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?

@ShakeItOff2000

Home is the best one but the gutwrenching conclusion only works if you've already read Gilead IMO

I hope you enjoy it Remus (though I'm a bit worried you won't as we have rather different tastes I think!)

As a side note, if I calculate right, a 'fourpenny novelette' ought to cost £1.35 today (4d being 2% of a pre-decimal pound, and a web search telling me that prices are 6,479.44% higher than in 1939 when Orwell's essay was written). So Slippery Creatures at 99p is almost on the nail - especially allowing for the fact that you don't get an actual physical book.

118. The Inheritance Of Loss by Kiran Desai

Set in the 80s at the time of an India/Nepal territory dispute (apparently a long term issue between the countries I was unaware of)

Jemubhai Patel is a pompous retired judge, alienated from local customs and culture. He is sliding into poverty, and lives with the only servant he could afford to keep on, a cook, his orphaned granddaughter Sai, and his precious dog Mutt

Sai is in her late teens with a burgeoning crush on a boy who tutors her named Gyan until local unrest divides them.

The novel also follows the cooks son Biju who is living in impoverished conditions as an illegal immigrant in the US.

I mean, it's alright, it passed 2 evenings, but not much happens, it didn't feel original and I will have forgotten it in no time. And it won the Booker in 2006. Increasingly in reading some of these "must reads" I feel that critics really do seem to elevate the wrong books.

Eine, yes I think reading them in order is a must. And Home was also my favourite of the three. I was so bored by The Inheritance of Loss and could not believe it had won the Booker.

Eine and ShakeitOff Marilynne Robinson's new Gilead novel, Jack, is due out at the end of the month.

I’ve had home to read for sometime. I liked Gilead though it was a slow burn. Going to bump it up now eine and shake and especially if I’m going to be 3 books behind in a few weeks boiledegg

Yes agree re Inheritance of Loss - quite nicely written but no real impact.

@SatsukiKusakabe

I think I cried at Home about 3 times, very different in vibe to Gilead

I have Home on my bookcase too, just grant gotten around to it and a few years since I read Gilead

Alone in Berlin by Hans Fallada When the only son of an ordinary German couple living in Berlin is killed at the front, they start to drop anonymous postcards attacking Hitler across the city. The book follows their story as well their neighbours and the Gestapo's attempts to apprehend them. The book was first published in 1947 and is based on a true story. It was an interesting read exploring ethics and moral integrity under Nazi rule but inevitably rather sombre.

By way of a contrast, Mariana by Monica Dickens (discussed upthread). Mary looks back on her life and loves as she waits for news of her husband after the sinking of his ship in the war. I loved this and particularly enjoyed Monica Dickens's wonderful turn of phrase. Many thanks to all those recommending it. If I had read this instead of The Bell Jar when I was 19, I might have been a lot more cheerful.

@Boiledeggandtoast

Unsuccessfully tried to read a Hans Fallada years ago, think it was Small Circus - lasted about 30 pages

185. Ballet Shoes - Noel Streatfeild
     Much discussed on here over time. I'd never read it, or known much about it, but found it charming. I was expecting something a bit more Sadler's Wells. I now understand the love.

186. Burning Bright - Tracy Chevalier
     A naive Dorset family move to London as concern over the French Revolution is hitting England. The son becomes friends with a local girl and they start to encounter their unusual neighbour, William Blake.

I usually devour Tracy Chevalier's books, but this took several weeks to get through. I am struggling to sit with a print book at the moment, but this was definitely hard work. She manages to bring London very vividly to life, but sadly not the characters in the same way. Her books are always impeccably researched and she usually brings a historical person to life, but in this Blake was a rarely seen aloof oddity and the characters felt a bit shoehorned around a plot with not a lot of substance. A big disappointment from a favourite author of mine.

[quote EineReiseDurchDieZeit]@Boiledeggandtoast

Unsuccessfully tried to read a Hans Fallada years ago, think it was Small Circus - lasted about 30 pages [/quote]
Eine I'm glad I have read it, but it wasn't quite the "fast-moving" and "gripping" novel described by the reviews on the cover; I'm not sure I'd read another.

I really enjoyed Alone in Berlin - whilst it’s not fast moving there is tension in it and I thought it evoked the period/atmosphere of fear well.

A friend gave me a Hans Fallada book a few years ago - What Now, Little Man? - but I still haven't started it . (I do want to read it, though, if she's reading this!)

Or even Little Man, What Now?

Fortuna - Welcome to Team Ballet Shoes!

TimeforaGandT I think you're right that there is tension, I just didn't quite get into it as much as I had expected to. Maybe it's because I read it straight after Frances Faviell's The Dancing Bear about Berlin immediately post-war, and which I found emotionally very engaging. In comparison (which maybe unfair), I found Fallada's writing somehow more detached. Pehaps I just read it at the wrong time.

mackerella I'd be interested to know what you think when you've read it. I could be persuaded to read another Fallada!

I enjoyed Alone in Berlin too. I agree it's not perfect and would have benefitted from some good editing but quite amazing when you think he wrote it in less than a month, and in a psychiatric institution. And died before it was published

83 Girl, Woman, Other by Bernadine Evaristo

Much reviewed on here, not much to add other than I really enjoyed this. It's definitely not something I'd normally read (generally 'won the Booker prize' makes me run a mile) so grateful to have been inspired to do so.

Adds The Dancing Bear to my list.

boiledegg I loved Mariana too, and can see myself rereading.

I’m finding book versions of movies/TV shows rather good to read right now. Found the book edition of TFA in Poundland and I’m understanding it a lot more than I did with the movie. Also recently ordered the merlin books too.

Does anyone happen to know any Arthurian legend books with Merlin and Morgana as a couple? already read everything on FF.net and AO3