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?

Bookwitch what a rotten summer. My heart goes out to you. So sorry to about your Mum and dog.

Just catching up having lost the thread, I hope your DH is doing better magimedi and commiserations to BookWitch and BestIsWest, so sorry to hear you're all going through difficult times.

I’m so sorry BookWitch. I hope you find solace again in books and perhaps on here too. Take care.

Also sorry to hear your loss too Best.

Oh Bookwitch - I'm so very sorry.

Golden Hill is definitely worth a read. I remember having mixed feelings overall, but being especially keen on a rather wonderful fight scene.

Yes I had mixed feelings too - about different bits - but overall remember it as being good. Enough that I sometimes look to see if he’s written anything else since.

for BookWitch and Best, I'm so sorry.

I lost my mum in April and found it incredibly hard to read, but got some very good advice on this thread to try comforting re-reads. My recommendation for all situations is 84, Charing Cross Road which is not only my favourite but as it consists of letters, is very easy to dip in and out of.

It still took me ages to get back into reading but I'm now reading every evening before bed and finding it a really helpful way to wind down.

I'm also a list lover, here is mine (shorter than most at least!) with updates:
1. The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaimen
2. Holes by Louis Sachar
3. The Hunting Party by Lucy Foley
4. The Girl With All The Gifts by M R Carey
5. The Green Mile by Stephen King
6. Sweet Sorrow by David Nichols
7. Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout
8. The Acceptance World by Anthony Powell
9. Bring Up The Bodies by Hilary Mantel
10. Himself by Jess Kidd
11. ^^ The Mother Tongue by Bill Bryson
12.^^ The Mirror and The Light by Hilary Mantel
13.^^ The Dutch House by Anne Pratchet
14.^^ Where The Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens.

15.^^ My Antonia by Willa Carter
16.^^ Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood
17.^^ 11.22.63 by Stephen King
18.^^ The Heart Goes Last by Margaret Atwood
19.^^ Abomination by Robert Swindells
20.^^ Me by Elton John
21.^^ Knots and Crosses by Ian Rankin
22.^^ Hide and Seek by Ian Rankin
23.^^ Carry On Jeeves by PG Wodehouse
24. The Flat Share by Beth O’Leary
25.^^ At Lady Molly’s by Anthony Powell
26.^^ Casanova’s Chinese Restaurant by Anthony Powell
27.^^ The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters
28.^^ The Kindly Ones by Anthony Powell
29.^^ Girl, Woman Other by Bernadine Evaristo
30.^^ Love After Love by Ingrid Persaud
31.^^ The Other Bennett Sister by Janice Hadlow
32.^^ American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins
33.^^ Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell

34.^^ Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi the stories of Effia and Esi: two sisters with two very different destinies. One sold into slavery; one a slave trader's wife. The consequences of their fate reverberate through the generations that follow. Taking us from the Gold Coast of Africa to the cotton-picking plantations of Mississippi; from the missionary schools of Ghana to the dive bars of Harlem, spanning three continents and seven generations.
I'm a bit behind the curve with this one but it was an excellent read, showing how slavery and colonialism reverberate through the generations. I found the chapters dealing with Effia and Esi and their immediate relations to be more powerful than the stories of later generations.

35.^^ The Silence Of The Girls by Pat Barker
When the Greek Queen Helen is kidnapped by Trojans, the Greeks sail in pursuit, besieging the city of Troy. Trapped in the Greek soldiers' camp is another captured queen, Briseis. Condemned to be bed-slave to Achilles, the man who butchered her family, she becomes a pawn in a menacing game between bored and frustrated warriors. In the centuries after this most famous war, history will write her off, a footnote in a bloody story scripted by vengeful men - but Briseis has a very different tale to tell . . .
Much reviewed on here, well received and well written. I really enjoyed this. Highly Recommended.

36. Once Upon A River by Diane Setterfield On a dark midwinter's night in an ancient inn on the Thames, the regulars are entertaining themselves by telling stories when the door bursts open and in steps an injured stranger. In his arms is the drowned corpse of a child.

Hours later, the dead girl stirs, takes and breath and returns to life.

Is it a miracle?

Is it magic?

And who does the little girl belong to?

Magic realism, didn't really do it for me, just wanted to get through it by the end.

47: The Foundling by Stacey Hall
After a rough couple of weeks, I needed an easy read, and chose this as I had really enjoyed The Familiars by the same author earlier this year.

It is set in the late 18th Century, it is the story of a London shrimp seller Bess who has had an illegitimate baby, to a man she barely knows, who has subsequently died. This leaves Bess with little choice other than to leave the newborn baby girl at the Foundling Hospital, who takes in unwanted infants.
Six years later, Bess returns to the Foundling Hospital to reclaim her child, only to find she has already be claimed by someone claiming to be Bess.
Elsewhere in London, a six year old girl is being brought up in a strange house by a widow who never leaves the house.
It is narrated by both Bess and the widow bringing up her daughter and is a decent plot, moving at a reasonable pace. I feel it fell a bit flat in some places and I found the ending a bit chocolate box, but a decent enough, light read.

