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50 Book Challenge 2020 Part Eight

999 replies

southeastdweller · 01/09/2020 14:00

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?

OP posts:
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47
bettsbattenburg · 03/09/2020 10:30

@Terpsichore

betts, I have to ask - and you were surprised that the 'master storyteller' and host of fabled Krug-and shepherds-pie parties was smug and arrogant.....why, exactly?! Grin
I expected he would be but was hoping my opinion was wrong rather then having it confirmed so no, not at all surprised.
Welshwabbit · 03/09/2020 10:33

@bettsbattenburg I must have read First Among Equals about ten times as a child, and I am still convinced that it is a wholly accurate portrayal of British politics.

bettsbattenburg · 03/09/2020 10:55

[quote Welshwabbit]**@bettsbattenburg* I must have read First* Among Equals about ten times as a child, and I am still convinced that it is a wholly accurate portrayal of British politics.[/quote]
So am I.

BookWitch · 03/09/2020 11:26

I fell badly off this thread, as I have had the shittest Summer ever, which culminated in my mum passing away 6 days after she was discharged from hospital with stomach cancer, and two days after her funeral I had to have my dog put to sleep. You couldn't make it up, and I keep having to have upsetting conversations with people who didn't even know she was ill (six weeks from feeling 'a bit off-colour') It has been exhausting and intense, and I have barely picked up a book since mid-July.
I'm trying desperately hard to get back into reading now, actually scheduling an hour a day to force myself. I've got far too much into watching shit TV and doomscrolling through FB.

Anyway, here is my list. I was doing quite well until July:

  1. Tall Tales and Wee Stories by Billy Connelly
  2. It's Your Time You're Wasting by Frank Chalk
  3. The Familiars by Stacy Halls
  4. Hidden Figures by Margaret Lee Shetterly
  5. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
  6. Cyffession Seasnes Yng Nghymru by Sarah Reynolds
  7. The Secret River by Kate Grenville
  8. American Gods by Neil Gaiman
  9. My Sister the Serial Killer by by Oyinkan Braithwaite
  10. Born Lippy by Jo Brand
  11. Down Under by Bill Bryson
  12. Prisoners by Geography by Tim Marshall
  13. The Twisted Tree by Rachel Burke
  14. Oranges are Not the Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson
  15. The Dutch House by Ann Patchett
  16. The Tent, The Bucket and Me by Emma Kennedy
  17. Mother Tongue by Bill Bryson
  18. A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson
  19. Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams
  20. The Celts by Alice Roberts
  21. Fingersmith by Sarah Waters
  22. Teithio drwy Hanes by Jon Gower
  23. Lady of Hay by Barbara Erskine
  24. The Life and Time of the Thunderbolt Kid by Bill Bryson
  25. Saint Peter's Fair by Ellis Peters
  26. Before Wallis by Rachel Trethewey
  27. Azincourt by Bernard Cornwell
  28. Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
  29. A Place called Freedom by Ken Follett
  30. Normal People by Sally Rooney
  31. Brick Lane by Monica Ali
  32. Yellow Crocus by Laila Ibrahim
  33. Eleanor of Aquitaine by Alison Weir
  34. The Penelopiad by Margaret Attwood
  35. The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce
  36. Arwyr Cymru by Jon Gower
  37. Shakespeare by Bill Bryson
  38. Anna of Kleve (Six Tudor Queens series) by Alison Weir
  39. Note from a Small Island by Bill Bryson
  40. Dark Age by James Wilde
  41. The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Settlefield
  42. Rise Up Women: The Extraordinary Lives of the Suffragettes by Diana Atkinson
  43. David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
  44. The Alice Network by Kate Quinn
  45. 1927 One Summer in America by Bill Bryson
  46. The Irish Princess by Elizabeth Chadwick

I am currently reading A Woman of No Importance - enjoying it but I am going slowly. Heroes by Stephen Fry on Audible - love his narration, but finding it difficult to follow all the character names (fuggy brain) and The Foundling by Stacey Halls- an easy read, and nearly finished so that will be my next review in a day or so

BestIsWest · 03/09/2020 11:33

Bookwitch Flowers That’s really shit.
I lost my dad mid July to a heart attack and the suddenness of it is still shocking.
To lose your dog on top of it is doubly shit.

BookWitch · 03/09/2020 11:40

BestIsWest Sorry to hear about your dad. It really is shit, but we will get there. I lost my dad in 2017, but he had been ill for a long time, and in the end, there was no shock, just sadness.
With my mum, she was fit and well, gardening, driving, enjoying life six weeks ago (as much as she could in lockdown) she went downhill so rapidly, we are still in the can't quite believe she is going to walk stage.

BookWitch · 03/09/2020 11:42

I mean the Still-CAN"T- quite-believe-she-ISN'T-going-to-walk-in

EineReiseDurchDieZeit · 03/09/2020 11:45

Bookwitch How Awful For You SadThanks

mackerella · 03/09/2020 11:45

Just adding my recent Kindle purchases (I agree that the monthly deals were not up to much this month - fortunately, as Palegreenstars points out!). I'm not sure how many of them actually were part of the monthly deal, as I got a bit side-tracked and lost where I was in relation to the navigation Blush:

The Ascent of Rum Doodle (thanks to everyone who mentioned it!)
The Gustav Sonata
Different Class (delighted to see this for 99p as I enjoyed Gentlemen and Players earlier this year)
Hidden Depths (Vera book 3)
Anna Karenina
Mr Finchley Discovers His England (not sure it was strictly part of the monthly deals, but I was led to it by Rum Doodle and it looked ideal for my mood right now)

Just finished:

62. The Other Bennet Sister by Janice Hadlow
I think I'm the only person on here to have really rated this! For me, the value of the story wasn't in its relationship with P&P (which I agree does make it into a sort of elevated fanfic) but in its attempts to be a new Regency novel. And I think it worked better as the latter than the former.

