as I like having a record to look back on.

Harlon I loved A short walk in the Hindu Kush.

I've just finished the book about the English Meadow (name escapes me) which was a delightful read about a Herefordshire hay meadow through the twelve months of the year. I usually read it during bouts of insomnia at night. Mythos by Steven Fry which will be me new 'go-to' read for insomniatic moments.

Currently reading the Adam Kay 'This is going to hurt' junior doctors memoir which is funny although I'm sure some of the anecdotes are invented or embellished to make a good story. Either way, it's a good read and they sure do work their socks off.

Thanks Satsuki, I will look up the new John Cleese Creativity book when it comes out. In his autobiography it was clear that he's thought a lot about his own creative process and is insightful on the need to balance left-brain/right-brain thinking.

Turnofthescrew - Cornish fairies you say? Bone China sounds like it might be right to my street.

I've been lurking (& occasionally appearing) for sometime.

I'd just like to thank southeastdweller for keeping this thread going & so many of you for all your reviews & recommendations.

My DH is not well, in hospital at present, and this thread is a place of sanity & joy for me on the internet.

I love the lists and would miss them if we stopped including them.

Sorry to hear about your DH, magimedi.

magimedi all the best to you and your dh, drop in whenever you’re able.

Thank you for the new thread southeast, it's always my favourite corner of the internet.

I like the lists as well even if I find them a bit intimidating especially this year when I'm so slow.

for you magimedi

Magimedi all best wishes to you and your DH

magimedi

I'm a list liker too, but ironically haven't got time to post mine just now, so will come back in a day or two to annoy all the list haters just when you thought it was all over.

Remus I think you would enjoy Rum Doodle (disclaimer: will not be held responsible if you hate it).

magimedi

114. No One Writes To The Colonel by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

I still, though I own both, have never managed to get very far with 'The Big Two' Marquez books, but including this have now read a few of his shorter works.

Depictions of small town poverty in Colombia but despite Marquez considering this his best work and it being award winning, it didn't really impact me in any particular way.

Thanks for the new thread, southeastdweller!

Hope your husband is out of hospital soon, Magimedi . This is definitely the sanest, kindest, cleverest and most interesting corner of the internet.

Apologies to the list haters: I'm about to post mine! (But I will just do updates for the rest of the thread.)

1. Hall of Mirrors by Christopher Fowler
2. Festive Spirits by Kate Atkinson
3. The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher by Hilary Mantel
4. The Ghost Fields by Elly Griffiths
5. Angel With Two Faces by Nicola Upson
6. Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozie Adichie
7. The Road to Little Dribbling by Bill Bryson
8. The Woman in Blue by Elly Griffiths
9. The Chalk Pit by Elly Griffiths

10. The Crow Trap by Ann Cleeves 11. The Dark Angel by Elly Griffiths 12. Normal People by Sally Rooney 13. The Stone Circle by Elly Griffiths 14. The Herring Seller's Apprentice by L. C. Tyler 15. To Siri With Love by Judith Newman 16. The Screaming Staircase (Lockwood & Co) by Jonathan Stroud 17. 9th and 13th by Jonathan Coe 18. Literary Life by Posy Simmonds 19. Bach by Denis Arnold 20. The Constant Nymph by Margaret Kennedy 21. An American Marriage by Tayari Jones 22. Smallbone Deceased by Michael Gilbert 23. England's Finest by Christopher Fowler 24. How Not To Be A Boy by Robert Webb 25. The Quest for the Golden Hare by Bamber Gascoigne 26. Masquerade by Kit Williams 27. Vermeer to Eternity by Anthony Horowitz 28. Wine and Punishment by Sarah Fox 29. Back When We Were Grownups by Anne Tyler 30. True Love by Posy Simmonds 31. Airhead by Emily Maitlis 32. Grown Ups by Marian Keyes 33. The Porpoise by Mark Haddon 34. Annabel Scheme by Robin Sloan 35. The Mystery of Three Quarters by Sophie Hannah 36. Noble Savages by Sarah Watling 37. Coffin, Scarcely Used by Colin Watson 38. The Time Machine by H. G. Wells 39. Look Who's Back by Timur Vermes 40. Where Do Comedians Go When They Die? by Milton Jones 41. Mount! by Jilly Cooper 42. Love, Nina by Nina Stibbe 43. The Hoarder by Jess Kidd 44. One More Croissant for the Road by Felicity Cloake 45. The Golden Age of Murder by Martin Edwards 46. Celestial Bodies by Jokha Alharthi 47. The Tidal Zone by Sarah Moss 48. Gentlemen & Players by Joanne Harris 49. The Watchmaker of Filigree Street by Natasha Pulley 50. Slow Horses by Mick Herron 51. Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens 52. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by JK Rowling 53. The Woman Who Went to Bed for a Year by Sue Townsend 54. Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman 55. Northbridge Rectory by Angela Thirkell 56. Apricots on the Nile by Colette Rossant 57. Chasing the Dram by Rachel McCormack 58. Growing Up by Angela Thirkell 59. Closed Casket by Sophie Hannah 60. Winter by Ali Smith 61. Tales from the Folly by Ben Aaronovitch

The most recent ones were:

60. Winter by Ali Smith
I really enjoyed this! I found myself unexpectedly gripped by the plot halfway through and raced through it to find out what would happen. The territory is very familiar from Autumn: musings about art and relationships, historical flashbacks and parallels, terrible puns, satirical sketches about modern life (especially the more sinister aspects of surveillance capitalism), slightly oblique conversations that hint at deeper meanings, Brexit, celebrity, absurd magic realism, unjustly neglected female artists, and characters with allusive names such as Arthur (Art for short), Sophia (as in wisdom), Iris (as in rainbow), Lux (as in light). I felt that Lux's character veered rather too much towards Manic Pixie Dream Girl - she was enigmatic, naively wise, a bit fey, and seemed to exist solely to help the other characters understand themselves and each other better . But it was good to see Daniel Gluck (from Autumn) again, and I enjoyed the breadth and ambition of the whole thing (although I do have a sneaking suspicion that all the characters are basically versions of Ali Smith herself...)

61. Tales From the Folly by Ben Aaronovitch
Short stories set in the Rivers of London world. I was a bit disappointed by this: I realised halfway through that I've already read some of the stories (not sure how!) and most of them felt a bit slight compared with the full-length novels. But it was good to be back in the world of The Folly, and I'm treating it as a limbering up exercise before I embark on Lies Sleeping and False Value.

Currently approaching the ends of both The Other Bennet Sister (audiobook) and Dead Famous (Kindle) but don't seem to have any time for reading at the moment. Hoping that will change once term starts next week!

I'm a list lover, too, and particularly enjoy seeing what others have particularly liked and disliked. But I've been struck this year by how few stinkers there are on people's lists compared with previous years! Are we all getting better at picking good books? Is this a result of sharing recommendations on here (i.e. the wisdom of crowds)?!

@mackerella

I dont italicize my stinkers but realistically I have only had I think 2 or 3. The Gift Of Fear is the one that really stands out as outright bad, as opposed to others that simply weren't my taste like Normal People

I’ve honestly had a great reading year if I think about it. The only one I would have italicised is the Jordan Peterson as I got a bit exasperated with it but even that was interesting to engage with. I think I’ve chosen quite a lot of sure things though for comfort this year, authors I know I like or subjects I’m genuinely interested in rather that ones I’m trying to be interested in or think I should try.