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?

@SatsukiKusakabe

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.

Thank you. It's a combination of being back at work (school), the DCs being back in school, eldest DC working in a geriatric care home for a year (great timing!) and grief which has all caught up with me tonight after weeks of being fine.

Remus! I would have gone into the wild with Henry Crawford in my youth, but nowadays I'd most likely join Fanny on her bloody boring bench.

Pepe - it's hilariously awful as a review, but also true!

The rears and vices is surely intentional. Our Jane was a clever little minx.

I'd like to think I'd still choose a shag with Henry, but if the bench has tea and cake, I'd probably go for the bench, much as it pains me to admit it.

I feel like fanny would have 5 fun, passionate filled years with Henry before he lost interest and she become miserable for the rest of the marriage....... compared with a lifetime of boring with Edmund

Sorry to interrupt all this lovely JA chat but you NEED to read this book.

192. Migrations - Charlotte McConaghy Set in a near future when many species are on the brink of extinction and the oceans are nearly empty of fish, a young scientist talks her way onto a fishing vessel bound for Greenland with the aim of following the last three know arctic terns in what could be their final migration. In difficult seas with an even more hostile crew she looks at what she's running to and from as her past is slowly revealed and the crew discover she isn't quite what she seems.

I don't want to say to much as I read it more or less blind and I think that's worth doing. I was captivated from the first page. Tightly plotted, beautifully written. I was caught out by most of the twists. The author is Australian with a background in screenwriting, but this is her literary debut. I can't wait to see what she writes next. This was fabulous and I haven't been this excited about a book for ages.

No. 1 Austen would shag. Brandon.

That book sounds great, Fortuna

I'd go for Anne's sea captain!

for betts.

I really enjoyed Underland and the only reason I haven't bought it in the kindle deal is because I spent quite a bit of time flipping back and forward through it which I find very hard to do on kindles. Am probably going to buy it in paperback though...

@PepeLePew

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.

Thank you Pepe and others, that means a lot. Onwards on upwards! I'm reading a lighthearted book which is a selection of humourous takes on parenting tonight, it's doing the job.

Have wishlisted that fortuna

I’m becoming more inclined to Knightley, accommodating, friendly, generous, GSOH, and can dish out the odd “badly done, satsuki” when I accidentally diss a neighbour in Box Hill.

121 Daisy Jones And The Six by Taylor Jenkins-Reid

Presented as a journalistic discussion type piece, a woman writes a biography about a short lived rock band.

The Problems :

Daisy Jones Is The Most Beautiful And Talented Girl in All The World

The Band Is The Greatest Band In All The World

Camilla is the Coolest Cool Wife In The History Of Cool Wives

The Email at the end is a crappy ending "They owe me a song" No, they really don't, fuck off.

The good side :

Read it in one big gulp, came along when I was struggling to find my next something. Rattles along, really easy to read and get into. It has SOMETHING or I wouldn't have kept reading into the night. Reminded me of the film Almost Famous a lot.

Mostly what I kept mentally comparing it to was Clothes, Clothes, Clothes, Music, Music, Music, Boys, Boys, Boys but in the sense that the latter is superior by virtue of its realness. That being a woman in music didn't come easy and was polluted with risks, that being in any band was precarious and fleeting for the majority and it was a lot grubbier than the romanticised world of Daisy Jones.

I would class this as an excellent beach or holiday read.

I also think that the series or film when it appears (rights to Reese Witherspoon) will probably be a good watch.

52. The Lonely Girl by Edna O'Brien
53. Girls In Their Married Bliss by Edna O'Brien

Very busy few weeks have left me with limited reading time, but I've now finished the trilogy. I didn't like the second one (The Lonely Girl) so much - Caithleen/Kate gets a bit exasperating and having everything in her voice becomes a bit much in this instalment. But I thought the final book, alternately narrated by the other main character, Baba, and in the third person, was really good, although so, so sad. I liked Baba's narrative voice and thought the juxtaposition with the more elegiac tone of the third person chapters worked really well. There is an epilogue in the edition I read, added much later. I can't decide whether or not I'd have rather not read it. The original ending is downbeat but leaves you with a hope the epilogue closes off.

@bettsbattenburg hope today is a better day for you.

