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?

Thanks Sadik and Mackerella! I think that Fanny is a very well-drawn character who makes good psychological sense. A shy, quiet girl put into a situation where almost everyone looks down on her, and constantly reminds her of her lowly status, would likely turn out just like Fanny. The problem is, she's not the sort of heroine I'm drawn to, and I get aggravated when the main character of a book is not the driver of the action. To be fair, she does try to shape her future by resisting Henry Crawford's advances, but that's a reaction, a drawing away, and it's getting worn down anyway by the time the scandal breaks out. I understand that this passivity is not really her fault, and that there's very little else she could do in her circumstances - but it makes it difficult for me to warm to her.

This was much more explicitly real than the other Austen novels I felt, with the hints at slavery, poverty and extra-marital liaisons, and this was probably what engaged my interest the most. I was very surprised when Mary Crawford made a potentially very rude joke about rears and vices in the navy. I looked this up online as DH claimed it was just my dirty mind and JA couldn't possibly be referring to sailor-on-sailor action, although actually scholars are divided on how to interpret it...

Idiom, I think it really is a rude joke by Austen! Agree that shit gets real in Mansfield Park.

The bit where Fanny goes back to visit her family in Portsmouth is an outstanding piece of writing. (I say this every time). It feels ‘real’ if that makes sense.

A tale of two bookcases for me, one filled with my nice editions and hardbacks, the other one stuffed two books deep (these are in the same room)

I have a huge soft spot for MP, as I studied it for a level and there teacher was so enthusiastic about it which rubbed off.

I have serious bookshelf-envy! The house we moved from in May was severely water/mold damaged which was causing my DP a host of health issue. On moving we had to get rid of pretty much everything permeable including our massive book collection.

On the bright side, I've currently got half a shelf of actual books in the new house so it's like starting over. Plus I've got my kindle which is chock-a-block.

Still though....shelf envy.

I had some of these at one time - they were really good

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Home-brand-collection-Invisible-Floating/dp/B06XPVWBDF/ref=mpssa111sspa?adgrpid=52713473483&dchild=1&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIo-fOw8by6wIVSePmCh1tHg-YEAAYASAAEgKv8fDDBwE&hvadid=259091591412&hvdev=m&hvlocphy=1006652&hvnetw=g&hvqmt=e&hvrand=6898397077031685206&hvtargid=kwd-303369058775&hydadcr=29751794139&keywords=invisible+book+shelves&qid=1600426841&sr=8-1-spons&tag=hydrukspg-21&psc=1&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUFDVzFVTk5ESFNNNSZlbmNyeXB0ZWRJZD1BMDAwMzg2NTJUSUw1WVRJSEVLNDYmZW5jcnlwdGVkQWRJZD1BMDk3NjM3NDE2UDNaNE8wN0ZPWUgmd2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9waG9uZV9zZWFyY2hfYXRmJmFjdGlvbj1jbGlja1JlZGlyZWN0JmRvTm90TG9nQ2xpY2s9dHJ1ZQ==

Love the Mansfield Park discussion, I keep putting off a reread but you’re all making me want to. Wonder if I’ll like it more. Anne in Persuasion is also an introvert, and when I went back to that I saw more in her than I had at first reading so wonder if it’ll be the same. I always thought that was an intended joke.

shit gets real in Mansfield Park I totally agree, and this is precisely the literary insight that keeps me coming back to this thread.

69. Walking to Aldebaran by Adrian Tchaikovsky A novella from the author of Children of Time. This is a more traditional sci-fi offering than his full length novels, with an astronaut unreliable narrator lost in an alien system of tunnels. The writing is entertaining, but I thought as I was reading it that it was not in the same league imagination-wise as his more well known works. However, the night after I finished it I had an actual nightmare about it, and have been thinking about it ever since.

A different sort of bookshelf has been keeping me busy

I have that jigsaw Betts - me and DD spent Christmas day doing it last year

@BookWitch

I have that jigsaw Betts - me and DD spent Christmas day doing it last year

i'm enjoying the different puns.

So did I!

I also have that jigsaw. I don’t think it’s one we have done. Perhaps we will give it a go.

Reading has stalled again. I have so many books I know I want to read but I am back in the early lockdown state of being horribly distracted by the news, with the added complexity of DCs being back at school and me being back at the office, which is all good but eats into time.

I really need something engaging and fun and not too trashy. Any recommendations welcome. Was contemplating a Marion Keyes. Just finished (finally) My Last Supper by Jay Rayner which was an odd mix of memoir, food musings, music musings and “look at meeeee”. Good at the time but unsatisfactory, a bit like a McDonald’s. (He prefers Burger King).