My formatting has gone a bit mad! The only titles that were meant to be italicised in my list are The Hunting Party and The Fiat Share.

Sorry for your loss Bookwitch, I lost my mum last autumn & also couldn't manage much but re-reads for a fair while.

81 Anathem by Neal Stephenson
This is an absolute barnstormer of a novel. It's around a thousand pages, and could easily have been split off into a trilogy (actually, I didn't read it when ex-H had a paper copy just because it was too big to lug around - definitely more practical as an ebook).

It's set on Arbre, an earth-like planet, where Avouts devote their lives to pure thought and Socratic-style dialog in closed Concents, engaging with the outside world for only 10 days in every one, 10, 100 or 1000 years depending on the order. The book is narrated by Raz (short for Erasmus), an 18 year old 'fid' or young avout, and covers dramatic changes in his planet's history.

There's a lot of discussion of philosophy, many-worlds theories, quantum mechanics and more, which could easily make the whole thing fragmented. For me though they're woven so neatly into the story, and the characters and world building are so engaging that the whole thing comes together beautifully - a kind of fluffy improbable cheese souffle that's actually filling and delicious.

Thanks, Permanent, I hope you like it!

I love your cheese souffle metaphor, Sadik 😍 (and you've just reminded me how nice cheese souffles are and that I haven't made one for a while)

115. The Ratline by Philippe Sands

'The Ratline' was a passage taken by former Nazi leaders and officers after the loss of the war, to South America via Rome.

The title is something of a misnomer really as the book focuses on only one escapee Otto Wachter and his life before and after his exile to Rome, and he never actually left Rome for South America. It focuses heavily on his relationship with wife Charlotte and draws on family archives.

One of the books central points is the denial of his son Horst Wachter and his determination to view his father as "a Good Nazi" who was a sympathiser and not involved in any real atrocity - despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary.

As a book about the pathos of a lost son clinging to hopeful fantasies, it is really good. It is also really illuminating regarding

a) Vatican collusion in harbouring Nazis
b) Collusion of the intelligence services globally in knowing exactly where these men were and not having them arrested, and in many cases hiring them as spies!

But, as to 'The Ratline' itself and how that worked it remains a bit cloudy. Had it been named 'Sins Of The Father' or similar it would make more sense, IYSWIM?

Very Good though 4/5

67: Business as Usual - Jane Oliver & Ann Stafford

This arrived in the post yesterday morning and I've just finished it. An absolute delight, published in 1933 and recently reprinted by Handheld Press.

27-year-old Hilary Fane, engaged to up-and-coming but stuffily pompous surgeon Basil, is determined to spend the year before her wedding earning her own living - so she arrives in London from her native Edinburgh and lands a lowly job in Oxford Street at Everyman's department store (a very thinly disguised Selfridges). Hilary recounts her adventures in epistolary form to Basil and her family, along with staff memos and telegrams, as she battles with London living, surviving on £2.10.0 a week, taking on eccentric fellow-staff members and dreary digs, all with irrepressible humour and quick-wittedness. As an added joy, the text is enhanced by perfect little line drawings (the work of Ann Stafford) highlighting passages from the letters.

This reminded me of Diary of a Provincial Lady and perhaps to a slightly lesser extent Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day - it dates from a similar period, touches on some of the same themes and shares much of the same airy wit. It's also book-related - Hilary is promoted to the store's Library. Which pretty much makes it perfect. Highly recommended as a cheerer-up!

27. Accelerando by Charles Strauss

Whoa! This was incredible I have read quite a few books on the predicted Technological Singularity, mostly narrow-visioned predictions with AI running amok and more recently Fall, or Dodge in Hell by Neal Stephenson which was a huge disappointment. Much as it pains me to say so as a 30-year fan, Stephenson has a lot to learn from Charles Stross.

The book starts in our near future, the last days of the economy, the world, and even the solar system as we know them. When humans start to upload their consciousness AND mining the solar system, everything changes - incredibly fast. Space exploration no longer needs physical human bodies in metal cans. Scarcity economics and political systems built upon it are gone overnight. No longer limited by "wetware" (physical human brains), uploaded consciousnesses quickly evolve beyond human understanding and concerns, and start breaking down Mercury and rebuilding it as a Matrioshka Brain to change "dumb matter" to thinking capacity, in order to support their growing energy and computation needs.

(Incidentally, this is what the fuss was about when scientists discovered a star several years ago and thought it showed signs of alien superstructures)

This was a brilliant story of amazing new ideas that was very well thought-out, with flawless, very detailed world-building. I heartily recommend it to everyone here, especially those of us who read and enjoyed The Three-Body Problem and its sequels.