Actually Pepe, Daisy Jones might be what you need right now to distract you from the world. Agree with all of Eine 's points both good and bad.

My most recent success in terms of unchallenging books which help you escape was The Wych Elm (review a couple of pages back), although fun it isn't.

I am currently on page 500ish of Gillespie and I hence lack of any more recent reviews from me.

Also I’ve read a few reviews from people saying that it really reflects the London they live in - found that a bit offputting and exclusive

You may remember that I didn't love GWO although I was glad of the recognition it had got. I did find the queer London theatre people rather unbearably smug, and although Evaristo has a few jokes at their expense, you can tell that this is her world. Personally I found that a bit off-putting especially as that's the world that the book starts in - there are other, less London-y sections further in (and I'm a Londoner. But smug London isn't my London).

Sorry Betts, I missed your post further up. Also hoping that you have a better day today x

I really disliked Gilespie and I.

Yes please to shagging Colonel Brandon.

Good grief. I've just noticed that Lucy Worseley has published a novel called The Austen Girls. Not something I'll be reading, as I think she's a dreadful writer (I was bored to tears by her book on Austen, even though I'm a fully fledged Janeite and would read pretty much anything about her) but maybe others might want to give it a go.

I did really like Daisy Jones, Keith. For what it was, it was fun.
I’ve been awake for hours fretting about RBG and the horror ahead. Tried to divert myself with a Jack Reacher but it’s not doing it for me. I am half way through a (very very good) book by Christina Lamb about how women are treated during conflict (clue: very badly) but that is not one for today, I don’t think.

31. I Am Not Your Babymother - Candice Brathwaite. I bought this as it was on Kindle Daily Deal and I was interested in reading about the experiences of a black mother but I now regret even giving a penny to this author. Most of her anecdotes seemed very conveniently told and throughout I sensed a ghostwriter (would have been fine if she'd acknowledged this) which makes me doubt her experiences asrecounted here. She's at pains to point out at thebeginning that this is a hybrid of a memoir and manifesto but that doesn't wash with me just because she (or her team) throw in a few articles and studies. All in all I feel Candice is a phoney sell out, and from reading her book seems to be a pretty unpleasant and aggressive person, which coloured my enjoyment of this. I also sensed that Candice was omitting huge chunks from her life story, so I googled her and there's some pretty unsavoury ways she's earned money in the past. Anyway, this is the worst kind of memoir - self-serving, inauthentic and dull, and I'm appalled Waterstones have this in their race and ethnicity section alongside superb books by Reni Eddo-Lodge and Bernardine Evaristo.

Just realised that I'm old enough now that all the JA men would be toyboys - even the really old ones like Colonel Brandon. (Would totally rip the flannel waistcoat off Brandon.) Yes to Wentworth as well. Or Tilney for a bit of light relief. Darcy, with his brooding superiority, can fuck right off.)

Brandon here too. Mmm. Maybe Wentworth. Must re read Emma (not read since A level) to suss out Knightley. I am probably more of an age for Mr Woodhouse.

Oh anyone except Edmund and Edward Ferrers and Mr Shelton.

eine yes good review of Daisy I thought it was kind of terrible but at the same time I did quite enjoy reading it

Wentworth went off in a strop for years though before coming back, imagine if you just mention he shouldn’t leave his sailor hat on the kitchen side. Hate sulkers. The most attractive thing about Darcy is he does admit when he’s wrong.

I possibly have slightly altered criteria than when I was 21 and still in my bloom

Welsh I was interested to see you thoughts on the rest of The Country Girls books, I've been debating whether to read them. It's good to know it's worth persevering to get to the third.

Pepe, I am also gutted about RBG. The world got little bit darker this morning.

You could probably have quite a fun affaire (Jilly Cooper-style) with Sir John Middleton from S&S - he's quite vulgar but jolly and good-natured. I read Joanna Trollope's Sense & Sensibility adaptation last year, and she portrayed him as a sort of Johnny Boden figure, which I thought was perfect .

I also read the Alexander McCall Smith version of Emma, and his Mr Wodehouse is quite a lot more fleshed out than the book - quite an interesting figure in an otherwise-annoying book. (I gave up on these adaptations halfway through the Val McDermid Northanger Abbey, which was terrible.)

Good point about Wentworth sulking, Satsuki - I've gone off him a bit now!