@PepeLePew

I also have that jigsaw. I don’t think it’s one we have done. Perhaps we will give it a go.

It's good but I'm feeling frustrated with it tonight..I'm not in the best of places at the moment

Enjoyed the Mansfield Park review.

I've said it several times on here, but here we go again:

1. I like it much more as a novel to study than I do to read - I think what she does in terms of metaphors to reveal character is really cleverly done - eg some characters go wandering in the 'wild' when they visit Mr Rushworth's estate, whilst bloody boring Fanny Price is tired and sits down
2. Bloody boring Fanny Price would be far more interesting if she shagged Henry Crawford

I've had Underland in hardback for months, but bought it this morning on Kindle, in the hope I'll actually finish it now I don't have to lug the hardback around. It's definitely my sort of content, but he does go on a bit. When he's good, I think he's an exceptional writer.

I thought some chapters of understand were great and really had me engaged, others I found abit boring. Because of the way the chapters are, you could just skip to the next more interesting chapter if your didn't like it and not lose the thread.

Overall though im really glad I read it and I learnt alot

Betts

Have bought In A Lonely Place on the kindle deal, have a soft spot for film noir in literary form! I should really stop getting library books out and focus more on what I have bought on the kindle though

Thanks badspella and remus I might take a punt on it.

I’m going to start buying jigsaw puzzles and paperback specific shelving off the back of this thread now it’s getting ridiculous.

Hope you’re ok betts and yes it is getting all a bit heavy going pepe. The kids going back to school is just another layer of stuff to remember and be anxious about. I’ve got one back home ill already.

cludgie my local library has just steamed back into the game with a few reservations all at once and I was on a bit of a Kindle roll.

Not been on this thread for ages, but reading more than last year when I managed 40 in the entire year.
My list Books in 2020

1.	Towards zero by Agatha Christie
2.	L’oiseau de mauvais augure - Camilla Lackberg 
3.	Eve was framed
4.	Your life in my hands, Dr. Rachel Clarke 
5.	50 things that made the modern economy (Audio)
6.	Walking with Plato 
7.	Thin Air by Ann Cleeves
8.	Zeitenwende
9.	Last confession of Thomas Hawkins
10.	White nights by Ann Cleves
11.	Un échec de Maigret
12.	Deeds not Words
13.	Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad
14.	The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins 
15.	Red Bones by Ann Cleeves 
16.	Look into my eyes - Aspergers, Hypnosis and Me. Dan Jones
17.	A pocket full of rye, Agatha Christie 
18.	Transcription, Kate Atkinson 
19.	Stephen Morris, Nevil Shute
20.	Salmon fishing in the Yemen
21.	The black ice, Michael Connelly 
22.	The pursuit of love, Nancy Mitford 
23.	The Body by Bill Bryson (Audible)
24.	La Sirène, Camilla Läckberg
25.	The Conservationist, Nadine Gordimer 
26.	Slaughter in the Cotswolds, Rebecca Tope
27.	A zoo in my luggage, Gerald Durrell
28.	Between the stops, Sandi Toksvig
29.	Humble Pi, Matt Parker
30.	The Lacuna, Barbara Kingsolver
31.	Blue Lightening, Ann Cleves
32.	Affaire Classee, Danielle Thierry
33.	Frozen in time. Ali Sparkes
34.	Cold Earth, Ann Cleves
35.	Wilding, Isabella Tree
36.	Ghost moth, Michele Forbes
37.	Dark water, Ann Cleves
38.	Lady of the English, Elizabeth Chadwick 
39.	Factfulness, Hans Rosling
40.	La dernière des Stanfield, Marc Levy

I particularly enjoyed Factfulness, which was a Christmas/ birthday present for DS1 from relatives but he hadn't read. It is a great book about how much things have improved in the world in the last 50 years and how to question facts and numbers in the media. I've now got it on audible for ds1 and he's enjoying it too.

That’s a tempting looking jigsaw betts!
Hope things get better soon

Of all JA's heroines, Fanny Price, Anne Eliot & Elinor Dashwood are the three I could imagine being friends with (with the caveat that Elinor would be one of those slightly organising friends who you love and are grateful for but have to hide from sometimes). And I've always totally assumed that the Rears & Vices joke was intentional.

I’m so sorry, betts. I know you’ve had a tough few months and all the craziness in the world cannot be helping. Sending you warm reading wishes and lots of support.

As we are chatting about Jane Austen, let me just share this which I came across on Twitter.