And bringing my list over:

1. The Rest Is Noise by Alex Ross
2. L’Ambiance Va Être Chouette! - Dans les coulisses de la musique ancienne by Vincent Flückiger
3. Beneath The World, A Sea by Chris Beckett
4. Origin by Dan Brown
5. The Afghan Frederick Forsyth
6. Fall, or Dodge in Hell by Neal Stephenson
7. The Eyes of Darkness by Dean Koontz
8. The Dogs of War by Frederick Forsyth
9. Altered Carbon (Takeshi Kovacs #1) by Richard K Morgan

10. Cold Storage by David Koepp 11. Broken Angels (Takeshi Kovacs #2) 12. Foundation (Foundation #1) by Isaac Asimov 13. Guitar Fretboard - Memorize the Fretboard in Less Than 24 Hours by Guitar Head 14. Mindbridge by John Haldeman 15. The Ideal Bench by Lito Seizani 16. The Fox by Frederick Forsyth 17. Dogs of War by Adrian Tchaikovski 18. The Citizen by Frederick Forsyth 19. Woken Furies (Takeshi Kovacs #3) by Richard Morgan 20. This Is How You Lose The Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone 21. Machines Like Me by Ian McEwan 22. Lexicon by Max Barry 23. The Man Who Fell To Earth by Walter Tevis 24. Die For Me (Killing Eve #3) by Luke Jennings 25. Me and White Supremacy by Layla F Saad 26. Rameau by Simon Trowbridge

So sorry bookwitch

sorry for your loss too best

to all those dealing with illnesses or bereavements. I hope reading can bring you some solace.

172. The Little Book of Somerset by Maurice Fell

Random collection of facts about Somerset. I found this interesting but won’t be of interest if you don’t know the area.

173. Freaky Friday by Mary Rodgers

This was a childhood favourite and several films have been made based on it. I enjoyed reading it for the nostalgia value but while the premise is interesting (mum and daughter end up in each others’ bodies for a day) this book is really badly written and doesn’t do the idea justice! It’s also very dated now in some of the language used (it was written in the early 1970s).

174. Excellent Women by Barbara Pym

I picked this up based on this thread but was disappointed. The humour here is obviously too subtle for me - there were some bits I smiled at but generally I didn’t find it funny and therefore it was just a dull story. This is the first Pym I’ve read. I might give another a go as I know she is rated.

175. Rooms Of One’s Own: 50 Places That Made Literary History by Adrian Mourby

The author visits places where famous books were written. This covers a mixture of homes and hotels and covers several different countries. It was ok but there were some authors I had never even heard of let alone read so I therefore had limited interest in where they may have written the books I know nothing about. Others are well known, such as Haworth Parsonage. It’s a fairly quick read though if you like books about books.

176. Is Heathcliff A Murderer? by John Sutherland
177. Can Jane Eyre Be Happy? by John Sutherland

Two more books about books! These cover 19th century fiction and ask questions which the author then attempts to answer. Some are about anachronisms in the text (e.g. trying to piece together a timeline), and some look at things that are hinted at but not made clear in the books (such as whether Heathcliff murdered someone). I found this very interesting although obviously the essays relating to books I have read were more interesting than those relating to books I haven’t read, but it has inspired me to read some of those! Just a warning that due to the nature of the book there are some spoilers for books you haven’t read, although this doesn’t bother me as it will help add some context if and when I do read them.

178. Rachel’s Holiday by Marian Keyes

An audible ‘reread’ of one of my favourite books. This covers Rachel’s stay in a rehab centre for drug addiction. However it’s a lot funnier than that description makes it sound! Keyes is great at writing funny books that cover serious issues and to me this is her best.

179. East of Wimbledon by Nigel Williams

Third in his Wimbledon trilogy and definitely the weakest. Also the most dated - it was written in the early 1990s and it shows.

That book sounds perfect, Terpsichore

I love those John Sutherland books, Chessie! There are three more, if you aren't already aware: Henry V, War Criminal? (Shakespearean puzzles, including "how old is Lear?" and "is Portia a virgin?"), Who Betrays Elizabeth Bennet? and Where Was Rebecca Shot? (classic fiction and modern fiction respectively). Flicking through them again, I see that there's a puzzle about train signals in Our Mutual Friend, which I'll read again if I ever get past chapter 3 of OMF...

There's also a fun book by JS about Jane Austen - quizzes to tax even the most obsessed Janeite.

I've just searched to see if he's published any more since, and there seems to be one called Who Was Dracula's Father?. I should probably buy that to add to my John Sutherland shelf!

I've also got his Literary Landscapes waiting for me (a v cheap but from The Book People just before they folded) - I think someone has already reviewed that on here?

Thanks mackerella, I’ll look out those others. I had looked at Who Was Dracula’s Father but the whole book is questions about Dracula and I don’t have much interest in that so haven’t bothered.

Howl’s Moving Castle -Diana Wynn Jones

Prompted by the recommendations on here. Enjoyable magical story.

best and bookwitch

30 seconds on this thread and I have already bought ‘Where was Rebecca Shot’

Chessie some really interesting reading there! I read the Wimbledon books when they came out - I was living there at the time and thought they were great back then. Not surprised they've dated, though.

Just noticed The House on The Strand, a lesser-spotted Du Maurier, is 99p ...