50 Book Challenge 2020 Part Nine

[southeastdweller]

Welcome to the ninth 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 still not too late to join, and please try to let us all know your thoughts on what you've read.

The previous threads of 2020:

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8

Crimson Petal I enjoyed reading at the time but it did fizzle out. I read it right in the middle of having a newborn and was grateful to be able to get into something. There is an episode of The Gilmore Girls where the wealthy mother is reading it and says she’s enjoying it as “it’s quite racy” or something and I always thought that was funny. It must have been the popular book to read at one point.

Thank you all. I'm spending the day with one of these, a pot of tea and some nice biscuits.

Sounds like a plan, bett.

Lovely Betts

That sounds a lovely plan Betts.

Hope today is a less painful day Betts.
Remus that poem is really powerful, and speaks volumes about loss and the platitudes that surround it.

bettbattenburg Sending you all my sympathy. I remember that I found the day we scattered my father's ashes much harder even than his funeral.

(Sorry posted too soon) It must be even harder that you are not able to be there.

@Boiledeggandtoast

(Sorry posted too soon) It must be even harder that you are not able to be there.

Thank you, yes, not being able to be at either has made it very hard. I got a video of the funeral some time afterwards but it's not the same. Remus that poem was spot on, thank you. Can we move on from this now please?

Good evening everyone, I'm returning to the thread after another long break. Working in the health service has meant I have less time for reading than I would like.

Currently reading Hilary Mantel's Beyond Black and finding it rather intriguing.

I'm another who found the opening chapters of The Crimson Petal quite beguiling. Such a shame the author couldn't keep it going for the rest of the book.

59. Hag-Seed by Margaret Atwood

I'm sure many on here will have read this already - for those who haven't, it's one of the Hogarth Shakespeare series, this time re-telling The Tempest. I've not read The Tempest so was worried it would all whoosh over my head and/or be boring. I should not have under-estimated Atwood. This was great fun and eminently readable even with zero "Tempest" knowledge. Nothing profound, but just like being swept in a big joyous carnival whirl. Reading the summary of the plot of The Tempest, I could see how it would probably be even more enjoyable if you've read it or seen the play - her updated/parallel story was very clever.

Welshwabbit I read Hag-seed last year with very little knowledge of the Tempest and I enjoyed it too.

59. Rebellion's Forge by K.M. Ashman

This is the final installment in a trilogy, I have quite enjoyed it, but didn't feel the need to read them back to back.
This one follows the story of Welsh princess Nesta, who is the second book was the (only slightly) unwilling mistress of English King Henry, and her two brothers Hywel, who was imprisoned for years by the English, but now free, and the younger Tarw, now back in Wales after growing up in exile in Ireland.

Nesta is now married to Gerald, one of Henry's knights, she has two sons, one to Henry and one to Gerald. One night their castle is attacked by the rebel Owain, and Nesta and her sons are kidnapped. Rumours are that Owain is the "Diafol" (Welsh for Devil) who is attacking the English with particular brutality.
At the other end of Wales Gruffydd, King of Gwynedd, who is allied with King Henry and the English, and his children are living in relative peace and security. His two sons are growing up, as well as his daughter Gwenllian who, is not looking like she is going to develop into a traditional princess at all. Gwellian was the most interesting character and there wasn't nearly enough of her.

I have quite enjoyed this series but feel it somehow missed the mark a bit and it was a bit lacking, I can't quite put my finger on why I think that. It was fairly well written, and the story held my interest but it seemed a bit flat.
I should have loved it, I'm Welsh, and love a historical novel so it should have been right up my street. I didn't hate it, but equally I wouldn't add it to one of my favourites either. Sharon Penman it isn't.

43. Today We Die A Little by Richard Askwith

A runner's biography of one of the greatest distance runners of all time, Emil Zatopek, who grew up in a poor family in what was then Czechoslovakia. His achievements in sport, particularly his revolutionary training methods, are barely believable. But there's also his warm and generous personality and the compromises he made with the repressive regimes he lived under, Nazi and then Communist.

I'm not a runner - the author is - but I do enjoy sporting biographies. Like most people my age I'd vaguely heard of Zatopek, but knew almost nothing about him and this was a fascinating story with a deceptively simple writing style. I loved the story of Zatopek's wife Dana, an Olympic gold medallist in her own right. Definitely going to seek out more Richard Askwith books.

for everyone struggling at the moment.

biblio I'm a bit about I am an Island now. Not sure I'm in the mood for melodrama!

It would work as à read on a stormy night, noodle. You can snuggle down and feel all the more cosy.

My current Audible is Wild Swans at this rate my post is simply going to state "Jesus Christ"

It's painfully boring. I am going to finish though

That was my experience when I read the book some years ago now Eine

I'm finding Stella Rimington's' autobiography quite interesting at the moment, not least the insight into the attitudes of women to work in the 1950s/60s, or at least her attitude that she wouldn't work once they were married to the extent that she took back her pension contributions because she didn't think she'd ever work again. At one point she lived locally to me, I didn't know that.

67 Burnt Sugar Avni Doshi
Set in present day India, this is the story of a middle class young woman struggling to live with the impact of her mother’s abusive parenting, whilst being responsible for her as she begins to show signs of dementia. The narrator felt like an authentic portrayal of a woman who has had a traumatic childhood without any support to overcome the emotional pain she has experienced. Her unreliability as a narrator means that parts of the story are confusing. I thought that the writing was too long winded and elaborate, which slowed down an already languid narrative with a lot of flashbacks.
@RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie
That poem is beautiful. Thank you for introducing me to it.
@bibliomania I'd not come across A Tomb With a View and it sounds just my kind of thing. It's now on my TBR pile. I feel that cemeteries are full of love.

Hope you like it, Black, I thought it was a surprisingly enjoyable read.

Thank you.

for teris betts and sadik

welsh that sounds great with the teacher! I only last saw mine three months ago and already miss her although one of the first books in her class I read was a midsummers night dream and have just downloaded it for a reread

I liked your story too, welsh. I had a primary school teacher who encouraged me to read widely. After I’d left I got a letter, a couple of years later, with a long handwritten list of all the books he thought I would enjoy, with a short explanation of why. It introduced me to a world of literature I had no idea about. I still think of him from time to time. I wish I knew where he was now as I’d love to buy him a pint and talk about books.

Well, half term is here and I have two out of three DC self isolating after bubbles burst at school. We’d planned a trip to Whitby but that is obviously out of the question and as I have the week off anyway I’m planning to sort out some cupboards and do some serious reading. I may even pick up Ulysses again and see if I can make some headway with that, interspersed with something less daunting. I am really enjoying the Craig Brown Beatles book recommended upthread, which is great for dipping in and out of. I’m entertained by how little time he has for Albert Goldman. I read his Lennon biography years ago and was captivated and appalled in equal measure.

89 A Girl Returned by Donatella Di Pietrantonio
This was a gift and I had no idea what to expect from it. It’s a curious novel, telling the story of a teenage girl who is returned to her birth family by her aunt and uncle (who she believed to be her parents). The family are poor - much more so than her parents - and live a chaotic and turbulent life that she struggles to adapt to. This is a book that is mostly about love and where one finds it. I found it strikingly non-English - which you would expect given it is an Italian novel in translation but it wore its Italian-ness very strongly in all ways, from the strong sense of place through to a way of thinking about the world that I just didn’t recognise. Nonetheless I am really glad I read it. Sometimes there is a lot to be said for just picking something up and giving it a go without too much thought.

My DC2 is on Day 13 of self isolating Pepe so we're nearly there! Have a good half term break.