The first part concentrates on retelling the events of P&P from the point of view of Mary. Because of the story's familiarity, I found that this section dragged a bit for me - it didn't really take off until about two-thirds of the way through, when the action moves to 2 years later. The first part was ok: there was some fun to be had with seeing the events of the Netherfield ball through Mary's eyes, but I think I could have done with less of this section generally. (I know I'm in a minority: most of the reviews I've seen have been from P&P fans who just want to wallow in this world a little longer and don't care for the original bits.)

The second two-thirds was much more enjoyable for me: it's where we see Mary really start to bloom, and to discover herself away from the toxic influence of her family. And you do see just how toxic they would have been to a shy, bookish, awkward teenager: sisters who paired off and excluded her, a sardonic and forbidding father, a shrewish and silly mother. During a visit to Pemberley, you also see just how awful it would be to have Darcy as a BIL Grin - and also how intolerable it would be to suffer Lizzie and Darcy exchanging intense glances over the breakfast table.

The book's focus on Mary's personal development is interesting and felt very authentic - I felt that the book had a real serious moral purpose just as many other books of the period did. So, at various points, we see "pride and prejudice" opposed, but also "sense and sensibility", "pleasure and prudence" and "feeling and finking" (just to keep the alliteration Wink). Mary also grapples throughout with the problem of how to secure one's personal happiness: is it dependent on external circumstance, or is it something that can be "manufactured" within oneself? Hadlow very smartly introduces an element of Romanticism (which has always seemed strangely absent from JA herself, when you consider when she was writing). I loved the discussions about books (about Catherine Macaulay's History of England versus Wordsworth's Lyrical Ballads ), and also the typically Romantic jaunt to the Lake District in order to experience the sublime in person. Maybe it's because I overdosed on this stuff at University, but it reminded me off being an over-intense undergraduate having late night conversations about Thomas Love Peacock or about Byron's spats with Robert Southey Grin. (I had to do four "period papers" covering English lit from 1300 to the present day which actually meant about 1950 and the "long 18th century" one was my favourite by miles.)

I think Hadlow actually did a pretty decent job on the prose: it wasn't too excruciatingly cod-Regency for me (although there was a marked contrast between the prologue's arch Austenisms and the rest of the novel, which was written more naturally). I'm a big fan of Georgette Heyer and I'm generally very wary of other people's attempts to write novels (especially romances) set in this period: pretty much every other one I've ever read has been terrible, full of anachronisms and behavioural solecisms and tin-eared language. This one was pretty good in comparison - and Hadlow picked up on many characteristic turns of phrase and bits of vocabulary. So, for me, this novel was both successful and enjoyable!

Terpsichore · 03/09/2020 11:46

I'm so very sorry to hear that BookWitch . You must be reeling Sad

FlowersFlowers

TheTurnOfTheScrew · 03/09/2020 11:46

Bloody hell, Bookwitch. So sorry to hear of your losses. Sending love Flowers

mackerella · 03/09/2020 11:48

I spent so long writing my post that I missed the updates!

I am so, so sorry to hear about your losses, Bookwitch and BestIsWest FlowersFlowers

Palegreenstars · 03/09/2020 11:50

💐 bookwitch. That is really shit

StitchesInTime · 03/09/2020 12:32

Sorry for your losses BookWitch Flowers

magimedi · 03/09/2020 12:36

Flowers Bookwitch and BestIsWest .

Welshwabbit · 03/09/2020 12:57

Flowers @BookWitch and @BestIsWest (and belatedly to @magimedi - I hope your husband is doing better).

nowanearlyNicemum · 03/09/2020 13:02

so so sorry bookwitch
take care of yourself Flowers Flowers

SatsukiKusakabe · 03/09/2020 13:17

Bookwitch that is truly terrible. I’m so sorry. I hope you are able to find some moments of solace. It all sounds incredibly hard to deal with Flowers

And for you too best Flowers

InMyOwnParticularIdiom · 03/09/2020 13:23

ThanksThankssorry to hear your sad news Bookwitch

BookWitch · 03/09/2020 14:26

Thanks for all your kind words - I am relying on all you 50 bookers to get me back into reading and able to go back to happy (or at least different) places Smile

MegBusset · 03/09/2020 14:49

Flowers BookWitch and Best, so sorry to hear your news and hoping that reading can bring you a little respite from the heartache x

bettsbattenburg · 03/09/2020 15:38

@BookWitch I'm so sorry. I was the same with being unable to read when my dad died earlier this year, it was too hard, as were most things Thanks at the time it seemed like it would never get any less hard. Unmumsnetty hugs.

InMyOwnParticularIdiom · 03/09/2020 16:55

I actually thought the monthly deals were quite good and bought five books Blush

Castle in the Air (sequel to Howl's Moving Castle)
Shock of the Fall (been meaning to read this since enjoying the same author's non-fiction This Book Will Change Your Mind About Mental Health aka The Heartland)
The Phantom Tollboth
The two Bulgakovs (pace Cote Wink)

SatsukiKusakabe · 03/09/2020 17:03

Also in deals I believe was Golden Hill which I seem to remember being a good read, by Francis Spufford.

PermanentTemporary · 03/09/2020 17:27

So sorry to hear of your losses Bookwitch and Best. I found it odd that I could read at all in early grief, but there were definitely things I could read - poetry being the main thing - I felt like I'd never read poetry before, suddenly it seemed like the plainest, simplest prose, the only stuff that expressed reality.

Great review mackerella, might read the Bennett Girl now!

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